Transcription
Okay, before I wrap today, I got to address this uh final conversation. Um, we had a great talk at the Bless God Summit uh with myself, Gavin Ortland, Trent Horn, and Josh Nato, sword and pencil. In my opinion, one of the dopest designers on the internet, who is a Orthodox catacuman. And uh this whole conversation is going to come out next week. Uh, but if you guys want to see it, you can partner with us on Patreon for the cost of a cup of coffee. $6.99.
Um, on top of which, we got part two coming out, my conversation with the Oriental Orthodox homie, uh, Ethiopian Orthodox homie. Um, uh, which is which is also going to be awesome. So, let me let me just say this uh to my Eastern Orthodox friends. Why the the the push back I got was, "Hey, Rouslon, who is Josh Nato and why is there this Eastern Orthodox?" First of all, Josh Nato is responsible for much of our art here. he's been in the process of uh exploring orthodoxy for a while and you guys are like, "Hey, why do you have someone that is um not a uh a seasoned Eastern Orthodox debater when you guys have Trent Horn there?" So, let me just address this real quick and be done with it.
Um one, Trent Horn was not slated to be at the Blcot Summit. Initially, we were supposed to have Michael Nolles have the conversation with Gavin Ortland. Michael Nolles had to drop out. We already talked about this. Uh secondly, Josh Nato was already there at the Bless God Summit and I thought it'd be fun to have all sides represented. Okay. So, in my desire to make sure that all sides are represented, which we do that fairly frequently, uh respectfully Eastern Orthodox fans, I don't know of another Protestant YouTuber that's had more conversations with Eastern Orthodox priests and apologists than myself. Um I wanted you guys to be there represented. Now, uh if you want it to be perfect, uh sometimes it's not going to be perfect. sometimes we're not going to be able to fly the person out that you want to be there. Um, so we decided to have Josh Nato. Josh was already scheduled to do a breakout which he did a fantastic job about. He uh is the dear friend of mine and respectfully I think is an awesome representation of Eastern Orthodoxy online and so that is why he was chosen.
Furthermore, uh, in the past, we've had issues getting Eastern Orthodox folks to my conference because of a Gavin Ortland there. And so, the fact that Josh was already there, the fact that it was not going to be with a Trent Horn, who I understand how that looks, man, you got the best uh, you know, one of the best Catholic apologists, one of the best uh, you know, Protestant apologist, and Gavin Orland, he has a whole book called What It Means to Be Protestant. And then you have someone that's a catacum that's not baptized yet. I understand how that can look. Uh but you know, hey, count it against my head and the lack of planning and not against uh my heart. I want folks to be accurately represented. I want the best of the best of these conversations to happen. Um so having said that, that's a little bit of the backstory. It it was not intentional of like I'm going to throw up someone that that you know isn't a big I guess a big big name in the Eastern Orthodox community. I thought Josh did amazing during the conversation. Uh I thought I thought he represented the position very well. He got uh counsel from his spiritual father and in in my humble opinion I think he's a great representation for the Eastern Orthodox folks. So that is some of the backstory there. Um again none of that is intentional. None of that is to uh uh misrepresent or misalign. It kind of came together organically and we just like hey let's have representation there of that position. So that's the backstory there.
Um and yeah, we're going to keep having these conversations. It's not going to be exactly how you want them. It may not have the faces that you want there. Um, and so that's that. So, in terms of more of these conversations, I like having these conversations. Uh, I think it's good. I think it's good to have these conversations, especially when people are making such bold claims as we are the one true church, implying that everyone else is a fake church or a false church. Uh, I think that's that it's important to have these conversations in that. Um, I will say that consistently uh complaining about this sort of stuff uh doesn't make those conversations any more fun to facilitate. All right, you could have reasonable push back uh and a few people did on X were like, "Hey, like I'm just honestly curious, so this is my honest response." You could have reasonable push back and that's fine. But consistently complaining and consistently crying and consistently demanding to have your guy there, which a lot of you guys wanted Jire there. Jay Dyer's been on my platform. Uh not sure if you guys know Jay Dyer and Trent Horn don't really get along. Uh and so uh Jay Dyer wasn't in town. He wasn't already going to be at the summit, but I've had Jay Dyer on. May have Jay Dyer on some uh other time. Uh but consistently naming somebody and consistently crying and whining about this. Um makes me not want to have these conversations if I'm being honest with you. Uh I feel like there's seldom so little gratitude to just say, "Hey, thanks for representing us." And often worst case scenario, why did you do this? and demanding stuff. And um like respectfully, I think this is why I love being around guys like Josh Nando. I love having folks like uh Father Josiah uh in these sorts of conversations. Uh because there's a class that they have that there's a humility that they carry. And even though me and Father Josiah can sit and like strongly disagree about stuff privately or publicly, uh there's still a degree in which they operate that I respect and I feel respected when interacting with them. And I think they're they exhibit which is to me this is the more important conversation the fruit of the spirit the kindness the gentleness that I would say Gavin represents that a Josh represented Trenhorn represented. And so, um, if you guys want more of these conversations on here, um, I'm just going to just gently ask, uh, be careful with the type of comments you leave cuz they're they're kind of annoying. They honestly like there's a pocket and it's and it's particularly in some of the orthobro communities that like you guys are just kind of annoying, right? And I should be able to tell you that and you not get triggered and melt down in the comment section. Um, in the same way that I can say, "Hey, I get it." Uh, didn't didn't think about it that way. I was I was genuinely just saying, "Let's have great representation." Um, but every time something doesn't go your way or your guy is not at something, it's a meltdown. It's annoying. Like, I'm just being honest with you. It's annoying to always see that in the comments. And I, you know, we could block all you guys for all I care. And I would still be annoyed that that that there's a a sense of like I don't know what else to call it, an entitlement of like you, you need to have this or or else. That's not how this works. Like this is my YouTube channel. These are my events. And if I see someone as appropriate to be there or I feel like this is going to be better for the conversation because of other dynamics and other back and forths between different characters online, um that's what I'm going to have.
On top of which, um a lot of what I'm trying to build with the scout summit particularly or types of conversations I'm having um is I don't want dumpster fire blood sport type conversations. Um that's why we have them in person. That's why you notice I don't have these conversations remotely. I think that class, humility, restraint, kindness, uh gentleness to me are important values and virtues. Uh and again, when I had Jay here, he was uh awesome and we had a great time hanging out at dinner and uh we had a great two-part conversation. And again, we may have that conversation again, but this is just my uh outside in perspective that when I deal with these different circles and I see these different comments, um even the conversation with um Morett from uh the Oriental Oral Orthodox, like even that conversation, some of you guys literally were like, "How dare you call him Orthodox?" It's like, "Bro, he's literally oriental Orthodox." So, some of you guys complaining that it says Orthodox Christian presses me on my Protestant theology. Um he is an Orthodox Christian. He's an oriental Orthodox Christian. and we talk about the deviations between Chaadon and all of the all of the things and I thought it was a great conversation and part two and three get super spicy. So, um, I just want to put that out there and and again, we'll still get another onslaught of comments and just crying and melting down. And I'm just telling you like it's not it's it's not a it makes me feel like, hey, uh, man, should we just not have any anyone from this camp? Because every time we have someone from the campus, there's there's a segment, not all, a segment of the people that talk about this stuff online that are just annoying to deal with. And I don't know how else to say that. And so, that's not an indictment on every Eastern Orthodox person. The vast majority of my interactions with Jay Dyer, uh when my Eastern Ornodox friends are positive, but the comments when you compare them to the Catholics, when you compare them to the Orians or Orthodox are uh not the same. I'll just say that they're they're they're not the same. So, that's a little bit of the backstory, okay?
Uh I'll do my best, but you guys also got to meet me there. You got to meet me halfway, okay? This we can't keep having these these meltdowns in the comments. You can't keep having these conversations where every time something doesn't go your way and you're upset and you're crying about it and why wasn't this person there and why wasn't that person there? It's like, man, there's so many logistics that go into this that I'm not trying to uh overthink these things. We're moving. We're having these conversations. This whole thing was was uh uh very fluid with regards to Michael Nolles dropping out. And so we had Gavin uh and then it was like, man, Trent was able to come last minute, which I was super grateful for. And I think you guys will like where the conversation went. I think you guys will like how the Orthodox conversation uh and the position of the Orthodox Church was represented. Even though Josh is a catechum uh and he is not baptized yet, I think you guys will like how he represented you guys. So, just because you guys your guy isn't at something doesn't mean the conversation doesn't isn't valuable. Doesn't mean you weren't represented well. Uh and I that that that's my take away from that conversation. So, anyway, those are my thoughts on that. Let me stick.