Everyone, it's Andrew Klaven. Welcome to this week's interview. My guest today is Vody

Bakum, a wonderful preacher. I've been listening to him all week in preparation. The reason

I wanted to talk to Vody is I have a piece coming out in City Journal. I won't be out until

this winter, but it's about Shakespeare's two great final plays, King Lear and The Tempest.

And I hope you get a chance to read it when it does come out. It's an adaption. I've talked

about it on the show. But the basic point is that both of these great plays, King Lear

and The Tempest have very similar stories about a powerful man and his daughter. And in

one of the stories, King Lear, everything ends in tragedy. The civilization falls completely

apart, everything ends in war and death and loss. And in the other play, The Tempest, you

have what's called the Comedy of Grace, which is a comedy that could have been a tragedy,

but by grace it becomes a comedy. It has a happy ending. And actually, civilization

is restored. It's the opposite ending to King Lear. And I ask myself, as I read these

two plays that I love so much, what makes the difference between the two plays? What makes

the difference between a tragedy and a comedy of grace? And in fact, it all has to do with

one thing. It has to do with marriage. And King Lear, the villain, is a bastard and illegitimate

child. Edward and he seeks to destroy the privilege of marriage. Why should he be exiled and

excluded just because his parents weren't married? What is marriage? That it should have

any effect on the quality of his life. And in doing that, and he unravels the entire society,

it's like pulling the string on a cheap suit. Everything comes apart. Now, in The Tempest,

the hero is Prospero, this powerful magician, and he moves all the elements of his command,

which is all the elements, to ensure that his daughter Miranda will not physically give

herself to the man she loves until, as he puts it, all sanctimonious ceremonies may with full

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