Latest / The Mark Driscoll Show / Is Your Favorite Christian Show Funded by a Demonic Cult? | The Mark Driscoll Show | Ep 25

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Is Your Favorite Christian Show Funded by a Demonic Cult? | The Mark Driscoll Show | Ep 25 · The Mark Driscoll Show

0:01
Well, howdy, I'm Pastor Landon, and welcome back to another
0:04
episode of the Mark Driscoll Show.
0:05
We've got a great show for you, a special guest from Hollywood.
0:10
Well, he used to live in Hollywood.
0:11
Now I moved to Wyoming because Hollywood is woke.
0:15
He's joining us today and Pastor Mark updates you guys on a very
0:18
special meeting we had with the ambassador from Israel.
0:22
So buckle up, get ready. You're not going to miss it.
0:45
Well, up next, we have a good friend in from the very
0:49
left-leaning state of Wyoming, used to live in LA, in Hollywood
0:53
and has done a bunch of incredible work.
0:57
And we're going to do a little bit on Hollywood and why it
1:00
seems like it might be gone. So let's roll that clip.
1:04
The mantra coming out of Tinseltown post strike in 2024
1:08
was survive until 25, but now that the year is over, it's
1:11
questionable that they survived 2025, a year that started with
1:15
Hollywood literally on fire and ended with a fire sale, leading
1:19
to many in the industry to openly ponder is this the end of
1:23
Hollywood as we know it? And it may very well be,
1:26
considering that they decided to fight the coming AI apocalypse
1:30
by putting originality on life support and giving us yet
1:32
another year of unnecessary remake prequels, sequels, make
1:35
calls, spin offs, reboots, live action remakes of animated films
1:39
that continuing to piss off half the country.
1:41
Let's bring your friend to work today.
1:43
So introduce yourself and you were in LA Little backdrop.
1:48
Talk about maybe some of the projects you've worked on.
1:51
You've moved your family and you're still involved in film,
1:54
but you're tied to a lot of the believers in Hollywood and some
1:59
of the projects that are doing really well.
2:01
You know a lot of those guys. So thought we'd pick your brain.
2:04
Yeah, so I moved. I'm originally a Texas boy and
2:08
was an actor growing up, and the only way to make a living as an
2:11
actor was to move to LA. So I moved to LA at 18 and lived
2:14
there for 20 years. God.
2:15
Told me your name and marriage and all that.
2:17
Yeah, my name's it's Tyson Sullivan.
2:21
I'm married beautiful wife Whitney.
2:23
And. Boys.
2:24
Two boys, Two young boys. Two idiots.
2:26
Sweet in the sweet spot of it. And I moved to LA whenever I was
2:31
18 and, you know, naively wanted to act like many kids that go
2:35
there and praise God, by the grace of God was able to make a
2:37
living doing that for 20 years whenever I went out there.
2:41
I went to a great school called Biola University, which I'm sure
2:44
you're familiar with, and got to minor in Bible, which at the
2:47
time I hated. You know, it's one of those
2:49
things where like God takes you into a space and you're like
2:52
fighting him the whole way. But it's such a blessing be able
2:54
to get a film degree and a Bible.
2:55
You're probably the only film degree student that got a Bible
2:58
degree. There's a few of us.
3:01
And then to your point, like friends working in the business,
3:03
like Biola has put out some good film makers, good people in the
3:08
arts in general. And so I, you know, it's one of
3:12
those things like whenever you get into anything you're
3:14
dreaming about, you think, man, if I just hit this goal, then
3:17
I'll be happy, right? If I just get to this point,
3:21
then I'm going to be fulfilled. And for me, it was like, man, if
3:23
I could just be an extra in a movie, then I'd be happy.
3:26
And then you get to do that and you're like, well, if I got to
3:28
speak on TV, then that'd be cool.
3:30
And you do that. And then it's, man, if I could
3:32
just star, if I could just work with.
3:33
And. And I started noticing myself
3:35
falling into that trap and, you know, got to work with great
3:38
guys, great actors, not great necessarily political things.
3:42
Yeah. Yeah.
3:43
Some great actors like, you know, Robert De Niro, Dave
3:46
Batista, Emile Hirsch. Got to work with guys that I
3:49
always looked up to. But time after time, I remember
3:53
leaving set and feeling that almost like emptiness to it,
3:57
right? I knew I was doing what I was
3:58
called to do, but I wasn't making the impact I wanted to
4:00
make. And so it was probably 10 years
4:04
ago, right around the first time Trump got elected.
4:07
I was on a show on HBO and everything was going great.
4:10
But I noticed a shift in LA. And it went from this place
4:13
where you and I could have a disagreement.
4:16
You could be a crazy liberal and we could sit down and have
4:18
breakfast, give each other crap and go back and forth and we
4:21
could have a great conversation. And around 2016, something
4:25
shifted and I could no longer be a conservative Christian.
4:27
Sit at the table. You had an issue with that.
4:30
And I knew at that moment, I didn't know Hollywood would fall
4:33
as hard as it did to this day, but I knew it would leave Los
4:36
Angeles. Because art in my viewpoint is
4:39
an exploration of truth, trying to seek out truth.
4:42
And I knew that if this town was not going to allow those
4:46
conversations to come to life. And I knew, like Christ said,
4:49
I'm the way, the truth and the light.
4:50
And that's why I never had a problem with artists exploring
4:53
crazy topics because I knew if they were honestly searching for
4:56
truth, they'd find Jesus. But I knew once you started
4:58
silencing that voice, it would go somewhere else.
5:01
So I would love to say it's completely surprising to see
5:04
what happened, but it it isn't, you could see that happening
5:08
from an art perspective. Oh, a mile away.
5:12
To your point, there are a ton of people in the business that
5:16
love Jesus. I used to give a guy like Kirk
5:19
Cameron, I used to hate Kirk Cameron movies.
5:22
I was a fool as a young man. I used to be like, why is he
5:24
making those? Those aren't good.
5:26
And as I've gotten older, I've realized, no, no, no, that
5:28
speaks to a certain subsect. But in that same way, I think
5:31
that artistic films, right, films that speak to a deep
5:34
emotion, that don't hit things on the nose, I think those speak
5:37
to people too, you know, And you see it in the way that Jesus
5:40
spoke, right? He spoke in parables so that
5:42
people could understand and interpret and dive deeper into
5:45
something. It's the same thing we do with
5:46
storytelling. And when you start making what
5:49
did they call midcools? Is that what?
5:51
That there's all the. Sequels.
5:53
When you start making, you know, turd after turd, eventually
5:57
people are going to go somewhere else for their entertainment and
6:00
that's what we're seeing right now.
6:01
I'd see a track still track the Nielsen numbers, which just
6:03
tracks your teeth. So just from a consumer
6:06
standpoint, like what's the market buying, what's working?
6:10
Yeah, good question. It was like 3 to 4 original
6:13
movies came out of Hollywood last year.
6:15
Everything else was a sequel and all of what they just read.
6:18
Inspired by Yeah, what's what's working in our business is still
6:23
what's always worked. Truth and just honesty in the
6:27
midst of it. The problem is that it's become.
6:29
We see AI now and stuff. The business has a whole shifted
6:33
to this model where it's like it's got to fit in this formula.
6:35
It was almost AI before AI was around.
6:37
It's got to fit into a certain formula.
6:39
So what's really working is what's always worked, just
6:42
speaking truth, right, connecting with one another and
6:45
I think really having entertainment that's applicable.
6:49
What's not working is retreading the same stuff that we're
6:52
talking about and we're seeing on the screen today, because
6:56
honesty is one of the most valuable commodities in our
6:58
current society. Everybody's got a voice, right?
7:01
Everybody can speak whatever. But if I can trust you, if I can
7:04
lean into what you're saying and know that you're giving me
7:07
honesty, then I'm going to listen to what you're saying.
7:10
And I feel like that's what they've been missing.
7:12
And I think that's where there's a great opportunity for
7:14
believers in the business this step.
7:16
And then you see this already with a place like Netflix that
7:20
is looking for some more faith, but they call it faith-based.
7:23
I just call it truth content, you know, they're looking for
7:26
because they realize people are gravitating towards those
7:29
things. Now there's some companies that
7:31
that I've worked with and been around that I'm not crazy about.
7:35
Like I'll give you 1. I don't know if this, if I can
7:37
bring it up on here if it's controversial, but like Angel
7:39
Studios, like nice guys, but they're Mormons and they don't
7:44
necessarily tranche that out where you know, and so for me.
7:49
We beat that dead horse, by the way, that Mormons aren't
7:52
Christians. For everyone watching, Mormons
7:54
aren't Christians. They're going to burn something
7:57
now and they're very angry, but. We can vote with them.
8:00
They're good neighbors. I'd rather have one of them
8:03
than, you know, our current a governor, you know.
8:07
But as far as Jesus, we're different.
8:10
Jesus. That's and I completely it's
8:12
it's cult, right and so. There's that too.
8:14
Yeah, yeah. And like, to me, and it breaks
8:16
my heart because to your point, so many of them are like kind
8:19
people. Yeah, they don't know they're in
8:21
a cult. That's exactly where and it
8:22
kills me and. So they're so confused.
8:24
I had no idea how confused they. Were the underwear setup is
8:27
strange for me. Yeah, I mean, once you start
8:29
dabbling in the underwear, like Pastor Mark, if you're like, all
8:31
right, guys, underwear of the month and be like, whoa.
8:34
I'm out, I'm out. Yeah, I'll drink the Kool-aid
8:36
before I'll put on some. Briefs the thing I don't like
8:39
about Angel is they like perpetuate themselves to the
8:42
conservative Christian base is if they're Christian and they
8:44
don't overtly come out and say no, we're more we're a group of
8:47
Mormon families that raised a massive fund to be able to do
8:49
good on them. That's the open market you can
8:51
do. That no your business you get to
8:53
do. That 100%, but I don't like that
8:56
it's kind of couched behind that.
8:57
And so I found just Christians as a whole, whereas Mormons are
9:02
a little are different. And I don't know why this is,
9:04
maybe you could speak to this, but Christians as a whole,
9:07
they're stoked whenever you're like, we need more Christian
9:09
entertainment. We need that.
9:10
We need the XY and Z OK, cool, come get on the battlefield with
9:13
us. Come do it.
9:14
Let's go do it. And they're like, it's not me.
9:17
No, no, no, I'm not in on that. Whereas Mormons are more like,
9:19
no, I'm behind you 100%. Let me come.
9:21
Why do you think that is for Mormons versus Christians?
9:24
I think, well, Mormons, well, first of all, they've re,
9:27
they've tried to rebrand as a denomination and so the benefit
9:30
of being in a cult, you get centralized marketing and
9:32
branding. And because they've been a cult,
9:36
they've had to hang. Together.
9:39
And they're used to being outliers and oddballs.
9:42
And so they're used to kind of being in the fight.
9:46
Christians, at least during Christendom, we had a seat at
9:48
the table. We were welcome.
9:51
You know, if you're running for office, need to go to church,
9:53
you know, need to believe in God.
9:55
And so I think Christians, for a while, we kind of got used to
9:58
being in the center, not the margins, being accepted, not
10:00
being rejected. And, and as a result, we kind of
10:04
lost the fight. We got, we lost the fight in us.
10:07
We didn't get used to being in the fight.
10:09
It's like, it's kind of like being a Pentecostal Christian.
10:12
That's why they're all into politics.
10:14
They're like, we've been speaking in tongues and blowing
10:16
shofars and we've been, you know, handling snakes.
10:20
We've been weirdos for a long time.
10:22
So we don't mind getting in a fight.
10:24
We don't mind being outcast. We're used to it at this point.
10:27
You know, the Presbyterians in suits, they're like, well,
10:30
we've, we've never really been in a fight and been called
10:32
weirdos. Yes.
10:33
Yeah, this. Is for both you guys, but maybe
10:37
we'll edit this out later if it's too much.
10:39
Definitely this is going. To because he said that I know
10:42
it's going to be good. It's going to be opening.
10:44
Is it dangerous? Is something like Angel Studios
10:46
dangerous to culture if and it's branded as Christian, but
10:49
Mormon? I mean, if, if, if there was a
10:51
Mormon pastor teaching your children, it'd be fire alarm.
10:56
So I mean, movies are like a long sermon.
10:59
They're teaching us something. So would you guys say something
11:02
like that is dangerous for our kids to be watching?
11:05
I would say it in the short answer would be yes, the longer
11:10
one. I was looking for not nuanced.
11:12
We don't do. Yeah, yeah.
11:13
The short answer would be yes. He pulled the pin off for
11:15
grenade. You jumped?
11:16
Yeah. I don't care.
11:18
This is awful for me, it's a yes because it's like anything else,
11:22
right? It's like if I turn on Disney
11:23
for my kids, right? I don't because.
11:27
Leticia Jackson is trying to make them all into transgenders.
11:30
That's exactly right. Literally.
11:31
That's her name. Too, and we ain't into that.
11:33
That don't flow too well in a while.
11:36
So yes, I do think that it's dangerous and I think it's
11:39
because you've got to watch it with a watchful eye.
11:42
The hole, whenever I'm looking to set down, whether it's a
11:44
pastor, whether it's like my kids watch Yippie.
11:48
You guys know that one. Yippie.
11:49
Yippie's a great little short. Form we used to do 90s right
11:52
back to the 90s and watch all the TV shows.
11:54
I like that too, but they're like, I was watching home
11:56
improvement and there's like a little bit of wokeness in home
11:58
improvement. I was so disappointed.
12:00
Franklin Franklin's not woke yet.
12:04
So we we definitely keep an eye on on our kids and I think.
12:07
There's no, well, there's no such thing as a presentation
12:10
that doesn't have a worldview like I was watching.
12:15
Was it Fox Nation? They have the show on the Saints
12:19
as I'm thinking, oh, I've watched this show on the Saints,
12:21
so I paid for Fox Nation. It's crap Tastic.
12:25
It's crap Tastic. It's absolutely Catholic
12:31
propaganda. And so I'm watching it and
12:33
they're talking about Mary Magdalene as one of the
12:36
apostles. And I'm like, what the like, I
12:41
mean, you can, you can grot this like this is not, this is not
12:46
research over in the corner that you need somebody with a degree
12:50
to figure out. I mean, so the presentation all
12:53
the way through is just hardcore Catholic propaganda as an
12:57
example. So yeah, for me, it's like, if
12:59
the storyline is still, you know, clearly in alignment with
13:04
the scriptures, that's one thing.
13:06
But then there's always, you know, with movies, there's
13:08
always other products, there's books, there's other products
13:12
that are sold. And if if in that there's a,
13:15
there's a hook that goes in the water that's trying to get your
13:18
kid to become a Mormon. You know, that to me is really
13:21
concerning. I mean, every time Marvel comes
13:23
out, you take your kid to McDonald's or Burger King and
13:26
there's this whole ecosystem of products that are trying to get
13:29
them to convert to being part of the Marvel Universe.
13:33
That that to me is concerning if it's connected to a cult.
13:36
Yeah, because it to me raising a sun right now, overtly worldly
13:41
things we can talk about like that's an easier conversation.
13:43
It's like, oh, I can call that as that's the world watching
13:47
something that's Christian, but it's Mormon.
13:49
That can be really confusing as a as a kids developing and they
13:53
don't know what they're getting hooked into. 100% and it's
13:55
affecting them like that. To me, one of my proudest
13:58
moments as a dad is my, my oldest 4 year old was with his
14:02
nephews and they were playing some game and he was like, OK,
14:05
and your Hulk and I'll be Captain America.
14:08
And my oldest ghost. What's Hulk?
14:10
I don't know what Hulk is. And so his, his cousin was
14:14
sitting there being like, he's this big guy.
14:16
He's super strong, he can defeat anybody.
14:18
And I was kind of listening from the side of my my oldest ghost.
14:21
Oh, you mean like Jesus? That's like Jesus.
14:23
And I was like, that's exactly right.
14:25
And I think it goes back to what you're saying.
14:27
Every story is propaganda. If you'd caught me in film
14:30
school, I would have said propaganda's horrible.
14:32
We should never make propaganda as artists.
14:34
As I'm matured and actually worked in storytelling, you
14:38
realize every story ever told, probably from the first one, was
14:42
propaganda. The first story is probably a
14:44
mom sitting with her kids around a campfire being like, see that
14:47
cave over there? It's dangerous.
14:49
There's a monster that lives in there.
14:51
She was she was telling him that because there was a bear in
14:52
there, right? She was trying to protect him
14:54
and take care of him. It comes from a loving place.
14:57
And so that lets me know that every story you're being told is
15:00
propaganda. And I'm fine with my kids
15:02
getting propaganda. The gospel, it's the truth.
15:04
But what I'm not fine with them is getting some sort of mixed
15:07
piece exactly to your point where it's like, well, this is
15:10
kind of the language where you're used.
15:11
We're used to, but like, what's this other?
15:13
This must be true, because I know this part's true, you know,
15:16
So I think that's very. So as an ex Hollywood guy, the
15:20
move to Wyoming you're. Still, you're still working in
15:23
Hollywood. I just mean, literally going to
15:25
Wyoming to get your family away from you.
15:27
Yeah. What what standards or litmus
15:29
tests do you have for what your kids watch?
15:31
And I think our audience would love to hear that.
15:33
Yeah, for me it is. We are very diligent about what
15:37
they watch. They don't get to watch a whole
15:39
lot of lot of TV they especially will never get.
15:41
Dad makes TV and they don't get to watch.
15:43
What I tell him. That's what we call hypocrisy.
15:47
Come on, Dad pays the bills making TV.
15:49
You're not allowed to. Well I always say this is the
15:52
way I break. It Dad, Dad's also a chef, and
15:54
you're not allowed to eat any of that food.
15:57
Diet. But the way I put it is that we
16:00
are creators, not consumers. We create things that go out and
16:04
that's, I think that's true for everybody.
16:05
We all create things. We don't consume what's around
16:09
us. And so I think we're very
16:10
careful about that. I laid out Yippie because I like
16:12
those guys. They're a Christian company,
16:14
solely Christian. You can put that stuff on and
16:16
it's good. Outside of that, they don't
16:19
really watch. It's great.
16:20
It's great. They really don't they don't
16:23
deal with pads. I mean, we live in Wyoming.
16:24
So it's like, hey, I'm going out to work on this fence, hop in
16:27
the side by side with me, let's go and have a good time.
16:31
We don't. If I if I had to point somebody
16:33
in a direction, it'd be Yippie. That's pretty a pretty solid
16:36
place. I would keep them away from
16:37
YouTube, you know, just from what I've seen on there from my
16:40
nephews and. Stuff.
16:41
What's coming out that you are just proud of, just as a
16:45
Christian, that the art is good, the storyline is good, That's
16:51
either mainstream, that's out or is in the process in the works.
16:55
Great question. One that I love that I had a
16:59
small little piece and a good buddy of mine, Paul Vintner, put
17:01
together as David, the new David.
17:04
I'd seen that project from probably four years ago when
17:08
they were putting that thing together.
17:09
And I remember seeing little scenes and being like, dude, I
17:12
hope this is this good. Like it's one of those things
17:14
where you're sitting around me like, please be as good as this.
17:16
Don't trick me, don't trick me. And then I finally saw a final
17:19
cut and we took our boys to the theater to be able to see it,
17:23
and I was blown away because I thought it so perfectly.
17:27
Now, Christians are always going to hark on storytelling, and I
17:29
get it. Like, it's there's.
17:30
Creative license. And for the Bible theological
17:33
nerds, there's always going to be some theological open handed
17:38
flexibility. Let it go.
17:40
Yeah. And so that's where I live too,
17:41
is like, as long as it's not heretical or it's contrary to
17:44
what the Bible's preaching, I'm cool with it.
17:47
And David was one of those where I remember sitting there with my
17:50
boys, just so proud to watch that with them and be like, this
17:55
is our business. This is what the kind of things
17:57
we make. So for the future, I see more
17:59
stuff like that. I know those guys have some
18:01
pretty cool stuff planned for the future too.
18:04
So I would say in that vein, I really like that stuff.
18:08
But I think we're just seeing a massive shift away from sitting
18:12
in a movie theater, sitting in front of your TV and gathering
18:14
to watch traditional film and TV.
18:17
We're seeing like I was pointing to the Nielsen ratings, which
18:20
just does TV, right? 13% of all TV viewership last
18:24
month was YouTube. The next closest was 9%, and
18:27
that was Disney Plus, which encompasses all this.
18:30
Stuff I just saw. YouTube now has got podcasts.
18:32
Up it's and YouTube's pushing way more for the live stuff.
18:36
So I think we're just seeing a cultural and transitional shift
18:40
away from what I love I love storytelling like I grew up as a
18:42
kid sitting in the movie theater eating.
18:44
I love it. But the automobiles have been
18:47
invented and we make horse and buggies, right?
18:50
We, we make bugs. And we can complain that people
18:52
don't want as many buggies anymore, or we can say, how do
18:55
we apply what we do really well to this new thing?
18:58
And that new thing is social media as a whole really the
19:02
democratization of entertainment.
19:04
You don't have to have $10 million to throw together one
19:08
episode of something. You could do it on a shoestring
19:10
budget. Yeah.
19:11
But as an artist, that's gotta be hard for you.
19:14
It was initially. I feel like I'm really settled.
19:17
You're hitting on something. Yeah cuz.
19:18
When your whole life is there's a craft, yeah.
19:22
And there's an art form and there's a process.
19:26
And now, you know, there's some kid with a GoPro and he's found
19:32
a way to monetize, you know, getting hit in the Franken
19:35
beans, you know, I mean, it's it, it the, the, the
19:39
entertainment is shifted. Yeah.
19:41
And if you're a classic artist, is that hard to to to accept
19:47
that? I think it is, but I just, I
19:49
keep going. I was having a conversation a
19:51
few weeks ago with a buddy of mine who's a great writer
19:53
written on shows that, you know, is run massive shows.
19:57
And he was calling saying, like, you know, I haven't qualified
20:00
for my health insurance. There's just not as much work.
20:02
What do you got for me? Right?
20:03
And I we had a conversation on this and I said, we can be
20:07
precious. That goes back that horse and
20:08
buggy in the automobile. We can be precious about what we
20:11
did. And I am like I have been my
20:13
whole life. I love you study so hard to
20:15
understand what made Hitchcock so good.
20:17
Why were Edison films good? You you'd learn all those
20:19
intricacies. But at the end of the day, it's
20:22
a meritocracy. And if your eyeballs are going
20:24
to go to this other thing and they're going to be able to tell
20:27
us better story with Johnny Frankenbeans on peanut
20:29
smash.com, he's beat me in that space, you know, and like, so
20:34
for me as a believer, that's where I get passionate to say we
20:37
need more believers stepping up. It doesn't mean you're making
20:39
movies, doesn't mean you're making TV shows.
20:41
It can, it can mean that you do that, but it means that you're
20:44
starting to think creatively because this idea that those of
20:47
us that are just in the arts are the only creative people, it's
20:51
BS. It's total trash.
20:53
Everybody's creative, creative and God demands our creativity
20:55
or else we're going to miss this wave that's going forward.
20:58
That's why I'm passionate about leave the past behind because
21:01
you hit on site, you know me well to know this conversation,
21:04
to know that like that is there's part of me that's like,
21:06
no, we like do this thing. And I've had to let that piece
21:09
go to be like, no, no, no, let's just win the battle.
21:12
Like, I see that as a loss for me because I put so much time
21:15
into doing that. But there's a greater victory to
21:18
be had. And we can complain about that
21:20
or we can March forward and carry that banner.
21:23
You know, it's kind of how I feel about it.
21:24
Not my ego. My ego wants to be pissed.
21:28
But as a believer too, part of it is messaging and part of that
21:31
is ministry. And so that is market share.
21:34
And it's like, well, if we're going to serve people, we want
21:37
to serve as many as we can. And that's what's cool about
21:40
this modern day and age with social media.
21:44
Like, dude, it reminds me of film school, right?
21:47
We, we make, we make movies. And it was 7 years, you know,
21:52
and that was like a good turn around from the second somebody
21:54
starting to script to whenever maybe it's getting out.
21:56
That's seven years now you have an idea.
22:00
I'm a go out with my iPhone. It's going to look better than
22:03
probably what we shot. The first thing that we ever
22:05
shot on. We're going to shoot it on that.
22:06
I'll edit it together on my little laptop and it's going out
22:08
this afternoon and I never have to think about it again.
22:10
And then I'll move on to the next.
22:11
Thing. We went to Israel years ago.
22:15
We brought the red Cam, the red cameras.
22:19
I mean, they're, you know, they film Lord.
22:22
Of the practical. Yeah, we had.
22:24
We had to bring a guy from a track team, a collegiate track
22:28
team, to carry the gear in. I mean, it was beautiful
22:32
footage. But today your iPhone is
22:34
probably better than the red camera for sure.
22:36
I mean, it's wild. It's crazy.
22:38
You throw an indie filter on your iPhone and it looks like
22:41
it'll look like a red camera looked in, you know, 2015, which
22:45
is crazy. And I think again, for people
22:49
who like to have excuses, you know, we all like it.
22:52
That's why I couldn't do that thing.
22:53
I couldn't do it because it was that whatever you got, no
22:55
excuse. If you got a story, I don't care
22:58
what it is, you have no excuse not for that to be out there.
23:02
So to me, I think that excitement overweighs my
23:05
lamenting of what was in the past.
23:07
I think that's really exciting. So for the sake of time, let me
23:11
let me ask you this. Any chance we're going to see
23:15
because the the movies that seem to be doing well, they're the
23:19
the bigger than life superhero movies.
23:23
Any chance or is any believer working on like Elijah or
23:29
Daniel? There's some epochal massive
23:34
stories in the Bible that to me are at the level of a superhero
23:40
movie that just would be incredible if rightly translated
23:45
to film, and not in a cheap and cheesy way.
23:48
Is anybody working on that? There there's I know very
23:52
specifically one group is pushing forward on that not live
23:55
action, which to me like I want to see Elijah like live action,
24:00
like that's the one ever you said Elijah, I'm like, that's
24:02
the one I want to see. Not as many as should.
24:05
And I think it goes back to what we touched on with Christians.
24:08
They want to be in the battle, but they don't want to be in the
24:10
battle, right? That one's not going to be
24:12
cheap. That one's not going to be
24:13
cheap. It may flop it that's the deal
24:16
in in our business is it's a hits business and you got to be
24:19
willing to roll with the punches in those things.
24:21
And so I think Christian, it's one thing to say I really want
24:24
to see those things and it's another for Christians to be
24:27
like, I'm behind it. Let me get behind what you're
24:29
doing. I've heard whispers of all of
24:31
those that you mentioned. I think the Noah movie that came
24:36
out pushed every set everything back pretty good.
24:38
That horrible Russell? Was it Russell Crowe?
24:41
It's horrible. It got weird.
24:43
It was like. The timeline was off, the story
24:47
was off. I mean it it was a drunk driving
24:50
script. I know Noah was a drunk, but did
24:53
they have to reflect that in the storytelling, right?
24:56
You know, like. It was horrible.
24:58
It was bad and look, I know Noah's story and I'm sitting
25:01
there watching it being like what is that?
25:02
Like I don't even know what the much less if I had no clue where
25:05
the story. So to answer your question, yes,
25:07
people are working on it not as money as should.
25:10
And I think part of that just has to do with the general shift
25:13
in the industry as a whole, which like I said, lays out
25:15
massive opportunity for believers if they'll lean into
25:18
it and start getting creative. But as a whole, the business is
25:21
just kind of gun shy right now because you've seen such an
25:24
outflow of money and not the returns that they expected.
25:28
So I think they're running a little bit scared.
25:31
I've heard murmurs of those things over at Angel, which
25:33
again, for me is like, no, I don't want to see.
25:35
And the problem is Angels really like if you're a Christian
25:38
filmmaker, where you going? Like who's coming to your mind?
25:40
If you're like, I have the script.
25:42
Pure flicks or Angel? Pure flicks or Angel, right?
25:45
And really it's Angel because pure flicks isn't going to pay
25:47
you what Angels can be able to pay you.
25:49
And that to me is an issue. So if we want, if we decide that
25:55
film and TV right, traditional narrative storytelling, it's
25:58
worth something. We've got to make a call with
26:01
Christians to be like we're going to get behind this and go
26:02
or say no, no, no, we're going to lean into what's happening in
26:05
the future and just go to that's where the thought leaders need
26:09
to be right is making that consciously to say we're going
26:12
to make an impact in this fear of influence.
26:14
But dude, I'm all on board for sign me up.
26:16
I'll pre buy a ticket for a. Life, we keep talking about it.
26:21
Elijah's the one. Yeah.
26:23
For sure, Elijah's the one. No, I will.
26:25
What are you? Casting.
26:26
Though I will I will volunteer to help with the script to make
26:30
sure it doesn't end up Noah level crap task.
26:33
Noah 2 point Who are you casting?
26:35
Is a? That's a hard one.
26:36
As Elijah, who's that strongest man in the world?
26:42
The dude with no neck? That Bjorn something.
26:45
Oh, the he was on Game of Thrones.
26:47
Yes, yes, that's Elijah. No, but first he would need to
26:51
go on rides. Want that guy on rides?
26:54
OK, OK, there we go. Wow.
26:56
Leave it right there. Jeez.
26:57
All right. Thanks to ISON for joining us.
26:59
What a great conversation. Can people find you anywhere?
27:01
Yeah, check us out at Lost Art Ranch.
27:03
Awesome, yeah. Cool.
27:04
Thanks buddy. It's appreciated, buddy.
27:06
Well, thank you for joining us here on Spotify.
27:09
If you don't know me, my name is Pastor Mark Driscoll.
27:12
I have been in the pulpit for a little more than 30 years
27:17
preaching and teaching the Bible.
27:18
I have been faithfully married to my wife since 1992.
27:22
We've got five kids, we got 6 grandkids.
27:26
And I would love for you to know more about real faith ministry
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27:59
you allowing me to help you learn God's word.
28:02
Today we had a closed door meeting with the honorable.
28:06
I know I'm not going to get this name right.
28:09
Yaiko Leiter, he's ambassador of Israel to the United States, and
28:14
I apologize if I didn't get the name quite right.
28:17
So he's Jewish and he's in DC, He works for the Israeli
28:23
government and he is their ambassador to the United States
28:26
of America. And his son died fighting Hamas.
28:33
And so we had a closed door meeting with him today.
28:36
I don't know, maybe there was two dozen of us there.
28:41
It was very, very interesting and helpful.
28:44
And just his analysis of the situation, he gave 3 levels of
28:51
analysis of what is going on in Israel.
28:54
And he said where we're at globally is, I would call it a
29:00
paradigm of I'll call it bipolar.
29:04
That's, he called it the US versus regional hegemony, but
29:08
I'll call it bipolar, that there was a season when there were
29:13
kind of two teams, the United States and Russia and everybody
29:19
was, you know, on one of those teams.
29:23
Think of it at recess in elementary school, like two kids
29:27
come out and they pick the teams and everybody's on one of those
29:30
teams on planet Earth, you know, Russia or US.
29:35
Well, then the Soviet Union falls, Russia falls, and then
29:38
it's the US. And that that now has been
29:43
replaced by the US and China. So if you look at it, China
29:48
works with Russia, China works with Iran, China works with
29:52
North Korea. So all of our enemies are really
29:55
connected to China. So globally, that's what's going
29:59
on. It's the US versus China.
30:03
What he said is, well, is going on regionally is that Islam is
30:11
in a place of internal conflict. This was, I think, the thing
30:15
that he said, I don't know about you.
30:17
This was the thing that I thought this was the most
30:19
interesting. So it was in the 16th century,
30:25
the 1500s, that Christianity had the Protestant Reformation.
30:29
So, you know, it exists. And then there's this fight,
30:32
this turmoil, this debate, like who will we be going into the
30:38
future? And now that I think about it,
30:41
what really propelled that was the printing press and new
30:45
technology. And Johann Guttenberg, the
30:48
Christian, he invents the printing press.
30:50
And now you have the proliferation of information
30:53
that allows the Protestant Reformation to take place.
30:57
And he said that Islam with their prophet, I call them the
31:03
counterfeit, demonic, false Prophet Muhammad, he's comes
31:06
around about 500 years after, you know, Jesus.
31:12
So they're about 500 years behind Christianity.
31:16
So he says that right now this is their reformation, that Islam
31:21
today is experiencing their historical equivalent of the
31:26
Protestant Reformation at about the same time in their history.
31:32
And now that I think about it, it's in large part made possible
31:38
because of the Internet. It's it's an information
31:41
revolution that is allowing a global debate to be held.
31:47
And his point is they are having a debate about whether or not
31:53
Islam will return to its purest roots or it will make
32:00
concessions and accommodations for the West.
32:05
And so those who want to make concessions and accommodations
32:09
to the West, they don't want to have strict Sharia law.
32:14
They want to have a modified form of Islam.
32:17
So this is where you're going to find your softer Islamic
32:21
nations. This is where you'll find your
32:23
Saudi Arabia's versus your Iran's.
32:26
So like the US will work with Saudi Arabia.
32:29
We can't work with Iran. And so Iran is having a war.
32:33
And when he said this, it made sense because, you know, in
32:37
America, we're looking at like we're looking at a communist
32:41
Marxist now mayor of New York. And as Americans, we're thinking
32:46
what we thought that all the Muslims were like strict Sharia
32:50
law, like we see in Dearborn, MI, or we're seeing with the
32:54
Somali community in Minneapolis, like they are a country under
32:58
themselves. They do not assimilate.
33:00
And they're purest in their devotion to Islam.
33:03
Now, what we're seeing in New York with Mandami is a
33:07
concession, A liberalized version of Islam that is willing
33:13
to be Westernized. So his wife's not wearing a
33:18
Jeep. They're taking advantage of the
33:20
Liberals. They are.
33:22
They are. They're playing their politics
33:23
even though they don't agree with those politics.
33:25
Yes. And and so they're they're,
33:29
they're, they're assimilating into the Western world, but then
33:33
they're wanting to overtake the Western world and they want it
33:35
to still be Islamist, but it's not coming into by jihad destroy
33:41
it. It's by assimilating into it and
33:44
then taking it. And putting more people into the
33:46
future. Yes.
33:47
And it's largely through it's it's through birth that's the
33:51
longest. They're like, we love your woke
33:52
agenda. Don't have children, be gay.
33:54
Yeah, you guys all be gay. We're going to be straight, have
33:56
a bunch of children. Have a bunch of kids and we're
33:58
going to rule. And that's what's happening
34:00
right now in France. That's what I, I was in Germany,
34:04
man. I mean, you know, when you go
34:07
into London and you're like the number one baby name is
34:10
Muhammad, you're like, wow, that's wild.
34:12
That's, that's what's happening. So number one, it's Russia
34:15
versus China, excuse me, it's the US versus China #2 it's this
34:20
reformation debate within, within Islam.
34:25
And then what he said as well is that #3 what is going on
34:31
bilaterally is that it's kind of the US and Israel against the
34:38
Islamic world. And he said that a lot of what
34:42
is happening is misinformation by those on the right.
34:47
Like he said that the he said that the number one contributor
34:52
economically to education in America is not Israel, it's
34:57
Qatar. Followed by China.
35:00
Followed by China. They don't like us, but they
35:03
like our kids. But you think about it, Qatar,
35:06
you're looking at Islam and China, you're looking at
35:11
Marxism. So you're like, well, those are
35:13
the two ideological forces that we're fighting against and
35:17
they're being funded in our education system, K through 12
35:20
and college by foreign governments.
35:24
And he said that what's happening now is that the US and
35:30
Israel are working together on joint military partnership and
35:35
technology. And so it's it's moving from us
35:38
funding Israel with weapons to us developing weapons with
35:44
Israel, more of a strategic partnership.
35:46
So I thought it was an interesting presentation and
35:51
conversation. I don't know permission to speak
35:53
freely. I've done all the talking on
35:55
this one. But what were your thoughts?
35:57
We were there with Jewish rabbis and leaders in the community,
36:00
and we were a couple of the Christians.
36:03
Yeah, it was. It was very interesting, very
36:05
interesting to have mixed faith interfaith room where we don't
36:10
all agree on who our Savior is, but very insightful.
36:16
And I think the part that really spoke to me, he talked about
36:23
where was the quote from? We should have a Statue of
36:25
Liberty, but also a statue. Of responsibility.
36:30
The their country, their young people are taking responsibility
36:33
for their country. Yeah, maybe explain what
36:35
happened on October 7th. Yeah, so they were taking
36:39
response The the young people are really rising up and owning
36:42
their their faith and the nation.
36:44
And on October 7th, the horrific day, everything broke down.
36:49
They have a great military, great communications.
36:51
They're not living in the Stone Age like that.
36:55
They have a really intense military.
36:57
Everything broke that day. And they don't know if it was a
36:59
conspiracy or all the systems just broke down.
37:03
But there was no defense. Nobody was ready to defend
37:05
against all these terrorists running into the country with
37:09
guns blazing, cutting heads off, raping women, killing children.
37:14
They're just coming in. So every all the 18/19/20 year
37:18
olds grabbed their guns and ran toward the sound of the guns and
37:22
went stopped it. I mean that they were the only
37:25
reason that it didn't just wipe out the entire nation of Israel
37:30
and that was incredible. I I look around in 18/19/20 year
37:34
olds and I'm I'm not sure, especially in cities.
37:38
Portland. Any city that would be at
37:40
anywhere, that would be a city. Seattle, San Francisco, they
37:43
would probably jump in, yeah. Yeah, and that's where he circle
37:51
circled around to the point of this horrific thing happens.
37:53
Our nation stands up against it. All the 18/19/20 year olds
37:57
immediately when that attack happened, all of a sudden all
37:59
the schools across the country in the US are having protests to
38:03
free Palestine and all the stuff in favor of Hamas.
38:07
And it's because all the money coming into the schools from
38:11
Qatar and other countries. But it was like, wow, we need we
38:17
need Americans that take responsibility for their country
38:19
that much. We need young people that are
38:21
willing to run towards the sound of the guns.
38:24
But we don't have a nation of young people that are like that.
38:27
And that that just really stood out to me, that I I have a heart
38:30
for young men getting started and being passionate about
38:33
taking responsibility. And we have a real lack of it.
38:36
Well, they've been told that this is the worst nation on
38:39
earth and that justice is deconstructing it and and that
38:46
anything that is based on Christian principles is
38:49
oppressive and patriarchal and evil.
38:54
And so, you know, the Bible says what are those who call good,
38:56
evil and evil good and darkness, light and light darkness.
38:59
And that is currently K through 12 government funded education.
39:04
It's horrible. It's horrible and Islam and it's
39:09
coming for this nation and everybody's trying to warn us
39:13
and people are trying to pull the fire alarm.
39:15
And I think it's Christians. We need to listen to it.
39:18
There's a gentleman that came up to us very quickly afterwards
39:20
and it was like, no, Muslim. Muslims aren't all bad.
39:23
Islam is not all bad, OK? They're not the individual.
39:28
People don't have to be bad, but what they are doing.
39:30
Ideological system is incompatible.
39:32
Compatible. With Christianity and
39:34
constitutional American citizenship.
39:37
They're coming to take our country and take our faith.
39:40
They will not tolerate it and right now they just are aligning
39:43
with the left because the left is stupid.
39:45
Yeah, no, it's it's a useful idiot.
39:47
It is. And that's what they don't see.
39:50
That's what the left isn't seeing right now.
39:51
And it's like they're just taking advantage of you.
39:53
None of their values align with yours.
39:55
They have 10 children. You don't.
39:58
So yeah, it was an awesome day. Thanks for bringing me in.
40:04
I love seeing people trying to put faith and then.
40:09
Government under that and trying to change this country.
40:13
I think it's it's very important.
40:14
So it was a helpful conversation and they have a documentary that
40:18
they're trying to get out and you have a great idea for them
40:19
of streaming in all the countries or all the churches
40:22
across the country rather. And it shows the horrific events
40:27
that happened on October 7th, October 7th through like GoPro
40:31
footage. Yeah, close with that.
40:33
Yeah, I told, I asked the ambassador in the close, I said
40:36
they've got AI. Guess it's around a 45 minute
40:39
film. It is the GoPro footage of
40:41
beheadings and murders. Because what the terrorists, the
40:44
jihadists did, they filmed it all because they were proud of
40:48
it and they wanted the world to see what they were willing to do
40:51
for their God, Allah Akbar, our God is greater, our God is
40:55
greater. And so this is jihad and it's a
40:58
holy war. And so for them, this is, this
41:01
is something to be proud of. And so they edited the footage,
41:06
put it together from the terrorists themselves, and they
41:09
show the killings and the murders and the beheadings.
41:12
And so I asked him if he would be willing to release that
41:16
intellectual property to the churches.
41:18
There are more screens in churches than movie theaters in
41:21
America. We are from today filming 247
41:26
days till October 7th. It's a Wednesday.
41:29
Most churches have Wednesday programming, and so I asked if
41:33
they would be willing to release it.
41:35
And churches do showings. It's graphic.
41:38
It's not for children, but if people watch that in their House
41:42
of worship, that'll make it particularly emotionally
41:47
devastating. But then it also will do a lot
41:50
to take away some of the Holocaust deniers and some of
41:56
those who are trying to downplay October 7th and those who have
42:01
just replaced anti-Semitism with anti Zionism.
42:05
And I'm not saying that everything that Israel does is
42:08
right. Incorrect.
42:09
And even if you are a replacement theory Christian who
42:12
doesn't think that the nation of Israel today is equivalent to
42:16
the Old Testament nation of Israel, does the nation of
42:20
Israel have the right to exist as a nation, to choose its
42:25
capital and to protect its borders?
42:28
Well, that that is just what nations get to do, at the very
42:32
least, all spiritual arguments aside.
42:34
So if those who are watching think about it, pray that he
42:39
takes me up on that idea. He seemed open to it.
42:42
The whole room cheered and clapped.
42:44
It was the only thing that it really felt like it was going to
42:47
come out of it, and I pray that it does.
42:48
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see what God does with
42:50
that.