Ep 1062 ｜ Another School Shooting. What’s the Solution？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
156.8277
Summary
A 14-year-old male student opened fire at a high school in Georgia on Wednesday morning, killing 4 and injuring 9. The suspect has been taken into custody and is being treated as a juvenile, which means he will be tried as an adult.
Transcript
00:00:00.740
This year's Burning Man Festival just concluded. What is this event? Why am I talking about it?
00:00:07.600
And what is its theological significance? Also, what does it say about our culture in general?
00:00:14.360
I think there are a lot of lessons to draw from this festival. We're going to get into that today,
00:00:19.020
but first we are going to talk about the tragic shooting that occurred yesterday at a school in
00:00:23.940
Georgia. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com,
00:00:28.420
use code ALI at checkout. That's goodranchers.com, code ALI.
00:00:40.900
Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Thursday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.
00:00:47.080
All right, we've got a lot to get into today. A little bit different as we're shifting from
00:00:51.600
politics and the election as we have been focusing on the past couple of days and talking a little
00:00:57.100
bit more about the culture and how that ties in most importantly to theology and therefore our
00:01:04.140
worldview. But first, I have to talk about a tragic event that occurred yesterday in Georgia. This is
00:01:11.500
not too far from where I've lived in Georgia. My husband and I met in Athens, Georgia. His family is
00:01:19.460
from Georgia. And so unfortunately, in a lot of ways, this is very close to home. There was yet another
00:01:25.520
school shooting at Appalachee High School. This is outside of Atlanta. Four people were killed. Nine
00:01:34.700
more were hospitalized with injuries after the shooting on Wednesday morning. Two of the people
00:01:41.840
who were killed were 14-year-old students, Mason and Christian, and then teachers Richard Aspinwall and
00:01:50.500
Christina Arimi. I think that's how maybe you pronounce her last name. They were both math
00:01:56.720
teachers, according to the school's website. All nine of the hospitalized victims had been shot in
00:02:04.200
some capacity. The suspect was identified as a 14-year-old male student at the school. He was
00:02:12.320
taken into custody. When he was taken into custody, he was alive. The alleged shooter will be charged with
00:02:18.540
murder. He will be processed as an adult versus as a juvenile. So of course, that means that the
00:02:25.880
sentence could be a lot harsher than it would have been if he were tried as a juvenile. The alleged
00:02:33.960
shooter, according to reports, used an AR platform-style gun. The media is not very good at accurately
00:02:41.680
describing the guns that are used in these kinds of tragic situations. There was no evidence. There is
00:02:48.480
no evidence so far that other shooters were involved. The suspect surrendered when he was
00:02:53.720
confronted by responding law enforcement officers. Authorities say that they're still trying to
00:02:59.760
clarify a lot of the timeline from the time that he got to the school to the time the incident took
00:03:05.740
place. FBI Atlanta said on social media Wednesday night that county authorities had interviewed the
00:03:13.320
suspect last year about online threats to commit a school shooting. The FBI had found that the
00:03:19.960
threatening post came from Georgia and the FBI's Atlanta field office referred the information to the
00:03:25.520
Jackson County Sheriff's Office for action. The sheriff's office interviewed the then 13-year-old boy
00:03:31.600
and his father. The boy said he was not responsible for the threats. The father said he had hunting guns in
00:03:37.560
the house but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them, FBI Atlanta said. Jackson County
00:03:44.040
alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject. At that time, there was no probable cause
00:03:49.800
for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels.
00:03:55.580
So that's a really tough situation. I mean, normally we look at circumstances like this and we say,
00:04:02.720
gosh, law enforcement could have done more. He was already known to authorities. Why was he able to
00:04:08.580
continue to roam free, to go to school, to have access to guns? But there is a First Amendment in
00:04:16.820
this country and free speech protections are meant to be extremely broad. And so if the threats that he
00:04:24.700
had been making on social media, if they didn't seem like they were feasible, like they were plausible,
00:04:30.200
like they were actually imminent, tangible threats, then there's not that much that law enforcement
00:04:37.000
can do. And it gets a little bit tricky when you think about changing the law. When you talk about
00:04:42.720
changing the law to empower law enforcement, to start taking people's rights away, say the parents'
00:04:49.640
Second Amendment rights to own guns because of something their child said on social media. At the same time,
00:04:58.720
it feels incorrect. It feels wrong to just do nothing, to say, well, their hands are tied. There's
00:05:08.140
nothing that we can do about a suspect like this that's making these kinds of threats. Obviously,
00:05:14.020
we don't want a child like this who seems to be mentally unwell or just plain evil. It's not always
00:05:22.560
a mental health issue when someone does something wicked. Sin is real, and the heart is desperately
00:05:29.660
sick. So we don't always have to fall back on some kind of mental health issue here. But we don't want
00:05:36.600
someone like that to have access to guns. There should be in the parent's home, I would say,
00:05:44.980
even an upgraded vigilance to ensure that that child has absolutely no access to firearms whatsoever.
00:05:54.860
There's going to be a lot of conversation about gun control policy in the next few days. There always
00:06:00.200
is. And look, to some degree, I think that's understandable. Yes, of course, there are bad
00:06:05.420
actors who are going to exploit a tragedy like this just to try to disarm the populace,
00:06:13.520
just to try to manipulate, emotionally manipulate people into opposing the Second Amendment. But I do
00:06:23.000
think a lot of people engaged in these debates and conversations after school shootings about
00:06:27.560
what do we do? What laws can we pass as misguided as some of the policy proposals might be on the
00:06:36.420
progressive side? I do think that most people on both sides of this issue genuinely want these things
00:06:43.240
to stop. They just want to know, how can I prevent this? We don't want another child to die. Why does
00:06:51.200
this happen so frequently in the United States? No, it's not every day, but it does happen persistently.
00:06:59.520
And I think there are good people on both sides of the aisle who really just want it to stop.
00:07:05.600
The problem is what's typically proposed after a tragedy like this from the progressive side,
00:07:12.280
when it comes to gun control policy. These proposals have no correlation to the event
00:07:18.240
that actually occurred. So they could say we need to ban this kind of weapon or we need to
00:07:24.240
put background checks and other kinds of restrictions and regulations around gun ownership. But I want to
00:07:33.840
know what law is being proposed that would have prevented this kind of specific crime. I am not against
00:07:40.680
those kinds of debates and discussions. I am against any suggestion or proposal that would infringe upon
00:07:48.920
the right of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and to defend their families with guns.
00:07:56.640
Because we see that getting rid of guns, banning guns, putting such hefty restrictions and regulations on
00:08:03.640
guns, it doesn't mitigate violence. It doesn't make violence go away. Evil, violent people,
00:08:10.220
criminals are going to find a way to break the law. They're going to find a way to inflict the
00:08:16.040
violence that they want to inflict. Now you could say, well, we shouldn't allow them to inflict
00:08:22.880
violence with something that can cause so much mass harm like an AR-15. But look, the AR-15 is the
00:08:28.920
most popular rifle in America. There are hundreds of thousands of them and they're not going away.
00:08:34.380
There are millions of law-abiding citizens that own an AR-15, at least hundreds of thousands of them
00:08:43.520
and you're not going to confiscate them. So let's not only talk about policy proposals that are actually
00:08:51.720
correlated to what happened, but let's talk about realistic policy proposals here. And like I'm willing
00:08:58.200
to come to the table, but the other side needs to be willing to come to the table with realistic
00:09:04.400
conversations too. Because look, we're not banning guns in the United States. Fundamentally, it's not
00:09:11.080
a gun problem. We have always had gun culture in the United States. We've always had hundreds of
00:09:16.060
thousands of guns. We've always had a very high percentage of gun ownership in the United States,
00:09:22.640
but we have not always had shootings like this. So if we're serious about the conversation,
00:09:27.800
about stopping these shootings, we have to be serious about conversations around culture,
00:09:33.840
around morality, what has actually shifted in the past 50 plus years, it's not gun ownership.
00:09:40.820
That has not increased. What has changed is our value system in the United States, what is being taught
00:09:49.060
in schools, the kind of content and also drugs that young people are consuming, increased rates,
00:09:57.800
of pornographic use, also violent content that is being consumed on a consistent basis by these
00:10:06.460
young people, the messages that are being conveyed to young men. I mean, there are so many serious
00:10:13.060
conversations that need to be had about how we treat and how we talk to and how we teach young
00:10:22.140
people, men and women in this country. Like if we are serious on either side of the aisle about mitigating
00:10:29.480
violence and saving lives, we can't only talk about banning guns or only talk about policy proposals
00:10:38.600
that again, have no correspondence to what actually happened until both sides are willing to lay it all on
00:10:46.800
the table and say, okay, let's look at every potential factor. Then we're not serious about stopping
00:10:52.480
something like this. Um, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to the community that was affected by this. I, as a mom,
00:11:03.600
this is your worst nightmare, your worst nightmare to get a call, to have a police officer show up on your
00:11:12.940
front door and to tell you that your child that you have loved more than anything in this world,
00:11:21.620
more than you love your own life has been murdered, has died in any way that, I mean, that's the nightmare,
00:11:29.660
but to have been murdered, to be brutally snuffed out. I mean, I just have so much sadness for what
00:11:38.420
these parents are feeling. They will never, ever, ever be the same. Never for the rest of their
00:11:44.060
lives. And only Jesus can bring any kind of healing, any kind of wholeness. And I just pray that he would
00:11:51.160
be near to these families. I pray that he would be near to this community, that he would do what only
00:11:57.700
he can do, that he would make beauty out of ashes, that he would bring redemption somehow, that somehow he
00:12:03.640
would be glorified through all of this, that hearts would be drawn to him. Obviously, that is not my or
00:12:10.340
anyone's preferred way of God showing up and glorifying himself. I mean, it's tragedy. It's part
00:12:19.480
of living in this awful, I shouldn't say awful world, but awfully broken world, maybe I should say,
00:12:27.360
is that there is death and there is injustice and there is evil. And when we start to question,
00:12:34.200
why does God let something like this happen? Why let children die? If he is all powerful,
00:12:40.640
why wouldn't he prevent something like this? And the only comfort that I have when I read Psalm 37,
00:12:46.140
for example, I remember that he's not doing nothing. He is not uncaring. He doesn't not see. He doesn't
00:12:56.920
not know what's going on. But as we always say, his eternal plan of redemption is going off without a
00:13:04.220
hitch, which means right now his anger, his wrath is kindling. And one day it will be poured out on
00:13:12.160
all evil and he will avenge his people. And he will do away with all wickedness, with all sin,
00:13:21.480
and Satan will be bound and destroyed forever. And we will one day live in perfect peace and justice.
00:13:28.360
That justice, that goodness, that wholeness that you find your heart longing for, that nagging
00:13:34.380
suspicion that things aren't supposed to be this way. Children aren't supposed to die. Children
00:13:40.940
aren't supposed to murder. That is eternity that is written on your heart. That is the image of God
00:13:49.080
speaking inside of you, confirming what is true, that it's not supposed to be this way. And one day
00:13:55.800
it won't be. One day it won't be. Jesus is coming back and he will make all things right and new. And so
00:14:07.180
let us, if nothing else, a circumstance like this, just renew our longing for heaven while not forgetting
00:14:15.440
our responsibility here on earth to our community members and the neighbors by which God has providentially
00:14:22.320
placed us. So pray for this community. Have serious conversations with your children. Have serious
00:14:32.300
conversations with the parent of the kid in your community that you can tell is isolated, that you can tell has been
00:14:39.460
rejected, that you can tell has been excluded, that you can tell is a loner. And now sometimes they've
00:14:45.260
got a parental familial situation that's really tough. And so it's like impenetrable and you feel
00:14:50.640
like you can't help. Like, what can you do to reach out to those people? Can you bring them into the fold?
00:14:56.340
Can you include them? Can you invite them to church? Can you make sure that that kid feels befriended?
00:15:03.060
Can you make sure that that kid has a mentor? Can you make sure that kid isn't just left alone? Because
00:15:08.040
I understand wanting to protect our kids from like the bully or the kid who seems creepy and weird and you
00:15:15.040
feel like is a threat. But the more we push those kids to the margins and into isolation, the more we feed in
00:15:22.020
to their addiction to screens and online violence and all of the stuff that is exacerbating this. So what can each
00:15:29.860
of us do to bring those people into the fold and into relationship and into the light and into the light of
00:15:37.020
Christ? We can't do everything, but each of us can do one thing. So, all right, let's move on to
00:15:46.680
what's going on in the culture right now and what it teaches us about idolatry in this country. And then
00:15:52.880
again, what we as Christians can do as vessels of his grace and ambassadors of God's order and goodness
00:16:00.500
to combat that. First, let me pause and tell you about our first sponsor for the day. There's a lot
00:16:06.080
of craziness, a lot of bad going on in the world. And yet there are companies that are doing good and
00:16:13.140
we can put our money where our mouth is and we can support the companies that are supporting the
00:16:18.200
values that we believe in. Most importantly, the value of life. Every life is the only pro-life diaper
00:16:25.400
company, which is kind of amazing to say. You would think that all diaper companies would be
00:16:30.060
pro-life. Unfortunately, a lot of the big names in the diaper world actually donate a portion of
00:16:36.620
their sales to Democrat politicians who are openly pro-abortion. If you don't want to support those
00:16:42.800
politicians with your dollars, if you want to make sure that you are supporting a company that supports
00:16:47.980
all of its pregnant employees, employees that are adopting, that sends resources to pregnant moms in need,
00:16:54.720
then get your diapers from every life. They're the diapers that we use in our home. They're really
00:17:00.560
high quality ingredients. You don't have to worry about leaks or anything like that. Best of all,
00:17:06.200
you know that you're aligning with a company that shares the principle that all life is valuable,
00:17:13.240
no matter how small. Go to everylife.com. You can use code Allie10 for 10% off your order. Go ahead
00:17:21.080
and subscribe. You'll save even more money that way. Go to everylife.com, code Allie10.
00:17:30.460
All right. So I got a message from a couple of you asking me to talk about Burning Man and not only
00:17:37.560
just how crazy it is, how dumb it is, but also its theological significance. And honestly, before I
00:17:44.380
started looking into this, I didn't know much about it at all. I was just talking to Brie about what
00:17:49.580
Burning Man even is. I thought previously that it was a music festival. I thought it was like Lollapalooza
00:17:56.600
or something like that, which ends up turning into like a drug orgy fest, so I've heard. But it's not.
00:18:03.560
It is just a festival that happens the week before Labor Day. It's about 120 miles east of Reno,
00:18:10.420
Nevada, Nevada. And people just go and they do stuff. They drink. They do drugs. They probably
00:18:19.940
listen to music. Apparently, they can like take dance classes. But there's a bunch of orgies. There's
00:18:25.340
a bunch of just sick ritualistic pagan-themed things that go on. And people, I presume, Brie,
00:18:33.200
pay a lot of money to go do this, to go out in the desert and to look up at this like burning effigy
00:18:41.760
and to basically dance like tribal pagans of yore. Yeah. Yeah, they do. I mean, one of the concepts
00:18:49.940
of it that it's built upon is like against consumerism. But tickets for this are like,
00:18:57.920
I think at the lowest end, like $250. And they can go up to like $2,000. And it's a ticket just to like
00:19:04.100
be there. Do you know what the different levels of tickets give you access to?
00:19:14.200
Like how close you are to maybe the Burning Man. I have to confirm that.
00:19:18.520
So kind of like Woodstock without any of the music. Yeah.
00:19:22.360
Yeah. Just a focus on the carnal. Yes. Yeah. And they, the whole concept is like
00:19:30.020
self-sufficiency. They don't use money. It's all about like, if you need something,
00:19:35.620
someone has to give it to you. And that's just how they operate. And you have to bring all your
00:19:40.360
own stuff. Like a huge commune. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I bet it smells awful. It probably smells so bad.
00:19:47.200
It's so dusty. So gross. Is there even an option for bathing? What's the bathroom situation like
00:19:54.260
in something like this? Well, some people bring like campers. And so I think they maybe have
00:19:58.940
like showers. Those kinds of facilities. There probably are showers. But yeah. But if you're
00:20:05.580
just on a bender, maybe you don't even care about that. No, I'm sure a lot of people there don't care
00:20:09.820
about it. Yes. Which reminds me a lot of demon possession. It reminds me of when Jesus interacts
00:20:14.840
with the man in the Bible named Legion and he just desperately wanted to be among the pigs.
00:20:19.700
Yeah. And he desperately wanted to just be in like the muck and the mire, like the lowest form
00:20:25.100
of human existence that you could be in. He saw that as like liberation and freedom. That's what this
00:20:30.460
reminds me of. To want to be in like the dust and the dirt among the unbathed, unwashed masses
00:20:41.000
is almost a form of demonic oppression. It honestly does sound like hell to me.
00:20:46.660
No, awful. Yes. I was saying the dust alone is like enough for me to be out.
00:20:51.900
The dust alone. Have these people not heard about the dust bowl of the 1930s? That was a bad time.
00:20:57.980
And actually, before you get into it, I don't know if you remember this, but last year
00:21:01.520
it rained on this like reservation where in the desert where they do this and a bunch of people
00:21:07.220
got stuck there. And it was like, I think someone died. It was like a whole ordeal. No one could
00:21:12.160
leave because the mud was so thick that they couldn't drive out. So all those people got stuck
00:21:19.240
Hell. Hell. So the annual gathering, it was created as a tribute to art and community culminating in the
00:21:28.280
longtime tradition of the burning of the man. The man. Get it? Like the big boss man. Society. The
00:21:36.120
patriarchy. All of these unfair expectations and even self-imposed restrictions that are keeping
00:21:43.620
you back from true liberation and self-discovery. So we'll show you a picture of this. This is like
00:21:50.300
a 40-foot high wooden man on top of a 30-plus foot platform. The symbol's meaning is said to be
00:21:57.140
as varied as the attendees themselves. And so obviously, like that is just like a drawing of
00:22:06.060
it. But we do actually have like what the fire really looks like at the festival, which again,
00:22:14.240
that just looks satanic. Even if that's all it was, that alone looks demonic satanic.
00:22:24.020
So the theme, of course, what they're saying that Burning Man is about, it's about self-expression,
00:22:32.920
self-reliance, self-discovery, self-fulfillment, self-liberation, and even self-worship. Ultimately,
00:22:43.320
that's what all paganism is. All idolatry. When you are worshiping these gods and goddesses
00:22:50.620
and these various idols and icons, while you are at least ostensibly paying homage to them,
00:22:58.740
what you're really doing is serving yourself because you're only serving these gods to get
00:23:04.820
something in return. You are serving a god that is promising you love, that is promising you passion,
00:23:12.000
that is promising you success. It's the same thing with witchcraft, with tarot cards. Of course,
00:23:19.020
we've had two very big conversations over the past couple of weeks with people who used to be
00:23:24.980
into the occult and used to be psychics and witches and how Jesus called them out of that
00:23:31.280
demonic oppression and into true freedom and liberation, which is not self-fulfillment and
00:23:37.320
self-worship, but self-denial. And that, of course, is the difference between these cultish
00:23:42.380
pagan practices and Christianity is that we are not worshiping God to get something in return. He is
00:23:50.560
not a genie. He is preeminent. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. We worship him because
00:23:56.880
his Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we are compelled to worship him because his very character demands our
00:24:04.460
adoration. We do so out of love. It is the love that he has given us that then compels us to
00:24:11.640
love him. And it is this incredible exchange that we find in the gospel that we only see cheap
00:24:20.140
imitations of in the world. And I think Burning Man is an example of that, a very gross example of that.
00:24:27.820
So as we've already pointed out, there are roots in pagan practices, the effigy that's burning,
00:24:35.840
the pointing to self-discovery and self-worship. So it's no surprise that this event has grown in
00:24:43.200
popularity over the years. It really is just a celebration of the carnal, celebration of sex,
00:24:50.160
drugs, perversion. When you enter the event, attendees adopt new names, lay burdens down,
00:24:57.620
out of wooden effigy, and eliminate monetary transactions on the philosophy of shared resources.
00:25:05.020
So you see how this is like an upside-down world of Christianity, that when we come into Christianity,
00:25:12.720
we also become new creations, and we take on an easy yoke and a light burden when we follow the way
00:25:22.040
of Christ. And we cast all our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us. And we also are called
00:25:29.520
to take care of one another in this body of believers. This is a cheap and pagan imitation of
00:25:35.760
that because it is pretending to offer its attendees freedom while really attaching them and bounding them
00:25:46.540
to the heavy burden and slavery of sin. So here are just some examples of what goes on there,
00:25:54.920
what's glorified there, the different sessions that you can participate in when someone goes to Burning
00:26:01.800
Man, a rope bondage suspension. And so, of course, there's different kinds of violent sex fantasies that
00:26:09.240
people live out here, orgies, marriages to people that you just met. So like you can just get married to
00:26:16.440
a rando that you've found at Burning Man, a 10-story tall art in the middle of nothing. Okay.
00:26:25.660
Crafting. That also is my nightmare. I hate crafting. Stilt walking. There are also babies there.
00:26:36.840
There are children there, which is very disturbing to me. I think all of those babies need to be
00:26:42.360
rescued. There's branding. So you can get branded, you know, like a cow. See, oh my gosh, there's a
00:26:49.380
picture right there. And they look happy about this. Again, I just find something so very,
00:26:56.480
so very obviously imitative of Christianity. Like these people so badly want to be a part of
00:27:06.480
something bigger than themselves. They want to be marked for something more. They want something
00:27:10.840
indelible on them and even in their hearts and souls. And they're looking for something,
00:27:17.240
looking for all of that in the wrong place, of course, which is exactly what Satan does.
00:27:21.980
Does this not go back to the garden? How did Satan tempt Eve? Oh, God didn't really say,
00:27:28.480
or did he really say? He used a bit of truth to tempt them. And then it was with power. It was with
00:27:35.680
the temptation to be your own God that Satan got Eve and Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit.
00:27:43.840
You will be like God. You will know the difference between good and evil. Of course, presented this as
00:27:50.200
this wonderful, powerful thing. And God is this jealous magistrate who just didn't want them to have
00:27:55.560
fun. That's exactly what's going on here. That's exactly how people are being tempted here.
00:28:01.300
You know, I had this conversation with the first time I went fly fishing a few weeks ago with my
00:28:05.740
husband. We had this guide and he was great. He was a young guide. He had so many conversations
00:28:10.160
about theology. I can't pat ourselves on the back at all about sharing the gospel because this guy
00:28:15.600
really set it up for us. He literally just asked us about faith and about Christianity and about church
00:28:21.340
and all of that. So it would have been really bad if we hadn't shared the gospel with him because he
00:28:26.020
really teed it up for us. But one thing that I said that seemed to really resonate with him,
00:28:32.860
which is interesting for someone who's not a believer, when we talked about sin, I said,
00:28:37.300
you know, sin really messes things up. Sin makes things really difficult and complicated. And he just said,
00:28:44.120
man, that is the truth. So it's interesting how unbelievers realize that disorder breeds disorder
00:28:51.720
and that sin still leads to heartbreak. And yet all of us, Christian or not, are still tempted to
00:28:57.500
take the easy way out and to try to ease our discomfort and inconvenience with things that feel
00:29:04.180
good in the moment, but we understand are ultimately bad for us and the people around us. And this is about
00:29:09.820
70,000 people that are doing that very same thing. And of course, celebrating it. This year, it was
00:29:16.800
August 25th through September 2nd. And so those people are now, I guess, back at their jobs, living
00:29:23.680
their life. And I wonder if they've seen that the high that they felt there in their just adulation of
00:29:30.860
self has already worn off and they're back with all the same problems and the same burdens that they had
00:29:36.140
previously. So we'll get into more of these parallels and even more of the history of Burning
00:29:40.700
Man, because I think that's really interesting in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about how
00:29:45.880
you can actually renew your mind with truth and not this smut that unfortunately people are imbibing at
00:29:53.600
a place like Burning Man. And that is through taking a free online course at Hillsdale College. So
00:30:00.980
Hillsdale College is an amazing university. It's founded on the Christian values that you and I
00:30:07.760
believe in. And they're doing this amazing thing right now where they are offering more than 40 free
00:30:13.280
online courses in the most important and enduring subjects. The one that I love, super excited about
00:30:19.640
is a course about the works of C.S. Lewis, the stories in the book of Genesis. You could also take a class
00:30:25.640
on that. You could also take a class on the meaning of the Constitution or the rise and fall of the
00:30:30.640
Roman Republic. All of these things are very pertinent to what's going on today and so much incredible
00:30:38.420
knowledge and information that you are getting absolutely for free through Hillsdale. All you have
00:30:44.520
to do is go to hillsdale.edu slash relatable to enroll. There's no cost. It's easy to get started.
00:30:50.280
That's hillsdale.edu slash relatable to register hillsdale.edu slash relatable.
00:31:01.040
Okay, let's back up a little bit and talk about how this thing started. On June 21st, 1986,
00:31:09.760
the summer solstice, on the summer solstice, okay, Larry Harvey asked his friend Jerry if he was
00:31:16.420
interested in building a figure, a man, to burn on the beach to mark the longest day of the year.
00:31:22.340
So the two built an eight-foot-tall wooden effigy and gathered with a few friends on Baker
00:31:28.360
Beach in San Francisco to burn the figure. It is no surprise to me that this happened in San Francisco
00:31:33.780
in the 80s. That's just too on the nose. They continued hosting the event each year after with
00:31:39.900
increasingly taller effigies. However, in 1990, a 40-foot-tall effigy drew police intervention and
00:31:48.300
the structure was not allowed to be burned. I mean, this also just reminds me of the Tower of Babel.
00:31:55.580
How long have human beings been doing this? Oh, let us build this taller and taller edifice
00:32:02.100
that shows how close we can get to God and how we can defeat all of the powers that be.
00:32:10.440
Consequently, the event was moved that year to the Black Rock Desert and was changed to early
00:32:15.320
September with the effigy to be burned on the Saturday before Labor Day. So who is this person?
00:32:22.560
Larry Harvey. He was adopted as a child. He wrote that he felt little connection to his own family,
00:32:27.880
turning instead to Freud's books. Again, just no surprise there. And seeing the author and
00:32:33.080
philosopher as a father figure. Harvey became friends with Jerry James in 1985, both living in
00:32:39.240
San Francisco at the time and each having young sons. Jerry wrote that they were introduced by a
00:32:44.420
friend who often had people over to play music, get high and get laid. Larry was reading The Golden
00:32:49.880
Bough, an anthropological work that referenced the history of burning effigies. He had already attended a
00:32:55.940
few solstice events on Ocean Beach in San Francisco that involved burning a variety of objects. And so
00:33:04.460
this was like a very lost, disconnected person. Doesn't surprise me at all that there is a psychological
00:33:11.080
history here. When you look at the history of psychology, it is fraught with error about human
00:33:17.940
nature, about why we are here, how the human mind works. It disconnects body and soul, comes up with
00:33:25.440
all kinds of weird theories that simply justify giving in to your most carnal desires and lusts,
00:33:33.380
weird pseudo-academic, pseudo-intellectual explanations for why humans are the way that
00:33:42.060
they are. And even imposing, I think, their ideas of how humans are onto human beings, again, to justify
00:33:47.940
their own perversions in many ways. Psychology really, as an industry, certainly, but even as
00:33:58.320
a practice, I would say, is inherently broken because of its misunderstanding of human beings
00:34:04.880
and its denial that we are made in the image of God and have eternal souls. There's no way that you
00:34:09.120
can understand the psyche, understand the mind, without understanding the soul. If we look at the
00:34:15.920
pagan origins of something like Burning Man, we look at that book that Larry Harvey was reading at the
00:34:22.280
time, the Golden Bough was a comparative study of mythology and religion, arguing that most ancient
00:34:27.820
religions were fertility cults involving a sacrifice relative to the cycle of seasons. And there was one
00:34:36.600
pagan ritual that really stuck out to Larry Harvey, and that was called the Wicker Man. The Wicker Man was a
00:34:42.860
Celtic ritual in which larger Wicker structures were built and then filled with live men, cattle, and
00:34:49.260
animals to be lit on fire and killed. And they would burn condemned criminals and, like I said, other
00:34:58.020
animals, other kinds of people. The more victims they had burning in these Wicker men, the greater was
00:35:05.720
believed to be the fertility of the land. Colossal images of Wicker work or of wood and
00:35:12.740
grass were constructed. These were filled, again, with all kinds of living contents in the hopes that
00:35:20.260
their gods would reward them with fertility. The overwhelming majority of people that go to Burning
00:35:28.700
Man identify as non-religious, which of course is not surprising at all. When we look at secular
00:35:34.940
progressives of today, they believe, too, that they are neutral, that they have no beliefs. They would
00:35:43.500
even call themselves atheists, or maybe they would call themselves agnostics, lacking any clear knowledge
00:35:50.600
of eternity or of the supernatural. But the truth is they are very religious. They are extremely pagan.
00:35:58.220
believing in the God of self is, of course, a religion and has its own dogma. The experiences
00:36:08.460
that Larry Harvey was trying to promote through the burning of his effigies, he said, addressed a
00:36:16.300
primordial human need, the desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to another,
00:36:22.720
and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves, even in the midst of impermanence.
00:36:30.800
So again, going back to the parallels that we drew earlier, the need to understand where we came from,
00:36:38.120
the need to understand who we are, the need to understand why we matter, the need for joy,
00:36:43.560
the need for human connection, the need for community. All of these things he promised,
00:36:50.260
and Burning Man still promises its worshipers, its attendees, are going to be able to find there.
00:36:55.980
They say that these are the 10 principles of Burning Man, radical inclusion, gifting,
00:37:02.720
decommodification, so giving each other what you need, radical self-reliance. And so isn't that
00:37:11.260
interesting and contradictory there, that on the one hand, you have to rely on other people and their
00:37:16.980
generosity to survive, to get anything that you need, and yet you are called to radical self-reliance.
00:37:23.780
There's always going to be those kinds of inconsistencies within paganism. Radical self-expression,
00:37:31.640
it's supposed to arise from the unique gifts of the individual, which of course it typically just
00:37:36.780
means weird sex stuff. A communal effort, our community values create cooperation and collaboration,
00:37:42.500
but again, you're supposed to be radically self-reliant. Civic responsibility. We value
00:37:47.580
civil society. Do you though? Do you though? I'm not sure about that. Leaving no trace. Our community
00:37:55.400
respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we
00:38:01.120
gather. I highly doubt that you are successful in that endeavor. Despite the event's emphasis on
00:38:07.380
environmental sustainability, the sheer number of participants, over 70,000, generates, of course,
00:38:13.300
massive amounts of waste, including trash, pollution, damage to the desert ecosystem, the
00:38:19.220
temporary infrastructure and activities can leave lasting marks on the environment. Again, if you
00:38:25.060
worship yourself, by the way, like if you worship yourself, you can't act like you are caring about the
00:38:32.140
people around you or caring about the environment around you. Again, a part of paganism, a part of
00:38:38.260
Gnosticism where you are worshiping the created rather than the creator in order to gain self-fulfillment.
00:38:47.160
That just ends up being a cycle of selfishness and harm. Participation is another value and immediacy is
00:38:54.060
another value, which is interesting. Immediate experience is in many ways the most important touchstone of
00:38:59.460
value in our culture. We overcome barriers that stand between us in a recognition of our sinner
00:39:04.500
selves. Isn't that interesting? Sinner selves. The reality of those around us, participation in society
00:39:10.460
in contact with the natural world, exceeding human powers. That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't
00:39:16.700
make sense. That's literally just nonsense. They also talk about a temple, a temple that was designed
00:39:22.160
and created. Part of the beauty of the temple is that it is a sanctuary for all. There is only one
00:39:28.480
official ritual in the temple, and that is to burn it. On Sunday night of the event, with thousands
00:39:33.340
of participants as witnesses, the temple is burned in silence. And there's also a self-service cult.
00:39:41.180
He says, so when they say we're a cult, we reply that it's a self-service cult. You wash your own
00:39:47.940
brain. Of course, he believed, these participants believe, that what they're doing is new. What they're
00:39:53.900
doing is innovative in some way that it's fresh and it's not. It goes all the way back to the
00:39:58.960
beginning of time and, of course, the Garden of Eden. There are also, as I said, kids at Burning Man.
00:40:07.100
Even though there are people naked, here are some stories, like some descriptions of this,
00:40:12.820
of what it's like to have kids there. When they first went, someone is talking about bringing their
00:40:17.780
kids. We told them they might see naked people, but that it really wouldn't be much different
00:40:21.160
than people they saw in the locker rooms and the gym. Kids are very adaptable. They don't have
00:40:26.140
expectations. So what is shocking to you or me, they just take it in stride. That is just so not
00:40:31.520
true. That is because a kid might be so shocked by what they see, so disturbed by what they see,
00:40:37.440
and yet their young, innocent minds do not have the words to verbalize that this is shocking,
00:40:44.280
disturbing, and troubling to them. Like, they could internalize this for years and years to come
00:40:50.540
and never really be able to pinpoint why they themselves were so sexually confused.
00:40:55.900
This is like when you read in Song of Solomon, do not awaken love before it so desires. I think this
00:41:02.740
is part of what that is talking about, robbing the innocence of kids by introducing them to sexual
00:41:09.060
perversion, introducing them to any form of sexuality too early. I truly believe that the earlier you
00:41:17.100
introduce a child inappropriately to sexuality so the earlier they see pornography or the earlier they
00:41:23.180
see some kind of disturbing image or hear about some disturbing, perverse, unnatural concept, the more
00:41:30.440
likely they are to be sexually confused themselves when they get into adolescence. And also, I think the
00:41:36.440
more vulnerable they are to being sexual prey because you've introduced this to them at such an early
00:41:42.620
age, they don't even know how to distinguish what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's bad.
00:41:47.300
And so, I mean, this is a form of child abuse. You're forcing your children. They don't have a way
00:41:52.800
to consent. You're forcing your children to behold sexuality. It's the same thing when these parents
00:41:58.720
take their kids to pride parades, when these parents introduce their kids to gender changing and
00:42:03.600
all kinds of sexual perversion, thinking that they're celebrating tolerance and inclusion,
00:42:08.160
when in reality they are harming their children. I mean, this is a form of child abuse. These parents
00:42:15.960
should be held accountable for something like this. Really sad and just goes to show, again, that this
00:42:22.700
is no different than the ancient pagan times when children were sacrificed to the rich and the powerful
00:42:28.780
to be sexual objects, to become prostitutes, to even just be killed and to be let out and abandoned
00:42:37.460
because they were seen as weak or as not useful. Paganism is as paganism does. And it has been the
00:42:47.700
same since the beginning. And what interrupted ancient pagan Greece and Rome, of course, it was
00:42:54.160
Christianity that turned all of the nasty pagan culture on its head. And instead of pushing children
00:43:02.720
into objectification and abuse into objectification and abuse, saw children as valuable because we worship
00:43:09.140
a Jesus who said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom
00:43:16.060
of heaven. That was radical and revolutionizing for the culture at the time. Okay, a few more things on this,
00:43:24.280
but let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor. That's America's Christian Credit Union, another way to work
00:43:29.580
with a company that shares our values. We've heard some very scary stories of debanking where people
00:43:34.460
with conservative values have had to cut ties or have had their bank cut ties with them because of
00:43:40.960
what they believe. You don't want to have to worry about that. So work with America's Christian Credit
00:43:44.960
Union. They have been working with Christians for over 65 years. They have over 5,000 shared branches
00:43:52.100
and 30,000 ATMs nationwide. So access won't be a problem. Right now, my listeners get an additional
00:43:58.600
$100 bonus with a promo code Allie at checkout. Just go to americaschristiancu.com slash Allie for
00:44:05.560
complete program details. Terms and restrictions may apply. Visit americaschristiancu.com slash Allie.
00:44:12.980
America's Christian Credit Union is federally insured by the NCUA.
00:44:16.440
So like you can see some of the people that like a child would be viewing right here. Like we can see
00:44:26.900
the different costumes that are being worn. Scary. We blurred that out for you guys. But this is the
00:44:35.340
kind of thing that someone would be taking their child to see. Of course, there are many stories of
00:44:41.400
different orgies. Of course, sexual assaults and violence are happening there. This place of
00:44:46.560
peace and of worship and of like sticking it to the man. Of course, there's rape and there's all
00:44:52.860
kinds of illegal activity happening because they're glorifying horrible practices like
00:44:58.060
sadomasochism. Good is being called evil and evil is being called good. And really, I just see this as
00:45:07.440
like an extreme example of everything that's going on in the culture at large. Most people in the
00:45:13.360
country are not going to Burning Man. Most people don't want to go to Burning Man. And yet, I think
00:45:18.840
the values and the principles and the rules and the celebrations of Burning Man we do see on a daily
00:45:26.620
basis in the mainstream in our society. The glorification of sexual perversion, of gender
00:45:32.700
confusion, of the God of self. We even see that in seemingly innocuous ways like the self-empowerment
00:45:40.480
culture and the self-empowerment industry in the United States that especially targets women into
00:45:46.540
believing that you can be your own God. That's why I wrote my book a few years ago, You're Not Enough.
00:45:51.760
And that's okay because we are not supposed to be sufficient. We actually make terrible gods.
00:45:57.320
We lack the wisdom and the mercy and the discernment and the compassion and the goodness and love
00:46:04.260
to be self-rulers. We think it feels good. We think it's liberating, but really it burdens us
00:46:11.020
beyond what we can bear. The burden of the God of self is heavy and its yoke is very difficult,
00:46:17.640
which is why it's really good news that we're not enough, that we're not our own gods because we
00:46:22.000
worship a God who not only is loving but is love and has given us a very light burden to bear.
00:46:28.400
It reminds me of Romans 1. So Romans was written thousands of years ago. That means that what I'm
00:46:37.000
about to read was characteristic of the times then just as it is characteristic of the times now.
00:46:43.300
And there's actually like a comfort in that. I think that just as sin is old, it's not creative,
00:46:50.780
it's not innovative, it's not new. So Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,
00:47:00.600
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
00:47:05.000
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them
00:47:10.300
because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine
00:47:15.560
nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things
00:47:20.680
that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor
00:47:25.540
him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts
00:47:31.100
were darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for
00:47:37.900
images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in
00:47:45.480
the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
00:47:51.000
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature
00:47:56.100
rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to
00:48:02.560
dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to
00:48:07.560
nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one
00:48:14.000
another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their
00:48:22.740
error. I kind of got to keep going. Like, this is, sorry, but this is just such a, like, a perfect
00:48:27.840
encapsulation of everything that we're seeing, especially when it comes to something like Burning Man.
00:48:33.040
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought
00:48:38.620
not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
00:48:44.040
They are full of envy, strife, murder, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanders, haters of
00:48:49.680
God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Isn't that so? I always
00:48:55.760
think that's such an interesting addition there. But just an example of disorder. Foolish, faithless,
00:49:01.860
heartless, ruthless, though they know God's righteousness, a righteous decree that those
00:49:07.640
who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but give approval to those
00:49:14.800
who practice them. I mean, there is an irony, a purposeful and intentional irony in the fact that
00:49:22.540
these are the very people who claim that they monopolize love and tolerance and empathy, but
00:49:28.040
they are also some of the cruelest and most bloodthirsty people, especially when it comes
00:49:31.860
to things like abortion, especially when it comes to objectifying children and at the very least showing
00:49:38.260
them sexual objectification. But disorder breeds disorder. Sin breeds sin. It promises you liberation.
00:49:46.920
It promises you freedom. And in the end, it just traps you. In the end, it enslaves you. It complicates
00:49:53.700
your life. It hurts you. It hurts other people. But the good news is that God loved us so much
00:49:59.220
that he gave his only son to die for us, that we could be forgiven of all of our sin, no matter
00:50:04.800
what we've done, no matter how far we've gone. Jesus can become our righteousness by grace through
00:50:11.340
faith. We can be saved, reconciled to this perfect holy God, and live forever with him. That is really
00:50:18.660
good news. And we get to live in the freedom of no longer being a slave to our most carnal desires,
00:50:25.540
no longer being identified by our sexual lusts, no longer being identified by our wants, no longer
00:50:32.180
having to be our own gods. Like that is the good, good news of the gospel. Some other biblical parallels
00:50:39.660
that I see, the difference between the beauty of Christianity and just the ugliness, the debased
00:50:46.700
nature of paganism, and really any other belief system. 2 Corinthians 4.17,
00:50:53.920
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
00:51:00.180
as we look not to the things that are seen, that's what the pagan world does, but to the things that
00:51:05.140
are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
00:51:11.980
Our God is not made by human hands. He doesn't need anything from us. We do not supply him with
00:51:19.700
the fuel necessary to live. He does not get tired. He does not wear out. He has never taken aback
00:51:27.400
or surprised. That is the difference between our God, who is real and who is one, and all of these
00:51:33.680
pagan gods who really rely on the sacrifices and the efforts of humans to even exist. Of course,
00:51:41.880
there's a parallel to the Tower of Babel, and we know again that ended in chaos and disorder. There's
00:51:47.840
also a parallel to Israel wanting the golden calf to worship while Moses was trying to bring the law
00:51:56.720
down to them from God. They very quickly turned to idolatry. I also think of King Josiah, King Josiah
00:52:04.600
of Judah. He initiated the religious reforms by tearing down the altars to the idols, tearing down
00:52:14.400
the sacrificial places to the foreign gods. He saw the danger of trying to divide our worship between
00:52:26.540
the world, between paganism, and between the only God who really demands our worship. There's a parallel
00:52:32.460
to Malak. He was the God of the Ammonite people, and God commanded his people not to give any of their
00:52:43.320
children to Malak or Malak because that would profane the name of God. Apparently, there were
00:52:50.320
people who were sacrificing their children to this burning God. And of course, like I said, if we look
00:52:57.460
at the New Testament, the ancient pagan world of Greece and Rome, Christianity and its gospel completely
00:53:03.780
upended that, completely revolutionized it by saying, no, no, no, your value is not determined by your
00:53:09.740
physical strength, as the Romans said, or your mental strength, as the Greeks said. But because you are
00:53:16.060
made in God's image, you are equally dead apart from Christ in your sin. You can be made alive in Christ
00:53:21.940
by grace through faith. And as Christians, there is no longer any Jew, nor Greek, nor slave, nor free,
00:53:29.620
nor male, nor female. We are all one in Jesus Christ. This was a revolutionary, radical message of innate
00:53:36.500
equality. That is how beautiful Christianity is, that it would have set up a mighty church in the
00:53:44.380
place of Ephesus, which was an epicenter for not only commerce, but also the worship of pagan gods.
00:53:51.140
Christianity has always interrupted and upended pagan practices from child sacrifice to sexual
00:53:59.420
perversion, and we are still called to do so today. So when we are engaging with the culture,
00:54:05.140
when we're talking about politics, when we are standing up against the depravity that we see
00:54:10.480
every day, we are not being so-called Christian nationalists, or Christo-fascists, or all of these
00:54:17.640
scary words that Christians try to place on us. We are simply taking the baton that has been passed to
00:54:23.620
us by Christians who have lived for the past 2,000 years to stand against the culture of death and decay
00:54:30.260
and demonic possession. That's what Christians have always done. That's what we continue to do.
00:54:35.420
We don't only do that through politics. We don't only do that through the so-called culture wars that
00:54:41.040
are really theological battles more than anything else. We do that personally in our own lives, how we
00:54:46.620
disciple our children, the way we influence our communities. But don't ever think that you are
00:54:52.280
obligated to check your worldview at the door before you go into the public sphere. You're being
00:54:57.060
manipulated into thinking that you, Christian conservative, are the only one that has to do
00:55:01.440
that. Everyone else gets to influence the culture with their worldview except for you. That is because
00:55:06.940
those who are telling you that are an enemy of biblical order and truth, and we are to be agents
00:55:15.340
of that biblical order and truth everywhere we go in the public and the private sphere. And that can
00:55:21.740
feel overwhelming, but what do we say is our obligation? To only do the next right thing in faith
00:55:26.960
with excellence and for the glory of God. And that is always enough. It might be changing a diaper with
00:55:31.900
joy, or maybe it is something very public that God has been asking you to do in faith. I don't know
00:55:39.180
exactly what that act of obedience is for you, but God is going to give you the grace that you need to
00:55:44.040
take the next step. And every step of obedience for the Christian is an arrow against darkness.
00:55:52.400
And so rest in that. Trust in that. That, yes, there's a lot of evil and chaos that goes on
00:55:57.580
in the world, and this might seem just like, oh, who cares what those weirdos are doing in the desert?
00:56:02.600
Part of that is true. But again, I think it's actually just like a more concentrated example of
00:56:08.580
what is going on in the culture at large. It is a light versus darkness, good versus evil battle
00:56:14.200
out there. It doesn't fall neatly along political lines, but of course it does fall neatly along
00:56:20.580
biblical lines. And we need to make sure that we are, no matter what's going on in the political
00:56:24.860
world, standing on the side of goodness, according to what God's word tells us.
00:56:30.360
All right. That's all we've got on that. Let me tell you about our last sponsor for the day.
00:56:33.520
If you are a business owner, then you need to listen to this. If you want to make your
00:56:38.020
processes more efficient, more effective, then you need to check out NetSuite by Oracle.
00:56:43.120
Over 38,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one
00:56:49.400
cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR into one fluid platform.
00:56:58.040
When you're closing books in days, not weeks, that means you're spending less time looking backwards
00:57:03.320
and more time on what's next, which is a really big deal if you are trying to make your business
00:57:10.800
as successful as possible. With real-time insights and forecasting, you're peering into the future
00:57:16.180
with actionable data. Go to netsuite.com slash Allie and download the CFO's guide to AI and machine
00:57:25.200
learning at netsuite.com slash Allie. All right, y'all. On Monday, we've got Matt Walsh. Matt Walsh
00:57:36.600
of The Daily Wire. He is here to talk about his new documentary, Am I Racist? Guys, if you have not
00:57:43.540
seen this, it is hilarious. I was cracking up. Matt Walsh always makes me laugh. And our conversation on
00:57:49.300
Monday is going to be really fun and funny because it's too much. I can't even ever keep a straight
00:57:57.040
face because he cracks me up so much. Amazing conversation. So a little bit more lighthearted.
00:58:02.300
We kind of need that, I think, after today and yesterday. Sign up for Share the Arrows if you
00:58:07.500
haven't already. Sharethearrows.com. I know I haven't announced my new speaker yet. I promise I will do
00:58:12.560
that. There's a reason for the timing. I'm not just bringing you along. That'll be next week. I will
00:58:16.780
announce the new huge speaker that I'm so excited about. Also, pre-order Toxic Empathy, my book out
00:58:23.680
October 15th at ToxicEmpathy.com. ToxicEmpathy.com. Thank y'all so much, and I will see you back here on Monday.