Transcription
So, if you are a Christian, you've probably seen this on the internet. I don't follow everything online. So, I was sitting at home the other night and my phone started blowing up with pastors and Christian leaders, uh, you know, can't roll with this. This is over the line. What do you think?
And so, what it caused was an immediate triggering of outrage. And just so you know, this is the uh this is the the algorithm game that your phone plays. It is to get you to immediately go to fear or anger. The goal is always to get to fear or anger because fear or anger will immediately cause you to be agitated, activated, click, respond, forward, whatever. And then all of a sudden you're creating u good traffic to a piece of content. And so fear and anger are usually the two quickest ways to get there.
And I uh showed it to my wife and she was like, "Uhoh, that's not good." I was like, "Yeah, that is not good at all." Like u most Christians, that to me looks messianic. Uh that looks like a a savior, a messiah. Um and um and those Christians who initially saw it and responded probably fall into one of three categories. One, they just despise Donald Trump and they're very excited to get anything that would help them to uh attack or slander or publicly distance themselves from him. On the other side are those who will defend at all costs and say we need to double, triple, quadruple down. And the reason that this piece of content became particularly difficult is there's very few people then left in the middle. And in the middle there's usually people who are like, well, we all make mistakes. Give somebody the benefit of the doubt. You know, maybe it's not what it appears. But but on a piece of content that is seemingly seemingly I want to be very careful about that. Seemingly connected to Jesus Christ. Well, you just officially um stepped on the big landmine. And that is for for those of us who are Christian conservatives. Our Christian is here and our conservative is here. And the uh for people who don't know Jesus to understand the level of devotion, loyalty, uh complete stalwart, commitment to Jesus Christ is hard for someone who doesn't know him to even understand because there is no kind of devotion and commitment uh like someone who has been forgiven, saved, and adopted by Jesus Christ to Jesus Christ.
So, at first pass, does this look like a That's not good. Yeah, that's exactly how it looks. And that was when I saw it. My first thought was, "Oh, I hope somebody from the faith office gets on the phone and help um you know, untangle the knot and get some of the toothpaste back in the tube." President Trump has since come out and said, "I thought I was appearing like a doctor and uh a Red Cross member who's helping people." Okay. So, a mistake was made and as a result, he took it down, which honestly um if you're the uh leader of the free world and you say um you know, this was a mistake and I'm going to correct it, I would say, well, that's pretty fantastic. Um, and let's just be honest, men with this much power, they tend not to usually make retractions or admit a mistake. And he did. And so to me, case closed, mistake was made, it was corrected. And if we take the man at his word, uh, he didn't intend for the message that was received uh, to be the message that was communicated. And so a mistake was made by a grandfather um with his phone on the internet. And I will just tell you um even those who are incredibly powerful, successful men, they're still human beings and sometimes mistakes are made. Um I'm a grandpa. I'll be honest with you. I just texted a uh just texted a friend of mine and I just literally, it's a true story, accidentally FaceTimed him on my phone literally as we were beginning this segment. Actually, he's trying to get back to me. Um, and he's pretty well-known guy. I'm a grandpa. I screwed up with my phone. I accidentally FaceTimed him. So, he's wondering if everything's okay.
Every once in a while, you need to uh look at anybody who's in leadership and number one ask, you know, what is it like to do that job? This is not a job that I would ever want. uh it's impossible. Number two, are we going to give any grace for humanity? People make mistakes. And if there's no malice, there's no intent. Um if it was an error, do we give grace to them? My hope and prayer would be we would do that to all human beings, whether they're Democrat or Republican or, you know, on our team or not.
In addition, um, you know, as a grandpa, uh, who does some things on the internet, it it just I would I would humbly offer the suggestion that maybe not doing everything direct to social media by yourself would be advantageous and potentially helpful. Um, but in this occasion, it provides an opportunity for raging moral outrage and lots of conflict and fighting. And my answer is um a man made a mistake and once informed of it, saw the other side, took it down, course corrected it, and he's a grandpa on the internet with his phone. So what do we do with grandpas who go on the internet with their phone and post things that aren't received in the same way that they were hoping? uh we invite them to take it down and when they do uh we put some grace on it. And what you would want and what I would want is what he should get. And for all of those who um want to play the plank spec game, imagine if you had this much scrutiny and imagine if everything you ever posted was this hotly contested and debated. and ask yourself if maybe not playing the plank speck game would be advantageous for you and your soul. And for those of you who sit in a position of just constantly hoping to be triggered and angry and to show your moral outrage and white knight virtue signal by your immediate response. The reason I didn't immediately respond is this. I'll tell you exactly what I did. I prayed for him. He's my president. He's leading my country. And um if he was wrong, I was hoping that the Christians near him and without oversharing, I know most of the Christians that are close to him then that he trusts, they love Jesus and they're good people. And I'm very sure that they love him enough that they would have the conversation with him. And so I didn't respond. I prayed and I waited for God's people who are in proximity to him to have a conversation with him. And by all accounts, he had that conversation. He received it and he course corrected it. And I would say, "Thank you."