- Welcome back everyone to the frontline with Joe and Joe. Joe Basilow and Joe Recinello, you're exactly right Joe. - We work for the man upstairs as you do. - You're setting me up quite well. You just gave me an alley youth. - The greatest revolutionary act to commit right now is to open your mouth and speak the truth. - Whether you're an academic or you're a regular guy, you have to be fearless. - And once more, dear brothers and sisters, let us go into the breach. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to the frontline with Joe and Joe. Once again, dear brothers and sisters, let us go into the breach on the Veritas Catholic Network 1350 on your AM dial 103.9 on your FM dial serving the New York metropolitan area. Please be sure to download the Veritas Catholic Network app so that you can have access to all our station's content. And today we have a great conversation for you. We have Josh Weigel with Peace Tree Productions. He has a new movie coming out called The Sound of Hope. Josh, welcome to the frontline, my brother. - Thank you so much, glad to be here. - Josh, we always start with the prayer. It's our custom. - Love it. - Father, son, Holy Spirit, amen. Remember, almost gracious Virgin Mary, never was it known that anyone who sought your help or sought your intercession was left unaided, inspired by this confidence we fly into you, a virgin, a virgin's our mother. To you, we come for you. We stand sinful and sorrowful. Our mother, the word and car night despise not our petitions, but in your clemency here and answer us, amen. Name of the Father, son, Holy Spirit, amen. For those who don't know, Josh and his wife put out this great movie. It's about children, adopting children. And this is what I like about it. It's a great story, but you guys put your money where your mouth is. And this is what Christians have to do. This is what I'm trying to do. This is what everyone's trying to do. And this is what Josh and his wife did. They adopted children and this movie is about children. Who were adopted? Tell us a little bit about your story and tell us a little background about the film. - Sure. So you're right, that's actually what inspired us to a part of the inspiration of doing this movie was our own experience in this. I think adoption had been something that I figured I would do. Even I look back at childhood, I can remember thinking, you know, one day I would do that. Just made sense. There's children in need, you know, at some point you gotta take those kids into your home. And it was way in the back of my mind though. And so my wife Rebecca who produced and wrote with me on this was working in Los Angeles in the child welfare space. And she was working with churches, just trying to connect churches to this cause, to get churches to get more involved and place kids with loving families there. And so she was rallying churches. She, we remembered this story we'd heard about, which is the one we made the movie about. This little town in East Texas, not even a real town. It's just an area called Possum Trot. And Reverend Martin, he's Bishop Martin now, but at the time is Reverend Martin and his wife, Donna Martin, started this amazing thing and Rebecca found out about him, connected him to what she was doing in Los Angeles and began having him speak all over Los Angeles. And it was amazing, you know, how he would impact churches and the movement that would happen after he talked about adopting kids. And so really what happened is this family started adopting kids. They inspired about 22 other families to join them and they began adopting kids out of the foster system. And they adopted 77 kids between them just within a few years. And so this little average town took on this monumental thing and it ended up getting all over the news and on Oprah and lots of news outlets around the country. And so that's kind of how it entered the mind of those who were working in that space. We all heard rumors about this community somewhere and it was amazing to connect with them. So yeah, between our own personal, you know, experience with fostering and adopting. We adopted two of our kids and their siblings. And then what we learned from this community and how we were connecting, we were learning about the connection between the foster system and all kinds of issues in society. It just became a really important thing for us. We felt like we needed to do this, put everything else on hold, other projects and just thought this is the one we've got to focus on right now. - I think it's great. And I want to emphasize the fact that it was a small town. These aren't people of like great means. They're regular people putting their neck on the line. Frankly, that's what it's all about. Jesus was a regular guy. The 12 people that followed him were regular people. People lose sight of that. I mean, I'll be honest with you. A priest told me this a long time ago. He said, if all the people in the world just did a little bit, think about the wealth that we have in this country. If everyone just gave a little bit, there would be no poor people in America. None, not a soul, not one on the earth. And I think that's an indictment against humanity. You know, we say we're Christian. We do, we all say it, yes, yes. But like, you got to put it out there. And you guys did, and frankly, when you do, it's a spark and it starts something. I think of Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa said, if I didn't pick up the first person, I wouldn't have picked up the tens of thousands, maybe the hundreds of thousands after the fact. This is what we have to do. Talk about faith in action, because ultimately, if we want to change this country, and I know a lot of people do or change the world, that's how it has to be done. Grassroots efforts, faith in action. What are your thoughts? That's what we are all about. We're really, to me, there's a big, big need for that right now. I think America has incredible blessings. What's happened in America is historical, it's amazing. There's nothing like it. And one of the big challenges for us living here is we can get lulled to sleep. We can get so comfortable and so used to being separated from really terrible things. It's easy to move away from hard things and to ignore it and not see it. And so you almost have to work hard to get into situations that Jesus is needed desperately. And the foster system is this thing that exists, that so many people kind of know about in the back of their mind. You know, we all kind of know there's a foster system. No one's thinking about it. And then we drive around our towns and our cities and we see homeless people and we hear about the prison population. And we've been hearing more in the last couple of decades about child trafficking and human trafficking. And people don't understand that the vast majority of people who are suffering in those areas spend time in the foster system. I mean, up to 90% of children who are trafficked have spent time in the foster system. And similar numbers with things like the prison population, the homeless crisis. So, you know, the world is crying out for help. And I think a lot of times we don't know where to start. You know, we'll say that a lot of people who follow Jesus are hard breaks for these things. But maybe they don't know where to start. And so the foster system, you know, in fact, if you think about the movie last year, Sound of Freedom, which is this is the follow up to that. Angel Studios is distributing this movie, they're bringing it into theaters. And we're working together to follow up what happened with Sound of Freedom because the children who are being trafficked and were depicted in that story, that same issue is so connected to the foster system. So if you left that movie feeling like, man, I want to do something. I don't know what to do. I can't become like a, you know, a green braid Christian. Maybe I'll give some money to it or maybe I'll spread the word, which are good things. The foster system and taking care of children in crisis, getting up beside families that are in crisis, is going to affect the child trafficking issue. And so that's why we're following up with this movie. If we can get our eyes on the kids in the foster system, bring them into our families, get our, get our, you know, believing people around these kids, everything will change. Everything will change around us. And it's, it's not an option. You know, you, you, your faith must be an action. That's how I feel. It's like, that's not for some people. It's for all people who claim to follow Jesus. Your faith must be an action. You must be doing things that reflect who you are and the changes that are in your life. So it's a, it's a big part of why we did this movie. You know, I, I think you talked about eyes to see. I firmly believe in adoration. I think this is something in the Catholic Church we're seeing more of with the Eucharistic revival going on across the country. People have to sit in front of Christ because He touches your heart. And if we can see Jesus in a piece of bread, we will surely see Him in others. And this is the game changer. Now, not everyone is made to foster children, they're made to do something, something. And it begins with seeing Jesus in the Eucharist. This is the game changer if you ask me. And the more we spend time with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the more we will see. I just wanted to throw that out there because I personally believe that's the spark. But I want to talk about what this family did. Reverend Martin and his wife Donna. They adopted 77 children. And clearly, these kids weren't coming from Ivy League homes. They didn't play professional football and they didn't get 1580 on their SATs. But that's okay. And they didn't care. Talk about the challenges that they faced and the challenges the community faced with these kids. No. But any child that ends up in the Vosra system has gone through something traumatic. Whether it's just the death of parents, which is not the common thing, but the breakdown of the family, you know, these kids are suffering just by the loss of a parent or having a parent that doesn't love well and is hurting you. I mean, it's devastating. And some of these kids went through terrible abuse. We follow one of the characters in the film named Terry. She's gone through really terrible things. She talks about it. She's written about it. And, you know, so it was, it was a variety of things. It was kids who were abused and in really dangerous situations. Taken out of neglectful situations and unsafe situations. And then others that had, the families had broken down. They'd, they'd gone into the system for other reasons, but they were large. Sibling sets, you know, maybe four or five children. And the county didn't want to break them up, which creates more trauma. So there was a, there's a whole lot of different experiences as you'd expect with 77 kids. But, you know, the, the process of changing and being healed. You know, it, it's, it can be a long road, you know, for many. But these, these kids, I know a lot of them now. It's amazing to see the mercy God has shown. You know, using a community like this is so encouraging. I think it should be so encouraging for all of us because they don't have the, the child, you know, they don't have the degrees either. They don't have the years in child welfare, you know, and they don't have PhDs. They, they're just like you and I, they just see a problem. They know how God feels about it and they've responded. And I think for me, that's one of the most important parts of this story is that it's representative of so many places around this world. And so many of us talk ourselves out of, of doing the hard things. And it's, it's kind of like, it's tempting to, to want it to be something specialized so that you don't have to do it. But it's not, you know, and this, this story is a testimony, a testament of that. It's powerful. These people just love hard. They have community. They're connected like a large family. And it's the, that's the environment you really want for kids who are in need of healing. You know, you talked about the family and we're around the same age. We both have five kids. And, you know, we don't just arrive at, you know, a place of formation. That's a process, just like anything in life. And one thing I've learned, I'm going to be 54. Maybe I'm older than you. And if I'm dating you, I'm sorry. I don't know. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But what, but what I am saying is God's way works. When it comes to marriage, it does. Like, like people rail against this in our society. They rail against it. I railed against it. Let's be honest when I was young, but it works. God at the center of a marriage is the key. A couple not looking at each other necessarily, but looking in the same direction. A couple that's open to life. Living a selfless, selfless marriage. This is the key. But you know something, Josh, America's not sold on it. Even amongst the ruins that we stand amongst today. We're not sold on it. We doubled down. We tripled down. All of these problems are fixable. If we would just listen to the small voice of Christ, but we refuse, we refuse. And then when we fail, we doubled down. We tripled down. And it just continues. Talk about the breakdown of the family because I'll be honest with you. In my opinion, obviously we don't live in a perfect world. None of us are perfect, but ultimately a lot of these problems are fixed. If we prioritize God, if we follow, frankly, the blueprint, which the church lays out. And to be honest with you, our life will be all the more better and so will our children. Talk about how America has abandoned that. And frankly, they don't want to hear it. I mean, thank God for the single parents out there doing whatever it takes to love and raise the children that they have. And I think about this, like you do what you've got to do, but there's nothing better than that nuclear family that has just become anathema right now. It's like this beautiful thing. It's incredible to think how that's been vilified or made to be something old and that we need to move away from. When you break down that unit, you're causing so many problems and they ripple out into our neighborhoods and into our societies. It's obvious. And so there's nothing stronger. There's nothing better than the mother and father nuclear family that comes together around children. It's a perfect environment. You see the design of God in this, you know, you just look at the fruit of it. It's the ideal situation and any time that begins to be strained, begins to crack, begins to break down. You just have problems immediately begin. Oh, please, please. Oh, in this, this family, you know, it, it's like this community is like a big family of all those kinds of mothers and fathers coming together. It's not just isolated to ones. There's this extra strength to it because I think you look at historically how God intended things and how we've seen them through history where you've got families within communities that go back generations and you just have these sort of like concentric circles of strength and we lose that and children lose a sense of direction and worth and all kinds of devastating things enter their hearts and minds. And so I think this, the breakdown of the family is clearly causing so much of this. And in fact, we're working with an organization called Care Portal. And it's whole goal. It's a platform online that connects families that are in crisis to people who care. And these people who care, these churches, these community leaders, these places that are in touch and connected to the families that are in crisis. This, this technology brings them together. So if there's a family that's about to lose their children, Care Portal bring can bring them to people who are ready to help them in hopes of preventing that family from breaking down. So that we're part of what we're doing is really aiming at that because we know that's what's going to keep this thing going and perpetuates it. If we don't do something about the breakdown of the family, then we're just going to be dealing with this for generations to come. But if we can get down to the root and deal with these these moments of crisis that parents face and things begin to fray. And then their sister, their kids go into the system, or they can't get them back from the system once they've gotten their life together. They just need basic things. So we're looking at that too as a film that deals with this issue and wanting to see action happen afterward. We don't want to just invite people to see a movie we want them to get involved afterwards as well. And so Care Portal is one of the things we're using to help deal with that part of this whole issue. You know, it's funny. You talk about breakdown of the family and you can't even argue it. It's just a fact. 40% of our children in America are born out of wedlock. Over 55% are divorced. A lot of that has to do with fatherlessness. Men have to learn how to become men, which means you have responsibility. We've lost that. You know, if there's a prolonged adolescence that goes on in this country and it's just accepted. I mean, people go to college and they make some smart people, very smart people. In fact, they behave like savages, frankly, and it's condoned. And parents, frankly, look at it and they just say, Oh, it's a rite of passage. No, it's not. It's not a rite of passage. It's a pathway to disaster, whether you're rich or poor, whether you're smart or frankly simple. It's just a path to disaster. And here's the thing. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. This is what people have to come to the realization. They have to come to this realization, Josh. I say, like, when I grew up on my street, my father was a barber, I grew up with very regular people. So all of them, frankly, went to church, the families on my street, but they stayed together. Men had a sense of, this is my responsibility, whether they were a truck driver or a lawyer. I had these kids. I married this woman, and I'm committed to them. And I come home every day. That's gone. And you know, some of this generation, at least when I took a right hand turn, or we'll call it a left hand turn, when I went to college, at least I had something in the background that I could look in the rear view mirror. And I saw my parents who were married for 52 years, 52 years. And they frankly never thought of themselves ever. And they weren't pious people, you know, walking around with a rosary in their hand. They went to church. And at least I had that. This generation doesn't have the rear view mirror. And frankly, they need models. And this family, Martin, Reverend Martin, and his wife Donna, they are the model. And that's why this film is so, so important. People need an example, because frankly, they don't have that example anymore. They simply don't talk about the need. We have about eight minutes left. We have some time, but talk about the need for families to have strong men in them to be an example. Right now, I'm with you. I mean, that's, it's like there's a there's a there's a lot of things going on. You've got the natural propensity of youth to go and do risky things and try to experience the world and have fun, you know, having fun is no rite of passage, rite of passage is going through is facing what life is going to dish out to you. It's about you're about to go into something difficult. And I think on one hand, you've got all of the messaging to young men, telling them that society doesn't want that in you anymore. We don't want you to step into manhood. We don't want you to, to be what you're naturally inclined to be even. And so you have to push those things down. You, you, you reject it. And you abdicate responsibility all kinds of terrible things begin to unravel when young men lose respect for that and they lose the vision for they don't. They don't want to go into that direction when they know society is going to hate them for it. And so, I mean, it's a terrible time for, for young men right now. But I think these are the important conversations to have because we can't let this thing die. It's very clear when you see a family this together. And when men and women are doing the things that they are naturally made to do, you see the fruit of that the strength of that. So this community. Again, we can point to that and go, this is a community that understands that there's a stability that's built in as a foundation that's built in. And again, going even beyond just that, that one nuclear family, you've got beyond that the cousins, the aunts, the uncles, you, you have this sense of connection that, that goes beyond your life. You feel like you're connecting to the wider world around you in the past. And, you know, it just creates a sense of stability. It's meant to create a sense of stability, I think. So, this, this community again is, is exemplary. When it comes to that they, they, they embrace that full on. I mean, they rely on each other. It's really why this worked. It's why 77 kids could come into a small community. And, you know, have their lives changed. There was connection. There was a sense of responsibility to each other. And so I, I keep looking at this story going, you know, there's so much to glean from it. There's so much leadership there. They've, they've broken ground and, and in a time where those kinds of things are rejected and ignored. They're out on front. They're out, they're out on the front showing us what can be done. Tell us a little bit about this town in East Texas and the Bennett chapel, basically, because this isn't a Catholic story. I mean, it is in his, in essence, because it's Christian, but this is not like, you know, the Catholic church, but frankly, they're showing us up. If you ask me, and we should be looking to them. Tell us a little bit about this town. Tell us a little bit about this church, because I'm interested, actually. Yeah. So it's East Texas, way, way East Texas, almost to the Louisiana border. And it's, it's really, it's, it's a lot like so many southern little southern communities. You drive through it, not even know that you passed the Boston Drive. So it goes back generations. I think the church was founded in the 1880s. So it's simple. It's average folks. It's not. There's no store. There's no stoplight. There's mostly dirt roads. So it's, it's, it's one of those places. It's unassuming. And, you know, if you look scripturally, you see how God so often does that. He takes these insignificant looking things or people, and he does these monumental things with them. And that's one of the things that drew me to this creatively is that here's a chance to elevate this average community that we can all relate to. And that God chose to do this monumental thing through, and become an example to so many people. And it's, it's remarkable you go there and, you know, you think about what, how it rippled up. A lot of people don't know, but that that rippled out what they did rippled out and really inspired movement all across the nation. In this whole Boston adopt space so it's sort of a ground zero in some sense of the movement towards children and churches. And so I'm with you though I think there is an indictment on the church and Reverend Bishop Martin. He'll he'll preach this hard and it's powerful and it's on one hand, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to put a guilt trip on, on people, but we need to do more of this we need to do more of this. We need to do more self reflection and looking at what we're doing as an individual and as churches. And are we living into who we are. Are we living into the call of God. And when it comes to children it's one of the first, if you think about it we're all called to this. It's something for everyone it's not like only some of us are called to meet the needs of orphans and widows we're all called to do this. And so it's true we need to reset as believers and look at what it means to actually follow him. And we've had a, I think we've had a beautiful time of embracing and feeling God's love and care for us as individuals, but it's time to look outward and go how do we, how do we be Jesus in the world around us. 100% and I'll tell you what you said something it is all our responsibility. And we have to get out of the boat. People are too comfortable being comfortable. When we get out of the boat. Amazing things happen. They really do. And I love the fact that this was a regular place because again, Jesus was a regular guy and he used 12 regular guys to change the world. And if you read the lives of the saints, many of them were just like that. They just had faith. Mother Teresa used to say I'm going to use her as an example again. I take Christ at his word. Do we take him at his word. He said this. Don't be afraid. But we're afraid. We just want to be comfortable. We look to basically our front door and that's all we're concerned about. Well, that's not what it's about. The world is a big place. And frankly, we have to get out there. We're going to take a break, Josh. I just want to remind everybody to listen to the front line with Joe and Joe and the Veritas Catholic Network. We are on 1350 on your AM dial and 1039 on your FM dial serving the Metropolitan area. We are talking to Josh Weigel. He has a great film out. It's called The Sound of Hope. He has a company as well. He's tree productions. Look it up and we're going to be back. So don't go anywhere. Catholic radio works and now we have it here in Connecticut and New York. It's been seen around the country that there's no better tool for evangelization. Where there's Catholic radio, the folks who listen deep in their faith, families are strengthened, parishes and communities flourish. So let people know you're listening to Veritas. Tell your friends to tune in and let's make an impact here for Jesus and his church. This is Steve Lee for Veritas Catholic Network. Welcome back to the front line with Joe and Joe. We are talking to Josh Weigel and we're talking about his movie The Sound of Hope. It's a great story. It's something you all should be looking out for. It's talking about kids. It's talking about being a Christian. It's talking about living our faith. And that's what it's all about. And you're on Veritas Catholic Network. We serve the Metropolitan Area 1350 on your AM dial 1039 on your FM dial. Josh, we were talking on the other side of the break about the town in East Texas. I want to talk about how this little seed spread across America because it did talk about that. People need to know about it. And frankly, people should help out if they hear about it. So a woman named Susan Ramsey was one of the main social workers assigned to this community and there was a handful of them. We've met Susan passed away in 2002 and, but we've met a number of the other social workers and what was happening there. It began in 1997 when Donna Martin felt she lost her mother, her mother just passed away and she felt she couldn't, she couldn't let go of that loss. And so long story short, God really did some miraculous things in her heart and compelled her to put her attention on children. And basically sort of like become become like your mother to these to these children that don't have parents. And so that started it. She turned towards these kids and began looking into it and never even thought about it. And all of the sudden, you know, these, they start adopting and it begins to grow in the community and more and more get inspired to do it. And the social workers are watching this happen too. And they could tell something amazing is going on here. This is remarkable. And so they began calling local news channels and just sort of sharing the story and all of the sudden, it just lit a fire and the story began it got interest all over the nation. So they began to show up on Good Morning America and People magazine and all of these different major outlets ended up on Oprah. And I think there was just the spirit was moving like the things that this this community were doing just inspired people. It broke down a lot of I think barriers and and fears and captured your curiosity and attention. And so, you know, we watched that, you know, looking back on on all those interviews and things you can see how it was just this, this flame was just fan, and it was like wildfire and so it just kind of spread throughout the country. And then it kind of died off. And like I said earlier, we all kind of knew about this community but didn't have a lot of specifics about it. And so as we dug it up. We were so excited to learn this was a real thing that really happened and felt the need to kind of revive it. And so here we are today. And I think a similar thing is going to happen where it's it's, it's on God's heart. This community again the story what's happened there is being used to catalyze more that story just reverberated through the churches in America at one time and it's beginning again and you can see that when people respond to the movie. You can see that when Bishop Martin speaks, it's it's resounding and you feel there's much more going on here than, than some pastor talking about this and some movie being made like we're, we feel we're a part of something way way beyond just this one thing. There's a convergence. I hear it in you. There's a convergence of this need to be more active in our faith to put our eyes on the children who are suffering to come together as the church to do this and unify around this. And to, to be that light that salt and light in our communities and so I'm, I'm full of anticipation that amazing things are going to happen from this beyond just a movie. When, you know, Reverend Martin now Bishop Martin speaks and people there's power there. You know, when Christ spoke in scripture they say he had authority and it separated him from say the Pharisees and the scribes who were learned men, they knew a lot. But Jesus spoke with authority and the crowd said, I never heard such a man speak like that. When we do what God asks us to do. We have authority. We speak with authority because it's the Holy Spirit that gives it. You see, that's real. Like when you listen to somebody who really does something like there's a group in Jamaica, the missionaries of the poor, he was an ex Jesuit who now founded this order. I've listened to him on EWTN a number of times. And frankly, when he speaks, you could hear a pin drop. Everybody, every eye is on this man because he's putting it out there. They know he's the real deal. He's not just talking. And that's what this man Bishop Martin is all about. That's why he has authority because people like gosh this guy adopted 77 kids. This is a man of God. I'm going to listen to him. People all want to be heard. Everyone's on social media. They got podcasts. They got this going on reels and everything else. Frankly, a lot of it's noise. I try. I mean, I do it too, but I don't want to be noise. I want to have the authority of God. But if we want that authority, we have to do what God said. But then he'll give us that authority and people will listen because they're like, gosh, you're doing it. You're not just saying it. You're doing it. And this is what we have to do. I believe that's what Catholics are made to do. We're here to be, like you said, salt and light in the world. God put us in the world. We're not supposed to be of the world, but we're supposed to be in the world, living, working with people. But we just go along, gosh, too many of us. I always say, we want to get invited to the barbecue and believing. I wasn't always like this. Trust me. Trust me. Like, if you saw me in college, you wouldn't even recognize me. In fact, I just went to an event. People look at me like I'm a freak in plain English, like, like how I used to be. And I don't care. We have to live like that. I don't care. We have to get out of the boat. Talk about that because authority and just being like, listen, I am who I am. I'm a child of God. I'm Catholic. You don't want to invite me to the barbecue? Okay. But you're always welcome in my house. I have nothing against you. That's what's holding us back. Yeah, I love you. This is so good. It's like people who follow Jesus, we have this tendency to just live out of our human nature too much. It's like we've decided what you just described as for special people. It's for the saints. It's for the ones who are really serious. And what I, it's, I just want to, I just want to sit down as a family and like, I have a big family toggle. Guys, we, we are not living who out of who we are. Those kinds of things aren't for other people. Those things are for all of us. You embrace your faith and what it means to follow Jesus. That's what you're agreeing to. That's what you're signing up for. You're agreeing to become that. We see this all over scripture and ignore it or think of it again for some for other people. But the disciples were just everyday people. Jesus was a carpenter. I mean, he's used to doing this and doing monumental things through average people, but it takes what you are talking about this. This redemption happens. You become a new thing and you have to abide in that. He says to abide in the vine. And you're, you talked about adoration earlier. There's, when we are connected to the source. And when we are pushing down that, that fleshy human side of us and putting our eyes on the things of the Spirit, we're putting our eyes on things above. And we are living out of that and understanding that it's not a choice that you either get to live spiritually and in deep focus on following Jesus, or you can just kind of be an average human and American and just live life and leave that to others. That's not, that's not what it means to be redeemed. So this is all related to this story because it's about people who stood up and said, I'm just going to do it. I mean, there's kids being abused. There's kids who have no family. They've got nobody. We're, if you drove by an accident on the road and saw bodies everywhere, it wouldn't matter if you were a doctor or an EMT, you would just get out and see what you could do. And, and that is what we have all around us all around this world. And you said that earlier as well like all these problems will go away if believers step into that and actually live by the power of the Holy Spirit as he's called us and allowed for us to do. That's what this is all about, the grace of God to be in this world and live like him to be the hands and feet to be the light to others and represent him so I'm urging us to be the ones who people easily see Jesus in. And we saw that when the story was being made, like unbelievers were helping make this movie. And when they heard about this story, they were like, how can this be? I mean, if that's on churches, I'd go to church. You know, it's funny. That's people see saints and they're like, I want the Christ that you talk about. But I want to talk about this too, because I think when people agree with what you're saying, and frankly there's a lot to agree with and people should agree. They don't know where to start. I believe it starts with prayer. You see, you see in like an iceberg in the middle of like, you know, a National Geographic some movie, you know, like what's out of the water could be big but what's under the water is deeper. Talk about like what you and your wife do with regard to like that foundational work because me and my wife, we got five kids like you, the house is nuts, a lot of pressures going on. You got to pray. I mean, like you got to that's and the fruit of prayer is what you're talking about. It's it comes from God, because you know, listen, I'll be very honest, you're a gifted guy so is your wife, you're making movies people don't know, you know, let's be honest. I know gifted people too, people who educated, you know, they did incredible things, but we can't rely on our own strength. That's the mistake of many Americans, you know, oh I got this degree or oh I'm this or all on that. No, you're holding on to the crumb. Put the crumb down, because I got news for you true greatness is in the Holy Spirit. When you put the crumb down, even if your crumb is great. You did this. That's a crumb. Look at what Francis did. Look at what Dominic did. Look at what the saints did. Look at what Catherine of Siena did. She counseled a pope. I don't even know if she knew how to read. She was one of 24 kids. She counseled a pope. She said to the pope, you, you live in France, get back to Rome. And he did. Who does that? Talk about the need to ground ourselves in prayer. No matter how gifted you are. Don't focus on your gifts. Use them, but ground yourself in prayer and then go out. And that's where the real fruit is. Talk about that. Talk about what you and your wife do because frankly that's what we all need to do. You're not going to do anything spiritually significant without prayer and all of the things that God has given us to connect to him to commune with him. That's the purpose of these things. We live in these fallen bodies. We live in this broken world. And if you don't take the advantage of those tools, of those realities, then the work is either impossible or going to be so, so difficult and discouraging that you'll give up pretty quickly. The spirit intends for us to be connected to him to do the work that he has for us to do is just you think about Jesus. It says he often went away to pray. And it was, it was just part of what he did as an example to us too, of how you live in the spirit while you're in this body and in the world. How do you be in the world and not of it? Well, you, you embrace the spiritual disciplines and the things that he's given us to connect to him because he's the source. When you are connected to the source through prayer through fasting through worship through all of the things that he's given us, adoration, you're now going to feel the grace and the power to do the things that your heart is telling you to do. Otherwise you're just going to be plowing rocks you're going to be trying to convince yourself to do all of this stuff and it's, it's going to lead to a lot of guilt and a lot of shame and a lot of frustration and discouragement so. So think about this community to the, the church is a foundational part of life together. They will break into prayer and worship in a heartbeat. I was there one day, and we were just hanging out. And suddenly someone got a call. One of the nephews somewhere in Houston that I'd ever even met had been killed in a, in a drive by shooting or something. And immediately the entire community just broke into prayer. And just like got ahold of God and, and the sorrow and all of the things that flood through your mind you could see that they were just used to immediately embracing Jesus and each other and, and, and finding strength there and so they live out of that. And I think it's why they became empowered to do what they did. And look, this isn't, there was no, you know, red seas being part of this is every day stuff. It's miraculous though, but it's not super not it's not like superhuman things in some sense it's like, this is just what you do as a person you're you ought to do as a person. So, if you're connected to Jesus and prayer and serving and seeking him is your foundation and your, your connection, everything that we're talking about here becomes possible. And if without it it's either impossible or going to create so much work and it's just going to burn people out. You know, it's funny. And I love Protestant there are brothers in Christ. They don't even have the sacraments. Like, this is where Catholics, like, we have everything. Josh, we have everything. And we don't use it. We don't use it. That's why people they'll see something that you just talked about as you were talking about that. Like, they'll see something. They'll be like, I'm going to join these guys. And frankly, a lot of people do that because they're not formed. They don't understand that Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist. They're not utilizing confession. They're not praying in front of the blessed sacrament. And frankly, and I'm not knocking them because frankly, they're out doing us. We should be doing that. We have everything. We have everything. I say that all the time. God gave us all the tools. That's why he only walked the earth for three years. He's like, that's it. I've done everything I needed to do. I'm going home. Now it's up to you. I gave you everything you need. Everything. It's all in the church. But we don't use it. We don't. I mean, like, even those who go to church, we go to church, it's like a sacrament factory. We go, we leave. Like, there's no community. You talk about community. I remember I used to commute to New York with this guy. He was from Jamaica. He was Pentecostal and a Carl. He was great. I broke my hand. He used to zip my jacket before I went home. He was so nice. He was such a good man. And I used to commute with them. He's like, I spend all Saturday at church. Like me and my family. They don't even have the sacraments. I was so impressed with them. As a human. I was just like, call, you're great. We need to be more like you as Catholics. We have all the tools. Joss, we don't use them. It makes me crazy. Yeah. I mean, I'm Protestant and I love you guys. And I feel like there's this coming together that's so beautiful. And I love that. I respect it. And I think what we're both after is connecting to the maker. You know, the one who has put us here. The one who has called us. He's made us and wants to reach this world. And so it's, it's, it's the same thing in the sense that like, we must live into who we are better. It's, you're right. It's all there. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And this world is tempting. It is numbing. It will dull. And these things we're talking about the spiritual aspects of life are the things that make stories like this possible. It's not possible to do this kind of work if you're just doing it of your own strength. Certainly not to the scale that we need to. And you think about the level and the depth of the worst problems that we're facing today. I mean, the darkness in the world today is unlike it's ever been slavery is at its all time high. You think about the things that people are doing to themselves and others. It's never been darker, but to be a light in that place is going to take the things we're talking about here, getting our arms around Jesus like we've never had taking advantage of and living out of the things that he's given us and have always been there. Since he ascended, he's left us these things you can not just survive life, but you can thrive and you can be the city on the hill and you can be the voice you can be me people will see you in see me in your eyes, you know, all of these things. And you think about how moved we are when we hear about people like Mother Teresa, unbelievable. And, and I'm just struck with how God wants to work in every area of society it's not as if just being an average Joe is like the ultimate thing he wants to use politicians he wants to use lawyers he wants to use the wealthy. He wants to use everyone, but everyone has the same task everyone has the same tools and opportunities we must connect to Jesus and live out of that and we have to remind ourselves we're not of this world. We don't get to seek comfort, we seek his will, and come what may that's that's what it is and if you really believe what you say you believe you should trust that, because if he's going to ask you to do something he's going to come beside you and in you and fill you. And you will be able to do what he's saying to do whether that's taking care of thousands of children like Mother Teresa. Or that's just being Jesus to the to the neighborhood you live in the workplace that you are, you know it's all God it's all powerful it's the same thing. What does he made you to do. And are you going to live out of your own strength, or are you going to be dulled by the world are you going to be deceived by the world or are you going to embrace all the stuff we're talking about here that he's given us, and live monumentally for him. And the peace and the joy and satisfaction that comes from that like there's no, there's no match. I want to talk about adoption as an alternative to abortion. And I'll tell you a real story in my life which opened my eyes. I got married later in life and I did a lot of traveling I was backpacking through Cambodia, and I met this couple there from Wales. And I never saw poverty like I saw in Cambodia it was obscene, it was obscene. And there was this orphanage run by a Buddhist monk. And, you know, they were nice people and it was around Christmas so we're like let's just throw some money together and we'll go we'll go buy some clothes and we'll buy some toys and make a little donation. And we showed up, unannounced, I mean it's just insane. And I walk into this place, I have never seen an explosion of joy like that in my life. I actually, Josh, they were kids, they didn't have clothes on, they were so poor. I put a shirt on a kid that was naked. I was blown away. And the explosion of joy and I said to myself as Americans because I know Babe Ruth came from like, he was adopted, he was in basically a home for children. We don't have that anymore. And I said to myself, every single one of these kids in America would be dead. They would be all killed, they were aborted, yet all these beautiful kids, all of them, look at them. Talk about adoption as an alternative because it is a real alternative. Yeah, we rightfully stand up for life and have and it's good and it's right. And the other side of that is that there are people suffering all around us, children who are the most innocent suffering around us. And so with the same passion and spirit that values the human life, we want to encourage people to turn towards these kids who have been born. And now you've got everything's changing with Roe v. Wade and this whole issue. And there's a lot of criticism coming from those who are opposed to this. And I think the points we need to take seriously are that if you are really about life, then why aren't you taking on these kids that are alive that have nobody. And that is a valid point. I personally think it's different than abortion, but it is of the same mind and spirit that, yeah, we got to get around this too. We will fight for this other thing, but we fight for the lives of children that are there now. And so I imagine and it's expected that this problem is going to grow because abortion isn't going to be as available. And you were going to have more children born. And thank God for that, but it's going to take believers willing to step into that now as well and say, I'm going to become a part of, you know, in some sense, someone else's problem. I didn't create that situation. And it's easy to go, well, it's not my problem. I didn't do it. I mean, that's someone else's mess. But that's not how Jesus did things. And so we must do this. It's adoption is the answer is the thing that he's given us to be the solution for this age old problem of families breaking down. It's what he did for us. He adopted us. And so I think it's something that we've really got to look seriously out now and look at it with fresh eyes with fresh desire to take on the challenge that that presents and really live into what adoption is in God's heart as a solution to this. Josh, we have about two minutes left. I want you to briefly talk about one where people could find this film when it's coming out. And two, I think a lot of these type of films are surfacing talk about a where people could see this movie and be how these type of movies. I think Americans want to see. And do you think there'll be more of them because there should be. Yeah. So you'll be able to see it July 3rd, actually, it opens July 4th officially, but it will be, you know, you'll be able to see it on the third. It'll be nationwide 2000 screens or more. I mean, it's going to be all over the place and we need people to flood the theater and go see it because we're up against a lot of big movies, you know, and we're the independent film. It's not the typical summer movie, but I'm telling you right now the, we've done a lot, countless pre screenings, and something is going on with this film. There's something about it is beyond any of us. People are leaving these screenings shaken and moved and you're going to feel all kinds of emotions. It's, it's not just a typical faith movie. I'm not even really into those kinds of things. I think what you're asking about is films that ultimately glorify God to take on really important issues. We need, we need so many more of these things, but this is, you know, this is, this is kind of a different thing. It's very real. It's authentic. We moved to East Texas actually to get this story right and become family with this community. And so there's so much in this movie that's deep and real and important. And I hope people will go. I hope they will look for how they can get involved afterwards. Yeah, I think you're going to enjoy it as a movie, but it's really also meant to be something that, that causes people to move into this issue in the way that they're designed to. Maybe it's not fostering adopting. Maybe it's just helping families. There's so many ways to get involved. But nationwide, please go see it. I think you will love it. I think you're going to be really moved and you're going to find a way to actually resolve be a part of resolving some major problems around us. People, the movie is sound of hope. The company is peace tree production. Josh, I want to thank you from the bottom of our heart. You guys are young. I'm sure you'll be putting out a ton of more movies. And when you do, you got to come on the show. You're part of the family now. You're part of the family. So you have. So thank you very much. And I also want to thank everybody, all of you out there for joining us on the frontline with Joe and Joe on the Veritas Catholic network, bringing the truth of the Catholic faith to the New York metropolitan area on 10. Well, we got, we got 1350 on your AM dial, 1039 on your FM dial, or our Veritas content is fantastic. Please make sure to download the Veritas Catholic mobile app. And remember, until the next time, our conversation is your conversation. And that conversation is going on every year. We'll talk to you soon. [MUSIC PLAYING]
