In this week’s Brief: Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and return to late-night TV isn’t just about comedy—it’s about the FCC, political pressure, and what this says about the state of free expression in America. We’re unpacking the story, the fallout, and what it reveals about today’s media landscape.
We’re also looking at the powerful moments from Charlie Kirk’s memorial service—especially Erica Kirk’s public act of forgiveness—and how grace in the public square can reshape our understanding of faith, politics, and culture.
Plus, we offer thoughts on the viral movements around “revival” and “rapture”, Trump’s announcement regarding Tylenol and pregnancy, the looming government shutdown, the Ryder Cup, and this weekend’s must-watch football matchups.
We’re here to help stay grounded with biblical insight and thoughtful conversation as you navigate today’s culture.
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Topics
- (00:59): Kimmel’s suspension
- (05:07): Public and political reactions
- (15:13): Kimmel’s return and monologue
- (20:24): Erica Kirk’s powerful speech at Charlie’s Memorial
- (24:33): Radical forgiveness and revival
- (30:46): Biblical mandate for forgiveness
- (35:51): Culture check-in: ICE shooting, Tylenol, UN meeting, Gov. shutdown
- (41:00): Sports tune-in
Resources
- Send us your thoughts, questions, and topic ideas: [email protected]
- Culture Brief Instagram
- Sign-up for Denison Forum’s daily newsletter: DenisonForum.org/subscribe
Links mentioned in this episode:
Other articles on this week’s top headlines:
- Jimmy Kimmel is returning to ABC tonight – Denison Forum
- 400 Celebs Sign Open Letter Backing Jimmy Kimmel, Including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston
- FCC’s Carr says Jimmy Kimmel ‘misled’ the public with remarks on Charlie Kirk’s killer
- ABC temporarily suspends Jimmy Kimmel’s show
- Erika Kirk forgives her husband’s alleged assassin – Denison Forum
- For Erika Kirk, a Husband’s Life Cut Short by Violence He Seemed to Foresee – The New York Times
- Christian author Frank Turek describes being 25 feet away when Charlie Kirk was shot: ‘Like a son to me’
- Why the alleged assassin killed Charlie Kirk – Denison Forum
- Key Moments From the Charlie Kirk Memorial
- Charlie Kirk’s Wife Erika Forgives His Killer at Memorial Service
- At Charlie Kirk memorial, Trump rallies MAGA against political opponents | Reuters
- Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, says she forgives man accused of murder
- Erika Kirk Forgives Charlie’s Killer in Heartbreaking Memorial Speech: FULL TRANSCRIPT | CBN News
About Conner Jones
Conner Jones is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.
About Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Senior Advancement Officer at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, the Faith & Clarity podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Conner Jones: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.
Micah Tomasella: I’m Micah Tomasella,
Conner Jones: and this is Culture Brief, a Denon Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more. And we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. And Micah, it’s been a crazy week out there.
You wanna just give us quick rundown on what we’re gonna be talking about today.
Micah Tomasella: Yes, Conner seems like every week is crazy, but good thing we serve a good God who’s in control. So Conner, first and foremost is gonna break down. Kimmel being suspended. His show is now back on air, but we’re gonna talk about everything that transpired from that.
I’m also gonna take us through just the concept of forgiven. People do forgive. People, I’m gonna talk about Erica Kirk and her speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial. And then we’re gonna go over things like, Hey, is the government about to shut down? Are we gonna come to an agreement? The Ryder Cup is coming up and we’ve got some fun football stuff coming up too, big sports weekend and that and so much more.
So let’s jump into the brief.
Conner Jones: The brief. Okay. Micah, I [00:01:00] certainly did not expect to be talking about late night television. And the F-C-C aka, the Federal Communications Commission twice in two months. But my goodness, here we are because Kimmel got suspend. ’cause no one watches
Micah Tomasella: late night tv. So what late night
Conner Jones: is, is supposedly a dying industry.
But I tell you what, this, this whole saga with Kimmel might’ve just revived it ’cause. He’s got more attention than he’s had in years which is good for him, I guess. Not the way he would’ve wanted it. But here we are last night’s episode. We’re, we’re recording on Wednesday morning. So Kimmel came back on the air on Tuesday night.
It’s already expected to break a bunch of his own records. Had 8 million views just on YouTube alone mm-hmm. A lot to break down here. Basically, I. I’m gonna just talk about what happened, how he got suspended real fast, and then what he said on his return and why did this happen in the first place, is really kinda the big question.
What’s, what’s the undercurrent of culture that’s happening here with Kimmel Suspension? And for what it’s worth, when I talk about this in July, a similar situation happened with Paramount CBS, where they actually fully canceled [00:02:00] Stephen Colbert’s late night show. And that was, they were saying, you’re gonna be off the air, come May, or this is your last season.
A lot of people thought that was them capitulating to Trump because Trump really did not like Colbert. They said it was a financial decision, whatever you think. Either way, Colbert ended up winning an Emmy. Literally on a CBS broadcast two weekends ago. So the joke was maybe on CBS in that scenario.
Anyways, they were waiting for approval from the FCC, which is the, the organization that is behind broadcast television. They regulate internet, they regulate broadcast, satellite, a whole bunch of things. And the man in charge of the SCC is, remember this name. Brendan Carr. I’m gonna mention him several times throughout this.
Brendan Carr is the only FCC person I have ever heard of because typically this is a behind the scenes organization, right? You would not normally know who leads the FCC, but Brendan Carr is all over the place, man. He’s on tv, he’s on podcasts. He’s very loyal to Trump and making that very known. What are the details here?
Last week, as [00:03:00] many of you know, Kimmel went on the air on Monday night and discussed the arrest of Charlie Kirk’s shooter and he said we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.
That was the statement that got him suspended by Disney, by by a b, C. Honestly, Micah, I. Don’t think it’s a great comment. I think it was probably badly timed. I think it was a little insensitive, but I did not find it to be so egregious or abrasive that it, it, it warranted suspension. What, what did you think?
Micah Tomasella: I mean, I’ll just keep it to the comment because I know that we’re gonna kind of have a broader free speech debate and what the FCC is doing and how we feel about that.
I mean, I thought, I thought the comment was terrible. Uh uh, really? I thought it was shortsighted. And he’s supposed to be telling jokes.
I mean, even if it’s at the expense of [00:04:00] the other side, that he disagrees with it. There was no punchline. I mean, I watched that video. There was, that wasn’t a joke. That was just him making a pot shot because he’s upset and he’s blinded by his political you know, belief and, you know, but I think we all can kind of get that way and we all have said things that we regret.
The majority of us don’t have as large of an audience as, as he does. So I thought the comment itself. Was terrible. But we’ll get into the, the larger discussion of if that actually warranted any, you know, actual I don’t even know what you wanna call it. Maybe overreach by the government. I don’t think so, but yeah, I didn’t like the comment.
Conner Jones: And here’s the thing. I actually don’t think most people even realize the comment was said. ’cause on Monday night is when he said it. Day goes on to Tuesday, he’s, he’s back on the air on Tuesday night. I had no clue this comment was said neither. But on Tuesday is when it started to, ’cause again,
Micah Tomasella: no one’s watching it.
Conner Jones: That’s, that’s a piece of this, right? No one’s really watching it and. I don’t think most people took such offense to the comment. It was an off the wall comment. It was not good. But [00:05:00] he probably does that more often than not. And most people just move past it. But then it started to get some traction on social media, especially rightwing circles because of Brendan.
And the next thing you know, Brendan Carr, who I said remember his name? FCC Chairman is on Benny Johnson. He’s a right wing commentator. He’s on his podcast on Tuesday. No, sorry, Wednesday morning. So a whole day has gone by since this comment’s been said, and nothing’s really happened on Wednesday morning.
He goes on this podcast and says that Kimmel’s comments were truly sick and that there was a strong case for the FCC to take action against A, B, C, and its parent company. And he really threatened them by saying, we could do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there was going to be an additional work.
For the FCC ahead. Okay. That freaked the Disney brass out, right? They all of a sudden they’re having emergency meetings at the top levels of Disney who owns A, B, C, and Disney executives all the way up to CEO Bob Iger. Were wanting to go ahead and move forward with Wednesday’s episode that night as long as Kimmel was willing to address the comment and apologize.
But Kimmel was apparently not [00:06:00] going to do that. He was not gonna apologize down. In fact, he maybe gonna double down and it made it made them even more nervous. So they were like, okay, we gotta just suspend the show and figure something out here. But before they could even make their announcement that they suspended the show, Sinclair and a company called nexstar, these are two affiliate companies that broadcast A, B, C, and all of our broadcast channels to local networks.
They’re kinda like middlemen. Most people had never heard of them, and it’s not generally something you’re aware of, but they have a lot of power because they’re the middleman between a, B, C, and our actual televisions and local stations, right? These two companies who own enough affiliate stations to make up 22% of the nation’s.
Broadcast of A, B, C said that they were not going to air Kimmel on Wednesday night. Mm-hmm. So they stepped in and said, we’re not gonna do it. And then Disney followed up and said, okay, we’re gonna suspend, suspend them Now with those affiliate stations, something to note is Nexstar, one of those companies is in the middle of a $6.2 billion merger with another one called te.
All these names just sound like eighties companies. Names, yeah. [00:07:00] Sinclair’s, Nexstar, tegna. They’re all affiliate stations, but nexstar and tegna tegna are trying to come together and merge, but they need approval from Guess who? Mein Carr and the f ccc. Yeah. So naturally they’re gonna try to, you know, make the government happy here.
All that to say Disney, CEO, Bob Iger. Their TV executive, Dana Walden, they were lambasted man. They were, they were thrown under the bus by the left and saying that they are taking part basically and censoring Kimmel and Cal talking to the government specifically to Trump and that they’re betraying their talent there at Disney.
And Mike, I don’t know if you’re aware fully of who Bob Iger is, but he is definitely one of the most well-respected CEOs in America, yeah. He, he’s, he’s navigated a lot of tough waters and he’s tried to do things right. He’s tried to be on the talent side. He did get in a lot of hot water with his own people when he paid off a settlement with Trump earlier this year for $16 million.
So the Trump Library to get, to get the administration off their back in a lawsuit, his predecessor and Bob [00:08:00] Iger again, is beloved by many people, but his own predecessor, Michael Eisner the CEO, kind of in the nineties and early two thousands said, where has all the leadership gone? The suspending indefinitely of Jimmy Kimmel immediately after the chairman of the fccs.
Aggressive yet hollow threatening of the Disney company is yet another example of out of control, intimidation, another form. A BC executive said that on Bob Iger that this whole thing is a stain on his legacy. This will be in the first paragraph of his obituary. It’s that bad. Whoa, Iger taking a lot of heat here, man.
Hollywood has not been kind to him and he’s kind of, you know, he’s kind of in a hard position ’cause he’s trying to protect his company, including deals that Disney’s going through, like the E-S-P-N-N-F-L deal that is currently needing. Government approval from the DOJ. He’s thinking, okay, if we don’t, if we don’t make the government happy, they could shut down our deal with the NFL.
That would be terrible for ESPN in Disney, right? So you kind of get it, but you also gotta realize that Kimmel man, he’s a, he’s an artist, he’s a talent, and he’s supposed to be able to speak [00:09:00] the way he wants, and he’s got a lot of friends in Hollywood. So everybody came and backed him up, right? Everybody knows Kimmel, they’ve all been on his show.
All the Hollywood elite, all the top talent, even a lot of politicians. So kind of a lot going on there. All that to say, Micah, I think we all know the whole thing ended up being short-lived because it was less than a week and he was back on air. So lot to take in there. Disney did come back and say in their statement when they announced he was returning, we made the decision to suspend the show to avoid further and blaming tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.
And we have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy. And after those conversations, we reach the decision to return to the show. I will note that Nexstar and Sinclair, 22% of the nation’s affiliate cares did not air Tuesday night’s episode when he returned. And they have not said when they’re gonna start airing it.
They’re preempting a chauffeur, the current for the time being. But Micah, here’s my question for you. Are, is Brendan Carr of the FCC abusing the powers of his [00:10:00] commission to leverage Disney and broadcasters into censoring speech that the Trump administration does not like? Do you feel like this is a, a free speech issue?
Micah Tomasella: I mean, take this with a grain of salt because my opinion isn’t any more credentialed than anyone listening. There’s probably a lot of our listeners who are more c credentialed and who understand this a little bit, even more deeply than I do, but absolutely. This is infringement, this is wrong. I didn’t like it at all.
I didn’t like it at all from the start, and I was wondering where the conservative voices out. Out there were, and I know that you’re gonna touch on that because some did come out in opposition to this. I’m gonna take this in a different direction here just for a second. Carter, we have got to understand that human nature is to get revenge on the people who have wronged you.
A lot of the maga talking points out there, the liberals are just getting a taste of their own medicine. Democrats, the left have [00:11:00] controlled a lot of legacy media. Every single late night talk show host is liberal. Every single large news organization was liberal, right? So it’s this concept of for years and years and years, there’s been no one in these platforms speaking to the other half of the country, but.
When a president is elected and then it gets flipped on its own, you know, it gets flipped on its head. The, the, the human nature, the sin in us says, oh, I’m gonna, I’m gonna drive them into the ground. I’m gonna give them a taste of their own medicine. That’s where it has to stop because it’ll never end at that point.
It’s just like what we talked about with Charlie Kirk with political violence. At some point, somebody in leadership has to say, no, I’m gonna treat others the way that I want to be treated. If that doesn’t happen, it’s just tit for tat. It’s just back and forth over and over and over again. Although I understand the initial reaction of, oh, Kimmel’s just getting a taste of his own medicine.
Guys, think about 20, 28. Maybe the candidate you don’t [00:12:00] want is in office, and then maybe that FCC director is like going after what you believe. Mm-hmm. Then how are you gonna feel at that point? So I, we have just gotta take more of a long-term perspective on these issues and stop giving into our emotions.
I didn’t like it at all.
Conner Jones: Yeah. I, I’m right there with you. I, I think it was a little bit of an overreach. I will say Disney is a private company and has the ability to make their own decisions, and clearly they did make the decision right. Now, a lot of people would say, I’m not saying that they made, they made the wrong one, but in a capitalist society, they’re the ones Now were they being pressured and threatened?
Absolutely. I have no
Micah Tomasella: issue. I have no issue with a private company doing what they need to do. There’s. No First Amendment, free speech stuff that we’re talking about there that’s outlined in the Constitution. But when Brendan Carr came out and said what he said, that’s when I was like, okay. Yeah. Let’s, let’s take a deep breath here.
Let’s take a step back for a second.
Conner Jones: Yeah. For some clarity on what the FCC is supposed to actually be mandating. Yeah. They’re supposed to be looking for decency, like the policing decency, which really just includes profanity and sexual explicit [00:13:00] material. Making sure that is not on broadcast television.
But they have no, I could argue
Micah Tomasella: they should do a better job with that.
Conner Jones: They probably should. Specifically with sexual content
Micah Tomasella: on tv. Yeah.
Conner Jones: Yeah. They, so they’re in charge of those broadcast networks. They can’t, they don’t control streaming. They can’t, they have no power over Netflix. Or Amazon Prime or anything like that.
That is, it’s a new world. In fact, they’re losing power ’cause so much of the stuff is moving off.
Micah Tomasella: Wild West
Conner Jones: Kimmel’s episode. Even if all the broadcast network affiliates said they weren’t gonna air it, it doesn’t matter. It’s gonna be on Hulu tonight, like 24 hours later. They put it on Hulu, it’s gonna be on YouTube.
The YouTube video from last night’s episode already has 8 million views of his monologue. Yeah. So it’s kind of a, it’s kind of an interesting situation. Anyways they’re supposed to be mandating that. In regards to Disney, I’ve heard multiple different people say the same type of thing in regards to when Iger paid off a settlement of $16 million to Trump.
If you keep giving the bully your lunch money, that doesn’t really make him go away. He just comes back hungry each time. So that’s kind of a thought process there. And then Ted Cruz, Texas Senator, he said that car [00:14:00] statements sounded like a mafia boss’s threats, and that he also warned of a crackdown on speech on the left by the Trump administration would come back.
To bite conservatives the next time the Democrats hold the White House. Exactly what you were just saying, right? Joe Rogan this week said the same thing on his podcast, which goes out to millions of people. He said, you are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you talking to the right.
People who are supportive of of Kimmel’s. We must cancellation stay
Micah Tomasella: critically. No matter where you find yourself in your political leanings or where you find yourself, which section of the aisle you sit on and where you vote, you’ve got. To think critically, we’ve gotta stop following a herd mentality and just taking the opinion of what.
You know, your side wants you to know, and the algorithms that you get trapped in, we’ve gotta have a more long-term perspective than that.
Conner Jones: Yeah. What’s interesting is this week at the same time, it’s kind of been not really noticed, but YouTube came out and basically said, we, we sort of apologized back in 20, 20 and 21.
Yeah. We censored and de platformed a lot of people for quote unquote COVID [00:15:00] misinformation, and they replatformed a lot of those people. So it, it’s kind of the same thing. That, that, that’s a more left-leaning company. Now, a few years later, they get a taste of their own medicine and it’s just gonna be a cycle if this continues right back and forth.
So Kimmel came back on air on Tuesday night. What did he say? He had a pretty good monologue. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of it yet, Micah. Yeah, I did.
Micah Tomasella: I did
Conner Jones: and he had some interesting little jokes in there. I thought it was kind of funny. He came out to thunderous applause. Everybody was excited to see him again.
He brought in Robert De Niro to play a mafia type of guy with Brendan Carr’s comments. So that was kind of a good joke on that. Anyways, he said in his monologue. He really railed on the Trump administration for what he called its dangerous and anti-American attempt to have him canceled, but he did thank a bunch of Republican senators, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell other conservative commentators like Ben Shapiro and Clay Travis for basically what we were talking about.
People who, as he said, people who don’t support my show and what I believe. But support my right to share those beliefs anyways, the show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show [00:16:00] like this. And then through tears kind of addressing the comment that he made that, as we already said, was not great, through just some tears.
He said, it was never in my intention to make light of the murder of a young man, nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of a deeply disturbed individual. I understand what I said was ill-timed or unclear. And then he specifically hits on Erica Kirk, and I know you’re gonna talk about her whole speech here in a few minutes, Micah, but just as a prelude to that, he said Erica Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband.
And that is an example we should follow. If you believe in the teachings of Jesus as I do. There, it was a selfless act of grace and forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply, and if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that he said, he
Micah Tomasella: said, if, if you believe in the teachings of Jesus as I do, he did say
Conner Jones: that.
Yep. Now don’t know what his faiths stands.
Micah Tomasella: I, I didn’t know he said that. He did say that specifically. That part I did know he talked about Erica Kirk in a positive way. Wow. [00:17:00]
Conner Jones: Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: Okay. Kind
Conner Jones: of interesting, right? Mm-hmm.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Conner Jones: Anyways, you gotta remember there’s a lot of people in our culture who, and maybe he, maybe he’s a Christian, deep down, he’s had a, a salvation moment with Christ, but a lot of people do recognize the teachings of Jesus as being incredible teachings.
Now, how they Yeah, yeah, that’s true. Set the faith in him. I just don’t know where he stands in that, but you
Micah Tomasella: can respect him and not believe in him. But I mean, who knows? I mean, I, none of us can begin to know where Jimmy Kimmel stands spiritually. Yep. I mean, you can see what you see, but no one knows his heart.
Conner Jones: True. One big note is he did not technically apologize or say, sorry. So a lot of people on the right and even turning point USA people are still pretty upset about that. They, they still want an actual direct apology. Anyways, all this to say, I, I really loved an article. Our friend, Dr. Ryan Denison wrote.
And Fri on Friday for the daily article. He, I, I’m gonna quote some of his article here ’cause he was writing about the suspension. This is before we knew Kimmel was coming back, but he said regardless of where you stand politically, the government openly wielding this kind of influence should concern us all.
And as [00:18:00] Christians, we should assume that there will be times when our beliefs come into conflict with the popular norms of the culture around. After all Jesus promised it would be that way. And then quoting John 1518, Jesus literally said, if the world hates you, you know it, that it has hated me before.
It hated you. Yeah. So then Ryan called out that as Christians, we are no more entitled to God’s blessings than Jimmy Kimmel is to a late night talk show. Yeah. This begs the, the following questions. Do our words and actions reflect well on our witness? Are there areas of our life where we’ve sacrificed God’s blessings in favor of the worlds?
And when you think type or post about people who think differently than you do, how well do you, how well do your words align with your faith? It’s a good question. Something to be introspective about. And I would say, remember this, that words and actions that do not align with our faith will not get us fired in the sense of losing our salvation.
But they can relegate us to the sidelines of God’s kingdom work. And that was something else that Ryan had said. So it’s, it’s [00:19:00] just a good thought to have remember your words, your actions. How are you thinking politically? How are you thinking faithfully? How are you thinking about your work in your office?
Are your, are they all aligning with the way Christ would tell you to live and speak in the Apostle Paul? One last note here, he warns in one Corinthians 10 23. All things are lawful. But not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. So think about your words this week and and I’m doing the same thing.
I mean, this has all been a great mm-hmm. Just kind of check. Yeah, same on my own faith. So anyways, any last thoughts there, Micah?
Micah Tomasella: No thanks, Conner. That’s really good. I know that we kind of went longer on that segment, but I just think it’s really important. I think that we should be having these discussions as believers.
We don’t identify ultimately with one party over the other. We wanna stand strongly on God’s word and understand that our first and only allegiance is to Jesus and the work that he’s doing in this world, and we wanna partner with him in that. And so I think a part of that, fellow [00:20:00] Christians, as you know, I’ve said this before, we just gotta call a spade a spade.
Like we just gotta get outta this heard think group think mentality. And we gotta go to God’s word and we gotta understand what truth is. Surround ourselves with the right people and recognize, hey, that’s wrong. No matter if this is the person that I didn’t vote for or I did vote for, or no matter who’s in office or not.
We just gotta be willing to call what’s wrong, wrong. And I think we need to get back to that. Conner, thanks for that. I appreciate it. Alright, so I’m gonna talk, I’m, I’m gonna try to go through this pretty quickly, but, i’m gonna talk all about this Charlie Kirk memorial service that happened this past Sunday.
Really overall just unbelievable and it was very, very beautiful. Yeah. And I’m just calling this forgiven people, forgive people. Erica Kirk and Charlie Kirk’s memorial. So Charlie Kirk’s Memorial. This past Sunday was one of the biggest events of the year, truly like in-person events of the year.
State Farm Stadium in Arizona, where the Cardinals play was filled with nearly 100. Thousand people in the White House estimated that more than a hundred million tuned in to watch online or even on tv. [00:21:00] It felt less like a private service, right? Which is what they meant. And it meant, it felt more like a national moment where grief, politics, and faith collided in a way that I don’t think that we typically see it.
It was the most unique thing. That I’ve seen in a long time. It was very, very, very interesting. Conner, I’ll come to you here in a second ’cause I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Yeah. The headline grabbers were everywhere. So many storylines came out of this event. President Donald Trump attended, sat in a suite with Elon Musk and the two even shared some laughs together during the service.
Yeah, that was interesting. Still went viral. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean. Grief can bring people together. And that was kinda the first time in person that Trump and Elon had gotten back together since they had their falling out. Seems like they’re in a better spot. Vice President JD Vance took the stage and, and here’s something that he said.
I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the last two weeks than I have in my entire time in public life. Understand people. This is the vice President of the United States saying like this. He later went on to share the gospel in a very clear way. [00:22:00] I, I just so cool, man. Un unbelievable. Okay. Other cultural and political leaders spoke as well, but the moment that everyone remembers belongs to Erica Kirk.
Mm-hmm. Her husband had just been assassinated days earlier, and yet she stood on the stage and she said, no. These words that no one, including myself, expected to hear it. It shocked me a little bit. It’s beautiful, but it shocked me. My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men just like the one that took his life.
That young man, that young man on the cross, our savior said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and it’s what Charlie would do The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love.
And is always love. Wow. That wasn’t just a win, that that wasn’t just a widow speaking in grief or a widow lashing out, and she would’ve had every right to do [00:23:00] that. That was a believer in Jesus who’s been transformed by the power of Jesus proclaiming the heart of the gospel in front of the entire world that was watching.
Conner, what were your impressions from the event overall? Before I get into some of the more details, man,
Conner Jones: that moment right there. Which just so powerful. I, in fact, I would venture to, to say it’s one of the most powerful moments, probably of, of this decade. And maybe further. I just like how many people saw that moment of Erica forgiving this killer and then also dropping the gospel in there?
Unbelievable. Her strength is incredible. Her ability to come out there and speak to the stadium and then to millions of people watching live, and then more millions upon million, probably hundreds of millions have seen the clip. I mean. I’ve seen people who are not religious at all speaking into this saying like, wow, and that’s how you share Jesus.
And that’s even what Kimmel said, right? Like he was like, this is the kind of way you should live and the way you should speak. What she did in that moment was so beyond powerful. And I’m sure the Holy Spirit was [00:24:00] very much a part of that. And it spoke to everybody in that stadium and everybody watching.
And my prayer is that the Holy Spirit continues to speak through that moment. Amen. In more moments. Amen. Including Vance. Amen. And everybody else that was speaking that dropped the gospel. Such a powerful service
Micah Tomasella: and and I love that. That’s the biggest takeaway from the event on left and right for the most part.
That it’s not a rallying cry for, let’s get the other side. Let’s pack the ballot boxes and get more people elected. I’m not saying some of those things like voting are bad at all. I’m just saying Jesus, that’s what came out of the event. Radical forgiveness is what came outta the event. And I think that’s beautiful.
Conner Jones: And the term revival, it was said during that service multiple times and it multiple times it keeps getting thrown around.
Micah Tomasella: So for 10 days, the country watched the aftermath of Charlie’s death, and Erica pointed out something that’s hard to miss. She talked about how there was no rioting, there was no violent response.
Instead, there were prayer gatherings, there were worship services, there were prayer vigils, and conversations about faith. [00:25:00] Where faith isn’t usually discussed, and she said specifically these past 10 days after Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see revolution. We saw revival. There it’s, but not every voice at Yeah, but not every voice at the memorial carried the same message.
President Trump honoring Charlie said he did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. The honesty was raw and he kind of said it in a joking manner and it was very Trump, but it stops and it makes you ponder for a second.
What should I believe? What is the world telling me? What is my flesh telling me? What does God’s word have to say? Holy Spirit, will you give me guidance? Help me to handle this in a way that brings you glory, God, this moment or any other moment in the future. How do I handle this moment? This what feels like a hinge point in our nation’s history?
How do I handle this in my household and at work and in [00:26:00] different relationships? How do I handle this to the glory of God? It’s a conversation between you and God and the community that he’s placed around you, but I just think Trump coming up and saying that afterwards. Everyone can relate to that sentiment.
He’s saying, I’m not saying I’m surprised he said that at all. I’m just saying, believer, how are you handling this? How are you processing through this? It just makes you think. So what’s at stake? Forgiveness isn’t natural. Everything in us wants to pay back. Everything in our culture tells us to cancel, tells us to cut off to lash out.
Trump’s words are probably closer to how most of us feel in the heat of the moment, in the heat of feeling opposition. But Erica modeled something completely different. And that difference matters because without forgiveness, bitterness takes root, division deepens violence becomes the response. Doesn’t that sound like where our nation is right now?
Yeah. But forgiveness, true forgiveness breaks the cycle. It doesn’t erase justice, but it does free us from the grip of hate. What’s that old [00:27:00] quote? Holding on to unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person is hurt from it, right? Yeah. And it shows a world the picture of Jesus.
They can’t explain away. You just can’t explain away that type of radical forgiveness. So I’ll be honest, Conner. I don’t know how I would respond if I were in Erica’s shoes 10 days after my husband was assassinated in front of the entire world when I had, you know, I, I, I just can’t imagine how I would respond just as a spouse in that moment to stand on a stage days after losing your spouse and forgive the man who pulled the trigger.
That’s supernatural brother. That is something I could only do. If Jesus himself was strengthening me to do it. It’s, I it’s unbelievable that fresh, you know? Yeah. And Tucker Carlson reminded everyone that forgiveness doesn’t start with other people. It starts with us. This is one of the lesser known quotes from the event, honestly.
But I just saw Tucker talk, and I don’t always agree with Tucker on stuff. I but, but I, I really appreciated what he [00:28:00] said, and here’s what he said. I thought this was powerful. The main thing about Charlie and his message, he was bringing the gospel to the country. He was doing the thing that the people in charge hate most, which is calling for them to repent.
Christianity. The gospel message, the message of Jesus begins with repentance. Christianity calls you to change our core prayer demands that we forgive other people, but proceeding that is a request for our forgiveness. In other words, forgive us our sins, meditate on what we’ve done wrong, how we’ve fallen short, and then it becomes possible to forgive other people.
That is the call to change our hearts. And then he says, we me a recognition that the real problem is me and how fallen I am. That’s the heart of it, right? Forgiveness isn’t possible unless we realize how deeply we ourselves need forgiveness. That’s why forgiven people [00:29:00] can forgive people. Because we have the perspective of in the depths of the darkness and despair, in the depths of the worst parts of myself, I have been forgiven.
Therefore, not only am I commanded to forgive, but I must, I have to, I have to forgive. I didn’t deserve forgiveness. I have to dole out forgiveness. Yeah. Conner, any thoughts on that before I move on?
Conner Jones: No, I just there’s so much in scripture that talks about forgiveness and like how much we were to forgive and our, our God forgave us.
It’s so hard to do. It’s so difficult for our hearts to let go of things and to forgive and to. Break that mold, break that ice with somebody, and the tensions can build up. Especially the longer you wait to forgive. Man, the quicker you can do it, the better. I, I still, I cannot believe Erica was able to do this 10 days later.
Mm-hmm. And forgive this man cannot imagine what that took to say, but it, it could also, you know, one of those situations where people wait years and years and years and there’s so [00:30:00] much hurt and pain that builds up. And I, I think the Bible telling us. Forgive. Now, there’s a certain point where it says you can only get forgive so many times.
But yeah, it’s a, it’s a powerful thing to do.
Micah Tomasella: I mean, and forgiveness doesn’t, doesn’t mean you need to stay in relationship with that person. Doesn’t mean that you, you know, whatever your context is. I’m about to kind of dive into how we need to examine our, our own hearts to forgive. But forgiveness is giving that burden that hurt to God.
You know? Mm. And I, and I, I just think that it’s so important. I’m so glad that it’s gonna be a process for Erica. I’m not saying it’s cured, it’s solved, but making that decision to forgive in light of the forgiveness we’ve been given. Is a beautiful step for her to take and specifically a beautiful step for her to proclaim and take publicly.
Alright, so the, the, the Bible, you know, as I wrap up, the Bible just doesn’t give us much wiggle room in terms of forgiveness. Jesus hanging on the cross prayed. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Luke 2320 Luke [00:31:00] 2334, Matthew 5 44. He told us, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Paul wrote in Colossians three 13, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you must also forgive. You must also forgive. Here’s one more from Romans 20 from Romans. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. It’s not optional. Forgiven people, forgive people. Forgiveness is just not optional. Because we’ve been forgiven, therefore, we must forgive. And here’s the key. Forgiveness flows out of what Jesus has already done for us. And Frank Turk, a well-known Christian apologist, said it best at the service.
I think Charlie Kirk is in heaven, not because he was a great husband and father, not because he saved millions of kids out of darkness, not because he sacrificed [00:32:00] himself in honor of his savior. Charlie Kirk is in heaven because his savior. Sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk. No amount of good works are gonna get it done for you.
No amount of good that you do is gonna get it done for you. It’s the fact that your savior gave himself up for you. That’s the gospel. Forgiveness doesn’t begin with us. It begins with him. When we grasp how much we have been forgiven, we can finally forgive others. When we feel the weight of our sin, we recognize that we’ve been given a gift that we don’t deserve and we are unable to earn.
So here’s the challenge. What do you or who do you need to forgive? Not in theory, not in principle, but who is God putting on your heart right now to forgive? Just take a second and will you trust him enough to let go of the bitterness and obey what he’s clearly teaching All of us right now? Forgiveness doesn’t make the pain go away.
But it puts [00:33:00] justice back in God’s hands, and it opens the door for healing to take place in your heart and in your life. And it may be the most powerful witness to the gospel that the people around you will ever see. If you radically love and you radically forgive, and you choose to not hold onto bitterness when, when the majority of everyone will hold onto that bitterness and will not forgive, and for the most part, when you’re done wrong.
Absolutely, I understand that reaction. But think about the witness. When you show radical love and specifically radical forgiveness. That’s a beautiful witness. So let’s take Erica Kirk’s example. Seriously, if Jesus has forgiven us of every single thing, then we cannot afford to hold back forgiveness from others, because when forgiven people choose to forgive, the world sees Jesus more clearly.
Conner Jones: Mm. Yeah. Good stuff. I mean, there’s a lot we can take from this. There’s always lessons we can learn biblically, even from the things happening in culture every single week. Yep. Whether it’s a, it’s a TV dispute or it’s [00:34:00] a, a memorial service. Either way, powerful things are happening. We are praying for revival and join us.
Yeah. We are praying for that revival. There is something stirring in the waters. I mean, the Holy Spirit is moving. And there’s actually two, two things really going viral on social media right now. One is revival. The other, oddly enough, is the word rapture. A lot of people talking about the rapture right now supposedly it’s happening today according to social media.
No, yesterday. It was supposed to be yesterday, the 23rd. What’s today’s date? I’ve seen the 24th as well. The 20 fourth’s. One recording. You know, it could, I don’t, I mean, I guess it could always be ready. It could, what we’ll say to that is we don’t know the timing, but as you read these things on social media and all that, turn back to the Bible and find truth whether it’s towards revival or the rapture or whatever it is happening in culture.
A lot of conversations around, it’s good point. There’s a lot
Micah Tomasella: of spiritual conversation happening right now. It’s a good point.
Conner Jones: Yep. Okay, guys. Quick, quick note. Last week we talked about the summer. I turned pretty clearly Mike and I had no idea what we were talking about with that, so we asked you guys to help us figure out what team we should be on.
Team Conrad. Team Jeremiah. It was pretty, pretty obvious who [00:35:00] we should be. Micah, on our poll on Instagram, 78% of the people said to vote. They voted for Team Conrad. So there we are. We’re team Conrad.
Micah Tomasella: Heck yeah, man. Team Conrad all the way, whatever that means.
Conner Jones: I knew it all along. Yeah, that’s, I I was always team Conrad, right?
So there, there you go. We do always want to hear from you guys. Send us your questions, your thoughts, your topic ideas. Anything. We have a whole mailbag. It’s always open at culture brief. The, the, let me clarify, the email address is culture [email protected]. Again, culture [email protected]. You can find that in our show description as well.
Go follow us on Instagram at Culture Brief Podcast, find polls, find funny clips, all of that. It’s all there on our Instagram page. Okay, Micah, there’s other things happening this week, so you wanna give us just a, a quick segment down on our check-in.
Micah Tomasella: Let’s jump into the check-in section. Alright, so this is a developing fluid story right now because this happened this morning at the time of the recording on [00:36:00] September 24th episode will be released the morning of September 25th.
So there was an ice shooting outside an ice detention center in Dallas. So near where we live, the shooter was possibly a sniper shot. Three ice detainees two were dead, and the a third might be dead as well. And apparently it was. A sniper from a rooftop and the, the sniper passed away due to self conf self-inflicted wounds.
So more is gonna come out about this. I, I don’t really know what’s gonna happen. You already see people jumping out on left and right who didn’t get all the information gathered before they were posting about it. We will update you guys next week on more of what comes from that story.
Tragic, though. Sad. Yeah. Yeah. Ryan, Ralph is it Ralph? Con, is that how they said it? Who’s Ralph? I’m not
Conner Jones: sure. Honestly, I don’t know.
Micah Tomasella: So th this is the lesser known guy. So there was two assassination attempts on Trump’s life in 2024. And so this was the lesser known guy. He’s a Hawaiian, actually was found guilty of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump.
He then tried to stab [00:37:00] himself in the neck with a pen after the verdict. He was not successful but he was found guilty of trying to assassinate the president. At that point, he was not President. Trump also said this week that Tylenol use during pregnancy may be linked to autism and called on the FDA to review warning labels.
So medical experts responded that current research does not show a proven connection and caution that pregnant women should continue following their doctor’s advice. The discussion now centers on balancing ongoing research with clear public health guidance. I’ve seen a lot come out about this, that Trump got off track, said a lot more than he should have said.
On this? Yeah, they were just coming out trying to just get, give a warning, get people to think, but he said things a bit more declaratively than I think anybody intended. Yeah. The whole thing is kind of
Conner Jones: weird, big Maha movement. I will say Kimmel made a funny joke about this in his monologue. He said, I don’t know who’s had a crazier 48 hours, me or the ceo, EO of Tylenol.
And I was like that. Yeah. That’s, that’s probably true. What? Yeah. Exactly.
Micah Tomasella: Okay. Last thing on check-in. Trump [00:38:00] spoke yesterday, Tuesday, September 23rd, quite a bit at the UN Summit. Of the United Nations here in in the US of a and New York City, specifically at the UN yesterday. Donald Trump criticized climate policies and the UN’s effectiveness as a whole, even saying that Europe is quote unquote going to hell because of open borders.
But he did reiterate, if you read the transcripts, that the US fully supports the institution, he just kind of had to get some of his shots in there. He met with Secretary General Gut, and other world leaders including. Ukraine’s Zelensky expressing support for Ukraine’s efforts to reclaim territory, specifically after meeting with Zelensky Trump, post untruth social.
I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form. Yeah, I, you know, I, I don’t know. I think this is a classic case of neither side is budging, specifically Russia just has no interest in ending the war. It seems like they’re just kind of ratcheting it up.
So I’m not, I we’ll see what, [00:39:00] what comes from this, you know, and this is in a time when Russian fighter jets and drones are, are flying over NATO airspace. So I, I think there’s gonna be some more stuff coming out about Trump kind of pushing them to defend their land. Yeah. He, he, their airspace, he
Conner Jones: basically gave them permission.
He said, go ahead and shoot down their planes the Russian planes, if they fly into NATO airspace, basic I don’t because they keep, do you disagree
Micah Tomasella: with that? I mean, I don’t, I don’t disagree. I don’t fully, I guess the,
Conner Jones: the, the. The thing is that that could lead to war, you know, Yeah. A, a wider war.
I think. Everybody’s waiting to see what he said about that. I dunno. He does seem to change his position every couple months, so who knows? Yeah. Where this is all headed. Okay. Another thing for tuning into things this week, here’s what you need to know. One is the government is on the brink of shutdown.
It’s set to shut down on next Tuesday. September 30th at midnight. So October 1st, the government will be the federal government specifically in, it’s definitely gonna, right now it’s on track to shut down because Trump canceled his meeting with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress [00:40:00] and Jeffries was not happy about it, sent out this long tweet and he said that Trump always chickens out.
Schumer said that Trump is running away from the negotiating table before he even gets there. And it’s gonna cost Americans with the healthcare crisis and all. So they’re, they’re having a battle of words. Apparently they’re not gonna meet. Who knows, this could change by this afternoon.
Micah Tomasella: Mm-hmm.
Conner Jones: As of right now, we’re on track to have a government shutdown, so there you go.
Just keep your eyes out for that. Yeah. It probably won’t affect your personal life unless you’re a federal government employee. No, at least not yet. It’ll end. It comes in stages.
Micah Tomasella: It’ll end. I mean, this happens. Golly, man. I just feel like my whole life there’s been. The government’s about to shut down. And I feel like when I was younger, I got so nervous about that.
But I remember, what was it, man, 2017 or 2019, the government shut down. It was shut down for a while, like 35 days, which was the longest in history which was in Trump’s first term. And yes, it does affect federal employees and we’re not taking that lightly at all. But this is a cat and mouse game. Both sides trying to pull off what they wanna pull off.
And so what happens? Yeah. And then they’re able to blame the
Conner Jones: other side for shutting the government down. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Conner Jones: Okay. [00:41:00] Sports. Big, big sports weekend. Micah, I have a date this weekend. Can you guess with who? My couch. I will be on the couch all weekend. Oh,
Micah Tomasella: oh, your wife. Oh, okay. Yes.
Conner Jones: Yeah, her too. It, she already agreed.
She’s yeah, we’re gonna be watching a lot of football and a lot of golf because this weekend is one of the premier golf tournaments. It’s called the Rider Cup. Yes. We’re pumped. This is where Team Europe sends their 12 best players. Team America sends their 12 best players. This year and they do it every two years and it goes between continents this year, it’s in America, it’s playing on Long Island at Bath Bethpage Black Course.
A course so difficult. They literally have a warning sign and before you go out there that says. We highly encourage you not to play this unless you are an ex, like just an incredible golfer. It’s almost like a ski slope where it’s like, mm-hmm. You shouldn’t go down this slope unless you’re professional.
So excited. Yep. Yeah, so it’s gonna be great. The crowd’s gonna be wild. Trump is planning to be there on Friday, so if you’re going to, this security’s gonna be tough for you. Like it was at the US Open for tennis anyways, Europe’s dominated us for a little bit. So team USA, let’s go. Scotty Scheffler, [00:42:00] Justin Thomas, the whole crew.
Let’s go out there and beat them. Go USA and
Micah Tomasella: and go. USA. Shout out to one of our faithful listeners and one of my great friends, Ryan we’re in the same small group at church too. He and his buddies are going to be there all three days. Oh, that’s awesome. And they have ordered all kinds of over the top US flag, American gear and clothing, and I have encouraged him.
To whatever the stereotypes about Americans are, that we’re loud, that we’re obnoxious, that we’re prideful, that we’re, you know, whatever it might be. Lean into all of those stereotypes. Mm-hmm. And make sure those European players understand that they’re playing on American soil. Go USA
Conner Jones: go. USA. Let’s go. Because also it’s, it’s, yeah.
I just, I’m so team USA on this. I’m just so proud of America. I want us to win so bad. Okay. Football, big football weekend, massive college matchups. Just a couple to mention are LSU versus Ole Miss. Oregon versus Penn State, Alabama versus Georgia. These are classic games. That’s a good game. Yeah. Power teams on Saturday, all day [00:43:00] long.
Some of those are primetime games. Sunday we got some good games in the NFL, the Eagles and the Buccaneers. Two of our three and O teams both undefeated right now. It’s gonna
Micah Tomasella: be interesting.
Conner Jones: Play Sunday afternoon, so that’ll be interesting. The Baltimore Ravens versus Kansas City Chiefs to a FC favorites for the Super Bowl.
They play Sunday afternoon. And then of course for Micah and I as. Die hard, lifelong, but also depressed Cowboys fans. Yep. We are playing the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night football against our former, you know, defensive star Micah Parsons. So if you’re interested in watching that matchup and watch the Cowboys likely get pummeled, that will be at 8:20 PM Eastern on NBC Sunday night football.
Yeah, I’ve
Micah Tomasella: just, I’ve just settled into a numbness and a sadness as a Dallas Cowboys fan. Alright, guys, better? Thank you. Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief, a Dentist and Forum podcast. All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please please subscribe.
Please rate and review the show. Send us stuff to our mailbag, engage with us. We love engaging with you, and share with a friend. We’ll see [00:44:00] you next Thursday.
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