Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey

00:00:00.000 I like to say on my podcast that politics matter because policy matters, because people matter.

00:00:08.780 God works through process in his power.

00:00:11.700 He loves order, which is the exact opposite of what we see in culture today.

00:00:18.620 It's time for people to be courageous, for you to be that one person, to share courage

00:00:24.560 with other people.

00:00:25.380 Stand up for that which you know is good and right.

00:00:30.000 And true.

00:00:47.740 Okay, so I crowdsourced the topic of my speech tonight.

00:00:52.340 I don't know if you heard that first part.

00:00:53.760 I crowdsourced the topic of my speech tonight.

00:00:57.020 And I heard that you want to hear good news.

00:01:02.800 There's been a lot.

00:01:04.180 There's been a lot the past few months, even the past few hours.

00:01:07.180 So let me just start with this really good news that Jesus is coming back.

00:01:12.620 That we already know what the end result is.

00:01:16.920 We already know what the future looks like.

00:01:19.080 One day Jesus will return, and he won't come as a baby as he did at that first Christmas,

00:01:24.200 but he will come back as a warrior.

00:01:27.160 Sometimes it feels like evil is winning, like those who do wrong are getting the last word.

00:01:33.440 But we are promised that in the end, Jesus will rule in perfect peace forever and ever.

00:01:39.560 And there will be no more sin, there will be no more sadness, there will be no more sickness,

00:01:46.280 there will be no more assassination, there will be no more injustice,

00:01:51.680 and we will rule united in Christ with him forever and ever.

00:01:58.020 And so we look forward to that day.

00:02:01.300 Right now we're living in this shadow of Charlie's assassination when we are reminded more than ever

00:02:10.180 that while we look forward to that day and we have hope in that day, we are not there yet.

00:02:17.940 That is where our joy comes from.

00:02:20.300 That is what our hope hangs on, but we're not there yet.

00:02:25.420 We were placed on this tiny spot of the earth, on this small speck of eternity,

00:02:33.860 by a God who does nothing by accident, who does nothing arbitrarily.

00:02:41.540 Nothing surprises him, nothing takes him aback, nothing throws him off.

00:02:47.020 He's never looking down and thinking, how do I clean up this mess?

00:02:51.200 But he's actually sovereign over all of it.

00:02:53.940 Psalm 139 reminds us that all of our days were written out by God before any of them came to be,

00:03:02.420 and that includes your life.

00:03:05.220 So what is the purpose that you are here on earth?

00:03:09.100 To suffer and to feel pain and to struggle with sin and to go through all of these difficult things

00:03:15.240 that many of us don't want to go through, even amidst the beauty of our life,

00:03:20.200 our purpose, of course, is to glorify God and love our neighbor.

00:03:25.960 It's really simple.

00:03:27.980 Our purpose in life is to glorify God and love our neighbor.

00:03:33.340 And if you listen to my show, Relatable, you've heard me say this saying a lot.

00:03:39.400 What that looks like is doing the next right thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God.

00:03:46.580 When we don't know what to do, that is our mantra.

00:03:50.020 That is our motto.

00:03:52.280 But let me tell you, as a Christian, something that a lot of people don't want to talk about,

00:03:58.120 but I know everyone in this room wants to hear and agrees with,

00:04:02.920 one way that Christians can glorify God,

00:04:07.080 one way that Christians can love our neighbor as we await the perfect and sure victory of Jesus Christ

00:04:14.540 is through politics.

00:04:17.680 It's through politics.

00:04:20.620 See, politics matter because policy matters, because people matter.

00:04:26.360 Politics affects policy.

00:04:29.120 Policy affects people.

00:04:30.960 People are made in the image of God.

00:04:33.300 People matter to God, and therefore, they matter to us.

00:04:39.260 And so, Christians don't have an option, nor should we want the option not to be political.

00:04:46.500 That doesn't mean that politics is the primary way or the only way that we love our neighbor,

00:04:51.780 but it is a way to love our neighbor.

00:04:55.020 Because our most vulnerable neighbors are affected by politics, which affect policy.

00:05:04.000 Our unborn neighbor is affected by our politics.

00:05:09.680 The child who is confused about their gender is affected by our politics.

00:05:17.680 And so, I know there's been a lot of talk lately.

00:05:21.840 Should we even care about the midterms?

00:05:23.660 We've got these other things going on.

00:05:25.740 Let me tell you, I care about the midterms.

00:05:28.720 I care a lot about the midterms.

00:05:32.260 But let me also encourage you, because I don't want to come up here and say,

00:05:36.780 oh, let's just forget about our disagreements.

00:05:39.200 Let's just unite and move forward so we can win the midterms and win 2028.

00:05:44.440 While I do think it's important to find unity, I actually think that truth is more important than that.

00:05:51.560 I think truth is more important than that.

00:05:55.500 And it's important to remember this analogy.

00:05:58.420 If you're discouraged by the disagreements and the division and the debates, I understand.

00:06:03.060 It can feel demoralizing.

00:06:05.220 But let me tell you why this happens so much on the right,

00:06:08.840 seemingly more than it happens on the left. 0.98

00:06:11.560 It's not just because we're dumb over here. 0.96

00:06:14.200 There's a reason for it. 0.94

00:06:16.300 There is a difference in the nature of progressivism versus conservatism.

00:06:21.560 Progressivism sets out to destroy.

00:06:24.440 And if you are destroying something, destroying Western civilization,

00:06:28.540 destroying the church, destroying the family,

00:06:30.900 it does not matter how you do it.

00:06:33.980 It doesn't matter what tool you hold or what material you use.

00:06:38.140 As long as you are destroying whatever institution or edifice it is, that's fine.

00:06:44.940 You don't really have to agree on much.

00:06:47.000 But on the right, on the conservative side, we are trying to build something.

00:06:52.060 And when you're building something, you have to agree on a lot.

00:06:56.580 You have to agree on the materials used,

00:07:00.000 the tools being used to build,

00:07:02.120 and most importantly, you have to agree on a foundation.

00:07:07.460 And if we cannot agree on a foundation,

00:07:11.160 then it's going to be very hard to build something together.

00:07:14.620 But the debates and working out what that edifice looks like

00:07:18.920 of what the future of America should be,

00:07:22.400 there's going to be some discomfort and division within that.

00:07:26.460 Truth divides.

00:07:27.700 It's not always a bad thing.

00:07:29.200 But let me tell you as Christians,

00:07:32.580 what we cannot waver on,

00:07:34.340 what we cannot compromise on,

00:07:36.560 and not everyone is going to agree with us on the right about this,

00:07:41.260 but our job is to pull them over in our direction,

00:07:44.280 not to compromise in their direction,

00:07:47.100 even if people call us divisive for doing so.

00:07:49.820 The foundation must be for all of our politics this very basic idea

00:07:59.700 that we were made by a creator in his image

00:08:04.100 whose power transcends that of the government.

00:08:08.580 And therefore, this creator and this creator alone

00:08:12.180 is the giver and the determinant of our rights,

00:08:15.860 the arbiter of what is right, what is wrong,

00:08:19.760 what is true, what is false.

00:08:22.320 Because without that foundation,

00:08:25.340 what are we doing?

00:08:27.480 Without that foundation,

00:08:29.820 the idea of limited government,

00:08:32.240 or the sovereignty of the individual,

00:08:34.600 or the legitimacy of borders,

00:08:36.460 none of that makes a whole lot of sense

00:08:38.860 beyond this is just how I feel.

00:08:41.560 But if Genesis 1-1 is correct,

00:08:47.320 that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,

00:08:50.680 that changes everything, including our politics.

00:08:56.200 Because if God is the creator of all of it,

00:08:58.800 then he is the authority over all of it.

00:09:01.460 He alone gets to say what is and what isn't,

00:09:04.380 what's right and what's wrong,

00:09:05.900 what's good and what's bad,

00:09:07.520 what a woman is and what she's not. 0.97

00:09:09.760 And the reality of there being this transcendent creator

00:09:16.480 who is also our moral authority,

00:09:19.820 our giver of rights,

00:09:22.420 if we can agree on that,

00:09:27.260 then other things must also be true.

00:09:32.140 There are other things that must be true

00:09:35.400 for the Christian that flow from that reality.

00:09:38.880 One of them that Christians cannot waver on 1.00

00:09:43.800 is that all human beings have innate value

00:09:48.940 from the moment of conception.

00:09:51.600 And that does not...

00:09:52.760 And that does not only mean

00:09:58.260 that they should not be aborted,

00:10:00.400 but they also shouldn't be tested,

00:10:04.200 frozen, and discarded as embryos.

00:10:07.040 If God is creator and God is in charge

00:10:15.960 and God is the giver of rights,

00:10:18.600 then how we treat our unborn neighbors,

00:10:21.800 both personally and politically, matters.

00:10:24.960 And it is not something that we can compromise on

00:10:28.380 because compromising on that

00:10:30.120 wouldn't be compromising to win an election.

00:10:32.820 It would be compromising to lose biblical truth.

00:10:36.760 Number two, something, it's really a twofer, two and one.

00:10:44.500 Another thing that we cannot compromise on

00:10:47.240 if these things are true,

00:10:48.640 if we just believe the first chapter

00:10:50.440 of the first book of the Bible, Genesis 1,

00:10:53.540 that we are created irreplaceably,

00:10:56.640 inexchangeably male and female.

00:10:59.080 And now, most of the right,

00:11:01.740 most of the right agrees with that.

00:11:03.760 That doesn't even get an applause anymore

00:11:05.420 because it is so obviously true.

00:11:07.940 You even have people like Gavin Newsom

00:11:10.180 acknowledging that men shouldn't be in women's sports.

00:11:14.200 However, for the Christian,

00:11:16.400 it's not just that men can't be women,

00:11:19.000 it is also that husbands can't be wives.

00:11:21.700 Just as men and women are not interchangeable,

00:11:31.940 husbands and wives aren't interchangeable. 1.00

00:11:34.580 A mom cannot become a dad, 1.00

00:11:36.360 and a dad cannot become a mom,

00:11:38.440 and children need both.

00:11:45.640 For the Christian, when we talk about things

00:11:47.980 like overturning Obergefell,

00:11:50.280 we're not trying to be offensive.

00:11:54.800 We're not trying even to be political.

00:11:57.180 We're not trying to be divisive.

00:11:59.680 We're just trying to be biblical.

00:12:03.320 Charlie and I, in our last face-to-face conversation,

00:12:06.740 we talked about this phenomenon

00:12:08.680 of many pastors and many Christians

00:12:11.660 believing that they're nicer than God.

00:12:15.500 And he said,

00:12:16.260 that has to be the title of your next book.

00:12:17.780 I'm really good at this.

00:12:19.260 And he is.

00:12:19.920 So, it probably will be.

00:12:23.080 But there is this feeling

00:12:25.080 among many of us

00:12:27.200 that we are nicer than God.

00:12:30.120 And even though God says one thing

00:12:31.980 about marriage or gender

00:12:34.460 or anything else,

00:12:37.200 we shouldn't say it

00:12:38.820 because that's too mean.

00:12:40.920 As if we need to let the creator

00:12:42.820 of the universe off the hook.

00:12:44.320 But the good news is,

00:12:47.260 is that God is love,

00:12:48.660 1 John 4, 8.

00:12:50.140 And because he is love,

00:12:51.540 he gets to define it.

00:12:53.560 And he tells us in 1 Corinthians 13

00:12:56.700 that love, among other things,

00:12:58.700 never rejoices in wrongdoing.

00:13:00.760 So, never celebrates sin,

00:13:02.600 but rejoices with the truth.

00:13:05.480 So, the most loving thing

00:13:07.920 that we can do,

00:13:09.300 both personally and politically,

00:13:12.640 is agree with God.

00:13:15.440 Because if Jesus is king,

00:13:18.540 then the king of kings

00:13:19.540 cannot be compartmentalized.

00:13:22.300 We don't get to say,

00:13:23.640 sure, Jesus,

00:13:24.220 you get this part of my life,

00:13:26.020 but my politics

00:13:26.900 and my cultural views

00:13:28.000 and my social views,

00:13:29.360 they're off limits.

00:13:31.600 It's not how it works.

00:13:34.660 It also means,

00:13:36.220 if God is creator

00:13:37.240 and he is authority,

00:13:39.100 the protection of borders

00:13:40.300 and the punishment of crime.

00:13:43.260 Because God created borders.

00:13:45.020 They were his idea.

00:13:46.620 He created governments

00:13:47.780 and laws and nations

00:13:49.400 for our good.

00:13:51.820 And he instituted the government,

00:13:54.160 as Romans 13 tells us,

00:13:55.780 to punish the wrongdoer

00:13:57.840 and to reward those who do good.

00:14:00.820 It also means,

00:14:04.840 because I think the foundation

00:14:06.820 of any good future

00:14:08.100 that we have in America

00:14:09.100 is the belief

00:14:09.900 that all people are made 1.00

00:14:11.200 in God's image

00:14:11.980 by a God who gives us our rights.

00:14:15.280 It means that Islam

00:14:17.000 is incompatible 0.87

00:14:18.360 with Western civilization.

00:14:19.760 And that does not mean

00:14:31.080 hating people.

00:14:33.500 That doesn't mean

00:14:34.780 being rude to people.

00:14:37.160 It means loving people.

00:14:39.100 And it means telling the truth.

00:14:41.940 It means loving our neighbor enough

00:14:43.980 to protect them

00:14:45.260 from the predation of Islam.

00:14:47.180 See, Charlie talks about

00:14:49.580 this red-green alliance,

00:14:52.800 the red Marxist

00:14:54.100 allying with the Islamists, 0.82

00:14:56.860 the Muslims,

00:14:57.700 and it seems like

00:14:59.000 such a strange alliance

00:15:00.800 superficially

00:15:02.320 until you realize

00:15:03.800 two very important commonalities

00:15:06.180 in these ideologies.

00:15:08.300 one, a hatred of Christianity,

00:15:13.200 the faith, of course,

00:15:14.360 responsible for the founding

00:15:16.520 of this country,

00:15:17.480 and two, a denial

00:15:20.440 that all people are made 1.00

00:15:22.760 with inherent rights,

00:15:24.580 with equal value

00:15:26.020 by a God who loves them.

00:15:28.140 And so,

00:15:30.500 because this red-green alliance

00:15:34.480 is a threat

00:15:36.380 to everything Christians hold dear,

00:15:39.080 it is also a threat

00:15:40.440 to everything that America is.

00:15:44.580 And so,

00:15:45.440 if we love our neighbor,

00:15:50.060 we will speak these truths

00:15:51.860 knowing that the most loving thing

00:15:54.480 that we can do

00:15:55.420 with our politics,

00:15:57.620 with our personal lives,

00:15:59.640 with our words,

00:16:01.400 is agree with God.

00:16:04.540 And look,

00:16:05.440 we get to look forward

00:16:06.420 to a day

00:16:06.940 where we will not have

00:16:08.880 political conferences anymore

00:16:11.320 because we won't have politics,

00:16:13.280 and we won't have elections,

00:16:15.100 and we won't have divisions,

00:16:16.720 and we won't have disagreements.

00:16:18.520 That day is coming

00:16:20.040 when we truly will be unified

00:16:22.120 by the best news ever,

00:16:23.740 which is the gospel.

00:16:26.900 But,

00:16:27.780 because we're not there yet,

00:16:31.540 we have to figure it out

00:16:33.660 enough to defeat evil.

00:16:37.040 We have to be able

00:16:38.460 to unite enough

00:16:40.020 to push back

00:16:41.580 against the darkness,

00:16:43.580 but there can be

00:16:45.320 no true unity

00:16:47.000 without the acknowledgement

00:16:48.660 of truth.

00:16:50.660 Truth of the gospel,

00:16:52.020 and fundamentally,

00:16:53.760 especially for all of us

00:16:55.280 in this room,

00:16:56.860 the truth that we were made

00:16:58.680 by a creator

00:16:59.960 who gives us our rights,

00:17:02.660 who gives us our value.

00:17:04.920 No movement,

00:17:07.000 right or left,

00:17:08.180 that is built on anything

00:17:09.460 other than that

00:17:10.840 will ever survive.

00:17:12.520 Thank you.

00:17:12.960 Thank you.

00:17:16.020 Thank you so much.

00:17:18.060 Thank you.

00:17:18.220 Thank you.

00:17:18.360 Thank you.

00:17:18.540 Thank you.

00:17:19.600 Thank you.

00:17:19.860 Thank you.

00:17:20.600 Thank you.

00:17:22.560 Thank you.

00:17:41.640 Thank you.

Allie Beth Stuckey Amfest 2025 Speech

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