Ersio'r edrych i'r gael i'r gael... ..eg chi'n meddwl i'r gael i'r gael i'r seatau gweld i gael i'n meddwl. Efealeth i'r gael, er mwyn gallu ddarparu mewn gwahanol... ..arwb i'r eich dathgu iawn o'r gael i'r awr i'r ysgol... ..eg ychydig i'r awr i'r gael i'r wrthodion... ..eg yw gwneud i ni'n ddiffyg fel y gwirloch... ..i'n gweld i'n ddifigol i'r ymbrangod ddylch yn y gwirloch neddi... Because it looked fitting in the fair corner and it's been operating at a good heading in front of the goal. We were delighted with that and it was going to be difficult like I said, but after losing a couple of away games in the league it was very important, we got back to winning ways and that's a huge boost for us.


Well, thank you so much. My editor of Why Do Catholics Genuflect counseled me after my surgery and said, hey, why don't we do a book? How does this Catholic Genuflect? And I said, Bert, that's a little sick. So we didn't do it. But it's great to be with you today. And let's just hope I can find my notes here. This is always one of those. I hear it is, of course. Francis University of Steubenville has been important to me. We began coming, my wife Sally, and a whole contingent of us from Michigan used to come down in the mid-90s.  Two of my kids have come to school here and graduated. And two of my producers over the years have come from Francis University of Steubenville. And Nick Tom, by the way, who's my producer for 12 years, has been battling a brain tumor for a long time. Many of you have prayed for him. Nick is still struggling and keep him in your prayers as you think of him. My current producer, Bryant Shanley, also a graduate of Franciscan. And I just wanted to say how important it has been. I know I have told Scott this before, but I do remember those years before there was a lot of Catholic apologetics because I was thinking of returning to the Catholic Church. In the late 70s, early 80s, the Marian dogmas were a big obstacle to me. And in fact, I even wrote for a Catholic magazine, a devotional magazine, Queen of All Hearts, an article called, The Evangelical Protestants' View of Mary. And I just couldn't get over the biblical, what I thought the Scripture was saying and what I thought the Catholic Church was saying, took me a long time. I didn't return to the Church until 1992. But Scott's tape on Mary, Ark of the Covenant was actually a very important piece in the puzzle. I had long thought that the Marian dogmas were some form of typology. If you thought typologically like the apostles, then you would maybe come up with the Marian dogmas. And his tape, Mary, Ark of the Covenant, kind of confirmed, yeah, that's the direction to go. So I don't think I told Scott that before, but I've been very grateful for so many of the beautiful things here. So I'm anxious to talk today. I want to thank you for the honor of being here. I like learning with you. I like worshiping with you. And we're all recalling once again God's call that we bear witness to Christ's kingdom collectively as the body of Christ and individually as disciples who are becoming like our master. So let's start with the conference theme verse is first Corinthians chapter one, verses 21 to 25. Saint Paul has lots to say here, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who God has called both Jew and Greek, Christ is the power of God, the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God's stronger than man's strength. Saint Paul later to the Corinthians says, look, we do preach wisdom to the mature. And what he's talking about is divine wisdom. And his teaching right here in first Corinthians chapter one, going through verse four, he's pitting divine wisdom against human wisdom. And that takes us all the way back to creation. In the beginning, God saw that the universe was undifferentiated. It was formless and void. It was unformed and it was unfilled. So by word and wisdom, Proverbs eight, wisdom seven, he brings order where there was disorder. He brings cosmos where there was chaos. He brings light where there was darkness. And through the six days of creation, he forms and he fills the creation. The human was the capstone of his creation, imaging God to the rest of the world, the rest of creation and directed by God to be fruitful, to be multiplying, to continue the work of filling and working the material universe, cultivating the garden. But an alien element shows up in the garden, a serpent, the Satan. He tempts Eve. He tells her that God is not who he claims to be, that he's thwarting her natural desire for wisdom. And she looks over at the tree and she says, hmm, that fruit looks desirable for wisdom. That's actually one of the temptations, desirable for wisdom. So she and her husband, Adam, eat and basically say, we've got a better way to organize our lives. The serpent is our new life coach and we're going to create a new radiating center for human wisdom. And of course, you know what happened. Four great alienations, four great ruptures, they're separated from God, the ultimate source of their life. Disorder enters their psyche and guilt. Shame is born. They can no longer stand before God transparent, you know, strolling with him in the cool of the day. They have to cover themselves. It's operation fig leaf. It's the most futile act of hiding in the history of human folly. I mean, but their work of decreation continues and the perfect harmony that existed between man and woman breaks down. And Adam blames Eve. There's blame shifting. There's insecurity. There's anxiety about the other. And even the work is made painful and futile. Adam's bringing forth thorns and thistles. He's not getting good fruit. Eve is going to have pain in childbirth as she tries to bring forth good fruit. They have set themselves up as an independent little satellite center of wisdom apart from God. They have their own project now. They have their own agenda, their own program. Not satisfied with imaging God. They want to be God. And it's an adolescent sort of response. I can do it myself. I don't need you. I want to do it my way. They establish a competing wisdom, human wisdom. And in our passage from 1 Corinthians, this is what St. Paul wants nothing to do with. He deals with and represents the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the wisdom of God. Human wisdom is checkmated and the players just don't know it yet. This wisdom theme is very useful for evangelization in today's world, everywhere. People are searching for ways of organizing and bettering their lives. They hire life coaches. They read self-help books. They watch videos. I noticed the teaching companies, great courses series, have moved from publishing a lot of humanities and liberal arts-based courses to a lot of self-help and improvement topics, mindfulness, how to play guitar, various management techniques. People want more out of life. They know their lives are unbalanced and they're trying to order their lives apart from divine wisdom. Even before I was an active Christian, back when I was in my late teens and early 20s, I kept a notebook full of inspirational quotations. I was looking for guidance and wisdom. One of my favorite passages was Jesus in the seventh chapter of Matthew, verses 26 and 27, where he invites us to build on his words. That's like building on a rock, not sand, so that when the rains come, when the hurricane hits, your life would withstand the storm. It made a big impact on me when I was younger. Unfortunately, I have friends who didn't feel that way about Jesus. In fact, Sally and I, this goes back a few years. Sally and I invented a friend from out of town who refused to go to rehab to kick a heroin habit. His wife had found his syringe and other paraphernalia on their honeymoon and went ballistic. He wanted to change things because he didn't want his marriage to go in the crapper that early. This is an important point. I didn't know anything to speak of about the dynamics of addiction at the time. This is quite a few years ago. But I didn't wait until I did. I had a situation in front of me that help was needed. So I gave the help I could. I would do things differently today. In fact, most of my stories are examples of me learning on the job. One thing I'll guarantee that if you wait until you've answered all the questions, until you've got it all together, I'll guarantee you will be educated beyond your obedience. You will have lost many opportunities for witness. You'll know the answer to all kinds of questions no one is likely to ask. So my advice is don't worry about getting it right. Just worry about stepping out. Last year I told you the story of Rebecca, a young Jewish woman upon whom my friends warned me not to waste my time. Because she was Jewish and I didn't know anything about Judaism. I spent hours boning up on Jewish objections to Christianity. One night she called. She wants to talk about spiritual things. And she comes over and I've got all my answers to Jewish objections to the gospel. And I start and she silences me and says, look, I have one question. Will Jesus bring me joy? It was as sweet and as innocent a question as you can imagine. I mean, I had all the answers she never wanted. She had one question. And I said to her, well, Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. And I know he's not going to deprive you of any good thing. That night she repented of her sin, committed her life to Christ, was baptized shortly thereafter. She's still an active Christian today. She's not in full communion with the Catholic Church. My point though is don't be afraid of doing something wrong. You will make mistakes. It's inevitable. Saint Teresa of Avila taught me once I became a Catholic that God doesn't so much look on our performance as he looks upon our willingness to obey.  So in spite of my ignorance about addiction, Sally and I put my friend and his wife up in a hotel down the street from our apartment. And I told him that I thought God had a plan for his life, that his addiction was a form of idolatry. He was the addict, has to bring everything in his life into compliance, into submission to the addiction. And when he uses, it creates the illusion of power, almost like sorcery. The universe can change with just an injection. And I said to him, you know, God has a better way. So for nearly 10 days, we went around the Detroit area, had dinner at the top of the Renaissance center on television. We watched the Phillies beat the Royals in the World Series. Yes, it was a long time ago. We visited Ann Arbor's Botanical Garden. He was miserable the whole time, didn't enjoy anything. Even drinking didn't help at all. I gave him a copy of the Living Bible, which is a paraphrase of Scripture. And one afternoon he came to me and said, hey, something really weird just happened. And I said, well, what is it? He says, I was thumbing through this Bible. In my eyes landed on words and they just kind of jumped off the page. And it said, do not be surprised that you must be born again. And I thought he was, that book was talking to me. That's what he said. I said, well, listen, Harry, what God has given you is what Christians call a moment of illumination. Now I wasn't Catholic, but I explained what I thought at the time was about being born again. And I came away assured that he would at least think about it. The week went by. I mentioned John 3.7 again, and he said he needs to think about it. Eventually he went home. Months later he lapsed in the heroin use again. He began embezzling money, almost lost his job. The union stepped in, sent him to rehab, and that's how he kept his job. Afterwards he did stay pretty clean and sober for a decade or so. He never seemed to be addicted to heroin again. Alcohol became his drug of choice.  He panicked, left his wife and children, was rumored to be considering divorce and seeing another woman. So his wife and his sister asked me to talk with him. So we went out for an evening. Knowing him over the years gave me some courage and some boldness and some point of entry here. He assured me he wasn't seeing another woman, but he was threatening divorce. And I said to him, Harry, you know, I'm glad you remain faithful to your wife. Don't you think it's time to finally ask, what is God's will for your life? He got angry. Will of God? Where? Where do I find the will of God? And I said, well listen, we can start with prayer. We've got the life of Jesus. We've got the scriptures. We've got the catechism of the Catholic Church. And he snorted and said, I'm not Catholic, and those priests are perverts or something similar. Conversation flattened out. He reconciled with his wife in the coming weeks. And on his deathbed, Sally and I visited and I asked if I could pray with him. No. He was defiant. A few weeks later, he died. You know, I couldn't imagine. I spent many moments agonizing what I should have done differently with this whole thing. A mutual friend of mine in his told me that Harry thought religion was for the weak. It didn't make sense. He thought it was basically foolishness. The gospel seems like foolishness, not only to the Greeks, but also to the Americans. Jews demand signs. Greeks demand wisdom. Americans demand autonomy. They want to be left to themselves to make their own law, choose their own reality. Harry did, and Harry died prematurely. Jews demand miraculous signs. Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So let's enter into St. Paul a little more deeply here. When Paul says that Jews demand miraculous signs, I think he's probably thinking of Jesus in the Pharisees. Matthew 16, teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign. And Jesus says a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign. I mean Jesus is basically saying no can do. I'm not a circus act. I'm not here to meet your expectations. I'm not obligated to meet your criterion. New Testament scholar Don Carson puts it this way, this demand for signs becomes the prototype of every condition human beings raise as a barrier to being open to God. I will follow this Jesus if I can maintain my independence. I'll happily become a Christian if God heals my mother. I'll turn to Jesus if he saves my marriage. These people want to set the terms of their repentance. They're like enemies who stipulate the terms of their surrender. Jews demand miraculous signs. They wanted power because they didn't have power. They had an occupying army controlling the real estate that God had given Abraham. And a crucified Messiah in their mind was a contradiction in terms like upward decline or godly rapist. Everyone who hangs on a tree stands under God's curse according to the book of Deuteronomy. A crucified Messiah wasn't just a stumbling block. It was a loathsome blast of this failure. It was an ultimate scandal. But Christ came in ways they didn't expect. Not what I expected. Greeks have the same problem. They expected wisdom for the word of the cross is falling to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Greeks look for wisdom. No, the crucified philosopher isn't much of a wise figure. One who gets resurrected, that's implausible to the Greeks. Why? They had made an idol of human reason. They insisted on a superior philosophical system that had ultimate explanatory power. Everything could fit in it.  He's the entire frame of your picture. Atheist philosopher Luc Ferry noticed that the prologue to John's gospel marked one of the significant turning points in intellectual history. In the beginning was the word, the Lagos. The word was with God. The word was God. Through him, the Lagos, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life. And in that life was the light of all mankind. And that word, that Lagos, became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. That's not good news to the Greeks. It was shocking, disorienting, silly and foolish. Their universe was an orderly, meaningful universe. They had a purpose because they had a Lagos. They had a word. It was a rational principle that undergirded and supported all things. But their Lagos was impersonal. It was an abstract principle that you could contemplate, but it was absolutely not a divine person who would take on human flesh. Paul's gospel called into question their deepest assumptions about reality. Luke Ferry said that the Greeks considered the gospel a form of insanity. And you can see that even in the book of Acts. When Paul defends himself against King Agrippa, the governor festus breaks it and says to Paul, you're out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you insane.  But we know it as the power of God. We have two very different understandings of reality here. And the power of the gospel is not just the proper assembling of words. The power of the gospel to persuade is the power of the message itself. It's not the skill or the rhetoric of the messenger. And St. Paul puts it this way. We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. Rather, we offer an open statement of the truth. In short, he's saying, don't dress the gospel up. You don't have to do it. That's why he could say to the Corinthians, when I came to you, brethren, I didn't come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words of eloquence or in words of wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. The gospel is the power of God was something that kept Paul enthusiastic about the message. In Romans, he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of God, for it is the power of salvation for everyone who believes, both Jew and Greek. So Paul is not your great communicator in the way we would think of a classic orator. He says, and the Corinthians say, you're not much in the pulpit. He says, look, it's not about me. It's about the gospel. So let's take a look at how Paul goes about his work. For St. Paul, he's sold out. He's available. The gospel is a priority. Woe to me if I don't preach the gospel. He says, for the love of Christ constrains me, urges me, controls me, compels me, presses me, guides me, overmasters me, because we are convinced that one has died for all and therefore all have died. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Unlike St. Paul, too often we don't feel compelled or controlled or constrained. We just feel guilty. And you're not going to be very good persuading people that there's now no condemnation in Christ Jesus if you're standing there hoping to quickly escape your guilt by laying out a gospel track. The truth is we don't witness as often as we'd like because we do other things. We desire to do other things. My son, Nick, went to Home Depot and bought a grill for his deck. It was a great grill at a great price. And so having discovered this grill of great price, he immediately called us up and his brothers and friends and said, look, I got this great grill. And we're a family that enjoys grilling and grinning and gulping on our decks. And so Nick didn't need to explain to us the receipt of the grill and why it was such good news. Our desires had been formed by a society, circle of family and friends that desires and uses and cherishes and expects good grills. And he wasn't timid. He wasn't shy about sharing the grill of great price. So I wonder, I mean, why do I find it much easier to share the good news of the grill rather than the good news of Jesus Christ? Now, part of it is, of course, cultural expectations. We fear not being understood. But when you scale this back, it comes down to this. What do I love? What do I want to do? It is about desire. You know, that's the first, last and most fundamental question of Christian discipleship. Saint Paul was a rewired man. He was thoroughly converted to a degree that I'm not. He desired all time on all cylinders to share the gospel. Jesus' first words in the Gospel of John are, what do you want? What are you looking for? And he poses the question to two of John, the Baptist disciples who were following him. He kind of just wheels around and says, hey, what do you want? And it's his way of saying, will you come and follow me? Peter, do you love me? He's really saying, Peter, what do you want? He doesn't ask, what do you know? Or even what do you believe? He says, what do you want? Because our wants and our desires are at the core of our identity. That's the wellspring from which all of our actions and behaviors flow. I mean, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We speak of what we love, and discipleship is a way of curating our hearts to be more attentive to and intentional about what we love. And discipleship is more a matter of hungering and thirsting than it is about knowing and believing. And so Jesus' command to follow him is a command to align our loves, our desires with his loves and desires. He wants a people who are hungering and thirsting after God and craving a world in which he is all in all. Seek first the kingdom and all these other things, including converts will be yours. We don't witness like we should because honestly, we think we have better things or more important things to do. And I get it. For most of us too, as we've gotten older, our life fills up. I think I might have used this illustration last year, but you know, these Lego blocks only have so many places that you can connect, right? Most of our Lego blocks are full, wives, husbands, children, grandchildren, relatives, work at church, business.  There's nowhere for people to connect anymore with us. And the truth is, most of us probably don't have a lot of non-Christian friends. In fact, a lot of us don't even have many non-Catholic friends. I mean, it's hard to witness to the unbaptized when you don't know any. And so, I mean, you really do have to ask, well, why am I not doing the job of evangelization that I'd like to do? So just keep that in mind. St. Paul did it because that's all he wanted to do essentially. He was rewired. His desires were so aligned with the gospel that that's what he did. He's available in a way that most of us simply are not. Secondly, when he does it, he respects those whom he speaks. This allows him to be flexible. He's available. He respects the people he's talking to. He knows them, and he's listening to their situation. He's analyzing where they're coming from. And he looks for common ground that he can build on before he gets to points of contradiction. He has points of contact and points of contradiction. He always starts with the points of contact and builds common ground. He shapes his preaching to find as much common ground with the audience as possible. There's this fastening in the ninth chapter of 1 Corinthians. He writes, To the Jews, I became like a Jew. To win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law. So as to win those under the law. To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law. So as to win those not having the law. To the weak, I became weak. To win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel. So he's available. He respects his audience. He knows his audience. He shapes his message for his audience. He begins with common ground. And then he isn't afraid, lastly, of contradicting false beliefs. He knows how to turn the tables. And we'll talk more about that. We'll do two quick case studies of St. Paul doing evangelism. Acts chapter 13. He goes to the synagogue with his companions. It's the synagogue in Pasidian Antioch. And they're there on the Sabbath. And they take their seat.  And the synagogue leaders become aware that Paul's there. Now he's a trained rabbi. He's probably got a reputation. And so they ask him to address them. They say, Brother, do you have a word of encouragement? They're basically giving a chance to take the homiletic portion of the synagogue service. And so he goes through that door. It's an open door. And he goes through it. He sprints through it. And he just lays it out. People loved it. He had common ground to call him brother. He has a winning presentation. And they asked him to come back the next week. Well, next week Luke tells us the just about the entire city showed up. And what happened is that the Gentiles so overpowered the number of Jews there that the Jewish leadership of the synagogue got worried. And so when Paul then begins bringing up Messiah, Christ Jesus, they drive him out of the city. And he now has lost his common ground. He's now at the point of contradiction. And he tells them, look, I'm taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Case study number two, Acts chapter 17. He arrives in Athens. He's greatly distressed by the rampant idolatry in the city.  He stays available. And watch what he does when he's invited. He's invited to make his case before the city council. He takes himself out of the picture. Now the Jews had called him brother, right? These pagans called him babbler. That was the word. It's a seed-picking bird. It's an insult.   He's giving us useless bits of random pieces of information here. They don't address him as brother. Does St. Paul then say, I'm no babbler. Let's see who the real babbler is around here. Do you know who I am? No. He ignores it. He doesn't put himself in the center. To the contrary, he respects his audience and he says, people of Athens, I see that in every way you are religious. Now this is not mere flattery as we see later. He knows their men and women made in the image and likeness of God. They are made for God. And even though they are idolaters, he has a way to go at this. A lot of us would probably start chastising them for the rampant idolatry, their violation, their shameless violation of the First Commandment. That isn't what he makes his contact point. He reframes the issue by focusing on their hunger for God. People of Athens, I see that in every way you are religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your objects of worship, I found an altar with this inscription, to an unknown God. Paul has a generosity of spirit here. He now begins to turn the tables. He says, what therefore you worship as unknown? This I proclaim to you. He begins a sermon. He recognizes that they have some kind of hunger for God and he begins to describe this unknown God. He's a creator. He's a provider of good things. He doesn't live in temples made by human hands as though he was dependent on the creatures he makes. No, he governs world history. He sets up the boundaries of the nations. Human beings grope toward him, feeling their way along. Maybe they might find them. Yet he says, he's not far from us. Even your own poets, let us know this. And he quotes their own poets. In him we live, move, and have our being, another poet, for we are indeed his offspring. And that's where he really does turn the tables. He shows that their idolatrous practice failed the test of their own premises. You are God's offspring. That's right. You believe that? That's right. So why are you then bowing to idols made from gold, silver, and stone? Idols that you make. You're God's offspring. You're beyond wood. You're beyond hay. You're beyond silver. You're beyond stone. You're beyond gold. And this God will judge the world by the man who he has raised from the dead. So get ready, the times of ignorance are passing. Repent. Now the text says, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, they mocked. Remember, the Greeks don't have room for a Lagos, which is a personal God. And they certainly have no room in their cosmology for a resurrection. But others of them said, we'll hear you again about this. And some others believed. Paul went out and he had some converts, Dionysian the Areopagite. He had a woman named Damaris, and there were some other men. Now let me be clear. Paul's not claiming that the Athenians were anonymous Christians, or that somehow they could be saved because they were well-intentioned in their idolatry. Absolutely not. What he was doing was recognizing what St. Augustine shows us in the first opening prayer of his confessions. You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. He was recognizing what sociologists of religion call signals of transcendence. Signals of transcendence are authors to the unknown God. What are these things? They're highly personal, they're very subjective, they're internal longings for that which is greater than ourselves. Words with called them intimations of immortality. They're yearnings for our ultimate home. And all kinds of terms are used to describe these things, epiphanies, jolts, homing devices, actual graces, metaphysical hunger. And these impressions and desires point us to something we don't possess, but believe we should. They signal something transcendent about our nature. You know, in material terms, a hungry man knows he's made for food, and he's troubled when he can't find it. He knows he's from a race of people that normally satisfy their hunger by food. Well, it's the same thing with metaphysical hungers, aspirations or desires for God. It tells us we are made for more than this material world. And this shows up all the time, even in the writing of atheists. Jurgen Habermas, an influential atheist who had long conversations with Benedict XVI, wrote a famous essay years after he attended the funeral of a close atheist friend. He was struck by how flat the memorial service was. It was like soda water that had lost its fizzle. The essay was called an awareness of what was missing. Agnostic philosopher Iris Murdoch similarly asked, but is there something where God used to be? St. Paul starts his evangelization of the Athenians by recognizing and respecting their aspiration for God, twisted as their practice was. And there are two mistakes surrounding these signals of transcendence, these little epiphanies, these metaphysical hungers that we can identify in ourselves and in other people. The first thing that we get wrong about them is to simply dismiss them or discount them or belittle them as subjective, oftentimes they're heterodox. An evangelical Protestant friend of mine and I were talking with a woman who had lost her seven-year-old son. And she was talking about how the boy is now gone, but he still comforts her.  My friend decides he should correct her.  He's theologically correct, but evangelistically, he's a nimnod. What he should have done is taken the woman's hand and said, you know, you are so blessed to have the comfort of your son's love. And in the Song of Solomon, in the Scriptures, we learn that love conquers death and Jesus and his resurrection is the final evidence of that. He made the first big mistake. He didn't recognize she had a signal of transcendence. She was identifying something beyond the material world that was of a comfort to her. The second mistake, though, would be to confuse those pointers with the destination. So we affirm, we accept and we build on these experiences, but we have to go beyond them. If we don't, we end up lost in the suburbs of Jerusalem. We never get to the heavenly city. We're in the outskirts of heaven, or if worse comes the worst, we end up in hell. But we fall short of the heavenly Jerusalem. We have to move these things and point them in the right direction. C.S. Lewis talks about this at great length in his spiritual memoir, Surprised by Joy. So we have these signals of transcendence. Everybody's gotten altered to an unknown God. We all have aspirations, intimations of immortality, something that tells us we are made for more than this world. The second thing that St. Paul learned to do, he not only recognized that, he learned how to turn the tables. And the key to turning the tables was to show that a person is inconsistent with some of the assumptions that he holds. So with the Athenians in their idolatrous practice, he says, look, you are God's offspring. So why the heck are you building idols of stone, silver, and gold? You are greater than these things. And God is greater than all these things. I was talking to an atheist philosopher from Wayne State University a while back. He wasn't your swashbuckling kind of Richard Dawkins atheist. He was rather humble and not jubilant about the non-existence of God. We were discussing the problem of evil and to his credit, he confessed that he didn't believe there was any ultimate purpose to life. And I said to him, Bruce, doesn't that bother you? He said, I just don't dwell on it. I said, well, where do you find purpose at all? He says, well, I find purpose in my projects. And I said, you know, isn't that cheating? I mean, ultimately, you don't think there's any purpose. So finding purpose in your projects is just postponing the inevitable. They're meaningless. Bertrand Russell said it best, brilliantly, atheist, all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction and the vast death of the solar system. And the whole temple of man's achievements must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins. And Russell countered despair, but with all due respect, atheists cheat on this point. They say that life is meaningless, but then live as though it has a point or a purpose. They say that morality is relative and then they teach their kids not to lie, cheat, steal, or be promiscuous. They say that life is pointless and then get angry at injustice. They say there's no God and then give thanks when they have a beautiful July afternoon. They say life is meaningless. There is no truth to communicate. And then they write books knowing full well that they're going to be understood.  They can't live with the logic of their own assumptions about life. Turning the tables is the saying to them, you know, you're cheating about this. Saint Paul teaches us to be available, to be respectful of our audience, to know them, to adapt our message to them. He's not ashamed of the gospel because the gospel is about the power of God, not about his competence. He uses these altars of an unknown God, these signals of transcendent, to make points of contact in common ground. And he also knows how to turn the tables and move to a point of contradiction. He's a very keen observer of culture. Jews seek signs, Greeks seek wisdom, and what do Americans seek? Well, we seek the autonomous sovereign self. Who am I? What can I be? And what's in my way? This is what drives America today. That's what's necessary in most people's lives when they think of their future. Their deepest desires and longings are to throw off all restraints that keep us from grasping that total liberty to be who we want to be. A lot of people call it the sovereign self. Jews want a sign, Greeks want wisdom, Americans want the sovereign self. This is a long historical road to this point in our history. It escalates after the Second World War. And in the Supreme Court decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey and Lawrence v. Texas, we have the Supreme Court even showing us this. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Among our elite culture and in our popular culture, we now believe there really is no external cosmic order to which we must conform. We now believe that truth can be constructed to our individual will. And this shows up all over popular culture. A few weeks ago, Sal and I and our two of our sons went to see the Avengers Endgame. The Avengers, if you don't know, are an ensemble of superheroes. One of the Avengers is Thor. He's a bit out of the ordinary. He's got Captain America and Iron Man and the Hulk are all mid-20th century science fiction figures. They're normal men who are made extraordinary by technology or superdrugs. Tony Stark and Bruce Ben are really mad scientists. Thor, no, he comes from a whole different patch of cultural history. He's the Norse god of thunder. He's the guy Thursday is named after, you know, and he's a prominent religious figure in Norse mythology. Long before Christianity, he's got a big hammer. He throws thunderbolts. He's invulnerable. He's king of Asgard, too. But in Endgame, he's more of a broken, conflicted comic figure who's kind of fallen into disrepair. In one of the last scenes in the movie, one of the goddesses, Valkyrie, one of the goddesses of Asgard comes and says to him, hey, when can we expect you back? And he hems and haws, well, you know, about that, she's adamant. She says, your people need their king. And he looks at Valkyrie and says, no, they already have one referring to Valkyrie. She says, that's funny. You're being serious. And then we learn that an American popular culture, even Norse gods, are not immune from the diseases of modernity. In one of the most humdrum, trivial lines in movie history, Thor says wistfully, it's time for me to be who I am rather than who I'm supposed to be. Who you're supposed to be?  You know, do what gods do. Pop culture is full of these kind of stories of the adolescent who must break away and become all they fancy, and they'll overcome all traditions, all relationships to get there. We see it even in our funeral practices. Blogger Kim Fabricius points out that in the last few decades, funerals have become customized. They're celebrations now of the individual's life. They're usually upbeat, avoid sad, avoid mourning. Coffins are likely to be as draped with photos and flags or sports memorabilia as they are Christian symbols. One minute you're singing amazing grace, and the next minute somebody flips on a CD of Frank Sinatra singing, I did it my way. Palms are red, and they're often walkish and banal and false. They're untruthful.  Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there. I did not die. No, Harvey, I'm sorry, you're dead, and we're not. You know, sentimentality, I don't know who said that, but sentimentality is to truth, what pornography is to love, and there's mounting pressure upon us to collude in this make-believe denial of death and lose great moments for witness. Jews seek signs, Greeks seek wisdom, Americans seek the sovereign self. I'll close here with a story that tries to bring together availability and living in expectation of witness, God's providence, respect for the other, common ground, turning the tables, and above all, how I didn't know what I was doing. My friend David and I got out of church, went to our favorite Detroit Mexican restaurant. The server's name was Maryland. I was doing some research on New Age thought at the time, and I was carrying a book that was popular among New Ages called The Crack in the Cosmic Egg. Maryland saw the book and said, hey, I'm reading that. What do you think? Well, I was feeling unusually bold and frisky after service, and in the spirit, I was saying that I thought the book wasn't very good at all, that the author's God was too small. God doesn't squeak through a crack in the cosmic egg, but he throws open the windows of heaven so that rain blessings will rain down. He answers prayers, and she asks somewhat scornfully, so what God do you worship? Oh, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who sent his son to bring the gospel to the poor, to release the prisoner, to lift the oppressed, to mend the broken hearted, to heal the lame, the maimed and the blind. I was on. I had it. It was going well. Tamisha Grinn, she teared up and says, then let him come and heal my mother. Her mom was in the hospital, deadly tumor behind her eyes. I knew nothing about healing ministry or healing prayer.  But I knew enough to say, you know, the message is not about me. I have the freedom to fail here. I have the freedom to do what I think God wants me to do. So Sally joined us at the table. We continued to talk with Marilyn. We learned that she'd been alienated from the Catholic Church for a few years, but her mother's health crisis had her asking all those deep and sometimes dark questions that confront us in the wee hours of the morning. The church had let her down in some way, and she was pursuing UAG type spirituality. Later that week, Sally and I made our way to the hospital to pray for healing. Marilyn's mom was not much, more than a living skeleton. Her body was shriveled. She couldn't speak, and she appeared to be in pain. Sal told her that Marilyn had asked us to come and pray with her. Was that all right? And she nodded. And so we held her hand, and we prayed, and we closed with the Lord's prayer. She squeezed our hands. We took our leave. Nothing remarkable happened. But we had to fulfill the promise to a new friend. We consoled a dying woman in some small way. The rest was really God's problem. There was no grand healing miracle. Nothing that would prove to Marilyn my window on heaven was better than her crack in the cosmic egg. The Sunday following our visit, Sally turns to me during worship and says, we need to call Marilyn. I think her mother just died. I chalked it up to an overly sympathetic imagination. After church, we call Marilyn.  We did go to the visitation at the funeral home, still feeling a bit sheepish about, you know, this healing thing about over promising. But heck, I wouldn't have taken credit if she was healed. So I'm not going to take the blame if she wasn't, you know. And as we left, Marilyn came with us out to the parking lot and let us in on a bigger family story than we had known. It turns out that our meeting Marilyn and Marilyn's urging us to visit her mom in the hospital actually helped thaw out some frozen ice between them. They were reconciled the week of her mom's death. And Marilyn said to me whispering that she had found a priest and she was being reconciled to the church. All this came about because I didn't know what I was doing. And I believe that God said we should pray for healing. And so that's what we did. God is alive. There are invisible realities. We have divine appointments like that. And so our prayer should always be wisdom of God, be with me, always at work in me. Thank you. It's been very good.


From DailyDoseOfWeirdNews.com, I'm Darren Marlar, and this is your Daily Dose of Weird News. A restaurant opened in London this week that specializes in airline-style food. Which of course begs the question, why? President Trump has a red button on his desk that he can push to have a White House butler bring him a Coke. Coke? Oh, I thought it said Nuke! A brand of hash brown potatoes is being recalled because they may contain pieces of golf balls. If you've ever seen me play, you'll understand how that is possible. Last Saturday, Kenny G decided to treat passengers on a Delta flight to a private mini-concert. Is this how air rage incidents begin? Hershey says that it plans to make its candy a healthier treat by removing calories and reducing the candy's size. And there are plans to make those giant king-size treats easier to share or save for later, presumably to discourage customers from eating the whole thing at once. Yeah, like that's going to happen. Here Dave, I only bought the king-size so I could share with you! I'm not trying to gross you out or anything, just reporting the facts here.  Katharina Ribek, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT, said while snot and boogers may be gross, they're actually full of healthy bacteria that helps protect your teeth. The stuff can also help prevent infection and fight off respiratory infections and stomach ulcers. And Austrian respiratory specialist Professor Friedrich Beisinger added that people who pick their noses are healthier, happier and likely in better tune with their bodies. He said eating the dry remains of what you pull out of your nose is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system. He added medically, it makes great sense and it is a perfectly natural thing to do. ESPN cut over 100 employees on Wednesday. Many sports fans wanted to hear more sports and less political commentary. Gee, who knew? The fifth Indiana Jones movie is happening. Harrison Ford will star, Steven Spielberg will direct. It'll arrive in theaters on July 10, 2020 and is tentatively titled Indiana Jones and the Search for the Geriatric Award. A new PR nightmare for United Airlines, a giant bunny flying from Britain to its new owners in Chicago, died somewhere during the trip. Easter is going to be awkward next year. Nordstrom is selling work jeans that are pre-stained with mud, designer jeans that is, for $425 a pair. If you can afford a pair of $425 designer jeans for work, you're likely not working anywhere where your jeans are going to get stained with mud in the first place. Real laborers don't shop for jeans at Nordstrom. Doctors at a Chinese hospital removed an 8-inch metal spoon from the stomach of an 18-year-old student who accidentally swallowed the utensil. Somebody needs to let her know that you don't have to shovel the food directly into the stomach. Sending it onto your tongue and swallowing usually gets the job done. Instagram reached 700 million monthly active users this week. They reached 600 million members four months ago. The oppressive statistic means Instagram has found a way to double its total user base in the last two years. Unfortunately, this also means that there are 700 million people taking useless pictures of food, including me. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up and be sure to subscribe if you want to see more. And click that little bell next to the subscribe button to be notified when I post new videos. And if you are already an official Weirdo, please share this video with your friends. Be sure to join me for my very first official live chat on YouTube. It's coming up Saturday, May 6th, at 3pm Central Time – that's 4pm Eastern or 1pm Pacific. We'll do a Q&A, I'll have a giveaway or two, and I might even tell a Weird Darkness story during the broadcast. At Saturday, May 6th, I hope you can join me. For more Weird News anytime, visit DailyDoseOfWeirdNews.com. I'm Darren Marlar, and I'll see you next time, Weirdos.


Welcome back, welcome back to Think Tech. I'm Jay Fidel. We are joined today by Emily Medina of Eprink. She's in Mexico City, and we're going to talk to her about Joe Biden in Mexico and how they will connect or not. Welcome to the show, Emily. Nice to see your smiling face. Hi, Dave. Great to be here today with Think Tech Hawaii. Always a pleasure. So, you know, I think sometimes people in the US forget that the world watches our media and probably everything that I can get here in Honolulu you can get in Mexico. All the cable channels, all the news, all the programs and all the, you know, all the print press too, and the websites whatnot. And I think we forget that sometimes but that means that you are presumably as well aware of what's going on as we are. And the question then is how you feel about it. So, obviously, we're in crisis, we're in a constitutional crisis. This is always troublesome for a constitutional democracy that people throw aside the Constitution and, you know, undermine the Constitution and what's happening.  If a lot of people including me, we're closer to Mexico now than we were before. Trump has somehow made us closer and more appreciative of Mexico. I want to see Mexico succeed. I want to see a better, closer partnership relationship with Mexico more than ever. So I'm very interested to know how you feel and how the country feels about what is going on in our constitutional crisis. So let's talk about you first. Your reaction. How did you find out about this? When did you find out about it? What was your reaction? What is your reaction now? Well, I mean, we were following the US elections very closely here in Mexico. You know, it lasted a whole week. It's been a lot of suspense and it's been very, very tight and there's no doubt about it.  Yeah. So how do you feel about it? Well, I am optimistic about this new chapter in US-Mexican relations.  So right now, I think you're being very nice about that. I would put it differently. I would say he took every opportunity to beat Mexico up for reasons that were never, ever clear just to make a scapegoat out of Mexico and Mexican people. And the shlugging a wall. Let me digress for a moment and ask you, does this mean maybe we can take the wall down?  Well, you know, on the downside is that right now, the Mexican president has, you know, has toughened his position on migrants. You know, he's increased the presence of militarized police in the border with Central America, as well as in the northern border with the US. So right now, you know, although Trump, you know, will be replaced in the incoming months, we're going to see, you know, how Anla reacts to this change, which will be interesting. Because during Trump's administration, he's, I would say he's had a good relationship with Trump and aligned in many of his policy approaches, including increased, I wouldn't say so much security, but, you know, increased militarized, you know, Was that Amla's own idea or was he just getting pressured by Trump? He was getting pressured by Trump, who threatened to increase in Mexico, you say, Aranceles, but in the US, you would say something like, you know, a taxes on Mexican imports. Yeah. Okay, right. He didn't want to be involved in a one sided trade war, which Trump was doing all through his administration. So, okay, so then, you know, so we don't really know what Amla will do. Maybe maybe he'll linger in favor of whatever Trump was putting pressure on. I hope not. I hope he takes a fresh look at this. But what about the rest of the government? What about the people? I mean, you know, like in France, the mayor of Paris tweeted out to the world, she said, quote, welcome back America, which is very, very touching. What do the people in Mexico think about that? I think people in Mexico want to see a stronger dialogue with the US than what we had in the past, which was a very transactional approach between the Mexican, between Amla, the Mexican president and Trump. You know, so they've had a sort of a transactional relation that I think many in Mexico are right now, you know, looking forward to having back multilateral relation. You know, one of the remarkable things to me, many remarkable things have happened in recent weeks, but one of the remarkable things that says somehow Trump was able to turn the Latinos in this country, many of them who vote for him. This is after he has chased them around in the middle of the night with, you know, with Homeland Security arrests and incarcerations and the dreamers, you know, pull the dreamers program and just one thing after another, where he has discriminated against them and call them rapists and you know, on and on and on, we can spend the whole show just identifying all the things that he has done to, you know, beat up Latinos and yet at the end of the day he was able to get a lot of Latinos to vote for him. Do you understand that you must have thought about it because it is quite remarkable that they would have turned around and voted for somebody who was not serving them at all who is serving against them. What do you think about that? Yes, to be honest, I do not understand it at all. You know, and if you see most of the Latino borders and voting for Trump were based in Florida.  But that is my, you know, my opinion and, you know, to be honest, I don't really understand the, you know, the reason, the true reason behind the Latinos voting for Trump. Yeah, I don't, I don't understand it either. We have a show every couple weeks with Carlos Juarez, who is a Hawaii academic but who spends a lot of time in Mexico and overseas in general. And I asked him the same question, why? And he said, Well, you have to understand that the Latinos, it's not monolithic. There are various groups within Latino and they may feel different. And I suppose your point about the Cubans is very interesting. And one thing it sort of strangely connects is that, is that early in his administration, Trump reversed all the things that Obama had done to reconnect with Cuba. And, you know, it looked like we were going to have a robust and friendly relation with Cuba and so many levels and, you know, welcome back Cuba, if you will. And the Cubans could say welcome back America. But that is all dried up now because Trump has been dumping on Cuba ever since he was elected.  And maybe he does it in order to, you know, have them support him, you know, to assuage them in some way so that they support him over the issue of Cuba. It's very strange and it belies one lesson that I've learned about it. People too often in this country these days in the modern America, they don't see the national interest. They don't see or respect the wishes of their brethren. They only see their own interest, which leads you to a fragmentation. And I wonder, you know, I mean, does this recognize in Mexico the people understand that we are fragmented? Do they understand that we are having arguments about everything? You know, 86% of the people who voted for Trump still today feel that Biden stole the election because there was widespread fraud in voting. Which is no, no substance to that. No evidence of that. And yet 86% of the people who supported Trump feel that way. This is what I would call divisive. But meaninglessly, there's no reason for it. And yet it's divisive. Do people in Mexico understand the process, the troubles we are having and trying to come together? Well, you know, it's interesting because I think it's a global trend that we're seeing, you know, this increased polarization of populations and, you know, division and embedded division, you know. And I think this is largely due to the role that the media plays, you know. But more importantly, the undermining of the media by the own governments.  And so I think this is playing an important role in creating division amongst populations and not only in the US, but also in Mexico. This trend has been increasing under Amla, who in his morning conferences, which he holds every day, he basically discredits the media, who criticize him, and this undermines our democracy and our institutions. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. So he's picking up on where where Trump is showing him the way. And he's not the only one I think it's a lot of, a lot of leaders, especially right wing leaders are following up on that too bad. I hope that when Biden, you know, gets into office, Amla will change his way of doing business as he should. I hope so too. So has Biden, I rather has Amla recognized Biden's election, has Mexico made an international statement that it accepts the results and many countries have, and it really shows you, you know, what side of the coin he's living on, has he. So at this point, Amla has not acknowledged Biden's victory. He is waiting until he sees that, you know, that is all of the legal implications are in place. So for him to actually go and acknowledge the victor of the election. That's troubling. Of course, I think Biden will probably forgive him for he's a forgiving person but you know another another person. But it prevents you know further crop it kind of. It puts us on the wrong foot, you know, what could be a very good next four years in our relation with the US. And because right now, as the Biden's team begins to take place and the transition of power begins. You know, just officials on Biden's team and requested to have a phone conversation with Amla's team and they rejected that call in the side of Mexico, because they haven't acknowledged his victory. This is troublesome and because we are losing time that we could be using to cooperate on health issues, environment issues, energy issues and what have you, and especially on the economic recovery, you know, that we have to take care of after the pandemic.  Well, the cases are still increasing our number of that's right now are about 95,000 and reported debts, although I'm sure the toll is way higher than that. It's estimated to be three times higher than what's reported. So, we're still, you know, under severe stress from this pandemic and we haven't recovered from it one bit. So our people, you know, is there a national initiative about masks and distancing and tracing and tracking and the like. And does require you to wear a face mask in several states, then it's mandatory to to have a face mask and, and this is helping you know, withhold the virus. However, there's a lot of use of public transportation. And, you know, so this, you know increases the risk of people getting COVID and happy. Yeah, sure. Our people out of work, have they lost jobs. And if so, is anybody helping them pay the bills. Yes, there's been a huge job loss here in Mexico. And unfortunately, the government has not provided any help with has not provided any aid and to, you know, to citizens and he they haven't you know provided even for the private sector. So it's kind of each man to its own. Okay, so the, the economy has been hit hard but what about energy. I mean, for example, and this is a question that came in from a viewer in the United States solar stocks started to rise. In fact, all the stocks started to rise when Biden was elected when it, you know, it became, you know, national news. What what hopes do you have for the future of the economy the stock market solar stocks clean energy. Trump is gone and I guess that's a hard question, because he's not really gone yet. But could you talk about how you see the future in the Mexican stock market and its reaction. I'd like to know what its reaction was to Biden's election, and in clean energy of course. Well, right now we're seeing, you know, a big push in the energy transition. And I think this is going I mean, right now, there's a lot of pressure in the oil market, because of the collapse and oil prices that we saw earlier in the year. So the oil industry is really, and going through, you know, difficult times. However, and I don't think that we're going to see a shift and immediate shift, you know, from oil to renewables as soon as Biden takes office it's going to be a gradual transition. I think I mean, I mean, Biden has been very clear in his environmental and energy agenda, and he's basically pushing for investments of $2 trillion in building clean technologies and energy infrastructure. But it's going to take time. I don't think we're going to see, you know, an immediate shift, especially because a lot will depend on who holds the Senate majority in terms of how spending gets done. So what about Mexico itself? Is Mexico supporting that both the government and the people supporting solar? Is solar growing? Was it growing in 2019? Is it growing now? And in Hawaii we have a very robust solar market, believe it or not, even during COVID. How about Mexico? Well, Mexico is one of the 10 countries globally with the highest potential in renewable energy. However, this government is not in favor of renewable energy. Clearly, they said, you know, that they think that renewable energy, to put it in, Sophie's lies why he said renewable energy is, which is basically saying that it's a myth that, you know, renewable energy is not as great as, you know, people say it is. So, you know, he discredits renewable energy and he's undermined investment in further building renewable energy projects because right now a lot of our main energy regulator, Comisión Reguladora de Energía, is basically in court with several energy companies because they've suspended a lot of renewable energy projects. On what basis? On the basis that it caused unreliability on the grid, which there's no evidence for that. What is it with him? Is he opposed to, does he not believe in climate change? Does he not care about carbon emissions and greenhouse gases? Does he not think that Mexico has an obligation, as all countries do, to deal with climate change? What's his thought process? I think he is more interested in his political agenda than on any climate agenda. Because, you know, Mexico's identity is very, is linked to our oil sector in many ways.  So basically, Amlo right now wants to capitalize on Pemex, on CFE, both state owned oil and energy enterprises. And because, you know, there are national symbols. So this is very popular in his, in terms of, you know, I'm getting, you know, political support from voters who, you know, are workers in Pemex and CFE or who, you know, just have a very strong national identity. Well, what about the other voters? I'm wondering if you have a constituency in Mexico that believes in climate change, that wants to do something about climate change, that cares about renewable and clean energy and so forth, that votes the other way, that voted against him, and that would, you know, try to support and promote an expansion of clean energy. So do those groups exist? Are they in the newspapers also? Do they vote against him? Do they have, what do you call it, rallies and events to demonstrate their feelings on the matter? Well, actually, you know, we have several NGOs in Mexico who are working to, you know, combat these issues in the court, and they've already been successful. We had our judicial system, you know, has in many ways stopped a lot of the proposals that were, you know, sent to the courts in terms of suspending renewable energy projects. You know, actually, what's called the Environmental Organization Greenpeace, of course, everybody knows Greenpeace. So they actually were successful on suspending this issue and the courts. And, you know, we do have, you know, a strong presence of NGOs in the country and also the private sector is pretty much involved in this issue because it matters to their investments. And, you know, so the international community, I think, should put more pressure on Mexico to actually meet its objectives under the Paris Agreement. Is Mexico a party to the Conference of the Parties, the Paris Agreement? Yes, Mexico is a party to that agreement. However, I think we're going to be sure to meet our first target, which is to increase our share of renewable energy to 35% by 2024. Right now we're at about 18%, I believe. So we're, I think, going to be sure to meeting that goal. And especially because this administration has, you know, put so many obstacles in the implementation of a lot of renewable energy projects and interconnection of transmission lines that are important to be able to bring that renewable energy capacity up to the grid. So when does Amlos turn up? And do you think he will win again next time? So he still has four more years to go here in Mexico elections or presidential terms last six years. He still has four more years to go. And, you know, hopefully with, you know, the change in administrations in the US, we are going to see a change in messaging coming from the Mexican president in terms of his approach towards the environment and towards many different issues including, you know, security issues and all across the border. Yeah, sure. Well, we only have a couple of minutes left, Emily, and I want to ask you my two last questions here. Okay, so what is your advice to Joe Biden about dealing with Mexico?  Knockwood, what is your advice to him about how to deal with Mexico, how to realize, you know, our destiny with Mexico? Wow, that's a good question. Well, I think my suggestion to Biden would be to be very patient with Mexico, especially with, you know, the government and his views do not reflect the views of all Mexicans. And so my suggestion would be to be very patient and to actually to increase cooperation in all different areas and increase dialogue with Mexico to be able to face some of the biggest challenges that we have today including the COVID pandemic and climate change issues. And then flipping it to the dark side, what's your advice to Trump? What advice would you give him at this time when the Constitution of the United States is under such broad-based attack? Wow, and can you repeat that question?  And your advice? Well, my advice would be in terms of how he faces this and legal battles would be to just and, you know, to listen to the institutions and respect the institutions and rule of law. There you go. Thank you, Emily. Emily Medina, our good friend in Mexico. It is so nice to talk to you and I so enjoy our conversations. All the best to you, Emily. Thank you, Jay. Always a pleasure. Aloha and vaya candios. Aloha.


I know in the U.S. there's a major problem with discrimination and prejudice and racism. Everybody understands that. When I came to the U.K., I thought it would be completely different. I listened to it for a while. They were just really being hard on him and I just got annoyed with it and I turned around and I said something to them. My name is Princess Bekford and I'm a proud Cherries fan. I started following AFC Bournemouth about 10, 12 years ago living in the United States. Their games would come on television and I would wake up early in the morning and just turn the TV on and the games were on. Quite a lot of the sports would come on television but I really enjoyed watching Bournemouth so that's how it started. I didn't have a clue where Bournemouth was located so I looked on the map and saw that it was near the seaside and just got even more fascinated with the team and I got the opportunity to move to the U.K. and decided to settle in Bournemouth. I come to as many games as I can and it's just completely different. On television, you see what they want you to see, what they show you. When I come to the matches, I get to see everything. You feel just the emotion and the passion. In terms of abuse in the stands, I was really quite surprised. One of the first matches I went to, I was the only person of color in the stand. I think Bournemouth was playing Birmingham and I could not believe there was a Bournemouth player that was being abused by the set of supporters where I was sitting and I was absolutely shocked. I got so angry, I didn't care and I said something to them and they stopped. I think even if it's not aimed at you and you hear language, it's really incumbent on every one of us to say something. I think there need to be more allies in the stadium and whether it's race or gender or religion or ability if you hear something that you think is offensive, it really is down to every one of us to address it, to say something. And maybe everybody's not as assertive or as outspoken as I am. Say something to someone. There are phone numbers in the bathroom. There are phone numbers around the stadiums. There are support lines everywhere where people can really be an ally and support because I look at Bournemouth as a community and I think everyone has a responsibility to speak up when they hear something that's offensive to any of the supporters, any of the players or any of the staff.


Alright Bolo buddies, can you guess what is inside of this tube? So this is the middle of my bubble wrap. It's a bubble wrap tube and these are great for shipping This one is really thick and sturdy and great for protecting items during shipment I sold this on what not if you're not following me on what not there is a referral link down below You will get $15 to shop. I'm Bolo buddies over there and I sell a little bit of everything I'm having a jewelry show today. This is a vintage Barbie Actually, it's a clone not a Barbie. It's a clone and This will protect it during shipment. So keep those rolls From your bubble wrap and use them to ship. Thanks for watching


What is going on guys welcome back to the channel critical over here sure and talk about a few different topics in this video here today We'll be talking about screen six. We'll be talking about insidious five We'll be talking about pretty little irish summer school Which has begun filming and we'll be talking about saw X and just speculating a little bit on the potential Release they change is just kick it off with insidious five insidious the red door We know that this film is gonna be set 10 years after the events of the first two classic insidious movies And it will be revolving around the Lambert's once again Josh Lambert will be heading east to drop his son Dalton off at school However Dalton's college dream soon becomes a living nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both Now the reason I want to talk about insidious five is because I want to go over some rumors that have been shared with me According to what was shown in an alleged rough cut of the upcoming trailer for the movie Which could tie into the story beats for the upcoming film now If you don't want any potential knowledge of what could happen in the film Then I guess you can click away and come back after maybe a minute or two Well, maybe 30 seconds, but you've been warned diving in insidious five in this rough cut of this trailer apparently is going to show us Dalton obviously arriving at college It's gonna show us Lorraine's funeral because we know Josh's mother has passed and it'll show us Dalton while at college having nightmares and drawing the lipstick face demon once again like he did in the original movie Now my thing is I'm curious what it is going what is going to happen at campus or on campus at University? That prompts Dalton to start having these nightmares again Or was he having them prior to even returning or prior to not returning but going to college? And he just was not telling anyone because he was trying to figure out a way to fight off these demons alone And of course now that you're at university is just gonna get worse He's probably throwing drugs into the mix while in while in his fraternity life So we'll see what happens with all of that But yes the lipstick face demon will indeed return according to this alleged rough cut of the trailer Jumping into the next topic here today. I'm gonna be talking about scream six So screen six is box office is almost going to beat the original film domestically Which would make it the first sequel to accomplish this if I'm not mistaken because the original scream just holds currently the highest domestic box office run and Scream six is Very close to beating it. It's at a hundred and one million I think it's also the third entry to join the 100 million crowd Because the first screen did it the second screen did it and now screen six has done it None of the others have done that so again this movie continues to break box office records and make history All it needs to do is cross a hundred three million domestically Which it again is well on its way to doing and it'll be the highest grossing screen movie domestically beating out the original and again I will say this is very satisfying. It's very Just it just it makes me smile ear to ear because radio silence went through so much Unwanted backlash over stuff. They had no control over People sending them weird messages Tagging them in weird Twitter posts and then you have the cast and the other crew members like Melissa Barreira Who again while I know this stuff wasn't the majority of us dealing with that at all over stuff You don't have any control over it's ridiculous and then only to turn around after all of this negativity Surrounding a movie that most people were excited about you're breaking records. You're out doing the original almost You're joining you're joining the 100 million crowd like the first two movies Which none of the other sequels have done and you're just continuing to be booked and busy And it's just bittersweet and I cannot wait to see what Melissa Barreira has to offer us in scream seven because I'm confident She will be back and what let me know if you guys think that scream six will indeed pass the original Domestically at the box office because I think it will it really only needs two or three more million It literally only needs well one more million and some change actually and it'll be the highest grossing film domestically But jumping into pretty little liars summer school pretty little liars summer school Which we know is basically pretty liars original since season two. It has begun filming Bailey Madison shared some images over on her social media to acknowledge the one week of filming that has wrapped already and I did want to talk about a rumor regarding this upcoming season now It is expected to include a sequence that has Bailey Madison's character I forgot her name Imogen Imogen the character of Imogen who we know had a baby at the end of the first season She is going to be giving up her child to Oregon Ezra we found this out at the end of season one so in Season two there's now a rumor that Lucy Hale will appear and she will collect the child or might be just appearing to Either adopt the child or she might have already adopted the child and now she's coming in to let the child Visit their birth mother, which we know again is Imogen, but we'll see if any of that is true I do not mind seeing the character of Arya once more, but I would much rather them not try to Bleed any storylines that the original show failed to actually Finish into this. I hope this doesn't like just open the door for them to start finishing plot threads from the original show I just hope well if Arya comes in it's a one-and-done or if it's not a one-and-done She continues to just solely focus on the issues of original sin Don't try to correlate any of what's happening in original sin to anything that has to do with CC Drake Allison DeLaurentis or any of the other liars or Arya for Arya's past struggles with with a either she can come in To give tips, but I don't want to see any unresolved plot threads from that show Tying in and taking up time in your in original sin. Let original sin be its own entity But the last thing I want to talk about was Saw X so saw X we know is going to come out on the same date now as The Five Nights at Freddy movies, so they're both coming out on October 27th And there's already been this concern about all five nights at Freddy's is going to beat saw X at the box office So will saw X move I will say this I do not see saw X moving only because of the fact that they have already had the October 27th date locked in For for a while much longer than when we of course found out about Five Nights at Freddy's However, I do get the idea that maybe they want this to be the relaunch of the series And if they are tempted and if they see them or if they see this spot Just not being a good way to secure a successful return then of course they could move I just don't I don't see it happening I think what they'll do is go off of the fact that this is again one of one of those low budget entries Like most of them are and they won't see the desire to try to kind of panic about this The movie will be a financial success one way or another especially after the marketing ramps up And you're hyping up the return of Tobin Bale You're getting that bad taste of Spyro out of everyone's mouth because I do recognize that it seems that most fans Were not pleased with Spyro. Although I am a fan of Spyro. I do think it is one of the better entries I can understand why some people don't like it, but they are not going to change this I don't see them changing it you if you think they're gonna change it Let me know what date you see them changing it to because October is the perfect time for Both movies to thrive. I just think Five Nights at Freddy's has an advantage Let me know just think about all this down the conversation below if you haven't already course Make sure you subscribe turn on post notification in this video in the description. I'll have links on social media accounts I'm on Facebook Twitter and Instagram you can message me there Of course, let me know is any movies news or reviews you like me to cover in the future and with all that in mind guys I will see you in the next video


10 St. Mungo. The next day at sunrise the American coast had disappeared. Not a ship was visible on the horizon, and the dolphin, moderating the frightful rapidity of her speed, made quietly towards the Bermudas. It is useless to recount the passage across the Atlantic, which was marked by no accidents, and ten days after the departure from Queenstown the French coast was hailed. What pass between the captain and the young girl may be imagined, even by the least-observant individuals. How could Mr. Hallebert acknowledge the devotion and courage of his deliverer, if it was not by making him the happiest of men? James Playfair did not wait for English seas to declare to the father and daughter the sentiments which overflowed his heart. And, if Croxton is to be believed, Miss Jenny received his confession with the happiness she did not try to conceal. Thus it happened that on the 14th of February a numerous crowd was collected in the dim aisles of St. Mungo, the old cathedral of Glasgow. There were seamen, merchants, manufacturers, magistrates, and some of every denomination gathered here. There was Miss Jenny in bridal array, and beside her the worthy Croxton resplunded in apple-green clothes with gold buttons, whilst Uncle Vincent stood proudly by his nephew. In short, they were celebrating the marriage of James Playfair of the firm of Vincent Playfair and Company of Glasgow, with Miss Jenny Hallebert of Boston. The ceremony was accomplished amidst great pomp. Everyone knew the history of the dolphin, and everyone thought the young captain well recompense for his devotion. He alone said that his reward was greater than he deserved. In the evening there was a grand ball in banquet at Uncle Vincent's house, with a large distribution of shillings to the crowd collected in Gordon Street. Croxton did ample justice to this memorable feast, while keeping himself perfectly within bounds. Everyone was happy at this wedding, some at their own happiness, and others at the happiness around them, which is not always the case at ceremonies of this kind. Late in the evening, when the guests had retired, James Playfair took his uncle's hand. "'Well, Uncle Vincent,' said he to him. "'Well, nephew James. Are you pleased with the charming cargo I brought you on board the dolphin?' continued Captain Playfair, showing him his brave young wife. "'I am quite satisfied,' replied the worthy merchant. "'I have sold my cotton at three hundred and seventy-five percent, profit.' End of chapter. End of the book. Thank you for listening.'


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Hello, and welcome to the session. In this session, we'll discuss a question which says that the area of the triangle with what it says 6 minus 3, 3k, and minus 7, 7, is 15 square units. Find the value of k. Now, before starting the solution of this question, we should know what is out. And that is, in a triangle A, B, C with A, X1, Y1, B, X2, Y2, and C, X3, Y3, the area of the triangle A, B, C is given by the formula which is 1, Y2 into X1 into Y2 minus Y3, the whole plus X2 into Y3 minus Y1 the whole plus X3 into Y1 minus Y2 the whole. Now, this result will work out as a key idea for solving out this question. Now, we will start with the solution. Given the vertices of the triangle 6 minus 3, 3k minus 7, 7. Also, the area of the triangle is equal to 15 square units. Now, let 6 minus 3 as X1, Y1, 3k as X2, Y2, and minus 7, 7 as X3, Y3. Now, using this formula which is given in the key idea, here the triangle will be equal to 1 by 2 into into k minus 7 the whole plus 3 into 7 minus of minus 3 the whole plus into minus 3 minus k the whole which is further equal to 1 by 2 into on solving this we get 6 square minus 42 plus 21 plus 9 plus 21 plus 7 the whole which is further equal to 1 by 2 into and on solving this we get 13k plus 9 the whole. Therefore, the triangle is equal to 1 by 2 into 13k plus 9 the whole. Now, we have the area of the triangle as 15 square units. So, putting this value here this implies 15 is equal to 1 by 2 into 13k plus 9 the whole which further implies 30 is equal to 13k plus 9. Which implies 30 minus 9 is equal to 13k which implies 21 is equal to 13k which further implies 13k is equal to 21 and which gives k is equal to 21 by 13. So, the value of k is equal to 21 by 13. So, this is the solution of the given question and that's all for this session. Hope you all have enjoyed the session.