Speaker 1: Hey, that folks, it is Sunday.
Speaker 2: So there is time great, very special edition of any
Speaker 2: and TJ roades quickly once again has become probably our
Speaker 2: favorite segment of the week because it's one that we
Speaker 2: can finally relax and it's not just news and it's
Speaker 2: just been an onslaughter rope. So I have appreciated that
Speaker 2: we have brought this segment back to a certain degree
Speaker 2: and we're doing this every Sunday.
Speaker 3: Yes, we used to call it Friday when we were
Speaker 3: on GMA three, but now we call it Spiritual Sunday.
Speaker 1: We're not committed to that title.
Speaker 3: Committed has stuck around and it might end up becoming
Speaker 3: permanent just because you know, it makes sense. It explains
Speaker 3: a lot. We're talking to spiritual leaders, faith leaders from
Speaker 3: all different avenues, Folks who believe in God, folks who don't,
Speaker 3: Folks who are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, whatever. We welcome your insight.
Speaker 3: And today we're very excited. I got someone coming from
Speaker 3: the state of Georgia. Got to say a little little partial,
Speaker 3: but we have Reverend Dante Stuart. I'll forgive him that.
Speaker 3: He was a former Clemson football player, the University of
Speaker 3: Georgia and I are just I'm still You're sorry. We're
Speaker 3: all in the sec It's good, it's good, it's good. No,
Speaker 3: but we're so excited to have you. Reverend Dante. Well,
Speaker 3: how are you referred to? Reverend Stewart Reverend Dante Dante.
Speaker 4: No, it was so funny in church bases, it's Reverend Stuh.
Speaker 4: Pretty much everybody at my church at Tabernacle back to
Speaker 4: the church, they call me Reverend Stue and anybody outside.
Speaker 5: You know, it depends on where you're from.
Speaker 4: You're from South Carolina, you call me, you know, Dante,
Speaker 4: you called me, you play with me, you call me Stu.
Speaker 5: It just depends. It's cool. What do you want to
Speaker 5: call me? It's cool.
Speaker 4: I'm Dante, Reverend Dante. When I need to put on reverend,
Speaker 4: I'll put on reverend. When I could just be Dante,
Speaker 4: I'll be Dante.
Speaker 1: Well, I like Reverend Dante for right now.
Speaker 5: Okay, I like that he is a Yes.
Speaker 6: He has a former Clemson football player, Clemson grad and
Speaker 6: the guy who has been there's an award winning writer speaker.
Speaker 1: So it's good to have you here with us.
Speaker 6: And I actually want to ask a question, if you
Speaker 6: want to take this a religious way you can.
Speaker 1: But it was so strike. Right before we came on, Grove.
Speaker 6: Said something to you about being thirty six, and you said, oh,
Speaker 6: I'm actually thirty four. And she said, oh, sorry, sorry,
Speaker 6: didn't mean to age you. And you jumped in and said,
Speaker 6: ain't nothing wrong with getting older.
Speaker 5: And I actually want to because a lot of.
Speaker 6: People hear it, a lot of people try to fight it.
Speaker 1: Just that statement.
Speaker 6: Speak on that to people right now, this idea that
Speaker 6: we're all afraid to get older.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think for me, I think we're taught.
Speaker 4: I think on some level we're taught and socialized to
Speaker 4: be afraid of, you know, our humanity, our human frailty.
Speaker 4: It's something that's literally a part of our lives and
Speaker 4: can actually on.
Speaker 5: Some level, aging and frailty is not an enemy, but
Speaker 5: it can be a teacher, you know. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna talk about AI real quickly.
Speaker 4: Then I'm gonna bring it religious and it's gonna make
Speaker 4: sense when I Lately, I've just been thinking a lot
Speaker 4: about like, you know, like, hey, I got children in school,
Speaker 4: and you know, people are talking about you know, like you.
Speaker 5: Know, learning and digital learning, and.
Speaker 4: We have all these talks about artificial intelligence inside of our.
Speaker 5: Culture and all over.
Speaker 4: But for me, it's like, you know, I think one
Speaker 4: of the greatest gifts of our humanity is that we
Speaker 4: are frail creatures, you know.
Speaker 5: It's that we have limitations. And the thing that make us.
Speaker 4: Beautiful is that in our own individual way, we have
Speaker 4: our own limitations, which is also our stamp.
Speaker 5: Onto the world.
Speaker 4: And so why limit ourselves from the possibility of something
Speaker 4: that can make us better individually and collectively, something as
Speaker 4: simple as agent. It's something that will happen to all
Speaker 4: of us. And I think because I'm so close to
Speaker 4: older people and like literally like my grandmother, me and
Speaker 4: my grandma God god Lee, I love her so much.
Speaker 4: She was in the hospital for a while, and you know,
Speaker 4: she's ninety two years old, back turned ninety three, and
Speaker 4: you know, that's my that's my g that's my homie.
Speaker 4: We talk all the time, and I think, you know,
Speaker 4: as my grandma has gotten older, you know, I won't
Speaker 4: say I'm the favorite grandchild, you know, because because you.
Speaker 5: Know, I can't. I can't claim that fame, you know.
Speaker 4: But me and my grandmother love talking, and she knows
Speaker 4: I'm a writer, and she knows I'm a reverend and
Speaker 4: things like that, and she loves to almost like give
Speaker 4: me like lessons every time we like talk.
Speaker 5: And I think there's something beautiful about like being able
Speaker 5: to live life.
Speaker 4: And have something to offer to others and something, you know,
Speaker 4: for me being a parent and looking at my children grow.
Speaker 5: You know, I don't want to stay the same. I
Speaker 5: don't want to be the same.
Speaker 4: Person that I was at thirty two or thirty three
Speaker 4: or thirty four. I won't aging to be a gift
Speaker 4: for me and a grace rather than something that I
Speaker 4: know I can't avoid. But you know, something that I
Speaker 4: at least like look at with optimism and expectations.
Speaker 5: So I think on some level it's about like our
Speaker 5: fighting back against despair.
Speaker 4: You know, you have something to live for in that
Speaker 4: thirty fifth year, you have something to look forward to
Speaker 4: in that forty fifth, that's sixty fifth, that eighty fifth,
Speaker 4: that ninety fifth year.
Speaker 5: If God bless you to be that, And to me,
Speaker 5: I look at it as as a grace.
Speaker 6: Well, wow, I love that.
Speaker 3: And grandparents, I mean, oh my God, when you have them,
Speaker 3: hold them tight and pump them for information, because they
Speaker 3: do they have lived life and that wisdom is real.
Speaker 3: Can you think of maybe some just I love hearing
Speaker 3: about your relationship with your grandmother. What is something that
Speaker 3: she's taught you or that she is still teaching you
Speaker 3: to this day?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I never forget.
Speaker 4: Oh man, this is this is like in the forefront
Speaker 4: of my mind because I actually I just turned in
Speaker 4: my second book, Shameless Plug.
Speaker 5: It's entitled What a Broken Heart Can Do. And you know,
Speaker 5: I go.
Speaker 4: Across the country and I immerse myself into sisive heartbreak
Speaker 4: and I write deeply, deeply, you know, human stories about
Speaker 4: you know, heartbreak not being you know, the interruption to life,
Speaker 4: but it's the material that our lives are made of.
Speaker 4: And for us, you know, it's about not escaping it
Speaker 4: or running from it, but staying.
Speaker 5: Human within it.
Speaker 4: And for me, I have a chapter that I've been
Speaker 4: revising on heartbreaking loss, and it's about, you know, my
Speaker 4: grandfather's passing in twenty twenty two and this kind of
Speaker 4: like anticipatory grief around you know, my grandma.
Speaker 5: Ain't she ain't thirty four no more?
Speaker 4: You feel me, you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: you know, you got more life behind you than you have.
Speaker 5: Ahead of you. And a part of it for me is.
Speaker 4: Like I've been ever since, particularly since green Data died
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty two, I've been trying as best I can,
Speaker 4: you know, to love on my grandmother and older people,
Speaker 4: because you know, the older you get, it's like that
Speaker 4: John Prime song, you know, hello in there. You know,
Speaker 4: you just want somebody to say like hello. You know,
Speaker 4: all these people go through through life and people just
Speaker 4: forgetting about them, and you know, and all people just
Speaker 4: wanted somebody to simply say hello, because Hello can be
Speaker 4: the beginning of something beautiful. Hello can be the beginning
Speaker 4: of a story. Hello can be the beginning goes you know,
Speaker 4: a listen. Hello can be the beginning of a prayer.
Speaker 4: Hello can be the beginning of a conversation that change
Speaker 4: your life. And I think my grandmother, I think the
Speaker 4: single greatest thing my grandmother has.
Speaker 5: Taught me is to keep going.
Speaker 4: And I called my grandma all the time and I
Speaker 4: be complaining about writing. And it was one time in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two I have went through a project and
Speaker 4: it was just really difficult.
Speaker 5: After Granddad passed away.
Speaker 4: Grandma and Granddad would love going to go get terrible
Speaker 4: coffee at Hearty's and she loves. I used to be
Speaker 4: a barista, and my grandmother loves when I make her coffee.
Speaker 4: I'm not the favorite grand child, you know, but I
Speaker 4: am a good barista. My grandmother love when I make coffee,
Speaker 4: So I'm making her coffee for her.
Speaker 5: Qualife is nicker wobblin.
Speaker 4: I have my own little chemics and stuff from from
Speaker 4: Benn Rurist and I go and I, you know, make.
Speaker 5: Make a cup of coffee for it. And it's nothing
Speaker 5: to me.
Speaker 4: It's nothing that you know, invites a kind of like
Speaker 4: humility and friendship and openness.
Speaker 5: Like a couple a simple cup of coffee. You know,
Speaker 5: you sit down or you, Paul.
Speaker 4: You got to like you can't drink it fast because
Speaker 4: it's hot, you know, so you have to really sit
Speaker 4: there and be present. And the more we're present, the
Speaker 4: more we get access to like the lessons and the wisdom.
Speaker 4: And my grandmother over coffee. So I'm going through and
Speaker 4: complaining to her, she tells me. She says, Dante, I
Speaker 4: want you to keep writing, Dante. I want you to
Speaker 4: keep going.
Speaker 5: I want you to write a book that will change Congress.
Speaker 5: I want you to write a book that would do this.
Speaker 5: I want you to do this and do that.
Speaker 4: So I go out here, I pulled out my I
Speaker 4: pull out my little no journal right because I'm like,
Speaker 4: you know, I really want to write this down and
Speaker 4: go back to it and have And I think for me,
Speaker 4: as my grandmother has been agent, I've been aging, and
Speaker 4: even in this season of life that I'm in right now,
Speaker 4: the lesson of keep going is as powerful as the
Speaker 4: lesson of there's something in you because we all you meet,
Speaker 4: anybody we meet, we're always navigating the person who people
Speaker 4: see within us, the person who we actually are, and
Speaker 4: the person that we want to become. And in all
Speaker 4: those three relationship between thoseselves, there's a lot of insecurity.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of jealousy, there's a lot of anger,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of fear. There's all these things that
Speaker 4: make us human. But if we can find a way
Speaker 4: to keep going, simply just to keep stepping, keep moving
Speaker 4: no matter what, then I think that like we will
Speaker 4: learn that there is more within us than we're giving
Speaker 4: ourselves credit for. And I think that's a big lesson
Speaker 4: for each of us.
Speaker 5: Give yourself credit.
Speaker 4: Yes you're aging, Yes things are hard, Yes things are
Speaker 4: happening that you don't like. Yes, things may be uncomfortable,
Speaker 4: Yes you're afraid, you're secure, but the fact is you're here,
Speaker 4: and that a councilor something.
Speaker 5: So that's the lesson I think for her.
Speaker 6: Can you give people a little quick council on how
Speaker 6: to keep going in those moments when they are struggling.
Speaker 6: Some people lean on faith, sure, people like it's it's
Speaker 6: it's hard life. And so what in those moments when
Speaker 6: people feel like quit quitting? What what can you hand
Speaker 6: them or give them a little nugget right now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think pausing first of all, first and foremost
Speaker 4: something it's important for us to, like paulse we live
Speaker 4: in a busy world. We're we're in social media when
Speaker 4: in you're dated with the algorithm, I mean, we're swiping
Speaker 4: that book, amusing ourselves to death. It can be now rewritten.
Speaker 4: We swiping ourselves to death, you know.
Speaker 5: Whatnot he just lives what it is right now. And
Speaker 5: I think the ability to.
Speaker 4: Just like pause like this morning, this morning, but being
Speaker 4: really like I had a tough day yesterday, you know,
Speaker 4: going through like writing and you know life and being
Speaker 4: a father and being a husband and you know all
Speaker 4: these I mean, I'm thirty four. These catalytic moments that
Speaker 4: happen at thirty four, it's just something I don't know
Speaker 4: what is in the water, you know, of life. You know,
Speaker 4: a lot of catalytic moments happened during this time. And
Speaker 4: I think for me, like this morning, you know, it
Speaker 4: did the morning didn't go the way that I plan,
Speaker 4: but I at least that the one thing I did
Speaker 4: do this morning is that I paused and I meditated,
Speaker 4: And for me, that's a win, you know. So I
Speaker 4: think it's important for people to pause. I think another
Speaker 4: thing that's important for people to do when they're overwhelmed is.
Speaker 5: To get the thing that you're wrestling inside outside so
Speaker 5: you can see it and alter your relationship to it.
Speaker 5: So I journal a lot.
Speaker 4: I literally literally, this is the journal that my grandmother
Speaker 4: h fit that in that I took, that I took
Speaker 4: those no sens.
Speaker 5: This from twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: But over in the back part of this corner, I
Speaker 4: have journals from twenty fourteen, and I usually work through
Speaker 4: maybe two journals a year, at least one journal a year,
Speaker 4: and I have journals from you know, when I'm this age,
Speaker 4: and that granted, a lot of it is about you know,
Speaker 4: I I work with words, and words are the way
Speaker 4: to express myself. But then sometimes you know, even in
Speaker 4: the journal, you have to get through the bull crap.
Speaker 5: You know, you got to get through the like performance.
Speaker 5: It's specially being a writer.
Speaker 4: You know, here I am journaling like I'm Shakespeare or
Speaker 4: what you know, and then I got to get to
Speaker 4: the real stuff that I actually feel.
Speaker 5: What I'm out bro? Okay, what are you really feeling?
Speaker 5: What are you going on? Bro?
Speaker 4: So, I think I think on some level, like getting
Speaker 4: it outside of yourself and putting it in your journal
Speaker 4: and being able to like see it and almost like
Speaker 4: communicate it and talk with it. You know, you're able
Speaker 4: to like process it so that thing that you may
Speaker 4: be actually worried about, or that thing that you may
Speaker 4: actually be overwhelmed about, now that you're it's outside of
Speaker 4: your head and on the page, now you can actually
Speaker 4: like you got enough distance to where you can actually
Speaker 4: legitimately think.
Speaker 5: So, I think journaling for people.
Speaker 4: I think being the person that reach out first, I'm
Speaker 4: a huge proponent in this. Like I know people be
Speaker 4: like yo, like I ain't gonna be a type of
Speaker 4: person that reach out to people, but I'm like nahna me,
Speaker 4: like I will if I know you and I love
Speaker 4: you and I'm inspired by you, I'm connected to you,
Speaker 4: and we on like a text basis, like I'm gonna
Speaker 4: call you, I'm gonna keep up with you because like
Speaker 4: you actually may need to like let me use this
Speaker 4: word as reverend.
Speaker 5: You may need to minister to me, or you may.
Speaker 4: Be needed to minister too through somebody else's like brokenness,
Speaker 4: so frailty or limitation as like this kind of senter
Speaker 4: just relationship. You might need to minister to someone, and
Speaker 4: and you ministering to someone, you're ministering to yourself.
Speaker 5: You're taking care of something within yourself that you actually need.
Speaker 5: Maybe this week you felt like man, I haad like
Speaker 5: this thing that I read, and I.
Speaker 4: Really want to talk, you know, Kendrick Lamar said, I'm
Speaker 4: just I'm a Christian.
Speaker 5: Just not today praying to the trees.
Speaker 4: Gott is taking shape, and I want to talk to
Speaker 4: somebody about like what's been happening about my relationship with God?
Speaker 4: And then your friend call you about abro I don't
Speaker 4: know how to write this word whatnot? Hey bro, let
Speaker 4: me tell you about this metaphor, like you might need
Speaker 4: that too, So it's like you never know what can
Speaker 4: happen by reaching out first. I'll say Paul's journal, reach
Speaker 4: out first to me, and then I run, so move.
Speaker 4: You know, I was asking a question in an event
Speaker 4: one time. Somebody said, you know, how do you metabolize suffering?
Speaker 4: And it's to me, it's the same way that you
Speaker 4: metabolize you know, sells or whatever it happens in the body.
Speaker 4: I'm not in a medical field, but whatever happens with
Speaker 4: the process of metabolism.
Speaker 5: You know, in order for things to go, things must move.
Speaker 4: So if you can find a way, even if that
Speaker 4: next step is the step of fear, rage, sadness, grief, despair,
Speaker 4: it's still a step, and as long as you're stepping
Speaker 4: is the possibility of being able to move into a
Speaker 4: different directions.
Speaker 5: So that's what I was saying.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 3: You mentioned that you are a minister at the Tabernacle
Speaker 3: Baptist Church there in Augusta, Georgia. What is there a
Speaker 3: common theme? Is there something that you hear most from
Speaker 3: your parishioners, what they're worried about, what they're concerned about,
Speaker 3: what they're dealing with, the troubles they have. Is there
Speaker 3: a commonality to some of the conversations you have when
Speaker 3: folks come to you and need your counsel? What are
Speaker 3: they asking for?
Speaker 5: Yeah, let me be very clear.
Speaker 4: It's an interesting situation because, like I am, I float
Speaker 4: between like the campuses, and so if I'm being honest,
Speaker 4: this would be a better question that like our care
Speaker 4: congregational care team.
Speaker 5: Would be able to answer. You know.
Speaker 4: But I will answer that question for people who I
Speaker 4: talk to and what I experienced as someone as a
Speaker 4: minister in this church, not necessarily as a person that
Speaker 4: people inside the church has to come to.
Speaker 5: Does that make sense?
Speaker 4: Yes, you know, I don't want to overspeak my my
Speaker 4: my my own I don't want to boost, you know,
Speaker 4: my own importance, you know, but I will tell you
Speaker 4: about what I'm what I'm.
Speaker 5: Hearing from people. I think on some level.
Speaker 4: You know, we're in a predominantly black church, you know,
Speaker 4: historically black church. Very it's actually our church anniversary this
Speaker 4: this this uh this week, one hundred plus years that
Speaker 4: that God is just blessedly like one hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: some years. You know that that God has blessed this community.
Speaker 4: Has been many different churches inside one building. But one
Speaker 4: thing has been constant is the care for the lived
Speaker 4: reality of the people. You know I'm talking about. This
Speaker 4: church has been a place where Martin Luther King, you know,
Speaker 4: has has preached that multiple times. It was a big
Speaker 4: church and the civil rights movement. It's a church where
Speaker 4: Reverend Oldis Mass was at before Reverend doctor Charles E. Goodman,
Speaker 4: who's a pastor there now. So it's a very it's
Speaker 4: a very story in history historic church, which means that
Speaker 4: whatever people are, the lived reality of people within their
Speaker 4: own zip codes, at some point that reality finds this.
Speaker 5: Way into the pulpit and filter out throughout the ministries.
Speaker 4: And I think most of the things that people are
Speaker 4: thinking about right now and is very much what everyone
Speaker 4: you know is thinking about right now, and is the
Speaker 4: situation that's happening in our country, that's happening in our world.
Speaker 4: And as much as we're dealing with a I don't
Speaker 4: want to spiritualize this too much, but you know, it's
Speaker 4: very important.
Speaker 5: That we do. I think on some level, like as
Speaker 5: much as we're dealing with.
Speaker 4: The issues of policy and practice and the historical realities
Speaker 4: of those decisions of you know, those who have power
Speaker 4: interests of those who actually size.
Speaker 5: Real power and will that power.
Speaker 4: You know, as much as we're dealing with a being inherited,
Speaker 4: inheriting you know, those bad or misguided decisions of people
Speaker 4: from the past, and you know those who live in
Speaker 4: right now, their inabilities to actually come together and do
Speaker 4: things to change things. I think we're actually dealing with
Speaker 4: a spiritual problem as well. You know, it's economic, it's
Speaker 4: dealing with capitalism, it's dealing with you know, racism, sex
Speaker 4: of homophobia, all of these things, you know, bigotry, and corruption,
Speaker 4: all these things. But I think on some level, the
Speaker 4: deepest thing that people are dealing with is a lack
Speaker 4: of security, a lack of trust, and a lack of hope.
Speaker 4: I think on some level, we the people, in.
Speaker 5: Order to form a more perfect union, to establish justice,
Speaker 5: to ensure domestic tranquility at the beginning of the the
Speaker 5: Constitution and the preamble that in some sense is the
Speaker 5: ghost that hunt us right now. Spirit we're struggling with
Speaker 5: we the people. Now, if I can, let me put.
Speaker 4: On Reverend hat real quick, and let me turn into
Speaker 4: a preacher, and let my let my Bible verse.
Speaker 5: Be Stanza one, you know of the you know we
Speaker 5: work through the verses real quick.
Speaker 7: So when I think about the Constitution, these framers of
Speaker 7: the Constitution, these writers may not have known what they
Speaker 7: were doing, but but we as people who haven't been
Speaker 7: the ones with the pen, can actually be the ones
Speaker 7: with the microphone that can interpret these frameworks for them
Speaker 7: in ways that they didn't even know. So when I
Speaker 7: think about as a young black man in.
Speaker 4: America, husband, father, the military, spouse, writer, minister, friend, brother son,
Speaker 4: da da da da, all of these various things, when
Speaker 4: I look at that text, when I see we the people,
Speaker 4: I don't just see people that look like me. I
Speaker 4: see we the people that I find myself around every
Speaker 4: single day and people we find ourselves around every single day.
Speaker 4: And right now, what we're struggling with is we are
Speaker 4: people in this country, but we are not the people.
Speaker 4: Now there's a whoever want to answer why that is
Speaker 4: the case. You can blame this person, that person, this system,
Speaker 4: that system.
Speaker 5: Cool. The fact is we're still struggling with we the people. Now.
Speaker 5: What we're also.
Speaker 4: Struggling with this is trust. We're first struggling with security.
Speaker 4: So we the people is that idea of security? You
Speaker 4: know that if I'm struggling with something. I got my people,
Speaker 4: I got my person. But right now we're struggling with that.
Speaker 4: People talking about it in dating, people talking about it
Speaker 4: in school, people talking about on social media.
Speaker 5: Our security has been.
Speaker 4: Tested and challenge, but we're also dealing with trust. That
Speaker 4: little word, that little phrase, in order.
Speaker 5: To is very important and very powerful.
Speaker 4: It is a statement of agency and collective agency.
Speaker 5: For something to be in order to, it gotta be
Speaker 5: able to.
Speaker 4: If it can't be able to, then that means that
Speaker 4: it has some type of power to make sure this
Speaker 4: thing can happen.
Speaker 5: But the problem is we're dealing.
Speaker 4: With We're going to work, we're showing up, we're voting,
Speaker 4: we're praying, we're preaching, we're trying, we're creating this andata,
Speaker 4: we're doing all these things. But the fact is one
Speaker 4: of the things that we're struggling with also is like
Speaker 4: our ability to trust that we actually have the power
Speaker 4: to do something about what's happening. Whether you're a sister
Speaker 4: in daycare, whether you're a brother who just lost a parent,
Speaker 4: whether you're somebody who's dealing with you know, you in
Speaker 4: a school or you're in a community and you're worried
Speaker 4: about being taken away, or you're dealing with this or
Speaker 4: that we're dealing with like I do not trust that
Speaker 4: this will me acting is going to turn out good
Speaker 4: in my situation. So we're not only dealing with security
Speaker 4: and trust, but we're dealing with despair.
Speaker 5: Like we the people, security in order to.
Speaker 8: Establish established means that there is something that's gonna happen,
Speaker 8: that's gonna be in place, that's gonna outlast met that
Speaker 8: I can look forward to.
Speaker 4: That's why people love that preamble because it establishes a
Speaker 4: framework for our lives together. And I think on some level,
Speaker 4: the things that we're building, the things that we're handled,
Speaker 4: we're struggling as people with those things security, trust, and
Speaker 4: the spare whether you're in this congregation, whether you're in
Speaker 4: New York, whether you're it's Philadelphia, whether you're in San Antonio,
Speaker 4: yaval Day, Montana, Washington, DC, Florida, Republican or Democrats like
Speaker 4: Progressive or that younger Oh, I think we're all struggling.
Speaker 5: With these things. And right now, the spiritual crisis is
Speaker 5: we're numb. That's the real thing. We're not just feel powerless.
Speaker 4: I think on some level we feel numb and it's
Speaker 4: our job to help people not be numb.
Speaker 5: You can feel like you lacked security. I do too.
Speaker 5: You can feel like you us, I do too. You
Speaker 5: can feel despair, I do too.
Speaker 4: But what you don't want to settle in is numbness.
Speaker 4: And I think that's the job of the spiritual leader.
Speaker 4: It's for people who are numb to not be known.
Speaker 1: Wow, and y'all didn't see him as he was doing it.
Speaker 1: He went full preacher.
Speaker 6: He's wiping sweat from right. He went full black preacher
Speaker 6: on us. We gotta let you get out of here
Speaker 6: on this week.
Speaker 1: We gotta let you go. But hope.
Speaker 6: You mentioned hope a couple of times, and you can
Speaker 6: say from a religious basis or not, when people have despair,
Speaker 6: they're looking for hope, and it's dangerous not to have it.
Speaker 6: Give a little as you send everybody off to continue
Speaker 6: to Sunday, where can we get hope? What is your
Speaker 6: recommendation or suggested or suggestion when people feel hopeless?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, James Baldwin says that, like I'm a
Speaker 4: butcher to quote, but he said, you know, you can't
Speaker 4: look at a child and be despairing like that child
Speaker 4: needs some kind of hope, and for me, I think
Speaker 4: it's looking to the children.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I'm actually working on a piece on Miss Rachel right now,
Speaker 4: and there's something about Miss Rachel I think that we
Speaker 4: need as people, particularly, not just to care that she
Speaker 4: has for children, not just the courage that she has
Speaker 4: to speak up, but I think there's something about the
Speaker 4: way she points our perception is to look at children,
Speaker 4: because it's very hard to not care.
Speaker 5: When you look at a child, I don't care if
Speaker 5: that child is yours or not. You know, when there's
Speaker 5: a child in.
Speaker 4: The room, most people, let me say not all people,
Speaker 4: you know, but.
Speaker 5: Most people, the energy in the vibe shifts.
Speaker 4: And I think if we can stay close to the
Speaker 4: children and what we want the children to emulate. I'm
Speaker 4: a parent and my son and my daughter challenge me
Speaker 4: tremendously with like how I show up.
Speaker 5: I'm complaining to my son this morning.
Speaker 4: My son ate and I be talking to my boy
Speaker 4: like we dogs. That's my that's my dude. And I
Speaker 4: tell him, man, you know, he said, Daddy, what are
Speaker 4: you thinking about? Because I'm like in a day's daydreaming
Speaker 4: or whatever. I was like, man, I'm just thinking about life. Man,
Speaker 4: I'm doing all these things. I'm all these things.
Speaker 5: My son told me, Yo. My boy was like, Daddy,
Speaker 5: Now you know, you can't be all of those at
Speaker 5: the same time. Here you go, and he's right.
Speaker 4: And I think there is the Bible, you know, says
Speaker 4: that unless you, you know, receive the kingdom like one
Speaker 4: of these children, you won't inherit it. And I think
Speaker 4: there's something about like looking to the children to.
Speaker 5: Look at the world and a childlike way. And I
Speaker 5: think if we can stay close to the children and
Speaker 5: a child like.
Speaker 4: Mind, beginner's mind with the world, I think, I think we're.
Speaker 5: Gonna be ay. We already are right. Let me be clear,
Speaker 5: we already are right, and we getting all right. But
Speaker 5: if we stay toward the children, we're gonna be all right.
Speaker 3: That's perfect. We say that all the time, Dante constantly.
Speaker 3: We love the people watch and we love to look
Speaker 3: at children, and especially young girls, because they've got this beautiful,
Speaker 3: innocent confidence, because they haven't they don't know what to
Speaker 3: be insecure about yet. And just to sit there and
Speaker 3: watch kids daydream play, enjoy the basic basic things in life,
Speaker 3: like skipping or smelling flowers or looking up at the clouds,
Speaker 3: I mean it. We can learn so much. I love
Speaker 3: that you said that, and it is hopeful because we
Speaker 3: all have that in us. We just have to remember
Speaker 3: and they lead the way. I love Reverend Dante Stewart.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for your time, for your wisdom,
Speaker 3: and I know that you have inspired so many people
Speaker 3: who are listening here today who feel exactly the way
Speaker 3: you feel. But yeah, hope is important. Hope keeps us
Speaker 3: putting that foot, that one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 3: And I love say hello to your grandmother for us.
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure, sir. We will see you down
Speaker 1: in Georgia at some.
Speaker 6: Point we get down to Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Great brother, thanks.
Speaker 5: A lot, Thank you. Y'all be well.