Dale Partridge - They've Come to Replace Our Kids! - Dale Partridge

00:00:00.000 We have a culture essentially that has literally designed itself to offer things like human

00:00:06.660 abortions and pet adoption for basically free, right?

00:00:11.800 So you can kill a baby and adopt a pet for basically free, while hospital birth of a

00:00:18.880 child and human adoption is like tens of thousands of dollars.

00:00:23.600 So what we have is a society that rewards people with convenience and the removal of

00:00:29.600 financial barriers when it comes to killing children and acquiring a pet for its citizens.

00:00:36.820 And it burdens those same civilians when it comes to adopting or caring for children. And so we have

00:00:44.180 something that's going on even systematically in our culture. Essentially, what I'm trying to say

00:00:49.420 here is that in America, we are disincentivizing a culture of children and promoting a culture of

00:00:58.780 pets. That's really at the core of our societal ethos right now, or our legal system, or our

00:01:07.620 financial system, or our social system at the very least. And so we have things that are changing

00:01:14.160 all around us in regards to pets. We have pets on planes and in grocery stores now. We have pets

00:01:18.700 in strollers and we have pets in car seats now. We have pets with insurance policies and annual

00:01:25.380 dental work. We have doggy daycares. We have dog sitters. We have vegan dogs. We have pets named

00:01:33.160 after their grandparents. That was a real thing I saw online. We have dogs that take Xanax and

00:01:38.920 organic supplements. We have pets that have birthday parties. We have people calling themselves

00:01:45.420 dog moms and dog dads and referring to themselves or their pets as fur babies. On top of that,

00:01:52.680 we actually have a market. I think the global market share that I saw online for pet clothing

00:01:58.280 was $5 billion for pet clothing. And so to not see the culture's movement to view pets as the

00:02:06.800 replacement for children is just utter blindness. I mean, this is certainly happening right before

00:02:13.120 our eyes. Doug Wilson said in a video on this topic, he says, quote, people are projecting

00:02:19.820 onto their pets sentiments and affections that ought to be rendered toward a child, end quote.

00:02:26.800 This is certainly what we're seeing. We have a culture that has elevated animals to a place of

00:02:32.500 intrinsic value or esteem that is reserved strictly for humans. And it's not that we should

00:02:39.580 reject the care for pets. We like pets. The problem is not the animal here. But what we're

00:02:45.760 having is that people are prioritizing them over children and then raising them to this

00:02:53.600 societal status where they have equal care, protection, and dignity before the law or before

00:03:02.740 at least the cultural theme of the day. And what this does is it actually makes,

00:03:09.460 When you elevate animals to be essentially the same as humans, you essentially say that

00:03:16.400 humans are animals.

00:03:18.600 And that's really what's behind this way of thinking for this community that's pushing

00:03:24.300 this movement.

00:03:25.640 Bible-believing Christians are not the ones that are aggressively driving the movement

00:03:31.000 of pet idolatry in our culture.

00:03:33.020 It's really the liberals and the atheists that are doing that.

00:03:36.520 The truth is pets and humans are not the same.

00:03:39.460 They're not the same.

00:03:40.920 Humans are made in the image of God.

00:03:42.840 Pets are not.

00:03:44.540 Humans have eternal souls.

00:03:48.120 Animals do not.

00:03:49.820 Humans will experience the resurrection of their bodies.

00:03:52.940 Animals will not.

00:03:54.740 Now, I know there's a big discussion on,

00:03:56.380 will there be animals in heaven?

00:03:57.480 I believe there will be animals in heaven.

00:03:59.140 I don't believe every animal that ever lived on earth

00:04:01.300 will be resurrected and be in heaven

00:04:02.960 because we have the restored heavens in the earth.

00:04:06.680 This earth will actually be restored.

00:04:08.300 I believe that God will actually have animals in the new heavens and new earth, but I don't think

00:04:13.180 it's going to be the animals that we had on this earth. And so, this is important to just see as

00:04:19.220 an overarching theme because our death cult culture is rapidly decreasing the value of human

00:04:26.240 life. And one way that they're doing that is by elevating the life of animals to be essentially

00:04:33.080 equal to the life of humans. In a study mentioned by Dennis Prager, 40 to 50% of people said that

00:04:40.340 they would save their dog over a stranger in a life-threatening situation. Again, this just

00:04:47.580 simply illustrates the misprioritized station our culture is nurturing around pets. And it shows,

00:04:58.340 again, us rendering those sentiments and affections that Doug was talking about toward animals in an

00:05:05.800 improper way. According to the World Animal Foundation, the pet care market is worth $207

00:05:12.360 billion around the globe. But the US citizens radically, actually, this is a fun fact,

00:05:18.820 outspend the rest of the world on pets. $123 billion per year we spend on pets. The UK pet

00:05:26.880 owners, I believe this stat is right, only are spending about $7.5 billion. That was double,

00:05:32.860 however, since 2005 in the UK. China spent $31.89 billion. Europeans spent around $21.2 billion.

00:05:41.860 And Australians spent $30.7 billion. But again, we have $123 billion per year that America is

00:05:50.960 spending on the pet industry. I also heard a quote that there are now more pets in Portland

00:05:56.720 Oregon and Seattle and San Francisco than there are children. That obviously makes sense. That

00:06:01.940 shouldn't probably shock anyone because nobody's getting married anymore. Nobody's having kids

00:06:05.820 anymore because we are living in a society that is incredibly selfish. And so it makes me think

00:06:10.760 of a quote by Leonard Ravenhill, who said this probably 70 years ago. He was born in 1907. So

00:06:18.600 in the middle of his ministry, I'm thinking is maybe in the 1950s, but he says, quote,

00:06:24.120 quote, today, Christians spend more money on dog food than missions, end quote. Honestly, I would

00:06:31.560 not be shocked to learn that the average Christian spends more money on their pet than they do giving 0.76

00:06:38.660 to their church or giving to the poor or supporting missions or other parachurch ministries around the

00:06:46.800 world. Pets have truly become an idol in this generation, and it has certainly influenced

00:06:52.860 Christians in the church because we're not questioning why we're doing some of these things

00:06:57.300 in the culture. Previous generations would look at this as radically strange, odd behavior.

00:07:05.440 People are literally satisfying their need for love, this desire for love with their pets. They

00:07:12.600 become essentially the replacement figures of spouses or children, or in some cases, God. They 0.67

00:07:19.680 literally wake up, the priority of their day is to care for their dog and to receive love from

00:07:26.320 their dog and to give love to their dog. And again, they're reprioritizing where that love

00:07:34.380 should be focused upon something that is not the object of right affection. And so this is a

00:07:45.040 multifaceted problem. So I know that you're thinking about all the reasons why these things

00:07:49.220 happen. And I'll talk a little bit about that in a second. But 1 John 2.15 reminds us, it says,

00:07:55.020 quote, do not love the world or the things in the world, end quote. Now, I'm going to make a case

00:08:02.280 that things in the world could include creatures that were made that are not humans. I'm thinking

00:08:09.760 that things in the world could include a cat or a dog. It is a creature, and we shouldn't be

00:08:15.300 worshiping or idolizing the creature ever, all of our affection and worship and focus should be

00:08:21.320 going towards God primarily.

Dale Partridge - July 12, 2023

They've Come to Replace Our Kids! - Dale Partridge

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