Christianity & the "Cancel Culture" (Part 1)

The family policy matters in engaging and informative weekly radio show and podcast produced by the North Carolina family policy Council hi this is John Ralston, presidency, family, and were grateful to have you with us for this week's program is our prayer that you will be informed, encouraged and inspired by what you hear on family policy matters and that you will feel better equipped to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state and nation. Today we bring you part one of a two-part interview with David and Jason Benham. The Benton brothers were guest on NC families August 27, 2020 virtual event on the topic of Christianity and the canceled culture.

David and Jason are former professional baseball players real estate entrepreneurs offer speakers and profamily and pro-life advocates David and Jason welcome. It's great to have you with us today. So how are you and your families deal and in the midst of this code 19 pandemic all men were doing fine and you know I mean it. I got five kids.

Jason has four and to my boys are in college and so they will come back and it's interesting there at the ages now to where it's a child and a friend. So I basically had 10 kids at my house for the last five months back in college that is good with with covertly just really praying to God that schools would open back up while I'm in a similar, but I got signed in college and were trying to figure out what to do with all of that. So it's it's a mess, but I guess the overall comforting factor is good that God is not surprised he is still sovereign in and control over all things. But everybody around the globe is dealing in some way shape or form with this pandemic and so you know were all in this together so we can encourage each other and help each other out and just understand that you know when things get tough. Were all deal with the same thing. It gives us an eternal perspective coming, especially in America.

We were very wealthy country and we got things pretty easy. And then all of a sudden Tobit hits, and now it alters our schedules. It pales in comparison to what the Third World having to deal with, but it really gives us an eternal perspective. And so that's been something that I've been talking through with my kids. Hey guys, listen, this is not the end, and also for family that's great. Well, there are some real silver linings to this and I think the time to where we are able to spend with family and really dig in deeper. Lean into the amended and help them see how to address challenging issues like this, you know, it certainly are really important. So I David and Jason for reviewers who may not be aware of your background tell us a bit about yourselves, and particularly your experiences with HDTV well on David Mrs. Jason where identical twins will be 45 on a month and I do talk now. As always, let him go and he wears a hat because of his hair spinning back down. We live in Charlotte on the same street.

Five doors down. He can't get away from me. Of course we have nine kids. My wife is Lori his wife is Tory. We did not.

We did not try that, but that's just the way that worked but grew up in Dallas, Texas play baseball. Our dad was a pastor very strong pro-life leader of Baron Dallas even when it was unpopular and we signed baseball scholarships at liberty University.

We went played there for years. Then we got drafted. I was drafted by the Red Sox and he was drafted by a lesser organization. The Baltimore something or another Orioles of Daniel siblings yet, so we never made it to the big leagues and we got out of my league baseball I relocated to the North Charlotte area where we start a real estate company and we started based on biblical principles. We had no business training, but we use the principles of the Bible and we built our company by 2012 we had 100 offices across 35 states and just so many people working for us and we been doing very well but at that point in 2012 we started to really see a shift in culture we started to see a shift on marriage. We started seeing Planned Parenthood really build a lot of momentum and expanded and then we we started seeing that you know a lot of these business leaders and athletes and entertainers are coming out and speaking for a lot of these political and moral shifts where the believers and so Jason and I at the height of our business started speaking very strong pro-life or strong pro-marriage, and I kinda gave us a little bit of a label, but it didn't matter because at the end of 2012 HDTV reached out to us in 2013, we signed a contract straight to series reality show with HDTV. No pilot and it was an error in the fall of 14 and we were filming five weeks until a 10 week film shoot and that's when the copy of this is before canceled. Culture became canceled. Culture this is six years ago as a matter fact just a pause that story just a few months before the thought Mafia started circling me and Jason Marshall had to become not yet, but commercials were going. They had circled around Duck Dynasty with the Robertsons and targeted A&E with an 80 pause them or suspended filled but then of course they came back as that's too big of an expense to miss.

Still they got him back on that was kind of a bigshot you know and then check the leg getting targeted and we start seeing all these things and then Jason and I now Marshall had been aired yet and they started circling around HDTV's activist groups out of California and meant that will I will block your advertisers will take these guys down. Why because we spoke locally about pro-life and we spoke vocally about marriage, then those were the issues in human sexuality and and so anyway wind it up getting fired and as a result of that, we wrote a book about it called, whatever the cost, which we really believe what the gospel of Jesus Christ. People we call ourselves believers, we come to Christ and say whatever the cost right. He who loves his life will lose it. He who loses his life or maybe reality show or maybe you might get ridiculed on Facebook or maybe you might even lose a job.

We don't want that. But if you lose your life for my sake and the gospel will surely find it. So that's kind of our story.

Up to this point were still building businesses. We written four books and a and and our goal is really to help equip and encourage Christians to stand faithfully in this moment because the problem is not the presence of darkness. The problem is the absence of light.

Light always overcomes the darkness, but you not to shine the light unless you're willing to live for Jesus. Whatever. So you guys obviously have seen firsthand what's come to be known as the canceled culture I just mentioned that where people or groups who don't agree with someone's perspective essentially mount a campaign to shut them down or shut them out.

So how intense Jason with what you all went through how intense did things become in your situation well. It became so intense before we got fired that David and I actually drafted an email to HDTV and told him that whenever our show was released in the put us on talk shows specifically that talked about quickness on the Ellen show we actually said that we be quiet, because the pressure was so intense that here David Nye were no supposedly the old Christians that actually decided in order to keep our platform in order to keep our show we be willing to be quiet about our thanks.

Now, fortunately, we never sent that email HDTV. We sent it to a spiritual mentor of ours who rebuked us that man that's not who you guys are very contrived but our heart goes out to people in in the midst of this canceled culture, see David Nye felt that we felt that pressure coming at us to a point where we almost caved, but we needed the band of brothers, you know, we needed the Christian community around us and somebody close enough to us that was willing to call us out and say you're being cowards. But God is raised you up to be courageous and so we got down on her knees and repented. We ask God to forgive us and then from that point forward of Tony John we fill a liquid courage come into us. That was like I don't care who says what working to speak the truth to do it in love and in most people probably are gonna like it but were to do it anyway because that's what's called that's what's being called for right now is for Christians to stand boldly no matter what the cost is and so you know David said the problem in today's American across the world is not the presence of darkness, but the absence of light in the church.

We've got the wrong idea of light in a river speaking at your conference several years ago in and saying that most of us grew up singing the song. This little light of mine, and in that song notices don't let Satan blow it out. So in the song that the idea of life is like a candle. But when the wind comes along a buzz in a candle that the light goes out, we need to replace the image of a candle in today's cultural context with the image of a coal like the burning embers out of the fire pit in the wind.

The wind comes along and blows on that very man that extinguished the candlelight ignites the coals like and now this canceled culture what Dave and I look at that as is that Satan trying to extinguish our light, but we got the light inside of us get the canceled culture is the very thing that's can allow us to become brighter while that's awesome I tell you another recent example that made national headlines of this canceled culture was the appeal hospital that Samaritans purse set out in Central Park. You know to help treat people in New York City given Tomczak to go tonight singing early. All Samaritans purse would treat anyone who was in need in the city was quick to accept their help, but some people want them out when it came to light. That's apparent. Samaritans purse required its workers to be agreed to a statement of faith that was in line with their biblical principles only.

Even in situations that are as how dire insignificant is that this canceled culture is if you take a conservative or Christian viewpoint quite often. This canceled cultures not come after you. So just like what your son ending strong in Manhattan that vision of the efforts to extinguish igniting that cold because we want to be the light for Jesus in this world to really stand by her man to be sovereign so Dave and Jason, we seem to be seeing more and more instances of this canceled culture and a growing level of intensity and even brazen this to silence people who don't go along with the count of the cultural tides that were saying today what one of you will notice that we have things ramped up. More and more.

Definitely if it follows a pattern and in this is because we can't get into the belly of this well and a lot of time before the Lord even praying and fasting and just really God please show us like exactly what's happening and there's very various patterns that we see. But what they want to do with a conservative voice. By the way this free speech movement that was born in the 60s is now. It's not about free speech anymore. You know it's forced participation and so will we see is this radical agenda just wanted acceptance and then it says owner not we want appreciation now. Then they said no. We want you to celebrate. We want celebration and then it's become to forced participation in other words, if you're with. If you're not with us, you totally against us in and then they they demonize this by saying were against people when nothing could be further from the truth.

We love all people and so what happens is now conservatives and and believers that are standing just simply on the principles of Scripture. It would set which lead to God's blessings right God's boundaries lead to his blessings and when those boundaries are removed. The blessings are replaced with burdens, what they do is they marginalize your voice � then if you keep speaking they demonize your voice but if you keeps thinking that criminalize your voice. That's what we were were in between demonize and criminalize sunny we did the marginal unit of the marginalizing your voice and all that will 2014 with us. We have now shifted into something brand-new in 2020. So Dave and Jason as men of faith. How is your relationship with Jesus informing the way that you live your lives and engage the culture, especially considering how challenging things are these days often on the front lines, you're out there speaking but you also have jobs and families and you know the robbers meet the road every day, how are you getting all of this data that we just painted that dire picture but but we draw strength from the Scripture. We look at the book of Daniel and we see Daniel Shadrach me shack Abednego and they went through some things there that were much like what were going to today. Even worse, and and yet those guys when we like to use this analogy, they were the chocolate chips in the cookie dough culture and they mix then they didn't blend in that Their distinct form even when put into an oven so that you do you think flour and sugar and eggs and vanilla and all that stuff and you blend it altogether and it becomes one new lump of something and you take a bite of it. You don't know if you bitten flour, sugar, that's a really good egg. I mean it's all blended together. But when you put the chocolate chips in it and you take a bite. You know that you been a chip because the chocolate chips are made of something different and even when they're put into the other and they keep their distinct form and Dave and I say that today is a great day to be alive that we just need to be who it is that Christ made us to be and let our faith live through us and when we do, people are going to notice that they felt was someone who's been with Jesus been listening to family policy matters. This is been part one of a two-part interview with David and Jason Benham were guest on NC families virtual event on Christianity and the canceled culture. Be sure to tune in next week for part two of this program to listen online and learn more about NC families work to inform, encourage and inspire families across North Carolina on our website it NC family.org that's NC family.org. Thanks for listening and may God bless you and your families