Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break with
guest Stephen Mansfield,
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we were talking
about the Manly Man program
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that you've
incorporated and it just hit me
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even early on
that these TV programs
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like the My Three Sons
and his father and so on.
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There are always single males,
buffoonish sort of lost souls
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that the children
can run rings around.
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Right.
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And even as I say that,
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there's one or two
with the single mother
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but usually...
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Yeah.
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It's and they're very competent.
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Yeah.
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Admittedly that's
very much like real life.
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But it is. We all know women.
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Well... Pretty well...
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Sure. Pretty together.
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But men have been
held up a bad model
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and I think many
structures of society
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have essentially figured
a flea of emasculated men.
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There's no question, I mean...
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And so...
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You know, when I'm
watching the TV commercials now,
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one of the
reasons I wrote the book.
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You watch TV
commercial and who's the idiot?
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It's always the
middle aged father,
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he's always you
know, doing a happy dance
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because he found
the remote control
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on the couch and
when his wife and kids
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are rolling their
eyes at how silly he is.
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And that is, again my goal
is not to make domineering men,
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my goal is to make biblical men.
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Men who are
taking responsibility,
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men who are
loving their children,
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men who are strong in
the lives of their wives
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and in society as a whole,
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and that we're
suffering for the lack of that.
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Now let me get your opinion.
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I just thought of
another TV program
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that I think is a
good model although,
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not husband and wife model.
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Sure. You remember, Gidget?
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Oh yeah.
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Now her father,
that's what I think
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was the type of
role, very considered,
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authority figure
but not overbearing
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and very common sense
advice and he was portrayed it.
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Wouldn't you agree,
that he was a manly man,
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he's fulfilling his
family role obviously the wife
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and I think he was
a widower that was...
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I don't remember, I tell you...
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He's never really said.
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Yeah, I'll tell
you one show now that
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I think it shows a
very positive reason,
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very popular TV
show called Blue Bloods
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and Tom Selleck plays
the sort of father figure.
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And you see a move back
more to the traditional father,
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I think that our society
wants to see the firm, clear,
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loving father taking the lead,
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and so we've got that
sort of fantasy in our videos,
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in our movies and in our arts,
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but it's not a
reality in society.
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No.
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And of course, I'm a contrarian.
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I think of Dr.
Huxtable on where that lead.
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Yeah.
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Well, there's been
a transformation...
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You know the Bill
Cosby that you echoed.
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Sure.
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But I think it's a reflection
of what's going in societies,
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they aren't
unnecessarily producing it now.
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So how do you run these programs
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just to give you a
chance to explain...
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Sure. What you really do?
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We do a lot of men's gatherings
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around the world of various size
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and my goal is not
to create the momentum
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for some new super event,
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but my goal is to get men
to build bands of brothers.
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We want them to get
more, to get men around them
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who love them, who
aren't afraid of them,
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where they're
helping each other,
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where there's a free
fire zone as I said earlier,
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where they're saying the
things that needed to be said
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and helping each
other endure life.
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And then yes, working
through books like mine
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and working through
books like John Eldredge's.
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But that's where we're
seeing tremendous change.
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And so, you know, we've
got a website greatman.us.
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We've got other kinds
of things that we use.
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But the bottom line is
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that we're trying
to help men understand
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what noble manhood can be.
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My book
"Mansfield's Book of Manly Men"
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lays out some primary maxims
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and then it looks at that
manhood of the life of Lincoln
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and Roosevelt and famous
people throughout history.
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So it's just an attempt to
call men to something higher
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and then give them a
mechanism for doing it.
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Lots of gatherings
for men will describe,
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you know, what a man ought to be
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and then leave a man to do it.
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But I think men
aren't meant to walk alone...
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So you have a
follow up... Absolutely.
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..a little structure on this.
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Absolutely,
yeah, and it has to do
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with these
buildings of Band of Brothers,
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that's what I want
to see around them.
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Now, you know, I can
think of two alternatives
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one, and one very bad.
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Now I think in American society
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since we've
become more militarized,
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it's basically
since the war on terror.
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I see the military
fulfilling that role
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in some of the gathering point
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especially for
the new generation
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in little towns
that don't have jobs
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so they drift to
the military and that,
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perhaps artificially supply
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some of what
you're talking about,
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but I don't like that.
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I'm very nervous about
any society that becomes,
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that exalts militarism.
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Yeah, I can sort
of understand that.
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And by the way I'd
spent a lot of time
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with the military,
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do a lot of
events for the military.
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I'd speak at Naval
Academy at West Point.
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And I can tell you
that even though these are,
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these guys are
trained in the military sense,
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they are as much in
uncertainty and instability
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regarding manhood as
any other part of society,
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and that's one of the
reasons I try to be there.
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But you know, you've
got a huge jump on me
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and I haven't
been in the military.
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I still remember my number
from the Vietnam War, 243.
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But you know, the
marines with no man left behind
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and I hear about the bonding,
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I think there's some
positive societal link
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that they're gaining from that,
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but given that it
takes military to do it,
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that's skewing society
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or at least the
male part of society
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in the wrong direction.
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It is but I'm at least thankful
that there are certain values
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that are
maintained in the military.
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For example, there's a film
that I'm helping to promote,
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I don't have, I
didn't help create it
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are called Hacksaw Ridge,
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you and I have been talking
about this in our free time.
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And it's actually about
a Seventh-day Adventist.
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Desmond Doss.
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Who would be Desmond Doss,
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who maintained his
conscience scruples
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and became a
medic in the military
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and then was the only
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conscientious
objector to ever win
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the
congressional Medal of Honor.
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And this movie
produced by Mel Gibson,
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powerful statement.
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And I've been writing and tweets
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and then saying
before audiences,
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it illustrates
some of the principles
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of noble manhood.
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Even though it's very gory film
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and it's a, accurately portrays
the battle of Hacksaw Ridge.
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The fact is it's
going to encourage
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noble manhood in the society...
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You're right, and
thanks for bringing up.
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I take it
wherever I can find it.
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And I also help
chaplain in one of the NFL teams
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and I'm not happy
about what's happening
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in the NFL with character,
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low character and poor behavior,
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but at least there's
a little bit in there,
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some people,
some exemplary people
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and I'm glad for
whatever we can put on a screen
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that actually
exemplifies these things.
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Now I'm planning on
having a whole program
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on Hacksaw Ridge...
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Good. Good.
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..in due order.
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But let me give
you the other example.
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I'm not critiquing,
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the Manly Men
program sounds fantastic,
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but the need for
it really on this,
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it seems to me as I
studied the history of Europe
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after World War I.
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A whole generation
was basically eviscerated
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at World War I anyway,
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then societal norms
were disrupted radically,
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especially in
Germany and France.
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And then now in Berlin,
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particularly
through cabaret still,
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we know a bit about it.
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There was all
sorts of transvestism
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and just all
sorts of admirations.
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Of their kind, sure.
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There was clearly
a hunger in Germany
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in that time for
a sense of manhood,
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and it was provided in
part by these hunting societies
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or male
fraternities that morphed later,
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they didn't, they were not
bad when they started at all,
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but they morphed
later very easily
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into Hitler Youth in and
the whole Hitler program.
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You know, what's
your comment on that?
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It sounds like you agree
that it was the same need
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but it was falsely fulfilled.
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Well, that's part of
the problem with manhood,
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if you don't have noble manhood
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and you don't
have manhood rooted
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in values and rooted in certain,
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I would say biblical truth,
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then the practices of
men can be put at the service
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of wicked ideas.
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I mean, hunting is a noble thing
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and we can all talk
about the virtues of it.
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At the same time
hunting societies
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can become tools of the KKK,
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they can become
tools of skinheads,
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they can become
tools of murderers
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and Nazis etcetera.
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So that's part of the issue,
it's not so much, you know,
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some men think
they're being manly
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'cause they're out
riding motorcycles.
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Well, but it also the
Hell's Angels, point is,
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it's about
wedding manly activities
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to a biblical foundation.
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Right, and that's
the safety on this...
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Exactly. Exactly.
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And the proven model,
obviously as a Christian,
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we know those
principles are eternal.
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And then those activities
become noble in the sports,
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the hunting, yeah,
being in the woods etcetera.
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And there's a text in the Bible
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and I'm good on remembering text
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but not good on the reference
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but in the Old Testament
on a certain society it says,
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that there was a weak society,
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that were corrupt and
that the women ruled over them.
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Yeah. Do you remember?
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At the same time
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one of the
scriptures I really love
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is when David's
about to pass from his life
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and he turns to his son Solomon,
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and in the King James
Version of Bible he says,
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"Show yourself a man."
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Well, it's fascinating passage
of scripture because you know,
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throughout the
Bible most of the time
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we see the word
man or male or men.
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It just means male.
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It means just, you
know, that's refers to gender.
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There are few times
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when it refers to
the lore of manhood,
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the way of a man,
the masculinity of a man,
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when he says
show yourself a man,
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he wasn't
telling him to be male.
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Solomon was probably
in his 20s at that point.
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What he was telling was,
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go be a good and a
noble man as God directs
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and that's what we're
trying to get men to do.
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Well, I'll throw
another one that you might,
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well, you
probably thought of it.
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In the Book of
Job, God says to Job,
00:09:25.76\00:09:27.93
speak up like a man.
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Yes. I address that often.
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In other words,
you've been saying
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all these things about me...
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Right. Tell me now. Yeah.
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Have the guts.
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So there's obviously
a lower a way of men,
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a body of traits
and characteristics
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that God is referring to.
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And one translation he says
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prepared to defend
yourself like a man
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and that's, that says
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there's a lore we
ought to be mastering,
00:09:48.85\00:09:50.22
so you and I as we come
up in our various churches,
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the church
should be emphasizing,
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what is noble manhood?
00:09:53.86\00:09:55.19
What is righteous manhood?
00:09:55.22\00:09:56.56
And not to the
diminishment of women
00:09:56.59\00:09:57.93
but for the
sake, actually I think
00:09:57.96\00:09:59.43
the greatest men in fisheries...
00:09:59.46\00:10:01.03
Well, it's a matter of roles,
00:10:01.06\00:10:02.40
to me it's not a
matter of ability.
00:10:02.43\00:10:03.87
No.
00:10:03.90\00:10:07.50
We all know, I mean
00:10:07.54\00:10:08.87
it's the great
untold secret of life
00:10:08.90\00:10:11.41
that women do things
00:10:11.44\00:10:12.77
because they are
usually more task oriented.
00:10:12.81\00:10:14.81
They will do things nine times
out of ten better than men.
00:10:14.84\00:10:16.98
Yeah, no question.
00:10:17.01\00:10:18.35
And in the home,
the woman is the glue
00:10:18.38\00:10:19.78
that holds things together.
00:10:19.81\00:10:22.15
They are the main beneficiary.
00:10:22.18\00:10:23.52
They're not second fiddle. Yeah.
00:10:23.55\00:10:24.89
A noble man...
00:10:24.92\00:10:26.25
Then in the role of men or
son, men need to fulfill that.
00:10:26.29\00:10:27.82
Right. Yeah. I can
see that very clearly.
00:10:27.86\00:10:29.72
And I think you're
doing a fabulous thing.
00:10:29.76\00:10:31.19
I appreciate that.
00:10:31.23\00:10:32.56
So where are you
going with this now?
00:10:32.59\00:10:34.50
Do you think it's
a growing movement
00:10:34.53\00:10:36.56
or is it peaked?
00:10:36.60\00:10:37.93
It's definitely growing movement
00:10:37.97\00:10:39.30
and it's having a huge
impact around the world
00:10:39.33\00:10:40.87
and well, I think
what's most important is
00:10:40.90\00:10:43.10
we're starting to
see men to get to,
00:10:43.14\00:10:44.47
getting together in
these bands of brothers
00:10:44.51\00:10:46.47
and begin to perfect
noble manhood together.
00:10:46.51\00:10:50.25
There was a near
aware Nelson Eddy
00:10:50.28\00:10:52.18
and his companion of the day
00:10:52.21\00:10:55.98
or the movie
could sing with vigor,
00:10:56.02\00:10:58.45
"Give me some men who
are stout-hearted men.
00:10:58.49\00:11:01.52
And I'll soon give
you ten thousand more."
00:11:01.56\00:11:04.26
I know Ellen White writing
00:11:04.29\00:11:05.63
in the early
Adventist Church said,
00:11:05.66\00:11:07.36
that the
greatest want of the world
00:11:07.40\00:11:09.80
is for man of
principle, who will not waver.
00:11:09.83\00:11:13.80
Our guest on this
program has taken a strong lead
00:11:13.84\00:11:17.81
in reeducating men
00:11:17.84\00:11:20.31
in the United States and Canada,
00:11:20.34\00:11:21.91
and indeed all around the world
00:11:21.94\00:11:23.78
but in the Western
world particularly to reassert
00:11:23.81\00:11:26.51
their true biblical masculinity,
00:11:26.55\00:11:28.85
a leadership role.
00:11:28.88\00:11:31.09
There is much that is
exciting about modernism.
00:11:31.12\00:11:34.52
And there is much
that is frightening
00:11:34.56\00:11:36.12
about the modern
devolution of social structures
00:11:36.16\00:11:39.39
including the family.
00:11:39.43\00:11:41.26
We do need to go back to basics,
00:11:41.30\00:11:44.47
to biblical basics
00:11:44.50\00:11:46.17
to the respectability
of our assigned roles
00:11:46.20\00:11:50.17
if you like,
00:11:50.21\00:11:51.54
created roles not of
one superior over the other,
00:11:51.57\00:11:54.31
but to use and
maximize the character strengths
00:11:54.34\00:11:59.48
that ought to be
exemplified in this case
00:11:59.51\00:12:02.52
by the male role, Manly Men.
00:12:02.55\00:12:06.52
It's not something to laugh at,
it's something to be aimed at.
00:12:06.55\00:12:11.23
For Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:12:11.26\00:12:14.03