Billy Cunningham, the great American, Welcome to Floriath. Monday afternoon in the
Trystate Reds Baseball takes off about six ten to night from the Left Coast Giants
on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off Thursday, back out at Friday, Saturday
and Sunday. As Brian Tomb knows, there's a day night doubleheader on Friday,
September the first, and Saturday and Sunday. So the next next seven
games we'll say a lot about the Red Legs, what happens and what doesn't
happen. But until then, Brian Tomb, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham
Show. And Brian, I have many funging questions to ask that I've written
down as you can see. But number one, do you think God cares
about baseball? Does God care about the Bengals and Joe Burrow? Does God
care about MESSI? Does God care about any of that stuff? Well?
I have a funging question for you. First, Okay, what is it?
What is fungeance? What does this word mean? I mean, I
want's the seminary, but I don't know that. What is fungeance? What
is that? It's a word that I'm made up, and I use it
and frequently, but when I do it, always do it with important people
because funging is not a word, but it sounds good in place. So
can you answer their question? Does God care about Messing? Does God care
about Joe Burrow? Does God care about Ellie? Does God care about any
of that stuff? Absolutely? Does he does? You know? Oh totally?
You know. I know that you are the great American, the quote
unquote great American. And you know, the founding of our country, there
was a huge battle that was going back and forth between the Christians and the
Deists. The Dasts believe, which is Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson. The
dast believe that there was a divine creator who created things and then he stepped
back he was a great watchmaker. And then there were people like John Adams
and others who said, no, God is a personal God who's intricately involved
in our lives. And so when you by the way, we've been seeing
this secular, sacred push and pull since the founding of the country. In
the beginning, when they had that declaration of independence, excuse me, the
constitution, they said, we believe these truths to be self evident. There
was half of the delegates that wanted to say, we believe these truths to
be sacred. So you've even seen the founding of the country. There's this
push and pull. What divine narrative is gonna win out? And so when
you ask me that question about this, God care about MESSI on stuff.
The God I know Bill is a personal god who can have a personal relationship
and is aware of all the personal details of our life. So, yes,
God does care. Does he get involved and influenced in the end of
a soccer game. I don't think so, but doesn't mean doesn't care.
Well in our case. Locally, Tony Bender loves the San Francisco Giants and
he wants the Giants to beat the Reds. I love the Reds since the
good old days of Easy and Bailey from Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. I went
the Reds to win. And so if Tony's praying for the Giants tonight and
I'm praying like crazy for the Reds, how does God sort that out?
Well, he doesn't sort it out. We've got to remember prayers importance,
and God does intercede and suspend what humans might do from time to time.
That's why we pray. But God's given us free choice and free will.
He set things up that way. It's why we have evil in the world.
And that's also why at the end of a soccer game or soccer match,
it's going to be individuals free will. How much they have prepared for
the game, how hard they've worked out, how well they play, that
determines the end. Not God doesn't determine the end. He's He didn't create
a bunch of robots that just do his will. He created free agents,
all right. Page two, there's a push by the Archbishop Dennis Snurr,
which I heard at many of the masses, talking about issue one, which
was the abortion issue that went down hard in August, but now it's coming
back in November. Does Crossroads take a position on an issue like abortion or
not? I don't want to ask you a tough question early in the interview,
but there's the question, does Crossroads take a position on abortion telling your
constituency and the faithful flock to vote no or yes on abortion in November?
Well, let me give it. I will answer your question very directly with
a yes no, But first let me give a little background. I'm adopted.
I don't know if you knew that I was born at a very early
age and then I was adopted, And so anybody who was adopted in nineteen
sixty five knows that it was very possible, were the laws different, that
my birth mother would have taken the understandable and ease your way out and aborted
me. So anybody who is adopted, I think who's thinking rationally says man,
I'm glad I got a shot on life. So if you're going to
ask Brian Tomb what I believe about life in the womb, I would say
yes, Jesus was life in the womb of Mary. I would say yes.
Jesus and John the Baptist when they saw it, when they encountered each
other while they're voting in the mother's wombs, they left John the Baptist left
inside the womb because there's life in there. If I smash a rare sea
turtle egg, I get prosecuted because we recognize that's life. So it is
also life inside of the womb. So I'm pretty I'm pretty firm on that,
and we preached that a crossroads. Now, having said that, having
said that, we as a church, we do not point people to the
ballot box. We point people to tease us. So if somebody believes different
about abortion, great, you're at our church. You're welcome here. You
got to you just gotta hear the Bible preaching come to you, and then
you're gonna make your own own decision. But Crossroads is not a political organization.
The rallies are tens of thousands of people to vote a specific way.
I had somebody taken the task on that in an email just a couple of
weeks ago. They copied me, the archbishop Schnur, and they copied me
and another pastor, and they the woman said, hey, we go.
I go to all three of your churches and none of you spoke about issue
one. I'm very upset, And I thought myself, I bout myself,
Lady, if you're trying to get on any pastor priest good side by telling
advertising that you can't be committed to a local church, that you play the
field and you church shipsners not impressed that you're Catholic and protest at the same
time. So I said to it, said, look, we point people
to Jesus. We don't point people the ballot box. We're not a political
routing organization. So you will put out the missive the idea that in November
it's gonna switch. In August, if you voted yes, that meant you
were in favor of mending the constitution up to sixty percent and no mention keep
it at fifty and now it switches, while yes in August now means no,
and no in August now means you got to vote yes. Do you
think there's a level of confusion When you vote yes in August, it's different
than voting yes in November. When you voted no in August, that is
different than voting no in November. So sometimes you vote yes and then you
vote no, and then you vote no, then you vote yes. Know
what I'm saying. I don't because I'm confused. Well, I don't understand
it right right now. If you think abortion on the abortion issue right now,
in November, no means no and yes means yes. But in August
yes, men of no, no, no, mena yes, and there's
a confusion. You know what I'm saying, I'm not what I'm saying.
Now. Now let's say it be a little further with with my job,
Okay, So I'm trying to get people to holistically understand who Jesus is and
get the joy, peace and love of God in their lives. I'm trying
to get people to understand the hope of their future and get through their addictions,
get through their marital troubles. I'm trying to help people understand the basics
of the Bible. I only have so much time to talk that stuff,
so so I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about a convoluted thing that impacts
the political thing and political world and try to get you to vote the right
way when I've wasted all that time that I might actually be able to help
improve your life. And now, if that's some guys and some churches are
about that, great, no judgment on them. But if you're asking me,
I'm not about that. Not going to be about it, all right?
So you're not going to put out some letter or an email. I
guess letters don't exist anymore. I can't recall the last time I got a
letter. But you're not going to put out an email telling people that it's
my perception that you should vote no in November if you oppose abortion and transgender
rights and you're not going to do that. I'm not going to do that.
No, And now, now, would there be a point in America
where things are so extreme that I might get politically engaged, Yeah, there's
I guess there's a way for that. If i'd like to think, I'm
going to Germany for another tour. I've done it once, I'm doing it
again here next month. And you can't go there without asking yourself if Hitler,
if Hitler was ruling America right now, would I be like Dietrich Bonhoff
or a pastor who tried to kill him? And you know what I would?
I would if if if I knew, at least I'd like to believe
that I would. I'd like to believe that I would. Now when America,
if America ever gets that bad, at some point you say, okay,
we're talking about incredibly high stakes. It's very very clear, black and
white, and the end of civilization is at hand. Yeah, there could
come a place where I could get I forget it, you know, I'm
all in. We're a long long way off from me feeling like I've got
to be the conscious of people across roads and tell them how to vote.
I just I just don't see it all right. In May. As you
know, I went to Israel, went to Palestinian areas, spent time in
Jerusalem, and I made the comment to my friends. I said it on
the air at the time when I got back at the end of May first
of June, that one cannot be a Christian and having some doubts and then
go to Israel and come back without doubts. And I've seen your YouTube presentation
and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is purported to be the burial
site and the crucifixion site, either that or they or Golf might be also.
I went to both locations. What was the one or two things that
Brian Tombe, who I think is easy or shall I say difficult to impress?
What did you find about Israel that you found really unbelievable and even strengthened
your faith? Oh? Bill, it's I'm glad. We haven't talked since
you once to Israel, and I knew you talked to me about some God
recommendations and my guides couldn't work out. So man, I'm glad you got
there, and I'm glad sounding you had a great uh yep, yeah,
great, because I tell you people go over. A lot of people get
turned off that there's all these big ornate churches, ornate churches in these locations
where these New Testament events happened. But I don't get turned off by that
at all. I think it's pretty impressive. Like when I drive down a
highway and there's somebody who's died on their bicycle, you see white cross on
the side of the road, or you see a memorial goes up because people
know something significant happened here that memorialize it. All those churches are there because
early flawers of Christ said, yeah, right over there, that's the place
where Jesus tread them, where he turned fishes in the lows. Yeah yeah,
right over there, that's the place where where Peter was restored after deny
Christ three times. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, right over there,
that's where Jesus was crucified and then placed in a cave. Right beside it.
Now there's a big church up over top of it. And what it
does for me is it says, man, this does is real. This
isn't like Pine in the sky philosophies you can't test embarrassed by. You can
go to Israel and see the literal places where this happened, because the Bible
is history. It's not just faith. I think it's I think it's profound.
And when you do that, if you have an ember of faith that
burns, it's going to become a bonfire. Because when you're there in the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher underneath and look at the tablet where Jesus body was
washed, and look at the area or the pillar where he was scourged,
and you look at that and you're thinking, you know what, I'm on
the right track here. So here's the big question. Let's say you're an
Aborigine living in Australia, or you live in the hollers of Kentucky, or
you might live in somewhere in Asia or Africa, and you have no connection
to Christ in any which way. And according to Joe Strucker and many others,
that you have to have certain beliefs to walk into the pearly gates,
and if you don't have them, you're not walking in. What do you
say to those in large parts of continents that never heard of Christ whatsoever,
that they are going to walk into the pearly gates when they have not been
given an opportunity to believe or not believe. Well. A standard theological principle
that's taught in most very conservative seminaries is that we are judged according to what
we know. So if you have never heard the name of Jesus, you're
likely not going to be held accounts to what you believe or did out him.
And then beyond that, we don't get into heaven bill because of what
we believe. We get into heaven because of the grace of Jesus Christ.
We get into heaven because of what He's done for us, not because of
what we do for him. We get into heaven because he believes in us.
We don't get into heaven because we believe in him. It's his acts.
Roman says that all of sin and fall short of the glory of God
and is by grace. We are saved through faith, not of ourselves.
That no one can boast. I can't boast that I have a seminary education,
that I have a church of YadA, YadA, YadA, that I've
seen this. I said, no, no, that's not that's because Jesus
give me faith. I have grace. So I think it's important for us
to not judge and think too hard about what happens with other people and instead
think what's happened with me? Do I feel the grace and love of God
in my life? Now? Lastly, twenty years from now, likely I
will not be on the radio in these interviews between you and I will cease.
Well before that, quite likely. What happened? Say it ain't so
Oh, you're going forever, You're going. You're going along in the twenty
years. The American cause needs you, William, come on, I know
that. But Father Time is undefeated, untied, unscored on and so you
can you can't beat the grim Reaper. Same thing with Brian Tomb. When
your time on Earth has passed. What happens to crossroads? Well, that's
a very relevant question because you're right, the death rates hovering right around and
uh yeah, fifty seven right now, So it's coming sooner and soon not.
I've I have and we have with our board. We have a plan
if I drop my motorcycle off a cliff, or if I get you know,
if I get killed or whatever here and then in the next in the
next decade, we have a we've got a plan for who goes next,
and that person knows it and also if I go longer than ten years,
I want to be I want to be seventy when I'm gone. I've got
a long view. If I was only going to be about round about three
or four years, I've stopped making aggressive moves to row in the church and
reach people. So if it's longer than that, then it's going to be
somebody who's younger. And the advantage of I think one of the upsides of
having a peri a large church is you need a lot of leaders, and
therefore we've got a lot of farm system we've got. We've got a lot
of people can step in and I'm thankful for that kind of wish the Reds
had a farm system or some relief pictures. But someone sent me a message
a few months back when they knew that you had ridden continue to ride motorcycles.
Why in the heck does Brian tomb get on a motorcycle, which is
risky activity, and travel all over the West when you have so many people
depending upon you, What do you say about that? Well, first of
all, I don't want them depending on me. I want them depending on
God. That's the first thing i'd say. Second thing i'd say is America
isn't the land of the free or the land of the fear. We've got
more fears and paranoias and hang ups and take more meds for anxieties, and
have more counseling appointments and more fixations and more paranoia than any country in the
history of the world, bar none, bar none. It's ridiculous how stress
and fearful we are. So part of why I do some dangerous stuff is
I want to tell myself I'm not going to be ruled by fear, and
I want to model for people. Live your life and stop living in fear
and anxiety. God's good. There's going to come a time when you're gone
and you're done, Yes there is. But enjoy your life. And there's
certain things I'm not going to do. Like people keep trying to tell me
the skydive, how do see instant sky dive it? It doesn't interest me,
not interested in the slightest. But I think it's important for leaders to
model a level of fearlessness more than it is to model responsible conservative behavior.
I'm just on interested nets. Brian Tone, once again, let's do this
every two or three months. But thank you for coming on sharing your thoughts
and to be safe out there on the roads. William, you're too kind.
I'm glad you're back from Israel. By the way, speaking of fear,
I mean, how many people before you went over to Israel said,
oh, it's dangerous over there. Oh look out? Did you ever feel
it dangerous? And a zero less than zero, right, less than zero.
I didn't feel in Palestinian areas like Bethlehem, where there's a church on
top of the alleged birthplace of the Christ that was completely Palestinian an Arab,
I felt as safe as in my mother's arms. No issue, right right,
But you know again our country, it's dangerous over there, and look
out, they've got suicide bombers. That the Muslims are crazy over there.
I've never I've been over to Israel fifteen times. I've never met a Muslim.
I don't like fifteen times. Did you mean any bad Muslims while you
were there? Zero? In fact, they were warm and welcoming and no
problem. Brian Tom let's do it again, and God bless you and stay
safe. Thank you, William, We'll see you. God bless America.
Brian tomb the Archbishop of the Crossroads. Let's continue on news radio seven hundred
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