What's going on guys? Hope you're having a great Tuesday and thank you so much for listening to the Clearview Today Show. I want to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by Mighty Muscadine, king of the super fruits. Mighty Muscadine offers a variety of products from their signature Muscadine grape juice to powerful dietary supplements.
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I'm John Galantis. And you can find us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com. That's right, you guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show and share it online with your friends and family. Leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. Link is in the description below.
And we are here in the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's Taco Tuesday show, Dr. Shah. Welcome. I will give you a round of applause. There it is. Give me some applause.
I'll give you the black birthday party, as well. Oh, how did that one get in there? Oh, Ryan, I told you not to touch the... No, no, that wasn't me.
Don't pin the wampum on me. Dr. Shah, welcome to the show, my friend. Thank you. Good to be here.
Happy Tuesday. Did you say Taco Tuesday? Did we have tacos? I had tacos for lunch. Yeah, yeah, I had some tacos today.
I thought you were bringing tacos for everybody. No, I had some tacos. I had some of that leftover beef that I made two weeks ago, and I was like, I don't know if this is still good. But it smelled okay, and I put it in the microwave. You really ate that today?
Yeah, I ate it. I feel dizzy. Oh, I feel bad. I'm seeing sounds.
That's true. But I'm ready to make this a great show. Oh, man. Our verse of the day today is coming to us from 1 Samuel 1, verse 28. Therefore, I also have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord.
So they worship the Lord there. Dr. Shah, I don't think it's any secret. You have helped me fall deeply, and I mean this sincerely, deeply in love with the Book of Samuel. I don't think it's a stretch to say this book, even the first eight chapters, the story of Samuel as a character, has really transformed my life. This is the kind of thing that I would want my mom to say about me, that I've lent him to the Lord, and as long as I live, he shall be lent to the Lord. A couple of years ago, if I'd read that, I'd be like, oh, that's nice.
You know what I mean? But I think diving so deep into Samuel alongside you has made all these verses that I would have skimmed over transform. And then also even just having kids in that time period, like that verse has come alive for me more than any other. Well, Samuel is such an enigmatic character. It's just so powerful, especially I'm reading right now in my devotional time, I'm walking through 1 Samuel, and I'm reading, I just read the section where Samuel is upset with Saul because Saul disobeyed instead of dealing with the King Agag.
I think Agag, right? And instead of killing him, he decided to let him live and kept some of the sheep and the oxen and all that stuff. And Samuel was like, why?
Didn't you know that to be obedient is better than to sacrifice? And he's like, what? I don't think anyone can ever give Saul a dignified voice. Like, I thought it was cool. And then as Samuel is walking away, Saul grabs his robe, tears it up, and then Samuel turns around and says, like that, God's going to rent the kingdom away from you. So I was like, I'll put it back.
I didn't mean to. That is Saul. He's like, I just, I can't win for Lucy. Perpetual tragedy, just a comedy of errors.
By the way, if you're the type of person who doesn't deal with situations other than, I just can't get it right. You're feeling sorry for yourself, snap out of it. That's a Saul move. Don't be like Saul, man. That's a Saul move.
But you know what's funny though? We make fun of Saul. We are more like Saul than we think. Me personally, I laugh at Saul, at the character of Saul. A lot of times not even realizing I'm way more like him than I am.
Absolutely. And then Samuel never went back to see Saul again. That was it. That was the last time he saw Saul. But it does say that he mourned for him the remainder of his life.
He mourned, which means he was not just this hardcore crusty old prophet. He's like, I'm not coming back to you, you worthless king. Wrong choice. Wrong choice. I messed up.
No, he is more like crying. It's like, ah, Saul, you knew better. You knew better. You really blew it, buddy. You're disobeying God like that.
It's not just your personal life. You led the entire people of Israel in the wrong direction. Do you know what you did? You know what you did? It's not just one person or just your family, it's the entire nation.
The nation that's bringing the Messiah into the world, the son of God. You mislead them. You misled them. He's definitely more of an Obi Wan than a Gandalf. You know what I mean? Yeah. Gandalf is more like, you goofed up, buddy.
You and your people. Yeah, I'm all right. I can see that. I can see that. It was kind of a stretch. I didn't know if I was going to fall off there.
No, I'm tracking with you. Dr. Shaw, I do want to just come on to the show and say welcome to The Dark Side. This is the segment of our show. We air our everyday annoyances.
Give them the attention they deserve. You know, Dr. Shaw, there's just some times in life these things can get up to your skin. Speaking of my Obi Wan reference, this is a Star Wars gripe, but it's only Star Wars on the surface. Dr. Shaw, you know.
I've been griping to you about this for a bit. I'm collecting Star Wars novels. I ran out of Spider-Man comics to collect. I collected all of Ultimate Spider-Man. I've been wanting to collect something.
I sent Dr. Shaw a screenshot of this. Why in the world am I paying $250 for a hardcover copy of The Phantom Menace? How much is a Kindle copy? 99 cents.
And I'm not joking. The hardcover edition. Why the $250? That's my question. I sent it to Dr. Shaw and I said, have you ever in your life? And he said, look, that's annoying, but that happens all the time.
All the time. Especially with books that are now on Kindle. They want you to buy Kindle. They may have one copy somewhere in Singapore. They don't have a copy on them. They don't have the hard copy. They don't want you to buy the hard copy. If you were to hit that button and say, I want that $250 copy, they'll be like, oh, okay. It's done that way so that you would be forced to buy the Kindle and then download Kindle forever because it doesn't cost them anything. It's already been done. The digital format is already there.
It's just easy money. So they will, you know, rank up that cost, the physical copy to like, like there was a book I was going to buy. $1,000. I'm like, $1,000?
$1,000? Why? Wow. Kindle was like 1995.
That's exactly what it was. Cause this is, this is not like the hilarious discrepancy. This is not like the first edition or the anniversary edition of like a new hope where it's like signed by George Lucas or Luke Skywalker or something. This is the Phantom Menace. That's the one everyone agrees is bad.
This is the one that everyone agrees is bad. Why am I paying? It's $250. Did you feel manipulated? Very. I didn't buy it. I didn't buy that one. Here's the thing. Don't manipulate people. Don't give them a choice that it's like, you have to buy that. Don't do that to people. Give them a genuine, if you're going to give a choice, give people a genuine choice.
Like in your own life, you know, with like, I don't know, personal example, like if you're, if you're going to go out to eat, don't, don't be like, either we can eat like this fine Italian or we can eat, I don't know, like a, like a gas station, hot dog, gas station, hot dog that's been rolling up there for, of course I'm going to pick Italian. Right. And especially like again, these are mass market books. You know, there's books you see in the grocery store. That's where that book belongs. It's not a good book.
It's not a good movie. That's right. $250 is wild. But when you start a collection, you got to see it through. And I'm like, of course I'm going to buy.
So eventually I did find one for like 30 bucks. I was like, I'll take it. It was a little bent, but I was like, it's literally here.
It's there to sit on the bookshelf. I will literally never read it. But I was, I thought that was the craziest thing. And Dr.
Shell was like, dude, it happens. I've been there. I've been there.
Wow. Don't call their bluff because you, you won't get the book anyway. Even if you were willing to pay a thousand dollars, you're not going to get the book. Don't call their bluff.
There was never a book. It's a bluff. Just say I'm bluffed. I'm going to go on. I've been bluffed. I'm bluffed. Beep beep bluff.
Guys, don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more Clear Read Today. Hey Clear Read Today listeners. Every day we invite you to join us in these conversations and explore the never ending truth of God's word. And if you've been following the show for a while, if you feel like it's blessed, you believe in the mission we're on, we invite you to partner with us through your financial support.
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We appreciate every single one of you. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, Dr. Shaw. We've been having a lot of heavy topics on the show lately. A lot of things going on in the world, a lot of things in politics, a lot of things over in California, Western North Carolina. I thought today we could have just a nice, easygoing, risk-free discussion where we could talk about the church and money. Yeah, that always brings some warm fuzzy feeling. Yeah, just a light chat.
Just a little hearth side goof chat. You know, things have not been going too well up with our neighbors in the north, in the maple syrup-scented land of Canada. The country has sort of been in turmoil. A financial minister kind of quit right on the spot, and then they were talking about Justin Trudeau is going to be resigning. But he did.
That's right, he did. So, they thought, you know what will really calm people down? Because we're kind of doing bad. We're going to calm the people down. Let's tax all the churches. And Dr. Shaw, believe it or not, the Canadian Christians are not happy.
I wouldn't be either. I mean, this is tragic, it's horrible, it's sad, and it's a reflection of where Canadian society is now. I agree. Even in America, people have at times proposed that. You know, a few years ago that was a big deal. But at least there were enough voices raised that they said, oh, sorry, sorry, I don't know who brought that up. Who said a thing like that?
I don't know who said that, but it sure won't me. Yeah. But unfortunately, this is very real in the Canadian society, and it reflects the secularism, the secular humanism that has invaded the society. And it's not new. It's been coming for a long time. People talk about, I want to move to Canada because I'm like, you have no idea. Yeah. So, I guess this does not mean Canadian people are bad people.
Well, people understand the difference. I have definitely heard that because I think for a long time, and maybe I'm wrong, but there was no news coming out of Canada for so long that people just thought it was such a peaceful place. And then I think, who was that guy that made that movie? Michael Moore did that Columbine movie where they talked about Canadians don't lock their doors. I remember that being a big thing where it blew up because he took a trip to Canada and he just started walking in people's houses. And they were like, oh, hello? He was like, oh, hey, hi, I'm Michael Moore. I'm a filmmaker. And he explained, he was like, I heard that people in Canada didn't lock their doors. I just wanted to see blah, blah, blah. So, that movie came out and people, I remember people being like, man, Canada must be great.
They don't even lock their doors. And it was such a, I think now it's, you're starting to see all these problems. That's why the Canadian Monty, right? But he will not stop until he gets his man. That's right. Because there's some bad man. He's got a lot of work cut out for him.
He has to go on until he gets them. No, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a delusion. It's an illusion to think that, oh, every other society out there is so much better than America. And you are a fool if you believe that. Yeah.
A hundred percent. You are a fool if you believe that. Now, Canadian Christians, of course, are upset about this. And this should be because of the standing committee on finance.
This kind of have representatives from four of Canada's parties and they put out a report back in December and it had 462 recommendations. And item 430 out of this 462, item 430 says we need to amend the income tax act to provide a definition of a charity, which would remove the privileged status of advancement of religion as a charitable purpose. So churches are no longer charities. That's what they're trying to do. Yeah.
Yeah. And the Canadian Christians are not super happy. I hope not.
I hope not. It's kind of funny because you would think that with all this like shying away and getting away from religion, you would think that like a lot of Canadians aren't, but I think over half of them like still claim to be Christians. Absolutely. This is not the people. This is, this is the policy makers.
They are infected with the very disease that was infecting our nation for such a long time up until I would say like, what, three days ago. Right. Things are turning. Yeah. So they're not there yet. That's why president Trump even said, Hey, you want to come join us?
We have better days coming. You can say come on over. Yeah. And they're like, well, you know, one of the lawmakers got up there and they're like, we're going to call Wisconsin and we're going to ask California.
Come join us. I'm like, yeah, good luck. And like, you know, that does not work. Right. No, right.
It's not a, we're going to sit a different lunch table. That's not, yeah. This is not like, Hey, you say that about us so we can say that about you.
It doesn't work like that because you have nothing to offer. Right. Right.
Other than loss. A quagmire of social issues. No, quagmire. I was going to get him earlier for, cause he said you're deluded or maybe you can say illusions.
And I was like, illusions. No, no, no. No. Quagmire was the secret word. Quagmire. No, no way. I was really close, but I was like, I'm going to let Ryan do it.
I was like, if Ryan doesn't do it, I'm just going to let Dr. Shaw get away with that one. Then you bust out quagmire. What is, what is a quagmire? I'll tell you a quagmire.
My hanging Andy note here. A quagmire is a difficult or hazardous situation. I thought quagmire was a Pokemon.
That's, I mean, it's named for this. A quagmire? Yeah. Quagsire. Quagsire.
It's a spoof off of a quagmire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. Let's get back to Canada. Yeah.
We somehow ended up on Pokemon. So the thing is, this is something I've never been super up on. Yeah. The church at large, not Clearview church specifically, but the Christian church is tax exempt. What is the basis of being tax exempt? Is it because they're a charity?
Right. Because we are, this is how our system has been set up, that churches are. That's why, you know, you once in a while you have a fool who will come to you, you need to go for that 501 C3 status or 3C3. 501 C3.
C3. So I'm like, why? Why? Oh, because, because then you're a nonprofit. I'm like, we are a nonprofit. We're already a nonprofit, right?
Yeah, we are. That's, why would you want to get out of that umbrella and get under an umbrella where the government can say, okay, so since you're nonprofit, you cannot say this, this, and this. Right.
How foolish can people be? Because even without, because Clearview is not a 501 C3 and we don't need to. We are a church. Church. Right. Thank God for that.
Yes. And stay that way. So, so 501 C3 means you're a government regulated nonprofit. Nonprofit.
And, and either way. Because you have to apply for a 501 C3 status. You don't just get to be one.
You have to apply like, here's our credentials in order to be approved as a 501 C3. Thank God we don't have to do that. Right. Right. So, so is it, is it a, and I'm asking purely out of ignorance, is it a, churches are non, they're exempt from taxes because they are a social good or because it's a religion, like a state and religion separation thing?
It's not about separation thing. It's actually because in this country we value Christianity. We value church. And so that has sort of been included in our constitutional rights that, that a church that is, you know, a proper church, you can not just say, Hey, I'm a church, but you have a federal tax ID number church. You have tax exempt status because you do so much good in the community. Now I know some churches do, some don't.
I get it. It's not right, but at least ours does. And there are thousands of others who do. We may not all line up do doctrinally, but there are thousands of churches across this land that are helping people.
Imagine what would happen. And I'm not talking about helping as in like always supporting a soup kitchen somewhere, but you're making life better for people. You're helping marriages grow. You're helping young people make wise choices.
You're bringing a sense of civility and goodness in, in people's lives. So it is good for society. So yeah, tax exempt is not a, a, a reach. It's, it's exactly what our founders envisioned our society to be. Well, that's what, that's what I was thinking is because it's, it's not, and when I say separation, I don't mean like separation of church and state, but I meant like that if the, if the church is paying taxes to the government, then the government is in some way involved in the church.
And we don't want that. I don't think that that really is, is the case there that, that if you pay taxes that somehow government will control you. Cause I don't think that's what's happening here. What is happening here is it's taking social good.
Yeah. Taking away the tax exempt status not only puts more money in the government's coffers, but also now you're no longer under this protected clause. Now you are vulnerable to anybody saying, Hey, you call that sin.
You are, that's hate speech. And you know, now, now we can say that. So we are covered, we are covered not only in the sense of not paying taxes, but also we're able to maintain our convictions. But because this nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values, which means that we believe in a God, right? We believe this is one nation under God. Our coins have in God, even our dollar bills have in God we trust. So fundamentally Americans are people who believe in the reality of a living true God. Now there may be some differences as to what exactly, who exactly he is and all that. And that's where we will say, well, I can tell you this much, the founders of our nation overwhelmingly were for the biblical understanding of God.
Okay. Yes, there were others who were deists and there were some who were Unitarians, but overall they were for the Trinity. And so they set it up to be that way because they understood the value. They saw what was happening in Europe and they did not want Europe 2.0 here, right? Yeah. Great point. So what, what do you imagine is really at stake?
You know what I mean? Let's, let's say this. If the government started taxing churches, would churches, yeah, what would happen? Like, like would churches be like, okay, well, since we're being taxed, we're no longer doing outreach. Or do you think it's more like they won't have the money to do as much outreach because they don't, they they're having to pay it all to the government. And it also makes a difference because now the tax deduction that people get when they give towards the churches was also be taken away. So incentive goes away. People may be less inclined to give. Right. And it's not like you should give because you're getting tax exemption, but that is one of the incentives to give. And the more money that they give, the more outreach the church can do.
Right. Outreach, in-reach, everything is important. It's not just like I got to go feed all the hungry in the world. I can also take care of the elderly in our church. I can also provide better seating or heat and air so people can come and they come and they hear the word or they worship or they fellowship with one another.
There's a better feeling. They're less likely to be discontent because they're talking to God or they're sharing the burdens with one another. You say, well, the other societies can do that or a lodge can do that. And I would say, no, it's not the same as a place dedicated to God. It's not the same. A lodge is not a church. A church is not a lodge. Good point.
Good point. Yeah. So I would say what's happening in Canada is simply a reflection of where their society is. They're not America. They're not, you know, years ago a guy was joking and he said, you know, Canada is simply diet America. Diet America? Yeah. It's like there's Coke and then there's Diet Coke. He said, America is Coke and Canada is Diet Coke. That's funny, but I don't think that's true.
Yeah. Because even if it was like the people who switched to Diet Coke, eventually they're always going to come back to classic Coca-Cola. But I'm with you. I don't agree that's true.
It's not the same because their foundation, and albeit, you know, Canadian law is sort of rooted in the British legal system and that's why they do have this tax exemption for churches, but they don't have the same Judeo-Christian foundation that we do in America. And so it's difficult for them and it will be more difficult in the days ahead. That's what I was about to ask. Do you see a backlash coming from that? Yeah. I would also add that because of immigration in Canada, a lot of people from India have come there and I'm from India, but they're not from Christian background. Really?
Oh no, no. So what does that do? Well, they bring their values. Now, as long as they're bringing the values of capitalism and hard work and dedication and excellence, okay, great. Education, a lot of intelligent people, but they also bring a value of a secularist society. Now secularism in India is wonderful. So Christians get to live in peace. Muslims get to practice Islam. Buddhists get to do what they want to do. And of course, Hindu, which is the primary religion, okay, everybody is given a need to live. But secularism in America takes on a different note, which means Christianity is no longer the main religion here.
It's not the foundation anymore. We don't want secularism in America. We want to say we are a Christian nation, which is open to other religions. We are open to the freedom that anybody can come as long as they love this nation and want to be patriotic to this nation.
You're welcome. Great point. I think people miss that. I think people, they don't think enough to say I'm a Christian before I'm an American.
You know what I mean? Because that almost sounds unpatriotic. But at the same time, I agree with you. It's not that we want, India's doing it and so it's good there. So how can it be bad here? Because it will negatively impact Christianity, which is more important. Secular humanism in India keeps Christianity legal.
Secular humanism in America makes Christianity illegal. Yeah. Yeah. Good point.
And that's the danger. And that's what's happening in Canada right now. So important for us to understand that and for us to be appreciative of the freedoms that we have in America. It matters that we're a nation that's built upon Christian principles. Yeah.
I got one more question and I don't know if this is even the, maybe this is another show entirely. Do you imagine that this needs to happen for Americans to see how wrong it can go? Or do you think that we're really in any danger in America of tax exempt status going away for churches? Thank God that President Trump is in the office. People don't realize.
I see some Christians running their mouth on social media about it. And I'm like, you're foolish. You don't understand what's at stake. Yeah. I was going to say, I don't think you understand how close we came to things being really bad.
Really, really difficult. Well, you know, the church suffered and the persecution. You can talk all that garbage because you haven't been through it. Some of us who have been through it, trust me when I say you don't want to be persecuted. You'll be the first one to change religion. That's right. That's right. Some of these people here who talk about persecution, bring it on.
It's like, you're the first one to be like, hey, hey, hey, you be the first to fold. Christians, kill them all. That's what you would say. So ask some of us who've been through persecution. No, you don't want to be persecuted. When Christianity is truly in power, and I'm not talking about just any Christianity. I'm not talking about some, some, you know, royalty behind a religion kind of Christian.
I'm talking about genuinely people are, yeah. And they may not be hardcore exactly lined up with us biblically, but overall, everybody gets to live peaceably. When Christianity is not in power, listen, nobody gets to live peaceably. And so I would suggest rethink what you say. Thank God he's answered our prayers. Having President Trump in the office, I don't think we have much to fear over the next few years.
And hopefully things will be set up for another term with other presidents, who will also follow the lead and protect this, this very important privilege we have here. That's right. That's right.
That's right. Make sure you guys join us tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clear View Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes if you want to re listen or share it with a friend. You can always support us financially at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Job, why do you want to plug as we close today?
You want to plug Dr. Shot and Nicole's book, 30 Days of Praying for America. Listen, this can be one of your prayers that I don't think is mentioned in this book, but it is a very, very important topic. And this book is going to help you realize how much praying we still have to do for America, even though great days are ahead of us. We also want to let you know about our original music. We got a brand new single that's coming out soon. It's called Great and Awesome. We're going to be releasing it. We'll probably play it here on the show for you guys to listen to when that comes out. But in the meantime, you can get our debut album, Heaven Here and Now, available anywhere that digital music is streamed or sold.
That's right. Lots of great content ClearViewToday. Lots of great ClearViewTodayShow content coming your way the rest of the week. That's the order those words are supposed to be in. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on ClearViewToday.
