In this week’s Brief: The US government is officially shutdown, and it isn’t just about stalled budgets—it’s about the deeper dysfunction in Washington. We’re unpacking the fallout, the blame game, and what it means for everyday Americans.
We’re also looking at President Trump’s 20-point Israel/Gaza peace proposal—the pros, the cons, and what it could mean for the region’s future.
Plus, a viral UFO video and our thoughts on the phenomenon, Tim Allen’s powerful forgiveness moment, an NYC mayoral election update, a Ryder Cup recap, and the biggest pop-culture headlines this week.
And don’t miss a preview of our very first guest appearance coming next week. We’re here to help you navigate the noise with biblical insight and thoughtful conversation.
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Topics
- (01:22): Government shutdown breakdown
- (02:58): Political blame game
- (10:11): Impact on Federal employees
- (13:00): What’s closed during the shutdown
- (17:37): Trump’s 20-Point peace proposal for Gaza
- (27:14): Broader issues and double standards
- (31:44): UFOs and conspiracy theories
- (36:16): Current events and cultural updates
- (43:06): Upcoming guest
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:
- Why can’t Congress pass a budget? – Denison Forum
- Will Trump’s meeting with Muslim leaders mean peace in Gaza? – Denison Forum
- TMZ on X: UFO Video
- Tim Allen on X
Other articles on this week’s top headlines:
- Why should you care about a government shutdown? – Denison Forum
- What closes during a government shutdown? What we know about how it would unfold | PBS News
- Trump unveils 20-point plan to secure peace in Gaza, including granting some Hamas members ‘amnesty’
- READ: Trump’s 20-point proposal for peace in Gaza Strip, ending Israel-Hamas war
- Trump touts Israel’s approval of his Gaza peace plan. Hamas has not agreed. – POLITICO
- Trump peace plan envisions ‘New Gaza’ and Trump-led ‘Board of Peace’ | Reuters
- The New York Times: The Morning, September 30, 2025
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 Director of Advancement 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: And I’m Micah Tomasella.
Conner Jones: And this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we are navigating the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology. And we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. And man, we’ve got a loaded show today. But I just gotta start off the top here and say, Micah.
We have got to get the NFL to delete ties as a result of a, of a long, long, hard fought match. There is no reason there are ties, or there should be ties at the end of NFL games.
Micah Tomasella: A tie is so anti-American ties feel European, you know, like this is not soccer. This is America. This is American football. I completely agreed.
Just for context if you’ve been living under a rock culture brief audience, the Cowboys and Packers at Jerry World this past Sunday had a hard fought battle on the football field and tied at 40 to 40 after a 10 minute overtime period after all four quarters, and no one [00:01:00] left away, no one walked away feeling satisfied.
Conner Jones: It was the most like weird milk toast ending ever. Everybody just came off the sidelines to shake each other’s hands and no one was excited or happy. It was just weird and I wasn’t, I mean, and you stay up late to watch the end of that Sunday night game and you just leave sad. I’d much
Micah Tomasella: rather lose. I, I mean, it just feels it.
Yeah.
Conner Jones: Just at least give us something to feel. Okay. Micah, you wanna tell us what we’re talking about today?
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. So the government shut down. So what’s the deal there? We’re gonna break all of that down. Is lasting peace finally coming? To the Middle East. We’re gonna talk about that. Also, we’re gonna have a conversation about things like UFOs oh, and Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban split up.
So we’ve gotta talk about that. We’re gonna give you some fun things to tune into for the week as well. So let’s jump into the brief. The
Conner Jones: brief. Okay. As you said, Micah, the government, federal government, it’s shut down. We’re closed for business out here in the United States of America. And [00:02:00] man, I’m just gonna kind of break it down as to how we got here, why it’s happening and what it means long term or really more so short, short term, but there will be long term downstream effects of this of course.
Yeah, as of Wednesday morning at 12:01 AM the government shut down, it was the end of the fiscal year. The government runs on a September to September budget year. And so a lot of people were already gonna be, losing their jobs in terms of, they took that payout that Doge offered earlier in the year, and that was through the end of September, at the end of this fiscal year.
So there were about 150,000 federal employees that took that payout. And so that was already gonna happen. And now a whole bunch more people are just out of their jobs as well, at least temporarily, potentially more long term. So the last time we had a shutdown like this, Micah was actually back in 2018, Trump’s first term, and that was kind of over a border wall.
Clash when the, the two parties could not agree on funding for that. That shutdown lasted 35 days, and that was the longest ever recorded. Yeah, we could be headed down that same path over a month long. Could be shorter. Hopefully it’s shorter, and these two parties can come together and make a deal.
But man, right now, [00:03:00] I, I’m sure a lot of you guys have seen this in the news and on social media, the two parties. They are just, they’re just really blaming and shaming the other party and yeah, accusing the other, and that’s what they always do. But this one seems really bad and they’re just pointing fingers and it’s ugly and it’s made its way to social media and press conference battles and floor senate battles.
It’s, it’s kind of interesting. So
Micah Tomasella: AI sombrero videos.
Conner Jones: Yeah. Yes, and I’m gonna touch on that one. Just we live in a weird simulation world. I think we do. It’s just bizarre. We, we do. So what does each party want here? Why is this shut down? The Republicans were planning on just moving on business as usual.
They obviously control the Senate and the House of Representatives. So the house already passed what’s called a continuing resolution. That is a bill essentially, that keeps the government funded where Congress says, we are going to approve all this money that’s been set aside for this upcoming fiscal year, and we’re going to send that forward.
We’re good to approve that. But the Senate has not approved it, so [00:04:00] it’s kind of in the Senate’s hands at this point. That’s because the Senate needs 60 votes to push through a funding bill, but there are only 50. Three Republicans, so only 53 yeses as of right now. Now three Democrats on Tuesday night came in and actually voted alongside Republicans, so it got to 56 votes voting for the bill to pass forward.
I think
Micah Tomasella: it actually, no, it didn’t get that high because Rand Paul, the Republican ran. Paul, you’re right against it.
Conner Jones: Thank you for the correction. You’re right. Yes. There’s always that Rand Paul asterisk where he’s a Republican, but he, he doesn’t like he doesn’t like funding bills. He doesn’t like money.
Yeah, that guy money. That guy’s a goofy. But he’s, you know what for, for what he stands for, he’s, he really stands behind it. So I’ll give that. He stands on
Micah Tomasella: business, dude. He stands on what he believes in. And I, I respect him for that, but it always seems like he’s the one person voting differently than everybody else, like every single time.
Conner Jones: Yeah, him and Thomas Massey, both those Kentucky guys are very big on standing on that business. Anyways, Trump, man, he’s holding his ground. He’s, he’s not gonna let anything [00:05:00] scathe by him. He’s told Americans that he’s gonna pin the blame on Democrats and make sure the Democrats get the blame for this.
He’s really telling a lot of people that they’re trying to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants. That’s kind of the spin that the Republican party is taking. There’s some gray areas with that. There’s, it’s definitely not. Like they’re trying to say, let’s give all this money to illegal immigrants.
But there are gray areas in these, these kind of like subsidy plans that would say if you are here on asylum, if you are here on some sort of approved visa you get Obamacare benefits. So it’s, it’s tough. There’s a lot more, it’s, it’s a very, very small
Micah Tomasella: part of it, right? It’s kind of like taking it and saying, okay, you know, Democrats want to extend these healthcare credits and potentially illegal immigrants could gain access to it.
So it. It’s an over exaggeration to say Democrats want to shut the government down so they can give free healthcare to illegal immigrants. That’s dramatic, but. That is a small part of it too
Conner Jones: true. And it’s a really [00:06:00] powerful statement to say, and it makes the Republicans look like they’re winning. It’s a really good spin.
That, and that’s just something that Republicans are better at at this point in time. Yes. Is spinning things to make it look worse on the Democrats. Anyways, the Democrats, they are trying to stave off a looming healthcare crisis as they put it specifically, they want a CR continuing resolution to include an extension of Obamacare subsidies that.
Were and are set to expire at the end of this year, 2025. So they’ve also pushed for rolling back some of those cuts. Some of the cuts and changes to Medicaid that were enacted by Trump’s big beautiful Bill, which we talked about this past summer that got passed. That’s cutting some cuts to med, that’s making cuts to Medicaid, Medicare.
They don’t like that. They’re trying to change some of that in the new bill. And all of this would add $1 trillion in spending to the bill. So Republicans don’t want to add much spending. They don’t like spending more money. The Democrats are trying to say we need to, to help Americans keep their healthcare over the next decade.
So they’re, they’re just battling this out
Micah Tomasella: both their points actually, like when you explain it that way, it’s, I actually see where both [00:07:00] sides are coming from
Conner Jones: there. Yeah. ’cause it’s man, nobody wants to spend more money, but then the Democrats are like but this is how we make healthcare affordable.
Yeah. For millions of Americans who are on Obamacare, that’s, that’s, and so if they would just come together and meet somewhere in the middle, I bet we could get a deal, but. It. That’s just now it’s in DC right now. Senate Minority leader, Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Both are the Democrats.
They visited the Oval Office on Monday to try to reach a deal with Trump. It apparently did not go well. Trump tried to give them Trump 2028 hats. They did not like that, but they sat and they did not obviously reach a deal. It’s just crazy, right? Then it turned into an ugly social media battle. This is right after they met.
A few hours later, Trump takes the press conference that they gave after the, the meeting, and he, he AI generates it on true social or someone on his team. AI generates it probably, and it’s, it’s Schumer essentially having obscenity laced remarks about the Democrats blaming themselves for. Trying to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants, which is obviously not where they stand on that, but it’s Schumer’s [00:08:00] voice being AI generated.
And then next to him is Jefferies. Who in this video is wearing an AI generated sombrero in mustache and there is mariachi music playing in the background. You know, there’s a lot of thoughts that go through your head when you see something like that from the president of the United States. You can either laugh at it or you can be like, what is this?
This is ridiculous. I’ll tell you what they said though. Jefferies responded with a picture of Trump and Epstein on Twitter and said, now this is real. So they’re all just throwing social media jabs at each other. They should really be meeting and talking about a, a negotiation deal, right? And then, you know, Jefferies responded again on Tuesday and and he was like, Mr.
President, you, when you next time you have something to say about me. Don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video when I’m in the Oval Office, say to my face. And then they pointed F the finger at the Republicans at this press conference, the Democrats did arguing that the refusal to budge on healthcare subsidies has doomed the country to a shutdown.
Remember, six months ago, we almost had a shutdown. And Schumer ultimately made [00:09:00] a deal and his own party turned against him and they, they accused him of caving to Trump and the Republicans to avoid a shutdown. ’cause at that time, I mean, we were on the heels of the 2024 election. Democrats were really down in the dumps.
And so he was like, I don’t want us to look any worse by being accused of a shutdown. But now he’s having to stand on his ground because his own party was like, don’t cave this time, essentially. From two. DC Insider reporters here, Axios, they said this morning, this is Wednesday morning. We’re just a few hours into the shutdown.
They said six months of grassroots fury have pushed Democrats to embrace a shutdown as leverage against Republicans, but both sides are dug in Republicans banking that Democrats will be the first to blink and will end the shutdown in Senate majority. John Thune, he’s the Republican Senate senator who leads the whole Senate.
He says he’s not gonna negotiate. Democrats until the government is not shut down. Essentially, he’s open up the government and then we can talk. So that’s a really hard thing for Democrats to get around. Politico is saying each side is blaming the other. [00:10:00] Neither feels much pressure to cut a deal. So rather than negotiating, they’re just chucking insults and posting memes.
It’s probably best to not hold your breath for a speedy outcome. So this might be a long term shutdown. Micah, any just other initial thoughts? Any predictions on how long this is gonna be?
Micah Tomasella: Interesting times we live in, man. You know, I’m thinking about the impact that this has on people. Who actually work for the government.
People that are considered essential, that are gonna have to work and potentially not get paid. Now, they’ll get back pay, but I mean, a lot of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Mm-hmm. And so that’s, I just feel like that shouldn’t be take light taken lightly. And I, I, I just see both parties taking lightly the fact that this negatively impacts a lot of Americans.
And I see a lot of people in leadership right now on both sides that are more, more worried about themselves than they are their actual constituents. And that bothers me. That frustrates me because that’s not why they’re there. They’re not supposed to be there for their own self-interest. They’re supposed to be there for the American [00:11:00] people.
I’m just not yeah, it’s not sitting right with me right now.
Conner Jones: It never sits, right? It’s like your job is to run the government, not shut the government down. And so I think it always looks bad on both parties. They’re gonna blame each other, but I think it looks bad on both sides. It looks bad on us.
It’s come, come to an agreement, figure something out and represent the US people.
Micah Tomasella: This is as big of a win. Yeah. This is not as big of a win for a, for for Trump as as he thinks it is. And this is certainly in my opinion, not the way to get your point across as well Democrats, because they’re trying to say, we stand up for the little man here.
But yet you’re about to affect the little man a lot by. Choosing to not pass a funding bill, so it, it just doesn’t look good for either side.
Conner Jones: Yeah, you’re right, and, and like you said, so non-essential employees, there are about roughly 400,000 federal government employees that are deemed non-essential who will be furloughed for the time being, and then so many more will continue to work, like you said, and just not get a paycheck.
Until, until this government shutdown ends. And then they’ll get their back pay. But like you said, so many [00:12:00] are paycheck to paycheck. A lot of them, they’re federal government employees, they don’t make tons of money. These are not huge salaries. A lot of them are hourly. A lot of these people are in the military.
A lot of them are TSA agents at the airport. That’s not like a super high paying job. It’s a good job, but it does a lot of times mean. Living paycheck to paycheck, and so it hurts them. And I, I saw an article this morning that was cool. It’s talking about how the church, multiple churches specifically in the DC area.
Stepped up in the 2018, shut down to help provide food and housing for these Oh, cool. Federal employees who they, that’s awesome. You know, some of these, you think about the, the single mom who’s a federal employee, who’s got kids at home that needs to feed them, and then all of a sudden a paycheck is cut off for a, a few weeks.
And that’s not, that’s just not great. And like you said, it’s not great for either party to, to kind of disregard that either way. Members of Congress, they still get paid. And that’s kind of outta their hands. It’s the Department of Treasury is constitutionally obligated to send to them. It doesn’t look great though.
It’s always bad optics. Some of them try to then let’s keep
Micah Tomasella: the government open. People, yeah,
Conner Jones: it’s just I [00:13:00] mean, come on. So what things are closed during the government shutdown? At first, and this could, as it goes on, it more things could shut down. But right now it’s gonna be national parks and the Smithsonian buildings are really kinda the only things that are closed.
But even then, it’s more so like the national parks, you can maybe still get into some of them just with limited staff. Most other things are still operating. So if you’re air travel, it’s still gonna happen with air traffic controllers. TSA law enforcement like F-B-I-C-A-A, they’re still working.
Medicaid, Medicare benefits, snap, social Security Post Office, it’s all still operating. Some of it may have more slimmed down staff and you might see longer lines at places, especially at the airport. There may be longer lines as people call in sick at insecurity and all of that. So keep that in mind.
But the biggest consequence of this potential shutdown is actually the threat of mass layoffs. And that’s because at the behest of Trump, the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo out to all the federal agencies last week threatening the mass firing of federal workers in the event of a shutdown.
And Trump has suggested that, yeah, I want people to like. Eliminate their [00:14:00] jobs, essentially, these agencies to eliminate. Fluff anywhere they see that, use this as an opportunity. So all that to say this could be pretty bad. What Dr. Ryan Denison, I really liked what he said in Tuesday’s edition of the daily article regarding that specific piece of this.
He said, given that the Trump administration is primarily responsible for determining which workers in the executive branch are essential. The prevailing belief is that Trump could use the shutdown as a means of reducing employment and penalizing parts of the government that his administration deems either ferous or standing in the way of its agenda.
So asked on Tuesday morning how many government employees, his administration would lay off. Trump literally responded we may do a lot. And that’s only because of the Democrats. So he’s saying, I’m gonna have people get laid off, but I’m gonna blame the Democrats for it. So that’s his talking point right now.
And you know, it’s gonna have long-term effects on private sector as well and everything. As we look at this though, Micah, I, I’m trying to think through what piece can we find in all of this? It’s, it’s just a frustrating place to be right to [00:15:00] watch these two parties and the most powerful people in the country play the blame game.
It’s frustrating, and especially when they can’t come to an agreement and it just feels like political theater and Americans are the ones suffering the consequences of this. Yep. Speaking of Dr. Ryan Dennison, again, back to this Tuesday article, I just, I had to tie it out like this because I, I think he laid it out perfectly.
I loved what he said. He said assigning blame for the current budget situation to a Republicans or Democrats is pointless, because on a basic level, both parties govern the same. However, the wrong choice doesn’t make becoming less wrong. Just because someone else doesn’t make,
however, the wrong choice doesn’t become less wrong just because someone else made it first. He likened it to two siblings fighting and saying, the other started it. To explain away their own bad behavior. I know you’ve got two kids, I know your kids probably have done this. They blame their sister for starting the fight or the argument, right?
And then it’s just you’re kind of at fault too, right? In some way. Totally. Usually. So that’s what these parties are doing. But we can all relate to that, right? [00:16:00] We can all think back to a time when we made the same exact mistake. But someone else, making a bad choice doesn’t justify our own bad decisions.
And second Corinthians five 10 kind of calls us out. It says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. So this week let’s check our own hearts and recognize that genuine repentance requires owning up to our sin and bad decisions.
Without pointing fingers. Basically learning the opposite of what these two political parties are doing. Don’t point fingers. Recognize your own sin. Recognize your own faults, and repent for it. And then Ryan, I just gotta end with this. This was in his article at the very end. He said, while it can be tempting and justified to complain about the state of our politics today, know that Christ cares far more about the state of your heart and the degree to which it is aligned to his own.
As opposed to, you know, dwelling on a shutdown or political problems, recognize that Christ [00:17:00] cares about our hearts. And just take that into this week. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Conner, good stuff. Good application. And just remember no matter how frustrating this is, the government will reopen. This won’t go on forever.
I think a lot of the negative that comes from a government shutdown or the looming government shutdown is the fact that so many people worry about it. But you know what, get out there. People are still working, people are still at parks with their families. People are still going to church.
People are, I mean, people are still engaging in commerce. Whether the government’s running or not, just take a deep breath. The government will reopen whenever they decide to stop doing what they’re doing. Alright, Conner, thanks for that. I’m gonna jump into the next one Is lasting peace coming to the Middle East?
That’s a great question that I would love to answer because I think that we are on the brink of something that could potentially work, and I think it hinges upon getting others in the Middle Eastern regions surrounding Israel and Gaza. To actually take some responsibility for what’s happening.
And that’s what Trump’s 20 point plan kind of lays out. Now, it’s a big ask, but it’s a [00:18:00] big step forward and at least it potentially happening. And I do think that there is a prospect here that some peace could come and could actually last through this. So here’s what’s on the table. Trump has put forward a 20 point piece proposal for Gaza.
It calls for an immediate ceasefire with all hostages within 72 hours. Israel pulling back in stages out of Gaza, Hamas giving up weapons and Gaza being run by a temporary technocratic authority under international oversight. So it would be run by Palestinians, it be run by those in Gaza, but it would, but Gaza would not have a.
Place in the leadership structure there. And then an internal stabilization force would help secure the area while aid and reconstruction would pour in to rebuild Gaza. Israel would also released almost 2000 Palestinian prisoners as a part of the deal. Netanyahu even went as far as a apologizing to Qatar for a past strike.
Trying to repair a key relationship since Qatar has influence with Hamas and has been a good meeting ground, a good kind of middle ground for both of them. And I know I said a lot there, and you’re [00:19:00] probably thinking that’s a lot of what ifs, right? Mm-hmm. That’s a lot of things that have to work out.
Just right for this to happen, but there’s a structure in place here if Hamas agrees. So this is just, this isn’t just another ceasefire proposal. I mean, I’m really reading through these points. If it works, it would mark one of the most significant breakthroughs in the Middle East in centuries. We’re talking about a conflict that’s been going on, not just for these last couple years, Conner, right?
This is. Decades of war failed negotiations, hundreds of years, you could argue thousands of years of deep religious and cultural divides that has led to war over and over and over again. The shedding of innocent blood. Over and over and over again. So the scale of what’s being proposed is truly massive and the ripple effects would touch not only Israel and Gaza, but it would actually make an impact on the region and even the global stage.
What are your thoughts on all this as it’s coming out? [00:20:00]
Conner Jones: It is a lot of what ifs. This is one of the most complicated issues. No president has been able to figure it out. No prime Minister of Israel or Palestine or Middle East countries have been able to figure this out. We all know this. This is one of the just most dicey situations in the world, and it’s gonna take a lot of work to iron all these details out and to actually see it through.
My hope is that this is actually the first real step toward getting all those hostages home. And getting peace in this region and in Gaza and ending this conflict, but we man it. One little thing goes wrong. And Hamas doesn’t accept it or Hamas decides to do some sort of attack or kill a hostage or something.
It’s all off the table. Or, or Israel could do something that makes somebody in the Middle East mad. You know, they almost blew it with when they hit that guitar strike last month. And net Yahoo happened to apologize for that while he was in the Oval Office. Yeah. In order to get this deal moving.
Yeah. So just a lot going on.
Micah Tomasella: And partisan politics aside I think Trump has proven that he can try his hand at this and he is, had some success. In his first term, he had the [00:21:00] Abraham Accords True. Which were, which were kinda the most important peace deal in that region for a long time. And did bring some stability.
And so I do think he has proven that he’s able to get the right people involved and get the right people in the room to navigate something like this. And again, matter how you feel about him or it, I, I think we should all be on the side of peace and I don’t believe that we should ever, because of our partisan politics.
Root against peace when so many innocent people are suffering over there right now, especially as Christians. I think we should all pray that this works, honestly. Yeah. You know, no matter if you like Trump or not, you know, and so I’ve, I’ve been kind of frustrated with some of the things I see online.
It’s so just because Trump’s doing it. You’re against it. You know, I, it’s just, it’s just frustrating. But both sides do it. And you laid out the partisan issues we’re experiencing in this country right now. Very well. And it’s on full display with the government shutdown.
Conner Jones: Yeah, it could be. It could be Joe Biden that could have done this exact deal and the other side would be mad.
Like it’s just,
Micah Tomasella: and we should still be saying like, everyone should still be saying no matter what, we should still be [00:22:00] saying, Hey. Let’s pray this works, right? ’cause this could actually bring some peace and stop the bloodshed. Yes. Alright, I’m gonna give five pros and five cons real quick just to kind of break down this issue.
Okay. So here’s the five pros of why this plan could work. Number one, it would release the hostages immediately. The requirement that all hostages be released within seven two hours creates urgency and a concrete starting point for the process. And then this is more of a holistic approach. That’s the second pro.
The plan links together, ceasefire, prisoner exchanges, withdrawal reconstruction, governance and security into one framework. So if you can get everybody to sign on and hold up their ends of the bargain, this has every step. That’s why it’s 20 points, not just the ceasefire all the way through a governing authority and reconstructing that area that has just been leveled.
And then you’ve got the third pro is that you’ve got more regional engagement and buy-in. If this is signed by everybody. Eight other Middle Eastern countries in that area signing onto this. So involving Qatar and other Arab states brings in actors who have influence with [00:23:00] Hamas and credibility in the broader region, and who take responsibility for things that are happening on, you know, right there in their backyard.
And then the fourth one, the fourth pro, is that you’ve got some security mechanisms in place. So this would bring an international stabilization force and phased Israeli withdrawal, which would aim to provide security while preventing immediate. Re Armament. And then the fifth pro. This is a future political pathway for that region.
So although it doesn’t establish Palestinian statehood per se, the plan does outline conditions with future political progress and how that could be possible there. So those are the five pros, which I think are really solid pros. But there’s also some cons of why this might not work, and I wanna make sure that I talk about those too.
So you’ve got some perceptions of imbalance in this, right? So some Palestinian groups and even Arab nations view this as weighted in Israel’s favor, especially because it doesn’t recognize a Palestinian state per se. You know, that could limit buy-in from Hamas [00:24:00] obviously and from other countries that are more sympathetic to Hamas.
The second con would be there’s enforcement uncertainty. I mean, really all of these cons line up with these are such lofty goals. You might be able to get them to agree to it, but who’s to say six months down the road? This is one of those things that’s like a domino effect. If one country or one part of this doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain, it could end up being a watershed moment for the entire peace deal.
And so the second con is enforcement uncertainty. So the plan does not specify exactly who will monitor or enforce compliance or disarmament withdrawals or ceasefire violations. And then the third con is exclusion of Hamas from governments. Now, that’s, that’s a pro in every sense of the word. They are an awful terrorist organization who have committed some, unfathomable atrocities. Okay. That cannot be lost in this. However, removing Hamas from any governing role could reduce legitimacy among Palestinians. And, and it could, it could risk kind of a [00:25:00] grassroots resistance to this deal that even if the leaders there agree to it, it still could create more issues.
The fourth con, logistical and financial hurdles. Listen, rebuilding Gaza is going to take outside investment and if the United States is not gonna be the main financier. Who’s gonna step up and do it right? And so that, that’s a con of how do you actually get the investment needed to rebuild Gaza Fifth con political risks on both sides in Israel, if you make these concessions, which Israel has agreed to this, there’s still a lot of hard liners in Israel that’s that’s giving, that’s giving them too much.
Look at everything that they’ve done. Look at everything that that’s happened. This is like taking a step back. But then on the other side, among Palestinians, the absence of immediate sovereignty, which is what they want. You know, maybe unacceptable to some of them. So those are the five pros and cons.
Any thoughts from that, Conner?
Conner Jones: And it’s just a lot. I mean, I know Yeah. So much upside, so much downside. And again, I, this has not been fully agreed to either, this, I know this current plan, hopefully it [00:26:00] does get agreed to, and then it’s just gonna be how does this all play out? It’s, it’s, it’s really just an unpredictable situation.
Micah Tomasella: I’m on the side of peace though. Yes. And I just really believe firmly that as believers we should all be. Absolutely. Absolutely, yes. This is gonna take a herculean effort, but I’ve. I’ve seen God show up and do some crazy things over and over and over again. So I think that this is something that we should be praying for, that this can be pulled off so that so many innocent people can stop dying over there.
Yes. I mean, absolutely. I mean that’s, that’s my pure argument on that one. And, and you know, and I really just kind of wanted to break it down ’cause I feel like everybody’s oh, Trump’s 20 point peace deal. I just kind of wanted to break down and get a little bit more granular and specific with it so we can understand exactly what it contains.
But here’s the bigger picture. Can this bring lasting peace? Maybe. It’s bold, it’s detailed, and it puts everyone on the spot in the moment. It, it, it requires immediate action from everybody in that region, but it also rests on trust between people who have not trusted each other for generations.
So that is why so many are skeptical. Yeah. So we just have to understand that. We have 250 years, almost [00:27:00] 250 years. Next year history as a nation. My goodness gracious, this is pre, pre-Jesus Times that we’re talking about, these types of conflicts have been warring on over there. You know, just read your Old Testament.
I mean, there’s so much history there in the Middle East. And so here’s the part we can’t ignore, and this is just a side point that I wanna make, a point that I wanna bring up. While Gaza dominates headlines, did you know that more than 7,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria this year? 7,000 Christians.
Villages, men, women, children killed simply because they profess and worship Jesus. And this actually came to mind ’cause, I mean, we’ve talked about this type of persecution before, but it just kind of keeps adding up. Bill Maher, who’s the left-leaning comedian in late night TV show host, pointed out that people pick and choose which tragedies they get outraged about.
Mm-hmm. And the silence, mm-hmm. Around the killing of Christians in Nigeria proves that point. I don’t always love what Bill Maher says, but I [00:28:00] think he has a fantastic point there. If we truly care about justice and human life, whatever side of the aisle that we fall on, we can’t look away from certain tragedies simply because they’re less visible in the West or because they don’t easily fit our political narrative.
So all the free Palestine people, why aren’t you talking about this? You know what I mean? Yeah. All the people up in arms about all of the innocent loss of life. Where’s the outcry for all of these Christians that are being murdered? Just truly because they’re, they’re Christians. There’s not a war going on, per se.
I mean like there’s a war, but it’s different. There’re just truly villages are just being pillaged because they’re Christian villages. Because there’s Christians there. Like, why isn’t there more talk about this? And I just wanted to point it out. I just think it’s a double standard.
Conner Jones: Same thing with the, the Uighur Muslims in China that are imprisoned and they’re in a very similar situation as the Palestinians.
Their lives have been upended, but no one really pays attention or talks about them. So it is a double standard.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, it’s a double standard. I just wanted to point it [00:29:00] out. All i’m gonna give a spiritual application and challenge from this. I’m also gonna quote Dr. Ryan Denison Ryan. We appreciate you, man.
You do really good. Great work this weekend, man. We’re grateful for you. Yeah, great work, man. Been really enjoying reading your stuff. So Dr. Ryan Denison at Denon Forum made a powerful point about this moment. He said that one of the hardest parts of following Jesus is being willing to actually lay down our rights when doing so is what best advances God’s kingdom.
So think about it. Israel has every right. To defend itself, to keep fighting until every hostage is home, and Hamas is no longer a threat. Now, I might be in the minority in that, but I really do believe that. I do believe that they have every right to defend themselves and to get every hostage released that’s been captured.
If there were just a bunch of Americans in captivity, I would expect our government to go get. All of these Americans who are in captivity mm-hmm. And bring them home. But if they only cling to to that right, it may actually keep them from reaching the peace that they’re after. If they’re so focused on [00:30:00] that of we’re gonna wipe them off of the face of the earth, even though they have every right to do that with Hamas and to get the hostages home, if they’re so focused on that, they may lose out on peace.
More holistic peace because they’re so focused on that one thing. So isn’t that true in our own lives? We have the right to defend our reputation, to fight back when someone wrongs us to demand fairness. But Jesus calls us to something even higher than that, I believe. And the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And then he also says. In Matthew 5 39. That was 39, and then 44. And love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So Jesus isn’t denying that we have the right to strike back. He’s calling us to give up that so that our witness. Can point people to him. And that’s exactly what Jesus modeled for us on the cross.
He had every right to call down angels to rescue him, but instead he chose the father’s will because it meant salvation for all of us. So here’s the challenge. In your life, [00:31:00] in my life, where are you tempted to clinging to your rights and instead of submitting to God’s will, and where do you, where do you need to choose peace over pride, God’s purpose over your own plan?
Just take a second. Think about that. Because lasting peace in the Middle East or in our personal lives begins when we put God’s will above our own.
Conner Jones: Mm. Amen to all of that. We continue to pray for peace in Israel and Gaza for the the Gaza who are innocently in the middle of all of this. Yep.
Israelis who are in the middle of all of this, we do the same for other conflicts as well. Ukraine, Russia Sudan is also in the middle of a civil war. Same thing with the double standard here. That is horrible in Sudan right now. So pray for those people. So we will continue to pray for peace. That is ultimately what we need to see.
Alright, Micah, let’s dive into something else. A little bit different. Let’s kind of get a little pallet cleanser here. These have been some right, heavier, more political topics,
Micah Tomasella: like a lot of cleansers recently.
Conner Jones: Yeah. I think it’s a pallet cleanser because it’s about UFOs in a recent Yeah. Recent video.
Assuming there’s not aliens about to invade earth, this should be a palate [00:32:00] cleanser. This is, I’m bringing this up because a couple weeks ago there was a video released in Congress. Micah, you have seen this video. Of A UFO they call it a UAP, unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, and it’s a military video from a a, an aircraft or a drone, and it shows this weird like orb looking thing, flying through the air at high rates of speed, and it gets hit by a u US missile.
And dude, the missile bounced off like it’s, it’s, i’ve never seen anything like it. A lot of people say they’ve never seen anything like it. All these, you know, self-proclaimed UFO experts are like, yeah, we’ve been trying to tell you guys these exist, these, these like orbs exist that have these I guess force shields around them that can deflect weapons and missiles and the military has way more video.
Of things like this, this one just somehow got released to Congress as they were investigating UFOs. All this to say Micah, I, I know my thoughts on UFOs and or UAPs, whatever you wanna call ’em, and aliens and everything, but I would love to know, do, do you think something [00:33:00] like this video is an alien thing.
Is this just something weird? Is it a balloon that somehow deflected a missile? What are your thoughts?
Micah Tomasella: I don’t know, man, alien invasion’s just on my bingo card. I’ve just got other stuff going on in my own, you know, everything we just talked about we’re dealing with as a country, but just even in my own life, I, I’m just not a tinfoil hat guy.
I just don’t spend much time dabbling in conspiracy theories. I think it can be fun sometimes, but I think it can kind of dominate one’s own personality and thought process to just question every little thing. Now, do I trust the government to tell me the truth? No, and I, I just, I just don’t, I mean, and we’ve talked about this before.
Do I expect the government to do the right thing? No, not normally. Because they’re, they’re led by sinful, fallible people who often act out of their own interest. And I don’t, true. It’s just, it’s just one of those things where this very well might. Be a UFO? I don’t know. I think to say, do [00:34:00] I believe in UFOs?
Yeah. Do I believe in unidentified flying objects that we don’t know where they came from? Yeah. Do I believe that aliens are operating them from another interdimensional galaxy? Probably not, but maybe I could be convinced otherwise.
Conner Jones: What what did you think of that video specifically of the, of the thing bouncing off?
Micah Tomasella: I don’t know, man. AI. Yeah. Editing. I don’t know. I, I guess I don’t have a great answer. What did you think? It, it’s, I mean, I, it seems like, own a specific answer outta me. I don’t, I
Conner Jones: know, I don’t, I just, I, I’m just curious because it, it just is a crazy video and a lot of people are just like, okay, this is proof.
Aliens are real. They’re here, they’re on our planet. I don’t know that it is either. It could be some secret weapon that. Government is working on all this to say, I gotta tell you I was talking to my great uncle Rick a few weeks ago. Oh, Rick, he was in town. Rick, shout out Rick, he looks like, to give you a picture of Rick, he looks like uncle S from Duck Dynasty.
A long white [00:35:00] beard. There you go. Wearing camo and the whole thing. And he was telling about his UFO encounter stories and I was like, man, this. Crazy, you know, from like the eighties. And then he tells me, he goes on this podcast called Sasquatch Theory to talk about his UFO encounters. And I thought it was kind of like a little backyard podcast.
Dude, this podcast has hundreds of thousands of, of listeners and it’s a huge YouTube channel. Rick is in his seventies and he’s telling his story. But I will tell you this, at the end of his whole like UFO encounter story on this podcast, he dropped the gospel and I was like, you go Rick, let’s go. Oh, nice.
He’s ultimately, that’s
Micah Tomasella: what it’s all about. Yeah.
Conner Jones: Anyways, he’s also a big Sasquatch guy. Yeah. I got lots of thoughts on UFOs. I’ve been, I’ve listened to every single thing you are about UFOs on Joe Rogan because I’m just curious what they are. That said, I don’t know what they are Anyways.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, I know I don’t have a perfect answer either.
So we want to continue to hear from you all. Please send us your questions, your thoughts, your topic ideas to the email address, culture brief. Dennison form.org and follow us on Instagram at Culture Brief Podcast. We love to drop polls. We love to engage with our audience there. You guys have been so [00:36:00] great since we started this podcast in January to engage with us.
We’re asking that you would continue to do give us your thoughts, give us your feelings, give us your questions, your likes, your dislikes, your topic ideas. Give it all to us. We can handle it, and we’re thankful for you guys. Thank you for tuning in with us every single week.
Conner Jones: Great. Let’s jump into some things to check into this week.
Things we’ve talked about, things that have happened in the, in the culture. First and foremost, just right up front on Sunday morning, there was a tragic shooting and fire at a Mormon church church of Latterday Saints up in Grand Blanc Township in Michigan. And many of y’all probably saw the images of this, the, the church building completely on fire.
This man walked in and killed. Four people and wounded eight others and then set the building on fire. Just really tragic. We’ve got lots of thoughts on the Mormon church and obviously we see many things differently and we see the gospel differently and everything, but. We cannot deny that this is tragic.
And these people were trying to just express their freedom to worship and share their religion on Sunday morning. And it would be like anybody walking to our church building on Sunday morning and [00:37:00] attacking. Terrible. It’s just awful. So continue to pray for that community. Yep. And hopefully that the gospel would somehow come out in this tragedy.
Micah Tomasella: Yep. We also saw Tim Allen, the famous actor. He’s older now. He’s kind of always known for being a, a bit more conservative, but he tweeted something after the Charlie Kirk Memorial that we’ve broken down. We broke down in detail last week, but he tweeted this when Erica Kirk Kirk spoke the words on the man who killed her husband.
And she said that man, that young man, I forgive him that moment deeply affected me. I’ve struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my dad. I will say those words now as I type. I forgive the man who killed my father. Peace be with you all. You know, Conner, I looked into this Tim Allen when he was young, when he was.
Oh goodness. 10 or 11 or something like that. His father was killed by a drunk driver. Mm-hmm. And that obviously changed the entire trajectory of his life. But Erica Kirk getting up there and not making a political [00:38:00] statement like we’ve talked about and saying, because of Jesus, because I’ve been forgiven, I can forgive the man who killed my husband.
I think that impact is far reaching. And I think Tim Allen, he’s somebody of prominence and he had this unique thing happen to him. I really would venture to believe that her example has led a lot of people to forgive and he’s just the most famous person coming out about it. But that’s beautiful that he said that.
And that tweet was awesome.
Conner Jones: It was really cool. It was really cool. Something else in New York City. Eric Adams, he’s the current mayor. He’s not gonna be running for reelection. He’s a bad mayor according to most people in New York. And so it is gonna be between the socialist Zoan mom, Donny, or Zo Ron, sorry, or Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who’s now running for mayor.
He lost a mom, Donny in the March primary already for the Democrat. So now he’s running as an independent. So we’ll see if he can actually pull it off with Eric Adams dropping out. Either way, this is a big tell on maybe where the Democrat party is headed going into next year’s midterms. Just on the New York City [00:39:00] example.
Micah Tomasella: Yep. It remains to be seen just because, you know, now that it’s becoming real, you know, we’ll just see. I mean, Momani is seen as the anti-Trump candidate, and most of New York don’t like Trump. I, I think it might be more about that. But at the same time, this, this does consolidate some voter base that would be against socialism, independents, Republicans, more centrist Democrats might vote for Cuomo.
So Eric Adams dropping out gives Cuomo a better chance, but. Momani kind of smoked Cuomo in that Democratic primary. So obviously he has a lot of ground to make up. Also the Ryder Cup happened this past weekend and that was tough to watch from top to bottom. Europe beat the United States on US soil.
15 to 13 Europe captured the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. The US stumbled badly in the first two days. Those tough two days falling behind bad. But then on Sunday though, they amounted a furious rally that had the crowd believing in a historic comeback. I know Conner and I were texting with a bunch of different people.
It was unbelievable. Win after Win After win. Oh my gosh. Is [00:40:00] this possible? It would’ve been a historic comeback match after Match tightened it, but. US ultimately lost. It was the first Ryder Cup won by a visiting team since 2012, and I think about Europe’s early dominance and the US’ charge that came up just short.
When I think back on the Ryder Cup, I’m just glad the US made it competitive, but there’s a lot of changes that need to be made because Europe has won, I think 15 of the last 20 or something like that. Something crazy. US has gotta step it up. US has gotta figured out. This is embarrassing.
Conner Jones: Yeah. Yeah.
The Europeans just care more and they’re better prepared for it. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: And. They shouldn’t care more. The US should have more pride. They shouldn’t care more.
Conner Jones: I agree. And even Trump was there and he, he hyped everybody up on the tee, standing right behind that. Everybody, as they were teeing off, that was just funny.
Okay. Hollywood stuff, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, it’s done. Everybody’s known them as like that, that couple, that a-list, couple that like transcends tv, movies and music. They’re like the only couple that’s at every award show. Yeah. Yeah. I’m sad too, you know, like they, they’re one of those couples that you [00:41:00] just were like, oh, that’s a Hollywood couple who stayed together and it’s, it’s not working out anymore.
I, I’m not sure why. We don’t know any reasons and that’s not necessarily our place. But yeah, either way it’s kinda sad. You know, they were always at the Grammys, Oscars, Emmys, if it was an award. So they were there just ’cause they touched everything. Yeah. There was the American idol years, all of that.
Anyways sad to see that.
Micah Tomasella: Mm-hmm. Okay, next one. Bad bunny. Is announced as a Super Bowl halftime performer. He’s a music superstar, really is, but his music is primarily in Spanish. You have probably heard one of his songs on the radio before. He is from Puerto Rico. He has previously stated though that he’s not performing in the mainland US as part of his upcoming world tour due to concerns that ice could be outside of his concerts there to deport the people who are showing up.
So we’ll see how that turns out. And then Taylor Swift announced a new album, the Life of a Showgirl. Is out on Friday, her 12th album. She’s the most famous person related to music on the [00:42:00] face of the earth, right? Yeah. And so any album release she does is a pretty big deal.
Conner Jones: Those two are technically the biggest music stars in the world right now.
Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. Yeah, because Bad Bunny just in Latin America is huge. He’s the most streamed artist on Spotify. Think of Spotify. Yeah. Think has the most streams ever or something like that on Spotify. Yeah. He’s huge. Yeah. I don’t think a lot of people who watch the NFL will know who he is and I don’t know that they’ll know his music and I’m not sure how he gonna do it.
It’s a weird, I bet in Spanish bet they
Micah Tomasella: tried to get Taylor. They did, you know, she’s with Travis Kelsey, they’re engaged, and Travis ly Travis is the tied in for the Kansas City Chiefs. And I bet you he was like second choice.
Conner Jones: Supposedly the NFL did not wanna meet the demand that Taylor was demanding to do it.
Bad buddy was. Yeah, because they don’t
Micah Tomasella: get paid. The halftime performers don’t get paid.
Conner Jones: They don’t get paid, but they want more creative freedom than I think the NL is willing to allow Taylor to have. You know, there’s, there’s, there’s, there’s background reporting there. You can go find that stuff other things happening.
This we can tune in. MLB playoffs. I won’t break ’em all down. We’re in the early stages of the wild card games right now. Division series is coming up, but a lot of teams are in the playoffs. So if you’re looking for some good [00:43:00] baseball to watch October baseball, it’s here. And the Texas Rangers are not.
That’s right. But neither are the Astros, so we’ll take that. Neither are the Astros. That’s right. And then next week, guys, Mike and I are both gone, but worry not. We’ve got an episode slated because we’re gonna have our first ever guest on culture brief. It’s an awesome guest. You guys are gonna love him.
It’s gonna be so fun to talk to him about the way him and his team and his job are impacting culture, especially among younger Americans and Christians. It’s gonna be such a fun episode. We can’t wait to talk to him and for you guys to hear all that he has to say. I’ll leave it as a top secret.
Guest appearance. We won’t say who it is right now, but tune in next week for that. And Micah, I hope you enjoy your time out. I’m gonna try and enjoy my time out and then we’ll be back the following week. All that to say, guys, thank you for listening to us this week. We really appreciate it as we just try to break down everything from a faith perspective.
And you can find all the articles, all the videos, the UFO video, the the memes that are going between the president and everything that will all be linked in our show notes, [00:44:00] Ryan Denison’s articles linked in our show notes, and you can find all that there. Leave us a, leave us a comment, leave us a review, leave us some stars, whatever you need to do and share with a friend, and we appreciate it.
We’ll see you next week.
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