This Way Network: Donald Readel & Jefferson Drexler
Donald Readel: Well good morning, everybody. Welcome to The Chat Session. My name is Don Readel and over here I have Jefferson Drexler. And we were just chatting before coming on live here. Jefferson, you’re from the left coast there?
Jefferson Drexler: Yes, sad to say, hard to get more left, I guess it’s possible, a little bit south of where you’re at. But yeah, we are out in San Diego.
Donald Readel: Yeah, yeah, and I’m on the East Coast in New Hampshire and we’re finally reaching – going to have uh, in the 80s today. So, uh –
Jefferson Drexler: That’s great! I mean, we’re having winter temperatures here, right around 69 or 70.
Donal Readel: Yep!
Jefferson Drexler: One thing that’s hard to beat in this area, we are perpetually right between 68 and 73 no matter what time of the year it is.
Don Readel: Yeah, and we were just having the frosts the last couple of mornings here, so this is typical New England. We’ve been getting a lot of winds and everything – Anyways, it’s good to have you and we’re going to be talking about some certain subjects here. You know, there’s a lot of things going on in the world right about now. You know, we have the Durham Report coming out, you know and there’s entities that are trying to block all that. Because there are entities that don’t want the truth to come out and we also have the Roe verses Wade situation. But somehow, we need to be able to unite with friends, relatives – in the midst of all this going on. You know, because there’s so much division going on. What are your initial thoughts when I mention these things?
Jefferson Drexler: Well, you know, you touched on it when you were talking about The Durham Report, when you were saying that some people just don’t want THE truth to come out and I think that societally, culture-wise, we really took a hard left turn a while back when we as a society stopped recognizing that there is “THE Truth”, there is “A truth”. There are multiple perspectives of truth. There are many, many, many opinions.
Donald Readel: Yeah, yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: When we’re looking for facts whether it’s The Durham Report, whether it’s when does life begin. Whether it’s – Is it sunny outside or is it, you know, cloudy outside? Whatever it may be, there is a truth. And I mean we see this even down to my grade-schooler. Um, we were just talking last night at dinner, how at some of our local very, very conservative charter schools that subjective truth, that living your truth, if you will.
Donald Readel: Oh yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: That’s become, that’s become more of a norm. And so, when that’s normal then of course they’re going to fight tooth and nail to protect their truth which is in conflict of THE Truth.
Donald Readel: Yeah, oh absolutely. These things, you know, they – Everybody, you know if you see somebody, they’re getting into their truth is what they’re doing, you know. Whatever –
Jefferson Drexler: Well, you know – yeah.
Donald Readel: Whatever they’re consuming is going to be their truth.
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, and that’s where it gets really hard. I know some amazing – To say, bible-believing Christians is an understatement. They are Mentors, they are phenomenal, just Godly people. And they’re stuck on their devices as much, or as little as anybody, you know, it’s in their pocket. But the truth is, where are they being fed their information? You know, I mean if all I do, is – I’m seeking information daily, but the information I’m receiving is bad and I don’t have any means of looking for counterarguments, well sooner or later I believe that is what the truth is. And I know historically this has happened before in Church history. I know this has happened before in current event history, but we’re living in a time right now where it’s getting harder and harder to try to figure out and decipher, and discern, and think critically. In regards to, is CNN giving us accurate information? Is Fox News, is Daily Wire, is – You know, all of this stuff, who’s giving us the right truth and even then, is this pastor telling us the truth? Is this pastor telling us the truth? Is this pastor correct in that we should not be talking politics in church because it pushes people away or is this pastor over here who’s always talking politics, is that good because now we are more informed as a Christian voter or a Christian participant in society?
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: You know, we have to be able to think critically and come to these great conclusions and that’ll affect for the rest of our life.
Donald Readel: So, Jefferson, what is your – What’s your foundation? What do you –
Jefferson Drexler: On Christ, the solid rock, I stand.
Donald Readel: Hallowed the ground that’s thick as sand, hallowed the ground that’s thick as sand, Amen.
Jefferson Drexler: Great question, I was born and raised a non-denominational Christian. My parents were hippies and they actually met at a church in the park in the seventies.
Donald Readel: Oh, wow.
Jefferson Drexler: And so, I prayed the sinner’s prayer and accepted the Lord Jesus into my heart in ’76. And so, I came out of that whole early –
Donald Readel: The Jesus freaks?
Jefferson Drexler: I was baptized by Chuck Smith – and my dad.
Donald Readel: Oh, wow!
Jefferson Drexler: And so yeah, we came out of that. My wife and I we both were raised in the same church. And so, we have very likeminded approach to – not just biblical thinking and practical theology. But also, since we’re non-denominational we’re not biased one way or the other towards denominations. We’re able to recognize the pluses and the minuses of everybody around us.
Donald Readel: Yeah. So, wow. Huh! So, Bonnie in the chat is saying there’s no such things as versions of the truth. So, she – Bonnie, are you thinking about the Biblical Truth? You know, straight just Biblical Truth? That’s what I’m wondering.
Jefferson Drexler: Right, well, you know what I mean? My dad, growing up, my dad used have this analogy when he and I would disagree on something where he would hold up a quarter. I wish I had one with me now. But he would hold up a quarter and he would say, “Alright Jefferson, what do you see?” And I’d say, “I see a quarter.” And he’d say, “Okay, but be more descriptive.” And I’d say, “I see George Washington’s, you know, profile.” And he says, “Well, that’s funny, because I see and eagle.” Now we’re looking at the same thing. We’re looking at the same truth, but we have our own perspectives of that truth.
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: My father-in-law, we were doing a marriage class, years later, and he took it to another level. He held up a Kleenex box, you know one of the square cube Kleenexes. He says, “What do you see?” And there was actually six different perspectives. Yet, whether it’s me and my dad with the quarter or me, and him, and him, and her, and her looking at that. We can all agree that this the Kleenex box. We just had our own perspective of what the Kleenex box looked like or what that quarter looked like.
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: The difference today is we’re disagreeing on what truth is. We’re looking at a biological man in a women’s swimming pool wearing a women’s swimsuit and saying that’s now a woman allowed to compete against other women. Or we’re looking at – you know, pews filled with people who are ignoring the Old Testament and we’re saying this is a bible believing church. Um, yet they’re not believing or diving into the Old Testament for passages that are hard to ingest.
Donald Readel: Right.
Jefferson Drexler: We’re looking at the actual data of what has happened, whether it’s COVID, or the 2020 election, or whatever it may be. And there are people that are twisting it, saying, no we’re not going to acknowledge this truth, we’re simply going to acknowledge what we’re calling our truth. And that’s where perspective verses truth is –
Donald Readel: Right. Well, people taking an oath, I wonder if they’re getting away from this. I hope not, but, when they take an oath in a court of law, you know they – “the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God” on the bible. And, but if a person is saying the oath on the Bible and they know nothing about it, what kind of truth are they –
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, what is the value in that? Right.
Donald Readel: Yeah, what kind of truth are they going to be spewing out? It’s kind of like when – you know, when people go to the ballot box, you know? They, they, they go in and they – “well this person looks great, you know, looks better.” “I don’t like how this person looks.” You know, and they base their decisions on how somebody looks or, “I like how this person talks.” You know it’s –
Jefferson Drexler: You know, I mean, that goes all the way back to Kennedy and Nixon for the first time.
Donald Readel: Mm Hmm.
Jefferson Drexler: Where people we’re voting based on what they saw on TV. But even worse, I had some friends back when I was in college, it was, uh – Oh, it was the Clinton/Bush election. And me and one other friend, I remember watching the polls and watching the news, and it was looking more and more like Bush was losing, and we had both voted for Bush and we were just – Ah. And then my other friend walked in, and they were like, “Okay, who’s winning?” And we said, “Uh, Clinton, looks like he’s got it wrapped up.” And they were like, “Oh cool, I picked that one”, like it’s a horse!
Donald Readel: Yeah, I know.
Jefferson Drexler: It’s like, I was going by – I was punching the ticket on my ballot based on, you know, who I thought had the better odds coming down the home stretch, not necessarily, you know, who would be the better leader or who’s policies would be better for our country.
Donald Readel: Yep.
Jefferson Drexler: Instead of the person who hid in their bunker.
Donald Readel: Yeah, you have to wonder how people made their decisions, you know.
Jefferson Drexler: Right, and that’s something that – We all, even some people recently. But I know growing up there was always, in public, we should not talk about money, politics, or religion. For polite conversation, avoid those three topics. And around the dinner table with your children, you don’t talk about these things either, because it just inflames the tensions and such.
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: The problem is now we got many generations alive here, going from my parents on down, who don’t know anything about religion, politics or money.
Donald Readel: That’s right.
Jefferson Drexler: Because it’s not been discussed and that’s one thing that I really enjoy, actually. It doesn’t matter if we – Last night, we had a great family dinner with – So I have four boys, a 10-year-old, twin 14-year-olds, and an 18-year-old. My 18-year-old had his best friend over and then my twins had one of their best friends over. Of course, we had a full dining table last night.
Donald Readel: Nice! That’s awesome.
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, we were talking about everything. And I was kind of laughing, thinking, these poor kids, they’re going to go home to their families and be like, “Oh, you wouldn’t believe what the Drexler’s talked about.”
Donald Readel: Yeah, “They actually pray before they ate.”
Jefferson Drexler: Well, we did better than that. One of the boys prayed and then one of the other boys made fun of his prayer.
Donald Readel: Uh-oh!
Jefferson Drexler: “You said, thank you for this food twice. You must really be thankful for this food.”
Donald Readel: There’s a critic everywhere.
Jefferson Drexler: Sarcasm is a love language in our house, that’s very true.
Donald Readel: Yeah, so. So, we got the Roe verses Wade going on. I’ve seen some nasty things happening, where they’re doxing the Supreme Court Justices. And you just don’t – you don’t. There’s certain things that’s been like a manacle for decades that you just don’t do, now things are – things are getting so crazy that they’re doing these things. I’m just fearful they’re not – I know that all things are working out for the good of those who love God and walk according to his purposes.
Jefferson Drexler: It’s not easy though.
Donald Readel: Yeah, it’s getting hard to watch, you know?
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, I mean, but it’s not surprising at least not for me and I don’t think it should be. When we see – if you compare and contrast what protests once were, which even as – We don’t have to go back to the sixties, we can go back to – you know the – the – I’m drawing a blank, the wall street, you know the – Oh, the boycott on Wall Street. Anyways, protests were and should be, you show up, you have your signs, your chants, whatever. You get arrested, because – especially, in the D.C. area these things have to be kind of permitted.
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: There’s a manacle, there’s a method that your point still gets made. Of course, we’re still allowed to protest. That’s what we’re founded on, but then there’s also consequences for whether it’s trespassing, or being a nuisance, or tying up traffic. However, starting in 2020 especially, those rules of protest have been obliterated.
Donald Readel: Okay.
Jefferson Drexler: Protesters can now be loud and as destructive as they choose to be. You know, we’ve had people throwing Molotov cocktails in pregnancy resource clinics. We’ve got neighborhoods being tied up outside of the Justices. Which is blatantly against the law! And we’ve got representatives of the White House basically endorsing those protests, which when else in our history has the White House Administration said, “Yeah, yeah guys go break the law.” We are in times that we could have easily seen coming down the pike and like you said, we know that everything works for the good. I – I’ve said – Occupy Wall Street, that’s what it is. Yeah, occupy Wall Street was the –
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: Why I couldn’t remember the word occupy, I don’t know. Point being, whether, or not we’re living in the “end times”, who’s to say? I mean, there’s been boo-koo lists of crimes throughout human history since Jesus ascended that people thought that –
Donald Readel: Right. It’s almost like every generation has their “end times”.
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, I like to equivocate it to a baseball game, that we very well maybe in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, and we need to finish strong. But just because baseball likes to have nine innings.
Donald Readel: We’re in the inning –
Jefferson Drexler: We might have extra innings.
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: There’s no saying that, there’s no guarantee that the ninth inning is the last inning, so we just have to keep on going.
Donald Readel: Yeah, I know that with the Red Sox in Boston.
Jefferson Drexler. These times are tough, and we need to not only gird ourselves with truth in order to stand firmly but –
Donald Readel: Yeah, put on the full armor of God.
Jefferson Drexler: Yes, and we need to help our brothers and our kids and our fellow worshipers, our fellow soldiers, if you will. We need to help one another stand firm as well, you know.
Donald Readel: Yeah, and show them.
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, pastors really need to be –
Donald Readel: And ask questions, you know, don’t try to brow beat them, you know.
Jefferson Drexler: Right.
Donald Readel: Because that’s not what Jesus did, and he – even when they asked him a question, he would ask them a question. You know, in return, and they’d be like, “Oops, this guy is amazing.” But one thing I know is that we don’t need to fear. The bible talks, I guess there’s 365 scriptures about you know, do not be afraid. You know, so there’s one for every single day of the year, so you know.
Jefferson Drexler: Right. That’s been one of our regiments around here with my sons. Especially when they were little, you know. We’d tuck them in, we’d go through our kind of bedtime regiment. You know, kiss them on the forehead and tell them, “remember what the bible says, “Do not – “, and they’d say, “be afraid.”
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: And that’s, life can be scary. Life can be intimidating, but when it comes to real fear, we have no need to be afraid.
Donald Readel: Yeah, my kids are all grown and they’re all up around 30 years old now. But I remember, that used to be a common theme was the scripture that, “When I’m afraid, I will trust – “And you know, we used to say, “Jesus.”
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah.
Donald Readel: I will trust Jesus and so I don’t know what that meant for them in their little minds but it’s kind of – It was like a salve for – You know, for what they were thinking about, all the different things going on.
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah.
Donald Readel: And I don’t know about you, but there’s a song out, “Fear is a Liar”, you know?
Jefferson Drexler: I know that one.
Donald Readel: Oh, it’s a good song.
Jefferson Drexler: That’s me baiting you to sing it.
Donald Readel: Oh no, no. You don’t want any copyright infringements. We don’t want to be struck by, you know, the powers that are letting us do this. Yeah, I’ve been very careful. I’m doing a show on ThisWay Network, called Let’s Jam. And it’s basically a guitar tutorial and we’re up to seven episodes now. And just trudging along and I guess a lot of people were watching and it and I’m happy about that, because they’re going to learn a lot. They’re not just going to learn like the A chord, they’re going to learn some theory and so forth. That’s a little shameless plug right there for my show, a song every Tuesday at 12:30. So, I don’t know. What’s going on in the chat? Oh yeah, I see –
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, I see “occupy til I come”. Also, what I like Bonnie is where Jesus says, “Hey, I’m not lying to you, this is 100% true. I’m going and I’m preparing a place that you can occupy.” So, we have that assurance as well, you know. Look, there’s a day coming where we get to be with Jesus where he’s been preparing for us that we get to occupy. We get to hang out and we get to reside, abide in him is the biblical word. We will be with all the time.
Donald Readel: Yeah, that’s awesome. I almost wish I was a young kid in your neighborhood so I could come and have dinner with you because I like how you talk.
Jefferson Drexler: There’s no age limit, you can come.
Donald Readel: Hey, if I’m ever out there visiting my son, I’ll just head south and come down and see you. Okay yeah, we’re just here listening. Oh okay, hey, you people in the chat let us know where you’re chatting from. That’s always fun to see. How many people in the chat? Three?
Jefferson Drexler: Hey, that’s better –
Donald Readel: We’re just getting started.
Jefferson Drexler: When I first started getting into, or studying, I should say, broadcasting, I was helping a buddy of mine who worked for our school’s radio station doing the overnight shift. And he said, “Hey, the tenth caller that calls in is getting free tickets to such and such.” And we couldn’t get 10 callers and eventually, this was probably around like 1:30 at night, he’s like – We whittled down a bit, so we just kept going, kept going. He’s like, “Alright, the first person who calls in gets the keys to my car. Just one caller, whoever calls in gets the keys to my car.” He couldn’t get a caller. He’s like, “This is terrible, I couldn’t even get my mom to listen.”
Donald Readel: What did he have, a Subaru Brett?
Jefferson Drexler: Oh, it was probably a Volkswagen Bug, something terrible. But so, it was just – So, the fact that there people actively listening from all over the place, that’s awesome. A whole lot better than where that call in radio experience was.
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: Kind of a win.
Donald Readel: Yeah, so you work in this kind of field with broadcasting.
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah, so my foundation professionally was in broadcasting, broadcast journalism, and then the last close to 30 years, I’ve been working in television and webcasting, and production of some sort. And then also, there was a spell where I was working for a university, a Christian university, running their video department and in that, I also made a really good friends with our campus pastor. And we worked really well together for about 3 years, then he left to become a pastor at this church down where we’re at now and after a year he called me and said, “I need like a video guy.” And I said, “Well, I’ve got my TV stuff going on over here, but I also am a lay pastor over here, so I got a lot.” He said, “Okay, let’s make you a video production pastor.” Like, that’s a thing? So, I spent 8 years as a video production pastor, where I got to, you know, baptize, marry, bury and make a DVD of the whole story.
Donald Readel: Oh, wow.
Jefferson Drexler: And so, yeah, that had been – That was 10 years ago now, time flies. But, over the last 10 years, I’ve been more self employed doing my own production.
Donald Readel: Yeah. I’m just – I saw Michael, you know, doing his broadcasts and he kept making this invitation to join ThisWay Network, they’re volunteers. I was like, “Geesh, I’m feeling drawn to do this.” So, I sent an email and after a little while I got a response and I just want to let people out there know that it’s still possible that you could do that. So, if you’re out there in the chat watching or whatever, chime in. Our producer will put the link in the description down below. So, I’m just learning about producing. I just produced my first show couple of weeks ago, and this is my first time hosting a show and you know, so here I am. But that’s been my calling, like this. When all the things start going south with the selection back in 2020.
Jefferson Drexler: Right.
Donald Readel: I remember when I saw the results after a certain evening into the morning, if you know what I’m talking about?
Jefferson Drexler: Yep.
Donald Readel: I got on my knees, and I said, “God, whatever it takes, you know, please, send me to do whatever I can to fight whatever this is that’s happening, that doesn’t seem right.” You know, it’s just so wrong. So, you know, that’s just been, been like my battle cry. These past two years, you know, “Send me, here I am, send me.”
Jefferson Drexler: That’s awesome.
Donald Readel: So, that’s why I’m right next to you. Yeah, so –
Jefferson Drexler: Yeah!
Donald Readel: I’m enjoying every minute of this. Being retired, I have the freedom and it seems like divine providence has stepped in as far as, you know, I have my family time, and all the sudden it ends and then I get, beep, I get a text from somebody from the network, “Can you come in and do this?” And I’m like, “Yes, I just got through doing – “So, it’s just this snowball of – You know, I hate to say that I love my life because you’ll lose it, you know, but I’m loving every minute of it. You know, it’s just great. For 20 years, I drove a bus and people kept saying, they called me the “singing bus driver” Because, I used to get up and make an announcement, “Hey folks, there’s a bathroom in the back of the bus and we’re going to show a movie. Oh, before we go on, I’m going to sing you a song.” So anyway –
Jefferson Drexler: It’s always fun and it’s always invigorating when you live day to day, and you can actually know with certainty that God is guiding your path and you’re walking in those steps.
Donald Readel: Yeah.
Jefferson Drexler: That’s when it doesn’t matter how sketchy things may feel or seem, when you’re walking in that truth, here we go, going back to truth again, then it makes you even more invigorated and – I was just telling a guy at my studio yesterday, that more and more churches these days need to be singing “Onward Christian Soldier” and getting that reality set in our hearts.
Donald Readel: Yeah, Amen, Amen. So, we’re – We still have a minute left, so is there anything you want to say before we wrap this up.
Jefferson Drexler: I would just say if you guys want more of little things I might have to say, check out Parent Like You Mean It, it’s on ThisWay Network, it’s also on ChristianPodcastCentral.com. Christian Podcast Central also has their own YouTube, or our own YouTube channel as well. We got great stuff going on there, so we got more at ChristianPodcastCentral.com.
Donald Readel: That’s fantastic, Alright, so –
Jefferson Drexler: Thank you, Donald.
Donald Readel: Yeah, thank you for joining us and here we are wrapping up the show. And I just want to say thanks to Matt for producing this and thank you to all the people in ThisWay Network. It’s a place of love, you know. If you want to join us, send an email to [email protected].