 Welcome to the 21 report. I'm Frank Pesci and I'm here with pastor, speaker, author, and entrepreneur Michael Foster. Michael, how are you? I'm great. Glad to be with you. Yeah, very good. Michael, how's the event going so far? It's almost over. So it's going great for me. I got we've got the panels left today, but it's been a really good event This year is every year. It kind of has matured since I've been here. This is my third year and This year was I think a lot of people have been here before we had some new speakers I love that some of the speakers had made it from 21 over to 21 patriarch because they got married and their fathers now I love to see Guys get married and have kids. So it's been really good a lot a lot of guys that I've Known for a while now and have good conversations. I love that. There's more Christians here more people talking about sin It was interesting. I was just writing my report for Twitter to tweet out And I don't think I hurt anyone this year Commend what I would consider illicit sex and I did hear seven to eight people Say sex should only before marriage like Karnell Smith was talking about the surest way to protect you yourself from paternity fraud is Only have sex in marriage With someone that's been well vetted a woman that you love That's a godly woman more or less what he was saying Melissa Isaac said very similar things You know obviously bad things can still happen But I love that I'm hearing a sexual a sexual ethic that I agree with I think that agrees with scripture more those things are good So watching everyone mature in different ways has been a great experience over the last couple years excellent Michael you have more or less whether you like it or not become the pastor of the Manisphere a lot of people look to you for you know spiritual guidance Christian advice biblical principle and doctrine and Really this event from my three times being here has like you said evolved from being You know secular, you know men's progressive agendas, you know self-improvement now With a very strong spiritual component to it. It's true I think the thing that so what people don't understand about 21 summit is that it's a is three conferences That operate more like forums, right? So you have different the different topics covered with differing world views And that's still true here the thing that has in common is one a positive view of masculinity and A rejection of a feminist worldview as it relates to sexuality. Those are the two things. I think that unites everyone here People don't understand like a Euler diagram that you can be involved in something like this And that doesn't mean you endorse everything right right a lot of these guys reject what I believe and I reject what they believe But we what we share is a positive view of men in a rejection of the lies of feminism And so as you go down that you have to ask questions like what is man? Where do we get morality from? What is what is my purpose? What what makes a woman a good wife? I see you start asking these questions. These are questions that are Relate to epistemology that relate to polemics it starts getting deep and you always end up backing in To the religious aspect and so you see that happening more and more just as people are Being thoughtful, you know a lot of a lot of folks think it's a very surface level But when you get into a pool, you don't always dive into the deep end a lot of these people have been waiting in from the shallow end and as they've done that they've they've They're Evolving in their thinking and I think it's just true the whole event a lot of the guys and it's amazing Where some of the hyperbole you hear from the stage like this real intense bombastic sort of claims That's for effect. I think a lot of times like To really resonate with people to hit them emotionally you do that when you speak speeches heighten When you're a speaker and you present you hide in your speech like so It's Aragon at the black gates isn't good like hey brothers I see the very fear in your eyes, but he's gonna talk in such a way that moves people to action So there's a high value of moving people to action So you hear that when you talk to these guys outside of it And that's what is my favorite part here is not the speaking part is the Discussion that happens in between sessions and to some degree on the panels, but they're reading Good books. They're reading like Socrates Republic. They're A lot of them are reading scripture. They're considering things So there's a there's a depth of thought that happens here that folks don't know It's a kind of an iceberg at some level, right? There's what you see above the water and there's all the stuff below. So it's it's a good form It's a form. I want to be part of I'm not ashamed of it all and I don't apologize I Don't like the vulgar craft stuff sometimes like But I do wonder with some of these folks. What what do they do they live in little bubbles? Like what do they think it's like out there? I was a union electrician That's a rougher workplace than anything I've seen here for the most part And so I'm happy to be part of it. I'm happy to see you guys Tackle topics in a more serious and deep way Yeah, that's amazing man. You yourself spoke at several forums We'll call them and you got to share on a wide range of topics You're a brilliant dude. You have social media presence. You've written books You have a lot of things that you can talk about but you chose specifically to broach certain topics at these forums in this event Yeah, in summary, what were they? so with the patriarch edition where we talked to fathers I Have you been in the space for a little bit and coming to these events? There are people that you meet that are really good at writing copy and doing social media. They're marketers But they don't have a lot of the reality like they actually don't know how to relate to women They don't know how to have a lasting marriage. They don't know how to be a father They often aren't even fathers and so People believe Instagram and believe social media more than you would think they just take it at face value So they crazy I'll have people say hey you have a you have such a great marriage and I said well How do you know you don't know me? Maybe it's terrible like you know like we don't put up the terrible pictures of our kids screaming on our vacation We share the highlights right right maybe I'm just sharing the highlights You don't know that and so these guys just take a lot of that at face value said that conference I wanted I decided I was gonna show them my family. I was gonna go through all my children I'm gonna even show them a picture of my daughter who died and talk to them about real life about the pain that we all go through but also encourage them to move forward Towards marriage and fatherhood and recovery and hope So I don't want guys to forget what they're fighting for like sometimes our goal is not To be at war with feminism Right our goal is for feminism to go away and then what then what are you trying to replace it with? I'd say biblical sexuality like wholesome biblical sexuality Why are you fighting right fight like war is never a goal pieces a goal, but pieces purchased with conflict Right pieces purchased with conflict of a war of ideas or whatever So I just wanted to encourage these guys to remember that fatherhood is good marriage is good children's good Don't stay in those dark valleys when you go down there if you went through a terrible divorce or you lost a child Or you just are having a hard time finding a woman because of what's what the world is like right now Keep fighting, but don't get embittered have hope. So that's what I did there with the ladies. I Asked them if women are human. I did I said I know the answer I know they are in fact, but do you and I asked them whether or not they believe that women sin and And people said well, of course women sin, right? But what's one of the sins what some of your failures like how have you rebelled against God because anytime we try to bring Standards to bear on women. They just they lose their mind right at least on social media. They do and but all humanity has fallen in Adam when we rebelled against God and While sin is not essential to human nature because someday we'll live without it We didn't we weren't always sinners and we won't always be sinners but right now everyone that's born that descends from Adam has a nature from which sin arises and So if you won't if you're not a sinner, what are you an angel like how like you're and if you are a sinner You have to call your sin a sin and be willing to repent of it So I asked them that then I asked whether or not they believe that femininity is good in itself and To be human is to be male or female There is not there is no generic humanity. None of us experience Humanity as androgynous and because of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body and That the body does go through a change in qualities, but not a change in its ultimate essence We will always be male. We know that because Jesus is a man He was resurrected with the same body. His wounds were still there, right? So it's a glorified body, but it's the self-same body is what the confessions and catechisms call it So you will be a man forever women will be women forever That's what it is. And so do you embrace your feminine femininity as something that's good or do you reject it? If you reject it, you're acting like you're androgynous being acting like you're not a human So I was just calling them to like admit your failures repent of them be humble Be willing to accept correction in your life and also embrace your femininity as you know, it's good to be a man It's good to be a woman if that's what you are in fact and then in 21 I just decided I was going to talk about how evil sexual corruption is how that sexual immorality will destroy you as Individual it will destroy others and it ultimately will lead to the downfall of society it has and And again just to compel people to pursue good sexuality One of the strongest spirits of our age today is the temptation and being faced with sexual immorality Yes, what would you say to people who are in that battle who are confronted with that and Don't know whether or not they can make it through or what choice is to make? Yeah, first thing I would say to them is that the struggle is real. Okay, like it's not you can Not look at porn and you cannot masturbate and you can keep sex with the marriage You can you have the ability but it is hard. It is a hard time. These women nowadays these joggers It's like they keep finding ways have less clothes. How long before they just run down the road naked, you know And so guys say well, you shouldn't look at them. I look at cars and trucks when they move my eyes track movement That's what eyes do Okay, and if a woman jogs down there and you're like like is that woman wearing clothes, you know Like I don't so but not only can you see their breasts, but nowadays they wear this clothes so tight You can see their volus. It's like crazy. Like people have lost their mind and so it's hard when you type the wrong thing You you land into pornography all the thirst traps on on YouTube Instagram. There's little those profile pics they'll find the or the little what do you call it the this The opening of a YouTube video, whatever that is. Yeah, right little screenshots. Yeah. Yeah, they have all this like illicit stuff on it Well, that gets guys blood pumping because that's part of our design to desire Fruitfulness to desire a woman or whatever. That's very difficult then to turn that off and it's everywhere You're not even looking for if you're not looking for it It still finds you used to be had to go look for it a little bit get to go to the bad side of town You had to order a lime wire. Yeah, yeah, that's right Yeah, you have to download those things and but now but nowadays it's just have everywhere and And I keep getting hit with these I don't know what I clicked on to cause this algorithm to hit me or if it's really this evil Everywhere on Facebook those little reels, you know, I keep telling them to stop giving to me but you click on those videos and the the the way these women Talk about sexuality like like dudes like like crass dudes like everyone got mad at Trump for his his locker room talk Right. Well, man locker room talk isn't just a man thing anymore And it's not just a rough man thing but now women public where talking like that these guys are hearing all this stuff So first out what I want to tell them is that the struggle is real I get it It's okay to be in a conflict. I don't want them guys act like just knock it off Just knock it off like it's not exactly that easy, man Okay, but what I'd also say is you you need to surround yourself with good brothers They actually care about you that the one of the greatest needs besides fathers is a brother Men are alone. That's what you learn. They are alone. They have That's why they're all in these little online forums and online forums have a utility, right? Just like creatine has a utility or vitamin C extra vitamin C has utility But supplements not a meal, right? You need real Relationship guys that know you guys that you know some of these guys would tell me my wife's being difficult Sometimes she is sometimes you're being a hard head and you need a friend to say to tell you like ah This isn't your wife this time. This is you right or like hey, man. You're slipping like a good friend will say Get in the gym. Okay. Um good friends have said that to me So I was in the dad bod thing for Alex. I just walked out like screw you. I don't want to I don't hear this right now I'll work on that in the future. Um, but guys will tell you those things and press you and encourage you I remember this is a guy who's on online forum Bodybuilding forum. He was like trolling the bodybuilders and then they challenged him to show a picture He did this is huge gigantic obese man So he was waiting expecting them to lean into him and instead they're like hey That's real health problems They started like challenging this guy as as guys do to get in shape to lose the weight He did it and what he was surprised is to find them that they loved him or cared about him in some way Guys need that guys need something that's with them like hey Just give me a call if you're struggling man or if you're at a place where you had too much to drink You're being tempted like give me a call drive. I'll get you. I got you They have to find that somewhere and where do they find it? Well, you got to look for it Like I mean, it's not gonna you can't be passive. You have to be active. So Do you think it's important for men to attend the 21 summit? I Think it's important to have these conversations Right and what what I don't like is that there is not a Christian conversation about paternity fraud There's not a Christian conversation about family the corruption of family law It's very difficult to talk about the evil of feminism without like if I say I tweeted out women are sinners Right side. I tweet that out and right away. What do people say women are sinners too, right? So I can't have these conversations without people like losing their mind But here it's like so open you can say whatever you want and so some people say things that I Think is wrong, but I could say whatever I want to and I do So I think it's important to have the to have That in in culture in 21 is doing that more than I don't what's another forum like this There's not very many that I know of so yeah, right, right Michael. Where can people find you? This is foster on Twitter is where I'm most Most active you find me betavia, Ohio. I don't coach. I'm not a coach But I am a pastor you want to be pastor you can come to our church if you're looking for a church you can DM me my DMs are always open on On Twitter, I'll do my best to point you towards a good biblical church. Thanks so much man. You're the man for the 21 report I'm Frank Pesci with pastor speaker author and entrepreneur Michael Foster Michael. Thank you. Thank you, brother. Take care