July 29, 2025 • 31 mins
What happens when political figures trade truth for attention and religious institutions abandon their moral voice? This raw, unfiltered episode tackles two explosive topics that reveal the dangerous state of American discourse.
Darrell begins by dissecting former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's extraordinary claim that Barack Obama orchestrated a "coup" against Donald Trump. With surgical precision, he separates legitimate concerns about intelligence overreach from absurd conspiracy theories that undermine democracy itself. "If what happened in 2017 was a coup," Darrell observes, "then that aunt who forwards you chain emails about vaccines must be the new head of the CDC." The segment offers a masterclass in how to engage with outlandish claims without either dismissing them outright or lending them undeserved credibility.
The heart of the episode, however, comes when Darrell dons his seldom-worn "Pastor McClain" hat to deliver a searing critique of American churches' silence regarding Gaza. Speaking with the fire of biblical prophets, he challenges religious leaders who find their voice for culture war skirmishes but remain mute about thousands of children dying under bombardment. "If your gospel has nothing to say about the slaughter of children," he asks, "then what exactly is good news?" This isn't just political commentary – it's an impassioned plea for moral consistency from someone who clearly cares deeply about both faith traditions and human suffering.
What makes this episode exceptional is how it transcends typical partisan framing. Whether critiquing a former Democratic congresswoman now embracing right-wing conspiracy theories or challenging religious institutions across the political spectrum, Darrell stands firmly on principle rather than party. His call for reason, moral clarity, and genuine compassion offers an antidote to the very tribalism he refuses to reinforce. Listen and be challenged to examine where your own principles might be taking a backseat to political convenience.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, welcome to the Darrell McLean Show.
Independent media that won'treinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving, so let usreason together.
So we have to talk about TulsiGabbard again, so let's go ahead
and take a deep breath, becausethe next part requires both
(00:21):
patience and precision.
Former congresswoman, formerArmy veteran, the spiritual
seeker and politicalshapeshifter, and now apparently
the unofficial abuzz woman ofAmerica's alternate reality
caucus is claiming with astraight face that the former
President, barack Obama, theNobel Prize winner turned drawn
(00:43):
enthusiast orchestrated a coupagainst President Donald Trump.
A coup you heard me right, nota disagreement, not a
bureaucratic turf war, not evena cover up.
A coup, now, the kind that youread about in countries where
(01:03):
generals take over parliamentsand journalists disappear.
The kind of accusation you'dexpect from a late-night YouTube
channel, sandwiched between awhite and confusion, declaring
(01:27):
that the former president of theUnited States was the
ringleader of some sort ofshadowy deep state rebellion
against his duly electedsuccessor elected successor.
(01:49):
Now, before we start laughingtoo hard, let me do what most
cable news panels refuse to do,and that is take this claim
seriously.
And I'm going to take thisclaim seriously just long enough
to test it, because sometimesthe best way to expose an
absurdity, because sometimes thebest way to expose an absurdity
is to actually take it at facevalue.
So let's go to the evidencetogether, shall we?
(02:14):
So what Tulsi and her fellowbelievers, in the chirp of deep
state hysteria, point to is theidea that during the 2016 and
2017 transition, there wereconservatives among a
borough-era intelligenceofficials, notably around Russia
, interferes in the election.
Names like James Comey, johnBrennan, susan Rice.
(02:38):
They pop up in the narratives,they pop up like a shadowy
villain in a third-rate spythriller.
There were actuallyinvestigations.
There were actually briefings.
There was actually unmasking anentirely legal intelligence
process.
There were concerns legitimateones about Michael Flynn.
(03:00):
There were concerns aboutTrump's flattery towards
Vladimir Putin.
There were concerns about theTrump campaign aides with a
disturbing number of foreignbusiness connections.
But a coup, friends.
If what happened in 2017 was acoup, then that aunt that you
(03:23):
know, who is forwarding you thechain emails about vaccines,
must be the new head of the CDC.
Let's define our terms here.
A coup d'etat is an illegal,overt seizure of a state by a
small group, often the militaryor secret police.
It is not a slow drip ofbureaucratic leaks.
(03:45):
It is not an awkward dinnerbetween James Comey and Donald
Trump.
It is not a FISA warning thathas been authorized by judges.
A coup requires tanks in thestreets.
A coup requires generals on theairwaves.
A coup requires an absoluterejection of the constitutional
(04:06):
process.
And guess what?
Guess what?
That didn't happen, not evenclose.
Donald John Trump was sworn in.
Donald John Trump governed forfour years.
He rallied, he stacked thecourts, he tweeted often.
(04:28):
He tweeted with the freedom ofa 4chan mod on Adderall.
He faced no tanks, no lockdowns, no martial law.
In fact, arguably, donald Trumphad more executive leeway than
any president in recent memory,and mainly because Democrats
(04:48):
were too obsessed withRussiagate.
They were so obsessed theycouldn't organize an effective,
legitimate opposition.
But that's not the point of thisstuff.
Tulsi is pulling, is it?
No, no, you see, facts aren'twhat the accusation is actually
about.
This is a narrative maneuver, apolitical pivot, tulsi Gabbard.
(05:13):
In the midst of all everythingthat's going on in this country,
tulsi Gabbard is doing afull-blown rebrand.
She has traded herBernie-adrescent populism for a
spot as the high priestess ofanti-woke temple.
(05:33):
She is now a heroine, not ofthe anti-imperialism that we
knew her for, but of grievancepolitics, and, like most
converts to any new orthodoxy.
She is more zealous than theborn again who've been sitting
there for years.
She saw an opening, she saw anaudience, she saw a vacuum and
(05:58):
she ran straight into it.
She ran straight into it like acandidate looking for her next
Fox News segment, because inTrump world, the one
unforgivable sin is everquestioning Trump's victimhood.
So if you want to stay relevantthere, you have to out
(06:18):
conspiracy, the last conspiracythat you think that President
Trump happened to see on TV,which is exactly what Tulsi
Gabbard is trying to do.
So let me pause here, becausesomeone out there and I hear you
is saying but Darrell McClain,aren't you the guy who said the
(06:44):
intelligence community can't betrusted?
Darrell McClain, didn't youcriticize the CIA?
Darrell McClain, didn't youcriticize the FBI?
Darrell McClain, didn't youcriticize the NSA?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And the answer is absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I did, and I'll be doing it today, tomorrow and
forever.
But there's a differencebetween skepticism and spectacle
.
Being critical of theintelligence agencies, being
critical of intelligenceoverreach, is not the same as
(07:31):
turning it into some type ofsuperhero comic book where
Barack Obama appears as Magneto,leading an army of psyops,
mutants to take down the orangesavior, donald Trump.
That's not oversight, that'sfan fiction, it's political,
(07:57):
it's politics as cosplay.
And Tulsi seems to beauditioning for a permanent role
on the Patriot Channel playingLieutenant Logic, the destroyer
of the destabilized.
And here's the deeper tragedyin all of this and I mean this
from my heart Tulsi Gabbard hadpotential, and I mean real
(08:18):
potential.
I was literally in the processof writing an article praising
Tulsi Gabbard, steve Bannon,sega Anjanetti and Tucker
Carlson, saying these are theright-wing populace we need.
When Tulsi pulled this stunt,it's somewhat heartbreaking.
(08:38):
I have friends like my friendJamie Kilstein, who is also from
Hawaii, who knows Tulsi Gabbardpersonally, and they're dear
friends.
When Tulsi Gabbard stood up forregime change wars, tulsi was
(09:02):
right and that was necessary.
When Tulsi Gabbard pushed backagainst the corporate democratic
machinery, that was brave.
When Tulsi Gabbard called outKamala Harris's prosecutorial
record on the Democratic debatestage.
That was a moment of realrighteous fire, but the arc of
(09:28):
her story is starting to lookmore like a cautionary tale than
a comeback.
And that, my dear listeners, iswhat this particular monologue
is about Not just the ridiculouscoup claim, not just the
spectacle of Obama once again asObama the boogeyman, but the
(09:52):
deeper danger of what this allrepresents.
We are living in a time wherebeing wrong loudly is more
profitable than being rightquietly.
We're living in a time wherethe algorithm rewards the absurd
and nuance is treated likeweakness.
Tulsi didn't fall into aconspiracy.
She climbed into one, becausethe ladder of a conspiracy leads
(10:17):
to clicks, it leads tofollowers, it leads cliques, it
leads to followers, it leads todonors, it leads to influence.
The accusation that Obama stageda coup is not just wrong, it's
reckless.
It sets fire to an alreadyfragile democracy and I know
Tulsi knows that.
Know Tulsi knows that.
(10:43):
It tells the American peoplethat no election, no transition,
no institution at all can betrusted unless it always
delivers your preferred outcome,and that is the same fuel that
burned on January 6th.
So, tulsi, on the off chancethat you one day may hear this,
on the off chance that you arelistening, tulsi.
(11:06):
Come home, come back to therealm of reason that you used to
live in.
Come back and critique the deepstate.
Come back and condemninterventionism.
Be skeptical of surveillance,but don't do this for the sake
of whatever Donald Trump wantsyou to do.
(11:32):
Don't, for the sake of whateveris left to your credibility, of
whatever is left of yourcredibility, don't rewrite
history to serve the mythologyof a man who can't distinguish
between losing and beingbetrayed.
Because the moment you start tosay things like Barack Obama
states to Q, you are notstanding up for the Constitution
(11:57):
, you are mocking theConstitution and you are
spitting in our face and you areasking for us to pretend like
it's water and that, my friends,is a hell of a thing to do in
the name of patriotism.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You're wondering why more churches aren't talking
about the murder and starvationof children in Gaza.
Hi, I'm CoolPastor and welcomeback to the channel.
What's?
Happening in Gaza is trulyterrible, I'm told, but it's a
bit of a bummer for Sundayservice.
You see, we're trying to attracta younger hip audience, the
ones that dress up like they'regoing to a singles cruise so
they can meet someone in thelobby, marry them too fast, have
(12:38):
babies too fast and raise thosebabies to also not care about
babies in the Middle East.
We may be silent on thestarving children of Gaza, but
we save plenty of lives.
No, we're not sending money tochildren who are being forced to
wear garbage bags as diapers.
We save people when we dunkthem into an inflatable pool
while the worship band rips amaverick city and they accept
(13:01):
Jesus Christ as their Lord andSavior.
Does the church care aboutbabies Not born babies or even
conceived babies?
But through my youth programtitled Sex bullet train to hell,
we save millions of pretendbabies by stopping unwanted
pregnancies.
Cowabunga, I'm trying out newhip catchphrases with Gen Z that
don't involve they-thempronouns.
(13:22):
In these trying times, we allhave to make sacrifices, which
is why our congregation raised$10,000 to get me a new cold
plunge and sauna.
Cool pastors need to be hotpastors to attract more horny
people to our slutty littlelobby.
So I hope to see you nextSunday, hands raised and eyes
closed to the suffering ofothers, like Jesus would want.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So that was my friend , jamie Kilstein, trying to do
what a lot of us do sometimes wehave to laugh because we want
to cry and so Jamie had asked aquestion about the church's
silence in Gaza.
If you don't know about Jamie,he was born Jewish, he converted
(14:09):
to Christianity and he has beenhaving some questions about
this specific moment.
And he, like me me who israising the african methodist
episcopal uh tradition, and Ijust have some questions.
Um, I have some statements, soI'm gonna put on a hat that I
(14:33):
don't normally put on on thispodcast, purposely I don't put
on on this podcast, purposely Idon't put it on, and we're going
to go to my roots of PastorMcClain, which people who know
me do know I am an ordainedpastor, although I do not pastor
a church, and we have to talkabout this.
(14:59):
And tonight we need to talkabout something like this
because it has been eating at me, not knowing politically, like
a theological critique.
Like you know, those nod me,sometimes politely, not
(15:22):
unsettling like an awkwarddoctrine, but burning inside of
me like fire shut up inside ofmy bones.
And I am talking about thechurch, and I'm talking about
the church, and I'm talkingabout the church in Gaza,
(15:43):
specifically about the silenceof the church when it comes to
the genocide unfolding beforeour eyes in Gaza.
Now, I know some of you arealready shifting in your seats,
some of you are already formingthe rebuttals that it's
complicated, that we can't speakon every issue.
(16:05):
The church is called to preachthe gospel and not politics and
to that, on this issue, I saynonsense, nonsense, nonsense.
Because if your gospel hasnothing to say about the
(16:25):
slaughter of children, then whatexactly is good news?
For If your pulpit cannot rageabout this but it can rage about
drag shows in Nashville, butnot about bombed out hospitals
(16:46):
in Roswell you are not preachingthe gospel, you are peddling
cultural anesthesia.
Anesthesia, let's lay it bare.
(17:07):
Since October, gaza has enduredwhat can only be called a
catastrophe, an unrelentingcampaign of destruction that has
killed a conservative numberit's 30,000 people.
Over half of those people havebeen children.
And before someone says butHamas?
Let me remind you of this Not asingle child in Gaza voted for
(17:31):
Hamas.
Not a single infant launched arocket.
Not a single grandmother signedoff on a ceasefire breach, but
they all died just the same.
They all died in their beds, intheir bread lines, in their
hospitals, with no medicine, inschools turned into mass graves.
(17:55):
And in the face of all this,where is the church?
Where are those whiteevangelicals who will hold a
prayer rally if a Starbucksremoves a snowflake from a
coffee cup on Christmas time?
Where are the reformed brethren, of which I'm a part of, who
(18:17):
are so devoted to justice intheory but allergic to justice
in practice when it's notconvenient?
Where are the charismaticchurches that can feel a demon
in a Beyonce album but can'tdiscern the spirit of empire in
a billions of dollars of UnitedStates military aid to this.
Where's the black church thatonce stood on the front lines of
(18:41):
civil rights but now remainscuriously quiet when the
descendants of others oppressedpeople are being turned to ash
by the American-made weapons ofwhich their churches get tax
benefits?
Get tax benefits.
We are so loud about Israel'sright to exist, but so quiet
(19:03):
about Palestinians' right toeven be able to breathe.
And do not come to me with yourspiritual platitudes.
Don't tell me we need to prayfor both sides.
When one side controls thewater, when one side controls
(19:24):
the food, when one side controlsthe airspace and when one side
controls the narrative, when oneside lives behind concrete and
drones and the other beneathrubble and airstrikes.
The prophets didn't say bothsides needs to work it out.
They said woe to those whocrush the poor and grind their
face of the needy.
(19:45):
They said how long, oh lord?
They said let justice roll downlike waters and righteousness
like a mighty stream.
So where is the stream now?
Where is the mighty voice ofthe church?
Oh, we found our tongues forUkraine.
We hosted prayer vigils, raisedfunds, waved blue and yellow
(20:09):
flags in Sunday school, andrightly so.
War is evil whenever it occurs.
But why is Gaza so different?
Why is it so different?
Is it because the childrenbeing incinerated don't look
like our children?
Is it because the victims ofthe war don't speak English?
(20:32):
Is it because they don't votefor Democrats or they don't vote
for Republicans?
Is it because they don't tie toour megachurches?
Is it because we swallowed thelie hook line and
dispensationalism that somehowIsrael's modern statehood is
untouchable, sacred and beyondcritique?
Because if that's the reason,then what you're worshiping is
(20:56):
not Jesus Christ.
That's the reason that whatyou're worshiping is not Jesus
Christ.
It's a geopolitical ideologyshaped in a flag.
I always remember that quotefrom the World War II historian
that's now being demonizedeverywhere, and when he said
there is no flag large enough tocover the shame of killing
(21:21):
innocent people.
Let's go deeper.
This silence isn't passive, it'scomplicity.
When the church is silent inthe face of state violence, it's
not neutral.
It's siding with Pharaoh, it'sdining with Caesar, it's kissing
(21:43):
the rank of Pontius Pilatewhile Jesus bleeds in the
streets of Conunis.
And I know, because of mynormal tone and tenor, some of
you think that I'm beingdivisive, you're going to say,
oh Darrell, the church hascalled to unite and this will
(22:07):
actually distract from thegospel.
So I'll say this to you.
Let me be clear Unity thatrequires silence about injustice
is not unity, it's tyranny,it's emotional blackmail wrapped
in a Bible verse.
It's a kind of piety that sayssheesh, don't talk about race,
(22:29):
don't talk about bombs, don'ttalk about empire, because the
donors might be uncomfortable.
The donors might beuncomfortable.
We're worried about alienatingdonors while children are having
limbs amputated withoutanesthesia.
(22:49):
And don't get me started abouttheologians.
Where are they?
Where are the public statementsfrom councils and coalitions,
the gospel networks?
They can write a multi-pageparagraph position papers,
thousand words apiece, onsame-sex bathrooms, but they
can't seem to string togetherthree words about ethnic
cleansing.
Even Dietrich Bonhoeffer, atheologian loved by
(23:14):
conservatives, said silence inthe face of evil is evil itself.
Well, silence must be having arevival right now.
And here's the real scandal.
The church's silence isn'trooted in them being confused.
(23:34):
It's rooted in them beingcowards.
It's the fear of being labeledanti-Semitic.
It's the fear of beingunpatriotic.
It's the fear of criticizingthe president because he's on
your side about abortion orsomething like that.
Or God forbid, the church istoo political or God forbid the
(23:58):
church is too political.
It's the fear of telling thetruth, because it might cost you
your platform, it might costyou your book deal, it might
cost you your next speakingengagement.
(24:20):
But let me remind you, churchleaders, the cross, even when it
tried not to be ended up beingpolitical, jesus christ was
lynched by a state colludingwith religious leaders, and when
he said blessed are thepeacemakers, he wasn't talking
about warm-hearted neutrality.
He was talking about peoplewith guts to step between the
oppressor and the oppressed andname names and actually get
bruised for it.
So what's the way forward inall of this?
(24:42):
You have to repent.
We have to tell the truth.
We have to stop cutting ourporals over protests and start
lamenting the policies that madethem necessary the policies
that made them necessary.
The church needs to startpreaching a gospel that is not
(25:02):
just about personal salvationbut public liberation, a gospel
that does not flinch when itsees empires wooden bombs in the
name of democracy.
We start seeing the crucifiedChrist in the eyes of the
Palestinian father carrying hisdead daughter from the rubble.
(25:23):
I've lost a daughter.
I know how this feels, because,let me tell you something?
If Jesus came back today, hewould not be welcome to many
sanctuaries Because he wouldsmell like tear gas.
He would talk like a protester,he would be quoting Isaiah, he
(25:49):
would be arrested before mostcongregations even let him
preach.
And when we see him again,jesus won't be asking how many
Bible verses did you memorize?
He'll be asking what did you dofor the least of these?
(26:15):
Not what side we took, but whatwitness we bore.
Did we stand for the image ofGod in every child or did we
stand aside?
Did we cry out for thesuffering or did we justify
their death to look forpolitical or theological
calculus?
(26:35):
The church's silence on Gaza isnot just a political failure.
It's a spiritual betrayal, asin of omission written in blood
.
And if we don't find our voice,if we don't repent, if we don't
weep with those who weep, thenwe will one day look back at
this moment and realize wedidn't just miss the moment, we
(27:00):
missed the Messiah, again indisguise.
I don't have the capacity totalk about another political
subject after this, so I have toend the show with that.
We have one planet, nobody isleaving, and right now the
(27:22):
children of Gaza are dying whilethe American church is sleeping
.
Wake up church.
Let's reason together.
This has been another episodeof the Darrell McLean Show.
Independent media that will notreinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving.
May God help us reason together.
Hello, welcome to the Darrell McLean Show.
Independent media that won'treinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving, so let usreason together.
So we have to talk about TulsiGabbard again, so let's go ahead
and take a deep breath, becausethe next part requires both
(00:21):
patience and precision.
Former congresswoman, formerArmy veteran, the spiritual
seeker and politicalshapeshifter, and now apparently
the unofficial abuzz woman ofAmerica's alternate reality
caucus is claiming with astraight face that the former
President, barack Obama, theNobel Prize winner turned drawn
(00:43):
enthusiast orchestrated a coupagainst President Donald Trump.
A coup you heard me right, nota disagreement, not a
bureaucratic turf war, not evena cover up.
A coup, now, the kind that youread about in countries where
(01:03):
generals take over parliamentsand journalists disappear.
The kind of accusation you'dexpect from a late-night YouTube
channel, sandwiched between awhite and confusion, declaring
(01:27):
that the former president of theUnited States was the
ringleader of some sort ofshadowy deep state rebellion
against his duly electedsuccessor elected successor.
(01:49):
Now, before we start laughingtoo hard, let me do what most
cable news panels refuse to do,and that is take this claim
seriously.
And I'm going to take thisclaim seriously just long enough
to test it, because sometimesthe best way to expose an
absurdity, because sometimes thebest way to expose an absurdity
is to actually take it at facevalue.
So let's go to the evidencetogether, shall we?
(02:14):
So what Tulsi and her fellowbelievers, in the chirp of deep
state hysteria, point to is theidea that during the 2016 and
2017 transition, there wereconservatives among a
borough-era intelligenceofficials, notably around Russia
, interferes in the election.
Names like James Comey, johnBrennan, susan Rice.
(02:38):
They pop up in the narratives,they pop up like a shadowy
villain in a third-rate spythriller.
There were actuallyinvestigations.
There were actually briefings.
There was actually unmasking anentirely legal intelligence
process.
There were concerns legitimateones about Michael Flynn.
(03:00):
There were concerns aboutTrump's flattery towards
Vladimir Putin.
There were concerns about theTrump campaign aides with a
disturbing number of foreignbusiness connections.
But a coup, friends.
If what happened in 2017 was acoup, then that aunt that you
(03:23):
know, who is forwarding you thechain emails about vaccines,
must be the new head of the CDC.
Let's define our terms here.
A coup d'etat is an illegal,overt seizure of a state by a
small group, often the militaryor secret police.
It is not a slow drip ofbureaucratic leaks.
(03:45):
It is not an awkward dinnerbetween James Comey and Donald
Trump.
It is not a FISA warning thathas been authorized by judges.
A coup requires tanks in thestreets.
A coup requires generals on theairwaves.
A coup requires an absoluterejection of the constitutional
(04:06):
process.
And guess what?
Guess what?
That didn't happen, not evenclose.
Donald John Trump was sworn in.
Donald John Trump governed forfour years.
He rallied, he stacked thecourts, he tweeted often.
(04:28):
He tweeted with the freedom ofa 4chan mod on Adderall.
He faced no tanks, no lockdowns, no martial law.
In fact, arguably, donald Trumphad more executive leeway than
any president in recent memory,and mainly because Democrats
(04:48):
were too obsessed withRussiagate.
They were so obsessed theycouldn't organize an effective,
legitimate opposition.
But that's not the point of thisstuff.
Tulsi is pulling, is it?
No, no, you see, facts aren'twhat the accusation is actually
about.
This is a narrative maneuver, apolitical pivot, tulsi Gabbard.
(05:13):
In the midst of all everythingthat's going on in this country,
tulsi Gabbard is doing afull-blown rebrand.
She has traded herBernie-adrescent populism for a
spot as the high priestess ofanti-woke temple.
(05:33):
She is now a heroine, not ofthe anti-imperialism that we
knew her for, but of grievancepolitics, and, like most
converts to any new orthodoxy.
She is more zealous than theborn again who've been sitting
there for years.
She saw an opening, she saw anaudience, she saw a vacuum and
(05:58):
she ran straight into it.
She ran straight into it like acandidate looking for her next
Fox News segment, because inTrump world, the one
unforgivable sin is everquestioning Trump's victimhood.
So if you want to stay relevantthere, you have to out
(06:18):
conspiracy, the last conspiracythat you think that President
Trump happened to see on TV,which is exactly what Tulsi
Gabbard is trying to do.
So let me pause here, becausesomeone out there and I hear you
is saying but Darrell McClain,aren't you the guy who said the
(06:44):
intelligence community can't betrusted?
Darrell McClain, didn't youcriticize the CIA?
Darrell McClain, didn't youcriticize the FBI?
Darrell McClain, didn't youcriticize the NSA?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And the answer is absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I did, and I'll be doing it today, tomorrow and
forever.
But there's a differencebetween skepticism and spectacle
.
Being critical of theintelligence agencies, being
critical of intelligenceoverreach, is not the same as
(07:31):
turning it into some type ofsuperhero comic book where
Barack Obama appears as Magneto,leading an army of psyops,
mutants to take down the orangesavior, donald Trump.
That's not oversight, that'sfan fiction, it's political,
(07:57):
it's politics as cosplay.
And Tulsi seems to beauditioning for a permanent role
on the Patriot Channel playingLieutenant Logic, the destroyer
of the destabilized.
And here's the deeper tragedyin all of this and I mean this
from my heart Tulsi Gabbard hadpotential, and I mean real
(08:18):
potential.
I was literally in the processof writing an article praising
Tulsi Gabbard, steve Bannon,sega Anjanetti and Tucker
Carlson, saying these are theright-wing populace we need.
When Tulsi pulled this stunt,it's somewhat heartbreaking.
(08:38):
I have friends like my friendJamie Kilstein, who is also from
Hawaii, who knows Tulsi Gabbardpersonally, and they're dear
friends.
When Tulsi Gabbard stood up forregime change wars, tulsi was
(09:02):
right and that was necessary.
When Tulsi Gabbard pushed backagainst the corporate democratic
machinery, that was brave.
When Tulsi Gabbard called outKamala Harris's prosecutorial
record on the Democratic debatestage.
That was a moment of realrighteous fire, but the arc of
(09:28):
her story is starting to lookmore like a cautionary tale than
a comeback.
And that, my dear listeners, iswhat this particular monologue
is about Not just the ridiculouscoup claim, not just the
spectacle of Obama once again asObama the boogeyman, but the
(09:52):
deeper danger of what this allrepresents.
We are living in a time wherebeing wrong loudly is more
profitable than being rightquietly.
We're living in a time wherethe algorithm rewards the absurd
and nuance is treated likeweakness.
Tulsi didn't fall into aconspiracy.
She climbed into one, becausethe ladder of a conspiracy leads
(10:17):
to clicks, it leads tofollowers, it leads cliques, it
leads to followers, it leads todonors, it leads to influence.
The accusation that Obama stageda coup is not just wrong, it's
reckless.
It sets fire to an alreadyfragile democracy and I know
Tulsi knows that.
Know Tulsi knows that.
(10:43):
It tells the American peoplethat no election, no transition,
no institution at all can betrusted unless it always
delivers your preferred outcome,and that is the same fuel that
burned on January 6th.
So, tulsi, on the off chancethat you one day may hear this,
on the off chance that you arelistening, tulsi.
(11:06):
Come home, come back to therealm of reason that you used to
live in.
Come back and critique the deepstate.
Come back and condemninterventionism.
Be skeptical of surveillance,but don't do this for the sake
of whatever Donald Trump wantsyou to do.
(11:32):
Don't, for the sake of whateveris left to your credibility, of
whatever is left of yourcredibility, don't rewrite
history to serve the mythologyof a man who can't distinguish
between losing and beingbetrayed.
Because the moment you start tosay things like Barack Obama
states to Q, you are notstanding up for the Constitution
(11:57):
, you are mocking theConstitution and you are
spitting in our face and you areasking for us to pretend like
it's water and that, my friends,is a hell of a thing to do in
the name of patriotism.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You're wondering why more churches aren't talking
about the murder and starvationof children in Gaza.
Hi, I'm CoolPastor and welcomeback to the channel.
What's?
Happening in Gaza is trulyterrible, I'm told, but it's a
bit of a bummer for Sundayservice.
You see, we're trying to attracta younger hip audience, the
ones that dress up like they'regoing to a singles cruise so
they can meet someone in thelobby, marry them too fast, have
(12:38):
babies too fast and raise thosebabies to also not care about
babies in the Middle East.
We may be silent on thestarving children of Gaza, but
we save plenty of lives.
No, we're not sending money tochildren who are being forced to
wear garbage bags as diapers.
We save people when we dunkthem into an inflatable pool
while the worship band rips amaverick city and they accept
(13:01):
Jesus Christ as their Lord andSavior.
Does the church care aboutbabies Not born babies or even
conceived babies?
But through my youth programtitled Sex bullet train to hell,
we save millions of pretendbabies by stopping unwanted
pregnancies.
Cowabunga, I'm trying out newhip catchphrases with Gen Z that
don't involve they-thempronouns.
(13:22):
In these trying times, we allhave to make sacrifices, which
is why our congregation raised$10,000 to get me a new cold
plunge and sauna.
Cool pastors need to be hotpastors to attract more horny
people to our slutty littlelobby.
So I hope to see you nextSunday, hands raised and eyes
closed to the suffering ofothers, like Jesus would want.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So that was my friend , jamie Kilstein, trying to do
what a lot of us do sometimes wehave to laugh because we want
to cry and so Jamie had asked aquestion about the church's
silence in Gaza.
If you don't know about Jamie,he was born Jewish, he converted
(14:09):
to Christianity and he has beenhaving some questions about
this specific moment.
And he, like me me who israising the african methodist
episcopal uh tradition, and Ijust have some questions.
Um, I have some statements, soI'm gonna put on a hat that I
(14:33):
don't normally put on on thispodcast, purposely I don't put
on on this podcast, purposely Idon't put it on, and we're going
to go to my roots of PastorMcClain, which people who know
me do know I am an ordainedpastor, although I do not pastor
a church, and we have to talkabout this.
(14:59):
And tonight we need to talkabout something like this
because it has been eating at me, not knowing politically, like
a theological critique.
Like you know, those nod me,sometimes politely, not
(15:22):
unsettling like an awkwarddoctrine, but burning inside of
me like fire shut up inside ofmy bones.
And I am talking about thechurch, and I'm talking about
the church, and I'm talkingabout the church in Gaza,
(15:43):
specifically about the silenceof the church when it comes to
the genocide unfolding beforeour eyes in Gaza.
Now, I know some of you arealready shifting in your seats,
some of you are already formingthe rebuttals that it's
complicated, that we can't speakon every issue.
(16:05):
The church is called to preachthe gospel and not politics and
to that, on this issue, I saynonsense, nonsense, nonsense.
Because if your gospel hasnothing to say about the
(16:25):
slaughter of children, then whatexactly is good news?
For If your pulpit cannot rageabout this but it can rage about
drag shows in Nashville, butnot about bombed out hospitals
(16:46):
in Roswell you are not preachingthe gospel, you are peddling
cultural anesthesia.
Anesthesia, let's lay it bare.
(17:07):
Since October, gaza has enduredwhat can only be called a
catastrophe, an unrelentingcampaign of destruction that has
killed a conservative numberit's 30,000 people.
Over half of those people havebeen children.
And before someone says butHamas?
Let me remind you of this Not asingle child in Gaza voted for
(17:31):
Hamas.
Not a single infant launched arocket.
Not a single grandmother signedoff on a ceasefire breach, but
they all died just the same.
They all died in their beds, intheir bread lines, in their
hospitals, with no medicine, inschools turned into mass graves.
(17:55):
And in the face of all this,where is the church?
Where are those whiteevangelicals who will hold a
prayer rally if a Starbucksremoves a snowflake from a
coffee cup on Christmas time?
Where are the reformed brethren, of which I'm a part of, who
(18:17):
are so devoted to justice intheory but allergic to justice
in practice when it's notconvenient?
Where are the charismaticchurches that can feel a demon
in a Beyonce album but can'tdiscern the spirit of empire in
a billions of dollars of UnitedStates military aid to this.
Where's the black church thatonce stood on the front lines of
(18:41):
civil rights but now remainscuriously quiet when the
descendants of others oppressedpeople are being turned to ash
by the American-made weapons ofwhich their churches get tax
benefits?
Get tax benefits.
We are so loud about Israel'sright to exist, but so quiet
(19:03):
about Palestinians' right toeven be able to breathe.
And do not come to me with yourspiritual platitudes.
Don't tell me we need to prayfor both sides.
When one side controls thewater, when one side controls
(19:24):
the food, when one side controlsthe airspace and when one side
controls the narrative, when oneside lives behind concrete and
drones and the other beneathrubble and airstrikes.
The prophets didn't say bothsides needs to work it out.
They said woe to those whocrush the poor and grind their
face of the needy.
(19:45):
They said how long, oh lord?
They said let justice roll downlike waters and righteousness
like a mighty stream.
So where is the stream now?
Where is the mighty voice ofthe church?
Oh, we found our tongues forUkraine.
We hosted prayer vigils, raisedfunds, waved blue and yellow
(20:09):
flags in Sunday school, andrightly so.
War is evil whenever it occurs.
But why is Gaza so different?
Why is it so different?
Is it because the childrenbeing incinerated don't look
like our children?
Is it because the victims ofthe war don't speak English?
(20:32):
Is it because they don't votefor Democrats or they don't vote
for Republicans?
Is it because they don't tie toour megachurches?
Is it because we swallowed thelie hook line and
dispensationalism that somehowIsrael's modern statehood is
untouchable, sacred and beyondcritique?
Because if that's the reason,then what you're worshiping is
(20:56):
not Jesus Christ.
That's the reason that whatyou're worshiping is not Jesus
Christ.
It's a geopolitical ideologyshaped in a flag.
I always remember that quotefrom the World War II historian
that's now being demonizedeverywhere, and when he said
there is no flag large enough tocover the shame of killing
(21:21):
innocent people.
Let's go deeper.
This silence isn't passive, it'scomplicity.
When the church is silent inthe face of state violence, it's
not neutral.
It's siding with Pharaoh, it'sdining with Caesar, it's kissing
(21:43):
the rank of Pontius Pilatewhile Jesus bleeds in the
streets of Conunis.
And I know, because of mynormal tone and tenor, some of
you think that I'm beingdivisive, you're going to say,
oh Darrell, the church hascalled to unite and this will
(22:07):
actually distract from thegospel.
So I'll say this to you.
Let me be clear Unity thatrequires silence about injustice
is not unity, it's tyranny,it's emotional blackmail wrapped
in a Bible verse.
It's a kind of piety that sayssheesh, don't talk about race,
(22:29):
don't talk about bombs, don'ttalk about empire, because the
donors might be uncomfortable.
The donors might beuncomfortable.
We're worried about alienatingdonors while children are having
limbs amputated withoutanesthesia.
(22:49):
And don't get me started abouttheologians.
Where are they?
Where are the public statementsfrom councils and coalitions,
the gospel networks?
They can write a multi-pageparagraph position papers,
thousand words apiece, onsame-sex bathrooms, but they
can't seem to string togetherthree words about ethnic
cleansing.
Even Dietrich Bonhoeffer, atheologian loved by
(23:14):
conservatives, said silence inthe face of evil is evil itself.
Well, silence must be having arevival right now.
And here's the real scandal.
The church's silence isn'trooted in them being confused.
(23:34):
It's rooted in them beingcowards.
It's the fear of being labeledanti-Semitic.
It's the fear of beingunpatriotic.
It's the fear of criticizingthe president because he's on
your side about abortion orsomething like that.
Or God forbid, the church istoo political or God forbid the
(23:58):
church is too political.
It's the fear of telling thetruth, because it might cost you
your platform, it might costyou your book deal, it might
cost you your next speakingengagement.
(24:20):
But let me remind you, churchleaders, the cross, even when it
tried not to be ended up beingpolitical, jesus christ was
lynched by a state colludingwith religious leaders, and when
he said blessed are thepeacemakers, he wasn't talking
about warm-hearted neutrality.
He was talking about peoplewith guts to step between the
oppressor and the oppressed andname names and actually get
bruised for it.
So what's the way forward inall of this?
(24:42):
You have to repent.
We have to tell the truth.
We have to stop cutting ourporals over protests and start
lamenting the policies that madethem necessary the policies
that made them necessary.
The church needs to startpreaching a gospel that is not
(25:02):
just about personal salvationbut public liberation, a gospel
that does not flinch when itsees empires wooden bombs in the
name of democracy.
We start seeing the crucifiedChrist in the eyes of the
Palestinian father carrying hisdead daughter from the rubble.
(25:23):
I've lost a daughter.
I know how this feels, because,let me tell you something?
If Jesus came back today, hewould not be welcome to many
sanctuaries Because he wouldsmell like tear gas.
He would talk like a protester,he would be quoting Isaiah, he
(25:49):
would be arrested before mostcongregations even let him
preach.
And when we see him again,jesus won't be asking how many
Bible verses did you memorize?
He'll be asking what did you dofor the least of these?
(26:15):
Not what side we took, but whatwitness we bore.
Did we stand for the image ofGod in every child or did we
stand aside?
Did we cry out for thesuffering or did we justify
their death to look forpolitical or theological
calculus?
(26:35):
The church's silence on Gaza isnot just a political failure.
It's a spiritual betrayal, asin of omission written in blood
.
And if we don't find our voice,if we don't repent, if we don't
weep with those who weep, thenwe will one day look back at
this moment and realize wedidn't just miss the moment, we
(27:00):
missed the Messiah, again indisguise.
I don't have the capacity totalk about another political
subject after this, so I have toend the show with that.
We have one planet, nobody isleaving, and right now the
(27:22):
children of Gaza are dying whilethe American church is sleeping
.
Wake up church.
Let's reason together.
This has been another episodeof the Darrell McLean Show.
Independent media that will notreinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving.
May God help us reason together.
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