Lad with.
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.
You should have put to the left and be dead. Oh you dead, you'd be dead.
From the director of The Beekeeper, a nineteen year old cost Kidnam.
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.
Trafficking I'm gonna find a better go for long? How do they get to work? To work?
So it cuts you around out? Good luck, get the work. Jason statho oh that is not good work.
Doing, uncle.
People whose mommy dressesn't funny.
Work?
Look at those bricks. You're a working man. That's right.
Let's play and i'd so please to be joined by its writer and director, David Ayir.
David a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for coming on tonight.
Thank you so much for having me.
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.
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 on screen and really give him a righteous mission, I think is what sets this film apart.
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.
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 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.
Jenny's missing, What do you mean miss it?
Sure?
Friends? On fri Saturday, we were worried, so we called the cops. And then that's on the.
She had a piano.
Side on something like we invited half our family.
My cousin Donor is a police captain in Philly, and she says, they don't work these cases.
They take a report and forget about it. Can you help us?
Like and keeps you sut running swool, No help us find Jack?
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?
How much different person?
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 or is it more sophisticated?
What type of direction do you give?
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 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.
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.
But a working man.
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.
That's exactly it.
You know.
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 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.
Doile action, no doubt.
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.
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, you almost believe that she could rescue Jason.
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?
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 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.
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.
It's a good one.
Thank you so much for having me.
You're listening too later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
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 problems I guess with religion. In fact, this is going to be part of my final thought tonight, So I'm going to.
Give you a little bit of a preview here. Marvin Sap.
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.
Give you a point of reference.
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 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 those that are watching it's one thousand that's watching online.
This is a small seed.
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 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.
So put your twenty dollars away. That twenty wasn't for you.
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.
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, 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 was meant particularly for me because it spoke to something that was going on in my life and I was encouraged.
Because of it.
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.
And then you.
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.
In the south Land that I no longer go to.
One the is a relative relatively large church, almost megachurch status. The pastor is related to a globally renowned singer, very very avant garde singer.
And you're really narrowing it down now, you know that, right? I know.
And this pastor proceeded to have on the last occasion that I went to his church.
Uh, he proceeded to have and.
Hour long offering hour long, meaning for one hour, he proceeded to be rate the congregation for an offering you.
Mean, like from the beginning of my interview with David Ayre to the end.
Of the show.
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. 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.
That nothing was going to happen, nothing was going to happen.
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 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 to go, so we.
Paid a lot.
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.
Yes, it was enough to make me say, oh, hell to the nah, we are not coming back here.
You got something against a shakedown now, and then I don't see what the problem. That's what.
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 the enrichment of the pastor. You see it in they're clothed, their cars sometimes.
Jets, and you see.
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 verse goes, is you donate more. Now, there are Bible verses which speak to tithes and offerings.
It's Malachi three to eight. I'm doing this off the top of my head.
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 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 of day.
So it hurts my heart because as a person.
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 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, 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.
Just like taught us. Look the.
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.
And blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm way. You just told me you were not leaving here.
You're not starting nothing until we give more money to the pastor.
I got more on this. We gotta go to a break, but I have more to say on this.
Now.
You got to be remembering stuff and thinking about stuff and getting mad about stuff all over again.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on Demand from KFI AM six.
With mo Kelly on.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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,
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 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.
And after a while, it's like you just burn people.
Out, just you just you you run off people who are consistent titherers who do tie pay that ten percent every single week.
And I was a tithe it for a long time, a long time.
And then you you get just disenchanted and disappointed with it.
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
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, 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 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.
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.
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?
Well, a God will a man rob God?
Man.
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 become atheists because for me, I think they wrongly conflate religion with faith or that they've had religion damage their faith.
I get it. It makes perfect sense to me.
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.
Have a similar story to offer.
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 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.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
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.
But here's the good news. He joins me right now with the preview. What's up starting.
I love joining you, Mo, It's fun.
Thank you.
I appreciate that. I always enjoyed talking to you.
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.
That's a real treat for me.
Oh likewise, my friend, you're a good guy.
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.
Going to talk about that on Coast to Coast.
All right, I'll be tuning in. I'll missure my friend and be well, hey, buddy, And before we.
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 years in a general sense, but with the Marveln Sapps story, it kind of meant that I needed to talk about it.
Now.
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 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. 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, from garden variety sex scandals to financial malfeasan scandals.
It seems like.
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.
There's a connection there.
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. There's no mention of Jesus Christ, and either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.
I know for a fact I looked, it's not there.
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 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 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.
But you don't have to take my word for it. Go ahead and read the Bible for yourself.
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.
Oh yes, I'm going there.
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.
Actual Christians know this. They will call themselves pro.
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
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.
But Sap is closer to the rule than the exception.
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 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. For kf I am six forty, I'm o Kelly. KFI is literally the KFI of talk radio.
K f II and the KOST HD two.
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