March 28, 2025 • 33 mins
ICYMI: Hour Three of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – A conversation with Writer/Director David Ayer, who joins the program with a preview of his new Amazon MGM Studios release ‘A Working Man’ starring Jason Statham! In ‘A Working Man,’ “Levon Cade (Statham) left behind a decorated military career in the black ops to live a simple life working construction. But when his boss’s daughter, who is like family to him, is taken by human traffickers, his search to bring her home uncovers a world of corruption far greater than he ever could have imagined” (in theaters now) … PLUS – Thoughts Mega-Church Pastor/Gospel Superstar Bishop Marvin Sapp holding his congregation hostage until they gave up 40k in donations – on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Lad with.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Levin k left behind a decorated military career in the
Black Ops to live a simple life working construction. But
when his boss's daughter, who was like family to him,
is taken by human traffickers, his search to bring her
home uncovers a world of corruption far greater than he
could have imagined. So sets the stage for the new
movie A working Man starring Jason Statham, now in theaters.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
You should have put to the left and be dead.
Oh you dead, you'd be dead.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
From the director of The Beekeeper, a nineteen year old
cost Kidnam.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
She's a good kid. She's a great kid. She's like
family to me. Come went back to five and this
is you have a.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Trafficking I'm gonna find a better go for long? How
do they get to work? To work?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
So it cuts you around out? Good luck, get the work.
(01:37):
Jason statho oh that is not good work.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Doing, uncle.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
People whose mommy dressesn't funny.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Work?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Look at those bricks. You're a working man. That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Let's play and i'd so please to be joined by
its writer and director, David Ayir.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
David a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for
coming on tonight.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
David, You, along with Sylvester Stallone, wrote A working Man,
and given that, I've seen The beat Keeper also with
Jason Statham, I've also seen Suicide Squad that you directed.
I've seen Training Day Squat The Fast and Furious that
you wrote. I say all that to say, you know
a little something about action movies and what works. What
are some of the rules that you swear by in
making a good action movie.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
I think it's also having a lot of heart in it.
It's having great characters, you know, so that when the
action kicks off, we care about who's doing it and
why it's happening. And in this case, you know, Jason's
really the king of the genre. I mean, he's his
own action genre. And just giving him the opportunity to
show up as an actor and really have some love
(02:52):
on screen and really give him a righteous mission, I
think is what sets this film apart.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
In watching A working Man, and you kind of hinted
at it right there, I'm reminded of this rapport that
you have with Jason Stathan, but also Michael Penia. What
is it that you like about working with them individually
or even collectively.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
You know if Jason it's this is a guy that
does his own stunts. This is a guy that has
an encyclopedic knowledge of action. He's been doing this a
long time and he's really good at it. And the
thing that I've learned is just how good of an
actor he is and how much heart and soul he has.
And it was a great thing to team him up
(03:32):
with such a strong actor like Michael Penya, who is
just an incredible actor, really strong. He can take a
room over, take the scene over, and he just grounds everything.
So anytime I can put actors like that together, you know,
you can see the result.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Jenny's missing, What do you mean miss it?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Friends? On fri Saturday, we were worried, so we called
the cops. And then that's on the.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
She had a piano.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Side on something like we invited half our family.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
My cousin Donor is a police captain in Philly, and
she says, they don't work these cases.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
They take a report and forget about it. Can you
help us?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Like and keeps you sut running swool, No help us
find Jack?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
My dad was green Bray. I can see you guys
coming a mile away. You want bad guys you bought
the planes, you get those bad guys?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
How much different person?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Now, since you mentioned Jason Statham and how he does
his own stunts, how does an idea for an action scene,
be it in A Working Man or any other movie?
For you completely that sophisticated fight choreography? How does it
go from the page to the Do you just leave
the section blank and say, okay, insert Jason fight choreography
(05:05):
or is it more sophisticated?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
What type of direction do you give?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
You know, you try and create kind of the atmosphere
and tone in the script itself, but then it always
takes on a life of its own. And I don't
think people understand how much work goes into these things.
You know, the stunt team gets together early on in
the process before you shoot, and they'll just experiment and
they'll videotape it, and they'll cut things together, and you
go and you watch and you give notes, and everybody
(05:30):
has ideas and you know, maybe we can throw a
bag of cement at this guy. Why don't we throw
a bucket of nails? So everyone's kind of adding to it,
and then once you're on set, that's where it really
comes to life. And that's where the challenge is because
it's it's hard. You know, you shoot this stuff over days.
It's a lot of punches, a lot of repeats, and
there's Jason in the middle of it doing everything.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Anyone who's seen your work or knows your work knows
that there's going to be a lot of action, as
I talked about, Anyone who's seen ad Jason state Atham's
work knows that there's a lot of action.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
But a working man.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Although it is definitely an action movie, tell me if
I'm wrong, I would say it's equally about family. Not
to say that it's a family movie, but the theme
of family is ever present, is it not.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
That's exactly it.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
You know.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Jason is this you know, troubled guy with the past
who gets adopted by this loving family that takes him
in and gives him opportunity and helps him rebuild himself.
And we love them for that. So when it comes
his turn to help them, we're really rooting for that
to happen. We're really rooting for him to bring their
daughter back, you know, who is like his daughter. And
(06:40):
even the bad guys have their families and their relationships
and their history and their rules and their traditions, and
I think that's just part of the human side of things.
And when you can bring that to a film and
have some incredible action, I think you're going to get
a really satisfying experience for the audience.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Doile action, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And there was a lot of heartfelt moments in the
movie which actually surprised me. But was there anything which
surprised you either in the writing, creation or the filming
of the movie which you said, well, I thought I
had what idea going in, but now it's something else.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
I would say. It's Ariana Reeves, who plays Jenny, the
girl that gets kidnapped. I always saw Jenny as a fighter,
as someone that could fight back, but Ariana brought this
level of humor and presence in spirit to the role
that I wasn't expecting, and by the end of it,
(07:39):
you almost believe that she could rescue Jason.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
How do you know when you are screen testing actors
beyond those you've worked with that someone has that special
quality or can deliver a particular scene in your mind,
or they're just reading some sides. But how do you
know you have the right actor or actress?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
You know it's it's something you know when you see it,
I really feel. And it's one of the toughest parts
of the process is casting, because there's all these incredible
people and they really put their heart and soul in it,
and you have to narrow it down to a few
choices and then ultimately one choice. But it's every role
(08:23):
requires this own special thing and sometimes you don't know
what that is until you actually see it and you go, Okay,
there it is. That's the person. And that's what happened
with Adriana.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
He is David Ayer, writer and director for the new
movie A Working Man starring Jason Statham, now in theaters. David,
thank you so much for coming on tonight and I
can't wait for everyone else to see it as well.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It's a good one.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 7 (08:49):
You're listening too later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
And this next story, I'm quite sure is probably gonna
piss you off. This next story is probably going to
reaffirm a lot of stereotypes and some of our dislikes,
if you will, of churches today in America. It's going
to remind us some of the problems of the many
(09:18):
problems I guess with religion. In fact, this is going
to be part of my final thought tonight, So I'm
going to.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Give you a little bit of a preview here. Marvin Sap.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You may have heard of him, you may not have
heard of him, but he's a megachurch pastor. He's also
a very very popular gospel artist. He's worth maybe four
to five million dollars. He has a church well respected
in those fields.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Give you a point of reference.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There is an undated clip which is circulating online, and
I have a feeling it's relatively recently from what I
could discern. And in this clip, he is demanding that
anyone who is watching his service, streaming it online, and
anyone who is in the actual physical church, they must
(10:10):
donate at least twenty dollars to reach a goal of
forty thousand dollars before he will let anyone leave who's
in the physical church. Quote, close the doors. We're all
going to leave together. Y'all ain't going to go no
place but to the restaurant. Talking about going out to
brunch after service. There's a thousand of you tonight, and
(10:35):
those that are watching it's one thousand that's watching online.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
This is a small seed.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
If I get one thousand online to give this, If
I get one thousand in the sanctuary to give this,
that's forty thousand dollars tonight. I'm challenging each of you
all down here to give a twenty dollars seed. Now,
everyone up here, we've all sewed and seated. But I
need everyone up here to sow one hundred dollars because
(11:04):
it costs to sit up here. And he was talking
about the people who were in the pulpit alongside of him,
other preachers and clergy church staff.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So put your twenty dollars away. That twenty wasn't for you.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He continued, requesting that the offerings be walked to the
front so he could see the massive effort. I can't
speak to this in all churches, but what is common
in the Black Church tradition is you walk and you
hand your offering. You're a cheerful giver, and you walk
and you're paraded around the whole church for everyone to
see that you're actually quote unquote giving your tithes and offerings.
(11:46):
All I know is this is not an uncommon phenomenon,
and I can give you many examples, maybe not this extreme,
but very close to it, where you would have preachers
ministers who refused to end their sermon or end the
service without getting a certain dollar amount. And mind you,
(12:10):
there are a lot of people in church. All they
have left is their faith. They are there because they're
going through something. They need a word, as it said,
they need some sort of reassurance, some sort of message
which speaks to them personally and can help them individually.
I don't know if you've never been to church, but
there are many times where I would go to church
and you would think that that message on that day
(12:31):
was meant particularly for me because it spoke to something
that was going on in my life and I was encouraged.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Because of it.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
There is a purpose for a service, especially when you're
talking about someone who's a newbie in Christ, someone who
may have just been born again, and they're looking for guidance.
And that's why, and I say this unfortunately, that's why
many times people will look at the minister as the
conduit between that person and God.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And then you.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Learn more about the Bible and then you don't need
that type of intercessor you don't need someone in between
as a go between. And I always make the distinction
between faith and religion. This is an example of why
people hate religion. There are two churches here.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
In the south Land that I no longer go to.
Speaker 6 (13:24):
One the is a relative relatively large church, almost megachurch status.
The pastor is related to a globally renowned singer, very
(13:44):
very avant garde singer.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And you're really narrowing it down now, you know that, right?
I know.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
And this pastor proceeded to have on the last occasion
that I went to his church.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Uh, he proceeded to have and.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
Hour long offering hour long, meaning for one hour, he
proceeded to be rate the congregation for an offering you.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Mean, like from the beginning of my interview with David
Ayre to the end.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Of the show.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Yes, an entire hour of asking yes, including asking for offerings.
The second was a church that found its home from
a large auditorium to actually moving up to the forum.
(14:37):
And and that pastor who made that move and took
over the form was not in that day, but this
was a special occasion and the special guest pastor proceeded
to tell us.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
That nothing was going to happen, nothing was going to happen.
Speaker 6 (14:56):
We were not going to get a word, we were
not going to hear from the Nothing was gonna happen
until we had all donated enough to I believe, if
I'm not mistaken, reached a similar amount there. And there
was a lot of superstars in that congregation. There were
a lot of well known athletes at Justices, all sitting
(15:19):
in the front row who all got that VIP parking
and VIP escort up to the front so they could
get in and out. And it was a real to
do to be at this church at the Forum. And yeah,
and we sat there that night because it was a
nighttime service. I believe it was the Christmas Eve service.
It costs a lot to even go to get tickets
(15:41):
to go, so we.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Paid a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
You had to pay for the tickets, Yes, and then
you had to give a tithe and offering to the
satisfaction of the guest speaker.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
Yes, it was enough to make me say, oh, hell
to the nah, we are not coming back here.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You got something against a shakedown now, and then I
don't see what the problem. That's what.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well put it this way, And we're talking about these
tax exempt organizations which are doing more for themselves than
they are in the community. And I'm not saying all churches.
I've seen some small what they call storefront churches do
a lot in the community. But these megachurches and these
mega pastors oftentimes are not punching their weight. You see
(16:28):
the enrichment of the pastor. You see it in they're clothed,
their cars sometimes.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Jets, and you see.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Well, let me back up now, a lot of churches
are preaching and teaching what it's called the prosperity gospel,
where if you donate more money, you will receive more
money in your life. You know, it's not about salvation.
It's about getting more money and the way that you
can live better or live life more abundantly, as the
(16:58):
verse goes, is you donate more. Now, there are Bible
verses which speak to tithes and offerings.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It's Malachi three to eight. I'm doing this off the
top of my head.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So if I get it wrong, sorry, Malachi three eight,
And I know my pastor would always say it. You know,
bring ye all the tie tithes to the storehouse, so
there may be meet in my house. And now prove
you herewith say at the Lord of hosts that I
will not open up a window and pour and a
blessing will pour out of it. In other words, the
more money you give, the more that you're going to
be blessed. And that has been bastardized. That's the word
(17:32):
I mean bastardized to be the whole point of the Gospel,
where the more you donate, the more that you will
be blessed. And then that opens the door for the
real shakedown to happen, where you have preachers just outright saying, well,
you're going to hell if you don't donate or you know,
tie or give a certain amount offering on this type
(17:54):
of day.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
So it hurts my heart because as a person.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Of faith, and I'm not sin less, you know, let's
be clear, I'm a crack vessel and I fall short.
It hurts my heart because I see the manipulation of
the church and how it extends beyond just the church walls.
We see it through use of the Bible in politics,
we see it in many varied forms. We see it
(18:21):
in the cover up of abuses in like the Catholic
Church talk about all that. So I'm not gonna give
it away now, But what I when I see this
what Marvin Sapp was doing. It just hurts my heart
because you're just taking advantage of people. You have a
tax exempt organization and you're living, you personally have a
personal net worth of some four to five million dollars,
(18:43):
and you're gonna hold people hostage who may not have
a pot to urinate in or a window in which
to throw it out.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Just like taught us. Look the.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
Church that we went to at the forum, the money
that was being asked for was for specifically pastoral care,
and it was prosperity peaching because we were we were
told that by giving freely to take care of he
who brings us the Word of God, we would then
be blessed eternally even more so.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm way. You
just told me you were not leaving here.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
You're not starting nothing until we give more money to
the pastor.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I got more on this. We gotta go to a break,
but I have more to say on this.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
You got to be remembering stuff and thinking about stuff
and getting mad about stuff all over again.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on Demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
With mo Kelly on.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
AM six Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and last segment,
I was telling you about Marvin Sap who's a very
influential famous not only make a church pasture, but also
gospel artists. And there's a video going around where he
was holding his own congregation. I will say hostage, maybe
(20:12):
that's too strong a word, but he was shaking down
his congregation, would not let them leave until they pointed
up between the online streaming audience and also the end
sanctuary audience forty thousand dollars on this random Sunday, and
it got me thinking about my issues with the church
(20:32):
over the years. Tawalla was telling his stories and I
can't speak for all churches, but it's common within the
historically Black church tradition. What I mean by that is
there's Kojik, which is the Church of God in Christ.
There's ame African Methodist Episcopal, there are others. There's a
(20:52):
type of tradition in a way in which services run
obviously Southern Baptists, and money usually is at the forefront
of it, unfortunately, and it's manipulative, it's unkind, it's ungodly,
and it goes on every single day, and I understand
why it turns off people to religion, which is different
(21:13):
from faith, and if you don't understand the difference, it
can harm your faith as well. I know I can't
speak for Tuala, but I know in the church as
I've been in, there are things that the church would
pay for. In other words, your tithes and offerings would
go to the parsonage, which was where the pastor or
(21:34):
preacher would live. In other words, they would have that
an actual house that we would pay for, or there
would be a housing allowance or a car alligance allowance,
just like someone who worked at any other corporation. So
for the most part, especially with the megachurches, all the
personal needs of a pastor are already taken care of.
And almost every single church they had this thing called
(21:55):
the building fund, where you would always have to set
aside money, which is different from your tithes, which is
supposed to be ten percent of your of your treasure,
is different from your offerings because your offering is supposed
to be over and above what you're giving from for
your tithe. And then outside of your tithe and offering,
you would have to set aside even more money for
like the building fund, or you'd have to do this,
(22:19):
or you're paying for that. It's always something in this
every single week. But the funny thing is when the
church wanted to do anything which wasn't for the benefit
of the pastor, then the church would have to do
something like a bake sale or a fish fry selling
fish plates. I mean, it was always on the shoulders
(22:42):
of the members to pay for everything for the pastor
and everything for the church. And you're always behind the
eight ball or some emergency it has got to be
done today, or they're going to turn the lights out
or something like that.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And after a while, it's like you just burn people.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Out, just you just you you run off people who
are consistent titherers who do tie pay that ten percent
every single week.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
And I was a tithe it for a long time,
a long time.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And then you you get just disenchanted and disappointed with it.
Speaker 6 (23:15):
The worst part is, and I think this is something
that I can only speak on the Black church, but
one thing that would always rub me the wrong way
is how you would have a pastor, a superstar pastor
in the city of Los Angeles. And I don't care
(23:37):
if you're over on Crenshaw. I don't care where you are,
but you look at the people, those of us who
are coming, those of us who have maybe just that
one suit or that one nice outfit to wear the church,
and you look at and honestly, how little the congregation has,
(23:58):
how little the people who are coming to receive a
word and to be set right on their week coming ahead,
get over what they're weak before had to offer and
are looking to be lifted up. How little they have,
and how much faith and how much love they have
for you and your word and what you're supposed to
(24:18):
be filling and imparting us with. And then to feel
like the only way that we can get to that
word is through breaking our own wilesce which most of
the time we don't have. That is what leaves that
sour taste in individual's minds.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I know someone has been in a church like me
and had the pastor say, you know that money in
your pocket, that's God's money. God put that in your pocket.
It's not yours, it's not yours to hold on to
you were you there, what you're saying, It's time for
you now to give it back to the Lord so
it can so his work can be done.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Who gave you that money in the first place. Who
gave you the job to make the money that you're
making in the first place? Somebody say, somebody say, who God?
God gave you that money. God gave you that job.
And if you want to make sure that you go
to the next level, you're looking for a raise, you're
looking for that promotion, Who's going to give it to you?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Well, a God will a man rob God?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Look, it was every single week, every single week. So
I understand what they call church hurt. I understand how
people can become discontent with the whole idea of religion.
I understand intellectually and from a faith perspective, how you
just or put this way, how people become agnostic or
(25:41):
become atheists because for me, I think they wrongly conflate
religion with faith or that they've had religion damage their faith.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I get it. It makes perfect sense to me.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And the reason why we're talking about the Marvin Sap
story and it's I try to let you know, we
talk about big stories. This was covered even by tmz
okay with no connection to Marvin's sapp. It's a huge
story that you're going to hear more and more about it,
if only because more times than not, people.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Have a similar story to offer.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
And in the age of the Internet, it's less likely
that people are going to be able to hide what
they do in churches because people are going to expose them.
And I say bravo, because that's not the word. That's
not a part of what is actually in the word,
or it's a part of becoming saved, as they say
in the church. You know, it's it's a bastardization and
(26:34):
it's unfortunate. Got my final thought, will we come back
and we'll also talk to George Nori. Coast to Coast
AMKFI AM six forty were live everywhere in the Arheartradio app.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It's Later with Mokelly k if I AM six forty
live everywhere the iHeartRadio app. Coming up in moments will
be Coast to Coast AM with George Nori.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
But here's the good news. He joins me right now
with the preview. What's up starting.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
I love joining you, Mo, It's fun.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I appreciate that. I always enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
It's weird for me, if only because I have listened
to you for so long, and I mean that in
a very respectful way, and then get the opportunity to
talk to you and joke with you.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
That's a real treat for me.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Oh likewise, my friend, you're a good guy.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
On the show tonight, we're going to talk about the
future of the world, and then later on there's a
Japanese custom called the doomsday fish.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Going to talk about that on Coast to Coast.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
All right, I'll be tuning in. I'll missure my friend
and be well, hey, buddy, And before we.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Get out of here, you know what my final word
is going to be on And I'm going to try
not to offend everybody listening. But I make no guarantees
and I also make no apologies. Let me put it
that way. And I've been thinking about this over the
(28:07):
years in a general sense, but with the Marveln Sapps story,
it kind of meant that I needed to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Now.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Faith and religion there are two different things. Religion has
nothing to do with faith. Religion is about dogma. It's
about rules. It's about dictating how you're supposed to live.
Your life, how you worship. That's religion. Faith, on the
(28:36):
other hand, is your personal relationship with Jesus or your God.
It's your one on one conversation with the Almighty. It's
very personal, but one definitely impacts the other. You can
have a bad experience with the church or a minister,
and I told you about some of mine, and Twalla
told you about some of his. That bad experience can
damage your faith, especially if you're a newbie in Christ.
(28:57):
In other words, you're just in your religious experience learning
about Christ. That's what it means to be a newbie.
And betrayal by religion is not a new phenomenon. And yes,
money is still the root of all evil. We've seen
it with the Catholic Church and pri smalestation scandals. We've
seen it with these megachurch pastors time and time again,
(29:20):
from garden variety sex scandals to financial malfeasan scandals.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
It seems like.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
The bigger the church or profile of the pastor the
bigger the sins. It's really no wonder why church attendance
is at an all time low and atheism grows at
almost a proportional rate.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
There's a connection there.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Throw in politics, and you really have a cluster truck.
America wants to turn itself into a theocracy and tell
everyone how to live, even though this has never been
a Christian nation. Oh oh, getting ready to step on
toes never been a Christian nation. We may be a
nation of mostly Christians, but never an actual Christian nation.
(30:00):
There's no mention of Jesus Christ, and either the Declaration
of Independence or the Constitution.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I know for a fact I looked, it's not there.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The phrase in God we trust was added to money
and the Pledge of Allegiance in the nineteen fifties as
a response to communism, not as a founding principle of
the country. And never mind the fact that just mentioning
the word God does it make something Christian. Hate to
be pedantic and all biblical like, But the whole idea
of Christianity has a Jesus requirement. Christianity requires that you
(30:31):
confess with your mouth and believe with all your heart
that Jesus is the Son of God, was crucified and
rose on the third Day. That, in short, is what
it means to be a Christian, not just mentioning the
word God or reciting it as part of a pledge
of allegiance. The New Testament is pretty pretty clear about that.
But that's assuming that you've actually read the Bible and
(30:54):
not just put Christian on your social media profile, and
you're not using that to quote unquote virtue signal as
to the other religions or the people who are of
other religions that you don't like.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
But you don't have to take my word for it.
Go ahead and read the Bible for yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
My point, my main point tonight, is that religion has
poisoned or has been poisoned, depending on how you look
at it. Religion today is more a weapon and blunt
object to bludgeon people to behave a certain way, hate
certain people, justify books to be banned, and or dictate
women's health decisions.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Oh yes, I'm going there.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
People use the Bible to cherry pick issues to manipulate
other people's lives, not live their own lives. Being a
Christian is about how you individually live, not how other
people live or who other people marries.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Actual Christians know this. They will call themselves pro.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Life, yet are indifferent to what the Bible says about
treating the stranger in your land, or how we should
care for the poor and the needy. That's what I
mean by cherry picking. I told you earlier this hour
about a megachurch pastor and gospel music star Marvin Sap,
worth more than four million dollars who refused to let
people exit his church until the congregation ponied up forty
(32:12):
thousand dollars collectively. A congregation who likely are all less
wealthy than Sap, A congregation who can get shaken down
or robbed any day of the week anywhere else, just
weren't expecting to get robbed on Sunday in the House
of the Lord forty thousand dollars for his tax exempt church.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
But Sap is closer to the rule than the exception.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
All we could talk about megachurch pastor Joel Oldstein, who
had to be shamed into opening up his megachurch to
flood victims during the twenty seventeen Hurricane Harvey, and had
the dirty nerve to defend his decision to keep his
church doors closed. Those are just some of the examples
of religion, not faith. The problem in America, and here
(32:56):
is the real takeaway. The problem in America is not
that there aren't enough people calling themselves Christian. The problem
in America is not that the Christianity hasn't been woven
into the constitution. The problem is we've decided to use
christian as a way to signal to others who we hate.
(33:22):
For kf I am six forty, I'm o Kelly. KFI
is literally the KFI of talk radio.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
K f II and the KOST HD two.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Los Angeles, Orange County
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Live everywhere on the younger radio s
Lad with.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Levin k left behind a decorated military career in the
Black Ops to live a simple life working construction. But
when his boss's daughter, who was like family to him,
is taken by human traffickers, his search to bring her
home uncovers a world of corruption far greater than he
could have imagined. So sets the stage for the new
movie A working Man starring Jason Statham, now in theaters.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
You should have put to the left and be dead.
Oh you dead, you'd be dead.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
From the director of The Beekeeper, a nineteen year old
cost Kidnam.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
She's a good kid. She's a great kid. She's like
family to me. Come went back to five and this
is you have a.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Trafficking I'm gonna find a better go for long? How
do they get to work? To work?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
So it cuts you around out? Good luck, get the work.
(01:37):
Jason statho oh that is not good work.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Doing, uncle.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
People whose mommy dressesn't funny.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Work?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Look at those bricks. You're a working man. That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Let's play and i'd so please to be joined by
its writer and director, David Ayir.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
David a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for
coming on tonight.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
David, You, along with Sylvester Stallone, wrote A working Man,
and given that, I've seen The beat Keeper also with
Jason Statham, I've also seen Suicide Squad that you directed.
I've seen Training Day Squat The Fast and Furious that
you wrote. I say all that to say, you know
a little something about action movies and what works. What
are some of the rules that you swear by in
making a good action movie.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
I think it's also having a lot of heart in it.
It's having great characters, you know, so that when the
action kicks off, we care about who's doing it and
why it's happening. And in this case, you know, Jason's
really the king of the genre. I mean, he's his
own action genre. And just giving him the opportunity to
show up as an actor and really have some love
(02:52):
on screen and really give him a righteous mission, I
think is what sets this film apart.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
In watching A working Man, and you kind of hinted
at it right there, I'm reminded of this rapport that
you have with Jason Stathan, but also Michael Penia. What
is it that you like about working with them individually
or even collectively.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
You know if Jason it's this is a guy that
does his own stunts. This is a guy that has
an encyclopedic knowledge of action. He's been doing this a
long time and he's really good at it. And the
thing that I've learned is just how good of an
actor he is and how much heart and soul he has.
And it was a great thing to team him up
(03:32):
with such a strong actor like Michael Penya, who is
just an incredible actor, really strong. He can take a
room over, take the scene over, and he just grounds everything.
So anytime I can put actors like that together, you know,
you can see the result.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Jenny's missing, What do you mean miss it?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Friends? On fri Saturday, we were worried, so we called
the cops. And then that's on the.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
She had a piano.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Side on something like we invited half our family.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
My cousin Donor is a police captain in Philly, and
she says, they don't work these cases.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
They take a report and forget about it. Can you
help us?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Like and keeps you sut running swool, No help us
find Jack?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
My dad was green Bray. I can see you guys
coming a mile away. You want bad guys you bought
the planes, you get those bad guys?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
How much different person?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Now, since you mentioned Jason Statham and how he does
his own stunts, how does an idea for an action scene,
be it in A Working Man or any other movie?
For you completely that sophisticated fight choreography? How does it
go from the page to the Do you just leave
the section blank and say, okay, insert Jason fight choreography
(05:05):
or is it more sophisticated?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
What type of direction do you give?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
You know, you try and create kind of the atmosphere
and tone in the script itself, but then it always
takes on a life of its own. And I don't
think people understand how much work goes into these things.
You know, the stunt team gets together early on in
the process before you shoot, and they'll just experiment and
they'll videotape it, and they'll cut things together, and you
go and you watch and you give notes, and everybody
(05:30):
has ideas and you know, maybe we can throw a
bag of cement at this guy. Why don't we throw
a bucket of nails? So everyone's kind of adding to it,
and then once you're on set, that's where it really
comes to life. And that's where the challenge is because
it's it's hard. You know, you shoot this stuff over days.
It's a lot of punches, a lot of repeats, and
there's Jason in the middle of it doing everything.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Anyone who's seen your work or knows your work knows
that there's going to be a lot of action, as
I talked about, Anyone who's seen ad Jason state Atham's
work knows that there's a lot of action.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
But a working man.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Although it is definitely an action movie, tell me if
I'm wrong, I would say it's equally about family. Not
to say that it's a family movie, but the theme
of family is ever present, is it not.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
That's exactly it.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
You know.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Jason is this you know, troubled guy with the past
who gets adopted by this loving family that takes him
in and gives him opportunity and helps him rebuild himself.
And we love them for that. So when it comes
his turn to help them, we're really rooting for that
to happen. We're really rooting for him to bring their
daughter back, you know, who is like his daughter. And
(06:40):
even the bad guys have their families and their relationships
and their history and their rules and their traditions, and
I think that's just part of the human side of things.
And when you can bring that to a film and
have some incredible action, I think you're going to get
a really satisfying experience for the audience.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Doile action, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And there was a lot of heartfelt moments in the
movie which actually surprised me. But was there anything which
surprised you either in the writing, creation or the filming
of the movie which you said, well, I thought I
had what idea going in, but now it's something else.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
I would say. It's Ariana Reeves, who plays Jenny, the
girl that gets kidnapped. I always saw Jenny as a fighter,
as someone that could fight back, but Ariana brought this
level of humor and presence in spirit to the role
that I wasn't expecting, and by the end of it,
(07:39):
you almost believe that she could rescue Jason.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
How do you know when you are screen testing actors
beyond those you've worked with that someone has that special
quality or can deliver a particular scene in your mind,
or they're just reading some sides. But how do you
know you have the right actor or actress?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
You know it's it's something you know when you see it,
I really feel. And it's one of the toughest parts
of the process is casting, because there's all these incredible
people and they really put their heart and soul in it,
and you have to narrow it down to a few
choices and then ultimately one choice. But it's every role
(08:23):
requires this own special thing and sometimes you don't know
what that is until you actually see it and you go, Okay,
there it is. That's the person. And that's what happened
with Adriana.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
He is David Ayer, writer and director for the new
movie A Working Man starring Jason Statham, now in theaters. David,
thank you so much for coming on tonight and I
can't wait for everyone else to see it as well.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It's a good one.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 7 (08:49):
You're listening too later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
And this next story, I'm quite sure is probably gonna
piss you off. This next story is probably going to
reaffirm a lot of stereotypes and some of our dislikes,
if you will, of churches today in America. It's going
to remind us some of the problems of the many
(09:18):
problems I guess with religion. In fact, this is going
to be part of my final thought tonight, So I'm
going to.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Give you a little bit of a preview here. Marvin Sap.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You may have heard of him, you may not have
heard of him, but he's a megachurch pastor. He's also
a very very popular gospel artist. He's worth maybe four
to five million dollars. He has a church well respected
in those fields.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Give you a point of reference.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There is an undated clip which is circulating online, and
I have a feeling it's relatively recently from what I
could discern. And in this clip, he is demanding that
anyone who is watching his service, streaming it online, and
anyone who is in the actual physical church, they must
(10:10):
donate at least twenty dollars to reach a goal of
forty thousand dollars before he will let anyone leave who's
in the physical church. Quote, close the doors. We're all
going to leave together. Y'all ain't going to go no
place but to the restaurant. Talking about going out to
brunch after service. There's a thousand of you tonight, and
(10:35):
those that are watching it's one thousand that's watching online.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
This is a small seed.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
If I get one thousand online to give this, If
I get one thousand in the sanctuary to give this,
that's forty thousand dollars tonight. I'm challenging each of you
all down here to give a twenty dollars seed. Now,
everyone up here, we've all sewed and seated. But I
need everyone up here to sow one hundred dollars because
(11:04):
it costs to sit up here. And he was talking
about the people who were in the pulpit alongside of him,
other preachers and clergy church staff.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So put your twenty dollars away. That twenty wasn't for you.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He continued, requesting that the offerings be walked to the
front so he could see the massive effort. I can't
speak to this in all churches, but what is common
in the Black Church tradition is you walk and you
hand your offering. You're a cheerful giver, and you walk
and you're paraded around the whole church for everyone to
see that you're actually quote unquote giving your tithes and offerings.
(11:46):
All I know is this is not an uncommon phenomenon,
and I can give you many examples, maybe not this extreme,
but very close to it, where you would have preachers
ministers who refused to end their sermon or end the
service without getting a certain dollar amount. And mind you,
(12:10):
there are a lot of people in church. All they
have left is their faith. They are there because they're
going through something. They need a word, as it said,
they need some sort of reassurance, some sort of message
which speaks to them personally and can help them individually.
I don't know if you've never been to church, but
there are many times where I would go to church
and you would think that that message on that day
(12:31):
was meant particularly for me because it spoke to something
that was going on in my life and I was encouraged.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Because of it.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
There is a purpose for a service, especially when you're
talking about someone who's a newbie in Christ, someone who
may have just been born again, and they're looking for guidance.
And that's why, and I say this unfortunately, that's why
many times people will look at the minister as the
conduit between that person and God.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And then you.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Learn more about the Bible and then you don't need
that type of intercessor you don't need someone in between
as a go between. And I always make the distinction
between faith and religion. This is an example of why
people hate religion. There are two churches here.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
In the south Land that I no longer go to.
Speaker 6 (13:24):
One the is a relative relatively large church, almost megachurch status.
The pastor is related to a globally renowned singer, very
(13:44):
very avant garde singer.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And you're really narrowing it down now, you know that, right?
I know.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
And this pastor proceeded to have on the last occasion
that I went to his church.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Uh, he proceeded to have and.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
Hour long offering hour long, meaning for one hour, he
proceeded to be rate the congregation for an offering you.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Mean, like from the beginning of my interview with David
Ayre to the end.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Of the show.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Yes, an entire hour of asking yes, including asking for offerings.
The second was a church that found its home from
a large auditorium to actually moving up to the forum.
(14:37):
And and that pastor who made that move and took
over the form was not in that day, but this
was a special occasion and the special guest pastor proceeded
to tell us.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
That nothing was going to happen, nothing was going to happen.
Speaker 6 (14:56):
We were not going to get a word, we were
not going to hear from the Nothing was gonna happen
until we had all donated enough to I believe, if
I'm not mistaken, reached a similar amount there. And there
was a lot of superstars in that congregation. There were
a lot of well known athletes at Justices, all sitting
(15:19):
in the front row who all got that VIP parking
and VIP escort up to the front so they could
get in and out. And it was a real to
do to be at this church at the Forum. And yeah,
and we sat there that night because it was a
nighttime service. I believe it was the Christmas Eve service.
It costs a lot to even go to get tickets
(15:41):
to go, so we.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Paid a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
You had to pay for the tickets, Yes, and then
you had to give a tithe and offering to the
satisfaction of the guest speaker.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
Yes, it was enough to make me say, oh, hell
to the nah, we are not coming back here.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You got something against a shakedown now, and then I
don't see what the problem. That's what.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well put it this way, And we're talking about these
tax exempt organizations which are doing more for themselves than
they are in the community. And I'm not saying all churches.
I've seen some small what they call storefront churches do
a lot in the community. But these megachurches and these
mega pastors oftentimes are not punching their weight. You see
(16:28):
the enrichment of the pastor. You see it in they're clothed,
their cars sometimes.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Jets, and you see.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Well, let me back up now, a lot of churches
are preaching and teaching what it's called the prosperity gospel,
where if you donate more money, you will receive more
money in your life. You know, it's not about salvation.
It's about getting more money and the way that you
can live better or live life more abundantly, as the
(16:58):
verse goes, is you donate more. Now, there are Bible
verses which speak to tithes and offerings.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It's Malachi three to eight. I'm doing this off the
top of my head.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So if I get it wrong, sorry, Malachi three eight,
And I know my pastor would always say it. You know,
bring ye all the tie tithes to the storehouse, so
there may be meet in my house. And now prove
you herewith say at the Lord of hosts that I
will not open up a window and pour and a
blessing will pour out of it. In other words, the
more money you give, the more that you're going to
be blessed. And that has been bastardized. That's the word
(17:32):
I mean bastardized to be the whole point of the Gospel,
where the more you donate, the more that you will
be blessed. And then that opens the door for the
real shakedown to happen, where you have preachers just outright saying, well,
you're going to hell if you don't donate or you know,
tie or give a certain amount offering on this type
(17:54):
of day.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
So it hurts my heart because as a person.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Of faith, and I'm not sin less, you know, let's
be clear, I'm a crack vessel and I fall short.
It hurts my heart because I see the manipulation of
the church and how it extends beyond just the church walls.
We see it through use of the Bible in politics,
we see it in many varied forms. We see it
(18:21):
in the cover up of abuses in like the Catholic
Church talk about all that. So I'm not gonna give
it away now, But what I when I see this
what Marvin Sapp was doing. It just hurts my heart
because you're just taking advantage of people. You have a
tax exempt organization and you're living, you personally have a
personal net worth of some four to five million dollars,
(18:43):
and you're gonna hold people hostage who may not have
a pot to urinate in or a window in which
to throw it out.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Just like taught us. Look the.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
Church that we went to at the forum, the money
that was being asked for was for specifically pastoral care,
and it was prosperity peaching because we were we were
told that by giving freely to take care of he
who brings us the Word of God, we would then
be blessed eternally even more so.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm way. You
just told me you were not leaving here.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
You're not starting nothing until we give more money to
the pastor.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I got more on this. We gotta go to a break,
but I have more to say on this.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
You got to be remembering stuff and thinking about stuff
and getting mad about stuff all over again.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on Demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
With mo Kelly on.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
AM six Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and last segment,
I was telling you about Marvin Sap who's a very
influential famous not only make a church pasture, but also
gospel artists. And there's a video going around where he
was holding his own congregation. I will say hostage, maybe
(20:12):
that's too strong a word, but he was shaking down
his congregation, would not let them leave until they pointed
up between the online streaming audience and also the end
sanctuary audience forty thousand dollars on this random Sunday, and
it got me thinking about my issues with the church
(20:32):
over the years. Tawalla was telling his stories and I
can't speak for all churches, but it's common within the
historically Black church tradition. What I mean by that is
there's Kojik, which is the Church of God in Christ.
There's ame African Methodist Episcopal, there are others. There's a
(20:52):
type of tradition in a way in which services run
obviously Southern Baptists, and money usually is at the forefront
of it, unfortunately, and it's manipulative, it's unkind, it's ungodly,
and it goes on every single day, and I understand
why it turns off people to religion, which is different
(21:13):
from faith, and if you don't understand the difference, it
can harm your faith as well. I know I can't
speak for Tuala, but I know in the church as
I've been in, there are things that the church would
pay for. In other words, your tithes and offerings would
go to the parsonage, which was where the pastor or
(21:34):
preacher would live. In other words, they would have that
an actual house that we would pay for, or there
would be a housing allowance or a car alligance allowance,
just like someone who worked at any other corporation. So
for the most part, especially with the megachurches, all the
personal needs of a pastor are already taken care of.
And almost every single church they had this thing called
(21:55):
the building fund, where you would always have to set
aside money, which is different from your tithes, which is
supposed to be ten percent of your of your treasure,
is different from your offerings because your offering is supposed
to be over and above what you're giving from for
your tithe. And then outside of your tithe and offering,
you would have to set aside even more money for
like the building fund, or you'd have to do this,
(22:19):
or you're paying for that. It's always something in this
every single week. But the funny thing is when the
church wanted to do anything which wasn't for the benefit
of the pastor, then the church would have to do
something like a bake sale or a fish fry selling
fish plates. I mean, it was always on the shoulders
(22:42):
of the members to pay for everything for the pastor
and everything for the church. And you're always behind the
eight ball or some emergency it has got to be
done today, or they're going to turn the lights out
or something like that.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And after a while, it's like you just burn people.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Out, just you just you you run off people who
are consistent titherers who do tie pay that ten percent
every single week.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
And I was a tithe it for a long time,
a long time.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And then you you get just disenchanted and disappointed with it.
Speaker 6 (23:15):
The worst part is, and I think this is something
that I can only speak on the Black church, but
one thing that would always rub me the wrong way
is how you would have a pastor, a superstar pastor
in the city of Los Angeles. And I don't care
(23:37):
if you're over on Crenshaw. I don't care where you are,
but you look at the people, those of us who
are coming, those of us who have maybe just that
one suit or that one nice outfit to wear the church,
and you look at and honestly, how little the congregation has,
(23:58):
how little the people who are coming to receive a
word and to be set right on their week coming ahead,
get over what they're weak before had to offer and
are looking to be lifted up. How little they have,
and how much faith and how much love they have
for you and your word and what you're supposed to
(24:18):
be filling and imparting us with. And then to feel
like the only way that we can get to that
word is through breaking our own wilesce which most of
the time we don't have. That is what leaves that
sour taste in individual's minds.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I know someone has been in a church like me
and had the pastor say, you know that money in
your pocket, that's God's money. God put that in your pocket.
It's not yours, it's not yours to hold on to
you were you there, what you're saying, It's time for
you now to give it back to the Lord so
it can so his work can be done.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Who gave you that money in the first place. Who
gave you the job to make the money that you're
making in the first place? Somebody say, somebody say, who God?
God gave you that money. God gave you that job.
And if you want to make sure that you go
to the next level, you're looking for a raise, you're
looking for that promotion, Who's going to give it to you?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Well, a God will a man rob God?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Look, it was every single week, every single week. So
I understand what they call church hurt. I understand how
people can become discontent with the whole idea of religion.
I understand intellectually and from a faith perspective, how you
just or put this way, how people become agnostic or
(25:41):
become atheists because for me, I think they wrongly conflate
religion with faith or that they've had religion damage their faith.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I get it. It makes perfect sense to me.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And the reason why we're talking about the Marvin Sap
story and it's I try to let you know, we
talk about big stories. This was covered even by tmz
okay with no connection to Marvin's sapp. It's a huge
story that you're going to hear more and more about it,
if only because more times than not, people.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Have a similar story to offer.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
And in the age of the Internet, it's less likely
that people are going to be able to hide what
they do in churches because people are going to expose them.
And I say bravo, because that's not the word. That's
not a part of what is actually in the word,
or it's a part of becoming saved, as they say
in the church. You know, it's it's a bastardization and
(26:34):
it's unfortunate. Got my final thought, will we come back
and we'll also talk to George Nori. Coast to Coast
AMKFI AM six forty were live everywhere in the Arheartradio app.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It's Later with Mokelly k if I AM six forty
live everywhere the iHeartRadio app. Coming up in moments will
be Coast to Coast AM with George Nori.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
But here's the good news. He joins me right now
with the preview. What's up starting.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
I love joining you, Mo, It's fun.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I appreciate that. I always enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
It's weird for me, if only because I have listened
to you for so long, and I mean that in
a very respectful way, and then get the opportunity to
talk to you and joke with you.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
That's a real treat for me.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Oh likewise, my friend, you're a good guy.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
On the show tonight, we're going to talk about the
future of the world, and then later on there's a
Japanese custom called the doomsday fish.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Going to talk about that on Coast to Coast.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
All right, I'll be tuning in. I'll missure my friend
and be well, hey, buddy, And before we.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Get out of here, you know what my final word
is going to be on And I'm going to try
not to offend everybody listening. But I make no guarantees
and I also make no apologies. Let me put it
that way. And I've been thinking about this over the
(28:07):
years in a general sense, but with the Marveln Sapps story,
it kind of meant that I needed to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Now.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Faith and religion there are two different things. Religion has
nothing to do with faith. Religion is about dogma. It's
about rules. It's about dictating how you're supposed to live.
Your life, how you worship. That's religion. Faith, on the
(28:36):
other hand, is your personal relationship with Jesus or your God.
It's your one on one conversation with the Almighty. It's
very personal, but one definitely impacts the other. You can
have a bad experience with the church or a minister,
and I told you about some of mine, and Twalla
told you about some of his. That bad experience can
damage your faith, especially if you're a newbie in Christ.
(28:57):
In other words, you're just in your religious experience learning
about Christ. That's what it means to be a newbie.
And betrayal by religion is not a new phenomenon. And yes,
money is still the root of all evil. We've seen
it with the Catholic Church and pri smalestation scandals. We've
seen it with these megachurch pastors time and time again,
(29:20):
from garden variety sex scandals to financial malfeasan scandals.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
It seems like.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
The bigger the church or profile of the pastor the
bigger the sins. It's really no wonder why church attendance
is at an all time low and atheism grows at
almost a proportional rate.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
There's a connection there.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Throw in politics, and you really have a cluster truck.
America wants to turn itself into a theocracy and tell
everyone how to live, even though this has never been
a Christian nation. Oh oh, getting ready to step on
toes never been a Christian nation. We may be a
nation of mostly Christians, but never an actual Christian nation.
(30:00):
There's no mention of Jesus Christ, and either the Declaration
of Independence or the Constitution.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I know for a fact I looked, it's not there.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The phrase in God we trust was added to money
and the Pledge of Allegiance in the nineteen fifties as
a response to communism, not as a founding principle of
the country. And never mind the fact that just mentioning
the word God does it make something Christian. Hate to
be pedantic and all biblical like, But the whole idea
of Christianity has a Jesus requirement. Christianity requires that you
(30:31):
confess with your mouth and believe with all your heart
that Jesus is the Son of God, was crucified and
rose on the third Day. That, in short, is what
it means to be a Christian, not just mentioning the
word God or reciting it as part of a pledge
of allegiance. The New Testament is pretty pretty clear about that.
But that's assuming that you've actually read the Bible and
(30:54):
not just put Christian on your social media profile, and
you're not using that to quote unquote virtue signal as
to the other religions or the people who are of
other religions that you don't like.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
But you don't have to take my word for it.
Go ahead and read the Bible for yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
My point, my main point tonight, is that religion has
poisoned or has been poisoned, depending on how you look
at it. Religion today is more a weapon and blunt
object to bludgeon people to behave a certain way, hate
certain people, justify books to be banned, and or dictate
women's health decisions.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Oh yes, I'm going there.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
People use the Bible to cherry pick issues to manipulate
other people's lives, not live their own lives. Being a
Christian is about how you individually live, not how other
people live or who other people marries.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Actual Christians know this. They will call themselves pro.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Life, yet are indifferent to what the Bible says about
treating the stranger in your land, or how we should
care for the poor and the needy. That's what I
mean by cherry picking. I told you earlier this hour
about a megachurch pastor and gospel music star Marvin Sap,
worth more than four million dollars who refused to let
people exit his church until the congregation ponied up forty
(32:12):
thousand dollars collectively. A congregation who likely are all less
wealthy than Sap, A congregation who can get shaken down
or robbed any day of the week anywhere else, just
weren't expecting to get robbed on Sunday in the House
of the Lord forty thousand dollars for his tax exempt church.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
But Sap is closer to the rule than the exception.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
All we could talk about megachurch pastor Joel Oldstein, who
had to be shamed into opening up his megachurch to
flood victims during the twenty seventeen Hurricane Harvey, and had
the dirty nerve to defend his decision to keep his
church doors closed. Those are just some of the examples
of religion, not faith. The problem in America, and here
(32:56):
is the real takeaway. The problem in America is not
that there aren't enough people calling themselves Christian. The problem
in America is not that the Christianity hasn't been woven
into the constitution. The problem is we've decided to use
christian as a way to signal to others who we hate.
(33:22):
For kf I am six forty, I'm o Kelly. KFI
is literally the KFI of talk radio.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
K f II and the KOST HD two.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Los Angeles, Orange County
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Live everywhere on the younger radio s
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