Welcome to 2022 (and I'm in COVID Quarantine)

The following is a prerecorded program. 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Hey friends, this is Michael Brown. I am delighted to be with you, but I am not in studio today. In fact, none of us are in studio today. Our team is all out with COVID, if you can believe it, all in different places, all contracting at different times over the break, but we are amending and by God's grace, we'll be back in studio. But I'm going to be coming away live the rest of this week. However, for those watching, it's going to be different because it'll be audio only because we're not in studio, which obviously you understand why we're not there. For those listening on radio and for those listening on podcasts, everything should sound just the same, but here's what's really interesting.

And then I'll tell you about my condition, give you some reflections on the new year and a bunch of other things. We'll have a good edifying, interesting broadcast today, but we were really excited about launching some brand new things starting the first of this year. I'm talking about new music at the beginning of the show, a new intro, and a brand new studio.

Well, the studio is brand new. I specifically have not seen it yet because the plan was for me to be out of the office until the team finished putting everything together so I could walk in. I've seen the layout of it, but not physically, just seeing it on computer.

Now I was going to physically see it. Well, I haven't been back in to see it because I came down with COVID over the break right around Christmas time. So the new launch, we're going to save the new music, the new intro for when we have the new studio. So now you get to wonder, well, what music is it going to be? And how's the intro going to be? And you get a little different intro. Yeah, so you've got something to look forward to.

And then the new look on the studio. Now, if you've been following me on social media over the break, you'd say, Dr. Brown, I didn't see you post anything about having COVID. The reason I didn't do it was because overall, it's a mild case. I know I've had it now what a week and a day roughly, and it kind of drags on. So some days I spent a good part of the day just sleeping and no motivation at all, just watching sports and chilling, very little writing.

So the thing was draining. Body ache some days, especially the first few days, and a mild fever a few days. But overall, it's a mild case. Now, I don't know if it's just the particular strain that I got hit with.

Nancy got hit as well the same time. I don't know if we got it from the same person or if I brought it home and gave it to both of us or somewhere else we got it. We don't know.

We simply don't know. But even though it drags on and it's a bummer and all of that, really, it's been relatively minor. And because of that, I just didn't think it was necessary to post something. Now, if I'd had some real need, if there was some crisis, you know, we've been requesting prayer for a close friend for many years just in his 50s that needs a miracle. Battling COVID really needs a miracle. So we posted prayer requests for that. And Nancy gave some updates just about her own condition.

But I know you're so devoted and you're so prayerful and you're so concerned that if I posted something, it just would draw unnecessary attention. So thankfully, continue to get better. And some interesting things, though, I just want to talk about.

A bunch of things I want to talk about in terms of 2021, 2022, some spiritual insights, some thoughts. But since I'm telling you about COVID, let me just mention some things that are really interesting. The first is that this is different than another sickness that you get. Now, I've had bad colds that in terms of symptoms were much worse than this.

I mean, much more uncomfortable, much more miserable to deal with, had me in a state of real misery. And then a few times I've had the flu badly back in 1985. So I was just about 28, 29 years old. Out of the blue, I get a really bad fever. My temperature spikes as high as 105.

I'm teaching one day, ready to collapse the next day. And then finally after a week, taken to the hospital with double pneumonia. And no one can understand how someone my age and healthy, 28, 29 years old, would get pneumonia. And it turns out that I had viral and bacterial at the same time. It was really a demonic attack. I go into details about it, but this particular case I know was a demonic attack. I remember when something happened to me demonically in terms of an attack and then it was the next day out of the blue, I woke up really sick. So being sick then, or when I got chicken pox at the age of 37. And the older you get, the worse it can be. That was miserable.

I remember feeling just absolutely miserable. So in terms of the symptoms here, it didn't compare. Like I said, a really bad cold has been worse than this. And bad flu, the few times I've had it, was worse in terms of symptoms. But the strange thing with COVID is because we know people had died of it, even they seem to be doing okay and then they got really sick and they died. And you just hear so much about it that there's this fear thing in the air. And many of you that had COVID, of course the vast, vast, vast, vast majority recovered.

But what is it, 99% recovered, especially with younger people. But what's really interesting is I guess it was the second night and I woke up from a nap. It took, like I said, a whole lot of naps during these days. But I woke up from a nap and I don't know what happened, but for a split second I felt like I couldn't breathe. And this wave of fear hit me.

This is it. This is when it happens. Next thing they rush you to the hospital.

Next thing you die in the hospital. It's like, where in the world did I come from? And I'm not, I think you know me well enough to know I'm not a fearful type of person.

In fact, sometimes I can be so confident, so full of faith, so optimistic that I have to be sure that I'm being realistic. But I thought that is really, really bizarre. But the COVID thing messes with you.

Again, it was just a split second passing. And in point of fact, my oxygen level's been high the whole time. I've had very, very little cough, really no breathing issues at all the entire time. But that I felt really, really interesting and certainly many others, especially people that are alone or those that are not a good health and maybe weak, elderly.

Boy, this thing's really got to mess with people. The other thing that struck me is that I'm used to enjoying vibrant health. You know, I'm on no medication in terms of as lifestyle.

I don't need any meds. I don't get sick hardly ever, ever, ever. Maybe just slightly run down with a cold.

And even then it's really, really minor. I mean, a fraction of the way I used to get colds. So I'm just not used to getting sick.

So the fact this has gone on eight days, I mean, that's a drag and that feels very bizarre because I'm not used to being sick. But my heart really started to break for people that struggle. Some of you, you're in constant pain and you're just worn out and chronic fatigue or something else debilitating or something ravaging your body. May the Lord's grace be yours.

Boy, it's so hard to live like that, so difficult to live like that. Some of you are champions just to get out of bed in the morning. Some of you are champions just to smile at your kids or to get through the day and to not constantly talk about yourself and your pain. May the Lord reward you. May the Lord strengthen you. Just another reminder, though, that sickness in itself is such a bad thing, such a destructive, such a negative thing, that healing and health are such good things. It can be such a blessing.

Those of you that had COVID, some more severe than others, but it seems to be a pretty common denominator in terms of the drain, if you get it seriously at all, unless you're asymptomatic. I'm used to being so motivated. I'm used to every day, push, push, push, write another article, work on another book, put out another podcast. I'm just driven in that holy good sense. These days, like, all right, what do I feel like doing now? I think I'll watch some more football.

I didn't even have a lot of motivation to read. That, too, got me thinking of how grateful to God I am for health and strength and vitality. Excuse me. I do not take it for granted. I do not in any way take it for granted. I'm profoundly grateful. Last thing about COVID, and by the way, this is the most I've really seriously used my voice over these days.

I haven't used it at all except for chatting with Nancy or a couple of the conversations for eight days. I just feel that the slightest bit, but all good. I'm not straining. I'm not pushing. I'm not trying myself out. Fear not. I am taking very good care of myself.

Here's what's interesting. My doctor, Dr. Mark Stangler, of course, you know now from the broadcast, he had prescribed for us ivermectin early on just to say, hey, get a prescription, get it filled, and then if you get COVID, you'll immediately have this. Then, of course, on a daily basis, I take his immune wellness supplement and in recent months, the quercetin supplement that he really, really recommends. When I went to get the prescription filled some weeks back, to my shock and to his shock, North Carolina pharmacies by law cannot fill the prescription of a naturopathic doctor. I mean, Dr. Stangler has been rated doctor of the decade by the Association of Professionals. Doctor of the decade, highly respected in his field, and yet his prescription couldn't get it filled in North Carolina by law. We had it written by one of his colleagues in his clinic, who is a traditional doctor, and the problem is that your normal pharmacies, your CVS or your Walgreens, wherever you get your prescriptions filled, they're no longer filling prescriptions for ivermectin, even though it's been used for years. Even though I read government studies recommending it even for COVID, couldn't get that filled at a regular pharmacy, so I had to go to what's called a compounding pharmacy, which I'd never even heard of. They're more like specialty pharmacies, and that's where I could get the prescription from his colleague filled. That's an odd thing, and Dr. Stangler finds that very concerning, that here you have highly qualified doctors recommending ivermectin, and yet pharmacies won't fulfill them. That's a concern, a little of the naturopathic issue.

So he had us up our corsage into four a day, immune wellness to six a day instead of two a day, and in any case, thank God, we're getting better. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us today on the Line of Fire. Again, we are audio only, but they've been listening on our great radio stations and podcasts, everything always the same there. And if you're just tuning in, I am in COVID quarantine, as are my two producers, Chris and Kai. Don't know where everybody picked up COVID. I've been out of the office for some days. This was, in fact, the end of the year, starting on the 17th, was supposed to be a designated vacation time. And our administrator insisted, she said, Mike, you must take some vacation this year because it just doesn't dawn on me to do it. And Nancy and I had good family time with family coming in and things like that. It wasn't a major agenda to get vacation.

She said, Mike, you got to take vacation time. So I thought, okay, we're in the process of completely revamping our physical studio, which God willing, as soon as we're all back, you'll get to see. And I haven't seen it in person yet. That was the deal that the guys would work on it in my absence. And then I'd come in when it was ready.

So I've seen the mock-up of it, but not the actual studio. And it's going to enable us, not just have a nice cool new look, but if I have a guest in studio with me, we've now got the lighting and camera where they'll be able to be on camera as well and us interacting in that way rather than just seeing the picture of someone in studio with me. So that's going to be a great improvement for the times we do that. And we've got brand new music to unveil for you, opening up the show, a new intro and things. So the plan was that I'd be out the last two weeks. So we prerecorded a number of shows.

We put together some other special shows for you. It was pseudo-vacation because I was writing like crazy. I was home really getting into my Isaiah commentary and writing that, enjoying it, writing articles and things. And then right around Christmas, I guess maybe day after Christmas or so, Nancy and I just got hit with COVID. And it was a couple of days in where Nancy's fever got a little higher. And then suddenly, she shot me a note because we were in different rooms. She shot me a note and said, hey, I feel like a thousand percent better. And this is before she had taken any medicine or anything like that.

So somehow right at the beginning, she kind of sweat some things out. And I kind of dragged on in different ways, but never had the fever that she had on the same level. But the thing that struck me in all of this, as I talked about some of the COVID related issues and some of the thoughts I've had during this time, knowing that this has been deadly for so many, knowing that so many of you have suffered long haul symptoms, so many of you had it, and it was brutal. And again, I don't know if we just got a mild strain. I don't know if there's something of healthy lifestyle as you know, I'm not talking about a healthy lifestyle.

I'm talking about, say myself, I'm eating over three pounds of vegetables, greens, beans, every single day, plus fruit and then nothing unhealthy. So I mean, it's been a very rigorous lifestyle all these years and it's paid incredible benefits. Is that some of the reason it's been mild?

Because of a strong immune system? Did the protocol that Dr. Stangler had us go on and that I've watched carefully in terms of observing, does it make a difference? Can we tell? I don't know.

I don't know. But I'll tell you this, I'm even more committed to maintaining this lifestyle by God's grace the rest of my days, knowing for sure that I used to get much sicker. In the past, when I ate unhealthily friends, I'd get cold so often and those colds, man, they were miserable. And then headaches three, four times a week and just other fatigue and stuff like that. So I was looking through some journal entries when I was in my 40s and to the best that I can compare how I feel today, I don't mean today, the eighth day of COVID, still somewhat weak. But honestly, as best as I can tell, looking back at those journal entries and going from there until knowing how I felt these last seven and a half years with this lifestyle change, as far as I can surmise, I feel better now at the age of 66 than I felt in my early 40s.

Better consistently, more energy, more vitality, no bodily pain, no back pain, no headache, no other issues like that. And it's the result of healthy eating, friends. So here, like I said, I had very little motivation to do anything most of these days and watched just a lot of sports. So as I'm watching sports, I'm seeing these food commercials. They're like Pizza Hut commercials. And then after they show the pizza, then whatever the pastries they are. It's got to be really brutally unhealthy.

You know what I'm saying? As someone that was a pizza-holic for decades, someone that ate more pizza than most human beings you'll ever find on the planet. I mean, I was really into a lot of pizza and a lot of chocolate.

I was a chocoholic. And I look at that stuff and most of it is so destructive. I'm thinking, okay, people are free to eat what they want to eat. There's no law against it.

And it's not to say that you can't splurge every so often or on a special occasion eat something that's not entirely healthy. But that's not the issue here. I mean, the issue is, I'm sorry, I know it's the New Year. You're like, oh, come on, man. You're hitting us with all this. Well, yeah, it is. It's a great time to.

It's New Year's, right? New Year's resolutions. Get Breaking the Stronghold of Food. If you don't have the book yet, it came out a couple years ago, where Nance and I tell our story of life transformation. Now's a great time to get the book. Absolutely. Buy it.

Buy copies for everybody you know. Put it into practice and you'll be blessed. I am 100% sure you put into practice what you read there and you'll be blessed as you do it.

But I'm looking at this stuff thinking, what are we doing? I mean, it's on average, when you look at the number one cause of death in America, for many years, it's been heart disease, right? And the vast, vast majority of instances of heart disease didn't have to be there. The vast majority would not have been there with a different lifestyle. I'm not saying 100%. The last thing I'm doing is criticizing someone that died of a heart attack.

What did you do to yourself? No, quite the contrary. I'm urging us and saying, you know, it makes sense to invest in healthy living. It makes sense to invest in healthy eating.

The benefits are just, they're so worth it. And then the other thing is once you get into it, it becomes a lifestyle and you don't feel deprived. In fact, you feel bad for others who are struggling with their weight, struggling with depression over food and struggling with obesity and struggling with health related issues.

And you almost feel guilty because you feel so good. So I want to encourage you, don't be a slave to food. I know it's hard. People say, well, Dr. Brown, you are just so amazingly disciplined. Then why did it take me 59 years to get it right?

Okay. Yes, by God's grace, I'm disciplined in certain ways. And yes, by God's grace, the Lord's helped me in certain ways where I make a break with something for life and that's it. But come on, let's be realistic. How disciplined was I being a chocoholic for all of my adult life?

All of it with rare, rare acceptance. How disciplined was I getting as high as 275 pounds, even though I'm almost six foot three? My ideal weight, maybe with a little muscle tone, maybe around 185. Okay. I was 90 or 95 pounds overweight at the highest.

How disciplined was I? You say, well, that doesn't give me much hope. No, it should give you a lot of hope because if God could help me, a lifelong unhealthy eater, He can help anybody.

He really can. And one thing I encourage you to do with the Lord is just be totally honest. Lord, I'm a food addict. Lord, I'm a slave to this kind of food or that kind of food. Lord, I can't imagine living without it. Lord, the way I feel right now, I'd rather die young than not enjoy my foods.

Isn't that terrible? Just be honest. God knows anyway. Rather than make excuses, be realistic and then start there. Let God's strength come out of your weakness. Now, I also want to encourage you to supplement healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle. So exercising as you're able, et cetera, but to supplement that with good health supplements, but don't mistake the supplement for healthy eating. In other words, if I was taking Dr. Stengler's health supplements, which I do every day, as a supreme multivitamins, and then immune wellness, and a few other things that I take daily that Dr. Stengler highly recommends. If I was eating the way I was eating in the past, I don't think these supplements would make much difference at all because I'd be undoing them every single day with my unhealthy lifestyle.

Or whatever good they did would be negligible. But if you're seeking to change your diet, you're seeking to eat in a healthy way, by all means, take advantage of these. Go to vitaminmission.com. You may remember Dr. Stengler is our one and only sponsor. That means that we promote his wellness supplements and every order that comes in, you get a 10% discount simply because Dr. Stengler is partnering with us. And then Dr. Stengler in turn makes a donation to our ministry with each and every purchase.

So take advantage of that. Vitaminmission.com. Supreme multivitamins I take. Immune wellness I take. Quercetin, he's highly recommending.

Vitamin D. A couple other things. Check it out. I think you'll be blessed as you do.

Vitaminmission.com. We'll be right back. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us today on the Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown together with my team. We are in COVID quarantine. I'm a little bit ahead of the producers, Kai and Chris, who got sick after I did.

But by God's grace, everybody mending, getting strong. And as I said at the outset of the broadcast, I didn't post anything on social media when I came down. It was the day after Christmas. First didn't know it was COVID initially, then once tested positive.

It's been minor overall. It's dragging on the eighth day now and still really tired and things like that. But as I said, I had bad colds years ago that were far worse than this. When I had really bad flu or some other things, or double pneumonia when I was a young man in my late 20s. That was far, far worse in terms of suffering and stuff like this. I know the moment people hear COVID, they get all concerned and pray.

I thought, there are other people that really need prayer now. I'm just resting and recovering. We took this very seriously from day one. I've taken my health super seriously for years now. We had things in place in case any issue came up. All good and God willing, I'll be back 100% normal next few days, but still quarantine out of the studio, so we'll be audio only. Then our young man, Kai and Chris in their 20s, vibrant, healthy.

They'll bounce back, God willing, very, very quickly. We'll be, hopefully next week, unveiling our new studio, our new intro and intro music that we are really, really excited about. I ended up talking a whole lot more about COVID health and all that than I planned to, but so be it. I hope what I shared is of some help and encouragement to you. I have a new article up.

You can find it on stream.org. You can find it on askdr.brown.org. The article has this title, 2022, the year to take back ground. 2022, the year to take back ground. I didn't write the article as a prediction. I'm not saying the Lord showed me this is what's going to happen, and I'm prophesying.

If I felt that was the case, if I felt the Lord showed me and prayed about it and shared it with others and it was confirmed, then I would tell you that. This is not meant as a prophecy. It's meant as a proclamation. In other words, I'm issuing a challenge and encouraging a faith-filled mindset. Let 2022 be a year of taking back ground. It could be spiritually.

It could be morally, culturally. They intersect. Here, you go through political cycles. Right now, the Republicans are looking to take back the House of Representatives and take back the Senate. They're looking to take back the presidency. Maybe in sports, you lose this agonizing game and you turn it around for good.

It motivates you to do even better and you end up better than you were before the loss. It's a mindset. I believe that we are poised for this right now because the radical left always overplays its hand. I expect more and more pushback. Take transgender activism as an example. Most Americans want to be compassionate to someone that struggles. When the majority of Americans said they have no problem with two men or two women marrying, etc., there's a gross misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of marriage.

There's a gross misunderstanding of what happens when you redefine marriage. Most Americans don't want to be discriminatory, don't want to be bigoted. They want to live and let live, by and large. When push comes to shove, people are going to do all kinds of crazy things. Most Americans, because they've got a gay friend or gay relative, etc., they say, hey, look, live and let live.

I know some of you religious people have an issue with it, but live and let live. That was the attitude, but most Americans didn't realize what they were signing on for. This is what I and many others have been warning about for many years now. There's a trajectory.

You open the door to this and you're going to get a whole lot of other things you did not plan on, you did not ask for. Friends, the reality here is that things have gone to such extremes. Take the state of Virginia, the elections in November of last year. That's an example of taking back ground. Some claim, well, there were a lot of white supremacists. They spoke against CRT, but they just don't want slavery taught in the schools. I'm sure there's some that were like that, but the vast majority, from what I can tell, these are the same people that voted in the first Hispanic and the first black into attorney general position and lieutenant governor position.

If they were such terrible white supremacists, why did they vote for these people of color, both with first statewide offices in these minorities? In point of fact, when interviews were being done, a lot of the parents were just very upset about the radical nature of what we've done in the schools. A lot of it came down to transgender activism. Then the report that Loudoun County School Board covered up a rape. A boy claimed to be a girl, went to the girls' room and raped a teenage girl. When the father brought it up at a school board meeting, and the school board denied any knowledge of any rape or occurring or anything like that, the guy went completely ballistic. Obviously, he had to be restrained and he went too far. When people didn't believe him, you could understand. I'm not justifying behavior, but you could understand. His daughter got raped, and the guy ends up getting convicted for rape. The school board denied it at the meeting.

The reasons they gave subsequent interviews were that they were very, very incredibly weak. Parents just said, enough is enough, and there's a pushback taking place. I'm expecting to see a lot of it personally in 2022. In fact, God willing, it's something I plan to do to keep a running tab with my team of instances of pushing back, instances of taking ground. It could be some radical activist for some destructive cause, maybe some Satanist getting radically born again. That would fit on the list. It could be some old Planned Parenthood having to shut down.

That would make it on the list. In point of fact, one way or another, I am expecting to see a lot of pushback this year. Now, it doesn't mean that things won't go in the other direction as well. Every year is going to be mixed, right? As a nation, you're going to have a lot of good, a lot of bad, and the world's always going to be messed up.

Until Jesus returns, you're going to have sin and suffering and pain. But there are some seasons, like if you look at the sixties, there was a massive shift primarily in a negative direction as far as the culture. Not in terms of civil rights and things like that, and even certain aspects of women's rights, but in so many other ways, it was a negative shift in the culture. The sexual revolution, the counterculture revolution, all those things. We continue to reap that bad fruit, but the pushback continues. The pushback we've been talking about for years continues.

Let me just give you an example of something that's in my article that just came out today, 2022, the year to take back ground. Do you remember the name Morgan Wallin? I'm not a country music fan, never been a country music fan, but he apparently was a big, hot star. One night comes home drunk and talking to a friend, starts ranting and uses the N-word. Some neighbor films it, posts the thing publicly, so he's mortified coming home drunk. He's grieved over that, mortified at his use of the N-word, does not have a history where he's been known as racist or bigoted, no accusations of that that I'm aware of in his past. He humbles himself. He deeply apologizes on every level. He donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to black-related causes. He cancels his concert tour. He checks himself in for rehab.

You're talking about someone saying, hey, I need change. Well, all the cancel culture doesn't matter. You're out. It's over. Cancel culture, goodbye.

You blew it. It's over. There are no second chances.

There is no mercy, excuse me, no compassion in cancel culture. Christian Toto reporting on the Daily Wire says this is what happened to him. After this, his record label suspended him. iHeartMedia yanked his songs from the massive platform so they wouldn't play his songs. Cumulus Media did the same as did Pandora and Sirius XM. CMT, Country Music, CMT, either way, you know what that is, canceled his music. The Country Music Awards disinvited him from its annual showcase. You say, yikes, so that's it. I mean, he's canceled and that's the end of it, right? Well, not quite.

The article, Daily Wire notes that he crushed 2021 by having, excuse me, the number one selling album of the year, Dangerous, the double album. So the cancel culture cancels him. He did something stupid and he said things that shouldn't have been said, but there is such a thing as forgiveness. There is such a thing as redemption.

There is such a thing as making things right, right? So the cancel culture cancels him. He ends up with the album, the number one selling album of the year. And I don't know, it may be a good album. The lyrics may be cruddy.

I don't know. I'm not celebrating this as a gospel issue as much as just pushing back against cancel culture. Here's what's even more interesting. He teamed up with a black hip hop artist, Lil Durk, and they put out a song, Broadway Girls. And this is certainly some gospel-friendly song. So again, I'm not celebrating this as gospel pure. But that is now at the top of the hip hop charts.

So think of it. This guy who gets canceled and banned using the N-word really humbles himself, really reaches out, really has people speaking to his life, goes into rehab the whole bit. He ends up with the number one album of the year.

And now with a fellow artist, a black rapper or hip hop star, is at the top of the hip hop charts. That to me is one of these things. Again, it's not a direct gospel victory, but it's an instance of society saying we're pushing back, of society saying this cancel culture thing is going too far. You know, in my book, The Silencing of the Lambs, that comes out beginning of March.

You give example after example after example of leading secular people, even on the left, saying enough is enough with this cancel culture stuff. Okay, we've got more to talk about significant deaths. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to The Line of Fire, our first broadcast of the new year. Different than planned.

Yeah, it didn't plan on ending the year with COVID and having other staff members come down with COVID. But I'm able to broadcast without any issues. We're just not taking live calls today. This is still a holiday for many right after New Year's, but God willing, we'll be back with normal live calls tomorrow. A whole lot of things to talk about the rest of the week, but will be audio only for those watching on Facebook and YouTube. You'll see a picture of my smiling face, but that's it.

That's it. For those wanting to know an update on my condition, I haven't posted on social media just because it's been overall such a mild case of COVID and didn't want anyone concerned. If I had any concern for my health or thought there was any real need, I would have immediately asked for prayer.

This is nothing that you play games with. We've taken this with the utmost seriousness, Nancy and I, and encourage you if you're dealing with it to take this with the utmost seriousness. This really is a deadly disease and it's really destructive and it feels demonic, if you know what I mean.

It drags on and drains you, but by God's grace, we're coming through just fine. Nancy is as well coming through just fine. We've got some other family members with COVID. By the way, we've got family members who are vaccinated, family members who are not vaccinated, family members who are not vaccinated, who got COVID recently, family members who are vaccinated, who got COVID recently. When it comes to Omicron, this new variant, I don't know if the vaccines are really doing much of anything.

Maybe they're listening symptoms, I don't know. There seem to be more and more reports that this is just kind of spreading everywhere. I'd be curious to know as we're taking calls again, God-blowing tomorrow, how many of you have been hit with your family? What's interesting is that Chris was away on vacation. Kai was working in studio.

I was home on vacation, kind of semi-vacation, just working from home, but relaxing. We all got hit. As best as we can tell, we all got hit separately in different ways. In any case, this Omicron deal is really out there. Any of you that are suffering now, struggling, or you've got friends that are really battling for their lives, may God's grace be with you.

May he help you, may he sustain you, may he take you through. One more note about pushing back. Cynthia Millen has been officiating with USA Swimming Meetings for over three decades. She has worked hard for women's sports and has been a strong advocate of women's sports for these many, many years. She resigned. She stepped down.

This is a few days before Christmas. She stepped down. Why? Because of this, quote, transgender swimmer, this biological male who's been crushing the women in swimming at the University of Pennsylvania, known now as Leah Thomas. Millen said this on Tucker Carlson, the fact is that swimming is a sport in which bodies compete against bodies. Identities do not compete against identities. Men are different from women.

Men swimmers are different from women, and they will always be faster than women. Student athletes have spoken out. Parents have spoken out.

Now you have someone actually resigning. This is for the pushback. The pushback will continue. I truly believe the tide will turn because the radical left has overplayed its hand. With all the transgender activism and with all the media and social media pushing, note this. Rasmussen reports, just did a survey a few days ago, the telephone online survey finds that 75% of American adults agree that there are only two genders, male and female. That total includes 63% who strongly agree. 18% disagree. Additionally, by more than a three to one margin, Americans oppose the key educational policy of the transgender movement. 68% believe schools and teachers should not be allowed to counsel students on their sexual and gender identities without parental knowledge or consent.

Only 19% believe schools should be allowed to engage in such counseling without parental consent. Of course, sanity will still prevail. The only way that the pushback will not continue is if society completely collapses.

In other words, we lose our corporate minds to the point that male-female distinctions just go out the window and we have a complete societal collapse or Jesus returns first. Otherwise, I'm telling you friends, the pushback is going to continue. One of the things that we want to do on this broadcast through the year is encourage you with good reports. Oh yeah, we'll alert you to the things that you need to know about. We'll be your voice for moral clarity and moral sanity and spiritual clarity. We'll be standing on the wall shouting and warning when there's danger, when there's an issue, when there's a problem, alerting you so you can pray, so you can respond, so you can take action.

But friends, we are not chicken little saying the sky is falling here. We are saying the kingdom of God is advancing. That's my mantra. That's my heart. And all around the world, the gospel is triumphing.

Okay, one last thing as we end our first broadcast for 2022. When Desmond Tutu died, Archbishop Desmond Tutu died last year, it got my attention. It was December 26th, so the day after Christmas, and he died at the age of 90. Famous South African bishop, champion of justice, et cetera. Outweighs some issues in terms of his stance on Israel, but the issues for which he did good outweighed those other issues.

In any case, whether you're a fan of Desmond Tutu or not, it's not the issue. He died 90 years old, hailed all around the world. Two days later, football icon John Madden suddenly dies, 85 years old. No, he was not in any health crisis. He just suddenly passed away at the age of 85.

So he is football. And then the same day, former Senator Harry Reid, famous Democratic Senator, 82 years old. So when I saw these three deaths, one after another, I asked myself, is there something to this?

You say, what do you mean? Well, sometimes when there is major generational change taking place, it's marked by major deaths. The most conspicuous one being in the Bible, when before the children of Israel can enter the promised land, first Miriam dies, then Aaron dies, then Moses dies. One, two, three, and now the children of Israel enter the promised land with the Joshua generation. So sometimes you just have a number of significant deaths.

Every year there are significant deaths, obviously. But when they happen in a certain way, write together one after another. So I just was wondering, Lord, does this mean anything? Then I get an email from an old friend of mine, Messianic Jewish friend. We met at New York University, became friends there when we were both in the Near Eastern Languages and Literatures program, pursuing our master's and our PhD. He sent me notes that I don't know if you heard the news, but it was our professor, Baruch Levine. He died at the age of 91.

Right after I said, Lord, is there some significance to this? Professor Levine had a really profound impact in my life. He was my main professor for years. I studied many different languages with him and many hours in conversation and things like that. He was my main dissertation supervisor. He actually passed away a few days earlier, but only got that report.

So again, that was just for me personally, but it got my attention. But then of course, the big news, Betty White is about to celebrate her 100th birthday. It's January 17th. She's going to turn 100 years old.

Isn't this amazing? It's People's Magazine is really celebrating her 100th birthday and she's got all these plans. This is not like St. Betty. I'm not trying to make her into some holy saint, but she was greatly beloved in the entertainment industry and eternal optimist, super positive, which you find with many people that live old. Three days before, excuse me, on New Year's Eve, December 31st, she dies. So less than three weeks out from her 100th birthday. And I thought, now come on, the whole nation is looking forward to her birthday. Almost a hundred and she dies on the last day of the year.

It doesn't mean anything. The only observation I'll make is this, because remember, I was asking, I was wondering, I was watching, perhaps, perhaps these significant deaths one after another in different fields. So from the world of religion to the world of sports, to the world of politics, to the world of entertainment, significant deaths in a period of five days, all super, super famous people. And then Betty White with the most anticipated birthday that the nation has been looking forward to in God knows how long, right?

And she passes away suddenly. Could it be that this is symbolic of a major change coming, of a generational change of some kind, of a shift? Could it be that 2021 will be the end of something, 2022, the beginning of something, and then in the years ahead, we'll be able to look back and see.

I don't know. I'm just asking these questions out loud, but this much I do know, none of us can even boast of tomorrow. None of us can boast of tomorrow. Let's make each day count. Let's make this year count. Let's glorify Jesus while we have breath. Come on friends, together we're making a difference.