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A major poll just dropped that's changing everything we thought we knew about the 2026 midterms. For months, the legacy media has been feeding you a steady diet of Democrat victories or polls showing massive leads, analysts predicting a blue wave, news anchors confidently declaring that Republicans are finished heading into 2026. But something just happened.
Something huge.
Something that's about to send shockwaves through every Democrat campaign office in America. And it's only about to get worse. RMG research, one of the most accurate pollsters from 2024, just released their latest generic congressional ballot. It's an absolute bombshell. Republicans are up four points over the Democrats.
It's Republicans 45, Democrats 41. When you add in independents who lean toward one party or the other, the margin holds. Republicans 48, Democrats 44.
Now, this isn't some random outlier. This is the same polling outlet, RMJ, that nailed 2024 while so many other pollsters were flat out wrong. I mean, these are the very same pollsters who are desperately trying to convince us right now that the Democrats are shoe-ins for the midterms. But like 2024, it's simply not happening. Take a look at the latest Harvard Harris poll for Trump.
He's five points higher than he was last month, almost at 50%. He's at 48%. Always remember, presidential approval is a key predictive indicator for the midterms. Presidents with approval ratings down in the low 40s and below, which is very common for a second year of an administration, they tend to lose upwards of 30-plus seats in the midterms. While presidents with approval ratings around the 50% mark, while they still may lose, they lose by a lot, lot less.
What's happening here with this latest from RMG and the reason why it's such a bombshell in terms of the generic approval or who you're going to be voting for is that it's showing that the Republicans have a clear path to hold the House in 2026. And that's because it's indicative or it's representative of two Rs that I want you to remember, redistricting and registration. Redistricting and registration.
So this RMG poll seems to be indicative of the congressional redistricting wars that are happening and the voter registration trends. both of which overwhelmingly favor the Republicans going into 2026. It's really very, very impressive, and it goes way beyond just the polling.
So let's break it all down here. Let's start with the redistricting wars. Right now as we speak, we've got Texas with five new GOP seats. We've got North Carolina with one, Missouri with one. Indiana just passed a new congressional map through the state house that gives us two new seats.
Ohio is looking at a pickup of two new seeds. Florida just formed a special redistricting committee to add three to five new Republican seats before the midterms.
So you add all those up. We'll go with four with Florida. We'll meet in the middle. You add all those up and you get 13 new solid red seats. Right now, the Cook political report, which looks at the competitiveness of each House seat, right now with Texas, Missouri and North Carolina redistricting included as well as California's five Democrat seats from Prop fifty, That's giving the GOP a solid 213 seats going into the midterms right now as we speak.
That means they only need to pick up five to hold the majority for 218. If we count the four seeds from Florida. The two from Indiana And the two from Ohio, that's eight. Eight solid red seats. That gives the GOP 221.
which is one more than they have right now.
So in effect, if this map holds... Republicans will have won the House before a single vote is cast and without flipping a single contested seat.
Now, the Democrats are increasingly getting desperate here. Virginia Democrats announced plans to redraw their maps to pick up four more Democrat seats. Virginia would be down to just one Republican representative, if you can believe that. Again, I think that's going to have its own political repercussions. But were that to happen, if they do get four more seats, that'll knock us back to 217, one seat shy of the majority.
But you should know that's very hard for Virginia Democrats to do. Virginia's redistricting requires passing the legislature twice, then winning a statewide referendum all before the 2026 midterms start. which is literally in just a few months.
So, campaign right, campaigns need to start months in advance. They need to raise money and all that. And if you don't have the districts redrawn by early in the year, it's too late. And again, even if Democrats successfully counter-gerrymandered in California and Virginia, they'd offset Republicans from the majority by just one seat. Republicans would be down to 217.
So all they'd have to do is win one of the 19 or so contested seats across the country, and it's over. They got the house back. And that's where the second R comes in. This is where the voter registration trends smack the Democrats right in the face, especially given that voter registration trends are one of the most accurate predictive indicators for election outcomes. And when you see these numbers, You understand precisely why the Democrats are so panicked.
Our good friend Seth Keschel, one of the most accurate election forecasters out there, who's absolutely spot on. We're talking county by county in 2024. He's been watching the voter registration trends very carefully. That's what he bases his forecasting on: voter registration. And he's noted that in the 30 states that track voter registration by party, the Democrats are hemorrhaging.
Voters at an alarming rate. They've been hemorrhaging voters since 2020. But it just continues. For example, in the Keystone state of Pennsylvania, my backyard here. There's been a lot of concern of late in that it looked like the Democrats were regaining the lead in voter registrations over the last few months.
But Seth points out that a very deep investigation into the 67 counties suggests that the change was due more to registration maintenance over the November election some weeks back, not because there was any significant voter registration surge among the Democrats.
So, in fact, it's quite the opposite. Philadelphia and Allegheny counties got redder. As did the key bellwether counties of Erie and Northampton. In other words, He who wins Erie and Northampton wins Pennsylvania. The two counties are almost perfect microcosms of the state as a whole, and both counties are going solid red.
Get this, this will blow your mind. Since November of 2024. Since Cackles Kamala lost Pennsylvania a year ago, The Democrats have lost over 40% of their voter registration advantage. Let that hit you over 40% and and Pennsylvania always votes right. always votes to the right of their voter registration.
So if their voter registration advantage for Democrats is say 4%, they tend to vote three or four, five points to the right of that.
Well now they're going solid red. At this point, the Democrats will never win Pennsylvania again. In a presidential contest. Without Pennsylvania, the Democrats are permanently locked out of executive power. They just simply can't win the 270 that they need without the Keystone State.
Perhaps most impressively, the state of North Carolina, they're just ahead of Pennsylvania. Looks like they are poised to flip this year. The Republicans are just under 2,000 voter registrations away from flipping the state. It is absolutely unbelievable. North Carolina, like Florida before it, North Carolina has never, ever been.
Majority Republican. They vote majority Republican. But that's because of a very large crossover among old school Democrats in North Carolina who simply never. Formally switched their party registration.
Well, that's happening now by virtue of all these new voter registrations who are all registering Republican. We could keep going and going in Arizona. Both parties have been purging inactive voter roles and active voters, I guess I should say, from their roles since November. But Democrats are losing significantly more, and Republicans continue to widen their vote registration lead there in Arizona. They're literally hemorrhaging voters in these voter role purges.
We saw something similar in Colorado. Yes, deep blue Colorado. Republicans just saw a net gain of 6,000 voter registrations. In Florida, perhaps most dramatically, Florida added 5,000 more Republicans to their registration, while at the same time, they dropped 5,000. 5,000 Democrats in their voter registration with a net gain of 10 freaking thousand for the GOP.
Now, That said, there are lots of variables when it comes to the midterms and congressional races that you don't necessarily see in presidential races.
So, you can have different turnouts in different districts. You have the candidate quality can differ significantly across the board. The amount of money that's poured into some races over other races, there are a whole host of factors that impact non-presidential races and can certainly override these trends. And so, there's absolutely no room whatsoever for complacency in the least. That said.
The redistricting and registration trajectories are giving the GOP a huge advantage for the midterms that they normally wouldn't have. And if the RMG polling is accurate. That advantage is already showing itself before a single vote gets cast. It's our job to make sure that when those votes do get cast, 2026 will be a political earthquake from which the Democrats will never. recover.
All right.
Okay. And we are back. This is Pastor Joe Larson. Fitting in for Pastor Ernie Sanders, a little bit under the weather with cold or flu. Whatever, I'm not sure.
I can tell one from another. Welcome back to the program. Uh Very interesting clip, but I saw something on the news of live results here from the Hill. Democrats flip Miami mayors. uh office.
They have wrested the GLP control from the Miami Mayor Office for the first time in nearly thirty years. and Tuesday's closely watched runoff. Democrat Ellen Higgins. Former County Commissioner Wonderwater Party saw as one of the last remaining tests. of their grassroots energy heading into next year.
Higgins defeated Republican Emilio Gonzalez, Miami City manager. Who was endorsed by President Cool. Uh There's a lot of weird things happening out there, folks. We have to be. Really, really paying attention.
this election, especially midterms, the Republicans tend not to turn out Not to get excited. And uh for some reason whenever we're doing well we do something really dumb and uh mess up.
So I pray you all pay attention. Oh, this you plan to not only get out and vote, but get your friends, neighbors, family, Anybody you can think of, make sure they remember to go vote. This is going to be.
So critical this midterm election.
So very, very critical. Mm-hmm. Um I'm gonna go back to My topic tonight. about what we're doing to young people. Bethany Mendel is a writer-podcaster.
She had a New York Post article. Titled How Do Two Privileged New Jersey Teens Get Seduced by ISIS? Yeah, two teenagers from one in New Jersey. wealthiest suburbs. were arrested for Allegedly plotting to join ISIS, carry out mass killings of Jews.
So She's a co-author, Bethany Mendel, co-author of a book. stolen news, how radicals are erasing Innocence and indoctrinating a generation. And in this article, she talks about Hawaii's two affluent teenagers from a picture-perfect town. end up embracing one of the most violent ideologies on earth. Yeah.
Well, these boys didn't grow up amid a war or deep privation. In fact, she said they grew up in. Nothing else. Bad comfort, but not conviction. Connection, but no community.
access to everything but least. And nothing. They are the hollow products of a culture that dismantled Every possible avenue through which they could have formed meaning. Church youth groups. Stable family, neighborhood activity.
Children playing together, learning how to get along, playing outdoors. She said, in the vacuum left by the disappearance of faith. Tradition and moral authority. They were looking for something to believe in, something absolute that made them feel. powerful and alive and part of something bigger than themselves.
Yeah, notice disappearance of faith, tradition, and moral authority. God is something powerful and alive and. We can become part of the family of God, something big, wonderful, fantastic, have everlasting life. But uh she said now it was. The disappearance of faith, tradition, moral authority.
Online, there's this endless marketplace of extremism to sell that illusion. She said they didn't find it in a mosque, ISIS in a mosque, they found it on Discord. Remember, I talked about Discord earlier. If your children or grandchildren are going on a website named Discord, get them off, take their phone away, do whatever you have to. Yeah.
Well, Joe, can I can I clarify something? Sure.
So I I have a Discord. I use Discord frequently, and what Discord is, for those unaware, it's just a messaging software.
So it's not a standard social media in terms of you go on and you're instantly seeing things.
Now, the way that these groups and these things get transmitted to different teenagers and kids and people who shouldn't be seeing this kind of stuff isn't directly through Discord. I'm 100% of the opinion, like you said, that They need to to work together with the local law enforcement of jurisdictions to turn over this information because they've had a track record of not doing that. Um but the way that these things are are put out there isn't through Discord, that's a a secondary location, for lack of a better term.
So While there are bad things on Discord, you can't just get on and get on them. It's coming through YouTube videos, it's coming through Instagram, it's coming through Facebook, it's coming through Twitter. Anything that you can send a link to, a text message, an email, can be transmitted or an invite to that Discord server.
So staying away from Discord is a good way to go about it, but It takes two seconds to sign up and anybody can get that invite, whether you have an account or not. I think the more important thing to remember is make sure you know what your kids are doing online and make sure you know they're safe. Yeah, well, thank you for that. I don't spend a lot of time. Good.
I have too many wonderful things in life to do. And family to participate with, neighbors to help, organizations to serve. And like Pastor Ernie, don't have a lot of time to waste starting a screen.
Well I can to have a life with real people. I guess maybe that's one of the key points here. I grew up. Had a life with people involved. Uh Actually, I grew up, we uh I remember listening to the radio, gun smoke on the radio.
We'd sit around as a family and listen to Matt Dillon walked down the street to Dodge. But you did it as a family. Hello? And something nowadays, everybody's on their own phone doing their own thing, and they lose that sense of family, community. We would have Friend that's had a big deep Place in there uh Um Near their house, and they would flood it every winter and made the neatest skating rink.
And everybody in the area would come and bring their kids, and they could use the family's bathroom. bathroom inside the back door and The kids would build a bonfire and ice skate, not have to go too far away to have a place to skate, and it wasn't deep, so. It was, you couldn't fall through the ice because it was a shallow area that it made a fantastic. Skating rink. Yeah.
Overlife. In those days, it was full of activities with other people, and I don't see that much in today's generation. Do you, South? No, I don't. And I I Let me rephrase.
I haven't for a long time. I think. Very fortunately enough that that is coming around. They say all things are cyclical. I think people are starting to realize just how bad.
Social media and the intake of the digital world rather than the physical is having an effect on this generation. I think people are finally coming around on the other side of it.
Well, I sure hope you're right. I live in a world where very rural, very country. Everybody helps everybody else. Neighbors do things together. have social gatherings, events, and it it's so different from the world that I see in the news and Here about in the city.
So I'm glad you're there to help me on some of that. I just see the danger of this stuff and. just like the Lord kind of compelled this had to be tonight's story. In fact, I'm going to read a couple of headlines. Two Afghan teenage asylum seekers learn their fate for raping fifteen-year-old and Local park.
State Department warns. Um New Jersey, okay, that we did that story. Vermont School District flies Somali flag in mid Massive fraud investigation and Yeah. Going on. Um Rural Vermont School District stirred up social media after raising the Somali flag.
During the national reckoning over fraud in the Somali community there in Minnesota. leading to the contemporation of the state. Chairman. I don't understand why our K through 12 schools think this is an important thing to do. The chairman of the Vermont Republican Party told Fox Digital.
I think most Vermonters. Probably most Americans want their schools to focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic. And not flags that just displayed outside of school, especially a.
Somali flag They were raising the flag in honor of our Somali youth and families. And run us Lenoshi and Vermont. And we're going to be gathering to celebrate and learn more about. are civil rights. I can see more stories there.
Country music. Star Zach Brown is upset. Goers with his show in Las Vegas. because it featured Cintanic visuals. this uh guy who's been played to pack the vegas place there.
Has a huge screen. And evidently, people were screaming and afraid, and really promoting.
something evil. They had a uh Huge skeleton adorned with a crown. The period in flames. Engulf the bottom of this thick 160,000 square foot toll C D screen. Hmm.
And then we have uh Yeah, it just Story after story I see like this, and I go. We're living in a world that's Kind of going crazy, folks. And I just hope everybody's realizing it. Starting to see it, realizing that all of us. they've got to do something.
All of us have to get involved. We all have Children We don't have children or grandchildren. We still have other family members, nieces, nephews, cousins. We still have. People we should be caring about in our neighborhood, even if they're not our own.
Jesus, you know, loved the children. We're supposed to what? Love. The Lord loves and hate what the Lord hates. And he loves the children.
And uh we are not uh pleasing God right now at all. Do you have any comment there, Syle, on all of this? Yeah, absolutely. I I had written or written, rather, if I could speak, it's easy for me. I had written uh a couple of weeks ago an article I put out called um Screens Aren't Evil, Your Addiction to Them Is.
And I think it's always rem important to remember as much negativity, as much Vileness, there is not only on social media, but media in general: TV, news, movies, music, as much as there is. A lot of vile, evil things that are being pushed by these large corporations, by these large media conglomerates. You don't have to sit there and absorb it, and your children don't have to sit there and absorb it, and your friends don't have to sit there and absorb it. And I think that's the part that gets left out a lot of the time. You hear people complain constantly about how evil social media is, and how bad it is, and your phones are killing you, and the screens are evil.
But you're the one holding it.
So you can put it down and go outside. Complaining about something doesn't change it. Acting on something changes it. And I think that's the important thing to remember: and this is why I brought up when you asked about it, Joe, the cyclical nature of things. I know people who are my age, 25, 23, 24 in that age area, who have completely gotten rid of their smartphones and gone back to just having a flip phone because they don't even want to have the temptation of going on social media.
I know people who have gotten rid of any TVs that are in their house that are my age because there's nothing but propaganda that's being promoted through them. I know people who have sold their consoles and iPads and computers and have chosen to go back and live before this the screens controlled what we thought, did and said. And I really do think it's coming around and people are waking up to the idea that. No matter what channel you watch, someone's selling you something. And I think people are finally having enough of that.
Mm-hmm. Oh boy. I love hearing that because as I looked around some of the stuff there was uh I found very little good news like that. Uh, I see it in my neighborhood where I live, the air well neighborhood with Uh It takes many, many square miles of land to make up our neighborhood. Uh I live on a three mile uh long road and there's uh Only uh three houses on two miles.
So it's not like we're uh Tightly packed, if you know what I mean. Right.
So I I have a different perspective out here, but uh It is so pleasing to hear that. It's just like anything else, uh drinking. I choose not to drink. I And just A long time ago my wife and I decided we didn't didn't need any alcohol many, many, many years ago and Never took another drink and haven't missed it. And you're right, everything is about choices.
God gave us that free will. To choose, and if we start paying attention and in a sense, start choosing things that glorify God. To deify him and not deify man. We're going to be a lot better off, but I think God has given us some chances for revival. We see the Uh Charlie Kirk's ministry taking off and Texas talking about winning the Turning Point USA in their schools across Texas and We see thousands of uh schools and groups.
Applying for membership.
So I see. A great revival underway. And uh More of us would join in and start talking about it. Start pointing to the well, like this Christmas, the reason for the season. We might see a major change in America yet.
Any thoughts there? Yeah, I think you hit the nail right on the head. I know we only have a couple minutes here before break, but I do just want to say, you know, you brought up. It's a lot like drinking or anything in that regard. And I I'm made the choice to be straight edge at the age of thirteen.
I've never Drank, smoke, or done any kind of drug, and that's my personal choice. I don't condemn anyone else for doing it, and that's their choice to make, but it's the same thing when it comes to a phone or any media consumption. And that's not to say that if you have a problem with it, that it's not going to be difficult to put down. They call it an addiction for a reason. It's designed to be addictive, just like caffeine is, just like social media is.
That's why you have. Things like TikTok, where it short-forms six-second videos because they've formulated the most addictive way to keep you on your phone longer. They've broken it down statistically. You're not going to sit there and watch a two-hour video on your phone. You're more likely to watch two hours of six-second clips in succession.
And you hit the nail on the head again when you said that we're given this free will and this power of choice. And we have to remember that with that, we have a creator that we can go to for help, that we can go to and ask for strength, that we can go through with these struggles. If addiction is something you're struggling with in any form, be it alcohol or social media or any asset of that, that is something that we do have the power to control, and we're not alone in controlling it.
Well said. I noticed there have been ads um out there. Uh they've allowed gambling now in Missouri. Um some kind of uh sports thing, I guess. And another commercials, they've got uh I guess well known people I don't know who they are because I don't watch.
All excited about they can gamble, and you can get in there and do this and that and be a winner. But then there's a big warning that if you have a trouble with gambling, please call this number. If you have, you know. But I know some of the commercials, if you lose enough money, we'll give you $5,000 back or. We'll give you a five hundred dollar credit to start.
I can just see where they use the human weakness to promote these things. And like you said, the key word There's addiction. Anything that you do that's not good for you. Right.
causes compulsive behavior, smoking, drinking, of sexual activity, even if it's you know outside of marriage. Things become addictions. And I guess we got to keep reminding our children, grandchildren, and others that. Much of this is addictive, and the best thing to do is stay away from things that are addictive, right? That's right.
You can't be addicted to cocaine if you're smart enough to never put it up your nose or whatever it is, wherever they put it. Amen to that.
Something like that. It was just I saw these stories about our children and especially where they're turning so violent. Um I remember going to school. We had deer rifles in our pickup. I mean, high powered rifles, which I got good.
Because The boys would go duck hunting or deer hunting before or after school different days or take off and uh In all the years that that happened, not one person ever grabbed a gun when there was an argument. There were some fist fights, and people got bloody noses. No one ever reached for a gun because guns were for. killing. You never pointed a gun at anything you didn't intend to kill.
And we sure lost that today, haven't we? Oh, absolutely. Uh I saw a couple and I just totally appalled at the violence. And again, I think those are addictive too, aren't they? I I think it can be to a certain extent.
I I'd like to dive more into this 'cause I I have an interesting synopsis. We do have to slide into a break here real quick though. All right, we have a break, we'll be right back. Yeah.
Side. Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright round young virgin, mother and child, holy and so tender and wild, sweep in heavenly fields, sweep in heavenly peace, holy night. Chambers grave and the sun glorious stream from heaven apart heavenly hoof sing hallelujah Christ the Savior is born Christ the Savior is born Silent night holy Son of God, love's pure light, radiant beams from thy holy place with the dawn of redeems, Jesus, Lord at thy birth, Jesus, Lord at thy birthday. Jesus, Lord, at thy birth. Beautiful, beautiful hymn.
We are approaching that Christmas season style. back december ninth, nineteen sixty five. Oh, wait a minute. You're just in your twenties. You wouldn't have any idea what happened on December 9th, 1965, would you?
Why don't you enlighten me? What? Enlighten me. Charlie Brown. Christmas.
became a classic. The comic strip had become a huge hit. but PBS predicted a disaster. When a Charlie Brown Christmas Carol premiered that night, Styled actors voicing the characters had no laugh track, a jazz score, and A depressed lead character all spelled doom. CBS was wrong.
The show became an instant classic. and has been airing every Christmas season. Ben. Charlie Brown Christmas Carol Quite a few years back. Unfortunately, uh Yes, I remember watching the first Charlie Brown Christmas Carol.
Okay, enough of that, but I just thought that's kind of interesting. Beck, do you know that the Bible talks about Christmas trees? I believe we I've heard you do a great broadcast about that. I guess last year we did Jeremiah 10 for the folks that may not be aware. Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel, O house of America.
Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven. for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain, for one cutteth a tree out of the forest. the work of the hands of the workmen with an axe. They deck it with silver and gold.
They fasten it with nails, with hammers, that it move not. They used to just hammer wooden little planks in the bottom of the tree and they'll let it go stand upright. They are upright as a palm tree that speak not. They must needs be born, but Because it cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil.
neither also is it in them to do good. You notice how In many of the malls and the shopping centers. They have The tree is decorated. Especially Think about it with gold and silver. And no emblems.
of Christianity. Most of the time they don't even have a star or anything. They're void of what I call any Chrismon symbols. At our house we have a Christmas tree. Everything on the tree.
is a Chrisman symbol. Candy canes. To represent Christ is a story I'll do at Christmas about the candy cane. Angels and shepherds, and anything that represents the Lord. is on our tree.
There's nothing on the tree that secular because I'm not having a secular winter holiday. I'm celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem in a manger. Emmanuel God with us What do you think? Do you see many Chrismont trees in your neck of the woods? I do not.
I was trying to think. I was just in a a mall the other day and I know they had a tree on display, but that was about it in general. And several of the malls lit the holiday tree and wouldn't even call it a Christmas tree because. It's a holiday tree to celebrate. All the holidays.
In fact, I'd like I think we've got time, a couple of callers call in. I'd like to know if people out there have a Christmas tree in their home. Decorated with Christian symbols. Angels and crosses and shepherds. And the symbol they used to use the fish.
You know, there's all kinds of things that represent our Lord. Sheep. We are the sheep of his pasture. He is the shepherd. We have candy cane, looks like a shepherd's crook.
Which has the red stripes of his blood by his stripes, are we healed? The white for the Yeah. Everything on the tree. Component and looking up. Christ.
How many out there have a Christmant tree in their homes? I'd like to know. It's something that our church has been doing out here for many, many years. We have One member of the church read the Bible verse. that, you know, goes along with the uh wherever they're hanging on the tree, the light Jesus is the light of the world and so forth and so on, the star of Bethlehem that Let the wise men to the baby And all these things.
But you haven't uh seen one lately, have you? I have not. Hmm. I'd have to ask Pastor any I don't know, I can't remember, I'm getting old and forgetful. I know we've talked about this, but I've slept a lot since the last Christmas.
A few things that I I'm missing. But I just thought that Charlie Brown Christmas tree might be the real spirit of Christmas. The spirit of love, the spirit of giving. And I just love the fact that CBS was still wrong. Oh, it's going to be a disaster, a failure.
And it turned out to be one of the greatest Christmas plastics we have but I'll tell you what, I've caused a problem before where they were if I went into a mall and they talked about lighting a holiday tree, I'm afraid I'd be doing some preaching right there in the middle of the mall. My wife says it's dangerous being around me certain times of the year. Of course, if Pastor Annie and I are together, it's double trouble. Yeah.
Joe, I I I was not around for the uh the initial airing of the Charlie Brown Christmas. It was uh a yearly tradition in my household to watch it. Um however, i if if I may, I would like to comment on something I was around from that we kind of led into with the break there, uh, which is the the violence and the impact of video games on kids.
Okay. So, it's something that we've heard a lot, and I Yeah. For the longest time, really wanted to look into the correlation between violent video games, the generations they came out, the type of game, and the impact on society. And I might be in the minority on the station here, but I don't believe, unless we're talking extreme examples, that violent video games lead to actual violence. And my argument for that is that I'm very much of the generation that grew up in this new era of video games.
Graphics were getting better. Every home had a console, and you stuck your kids in front of a video game console because it was the great babysitter, right? Which I don't advise, but that was the truth at the time. TV before that, it was TV was the great babysitter. Right.
And and now it's iPads and whatever VR will come out next, but uh to to talking about my point here is that i it's To me, it's less about the violent video games. I grew up playing Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, and I also grew up playing NASCAR and football. I've never once thought that I'm going to run out in the middle of the road and have a pickup football game, or that I'm going to drive 200 miles an hour around a curb on the highway. But it is that concept of everything in moderation, right? You sit someone down in front of a video game console and let them play for 72 hours straight, and they play nothing but Call of Duty from the time they're four years old to the time they're 18.
Absolutely, that's going to have an impact. But I think something that gets overlooked a lot, especially for my generation, because growing up, we were the generation that got talked about when it came to violent video games. ESRB ratings were implemented during my generation. You had parents trying to ban the sale of anything over a certain ESRB rating, and to varying extent. But the thing that didn't get talked about was.
I, when I was born, when I grew up, the majority of my childhood, the United States of America was in a war. And you turned on TV and you saw war after war after war and killing after killing after killing. You brought up a great point that you know, you used to be able to take a gun to school, and that's because it was hunting season and it stayed in the back of your truck and you knew where it was, and you went out and did what you needed to do after school, and it was never even a second thought. And I wish that that was still the day. And I think a lot of it is to do with this generation, the generation before me, the generation after me, have all grown up in.
Turning on the news, seeing bombings and wars and attacks, and this is the gun violence that we grew up seeing. We didn't, you know, grow up with, especially in the inner city of Cleveland. No one grew up hunting, unfortunately. But that's the exposure we had to guns. And I think, you know, there are extreme examples where kids got thrown onto video games at an early age and it had an impact because they were unmonitored.
Sure.
I think that can be the same with pornography. That can be the same with junk food. That can be the same with a lot of things. But I think what is really detrimental and has been detrimental to our society is how. And I trust me, I'm a capitalist through and through.
I love capitalism, don't get me wrong, but how capitalized guns have become in terms of selling war in our country. And I understand that war is good for the economy and sometimes there's a need to fight, but this era of televised war had more of an impact on the next generation than we talk about as well. You're right. You know, I read a lot about World War One and Two and We had comic books of Sergeant Fury and stuff about the war and combat. But you didn't see like now they're showing them blowing up the drug boats.
Live on T V. You're right. It's a it's a totally different world and But again, we have to handle it. We have a scripture tells us the mind of Christ. If we have the mind of Christ, I guess we have to start making adjustments, right?
into how we view and what we think and I'm not too old to learn something new or change how I feel about something.
So, uh yeah. Each generation, each place is different, and we all are more familiar with. The things we grew up with, the things that were uh close to us. And I have no concept of what it's like to live in a city. I've never been close to one in my life, other than.
Um several years in a large, huge VA hospital living in the city. Oh, there in uh Long Beach, California. I had to be there for several years while I recuperated, but uh As soon as I was able to walk, we uh left and went back to the country.
So That's interesting. I want to throw this in just real quick, too. I know we're getting close to the end here, but to kind of put a cap on my statement is that I know that my generation specifically Has put out a lot of questionable things, especially when it comes to the internet, digital age, and social media. There's a lot of bad that was furthered by our generation. And I think.
Like you said, you have to be able to look back at your experience to be able to then go forward and use that experience to make a better example. And I think that's kind of the stage we're at now and have been for the past couple of years, and hopefully, we'll continue to be at. That being said, we can talk about violence and televised wars. The effects that this generation has seen firsthand, I would hope. is the reason that And again, I genuinely hope this with all my heart that we are going to start turning around and becoming the nation that we used to be again.
I mean, when you see your first terrorist beheading video at 12 years old in lunch, I think that should be enough for you to sit there and go, okay, let's make sure that doesn't happen for the next generation. Amen. Yeah, you're right. There should be enough good can be taken from this are the death the fentanyl people dying and There should be there's enough lessons every day out there You should be able to see these things that are bad, that are wrong. And they should become ingrained in your mind.
We shouldn't be living this way, we shouldn't be. putting up with some of this, we should be speaking out. And that's really what I'm hoping. People start talking, start speaking out. The Bible says we're to reprove when we see evil, and if that doesn't work, we're to rebuke.
Where did they resort? And we have to start talking to one another again and teaching and communicating and. talking about these things and bringing them up in families. And we need more of that. Family time together.
And get the families instead of everybody going their own way, and we need to go back to a lot of the old ways.
Well, scripture said, what? The old paths are the best. They work for thousands of years. They were proven to be good for us. God knows his creation.
He made us, he knows what we need. And uh He made family the center of the world for a good reason, right? Amen. So we don't need to go and try and change that. Anyway, thank you for that.
Appreciate it. I want to. look at a couple of things here as we close the show. The Bible talks about being saved by grace. I'm going to read a couple verses.
This is from Romans 5a. God commanded his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And later in And uh Chapter is verse 20. For by grace are ye saved through faith. and that not not of yourselves it is the gift of God.
We're saved by grace. The gift. Nothing we did could earn it. Justify it, deserve it. It's this wonderful gift.
That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according. To the hope of Eternal life. Joint heirs with Jesus is what it is when we're born again. Scripture tells us we're joint heirs with him in eternity. An eternal life?
Add in John. Verily, verily, Jesus said, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and Shall not come into condemnation. Good is past. From death until life. John 5:24.
And then he says. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man Their mouth.
So my hand. Jesus also said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead. yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Yes, eternal life.
In fact, in John chapter five, eleven through and thirteen. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. that ye may know that ye have eternal life. And that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Yes, Jesus was our good shepherd.
Yes.
Well Carlos Crimeans, thank you. Um We have these things written to us. We have to believe. The big key word is believe. We have this free gift that there is kind of a catch.
You see, we're born. But Free will. And because we have free will, we will make wrong choices. And sin, the wages of sin are death.
So we are all sinners. We need a Savior. And the way we get that gift of grace is, we have to call the Father, call upon the Father, and confess that our sins. Put his son on the cross. They were sorry for our sins and asked to be forgiven.
And when we've done this, then the Father will forgive. We can call on Jesus. and to ask Him to be Lord of our life. all of our life, if we are willing to give ourselves to him Completely. And he will give us that second birth, that indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God.
And that is our down payment on eternity, on everlasting life. We become then a new person, a new creature. We become a child, a son or daughter of the living God, a joint heir with Jesus in everlasting life. And You will be changed. Thoroughly forever.
You will find joy. Peace that you've never known. He will grow in the knowledge and love of God.
So Do it tonight. It is the only way to heaven. There is no other way. This is Pastor Joel looking at the clock saying he's time to say good night, folks. May God bless you all.
And always, always, always keep Fighting. The spice. The strip fight. Thanks for listening to The Voice of the Christian Resistance, What's Right, What's Left, hosted by Pastor Ernie Sanders. To learn more about our ministry, please visit us online at www.wrwl.org.
Please tune in next time for another edition of What's Right, What's Left. The preceding program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries, and is responsible for its content. This holiday season reached for the one butter that never disappoints Kerry Gold. made with milk from grass fed cows on Irish family farms, it's rich, creamy, and perfect for baking. whether browning butter for cookies or crafting the flakiest pie crust, Kerrygold's high butterfat content makes all the difference in flavor and texture.
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