Bonhoeffer’s Thesis on Stupidity

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central Good evening everyone. It is Wednesday, February the nineteenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently five fifty seven pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I had no plan. I had no intention to be live on the air right now. I had none. What I was doing is I was sitting here watching a live webcast on the sermon's two point oh app right. I was looking at all the live webcasts. There's like forty eight fifty two right now, fifty four fifty six. I mean, over the next about hour there's probably going to be one hundred two hundred live webcast going on. So I was I was watching one. There was no sound. There was someone standing behind the pulpit talking to a woman sitting in the front pew. She had her Bible open. She was obviously asking questions to the person standing behind the pulpit, who was trying to respond to her. They were kind of going back and forth. There was no sound. I don't know if the webcast hadn't begun yet I don't know what was going on. So I was just sitting here just kind of watching that, going okay, well, sure would like to hear the conversation shere, would like to hear these questions. It could be interesting. But since nothing is going on, let me go to another webcast. So I clicked on another webcast. I turned on the other webcast, and I'm gonna be honest with you, I almost turned

1:33 it off because I started getting irritated, right because man alive. Sometimes when I listen to churches, I'm just like, I don't even know what this is. So it was a church giving their announcements. They're doing a chili cookoff, and if you win first place, you get one hundred dollars gift card. If you win second place, you get a seventy five. If you win third place you get a fifty dollars, So get your best chili recipes. We're having a chili cookoff, and I'm like, when did church is supposed to start having chili cookoffs? Then they're having a fellowship, then they're having this, then they're having this, and then and it was activity activity activity, activity, activity, and I'm like, that's what churches are today, they're an activity center, the a community center. None of these see and again we could get into regulative normative. But I was just like, man, this is why me and the church will never get along.

2:25 I'm like, I don't even know what that is, but okay, all right, But I'm like, all right, I'm going to keep it listening because once the announcements are over, I'm assuming we're going to get the sermons. So the announcements were over, and then the pastor stood up and he told everyone he wanted to read one verse of scripture. And that verse of scripture was Judges chapter twenty one versus twenty one five Judges Chapter twenty one, verse twenty five, and I will read it. In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. There was no king in Israel, and everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.

3:06 And he said that we are currently undergoing a cultural revolution. Things are changing now. He's very happy with at least part of what's going on in culture, especially from the top down. So I'm assuming he seems extremely happy with the things Trump is doing. He seems I mean, I don't know from the top down. I don't know where else you could who else he could be referring to than Trump, Right, So I guess he loves that Trump is blaming Ukraine for Russia invading them. I gotta love that. I guess he's fine with Trump saying, Hey, the Palestinians get moved out of Gaza and we take over. I guess he's happy with that. I guess he's happy with Trump making the implication that hey, if you're quote unquote saving the country, then you can basically do whatever you want and the law doesn't apply. You're not breaking any law.

3:53 If some of the things that are being said lately are just absolutely insane to me. So already I'm like, okay, So the church is a community center, and it sounds like that if I go to this church, I guess I'm supposed to be happy with what Trump is doing and I'm not. So I'm already like, Okay, what is going on? What is going on? So he says that there's a cultural revolution happening and that we need to understand this cultural revolution and then we need to understand like how to fix it. I guess so I don't know, like if he's happy with what's happening top down, then I don't know what we need to fix. It's the cultural revolution. I was a little confused in listening to it. Is a cultural revolution something good happening? Or is the cultural revolution that's happening from the top down trying to fight all the bad stuff? And if it's from the top down, are you seeing the cultural revolution is either led by politicians or fixed by politicians? And is this being said behind a pulpit. I don't know. I was all confused about it, But at some point when it's uploaded, we will definitely be reviewing it because I think there is a cultural revolution going on. I completely agree. I just think we would not agree on what that cultural revolution is, Okay. I think I had a probably an hour long conversation with my daughter today talking about what's going on in the culture. And I have my own thesis.

5:15 I have my own thesis of what's happening in the culture. And trust me, the people I will tick off when I describe what's going on in the culture will be Christians. I will be at odds with the Church. I think the Church is in the midst of a cultural revolution, and they don't even see what is happening. Well, I'll just make it simple. The Church is absolutely sacrificing its very soul on the altar of political power, political influence, and it hopes to shape the culture into a political ideology. They're gonna claim it's for Christianity. They're gonna claim they are selling their soul to political power, not to the Gospel, and the Church doesn't realize it. And that's okay. I will stand opposed to the entire church on this issue.

6:03 I don't care if I'm in the minority of the minority. You are selling your soul for politics. You can't see it. Your political leader has become your God, and you won't see what's happening. But that's okay. That's okay. Your your entire way of thinking is being shaped by a political party. And it's insane to watch it happen. And it's being and Christianity is literally being hijacked for political expediency. The whole thing is a mess. So I have my own thesis. So I'm gonna obviously review his sermon whenever it's uploaded. I'm definitely looking forward to it because whether I agree or whether I disagree, I want to hear his thesis on what's happening in culture, and then you can hear his thesis, you can hear my thesis, and then you'll be able to decide. So everyone wins. So whenever it's uploaded, I cannot wait. So I was like, Okay, maybe maybe you know, I'll just keep listening. Maybe I'll take some notes.

7:03 So I grabbed a notebook, I grabbed a Bible, and then all of a sudden, he mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I'm like, oh, here we go. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Now, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian, and everyone leaves the Lutheran part out of that, especially when Baptist mentioned him or anything else. It's weird. On one hand, Lutherans, for many Baptists and for many Christians, Lutherans is a false gospel because they baptized babies and believe that's regenerative. They believe it that it saves, that it's salvific. That's a false gospel. That's not true, and they will condemn Lutheranism, But when it comes to some issues like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, they're like, oh, he was amazing. He was great. He was awesome, and it's like sometimes it's confusing, but now I do understand.

7:55 Now that's one thing to say, Well, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, you know, we would disagree with this and this and this, but I do like what he said here. But typically when it's spoken of, we just forget all the philological issues we may have. But that's okay. It's so weird. So many times I had people recommend me Ditrich Bonhoffer. I'm like, so all of is theology. Well no, no, no, no, no, okay, So but you just spoke of him as if like he's the greatest thing in the history of mankind. Remember, Dietrich Bonhoeffer very much opposed what was going on in Nazi Germany and all the different things that happened there. But in this message, they didn't go into the history of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And I'm not going to go into the history of Dietrich Bonheffer right now and all of that.

8:36 I'm not going to do that right now. We could, but I'm not. Here's what's interesting, are you ready? He mentioned a thesis that Dietrich Bonhoeffer offered up. Now, Dietrich Bonhoffer offered up this thesis and what we would call letters and Papers from prison, Letters and papers from prison. This is where it comes from, this thesis, and this thesis would be referred to as a thesis on stupidity. Now, as soon as he mentioned the thesis on stupidity, I was like, whoa, Okay, this is That's awesome. Now. There would be so many things I would disagree with this church.

9:17 But going to church on a Wednesday night and hearing someone mentioned Dietrich Bonhoffer's thesis on stupidity, they had my attention. You had me at hello, I can overlook your chili cookoff, I can overlook all of your entertainment because you mentioned it. And I'm like, okay, okay, dig into it. But he didn't really, he didn't want to really dig into the thesis. But I'm like, okay, then I'm not going to listen to you anymore. I'm going to turn on the microphone. I'm going to dig in to Dietrich Bonhffer's thesis on stupidity because there's a lot to talk about. So we're going to talk about Dietrich bon Hoffer's thesis on stupidity and then at some point, not today, hopefully tomorrow they will upload the the live webcast that I was just watching, and then we will review it, and then we will see where they I don't know where they were actually going.

10:07 I don't know. Maybe he did dig into the thesis, but it sounds like he was just mentioning it and he was moving on. But oh, there's a lot there I would love to hear. So again, once again, it's you know, you take the sermon's two point, oh app, you start listening to anything literally one message, I mean this one message. I guarantee you could possibly lead to ten hours, fifteen, twenty hours of us discussing it. That's crazy. You open up an app, you start listening, and you're almost handed like twenty hours of content, twenty hours of study and discussion. Do you understand how invaluable that makes the sermon's two point oh app? I cannot stress that enough to you. All right, but so are you ready?

10:49 Let's do a little bit of work on here. You're ready to dig into Ditrich Bonhoffer's thesis on stupidity? Are you ready? I think we should do this. Let's start just a basic definition of stupidity from the Oxford Language Dictionary. What do you think about that? All right? Stupidity having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense, having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. Do you feel that now? I don't know if this is where the sermon went that I was listening to, but do you feel we are undergoing a cultural revolution right now? And what this cultural revolution, this cultural transition, and what we are seeing is we are walking into the era of stupidity. Do you think that possibly what is defining the age in which we are currently in is stupidity, that people show a great lack of intelligence and a great lack of common sense. I'm just saying Trump calls Zelenski dictator. That's okay, man, ooh boy, yeah, death.

12:03 I'm gonna refrain from getting political the whole thing, okay, all right? Oh no, now, okay, another thing that Trump administration is doing. I'm getting all of these news articles all of a sudden, Okay, But but I will not connect it. I will not connect any dots. All right, But do you feel that we are walking clearly into a time where a lack of intelligence, a lack of common sense. Let's just say it. Stupidity is the spirit of the age now. In the nineties, I think there was a lot of discussion that the spirit of the age was relativism, moral relativism. We gotta fight moral relativism.

12:43 So maybe, like in the time of Judges, there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Maybe the spirit of the age now is not that men or that everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. Is that people think they're right in their own eyes and they're too stupid to know when they're not. Maybe that's the spirit of the age. Stupidity reigns, and so people can't even know when they are wrong. They can't even see that they're wrong. You can't even challenge them that they are wrong because they're too stupid to say. Now. I know that sounds mean, but I mean we're talking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on stupidity, So I have to use the word stupid and I have to use the word stupidity because literally that's what the thesis is on. I will argue that we have entered into that era to some level. I think we have now what did Dietrich Bonhoeffer think, right, well, here we go. Let's go. Let's let's break this down a little bit. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on stupidity comes from his letters and papers from prison.

13:49 This was written while he was imprisoned by the Nazis. His reflections on stupidity, particularly in contrast to malice, have become widely discussed in philosophical, ethical, and political context. Now we're not going to try to We may look at it to some degree from a philosophical perspective. I don't know if I'll get into it from an ethical I definitely don't desire to get into it in a political context. But I may apply it to political context. But obviously I'm looking at it from a theological perspective. All right, So here is Bonhoeffer's key arguments on stupidity. Here in his thesis on stupidity, here is his key arguments. Are you ready? You want these down? Bonhoeffer's key arguments on stupidity?

14:40 Are you ready? Number one, stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Bonhoeffer argues that while evil people can be confronted and stopped, stupid people are far more dangerous because they are often unaware of their own blindness. Remember how I said we should change judges twenty one to twenty five if we wanted to reflect our age. And I'm not saying change the actual scripture. I'm saying, if we're describing our age, our age is not. In those days there was no king in Israel. O a man did what was run in his own eyes, and our age. Every man does what is run in his own eyes. And it's too stupid to know what they are doing or to even be proven that they're wrong. Well, Bonhoeffer was like, hey, here's the problem. Stupid people are worse than in a sense than evil people, because evil people can be confronted and stopped. Stupid people are far more dangerous because they're often unaware of their own blindness.

15:39 They don't even see it. A malicious person acts with intent. We're a stupid person unwittingly becomes an agent of destruction, believing themselves to be on the right. That's the same with stupid people. They think they are right, but they don't have the intelligence to see that they are wrong. And we have been witnessing this over and over. Yeah, it doesn't matter the issue you start talking about. You can start talking about anything, right, Well, if we go political, you can talk about tariffs, you can talk about this, you can talk and peill oah lah blah lah blah blah blah, and you'll be like, well, what about this and what about this and what about this? I don't care or they are their favorite go to fake news, fake news, fake news, fake news, Oh, fake news is anything that goes against your little, tiny bitty philosophy.

16:27 I'm sorry you can't have an intelligent conversation because they're so blind. And this blindness is a lack of intelligence, a lack of common sense, it's stupidity. Well, Bonoffer was like, hey, I can deal with malicious and evil people because they do it with intent. You can confront it, you can stop it. But with a stupid person you can't because they become an agent of destruction and they believe themselves to be right. So, according to Bonheffer's idea, stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Number two, stupidity is social. It's not an intellectual problem. Now, this is fascinating. From Bonheffer's perspective.

17:12 Stupidity is a social thing, not an intellectual thing. Now I would tend to think, well, maybe it's more intellectual. But I'm willing to hear this perspective. So are you ready to hear it? Here we go. According to Bonhoeffer, he contended that stupidity is not merely a lack of intelligence, but it is primarily a social phenomenon. People who are otherwise intelligent can become stupid when they conform to mass ideology or group think, particularly under oppressive regimes or propaganda. So you can be intelligent, but you basically become stupid when you just conform to a mass ideology make America great again, and you just conform to it, and then there's no way of talking you out of it. Or you conform to something on the left, or you conform to something on the right, whatever mass ideology you conform yourself too. You become blind because now all you can see is the ideology. You cannot think, you cannot reason, you cannot see that there is nuance, You cannot see all the different things you don't care to see. Everything must conform to your little ideology. And then what do you say if someone confronts you false news, fake news, fake news, fake news, fake news. I don't want to hear it. I don't care. I'm right. So stupidity occurs

18:42 when people begin to conform to mass ideology or group thing. Now listen, I'm gonna get I mean, I know, I'm going to take a bunch of people off. The same thing happens in the church. People conform to one ideology, one philological system. They follow group think, and guess what if you come and challenge it. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no. They get defensive, they get mad because I don't want to think. They don't want to be challenged. Everything must conform, everything must conform. To quote the famous lyric, you conform or you are cast out. I'm not that exactly paraphrasing the lyric. Okay, So, according to Bonhaffer, number one, stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Number two, stupidity is social.

19:28 It's not an intellectual problem. It's a social problem. Intelligent people become stupid because they then just give themselves over blindly to an ideology or to group think. And it's funny everyone refers to the other side as just dumb sheep. People on the right will tell people on the left they're dumb sheep. People on the left will tell people on the right they're dumb sheep. Everyone thinks everyone else is dumb sheep, and everyone else thinks that they're right, And the same thing happens in Christianity. We're right, you're wrong, We're right, you're wrong. Everyone thinks that number three. Stupidity is a condition of power and manipulation. Bonhaeffer suggests that people in positions of power are those influenced by power structures.

20:17 Become intellectually lazy and incapable of independent thought. They repeat slogans, follow trends, and lose the ability to think critically. That's our culture in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen, all right, The stupidity is a condition of power and manipulation. Bonheffer suggests that people in positions of power are those influenced by power structures. See, you may not be in power, but you're influenced by a political party, by an ideology, and you're you're influenced by its power structure. So then you become intellectually lazy, You become incapable of independent thought, You repeat slogans, you ever try to have a meaningful conversation with someone and all, and you're like, dude, yeah, you watch Fox News, Oh wow, you must have truth social because it sounds like you just repeat everything Trump said, or you sounds like you just watch MSNBC. You're whenever you just hear people seemingly just take complicated matters, reduce them to little sound bites, little cliches, little little slogans.

21:29 Then you know, never mind, never mind. Now you and I hate to say it, you've become stupid. According to Bonhoeffer's definition here, when you follow a trend, when you when you lose the ability to think critically. When you lose that ability, you're in trouble. And the same thing goes into church, where they just people throw out philological slogansological philological cliches, and and you and you can't get them to have any independent thought. They won't think critically. And in many cases I've seen this happen. People will start arguing with me over a thiological issue and I'll say, okay, well, then let's do this. Go look up every reference on this word. Go look this up, go do this, go do this, check this, consider this. No no no no no no no no no no no no, they're not going to do the work. I'm just wrong. And then what do they repeat some trash they pulled from a Google search. Oh, well, congratulation. I've I can find that same stuff on Google as you can. Right, that just cut and paste is not critical thinking now looking at multiple sources and checking this and verifying this and questioning this.

22:41 I got no problem using every source available, but just going to find the source that agrees with your already preconceived idea and then just repeating that to me, and you're not willing to do the actual study. I'm telling you, the church is filled from this discussion with stupid people. And we all can be stupid, because that's whole Bot offers entire argument. Is this not an intellectual issue, It's it's what happens when we face these structures and we just give into mass think, this mass out ideology, group think. So, according to Bonhoeffer and his thesis on stupidity, stupidity is more dangerous than malice, Stupidity is not as a social not intellectual problem, and stupidity is a condition of power and manipulation. Number four. According to Bonhoeffer, arguing with a stupid person is futile. According to Bonheffer, logic and facts cannot persuade someone who has embraced stupidity because their thinking is not based on reason but on conformity to a group identity. Oh my goodness, ladies and gentlemen, if that does not describe the world in which we live, and does that not describe in many cases elements of Christianity as well? It does? Let me read that again. According to Bonheffer, logic and facts cannot persuade someone who has embraced stupidity because their thinking is not based on reason

24:13 but on conforming to a group identity. I don't care if it's a maga hat, I don't care if it's a theological system. When you're when you just conform to a group identity, I'm identified as I'm reformed. I'm not reformed. I'm this when you when you give yourself over to an identity, then no, nothing that goes against that identity you can't even accept because you just everything must go through your maga perspective or your non maga perspective, or your particular theological identity. Instead of changing their views with when presented with facts, they just double down. And if you ever had those conversations. You can bring all the facts and the no no, no no, they just double down, double down, double down, double down, double down, and you can't get It's just it just goes from stupidity to more stupidity to more stupidity. Again. I'm using stupid because it's bon Hoffer's thesis on stupidity. All right, I would I'm not using this term to be insulting. I'm using this term because that's literally what the thesis is about.

25:24 All right, So right, let's go through these four again. Bon Hoffer's key arguments on stupidity. Stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Number two, stupidity is social, not intellectual. It's not an intellectual problem. Number three stupidity stupidity is a condition of power and manipulation. Number four, Arguing with a stupid person is futile. Man, I've seen that. Who a long time? Okay, So a news article came out way back. I don't even know what year. This was a long time ago, fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. I was doing a podcast I wasn't even called a podcast, I think, back then, and this information came out that an article that had been published in a medical journal that they were retracting the article. I think the original author was like, hey, I got my facts wrong. This is fraud, this is wrong.

26:16 Do not use this anymore. It was one of those articles that the anti vaccine people had grabbed onto and anytime you would talk to them, they would cite, well, this article, this article, this article. And I was trying to tell everyone at this point, I wasn't even taking a side, whether anti VAXX or VAXX. I wasn't taking aside. I was just saying, hey, guys, we can't use we can't use this argument. We can't use this argument because not we let me put it this way, no one, because I wasn't taking a side. No one can use this argument because it's a fraudulent argument. It's a we can't use that, No one can you. I'm just saying we, in a general sense, you can't use it to make your anti vax arguments. Oh my goodness, gracious my email box, how dare you? Vaccines are filled with the you know, I don't know the mark of the beast, and it's satanic and it kills people, and it causes this, and it causes this and it causes that, and you're like, who whoa, whoa. Everything you're citing, not everything, some of what you're trying to cite. You're trying to cite this article that has been refuted by the person who wrote it.

27:24 And he's like, no, it didn't matter, did not matter, did not matter. They would just double down, double down, double down, or they would make claims about Obama. Oh man, I'll never forget all the claims Christians were making about Obamacare. We were all going to be micro chipped and sent to a FEMA camp and we're all going to die. Christian podcast pastors were saying this nonsensical stuff. And what did I do. I sat down with my over my lunch hour. For a week, we had printed out every single page of the entire Obama healthcare plan, and me and the doctors I worked with, we went through every page, each of it. And these pastors were saying complete lies.

28:04 And you would be like, that's not true, that's not true, that's not true, that's not true. It didn't matter. Ohobama is the anti Christ. We're all gonna die, We're all gonna become Muslim. He's gonna take our guns, He's gonna ban Christianity, We're all gonna die. And you're like, I think maybe, I think, maybe you're your Everything you're saying is a lie. Well guess what. None of the things they said happened. Everything they said was fraudulent. And do they repent. No, they just doubled down and moved on. That is the epitome of stupidity. Oh I remember when Christians on Christian podcasts were claiming Sandy Hook was a hoax and no children die. Oh I remember that going on as well. I mean, I remember some of this stuff.

28:49 It's just futile, but I'll never forget when all I did was report the facts that the people involved in an article that anti vaccine people were utilizing to prove their side had now been demonstrated to be wrong, fraudulent and misinformation. And what happened. The anti anti vax people attacked me, got mad at me, which was really kind of ticked off. Kind of ticked me off because if anyone has a reason to be anti vax, wait to see. Oh yeah, I almost died and I still suffer the consequences of what happened to me because of the anthrax vaccine.

29:32 But they didn't care. I see that. That's when you just nobody like. You can't take your person, you can't take your personal experience and extrapolate from that some major claim of truth. One thing happens to you does not prove anything everything. That's not the way we do logical thinking or critical thinking. So arguing with stupid people are futile. And I could give you a million other examples of dealing with craziness. Man. I remember way back then, some of that craziness was on sermonaudio. It was all over the place. Man, I was spending all of my time refuting all of this nonsense that was being put forth in messages that were being uploaded sermonatio. It was so bad back then, it was so bad. It was so bad.

30:23 And but yeah, now, on one hand, you want to give people the right to say whatever. But I mean some of the things that were saying just whacked out crazy stuff. I remember during COVID I reviewed a Christian podcast that was saying that the COVID vaccines contain nanobots, right, and then they inject into your bloodstream and the nanobots are inactive, and when five G is turned on, they will come active where they will come active, and when they come active, they will make your they will take over your free will, and you'll submit to the Antichrist. So by now the Antichrist should have already come to power, and we should no longer have free will, and we should all be submitting to the Antichrist. If you got the COVID vaccine, because the COVID vaccine was the way the Antichrist was going to take over the world. You think I'm making this stuff up. This is some of the crazy I'm telling you. Stupidity has been within Christianity for a very, very long time. Now I'm going to have someone who believes this stuff is going to be emailing me within five minutes. But that's okay. So according to Bonhoeffer, stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Stupidity is a social, not intellectual problem. Stupidity as a condition of power and manipulation. Arguing with a stupid person is futile, and trust me it is. And listen. That means all of us need to determine in which ways are we stupid, so that we ourselves have not only enough knowledge to believe that we're right, but enough knowledge to understand when

31:56 we aren't right, right, That's key number five. The only cure for stupidity. Now, this is according to Bonheffer's thesis, the only cure for stupidity is liberation. Stupidity can only be overcome by freeing individuals from oppressive systems that condition them to avoid critical thinking. It requires a transformation in society that encourages people to think for themselves rather than simply obeying authority or popular opinion. Now, and the sermon I heard, they said bon Hoffer believed that the only way to fix stupidity is the word of God. Now that's not that's I mean, he didn't say it that way. Whenever I get to the sermon. Now, maybe I'm miss I'm not remembering the sermon exactly right, So I'm ready to be corrected. But I believe he said that. Bonheffer said that the way to overcome stupidity is the word of God. But he actually Now he may have said it somewhere. I would have to go through read everything in the thesis, and so he may have stated that somewhere. Now, the person, the person preaching, did not quote from the I didn't quote from Bonheffer to go here, but from my understanding, and according to AI itself, and this is direct I'm going to read directly from AI, stupidity can only be overcome by freeing individuals from oppressive systems that condition them to avoid critical thinking. It requires a transformation in society that encourages people to think for themselves rather than simply obeying authority or popular opinion. That's how AI

33:26 describes Bonhffer's solution that he put forth in his thesis. And the word of God is not mentioned there. Now I can do a little bit of maybe I'll do some extra checking here. Well, let's just check, right, let's just ask. I'm going to ask, did okay, did bon Hoffer? Okay, I'm going to say here, did bon Hoffer say the only cure to stupidity is the word of God? I think?

34:07 Just right there, you already know there's a logical problem here. If you're stupid, how you're gonna how's the word of God gonna help you? But okay, right, okay, here we go. Bonhoeffer did not explicitly say that the only cure to stupidity is the word of God, but his writings do suggest that true liberation from stupidity, particularly as a social and spiritual condition require a transformation that comes from faith and truth, which is ultimately found in God. So it wasn't specific. So in other words, it's more nuanced. Of course, imagine that the answer is probably more nuanced than was put forth in a sermon. Imagine that I know, I know. So Ai then breaks this down like it's like a small book. I'm not going to go through everything, AI says, here, maybe we'll get to it. So just already we know what we heard in a sermon possibly is not true.

34:56 I know that is the most shocking thing I've ever heard in my life. All right, So so okay, So then Ai says this. Bonhoeffer's analysis of stupidity is often referenced in discussions on mass psychological propaganda and political manipulation and ideological extremism. His insights suggests that combating misinformation and mass delusion is not just about education, but about fostering a society that values independent thinking and moral courage. See what Bonhaffer was going is what we have to do is we've got a shape of society that fosters that promotes independent thinking, critical thinking. I've said before, the church does not promote I know, nobody's gonna like this. The church does not foster a place for independent thinking and critical thinking. No, it's group think, conform conform. This is you can't challenge this, you can't question this, you must go along with it. But by not teaching people critical thinking skills, by not teaching people to be independent thinkers, then what you create is well, you create an environment that produces stupidity. So, according to Barnhoffer, are you ready, here's his key argument, stupidity is more dangerous than malice.

36:26 Stupidity is social, not an intellectual problem. Stupidity is a condition of power manipulation. Arguing with stupid people are futile, and the only cure for stupidity is liberation. So so Bonhaeffer said, Bonheffer said, Ai said. Bonheffer's thesis on stupidity remains profoundly relevant today, particularly in the context of mass media, politics, social movements, and digital culture. Here is a breakdown of how his insights apply to our modern content. Text and I was like, okay, thank you, Ai. I didn't even ask for this. AI just kept giving me more and more.

37:06 AI seemed to love this subject. It had a lot to say and gave me a lot of information. Okay, So AI was like, hey, this is important. Let's break this down, and let's consider bought Bonhaef for Bonheffer's thesis and how it applies to our modern culture, how it applies to twenty twenty five, twenty twenty four, twenty twenty three. I mean it applies for I think for a long time. So here's how AI breaks it down. You're ready. Here's AI's breakdown here. Number one. Remember his first key Remember his first key point that stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Remember that. Well, AI now is going to break it down, the danger of stupidity over malice in society. So what AI is going to do It takes what Bonhffer said. Now, it's going to take it and take bon Hoffer's point and apply it to our modern context. This is AI's application of Bonheffer's thesis. We may agree with AI's hype application, or we may disagree with the application, but this is how AI breaks it down. So I want to make sure we understand what is happening here. Before we're just looking at what Bonheffer said. I was offering some application.

38:16 But now we have AI saying, let me break it down for you, let me apply it. So AI says this. Bonhaeffer argued that stupidity is more dangerous than malice because evil people can be reason with or stopped, while stupid people act unwittingly or act as unwitting agents of destruction in modern society. So and it says, this is how we see this play out, and it offers a couple of things here. So it's saying, Okay, according to Bonhoeffer, stupidity is worse than malice because evil people, and it's worse than evil people. Evil people can be reason with or stopped, where stupid people they just unwitting agents of destruction and you can't reason with them. There's there's just no there's no point. It's better just to go throw yourself off a bridge because you're not gonna get anywhere.

39:08 So AI was like, we see this play out in the following ways. You ready. Political polarization. I'm sorry, I hit the microphone. Political polarization. Political polarization, Ai says people often adopt extreme views without understanding them, simply aligning with their chosen party or their ideological group. Man, when you start talking about an issue and you hear them just start spouting off something and you're like, they don't they don't even understand this. They have no clue what they're talking about. And I know it ticks people off, but sometimes I get frustrated. So I'll be like I've had these conversations and I want to say to the person, Okay, wait, how many books have you read on this subject? Have you read this like Obamacare? Have you read No, I haven't read it. Are you going to read it?

40:11 No? But you sure are making dogmatic assertions about what's in it. Well, well, well I heard it on Fox News. Well congratulations, I bet you got all the details. Why did you read it for yourself? Well? This this this? Well, did you check this? Did you listen to this? Did you hear this? Did you get this? Here's this document? Here's this document, here's did you go look at the document? Well, the Democrats passed a bill that Did you read the bill? No? I didn't read I don't read the bills. I don't read anything. I don't do I don't do any independent research. But yet I'm going to argue and speak like I'm the I'm the pope making my final decree. Well, then you know what you're just simply aligning with your chosen party and with your ideological group because that has become your identity, and there's no point in talking to you because now it's just stupidity. And that's true on the right and that's true on the left. You'll have people on the left making ridiculous claims like did you actually check it out? Did you actually read it? Did you actually listen to it? And you got to be careful and listen, let's be fair. All of us can fall into this trap because see what some people will hear me say. So you're saying I have to read everything. No, what I'm saying is what you do not read and what you do not investigate. You probably should then not be dogmatic and don't worry about taking your political team side.

41:42 Go My side could be wrong on this, their other side could be right. Let me try to understand where is this coming from, and just acknowledge what you don't know. That's all I'm saying. We're all limited in time. We can't spend all day coming you come home from working, You're like, I'm going to spend ten hours reading all of that. You can't I understand that? So then be very careful not to be dogmatic, not to yell, not to call people names, until you get a greater understanding of what is happening, and then you can start offering your thoughts. That's all I'm saying, because the essence of stupidity is to take a dogmatic assertion, make claims, start arguing with people, and you don't have a clue what you are talking about. It used to be a joke with people who worked with me, right, This used to be the joke if they would say, if I don't speak up, like if it's referring to me, if he doesn't speak up, if he doesn't say anything about a subject, then that means he doesn't know anything about it, and he's not going to offer any opinion. If they ask me my opinion, I won't offer an opinion like I don't know, don't know enough about it, can't be can't be assertive. But the minute I was, I would speak up.

42:59 Everybody'd be like, oh no, oh, no, Okay, he clearly has read fifteen things on this, he has probably spent one hundred hours on this. He's about to go in and then I would speak up because in some case I'd be like, I don't know what any of you are talking about. Then I would get angry. If you don't know, then you don't know. It's just being humble enough to go. This is probably a very complicated situation things are. I know, we like political talking points, but politicians reduce everything to a talking point to manipulate stupid people who just want to be They just find security and they're a little identity with their little political party.

43:41 But you're being I don't care if it's the left or the right. I don't need talking points. I don't need bullet points. If you're talking about serious issues, I need to really understand what's going on. And look at all of the crazy information that's come out over the last few weeks. Elon Muskin, his group is doing this, supposedly found this much money, and you find out, well, I really wasn't that much money, and it really wasn't this, Oh all this money was spent on this, well not actually it wasn't spent on that. And then you every for every claim, then there's like fifteen stories that will come out going well this is not actually true, and this is not actually true, and this is not actually true. Well, if you live within your cultural ideological structure, your media bubble, where all you hear is one side, you won't even know that it's been challenged or questioned, and then you'll be somewhere repeating it going and people like, yeah, okay, obviously you don't want to have any meaningful conversation on it.

44:35 So AI is like, this political polarization is the essence of this. That shows that how dangerous stupidity it can be. Ai goes on to say, misinformation in fake news, many individuals spread false or misleading information without verifying it, believing themselves to be informed while actually being manipulated. You gotta love people, Oh I've got the information. I've got the information. Oh that's fake news, And you realize you are a manipulated puppet who can't even see that you're being manipulated. Verify, double check, triple check, quadruple check. What is the primary source?

45:28 What is the secondary source? You're quoted this source, but this source is quoting your original source. So all you're doing is finding something that's verifying your original source, but you don't have anything challenging or questioning your original source. I mean, all the basic things you would do to check and verify. People don't even know how to do basic checking and verifying. That's an old trick, old manipulation trick. You put out an original article making the claim, and then you go then you create secondary sources that quote the original claim as being accurate. Well, wait a minute, your secondary source is simply quoting the primary source. But we don't know what the primary source is even accurate.

46:08 I mean, we can get into all of the ways manipulation and propaganda works. So this is why stupidity is worse is because well it leads to political polarization and it leads to this misinformation in fake news narrative. Right. So AI then gives me an example. During elections, people often share fake news articles without checking sources, not out of malice, but because they're emotionally invested in their political side, which means they're being stupid. According to his thesis, Bonhoeffer goes on to say stupidity and we already know the second point he's going to make stupidity as a social phenomenon.

46:49 It's not an intellectual deficiency. Bonheffer's insight that stupidity is a product of group dynamics rather than personal intellect is evident in the following echo chamber and social media algorithms. People are fed content that reinforces their existing beliefs, making independent thought rare. Now, from the very beginning, when I got a microphone and I was going to say be on the sermonaudio platform, what I would constantly do is go, well, everyone's talking about this subject and they're approaching it this way. I'm going to offer a different perspective. Now. Typically, all that did was lead people to get ticked off at me, people to get mad at me. I tried to do that on Christian radio. I tried to offer a different perspective.

47:40 I got kicked off Christian radio because I ticked off all the Christians listening. Christians don't want a different perspective. They don't want to be challenged. They just want to hear what they already believe. They want their beliefs reinforced. They want their beliefs to their beliefs to be supported. They want their beliefs to their itching ears to be tickled. They don't want any challenge. They don't no no no, no no no no no no no no no. Just tell me what I already know. Tell me I'm right, Tell me how smart I am. I think it has to be challenged sometimes, And this means makes stupidity a social phenomenon. It's because of group think. It's because of this structure. People are fed content that reinforces their existing beliefs, making independent thought rare. Mass hysteria and group think. Public reactions to crisis pandemics, or political scandals often become irrational due to fear and social pressure. Now, this is one of the reasons stupidity is a social phenomenon because many people manipulate the social the society at large, because all you gotta do is you've got to create a boogeyman.

48:55 They're the bad people, and they're gonna do this to you, and they're gonna do this to you, and they're gonna do this to you, and independent thinking, critical thinking goes out the window. You, Oh, my goodness, they're gonna do this. They're gonna do this, they're gonna do this, They're gonna do this is gonna happen to us. And so then you become irrational, and then you start thinking and accepting concepts that, in many cases should contradict the very ideology you claim to believe, like I don't know Christianity, but if they can scare you, fear will overcome fear will overcome rationality, and fear will overcome your Christianity. Just like that. I mean, if you would like to get in an airplane, fly to Boston, ran a car, drive to Salem, Massachusetts.

49:37 It's not too far from Boston, and you'll find out that a small town. Now that where Salem is is not Salem Village. You have to actually, okay, well, I'll get into all the where everything's actually located there. But that's okay because I love the place. But what does Salem teach us? That these people who are Puritans and claim to believe in God lost their ever living mind because of fear and they killed innocent people. I think that's a kind of a violation of scripture because of fear. Fear During COVID nineteen, conspiracy theorist and mainstream media outlets contributed to confusion, with people blindly accepting one side without critical evaluation. It was crazy. During the COVID situation. You couldn't keep track of what about this? What about? Everyone had a theory, everyone had ideas, and of course who did not guest listen to anyone who was supposedly an expert was immediately their studient. I got a ged I graduated from high school, I had a semester of biology.

50:49 I'm now a medical expert, and I know more about pandemics. And it's crazy because the people you never heard them talk about pandemics. They never were like reading about pandemics, study and pandem It was so fascinating to me with COVID because before that, I don't remember, back when we had our own standalone church app I was putting. I put some documentaries on there on some of the major pandemics that had happened in our country and about the things that occurred. And I kept telling people it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Well, So I was trying to tell people because I knew that at some point because I worked in the medical world and I heard that all the time. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of whin, it's a matter of win. It's a matter sooner or later we're going to have a pandemic. It's going to happen, it's going to I heard that in my whole life.

51:35 It's going to happen. Well, then it's funny. People who never wanted to read a book on pandemics, never wanted to read a book on anything about anything related to All of a sudden, they're like, no, no, no, COVID, there's COVID. There's a fake it's this, it's there, And you're like, okay, never mind. All of a sudden, all of you are experts on the subject. Congratulations, it must be amazing. See, it's a social phenomenon. That's not that their brain stop working. It's just to become stupid, because now they just give into group think, They give into a conspiratorial way of thinking based off whatever media that they are feeding on. Instead of going whoa wha wha pandemic?

52:16 What where should I start? I don't know. Let me go read about the history of pandemics. Let's just go into the United States of America. What have been the pandemics? What procedures did they take to try to fight the pandemic? What things worked, what things did not work? What is the rationale? What is the what has been the different theories about handle to handle a pandemic throughout history? What part has vaccines played to wipe out diseases in the United States of America, or would they have been success. I mean, you can just go I can give you some things to go to a library if you don't want to if you don't want to do any actual research, and you can read and try to start coming. But nobody wants to actually do that. They want to watch a little sound bite from their favorite talk show host, and then they just want to yell and scream and throw things out. And then when when you try to have a meaningful conversation, you're like, just forget it, never mind, just never. It's so you waste the time. It's a waste of time, and that's so frustrating. Number three. We know what number three is, power, structure and the manipulation of public thought. Bonhaffer noted that stupidity flourishes and environments where people submit to authority without critically thinking. So again, AI offer some ideas here. Authoritarian regimes and propaganda. Government and various countries suppress dissent and use media control to make people believe falsehoods. Corporate and media influence. Large corporations and social media platforms manipulate public opinion through advertising, selective censorship,

53:50 and narrative control. So once again, you got to think about what you're hearing. You got to think about what ideological perspective it's come from, and then you've got to go, Okay, let me consider this. Now. I know that requires work, and look, I understand busy people don't have the time to do all of that. I know that. But then all I'm saying is, when you know you've not done a lot of work and a lot of variation from a lot of sources, then what you have to do is go, hm, let me not be too dogmatic about this. That's not hard number four according to AI, and all AI is doing is giving us the major points of already giving you the futility of arguing with stupid Boneffer's claim is that arguing with a stupid person is futile.

54:39 Online debates and social media culture, facts often don't change minds. People dig in deeper when confronted. If you've never learned that on social media, there is literally no point and having a conversation because you're not going to get anywhere because people just double down and facts don't matter, and whatever facts you give them, they're going to go find some counter fact that supports their idea, and then nobody knows what the facts are, and then well it's it's ridiculous. Ai goes on to say cognitive dissonance and motivated reasoning. When presented with evidence contradicting their beliefs, people often dismiss it rather than to reconsider their position. Same thing happens in Christianity. You offer a counterpoint, they just dismiss it.

55:20 And it's wrong. It's false. It's wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong. You're like, well, maybe you should reconsider your position now. What I've talked about this before, I'm not always good at doing it right, at least not publicly, because if I'm confronted publicly, I'm going to stand my ground and fight for my position. But I always try to go home and reconsider my entire thiological perspective. I try to do that, and what have I done? Even when we review sermons that I strongly disagree with? What do I try to do? I go and then many cases turns into six months, seven months, a year, two year study, recon considering everything to see if I'm right or to see if I'm wrong. All right, So I'm not saying I always do that right, But that's what we have to try to do. Right. So, for example, Ai says, flat flat earth believers or anti vaxers are rarely convinced by scientific arguments. Instead, they accused scientists of being a part of the conspiracy. So if you're a flat earther and you give them information, that's part of the conspiracy. If you're an anti vaxxer, no no, no, no, that's all get by Big Pharma. You're you're being duped.

56:33 They're all wrong, they're all part of the conspiracy. But hi, I with my high school diploma, I have figured it all out. I've got it all figured out. See look at my look at my wall. This string connects to this, and this connects to big Pharma. We're all we're all being poisoned. We're all gonna it. Sounds like Alex Jones. Now in some cases they may actually have a valid point on something, but the point is then they take one valid point run with it. And when you offer to wha, let's slow down, let's offer some reason. No no no no no no no no no no, everyone's wrong because everyone's in on the conspiracy. So you see how conspiracy thinking it's really a form of stupidity because you can't get anywhere. They give you the conspiracy. You offer facts to contradict the conspiracy, and they will tell you those facts are part of the conspiracy, so therefore they're not facts, and the only facts that are facts are facts that agree with their conspiracy. All right, Okay, I'm just gonna go hop in a car and drive it right into a brick wall doing one hundred and eighty miles per hour because there's no point living anymore.

57:40 All right, Okay, that's a little extreme, but you get the idea. All right. You know what AI is going to do now. The only cure liberation through independent thinking. Bonheffer believed that stupidity can only be overcome by freeing individuals from oppressive systems that discourage critical thought. This applies today educational reform, encouraging critical thinking rather than wrote memorization. Oh man, if we need a revolution and education. This is true in homeschool, this is true in church, this is true everywhere. Stop with just memorizing things to put down on a test so that you can pass some supposed standardized tests so that you prove that people are smart. Stop that nonsense. Critical thinking be don't just be able to tell me a date or a name. Give me information.

58:29 What was it about? What was going on? What was the reasons, what were the what were the pros, what were the con thinking about it? Critical thinking is the only way to fight stupidity, and the same thing as in the church. Just don't recite something that you think is true. Let's break it down. Okay, So how do we here's this theological issue, here's this biblical issue. Where do we start? Okay, well, all right, let's go to the text. All right, Now, let's look at the text in this historical context. Let's look at it in this textual context. All right? What can this mean? What can this not mean? Look? How many how many of the thesis have we heard about Isaiah forty through fifty five, over and over and over and over again. What have we been able to demonstrate every single time that they one d per ignore the original recipients, the historical context other than maybe mentioning it. Then they violate all basic hermeneutical rules. You got to have critical thinking another thing, and churches can help people with this. We got to teach people how to analyze new sources and detect bias.

59:40 You gotta be able to detect by now. A lot of people say I checked multiple sources. It'll be like Newsmax, Fox, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson. Yeah you're let me tell you, you're citing a bunch of different sources that don't believe the same bias, okay, or the same thing on the left or within Christianity. I'm only going to listen to the people who agree with me. I used to hate as a past people like, so should I read this book? And I'd be like, why wouldn't you read this book? Because it may teach different than we believe. Oh no, what can we do? That could be the end of the world. We read something that disagrees with us, I don't know if I can handle it. Yeah, we read books that disagree with us. Yes, we read theologies that disagree with us. Yes, we listen to sermons that disagree with us, and then we challenge it and we struggle, and maybe we'll go through a period of complete confusion going I don't know what to believe, and maybe when we come out we have even fewer answers than we come in, and we may be completely confused, and we may not know what to do, and people are like, I don't like that. We'll get over it, because that's what the pursuit of truth is all about. You can either choose certainty, or you could choose truth rarely true.

1:01:00 Leave to certainty because the pursuit of truth sometimes it is very difficult to find. Ay I says, we need to encourage open dialogue, creating spaces for honest discussions rather than ideological battles. Now that's hard to get into. That's hard. That's hard because why our identity gets attached to our ideological position, and then it's hard for us to not oh our personal feelings and it's hard to go okay, okay, let's just discuss this and not take it personal. I'm not attacking you, you're not attacking me. You're not the enemy.

1:01:40 I'm not the enemy. Let's look at it's hard to have those conversations. It really is, it really is. Really is the Daily Show you By obviously not a Christian show, but they obviously they do it from a comedic standpoint, but they analyze what's going on in the world. Obviously they're not a pro conservative, pro Republican bias. But they greatly criticize a lot of things that are going on. And one of the things they constantly did was send this one reporter to all the Trump rallies. Some of those interviews with people the Trump rallies were insanity. Some of the things Trump supporters say are just utterly just sometimes I'm just dumbfounded by what I hear. But he was talking one time before the show or after the show, they do this interaction with the live audience, and he was They asked him, did you ever change anyone's mind anything?

1:02:34 He's like, no, But we had this one time, I had this good conversation that when the cameras weren't rolling and it was just me and this Trump supporter that we had like an actual, meaningful conversation, and he saw me not as a liberal enemy, and I didn't see him necessarily as a crazy maga. He saw him as a person, and we at least had an honest conversation. And I think, well, it's hard to get there. It's hard to get there. Same thing in Christianity, it's sometimes hard because well, people just get they get all wrapped up in a position, and then egos get involved. The same thing has happened to me. I mean, I've made plenty of mistakes getting mad or angry with people in church and not handling a situation the way I could have, because you take it personal after a while, and so that's when it becomes bad. Right. So then AI says this, Bonheffer's insights challenge us to resist intellectual laziness and group conformity and an error dominated by sensationalism, ideological echo chambers, and mass manipulation. Cultivating cultivating independent thought, personal responsibility, and critical reflection is more necessary than ever. So, according to AI, here's what we have to do. We've got to cultivate independent thought. We need to take personal responsibility for what we are thinking and listening to. We need critical reflection on what we believe, why don't we believe it, how we believe it? And then AI asked me, would you like a deeper focus on any particular aspect of this analysis?

1:04:06 And I'm like, no, not at this time, thank you very much. But there is bon Hoffer's thesis on stupidity. Now remember his basic points, and we went over the basic points and we just added to him each time. At first, I just gave you the basic points and then I had AI break down each one. Stupidity is more dangerous than malice. Stupidity is social, not an intellectual problem. Stupidity is a condition of power manipulation. Arguing with stupid people is futile. And the only chure for stupidity is liberation. And I broke all of those downs and we talked.

1:04:46 We talked about each one. Now, what this sermon does with it, I don't know. I'm fascinated. On a Wednesday night in a Baptist church they mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on stupidity. I was like, this is awesome. Where they went with it, I do not know. I'm a little confused on the way that we're in a cultural reformation. On one hand, it sounded like they were saying it was good because what's happening from the top down is good. But on the other hand, they were saying it's bad. So I don't know, Like, are there are two cultural revolutions going on? Is there one? Is there one cultural revolution? But what's happening from top to bottom is to fight the cultural revolution? And I know, are you saying we should fight the cultural revolution with politics? Oh? Now I've got all kinds of questions whenever that sermon is uploaded.

1:05:31 In fact, let me well, I won't look now because it'll mess up all of my settings, but I will look here and when it's ready to go then not today, but you know, tomorrow. Maybe let's look into it and let's see if we can find out what the cultural revolution is. And he will give you his thoughts, and I'll give you my thoughts, and you can agree or disagree on what's going on. But I don't think we can. I think we have to admit this, and I'll end this era of stupidity. It's true in the culture, it's true in politics, and it's true in the church. Now, I don't really care to fix it in the culture because the culture has a deeper issue, right, They need salvation.

1:06:19 Forget politics. I think the entire system has corrupt, burned the whole thing to the ground. I don't care. You guys, play your political games, you go vote, you go do all that you worry about politic go worry about it. Okay, that's oh, don't leave me out of almost all of it. Okay, but you should need at least think about it, not from a position of stupidity, but a position of knowledge. But inside the church, that's where I focus, because Christians are supposed to be people who care about truth. I think I read this a lot. Some of you know where I'm going. If I can find it, Can I find it? We'll see here. I usually can find it relatively quick Ephesians four twenty five. Put away lying, Speak every man truth with his neighbor, For we are members one of another. Christians are to put away lies and speak truth. No bearing false witness, no false accusations. God hates lying lips. We should be trafficking and truth. We should be trafficking and making sure we have facts. We believe God has given us a mind. We should be good stewards of that by not submitting. And our identity

1:07:52 is christ not a political ideology. I should not be ident I don't want to be identified as a political party. I don't want to be even identified as an American. I want to be a identified as a Christian. If I'm going to look at this from a theological perspective, we should not be beholden to. We should not worry if we offend the Republican, the liberal. We don't care. We should be focused on truth, truth, truth. We should be the ones speaking about education and learning and logic and critical thinking, because we are Christians and we take the mind that God has given us serious and we are going to be good stewards of it, and we want to pursue truth. And we don't want fraudulent information, half information, misleading information. We want facts. We should be the ones trafficking in it to such a degree that the world's like, what's to deal with the Christians and being really careful not to repeat gossip or slander or bear false witness or spread false information. And they double check and triple check everything, and they're factual and they're fact based, and they don't seem to care about being identified by a political party or by a cultural ideology.

1:08:52 They seem to be separate from all of that. They seem to be apart from all of that. And that's the way, that's how we're supposed to be. But we're not like that in anyway, way, shape or form. In fact, we are now so identified with a political party that when you talk to people, they're like, oh, you're just one of those Trump supporters, Like, no, I'm a Christian who's not a Trump supporter. They're like, oh, can that happen? Is that even allowed? Well, not in many churches. I say, I don't want to be identified as a Trump supporter. I don't want to be id identified as a non Trump supporter. I want to be identified as being a Christian who cares about the Word of God and cares about truth. That's the difficult part. Bonhaeffer was saying, we've got a problem with stupidity. I don't think he could have even predicted what was coming. All right, there's Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thesis on stupidity. Do you feel smarter or do you feel stupid? I think we can all say we've all been stupid to some level, and I definitely have.

1:09:56 By no means am I ever going to deny that. All I can do is try not to be stupid tomorrow, and then the next day try not to be stupid, and the next day. And there will be days I'll be stupid, there will days will not be stupid, but hopefully I can move away from stupidity and become less and less stupid. All right, thanks for listening. God bless