The Pastor Christianity Wasn't Ready For - Erwin Raphael McManus
The Deep End With Lecrae
Lecrae
4.8 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 28 August 2025
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Erwin McManus has been called a heretic, a cultural architect, and one of the most misunderstood pastors in America. In this raw and unfiltered conversation with Lecrae, Erwin shares his story—from immigrating from El Salvador and growing up in a broken home, to searching through philosophy and world religions, to finally encountering Jesus in a way that changed everything.
They dive into the tension of being an outsider in the church, why Erwin believes Christianity must reclaim its creativity and imagination, and how his "Seven Frequencies" framework reveals the way people truly communicate. Erwin also opens up about death threats that pushed him out of publishing for years, the immigrant realities shaping his perspective on politics, and why today's heresy often becomes tomorrow's orthodoxy.
This episode is about nuance, faith, culture, and what it means to pioneer a new way of following Jesus in a world of conformity.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There was a group of Christians who decided when the internet came up that they were going to kill me. |
| 0:04.2 | And they created a website and an hourglass in the exact time they were going to assassinate me. |
| 0:08.3 | When Aaron saw that, he said, if Christians want to kill my dad, I'm out. |
| 0:13.4 | So I made a decision. I called my agent and I said, I am looking at what's happening in America now, |
| 0:19.1 | what is your vantage point with everything going on with ice and so on and so forth? Yes, so I housed an illegal immigrant in my house for years. She was undocumented, and if you want to use language, she was illegal. And then I helped you get her green card. Then I helped you become an American citizen. She became an American citizen before I did. Most of the immigration conversations we're having right now are actually political. They're not human. Wow. Today's heresy is tomorrow's |
| 0:42.2 | orthodoxy. People were killed because they said the earth was round. We can take our own opinions |
| 0:47.6 | and turn them into truth. I don't resonate with megachurch pastors. I don't know if I would come to faith |
| 0:52.3 | through them. The frequency which they speak creates a violation in my soul, usually. |
| 0:57.9 | Modern Christianity is an adversarial position against creativity, innovation, imagination, |
| 1:05.4 | and human uniqueness. I think that's a fundamental problem for the church. That's a quote |
| 1:10.5 | you wrote. |
| 1:11.3 | I wonder, do you still feel that way? |
| 1:17.9 | This is the deep end with La Cray. |
| 1:22.9 | What's going on, everybody? |
| 1:24.2 | It's La Cray, and welcome to the workshop. |
| 1:25.9 | The workshop is a place, and you guys can understand my thought process. |
| 1:29.3 | You guys are going to be able to unpack and dig into some of the old albums, some of the last several albums that I've done. |
| 1:36.1 | And on top of that, it's a place where you're going to hear new music and some surprises. |
| 1:40.5 | Make sure you stay tapped in. |
| 1:42.1 | Let's build together. |
| 1:43.1 | See you on the other side. |
| 1:47.0 | Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited, but there's so many other people that I know that are excited about me having this conversation. |
... |
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