January 16, 2025 • 41 mins
Join us in this compelling episode of the SEEK podcast, featuring Jonathan Blevins and Jason Evert, recorded live at SEEK in Salt Lake City. Dive into Jonathan’s transformative journey from a Catholic minister to a celebrated content creator, inspired by his brother Ninja. Witness how an unexpected encounter at a youth conference ignited a profound spiritual awakening that would steer his path forward.
From discussions on masculinity and spirituality to confronting the challenges of ministry under fire in Australia, this dialogue offers a heartfelt exploration of faith under pressure. Amid personal anecdotes and spiritual insights, discover how resilience, community, and a deep commitment to faith can guide us through life’s most challenging moments, encouraging listeners to live a life of courage, conviction, and compassion.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
All right, check, check.
Can you hear me?
I can, let's go.
Thanks for being here.
Good to be on, I appreciate it.
For those who don't know me, myname is Jonathan Beard of
Blevins.
I apologize for my voice.
I've been like live streamingand doing podcast stuff since I
got here and I heard theelevation might be a thing, so
thank you for your patience.
I was in ministry for 15 yearsin the Catholic Church as a
(00:40):
youth minister and a director ofevangelization.
I have my bachelor's intheology and my master's in
theology with an emphasis inyouth and young adult ministry.
And six years ago, my brother Idon't usually bring this up,
but a lot of you already knowthis Six years ago, my brother,
who has blue hair and is ninja,blew up and became the biggest
streamer in the world and heencouraged me to start live
(01:01):
streaming on Twitch and so Istarted doing it part-time.
It went really well.
I started my own business outof it and now I do full-time
content creation, talking aboutsports and all kinds of fun
stuff like that.
So thank you so much for beinghere.
I'm so excited and, jason, it'sgreat to have you my friend.
If you don't mind, I knoweverybody already knows you, but
if you don't mind introducingyourself just a little bit,
that'd be great.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, no, jason Everett, father of eight
beautiful little kids, back homein Arizona, and I run the
Chastity Project Ministry.
We run chastitycom, so I amblessed to travel around the
world and speak about God's planfor human love and sexuality
high school, college studentsand beyond.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Let's go.
I probably should havementioned that I'm also married
and have three kids, one on theway.
That's exciting.
Catholic conference, let's go.
But I have to ask you this,jason.
So this is a little weird, butit's okay.
We do weird here.
So is there a chance that inthe year, like 2000 and 2001,
that you would have beenspeaking at NCYC's?
Yep, oh yeah, the NationalCatholic Youth Conference?
(01:59):
Yep, we did many.
I have to share a story.
Please bear with me.
Okay, so I'm in eighth grade.
My mom signs me up for thisCatholic conference.
That's for high schoolers.
I'm already the youngest in myeighth grade class, but she's
like you're going.
My mom's an amazing woman,she's the best mom ever.
My dad's pretty great too.
She left out of town that weekand similar to right now.
(02:21):
I got really sick and my dad didnot do a ton of the laundry, so
I'd already packed upeverything for this trip.
I'm trying to get out of it.
Now I have an excuse to get outof it.
I'm sick.
So I tell my dad dad, I don'tfeel good, I feel really sick.
And he's like oh, you're fine,you're just trying to get out of
it.
And I was like dad, I got to runto the bathroom.
So I go inside, I run up thestairs and I didn't quite make
it A nice.
A nice it was it was not a fart, let's just say that and it was
(03:00):
really embarrassing.
Okay, and so what do I do?
All I have to like tell my dadthat I pooped my pants, or I
just have to like figuresomething out.
So I try to clean it up realquick.
It wasn't a ton, it was just alittle.
I promise this goes somewhere.
Awesome, I would hope so.
And so I get in the car and I'mlike all right, I'll get in the
, I'll grab the bag from the,from, uh, my car, and just
change in the church, and noone's going to know.
And the bus drivers there,cause we're late, grabs my bag,
(03:21):
throws it under the bus.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So now I'm stuck and I have to sit on this bus to
Indianapolis.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
In my own grossness and I'm like trying not to cry I
sat by the bathroom so that Icould blame it on other people
and it was super embarrassing.
We finally get to theconference and I should tell you
, I grew up Catholic, went tomass every single week, but I
never had a personal encounterwith Christ.
I didn't really love the church, I just didn't mind going to
mass.
I get into the room with fourseniors, I hop in the shower to
(03:52):
try to clean up and they turnthe light off and start like
punching me through like theshower curtain.
They were not really trying tobe that mean, they were just
trying to be funny, but I wassick and it felt awful.
So I go to my youth ministerand I say, hey, like I'm having
the worst time, I'm sick, Idon't want to be here, can I go
home?
And she's like you know what,john, you can just go, do
whatever you want.
This entire conference.
Go ahead, indianapolis, eighthgrade, just go, and you don't
(04:14):
have to check in, you don't haveto be in any small groups, just
like, let God do what he wantsto do.
So I took my hundred dollarsthat my dad gave me and I spent
it at a steakhouse and then Iran out of money and so I was
like, well, I might as wellcheck out this conference.
And I pull open the scheduleand I see like and I don't
(04:35):
remember exactly what it was,but in my mind it said the
Catholic Church and sex.
And maybe that wasn't the title, maybe you remember the title,
but you were the speaker and Iwas like what does the Catholic
church have to say about sex?
I'm in eighth grade.
I didn't even know what thatwas.
I thought it was kissing naked,and so I didn't even know.
But I was like this is, I wantto know what this is.
And so I walk into your talkand even then, dude, your whole
(04:57):
place was packed, there wasnowhere to sit, and so I sat
behind the bleachers and I justlike sat there alone and I
listened to you talk.
And that conference and yourtalk that you gave was the very
first time that I encounteredChrist.
It was the first time I hadheard someone who seemed normal
talk about loving the church,loving Christ and talking about
(05:19):
church teaching.
That I didn't know existed.
And so I just want to start bysaying thank you so much for
being a part of changing my life.
Well, that's awesome.
Praise God, I got a lot betterafter the poop in the pants
story.
Okay, that's a good story,right, guys?
Come on now.
Don't be ashamed.
All right, I want to get into abunch of stuff with you, but
first, if you don't mind, justgo a little deeper into what it
(05:39):
is that you're doing.
You're doing kind of three mainthings right now.
As you're sharing talks allaround the world, let's hear
about it.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, well, we've got Chastity Project and we try to
spread the message of chastitythrough in-person speaking
engagements, things like that.
Secondly, we've got a coupledozen books that we've written
on the subject and then a lot ofonline content.
So Chastity Project tries toget John Paul II's vision of
human love out through those.
We also have another ministrycalled jp2trailscom where we do
(06:06):
wilderness backpacking retreatsfor young adults, and so we did
one in Poland and one of thetrails John Paul II did and I
taught love and responsibilityup in the mountains to the young
adults.
And we're like, oh, this isawesome, we got to do this back
home.
So we got back home.
A friend of mine was like, well,would you do one for our parish
in Denver and we'll open it upnationwide.
So we opened up registration,we got 250 applications in 48
(06:29):
hours and we're like I thinkwe're onto something.
And so we did that one and it'sjust kind of snowballed now
where we just had ones inMontana, canada, arizona,
colorado, and we've got 19 onthe calendar now from here to
Switzerland, to Italy, and it'sjust getting in the back country
and then spending time with acouple dozen young adults, a
couple of priests, and then youteach theology of the body, have
(06:50):
adoration, and it's heaven andwe're just kind of dreaming big.
We're looking to do on a KodiakIsland with grizzly bears, a
bear guide.
We're looking at Norway,patagonia, even a missions trip
to Ecuador where we're going togo fly into Quito and then take
a six-hour drive to therainforest and then we'll be
backpacking medical suppliesinto the Amazon to remote
(07:11):
villages.
So it's just really kind ofjust dropped into our laps and
just have exploded in the lastsix, eight months or so.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's incredible.
How many of those trips are youpersonally going on?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, I've just finished the seventh one that
I've done and I'm just basicallydoing one per month on the way
out.
Okay, that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
One of my favorite pictures that you've posted a
couple of times over the yearsis when you got to meet St John
Paul II.
It's a beautiful picture.
You make a joke sometimes aboutthe security guards, why they
look so crabby.
That's super funny.
But can you share a little bitabout your love for JP too, and
maybe like why you know?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
what he was doing in his ministry.
As he was doing that, yeah Well, I mean, I I'm kind of spoiled.
I got to see John Paul II inperson 24 times in my life, uh,
I got to uh, most of the time Iwas at a distance at a world
youth day.
On another occasion I got tohold his hand, uh.
And then another occasion I gotto speak with him, have mass
with him, uh, talk to him, givehim a hug and a kiss, and so I'm
like a fifth-class relic moreor less, seeing him that often.
But you know, he's just my hero.
He's a very interior man.
(08:10):
I mean, if there's anythingthat struck me about him, it was
that, as visible as he was andtraveling the globe and all that
, he was really a man of prayerand he suffered a lot.
His father, when his mom died,he said.
Of his dad he said the violenceof the blows that had struck
him opened up immense spiritualdepths in him and his grief
(08:32):
found its outlet in prayer.
And I think the same is true ofJohn Paul, who suffered a lot
growing up, losing his lovedones, but he found his outlet in
prayer and his understanding ofhuman love and sexuality and
love and responsibility.
It's the most beautiful visionof human love, and to me it
isn't just so much arguing abouttruth and what's good, but
beauty is irrefutable.
You can't argue with what'sbeautiful, and so his vision of
(08:54):
human love to me is the core ofour entire chastity ministry.
So he's absolutely my hero.
Patron saint, just love the guy.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
That's awesome when you go on these trips and you
see the beauty of the world.
How much of that is part ofwhat he was into.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Oh well, I mean when he was a young priest and then
became Pope, he said I only havetwo responsibilities young
people, kayaking and skiing.
And so he would just take themout and catechize them in the
mountaintops and then just walkwith them and they'd have all
these questions on relationshipsand human love.
Of all the couples that wentwith him engaged couples,
newlywed couples, grand total of0% divorce rate of all of these
(09:34):
couples and when you startreading what he was giving them
in Love and Responsibility, itbecomes obvious why they were
having successful relationships.
He was an extraordinary man.
I had heard of one woman wholost her Catholic faith and her
friend had an opportunity forher to meet with Pope John Paul
II, but she's very bitter andcynical because of the
sufferings that she had beenthrough.
And her friend said look, justmeet with him, talk to him, see
(09:56):
what happens.
So they went behind closeddoors.
Has their meeting.
Doors open up.
The woman comes out justbeaming with joy.
Just Doors open up.
The woman comes out justbeaming with joy, just renewed
in her faith.
And her friend said oh, what didthe Pope say to you?
What did the Pope say?
And she said he's the mostamazing man that I've ever met
in my life.
And her friend said well, whatdid he say to you?
She said he didn't say anything.
He listened to me, and this isthe wisdom of Solomon he knew
(10:19):
when to speak, but he knew whenpeople just needed to be heard.
And so he had a tremendousheart, a tremendous gift of
listening, and it's from thefruit of all that listening that
we have these great books,because he knew the human heart.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
That's incredible, I should take notes.
I've been married for 11 yearsand so many times now my wife
will be sharing something withme and I'll just finally pause,
and maybe this is the blessingof St John Paul II.
I'll pause and I'll say is thissomething I'm supposed to
respond to or to just listen to?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yes, very important question to ask at the outset.
Yes, do you want advice or youjust want me to hear?
To listen Exactly, I know I cando either.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And so you've got to be a little bit better at that
than me, not really.
No, okay, good, it's good toknow that none of us are perfect
.
That sounds so incredible thatyou're doing with young people.
As someone who used to be inridiculously good shape, I know
it's hard to tell here now, but,like used to be a good athlete,
has not been lately.
How in shape do I have to be tobe going on one of these things
, one of these hiking events?
Oh, we have different tiers.
(11:16):
So, like the basic tiers.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
You get to stay in a cabin, you got the amenities and
you just go for a day would be.
We've got a base camp but we'rein tents and we take day hikes.
Well, you come back to the basecamp.
The next tier would bebackcountry, where it's 40-plus
miles and you don't come back tothe base camp until after four
or five days of being in thebackcountry.
Then we're looking at one up inAlaska.
(11:39):
That's going to be like a weeklong and you have to take a
day-long class before they letyou on the trail because of the
fatality rates.
But is the fatality rates?
But they'll train you on how tosurvive and one day there's
6,000 feet of elevation gain inone of the days.
So the idea is to giveeverybody what they can handle
and pick the trail that's goodfor them.
So I'm probably like a 4 or 5level.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Okay, sweet.
How much more elevation is thatthan where we are now?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
What are we at Salt Lake?
Anyone know?
The 5,000, 4,000, 4,000, 5,000feet, so less than Denver.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
but still up there.
So if I'm already strugglingnow, I need to make sure I go to
that class and get prepared togo.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Well, I mean with elevation, it depends where
you're spending the nightbeforehand.
So like, if you want to climbMount Everest, you basically
have to live at the base campfor about two to three months
before you can make the ascent,because your body needs to
become acclimated with thealtitude.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Would you ever do that?
Would you ever want to do that?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I wouldn't want to be away from my kids for two or
three months.
That's the only thing thatwould hold me back.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So like in 20, 30 years maybe.
Yeah, I'm up for it.
Yeah, I love it, I'm game.
I heard that you're super intoCrossFit.
Yeah, I love CrossFit, and I'msurprised that you are, because
you hadn't told me that't.
So you've got humility and youget to do this.
Tell me a little bit aboutCrossFit, why you love it so
much, and would I be okay tryingit, or is there a level I have
(12:56):
to?
Orange theory first and thenCrossFit?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
No, you can jump right into CrossFit because you
can scale any workout andthey'll teach you, if you don't
know Olympic lifting, how towork up to that.
But everybody's got theirkryptonite in it.
Some people are really good atsome things the bike or the
rower and Olympic lifting,deadlift, running but it really
forces you to compete in a senseagainst the other athletes in
there and some of them are justso grueling.
I mean, my favorite one iscalled Murph and what you do is
(13:20):
you put a 20-pound vest on, thenyou run for a mile.
Then you have to do 100pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air
squats and then run another milewith the vest on and just do it
straight through and it justpushes you at a level you would
look like a maniac at a normalgym to do.
But you've got that community atthe gym as well.
Like if I died at a normal gymthey'd just keep charging my
(13:42):
membership.
At this gym one of the womendied of leukemia and the gym guy
was like, okay, we're doing afundraiser, they raised like
$5,000, and then we just gave itall to the husband to help take
care of the kids.
Like that's the kind of familyenvironment you'll find at a
typical CrossFit box.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, that's incredible.
So right now, I think, as youknow, there's a lot of Andrew
Tate style, these influencers,if you will, out there who are
influencing these young men.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
To be a good leader, to be strong, to eat well, to
work out all these kinds ofthings right.
I think you would agree withall of those things.
Do you often ever talk abouthow important those kinds of
things are for Catholics?
Because I think a lot of ouryoung men are kind of following
these influencers and it can bereally easy to get pulled away
(14:28):
from the faith.
I'm wondering if you kind ofincorporate that at all with
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, and I understand why there's such an
appeal behind those things,because there's been such a
softness.
You know that's.
You know you don't want toxicmasculinity, you don't want any
of that.
And so guys are afraid to evenopen a door for a woman anymore.
And so when you have a guy, no,no, be a leader.
You know work out.
You know you own your own, haveradical ownership of your
decision.
You know guys like, hey,someone's calling me out,
(14:57):
someone's placing demands on me,I like this, instead of being
told my masculinity is somethingtoxic, that it can be something
good.
I think the challenge with someof these platforms, so to speak,
is these men want to conquereverything in the world except
for themselves.
So, like I want to conquerfinances, I want to conquer to
the gym, I want to conquer women, I want to conquer this, but
conquering my ego, conquering mylust, it's like no, let's do
(15:19):
these other things.
So it's almost like there'sthis external jihad that we want
to fight, but not the internalholy war.
And so a lot of these peoplethat are almost hyper-masculine,
in a sense, there's almost atwinge of effeminacy in them,
and what I mean by that is andI'm not going to call out people
by name.
I haven't met them personally,but Thomas Aquinas said that
what effeminacy is is what a manrefuses to do what is arduous,
(15:41):
preferring what is pleasurableinstead.
And so we might say, well, I'mnot effeminate because I can
lift all this weight and I cando all these things, but okay,
but can I resist a single imagethat appears on TikTok?
Can I resist the temptation ofwasting my life scrolling on
Instagram for 30 minutes beforebed, Like, do I have an
inordinate attachment to thepleasure?
Because Aquinas says that'swhat makes a man effeminate it's
(16:04):
a disordered attachment to thepleasure and not willing to do
what is difficult.
And so I understand these guyshave a big appeal because
they're calling you to dodemanding, hard things.
But we just need to get it tothe next yard.
It's like, okay, it's not aboutconquering a woman for the sake
of myself, it's about conqueringmyself for the sake of the
woman.
Then I become free.
Because sometimes theycelebrate freedom as an end in
(16:25):
itself.
But John Paul said freedomexists for the sake of love If I
value freedom as an end initself.
But John Paul said freedomexists for the sake of love If I
value freedom as an end initself.
I end up becoming a slave,thinking hey, I don't have a
wife, it's like a ball and chain.
I don't have a girlfriend, Idon't want to be tied down, I
don't want kids, it's game over.
It's like wait a minute, youhaven't become free.
You're a slave to your own ego,and so your freedom is best
measured by your capacity tolove.
(16:46):
So whatever impairs my abilityto love my loss, my
self-absorption, my pride it'sto that extent that I'm not free
, and so I think these onlineinfluencers have done a good job
in telling guys hey, whetherit's make your bed or go to the
gym or start a business, go dosomething, but we just got to
take it to the next step.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
Take it to the next level andlive out our radical Catholic
faith.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I love that and do you talk about that?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
a lot when you're doing the talks that you're
traveling now and doing.
Yeah, I mean, most of the talksthat I'm doing are chastity
talks in high school and then incolleges.
I do one called Dating 101,where I actually teach the
college students how to dateBecause they're told I mean you
grow up Catholic high school,Catholic grade school and
especially the guys you get toldeverything you're not supposed
to do with a woman, Don't dothis and don't do that and don't
do that, Okay, whatever.
Then you get to college andit's like, okay, I got this down
(17:36):
.
I can't sleep with mygirlfriend, I can't look at porn
with my girlfriend, I can'thave an abortion with my
girlfriend.
You know, I can't live with mygirlfriend, I can't clone my
girlfriend.
Like okay, what am I supposed todo with one?
It's like, oh, we don't teachthat, Good luck in college.
It's like, well, that's notfair.
So we try to give basic datingetiquette of when to date, why
(17:56):
to date, how to date, who todate, how to pursue all that
stuff.
And I find the college is justremarkably receptive to just not
have a finger wagged at thembeing like, hey, here's some
principles that you can put intoapplication to go risk and go
and give it a shot, and I findthey're hungry for it.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I needed you.
In college, I was just datingall the time, and then I met my
wife, and it was amazing andturned out great.
Yeah, so that's beautiful.
When you're doing this kind ofministry, like as someone who
I'm streaming what I kind ofcall what I'm doing show people
that you can be a normal person,a Catholic who's in love with
their faith but has otherinterests, similar to a lot of
the interests that you'vealready shared, which are
(18:33):
awesome.
And the appeal, though, is thatlike, why am I joyful?
You know, john, how are youjoyful?
And I get to then share thegospel with people who may not
have heard it for the first time, and there's these beautiful
stories that end up happening.
And it's of course.
Then, as you know, when you'redoing any kind of ministry, you
start getting attacked a littlebit.
(18:54):
Right, the evil wants you tostop.
In my opinion, you are doingone of the most important
ministries in the church.
You seem to I know there's abunch of people who talk about
similar things, but you seem tohave kind of been leading the
charge over the last I mean 25years.
How do you handle that?
Do you feel that attack fromthe evil and that pressure and
what do you do to handle it?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
No, it's been insane, it's been off the charts.
I mean, the attacks have beennuts.
But the most important thing isthat we don't need to be afraid
.
Our primary role is just tostay in a state of grace, to
live out the sacramental life.
And so I've got my routine ofdoing my morning consecration to
Our Lady.
You know, morning mass I do,daily mass, I spend time in
Eucharistic adoration each day.
(19:36):
Daily rosary, you know I havespiritual direction once a month
I go to confession at leastonce a month.
Like this is kind of the breadand butter.
You know, morning prayer,evening prayer, all that stuff.
And if we're living in gracethen we don't need to live in
fear, because the devil's like adog on a chain.
As long as you don't go withinthat chain, you don't have to
worry about him biting you.
So we don't need to have thisinordinate fear of the evil one,
(19:57):
even if, just because we'redoing good stuff, I mean attacks
are going to happen.
But God can use all that to thegood.
But yeah, it gets pretty diceyfor sure.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, I heard a story about something that happened
in Australia, maybe worthsharing here.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, australia was nuts.
I've been there a half dozentimes and every time I went it
was just great, totally peaceful.
Nothing went crazy at all.
But this last May I was flyingout there and as I was getting
ready to leave the airport,people were like hey, I just
want to give you a heads up.
There's some rumblings on theground here that it's going to
be a little dicey this timearound.
There's protests going on thatyou're coming.
People are trying to block youfrom getting into Catholic
schools.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
For you just being there to speak In Catholic
schools.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Wow, protests from parents at the Catholic schools
that don't want a chastity talkto their kids.
We don't need this misogynistchastity preacher telling our
girls to be modest.
And it's like whoa, whoa, whoa.
(20:54):
That's not how I'm coming inthere.
But I said, okay, we'll pray,god will figure it out.
By the time I landed inAustralia, it had just a
dumpster fire.
It exploded, three high schoolscanceled their assemblies
because the pressure comingagainst them and it was all over
the ABC News out there and thenews outlets online and on the
TV.
And I'm like what is going on?
And then a group came forwardand said we want to take credit
because the cancellationshappened.
We're going to explain who wasbehind this.
It was us.
It was a group of witches whohad a Twitter following of 60
plus thousand people, and somepeople are like, oh, they're not
real witches, mate.
(21:15):
And then people were tweetingback.
Speak for yourselves.
We're going to go scorchedearth on this guy.
I'm like, wow.
And so they started trying tocancel my hotel speaking events
that I was due by contactingmanagement and taking all the
tickets.
I'm like, oh, this is gettingreally dicey.
So I'm like, okay, you want toplay this game.
I'm going to fly in the bigguns.
So I started calling up conventsof nuns, the Sisters of Life
(21:35):
and all these things back in theStates.
I'm like, hey, sister, bethany,madonna, you got me and I was
emailing them.
She said I will have all of thesisters covering you in prayer
especially, and so she got allthe nuns here praying.
I reached out to an exorcist Iknow, monsignor John Esif, and
I'm like, hey, monsignor, and hepicked up the phone right away
and prayed with me about all thestuff.
And then it got realinteresting.
(21:56):
I put a post on Instagramsaying, hey, all this stuff is
going on.
And I said, you know, witchesare trying to do this thing.
But I said, hey, before I camehere, I consecrated the trip to
Mary, and to think that a bunchof witches can kind of overtake
that is like thinking a bunch ofhouse cats can take on, like
some, you know, siberian tiger,it's not going to happen.
The news took that clip, editedit up and said the American
(22:19):
chastity preacher is now hittingback against moms who don't
want them to speak to theirgirls, and it clipped the video.
So it said, yeah, so if thesewitches think that they're and
I'm the tiger and I'm like whatthe heck?
And so they all cut, editedthis thing to make it look like
they're house cats, they'rewitches and I'm a tiger and I'm
like this is it just got nutsand so.
But what was amazing about thelast talk is a young adult thing
(22:42):
.
For about a thousand youngadults.
I'm like, wow, nothing reallyhappened.
I mean, the schools thatcanceled, we got other ones to
fill it in everything.
And I'm putting the mic downafter the last talk and we're
just getting ready to set up thealtar for adoration and I just
feel, and someone dumps a can oftomato soup on my head in front
of a thousand people, and thenthe security guys tackled the
(23:03):
guy and dragged him off thestage and then they got in a
fight with the guy off theproperty.
And then he came back with twoother guys who had hoodies and
ski masks on that were trying toget in to do more stuff.
And at the same event, priesttold me he was in the back and a
group of people came in thatlooked kind of fishy and he kind
of walked over and said, hey,can I offer you a seat?
And they said, no, we want tostand and move, we're cold.
(23:24):
And I was like, okay, that'sweird.
He said so I'm just going tokind of sit back and see what
they're up to.
So the priest watched them and,sure enough, as soon as they
started speaking, they startedthese rhythmic incantations and
hexes and curses.
It was like a coven of witchesshowing up.
And so he's like, okay, let'sroll.
He pulls out his rosary, startspraying the rosary next to them
.
But what was amazing about thewhole thing?
(23:45):
I went once more like after thetomato soup got dumped on me,
I'll straight on, was like, oh,I'm so sorry, mate, you know
that happened to you.
And I'm like, hey, look, I'vegot eight kids.
This is what I look like at theend of the day anyway.
So it's all par for the course.
But to show how God brings goodthrough all of this, because
they were putting all this stuffon social media, attacking me,
they took my and that thingstarted going up the algorithm
(24:08):
because so many clicks werehappening, because they were
putting on these news stations.
And what ended up happening?
That showed it to a lot morepeople who wouldn't have
otherwise seen it, one of whomwas a college-age young adult
girl who's in Australia visitingher boyfriend A Catholic girl
visiting from Hawaii found outwhile she's there he's cheating
on her and she's like that's it.
I am so done.
(24:28):
I'm so sick of holding out forsome Christian guy that really
is going to value me when thoseguys don't even exist.
That's it.
I'm just going to lose myvirginity now.
So she gets on.
She got on Tinder pick threeguys.
She said I'm going to pick oneof these guys.
Give my virginity to tonight.
No-transcript.
(24:58):
He's here.
And so she DMs me on Instagram.
I'm like, yeah, I'm here.
I got to talk tomorrow nightfor young adults.
Why don't you come?
And she's like yeah, I'll come.
So she comes to the talk,doesn't sleep with the guys,
goes to confession, eucharisticadoration, renews whole
commitment with chastity, thencomes with us on one of our
wilderness backpacking retreatsand then it's like hey, my
family has a ranch in Yosemite,you want to start having
(25:19):
retreats there.
I'm like let's do it.
So now we're going to doretreats at her ranch in
Yosemite.
She came on our podcast allbecause people tried to oppose
it and God was able to bringgood out of the evil.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Thank you for sharing that, andI'm sure there were hundreds,
if not thousands, of people thathave similar stories when they
were there who were impacted bywhat you were saying.
But even if it was just forthat one absolutely worth all
the stuff.
I'm sure I can't say thatbecause I haven't had tomato
sauce jumped on my head besidesmy kids.
Yeah, people are pawing on mykids.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah, People are like , hey, it could have been worse,
it could have been like creamof broccoli or something like
that.
But you know, one of the girlscame up to me at high schools
and she said you know, I feellike you're talking to.
It was only for me, I neededthis so bad.
And I said you know, I wasn'tsupposed to be here today.
The only reason I'm at yourhigh school is because that high
school.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Praise God when that stuff happens to you, does it?
It has to affect you a littlebit, right, like, or does it not
like all the kind of the hatemessages you get?
You get way more affirming ones, as do I, but sometimes the
hate messages, or I don't knowif you're familiar with swatting
(26:22):
.
Swatting is when you pretend tocall.
You call the police and youpretend you're at this house.
And you say the police and youpretend you're at this house and
you say I've killed my entirefamily and uh, and I'm going to
kill myself if you don't show up.
And then the cops will show upand awful things have happened
in the last 10 years to likevideo game streamers who do this
, um, and so that happened to meonce and this like it was
unbelievable, so that like Ilook and I already warned the
cops that this was a thing, wow,and so I walk outside cause my
(26:45):
wife walks in and tells me and Ilook out and my kids are like
looking at my wife with likelasers pointed to her, wow, and
thank God they're super youngand so we were able to just be
like yeah, somebody called andsaid something bad happened at
our house and they came to helpus like, but that's like not
always how it ends, and thatstayed with me for a long time,
like, and I'm sure that maybethat's not happened to you when
(27:06):
you're out there doing theministry that you're doing.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Well, when I think of this guy who poured the tomato
soup on my head, you know, assoon as he did it, you know I
was like what is going on here?
Then I saw the security comeand grab him and I said okay,
everybody, let's pray a HailMary for our brother.
So, all thousand people.
I started praying a Hail Maryfor the guy.
Security guy told me later.
He said yeah, I was him offstage and he was trying to
scream something, but hecouldn't scream as long as we
(27:30):
were doing the Hail Mary.
It was like he was just blockedfrom speaking and as they were
dragging him off, I just thoughtI wonder what his story is,
because anger comes from a placeof hurt that's at the root.
What's that guy's hurt Like?
What happened to him?
Like did he get hurt bysomebody in the clergy, by some
Catholic person who claimed tobe Catholic?
That's coming out of a wound,he's living out of a wound.
(27:50):
So I can't take offense thatthis is happening.
In fact, the security guy, wecircled back at the end of the
night and he said I just want toshow you what's going on here.
And he says I do work with thepriest as deliverance ministry
in the diocese here and he rollsout a napkin and gets a pen,
and Right here in this part oftown is a bunch of satanic cults
.
These are the covens of witches.
There's a lot of new ageactivity here.
(28:11):
And he said and you are righthere.
He said good on you, mate,you're over the target, meaning
you're kicking a hornet's nesthere, and so you shouldn't be
surprised when it creates kindof this anaphylactic reaction.
When I was down in Tasmania,there's a great bishop there
who's an exorcist and he wasexplaining that spirituality
can't exist in a vacuum and thatplace has become so secularized
(28:32):
, the Holy Spirit has been sodisinvited.
A different spirit comes in andthe nuns were telling me like
yeah, we can look right out ourconvent window at the neighbors
through their living room window, and it's witches and they're
doing seances and their own kindof liturgy of the hours on a
daily basis as well seances andtheir own kind of liturgy of the
hours on a daily basis as well.
And so the whole trip helped meto take, you know, inventory of
(28:53):
my own life.
Okay, am I taking thisspiritual battle as seriously as
the witches are, or are theytaking it more seriously than we
are.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen once wasflying and the lady next to him
was on the airplane.
They started talking and shewasn't eating anything and he
asked her he's like you know.
May I ask you know, are youChristian?
You know, are you fasting?
And she said well, I'm notChristian, but I am fasting.
I'm a witch and I'm fasting formore abortions.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
And it's like whoa like.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And this is Archbishop Fulton Sheen doing
the story.
There was another priest,no-transcript.
Are you Christian, are youfasting?
(29:36):
And they said, no, we'rewitches and we're fasting for
the destruction of Christianmarriage.
Wow, and it's like okay if theenemy is taking the game more
seriously than we are.
We got to get our stufftogether.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, so for you, you talked about daily prayer,
daily adoration, daily rosary,daily mass.
You've got eight kids right.
How do you fit that all in?
And I wasn't even in this for15 years, so I was doing a lot
of those things.
Often I'm trying to do them allas much as I can.
Now, what are some of thehobbies that you have?
Do you not have any?
(30:09):
Do you just pray?
Oh yeah, no, I mean Other thanI mean CrossFit, hiking, all
that stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
But Well, one, a lot of outdoor stuff.
I've been taking my kids what'scalled shed hunting, which is
like come February, march, elkand deer drop their antlers out
in the woods and then you can gohiking through the woods and
you find, you know, these sixpoint elk antlers out there with
your little boys and girls andit's just, it's just fun.
I mean, you're just out thereoff the beaten path exploring
and finding all kinds of stuff.
So to me I just want to gooutside with the kids, whatever
(30:35):
it is.
So we do, you know, shedhunting a lot.
I'll take them golf and doCrossFit.
To me, you just got to getoutside and go do stuff.
So I not last night, but thenight before I left I've got a
rooftop tent on my truck and sothe kid's like, well, we just
camp out in the driveway.
I'm like, let's do it.
So you know, we pop out thetent, and you know me.
And then four of the kids justslept on the top of a truck for
(30:56):
the day.
So to me it's kids spend theword spell, the word love,
t-i-m-e, you know.
And to me, just go do stuffwith them.
So we, so I try to get them offscreens as much as possible and
just out in the beauty ofcreation.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, same.
So what you're saying is I needto move away from Illinois.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
More or less Because there's nothing fun to do there.
I'm sure there's some deerthere, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I'm outside all the time with the kids and we're
playing, throwing the footballaround and that's all you can do
.
Yeah, so I need to move.
That sounds shed hunting.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Oh amazing it's so much fun to just stumble on some
massive set of antlers sittingin the middle of nowhere.
My four-year-old found hisfirst one this year and we're
just walking around the woodsand then boom, he found it and
he was just elated.
He brought it to show and tellat preschool the next day.
Other kids got littletransformers.
He's got an elk antler to bringinto school, so yeah, Dude,
(31:43):
that is, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
That is so fun.
How important do you think itis?
It sounds like a lot to go onadventures with your kids, and
do you think that that's part ofwhat's missing, with a lot of
young men and women now who are,like you said, kind of stuck in
front of screens all the time?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
No, I remember hearing a stat from a
psychologist.
He said the average level ofanxiety of today's teenager is
the same level of anxiety asteenagers in the 1950s who were
admitted to mental hospitals formental health anxiety disorders
.
That's the average and it'stypically pretty parallel to the
amount of time they're spendingon screens.
Because I mean, you think of anadolescent female going to bed
(32:20):
at night.
The light switch goes off andthen the phone goes on and she's
looking at everybody's perfectbody, perfect boyfriend, perfect
hair, perfect life, perfectthat.
And after 45 minutes of doomscrolling she just kind of gives
up and goes to bed feeling lessthan everybody else.
And if you're doing that, I meanit moves from the point of
being a habit to a routine, froma routine to a ritual, and it
(32:43):
becomes a devotional of sorts.
But it's a false devotional andso we've got to replace that.
Okay, you want to do screentime?
Do hollow, you know, do liturgyof the hours you know.
Have that be the bookends ofyour day, begin with the gospel,
end with evening prayer,examination of conscience.
So screens aren't all evil, butwe've just got to make sure
that you know we're very carefulabout what's coming in through
(33:03):
our senses and how much, notjust quantity but quality, but
quantity of time we're spendingon them 100%.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
So I'm assuming that you don't play video games.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I don't, I just I mean I don't.
I maybe watch one movie a year.
Okay, If that I don't watch TV.
Maybe a little bit of NBA atnight before going to bed, you
know if I'm at a hotel for a fewminutes, but you know like I'll
see my kids watching TV.
I'm like, dude, go make TV,like go make an adventure, have
(33:34):
someone film you instead of youwatching, cause I saw my kids
the other day watching a TV showof someone watching, someone
watching a video game orsomething.
I'm like, dude, you're likefour steps removed from the
adventure at just absorbing thecontent.
And uh, you know I'm not like,hey, screens are evil type of
thing, but but it's just,there's just got to be healthy
boundaries to it, and you know.
So if we're going to do videogames, I like to do them
together with the kids.
Yeah, so it isn't like you'relocked away in your room for
four hours with some gamingsystem.
(33:56):
It's like, no, let me play withyou, I'll race Mario Karts
against you.
So it's dad competing against.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I love that People are usually surprised to learn
that, as somebody who plays alot of games for a living, that
I don't love video games.
I never play when I'm notstreaming and when a bunch of
people this week would come upto me and they're like, john,
are your hands shaking, do youmiss Fortnite?
And I'm like, no, I've thoughtof Fortnite zero times since
I've been here.
It's something I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
It's a means to an end.
It's not an end in itself.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And they're surprised to learn that my kids don't
play.
Yeah, so my kids are nine,eight and four and they don't
play any video games.
A little Madden here and there,like three or four times.
But yeah, they love filmingstuff and making little movies
and that's what it's all about.
Yeah, I absolutely love it.
Total agreement.
(34:44):
If you had to share, we've that.
A lot of my audience is notsuper Catholic.
There's a lot of Catholics, alot of priests, nuns, who watch
me stream, which is cool.
A lot of them I've met here inperson for the first time, a lot
of fallen away Catholics, a lotof Christians, a lot of
atheists, a lot of agnosticsthat watch my content, and
they're super open oftentimes towhatever the Holy Spirit has to
offer, and that's a beautifulthing.
What would you say to peoplelistening here but people also
(35:07):
listening later?
Maybe three things that arereally important for both men
and women to start doing now, tobe living their life to the
full.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Yeah, well, we got to greet those who are watching.
We say what's up, chat?
Is that what we're saying?
To welcome them to the wholeprogram?
What's up, brother?
But one I think of in the Bible.
In the Old Testament, god giveslots of commands Do this, don't
do that.
In the New Testament, from myreading of it, that God, the
Father, only commands one thing.
In the entirety of the entireNew Testament, there's only one
(35:36):
command that comes out of hismouth, which is this is my
beloved son, listen to him.
And so if there's only onething the Father wants us to do,
it's to learn how to listen, tocreate time in our life where
it's not constant noise, noise,noise.
Because you wake up and it'sthe phone, it's this, it's, you
know, texting.
There's no room for silence.
And so I think, if God's askingus to do anything, just create
(35:57):
some room for quiet in your life.
Like, sometimes on Lent, I'lljust give up noise in the car.
And so, like, when I get in thecar, I can't listen to audio
books, can't listen to podcasts,can't listen to music, can't
listen to anything.
And you get in the car andyou're like okay, and you, just
you reach for noise and you'relike, oh no, remember it's Lent.
And then you start driving like10 seconds later, like why is
(36:24):
it so quiet?
And you're like I got to listento a podcast.
No, no, and it's life.
So I would say, first, thatthing.
Second, if there's people thatyou know maybe aren't in the
church and are kind of lookingat it, you know, maybe I don't
know if that thing's for me, Iremember thinking I don't want
to get all into my faith becauseto me the church people are
weird, right, and I just didn'twant to be weird.
And a friend assured me he saidlook, you're going to meet holy
(36:47):
people that are weird.
But he said they were weirdbefore they were holy, and so
that's a bit of a consolation.
At least that, okay.
But I discovered is thatsainthood, and what God wants of
you is not to stick you in amold.
Sainthood is the full bloom ofthe human personality.
Look at the worst sinners inthe world, the drug cartels and
the terrorists, and you knowwhatever.
They're like clones of eachother.
(37:07):
But then you look at the saintsand they're so radiantly,
intensely unique.
You know, from the blessed PereGeorgios to the Therese of
Lesue, to the Joan of Arc.
They're so intensely human.
And that's why God's notcalling you to be Mother Teresa,
he's not calling you to be PereGeorgio, he's just calling you
to be you.
And so don't be afraid.
John Paul II said every personwho seeks the kingdom of God
(37:28):
will find himself.
And so, in terms of a last andmaybe third and final thing it
would kind of tie into the first, but it's that a priest of mine
back home.
He said the Holy Spirit talkedto you a hundred times a day.
How often are you listening tothat?
And it's like really.
And then you start thinking, ohyeah, he's telling me.
Oh, go sit next to that kid inthe cafeteria who doesn't have
any friends.
You know, just do that littleyes, because sometimes we get so
(37:50):
overwhelmed.
What's the big yes?
Am I going to get married?
Am I going to be a priest?
Am I supposed to become aChristian?
Don't get all stuck in thewoods like that.
You can complete a journey of athousand miles completely in
the fog, as long as you can seeone foot ahead of you on the
path.
God, god will always give youthat one foot.
And so if you're in a toxicrelationship and you're like,
how do I get out of this.
I don't know what I'm supposedto do.
It's like, okay, you might notknow what to do long-term, but,
(38:13):
short-term, you know what youneed to do right now.
Quit doing that you know andstart opening up to people who
love you and just do what youknow you're supposed to do,
because some graces are onlyavailable to you if you've
responded to the graces thathave already been given to you.
Once we respond to those graces, new light is given and then
we'll see further down the path.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I'm going to have a hard time doing the first one
because our baby's due on AshWednesday.
Yeah, so, that's going to beinteresting, but I'll do my best
to spend more time in silence.
Jason, where can people findeverything it is that you're
doing right now?
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, so we've got the website, chastitycom, and so
people can go there to clickwith us.
Connect with us on.
Instagram is just my name,jason Everett.
Twitter, it's just JasonEverett.
We've got a Facebook pageYouTube it's just Jason Everett.
We've got a podcast called Lustis Boring, where we've done
more than a hundred differentepisodes on how to break free
from pornography, stuff, on thetransgender issue of how to
(39:05):
respond to that with charity atthe same time as clarity, all
kinds of stuff how do I find theright person for me, marriage,
discernment so all that stuff isat Lust is Boring.
That's the podcast, and thenthe backpacking stuff is at
jp2trailscom, and so we've gotseveral hikes that are opening
up in the near future, even aski trip that we're going to do
here in Utah with ChristopherWest teaching theology of body
(39:27):
and skiing for the week, and sothe idea is that not every
retreat needs to be in amonastery.
You know that sometimes thecathedral of God's creation is
one of the best places to hearwhat he's trying to say.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
And are you giving a couplemore talks, I think over the
next day as well?
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Yeah, I've got.
The next talk is going to betomorrow on the subject of
gender.
It's going to be theology ofthe body as it applies to what
does it mean to be male andfemale?
How do we respond to people whosay they're trans or non-binary
?
What about my friend?
Or what if I have genderdysphoria?
We'll take a deep dive intothat tomorrow afternoon and I'm
doing the final keynote of SEEK,which will be Sunday, I believe
, right before mass.
So I'd ask all the listeners toplease pray for your speakers
(40:03):
and pray for me that just Godgive the gift of apostolic
preaching for that talk.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Absolutely Thank you for the gift that you are to the
church.
I'm excited to have you on myTwitch stream at some point in
2025.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Be happy to come on, you don't have to play video
games with me.
I'll try Fortnite for the firsttime.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Okay, that would be content.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
That would be content .
That would be a lot of funComedy content.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
What is the A button doing for taking the time?
We'll be around here for a fewminutes after, guys, Thank you
so much for listening and forshowing up.
God bless friends for all yourfamilies.
Thank you.
Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
My voice finally cracked, Thanks for listening to
this episode recorded live atSeek Miss the conference or want
to relive your favorite moments?
Seek Re replay has you covered.
Access powerful keynotes,inspiring talks and exclusive
content to take your faithdeeper, anytime, anywhere.
(40:58):
Head to seekfocusorg backslashreplay to download now, and
don't forget to join us for Seek26.
Check out seekfocusorg for moreinformation and to register.
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
All right, check, check.
Can you hear me?
I can, let's go.
Thanks for being here.
Good to be on, I appreciate it.
For those who don't know me, myname is Jonathan Beard of
Blevins.
I apologize for my voice.
I've been like live streamingand doing podcast stuff since I
got here and I heard theelevation might be a thing, so
thank you for your patience.
I was in ministry for 15 yearsin the Catholic Church as a
(00:40):
youth minister and a director ofevangelization.
I have my bachelor's intheology and my master's in
theology with an emphasis inyouth and young adult ministry.
And six years ago, my brother Idon't usually bring this up,
but a lot of you already knowthis Six years ago, my brother,
who has blue hair and is ninja,blew up and became the biggest
streamer in the world and heencouraged me to start live
(01:01):
streaming on Twitch and so Istarted doing it part-time.
It went really well.
I started my own business outof it and now I do full-time
content creation, talking aboutsports and all kinds of fun
stuff like that.
So thank you so much for beinghere.
I'm so excited and, jason, it'sgreat to have you my friend.
If you don't mind, I knoweverybody already knows you, but
if you don't mind introducingyourself just a little bit,
that'd be great.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, no, jason Everett, father of eight
beautiful little kids, back homein Arizona, and I run the
Chastity Project Ministry.
We run chastitycom, so I amblessed to travel around the
world and speak about God's planfor human love and sexuality
high school, college studentsand beyond.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Let's go.
I probably should havementioned that I'm also married
and have three kids, one on theway.
That's exciting.
Catholic conference, let's go.
But I have to ask you this,jason.
So this is a little weird, butit's okay.
We do weird here.
So is there a chance that inthe year, like 2000 and 2001,
that you would have beenspeaking at NCYC's?
Yep, oh yeah, the NationalCatholic Youth Conference?
(01:59):
Yep, we did many.
I have to share a story.
Please bear with me.
Okay, so I'm in eighth grade.
My mom signs me up for thisCatholic conference.
That's for high schoolers.
I'm already the youngest in myeighth grade class, but she's
like you're going.
My mom's an amazing woman,she's the best mom ever.
My dad's pretty great too.
She left out of town that weekand similar to right now.
(02:21):
I got really sick and my dad didnot do a ton of the laundry, so
I'd already packed upeverything for this trip.
I'm trying to get out of it.
Now I have an excuse to get outof it.
I'm sick.
So I tell my dad dad, I don'tfeel good, I feel really sick.
And he's like oh, you're fine,you're just trying to get out of
it.
And I was like dad, I got to runto the bathroom.
So I go inside, I run up thestairs and I didn't quite make
it A nice.
A nice it was it was not a fart, let's just say that and it was
(03:00):
really embarrassing.
Okay, and so what do I do?
All I have to like tell my dadthat I pooped my pants, or I
just have to like figuresomething out.
So I try to clean it up realquick.
It wasn't a ton, it was just alittle.
I promise this goes somewhere.
Awesome, I would hope so.
And so I get in the car and I'mlike all right, I'll get in the
, I'll grab the bag from the,from, uh, my car, and just
change in the church, and noone's going to know.
And the bus drivers there,cause we're late, grabs my bag,
(03:21):
throws it under the bus.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So now I'm stuck and I have to sit on this bus to
Indianapolis.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
In my own grossness and I'm like trying not to cry I
sat by the bathroom so that Icould blame it on other people
and it was super embarrassing.
We finally get to theconference and I should tell you
, I grew up Catholic, went tomass every single week, but I
never had a personal encounterwith Christ.
I didn't really love the church, I just didn't mind going to
mass.
I get into the room with fourseniors, I hop in the shower to
(03:52):
try to clean up and they turnthe light off and start like
punching me through like theshower curtain.
They were not really trying tobe that mean, they were just
trying to be funny, but I wassick and it felt awful.
So I go to my youth ministerand I say, hey, like I'm having
the worst time, I'm sick, Idon't want to be here, can I go
home?
And she's like you know what,john, you can just go, do
whatever you want.
This entire conference.
Go ahead, indianapolis, eighthgrade, just go, and you don't
(04:14):
have to check in, you don't haveto be in any small groups, just
like, let God do what he wantsto do.
So I took my hundred dollarsthat my dad gave me and I spent
it at a steakhouse and then Iran out of money and so I was
like, well, I might as wellcheck out this conference.
And I pull open the scheduleand I see like and I don't
(04:35):
remember exactly what it was,but in my mind it said the
Catholic Church and sex.
And maybe that wasn't the title, maybe you remember the title,
but you were the speaker and Iwas like what does the Catholic
church have to say about sex?
I'm in eighth grade.
I didn't even know what thatwas.
I thought it was kissing naked,and so I didn't even know.
But I was like this is, I wantto know what this is.
And so I walk into your talkand even then, dude, your whole
(04:57):
place was packed, there wasnowhere to sit, and so I sat
behind the bleachers and I justlike sat there alone and I
listened to you talk.
And that conference and yourtalk that you gave was the very
first time that I encounteredChrist.
It was the first time I hadheard someone who seemed normal
talk about loving the church,loving Christ and talking about
(05:19):
church teaching.
That I didn't know existed.
And so I just want to start bysaying thank you so much for
being a part of changing my life.
Well, that's awesome.
Praise God, I got a lot betterafter the poop in the pants
story.
Okay, that's a good story,right, guys?
Come on now.
Don't be ashamed.
All right, I want to get into abunch of stuff with you, but
first, if you don't mind, justgo a little deeper into what it
(05:39):
is that you're doing.
You're doing kind of three mainthings right now.
As you're sharing talks allaround the world, let's hear
about it.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, well, we've got Chastity Project and we try to
spread the message of chastitythrough in-person speaking
engagements, things like that.
Secondly, we've got a coupledozen books that we've written
on the subject and then a lot ofonline content.
So Chastity Project tries toget John Paul II's vision of
human love out through those.
We also have another ministrycalled jp2trailscom where we do
(06:06):
wilderness backpacking retreatsfor young adults, and so we did
one in Poland and one of thetrails John Paul II did and I
taught love and responsibilityup in the mountains to the young
adults.
And we're like, oh, this isawesome, we got to do this back
home.
So we got back home.
A friend of mine was like, well,would you do one for our parish
in Denver and we'll open it upnationwide.
So we opened up registration,we got 250 applications in 48
(06:29):
hours and we're like I thinkwe're onto something.
And so we did that one and it'sjust kind of snowballed now
where we just had ones inMontana, canada, arizona,
colorado, and we've got 19 onthe calendar now from here to
Switzerland, to Italy, and it'sjust getting in the back country
and then spending time with acouple dozen young adults, a
couple of priests, and then youteach theology of the body, have
(06:50):
adoration, and it's heaven andwe're just kind of dreaming big.
We're looking to do on a KodiakIsland with grizzly bears, a
bear guide.
We're looking at Norway,patagonia, even a missions trip
to Ecuador where we're going togo fly into Quito and then take
a six-hour drive to therainforest and then we'll be
backpacking medical suppliesinto the Amazon to remote
(07:11):
villages.
So it's just really kind ofjust dropped into our laps and
just have exploded in the lastsix, eight months or so.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's incredible.
How many of those trips are youpersonally going on?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, I've just finished the seventh one that
I've done and I'm just basicallydoing one per month on the way
out.
Okay, that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
One of my favorite pictures that you've posted a
couple of times over the yearsis when you got to meet St John
Paul II.
It's a beautiful picture.
You make a joke sometimes aboutthe security guards, why they
look so crabby.
That's super funny.
But can you share a little bitabout your love for JP too, and
maybe like why you know?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
what he was doing in his ministry.
As he was doing that, yeah Well, I mean, I I'm kind of spoiled.
I got to see John Paul II inperson 24 times in my life, uh,
I got to uh, most of the time Iwas at a distance at a world
youth day.
On another occasion I got tohold his hand, uh.
And then another occasion I gotto speak with him, have mass
with him, uh, talk to him, givehim a hug and a kiss, and so I'm
like a fifth-class relic moreor less, seeing him that often.
But you know, he's just my hero.
He's a very interior man.
(08:10):
I mean, if there's anythingthat struck me about him, it was
that, as visible as he was andtraveling the globe and all that
, he was really a man of prayerand he suffered a lot.
His father, when his mom died,he said.
Of his dad he said the violenceof the blows that had struck
him opened up immense spiritualdepths in him and his grief
(08:32):
found its outlet in prayer.
And I think the same is true ofJohn Paul, who suffered a lot
growing up, losing his lovedones, but he found his outlet in
prayer and his understanding ofhuman love and sexuality and
love and responsibility.
It's the most beautiful visionof human love, and to me it
isn't just so much arguing abouttruth and what's good, but
beauty is irrefutable.
You can't argue with what'sbeautiful, and so his vision of
(08:54):
human love to me is the core ofour entire chastity ministry.
So he's absolutely my hero.
Patron saint, just love the guy.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
That's awesome when you go on these trips and you
see the beauty of the world.
How much of that is part ofwhat he was into.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Oh well, I mean when he was a young priest and then
became Pope, he said I only havetwo responsibilities young
people, kayaking and skiing.
And so he would just take themout and catechize them in the
mountaintops and then just walkwith them and they'd have all
these questions on relationshipsand human love.
Of all the couples that wentwith him engaged couples,
newlywed couples, grand total of0% divorce rate of all of these
(09:34):
couples and when you startreading what he was giving them
in Love and Responsibility, itbecomes obvious why they were
having successful relationships.
He was an extraordinary man.
I had heard of one woman wholost her Catholic faith and her
friend had an opportunity forher to meet with Pope John Paul
II, but she's very bitter andcynical because of the
sufferings that she had beenthrough.
And her friend said look, justmeet with him, talk to him, see
(09:56):
what happens.
So they went behind closeddoors.
Has their meeting.
Doors open up.
The woman comes out justbeaming with joy.
Just Doors open up.
The woman comes out justbeaming with joy, just renewed
in her faith.
And her friend said oh, what didthe Pope say to you?
What did the Pope say?
And she said he's the mostamazing man that I've ever met
in my life.
And her friend said well, whatdid he say to you?
She said he didn't say anything.
He listened to me, and this isthe wisdom of Solomon he knew
(10:19):
when to speak, but he knew whenpeople just needed to be heard.
And so he had a tremendousheart, a tremendous gift of
listening, and it's from thefruit of all that listening that
we have these great books,because he knew the human heart.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
That's incredible, I should take notes.
I've been married for 11 yearsand so many times now my wife
will be sharing something withme and I'll just finally pause,
and maybe this is the blessingof St John Paul II.
I'll pause and I'll say is thissomething I'm supposed to
respond to or to just listen to?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yes, very important question to ask at the outset.
Yes, do you want advice or youjust want me to hear?
To listen Exactly, I know I cando either.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And so you've got to be a little bit better at that
than me, not really.
No, okay, good, it's good toknow that none of us are perfect
.
That sounds so incredible thatyou're doing with young people.
As someone who used to be inridiculously good shape, I know
it's hard to tell here now, but,like used to be a good athlete,
has not been lately.
How in shape do I have to be tobe going on one of these things
, one of these hiking events?
Oh, we have different tiers.
(11:16):
So, like the basic tiers.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
You get to stay in a cabin, you got the amenities and
you just go for a day would be.
We've got a base camp but we'rein tents and we take day hikes.
Well, you come back to the basecamp.
The next tier would bebackcountry, where it's 40-plus
miles and you don't come back tothe base camp until after four
or five days of being in thebackcountry.
Then we're looking at one up inAlaska.
(11:39):
That's going to be like a weeklong and you have to take a
day-long class before they letyou on the trail because of the
fatality rates.
But is the fatality rates?
But they'll train you on how tosurvive and one day there's
6,000 feet of elevation gain inone of the days.
So the idea is to giveeverybody what they can handle
and pick the trail that's goodfor them.
So I'm probably like a 4 or 5level.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Okay, sweet.
How much more elevation is thatthan where we are now?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
What are we at Salt Lake?
Anyone know?
The 5,000, 4,000, 4,000, 5,000feet, so less than Denver.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
but still up there.
So if I'm already strugglingnow, I need to make sure I go to
that class and get prepared togo.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Well, I mean with elevation, it depends where
you're spending the nightbeforehand.
So like, if you want to climbMount Everest, you basically
have to live at the base campfor about two to three months
before you can make the ascent,because your body needs to
become acclimated with thealtitude.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Would you ever do that?
Would you ever want to do that?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I wouldn't want to be away from my kids for two or
three months.
That's the only thing thatwould hold me back.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So like in 20, 30 years maybe.
Yeah, I'm up for it.
Yeah, I love it, I'm game.
I heard that you're super intoCrossFit.
Yeah, I love CrossFit, and I'msurprised that you are, because
you hadn't told me that't.
So you've got humility and youget to do this.
Tell me a little bit aboutCrossFit, why you love it so
much, and would I be okay tryingit, or is there a level I have
(12:56):
to?
Orange theory first and thenCrossFit?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
No, you can jump right into CrossFit because you
can scale any workout andthey'll teach you, if you don't
know Olympic lifting, how towork up to that.
But everybody's got theirkryptonite in it.
Some people are really good atsome things the bike or the
rower and Olympic lifting,deadlift, running but it really
forces you to compete in a senseagainst the other athletes in
there and some of them are justso grueling.
I mean, my favorite one iscalled Murph and what you do is
(13:20):
you put a 20-pound vest on, thenyou run for a mile.
Then you have to do 100pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air
squats and then run another milewith the vest on and just do it
straight through and it justpushes you at a level you would
look like a maniac at a normalgym to do.
But you've got that community atthe gym as well.
Like if I died at a normal gymthey'd just keep charging my
(13:42):
membership.
At this gym one of the womendied of leukemia and the gym guy
was like, okay, we're doing afundraiser, they raised like
$5,000, and then we just gave itall to the husband to help take
care of the kids.
Like that's the kind of familyenvironment you'll find at a
typical CrossFit box.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, that's incredible.
So right now, I think, as youknow, there's a lot of Andrew
Tate style, these influencers,if you will, out there who are
influencing these young men.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
To be a good leader, to be strong, to eat well, to
work out all these kinds ofthings right.
I think you would agree withall of those things.
Do you often ever talk abouthow important those kinds of
things are for Catholics?
Because I think a lot of ouryoung men are kind of following
these influencers and it can bereally easy to get pulled away
(14:28):
from the faith.
I'm wondering if you kind ofincorporate that at all with
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, and I understand why there's such an
appeal behind those things,because there's been such a
softness.
You know that's.
You know you don't want toxicmasculinity, you don't want any
of that.
And so guys are afraid to evenopen a door for a woman anymore.
And so when you have a guy, no,no, be a leader.
You know work out.
You know you own your own, haveradical ownership of your
decision.
You know guys like, hey,someone's calling me out,
(14:57):
someone's placing demands on me,I like this, instead of being
told my masculinity is somethingtoxic, that it can be something
good.
I think the challenge with someof these platforms, so to speak,
is these men want to conquereverything in the world except
for themselves.
So, like I want to conquerfinances, I want to conquer to
the gym, I want to conquer women, I want to conquer this, but
conquering my ego, conquering mylust, it's like no, let's do
(15:19):
these other things.
So it's almost like there'sthis external jihad that we want
to fight, but not the internalholy war.
And so a lot of these peoplethat are almost hyper-masculine,
in a sense, there's almost atwinge of effeminacy in them,
and what I mean by that is andI'm not going to call out people
by name.
I haven't met them personally,but Thomas Aquinas said that
what effeminacy is is what a manrefuses to do what is arduous,
(15:41):
preferring what is pleasurableinstead.
And so we might say, well, I'mnot effeminate because I can
lift all this weight and I cando all these things, but okay,
but can I resist a single imagethat appears on TikTok?
Can I resist the temptation ofwasting my life scrolling on
Instagram for 30 minutes beforebed, Like, do I have an
inordinate attachment to thepleasure?
Because Aquinas says that'swhat makes a man effeminate it's
(16:04):
a disordered attachment to thepleasure and not willing to do
what is difficult.
And so I understand these guyshave a big appeal because
they're calling you to dodemanding, hard things.
But we just need to get it tothe next yard.
It's like, okay, it's not aboutconquering a woman for the sake
of myself, it's about conqueringmyself for the sake of the
woman.
Then I become free.
Because sometimes theycelebrate freedom as an end in
(16:25):
itself.
But John Paul said freedomexists for the sake of love If I
value freedom as an end initself.
But John Paul said freedomexists for the sake of love If I
value freedom as an end initself.
I end up becoming a slave,thinking hey, I don't have a
wife, it's like a ball and chain.
I don't have a girlfriend, Idon't want to be tied down, I
don't want kids, it's game over.
It's like wait a minute, youhaven't become free.
You're a slave to your own ego,and so your freedom is best
measured by your capacity tolove.
(16:46):
So whatever impairs my abilityto love my loss, my
self-absorption, my pride it'sto that extent that I'm not free
, and so I think these onlineinfluencers have done a good job
in telling guys hey, whetherit's make your bed or go to the
gym or start a business, go dosomething, but we just got to
take it to the next step.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
Take it to the next level andlive out our radical Catholic
faith.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I love that and do you talk about that?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
a lot when you're doing the talks that you're
traveling now and doing.
Yeah, I mean, most of the talksthat I'm doing are chastity
talks in high school and then incolleges.
I do one called Dating 101,where I actually teach the
college students how to dateBecause they're told I mean you
grow up Catholic high school,Catholic grade school and
especially the guys you get toldeverything you're not supposed
to do with a woman, Don't dothis and don't do that and don't
do that, Okay, whatever.
Then you get to college andit's like, okay, I got this down
(17:36):
.
I can't sleep with mygirlfriend, I can't look at porn
with my girlfriend, I can'thave an abortion with my
girlfriend.
You know, I can't live with mygirlfriend, I can't clone my
girlfriend.
Like okay, what am I supposed todo with one?
It's like, oh, we don't teachthat, Good luck in college.
It's like, well, that's notfair.
So we try to give basic datingetiquette of when to date, why
(17:56):
to date, how to date, who todate, how to pursue all that
stuff.
And I find the college is justremarkably receptive to just not
have a finger wagged at thembeing like, hey, here's some
principles that you can put intoapplication to go risk and go
and give it a shot, and I findthey're hungry for it.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I needed you.
In college, I was just datingall the time, and then I met my
wife, and it was amazing andturned out great.
Yeah, so that's beautiful.
When you're doing this kind ofministry, like as someone who
I'm streaming what I kind ofcall what I'm doing show people
that you can be a normal person,a Catholic who's in love with
their faith but has otherinterests, similar to a lot of
the interests that you'vealready shared, which are
(18:33):
awesome.
And the appeal, though, is thatlike, why am I joyful?
You know, john, how are youjoyful?
And I get to then share thegospel with people who may not
have heard it for the first time, and there's these beautiful
stories that end up happening.
And it's of course.
Then, as you know, when you'redoing any kind of ministry, you
start getting attacked a littlebit.
(18:54):
Right, the evil wants you tostop.
In my opinion, you are doingone of the most important
ministries in the church.
You seem to I know there's abunch of people who talk about
similar things, but you seem tohave kind of been leading the
charge over the last I mean 25years.
How do you handle that?
Do you feel that attack fromthe evil and that pressure and
what do you do to handle it?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
No, it's been insane, it's been off the charts.
I mean, the attacks have beennuts.
But the most important thing isthat we don't need to be afraid
.
Our primary role is just tostay in a state of grace, to
live out the sacramental life.
And so I've got my routine ofdoing my morning consecration to
Our Lady.
You know, morning mass I do,daily mass, I spend time in
Eucharistic adoration each day.
(19:36):
Daily rosary, you know I havespiritual direction once a month
I go to confession at leastonce a month.
Like this is kind of the breadand butter.
You know, morning prayer,evening prayer, all that stuff.
And if we're living in gracethen we don't need to live in
fear, because the devil's like adog on a chain.
As long as you don't go withinthat chain, you don't have to
worry about him biting you.
So we don't need to have thisinordinate fear of the evil one,
(19:57):
even if, just because we'redoing good stuff, I mean attacks
are going to happen.
But God can use all that to thegood.
But yeah, it gets pretty diceyfor sure.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, I heard a story about something that happened
in Australia, maybe worthsharing here.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, australia was nuts.
I've been there a half dozentimes and every time I went it
was just great, totally peaceful.
Nothing went crazy at all.
But this last May I was flyingout there and as I was getting
ready to leave the airport,people were like hey, I just
want to give you a heads up.
There's some rumblings on theground here that it's going to
be a little dicey this timearound.
There's protests going on thatyou're coming.
People are trying to block youfrom getting into Catholic
schools.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
For you just being there to speak In Catholic
schools.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Wow, protests from parents at the Catholic schools
that don't want a chastity talkto their kids.
We don't need this misogynistchastity preacher telling our
girls to be modest.
And it's like whoa, whoa, whoa.
(20:54):
That's not how I'm coming inthere.
But I said, okay, we'll pray,god will figure it out.
By the time I landed inAustralia, it had just a
dumpster fire.
It exploded, three high schoolscanceled their assemblies
because the pressure comingagainst them and it was all over
the ABC News out there and thenews outlets online and on the
TV.
And I'm like what is going on?
And then a group came forwardand said we want to take credit
because the cancellationshappened.
We're going to explain who wasbehind this.
It was us.
It was a group of witches whohad a Twitter following of 60
plus thousand people, and somepeople are like, oh, they're not
real witches, mate.
(21:15):
And then people were tweetingback.
Speak for yourselves.
We're going to go scorchedearth on this guy.
I'm like, wow.
And so they started trying tocancel my hotel speaking events
that I was due by contactingmanagement and taking all the
tickets.
I'm like, oh, this is gettingreally dicey.
So I'm like, okay, you want toplay this game.
I'm going to fly in the bigguns.
So I started calling up conventsof nuns, the Sisters of Life
(21:35):
and all these things back in theStates.
I'm like, hey, sister, bethany,madonna, you got me and I was
emailing them.
She said I will have all of thesisters covering you in prayer
especially, and so she got allthe nuns here praying.
I reached out to an exorcist Iknow, monsignor John Esif, and
I'm like, hey, monsignor, and hepicked up the phone right away
and prayed with me about all thestuff.
And then it got realinteresting.
(21:56):
I put a post on Instagramsaying, hey, all this stuff is
going on.
And I said, you know, witchesare trying to do this thing.
But I said, hey, before I camehere, I consecrated the trip to
Mary, and to think that a bunchof witches can kind of overtake
that is like thinking a bunch ofhouse cats can take on, like
some, you know, siberian tiger,it's not going to happen.
The news took that clip, editedit up and said the American
(22:19):
chastity preacher is now hittingback against moms who don't
want them to speak to theirgirls, and it clipped the video.
So it said, yeah, so if thesewitches think that they're and
I'm the tiger and I'm like whatthe heck?
And so they all cut, editedthis thing to make it look like
they're house cats, they'rewitches and I'm a tiger and I'm
like this is it just got nutsand so.
But what was amazing about thelast talk is a young adult thing
(22:42):
.
For about a thousand youngadults.
I'm like, wow, nothing reallyhappened.
I mean, the schools thatcanceled, we got other ones to
fill it in everything.
And I'm putting the mic downafter the last talk and we're
just getting ready to set up thealtar for adoration and I just
feel, and someone dumps a can oftomato soup on my head in front
of a thousand people, and thenthe security guys tackled the
(23:03):
guy and dragged him off thestage and then they got in a
fight with the guy off theproperty.
And then he came back with twoother guys who had hoodies and
ski masks on that were trying toget in to do more stuff.
And at the same event, priesttold me he was in the back and a
group of people came in thatlooked kind of fishy and he kind
of walked over and said, hey,can I offer you a seat?
And they said, no, we want tostand and move, we're cold.
(23:24):
And I was like, okay, that'sweird.
He said so I'm just going tokind of sit back and see what
they're up to.
So the priest watched them and,sure enough, as soon as they
started speaking, they startedthese rhythmic incantations and
hexes and curses.
It was like a coven of witchesshowing up.
And so he's like, okay, let'sroll.
He pulls out his rosary, startspraying the rosary next to them
.
But what was amazing about thewhole thing?
(23:45):
I went once more like after thetomato soup got dumped on me,
I'll straight on, was like, oh,I'm so sorry, mate, you know
that happened to you.
And I'm like, hey, look, I'vegot eight kids.
This is what I look like at theend of the day anyway.
So it's all par for the course.
But to show how God brings goodthrough all of this, because
they were putting all this stuffon social media, attacking me,
they took my and that thingstarted going up the algorithm
(24:08):
because so many clicks werehappening, because they were
putting on these news stations.
And what ended up happening?
That showed it to a lot morepeople who wouldn't have
otherwise seen it, one of whomwas a college-age young adult
girl who's in Australia visitingher boyfriend A Catholic girl
visiting from Hawaii found outwhile she's there he's cheating
on her and she's like that's it.
I am so done.
(24:28):
I'm so sick of holding out forsome Christian guy that really
is going to value me when thoseguys don't even exist.
That's it.
I'm just going to lose myvirginity now.
So she gets on.
She got on Tinder pick threeguys.
She said I'm going to pick oneof these guys.
Give my virginity to tonight.
No-transcript.
(24:58):
He's here.
And so she DMs me on Instagram.
I'm like, yeah, I'm here.
I got to talk tomorrow nightfor young adults.
Why don't you come?
And she's like yeah, I'll come.
So she comes to the talk,doesn't sleep with the guys,
goes to confession, eucharisticadoration, renews whole
commitment with chastity, thencomes with us on one of our
wilderness backpacking retreatsand then it's like hey, my
family has a ranch in Yosemite,you want to start having
(25:19):
retreats there.
I'm like let's do it.
So now we're going to doretreats at her ranch in
Yosemite.
She came on our podcast allbecause people tried to oppose
it and God was able to bringgood out of the evil.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Thank you for sharing that, andI'm sure there were hundreds,
if not thousands, of people thathave similar stories when they
were there who were impacted bywhat you were saying.
But even if it was just forthat one absolutely worth all
the stuff.
I'm sure I can't say thatbecause I haven't had tomato
sauce jumped on my head besidesmy kids.
Yeah, people are pawing on mykids.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah, People are like , hey, it could have been worse,
it could have been like creamof broccoli or something like
that.
But you know, one of the girlscame up to me at high schools
and she said you know, I feellike you're talking to.
It was only for me, I neededthis so bad.
And I said you know, I wasn'tsupposed to be here today.
The only reason I'm at yourhigh school is because that high
school.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Praise God when that stuff happens to you, does it?
It has to affect you a littlebit, right, like, or does it not
like all the kind of the hatemessages you get?
You get way more affirming ones, as do I, but sometimes the
hate messages, or I don't knowif you're familiar with swatting
(26:22):
.
Swatting is when you pretend tocall.
You call the police and youpretend you're at this house.
And you say the police and youpretend you're at this house and
you say I've killed my entirefamily and uh, and I'm going to
kill myself if you don't show up.
And then the cops will show upand awful things have happened
in the last 10 years to likevideo game streamers who do this
, um, and so that happened to meonce and this like it was
unbelievable, so that like Ilook and I already warned the
cops that this was a thing, wow,and so I walk outside cause my
(26:45):
wife walks in and tells me and Ilook out and my kids are like
looking at my wife with likelasers pointed to her, wow, and
thank God they're super youngand so we were able to just be
like yeah, somebody called andsaid something bad happened at
our house and they came to helpus like, but that's like not
always how it ends, and thatstayed with me for a long time,
like, and I'm sure that maybethat's not happened to you when
(27:06):
you're out there doing theministry that you're doing.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Well, when I think of this guy who poured the tomato
soup on my head, you know, assoon as he did it, you know I
was like what is going on here?
Then I saw the security comeand grab him and I said okay,
everybody, let's pray a HailMary for our brother.
So, all thousand people.
I started praying a Hail Maryfor the guy.
Security guy told me later.
He said yeah, I was him offstage and he was trying to
scream something, but hecouldn't scream as long as we
(27:30):
were doing the Hail Mary.
It was like he was just blockedfrom speaking and as they were
dragging him off, I just thoughtI wonder what his story is,
because anger comes from a placeof hurt that's at the root.
What's that guy's hurt Like?
What happened to him?
Like did he get hurt bysomebody in the clergy, by some
Catholic person who claimed tobe Catholic?
That's coming out of a wound,he's living out of a wound.
(27:50):
So I can't take offense thatthis is happening.
In fact, the security guy, wecircled back at the end of the
night and he said I just want toshow you what's going on here.
And he says I do work with thepriest as deliverance ministry
in the diocese here and he rollsout a napkin and gets a pen,
and Right here in this part oftown is a bunch of satanic cults
.
These are the covens of witches.
There's a lot of new ageactivity here.
(28:11):
And he said and you are righthere.
He said good on you, mate,you're over the target, meaning
you're kicking a hornet's nesthere, and so you shouldn't be
surprised when it creates kindof this anaphylactic reaction.
When I was down in Tasmania,there's a great bishop there
who's an exorcist and he wasexplaining that spirituality
can't exist in a vacuum and thatplace has become so secularized
(28:32):
, the Holy Spirit has been sodisinvited.
A different spirit comes in andthe nuns were telling me like
yeah, we can look right out ourconvent window at the neighbors
through their living room window, and it's witches and they're
doing seances and their own kindof liturgy of the hours on a
daily basis as well seances andtheir own kind of liturgy of the
hours on a daily basis as well.
And so the whole trip helped meto take, you know, inventory of
(28:53):
my own life.
Okay, am I taking thisspiritual battle as seriously as
the witches are, or are theytaking it more seriously than we
are.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen once wasflying and the lady next to him
was on the airplane.
They started talking and shewasn't eating anything and he
asked her he's like you know.
May I ask you know, are youChristian?
You know, are you fasting?
And she said well, I'm notChristian, but I am fasting.
I'm a witch and I'm fasting formore abortions.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
And it's like whoa like.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And this is Archbishop Fulton Sheen doing
the story.
There was another priest,no-transcript.
Are you Christian, are youfasting?
(29:36):
And they said, no, we'rewitches and we're fasting for
the destruction of Christianmarriage.
Wow, and it's like okay if theenemy is taking the game more
seriously than we are.
We got to get our stufftogether.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, so for you, you talked about daily prayer,
daily adoration, daily rosary,daily mass.
You've got eight kids right.
How do you fit that all in?
And I wasn't even in this for15 years, so I was doing a lot
of those things.
Often I'm trying to do them allas much as I can.
Now, what are some of thehobbies that you have?
Do you not have any?
(30:09):
Do you just pray?
Oh yeah, no, I mean Other thanI mean CrossFit, hiking, all
that stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
But Well, one, a lot of outdoor stuff.
I've been taking my kids what'scalled shed hunting, which is
like come February, march, elkand deer drop their antlers out
in the woods and then you can gohiking through the woods and
you find, you know, these sixpoint elk antlers out there with
your little boys and girls andit's just, it's just fun.
I mean, you're just out thereoff the beaten path exploring
and finding all kinds of stuff.
So to me I just want to gooutside with the kids, whatever
(30:35):
it is.
So we do, you know, shedhunting a lot.
I'll take them golf and doCrossFit.
To me, you just got to getoutside and go do stuff.
So I not last night, but thenight before I left I've got a
rooftop tent on my truck and sothe kid's like, well, we just
camp out in the driveway.
I'm like, let's do it.
So you know, we pop out thetent, and you know me.
And then four of the kids justslept on the top of a truck for
(30:56):
the day.
So to me it's kids spend theword spell, the word love,
t-i-m-e, you know.
And to me, just go do stuffwith them.
So we, so I try to get them offscreens as much as possible and
just out in the beauty ofcreation.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, same.
So what you're saying is I needto move away from Illinois.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
More or less Because there's nothing fun to do there.
I'm sure there's some deerthere, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I'm outside all the time with the kids and we're
playing, throwing the footballaround and that's all you can do
.
Yeah, so I need to move.
That sounds shed hunting.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Oh amazing it's so much fun to just stumble on some
massive set of antlers sittingin the middle of nowhere.
My four-year-old found hisfirst one this year and we're
just walking around the woodsand then boom, he found it and
he was just elated.
He brought it to show and tellat preschool the next day.
Other kids got littletransformers.
He's got an elk antler to bringinto school, so yeah, Dude,
(31:43):
that is, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
That is so fun.
How important do you think itis?
It sounds like a lot to go onadventures with your kids, and
do you think that that's part ofwhat's missing, with a lot of
young men and women now who are,like you said, kind of stuck in
front of screens all the time?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
No, I remember hearing a stat from a
psychologist.
He said the average level ofanxiety of today's teenager is
the same level of anxiety asteenagers in the 1950s who were
admitted to mental hospitals formental health anxiety disorders
.
That's the average and it'stypically pretty parallel to the
amount of time they're spendingon screens.
Because I mean, you think of anadolescent female going to bed
(32:20):
at night.
The light switch goes off andthen the phone goes on and she's
looking at everybody's perfectbody, perfect boyfriend, perfect
hair, perfect life, perfectthat.
And after 45 minutes of doomscrolling she just kind of gives
up and goes to bed feeling lessthan everybody else.
And if you're doing that, I meanit moves from the point of
being a habit to a routine, froma routine to a ritual, and it
(32:43):
becomes a devotional of sorts.
But it's a false devotional andso we've got to replace that.
Okay, you want to do screentime?
Do hollow, you know, do liturgyof the hours you know.
Have that be the bookends ofyour day, begin with the gospel,
end with evening prayer,examination of conscience.
So screens aren't all evil, butwe've just got to make sure
that you know we're very carefulabout what's coming in through
(33:03):
our senses and how much, notjust quantity but quality, but
quantity of time we're spendingon them 100%.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
So I'm assuming that you don't play video games.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I don't, I just I mean I don't.
I maybe watch one movie a year.
Okay, If that I don't watch TV.
Maybe a little bit of NBA atnight before going to bed, you
know if I'm at a hotel for a fewminutes, but you know like I'll
see my kids watching TV.
I'm like, dude, go make TV,like go make an adventure, have
(33:34):
someone film you instead of youwatching, cause I saw my kids
the other day watching a TV showof someone watching, someone
watching a video game orsomething.
I'm like, dude, you're likefour steps removed from the
adventure at just absorbing thecontent.
And uh, you know I'm not like,hey, screens are evil type of
thing, but but it's just,there's just got to be healthy
boundaries to it, and you know.
So if we're going to do videogames, I like to do them
together with the kids.
Yeah, so it isn't like you'relocked away in your room for
four hours with some gamingsystem.
(33:56):
It's like, no, let me play withyou, I'll race Mario Karts
against you.
So it's dad competing against.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I love that People are usually surprised to learn
that, as somebody who plays alot of games for a living, that
I don't love video games.
I never play when I'm notstreaming and when a bunch of
people this week would come upto me and they're like, john,
are your hands shaking, do youmiss Fortnite?
And I'm like, no, I've thoughtof Fortnite zero times since
I've been here.
It's something I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
It's a means to an end.
It's not an end in itself.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And they're surprised to learn that my kids don't
play.
Yeah, so my kids are nine,eight and four and they don't
play any video games.
A little Madden here and there,like three or four times.
But yeah, they love filmingstuff and making little movies
and that's what it's all about.
Yeah, I absolutely love it.
Total agreement.
(34:44):
If you had to share, we've that.
A lot of my audience is notsuper Catholic.
There's a lot of Catholics, alot of priests, nuns, who watch
me stream, which is cool.
A lot of them I've met here inperson for the first time, a lot
of fallen away Catholics, a lotof Christians, a lot of
atheists, a lot of agnosticsthat watch my content, and
they're super open oftentimes towhatever the Holy Spirit has to
offer, and that's a beautifulthing.
What would you say to peoplelistening here but people also
(35:07):
listening later?
Maybe three things that arereally important for both men
and women to start doing now, tobe living their life to the
full.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Yeah, well, we got to greet those who are watching.
We say what's up, chat?
Is that what we're saying?
To welcome them to the wholeprogram?
What's up, brother?
But one I think of in the Bible.
In the Old Testament, god giveslots of commands Do this, don't
do that.
In the New Testament, from myreading of it, that God, the
Father, only commands one thing.
In the entirety of the entireNew Testament, there's only one
(35:36):
command that comes out of hismouth, which is this is my
beloved son, listen to him.
And so if there's only onething the Father wants us to do,
it's to learn how to listen, tocreate time in our life where
it's not constant noise, noise,noise.
Because you wake up and it'sthe phone, it's this, it's, you
know, texting.
There's no room for silence.
And so I think, if God's askingus to do anything, just create
(35:57):
some room for quiet in your life.
Like, sometimes on Lent, I'lljust give up noise in the car.
And so, like, when I get in thecar, I can't listen to audio
books, can't listen to podcasts,can't listen to music, can't
listen to anything.
And you get in the car andyou're like okay, and you, just
you reach for noise and you'relike, oh no, remember it's Lent.
And then you start driving like10 seconds later, like why is
(36:24):
it so quiet?
And you're like I got to listento a podcast.
No, no, and it's life.
So I would say, first, thatthing.
Second, if there's people thatyou know maybe aren't in the
church and are kind of lookingat it, you know, maybe I don't
know if that thing's for me, Iremember thinking I don't want
to get all into my faith becauseto me the church people are
weird, right, and I just didn'twant to be weird.
And a friend assured me he saidlook, you're going to meet holy
(36:47):
people that are weird.
But he said they were weirdbefore they were holy, and so
that's a bit of a consolation.
At least that, okay.
But I discovered is thatsainthood, and what God wants of
you is not to stick you in amold.
Sainthood is the full bloom ofthe human personality.
Look at the worst sinners inthe world, the drug cartels and
the terrorists, and you knowwhatever.
They're like clones of eachother.
(37:07):
But then you look at the saintsand they're so radiantly,
intensely unique.
You know, from the blessed PereGeorgios to the Therese of
Lesue, to the Joan of Arc.
They're so intensely human.
And that's why God's notcalling you to be Mother Teresa,
he's not calling you to be PereGeorgio, he's just calling you
to be you.
And so don't be afraid.
John Paul II said every personwho seeks the kingdom of God
(37:28):
will find himself.
And so, in terms of a last andmaybe third and final thing it
would kind of tie into the first, but it's that a priest of mine
back home.
He said the Holy Spirit talkedto you a hundred times a day.
How often are you listening tothat?
And it's like really.
And then you start thinking, ohyeah, he's telling me.
Oh, go sit next to that kid inthe cafeteria who doesn't have
any friends.
You know, just do that littleyes, because sometimes we get so
(37:50):
overwhelmed.
What's the big yes?
Am I going to get married?
Am I going to be a priest?
Am I supposed to become aChristian?
Don't get all stuck in thewoods like that.
You can complete a journey of athousand miles completely in
the fog, as long as you can seeone foot ahead of you on the
path.
God, god will always give youthat one foot.
And so if you're in a toxicrelationship and you're like,
how do I get out of this.
I don't know what I'm supposedto do.
It's like, okay, you might notknow what to do long-term, but,
(38:13):
short-term, you know what youneed to do right now.
Quit doing that you know andstart opening up to people who
love you and just do what youknow you're supposed to do,
because some graces are onlyavailable to you if you've
responded to the graces thathave already been given to you.
Once we respond to those graces, new light is given and then
we'll see further down the path.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I'm going to have a hard time doing the first one
because our baby's due on AshWednesday.
Yeah, so, that's going to beinteresting, but I'll do my best
to spend more time in silence.
Jason, where can people findeverything it is that you're
doing right now?
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, so we've got the website, chastitycom, and so
people can go there to clickwith us.
Connect with us on.
Instagram is just my name,jason Everett.
Twitter, it's just JasonEverett.
We've got a Facebook pageYouTube it's just Jason Everett.
We've got a podcast called Lustis Boring, where we've done
more than a hundred differentepisodes on how to break free
from pornography, stuff, on thetransgender issue of how to
(39:05):
respond to that with charity atthe same time as clarity, all
kinds of stuff how do I find theright person for me, marriage,
discernment so all that stuff isat Lust is Boring.
That's the podcast, and thenthe backpacking stuff is at
jp2trailscom, and so we've gotseveral hikes that are opening
up in the near future, even aski trip that we're going to do
here in Utah with ChristopherWest teaching theology of body
(39:27):
and skiing for the week, and sothe idea is that not every
retreat needs to be in amonastery.
You know that sometimes thecathedral of God's creation is
one of the best places to hearwhat he's trying to say.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
And are you giving a couplemore talks, I think over the
next day as well?
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Yeah, I've got.
The next talk is going to betomorrow on the subject of
gender.
It's going to be theology ofthe body as it applies to what
does it mean to be male andfemale?
How do we respond to people whosay they're trans or non-binary
?
What about my friend?
Or what if I have genderdysphoria?
We'll take a deep dive intothat tomorrow afternoon and I'm
doing the final keynote of SEEK,which will be Sunday, I believe
, right before mass.
So I'd ask all the listeners toplease pray for your speakers
(40:03):
and pray for me that just Godgive the gift of apostolic
preaching for that talk.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Absolutely Thank you for the gift that you are to the
church.
I'm excited to have you on myTwitch stream at some point in
2025.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Be happy to come on, you don't have to play video
games with me.
I'll try Fortnite for the firsttime.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Okay, that would be content.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
That would be content .
That would be a lot of funComedy content.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
What is the A button doing for taking the time?
We'll be around here for a fewminutes after, guys, Thank you
so much for listening and forshowing up.
God bless friends for all yourfamilies.
Thank you.
Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
My voice finally cracked, Thanks for listening to
this episode recorded live atSeek Miss the conference or want
to relive your favorite moments?
Seek Re replay has you covered.
Access powerful keynotes,inspiring talks and exclusive
content to take your faithdeeper, anytime, anywhere.
(40:58):
Head to seekfocusorg backslashreplay to download now, and
don't forget to join us for Seek26.
Check out seekfocusorg for moreinformation and to register.
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