May 5, 2025 • 19 mins
Topics discussed
- Are Drag Queen Parades free speech?
- A ayman's history of the Catholic Church and how thier influence over the past 500 years has changed, and how the hierarchy is set up
- More good news on the war front
go to jimwatkins.org for more
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
And welcome to another edition of America TODAY.
Jim Watkins, I'm your host. In the next hour, we'll take a
look at the big stories. The most interesting stories
only are allowed on this program.
Very selective and a kind of an interesting weekend.
I know a lot of weather problemsaround the country that they've
got what they call the Omega system right now.
So a lot of folks in the Southwest and also areas in the
(00:34):
South northeast are going to be getting a lot of wet rain this
this week. You're going to be hearing a lot
about it, a lot of flooding in places like Texas and, and also
in the northeast too. But the good news is that the
northeast drought will will subside after these these
systems move through. In my neck of the woods, an
interesting story has erupted. A drag queen show wants to have
(01:00):
a parade and in years previous it's in Naples, FL.
It's a big controversy, or at least the the local news media
is making it sound like a big controversy.
But, and it's disingenuous too, because when they report on the
fact that well, here's the story.
So a group called Naples Pride, and this is interesting because
(01:21):
a lot of people, millions of people come to Naples every year
as tourists. So it's an interesting
situation. It's sort of an upper class,
very conservative area, althoughnot as conservative as say, Fort
Myers up north and almost at thesame kind of keel as Sarasota,
which is Uber blue. And, and an organization called
(01:46):
Naples Pride wants to have a drag queen show.
And now, you know, this means that you have men parading
around wearing lascivious outfits and, you know, doing
weird things with their, their bodies in full display.
And I'm always contended that it's a circus show.
I don't know why people get enjoyment out of watching drag
(02:08):
queen performances. These are adults who've chosen
whatever they've chosen. I'm, I'm not against them.
I don't, I don't have any dispersions to cast.
But it it is viewed as not appropriate for young children
because young children is obviously what's this spectacle?
What's this man doing dressed upas a woman?
(02:28):
Or is it a clown? I'm not sure.
And what's that thing, what's that thing that's hanging?
You know, it's just it's it's not appropriate according to
many parents. And I tend to agree.
And the law is because of Governor Ron DeSantis is that
this is inappropriate. And, and it's because they were,
(02:48):
they were doing it in schools, you know, they would have a, a
drag queen library day. And this has offended a lot of
parents, rightfully so. Introducing sexual lace content
to young kids is simply not appropriate.
Now, according to the local news, it's a First Amendment
(03:09):
right because this year, the Naples City Council wanted to
Jack up the rates for their Pride festival, their Pride
parade, which again, is nothing more than a drag queen
exhibition in public display under the guise of it being a
parade to celebrate Pride. And the local City Council
(03:33):
decided, well, we're going to Jack up the rates.
And also you have to do it indoors.
You can't do it outside. You do it indoors.
People over 18 can come, they can enjoy it, but no kids.
That's according to the new state law.
Now the Naples Pride organization is saying that it's
a violation of their First Amendment rights.
(03:53):
And the way that the media portrays it is it is about their
First Amendment rights that they're being censored or in
some way cancelled. And they're not.
They're just being asked to pay a much more exorbitant fee for
the privilege. And the city says, well, now we
got to hire cops because we don't know what kind of
protesting there might be involved.
(04:15):
People don't really want this. So the question for you is, do
you think that having the ability for men or anyone really
to dress up in sexually provocative where and to and to
do this in full display, do you think that people have a First
Amendment right to do that? That is the question.
(04:39):
And so, you know, feel free to go on jimwatkins.org and, and
let me know what you think aboutthis.
If you want to leave a message about it, I'd be happy to share
it with the national audience. But I'm just curious what where
you sit because this isn't an isolated event.
It is actually a trending event.You're seeing more and more of
this because you have organizations like ACLU and of
(05:02):
course, the LGBTQ lobby, which is very, very, very powerful
today in education, in entertainment, certainly at
Disney. And so I'd be curious to get
your opinion. So just go to jimwatkins.org.
On the homepage to the right, there's a voicemail tab, or you
can just click the contact button and send us your
(05:23):
response. Do you think it is a First
Amendment right to be able to have a drag queen performance,
which is defined as men dressingup as women in sexually
provocative gear to the attention and exposure of young
children? There you go.
All right, so the other interesting thing to me on this
(05:44):
program today is this whole process of picking the next
Pope. And the reason I find it
interesting is because I, if you, if you read my book
Godless, which is out now, Godless on Amazon, how
totalitarianism is going to destroy, how secularism is going
to destroy civilization. And in it I talk about how the
(06:10):
church used to be what the Communist Party is today.
In many ways, the Church was thefinal authority, and the bishops
and the Cardinals and all of these agencies that work to
support the Vatican. And we're talking about the 15th
century, 14th century. This was before the Age of
(06:32):
Reason and the Age of Science and the Age of Enlightenment.
The Church was it. They were a part of every
process. And in many ways similar to what
you might see if you were to go to Iran or a theocratic country,
you would see the moral police. You would not be allowed certain
things. You could be accused of witchery
(06:53):
or sorcery or heresy, and they had a a stranglehold.
And this was part of why I won'tgo into the long history of it,
but This is why we had certain factions break off, including
the pilgrims and many of those who came to America to get away
from the overpowering Roman Catholic Church.
So what we have today is is a shell of its former self.
(07:18):
It does have the spiritual authority and it's certainly
they have the largest Christian or you know, members of the
Christian organization in the world.
It's like 1.2 billion consider themselves Catholic.
And it's an interesting thing because, for example, the Pope
is the ruler, obviously he is the supreme pontiff, the car of
(07:40):
Christ. You can trace the, the Pope's
lineage all the way back to Peter, one of the apostles, one
of the 12 apostles. And that's where they get their
authority from. It's very interesting, the
hierarchy, and I didn't know a lot of this.
I was kind of doing some readingover the weekend.
So below the Pope are the Cardinals.
They're the ones that are appointed by the Pope.
(08:02):
So the Pope actually chooses theCardinals and they are the
senior church officials. So if you think of it kind of
like a business hierarchy, you've got the Pope who is more
or less the CEO of the Catholic Church, and then you have the
executives, the Cardinals, they advise the Pope.
They elect a new Pope. That's what they're doing this
(08:25):
week. By the way, I think Zoom would
be a very helpful to this process if we wanted to move it
along a little quicker and rank.Now this is interesting.
Cardinals rank not a separate Sacramento rank, but a title of
honor and function. So they don't have a lot of
authority, but they do have the ear of the Pope.
(08:45):
And then below the Cardinals arethe archbishops.
That's where things get a littleinteresting.
So you got the Pope, then you got the Cardinals as sort of the
executive branch. And then below them are the
archbishops. And their role is to take care
of the archdiocese. And there is archdiocese all
over the world, and they're a more prominent Diocese of
(09:09):
historical importance. This is why you have the
Archbishop of Canterbury. These are long established
positions of power on the local level of the church.
So they oversee a region of local churches.
Now the bishops fall below the archbishops.
Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we'll talk a
(09:31):
little bit more about what's happening and why it matters.
Really, it is an interesting anda fascinating event in world
history. We'll get to all that.
This segment of the program of America Today is brought to you
by Southwest Florida dreamhome.com, Southwest
floridadreamhome.com. Let the journey begin.
Investment Property Looking for a new change in
(09:51):
lifestartyourfirststep@swfloridadreamhome.com.I am not a Catholic, so you'll
(10:13):
have to forgive my ignorance on this, but I I do find religion
to be very interesting to me andI've done a lot of research
historically on religion and I am a faithful Christian, Jesus
loving Christian, and so this matters to me on a couple of
different levels. We were talking in the previous
segment about how the hierarchy of the Catholic Church really
(10:34):
operates and it it it is an interesting and fascinating.
It's something that it's evolvedover 2000 years.
So to me, I have special interests and let's face it, the
Western culture, Western societymost closely resembles and
reflects the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And now I know that many people today, Oh no, you know, it's
(10:57):
doesn't what Western culture also represents science and all
this, you know, it's reason and it's secular.
And that's what gives us its strength.
And, and all that may be true, but our, our, our Greek
inheritance of their ideas of philosophy, and then the
inheritance of the Roman ideas of law and order, and then the
(11:17):
Christian ideas that sprang, that gave dignity to human, the,
the human individual, which led to of course, the Magna Carta.
And of course, our own founding fathers were heavily influenced
by Christian teachings, and indeed the first settlers to
this country were trying to escape religious oppression so
(11:40):
that they could practice their faith unfettered, which is a
very important aspect of the Constitution.
Yes, America is a pluralistic society and that it was a lesson
hard learned from the overbearing Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church had its tendrils in everything.
And how did they have that power?
Because they could determine whether you're going to go to
(12:03):
heaven and spend eternal life with God or if you're damned to
hell. And that was a very frightening
and it still is and probably should be.
It's a very frightening concept when you think of terms and term
of eternity. So in, in the hierarchy of
things, you've got the Pope onceagain at the top, followed by
(12:25):
the Cardinals, sort of his executive branch.
Then you've got the archbishops and they're the ones that sort
of keep things in key on the on the local level or the regional
level with the different churches.
And then under the archbishops are the bishops and their role
is to lead a diocese, a regionalgroup of parishes, which are
(12:48):
churches. And their function is to have
Sacramento authority, including ordination and confirmation.
So they can do things like baptisms and I imagine they
could do confessions if they wanted.
And and then there's a group below the bishops were the
auxiliary bishops and they assist in the day-to-day affairs
(13:10):
of of the different parishes andregional groups of churches.
So then you've got the priests, and the priests are the ones
that come into contact with the people the most.
They're the ones that you'll sitand you'll confession, give
confession. They're the ones that'll conduct
the services on Sunday and conduct Mass.
(13:31):
And they serve under the authority of the bishops.
And their function, obviously, celebrating Mass, hearing
confessions, performing sacraments.
I don't know who would be, I guess, would they be also
involved in exorcism? I'm not sure.
It seems like that's always the priest that shows up to do The
Dirty work and they're, and they're on the ground and
(13:52):
they're the ones closest to the people.
And it's, it is a great thing. I, I think it is a great thing
when maybe if you're not a religious person, it's going to
mean nothing to you but to me tohave men.
And I, and I do believe that women should be priests.
I think that was a failing of Paul's vision.
I think Paul was was very anti woman in his day and that effect
(14:17):
had an an imprint. And there's also the argument of
celibacy. You know, for a priest to be
totally dedicated to the preservation of Christ and for
the service of the church, he'd have to have his priority set.
So that's why they have, they don't want to and also is
because the priests in the old days were having a lot of kids
(14:38):
and and they had too much power and that was a problem.
Then you have the deacons and the deacons role is to assist
the priests and the bishops. See, I always thought the
deacons were a little bit higherup, but I guess they're below
the order of the priests. Now.
Many of the deacons go on to be priests themselves, but the ones
that don't, and that's merely serve as deacons can get married
(15:02):
because they're not on the trackto priesthood.
And so their function is to preach, perform baptisms, the
deacons, witness marriages, and serve in ministries of of
charity. Sounds like an interesting
occupation. And this structure ensures both
unity and effective pastoral care across the global church.
(15:23):
And it's taken 2000 years, 2 millennia for this organization
to become cohesive. So today it seems more
ceremonial, but in its day it was a very powerful, even more
powerful than kings. And in fact, when I believe it
was what Charles the one of the Henry the Fifth, he he wanted to
(15:47):
divorce his wife and the church would not give him that ability
because he was a Catholic. And and he said, well, screw
you, I'm going to I'm going to have the Church of England.
Thank you very much. And that caused a schism.
And then for 80 years there werewars all over Europe, 80 years,
this conflict between the power of the church and the power of
(16:09):
the state, and the state eventually won out actually.
And then when, if you remember how many people were persecuted,
Galileo Galilei was persecuted. Many of these scientists were
were screaming for knowledge andenlightenment and they felt that
it came at a cost. They would be basically be
excommunicated if they violated the church and the church was
(16:32):
very secretive. It still is.
That's why they have a conclavesin secret.
They don't tell you what's goingon.
So that's sort of an overview of, of the church.
And again, you know, I, I, there's a part of me that
appreciates the, the symbolism and its representation of Christ
on earth. But on the other hand, I think
(16:53):
it's hollow. I think the Catholic Church is,
is somewhat hollow because they,well, for example, Pope Francis
took great pains in reminding all of us that it was our moral
duty to allow refugees to come in unfettered and look at the
mess that has caused in the social discord.
(17:13):
And the, and the church doesn't really have an answer to that
one. And, and there's a lot of
political things that the churchshould stay out of.
But on the other hand, they provide the moral fabric in many
ways of our of our society and our culture.
And that's why I think we're seeing more immoral behavior
because the church has lost its,its savor, as Christ would say.
(17:37):
All right, so that's it. And then we just wait and see.
Now I'm not into the, the, the fine minutiae of how they're
going to pick the next Pope, butI hope the next Pope is not as a
communist. And I think Francis was a
communist and that was my issue with him.
Communism is is anti thetical toChristianity.
(18:00):
Communism reduces the man to a unit who serves the greater good
at the behest of whoever happensto be in power.
In the system we have now where the individual and his
representative and our representative government, it's
it's again, it's it's contradictory to the communism.
(18:21):
What have you believe that man has no soul and that we are all
equal in the eyes of what the government?
All right, So Elon Musk is now gone.
He's left the building. He says he has no regrets about
creating doge and letting them. And they'll continue their
efforts to try to reduce. They've done a great job.
(18:43):
Over 200 billion saved. They found a lot of the the
leakage and a lot of people aren't happy.
That's why people who are big fans of the status quo hate Elon
Musk. He came in and cleaned house and
now he's got his own city. It's called Star Base.
It's out of the middle of nowhere.
It's about a mile of space, you know, a few city blocks.
(19:07):
They've got a City Council to the members on the City Council
work for SpaceX. The mayor also works for SpaceX.
One of the things about becominga city is that they can now
start charging a tax, which is interesting, isn't it?
But that's what pays for the water.
That's what pays for the electricity trash pickup.
(19:28):
So star Base, Texas, America's newest city.
How about that? That guy, just he, he just
doesn't know how to stop, does he?
I don't know. Did you think he did a good job?
Has your opinion changed about Elon Musk?
I'd love to hear from you. Go to jimwatkins.org.
That's where we archive our podcast also gives you an
opportunity to make your voice heard on America Today.
(19:48):
It's real simple. Jim watkins.org and we will
continue.
And welcome to another edition of America TODAY.
Jim Watkins, I'm your host. In the next hour, we'll take a
look at the big stories. The most interesting stories
only are allowed on this program.
Very selective and a kind of an interesting weekend.
I know a lot of weather problemsaround the country that they've
got what they call the Omega system right now.
So a lot of folks in the Southwest and also areas in the
(00:34):
South northeast are going to be getting a lot of wet rain this
this week. You're going to be hearing a lot
about it, a lot of flooding in places like Texas and, and also
in the northeast too. But the good news is that the
northeast drought will will subside after these these
systems move through. In my neck of the woods, an
interesting story has erupted. A drag queen show wants to have
(01:00):
a parade and in years previous it's in Naples, FL.
It's a big controversy, or at least the the local news media
is making it sound like a big controversy.
But, and it's disingenuous too, because when they report on the
fact that well, here's the story.
So a group called Naples Pride, and this is interesting because
(01:21):
a lot of people, millions of people come to Naples every year
as tourists. So it's an interesting
situation. It's sort of an upper class,
very conservative area, althoughnot as conservative as say, Fort
Myers up north and almost at thesame kind of keel as Sarasota,
which is Uber blue. And, and an organization called
(01:46):
Naples Pride wants to have a drag queen show.
And now, you know, this means that you have men parading
around wearing lascivious outfits and, you know, doing
weird things with their, their bodies in full display.
And I'm always contended that it's a circus show.
I don't know why people get enjoyment out of watching drag
(02:08):
queen performances. These are adults who've chosen
whatever they've chosen. I'm, I'm not against them.
I don't, I don't have any dispersions to cast.
But it it is viewed as not appropriate for young children
because young children is obviously what's this spectacle?
What's this man doing dressed upas a woman?
(02:28):
Or is it a clown? I'm not sure.
And what's that thing, what's that thing that's hanging?
You know, it's just it's it's not appropriate according to
many parents. And I tend to agree.
And the law is because of Governor Ron DeSantis is that
this is inappropriate. And, and it's because they were,
(02:48):
they were doing it in schools, you know, they would have a, a
drag queen library day. And this has offended a lot of
parents, rightfully so. Introducing sexual lace content
to young kids is simply not appropriate.
Now, according to the local news, it's a First Amendment
(03:09):
right because this year, the Naples City Council wanted to
Jack up the rates for their Pride festival, their Pride
parade, which again, is nothing more than a drag queen
exhibition in public display under the guise of it being a
parade to celebrate Pride. And the local City Council
(03:33):
decided, well, we're going to Jack up the rates.
And also you have to do it indoors.
You can't do it outside. You do it indoors.
People over 18 can come, they can enjoy it, but no kids.
That's according to the new state law.
Now the Naples Pride organization is saying that it's
a violation of their First Amendment rights.
(03:53):
And the way that the media portrays it is it is about their
First Amendment rights that they're being censored or in
some way cancelled. And they're not.
They're just being asked to pay a much more exorbitant fee for
the privilege. And the city says, well, now we
got to hire cops because we don't know what kind of
protesting there might be involved.
(04:15):
People don't really want this. So the question for you is, do
you think that having the ability for men or anyone really
to dress up in sexually provocative where and to and to
do this in full display, do you think that people have a First
Amendment right to do that? That is the question.
(04:39):
And so, you know, feel free to go on jimwatkins.org and, and
let me know what you think aboutthis.
If you want to leave a message about it, I'd be happy to share
it with the national audience. But I'm just curious what where
you sit because this isn't an isolated event.
It is actually a trending event.You're seeing more and more of
this because you have organizations like ACLU and of
(05:02):
course, the LGBTQ lobby, which is very, very, very powerful
today in education, in entertainment, certainly at
Disney. And so I'd be curious to get
your opinion. So just go to jimwatkins.org.
On the homepage to the right, there's a voicemail tab, or you
can just click the contact button and send us your
(05:23):
response. Do you think it is a First
Amendment right to be able to have a drag queen performance,
which is defined as men dressingup as women in sexually
provocative gear to the attention and exposure of young
children? There you go.
All right, so the other interesting thing to me on this
(05:44):
program today is this whole process of picking the next
Pope. And the reason I find it
interesting is because I, if you, if you read my book
Godless, which is out now, Godless on Amazon, how
totalitarianism is going to destroy, how secularism is going
to destroy civilization. And in it I talk about how the
(06:10):
church used to be what the Communist Party is today.
In many ways, the Church was thefinal authority, and the bishops
and the Cardinals and all of these agencies that work to
support the Vatican. And we're talking about the 15th
century, 14th century. This was before the Age of
(06:32):
Reason and the Age of Science and the Age of Enlightenment.
The Church was it. They were a part of every
process. And in many ways similar to what
you might see if you were to go to Iran or a theocratic country,
you would see the moral police. You would not be allowed certain
things. You could be accused of witchery
(06:53):
or sorcery or heresy, and they had a a stranglehold.
And this was part of why I won'tgo into the long history of it,
but This is why we had certain factions break off, including
the pilgrims and many of those who came to America to get away
from the overpowering Roman Catholic Church.
So what we have today is is a shell of its former self.
(07:18):
It does have the spiritual authority and it's certainly
they have the largest Christian or you know, members of the
Christian organization in the world.
It's like 1.2 billion consider themselves Catholic.
And it's an interesting thing because, for example, the Pope
is the ruler, obviously he is the supreme pontiff, the car of
(07:40):
Christ. You can trace the, the Pope's
lineage all the way back to Peter, one of the apostles, one
of the 12 apostles. And that's where they get their
authority from. It's very interesting, the
hierarchy, and I didn't know a lot of this.
I was kind of doing some readingover the weekend.
So below the Pope are the Cardinals.
They're the ones that are appointed by the Pope.
(08:02):
So the Pope actually chooses theCardinals and they are the
senior church officials. So if you think of it kind of
like a business hierarchy, you've got the Pope who is more
or less the CEO of the Catholic Church, and then you have the
executives, the Cardinals, they advise the Pope.
They elect a new Pope. That's what they're doing this
(08:25):
week. By the way, I think Zoom would
be a very helpful to this process if we wanted to move it
along a little quicker and rank.Now this is interesting.
Cardinals rank not a separate Sacramento rank, but a title of
honor and function. So they don't have a lot of
authority, but they do have the ear of the Pope.
(08:45):
And then below the Cardinals arethe archbishops.
That's where things get a littleinteresting.
So you got the Pope, then you got the Cardinals as sort of the
executive branch. And then below them are the
archbishops. And their role is to take care
of the archdiocese. And there is archdiocese all
over the world, and they're a more prominent Diocese of
(09:09):
historical importance. This is why you have the
Archbishop of Canterbury. These are long established
positions of power on the local level of the church.
So they oversee a region of local churches.
Now the bishops fall below the archbishops.
Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we'll talk a
(09:31):
little bit more about what's happening and why it matters.
Really, it is an interesting anda fascinating event in world
history. We'll get to all that.
This segment of the program of America Today is brought to you
by Southwest Florida dreamhome.com, Southwest
floridadreamhome.com. Let the journey begin.
Investment Property Looking for a new change in
(09:51):
lifestartyourfirststep@swfloridadreamhome.com.I am not a Catholic, so you'll
(10:13):
have to forgive my ignorance on this, but I I do find religion
to be very interesting to me andI've done a lot of research
historically on religion and I am a faithful Christian, Jesus
loving Christian, and so this matters to me on a couple of
different levels. We were talking in the previous
segment about how the hierarchy of the Catholic Church really
(10:34):
operates and it it it is an interesting and fascinating.
It's something that it's evolvedover 2000 years.
So to me, I have special interests and let's face it, the
Western culture, Western societymost closely resembles and
reflects the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And now I know that many people today, Oh no, you know, it's
(10:57):
doesn't what Western culture also represents science and all
this, you know, it's reason and it's secular.
And that's what gives us its strength.
And, and all that may be true, but our, our, our Greek
inheritance of their ideas of philosophy, and then the
inheritance of the Roman ideas of law and order, and then the
(11:17):
Christian ideas that sprang, that gave dignity to human, the,
the human individual, which led to of course, the Magna Carta.
And of course, our own founding fathers were heavily influenced
by Christian teachings, and indeed the first settlers to
this country were trying to escape religious oppression so
(11:40):
that they could practice their faith unfettered, which is a
very important aspect of the Constitution.
Yes, America is a pluralistic society and that it was a lesson
hard learned from the overbearing Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church had its tendrils in everything.
And how did they have that power?
Because they could determine whether you're going to go to
(12:03):
heaven and spend eternal life with God or if you're damned to
hell. And that was a very frightening
and it still is and probably should be.
It's a very frightening concept when you think of terms and term
of eternity. So in, in the hierarchy of
things, you've got the Pope onceagain at the top, followed by
(12:25):
the Cardinals, sort of his executive branch.
Then you've got the archbishops and they're the ones that sort
of keep things in key on the on the local level or the regional
level with the different churches.
And then under the archbishops are the bishops and their role
is to lead a diocese, a regionalgroup of parishes, which are
(12:48):
churches. And their function is to have
Sacramento authority, including ordination and confirmation.
So they can do things like baptisms and I imagine they
could do confessions if they wanted.
And and then there's a group below the bishops were the
auxiliary bishops and they assist in the day-to-day affairs
(13:10):
of of the different parishes andregional groups of churches.
So then you've got the priests, and the priests are the ones
that come into contact with the people the most.
They're the ones that you'll sitand you'll confession, give
confession. They're the ones that'll conduct
the services on Sunday and conduct Mass.
(13:31):
And they serve under the authority of the bishops.
And their function, obviously, celebrating Mass, hearing
confessions, performing sacraments.
I don't know who would be, I guess, would they be also
involved in exorcism? I'm not sure.
It seems like that's always the priest that shows up to do The
Dirty work and they're, and they're on the ground and
(13:52):
they're the ones closest to the people.
And it's, it is a great thing. I, I think it is a great thing
when maybe if you're not a religious person, it's going to
mean nothing to you but to me tohave men.
And I, and I do believe that women should be priests.
I think that was a failing of Paul's vision.
I think Paul was was very anti woman in his day and that effect
(14:17):
had an an imprint. And there's also the argument of
celibacy. You know, for a priest to be
totally dedicated to the preservation of Christ and for
the service of the church, he'd have to have his priority set.
So that's why they have, they don't want to and also is
because the priests in the old days were having a lot of kids
(14:38):
and and they had too much power and that was a problem.
Then you have the deacons and the deacons role is to assist
the priests and the bishops. See, I always thought the
deacons were a little bit higherup, but I guess they're below
the order of the priests. Now.
Many of the deacons go on to be priests themselves, but the ones
that don't, and that's merely serve as deacons can get married
(15:02):
because they're not on the trackto priesthood.
And so their function is to preach, perform baptisms, the
deacons, witness marriages, and serve in ministries of of
charity. Sounds like an interesting
occupation. And this structure ensures both
unity and effective pastoral care across the global church.
(15:23):
And it's taken 2000 years, 2 millennia for this organization
to become cohesive. So today it seems more
ceremonial, but in its day it was a very powerful, even more
powerful than kings. And in fact, when I believe it
was what Charles the one of the Henry the Fifth, he he wanted to
(15:47):
divorce his wife and the church would not give him that ability
because he was a Catholic. And and he said, well, screw
you, I'm going to I'm going to have the Church of England.
Thank you very much. And that caused a schism.
And then for 80 years there werewars all over Europe, 80 years,
this conflict between the power of the church and the power of
(16:09):
the state, and the state eventually won out actually.
And then when, if you remember how many people were persecuted,
Galileo Galilei was persecuted. Many of these scientists were
were screaming for knowledge andenlightenment and they felt that
it came at a cost. They would be basically be
excommunicated if they violated the church and the church was
(16:32):
very secretive. It still is.
That's why they have a conclavesin secret.
They don't tell you what's goingon.
So that's sort of an overview of, of the church.
And again, you know, I, I, there's a part of me that
appreciates the, the symbolism and its representation of Christ
on earth. But on the other hand, I think
(16:53):
it's hollow. I think the Catholic Church is,
is somewhat hollow because they,well, for example, Pope Francis
took great pains in reminding all of us that it was our moral
duty to allow refugees to come in unfettered and look at the
mess that has caused in the social discord.
(17:13):
And the, and the church doesn't really have an answer to that
one. And, and there's a lot of
political things that the churchshould stay out of.
But on the other hand, they provide the moral fabric in many
ways of our of our society and our culture.
And that's why I think we're seeing more immoral behavior
because the church has lost its,its savor, as Christ would say.
(17:37):
All right, so that's it. And then we just wait and see.
Now I'm not into the, the, the fine minutiae of how they're
going to pick the next Pope, butI hope the next Pope is not as a
communist. And I think Francis was a
communist and that was my issue with him.
Communism is is anti thetical toChristianity.
(18:00):
Communism reduces the man to a unit who serves the greater good
at the behest of whoever happensto be in power.
In the system we have now where the individual and his
representative and our representative government, it's
it's again, it's it's contradictory to the communism.
(18:21):
What have you believe that man has no soul and that we are all
equal in the eyes of what the government?
All right, So Elon Musk is now gone.
He's left the building. He says he has no regrets about
creating doge and letting them. And they'll continue their
efforts to try to reduce. They've done a great job.
(18:43):
Over 200 billion saved. They found a lot of the the
leakage and a lot of people aren't happy.
That's why people who are big fans of the status quo hate Elon
Musk. He came in and cleaned house and
now he's got his own city. It's called Star Base.
It's out of the middle of nowhere.
It's about a mile of space, you know, a few city blocks.
(19:07):
They've got a City Council to the members on the City Council
work for SpaceX. The mayor also works for SpaceX.
One of the things about becominga city is that they can now
start charging a tax, which is interesting, isn't it?
But that's what pays for the water.
That's what pays for the electricity trash pickup.
(19:28):
So star Base, Texas, America's newest city.
How about that? That guy, just he, he just
doesn't know how to stop, does he?
I don't know. Did you think he did a good job?
Has your opinion changed about Elon Musk?
I'd love to hear from you. Go to jimwatkins.org.
That's where we archive our podcast also gives you an
opportunity to make your voice heard on America Today.
(19:48):
It's real simple. Jim watkins.org and we will
continue.
Host
JIM WATKINS
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