Latest / Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories / Australia attack, Rob Reiner, Christmas movies, Candace Owens & football updates | Ep. 49

Transcript

Australia attack, Rob Reiner, Christmas movies, Candace Owens & football updates | Ep. 49 · Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories

0:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, I'm Connor Jones.
0:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Mike Atama Sella.
0:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is Culture Brief, a Dinnison Foreign Podcast, where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology.
0:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And we do it all from a Christian perspective.
0:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And Mike at Manit has been in the same week.
0:17
[SPEAKER_02]: A heavy weekend, we had a lot to break down.
0:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It's also a Christmas season.
0:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So just, you know, holidays, news, all of it.
0:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We're gonna talk about it all.
0:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You wanna give us a quick rundown, Mike at?
0:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Connor, definitely a big week, kind of in a way that we would probably not prefer.
0:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to be talking about attacks on US troops, the shooting at Brown University, what happened in Australia, Rob Reiner and his wife being killed in their home.
0:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We're also going to take it on the lighter side.
0:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about Christmas traditions and top Christmas movies and what we enjoy most about the season and the the important things to keep in mind during Christmas time.
0:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Going to give an update on Erica Kirk and Candice Owens, Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons, both tear their ACLs on the same day.
1:02
[SPEAKER_00]: College football playoff time is here.
1:04
[SPEAKER_00]: That and hold up more.
1:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's jump into the brief.
1:08
[SPEAKER_00]: The brief.
1:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you said it just a heavy weekend, obviously we would not have preferred this whatsoever, but man, it felt like every 12 hours.
1:19
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a new massive breaking news story of just violence and tragedy.
1:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's really, really sad.
1:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just an example, you know, like 48 hour period of evil being very real.
1:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And the enemy being very real.
1:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And the enemy using evil to cause destruction and death and despair, and it's really hard.
1:38
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm just going to break down kind of four major stories that happened over the weekend.
1:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to go in order of when these stories come through, when we got breaking news alerts, or you saw it on the news, or social media, whatever.
1:50
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the order of things that happened.
1:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So on Saturday morning,
1:54
[SPEAKER_02]: we learned that two U.S. Army soldiers in a civilian interpreter were killed in an ambush in Syria.
2:00
[SPEAKER_02]: This is probably the story that's gotten the least attention.
2:04
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been a little overshadowed, which is really unfortunate.
2:06
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, two soldiers were over there.
2:09
[SPEAKER_02]: It was two Iowa national guards members were in Syria.
2:12
[SPEAKER_02]: They're part of a thousand-man crew that kind of tries to keep ISIS at bay within the Syrian.
2:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Territories and so they were there and they got ambush.
2:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds like maybe a guy who was with the Syrian military turned on them He was affiliated with ISIS and he ambushed them also injured three other U.S. soldiers I just want to point out the names.
2:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to do this throughout as many victims names as we kind of know I'm going to try to point out those people so we don't forget those names and we honor
2:38
[SPEAKER_02]: them and obviously not the same as we're not going to we're not going to honor the shooters or whoever in the situation put the people who lost their lives we're going to honor so in this instance the soldiers were sergeant Edgar Bryan Torres Tovar who's aged 25 from Des Moines Iowa in sergeant William Nathaniel Howard age 29 of Marshalltown Iowa so grateful for their service obviously and just tragic in that way.
3:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, Micah, we went straight from that into later on in Saturday, Saturday afternoon, we started getting news alerts about a shooting in Rhode Island at Brown University where somebody walked in and shot up a classroom essentially where they were doing studies for an economic final that was coming up this week.
3:17
[SPEAKER_02]: This is right in the heart of Providence Rhode Island and injured nine students and killed two students very sadly those two students were Ella Cook she was a sophomore from Alabama The vice president of the Brown College Republicans club there and the lieutenant governor of Alabama said that she was a devoted Christian and committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama
3:37
[SPEAKER_02]: She grew up at a cathedral church of the advent and Birmingham, Alabama.
3:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And the church said she was an incredibly grounded and generous and faithful bright light.
3:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're so sad to hear about her death.
3:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the other victim was Mucamid, U. Mursakov.
3:51
[SPEAKER_02]: He was a freshman from Virginia studying biochemistry and neuroscience because he suffered from a neurological condition himself.
3:57
[SPEAKER_02]: and wanted to become a neurosurgeon to help children, the way doctors helped him.
4:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And his sister said he had so many hardships in his life and he got into this amazing school and tried so hard to follow through with the promise that he made when he was seven years old.
4:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So tragic, right?
4:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, just...
4:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Since let's death and just to clarify the shooter and at the Brown University This was on Saturday.
4:19
[SPEAKER_02]: We are talking on Tuesday night and this will publish on Thursday morning as of Tuesday night The shooter is still loose a massive manhood is underway throughout Rhode Island and New England That whole territory.
4:29
[SPEAKER_02]: They do not know who this was.
4:30
[SPEAKER_02]: They've got surveillance video But it's really hard to tell who this guy was.
4:32
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got a mask.
4:33
[SPEAKER_02]: He's wearing all black
4:34
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very difficult to see.
4:36
[SPEAKER_02]: There's internet solution kind of thing.
4:37
[SPEAKER_02]: They might have an idea of who was based off of pages that have been pulled from Brown University students and papers written in all of that.
4:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a lot of resources going towards that.
4:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But man, so tragic.
4:48
[SPEAKER_02]: My guy any initial just like thoughts from just, that was just Saturday alone.
4:52
[SPEAKER_00]: yeah those stories are tough and especially you know the last victim specifically right like chasing a dream to serve others in the way that he was served and taking care of when he had all of his hardships he had his whole life in front of him you know i'm thinking about these two soldiers
5:09
[SPEAKER_00]: and the translator, who passed away sincelessly just serving their country, like literally in Syria, on behalf of us, like therefore us, like there to provide a living for their family, but away from their families, so that we can sleep peacefully in like live in a safe country.
5:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So it just really reminds you that there are sacrifices made every single day.
5:29
[SPEAKER_00]: very thankful for our armed forces and those who lay their life down for responders really all of them who lay their life down every day for us.
5:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, those stories just make it real.
5:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You almost don't even really want to read those back stories because it just makes it hit even a little bit closer to home and then you're just left feeling like.
5:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
5:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
5:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, well, that's one of the big questions that we always ask with a so many stories that we talk about here in every week that the tragic ones, the hard ones, the natural disasters, the question of why and I think that's one of the big existential questions of faith, right?
6:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Is.
6:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Why do you allow this?
6:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have so many different ways we can go about tackling that question.
6:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to do that a little bit in a here in a minute, but yeah, just as faithful believers.
6:11
[SPEAKER_02]: The first thing we can do here is hit our knees and pray, you know, and especially for the victims who have survived and then for the families of those who lost their lives praying for those who are battling now in the hospital for their lives, and that goes into Sunday morning where the biggest attack of the weekend occurred, and that was in Australia.
6:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure most people here have at least heard at least something about this.
6:31
[SPEAKER_02]: This was in attack.
6:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Basically, from two guys, a father and a son duo in Australia, they were connected to ISIS, the authorities believe that, and they attacked a Jewish Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, and that he burnt death toll stands at 15, and 40 people remain hospitalized from injuries.
6:49
[SPEAKER_02]: You are right.
6:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It's pure evil.
6:51
[SPEAKER_02]: They attacked, I don't know, so many videos came out of this, because they just kept attacking.
6:55
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like 10, 15 minutes long of the shooting attack without being
7:01
[SPEAKER_02]: It is crazy.
7:02
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of criticism going out there for the Sydney police and Australian just law enforcement because it's like, how do these guys just get to keep on shooting and nobody engage them whatsoever?
7:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
7:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And I say that some police officers were also injured when they finally did get to them.
7:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So like, you know, there's a bravery there, but there's a lot of criticism of the long response time.
7:19
[SPEAKER_02]: But a lot of people's lives were likely saved by the man Ahmed Al-Ahmad.
7:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is because if you've seen the video, it's just absolutely insane and
7:29
[SPEAKER_02]: basically just goes up to this shooter and tackles him and strips the gun away from him while he's not focused on that direction.
7:36
[SPEAKER_02]: He just comes up from behind and it tackles him.
7:38
[SPEAKER_02]: It risks his own life and he does end up getting shot himself.
7:41
[SPEAKER_02]: He has survived.
7:41
[SPEAKER_02]: He's in the hospital now.
7:43
[SPEAKER_02]: But this man is a genuine hero and he saved who knows how many lives.
7:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I just wanted to shout out Ahmed Al Ahmed and just the courage and bravery that he had in that moment.
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrote.
7:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
7:56
[SPEAKER_02]: He's an absolute here.
7:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And there were some others as well that family members have started a point out we're trying to throw bricks at the shooters and all that who were killed while trying to do that too.
8:04
[SPEAKER_02]: But this video of him just tackling this guy and taking the gun away from him was really, really courageous and honestly kind of impressive.
8:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Father and son age 50 age 24.
8:22
[SPEAKER_02]: The father was killed.
8:24
[SPEAKER_02]: The son is still alive in critical condition They took him obviously to the hospital under police guard and yeah, there's a lot of questions about how they got guns Australia is very stringent on their gun laws They apparently had them legally if you know anything about Australia There was a shooting in the 1990s late ninety ninety ninety six I believe they killed 35 people and after that Australia really cracked down a gun laws a lot of people turned their guns in to the government so they don't have
8:47
[SPEAKER_02]: mass shootings often.
8:48
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't even have very many gun deaths each year.
8:50
[SPEAKER_02]: They do allow hunting and that's apparently how these guys were able to get that gun.
8:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But the Australian authorities believe they did pledge their allegiance to ISIS and that's kind of the motive here behind why they did this attack.
9:00
[SPEAKER_02]: President Trump also condemned the shooting and said it's a purely anti-Semitic attack.
9:03
[SPEAKER_02]: This isn't, it was very targeted against a Jewish population, a Jewish celebration from an ISIS affiliated
9:11
[SPEAKER_02]: mindset, right, that these guys thought they were doing something heroic in their minds, and they were actually doing something terrible and evil.
9:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, the attack really just kind of underscores growing concerns of anti-Semitic violence, kind of around the world, but specifically in Australia, the Jewish community has been saying that they were worn in the government of rising anti-Semitism there in Australia.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And one of those people is actually Aron Isman, who is the his next or neighbor was killed, and he said, we feel very let down.
9:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, just the fear that the Jewish population lives in and I'll surely have but also around the world because there is so much hate towards them and we do not can don't that whatsoever You know, there's so much just anger and hate towards them, but not just them everyone that goes against the ideologies of certain people who think that they know best and want to serve whatever their ideology is Yeah, so much hate and evil.
10:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like a
10:08
[SPEAKER_00]: anything there without this attack is so big so destructive humming one you know you say like think they know best like one thing to know best and another thing entirely to to to somehow think you're you're you're righteous in some way you're you're deserving of some reward award uh for the murder of so many innocent people as young as 10 years old yep we're we're murdered on that bench on on that beach that day
10:35
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... you know all the cost of iber you know you just you've had to cover a lot of tragedies this year
10:53
[SPEAKER_00]: and you try to think about what could possibly lead someone to get to that point.
11:00
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about John Tintin, a lot.
11:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The enemy comes to steel, kill, and destroy.
11:05
[SPEAKER_00]: This is an evil type of ideology that they're believing in.
11:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, there is a lot of debate around Israel and how they're handling things in Gaza.
11:17
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of debate around that.
11:18
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no debate historically that the Jewish people are the most persecuted people group in the history of humanity.
11:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet they continue.
11:26
[SPEAKER_00]: to rally in moments like this.
11:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You've seen some beautiful moments come out of this.
11:30
[SPEAKER_00]: They gathered right back together, a whole lot of more Jewish people gathered together on that same beach.
11:36
[SPEAKER_00]: The next day, right?
11:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, we're not going to be silenced.
11:39
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue to celebrate Hanako.
11:40
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue to believe this.
11:41
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to, I mean, it's inspiring in a way, but at the same time, like.
11:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, the Jewish people have been through a whole lot, and my heart goes out to people in this situation where you would just be persecuted for simply believing what you believe.
11:56
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about Christians in Nigeria and Sudan and the Congo.
12:01
[SPEAKER_00]: There are Muslims who are being persecuted for what they believe, right?
12:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, everyone deserves to worship freely and unfortunately, even in a free country like Australia,
12:10
[SPEAKER_00]: even from attacks that we've seen here in America, and the most free nation in the world, violence happens, and it's just sad.
12:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just really sad.
12:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It really is.
12:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thanks for that, Micah.
12:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So much to wait just way in there, but
12:26
[SPEAKER_02]: going beyond that sadly i have another story to talk about and that's the raw briner murder him and his lord Connor sunday i know sorry it's not me man this is just yeah the sad state of the world sad state of affairs unfortunately yeah so sunday night we got
12:41
[SPEAKER_02]: more breaking newslers, more breaking news that Rob Reiner, legendary Hollywood director, actor in his own right, him and his wife were found gruesomely murdered in their home, TMZ reported that they were found dead at 340 p.m. Pacific time.
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: They've likely had been dead for quite a few hours, potentially killed the night before by their, as we now know, Sun, Nick.
13:02
[SPEAKER_02]: He, they were found by their daughter, who found them with multiple stab wounds, and she immediately called the police and told them that she believed her brother was responsible.
13:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So the police did by Sunday evening before the, before going into Monday, they were able to find and locate Nick Reiner a couple of 32-year-olds son, they arrested him, and as officially as of Tuesday, they are charging him with two counts of first degree.
13:26
[SPEAKER_02]: murder which has the penalty of obviously life but even the death penalty is a possibility here depending on how they go about that in the prosecutor's office.
13:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Nick is known to have a long history of substance abuse.
13:38
[SPEAKER_02]: You underwent at least 17 rehab stays experienced periods of homelessness and he had apparently been in a massive argument with his parents the night before at Conan O'Brien's
13:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It's crazy man.
13:52
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really an argument.
13:53
[SPEAKER_00]: How about Brian's Christmas party at his house?
13:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
13:58
[SPEAKER_02]: He's making a bunch of celebrities very uncomfortable and the writers left and they had told people that they were very concerned.
14:05
[SPEAKER_02]: They were gravely concerned about their son.
14:06
[SPEAKER_02]: They were trying to look out for him.
14:07
[SPEAKER_02]: They're trying to get him back and rehab.
14:08
[SPEAKER_02]: They brought him home.
14:09
[SPEAKER_02]: He'd been experiencing homelessness around the country and they were trying to get him on the right track and sadly it went to this.
14:16
[SPEAKER_02]: He turned on them in some form of fashion.
14:18
[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds like.
14:20
[SPEAKER_02]: was responsible for these murders.
14:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to clarify Rob Breiner, man.
14:24
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't know who this guy is, just a legend.
14:27
[SPEAKER_02]: He started in the 77's sitcom all in the family.
14:29
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people know from that.
14:30
[SPEAKER_02]: His dad was a popular comedian as well.
14:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's already kind of in the show business.
14:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Then he had this insane 11-year director run.
14:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I just got to point this out.
14:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I know a lot of people have been doing this on social media know that.
14:40
[SPEAKER_02]: In 11 years, he directed the films, this is Spinal Tap, stand by me, the Princess Bride, when Harry Met Sally, misery, a few good men, the American President, dude, what are you trying to these huge movies, classic cult classics, movies that bring up a lot of good memories for people, and man.
15:02
[SPEAKER_02]: He was also on new girl.
15:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember if you've ever seen a show in New Girl, he played just days.
15:06
[SPEAKER_02]: That he was so additional's dad.
15:08
[SPEAKER_02]: He would show up as a guest star every now and then.
15:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I think a lot of people recognize him from that, but a lot of people also know him for these insane movies that he directed.
15:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And as imagination of well, one person was not so pleased to like just about anything with Rob Riner.
15:22
[SPEAKER_02]: That would be Donald Trump who, you know, he posted a very
15:30
[SPEAKER_02]: got a lot of backlash and I'm going to read it so you guys can make up your own mind in the Micah.
15:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to hand it to you to maybe speak into this a little bit.
15:37
[SPEAKER_02]: But Trump said a very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood.
15:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling but once very talented movie director and comedy star has passed away together with his wife Michelle, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome.
15:56
[SPEAKER_02]: He was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of president Donald J. Trump
16:00
[SPEAKER_02]: with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, may rob and Michelle rest in peace.
16:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Micah.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And this will reaction to that post.
16:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what, I mean, let's just call us, say, to Spain.
16:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We've talked about this a lot.
16:19
[SPEAKER_00]: That's ridiculous.
16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's one of the, that's one of the worst things he's said in his presidency, like, in his second term.
16:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's, um,
16:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, that is, freshly off of a gruesome murder at the hands of their own son who, from all accounts, yeah, they disagreed politically, but I mean, apparently they were like really kind people and they really loved their son unconditionally, did everything to try to get him into a more healthy spot and then they were murdered by their kid.
16:49
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not the time to make it about yourself.
16:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is just not the time to make it about yourself.
16:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it just does not sit well.
16:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think really with anybody.
16:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there's really many conservatives coming out saying, yeah, I totally agree with Trump on this, or either quiet, or a lot of people are coming out saying, they completely disagree with what he said here.
17:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I...
17:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We heard it when Trump was speaking at Charlie Kirk's funeral, and we talked about this before.
17:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Charlie was better than me.
17:19
[SPEAKER_00]: He said Trump said, Charlie wanted the best for his enemies.
17:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I want the worst.
17:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I want the worst for my enemies.
17:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a very worldly response.
17:27
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a very knee jerk reaction response that I think in moments of frustration we can relate to.
17:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not necessarily surprised by this feeling that he had, but but I am surprised he decided to tweet it out and then he also doubled down later.
17:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, a lot of people are looking to do man bad bad look.
17:46
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people thought he was going to delete it and then yeah, just later in the night.
17:49
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he doubled down.
17:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he doubled down on it.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they've had a lot of trouble.
17:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a bad look.
17:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been a lot of politicians to call him out for it.
17:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It is about no.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's a terrible I thought it was this tasteful.
17:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was self-aggrandizing.
18:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was just awful I yeah, I really did I couldn't even believe And you're right.
18:04
[SPEAKER_02]: He he did say that at Charlie Clark's funeral and he said that's what separates us I want what's worse for my enemies what I think was interesting is Rob Riner specifically after Charlie Kirk was killed Yes, when on Pierce Morgan show and said he doesn't think anybody and he'd strongly disagree with Charlie Kirk Rob Riner was very liberal
18:20
[SPEAKER_02]: But he said, I don't think anybody deserves to be killed or violently attacked for their political beliefs, right?
18:25
[SPEAKER_02]: They said that that's not any sort of violence that should happen in sadly.
18:29
[SPEAKER_02]: We've now lost Charlie Kirk and Rob Riner, and terribly violent, terribly violent crimes this year, right?
18:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, awful.
18:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So we should never wish that upon anybody that we just disagree with.
18:39
[SPEAKER_02]: No, that's just not.
18:40
[SPEAKER_02]: How it goes now.
18:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I did one point.
18:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I wrote an article last year.
18:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Micah on a movie that Rob Riner produced called God and Country is really a documentary.
18:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It was all about Christian nationalism.
18:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And I kind of learned a lot about Rob Riner during that time.
18:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Just why he produces movie was, I believe, sorry, and a lot of people would say, man, he was one of those Hollywood people who didn't just say things.
18:59
[SPEAKER_02]: He actually backed it up.
19:00
[SPEAKER_02]: He was big on producing films that he believed in liberal activism.
19:04
[SPEAKER_02]: He was always out on the streets.
19:05
[SPEAKER_02]: He was actually supporting politicians.
19:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So,
19:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you agree with him or not, he was there and he was very active in politics and then trying to make people's lives better in the way that he saw we would make it better So yeah, again, just a sad to add a tech and then actually I saw something that James Woods said James Woods is a Famous actor not as famous as it used to be but James Woods has been known James Woods has been conservative in Hollywood for like only 25 years and he's been Absolutely blackballed for it.
19:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like in the John voice or like the original.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: He came out which is like
19:38
[SPEAKER_00]: the just the kindest words about Rob Riner about how they stayed close throughout the years and how they they loved and supported each other's friends despite the way that they felt completely different about their politics and it just it just reminds you man like life is about so much more than political opinion we've just stripped it so far into this identity politics and you disagree with me therefore you hate me you disagree with me therefore you're the enemy
20:03
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no.
20:04
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to reject that.
20:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not.
20:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Rob Reiner was killed.
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we won't know for sure for a while, but he was not killed for the same motivation that Charlie Kirk was killed.
20:14
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is somebody who was like pretty extreme and out front with their political beliefs.
20:18
[SPEAKER_00]: This just happened to be somebody on the other side of the aisle, Charlie Kirk.
20:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I don't know.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It just hits differently.
20:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it does, um, whole thing sad.
20:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You're right.
20:28
[SPEAKER_02]: There was everybody that came out, just given tribute to Rob Riner from Billy Crystal to just anyone in Hollywood was saying crazy.
20:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
20:35
[SPEAKER_02]: They all just showed people where, yeah, kindie was.
20:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And you can see that even when he's on on camera, if you go watch any clips of him or he just seems like a very nice he was a big teddy bear.
20:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, something else that happened is the FBI apparently foiled a New Year's Eve terror attack that was planned for California Pam Bondi the attorney general tweeted this on Monday that they had foiled massive plans for this attack She said that the turtle island liberation front a far left pro Palestinian anti-government and anti-capitalist group was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California before New Year's Eve and they also plan to attack ice agents and vehicles for arrests have been made so
21:11
[SPEAKER_02]: very grateful that they were caught, but it also just underscores everything we're saying here.
21:15
[SPEAKER_02]: There is hatred and evil in this world and people are willing to act on that in the worst possible ways.
21:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And these guys were planning to do horrible crimes and horrible attacks that would have been very deadly probably and so tragic.
21:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so glad that they caught these guys so we're not reporting on that in a few weeks, right?
21:32
[SPEAKER_02]: That would have been awful.
21:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, my gosh, it's just the whole thing.
21:36
[SPEAKER_02]: All of
21:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Like how do we respond as Christians?
21:40
[SPEAKER_02]: How do we respond to this these threats?
21:42
[SPEAKER_02]: How do we respond to threats?
21:43
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a you know as Christians you're right.
21:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm pretty good.
21:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Jews are persecuted.
21:48
[SPEAKER_02]: We're all persecuted in different ways Well, I found Dr. Jim Dinnison's articles several of his articles this week so far if you have not written read any of his stuff on robiner
21:57
[SPEAKER_02]: or on the attack in Australia, you definitely should get stuff.
22:01
[SPEAKER_02]: His article on Tuesday morning was really hitting on the Islamic Jihad attacks that happened either in Syria or in Australia.
22:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And potentially Brown University, we don't know the motive there yet, but there's been some rumbley's air of what that might have been and it could have been Islamic related, but we'll see.
22:17
[SPEAKER_02]: But I want to expand this beyond that, because there was other stuff that happened this weekend, and we're not all being attacked by Islamic hatred and evil all the time, but we are being attacked in different ways and everybody is, so I want to just kind of expand on that and the threats of just evil right all around just evil as its own thing.
22:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we can look back to the Bible when we can look at the Apostle Paul himself and he described his former life in acts and Galatians and the first Corinthians he used to say, I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it, specifically he was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord when he sought the authority to arrest Christians and Damascus and bring them bound to Jerusalem, Paul said that he was exceedingly enraged against them and he persecuted this way to the death.
23:03
[SPEAKER_02]: But we all know what happened with Paul.
23:06
[SPEAKER_02]: He went from that life of persecuting Christians trying to get them destroyed and killed to go into on the road of Damascus and having his encounter with the Lord that changed his heart, changed his everything and he ended up becoming what made be the great Christian of all time and gave us so much of the scripture that we have today in the New Testament, right?
23:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So now we
23:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Today, can pray for our Lord to do the same in the hearts of those who are seeking to do harm to others around the world, for attackers, for people who have evil in their hearts.
23:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And such intercession is a response that no one else can, or will make is something that Dr. Dennis important to.
23:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
23:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So what Jesus did to transform Saul of Tarsis, he can definitely do to transform any Gehodistarist, any addict, and any dangerously angered person.
23:53
[SPEAKER_02]: anywhere in the world.
23:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
23:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So the next time I make a, I think that we hear about this attack, I think we can take several things and just run with it.
24:02
[SPEAKER_02]: We can first and foremost, intercede for the victims of course, right?
24:06
[SPEAKER_02]: We can also stop to pray for the attacker to come to Christ.
24:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's pray for Jesus to reveal himself to this person through believers and even, specifically for Islamic people and dreams.
24:16
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a big thing that happens with Muslims.
24:23
[SPEAKER_02]: and then let's pray for Christians to use their influence to demonstrate the fruit of the spirit and otherwise manifest the presence of Christ.
24:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And let's pray for God to redeem the global crisis of antisemitism, geodistarism, and all around destructive evil by bringing millions to faith in his son.
24:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's what we can do.
24:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love what Dr. Jensen laid out with some of that.
24:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I kind of tweaked it a little bit myself too.
24:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Just these intercessions we can do praying
24:53
[SPEAKER_00]: it's a great reminder corner because at this really is a spiritual sickness that's afflicted the hearts of of every one since Adam and Eve and the garden and can't enable and the sin that led to the need to have an arc and flood the earth and start all over again right like you know you
25:17
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about that, you know, what struck me earlier, Connor something that you said, you know, you talked about that mass shooting that happened in Australia in 1996, where 35 people were killed.
25:31
[SPEAKER_00]: You think about that was literally just like 30 years ago.
25:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that that wasn't really that long ago in terms of like human history, but gosh, we've just been dealing with evil,
25:41
[SPEAKER_00]: for as long as we can remember.
25:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it hits us more on the forefront.
25:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to remember that because we carry these devices and our phones that connect us to everything happening in the world, it can feel like things are more evil.
25:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's true.
25:57
[SPEAKER_00]: The evil is always existed and there are things that are exacerbated and there are ideologies that pop up But Satan's the one behind all of this all of this evil all of this hate all of this racism all of this murder right Satan's the one behind it Because he's the father of lies and this is his his domain to mess with things here on earth
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And we just have to remember to not be so inundated and so bogged down and start to even think for a minute that that got a surprise by this.
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Or that for some reason God wouldn't have all of these situations in his hand that he wouldn't be redeeming all that he's allowing here.
26:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember and know that that got his good.
26:35
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't cause evil and if you have a belief in something or someone that's causing you to commit evil.
26:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, well, we're, we're, we're praying.
26:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tough.
26:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
26:46
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a tough thing.
26:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's just, it's important for us to remember that like right now in this time and in history, we are bearing the brunt and the weight of the world.
26:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just kind of new for humans to deal with.
26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm, we're, we're hearing and seeing and in the moment with those people in Australia, an hour after it happens and we're scrolling on our phones and seeing this, seeing these people
27:12
[SPEAKER_02]: that's new that's a new thing for us to deal with you know yeah it definitely is yeah i think of like war reporters like world war two reporters you know they're reporting back and they're trying to send images and they're sending videos that they can't but it's weeks later like it but now it's you're right it's instant but human history has changed one thing that i can think like a base of what you're saying is to always been evil and yeah that shooting was 30 years ago we've seen so much evil in our time in our life uh and we're not even 30 yet and we've seen so much happen uh one of our first memories is 9-11 just you know
27:41
[SPEAKER_02]: One thing that you can point to is as Christianity spread around the world and throughout human history, the idea of protecting life grew.
27:50
[SPEAKER_02]: There used to be a complete disregard for life.
27:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It was seen as a commodity, not a right, you know, ancient times, anybody just even through medieval times, man.
28:02
[SPEAKER_02]: death was just expected like your life is like 30 at some places like it no one cared the people and power did not care they saw life is just something that they could play with they didn't care and as that changed throughout history we're now in the time where there's never been a greater
28:18
[SPEAKER_02]: desire to help protect people's lives and to rescue people out of situations and to keep people safe and to mourn when somebody dies like death is seen as like a terrible thing in the most people's eyes not everybody's but in most people's eyes that has changed throughout history so yeah evil has always been here but thankfully we're seeing the goodness of God rushing in I think and we've seen that throughout history.
28:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I've talked about a lot, a lot about the concept of amago day, like whether if you're choosing to follow your creator or not, it doesn't change the fact that he's still your creator.
28:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single life has value, limitless value, eternal value, whether, if somebody will believe it or don't, and you're right, I think that that is something that's changed just that the majority of people do.
29:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is a beautiful thing, and yeah, we're praying for everybody affected in all this and thank you for trusting us.
29:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Loyal culture, revodians to walk you through some difficult news stories and situations and circumstances as we're all learning to navigate this together.
29:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about the top Christmas movies of all time and we're just going to we're going to pivot hard here and we're going to talk about Christmas for a few minutes.
29:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we're going to talk about the top Christmas movies of all time.
29:34
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about if I have any fun Christmas traditions or things that I think of or anything that Connor has and then you know, just going to kind of give us a spiritual application encouragement challenge in this time.
29:47
[SPEAKER_00]: as we're heading closer and closer to Christmas when this episode releases it'll be one week from Christmas.
29:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so these are the most respective, respected, top 10 Christmas movies of all time and I say that because this is, this is not my list of personal favorites per se.
30:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of this largely depends on your age.
30:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's an overlap of the American film institute, AFI, the Rotten Tomatoes scores, IMDB, just cultural longevity, box office sales, you know, all of that stuff.
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the consensus top 10 that I was going to kind of able to compile from a few different lists.
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go tend to one.
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
30:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So the tenth best Christmas movie of all time.
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: is the polar express.
30:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
30:35
[SPEAKER_00]: That's number 10.
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: You had Tom Hanks in there and basically it's a magical train ride that reminds children why belief matters.
30:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just giving an actor and a brief synopsis.
30:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, the animation was kind of creepy like when you watch it back, but I remember watching this and it was pretty pretty darn magical.
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, it was pretty darn magical
30:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Doing that train through the winter and the mountains and stuff like that.
31:03
[SPEAKER_02]: What did you think of polar express my favorite thing about polar express first off You're right about the animation.
31:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It was way ahead of his time.
31:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's creepy now The the depiction of the north pole as being this like massive manufacturing city with warehouses Yeah, it's the only depiction of every scene of a north pole that would actually make sense if the north pole existed everyone else is like a
31:28
[SPEAKER_02]: sitting on like how are they going to be this if you're supplying it to every child it's got to be tiny size like we need like we need like a true manufacturing power house here so I always appreciated that I felt it was most realistic in that sense.
31:40
[UNKNOWN]: I love that.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
31:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Number nine is how the Grinch still Christmas the original version.
31:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So the one that was released in 1966 is a bitter outsider.
31:50
[SPEAKER_00]: The Grinch learns the true meaning of Christmas.
31:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
31:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Boris Carloff, which is the narrator of that.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And that iconic voice, you know, you're a mean one.
32:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Grinch.
32:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's, it's iconic.
32:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything Grinch.
32:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Love it.
32:05
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think?
32:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Incredible stuff.
32:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we watched a couple years ago, just because I was like, I need to see this again.
32:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been to you.
32:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, this is good.
32:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It's great.
32:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Number eight is die hard and basically a cop battles terrorist during a Christmas Eve party.
32:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really the only Christmas thing without it.
32:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Just going to the mystery of that.
32:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the fact that it set during Christmas time.
32:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And it kind of starts to happen from like an office Christmas party.
32:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, it's Bruce Willis, it's Alan Rickman released in 1988.
32:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Just an absolute cult classic.
32:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that this is in the top 10 of Christmas movies because the debate has been so fierce on if it's a Christmas movie or not I mean people really still debate this, but it's it really is a legendary movie
32:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just one of those Christmas movies you could get away with watching and like July.
32:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
32:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Number seven.
32:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Christmas in July.
32:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So some people would do that.
32:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
32:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Watch it.
32:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
32:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Halfway to Christmas.
33:00
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
33:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Number seven is white Christmas.
33:03
[SPEAKER_00]: This was released in 1954.
33:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Being Crosby, Danny K. Just a classic.
33:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Two entertainers helped save their former commanders struggling in.
33:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
33:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have not seen this one corner have you.
33:15
[SPEAKER_02]: No, but isn't this the movie that the song White Christmas comes from?
33:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm dreaming of a white person, you know, they're they're staying there over there.
33:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
33:23
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's it's being crossed.
33:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's being crossed be, but then there's another song that comes out from James Dean, where anyway, never mind.
33:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he was maybe the 60s guys, you know, I wasn't alive then.
33:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for that clarification.
33:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I probably got all that wrong.
33:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, what's it?
33:39
[SPEAKER_00]: What's number six?
33:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay number six is a miracle on 34th Street a man claiming to be Santa puts belief.
33:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It's self on trial Edmund, go in and more ain't no hair.
33:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't seen this one either
33:49
[SPEAKER_00]: What no great movie classic that's when you should watch with your daughters 1947 you think they're gonna pay attention to that well fine If it's not animated probably not okay number five is national lamppons Christmas vacation This is released in 1989 Clark Griswald tries and fails to create the perfect family Christmas
34:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Chevy Chase just an absolute classic kind of kind of kicked off.
34:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I think normalizing really funny Christmas movies.
34:20
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean that it's the genre really leaned into it after that Yeah, we kind of got away from serious Christmas movies.
34:26
[SPEAKER_00]: They're all like comedies now.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I know there are comedies and like corny rongal combs.
34:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah Mark stuff elf so a human raised by elves will feral
34:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, he, he heads to, he heads to New York to find his real family.
34:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that movie.
34:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That's probably, I think that's like my number two Christmas movie of all time, just just personally.
34:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I remember as a kid, because I remember in the movie, Elf, he would eat, um,
34:54
[SPEAKER_00]: spaghetti.
34:56
[SPEAKER_00]: He would eat his spaghetti with syrup.
34:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd directly drive in multiple times.
35:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely tried that multiple times as a kid.
35:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I remember enjoying it quite finally.
35:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, number three.
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, number three is home alone.
35:10
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my favorite Christmas movie of all time.
35:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I watched home alone.
35:16
[SPEAKER_00]: 7800 times.
35:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just over and over and over again, it doesn't matter if it was Christmas or not.
35:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that movie.
35:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And accidentally abandoned kid, McCullocholkin defends his house from two burglars, classic Joe Peshie in that movie, uh, just an incredible movie.
35:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two is a Christmas story released in 1983.
35:35
[SPEAKER_00]: A kid single-minded quest for BB gun during a Midwest Christmas, a young Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavans in this movie.
35:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Just an absolute classic.
35:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I love this movie as well.
35:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And the number one is it's a wonderful life in 1946.
35:48
[SPEAKER_00]: A discouraged man learns how much his life.
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: has mattered, James Stewart and Donna Reed.
35:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So that is the top 10 list.
35:54
[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting is how these old school, how old school some of these are and how they're still like number one for people or they're still like in the top 10 for people.
36:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We think Christmas movies are a modern thing, but some of the most beloved ones were made when Hollywood actually took, you know, this season even more seriously, right?
36:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I mean, these
36:13
[SPEAKER_00]: like a one you know it's a wonderful life miracle on 34th Street white Christmas like these are very like straight-laced family oriented Christmas movies like the Christmas movie genre has just changed a lot since these original ones were released yeah they did know I mean they just they were at that purity to them back then yes and they were you know the whole family would sit around the one TV in the house and watch them black and white and you just knew these movies like the back of your hand
36:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Connor, what's one Christmas tradition that you remember growing up or that, you know, if not that that you're trying to instill with your family now?
36:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, just one thing we always did growing up and that we still do and we'll continue to do is go into that Christmas Eve service, the candlelight service where, you know, you like the candles and you praise Jesus, usually seeing silent night with the candles up in the air.
37:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Just a kind of a reminder.
37:05
[SPEAKER_02]: before you go into the Christmas day of like this is what this is actually all about it's not just about presents and Santa and all the marketing dollars and all the stuff and that's I think even as an adult I recognize that more I'm more focused on the shopping and the marketing and the all everything that goes out on the outside with Christmas and kind of can easily miss that aspect of this is about
37:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus, like the birth of Jesus, so my son, you like it here, so I'm sure you like it here.
37:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, great.
37:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Because maybe I need to hear this.
37:35
[SPEAKER_02]: All that to say, the Christmas Eve service love going.
37:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Have always loved going because it is kind of like a man right before going to Christmas day.
37:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Before we go open gifts or anything or think about Santa or anything, even as a kid.
37:44
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's like Santa coming.
37:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Refocusing on Jesus right there.
37:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
37:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, one of the things that's really helped shape this Christmas season for me has been doing advent with my daughters every day in December.
37:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So we started on December 1st.
37:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So each morning we slow down just for like five minutes.
38:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I try to get them to slow down.
38:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We read together and remember that this season is about waiting.
38:06
[SPEAKER_00]: In this advent series that we're doing for kids, it's really cool because it's all of these old testament stories that point to Jesus in a very specific way, right?
38:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So not waiting for gifts, not waiting for plans, not waiting for gatherings, but waiting for the coming of our Savior Jesus.
38:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So now, they're toddlers, right?
38:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So keep that in mind.
38:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not saying this is the most incredible thing every single morning is we're trying to get out the door.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But some mornings are short.
38:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Some are distracted and some are just a little chaotic.
38:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But even so, it's just been such a gift to begin showing them and teaching them in small and simple ways what this season is really about.
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's about Jesus.
38:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So what's been especially beautiful seeing how each story in each book of the Old Testament points forward to him.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: From the very beginning, Scripture is telling one unified story, God promising to send a Savior in faithfully keeping that promise, watching my girls hear these stories, and begin to connect the dots.
39:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Has been a reminder to me, like I've teared up a few times.
39:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's truly been like, uh, it's been really cool to be able to teach them about this.
39:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a reminder to me that Christmas did not start.
39:16
[SPEAKER_00]: in Bethlehem.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Like think about that for a second.
39:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It was prepared across generations, like from Genesis from what we can read in Scripture, like Christmas really started even before then.
39:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The coming of Jesus and then what that would mean for us, for humanity, which would eventually lead to the death burial and resurrection of our Savior Jesus.
39:36
[SPEAKER_00]: and create the most clear pathway for our eternity, right?
39:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, here's the application.
39:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Christmas is truly wonderful.
39:44
[SPEAKER_00]: There's parties, traditions, family time, travel, celebrations, and those are good gifts.
39:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are really good things.
39:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is also incredibly easy to become so busy, celebrating Christmas that we lose sight of what we're actually celebrating.
39:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you can go a few days and be like, wait, what just happened, right?
40:01
[SPEAKER_00]: The danger is not enjoying the season.
40:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The danger is filling every moment with activity and never slowing down long enough to remember why this season exists in the first place when everything is loud and everything is full, reflection is obviously the first thing to go.
40:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So scripture keeps calling us back to that posture of anticipation, back to that posture of remembrance, Isaiah 96, for unto us a child is born, for to us a son is given, Isaiah in Isaiah in the Old Testament.
40:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, Galatians 4-4, and when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth his son.
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the challenge.
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my challenge this season.
40:39
[SPEAKER_00]: This Christmas season for myself and for all of us, slow down on purpose, pray more than you plan, create space to actually sit with the story instead of just rushing past it, just checking it off as a task.
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Let the noise fade long enough just long enough to remember that Christmas is not about everything that we are doing for God but about what God has done for us by sending His one and only son.
41:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the most faithful thing we can do in this season is pause, give thanks, and wait again for Jesus.
41:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm.
41:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
41:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Good stuff, man.
41:13
[SPEAKER_02]: It's always a good reminder.
41:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Christmas is an easy time to get distracted and busy.
41:17
[SPEAKER_02]: No doubt.
41:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And overwhelmed, but man, just slowing down and pausing and praying.
41:21
[SPEAKER_02]: That sounds great.
41:22
[SPEAKER_02]: We need to do that for, you know, just worshiping our God and saying, thank you for sending Jesus, but we also need to do it for everything we said in the first segment of this episode.
41:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, stop and pray for these terrible situations of the world, but also recognize the beauty in this world.
41:34
[SPEAKER_02]: No, Jesus did come.
41:36
[SPEAKER_02]: He is our savior.
41:36
[SPEAKER_02]: It's awesome.
41:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So much to stop and just think and reflect and meditate on.
41:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, as you all know, we'd love to hear from you.
41:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So let us know.
41:44
[SPEAKER_02]: What's your top Christmas movie?
41:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you agree with us on any of the things we said about Christmas movies?
41:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it crazy that Mike has never seen a miracle on 34th Street?
41:53
[SPEAKER_02]: You let us know you like it.
41:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It's that crazy.
41:55
[SPEAKER_02]: It might be.
41:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe, man.
41:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe.
41:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's hear from the people.
41:59
[SPEAKER_02]: You can always email us at culture brief at dinnisonform.org or go follow us and message us at culture brief podcast on Instagram.
42:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, checking in on a few things that have happened in the last week or so, yeah, give us a latest on.
42:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah on that.
42:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Give us a latest on an Erica Kirk and so on.
42:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so if you're not aware, can someone has been a very popular right wing podcast for a while, but she's gotten really popular in the last year.
42:25
[SPEAKER_02]: She was good friends with Charlie Kirk and she has just.
42:28
[SPEAKER_02]: gone on a whole escapade, I would say of theories and questioning and trying to rip apart turning point USA and people in the government and in Israel and then the French government is kind of crazy she believes there's a hit out for her head.
42:44
[SPEAKER_02]: from the French government and this really government a lot there, a lot of conspiracies but she's really driven a wedge and turning point you say, and specifically towards Erica Kirk, Charlie's wife and now the CEO of turning point, they finally got together for a private meeting this week that was facilitated by Megan Kelly and they were able to, I guess, hashed stuff out over the of four or five hour period.
43:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And now, Candace is kind of pulling back on some of the things she had been saying.
43:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if you've seen any of the reaction to that, Mike, um, this is kind of in the last few hours, but Candace's comments are kind of now questioning her and what she blackmailed, what she was something said in the meeting that scared her, all of that.
43:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, like her followers.
43:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
43:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, her followers.
43:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, maybe a little bit of a taste of her own medicine of
43:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You make everything conspiracy theory people aren't going to believe you when you start to say things yourself are not a conspiracy theory It's all about it's all about the unknown.
43:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all about the conspiracy if it's actually not a conspiracy then they're Then they're not then they're not interested.
43:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean Candace was literally implying that not only was turning point USA in on
43:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Charlie Kirk's death, but she was starting to apply that Erica at least knew that it was going to happen.
43:55
[SPEAKER_00]: That even kind of planned for it.
43:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean pretty low man pretty low.
43:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So I am hoping that that meeting does actually bring about peace.
44:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that Erica said like it's time for them to get to work and reunite.
44:06
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been a lot of...
44:07
[SPEAKER_00]: in fighting on the right, which doesn't do much for their cause, they're in power.
44:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So if they're just going to spend time fighting each other, then they're not really going to get anything done that they want to get done.
44:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And so hopefully this does lead to some reconciliation and some good steps moving forward.
44:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, quickly here for an end of Mendoza won the Highsmen.
44:29
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the first Indiana University football player to ever win the Highsmen.
44:33
[SPEAKER_00]: He made history by winning it here in 2025.
44:35
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the quarterback.
44:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see, the Hoosiers, the Indiana Hoosiers won the Big Ten title.
44:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And interviews during his acceptance speech and just even after games.
44:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, even back to when he was the quarterback at the Cal at the University of California.
44:49
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Mendoza's energy and joy are just like so obvious.
44:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I just love listening to this guy talk just just unbridled joy childlike really just how excited he is to play football and he thinks God repeatedly He thinks Jesus and mentions him by name repeatedly speaking openly about his faith and his relationship with God and how it feels as journey and encourages others to lean on faith teamwork and perseverance and chasing their dreams
45:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Fernando Mendoza is a really cool story, and I love that this kind of guy's on the forefront, because I just think he's doing it right, and I'm really happy to see him be successful.
45:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Really quick, Sharon Moore, the distraced head coach, former head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverine's.
45:32
[SPEAKER_00]: That story was kind of crazy.
45:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It comes out.
45:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, first of all, he gets fired, because he has an inappropriate relationship with the staffer.
45:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Next thing you know, he's arrested.
45:39
[SPEAKER_00]: because he got fired and then his wife found out that he was having a relationship with one of the staffers.
45:44
[SPEAKER_00]: He then goes to his former staffer's house threatens to kill her, kill himself.
45:49
[SPEAKER_00]: He then gets arrested.
45:50
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still in custody and Michigan doesn't have a football coach and everybody's looking around like what on earth just happened.
45:58
[SPEAKER_00]: The Sharon more story is absolutely bonkers and more comes out every single day.
46:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, we're going to give a Netflix doc on that one.
46:04
[SPEAKER_02]: That was crazy.
46:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And then saying, um, so I want that Netflix doc tomorrow, give it to me like yesterday.
46:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to know more what it was of what happened there.
46:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And then one more thing, Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons tour their ACL on the same day.
46:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably two of the top 10 most recognized and best players in the NFL.
46:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Patrick Mahomes, a quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.
46:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike a Parsons the former Dallas Cowboys as Roger edge russia now plays for the Packers They both tore their ACL on the same day.
46:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy.
46:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it really hard to watch and sad and unfortunate for both of them as players Also really bad for the chiefs.
46:44
[SPEAKER_02]: They are now a longer and playoff contention for the first time in like 11 years, dude They've obviously been the dynasty and the NFL for the last three years absolute juggins seems like this is it's over
46:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Travis Kelsey might be retiring using to go fly off into the sunset with Taylor Swift and do his thing there and Chiefs dynasty could be done now If it's anything like Tom Brady's career with the Patriots.
47:03
[SPEAKER_02]: He had a similar thing also towards ACL in his ninth season just like my homes did this past weekend And then Brady came back and started us took a second dynasty to more Supervoles with the Patriots So my homes can still do it.
47:15
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see.
47:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I've done
47:16
[SPEAKER_02]: pattern arms is not done.
47:18
[SPEAKER_02]: He's so good.
47:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, he's that guy that every other team wishes they had as a quarterback.
47:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, you know, of course.
47:23
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, uh, going to be interesting to see how the playoff shake out there will give you all more updates on that as we get to the NFL playoffs.
47:30
[SPEAKER_02]: But right now we've got to college for all playoffs.
47:32
[SPEAKER_02]: They do start.
47:32
[SPEAKER_02]: We talked about the bracket last week.
47:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So get, you know, get your popcorn ready because we got some good games here.
47:36
[SPEAKER_02]: We got Friday night.
47:37
[SPEAKER_02]: It starts.
47:38
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to have number eight Oklahoma versus number nine Alabama.
47:41
[SPEAKER_02]: at 8 p.m. Eastern.
47:43
[SPEAKER_02]: That's going to be on ABC, ESPN.
47:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And then Saturday, we go into the noon game.
47:48
[SPEAKER_02]: That's going to be noon.
47:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Eastern.
47:49
[SPEAKER_02]: All these times are Eastern.
47:50
[SPEAKER_02]: That's going to be text saying number number seven versus number 10 Miami.
47:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Also on ESPN followed by number six, Ole Miss taking on number 11, two lane at 330 pm on TNT and number five, Oregon versus number 12, James Madison University.
48:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Good for them, man.
48:05
[SPEAKER_02]: They are the Cinderella team here.
48:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you my pixel quick.
48:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
48:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Before.
48:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Alabama, beats Oklahoma, Miami, beats A&M, Ole Miss beats Tulane, Oregon beats James Madison.
48:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Book it.
48:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
48:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
48:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you could be right.
48:20
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see.
48:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's come back next week and see.
48:22
[SPEAKER_02]: If you got it right.
48:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyways, those are going to be fun games.
48:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Really looking forward to it.
48:26
[SPEAKER_02]: There's also NFL games sprinkled throughout Saturday and between them.
48:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So just a day of football.
48:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go.
48:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, no reason to watch the Cowboys, though.
48:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason to watch the Cowboys, because they're out of the playoff hunt now.
48:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
48:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so were the chiefs, and those were the two teams playing on Christmas Day.
48:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's going to be fun.
48:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
48:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
48:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And it felt kind of a predict to that.
48:45
[SPEAKER_02]: With Christmas coming up next week, first off, Merry Christmas.
48:49
[SPEAKER_02]: We're so happy.
48:50
[SPEAKER_02]: You guys listen to us, and you get to enjoy Christmas movie talk with us today.
48:53
[SPEAKER_02]: We hope you have a great time with your families and friends and just enjoy.
48:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, cozy days and times around the tree and at church, if you opt to go to your Christmas Eve service, I hope you do.
49:04
[SPEAKER_02]: But because of that, we will not be having an episode next week.
49:08
[SPEAKER_02]: We will be back the following week, but it will be posted on Monday, December 29th, that's because Mike and I are doing a special episode where we are recapping.
49:15
[SPEAKER_02]: 25 we're going to talk about some of the biggest stories that happened this year some other things we're going to give a great little fun recap of just the year as a whole and dive into that some of our top things from the year we're excited to kind of dive into that so that'll be December 29 on Monday and then we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming on January the 8 so we'll have that new year's week off as well but January 8 we'll be back with just our our first episode of 26 and
49:39
[SPEAKER_02]: probably have a much better idea of we're certain things are going in politics and sports and obviously play off football and so much more and we're looking forward to it and also we're going to be on the Christian parenting podcast that's going to come out in December 30th.
49:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So go find look at our friend Steph Thirling on the Christian parenting podcast we'll be joining her to talk about culture in faith and how do we do that as parents?
49:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to be a fun conversation so looking forward to that this is called to reef a dimson form podcast as always all of our
50:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, in videos mentioned, they'll be posted in the show notes.
50:07
[SPEAKER_02]: If you enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, or rate and review the show, and share it with a friend, and we will see you next Thursday.
50:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Merry Christmas!