Struggling with your electric bill? Get an energy assist from SDG&E and SAFE. You may qualify for an 18% discount. Visit SDGE.com/FERA to find out more. - Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

My name is Joshua and I am your host. Today's episode of the show is going to be quite a challenging one. I had not intended to record a show this week at all. I've been working on delivering the beta version of the career and income guide that I'm working my way through.

And I've been entirely focused on that and some of my end of the year plans. And so after episode 500, I was planning to take a break, but I feel I must record this show today. And so I'm doing it, but it's gonna be a difficult one and a very challenging one.

Basically, my goal today is to share with you some thoughts and ideas about how to protect yourself and to protect your career from being, your entire financial life from being destroyed because of allegations of sexual misconduct, sexual scandal, sexual sin. That is my goal. Now, two quick upfront warnings as I begin today's show.

Number one, most of Radical Personal Finance is consumable by the entire family. Today's episode is obviously related to adult topics and adult themes. So I would consider a show like this mandatory listening for any person of perhaps double digit age and older, but below double digits, this may be one that you should screen first and consider carefully whether or not this will be helpful to your children.

So if you're accustomed to living or listening to the show with your children, I recommend that you skip to a different show and enjoy that one today and then screen this one privately. Number two, if you are one who prefers your discussion of financial matters to be completely sanitized of religion, references to God and scripture, any reading of any kind from the Bible, this will be a show that you will want to skip and move on to a different show because there is no possible way to accurately deal with matters of sexual conduct without recognizing the source of moral law.

So if you are in one of those two audiences, I'll pause for a moment so you can leave and we'll continue with the adults in the room. I guess a third comment would be that in my mind, I frankly don't often know how to speak to these things in a mixed audience of men and women.

So for today's audience, my concern is men, not so much women. I'll allow someone else who feels the grace to speak to an audience of women about these issues. I am not capable of that. So for today, I know that the main audience of Radical Personal Finance is primarily male and I do feel qualified to speak to men.

I don't feel qualified to speak to women. So if you're listening in, just know that you're listening in and for the purpose of today's show, I can't accurately deal with these things in a mixed sex company. So feel free to listen in, but just recognize that from here forward, I'm intentionally speaking to men.

Probably the first episode in 500 in which I have done that, but in today's episode, I believe I must. I did not intend, as I said, I think I said, I didn't intend to record a show today. I've been focusing on other projects, but I feel I must. And let me explain a little bit why.

No doubt over the last few weeks, you have observed that people are crumbling, that careers have been crumbling, and it seems to be a tsunami of new allegations every day, of sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, just new allegations every single day. I saw a tweet as I'm recording this, it's Friday afternoon, November 10, 2017 at 3.17 PM.

How's that for a timestamp? And I noticed a tweet yesterday from the front page editor of the Huffington Post who said that nine of the front page stories were with regard to explosive allegations of sexual misconduct towards well-known people. And in fact, they had 10 stories, but they had to bump one of those stories off of the front page because there were others of a bigger one.

And what's been fascinating to me has been to watch these things develop in the media context. And I have watched this now, of course, with you, I'm sure, for the last, I don't know, has it been a week, month, a month or so? Been watching these things happening. And amazingly, there's been tremendous financial repercussions for the people who are experiencing these allegations and who are being, or is being alleged that they've engaged in sexual misconduct.

And so there's been tremendous financial hardship. So of course, me being the host of "Rumor, the Daily," I'm the host of "Radical Personal Finance," I watch these things and I notice and I say, "Oh, I could do a show about that." And I've stayed away from it. I've really stayed away from it.

And I've thought about the show. I've built the whole thing in my head, but I haven't wanted to do it. And the reason I haven't wanted to do it is because most of the people who have been exposed, most of the people who are receiving allegations from people that they've allegedly abused have been people that I just don't have much in common with.

I don't have any significant scenario. And I have often felt like it would be wrong for me to come and if it's just somebody like Harvey Weinstein, a very liberal person involved in an industry that I don't think much of, that it would be wrong for me to just come and use him as an example.

The Bible teaches in the book of Proverbs, it says, "Do not rejoice," where is it? "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls. Let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. Lest the Lord see it and be displeased and turn away his anger from him." So I think it's very important.

And I always try to make sure, I don't wanna be rejoicing when my enemy falls. I don't wanna let my heart be glad when somebody stumbles. And I'm deeply concerned with our current conversation because it seems as though that's the first inclination, or at least when you do a survey of the way people speak publicly in their Twitter feeds or in their Facebook feeds, it's almost like we rejoice when our political enemies fall.

And I think this is such a destructive, it's just such a destructive standard. And I don't wanna be participating in it. I really don't. And so as these people have come out and these allegations have come out, I just felt like it would be in poor taste and wrong of me to attach it, to attack this subject.

That is until yesterday when an explosive Washington Post article was published with allegations of sexual misconduct on behalf of Judge Roy Moore, a man who is running for Senate in the state of Alabama, a man who is widely touted as a Christian, a man who has been very vocal in his defense of his interpretation of biblical Christianity, specifically on moral issues.

That has been a hallmark of his career. He was a judge in the state of Alabama, twice thrown out of office under ethics obligations because he stood up for what he believed is a moral situation, just a firebrand of a figure, and then an absolutely explosive article yesterday. And so I felt like one of the things that's very important to me is we should deal with the things that are near us.

We should be the ones who deal with the sin that is in our circles. We have no right to go across town, as an example. We have no right to go across town and try to point out all of the problems in somebody else until we've dealt with the problems that are in our own life, in our own families, in our own local church, in our own community, in our own city.

And I build this on Jesus' teaching. He said, "Don't go and point out the speck "in your neighbor's eye until you deal with the log "that's in your own eye." The idea is we can all see things that are wrong with other people, but let's not be those who just start with things that are over there.

And so it was on that basis that I said, "You know what, I think that we should always be the first "to deal with the community that's near us." I've tried to approach it in this way. If I'm a financial advisor, I need to be the one who's dealing with the misconduct in the community of financial advice and bringing justice to that community to the extent that I can.

It's not my job to go and solve Hollywood. I don't have any contact with Hollywood, but I need to deal with what's in the financial advice industry, or I need to deal with what's near at hand. And I think often, so often, we miss this, and it leads to just our aimlessly whacking about with our ideas, constantly just trying to find fault in other people.

Yes, it's good to see those things. That's fine, but let's spend some time, let's not be so blind to the problems that are near us. And so if I expect the Hollywood community to deal with Harvey Weinstein, then I should be one to stand up and not be silent when there are allegations against somebody like Judge Roy Moore.

I have a responsibility to speak clearly to the subject. Now, my concern is I don't know if, frankly, any of these people are guilty. I don't know if Judge Roy Moore is guilty of what is alleged against him. I don't know if Harvey Weinstein is guilty of what's alleged against him.

I don't know if Bill O'Reilly is guilty of what's alleged against him. I don't know if Kevin Spacey is guilty of what's alleged against him. How would I know? How could I possibly know? All I know is what's reported. Unfortunately, I've lost significant confidence over the last five years in the way that things are reported.

And I can judge based upon what's reported, and I can think, is this accurate? Is this thoughtful? Is this accurate? But I don't actually know what's happened. And I believe that one of the things we should do is continue our practice of believing that people are innocent until they're proven guilty.

So I don't know if Moore or any of these people are guilty. It's impossible for me to discern. But I do want to see justice brought. And if they are guilty, I want to see justice brought. And if they're innocent, I want to see justice brought. And this is very challenging, because we need to make sure that we listen carefully to the victims of crimes and the victims of immorality.

Unfortunately, I think most of us, we've been guilty in the past of not listening carefully to victims. When somebody says, "I've been victimized," we should stop everything and listen very, very carefully. But I don't think we should believe every victim's story. We should look for evidence, and we should look for proof, and we should be open.

And if there is guilt, we must follow through consistently with that guilt. Bible says in Proverbs 18, "The one who states his case first seems right until the other one comes and examines him." And so one of the things that's important is for us to hear fully facts and not jump to conclusions.

We should hear fully facts, we should hear fully evidence, and then we should allow those who are close enough to the situation to seek to bring justice. No matter the cost, justice must be brought. Criminals, no matter whether we like them, whether we don't, I like Judge Moore. Doesn't matter.

If he's guilty of that, I'll be the first, and I should be the first. I'll be the first to stand up and condemn and say justice needs to be brought. But we should also be careful. We wanna make sure that we have multiple witnesses of something. We wanna make sure that there's good evidence, and we wanna make sure that we don't just jump in with what's politically expedient, that we don't defend somebody without hearing facts, nor that we automatically come against somebody without hearing facts.

And I fear so much for the coming decades because we're separating into these tribal groupings, and things that we would find utterly abhorrent if our political opponent did it, we jump to it when it gives us a place for power, and vice versa, and I think we're all guilty of that.

And I don't wanna do that. The Bible teaches in the book of Exodus, it says you shall not fall in with the many to do evil. Do not fall in with the many to evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit. Siding with the many so as to pervert justice.

Even if you're one person standing against thousands, stand for what's right, no matter the cost. So, that's my heart to start with, is I wanna see justice brought, and I wanna see righteousness done, and the victims, restitution brought to victims if there are victims, but also I don't wanna see justice perverted for political expediency, and I think that's the danger that we face.

So, let's be the first to check ourselves. And so, I ask you, if you are a conservative person, let's use this, I hate these words, conservative and liberal, but they're effective enough for now. If you're a conservative person, if you're on the political right, did you celebrate when Harvey Weinstein, a leading Democrat donor, and behind the scenes guy, on the left was found out and exposed, and these allegations come against him publicly, did you rejoice, did you celebrate?

And if you're on the left, and have a tendency towards a liberal perspective, did you celebrate when you heard that Judge Roy Moore, an open, loud mouth bigot, according to some, was accused of assault? Did you celebrate when you said, "Ha ha, we finally got him?" I hope you didn't.

In fact, if you're listening to Radical Personal Finance, I bet you didn't. I don't know how you could listen to this show and celebrate, but I know a whole lot of people did, and we need to be those who don't do that. We need to be those who seek for justice and for truth, no matter the cost, justice and truth, but not celebrate, don't rejoice when your enemy falls, and don't let your heart be glad when he stumbles.

Now, that's a bit of preamble, and I didn't know any other way to start the show, but my major focus in today's show is just to talk about you and me, to talk about how you can protect yourself. And I guess I should, well, just to talk about how you can protect yourself.

For the sake of clarity, here is my position, my worldview, and I'll state it very, very clearly. Sexual contact of any kind, between any people except one husband and one wife is wrong. That's the position that I hold. Sexual contact between any people except one husband and one wife is wrong.

That's it. That is my entire outlook on human sexuality and what's appropriate. Now, I'll talk briefly at the end just about the very confusing situation that we face, but my hope is to help you avoid, excuse me, the confusing situation that we face in our modern era with very strange public sexual ethics.

This is what is so strange to me about Hollywood. Seems like, I don't know, I don't watch many movies, I'm not that involved in that world. I watch it from a peripheral perspective and read the newspaper articles about it, but I'm not involved in Hollywood. But it sure seems to me like anything goes in Hollywood, or at least based upon what's recounted to me of modern popular Hollywood culture, it seems as though you can do just about anything, you can depict just about anything.

And it seems like it's, whether it's in Hollywood movies or whether it's on HBO, I mean, from what I'm told, "Game of Thrones" is one of the most abusive, sexually charged and abusive shows on television. And yet it also seems to be one of the most popular shows. I don't know how an industry that puts out that as a product, selling that as attractive.

From my understanding, it's not, when abuse, especially sexual abuse is pictured, it's not pictured as something that's abhorrent, which it should be. Should be, if there's going to be something that is questionable, it should be pictured as the evil that it is. And the art of the movie should come against it so powerfully that you walk away from it with a clear moral understanding, not an ambiguity.

There should be no ambiguity whatsoever. And I'm constantly, I'm amazed at how this industry is stands up and is opposing all of these, words fail me, 'cause very strong ones come to mind, all of these people who are alleged of sexual abuse. I'm constantly, I'm amazed at that. It's just incredible.

It proves out what the Bible says when it says in the book of Numbers, "Be sure your sins will find you out." And I don't know, I'm just amazed at how an industry that glorifies sexuality of every form and of every type with seemingly no limit. In Hollywood films, there's no limit, no limit whatsoever to what is glorified.

And yet that's the industry that has been using to be blown wide open. And I'm so thankful for it. I don't care who brings justice or righteousness. I don't care who brings it or how it comes. I just want it to be brought. Anyway, forgive me. That's how I feel about it.

So my concern for you is how can you protect yourself? What can you do? And I think this is very important because the higher you go in your career, the higher you go in your earnings, the higher you go in your place of prominence, the greater the danger for you.

You know what, there are a whole lot of victims of a whole lot of abusers that would love to see their abuser exposed publicly, but because the abuser is not important, they don't have any notoriety, that abuser just goes on abusing. And it ought not to be so. That's your job and my job to be diligent where we are.

But if you rise to a place of prominence and there's a place of public notoriety, then everything changes. You say, well, Joshua, I'm not in a place of notoriety. I'm not in a place of prominence. Well, guess what? This is the time to be careful. This is the time to be circumspect in your actions and your behavior.

This is the time to protect yourself. This is the time to be careful. As we see in the allegations against Judge Roy Moore, who knows, you may go on for 30 years. All of a sudden, allegations from 30 or 40 years prior come up. You better make sure that doesn't happen to you.

Now, I want to give you some suggestions. Some of these will be big picture and some of them will be very specific and tactical. Perhaps the biggest thing that you should consider is if you have the opportunity, you should marry and you should marry early. One of my biggest concerns about our current society, and this is true in every aspect of society, broader, secular society, it's very true within the kind of the modern evangelical Christian society, we've done ourselves a great disservice by allowing marriage to be painted and set up as a form of bondage rather than as a form of joy and something tremendous and wonderful.

I've been wanting to do an episode for a while and I just felt like it was too important for me to do lightly and so I need to be very prepared for it. We want to do a series on marriage and money. I've had requests for it and it's so important because if you were gonna say, you know, the number one thing that you can do to get wealthy is frankly get married.

The data on this, the sociological data on this subject is so crystal clear that marriage on every single metric of success, no matter how you look at it, whether it's purely financial, income-wise, wealth-wise, whether it's with regard to your children, on every single metric of success, marriage is the key.

I call it the success sequence, right? Marriage is the key and one of the books that I read in January this year that just really blew me over 'cause it was ignorant of the data, I read Charles Murray's book, "Coming Apart, "The State of White America, 1960 to 2010" and what was remarkable to me was the difference in classes.

I couldn't believe it how the lower class, people have this idea, there's this cultural perception, if you follow modern culture, that among the upper class, marriage is the thing that is not in style. You can come and go very morally, anything is right, however you wanna live is appropriate.

You can just do this as you like but among the lower class, well, a bunch of usually religious zealots, they gotta stay married and people get married quick and get married at 16 and start pumping out those children, right? There's this cultural idea about this, especially among the elite.

They have this idea, this very permissive attitude among the elite and those uneducated lower class, they just get married. That's the exact opposite of the facts. The facts are among the lower class in the United States, marriage has collapsed and has led to absolute poverty of all kinds and among the upper class, although the upper class preaches the most vociferously about the immateriality of marriage, about how it's not all that important, it doesn't really make that big of a difference.

They marry at pretty much the historical rates and they experience great success. Now, someday I'll deal with that one, I'll cite data, I feel like I should do that one with good support right now. Go and research it if you disbelieve me but one of the best things you can do for your wealth is marry and frankly, marry early and one of the big reasons for marriage is sex.

Sure, there's more to it than that but one of the big reasons for marriage is sex. Marriage is a gift from God to allow you to enjoy sex and one of the best ways if you're experiencing sexual attraction is get married so that you can enjoy sex morally, uprightly with your spouse.

The Bible in 1 Corinthians chapter seven says this so crystal clear and unfortunately, I'm ashamed, utterly ashamed of many modern Christian preachers who hem and haw about the fact that marriage is for sex and they sit back and play this prudish game or this thing where they just wanna go along with everyone else and not recognize just the value of sex.

Let me just read the Bible to you. 1 Corinthians chapter seven says this, now Paul is speaking to a Corinthian church. For context, if you're not a Bible reader, just a quick little bit of context. There are two in the New Testament in the Christian Bible, there are two letters that are collected.

One is called 1 Corinthians and one is called 2 Corinthians. Now, some scholars believe that it's actually a total of four letters but they're listed in the Bible as two different letters and the Corinthian church is probably the example that we have in the Bible of the most dysfunctional, utterly awful church.

I think most of us, at least me and many of you that I know, you think about saying the words Corinthian church and you hardly wanna call them a church because they're just so utterly dysfunctional and immoral. The town, and it's natural and normal, the town of Corinth was, as I understand it, a seaside town filled with every bit of immorality that a seaside town is filled with.

And so the letter is written by a man named Paul who is one of the early Christian preachers and very influential. It's many of his letters that make up the New Testament. And so this letter is very, very practical and has a lot of careful, practical instruction about specific issues.

So read from 1 Corinthians chapter seven, Paul says this, "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, "it is good for a man not to have sexual relations "with a woman, but because of the temptation "to sexual immorality," and side note here, when the Bible uses the term sexual immorality, it refers to any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage relationship with a husband and wife.

And there are a couple different words that are often used, the word fornication, sex before marriage, and the words adultery, sex with somebody who is married. But sexual immorality is an inclusive term of any kind of sexual contact outside of, between a husband and a wife within the context of marriage.

"But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, "each man should have his own wife, "and each woman her own husband. "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, "and likewise the wife to her husband. "For the wife does not have authority over her own body, "but the husband does.

"Likewise, the husband does not have authority "over his own body, but the wife does." And it says, "Do not deprive one another, "except perhaps by agreement for a limited time "that you may devote yourselves to prayer, "but then come together again, "so that Satan may not tempt you "because of your lack of self-control." So that's the scripture, and I'm gonna avoid some of the temptations to kind of preach and pull that whole passage of heart and show some of the important things.

That's for context for a different show or a different occasion. But the basic message that I wanna emphasize here is that the basic purpose of marriage is to avoid sexual immorality. That's one of the basic things, that a husband and a wife within marriage can enjoy all of the pleasure of marriage and thus avoid sexual immorality, have a satisfying sexual relationship within the context of marriage.

That's the point. That's one of the major benefits. Now, it's not the only benefit, but it's definitely not an ancillary benefit. It's definitely not a secondary benefit. And for Christians, there is nothing, there's nothing, it's not more righteous to be celibate. It's righteous to be married and to enjoy sex.

One of the things in Proverbs chapter five, Solomon says, teaching to his son, he says this, I'll just read it in the original language, but it says, "Let your fountain be blessed "and rejoice in the wife of your youth, "a lovely deer, a graceful doe. "Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight.

"Be intoxicated always in her love." I haven't called my wife a deer in a while. I should try that. I should tell her she's a lovely doe and see what it says. It's a little bit of cultural appropriateness to certain types of language. But again, I'll just read it.

"Let your fountain be blessed "and rejoice in the wife of your youth, "a lovely deer, a graceful doe. "Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. "Be intoxicated always in her love. "Why should you be intoxicated, my son, "with a forbidden woman "and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?" Now listen carefully.

"For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord "and he ponders all his paths. "The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him "and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. "He dies for lack of discipline "and because of his great folly he is led astray." I don't want you to die for lack of discipline and I don't wanna die for lack of discipline.

And it's very important that we put discipline around ourselves to protect ourselves from committing sexual immorality. I was gonna say, and I forgot at the beginning, but the way that you protect yourself from sexual scandal and the way that you protect your career from being torpedoed due to sexual scandal is don't engage in sexual scandal.

That's how you protect yourself. Now, unfortunately, that's not enough anymore. You have to avoid even the appearance of evil, as the King James Bible says in one translation from 1 Thessalonians 5. So every other translation, I need to look this up, but abstain from every form of evil. But the King James Version says abstain from the appearance of evil.

So it's not enough just to not do bad things to people. It's not enough just to not commit sexual sin, but you have to avoid even the appearance of it. But it's a good starting place. And so you've gotta build around yourself walls of discipline so that you can stay faithful to your spouse.

Now, if you're not married, be very careful and listen to some of what I have to say. And I'll talk in a moment about pornography and the temptations for those of you who are not married. But if you're not married, be careful. Now, if you're also not married and you're courting, court carefully, be careful.

Put walls and fences around yourself to protect yourself. One thing my wife and I learned that we had to do during the time of our engagement, we had to be very, very careful not to put ourselves into relationships where the passions of the flesh would lead to sin. Once you start down that road, it is impossible to stop.

And your only point of defense is don't put yourself in a situation where you're not protected. Be careful. Chaperones are a good idea, and it shouldn't be foisted upon you by someone else. It's something that you should put upon yourself to protect yourself. Be careful what appetites you feed.

If you're gonna protect yourself from sexual scandal, you have to avoid sexual sin. If you're going to avoid sexual sin, you have to be careful what appetites you feed. If you feed the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, your desire and your lust will grow.

So focus not on feeding the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh for other people. Fill your appetite with your spouse. Feed your appetite for a fulfilling sexual relationship with your wife and give yourself fully to her. That takes work. It is hard, but it's worth it.

People often have this impression and this idea that erotic fulfillment is easy and it's natural, and that's what's taught. That's what's taught by Hollywood. And these, I struggle so much, these cretins, these cretins are the ones who put forth the stuff that destroys people's lives, and it obviously has the same corrosive effect on their own life.

And then they have the gall to say that somehow those of us who say, no, what you're doing is destructive because you're putting forth something that is destroying people's lives 'cause you're lifting up lust and things that are evil and putting them as good and painting them with good levels.

Well, we're the prudes. Uh-huh, that is a bunch of nonsense. It's poppycock, it's stupid. If you feed on the lust of those cretins in Hollywood, you're gonna wind up acting like those cretins in Hollywood. So feed your appetite for a fulfilling sexual relationship with your wife and give yourself to her.

Cut off as many external sources of temptation as you can. It's always hard 'cause you sound a little bit, what's the word? I don't know, overly zealous and whatnot, but I don't see how it is possible to consume much of modern entertainment and not feed those lusts. I don't know, I guess a Game of Thrones earlier, I don't know how it's, I hear, hey, lots of people like Game of Thrones, but I'm sorry, I don't want to model what I hear is modeled in that life.

I don't wanna become an abusive adulterer, so why would I parade that stuff before my eyes? In the book of James, James, for those of you who aren't big Bible readers, the book of James is another book that's collected in the New Testament. It's written by a man named James, who is the half-brother of Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph, and so he's the half-brother of Jesus.

It's the only book that we have in the Bible, it's the only kind of record that we have of the brothers or even sisters, brothers and sisters of Jesus. So book of James, half-brother of Jesus, and he was not one of the 12 disciples, but he wrote this book, and it's actually my favorite book in the Bible, the one that I most enjoy.

But in the book of James, chapter one, James says this, "Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God, "for God cannot be tempted with evil, "and He Himself tempts no one. "But each person is tempted when he is lured "and enticed by his own desire.

"Then desire, when it has conceived, "gives birth to sin, "and sin, when it is fully grown, "brings forth death." Again, "Each person is tempted "when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. "Then desire, when it has conceived, "gives birth to sin, "and sin, when it is fully grown, "brings forth death." There's nothing wrong with desire, but you've gotta make sure that you channel your desire in the right direction.

Channel it towards your wife. Now, a little bit ago I said, that's not enough just to avoid evil. And in today's world, I believe that firmly, and I think there is sufficient evidence on all sides to demonstrate as to why that is so important. You've got to not only avoid evil, you've gotta avoid the appearance of evil, and you've gotta make sure that you give no place that any accusation can come against you.

Now, you can't control if somebody accuses you, but you can control if there's any evidence whatsoever that could be questionable. My recommendation, don't allow yourself to be alone in a private, concealed place with someone of the opposite sex to whom you're not married. Don't allow yourself to be alone in a private, concealed place with someone of the opposite sex to whom you're not married, or I guess I should say, who's not your mother or your sister.

Don't give place for it. Now, I was amazed. If you do this, and if you follow this, you can generally do this without ever anyone knowing it. And notice how carefully I qualified that. There's a place where you need to make sure, you're gonna be forced constantly to be in situations in which you're going to be together and alone with someone of the opposite sex.

But make sure that you don't get put in a place where you're alone in a private, concealed place with someone of the opposite sex to whom you're not married. You'll stick out like a sore thumb and you'll be mocked mercilessly if anybody finds out that you practice this habit.

But those same people who mock you mercilessly today are the ones who will tear you limb from limb if there's an accusation of any kind against you. So you're gonna be mocked either way. So you might as well be mocked for doing something that is good. You know, I think we all would like sometimes to be able to control what other people say.

You've never been able to control what other people say. And I'll tell you what, if you wanna be humbled, just go on the internet and read what they say about you. Don't do it if you're not ready to be humbled. But you can't control what people say. You have no control whatsoever over what other people say, whether they say good things or bad things.

You can't do that. The only thing you can control is what you do. And what happens is that there are always people who sit around and who all they do is consistently jab and tell lies. You can always find somebody telling lies about you. But the people who are serious, they'll look to see what you actually do, and they'll appreciate the things that you actually do.

And it's very important that if you're going to be criticized, if you're going to face mocking, at least make sure that your actions and your reputation are with you. Again, reading from, this time I read from the book of 1 Peter. And again, for those of you who aren't Bible readers, there are two letters that we have that are written by the hand of Peter, or written in those days, most of the time, they dictated them.

So Peter was probably the most prominent of the 12 disciples of Jesus when Jesus was walking around and followed by his disciples and teaching publicly there in the land of Israel. And Peter was one of his 12 disciples. And he was the one who, they say, oh, he's putting his foot in his mouth.

And he was very, very, very, well, he wrote two letters, which are recorded in the back of the Bible, 1 Peter and 2 Peter. He also basically was responsible for the content of the book of Mark in the Bible. So I always think of the book of Mark as the gospel of Peter.

But there's a little story behind that that you can research on your own. But one of these two letters, in the book of 1 Peter, this passage to me has been of great comfort over the years as I've learned how to deal with the fact that people are gonna mock me no matter what I do.

And so how should I approach it? In the book of 1 Peter, chapter two, Peter writes this, he says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles "to abstain from the passions of the flesh "which wage war against your soul. "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, "so that when they speak against you as evildoers, "they may see your good deeds and glorify God "on the day of visitation." And then a few verses later, Peter writes this.

He says, "For what credit is it if when you sin "and are beaten for it, you endure? "But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure. "This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. "For to this you have been called, "because Christ also suffered for you, "leaving you an example so that you might "follow in his steps.

"He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. "When he suffered, he did not threaten, "but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." You can't control what people say about you, but what you can do is live honorably and conduct yourself honorably.

So be careful. And most importantly, since today's show is addressed to men, protect the woman that you're interacting with for her safety and for her good name, protect her. Now, here are some things that you need to be aware of. Just number one, you think it's a small thing.

It's not a small thing. A classic blackmail scheme against powerful men has been to send a beautiful woman to that powerful man to seduce him, to put him into a compromising situation that is either actually compromising or just simply looks compromising, and then to collect evidence, maybe a picture taken by somebody else, thus setting up an opportunity for blackmail.

This has been a consistent, consistent thing. You go study a little bit of spy history and you'll find that's a classic blackmail scheme. So the more you come to prominence, the more important that it is that you be careful. You never know, someday you might wind up, I hope not, someday you might wind up as President of the United States, and then it's gonna be, well, what's your reputation?

And back to, just a moment, so this kind of practice, I think it's a very healthy practice. It's important for you and it's important to protect those with whom you interact, is to be careful. And don't allow yourself to be alone in a private, concealed place with someone of the opposite sex to whom you're not married.

And it's not because you're somehow, you can't control yourself, although frankly, you can't control yourself. Better men than you and better men than I, when they allow themselves to walk down that path, just halfway, better men than you and I have fallen. It's not that, it's a matter of reputation.

Protect yourself. So I was amazed, this created the big news of, when Mike Pence, it's called the Billy Graham rule, I guess in modern vernacular, 'cause Billy Graham would always kind of follow this practice. And so Mike Pence became known a few months ago that he followed this practice.

And he was excoriated and destroyed, Vice President Mike Pence, he was destroyed in the press by those who say, this is despicable, this is the same kind of constant male patriarchy that women have to face and that women don't ever get an opportunity to get ahead because they're not gonna be there in the inside deals.

And I was amazed after the Harvey Weinstein account to read a story about David Schwimmer, one of the leading actors on "Friends," who some, a journalist wrote about how, or an actress, I guess, wrote about how David Schwimmer was such a good man that they were, she was, journalist, she was doing an interview over dinner and with David Schwimmer and he said, it was loud and they were having a hard time finishing their interview and he said, would you like to go up to my room to finish the interview and I'll make sure that somebody else is there.

And she just thought that was so sweet and so thoughtful. It was sweet and it was thoughtful and it was important. We should honor David Schwimmer for that. But that's what these people will do. If they like you, they'll stick up and say, hey, it's great. If they don't like you, they'll say it's the worst thing ever.

You can't change that. What you can do is, what you can do is protect yourself. So it's very, very simple, but make sure that you put the habits into place around the office. Make sure that you have a window on your office so you don't have a private office.

Make sure that you leave the door open. Make sure that if you're gonna meet with somebody, meet with them in a public place. Make sure that you are open and up front. Bring somebody with you. If you need to meet with somebody in private, bring a trusted compatriot with you, a trusted confidant.

There's always somebody available. There's always somebody available. And if not, if you need to talk privately, then figure it out. Anyway, I don't need to go into more and more, but figure it out. Be careful when traveling. One of the biggest challenges, especially for us as men, is traveling.

If you're a person of prominence, personally, I don't think you should travel alone. Frankly, I wish that most of us didn't have to travel alone. But it's really hard to see how it's possible to do that. I still travel alone. But I hope to stop that pretty soon. I'm very much looking forward for when my oldest child is able to be quiet and controlled for extended periods of time so that I can take my children with me.

Now, obviously, that fits into my goal of benefits for him, my oldest son, or my daughter when she's old enough. I want them to be with me in adult situations so that they can have perspective on the world that starts from an early age. But part of that's also for me.

It's good protection for me to have my children with me. And if you are a person of public prominence, here would be one where I think you need to assess your situation. But if you're a person of public prominence, you should spend the extra money not to travel alone.

Travel with your staff. Travel with a business partner. Travel with your children. Travel with your spouse. But make sure there's somebody there with you because traveling is tough. And it's really, really tough to maintain your faithfulness to your wife when you're on the road. Business travel, especially for many men, is the place where they indulge, and probably many women, I don't know, but for men, is the place where they indulge the lust of the flesh because they have a level of safety.

You've got to avoid that. So when traveling, avoid difficult situations whenever possible. It's pretty lonely to be the killjoy, but it's worth it. It's pretty lonely to go home or to go back to your hotel room all alone when the boys are headed to the strip club for an evening of client entertainment, but go home anyway.

It's worth it when you can walk in the front door and greet your wife with a clear conscience. It's worth it. One thing that helps me is I always look at my daughter. I have a beautiful little baby girl. And it's funny, actually, as I wrote these notes, she woke up from her nap a little earlier today.

She woke up from her nap, and she was sitting in my lap, and I always look at my daughter, and I just think, every woman that's out there was once a daddy's little daughter, just like mine. Cute little pigtails in her hair, sweet, innocent little girls, never known anything wrong.

That woman was once somebody's little girl, and probably still is. Somebody's little girl. Do I want my daughter being treated the way that these men are treating this woman right now? I find that's a very helpful and anchoring situation to be in. It's one thing to look at somebody playing the harlot in the street and be filled with lust for them.

It's another thing to see them as somebody's little girl. I don't want my little girl in that situation, so why should I treat somebody else's little girl like that? If you don't have a daughter, consider a niece, or find somebody with a beautiful baby girl, and look at the innocence of a beautiful little baby girl, and recognize that those women that you're destroying with your action are somebody's baby girl.

So whatever you've got to do to protect yourself when traveling, do it. Spend the extra money to meet someone at a restaurant. In today's world, especially in the modern business climate, I think it's best for you to keep your mouth shut about your reasons. Many women, especially many businesswomen, would be deeply insulted if you talk about your reasoning for why you want to meet them in a public place or something like that.

Or many women, especially businesswomen, if you're going on a business trip and you have a female coworker with you, they will be deeply insulted if you open your mouth and say a word about why you prefer to go back to your room and dine alone in the evening. I try not to insult people, and I try not to make people feel insulted.

So I think it's best for you to be reserved in telling them why you do something. I guess I've ruined it with recording a show, but I would never tell from traveling with a female business companion or coworker, I wouldn't tell her why I'm doing something, I'm just gonna do it.

If you gotta be weird, fine, be weird, but just, you can be the loner if you need to. But spend the extra money, do whatever's necessary, and make sure that you protect yourself, protect your wife, and protect the people that you're working with. Avoid alcohol when you're traveling. Alcohol leads to poor decision-making and poor judgment.

And don't risk it, especially when you're vulnerable when you're on the road. There's this constant cycle. You spend enough time in business hotels and business bars, and you will see this cycle again and again and again. Businessman, hard time at home, screaming kids, clamoring for his attention, tired wife, he's having a hard time at home.

Well, when he's on his trip, he can hang out and be alone. He can be with the guys and have a good time. He's got beautiful coworkers that he can hang out with who are fun, who are smart, who are intelligent. And his wife is busy with the children, and she doesn't have fun things to say, but the person, the coworker at work has lots of fun things to say.

And so we'll start having a few drinks, and we'll be having a great time, and one thing leads to another. And all of a sudden, you're in a situation that you didn't want to be in. Don't destroy your marriage, and don't destroy your financial life with your infidelity. You cannot say no when you're 50% down that road.

You've got to say no when you're 0% down that road. So avoid alcohol. If you're with a bunch of people and abstaining totally is problematic, maybe you're the one entertaining, you're the one, different business situations are difficult, but if abstaining totally is problematic, have one drink. Here's a little tip.

Have one drink with everybody. If you're in a situation that's problematic, have one drink with everyone, then go to the restroom, stop at the bar on your way back, and get yourself a Coke, put a lime in it from the bar, and keep that drink topped off from the bar directly.

Gives you an easy excuse to avoid more drinks, looks like you're drinking a rum and Coke, and all the drunk people will never know. Drunk people are pretty stupid, so avoid it. Whatever you got to do, put those things in place. Avoid pornography of all kinds at all costs, and put fences around yourself so that you're able to stand when you're tempted and when you're alone.

I was deeply addicted to pornography during my teenage years and it has caused me years, years of problems, and years of tears because of it. And it's probably, I'm convinced, it's the number one addiction in our modern world today, and it has deep, deep impact. Pornography at use and the associated masturbation with pornography puts grooves in your brain, pleasure pathways that are reliably associated with a perfect release at the end of the process, and those grooves go deep.

Now they can be undone in actually a really short period of time, but pornography is so deeply destructive. I'm gonna skip the three-hour talk on this subject, but it's probably the number one destroyer of men and women today. It destroys everything good. Pornography destroys good sex between husbands and wives.

It puts this picture of sex as the way that God designed it to be, a beautiful and intimate and caring, and it causes it to be, it gives men and women these weird ideas about what's normal. It's interesting, there's so much research that's been done about sexual practice among teenagers.

There's so much research that's been done on this subject about sexual practice among teenagers, and there's all these teenage girls who are going and studying pornography to learn sexual technique because their teenage boyfriends want them to do what they're doing in the porn, and nothing, nothing in pornography is devoted to the sexual pleasure of a woman.

Everything in pornography is devoted to the sexual titillation of a man with imagery, and it causes men to have these just utterly, just destroyed ideas about good sex. Now, you wanna rip your marriage apart, and you wanna talk about the financial impact of divorce on your life? Well, start feeding yourself pornography, or continue feeding yourself pornography, and then start treating your wife the way that you see a male porn actor treat a female porn actor.

Your marriage will not last because your wife is smart enough to know that that is not the way that men treat women, or men should treat women. You wanna grow her love cold for you? Start treating her that way. Pornography will destroy your life. I've been there, I know, and I'm so thankful.

I'm so thankful that God delivered me from it, but frankly, the impact is brutal to escape, brutal to escape, and even today, it's hard for me to do a show like this because it kinda puts me out there, and it says, "Joshua, you're taking the stand," and I fear, I fear being put back into that place of fallenness, and it's only faith that allows me to even talk on this stuff publicly, but don't let it happen, and so, men, get help.

Talk to other men. Talk, talk, get help. There are resources, get help, and the other thing that's just so utterly destructive, pornography destroys women. If you wanna cry, look at your little daughter, and then go and start reading about the women who are involved in pornography and how their lives are destroyed, and you call yourself a man, and you wanna portray yourself as somebody upright, somebody who desires for justice and righteousness, and you wanna destroy lives with your consumption, I'm preaching to myself 'cause I have to constantly preach to myself.

Those old grooves in the brain, they can be relatively quickly, actually. They can be very quickly wiped out. They can be, but to wipe them out completely is very, very tough, so build fences around yourself. Don't stay gone from home long, and I'm focusing on traveling. If you think I'm overdoing this, either, I can't imagine, if you think I'm laboring too long on this travel thing, I would submit to you you might not have much experience in the world of business travel.

But don't stay gone from home long. Schedule your itinerary so that you're home as quickly as you can be if you're alone. Schedule activities in your itinerary so you're not sitting in a hotel room bored silly. Don't give place to the devil. Don't give place to the flesh. Develop a routine for your hotel room.

When you're checking in the lobby, cancel the adult channels in the lobby when you're checking in on the hotel, or walk in the room and unplug the TV first thing and lock the TV remote in the safe so you're not even tempted to turn it on. I've heard of some men who make a practice of walk in the room and immediately connect their phone or another phone, an iPad or an iPod Touch or something to the Wi-Fi, and immediately set up a video link with their home.

Think about how that, if you wanna talk about your building love with your wife, just let her know you care, and that you're putting the things in place to protect yourself. So setting up a video link with home so it feels like you're there with your wife and your children, and gives you greater accountability.

If the phone's a problem, take a backup phone. Leave your smartphone and your computer locked in the car. Take a dumb phone without internet access with you into your room. Whatever you've gotta do, put software on your phone, your computer, whatever you've gotta do, protect yourself. And the higher you go, the more you must protect yourself.

You will develop, if you go on for success, and you come to a place of prominence, of effectiveness, you will attract to yourself a retinue of enemies, and you must not give your enemies even a shred of ammo. Now there's a lot more to it, I know, but one of the most, other things, one of the most troubling questions to me in today's world has even been how do you protect yourself from allegations of child abuse?

This one's really just troubling to me 'cause it seems like the normal, natural things of life are kinda taken away. I care about some of the young boys and young men in my neighborhood, and I look at the men and I don't see any father figures in their life, and I wanna, to bring them along, and I wanna help them, and I wanna do things with them and to help them and to encourage them.

And I constantly face this question of what do I do? We've become such a society that's so fractured just with allegations that it's hard for me to say even, okay, here are some boys in my neighborhood who have probably never been on a camping trip, have probably never been in the woods, have probably never gone hunting, have probably never shot a bow and arrow, who've probably never shot a gun, who've probably never, how do I do things for these boys?

But yet there's such a destructive idea where everyone's looking for the homosexual predator. And I don't know the answers, I really don't. I talk with my wife about it, and I just say, how do we, it's tough because on the one hand, there's this total bondage where you try to walk up rightly, and on the other hand, if you even open your mouth and talk about the fact that you're trying to do this, and everybody says, well, you're a prude, and what?

You can't control yourself? And they behave as though, they behave as though it doesn't matter, and you can just do whatever you want and live however you want, but then all of a sudden it turns on you, and now the next thing you know, you're being destroyed. It's deeply frustrating to me, and I don't know the right answers from some of that.

I will not let the fear or the threat of these people who destroy everything, I will not let those people destroy how important it is that we sow into the lives of other people. I will not let my fatherly love and care for the well-being of a disadvantaged boy in my neighborhood, I will not let that become something that turns, and the whole normal cycle of life of elder people sowing into the lives of young boys and girls, I will not let that whole thing be sexualized by our culture that worships at the altar of erotic control.

The number one most powerful thing that anybody cares about is ultimate erotic freedom until all of a sudden they turn on you and say, "Ah, it's not about erotic freedom." I will not let the normal things of life and the important things of life be destroyed by that, but I also don't know how to do it.

I gotta figure out how do we deal with it? How do we deal with it? You know, when I was younger, there was a neighbor of mine, and I was talking about this the other day with my wife. There was a neighbor of mine who was this older guy.

He was disabled from work, and just this older guy, country guy, and he was really kind to me, and he was the kind of guy, he was kind of foul-mouthed. He was a country guy, kind of foul-mouthed, smoked a lot, drank a little here and there. He's the kind of guy who I would probably never let my children be with him today, but my parents let me be with him, and of course they knew what was going on, but he was a good guy.

He was the old-fashioned kind of just good guy. He wasn't a Christian, but he was just an old-fashioned good guy, kind of that moral, upright, but very country, foul-mouthed guy, and he was an older man, and I used to hang out with him for hours, and I would, I went fishing with him.

I'd hang out and work in his garden with him. He was the guy who taught me to raise rabbits, and we'd work on rabbits. We'd butcher rabbits together. He was just this old country guy, and he taught me all kinds of interesting things. Never once did he try to teach me about anything inappropriate.

Never once did he try to to do anything that was wrong in any way, and yet today, I don't think I would let my son hang out with someone like that, and I hate that. I hate that. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to solve these problems.

Forgive me if a little bit of rambling here, but I guess the show has just been personal enough that I figured I would share that pain, so just protect yourself. Today, just to the allegation, proven or not, unfortunately, the allegation, proven or not, evidence or not, that allegation is enough to destroy you, and we've gotta figure out how to deal with this new reality that we face.

Let me just kind of wrap this up to a close. One of the most important, I've done a lot of Bible reading here, one of the most important passages would come from Ephesians 5, and I think it gives us a clear place to put this subject to rest, but let me just read for you from Ephesians 5.

If you're not a Bible reader, this is another letter written by the Apostle Paul, and he says this. "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, "and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

I don't need to add much to that. But I would just say, men, we start with us. We start with us, and then we start with those who are nearby. One of the questions that I have is just so many of these women have come forward. The thing that angers me, where are the men who are gonna stand up and act like men?

What are the husbands of these women doing? What are their fathers doing? Sending their daughters off into a place where they're gonna be preyed on by, where they're gonna be preyed on. How do those fathers look at themselves in their face when they send their daughter in that situation where she's defenseless, and then she becomes a victim of a great evil and she can't tell anyone?

What kind of environment has been created? What kind of love and trust is there where this woman is put into this situation? What are the husbands of these women doing? You and I can't do anything about those men, but we had better not fail the women that we care about.

We had better not fail our wives and our mothers and our daughters. We better be the ones to stand up for them. There was a day, I don't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but it certainly indicates something. There was a day when the brother of a woman whose honor was besmirched would go and deal with the man.

There was a day when a father would go and deal with that, and today, we as men kinda say, oh, well, she's her own, she's gotta stand her own two feet. Yes, women have to bear the responsibility of what they have wanted to do, and a lot of women are pretty offended if you take on any kind of even just a tone or a desire and indicate your desire to protect her.

That doesn't matter. You gotta do it anyway because it's right. Now, I'm not saying that you should go and get a shotgun, but probably in some cases, you should, and make sure that if there's a woman in your life who's victimized, you better make sure that she feels safe to come and that you're gonna deal with whatever needs to be done to deal with it.

Now, one final area of importance for you, and I think this is very, very important, especially in light of the allegations against Judge Roy Moore. I hope it's been clear that allegations are important, and my job, especially for somebody who's a politician, it's not my job to jump on Harvey Weinstein.

It's not my deal, I mean, in the sense that if he's close to me, but I'm not gonna go out and pick fights with people, but I will be the first to roast someone like Roy Moore and hold him accountable 'cause that's my job is to hold those accountable who are near me, myself and those who are near me.

So, but in the scenario that he's in, in the sense that the allegations, if they're true, those allegations against him were a long time ago. So, I wanna speak straight to you, men, because I don't wanna see you become successful in the future and then have a skeleton from your past, a sin from your past come out and destroy you.

What do you do if you've committed sin in the past? What do you do if there's something in your life from the past? You repent. Today, now, you repent of your sin and you go and you make the situation right. You repent first and foremost to God because he's the one that you've wronged and then you go and you repent before the person that you've wronged.

And you may seek to make the situation right in every way possible. If you've stolen, you need to go back and you need to make restitution to the person that you've stolen from. If you've wronged somebody, you need to go back and you need to apologize to the people that you've wronged, ask for their forgiveness, and you need to go back and do anything you can to restore what's right.

Some things can be restored. If you stole money, you can go back and make restitution and pay the debt that you owe. If you took a life, you can't bring life back. If there's crime, you need to go and submit yourself to the governing authorities and confess your crime and face it.

You need to go back and repent and face it. And you need to repent. I wanna say publicly, but not always necessarily publicly, but at least to the people involved. One of the biggest issues that I have with modern, and it's just speaking theologically, one of the biggest issues that I have with modern mainstream popular Christianity is we've adopted this myth that somehow repentance is this thing where you kinda say, well, I'm sorry, God, and that absolves everything.

Repentance needs to go much deeper. You need to repent from anything, from any sin before God that you committed in the past, and then go and make those things right and demonstrate deeds of repentance. Now, there's no possibility. It is utterly impossible for you to ever fully make everything right, and it's impossible for you to ever fully repent of every single sin, but if there's something that's on your mind or there's something that's on your conscience, go and repent and make it right.

Make it right now while you have the chance to make restitution lest you stand before God and experience His wrath for that sin. The foremost foundation of Christian conversion is repentance, repentance, and it's a word that unfortunately, and I apologize to you on behalf of, if you're not a believer, I apologize to you on behalf of my fellow Christian believers.

We have failed this generation, and that failure is reflected into my own shame frequently on the front page of newspapers when so-called Christian leaders who want to put themselves forward and preach from a pulpit, and all of a sudden, it turned out to be engaging in sexual immorality with whomever, trying to be careful with my language.

It's so deeply shameful, and it destroys the testimony of God, and it's to our own fault, and we will bear the consequences of it in coming generations. We already are, but that doesn't make it, that doesn't make repentance optional. Just because the modern Christian church has somehow decided that repentance is optional and it's just a matter of come to Jesus 'cause He's gonna make you feel good, that doesn't violate the fact that repentance is the very first step of turning from sin.

Now, I'm not recording this show as a get-rich-quick plan for you, but if there's sin in your life from the past that you have not made right, or have not sought to make right, if there's crime, if there's evil, if there's infidelity, if there's those things, that needs to be dealt with today.

Otherwise, I guarantee you, your sin will find you out. You may go and build a career for 40 years, and be running for high political office, or getting ready to go and release your great new movie, and on the night of your release, the director may look and say, "Guess what?

"This person's just become a liability." And my hope is not to persuade you of that so that you can somehow get more money and be richer. My hope is to persuade you of that because it's the right thing to do. Though it cost you everything, every dollar you have, to go and make right those you've wronged.

If you used a corporation and you abused people, go and make it right. Though it cost you your entire fortune, go and make it as right as you can, because it's far better to be completely penniless and morally upright, and stand before God with a clear conscience, than to enjoy the pleasures of sinful, ill-begotten wealth for a season, and face your eternal damnation in hell.

In 500 episodes of "Radical Personal Finance," I can't remember a show in which I've been perhaps this intense. I'm seeking to speak intensely because it's that important. And if you want proof of it, open up your newspaper. Though I may die and disappear, and though God may judge the modern Christian church for our unfaithfulness in our modern era, you will still be exposed.

These men and women in Hollywood, I hear very little Christian testimony. Just watch how God's using them to expose the evil and the sin that is pervasive in that community. If Judge Roy Moore is guilty of what is alleged against him, just watch how God's using a staff of reporters on a Washington Post news reporting team, which if, maybe there's a believer somewhere in that group, but if there is, I don't know how they keep their job.

Look at how God is using the non-believing secular people that run the Washington Post to expose the sin of the professing Christian, if that is true. I don't know, and I want to be careful with my judgments I've said all the way through. I'm not close. I don't know if I'll ever know.

Doesn't matter. Look at the shame. If those allegations against Judge Roy Moore are proven to be true, look at the shame, the shame that the church members and the friends and the Christians around Moore will face for their lack of movement and activity. God will use just about anybody to accomplish his purposes.

It's a privilege to be involved in that, but if you don't stand up, he'll go use someone else, and if you don't fix it, if you don't confess it while you have time, the Bible says today is the day of salvation. If you do not harden your hearts, today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day that you can go back and repent of your sins in the past and turn towards God and ask him for his forgiveness. Today is the day. (sniffling) Today. The longer you wait, the harder it is. The longer you wait, the harder it is. Just think about this.

If those allegations against Judge Moore are proven to be true, think about the destruction on his family, his wife, his children, his grandchildren. (sniffling) The longer you wait, the harder it is. (sniffling) Hope you'll forgive me. I'm not doing this for effect. I didn't plan this. I'm just, this is.

(sniffling) (crying) I didn't set out to preach to you. My friend, today is the day we face. Today is the day. Don't let another day pass. If there's something in your past, I beg you, repent. Don't. Confess to your wife, confess to your husband, confess to those that you've wronged.

Make the situation right. It'll never get better. Just get, we'll get worse and worse. And someday, you may watch, I hope not. I hope, I pray that these allegations against Moore are wrong. I hope, I pray that they're proven wrong. 'Cause it's just such a deep shame if they're proven right.

It's so deeply shameful to find out when somebody is out preaching publicly and yet they're a hypocrite. It's hard to think of a deeper shame than hypocrisy. I don't wanna see anybody's life destroyed. I don't wanna see Harvey Weinstein's marriage and his children hurt. I don't wanna see Judge Moore's marriage and his children and grandchildren hurt.

But friends, the wages of sin is death. And this behavior, this sin, brings death and it will destroy everything. We live in strange times. I think every generation before us has felt that. My friend, we live in strange times. I cannot for the life of me figure out by what standard modern sexual activity is judged.

I cannot figure it out. I study it and I try to think. I pretend, I say, okay, pretend I'm an atheist, pretend I'm a progressive, pretend I'm a feminist, pretend I'm these things and I just think and I study. And you know what, there are a lot of criticisms that are just and that are right.

There are a lot of criticisms and I can see those criticisms, but then I go back and I say, by what standard? By what standard do we judge? And the only standard that I can come up with today is consent. Like that seems to be, in terms of the religious doctrine that is taught today about the appropriate sexual activity for men and women, the standard seems to be consent.

That's it. As long as there are consenting people, consenting adults who are engaged in the sexual activity, everything else is possible. And nothing else is to be disparaged or come against in any way. So it seems to me that you're supposed to be able to do anything you want except consent, but I can't even figure out, I can't figure out even what consent means.

In this sense, I read an article yesterday as I was reading about this. I read an article by a guy, I guess he was a cook, 'cause he was Eddie Hwang, I think it was. And I guess he's a celebrity in the world of cooking. And this article, he was talking about a sexual assault that he received when he was a kid, he went on a trip with a Baptist church group.

And while he and a roommate of his were in their room, in like the camp room one night, a male camp counselor who was older came in and took a shower, came out of the shower naked and stood at the end of their bed, according to his account, stood at the end of their bed for 15 minutes naked with an erect penis reading the Bible to them.

Now, if that's true, and I don't see any reason to doubt his account, number one, that is so utterly perishing and shameful that that would happen. And unfortunately, it's not hard to believe because it does happen, but it's so shameful that that would happen on a Baptist church group to a boy who doesn't even go to church, who was just coming along 'cause a friend said, "You can come along on this fun church group.

You don't have to believe anything. They'll pressure you a little bit to believe." So it's so shameful, but I thought about that. And I was just thinking about his story and I asked myself, is that sexual assault? Now, it's entirely improper and it shouldn't happen. It's entirely immodest, but is it sexual assault?

'Cause he's coming out with his Me Too story and talking about how I was assaulted and I pushed the memory back and it's caused me fear and trauma. I believe that to be the case, but is that sexual assault? Well, if that's sexual assault, then am I not being sexually assaulted if I'm walking down Bourbon Street in New Orleans and a woman flashes me?

Or is it that, wait a second though, because hold on, it's genitalia sexual assault. Somebody displaying genitalia, but displaying breasts, that's a matter of feminism, right? Because if men can take their shirt off, then women should be able to take their shirt off too in public and so therefore, the flashing of breasts is not sexual assault because of it's above.

But what about the women who do body paint and walk down the street in body paint? Is that sexual assault? Because I can, am I being assaulted? Well, I don't think so, but I don't even know how to figure out this stuff. And after all, if that makes that person happy to expose themselves to me, then on what basis do I wanna deprive them of their happiness and their erotic fulfillment, right?

And I thought about this in regards to the age of consent, right, 'cause the allegations against Judge Moore are about, the allegations are that he pressed himself, he didn't engage in sexual intercourse, but he fondled a girl who was 14 and pressed himself on her. Now, okay, so the problem there, is the problem the fondling or is the problem the consent or is the problem the age?

I can't figure it out. So now I'm opposed to all of it. I've been clear with that, but let's just walk this reasoning through and see where this ends. So the basic allegation, the basic horror that I see expressed in our modern culture, modern secular culture, is that it's about the age of consent.

This was a 14-year-old and allegedly with an older man. Okay, I agree. An older man should not, there should be no sex. That's the thing. My way is much simpler. By the way, if I can ever convert you to come and think like I do, it's much simpler when you just say, man, woman, married, great, enjoy sex.

Man, woman, not married, no sex. It's very simple. I don't believe it just 'cause it's simple, but that's a little simpler way to figure it out. So I thought about age of consent and I thought, well, we all agree, right, 'cause a 32-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, there's a power imbalance, and so can a 14-year-old girl accurately give herself, give up control, accurately give herself up sexually to somebody who's 32 years old?

Okay, well, I'm with you on that. But then the question is, is a 14-year-old's judgment questionable? Well, if a 14-year-old's judgment about their ability to give consent is questionable, then why are we giving explicit sex education and passing out condoms to children younger than 14 years old? If a 14-year-old's judgment is questionable when confronted with a 32-year-old man, does it make it right if she actually wants to be with a 32-year-old man?

And if it's not right, then why is it not right? But if her judgment is questionable about consent, then what about some of the other, when I was 13 years old, I was a pretty big guy. I was a lot bigger than a lot of the girls that I interacted with, I always have been.

So if the age of consent is about fear and intimidation from an older person, then it shouldn't be based on size and coercion. I never had sex when I was 13 years old, thank God. But if I had, then the modern culture would say, well, that's okay if you're with a 13-year-old girl.

But is it really okay if the 14-year, I'm getting mixed up on my age, but you get the idea. What does it matter, age of consent? Does it matter among children? And why are we teaching children to have sex, but use a condom and have safe sex? And here's how you have anal sex.

So it's just, it's weird. It doesn't make any sense. Or is the standard desire, the number one biggest driver that I can discern from the modern philosophy that is preached to me is that whatever I wanna do in consent is fine. Okay, then why would it be wrong for an older man who desires a younger girl, and a younger girl who desires an older man to have sexual contact if they're giving consent?

And especially if we consider that a 13-year-old boy or girl is at an age with sexual, like they're sexually mature, and yet... Anyway, no doubt I've backed myself into a corner here with this final little words. But it just, this is so utterly destructive. And we're gonna bear the pain of this for an ongoing period of time.

We already are, we've already borne the pain of these things so far. So my plea for you, forgive me if I went off rambling, my plea for you is this. Protect yourself because it's morally right. And you'll enjoy the benefits of being protected from having your career destroyed with sexual scandal.

Number two, if you see evil around you, expose it to the light so that it can be dealt with. Number three, if there is sin in your past, repent from your sin and make it right. Go and make it right, repent towards God, and go and perform deeds of repentance towards the people that you have wronged.

'Cause it will come out, and it will come out at the most inconvenient time if you don't deal with it now. I hope that this has been helpful to you. I hope that, I've demonstrated that this does have deep financial impact, and which is why I'm placing it here on Radical Personal Finance for you.

And one comment I had recently, and this'll be my closing thought. Probably pretty frequently, I set out just to create the show for you, and sometimes, a lot of times, it seems like when I wind up reading Bible passages to you, I'm dealing with sexuality. I'm gonna change that in the future.

Because one of the things that is so important is that the Bible talks about different sins. But as an example, in 1 Corinthians 6, let me just read this to you. And I've read this before, but I just wanna make one point here with regard to the importance of things like greed and covetousness, which deeply impact money.

Bible says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous "will not inherit the kingdom of God? "Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, "nor idolaters, nor adulterers, "nor men who practice homosexuality, "nor thieves, nor the greedy, "nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, "will inherit the kingdom of God.

"And such were some of you, but you were washed, "you were sanctified, you were justified "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ "and by the Spirit of our God." My point with reading that is, in our modern kind of like super sexualized culture, every time, when I've read that scripture in the past one time about drunkenness, and I received an email filled with people saying, "Joshua, how could you say that about homosexuals, "men who practice homosexuality?" I just thought, like, I just read the verse.

But you know what I never hear? I never hear someone that says, "Joshua, "how could you say that about thieves? "How could you say that about the greedy? "How could you say that about swindlers?" Why? The reason why is because those battles have been fought in past cultures. In the modern United States of America, because of our Christian heritage, every single one of us will rightly stand up and condemn thievery and greediness and swindlers.

Our laws reflect it, our society reflects it as well. It was not always that way. That has been some hard work by people that came before to convert past cultures and to establish upright standards of righteousness and justice as related to swindling and thieves and greedy people. But today, our discussion somehow seems to be related to sex and homosexuality and sexual immorality and all of this stuff.

Now, my price for sharing this show with you is going to be an email filled with angry listeners. I feel I've satisfied my conscience by giving you a fair warning up front. You're voluntarily choosing to listen to a freely offered audio file. But I want to just make one comment to you.

I don't actually think much, personally, about sexual matters. I'm married, I have a beautiful wife, I enjoy sex with my wife, and I'm happy to basically ignore everything else and just focus on my wife and my children and my own life. Pretty happy to do that. I'm not the one bringing this stuff up.

And I think I'm just speaking here, if you wonder why, and we often get the questions, Christians, why do you Christians talk about sex so much? I didn't put sex on the front page of the newspaper. I am putting it here, obviously. It was one episode out of 500 or whatever on Radical Personal Finance.

But I didn't put it on the front page of the newspaper. But whatever's there, we gotta deal with. Thank you very much for listening. I hope that you've sensed, just my heart for you, my desire to, together, see justice accomplished, see victims exonerated, to see the immoral and the sinners and the criminals face the proper judgment for their behavior, and to see, collectively, to see us move forward into lives filled with justice and with peace on all sides, where people are protected from predators and where people are honored for the, I can't do anything but use the language, the Christian language, the Bible language, because it's the only thing that connects these things.

I wanna see you honored as an image-bearer of God. And I wanna see your worth protected and respected, and to see you honored and lifted up in dignity. That's what I wanna see. Thank you for listening. - Struggling with your electric bill? Get an energy assist from SDG&E and save.

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