Episode 241

You don’t have to go very far in searching the headlines to read something that leaves you flabbergasted. This is the next installment of the Bonkers series of the Removing Barriers Podcast. We discuss Fauci’s testimony before Congress, the continued legalization of medically-assisted suicide in the states, the differences between the transmissions of Artemis 2 and Apollo 8, medical school deans that cannot define the genders, and so much more. It could be tempting sometimes to drown out the noise and ignore it, and some others allow it to consume them as they rage against it. We hope this series sheds a light on the headlines to expose the depth to which we have fallen as a nation, that it would galvanize us to keep our eyes on Christ and increase our love for the lost and win them to Christ.

[MCG]

But there’s a difference between a safety net and a hammock. Socialism is going to turn the government into a hammock. And that’s what we don’t want.

[Jay]

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG. And we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

This is episode 241 of the Removing Barriers podcast. And this is the 19th in the series of This World Has Gone Bonkers. And in this episode, we have lined up a number of news articles that we think show that this world is bonkers.

[Jay]

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things removing barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net slash donate. Removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

All right, Jay, let’s start with you. What’s your first article?

[Jay]

My first article is from religionnews.com. Faith has always gone to space. Artemis 2 shows how much it has changed. This article is comparing the lunar missions of both Apollo 8 and Artemis 2. Artemis 2, of course, having taken place in 2026 and Apollo 8 in 1968. Both of them were missions to go to the moon. Both of them took pictures of the Earth from the moon. Both of them utilized the famous lunar trajectory where they basically did a slingshot around the moon. And in both of those missions, the astronauts radioed a transmission back to Earth, reflecting on the mission and reflecting on the particular holiday or special day that the mission took place. So the article begins on Monday of April 6th, that’s April 6th of 2026. NASA astronauts were finally about to commence Artemis II’s flyby of the moon. the first such close observance of Earth’s satellite in nearly 60 years. The 4 astronauts had spent days in the Orion spacecraft hurtling toward the moon, and they were about to travel farther away from Earth than any other human being in history. But moments before the crew would enter into roughly 40 minutes of radio silence as they passed behind the moon, The voice of astronaut Victor Glover, who has been open about his Christian faith and worships at Churches of Christ congregations in Texas, crackled over the broadcast channel to offer a message of love. Victor Glover was one of the astronauts on that mission, and this is what he said, quote, as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries here on earth, and that’s love, said Glover. Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that is, it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said this, I give you equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself. Glover added, And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth, and to all of you down there on Earth and around the Earth, we love you from the moon. The article continues, The spiritual appeal recalled perhaps one of the most widely broadcast moments of religious expression. the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, when three astronauts read from Genesis on live television as they too orbited the moon. Both missions also happened to coincide with religious holidays. Apollo 8 circled the moon on Christmas Eve, and the 10-day Artemis mission overlapped with the Christian celebration of Easter and the Jewish holiday of Passover. but for all their similarities, the four astronauts participating in the Artemis II mission have collectively showcased A broader, more pluralistic approach to public religious expression than the three men who rode aboard Apollo 8. It’s a subtle change, and I would argue not so subtle, that showcases NASA’s evolving relationship to public displays of faith, a tonal shift that likely traces its origins to the legal challenges that followed the reading of Genesis aboard the lunar module back in 1968. When the astronauts of Apollo 8 made their transmission back to Earth before they passed the backside of the moon, where they would lose radio transmission, they actually got in trouble for that. I believe it was the ACLU that brought a lawsuit against NASA on the grounds of freedom of religion or something like that where it was inappropriate for a government entity like NASA to allow for the reading of scripture from the Christian Bible because that somehow diminishes the religious rights and freedoms of everyone else who perhaps doesn’t believe in or follow the Bible. And so apparently with the Artemis II, NASA has taken a more, as the article says, a more global, more pluralistic approach to the reading of scripture. And basically what that means is that it’s completely toned down and the gospel is stripped of the truth of the essential truths. If you compare what Apollo 8 astronauts read, they read directly from Genesis chapter 1. There were three astronauts, William Anders, James Lovell, and Frank Borman. William Anders read from Genesis, he read verses 1 through 4. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. From there, James Lovell continued with verses 5 through 8, which read, And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night, and the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And then for the remaining verses, verses 9 through 10, Frank Borman read, verses 9 through 10 say, And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good. Then Borman ended the transmission saying, and from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with goodnight, good luck, a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth. I find that the transmission was so completely different from what the transmission was for Artemis II. Not only do you have a reading from the very word of God, but an affirmation of that word when he says, God bless you, all of you on the good earth. That, of course, being a reference to God at every stage of creation, declaring it good, declaring it good, declaring it good. And I find that to be striking. Bonkers in the sense that we have strayed from believing the text, honoring and looking to and drawing inspiration and hope and truth from the word of God. We’ve done that collectively as a people where it was not considered odd or strange to read something like that. When you consider the magnitude of looking at Earth from the distance of the moon, I can’t even begin to imagine what a trip that was and to realize how incredible creation is and the intelligence that God has imbued us with that would enable us to create the technology, the machinery that could travel so far and allow us to see the earth from outside of the earth, something that was not able to be done in centuries prior. And so attributing to God the glory that he’s due, seeing the creation from that vantage point and attributing to God the glory that he is due. That was 1968. That was only 60 or so years ago, maybe less than a little less than 60 years ago. And fast forward to today where, I mean, God bless Victor Glover. He still at least mentioned the name of God. He mentioned the Lord, but it was considerably more toned down and open to interpretation by anyone who was reading it. Because if all you say is Jesus was a good teacher and he told us to love one another and to love God and love one another, well, that’s true, but you’re also leaving out the fact that Jesus is God, number one, and that he’s the creator. I know this sounds like I’m splitting hairs, But it sounds like the Christian message was taken and presented in such a way where it was diluted and made palatable to more people, whereas Genesis 1 as read in 1968, on Apollo 8 was straight from the scripture, affirming that God created the heavens and the earth, affirming that God called it good. It just seemed like to be a little bit of a dilution there, and I know that he did as much as he could in light of the history of litigation against NASA on this particular thing, but it came across as a little bit diluted. And I hate to say that because he didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. He did say that we’re unlocking the mysteries of the cosmos, which is true. He said, Christ said, in response to what the greatest command is, it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, he said to give you something equal, love your neighbor as yourself. It’s A diminishing, in my thought, maybe I’m just finding something to pick at, to just only refer to Christ, who was there, who laid the foundations of the earth. a great teacher. Now the argument can be made that he wasn’t referencing creation and he was talking about the greatest command is to love God and love others. But we also know that the word love has been distorted and redefined in our current climate. So when you say love, the people of 1968 would have understood that God is love. But now what we say is love is love and love always wins and love can be whatever you want it to be. Love is defined by whatever we say it is, whatever we’re feeling, whatever we’re thinking, whatever is socially acceptable. That’s what love is. It’s not uncommon to travel throughout our neighborhoods, our cities, our counties and just to see huge posters of the word love. But as a people, as a culture, as a society, we don’t understand what love is any longer. I just find that to be a stark contrast where you are an astronaut, hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth, and you’re able to turn around and take a picture of the globe with these, of course, highly specialized cameras that they have. Take crystal clear pictures of the Earth that God himself created and merely say, love each other, Jesus was a great teacher. And I find that to be a more diminished, diluted message compared to the broadcast that took place in 1968. The article continues and says, much of the God talk on the Artemis mission centered on Glover, who is also the most publicly religious astronaut on the mission. By the way, Victor Glover is a member of the Churches of Christ in Texas. From what I understand, you might be able to correct me on this, Churches of Christ require baptism for salvation because the Doug Dynasty men were Church of Christ as well, were they not? And so I think… Yeah, they’re Church of Christ. I think one of the tenets of the Church of Christ is a requiring of baptism for salvation. But at any rate, he’s the most publicly religious astronaut on the mission. He brought a Bible along with him for the 10-day journey in space, which is something that he’s done before. And he had… communion cups sent to the ISS in preparation for his arrival so that he could take communion while he was up there in the International Space Station. But that was when he was traveling with SpaceX, not with NASA. At any rate, in November of that year, he suggested that he plan to worship virtually with his church while in orbit, and that was during the early stages of COVID-19. So he’s very public about his faith. He doesn’t shy away from it. But still, I find that to be quite different from what we saw on Apollo 8, nearly 60 years ago.

[MCG]

Well, as you said, the culture back then and the culture now is two completely different things. So bunkers, yes. Surprisingly, no, because the country has gone through a lot of change.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

And you’re right. So, yeah. Anyways, my first article I have is med school deans, some medical school deans come up empty, intent fearing when acts Point blank, if man can have babies, ridiculous. That’s the title of the article. And there’s a video associated with it. So instead of me reading it, I’m going to play the video of these medical school deans being grilled in Congress.

[Jay]

I’m sorry, before you do that, MCG, these are deans from medical school.

[MCG]

Yes.

[Jay]

My goodness.

[Medical School Deans’ Hearing]

From Illinois, Ms. Miller.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Hippocratic Oath states that physicians will, quote, do no harm or injustice to their patients. Unfortunately, many medical schools have abandoned this oath not only by advocating for abortion and child mutilation, but also by allowing political activism into the exam room in the form of DEI and anti-Semitism. Medical schools should be teaching the next generation of doctors and nurses to save every life and protect all those under their care, even the unborn, which thanks to technology, we have a window into the womb. They are babies. This committee will continue to investigate these schools to ensure they are complying with federal law and reserves the right to withhold funding from any institution in violation. Dr. Benedetti, the University of Illinois College of Medicine is one of the largest medical schools in the country. And with that, you have a profound responsibility to properly train our next generation of providers. Has UICM complied with President Trump’s executive orders to eliminate federally funded DEI programs? We, in person– Yes or no?

To my knowledge, we did everything we could.

UICM affirmed that it will, quote, I quote you, not react preemptively to actions made by the current administration, insinuating that the medical college does not intend to comply with directives issued by this administration. Also troubling, Dr. Benedetti, it appears that DEI has not left UICM. On your school’s about page, clear as day it says, and I quote, at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, we are committed to diversity and inclusion. We have a number of programs and initiatives in place to promote diversity and inclusion. It’s clear that UICM is just hiding the fact that DEI is still its core mission. Dr. Haygood, UCSF’s classroom guide titled Framework for Gender and Sex Concepts in Teaching advises against using the term pregnant women. Instead, it says to use pregnant people. Who are pregnant people compared to pregnant women? Just curious.

[MCG]

And remember, these folks have degrees in science, biology, chemistry, physics. I guess in this respect, biology is the most important, but they probably have doctorate in these studies. Let’s see what they have to say.

[Medical School Deans’ Hearing]

So that is a part of a curriculum to help our students who are facing a wide diversity of patients. Of course, the vast majority of pregnancies are in women, and I have absolutely no problem with using the word pregnant women. I use it myself.

Has a non-biological woman ever had a baby? That’s not a biological woman. Has a non-biological woman ever had a baby?

I would reiterate, we take care of transgender patients.

Okay, Dr. Hawgood, the UCSF guide I mentioned earlier also advises using a child’s self-reported gender identity even if it conflicts with the parents’ wishes. Say a seven-year-old boy comes into your doctor’s office and reveals he believes he’s a girl. Is UCSF advising physicians to explicitly violate parents’ moral values and have the doctors address this boy as a girl?

Our programs are consistent with federal and state law. We undertake comprehensive psychological mental health evaluations. and work with the parents on these issues.

Okay, and I hope that you are consistent with the law.

[MCG]

I’m being proper and politically correct.

[Medical School Deans’ Hearing]

Because like I say, we reserve the right, we have the right to withhold funding from any institution in violation. Lastly, Dr. Dubinet, a required course at UCLA Medical School, advises OBGYN students not to, and I quote, assume gender identity. Okay, from another class in May of 2026, it included a disclaimer that while it uses the term she and women, it does not intend to exclude, and I quote, those who have a uterus but do not identify with these terms. What does that even mean?

I’m not familiar with that announcement. I’d have to read the entire thing.

[Medical School Deans’ Hearing]

Okay, I hope that you go back and check it out. Can someone have a uterus but not be a woman? Because it seems like your school is promoting that ridiculous idea.

I think again, as Dr. Hoggood has described, we’re treating transgender people, but we’re doing that in compliance with state and federal law.

And you do teach biology?

Yes, we do.

Yes, this is curious. So you, I’m going to ask you again, can someone have a uterus and not be a woman? Just say yes or no. Can they?

Again, I would have, I would…

That’s what your medical school is promoting. The gentlelady’s time. Mr. Chairman, it’s clear these medical schools are hiding DEI curriculum under the guise of medical access. Gentlelady’s time has expired.

Thank you.

[MCG]

So there you have it. So Deans from three medical schools in the US, publicly funded, mind you, and they can’t answer whether or not simple basic biological questions. Well, it’s not they can’t answer it, it’s that their political correctness have superseded their scientific knowledge and training. So they do know the answer to these questions. They are trying their best, quote unquote, not to offend. And I guess at the end of the day, it’s the epitome of our culture today. when Trump got in the office, a lot of folks think that DEI and all these things are dead. What they actually did was basically rename the offices and continue the same practices. And they have their toes and their fingers crossed that in a couple of years, the Democrats will be back in and this thing will resurface itself. Same as we have seen in the WNBA right now, where they are still struggling to define a woman. So I guess this thing is not going to go in our society. But the truth offends and they don’t want to offend supposedly the transgender or the LGBTQIA plus community. And they do so at the detriment of science, which they claim they believe in. But anyways, that’s what I have.

[Jay]

I suppose we should ask them, how is it they first reference the Hippocratic Oath that said first do no harm. I’m so flabbergasted, I don’t even know how I’m trying to ask this question. How is it harm to address the biological reality, especially in a medical setting.

[MCG]

No, I think that the senator or the congresswoman is the one who referenced the hypocritical, not them.

[Jay]

Yes, but see, what, okay. What the deans and the teachers at these med schools are saying is that, and what they’re teaching their students is that you cannot assume a gender. They kept saying, we’re treating transgender patients, we’re treating transgender patients. Well, my question is, they have to take the Hippocratic Oath just like anyone else that seeks to practice medicine. How is it harm to address the biological reality that your patient is living in?

[MCG]

Because when your software doesn’t align, it will be mental anguish if they’re told the truth. So you’ll be…

[Jay]

So confirm them in their delusion.

[MCG]

So you’ll be unloving.

[Jay]

Okay, so then we need to ask the very real question. This is not standard medical practice because we don’t do that for schizophrenics. We don’t do that for people who are clinically depressed. We don’t do that for people who are manic. We don’t do that for anyone that has any other type of medical or, I’m sorry, mental illness that would be identified in the DSM-5. Why, for this particular issue, is this the standard of care?

[MCG]

Politics.

[Jay]

Well, then if that’s the case, then we need someone to stand up and say, okay, you want to be nice to the transgenders, great, but you need to provide them with standard medical care, and it is not standard medical care to confirm someone in their delusion. If someone…

[MCG]

I see where you’re going, but what she should have asked rather than sticking on the same line of questioning, because obviously they’re not answering the question whether or not they have ever seen a non-biological woman with a uterus or having a baby. What I would probably ask them is this. Have you ever seen a trans woman with a uterus? Because obviously if you’re a trans woman, you’re a man, you’re biologically a man. So I would want to know, okay, just curious of all your studies and your practice, have you ever seen a trans woman with a uterus?

[Jay]

She did ask them that, I think.

[MCG]

No, she did. She activists in someone who’s not a biological woman, I think. But she did.

[Jay]

Anyway, she asked that question, but she didn’t word it like that.

[MCG]

I’m going with the wording. I’m not going with the stuff because her wording was constantly appearing like she’s attacking the chance. Maybe if she asked it the other way, she might look a little bit more supportive. Just by two cents.

[Jay]

This is incredibly dangerous because there are certain medications that are gender specific, hormones, perhaps levels.

[MCG]

It doesn’t matter when you come to chance because most of them probably already taken blockers and the opposite gender hormones anyway.

[Jay]

Well, okay, yes, but if we’re talking about many of these medicines that are prescribed, there’s like this mathematical formula based on gender and weight and things of that nature that you would determine just how much to give a patient. There’s so many implications for not dealing with in reality that someone absolutely has to stand up and put their foot down on this. And that doesn’t mean that we hate trans people or that we don’t sympathize or empathize with their particular condition.

[MCG]

I think that’s, I’m not defending them, but I think that’s in place because you have heard of women going to have their posturates test, right?

[Jay]

Women going to do what?

[MCG]

Have their posturates test. Check. The trans woman, they go in and they, instead of getting a pass me, they get the apostate tricked. They already accommodate for that. It’s just that they’re not going to refer to the person as a man. As ridiculous as it is.

[Jay]

My goodness.

[MCG]

So anyways, what’s your next article?

[Jay]

All right, so my next article is along the same vein of medical or the abuse of medicine in this particular case. And this is titled MAID Legalized in New York. MAID, of course, standing for Medical Aid in Dying. And I initially was going to read. an article, but I’m going to go ahead and just read what New York is saying about this. I just did a quick search on the internet to find out when this actually happened. Okay, so medical aid in dying, also called MAID for short, was legalized in New York in February of 2026. And the law took effect on August 5th of 2026. So this makes New York the 14th jurisdiction in the U.S. to authorize this option for terminally ill patients. Now, I’m reading now from the End of Life Choices NY.org website. And I think that the state of New York set this website up, or someone in New York set this website up in order to answer people’s questions about who who can use MAID, what are the circumstances in which MAID would be appropriate, and all of these different things. So medical aid in dying is defined as a process by which a patient and their doctor provide care to shorten death with a prescription for life-ending medication. The patient must self-administer this medication if he or she chooses to do so in order to have a peaceful death. And so it gives information about where you can go to get more information, and there’s information about who can use medical aid in dying. And here are the bullets. A candidate must, one, be at least 18 years old, be a New York State resident, have a diagnosis of a terminal illness. Two doctors must agree that a patient has a prognosis of six months or less to live, and be able to understand and reason through their choice to hasten their death. Next, they have to be able to make an informed decision. A psychiatrist or psychologist must confirm this ability. Next, they have to make a spoken or written request for medical aid in dying. Two people must witness this request. Witnesses cannot be relatives, and they cannot benefit financially from the person’s death. And finally, they have to be able to take the medication themselves. So Governor Hochul signed this legislation in February of 2026. It became enforceable and legal in August of 2026, I’m sorry, implemented in 2026, August of 2026, and it’s currently legal in 12 other states, which are Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Colorado, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, New Mexico, New Jersey, Delaware, and Illinois, and DC, although DC is not a state. It’s It goes on to explain as if it’s trying to explain itself that MAID is rarely used. Only one in 300 deaths occur in this manner in states where the practice is legal. And about one third of patients who obtain the medications do not take them. However, dying patients are enormously comforted to know that this option is available. This is interesting because Canada legalized MAID and that was in 2024. MAID in Canada right now represents 5.1% of all deaths in Canada. legalized in, oh, I’m sorry, I got it wrong, legalized in 2016. And in 2024, MAID represents 5.1% of all deaths in Canada. So if that’s how quickly MAID is growing in terms of the cause of death, imagine what it would be like in New York. This is a situation where someone is at the end of their life and they’re taking their life into their own hands. and they are killing themselves. This is no different from suicide. It’s only medically assisted. I’m having a hard time understanding how this is any different from suicide, the suicide that we’re working so hard to try and prevent. Theoretically, we’re trying hard to prevent in this country.

[MCG]

Well, when the doctor is involved, I guess it’s not, but this is all over Europe as well. Europe has legalized this. I’m going to even assume long before Canada.

[Jay]

It’d be interesting to know when exactly this came to.

[MCG]

This is pretty prevalent in Europe.

[Jay]

The thing about MAID is that this stems from a worldview where Christ is not king, he’s not Lord, he’s not the Savior. And so you have to take things into your own hands so that things can be the way that you think that they should be. The problem is it puts man in place of Christ. And Of course, we talked about how that’s the norm in our society now when we were talking about the Artemis 2 compared to Artemis 8. But I hope that as Christians, we’re seeing how this post-Christian worldview is affecting literally every area of our lives. We are no longer upholding the Word of God publicly. It’s a problem if we do and the ACLU gets involved and there’s litigation. We can’t tell if a boy is a girl and a girl is a boy, and we can’t tell anyone otherwise if they think they’re one or the other. Even to our medical schools, this is a problem. And now when it comes to how our lives end, we wanna take that into our own hands too and do as we see fit. And the Bible talks about what happens to society when every man does what’s right in their own eyes. It’s never a good thing.

[MCG]

Not only that, this is nothing new. We cheapen life on the front end with abortion, though we cheapen it on the back end. What the government is all about, are you useful for us in terms of can you work and pay taxes? The moment you become, quote unquote, a burden, the government is going to get rid of you. And as we, the country, goes more and more towards socialism, we’re going to see more and more of this. You’re not productive, so Let us help you hasten your demise. And secondly, we no longer see life as a gift from God. We no longer see us made in the image of God. As we go to a more ungodly society, these things are going to happen. They’re going to be more abortion. They’re going to be more medical assisted suicide and every which way that you can think. This is just, you know, either we’re a microcosm of our society, basically, that what happening now. Again, bunkers, but not surprising because especially in New York, which has been run by the Democrats for a long time. And I think most of those states you mentioned, all of them are Democratic-run states. Maybe except one or two exceptions might be in there, but all of them are Democratic-run states. So that’s where the country is leading.

[Jay]

Well, you mentioned socialism. That’s going to be my third article, but there seems to be so much more there. seems to be this, we seem to be running toward the edge of a cliff without any regard for the fact that it’s going to make a train wreck of society. It’s already making a train wreck of society. And it seems to be under the guise of this, they call it toxic empathy or toxic sympathy. I can’t remember. I think it’s toxic empathy where, oh, you’re suffering or you don’t think that you are what you are. Okay, we will accommodate and coddle you in your delusion. It’s the same thing with divorce rates in this country. We talked about that in the last bonkers where the overwhelming majority of women are pursuing divorce And their reasons for divorce are, I don’t want this to sound harsh, because I can understand that if you let your feelings run away with you, it can feel like the world is ending. And I don’t want to negate some of the different reasons for divorce that people mention. That’s not the point of this particular podcast, but the very frivolous reason that people are ending their marriages. frivolous reasons that they’re divorcing or the frivolous reasons they’re pursuing abortion or the very reckless and sinful lives that people are living that will lead toward abortion or toward divorce or toward all of these other things that are cancers on society. It’s nothing short of demonic. What’s driving all of this is nothing short of demonic.

[MCG]

Yeah, end times, I guess. Yeah, as I said, I think the Bible made it clear in Timothy that, you know, are just going to continue to progress that way in terms of men shall be love of themselves, boasters, barbiters.

[Jay]

Haters of God.

[MCG]

Yeah. So we’re getting there. And of course, that doesn’t mean that it negates our command to go out and witness. And because as long as we are still up on earth, Christians are still up on earth with the Holy Spirit, we can definitely offer some change through the saving power of Jesus Christ, transforming power of salvation of the gospel. But also have to acknowledge that it’s not going to all of a sudden turn back into the 1800 where people might be a bit more religious or at least maybe this sin wasn’t as well known as it is today. So yeah, as we say, it’s bonkers. Anyways, you’re listening to the Removing Barriers podcast in the middle of another bonkers episode. We’ll be right back.

[Jay]

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[MCG]

All right, Jay, so my second article, and again, bunkers, but not surprising, but you might want to grab one of those, what do they call those bags they give you on the plane or on the ship when you have to chop?

[Jay]

A barf bag?

[MCG]

You might want to grab one of those because who knows, maybe this is the reason why The Bible command women not to be preachers, but anyways.

[Jay]

Okay, what is the?

[MCG]

Here is a, I think she’s a united, let me get it right. I lost it. But anyway, she’s like a united church or something like that.

[Jay]

Okay.

[MCG]

Preacher, pastor. Here’s what she has to say about John 14:6.

[“Reverend” Flowers]

I am the way and the truth and the life. And here’s the kicker, no one comes to the Father except through me. Now, for centuries, for millennia, Christians have used those words as a proof text to do all kinds of awful things in the world, to punish people for not being Christian or not being their version of Christian, to punish or condemn people for all kinds of beautiful diversity that we see in the world, not to bless the world, but to condemn it, all kinds of awful things have come from those little words. Now here’s the thing, before we even dive in, we have to get one thing straight. Jesus did not come into this world to preach and to teach a my way or the highway kind of religion. Oh my word. Absolutely not. And in every other one of the gospels, people come to Jesus and they ask him point blank, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And in the gospel of Mark, Jesus’ answer is this, follow the Ten Commandments, love God, be an ethical person, do the right thing. And where the person who’s asking, how do I inherit eternal life follows up and says, well, who is my neighbor? And he says, the person who is on the way to eternal life, the person who has got it, who loves God and loves their neighbor, it can even be a Samaritan, somebody who is not of our religion, not of our tribe, not of our ethnicity, and worships God in a completely different way. That person can inherit eternal life. So again, to make a claim that Jesus in the Gospel of John is now preaching and teaching this radically different message that you have to follow God in a certain way, you have to say the Jesus prayer just like this. You have to be part of our tribe or you have to be part of our faith or you have to claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior or you won’t get into the kingdom of heaven makes no sense. When you look at it in light of this consistent character of Jesus. Jump into my hands, Jesus is saying. Look into my eyes. I am the way into this pool. And we as Christians get to jump, get to leap, not because it is an exclusive experience, but because it’s authentic, because it is true alongside other truths in the world. And so this is my heart and my hope for you, that when you encounter this scripture, and maybe you’ll encounter some Christians who think very differently about it, you’ll be able to explain to them and help them understand that anytime you’re talking about the Gospel of John, and especially anytime you’re talking about a conversation with Thomas, Jesus is not to be taken literally, but metaphysically.

[MCG]

All right, so her name…

[Jay]

Sorry, I’m having a conniption over here. Let me just straighten myself out. Okay, go ahead.

[MCG]

Her name, and I’m going to put this in quote, is Reverend and the Flowers of the United Church. All right. So you heard what she said. And there’s a lot of things. Of course, she’s preaching salvation by works. And we have an episode on that. If you want to search our records, we talk about salvation by works. And the Bible make it clear. Ephesians two, verse eight and nine. For by grace are you safe through faith and not of thyself is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Or you can just go to the book of Galatians where the Bible talk about practically the entire book dismiss salvation by works so I don’t know where she got that from secondly of course she’s attacking the exclusivity of Christ we had an episode on that as well the exclusivity of Christ and I will give her this she would have had a point if that was the only verse that talk about the exclusivity of Christ If John 14, six, I am the way, the truth and the life was the only verse out there and she said, hey, Jesus didn’t mean it that way. He was only talking to Samos. Samos was one of those knuckleheads, hardheaded disciples that had to be shown the written savior to believe, had to put his hand in his side and see him to believe. But no, the Bible is full of verses that show the exclusivity of Christ. But before I even get into those verses, thirdly, here’s what she did. Genesis 3, 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, had God set. That’s exactly what she did. She attacked salvation through Jesus Christ alone. She attacked the exclusivity of Christ and she attacked the word of God itself. And she’s just being just like her father in 44, and ye of your father, the devil, and the loss of your fathers will he do. That’s exactly what she’s doing. But now to the verses that she left out, because we know it’s line upon line, precept upon precept, a little here and a little there. So let’s look through scripture and see if there’s any other verses that will say the same thing or basically the same thing as John 14:6. Well, how about Acts 4:12? Neither is there salvation any other. Seem pretty exclusive to me. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Seem again pretty exclusive to me. Isaiah 43, 11, I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior. Very exclusive. First Timothy 2, 5 and 6, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified due time again seemed to be very exclusive Romans 10:9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved if thou shalt confess with thy mouth who not Muhammad not Buddha not some metaphysical, whatever you want to call it. The Bible makes it clear, Jesus Christ. How about John 10.9? The Bible says, I am the doer. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. I shall go in and out and find pastor. Again, pretty exclusive. Hebrews 10.19, have it therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Again, very exclusive. Second Corinthians 5.17 and 22. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Romans five one. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in Galatians two 16, knowing that the man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. And those are just a few verses that I pulled up, but we can go on. So, Miss Anna Flowers, what about all the other verses? What about all the verses that tell us, basically tell us Jesus is the way? He say he’s the door. They say that if you be in Christ, by the blood of Christ, It seemed pretty exclusive to me.

[Jay]

This is the same God that struck down Nahab and Abihu, Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire before the Lord. This is the same God who obliterated Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin. This is the same God that drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea. This is the same God I don’t understand how you can read whether it’s Old Testament and New Testament and not see God’s absolute vehement detestation of sin or of any other way of worship or any other way besides him. It’s impossible to read the scriptures as a whole and come away with the idea that somehow there are many ways to God. Is she not concerned that she’s going to have to stand before the Lord and answer for this teaching? Because I mean, for those of you listening, there’s a video here. She’s up in front of the congregation teaching men and women.

[MCG]

She’s the reverend of the church.

[Jay]

She’s the reverend. What?

[MCG]

Well, that is not even the most egregious thing. So I’m just simply saying, but of course, she has no fear of God and she has no fear of hanging his word. The Bible declared that he exalt his word above his very name. So you want to fiddle with the word of God like that. And of course, she would attack the exclusivity of Christ because she believed in work-based. And if you believe in work-based salvation, performance-based salvation, then how is your work any different from mine? You know, the Muslims feel the same way too. When you think about it, when they talk to a lot of Muslims, They talk about their works, how much they pray and how much they do this thing. And they figure, as long as you’re doing good, I’m doing good, we’re all good. So there are many roads that leads to Rome. Except we’re not trying to get to Rome, we’re trying to get to heaven. And the Bible said that there’s one way. But anyways.

[Jay]

Yeah. Man, that was shocking.

[MCG]

What’s your third article?

[Jay]

My third article is titled. Sannidar loses to socialists in Democratic primary for Congress. This is from Axios. I’m probably mispronouncing his last name. That’s not intentional. But state representative Donovan McKinney bested two-term incumbent representative Sri C. Sannidar in Tuesday’s Democratic primary to represent Michigan’s 13th congressional district. So basically a Democratic socialist has defeated a Democrat for that congressional seat. So this is a collection of different articles that I pulled up, which can be surmised in the statement that Democratic socialists are making significant headway in winning elections in other political contests, left and right. And that should be something that we should not want and we should pray about and that we should fight against. Socialism is defined as any various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of production and the distributing of the goods is owned collectively or by a central government. And that central government plans and controls the economy. It’s a stage, when you’re talking about Marxist-Lenist theory, it’s that stage between capitalism and communism. It’s communism lite. And in this system, the means production are either collectively owned or it’s completely taken over by the government, which is basically communism. But there are so many different variants and flavors of it. Each one is part of a gradient between socialism and communism, so that you can call it all communism, you can call it all socialism. There are much smarter and much more read and studied men and women who have studied this, and even they have spent their lives identifying and understanding this problem. But it’s essentially a completely classless society that has not yet been achieved successfully in history, by the way. But in the United States, we seem to be running headlong toward this. Democratic socialists, which are a subset or a faction within the Democratic Party that are so much more revolutionary, so much more leftist than regular Democrats in the party. And the Democrats have a real problem on their hands because they’re winning. In fact, in this particular instance, McKenney beat Theenander, and Theenander used to be a democratic socialist, but even he got to the point where he was like, okay, y’all, this is a little bit too socialist for me, I’m out. And because he was not socialist enough, he was bested by McKenney. And I have a list of Democratic socialists, like open Democratic socialists, like card-carrying Democratic socialists who have won political contests. Here in the last, we’ll just say in 2026, we have, again, everyone knows Zoran Mamdani, who won both the Democratic mayoral primary and the seat of mayor in New York. We have Katie Wilson, mayor of Seattle. Daria Eliza Avila, who won in New York for the U.S. House Democratic primary in New York. There’s Claire Valdez. There’s Mila Quiros, that’s in Colorado. Janice Lewis George in D.C. And all of these are open, card-carrying, hard left, progressive Democratic socialists. And they’re winning their contests.

[MCG]

EOC is Democratic Socialist too. But I come from a country in the Caribbean that is technically a socialist country. The government owns, well, the first of the government is our biggest employer and healthcare is basically free. Education is free. And I put free in quotation marks. But here’s what I discovered upon coming to the US for college. Americans on a whole don’t realize what they have. They look at other countries and say, if they get sick, they have health care for free and all these things. But yet they don’t want any other things that come with it. And they believe they can adapt the policies without experiencing the consequences. The policies may look good. I don’t have to pay for health care. But what does that look like for other stuff? What does that look like for you wanting to go to Europe for the vacation? And again, maybe that’s not even important. What does that look like in your electric bill? What does that look like in your central heating and cooling that you enjoy so much in this country? Because what is going to happen? You’re not going to have enough income, disposable income, I probably should say, to enjoy the other things in life because the government is taking so much of it in terms of taxes or you’re not going to own anything. So there’s a lot of things you have to take in consideration. Of course, it’s not necessarily full-blown communism if you want to save Venezuela or Cuba, but it’s not too far behind. The people constantly look to the government for solutions when most of the time the government don’t have any solution. And if the government do provide a solution, is by digging their hand deeper in your pocket. And talking about class, who are rich in the country I’m from? The politicians. They are rich. They are the people at the top of the society. You know who are rich in the US? Business owners. Why? Because in this country, we reward hard work. If you look at the richest people in this country, the Bill Gates and the Elon Musk, for most part, all of them are business owners. Of course, there are some people that inherit their wealth, but they inherit their wealth from a business owner. A business owner. And then who are the second richest in this country? As a business owner, I think it would be entertainers. Talking about your sports people, your actors, your name it. Ours today probably fall second. And then maybe 1/3 or 4th might be the politicians because they fatten their own pockets. But the thing is that the highest of the highest in terms of wealth is not the politicians, it’s not those people. But in communist countries, who has the most riches in Cuba or the Fidel Castro? Fidel Castro. Who had the most food at his table? Fidel Castro. So if you’re not a part of the elite in a socialist or communist community, you’re not going to be enjoying the privileges that you have now under capitalism. And of course, you can go on and on about the merits of capitalism, but I just realize or observe within myself that Americans don’t appreciate what they have. Even this is something as simple as being able, and of course, I know this is not always in every city and every area in the US, but if I’m fed up with lows, I can drive a mile and go to Home Depot or go to Ace or go to some other hardware store. In many of those countries, you have one. So there’s no such thing as customer service. You’re fed up with your grocery store, you can go to another one. In many of those countries, you have one. And the selection might be two types of bread, one type of cereal, whatever the case may be. So warn to you if you have any food allergies. So I’m not simply saying, I think I’ve experienced both. I can tell you, I don’t think they are prepared for what is coming. They just think that their school bills are going to be paid, education is going to be free, they’re not going to be saddled with, you know, student loans for the rest of their life because things are going to be free. And to some extent, yeah, would your student loans be forgiven? Sure. But what good is that going to be for you without your freedom? Nothing. But also I’ll say this, though, because I think they say that what it is, like 80% of members of their Democratic Social Party or association, or whatever they call themselves, DSA, about 80% are college educated. The 80 or 70% are college educated and another 30% also have gone beyond bachelor’s. So what does that tell you?

[Jay]

Indoctrination is happening in the colleges.

[MCG]

Indoctrination, that’s one, two. They started with student loans debt and they come to economy that says, hey, all thing you have to do is get this piece of paper and you’re going to be making money and all these things. So this is a long string of stuff. I honestly think that the way we do student loans, we need to quit that. Stop giving 16 year old and 17, 18 year old hundreds of thousands of dollars to go into debt to get a degree in left hand puppetry. They’re not going to make any money. Stop having the government be the banker or the backer of all these loans. And that will force the colleges to bring down their prices and maybe force them not to teach nonsense like we see with these medical deans at these medical colleges.

[Jay]

Right. So the government- And also all of the DEI requirements that they fill as well.

[MCG]

But the government based on blame here because the economy is a mess for most part. We had the inflation from COVID. Of course, it may have slowed down, but the prices are still 20% higher than they were in 2020. They may not be going up as fast now, but families are struggling. Let’s be real about it. That’s why this has been attractive to young people and people with degree because they’re saying, hey. I did everything society tell me to do. I went to college, I get educated and all these things. I still can’t get ahead. I still can’t find a job that pay me 100 or $150,000 per year for me to be comfortable, be able to pay my bills, and the list go on and on. So there are two sides here. I’m not defending democratic socialism, of course, but I think also that we need to restructure and say, hey, Are we doing these young people justice by allowing them to go 80, 100, $150,000 in debt for a degree that’s not going to pay them that? Or employers that don’t care about your degree but care about your experience, and they’re going to come out of college being offered $40,000, $60,000 per year, and they expect to be making $150,000 the same as the guy on the other end of the aisle with 20 years of experience? There’s a lot to go around on that day.

[Jay]

When you were describing the country that you come from, and it sounded very much like the US when you said the government was the largest employer, the government is the largest employer here in the States too. There’s free this, free that, free school, free this, free that. And I wonder if this has been happening to the country incrementally. Just bit by bit we’ve been inching toward socialism, inching toward communism. It says here in this Gallup poll, that was recently taken, more than 66% of Democrats have a positive view of socialism. 66%. And that’s a staggering statistic, but there’s hope in that there are still people who believe in what the scriptures say about work, what the scriptures say about how we are to organize ourselves as a society. The Bible is very clear that he that does not work shall not eat. And so there’s no way that you can incentivize an economic system or that you can have an economic system that incentivizes all of the vices. And you can’t follow scripture and promote or even follow an economic model like that because socialism will incentivize everyone who has borrowed more than they can pay back or that is not productive or name it, they take money from the productive and redistribute it and share it with those that are not. And they call that an economic system that’s preferable to capitalism. Capitalism, of course, being that system which rewards ingenuity. It rewards hard work. It rewards people making an effort to make their lives better. And there’s hope in that as individual families, we can teach our children otherwise. We can pull them out of the school systems. We can start family economies. that teach them the value of hard work, the value of a dollar. We can create parallel economies and also bring families together within, say, a local setting, whether it’s a church or whether it’s a neighborhood, whatever it is, families of like mind that can support and not support, what’s the word when you… Patronize like when you’re only buying from a particular provider because your values align. You know, doing all of that to create a parallel economy so that we don’t have to partake in this incremental socialism that this country has been experiencing. We don’t have to put our kids in these schools. We don’t have to participate in that economy. We don’t have to do any of that. There’s hope in the scriptures and we can, in this country, still follow biblical principles and choose a different future and a different reality. for our families and for our children, while all the while reaching out to the world that’s inching toward this ungodly economic system and pleading with them, showing them a better way. Because as you mentioned, MCG, it’s a foregone conclusion that once you graduate from school, you got to go borrow uber amounts of money to go to college for a degree that’s not going to serve you. That’s what everyone’s been doing for the past however many decades it’s been. And we as Christians have a unique opportunity to show them, you don’t have to live, we don’t have to live like this. Sadly, many Christians are living like this because we’ve bought into the world system, but we don’t have to live like that. And we see that socialism is not right. It has never worked. It has never been successful. Just the other days, Oran Mamdani was being questioned about these grocery stores that he’s going to open up in New York that are government-run grocery stores. And he made it explicitly clear in a few words that the government store would be determining who gets to shop there, what they can buy, how much of a product that they can actually buy. I think I already mentioned what actual products qualify for them to buy. Who wants to live like that? Who wants to have the government telling you what loaf of bread you can buy, how many loaves of bread you can buy, whether or not you can buy a bag of chips, and which chips you can buy? This is insane. And I wonder if America has to run the experiment for them to realize that this is a bad idea, because it seems like, as I said twice already in this podcast, that we seem to be running headlong into this chasm with no regard for the repercussions both for ourselves and for our future, our children.

[MCG]

Well, I think the majority of this country don’t want socialism or democratic socialism. But if we continue the trend that we are on, more and more people are going to come on there because of their, one of it is their crazy college debt, as I mentioned before. Well, you know, they say capitalism fosters greed, but what they’ll overlook is socialism fosters laziness. And people are going to be, hey, If I can get it free, why do I work for it? Let’s go on YouTube or on TikTok or one of these social media places and see people that are able-bodied, young, and some of them even working, going to food banks to get food. food so they can use their money to do something else besides buying food for themselves, which is, of course, for the most part, ridiculous. And it’s happening now. some of these ladies, their hair’s done, their nails done, everything is done, their makeup is on point and everything, but they’re driving in line and getting food put in the trunk of their vehicle, driving better vehicles than you and me, but they’re getting their food for free. because we can foster that laziness. To some degree, because we live in a pluralistic society, the government does, to something, you have to be a safety net to other people in terms of maybe even you lost your job and you go to the government to get some kind of money back because you put money in or whatever the case might be. We can make an argument that should be the church, but we’re in a pluralistic society. But there’s a difference between a safety net and a hammock. Socialism, we’re going to turn the government into a hammock, and that’s what we don’t want.

[Jay]

The good thing is that Christ is the answer. Sometimes we do these bonkers episodes and we might leave feeling like there’s no hope because how can a society possibly believe or do these bonkers things, but we can take comfort in the fact that Jesus Christ is absolutely the answer for all of these things. I know that sounds cheesy or perhaps cliche to say, but whether or not it’s the devaluation of life at the beginning or at the end, or whether it’s mental illness and transgenderism, or maybe it’s the pollution of all of our institutions with DEI and other ungodly theories and practices, or whether it’s the incremental in the viability of socialism in a country, or at least the thought that it could be a viable option in the country. All of these are very dire and things that would cause us to worry if we didn’t have hope in the Savior, if we didn’t have the answer in scripture, if we didn’t have the scriptures telling us that actually every human being is created in the image of God and is therefore precious, life is precious. If we didn’t have the scriptures telling us male and female created he them, If we didn’t have the scriptures telling us that, yes, indeed, God created the earth and it was good, if we didn’t have the scriptures telling us that he that doesn’t work doesn’t eat, you know, if we didn’t have the scriptures telling us these things, it would be a dire situation, but it’s not. Even though it seems like it is, it’s not. We have hope, we have Christ, we have the scriptures. We really ought to be. sharing the gospel with our neighbors, our friends. If we are members of a church, whatever they’re doing to share the gospel, we ought to be joining with them in order to share the truth of the scriptures abroad. The earth and everyone around us are suffering. because of a lack of the truth. And much suffering that’s taking place happens on the individual level where people have given in to despair and so they are suffering in that particular way or they are suffering because they’ve subjected themselves to the spiritual and emotional and mental burden of knowing what you ought to do and not doing it. That’s another kind of suffering in and of itself. Scripture has answer for all of these things and as Christians we should be faithful to reach our neighbors, reach our friends, reach the guy at the grocery store even with this truth because everyone is affected by this. Everyone is affected when this institution or that business model or this neighborhood is infiltrated by insert ungodly theology or principle or economic system there. Everyone is affected by it. And so, okay, I’m off my soapbox now.

[MCG]

Yeah. Anyways, my final article, final bunkers, Dr. Anthony Fauci, please the fifth. All right, so this is Josh Hawley. at least a portion with Josh Hawley where Josh Hawley was grilling Dr. Andrew Fauci. And of course, as you probably have heard by now, during that Senate hearing, investigation, whatever you want to call it, Dr. Andrew Fauci plead the 5th 111 times during the hearing. And this is what he said. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. And he repeated that phrase 111 times during the Senate hearing. Here is Dr. Anthony Fauci versus the U.S. Senate.

[Dr. Anthony Fauci Senate hearing]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, nothing says honesty like taking the 5th, doc. Let’s try something. What day of the week is it today?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

What color tie are you wearing?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

What color is the carpet in front of you?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Let’s just get one thing straight. You don’t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you’ve been pardoned, as you very well know, as the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more. Brown versus Walker, 1896, when he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege. You know that. Your lawyer is sitting behind you now shifting nervously in their chairs. They know it. This isn’t about the Constitution. This isn’t about the law. This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people. But I think I know why you’re doing it. It’s because you don’t want to answer questions. It’s because you did all kinds of terrible things. It’s because during the pandemic, you got rich, didn’t you? got rich while people were dying, hundreds of thousands of Americans, over a million in the end, and you were getting rich. And not only were you doing that, you were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally. Cash prizes totaling over $1,000,000. You did all of that during the pandemic, didn’t you? That’s a question.

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

[MCG]

All right, there you have it. So Dr. Anthony Fauci pleading the Fifth. Here’s what I think. Firstly, if I had the power, I would rename the Fifth Amendment the Fauci Amendment. So when… Someone gets pulled over by the police or read the Miranda rights, they can say, I plea the Fauci.

[Jay]

I plead the Fauci.

[MCG]

Anyways, I really think that should happen. But here’s my unpopular take on this. Dr. Rand Paul, Republicans, Josh Hawley, whoever it is out there that want to see Dr. Anthony Fauci science prosecuted, follow Disney advice and let it go. It’s not going to happen. It’s just going to be a jag out. You’re going to be already political. He’s already divided. This is something Republicans want to do. Democrats don’t care about doing it. On and on and on. He’s 85. COVID is long gone. I understand a lot of people were hurt. A lot of people are still suffering because of, quite honestly, what Dr. Andre Fauci did. And do we deserve answers? Yes, we do. Are we going to get them? Probably not. So I will say, man, just let it go. Let it go. I don’t care to see Dr. Anti Fauci jack before courts after courts after courts at this point. Just let it go. But anyways, Josh Hawley said that he doesn’t have the protection of the Fifth Amendment or the Fauci Amendment because he was pardoned by Joe Biden. Of course, Joe Biden pardoned him for like a 10 year period or whatever his name would he did with his son. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t be persecuted by the state. And Florida is already talking about persecuting him. So he probably could still exercise his fifth because of that. So I’m not 100% sure that Josh Hall is right there, but I’m no lawyer. But of course, is he being ridiculous what the color tie you’re wearing and you’re playing the fifth? Of course. Is he throwing contempt for the hearing? Yes, he is. But man, let him go. Let it go. Anyways, I have a follow up video on this. I’m going to probably play a minute, minute and a half of this and then I’ll let you jump in.

[FoxNews Follow up]

Breaking news, Dr. Anthony Fauci could now face criminal prosecution. A Senate panel has voted to hold him in contempt of Congress. And this new development as well, investigators just got a copy of his COVID-era iPhone. I’m Harris Faulkner. You are in the Faulkner Focus. Here is Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul.

This committee and the American people have a right to know why Dr. Fauci’s agency funded dangerous research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and what role he played in approving and overseeing it. Documents tell only part of the story. Many of these questions can be answered only by Dr. Fauci. He answered none of them.

Well, if you watched this last week, you saw the drama. Fauci reading off a piece of paper invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times. during subpoenaed testimony. He says he fears a politically motivated prosecution. Chairman Paul says former President Biden’s huge pardon, sweeping pardon for him remove that risk, unless, of course, Dr. Fauci lies under oath. Senators now also have a copy of Fauci’s government iPhone, and it could give them even more COVID-era records as well. They have already released more than 1,000 pages from Fauci’s private journals. The entries show him tracking his sudden fame. He was gushing over all of his television appearances, friends calling him a national hero, and even donuts and T-shirts were being named after him. This morning’s contempt vote could now open a major court fight. Here’s Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley.

What Fauci is saying is that I’m really not protected without the privilege because there may be questions in ongoing state investigations or new questions that would put me at risk. What Chairman Paul is saying is that you can’t be prosecuted for anything that you did or said during that period. All you could be prosecuted for is perjury, and you were always under that risk.

[MCG]

All right, so I’m going to cut it off there, but there you have it. Dr. Anthony Fauci plead the 5th 111 times. And as bonkers as that may be, I think that we should take it a little bit further. Rename the Fifth Amendment to the Fauci Amendment. Anyways, what’s your take?

[Jay]

Rename the Fifth Amendment, but let the guy go. This is something that’s a little tough because when you are in a position like that and any decision that you make is going to be lauded by some, denounced by others, and there’s always the chance that someone’s going to come after you because you didn’t do what they wanted you to do. So there’s that. However, with everything that happened with COVID-19, it seems so unjust that no one will be held accountable for all of the trickery and all of the things that actually went wrong and how it was all mishandled. Of course, they can say that hindsight is 2020, but if no one is held accountable, then that means that anyone can take advantage of the next crisis and the next and the next. And that Clinton axiom of never let a, what did she say, never let a crisis go to waste or something along those lines will be upheld each and every time. And we’ve already lost so much confidence, not just in our government, but also in our institutions, that it seems wrong to allow this to go unpunished or at least to get down to the bottom of exactly what happened. If we say let him go, let him go, then all of this gets swept under the rug. And so when the next thing comes around, It’s 2019, 2020 all over again.

[MCG]

Well, that’s true, but I’m not saying, as I said, would I like to see answers? Yes. Are we going to get answers? Probably not.

[Jay]

Probably not.

[MCG]

So this persecution of Dr. Andre Fauci Science is just going to be political. And today the Democrat get in power again, it’s all over. He’s going to be pardoned. He’s going to be let go. Of course, unless it’s by a state. I’m just saying, I don’t think the country needs this. Just my opinion, but.

[Jay]

Do you think the country should establish or institute stop gaps or something, put something in place to prevent something like this from happening again.

[MCG]

Sure, but I’m sure those things were already in place. The laws were just ignored. But anyways, dishonorable mentions. I have one. This is out of Miami-Dale County. Killer laughs as judge hands down life sentence in Miami-Dade murder. Marcus Terry, who was found guilty of second degree murder for killing his cellmate inside the Miami Dale County Jail, laughs as he is sentenced to life in prison. You know what I think about this? I think the death penalty need to come back. Here you have a career criminal already in jail, already spent his life or most of his life in jail, kill his cellmate. And they just say, know what I’m going to do? I’m going to give you life. And you just laugh. What else can you do to me, Judge? I’m already spending life. What else can you do? I think we really should bring back the death penalty. That’s my take on this crazy story. Laughing as you handed down your sentence.

[Jay]

Yeah, I don’t have any, but the idea that he would just laugh, that shows a level of contempt for the system as well, which, you could make the argument. Many people have made the argument that the system is corrupt and that it needs a complete overhaul, if not an abolishment and establishment of something else. But his laugh was not just, oh, you know, what else can you do to me? It was also contempt there where he didn’t care. And even though it’s his life that he’s thrown down the toilet, it’s his life, but he didn’t care. And that contempt You see in him is the same contempt that you see when you haul people in front of Congress and they’re refusing to answer. It’s the same contempt that you see in the deans of medical colleges that we were talking about earlier that have absolutely no regard for the sound medical instruction of their students. Instead they’re more concerned about filling in their DEI quotas and implementing DEI procedures and all these different things. There’s this contempt for truth. There’s this contempt for what’s right and what ought to be because they view the system, they view everything as something to be manipulated, something to be wielded, not something that we ought to be living by. There’s contempt all throughout, not just in the people, in the institutions, in our leaders as well.

[MCG]

Let’s say I accidentally bonkers, do you agree with us? Do you just happen to agree with us? Again, not because medical deans don’t know the difference between a biological man and a biological woman, or you play in the 5th because you’re afraid of persecution by the state or whatever, but do you happen to agree with us? And the question as usual is, what are you doing about it? And As I all don’t manage, if you’re saved, you’re born again, you’re unable to heaven, I just encourage you, saturate your Jerusalem with the gospel of Jesus Christ. May be true that we can make this world a little less bonkers, but if not, at least we’ll take another soul with us to heaven where we know it’s not bonkers.

[Jay]

This is the Removing Barriers podcast. If the podcast or the blog were a blessing to you, leave us a rating and a review on your favorite podcast platform. And don’t forget to share the podcast with your friends. Removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us, to support this podcast, or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the Removing Barriers podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.