Eric Metaxas fires on a lot of creative pistons. He writes like a dream, has a knack for distilling a thousand historical facts and personal details both in his fine books (see below) and on his popular nationally syndicated radio show The Eric Metaxas Show, and also has a rapier-like wit. He also spoke with amiable confidence about his now famous biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the National Prayer Breakfast a few steps away from President Obama. A strange but impressive mashup if there ever was one.
I hate him.
Okay, back to my show notes. I had interviewed Eric a few years back about his book Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness, and remembered vividly his considerable raconteur skills.
Then he caught my attention again with an embarrassingly glowing tweet about my Really Controversial Interview with Milo Yiannopoulos the other week. That was it. With a weakness for public praise by intelligent people, I had to hear more. Within hours, the interview you are about to enjoy was set.
We talked about the way his new book Donald Drains the Swamp fuses adult non-fiction with children’s fiction, and about the knack with which both Mr. Trump and Mr. Yiannopoulos force onlookers to drop their masks—fast.
Pound for pound, I’d say this is the most eclectic of the 103 episodes of The Patrick Coffin Show so far. Per my other Really Controversial Interview with Jordan Peterson, I went Full Metal Catholic and asked the Greek Orthodox cum Evangelical Christian Eric to finish the sentence, “I’m not Catholic, because…”
Let me guess. Hopefully, this good humored exchange of ideas about cultural restoration won’t be tagged as Controversial. But you know how people are these days.
Enjoy and share!
In this episode you will learn:
- Why non-Catholics and Catholics have much more in common than in division and why we must be willing to link arms for common cause—without watering down our respective differences
- How to live a robust, and apology-free Christian faith in a very secular context
- The top Hollywood scribe we discover during the interview as being a mutual friend
- Why “underground Christian” is an oxymoron
- How to use humor as a way to soften your audience and make them more receptive to your message
- The difference between true and false ecumenism
Resources recommended in this episode:
- Donald Drains the Swamp by Eric Metaxas
- Seven Women and the Secret of their Greatness by Eric Metaxas
- If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty by Eric Metaxas
- Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
- New Errors and Old Labels by Fulton J. Sheen
Question of the week
What does this maxim of Peter Kreeft mean to you: “Feuding brothers reconcile when a maniac is at the door.”
Comment below or on our Facebook page
"Like" us on Facebook HERE
Tweet to Patrick HERE
Don’t forget to Subscribe to the show in YouTube, as well as the full length podcast available in iTunes and other podcast directories, while you are there, please leave an honest review.
Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful
Doors to Coffin Nation are now OPEN. Hurry, enrollment ends on Monday, November 26.
LEARN MORE >> COFFIN NATION.
**************************************************
This is Phil’s second appearance on the show, after talking about his book Lost Shepherd: How Pope Francis is Misleading His Flock. This time, the veteran journalist doubles down and broads his analysis to include the widespread corruption and complicity of the bishops with a brand new book, The Smoke of Satan: How Corrupt and Cowardly Bishops Betrayed Christ, His Church, and the Faithful . . . and What Can Be Done About It. A daring book (the publisher explains that they didn’t particularly want to publish it) and badly needed. Heavy sigh.
As ever, it’s the uncomfortable truths that need to be told.
In this episode you will learn:
- Why the badly damaged brand and reputation of the Catholic Church is at stake and why books like this continue to be written today
- Why it’s not a sin to charitably but directly call out bad leadership in the Church
- How the bishops seem, in so many cases, not to have learned the lessons of the 2002 scandal that broke in Boston
- The role played by gross misinterpretations of the Second Vatican Council led to the current crisis
- Why concern for the Church’s reputation can never outdo concern for victims of priest predators
- The facts as to why the issue we’re dealing with is not “pedophile priests” but homosexual predator priests
Resources recommended in this episode:
- The Smoke of Satan: How Corrupt and Cowardly Bishops Betrayed Christ, His Church, and the Faithful . . . and What Can Be Done About It by Phil Lawler
- Lost Shepherd: How Pope Francis is Misleading His Flock by Phil Lawler
- Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II by Kenneth Jones
- Pascendi Dominici Gregis Encyclical by Pope St. Pius X on Modernism
Coffin Nation is now OPEN. Go to www.coffinnation.com
******************************
It’s been over a year since professional polemicist Milo Yiannopoulos more or left public life after losing three gigs in a row: his Breitbart editor position, his Simon & Schuster publishing deal (for his book Dangerous), and his plum CPAC speaker slot.
A massive plummet from the heights of internet fame (infamy?)
So what really happened? What did he say on those 2015 and 2016 podcasts that surfaced last February? More importantly, what did he mean? And does he have any regrets?
Milo, like probably 99% of the population, Catholic or otherwise, has gaps between what he professes and what he lives. St. Paul describes the phenomenon well in Romans 7:19, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Certainly, going ahead with an attempted marriage to his boyfriend puts him at odds with the teaching of the Catholic Church.
He has a new book out titled, Diabolical: How Pope Francis Has Betrayed Clerical Abuse Victims Like Me—and Why He Has To Go. Many of his followers, and obviously his enemies, want to know why someone who is Openly Gay [™] and civilly married to his boyfriend is qualified to criticize the Pope. They also want a close look at the man himself, in his own words, as distinct from the hysterical rumor mill about him.
In this episode you will learn:
- Milo’s childhood Catholic roots and the origin of the surname Yiannopoulos
- The facts about his abuse at the hands of a priest, who since committed suicide
- How he manages to reconcile his homosexual lifestyle with the Church he professes to love
- What his real opinions are regarding homosexuals
- Why he is passionate about “Making the Vatican Straight Again” (a chapter in his book)
Resources recommended in this episode:
- Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos
- Diabolical: How Pope Francis Has Betrayed Clerical Abuse Victims Like Me—and Why He Has To Go by Milo Yiannopoulos
- The World’s First Love by Fulton J. Sheen
Question of the week
In what ways do you make the perfect the enemy of the good?
Doors to Coffin Nation are now OPEN. But not for long, sign up today.
Sign up to be notified right here: Coffin Nation.
If you would like to support this show please do so here: www.patrickcoffin.media/donate
Doors to our long awaited program open next week! To get invited join the waiting list right here: www.coffinnation.com.
*****************************************************
It’s a curious fact that a movie that is literally not about abortion would be so effective as a pro-life story. Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer has caused a media splash by portraying the media in the film as too chicken to cover the trial of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who was ultimately convicted of multiple counts of murder.
By “media” I mean largely social media, and word of mouth. Stories roll in from across the country of theater owners playing games with show times (this happened to me in Southern California), seemingly suggesting that moviegoers not watch it, despite high viewer rating (Google users rate it at 97%) and the fact that it opened against much bigger budgeted films.
Scribe Andrew Klavan (crime writer, and screenwriter of Don’t Say a Word and True Crimes, directed by Clint Eastwood) describes how the harrowing subject matter ot translated to the big screen, and how husband-wife producer team Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney faced on uphill battle after another. And still so, in terms of fighting those forces that want this movie to die.
I can sort of see why. I just read of two moral conversions by influencers with large audiences who walked into the theater as pro-choice and walked out as pro-life. One is Florida political blogger Kathy Zhu. The other is Federalist writer Adam Mill.This is not a preachy movie, as Klavan makes clear–and as any objective viewer will conclude.
Gosnell is a rare blend of Christian premise, serious writing chops, and a CSI-like narrative of the facts as they are, able directed by Nick Searcy (who also plays Gosnell’s attorney Mike Cohan).
In this episode you will learn:
- How a movie is made, from concept to final story
- Why Gosnell, a movie not about abortion per se, yet grabs the viewer by the lapel and forces him to answer certain questions about life, death, and the law
- The level of opposition faced by the filmmakers, from the beginning
- Behind-the-scenes stories about the crafting and filming of Gosnell
- How Klavan drew upon his crime novel skills to bring this real-life trial to life
Resources recommended in this episode:
- Gosnell movie
- Don’t Say a Word movie
- True Crimes movie
- Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney