 But there is one person that I put above me, that I put above my fiancé, that I put above anybody else in this whole entire world and existence and that is Jesus Christ himself. I love Jesus more than anything. He is the reason I am alive. He is the reason I have survived. He is the reason I am who I am. He's the reason I'm here. He's the reason for everything. So I was thinking about saving this video for the next Morality Monday, but Trisha Paytas going off about fake Christians is something that we need to talk about right now. And if nothing else, if nothing else, maybe this video will help religious folks understand why some of us from the outside looking end think some of this is so, so silly. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. And sometimes what I do is I pull different topics from the YouTube community, try to see what we can learn to improve our own mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And if you're not yet, follow me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul, alright? And yeah, like I mentioned, I was thinking about saving this for Morality Mondays as a brand new series that I started last week. But anyways, Morality plays a major role in our mental health. But yeah, if you're not subscribed yet, make sure you are because on Monday I'm actually going to release a video because there's this misconception, not even a misconception. There's like this myth that atheists can't be moral because Morality comes from religion and that's 100% false. So on Monday I'm going to dive into some of the science and evolution and everything like that, alright? So if you're here and you don't know what's going on, there's some dude named Cole LeBrant, LeBrant, alright? I think he's a YouTuber, alright? But I've seen a bunch of people retweet it. Things aren't going too well for Cole here because, well, you'll find out, alright? So here is what he tweeted out, alright? Porn will ruin your marriage. Porn will ruin how you view women. Porn will ruin how sex was intended. Porn is the silent killer because people either don't talk about it or they actually think it's okay. This is not okay. Alright, so obviously our buddy Cole is not a fan of porn, okay? Okay, and yeah, so from what I've gathered based on the context of the Trisha Paytas response is that Cole is Christian and he comes from a Christian household, alright? So Trisha Paytas just made a response called, you know, Cole LeBrant, a fake Christian and bad dad. Cole LeBrant, Savannah LeBrant, you are fake-ass Christians. Alright, so I'll link her video if you want to go check it out. But anyways, in her video she discusses how he's a fake Christian and no real Christian would do this and Trisha Paytas, if you didn't get the memo, she loves her some Jesus, alright? And she's judging Cole LeBrant and saying he's a bad dad. Now you're wondering, what's this have to do with mental health? Hold on, baby bird, I'm going to feed you. Let me explain what this has to do with mental health. But before I dive into this, I want to throw out a huge fat, the biggest disclaimer of all disclaimers, alright? This, what I'm going to talk about is not a blanket statement of all people who are religious, alright? Although I am not religious, I know many people who are and they are pretty cool people and they kind of just stick to themselves and they just follow their faith. That is cool, alright? But I want to share my experience and how this affected my sobriety, my mental health and some of you might be able to relate, but as always I'm going to offer some solutions. So I teeter between being atheist and agnostic, okay? But I'm very spiritual and some of you are like, how is that possible? Well, if you haven't and if you want to learn more, go check out the book Waking Up by Sam Harris. He is a devout atheist and he talks about spirituality without religion, alright? But yeah, I'm very spiritual and although I am not a religious person, like I pray er single day, alright? And it's different. I'm going to explain why. So I got sober seven years ago, a little over seven years ago and I was dying. I had a 10% chance of living. I had relapsed multiple times. I was absolutely hopeless, alright? And my mom who had been sober for seven years as well as other people that were trying to get me into 12 step programs. But I didn't want anything to do with those programs because the meetings I went to before were in churches. They talked about God and the steps and I just wasn't having any of it. But I was left with this ultimatum. Like, Chris, you're either going to die or you're going to have to figure out how this works. So I ended up picking up this book and some of you out there know exactly what this book is. But one of the first things that really clicked for me and made me realize that I had to find some kind of spirituality was from the pages 60 to 65, really. But I realized that my life was a mess. I realized that my best thinking got me where I was, alright? It kept getting me into trouble, okay? So this paragraph right here, it says this. So our troubles we think are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. That was me, alright? Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of selfishness. So everything leading up to this part, I was like, yeah, yeah, you're right. Like everything I was talking about before this in the preceding chapters was explaining to a T. This book from the 1930s was explaining to a T why my life was a mess. What? I said mess? What? I never even tried that. My life was a mess with or without alcohol, right? So this was teaching me why that was, okay? But the very next sentence, it says we must or it will kill us. And I'm like, yeah, you're right, you're right. But then it says God makes that possible. And I'm like, f***, alright? It goes on to say, and there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without his aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help. And I'm sitting there like, I don't believe in God. I'm not religious in any way. I'm not going to start going to church. I'm not going to become a Jesus freak, alright? Earlier in this book, they actually have a book or a chapter called We Agnostics for people just like me, alright? And they understood, they understood why the whole God thing got me messed up. But again, like I said, my ultimatum was you're either going to die, Chris, or you need to figure out some kind of spirituality. But earlier in the chapter, We Agnostics, it says this, we know how he feels. We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice, right? And I was taught to see if I can relate to anything, right? And I had to highlight everything I could relate to. And this was speaking straight to me. It says, some of us have been violently anti-religious. To others, the word God brought up a particular idea of him with which someone had tried to impress them during childhood. Perhaps we rejected this particular conception because it seemed inadequate. With that rejection, we imagined we had abandoned the God idea entirely. We were bothered with the thought that faith independence on a power beyond ourselves was somewhat weak, even cowardly. So, for those of you wondering, this next part is why people like us, people like me, maybe people like you, see stuff going on between Kola Brant and Trisha Paytas and think this is absolutely silly. So it goes on to say, we looked upon this world of warring individuals, warring theological systems, and inexplicable calamity with deep skepticism, all right? So we see religious people arguing about the right way or wrong way to believe in God, or some people are polytheistic and believe in multiple gods, right? But we even see people who identify as Christian arguing with each other about this stuff, right? Then it says this. We look to scants at many individuals who claimed to be godly. So what that part right there is, is that something that always messed me up? Because I grew up here in Las Vegas around a ton of Mormons, right? And I knew so many Mormons who went to church every single Sunday, but I had a girlfriend in high school, very Mormon family, and her dad cheated on her mom, all right? And it's like, what? I thought you were like these good church-loving folks and everything like that. So these are all the things that pushed me away from religion, but I found my spirituality in a different way because these were the kind of things that made me think that I couldn't, right? So in 12-step programs we're taught to find some kind of higher power and listen to me. Even if you're not an addict in recovery, like this higher power thing is just important because a lot of us are control freaks and we have to believe in something. And for me, what I believed in was my support group, right? Like 12-step program support group, right? Now I believe in my friends and my family members and things like that. But a big part of it was, was I was a control freak and I needed to realize how many things were completely outside of my control. All right? But to circle this back to Tricia Payness calling Cola Brandt a fake Christian and a bad dad. Like this is silly, like morality. One of the reasons I talk about it is because morality affects our mental health because we get so upset, like Tricia Payness had to sit down on her kitchen floor and talk about what an awful person this Cola Brandt guy was for talking about porn. Do I think what he said was ridiculous? Absolutely. All right? But here's the thing, okay? And this is not judging Tricia Payness, okay? But like on one end, you can think what Cola Brandt did was crazy because he's a good, you know, church going man who believes in Jesus. But on the other hand, Tricia Payness runs Tricia Land where she diddles herself on camera. All right? I'm sure there are a lot of Christians who don't agree with that. Do I care? 1000% not. All right? But these are things that make us look at religion like this is all so, so silly. So what is the solution? What are the lessons to be learned from this video? The first one is this, all right? And I'm going to try to pound this into your head. Morality is subjective, all right? In our own minds, we think it's black and white. Like, Tricia Payness calling this guy a bad dad. Like, do you remember when Tricia Payness wanted to marry Jason Nash and, you know, be the stepmom to his kids and everything like that? Like, some people would look at her and her morality and say, you would be a bad stepmom because of what you do. You see what I mean? And I'm not just talking about Tricia Land. I'm talking about the other things as well, right? And who am I to judge? Me, but I'm just trying to give some perspective and help people understand. We're all judging each other's morality, but it's so subjective because it has to do with how we were raised, where we were raised. I was born and raised on the West Coast. Born in California, grew up in Las Vegas. My morality and how I was raised is going to be much different than someone who grew up on the Bible Belt, all right? My philosophy about this is if you're not hurting anybody who cares, all right? Like you've seen people from like the Westboro Baptist Church like losing their minds about like gays and lesbians and, you know, the whole LGBTQ community. It's like, what does this have to do with you, right? Here in Las Vegas, like on the strip, there's people like pickets and everything like that, screaming that people are going to hell and it's just like, why do you care? Okay, so lesson number one, morality is subjective, calm down. Second one is for anybody out there, especially if you're you're battling with your addiction, you're trying to get sober, you don't think 12 step programs will work for you. Like there are many secular programs as well. But listen, I am living proof, I'm living proof that you don't have to be religious or believe in the God idea to become spiritual and make these programs work for you. One of the first guys I met in a 12 step program was sober for multiple years and he was an atheist, all right? And he taught me that I could make this program work for me and be an atheist, all right? But anyways, if you have any thoughts, opinions, any other topics that you would like me to discuss, I try to stay away from like the atheist topics and things like that, but I do understand how it could affect people's mental health and everything. And again, like I hope I didn't offend anybody out there who is religious. I hope you understand that I'm talking about specific types of people, right? But I do truly believe that religion has saved a ton of people's lives and has given people direction, right? Like my spirituality has given me meaning and purpose and direction. We just believe in different things and do things different ways. You know what I mean? But anyways, I've been yapping too long. That's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books and merch and all that good stuff. I appreciate you. All right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.