James Meehan - The Big Game and Black History
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Vince Parker: Well, what's good. Welcome back to Culture Makers. I'm one of your hosts Vince Parker. And with me...
James Meehan: James Meehan.
Vince Parker: Yo, James,
James Meehan: I thought you...
Vince Parker: was you not going to say your own name?
James Meehan: I thought you were gonna
Vince Parker: That I was
James Meehan: ...introduce me.
Vince Parker: ...like...
James Meehan: Oh, you're at that level now that I have to give you... Okay, hey guys, here's the deal. Welcome with me, I'm your host Vince Parker. And with me today, the legend, the man, the myth, the one, the amazing, Mr. James, drum roll, Meehan.
Vince Parker: Yes. Is that better?
James Meehan: Every time, from now on.
Vince Parker: Okay, okay. We can see that, here's the deal, we're in the month of February and there's a lot to talk about. Is anything off limits?
James Meehan: We won't know until we get there.
Vince Parker: Okay, let's just jump right in. Jump right in. Super Bowl champs...
James Meehan: Yep. Come on.
Vince Parker: We called it.
James Meehan: Yeah.
Vince Parker: Tom Brady.
James Meehan: Yeah.
Vince Parker: The G.O.A.T
James Meehan: Coz it was what, a few weeks ago on "Culture Makers" we had that conversation about who's the greatest. And we talked about Tom Brady.
Vince Parker: Right.
James Meehan: And what I could not get out of my mind was the memory of my cousin, Wesley, growing up who has for his entire life been a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan. His entire life. Like all the ups and downs, and by ups and downs, I mostly just mean downs. And I remember we would always make fun of him at like family reunions. And we'd talk about like, man, how are those pukeneers? like that was what we would call him. Wow! Wow! And in that moment with Tom Brady, 'cause this is what, his seventh Super Bowl?
Vince Parker: Seventh, more than any other franchise, Tom Brady has more NFL championships in the franchise.
James Meehan: Bro, seven Super Bowl wins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. My cousin, Wesley, I am so sorry for all of the hate I threw your way. You, you were justified.
— And honestly, when one team gets blown out like that to my teased friends remember this joy comes from the Lord.
— Hmm come on.
— But that's okay. But a lot other cool things happen in the game.
— Yep
— Okay. First female ref to ever ref Super Bowl.
— Come on, that's fantastic.
— That was awesome, that was pretty cool. The Weeknd performed. Now you told me that he used $7 million of his own money?
— Yeah, I looked it up afterwards and apparently he invested $7 million of his personal money into that halftime show which that like blew my mind in and of itself.
— That's crazy, 'cause Twitter lit him up. They were like, "Hey, it's more like the weekday. This feels more like Monday through Friday than it does the weekend". Which I thought it was crazy. I enjoyed it, which I think is, cause I might be too old. It seems like if you're, the older you are the more you liked it, and the younger you are, you were like, "Nah, that's more like Monday through Friday".
— I don't... I feel like that's kind of the way people respond to The Weekend, right? You either love him or you just don't. There's not really like an in-between there.
— Okay.
— At least that's what I've seen. Maybe there's some people who are like, "Uh, He's okay, but not good". Maybe. I don't know. I feel like either love him or you don't and you know.
— I'ma say this thing, that's what I'm gonna say. But again, we know similarly how you feel, you call him The Weekday now. And then Amanda Gorman, she was back again,
— Come on bro.
— ...amazing poet. She killed at the inauguration,
— Yep. here she is at the Super Bowl.
— It is really, really cool to think that in this year, she has taken something that she's clearly passionate about.
— Right.
— She's clearly gifted in and of all of the work she's probably put in behind the scenes that we've never even heard of or known about. She's now had two different significant opportunities to share her gift and passion with others, and I think it's really, really special. I think it's a really cool example to all of us that like, hey, you can be really young and if you invest your time and your energy into something that you're good at and you care about, man there's a lot of really cool possibilities out there for what might happen from that.
— Right. Two of the largest stages.
— Come on, bro.
— And she's been on both of them,
— Right.
— ...back to back. Like that's amazing.
— Like literally in less than what? Like less than a full month, it's been like two weeks?
— Right.
— Yeah.
— I feel like she did the inauguration and then like the NFL was like, "Hey"!
— "Hey, can we get you here"?
— Yeah and she was like, "Yeah, I can do it".
— Come on, bro.
— "I guess, I'll make room". Also in February Black History Month.
— Come on.
— I figured let's just share a little bit about how we got...
— Yeah.
— ...the Black History Month. So it's the celebration began as National Negro History Week which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson. A noted African-American historian, author, teacher and then 50 years later, it actually became an entire month in 1976. So here we are, on the 45 year celebration...
— Wow. Yeah.
— ...of Black History Month. And I just think that's awesome and amazing.
— Absolutely man, absolutely.
— I mean, I think it's great that we can take time to remember.
— Yes.
— To celebrate, but look at how we can move forward. And there's just been so many notable African-Americans, so many noble black people throughout our history. And I just think it's great that it happened. But did you know, you probably don't know this that black history month happens in the U.S. and Canada in February, but in different countries not every country.
— Yeah.
— Some countries it takes place in October.
— Interesting, what's the reason for October?
— I don't know.
— I was...
— I thought you were about to hit me or something.
— You know, a lot of things, that's just when they choose to celebrate it. So, if I celebrate again in October there might be some significant black people in their countries that they choose to celebrate 'cause of their birthday...
— In October, interesting.
— That's fantastic.
— Right. But if you know, let us know, feel down to comment, shout out...
— Yeah. Please tell us.
— let us know. But as always thanks man here's deal. African-American History Month, Black History Month, man. It's amazing, big time shout outs to all those doing big things. February the month of love because the Valentine's day. One day, the whole month is the month of love.
— Wow. That's...
— How do you feel about Valentine's day? You get your wife like really nice gifts, spend thousands of dollars on her.
— No, so both...
— Do you spend any dollars on her?
— Yeah, a little bit.
— Candy, flowers?
— Okay, hold on, hold on.
— My bad, coming in too hot, coming in too hot.
— You're coming in way too hot. So for both my wife and I, neither of us have gifts as like one of our top love language, actually for both of us gifts is the very bottom of our love languages.
— Okay.
— So my wife like her number one love language is quality time. So usually for Valentine's day, we pick a day other than Valentine's day where we have like an extra special date night. Now, the reason why we don't do it exactly on Valentine's day is 'cause basically all the restaurants are booked. And for us, we like going to a restaurant where there's not a ton of people there. And so we'll usually do like either the day before or the day after Valentine's day. And we'll just make a date night of it. My wife is also super duper stingy or as she likes to call it frugal, 'cause frugal sounds better than stingy.
— Yeah, stingy feels like a shot's fired.
— It kinda does
— So like...
— But she is so brilliant, like I'm so thankful for her 'cause man, otherwise, I would literally eat out at Chipotle every single day.
— Every day?
— Well, you know.
— Real quick, this wasn't our topic it was...
— Yeah I know, everyday, everyday.
— Chipotle or Qdoba?
— Chipotle hands down.
— Okay.
— Chipotle has better ingredients, better quality, it is fantastic. Now I will give you qdoba's queso that doesn't cost extra is fantastic. Yep. Yep.
— One of our questions, actually had to do kinda with love.
— Love.
— Okay. So small fry ask, this, "Is watching movies with kissing okay"?
— With this question, it's like so many other questions, right? It depends. So for you as an individual, if you're watching a movie where kissing takes place and you find yourself starting to think about thoughts that are not honoring to God or to others, then I think it would probably not be wise for you to watch those kinds of things.
— Right.
— So I am very, very particular about the things that I do and don't watch. Now for me kissing, usually isn't an issue, I will say, I remember back before I got married I used to watch the show, "New Girl," a bunch. So I watched that show...
— ...what's interesting though,
— Okay. is I realized before I got married, as I was watching that show that they talk about like relationships and sex and all sorts of things so much that I found myself as a single dude having to just not watch that show anymore because of where it would take my thoughts. And so I had to put up some boundaries there to make sure, "Man, am I really guarding my heart and my thoughts to make sure that they're actually pure, they're actually good and they're actually honoring to others". Because the problem with these lustful thoughts is that lust causes us to view others as objects to be used rather than people to be loved. And that's why it's so important for us...
— That's good.
— ...to make sure that whatever we're watching, whatever we're consuming as far as content goes, is helping us become the kind of people that can love others the same way that God through Christ has loved us. And so what I would say to that question is, "Is watching movies with kissing okay"? I think it depends, right? If those movies are causing you to have lustful thoughts that are not honoring to others, then it might be wise to put some boundaries in place and find something else to watch.
— Normally we talk about music.
— Yep, absolutely.
— Right. And Cardi B dropped a new song.
— Okay, yeah.
— Right, and so I try to make sure that I can help out and I had to stop dog.
— Yeah.
— Yeah. I got like 20 seconds in, 27 seconds. And then here's the problem, I don't know why I thought the music video would be different.
— So you're saying you got 20 seconds into the song...
— and I was like...
— and then you went...
— you know what...
— to go watch the video?
— Well, not the same day.
— So you waited a little bit.
— So I waited a little bit like the next day.
— Good man. Good.
— And I was like, "Hey, what's trending, what's going on, oh, look the video's gotta be better".
— Right? And so I'm not talking about the level of the skillset of the song or like well the song was...
— You're right, yeah.
— ...instrumental or how well that she raps, not talking about that. You know how you were just saying like, "Hey you shouldn't let some things in".
— Come on.
— Yeah I just shut that down. So yeah, I had to let it go. So I cannot give you any report... Like I didn't even look up the lyrics. I can't even, nothing. I just let it go. I tried it for y'all but I had to draw the line someplace.
— That's good men.
— I just had to be like, here's the line so I have no updates on new music 'cause the new Cardi B song 27 seconds in, I had to let it go. So we have some more questions from our viewers James.
— Okay. Yeah.
— Are you ready?
— Yeah.
— Galaxy Grace asks this. This is a very specific, detailed question.
— Okay.
— "What would Jesus think about Taylor Swift's songs"? How would he feel about "Bad Blood"?
— You know what's actually really funny, is I preached a message several years ago where I used lyrics from that song to teach that message.
— Okay.
— So the whole point of the message was, that you can't be right with God and wrong with others because over and over again...
— That's good. That's true.
— ...throughout scripture, right? Jesus and the different people that God was using to teach his people how to follow him, talked about the importance of both loving God and loving others. And so I talked about right, like, "Hey, if you've got bad blood in your relationships with others, then that's actually gonna be a barrier preventing you from connecting with God in the way that he wants to connect with you". So like for those things, I think that what Jesus would see is man, there's probably some really good stuff in some of these songs, but there's also probably some things in these songs that maybe aren't as good, right? Like my favorite Taylor Swift song of all time, "Love Story", love it. Like every time that song comes on, I just start belting it at the top of my lungs. And that's like old school Taylor Swift, some of you may not even know what I'm talking about, go look it up, it's incredible. Some of our newer stuff, I haven't listened to like her most recent album, but I think there's some good stuff but maybe not all of it.
— Okay that makes sense, but I've learned a little bit about you that I didn't know before.
— Come on, "Love Story" baby.
— I feel like you're trying to tell us...
— Just saying it as...
— I feel like the next time Taylor Swift drops an album, we're gonna come in here and you're going to break it down, and you're gonna tell us why this song is great...
— Come on.
— and why it's not.
— That's it.
— So y'all stay tuned. We're gonna have a special Taylor Swift-breaking down James Meehan episode...
— Come on.
— ...and tell us which songs that'll be good. Now this next question.
— Yup.
— I might have to get up and walk out of here if I feel your answer's wrong.
— Oh, okay, cool.
— Is that too aggressive?
— All right, I'm ready at the edge of my seat.
— Natalie 17, Natalie 17 this is for you, okay? "Huge Marvel fan, she says".
— Okay.
— Is that okay?
— So I have a confession to make. I actually did not watch the Super Bowl last night.
— What?
— Yep. Because instead my wife and I were re-watching "Captain America, The First Avenger".
— Well, Uh.
— Because we've been watching "WandaVision" and absolutely loving it so much that we watch all the episodes of "WandaVision", found this YouTuber who goes into detail about every single reference and Easter egg in every episode of "WandaVision" that just created in us a desire to go re-visit some of the older Marvel movies. So we watch Marvel, sorry, "Captain America The First Avenger," it was incredible. I teared up like four different times.
— Really? And so here's what I would say...
— Captain America, Captain America, the first... Okay...
— Dude, because every single time, he is just getting the snot kicked out of him, and he says, "Man I can do this all day". Right, like he is just willing to take a punch standing up to the big guy, he's willing to sacrifice himself for the good of others. And that is so beautiful because that's exactly what Jesus did for every single one of us, He sacrificed himself for us. John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends". And that's why I love Captain America, because over and over and over again, that's what he does. Now, Tangent over, are Marvel movies okay? Not only are they okay, they're incredible.
— Okay, as y'all can see I'm still sitting here, I feel like that's the right answer. So not to say that we normally have to have a right answer...
— Yeah.
— ...but I feel like this question had to have a right answer.
— Oh, for sure.
— And James, that was the right answer.
— Yeah. Did Jesus...
— If she disagree in the comments let us know, 'cause like...
— Yeah. Jesus loves Marvel movies.
— Oh, you don't know...
— Obviously that...
— if Jesus loves Taylor Swift songs, you're like, "I can't answer that".
— But I know... But Marvel movies
— But Jesus loves Marvel movies, okay, all right.
— I'm not even... Yeah, we're just going to move on. One last question here from Juan Antonio Lee. He has a question about the video games perks. If you play a game and some kids out there are being toxic, but say they're Christians.
— Hmm.
— How do you handle that? Because obviously all these gaming platforms, you're playing with people around the world, right?
— Yeah a hundred percent.
— You play online too and people claim to be Christians but yet what they're displaying is toxic. I've been a gamer for a long time, but I didn't give my life to Christ until I was 19 years old. And during that time loved stomping on newbs in "Call of Duty" right. And I loved trash talking them and stomping on them so hard that they would send me hate messages after the match. Well, all along that journey, I ended up deciding to give my life to Christ and figure out, "Man how do I live as a follower of Jesus? And how does that apply to the way that I play video games"? Because I started getting some of those hate messages and I realized, "Oh shoot. I don't think that Jesus would play games the way that I do". But what was so interesting to me is I had that mental shift of, okay if I'm a follower of Jesus like offline I need to be a follower of Jesus online.
— Yeah.
— And so how can I play these games? How can I interact with other people in a way that of showing them the love of Jesus, right. In Matthew 5, Jesus talks about this idea that, "We are the light of the world, that God has set us on a Hill so that we can shine our light for everybody to see. And that by our good deeds they would glorify our father in heaven". And so what I started doing is when I would... well I stopped smack talking. That was kinda step one.
— Yeah
— But then if I did get a hate message after the fact, I would respond to that in the most kind and loving way possible and try to become friends with that person. I tell you that kind of like personal example to segue into how do we then have those conversations with other people that claim to be Christians but aren't displaying Christian values and ethics through online games. What I would say is...
— ...yup.
— ...first to start with yourself, right? Start with yourself. If you are a follower of Jesus and you're playing online games and you are trash everybody and their grandma, then man I would just start there by stopping that. And then I would look for opportunities. How can I through an online game, encourage other people? Because the reality is there's a lot of people who are having a really hard time in life and I see those opportunities as gifts from God to share God's love with them. And then if I've got some friends that say that they're Christians, but are being pretty toxic online then I'm just gonna have a conversation. I'm gonna say, "Hey man, like that wasn't really nice what you said to that guy and I know that you can do better because I know that you really care about people and you want to be the best that you can be". And I think something as simple as that can start the conversation to move them towards a more loving, demeanor and behavior online.
— So not easy, but I think that's some great advice and a great way to handle that. That's amazing. James, this episode has been a lot of fun.
— Yeah.
— February action-packed in the first half, I don't even know what we're gonna talk about in the second half, but in the world of culture...
— ...come on.
— ...so many different things happen. So if you guys have questions...
— Yup.
— ...if you have comments man, again, drop it in the comments. Let us know how you think you feel. If you see a question down there that you feel like you know the answer to...
— ...come on, absolutely...
— ...right feel free to answer it, man. We love you guys remember like share then like again then re-share,
— Oh, and then we'll see you on the next episode of "Culture Makers".