Ep. 226 - Uprooting “Christless Conservatism”

Like Trump , we would all agree , had some good policies , the way he went about things in his personal life and his personality , that's not really just going to jive with Christianity in the way that we're called to be as Christians . But we do say , like some of those policies made America thrive . We love that .

The justices he put in again for pro-life , we can accept that and say that was a good thing . But I think it just comes down to being an idol problem . And right now people I think especially too , we're seeing younger people that they don't recognize what is evil and what is good because they're biblically illiterate .

So there's going to be times , unfortunately , if you don't know what is good and what is evil based off Scripture , you're going to team up with a lesser evil to feel like you can do some sort of eternal good , and that's why you're seeing young people be so attracted to people like Andrew Tate .

They're going to see some of these clips and it's like , yes , this strong guy , he's ripped , he's got money , he's got girls and he's talking about non-woke stuff . It's so eternally empty . He's basically just a non-woke Dan Bilzerian . And then when it comes to politics outside of that , in this political sphere each side is corrupt .

Why did you move to Florida ? Skunks .

But seriously though , I think , ray , if you took a skunk on the basket on your bike , I didn't have a basket on my bike , do not even minch Basket .

We interviewed 11 of our friends and those of you watching this , by the way , yeah , we did not change .

Anyway , friends , he's going to talk to us about uprooting Christless conservatism . Ooh , very interesting . We like that . Uprooting John Root , alrighty .

And so today we thought we'd bring in a very passive , mellow , non-controversial dude , and so we thought who else but John Root ? John Root , we're blessed to have you , brother . Thanks for joining us in the midst of your busy schedule here .

Yes , friends , still at G3 , as you could tell , and we've been watching you interview one person after the other , like right in the middle of the walkway , everyone's going . You got an audience sitting there . So , brother , we're blessed to have you .

And for those who don't know John Root , he's an independent content creator , writer and speaker who covers a bunch of things Faith , sports , culture , all that . How's your boring life going , bro ?

I'm okay with whatever takeaway you're going to have , as long as you understand my position here and I want my audience to understand what you're really all about . And that's what I might take away from you is really listen , do we understand what's happening in the room right now ? Right , we're just going to allow them to get away with that , let's not .

And you're not out to beat a dead horse , right ? I mean , it's just like I just want to make sure that everybody understands what's going on .

I hope that people don't see my content like that , but when you're referencing the chosen controversy like that was something that just was massive in these Christian circles and when you have someone like Candace Owens , I mean most of the time I don't really feel I have to defend myself with a bunch of trolls on Twitter or other people that are just saying nasty

things that I mean you can say anything to me at this point , it's really not going to hurt me . But when you have someone like Candace Owens , it basically doesn't . Basically did lie about me , lied about the whole situation , didn't have journalistic integrity about the way she shared the chosen controversy .

I'm going to come out and say , hey , this is not about gay . People can't work on a Christian production .

But you're not against that . You're not against secularists playing inside of a Christian production .

But if you freely allow sin to not just be talked about but displayed on the set of a show , supposedly about honoring the authentic Christ , that's the real conversation . Are you actually reaching out to them and telling them this is what the authentic Jesus looks like ? I don't believe that it's actually represented in that show and a lot of people .

I said this that got people riled up me . Getting people riled up strange is like I think you believe in the inerrancy of the chosen more than you believe in the inerrancy of the scripture .

Like something I shared that popped off on X over the last few days is the Carolina Panthers have a transgender cheerleader . The first transgender cheerleader in the NFL is coming back for the second season and that cheerleader ended up reaching out to me and there were some hateful comments .

Sometimes we need to have better political discourse , cultural discourse and faith discourse that if you're just going to throw blows in the comment section , you're not really changing hearts , you're not changing souls . But I had that cheerleader reach out to me in the comments and basically said I feel comfortable with who I am .

I can look at myself in the mirror and we all just need to represent God inside and out and I'm like hold on , you're bringing God into this conversation . Let me go ahead and reach out to you with the truth in love , because your teammates aren't telling you that , your organization's not telling you that and the world's not telling you that .

And then I have a YouTube channel .

I'm trying to grow a little bit , covering more of the political side of things filtered through scripture , because I think right now too I know we're going to touch on it is I'm trying to harp on the dangers of Christless conservatism and how many people think that if you just vote for the right person or you're affiliated with the right party , that that can

save you and that will be the savior of the country . And when I cover those things , especially as an independent content creator , writing about it , talking about in front of a camera , hopefully it creates more conversation and it's unique and it's something that leads to people hopefully understanding that our faith needs to be in Christ .

Everything needs to be filtered through scripture .

So when we have Congresswomen that are going out and dressing scantily clad while still going through a divorce process with their husband , they are in public and they're getting groped and they're also groping somebody and then they're just trying to avoid the situation and then they kind of have a half-hearted apology .

And then you have a former president that's trying to compromise on the abortion issue and calling anybody that has a heartbeat bill because of Roe v Wade being overturned because of the judges that he had in there . He's calling those people and that legislation terrible .

And then you also have other politicians that are speaking at these prayer breakfasts and these prayer events and trying to say you know what I told my living boyfriend like no sex this morning , maybe later . I got to go to this prayer thing and that's where we're seeing so much from these politicians , from these parties .

And I think the main thing is people are so politicized and they just feel conservatism will save this country so eternally empty . Yes , we can do some moral things . We can agree with that and you guys go in the field all across the country and you talk to people that are really set in this moralism and I feel like that's all that is .

You're not going to go up to heaven and hear from a guy like well done , good and faithful conservative . You're going to hear well done , good and faithful service , that's good .

If you were going to read One , it would be Political Visions and Illusions , and in that book , what he does is he goes through each political ideology and he shows how each of them has their own .

What happens is that we , as idol makers , turn political ideologies into functional saviors , and he shows how we apply the same gospel narrative to our political ideologies .

So he says if you listen closely to libertarianism , traditional libertarianism , modern liberalism , conservatism , on and on and on what he says , if you listen close enough , you will hear a creation , fall , redemption , restoration story within them . This is where we were , this is how we can get back to utopia , this is how we can make America great again .

All of these ideologies have a air quote gospel narrative hidden within them , and what ends up happening is that we buy in them and they become our functional savior . And so I guess the question is how do we recognizing that we need to participate in the political sphere and partner with political ideologies for the sake of good ?

How do we do that , while maintaining our focus and our allegiance to Christ and Christ alone .

Like Trump , we would all agree , had some good policies , the way he went about things in his personal life and his personality , that's not really just going to jive with Christianity in the way that we're called to be as Christians . But we do say , like some of those policies made America thrive , we love that .

The justices he put in again for pro-life , we can accept that and say that was a good thing . But I think it just comes down to being an idol problem . And right now people I think especially to we're seeing younger people that they don't recognize what is evil and what is good because they're biblically illiterate .

So there's going to be times , unfortunately , if you don't know what is good and what is evil based off Scripture , you're going to team up with a lesser evil to feel like you can do some sort of eternal good , and that's why you're seeing young people be so attracted to people like Andrew Tate .

They're going to see some of these clips and it's like , yes , this strong guy , he's ripped , he's got money , he's got girls and he's talking about non-woke stuff . It's so eternally empty . He's basically just a non-woke Dan Bilzerian . And then , when it comes to politics outside of that , in this political sphere , each side is corrupt , each side is godless .

But there's too many people that feel like , oh man , it's so corrupt , it's so godless Like I can't really hold them to that standard . No , if they claim Christ , the standard is Christ and we can hold them accountable and we can call them out .

And I'm sick and tired of media members that are bought and paid for , that are silent about these issues , especially when it comes to the pre-born .

I don't care how you feel about Donald Trump , you have to call that out , and if you don't call it out now , we're going to compromise more and we're not even really going to recognize conservatism a decade from now .

And it seems like that's what's happening in conservatism as long as he's a conservative , he's got a pass , no big deal , and they're almost Christianizing everybody . He's a conservative , oh yeah , he's great .

But seriously , we have people like Ben Shapiro great guy , he says a lot of great things , but they almost act like , yeah , well , he knows God , no , he doesn't . You take people like Glenn Beck conservative , lots of great stuff that he says , but there are people that almost join , link arms with him , like , oh , he's a Christian . I mean , it's heartbreaking .

So what's going on with that ?

They said it is about 6% and it could be as low as 4% 3 or 4% , which is crazy . And then they said a biblical worldview . I'm pretty sure I remember this correctly . I agree with about 80% of the Bible and a line with about 80% of the Bible . So people , again , they don't understand the Word of God .

They're gonna be like well , I mean , they seem to be wearing the same jersey as maybe they seem to be on the same team . Steve Dace is someone that I think has done an incredible job . He works at the Blaze .

Over the past few months I've been listening to him calling this kind of stuff out is we know that liberalism is so godless , but we have conservatism that's been packaged in this godly wrapping and this nice bow that's like oh , that looks good .

So Glenbeck's on our team , dennis Prager's on our team , ben Shapiro's on our team , michael Knowles is on our team and great people doing incredible stuff for the conservative movement moral stuff that they're talking about . But there's going to be a compromise and there's going to be a misdirection .

Because they don't believe in the same God , they don't believe in the same Jesus , they don't believe in the same gospel .

It was that you attend and are a member of a church , that you read the Bible daily , that conversion is important for your salvation , that sharing your faith with others is apparent and the inerrancy of Scripture .

And out of the 100,000 or whatever evangelicals they surveyed , only 3% could agree to those five things , which tells you that there's a disparity between self-proclaimed evangelicalism and Bible-believing Christians . Let me point this out , because in no way are we saying we can't fully agree or even work with people who are non-believers . You've named a few .

And so what you see , especially with the prophets of the new and the Old Testament , what you see is often the prophets will speak against the politicians and work alongside the politicians , and they were persecuted . Another one's like nobody knew what to do with the early , like no one knew what to do with Israel in Babylon .

No one knew what to do with the early church in Rome , because they would partner on some things and call you out on others and they just didn't fit the cultural narratives . And I think that's what we're getting at here . We can say yes and amen to something that Dennis Prager says .

We can come alongside and partner with people to vote for a moral law that will be good for the unborn , but we also cannot forget that our first allegiance is to Christ , and he calls us to stand for truth , even against people that are on our side .

So someone like Daniel he allowed his name to be changed . That was not the hill that he was going to die on , but when they said , hey , eat this food , I'm not going to do that . I'm still going to honor my God . Do not pray . No , I can't stop praying .

There was hills that he was going to die on and that changed the heart of the King , and then it inspired an incredible amount of people . And then , obviously , there's so many invisible idols . Now we're going to see those photos and paintings and renderings of what that would have looked like the idols in Babylon .

We have idols that aren't so plain to see , but we're being asked to bow down to . And a lot of people are just saying , all right , well , I'm just going to kind of take a knee right here right now . I hope that not a lot of people are looking around and then hopefully I won't be held accountable for this .

It's like no , you have to speak to God , you don't have to speak to your neighbor or your family member when you're going up to the gates .

He purposed in his heart and then took an extraordinary step to where it's like , yeah , give us some vegetables and water will be , will be fine . I mean , talk about trust in the Lord . And that's so , contrary to what's happening today Shadrach , meshach and Abednego , or Hananiah , michelle and Azariah , right to buy their godly names .

You know , they look at Nebuchadnezzar when he tells them bow or burn and they say we have no need to answer you concerning this matter . Okay , you know , their commitment to God was predetermined and it was non-negotiable .

We don't , we didn't even have to talk about this because they were with Daniel when they didn't , you know , partake of the delicacies and drink of the wine , but it's because they believed in the power of God . They banked on the providence of God . Our God , whom we serve , is able to deliver us . They knew his power .

And that's what I think we need to understand is here in Western civilization , we don't really know what persecution looks like . Are we going to be killed for our faith ? I don't recognize that here in the States . Yeah , we're going to get persecuted with some filthy comments online , we're going to lose jobs , we're going to lose friends and family .

But if we start recognizing that example , saying that we need to speak truth to power , with faith , with biblical truth , that we might be persecuted and our following's gone , our platform's gone , but thank God , we were faithful to him and his word and hopefully that inspires the next generation family member , friend or whoever it may be . Amen .

I mean , some of them , what sawn , sawn of Sunder right , and it says they didn't realize the promise , but they're the ones of whom the world was not worthy and yet they stood , they didn't bound .

Not even because they were Christians right , we would have a strong disagreement concerning their theology , but they just claim the name of Christ . You know , scripture says all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution . It doesn't say all who are . If you just desire to Right , there's a bullseye upon you .

Now put yourself in the front lines , say that hey , I'm ready and willing to march . I understand this is not a playground , this is a battleground . This is a battlefield , not a playing field . So I'm going forward and I forget who we were talking about it with yesterday .

But the average modern day Christian today is like a Easter chocolate bunny that he melts under the pressure of modern warfare . You know , you know what kind of a servant you are when somebody treats you like one , and you know what kind of a warrior you are when you're actually in the midst of battle .

But , you don't decide in the midst of battle how you're going to fight . You decide before and it's like the war on pornography and sexual purity was fought yesterday and the day before to know how we're going to fight it today . Right , so this is what we're up against in today's culture .

We need to determine here and now that we will not bow our knees to anything other than , to anyone other than Jesus Christ , no matter what the cost , no matter the cost and at all costs .

He said that traditionally , the self was viewed in light of our relationship with God , and then country , and then family . But he said that as we move to more of an expressive individualistic worldview , what would end up happening is that our sense of self would shift from the higher things to the lower things . And he predicted two . Actually , he predicted three .

One of them , consumerism that we would find a sense of identity in what we own . And isn't that true ? Like , if you were creating entrepreneur , then surely you have to have a Mac . Don't even shop for anything else . We identify with consumerism . The second thing he said was with our sexuality . Hello , we identify with our sexuality .

Now it's like what are your pronouns ? Like ? Our identity is built in our gender or sexuality . And the third thing he predicted was politics that we would become self identified in our political views more than the view of God . And isn't that true ? Like we look around and it's like , oh , my neighbor moved in . They seem really sweet , but how do they vote ?

You know what I mean . Wow , this pastor's really good but how would he vote on ? Like we see everything we have . We've removed from our eyes a lens of the world through the gospel and we've put on lenses of political vision and we see everything as conservative or liberal .

We see where we , you know when we I've said this before when I walk outside I live in California . When I walk outside , I'm like man , this liberal , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . When I walk outside , you know what I see ? I see God's creation . I see the trees blowing in the wind . If I go down the street I can hear the ocean .

Like I see God's world . But so many of my neighbors don't see God's world . They see a political world .

In one sense I can , in that there's that vacuum , but you would think Christians would have more sense than that , you know , and so you know I saw a video of you talking with Candace , talking about Candace Owens in her interview with Andrew Tate and kind of like talking about , oh , I wish you were a Christian and almost like we need him , kind of a thing .

But also this whole writing off of like this guy is so he's so antithetical in his life to Christ in like almost every way imaginable , but he throws in some masculinity stuff which is attractive to men . But what's going on with that and what was your perspective on what Candace Owens was doing there ?

I believe that she has exposed some really important things which led to good discussion and has led to a little bit more moral media or society . But I think there's sometimes where we're gonna miss .

I think she missed mightily with Andrew Tate , where if you're gonna tell him like man , I wish you were still a Christian , like it just shows that your theology is all out of whack . And we know that now too , that she's going Roman Catholic . I don't know if she's full-blown Roman Catholic now she's married to a Roman Catholic .

She has a really interesting conversation with Ali Bestaki . I think it's a two-parter with Candace and her husband . But when you say somebody lost their

salvation , I mean that was something I touched on too . It's like clearly you don't understand the word , Like if you feel like Andrew Tate was actually in God's hand and then somehow Allah or the Muslim religion just stole him out of God's hands .

Like you don't clearly have a clear understanding , like we are here , of God's sovereignty , of his power , of the Almighty God . And then when I share things like her interview , you didn't do the research .

You're trying to say that these things were 10 years ago and he talked about a pornographic webcam business a couple years ago and he's joking about his PhD program , which is a pimping hose degree . That's the person that we need to elevate . We don't need Andrew Tate . We're fighting a spiritual war and we want to fight people that have the full armor of God .

He does not have that . He's fighting for something completely different . He's on a completely different road . But when you have someone like Andis , who I don't truly believe is saved and doesn't have a clear understanding of scripture , she's not going to recognize that . Yes , we can have a co-belligerence with people , but we just are desperately looking .

Especially young men are looking for a strong male role model and they're looking for it in the wrong places . Someone they should look to and I'm glad that Ben Shapiro sat down with Vodibhakum . Here's what biblical masculinity looks like . Here's what dating actually looks like . As a man , you should be a leader as a man .

That doesn't mean that everybody is going to be jacked and ripped and you're going to be super voiceless . Luckily , we all are . Praise God , we don't have any belly fat at all .

I deserve to be held accountable for anything that I say and I hope that I let people know that if this doesn't line with scripture , if you feel like I have a bad witness in the way that I'm sharing these things , we might not agree with the messaging or the boldness . Some people might not share it in that way .

Sometimes I feel like I need a hammer on this point and I want to do it in truth and love . It might be different than the tone that you have , but I'm always supposed to be held accountable .

So what I did is I went to the Chosen's YouTube channel and I wanted to see is this actually there ? Is it pretty prominent ? I give them the benefit of the doubt . It was a Pride flag prominent right there on the set on a rig of a camera , on the set of the Chosen . So what I did was not just I can't believe you guys would do this . This is great .

That's the way that Candice put it out there . Almost I went 0 to 100 . I asked them . I put it on Instagram and I also put it when it was still Twitter at the time . Hey , at the Chosen TV , why do you have a Pride flag on set ? They responded to me and they defended it . They , basically . And then you had Dallas Jenkins who defended it with a video .

He came out with another video and then he started gaslighting people and then you have Candice that decided to jump on the train there too . Obviously , that was a time where I lost a job , if people know my story and these things just need to be called out .

And it's not me saying , oh , gay people can't work on the set of a Christian show , but there's other videos that were showing this cameraman . This gay cameraman was wearing Pride gear , rainbow t-shirts , while he's holding a rig and following Jonathan Rumi who plays Jesus in the Chosen .

They're not just saying oh and they try to say oh , we have just like a three inch Pride flag . It's really not that big .

I don't know , mark , the cancer is this big . At least it's not like this big , so it's not that big of a deal . Man , just come back if you're really not feeling well in a few weeks .

We need to call out sin and that is fully saying that something that is against God and trying to steal the rainbow , which is supposed to be a sign of God's promise , that's what everybody should be believing when they see .

The rainbow is now about hijacked and you see series like this compromising on this , so I decided to call it out and then it got a lot of attacks from different actors on the show trying to say that I was a hateful bigot , homophobe , not Christlike , and if anybody just looks back on my videos or the interactions , I showed the truth with love .

I didn't damn anybody to hell , but I was asking for answers and I believed that I went about it as probably about Matthew 18 as you can .

On social media it's like , hey , I'm looking for an answer for this , and it led to a lot of controversy , but I think it exposed it and let people know that , hey , this is not just the only issue with that show and you lost a job over that .

I can't really explain too much behind the scenes and I think mostly I say that because I just don't want to come across as vindictive .

But it was during a time where I'm very bold in my faith and there's times where if you're calling out certain things in conservative media , you're calling out people that are connected with certain spaces , connected with certain people , it's going to ruffle feathers and I felt like I went about it in a respectful , god-honoring way .

Not everybody's going to see it like that . I truly believe that I was talking to my elders in my church , I was talking to my pastor in my church , I was talking to guys in my Bible study , like , hey , I'm sharing some of these things , this is the best way to go , but yeah , that was during the time and these things definitely played a fact .

But I think , at the end of the day , we have to understand that , as Mark referenced , those who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution . We're not gluttonies for persecution , we're not trying to take it on as a badge of honor , but hey , woe to you if all men speak well of you .

I mean , you probably aren't doing something right there in that regard , because , especially in the day and age of the midst of which we live now , we have to speak or else we're really abdicating our duty as those who are called to be ambassadors of Christ and to be salt and light in the world and then sometimes people just won't have ears to hear .

I mean there's people that were trying to say that Satan was using me during that time Unreal , I mean , that sounds a lot like the deliverance ministries that we're seeing all across the country . But it's one of those things that hopefully it did lead to some fruitful conversation , but sometimes I had to know that people will fight for whatever they idolize .

I feel like some people started to idolize the chosen yeah .

You know , I remember there was one notable Christian leader who spoke at an event with I think it was some Mormon event or something but he made it extraordinarily clear by saying look , the differences that we have deal with eternal matters and there will be eternal consequences in light of these differences .

I want to make that clear and then continue , went on to speak at the event or whatever , but that's so important . But you're not getting that today , either nothing is said , which is saying a lot , or stupid things are said like yeah , we all worship the same Jesus , they love Jesus like we do .

No , you're talking about a different Jesus , you're talking about a different God , and that's a disservice to people . And so , clarity if there's going to be cobaligerence , have clarity , make it clear , tiptoe around it , don't sugarcoat or candy coat . Be clear , but speak truth .

I was there and I spoke and I was going through the process of trying to put together a prayer walk and then unfortunately , it turned into something that just the police were great , the LAPD were awesome working with us , there was a Catholic group and I was on the Protestant side . We want to do a prayer walk because the cobaligerence there works out better .

You guys can do whatever you want and this prayer line you can have whatever monikers you have , whatever you're going to do . And it turned into we had a parking lot space and then the Catholic group ended up securing the space . We didn't really know about it too much and they

have idols up there and it was a really difficult thing for me because I know it's like why is Jesus still on the cross ? He's risen . Why do we have pictures of Mary up here ?

But I went up there and I'm not a pastor , but I think I was the only one that actually had a Bible and read from the Bible Say , hey , this is how we need to look at this culture , but there was a cobaligerence there and I hope that's stuff that we start to recognize , and I've shared that publicly too , because I'm going to get scrutinized .

I knew that would happen , this up with all the stuff that's around you on this stage .

You guys have made such an impact on my life for Christ and I think you guys should be encouraged with what you guys are doing and I'm always happy to support you guys . But if you guys want to follow me online , I'm on X and Instagram . It's at Johnny Root , j-o-n-n-y-r-o-o-t . Underscore , and I'm also on YouTube at John Root , j-o-n-r-o-o-t .

Trying to grow that a little bit and just keep the dialogue going , and I'm probably going to be involved in some controversies sometime soon , so be on the lookout for that .

The guy doesn't get tired If he feels like you and your faulty theological reasoning have an audience amongst people who love God . He's going to make sure that you're put in your place in a very loving , respectful way .

Keep those ratings going five stars , millions of downloads , thousands of reviews and you're keeping us at five . Thank you , friends , and thank you for joining us . We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast . The ultimate cure for insomnia Mark your best , snore , Not like the last one . I don't snore .