Note: Can I Say This at Church is produced for audio listening. If able, I strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which has inflection, emotion, sarcasm where applicable, and emphasis for points that may not come across well in written word. This transcript is generated using a combination of my ears and software, and may contain errors. Please check the episode for clarity before quoting in print.
Danny 0:00
The thing about it is Love is the fulfillment of all religion. Love is the essence of all religion. Love is the fulfillment of philosophy and mysticism and ethics and when you tap into love, when you tap into the experience of the Divine, you transcend differences of beliefs and ritual and doctrine, because that's not what is ultimately important. Truth and this was the shift for me, which has a lot to do with the shifts I explained in our church. Truth is not conceptual and truth is not something that we can ever totally grasp, through concepts and through words. Truth is experiential, truth is love, and God is love. So to know God is to love God
Seth Price 1:08
Hey, everybody, how are you doing? It's the middle of April. And so I want to try to do something a little different from now and through the end of the year, so interspersed throughout the year, I want to have conversations with people that are not necessarily Christian, and see what we can learn about God from a lens that isn't ours and a perspective that isn't ours. And I thought a good way to start that would be with my friend, Danny Prada, who is regularly doing things in an interfaith way, with people of other faiths, leading worship being involved in those worship services and I've loved watching from afar. I really liked this conversation. Danny brings a lot to the table. I love what he talks about, about what we have together in common, why love matters. And so I'm Seth. This is the Can I Say This At Church podcast, and let's do this thing.
Seth Price 2:13
Almost Dr. Danny Prada Welcome back to the show, man. How are you doing!?
Danny 2:16
Thank you. Good! Happy to be with you, man.
Seth Price 2:17
I'm glad you're back. Before I get into what I want to talk about today we just talked about a minute ago and I edited it out already, but it's still there for other people to hear. So yeah, what have you been up to in the last let's say two years because I feel like rounding up, why not?
Danny 2:38
The last couple of years, what have we been doing…a lot. I mean, Heartway, our community, is flourishing. It's doing very well. We've definitely taken a very sharp turn towards the contemplative path and the inner journey of self discovery. And that's something that has become a focus for me in my life and and also something that, that our community has been centered on. My wife and I have been working on doing different retreats for people that can take them on these immersive experiences where they can get to know themselves at a deeper level and come to understand life at a deeper level. I'm working on my doctorate finishing that up at Fuller Theological Seminary. So my D Min, as of now is a contemplative approach to self discovery, through spiritual community at Heartway. So I get to kind of use Heartway as a little guinea pig for some of the stuff I want to write about in that project. So yeah, just been doing a lot. But all things that I love and that I'm passionate about. So it's been it's been good, been fun.
Seth Price 3:56
Yeah, I mean, you got to write about what you know.
Danny 3:58
Exactly. Exactly.
Seth Price 4:02
I want to talk about that a bit. I didn't expect you to say that. So what does that look like to do that as a church community? Because I think most communities, most churches, you show up on Sunday, you go home, you come back next Sunday. And yeah, we did church. So like, What is that, like, walk me through what that looks like for, for your community to do faith in a contemplative way?
Danny 4:24
Yeah. So we started by implementing centering prayer on a weekly basis, that heart way. And so I use centering prayer is like a really big umbrella term, not necessarily, in the same exact way that it's been used by practitioners of centering prayer like Thomas Keating. I'm using that as an umbrella term at Heartway to just kind of describe the experience of meditation and silence and not to spook people in the process. You know, so if it has prayer in it, some people feel a little bit more better. But it is prayer. It is centering prayer for us. And it's what we're doing. So every week, there's someone else who comes and talks about centering prayer and leads the community and an experience of that.
And then alongside of that, we have been doing these wonderful little groups called circles of trust. And these circles of trust. We borrowed this approach from Parker Palmer, he wrote a book called A Hidden Wholeness. And the beauty about these circles of trust is that they're intended to create a safe space for people to be able to explore their inner life and share their emotions and be vulnerable without the fear of being judged in the process. And so when we gather every week for for those circles of trust, there are certain guidelines that kind of protect that space. And so we tell people that there is no fixing, there's no saving, there's no over spiritualizing, there's no correcting. We ask people to speak from their center to the center of the circle, meaning use I statements instead of use statements. And when you speak, speak from your own experience, not necessarily telling someone else what they need to or should do.
And we tell them that silence is actually a part of the group. Silence is a member of the group. And so we don't treat silence awkwardly. We welcome silence, we don't necessarily feel the pressure to fill in the silence with words. And so with that emphasis that we are placing on on silence and mindfulness and stillness and meditation the goal is that hopefully this would carry into the everyday life of our people. So that eventually it's not just spending 10 minutes in centering prayer, but all of life becomes the prayer.
Seth Price 6:57
So how long have you been doing that?
Danny 6:59
So we started doing this August of 2019.
Seth Price 7:07
As a pastor you know looking at each individual circle or group or you just just feeling the room what has been a shift like for the for the like these many months and so that's what four or five months has there been and have you noticed any any shift in just the mindset of the congregation?
Danny 7:26
Oh absolutely especially because my journey spiritually has been filled with so many ups and downs over the last five, six years since I started Hesrtway. I began as a member of the Southern Baptist Convention and our church was getting funding from Southern Baptist churches and other reformed communities as well. I moved from that sort of fundamentalism into a progressivism which was a wonderful eye opening experience for me where I was introduced to a whole new world of scholarship.
However, what I recognized about myself was that for a while I still was teaching and communicating in a way that made it seem like information and knowledge was the primary thing; and the transference of that information and knowledge. So now I wasn't teaching conservative evangelical doctrine as the one truth. But I was teaching progressive doctrine as the one truth. And anybody who disagrees with me about that is on the wrong side, and I became the problem that I saw in front of me all of those years.
Seth Price 8:53
Yeah, I do that all the time. Myself included. A lot of people do you just switch one fundamentalism for the other. It's still fundamentalism.
Danny 9:05
Right! You know. And so that's I had just realized that it was still about knowledge and information for me, I still figured out I mean, I still believed in my mind that I could figure out God in my head, you know, and have that all nailed down. So like my dad, for example, I talked to him a lot. He's very close to me and a big part of our community. He's there every weekend, and he's in the lives of many folks.
I'll never forget a conversation I had with him when he said, Danny, it's so good that you teach us to be open minded, and you show us a lot of different ways of interpreting the text and you share with us many different theological viewpoints, he said, but at some point, I have to have something that I can build my life on. I have to have a foundation that I can build my life on. And the idea that there's just many different ways of looking at things. And that no way is necessarily the one right way can probably leave people more confused if you don't go deeper than that.
And so what I realized was that foundation is what was missing. It was the experiential foundation of life with God that was missing from the equation because we think knowing God is knowing things about God, instead of loving God and experiencing God in everyday life.
So that shift has helped to provide like a sturdy ground on anchor a center for people to to base their life off of that has nothing to do with doctrine or belief or theology. We still theologizing I still love theology, and I still throw tidbits of cool information in my messages sometimes but theology is a means to an end. You know, and the end is life with God and union with everything.
Seth Price 11:21
One of my good friends he always says, anytime we start talking about theology, who just say, you know, we made all this up like all this theology, like, we made all this like, I'm excited for you. Yay. But we made this up.
Danny 11:37
Yeah and the best theologians at the end of the day are those who say everything that I've said take it with a grain of salt, you know, because we really don't know what we're talking about.
Seth Price 11:54
So I called you, what was it…been a couple months month? I don't know it. A couple weeks ago, because one of the things that I see you do specifically on social media is you're invited to these gatherings that have Christians ,that have Jewish, have Muslim, have all different faiths, all different walks of life, and y'all will come together, and you will worship together. And I assume everybody preaches or everybody teaches or everybody prays, I don't know what that looks like. And so I wanted to do one thing this year, and that is kind of view God through a lens that isn't mine. And I don't really have that ability, at least not readily accessible.
However, you get invited to these things, and you get to participate in it. And so that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you a bit about is that like, what does that look like? What have you learned etc.? So, at those gatherings, can you kind of paint a picture for like, what that is looking like, like kind of what the purpose of a gallery Like that is and kind of how you approach it, and maybe what you walk away with?
Danny 13:05
Wow. Yeah, well, some of the most impactful experiences that I've had over the last couple of years doing ministry have been in those interfaith, multi-faith contexts and not even just like interfaith services that I've been a part of, which have been a part of a lot of interfaith things that have been very meaningful to me. But not even just the the services that I've been a part of, but also like the lunches that I do, and the dinners that I have over people's homes, and the phone calls and the outreach events that I've been able to partner with others doing and I've gone to Morocco, and Abu Dhabi, with Rabbis and emails and pastors from all over the United States and abroad, for different multi faith movements and things of that sort. So, there's so much I can say, ultimately, I would say the one thing that I get out of those gatherings every time that I go is just such a such a hope for the future, just such a hope for the future. I feel such a deep sense of camaraderie and true brotherhood with others.
Sometimes it even feels like my connection with those from other faiths can be deeper than the ones I have with those of my own. Sometimes it feels like they can understand me better because we focus on what we have as similarities. And we honor and respect and are curious about our differences. Within Christianity is not really like that we don't focus on our similarities, those of us from different streams and traditions and we definitely don't honor or appreciate much of our differences across denominational and ecclesial lines, more often than not, at least on my Twitter feed, and on Facebook is a huge food fight, you know, and we're all rocks.
And so every religion does this, you know, the Muslims have that same issue, and the Jews have that same issue and it's not that we're unique or that our religion is any better or worse because of that. But the point is, when you move beyond those like, tribal bounds, and you start seeing how similar others are to you, it's beautiful. And I'll never forget, one of the first multi-faith gatherings that I was a part of, they were they were bringing together these triads of imams, rabbis, and pastors. And so there was another Imam and another Rabbi from the South Florida area that was selected along with myself to go to this like cohort for a couple of days. And we really got to know each other.
And then from that experience, we came back home to start our initiatives with our congregants. And in this cohort experience, we got to tell each other our conversion stories. And we got to talk about our callings to do ministry. And there was so many similarities. There were so many things that we held in common about how we got into a life of faith and what our needs to us and how we want to give back to the world. It was just so beautiful.
So obviously there's this unity that's undergirding all the multiplicity and the diversity that we're seeing in in through these different religions. It's just a matter of getting deep enough in your religion to tap into that stream that is flowing through all of them. And so what I have found is that all religions have a mystical dimension and a prophetic dimension. And the mystical dimension and the prophetic dimension of religions are where we can unite. So Marcus Borg, who was one of my favorite scholars, he talked about the fact that every religion has an external form and an internal core. So the external form of our religions are things like our doctrines, our rituals, our sacred texts, that's where we're going to have the most differences and distinctions and those differences and distinctions matter, and we should never minimize them, and we should seek to learn from one another. However once you move beyond the external form of religion, into the internal core, all of the religions share a lot of similarities. Because the internal core of all religion is essentially about the experience of the transcendent the experience of the sacred union with God with reality.
So, the mystical dimension of religion is what highlights that. And so this is where love and interconnectedness and present moment awareness becomes the focus. And so we have this big time in the Eastern Orthodox tradition that has focused on stillness and silence and quieting the mind through the spiritual practices of watchfulness and the Jesus prayer; which is like the repetition of a mantra, the prayer of the heart. Obviously in the room Catholic side of our tradition with many of the monastics. And love is essentially where all of it culminates. And love is what unifies the mystical dimension, which is about the inner journey, and the prophetic dimension of religion, which is about the collective healing of the world.
Love is the word and the energy and the power that I like to speak of that unifies all of it, because we can't have peace in the world, without peace in our heart. So, the inner and the outer belong together. The thing about it is Love is the fulfillment of all religion. Love is the essence of all religion. Love is the fulfillment of philosophy and mysticism and ethics. And when you tap into love, when you tap into the experience of the Divine, you transcend differences of beliefs and ritual and doctrine, because that's not what is ultimately important. Truth and this was the shift for me, which has a lot to do with the shifts I explained in our church, truth is not conceptual and truth is not something that we can ever totally grasp through concepts and through words. Truth is experiential, truth is love, and God is love. So to know God is to love God. And so, hopefully, somehow all of this…I know I totally moved away from the first question you asked me…
Seth Price 21:14
I have another question.
Danny 21:15
Sure.
Seth Price 21:16
So you use a metaphor and I ask it because part of my in the back of my head I'm always trying to ask Okay, so you know I've spent years listening to you weekly years is one of the one of the you're preaching in your churches preaching. It's not always you is one of the ones that I listened to weekly. Yeah, I enjoy it. I get a lot out of it. I was listening to hold on, I'll tell you what I was listening to earlier today. I've actually listened to it a few times. Where are you at Heartway…come here to me Energy in Motion, that whole series. They're right around right before Christmas. I like that entire series.
So, when you use metaphors like streams, and there's shared truths, and focusing on What we share in common, a lot of people that are listening to this, even though I often push the envelope or the boundaries of what's considered orthodox and try to stretch people, they're gonna be like, yeah, I can't do it. Like there's, I can't do it like, I don't want to. I can't do it. And so how would what would you advise to somebody…
Danny 22:20
You can't do what?
Seth Price 22:21
Like, I'll hear people I've heard it today. You know what? You can't say that. You know, when I'm hearing you say that it's almost like people are afraid that if they hear a truth in an Islamic tradition, or in a Buddhist tradition, or a Hindu tradition, you're like, that sounds like Jesus, but somehow that takes away from Jesus, or it makes the Bible “less true”, or which makes my faith less true. And then oh, no, what do I do the house is on fire. And so if someone's hearing you say that about you know this, in all religions, there are lots of truth. Like what would you say to someone if they in this or listening to a sermon, and they're like, what do I do with that? Danny, I don't know what to do with that because I go home to Jesus. But also, I'm hearing truths and other things where that guy that you brought up the guy that you told a story about that sounds a lot like X, Y, or Z. But that's an entirely different faith tradition. So what would you say to someone with that?
Danny 23:37
It's a good thing to honor it there. And regardless of the vehicle of truth, if truth is being communicated, truth is being communicated. So it usually helps when talking to folks like that who are very loyal and faithful to their particular tradition. To show them how, even within our Christian Scriptures, we have truth that is brought in from outside sources. So, for example, obviously, our entire Bible contains the Hebrew Scriptures that are primarily belonging to another religion. So right there even just the fact that we don't only have a New Testament, but we also build upon the Hebrew Scriptures shows you the inclusive nature of Christianity. Alongside of that, even if you look in the Bible, in places like John chapter one, when the author uses the concept of the logos, which was a Greek concept that was then appropriated And used to express Christian concepts and truth. If you go to the book of Jude, in the New Testament, Jude quotes the book of 1 Enoch, which is not in our Bible, but it's a book that was respected by ancient Jews. And so the Bible quotes it. So is that line…is only that line from the Book of Enoch ultimate truth? No! So, even in Acts 17, another one that came to me just now, when Paul quotes one of the poets when he says even one of your poets are the ones that said
in Him, we live and move and have our being and we are all his offspring.
So Even the Scriptures quote sources outside of themselves for truth. So maybe showing this person how the Bible itself, and we can also go down Christian history talking about how we have incorporated truth from other places and made it our own. Because ultimately again, people who are scared to let go in this way, are still thinking and believing that it's their conceptions of God in their head that ultimately matter. What ultimately matters, at least to Jesus is the experience of God in and through love.
The way Paul says it in the book of Galatians is
faith working itself out through love.
So yeah, I think our beliefs are always is going to be evolving and changing, depending on our context and our current access to knowledge. However, the one thing that that we always go back to that is unchanging is the presence of God within.
Seth Price 27:20
If you can think back on these events that you've gone to, and what has been, if you were honest that you sat back and you showed up, and you're like, Oh, I don't know anything about this, like, of all of my study, I just haven't really made my way to this religion or that religion, or whatever that is. And you know, and so as you're sitting there listening, and you're like, this will be good. I'm going to learn something today. What would kind of be that religion and what did you learn? Or you're sitting back and you're like, Oh, yeah, yeah, I didn't….I didn't Yeah.
Danny 27:46
You know, I actually was surprised at my interaction with a lot of my Muslim friends and How it seemed like some of them had a more merciful and compassionate depiction of God than, than a lot of Christians I know. And that was a shocker to me, that was a shocker to me. I wish I could remember this story that my emaan friend had told me about God's love and hell, but it's slipping my mind now.
But I heard this little parable that my mom friend told me, and it was essentially about the fact that God's love will never stop reaching out to human beings, regardless of their constant resistance. And I was just like, Man, that is such a beautiful way to talk about and conceive of God that for Christians, for many Christians will be considered blasphemous. You know, so I had that that experience which was, which was really interesting too. You know, I had a just to take this in another direction just because this came to me there was a female Rabbi that I hadn't met as well who she had told me that when she was in Israel, and she would walk around with her. Gosh, what do you call the… I got? Yeah, yeah, the the yarmulke…
Seth Price 29:30
The cap, that sounds right.
Danny 29:32
I'm not sure. She was wearing that and she was walking around. And she said that elderly men spit on her. Because it seemed like such a blasphemous thing that a woman would wear that and consider herself to be a rabbi. And it was stories like that, that really touched me. You know, and especially myself, like I've been tempted a lot to sometimes be like, do I really want to continue to do this with Christianity as my vehicle just because of all the baggage that comes with being a part of this, but being around people like her who remain faithful because their symbols and their texts and their traditions means something so deep and personal to them, that they're willing to kind of put up with those things as a part of the cost. That's inspired me so much, you know, to remain rooted because ultimately to you can get to a point where you just, you're so open minded and progressive that you can't fit into anything, because nobody agrees with all of your fine points of truth and doctrine, you know, and the same with conservative fundamentalists.
Seth Price 31:02
I always have to caution myself. So I'm constantly and I think you must be the same I'm always reading four or five books at a time. And so I often have to guard what I'm reading because I find that I will make my own systematic theology, but it really only is based on what I'm reading at the moment. And so I'll have to put everything aside for a few weeks detox from all of it and be like, Oh, that's right, there's God, my fault, I got a little bit egotistical. And that's, that's on me. That's on me.
It helps so that my wife kind of, of course, correct me like, I don't know what you're talking about right now. But that doesn't sound right. I don't know what you're doing. But doesn't sound right.
Danny 31:43
I love it. There's a teacher by the name of Mooji. And he says
if you have a choice between being a theologian or a saint, be a saint.
like what what are we doing here, yeah, and what's the purpose and the point? And that's also what I realized, see, like, with theology like, so much of what I thought was theologizing in the past was just me repeating what other people said about God. As opposed to speaking from my own experience of God, in conversation with others and their experience, too. And there's a reason why so many of the monastics would say, you can't be a theologian if you don't pray. Right. Like if you don't actually have a life with God, if you don't actually walk with God, then what could you ever possibly say about God? You know, And, I've seen so many people from other faiths, who just their presence, so calming and so peaceful, that has really spoken to me in powerful ways. Powerful ways.
Seth Price 33:18
So you're married. So what has been the biggest changes as you’re seeing truths and other faiths? How has that impacted the way that you, you know, your marriage works or has it at all? Because I think so often, like, you know, you have an eye or at least I did, I had an idea of, well, I was extremely fundamentalist when I got married as well. So my idea of marriage has shifted quite a bit as my faith has shifted. Like, has it impacted at all? The way that you…
Danny 33:47
Well, no, you know, I my, my wife has always been on a very different path. And I in terms of her relationship with religion and Christianity and faith and spirituality. I think our paths began to intersect a lot more about a year and a half ago. But I would say my interactions, and our interactions, with people of other faiths and my openness to other traditions has enhanced our relationship in a lot of ways, because it's just given us a lot more to talk about and consider. And a lot of the Christian stuff that doesn't necessarily connect with her anymore, you know, but still connects with me, that sometimes can be a thing, so to be able to connect over other stories and parables.
You know, like, for example, when we went to Thailand a couple of years ago my wife came back saying, like, I think I'm a Buddhist, she's like, I think I'm a Buddhist. I love this. You know, and ever since that experience, I took a deep dive into the teachings of Zen Buddhism. I also gleaned a lot from and learned a lot from Roman Catholic theologian who also has a dual religious affiliation considers themselves a Buddhist, Christian or Christian Buddhist. Paul Knitter.
Seth Price 35:24
Yeah, Paul's great.
Danny 35:25
Was he on the podcast?
Seth Price 35:28
Yeah, yeah, we talked about. Yeah, Paul. Yeah. That's one of my favorite episodes.
Danny 35:34
Because ultimately again, people who are scared to let go in this way, are still thinking and believing that it's their conceptions of God in their head that ultimately matter. What ultimately matters, at least to Jesus is the experience of God in and through love. Yeah. So, so that has that, that that has very much just, you know, given us a whole new way of talking and relating to each other. So it's been positive. It's been it's been very good.
Seth Price 35:51
Usually you can visually see everybody for all the years that have done this. For the most part. Most of them are like this. I just wasn't recording the video, but Paul's is one of the few When I was done, I was like, man, I should have been recording it. Because and I'll move the mic a bit like he would do this. Danny, this is just for the people listening at home. He would go, he would be like, “No!!!!!!” He's just so animated. And I'm like, it's like, he's it's like he's rooting for like a bass. Like he's like, no, homerun. We did it. Yeah, he's just passionate. Just so yeah. says it's so much good. Um, okay, so Fuller, for the most part from what I understand a fuller is more. Not what's the word I want to say? How do you go to a school like Fuller? And they'd be like, yeah, cool. Danny, let's talk about all the other face to get a divinity doctorate from Fuller. How does that sit with a school like fuller because I know like they're not Oral Roberts but they're also not like, do whatever you want to do.
Danny 36:54
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. live there in Pasadena, I know many interactions other than with the professors that I get to choose to be mine because I pick the track, I'll get to choose my professors. From my experience my class setting has always been very diverse and ecumenical. And there have been people from all different streams of Christian thought and faith and practice. So there has been a, an open mindedness on that end. And also, you know, they have several people come in to do classes and courses that are on the same wavelength to some extent. So I don't know what the deal is because I know Fuller, technically is still considered like an evangelical seminary. Yeah, they're definitely more open.
Seth Price 37:52
That's cool. I just was curious. Yeah, in the back of my brain when you said full earlier, I was like, really?
Danny 37:57
Yeah, thankfully, everything’s worked out it's been a good great experience.
Seth Price 38:01
Yeah, I'm so final, just one last question because I know I've got you up later than I think that you usually like to stay up. I'm a night owl. I'll be up till midnight just to until wind down-doing these energizes me so I'll have to, I'll have to wind down. So it's a question that I'm asking everyone specifically because I want to dive into other faiths. But the question I'm asking everyone is when you Danny, say God, or the divine, or whatever you want to call whatever metaphor you'd like to try to use? What are you actually saying?
Like if you had you and you're sitting across from someone, you're having a beer, you're having a coffee, you're having whatever you're like, No, listen, listen, listen. When I say God, here's what I'm actually saying. What is that?
Danny 38:46
Reality. God is reality.
When I say God is reality, what I'm saying is that everything that happens, happens as it should and any time I argue with that I suffer. When I accept and embrace what is when I accept and embrace reality as a gift from God, and as God's very self, I experience peace, because that's what it means to surrender my will to God's will. And so God is what is. God is reality. God is in everything, and in everyone. And God is what we are. And so also on top of that God is when I use it, even just that word is a metaphor for something and it's a word that points to something that is beyond words. It's an experience of connectedness with the present moment and with life and with nature and with self. That’s God.
Seth Price 40:07
I love it. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I'm aware of how small, hypothetical small, that question is.
Danny 40:16
It's no great question.
Seth Price 40:18
I've really enjoyed it. I really should have come up with a question for the year every year I've done this because I've been I've enjoyed bouncing from A to B to C to D. I don't know how many times I've asked that question. So it's been fun.
Danny, where do you want people to go? Not where should people go? But if people want to kind of dig into you, where do you want people to go? Because if they if they follow you on Facebook, they're gonna see you auditioning in Paris for like model shots, which I'm jealous of not the model shots, but just the Paris. You know, so depending on what avenue they choose to find you at. I feel like they're going to see a different aspect of you. So where do you want people to go to kind of dive in to a bit of you?
Danny 40:57
Well any platform on social media. I'm not really much on Twitter these days, but Facebook and Instagram, Danny Prada you can find me on there but in terms of what I what I'm doing and my content. I'm a local pastor who preaches sermons every Sunday, and I put a lot of love and time into my sermons. So, Heartway Church has a podcast and people can tune in there every week to hear what's happening in our community.
Seth Price 41:28
Yeah, I would I would recommend that I don't listen. I listened to two to three church sermons. Yours is one my pastors is one as well. And then the other one I don't. I don't I don't feel like advertising. I just listen to it because I need I need 10% coming into my head that infuriates me It keeps me honest. And so I don't feel like advertising it but I do listen to it.
Danny 41:48
Im honored dude. I'm glad it can be helpful to you.
Seth Price 41:52
Thank you again for coming on, Danny. I appreciate it.
Danny 41:55
Dude, you got it. It was great.
Seth Price 42:11
So I want to start doing something a little bit different. I've said this so many times this show is literally happening because of the Patreon supporters of the show. So I have a request, if you have never considered supporting the show, please do so now if you are able, if you are not able, don't even worry about it. If you have somewhere between two bucks a month, three bucks a month, consider supporting the show there are multiple tiers there. And you'll get different things with the different tiers. Some people get to see the videos of each episode that are recorded other people get different blog posts, you can get discounts on the store, merchandise, all kinds of things. However, here's the reason why many of you know that I've been transcribing all of the episodes. And that is because there are people that have a hard time hearing period and that does not mean that they are excommunicated. from being a part of these conversations, and so, I would like to say that nobody read those. And that when I put them up on the website, it wasn't worth the effort. And that's wrong.
It is one of the most popular parts of the website. And they are constantly being linked back to from other places on the internet. But I need your help the cost of doing the transcripts as of I think April 15, actually went up a bit and need your help with that. So I want to start doing two things. I want to start recognizing people when they come on for support on the show for Patreon. And so, we will do that in a minute. And then I would ask a few of you, whatever you're able to do. I have a goal. I'd like to end maybe by September at 100 patrons if we could do that.
So as of today, we're at 53. And so I'm going to give a shout out to new patrons of the show as they pop through and hopefully every week this would just end up being a longer and longer list. A big thank you to Michelle Snyder, Steve Murray, Joshua Rosenberg, thank you so much for supporting the show. And I cannot wait for possibly next week to throw out a few more shout outs on the show. I hope that you're all being safe, that you are blessed. And I'll talk to you next week.