Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1062 ｜ Another School Shooting. What’s the Solution？

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 1.00

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

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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 0.66

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?

00:19:10.160 I think it's different like camping areas. Oh.

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. 0.88

00:20:19.700 Yeah. And he desperately wanted to just be in like the muck and the mire, like the lowest form 0.95

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

00:21:17.040 there. Which was even worse.

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 0.86

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, 0.75

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 1.00

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 0.93

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 0.96

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 1.00

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 0.56

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 1.00

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 0.63

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 0.89

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 0.86

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 0.56

00:42:37.460 because they were seen as weak or as not useful. Paganism is as paganism does. And it has been the 1.00

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 0.99

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,

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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 0.96

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 0.98

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,

00:46:56.460 as Hebrews 13 says. So this is Romans 1.18.

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 0.94

00:47:31.100 were darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for 1.00

00:47:37.900 images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in 1.00

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 1.00

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 0.97

00:48:49.680 God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Isn't that so? I always 0.99

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 1.00

00:49:07.640 who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but give approval to those 0.98

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 0.98

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 1.00

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, 0.96

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 0.88

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 0.94

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 1.00

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 0.94

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 0.98

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 1.00

00:54:30.260 and demonic possession. That's what Christians have always done. That's what we continue to do. 1.00

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 0.96

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.

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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.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 05, 2024

Ep 1062 ｜ Another School Shooting. What’s the Solution？

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