Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - August 20, 2024


Ep 1054 ｜ 'It Ends with Us' Is Emotional Porn for Women


Episode Stats

Length

54 minutes

Words per Minute

171.98532

Word Count

9,329

Sentence Count

616

Misogynist Sentences

77

Hate Speech Sentences

25


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 It Ends With Us is a very popular Colleen Hoover book turned movie that is raking in the millions.
00:00:09.100 But should Christians be reading Colleen Hoover books?
00:00:12.100 Should we be seeing those movies here?
00:00:14.700 Are my issues with It Ends With Us.
00:00:18.220 Also, Samantha Ponder was fired from ESPN after, over the years, she has made comments in defense of women's sports.
00:00:28.640 And also, The Atlantic did a profile on yours truly, comparing me to Phyllis Schlafly, which I think is a very high honor.
00:00:41.100 So we're going to talk about that and what it means, not for me, but for you, and even for our country.
00:00:47.580 On today's episode of Relatable, it's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
00:00:50.180 Go to GoodRanchers.com. Use code Allie at checkout. That's GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.
00:00:58.640 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday.
00:01:07.100 Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.
00:01:09.700 As promised yesterday, we are going to talk about the Atlantic article on yours truly.
00:01:16.540 And we are also going to, as you heard in the introduction, get to, as much as we have time anyway,
00:01:22.280 to Title IX, ESPN firing, Sam Ponder.
00:01:27.000 And then I also want to talk about It Ends With Us and Colleen Hoover just a little bit,
00:01:31.460 because I know so many people and so many women consume her content.
00:01:36.840 And it's really important that we know the messages that are being conveyed, especially for women.
00:01:41.020 So I woke up on Friday morning to an article about me in The Atlantic.
00:01:45.560 Now, The Atlantic is a very left-wing publication.
00:01:49.340 I am a very not-left-wing person, one of the most socially conservative commentators, certainly,
00:01:56.660 in this space.
00:01:57.800 And so you don't really expect a profile in The Atlantic to be glowing, to say the least.
00:02:04.820 In fact, you expect it to be extremely negative.
00:02:07.920 Of course, I've never had a profile of me, but I have been mentioned in various articles
00:02:14.800 in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
00:02:17.680 And it has rarely, if ever, been positive, because they rarely have anything positive to
00:02:22.780 say about conservative Christians and our views on marriage, on gender, on sexuality,
00:02:28.920 on abortion, etc.
00:02:30.900 And this article, for what it's worth, was pretty positive.
00:02:35.180 And I'll go through some lessons, I think, that are just important for us to know as
00:02:40.400 critical thinkers as we're reading any article, whether it's coming from the right or the
00:02:45.080 left, and kind of what she does and what she implies through some clever wording.
00:02:52.220 But I just want to talk about the kind of general push of this article and how I actually think
00:02:59.000 it is a big compliment, not to me individually, but to conservative Christian women that are
00:03:05.100 really represented by relatable.
00:03:07.460 I certainly have the highest concentration of these evangelical women that both sides
00:03:15.340 are talking about and whose vote is being vied for.
00:03:19.580 In my audience, my audience is unique in that, in that most of the political commentary space
00:03:26.820 is dominated by males, not just male hosts, but also just a male audience.
00:03:32.140 The YouTube audience in general is a very male-dominated audience, but not my show.
00:03:38.660 It is mostly women.
00:03:40.600 We do have our Related Bros out there.
00:03:42.460 You are a sizable portion of my audience, and I appreciate you so much.
00:03:47.560 So I don't want to diminish that at all.
00:03:50.240 But we are a female force.
00:03:53.060 We are mostly Christian conservative women who care about the issues going on in our country.
00:03:58.840 We care about theology.
00:04:00.800 We care about politics.
00:04:02.660 We understand why the so-called culture wars matter, and we want to know what God has to
00:04:07.340 say about these things.
00:04:08.760 I don't think that I am the perfect arbiter of God's will in accordance to all of these
00:04:14.940 different issues.
00:04:15.720 But I also think that the Bible is pretty darn clear about these major issues.
00:04:21.580 And in a world where we are fed constant confusion and constant misinformation and disinformation
00:04:31.440 about these primarily biblical issues like marriage and sexuality and abortion, I do think
00:04:37.340 it's important to be really strong and really clear on them.
00:04:39.880 So that's why the show exists, to persuade people who don't agree with me and to encourage
00:04:45.760 and equip those who already do.
00:04:48.360 And I guess this journalist from The Atlantic thought that the show and its impact is significant
00:04:56.600 enough to do an entire article on it.
00:04:59.440 So the title of this article is Conservative Women Have a New Phyllis Schlafly.
00:05:05.360 Now, it was this conservative woman is like redefining womanhood or something like that.
00:05:12.300 I don't remember what it said, but a lot of times they will change the title after it comes
00:05:17.700 out.
00:05:17.900 And I knew this article was coming because this journalist had been reaching out to me
00:05:23.360 for quite a few months.
00:05:25.440 And at first, I just kind of rebuffed her through my publicist because, again, this is
00:05:30.880 The Atlantic.
00:05:32.060 I know that they're a left-wing publication.
00:05:34.500 I know how they treat the conservative perspective.
00:05:37.660 But I looked more into this journalist and I realized, OK, I don't think that she is she
00:05:43.300 doesn't come across as far left.
00:05:45.760 She definitely seems pro-choice, anti-Trump, but she doesn't seem quite as radical as some
00:05:53.820 other journalists are.
00:05:55.860 And she kind of made clear that she's going to write this story about me whether or not
00:06:00.940 I talk to her.
00:06:01.800 And so I realized I would rather her have my own words than just having other people's
00:06:10.660 words about me or what she thinks that she's observed about me or what she deduces based
00:06:16.620 on the things I say on my podcast.
00:06:18.480 I wanted to have a conversation with her.
00:06:21.440 And so she came to Young Women's Leadership Summit.
00:06:24.300 And then I met her shortly after that in a coffee shop and we talked for over two hours.
00:06:31.900 Not all of my quotes made it into this article, which is totally fine.
00:06:35.620 I didn't anticipate that they would.
00:06:38.380 But I do think that I I mean, I tried my best to give a proper representation, not just
00:06:44.620 of me and the show, but also you guys.
00:06:46.900 I don't think that I am your like exclusive representation in the public sphere at all.
00:06:52.780 But I do feel a responsibility to defend our perspective and to defend the position of
00:06:59.600 conservative Christian women.
00:07:01.480 And I do think that I have a unique finger on the pulse of what this demographic is thinking.
00:07:06.780 That doesn't mean that we agree on everything 100 percent of the time.
00:07:10.000 But I think I understand what we care about and why pretty well.
00:07:14.500 And so I wanted to make our case to her knowing that whatever made it onto paper could be different
00:07:20.740 than what I actually said.
00:07:23.060 But since the article was going to be written, I went ahead and went for it.
00:07:26.660 So there were a lot of positive aspects to this piece.
00:07:30.060 And I did appreciate that.
00:07:31.780 So let's give Elaine props there.
00:07:33.740 She could have been a lot harsher than she was.
00:07:36.980 Here are some excerpts from it.
00:07:38.260 She said,
00:07:38.560 Delivering hard truths is is Allie Beth Stuckey's job, a job she was called to do by God.
00:07:44.120 And after a decade, she's gotten pretty good at it.
00:07:46.360 And then she quotes me saying, do I love when people think that I'm a hateful person?
00:07:50.880 Of course not, which is true.
00:07:52.460 That's not something I love, but it is a risk that I'm willing to take to stand for what
00:07:58.620 I believe is biblical truth.
00:08:00.240 She said we had been talking about her opposition to gay marriage, but Stuckey opposes many things
00:08:05.260 that most younger Americans probably consider settled issues.
00:08:08.500 I said, I've thought really hard about the things I believe in, and I would go up against
00:08:12.300 literally anyone, which is true on the things that I believe in, not on any subject, but
00:08:17.440 these core issues that we talk about that we've discussed are really Genesis one issues.
00:08:22.640 Yes, I would go up against anyone on those things.
00:08:27.120 She says, Stuckey is neither a celebrity provocateur in the style of fellow podcast host, Candace Owens,
00:08:32.540 nor the soft-spoken trad homemaker who thrives in the Instagram ecosystem of cottage corn and
00:08:37.460 sourdough bread.
00:08:38.220 Stuckey is a different kind of leader in the new counterculture, one who criticizes the
00:08:43.420 prevailing societal mores in a way that she hopes modern American women will find, well,
00:08:48.720 relatable.
00:08:49.520 And then she talks about kind of the aesthetics of the show.
00:08:53.660 She says that I am similar to J.D. Vance.
00:08:56.780 I fit comfortably in the same ideological milieu as the Heritage Foundation's Presidential Blueprint
00:09:02.460 Project 2025.
00:09:03.680 And of course, that is like, that's a signal to her Atlantic audience for them to understand
00:09:09.940 me as radical as far right.
00:09:12.020 Of course, those of us who actually know what Project 2025 is and says the policies that it
00:09:17.960 represents, which is pretty mainstream social conservatism as it has been represented for
00:09:23.720 like the past 50 years.
00:09:25.280 We know that that doesn't mean radicalism or fascism or any kind of dictatorial regime that
00:09:30.480 they try to paint it to be, but she understands that most of her Atlantic audience is thinking,
00:09:35.120 oh my gosh, Project 2025, scary, radical.
00:09:37.340 And so she kind of puts me in that bucket.
00:09:40.660 And then I've been wanting to tell you this because I thought that this was really cool
00:09:45.180 providence, honestly.
00:09:46.320 So I'm meeting with this journalist that I know probably opposes my position on a lot of
00:09:50.580 things.
00:09:50.920 And she's digging for different beliefs that I have that maybe I haven't articulated in the
00:09:55.720 public.
00:09:56.600 She wants to write about them, which is part of her job.
00:09:59.240 That's fine.
00:09:59.900 And we go to this coffee shop and I've been to this coffee shop a couple of times in my
00:10:04.760 life when I have visited this area.
00:10:08.900 It's not close to where I live, but it has really good coffee and it has good treats and
00:10:14.060 things like that.
00:10:14.780 And so I suggested that we meet at this coffee shop.
00:10:18.980 And so we go in and the cashier says, and she writes about this in the article, the cashier,
00:10:25.660 after I made my order, he says, it's Allie, right?
00:10:30.080 And she said, oh, you must come here a lot.
00:10:32.300 And I said, no.
00:10:33.220 And he actually interrupted her and said, oh, no, I follow her, which was really sweet.
00:10:40.540 And she looked shocked.
00:10:42.540 She was like, oh, celebrity, like said it kind of sarcastically, which is awkward.
00:10:46.920 I don't know what to say to that.
00:10:48.480 And then we sat down and we started talking and literally three groups of multiple women
00:10:54.100 in each group, young women, came up to our table during this two-hour conversation to
00:10:59.140 talk to me and to get a picture and to tell me that they loved the podcast.
00:11:04.560 And that was one.
00:11:05.160 It was really meaningful to me because I always love meeting you guys.
00:11:08.440 But it was also cool to be able to show this person that is in a lot of ways oppositional
00:11:12.820 that, look, these sweet, kind, wonderful young people are listening to the podcast.
00:11:19.840 And they also have the same views that I do.
00:11:22.960 I'm not some like lone fringe person out here.
00:11:26.160 I'm not just talking to people my age and older than me.
00:11:30.260 There are a lot of young people that are actually persuaded by conservative and Christian arguments
00:11:35.000 when they are presented them.
00:11:37.420 And so I thought that was really cool.
00:11:38.960 But she says, when she's describing this moment, she said, maybe it was this particular
00:11:46.020 coffee house with its white clappered Christian influencer aesthetic, or maybe Stucky was even
00:11:50.860 more of a celebrity than I'd realized.
00:11:52.740 But during our two-hour conversation, three separate groups of young women approached Stucky
00:11:56.300 to tell her how much they loved her podcast.
00:12:00.180 And I think she thought for a moment that this was like a setup, that I orchestrated this.
00:12:05.880 Of course, it was not, it was orchestrated by God, by the Lord, I think.
00:12:10.680 I think it was just like a really sweet, sweet moment.
00:12:14.140 And something cool to like demonstrate to her too.
00:12:17.820 So there are a couple things that she says, even though I think that like the overwhelming
00:12:22.100 majority of this piece was really sweet.
00:12:24.780 She compares me to Phyllis Schlafly, the guy that she talks to, I guess, for insight into
00:12:30.100 me, even though I don't know him at all.
00:12:31.700 And I'm sure he doesn't consume my content, compares me to Phyllis Schlafly.
00:12:35.560 We'll talk a little bit about who she is in just a second.
00:12:38.020 And if you think that that's actually an apt comparison, I think that that's like too
00:12:42.360 much.
00:12:43.120 She's way out of my influence league.
00:12:47.680 Like she did amazing, amazing work.
00:12:49.620 But we'll get into that in just a second and why I think that she made that comparison.
00:12:53.000 All right.
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00:14:04.120 I do want to point out a couple things that she did that I thought it was an interesting
00:14:12.680 tactic because I knew that it wasn't going to be an exclusively positive piece.
00:14:17.120 Again, she has to signal to her liberal readers.
00:14:21.880 She has to get a couple digs in.
00:14:23.960 One, she said that my AOC video that we did, I don't know, 2018, where I did that like fake
00:14:30.200 interview style with her based on a PBS interview that she had done.
00:14:34.100 I think it was PBS, a PBS interview that she had done, or maybe it was ABC in the same
00:14:38.840 way that, you know, Stephen Colbert has done with George Bush and Jay Leno in the past.
00:14:44.560 I did that with her and then it ended up going kind of viral.
00:14:47.180 And then, of course, people got mad about it.
00:14:49.060 She said that it wasn't funny, which, yeah, Elaine, I didn't think it was going to be funny
00:14:53.580 for you.
00:14:54.520 It was funny to the people that mattered.
00:14:56.160 But she said that we were just trying to make the libs angry.
00:15:00.120 But there are a couple just tactics that she employed that I thought were interesting.
00:15:06.960 One, she says some recent episodes of Relatable include, it's interesting that she picked
00:15:11.700 these.
00:15:12.380 Can Christians say no to sex within marriage?
00:15:14.400 And feminism is gender dysphoria.
00:15:16.160 She doesn't give any context for that.
00:15:18.420 She just says these are like two recent episodes.
00:15:21.160 Okay, the context matters in the title.
00:15:24.240 Can Christians say no to sex within marriage?
00:15:25.940 That was a question and answer episode.
00:15:28.040 That was a question that I had received.
00:15:30.240 And of course, if you go back and listen to that episode, I said, I said, yes, like here
00:15:35.860 is the biblical context for the commands about sex and marriage.
00:15:39.440 But of course, the implication there without saying what I actually said, without saying
00:15:44.580 why I titled the episode that way and why that question was asked and what my answer
00:15:50.280 was to that question, it makes it seem like I myself am questioning something like that.
00:15:56.840 Like should women even have that choice?
00:15:59.800 And feminism is gender dysphoria.
00:16:01.380 I mean, it is fair for her to list that.
00:16:03.080 That is a title of an episode.
00:16:04.920 I didn't exactly phrase it like that.
00:16:07.200 My guest did.
00:16:08.380 I just thought it was interesting how she chose those two titles without any context, leaving
00:16:14.800 it up to the imagination of her audience.
00:16:17.600 She also does this.
00:16:18.520 She says, Stucky enjoys reading the latest in fiction, but Colleen Hoover's novels are
00:16:22.360 basically porn.
00:16:23.260 She told me, which is true, which is true.
00:16:25.780 And music.
00:16:26.800 I can't sit there.
00:16:27.880 This is quoting me.
00:16:28.600 I can't sit there and listen to Billie Eilish without being like, I'm sad for Billie Eilish.
00:16:32.300 And then after that, she follows it with the singer recently came out as bisexual.
00:16:37.340 See, this is an interesting tactic because she takes a real quote that I say, and then
00:16:42.600 she states a fact right after that in parentheses.
00:16:47.700 But those two thoughts are not connected to each other.
00:16:50.020 I did not say that that's why I feel bad for Billie Eilish.
00:16:52.580 I didn't even know Billie Eilish came out as bisexual.
00:16:55.260 I was talking about Billie Eilish saying that she had been introduced to sex and pornography
00:17:00.780 at a very young age and that her mind has basically just been trapped by these pornographic
00:17:06.620 images her whole life.
00:17:08.140 And it's really messed her up sexually.
00:17:09.700 She's talked a lot about a very dark upbringing, dark influences, even abuse that she has endured
00:17:15.000 in her life.
00:17:16.280 I didn't say anything about the sexuality she identifies with.
00:17:21.840 And so it was just, you see that kind of thing a lot because the implication there and
00:17:26.080 what her readers are going to draw out of that is that I said that I felt bad for Billie
00:17:30.240 Eilish because she just came out as bisexual.
00:17:32.540 Now, maybe that is something that I would say, but that's not what I said in the conversation.
00:17:36.260 But she says two things that are true and puts them together in order to get her readers
00:17:42.300 to draw a conclusion that wasn't accurate to what I actually said.
00:17:46.540 And then she cites some analysis from someone at Johns Hopkins trying to explain why this podcast
00:17:54.580 is compelling for people.
00:17:56.320 And I don't know who this person is, but she was really sweet.
00:17:58.320 I mean, she probably wasn't trying to be sweet.
00:18:00.340 She was probably just trying to be objective.
00:18:01.620 And she said, you know, there is a sincerity to relatable and there's just like a genuineness
00:18:07.820 in it that makes it compelling for women.
00:18:09.520 And then how biblical truth is kind of woven into it.
00:18:13.840 This is why Christian women want to watch this podcast and not other podcasts, which I thought
00:18:19.800 was very kind of Elaine to even include that analysis in there.
00:18:24.520 But then she goes on to say, she cites someone saying that people just listen to it because
00:18:29.700 it's mean and that we don't laugh on this podcast, which is not true.
00:18:34.740 Brie and I laugh a lot on this podcast.
00:18:37.480 I think we laugh the most when we're talking about dinosaurs.
00:18:40.440 She says we only laugh when we're making fun of someone on the left.
00:18:43.500 First of all, first of all, we do laugh at things that people on the left say because
00:18:50.020 they are laughable and we have to like some we just have to laugh sometimes you have to
00:18:55.180 laugh at that.
00:18:55.740 And but yeah, when I'm talking about abortion policy or when I'm talking about the barbarism
00:19:00.580 of left wing immigration policy, I don't like get a chuckle out of that.
00:19:04.660 I do think that this is kind of like a ridiculous statement to make, considering that there are
00:19:09.760 entire brands shows publications dedicated to deriding conservatives and deriding Christians
00:19:16.280 like we have been bearing the brunt of left wing and secular mockery for decades, like
00:19:23.680 the most demeaning and degrading kind of dark humor and mockery.
00:19:30.660 Like we are the we are the recipients of that and have been for a very long time.
00:19:35.520 But if Brie and I get a chuckle out of what some loony liberal says about something about,
00:19:42.980 I don't know, not knowing what a woman is, then apparently that's a meme.
00:19:48.720 And she cites someone saying that that is why people are listening for that, that that
00:19:53.780 is cathartic.
00:19:55.080 I thought it was interesting when you look up Phyllis Schlafly on YouTube, just like type
00:20:01.180 her name in.
00:20:01.840 The first video that comes up is by Crooked Media.
00:20:05.080 Crooked Media is a left wing media, media publication, a media outlet that really is dedicated
00:20:12.620 to basically just making fun of conservatives.
00:20:14.560 And you watch that video about her.
00:20:16.380 It is the nastiest, meanest video that I have ever seen made of anyone.
00:20:24.640 This lady who is a conservative activist, I mean, so mean, so biting, so rude.
00:20:29.760 I mean, this stuff is just par for the course for how leftists especially talk about women
00:20:35.700 and minorities who are conservative.
00:20:37.880 I don't want to hear anything about like, oh, yeah, Ali, because sometimes she makes fun
00:20:44.380 of the ridiculousness of left wing policy and left wing dogma.
00:20:48.260 That's the meanness that her audience is attracted to.
00:20:51.580 Come on.
00:20:52.120 And I know Elaine knows that that's not true.
00:20:54.080 I know that she knows that those sweet young women that she met at the coffee shop, that
00:20:57.780 the sweet young women that she met at Young Women's Leadership Summit, that they are not
00:21:01.560 mean people, that they're not watching content because it's mean and cathartic for them.
00:21:07.040 I know she knows that.
00:21:08.320 And I know based on the rest of the article, she knows that is not what attracts people
00:21:12.940 to this podcast, not what keeps them coming back.
00:21:16.160 But again, that was just an example of just like, let me just put a dig in there just a
00:21:21.200 little bit.
00:21:22.040 And it's just, it's just not true.
00:21:24.760 We have so much on the show.
00:21:26.280 We laugh.
00:21:27.040 We cry.
00:21:28.760 We're worried.
00:21:30.240 We're hopeful.
00:21:31.740 We have so many emotions on the range of human feeling on this show.
00:21:38.820 So many meaningful conversations.
00:21:40.720 She didn't even include in here all of the interviews.
00:21:44.200 And even like, I thought it was interesting how she didn't even mention that like Trump
00:21:47.380 and Vance have both been on my podcast before.
00:21:50.460 And like mentioned things like Kat Von D.
00:21:53.040 Like we have so much.
00:21:54.580 I feel that the article kind of failed to actually explain even to people who see themselves as
00:22:02.160 our political enemies, like why this podcast matters, why this demographic matters, the
00:22:07.740 impact that by the grace of God, like this podcast has had, like there are so many different
00:22:12.780 points and examples to use to explain like how this show has grown.
00:22:19.540 Thanks to you guys and thanks to the grace of God.
00:22:25.900 So many of y'all ask me, what can I do to help the pro-life cause?
00:22:30.720 Like what can I do to save babies?
00:22:32.880 So there's a lot that you can do.
00:22:34.460 One of the best ways is to partner with pregnancy centers and pre-born is a large network of crisis
00:22:40.500 pregnancy centers across the country.
00:22:42.220 They offer all kinds of free resources to moms, to families in need.
00:22:46.560 And one of the most amazing things that they do is offer a free ultrasound to a pregnant
00:22:52.780 mom.
00:22:53.400 When that mom sees the baby on the screen, when she hears that heartbeat, she is so much
00:22:58.240 more likely to choose life just by seeing the truth of what a pregnancy is and the little
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00:23:40.220 Here's one thing that she says that I think that we should celebrate.
00:23:45.340 David French is not celebrating, but we should be happy about this.
00:23:49.040 She says the number of Republicans and independents identifying as socially conservative rose during
00:23:53.280 the pandemic years, according to a Gallup poll from 2023.
00:23:56.460 People can only tolerate so much cultural change in a limited period of time, and we are reaching
00:24:00.700 the limits for our own tolerance for change.
00:24:03.720 Jonathan Merritt said in times like that, conservatism can feel very comfortable and safe and familiar.
00:24:08.760 That's why.
00:24:10.420 It's not because it's true.
00:24:11.560 It's not because it's right, but it's just because people are scared.
00:24:15.100 In one telling indication, Republican approval of gay rights has dropped since 2022 from 56%
00:24:20.240 to 40%.
00:24:20.980 That's huge change.
00:24:22.760 And support for same-sex marriage is down from 55% to 46%.
00:24:26.180 David French says conservatives are becoming more fundamentalist.
00:24:29.200 Like, is it just that?
00:24:31.160 Is it just that?
00:24:32.480 I don't even, I'm just not sure how much the left even thinks about trying to understand
00:24:38.540 conservative positions on any of these issues, whether it's abortion or whether it's marriage
00:24:42.800 or anything.
00:24:43.360 So this comparison to Phyllis Schlafly, which she says multiple times in the article, that's
00:24:49.520 who I'm like.
00:24:50.340 I want to explain who exactly Phyllis Schlafly is and why I think this is such an honor to
00:24:55.220 be compared to her.
00:24:56.100 I don't put myself, again, in the same category as her.
00:24:59.920 She accomplished a lot.
00:25:01.580 She was a hugely powerful, influential force in conservatism for many decades.
00:25:07.740 She just died a few years ago at the age of 92, and she was really influential in the
00:25:13.700 60s and 70s.
00:25:15.700 And she advocated against the Equal Rights Amendment.
00:25:20.060 It is stated as, it's presented as, a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would,
00:25:26.720 if added, explicitly prohibit sex discrimination.
00:25:31.620 However, that is not exactly what it would accomplish.
00:25:35.400 And that was Phyllis Schlafly's mission, her main mission in the 60s and 70s, to try to
00:25:44.240 explain to, especially housewives, how the ERA would affect them and would affect their
00:25:50.840 daughters.
00:25:51.440 While equality sounds really good, how it would manifest itself is actually stripping the
00:25:56.760 comfort and protections and the rights of women by, for example, forcing them into the
00:26:04.380 draft that was a big part of this.
00:26:06.340 And basically, she stood against the forced gender neutrality movement that she saw taking
00:26:17.700 place in the military and in the government and even in the workplace.
00:26:23.800 She was not against women working.
00:26:26.000 She was an attorney.
00:26:27.060 She was an activist.
00:26:28.380 She was very well-educated.
00:26:30.020 Her mother even was well-educated.
00:26:32.220 She was a very strong, outspoken, powerful woman who obviously believed in women being
00:26:39.080 in the workplace in certain contexts of their life and different seasons of their life.
00:26:44.460 She obviously believed in women being involved in politics.
00:26:48.540 She understood that politics mattered, but she was against the progressive revolution.
00:26:53.180 She was against trying to do away with all acknowledgement of gender differences and gender roles.
00:27:02.800 She was anti-feminist.
00:27:04.440 She was anti-sexual revolution.
00:27:06.840 She was anti-so-called gay marriage.
00:27:09.860 And she stood for social conservatism until the very end.
00:27:14.480 And she was a force to be reckoned with.
00:27:16.800 And I will say, when she was really at her prime, when she was fighting the hardest and
00:27:25.100 most prominent in the conservative scene, she was probably in her 50s, in her 50s and
00:27:31.680 60s.
00:27:32.300 And so I really can't be compared to her at all.
00:27:35.660 She had, when she became prominent, she had a lot more accomplishments under her belt.
00:27:41.380 But I think the comparison that's being made is really our views.
00:27:46.860 And it is the advocacy for social conservatism.
00:27:51.480 It is the advocacy for the family.
00:27:53.720 And it is, I think I share with her, like a true love for women.
00:27:57.800 Like there's a lot of people on the right who say that they're for traditionalism, who
00:28:02.660 say that they're for conservatism, who I think really hate women.
00:28:06.960 I think they really loathe women.
00:28:08.400 I think they do believe that women are less than.
00:28:10.360 I think they think that women are dumb.
00:28:12.120 I think that they believe that women's intellectual capacity is a lot smaller than a man's.
00:28:17.120 And that's why they need to be relegated to only certain spaces.
00:28:21.580 Of course, that's not what I believe.
00:28:23.120 I love being a woman.
00:28:24.640 I think women are extremely capable in a lot of ways.
00:28:27.140 But my point is that they're not men.
00:28:29.120 They're not men.
00:28:30.020 And therefore, we can't and shouldn't try to do everything that men can.
00:28:33.860 And I also am against the rearrangement and the redefinition of the family and marriage.
00:28:37.660 And of course, I'm against abortion and a lot of things that Phyllis Schlafly was.
00:28:41.420 And she appealed mostly to women and explained in a compelling and a concise way what social
00:28:48.540 conservatism was, how to get involved in politics in a way that persuaded them.
00:28:52.800 And I hope to be able to do that in a way that is half as effective as her.
00:28:58.660 And so, for example, when she was trying to rally women against this Equal Rights Amendment,
00:29:04.740 which she just saw as something that would be devastating for women, especially this forced
00:29:11.360 conscription.
00:29:12.060 She took homemade bread, jams and apple pies.
00:29:17.360 She had housewives create these things and she had them take them to state legislators
00:29:22.620 with the slogans on them, preserve us from a congressional jam, vote against the ERA sham
00:29:29.820 and like I am for mom and apple pie.
00:29:33.740 So all of these very traditional symbols she used to try to rally women, to try to explain
00:29:40.260 to them, look, the ERA, it says that it's for you.
00:29:43.340 It's not for you.
00:29:44.840 And her argument was basically like, look, woman, you got a pretty good gig right now.
00:29:48.640 You're elevated in a lot of ways.
00:29:50.660 You are safe at home.
00:29:51.820 You get to provide for your kids and you can get an education if you want to.
00:29:55.280 You can work if you want to.
00:29:56.640 Or you get to stay home.
00:29:57.900 You've got men protecting you, fighting for you here and abroad.
00:30:01.920 You've got men providing for you.
00:30:03.900 Why would you want to mess that up?
00:30:05.480 And so she was a key figure in the anti-feminist movement.
00:30:10.760 And I'm sure that's where the comparison comes from.
00:30:13.640 And again, I don't think that I am anywhere in the realm of Phyllis Schlafly, but I do
00:30:18.720 hope to take after her in a lot of ways because she was incredibly effective.
00:30:22.180 And I hope that all of us do in our own ways.
00:30:24.900 And I love that Relatable is being recognized, not just for me, but because you all have made
00:30:31.060 it what it is and our voices and our involvement in the culture and in politics, it can make
00:30:38.480 a difference.
00:30:39.200 It can absolutely matter.
00:30:41.280 When Christians stand up for biblical values and when we ignore the stupid, stupid criticism
00:30:49.760 from the left that when Christians bring our worldview into the public sphere, it's fascism
00:30:54.500 or Christian nationalism or some kind of theocratic threat.
00:31:00.480 When we actually unapologetically bring our principles and bring our beliefs into the public
00:31:07.480 sphere and make sound arguments and try to get people, our community members, our friends,
00:31:13.980 our fellow parents, our coworkers on our side, we really can change minds and make a big difference.
00:31:20.660 Every single person, whether you're progressive, atheist, secular, Buddhist, everyone brings
00:31:27.060 their beliefs into the voting booth and into the workplace and into the public sphere.
00:31:32.480 Christian conservatives have every right to do that too.
00:31:35.820 Everyone does.
00:31:36.620 Let the best argument win.
00:31:38.920 But we will not be convinced that we are the only demographic that has to check our beliefs
00:31:43.940 and our worldview at the door before we leave our homes.
00:31:48.180 Um, I'm just, we're just not going to do that.
00:31:51.480 We are going to unapologetically fight for what is good and right and true.
00:31:55.360 And everyone else has the right, has the responsibility to do the same, but our arguments
00:32:01.620 are better.
00:32:02.240 So, uh, let us continue to speak the truth in love and to however you can, in big and
00:32:08.280 small ways, do the next right thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God.
00:32:12.620 That's all we can do.
00:32:13.480 Uh, we're not guaranteed any kind of victory.
00:32:16.460 We're not guaranteed any kind of cultural shift.
00:32:18.660 We're not guaranteed, uh, earthly victory, but we can continue to be obedient and being
00:32:25.200 bold and representing what is good, right, and true.
00:32:27.640 And remember God's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch, no matter
00:32:32.440 what.
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00:33:37.620 Okay, let's talk about Sam Ponder.
00:33:39.720 So Sam Ponder, she was an ESPN host, I think a very beloved ESPN host.
00:33:44.700 This is someone who I think has been very bold in standing up for what is right.
00:33:48.400 Uh, she was recently fired from ESPN just last week, as well as Robert Griffin III.
00:33:55.660 Um, Samantha Ponder has been outspoken in defending women's sports.
00:34:01.220 So for example, this was April 19th, 2023.
00:34:04.980 Uh, she says she's responding to Riley Gaines and she says the change in Title IX would take
00:34:11.540 away so many opportunities for biological women and girls in sports.
00:34:15.200 It is a shame that we are needing to fight for the integrity of Title IX in 2023 and the
00:34:20.180 reason it was needed in the first place, hashtag save women's sports.
00:34:24.300 So as someone who works for ESPN, that was a very courageous thing for her to do because
00:34:29.140 of course, ESPN is owned by Disney.
00:34:31.080 It is extremely progressive.
00:34:32.780 Sage Steele was let go.
00:34:34.740 Sage Steele refused.
00:34:36.380 She didn't want to take the vaccine and she pushed against the vaccine, uh, mandates
00:34:40.620 and she was let go during that time too.
00:34:43.380 Uh, she also said on May 31st, 2023, Samantha Ponder, biolatry is not bigotry.
00:34:49.320 Loving people does not require the absence of boundaries.
00:34:52.140 Yes.
00:34:52.380 And amen.
00:34:53.080 This is the difference between love and toxic empathy.
00:34:57.280 She says, I barely said anything publicly about this issue.
00:35:00.540 And I've had so many people message me, stop me in the street and say, thank you.
00:35:04.020 And tell me stories about girls who are afraid to speak up for fear of lost employment slash
00:35:08.640 being called hateful.
00:35:09.580 It is not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls, uh, Kirk, uh, Kirk Herbstreet.
00:35:17.540 He is also an ESPN anchor.
00:35:20.340 Uh, he tweeted about this not too long ago.
00:35:23.400 He was responding to someone on X who said, do men belong in women's sports?
00:35:27.780 He responded and said, of course not ridiculous question.
00:35:31.140 And then Samantha Ponder applauded.
00:35:33.600 And then she also responded to another commenter on X saying X, Y equals male X, X equals female.
00:35:40.580 So good for her.
00:35:41.700 She didn't have to do this.
00:35:43.020 She didn't have to, she could have remained quiet.
00:35:45.460 She didn't have to speak up.
00:35:46.520 She knew that she could possibly be risking her job, risking her prominence, risking her
00:35:51.000 position and also just risking people liking her, which is, uh, that might sound superficial,
00:35:56.380 but it matters to a lot of people.
00:35:58.140 And she decided that standing up for women and women's sports mattered.
00:36:01.800 Sam Ponder is also an outspoken Christian, which I really appreciate, uh, about her.
00:36:07.260 Um, and yet she was fired not too long ago, presumably for these positions.
00:36:13.580 I mean, I just don't, it's hard.
00:36:15.560 I guess I don't know everything going on there.
00:36:17.340 It's hard for me to believe that it would be for any other reason.
00:36:20.360 It seemed to me like she was very popular, that she was very good at her job.
00:36:24.900 I mean, she's obviously beautiful and knows a lot about football.
00:36:28.900 Um, and she had a lot of fans, a lot of raving fans, and yet they let her go for stating the
00:36:35.880 obvious that women XX chromosomes should have our own sports.
00:36:40.820 We should have our own spaces because of the biological differences, because men have strength,
00:36:47.340 that is insurmountable for women.
00:36:49.980 And so we need to share the arrows with Sam Ponder.
00:36:52.620 Like she'll be totally fine onward and upward for her.
00:36:55.900 She'll be great.
00:36:56.820 Her family will be great.
00:36:58.620 She'll be fine.
00:36:59.500 Like God's got her.
00:37:00.720 But if you want to send her a message of encouragement, if you want to just pray for her, I know for
00:37:05.460 a fact that sharing the arrows with her in that regard will edify her.
00:37:10.040 It will build her up.
00:37:11.200 It, it certainly won't hurt things.
00:37:12.840 So if you want to share the arrows with her, then I would do that.
00:37:17.180 I mean, I think that she's pretty amazing.
00:37:19.040 I've been a fan of her for a long time.
00:37:21.100 So thank you to Sam Ponder for standing up.
00:37:23.740 It matters.
00:37:24.840 Maybe it doesn't feel right now.
00:37:26.740 Like it matters.
00:37:27.680 Like it makes a difference, but it does.
00:37:30.100 It matters.
00:37:31.100 You are giving courage to other women who maybe previously have been scared, but they saw
00:37:36.260 you take this risk and they saw you stand strong.
00:37:38.640 So keep standing strong and be even more unabashed and apologetic about it now.
00:37:44.780 Also, some good news.
00:37:46.080 The Supreme Court has struck down the Biden-Harris Title IX change.
00:37:51.500 So here's a summary of it.
00:37:52.860 This is according to Fox and also Alliance Defending Freedom.
00:37:56.020 Love our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom.
00:37:58.520 Them, First Liberty, great organizations fighting for the constitutional rights of Americans.
00:38:04.040 So the Supreme Court voted 5-4 on Friday to reject the Biden administration emergency request
00:38:09.340 to enforce portions of a new rule that includes protections from discrimination for so-called
00:38:14.520 transgender students under Title IX.
00:38:17.300 The request would have permitted men in women's bathrooms, locker rooms, and dorms in 10 states
00:38:23.080 where there are state-level and local-level rules in place to prevent it.
00:38:27.600 So these people who say that they are so for democracy, they are so for the people,
00:38:33.240 they were going to force through the president without any approval from the states.
00:38:40.420 They were going to force states who have local laws that are protecting women's spaces
00:38:46.120 to allow men into women's spaces.
00:38:48.540 Like, this is so important for the Harris-Biden administration.
00:38:51.560 This is so important for the Harris-Walls tickets because if you look at the history of the
00:38:58.240 Biden administration, they also, through the USDA, told schools that take SNAP money,
00:39:03.960 so free meals for poor students, if you do not allow boys into girls' restrooms, you will
00:39:10.300 not get these free lunches for poor students.
00:39:12.780 So, like, they are willing to sacrifice absolutely anything on the altar of transitioning children
00:39:21.420 and letting men into women's spaces.
00:39:24.760 So they were going to force states to do this.
00:39:26.660 The Supreme Court thankfully said no.
00:39:28.560 The fact that it was even 5-4 and Gorsuch went with the dissent on this is really troubling.
00:39:34.880 But thank the Lord.
00:39:36.980 Thank the Lord for Clarence Thomas.
00:39:39.200 Thank the Lord for Trump's appointees.
00:39:41.780 That's why Trump matters.
00:39:43.460 I don't care if you like the guy.
00:39:44.720 Like, I don't care what he said.
00:39:45.820 I don't care what his name called.
00:39:47.340 Like, this matters so much.
00:39:49.360 It matters so much.
00:39:50.560 Do you really want someone like Kamala Harris to be picking their successors after someone
00:39:56.340 like Clarence Thomas steps down or dies?
00:39:58.920 No!
00:40:00.180 You don't!
00:40:01.860 The Supreme Court's decision upholds two recent federal appeals court rulings that halted
00:40:05.840 the administration's unlawful rules in the states of Tennessee, Indiana, many other
00:40:09.940 conservative states.
00:40:10.760 In one case, Alliance Defending Freedom Attorneys represent a West Virginia High School female
00:40:16.420 athlete and Christian Educators Association International.
00:40:21.100 And in the other, they represented a Louisiana school board.
00:40:25.660 Um, no formal opinions or concurrences were written.
00:40:29.080 Only the unsigned order and a dissent.
00:40:31.320 The language is more procedural and then interesting.
00:40:34.480 So we don't have a lot on it.
00:40:37.000 And this is not the end of the story.
00:40:39.100 This is not the end of the story.
00:40:40.280 Like, this still has to be, um, the rule change is still going to be pushed by the Biden
00:40:46.740 administration.
00:40:47.240 It's still going to be pushed by the Harris administration, but for right now, these states
00:40:52.320 can still keep their laws in place.
00:40:55.580 And that's so few states, guys, but they can keep these laws in place that actually protect,
00:41:00.440 uh, women's spaces.
00:41:02.060 Of course, the left is really upset about this.
00:41:05.040 Uh, the New York Times says Supreme Court for now blocks expanded protections for transgender
00:41:11.280 students in some states.
00:41:12.540 Again, what is meant by this?
00:41:15.400 What is meant by this is that men get to enter women's spaces, boys get to enter girls'
00:41:20.600 spaces, and that girls don't have privacy for themselves because these gender deceived
00:41:25.520 boys get to go into their locker rooms and see them change.
00:41:29.840 And protections for transgender people means protections for the pike means death for the
00:41:39.440 minnow.
00:41:40.240 Um, that's what's going on here.
00:41:41.800 So protections for these men who say that they're the opposite sex is very destructive
00:41:46.640 for the girls who are victimized, um, by this.
00:41:50.320 But this is good news for now.
00:41:52.280 We should be celebrating this.
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00:42:59.860 All right.
00:43:00.380 One thing I want to end on, one thing I want to make sure that we talk about, speaking of
00:43:06.100 women and the things that influence us, I just want to mention it ends with us because
00:43:12.100 this is a book that has turned into a movie that was a very popular book.
00:43:16.840 I mean, like millions of copies sold by Colleen Hoover.
00:43:21.300 She is an incredibly successful writer.
00:43:24.400 She writes romance novels.
00:43:25.940 She's written a ton of books.
00:43:27.540 And this new book, or this new movie, it ends with us, is starring Blake Lively, and
00:43:33.340 you're probably seeing it marketed everywhere.
00:43:36.360 Um, it's already bringing in over $115 million in its first week, according to the Hollywood
00:43:42.400 Reporter.
00:43:43.280 That is because women eat up Colleen Hoover books.
00:43:45.920 And before I knew, this was a few years ago, before I knew anything about Colleen Hoover,
00:43:50.120 I just saw this book everywhere.
00:43:51.680 It ends with us.
00:43:52.200 Oh, it's so good.
00:43:52.840 It's so good.
00:43:53.220 It's so good.
00:43:53.840 And I go through these seasons of really wanting to read fiction and really just kind of like
00:43:57.640 mindless stuff.
00:43:58.860 And so I read it.
00:44:00.060 And I read it in like a day, super easy to read.
00:44:03.100 It's easy to see why women read it because it is so easy to consume.
00:44:07.200 But I had to skip over so many parts.
00:44:09.240 Why?
00:44:09.800 Because their books are so sexually explicit.
00:44:12.760 It is pornography.
00:44:14.160 It is sexual pornography.
00:44:16.160 And it is also emotional pornography.
00:44:18.960 Like, let's, can we just say this?
00:44:21.000 Can we just realize that just because something is fiction, just because you are reading something
00:44:25.980 does not mean it is okay to consume.
00:44:28.980 Like, if you are struggling as a woman in your thought life with escapism, with fantasy,
00:44:33.780 with lust, you do not need to be reading these books.
00:44:36.460 And even if you're not struggling with those things, even if you're not, don't allow yourself
00:44:42.200 to be tempted in this way.
00:44:43.320 Like, as someone who read the book, I really just kind of wanted to see what people were
00:44:47.740 talking about and realizing, like, I got to skip through these scenes.
00:44:50.960 I'm just going to finish a book because I always try to finish the book.
00:44:53.880 I'm like, oh my gosh, if this is what women are consuming, I understand why women have
00:44:58.240 the thoughts that they do.
00:44:59.240 Not just about, like, sex and promiscuity, but also about this, like, girl boss god of
00:45:07.160 self world that women occupy.
00:45:10.300 This self-empowerment, this, like, self-savior complex that it seems like a lot of women have.
00:45:16.740 And also just the unhealthy expectations and relationships.
00:45:20.200 This book is about, and this movie is about escaping an abuser and how she is ending this
00:45:27.380 like generational trauma of accepting abuse, Blake Lively's character.
00:45:32.760 And she's getting out of an abusive relationship and she ends up with the guy that has always
00:45:37.940 kind of been steady and there for her and a really good guy and strong in the right way.
00:45:42.480 And in general, I think that that is a good message.
00:45:45.520 Of course, I want women to escape their abuser.
00:45:48.060 Of course, I want women to be with a guy who is strong in the right way, in the protective
00:45:52.100 way, in the providing way, in the healthy way.
00:45:55.320 Of course, I think that that is a good thing.
00:45:57.660 Of course, I want women to get out of abusive relationships, avoid abusive relationships
00:46:02.040 as fast as they can.
00:46:03.520 And so maybe a book like It Ends With Us or a movie like It Ends With Us will help some
00:46:08.580 women do that.
00:46:09.180 Maybe it will give them the courage to do that.
00:46:11.540 And I'm not saying that that effect is not good.
00:46:15.540 Of course, that is a good thing.
00:46:17.740 But I still would never encourage a woman to consume this kind of content.
00:46:23.680 If that were really her only goal, if that were just Colleen Hoover's altruistic motivation,
00:46:30.900 then she could write a book about that that is compelling without all of the blatant sex.
00:46:37.780 Because I think what that does, because as far as I understand, I haven't read all of
00:46:43.060 her books, but most of her books are like that.
00:46:45.640 I still think whether it's intentional or not, when you are writing these hot and heavy
00:46:51.300 romantic scenes with a woman and her abuser, you are almost glorifying the abuse.
00:46:59.040 Because women, unfortunately, still get attached to that abusive character.
00:47:05.060 And I think that that is very dangerous.
00:47:08.800 I actually think that a lot of her books from the excerpts that I've read, even though it
00:47:15.360 is saying that it's condemning abuse and encouraging women to get out of abuse, still how the abuser
00:47:21.800 is described and how the relationship and the sexual interactions between the two are depicted,
00:47:28.940 that still pulls on women's heartstrings.
00:47:31.580 It almost is glorified in the same way that like a lot of these songs by young women nowadays,
00:47:37.880 they might say that they are bemoaning the abuse or the toxicity and their relationships.
00:47:43.600 But at the same time, it's also depicting like a yearning for this kind of toxicity
00:47:49.740 and these relationships, this kind of weird codependency.
00:47:53.640 So I actually do not think that this kind of entertainment or this kind of content is at all healthy.
00:48:03.480 I even think that in a lot of ways about redeeming love.
00:48:06.780 Now, that's a book that I read a ton when I was in high school and college.
00:48:10.440 Not that it was necessarily glorifying abuse, but I think it was too sexually graphic for
00:48:18.220 the young woman who was trying to abstain from the sexual behavior until she was married.
00:48:25.960 This kind of emotional pornography, in addition to the sexual aspects of it, I think just makes
00:48:34.140 women extremely discontent, extremely discontent with their own life, extremely discontent with
00:48:39.840 their own marriage in a way that is not even like grounded in reality, and also just feeds lust
00:48:47.820 and fantasy that does not feed into a person's contentment and satisfaction, which of course,
00:48:54.260 as Christians, we are called to.
00:48:59.420 So Focus on the Family has been talking about this, of course, for a long time, but they
00:49:03.080 have this article from 2014, and it's titled Book Boyfriend's Mommy Porn and the Problem
00:49:08.620 with Colleen Hoover.
00:49:11.160 The article says this, just as pornographic images have the potential to ruin a man's ability
00:49:16.400 to love in real life, so too, a written form of pornography has a potential to ruin a woman's
00:49:21.520 ability to love in real life.
00:49:24.280 And they're also talking about Fifty Shades of Grey, which of course is very explicitly in
00:49:32.620 that camp.
00:49:33.420 And one of the people that they consult in the article is named Dana Gresh, and she
00:49:38.260 says, the fantasy of erotica inspires one thing, the longing for more.
00:49:42.400 Instead of satisfying your longings, it will awaken, manipulate, and deepen them.
00:49:46.920 No longer will you be satisfied with an attentive boyfriend or husband who occasionally brings
00:49:51.060 you a soy latte to cheer you up.
00:49:53.020 You will want a man who is obsessively, unrealistically in love with you and has the bank account to prove
00:49:57.900 it.
00:49:58.080 A hardworking man who is faithfully scraping by will never be able to provide for you
00:50:02.060 the way a man in your fantasy can.
00:50:05.760 I think that's a great point.
00:50:07.140 She also goes on to say, one of the things that's happening is that our society really
00:50:10.860 wants to erase gender.
00:50:12.220 So we're telling women that we have to be a certain way or act a certain way.
00:50:16.060 They can't fall into the typical stereotypes.
00:50:18.060 The problem with that is that when I look back in the book of Genesis, God loves gender.
00:50:22.580 When he says, I've created you in my image, he lists two things, male and female, that
00:50:26.740 make us most like him.
00:50:28.100 Gender matters to God.
00:50:29.460 And that really kind of brings it all the way back to Phyllis Schlafly.
00:50:32.120 But I think it's true.
00:50:33.100 You have these women girl boss, like self heroes who are simultaneously saving themselves while
00:50:40.560 also having to be satisfied by this unrealistic, almost toxic romance.
00:50:46.580 And yes, I do think it creates a lot of dissatisfaction in women that can also lead to faithlessness
00:50:53.640 in some ways.
00:50:54.740 And so all that to say, I think that we need to be very careful about consuming, especially
00:51:00.900 things like Colleen Hoover.
00:51:02.680 I mean, she's really popular for a reason because her books are so easy to read, like
00:51:08.400 you're not going to be challenged intellectually at all.
00:51:10.200 But you're also going to be left like so spiritually hungry and emotionally hungry.
00:51:15.480 And sexually hungry in a lot of ways.
00:51:19.600 And that's not good no matter what stage of life that you're in.
00:51:23.180 And so I would say avoid this.
00:51:24.500 Like I've seen Christians post about like going to see the movie.
00:51:28.560 Maybe the movie is not as bad as the book.
00:51:30.020 I don't know.
00:51:30.480 But I definitely think that the books, we think that like a book is a loophole or something
00:51:36.420 and that it's not going to have an effect on our mind, that it doesn't affect our holiness
00:51:40.300 at all and our sanctification.
00:51:42.500 But Satan loves to use these things to trick us into escapism and fantasy and unplug us
00:51:51.720 from the good life and blessings and marriage that God has given us.
00:51:56.160 And if you feel like, okay, you're not in a good marriage, you do want another kind of
00:52:00.340 romance, you're still not going to find it in these fictional books.
00:52:04.320 You still have to reckon with reality and take it to God and allow it to be healed and to
00:52:12.220 be made better.
00:52:13.540 You are not going to fix your life by escaping it in your mind, in your imagination.
00:52:21.060 It's actually just going to make things a lot worse.
00:52:25.100 So I would just say be wary of that.
00:52:27.240 I've seen a lot of people posting about this.
00:52:30.060 There are a lot of issues with it.
00:52:31.680 And so just be very careful.
00:52:33.740 Don't let your kids see it, my goodness.
00:52:35.440 And don't let your kids read Colleen Hoover.
00:52:37.040 Oh my gosh.
00:52:37.580 Do not let your teenage daughters read Colleen Hoover.
00:52:39.980 I read Twilight growing up.
00:52:41.300 I should not have read Twilight.
00:52:42.880 And that wasn't even to the level of this.
00:52:44.800 But oh my gosh, like the hold that it had on my mind, the hold that it had on my emotions.
00:52:51.500 Literally, I read New Moon like in a day on a road trip with my parents.
00:52:56.020 And I remember we went to some like family reunion.
00:52:58.840 I literally could not function as like a 16-year-old girl because I was sobbing about Edward and
00:53:06.220 Bella being broken up.
00:53:07.440 Like that's what it does to the impressionable female mind, especially a teenager who is hormonal
00:53:13.760 and just like brain still developing and who thinks that they want that kind of like
00:53:18.640 boyfriend and romance.
00:53:19.660 Oh my gosh, so unhealthy.
00:53:22.120 I read so many things as a teenager that I shouldn't have read.
00:53:25.400 They weren't to the level of like Fifty Shades of Grey, but they were just ungodly.
00:53:29.560 They were just awful trash stories.
00:53:32.180 And I think that my parents were probably just happy that I was reading and like not watching
00:53:36.040 TV because I did love to read.
00:53:37.520 And it was great that I was reading, but I was reading trash and it was really bad for
00:53:40.860 my impressionable mind.
00:53:41.960 It did set me up in some ways for unrealistic and unhealthy expectations for my relationships
00:53:47.920 at the time.
00:53:49.660 And so it can create a lot of idolatry too.
00:53:51.720 And so parents just be really protective of what your kids are reading as much as you
00:53:55.080 are protective of what they're watching and where they're scrolling.
00:53:58.000 All right.
00:53:58.620 We covered a lot of ground today.
00:53:59.820 That's all we have time for.
00:54:00.760 We will be back here tomorrow.
00:54:01.900 We'll be back here tomorrow.
00:54:12.060 We'll see you next time.
00:54:13.400 We'll be back here tomorrow.
00:54:14.000 We'll be back here tomorrow.