Ep 1139 ｜ Wheaton Bows to the Mob, Kanye Hails Hitler & Rick Warren Turns Lukewarm
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Summary
On today's episode of Relatable, we discuss: - Wheaton College backs down after congratulating an alumnus who just joined the Trump administration. What is really going on behind their kowtowing to progressive activists? Also, what is going on with Kanye West? There is clearly a spiritual battle at play there. We're going to analyze it and respond to an absolutely absurd post by Pastor Rick Warren. We've got all that and more on today's Relatable.
Transcript
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Wheaton College has backed down after congratulating an alumnus who just joined the Trump administration.
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What is really going on behind their kowtowing to progressive activists?
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There is clearly a spiritual battle at play there.
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We're going to analyze it and respond to an absolutely absurd post by Pastor Rick Warren.
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We've got all of that and more on today's episode of Relatable.
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Hope everyone is having a wonderful day so far.
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This is something that I think a lot of people weren't sure was going to happen because she's been a lifelong Democrat.
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And a lot of Republicans had understandable questions about her positions on foreign policy, but she has been confirmed.
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And then right now, as we are recording, RFK Jr. is he is awaiting his confirmation.
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Okay, so that means Republican legislators are really feeling the heat from the Trump administration, which they should.
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That's just how these things go to make sure that they confirm all of Trump's picks.
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The American people said, hey, we trust you to be able to take our country in a better direction.
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We trust you to be able to pick the right people to go in the right positions.
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And so they are also the these legislators are feeling the heat from the American people to make sure that they are confirming the people that Trump has put in place.
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As we've talked about, we've got questions about what RFK thinks about abortion.
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He answered some of those questions in his hearing.
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But her position isn't really going to have anything to do with abortion policy.
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Let's pray that these people would come to know the Lord.
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As far as I know, RFK and Tulsi are not Christians, and I am heartened by how many solid Christians are in the Trump administration.
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But we want even more because they can be correct politically, correct culturally.
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They can make good policy decisions, but we want them to have the wisdom that starts with the fear of the Lord.
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So let's certainly pray for that and pray for their success.
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One super solid Christian that I am so excited is a part of the Trump administration is Russ Vogt.
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So Russ has just been confirmed as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and he was congratulated by his alma mater, Wheaton College, after he was confirmed for this position.
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But Wheaton College, after they posted a public congratulations, they actually took it down because a lot of people were upset.
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How dare a college celebrate the confirmation of an alumnus that is working for the evil Trump administration?
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Let me back up a little bit and just tell you about who Russ Vogt is.
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So he graduated from Wheaton, then he went to George Washington Law School.
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He served as Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term.
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The Senate confirmed his nomination to the same position on February 6th, just a few days ago for Trump's second term, after an overnight session in which Senate Democrats stonewalled his nomination.
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They really did not want him to take the same position because now apparently he is uniquely dangerous because he was a part of Project 2025 and the evil Heritage Foundation.
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He previously served as the vice president of Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation before joining the Trump administration.
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So he wrote Chapter 2 in Project 2025, Executive Office of the President of the United States in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.
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You know, it's funny we don't hear that much about Project 2025 anymore.
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I mean, that's all Democrats talked about for months.
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They said that this is going to be the demise of America, that Trump is going to come into your home and take your birth control and take off your shoes,
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put you in the kitchen and tell you to make him a sandwich.
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That's what we heard and that you were going to have to exchange your blazer for red robes.
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That's what we heard was going to happen because of Project 2025.
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So in Russ Vogt's chapter, Executive Office of the President of the United States,
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in the section about the Office of Management and Budget, he writes,
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the director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the president's mind as it pertains to the policy agenda,
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while always being ready with actual options to affect that agenda within existing legal authorities and resources.
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His role in Project 2025 drew harsh criticism from Senate Democrats, including Chuck Schumer,
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who called vote Trump's most radical nominee with the most extreme agenda.
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Did what I just described to you, did that sound extreme,
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that he just wants to carry out the agenda of the person who appointed him to the position?
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Votes' confirmation would be a disaster for working families.
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Wait, was it a disaster for working families the first time he served in it?
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And a godsend to billionaires who don't pay their fair share in taxes.
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And also that Russ Vogt is Project 2025 incarnate.
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the Senate is voting to implement Project 2025.
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So it's actually going to be Russ who comes to your house and takes your birth control.
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And I think he's the one who is delivering the red robes to every eligible maiden in the land.
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And I think that there's a website where you can enter your size
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to make sure that they show up to your house with the right size red robe.
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I think that's actually going to be under Votes' jurisdiction.
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He also said that Russ Vogt's fingerprints were all over this past week's disaster,
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referring to the Doge freeze of federal programs and their investigation of the Treasury payment system.
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Russ Vogt is making sure that the government is spending taxpayer dollars
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in a way that is efficient, effective, and transparent.
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What other disaster is he going to get himself into?
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I don't want to know where my taxpayer dollars are going.
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I definitely want them to continue to fund transgender musicals in Colombia.
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So I can pay taxes for USAID to fund Serbian DEI workplace programs.
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That's the only reason any of us on this team get up in the morning,
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knowing that our federal government is sending our hard-earned tax dollars
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to very necessary abortion education seminars in Sri Lanka.
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Um, so if Russ Vogt gets in the way of that, I will be just very upset.
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So that could be why Wheaton College decided that maybe we shouldn't publicly congratulate him.
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I guess all of this, all of this controversy and Chuck Schumer's analysis
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is why Wheaton College, where missionary Jim Elliott went to school,
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what used to be a preeminent Christian institution,
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why they backed down, deleted their post of congratulations amidst some pushback.
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Okay, so here's what Wheaton College originally posted.
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Wheaton College congratulates and praise for 1998 graduate Russell Vogt regarding his senatorial
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confirmation to serve as the White House director of the Office of Management and Budget.
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Well, they posted this on Facebook, and Facebook is where all the angry people come out, and they
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So these comments from alumni included statements like this.
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The work that he is doing negatively and directly impacts countless other Wheaton alum who are seeking
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to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this country and around the rest of the world.
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Again, like, are we talking about Colombian, like, transgender dancing troops?
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Like, is that what you're talking about when you're talking about, like, the funding of the federal
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I mean, maybe they're talking about world relief.
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Maybe they're talking about other Christian organizations who are providing humanitarian
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But as we talked about last week, even Christian organizations or professing Christian organizations
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like world relief are actually supporting distributing abortifacient birth control pills to poor countries
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and even supporting, it seems like, abortion procedures in these poor countries.
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And so, again, I think it's actually a very righteous position for those in charge.
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Of our budget in charge of seeing where our tax dollars go to say, you know what, we need
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We need to take a look at this and to make sure that we are advancing American interests.
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And we want a Christian in that position because, again, you want Christians to have that discernment.
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You balance compassion with effective, logical, practical policy that serves the interest of the
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According to Religion News Service, another commenter said there are Wheaton alumni out
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there who really do follow Jesus' teaching in the gospel.
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So I guess that Russ Vogt doesn't because he was a part of Project 2025 and he's serving
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So he doesn't really follow Jesus' teaching in the gospel.
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But they aren't always the ones who are powerful.
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And so it's incredibly frustrating to see those who, I think, don't necessarily embody the
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gospel taking over in the Trump administration.
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Like, these people seem to be completely averse to Christians being in positions of influence
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If you believe in God, you believe that God is love.
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Don't you want people who believe those things also to be in charge of making our policy?
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It's so strange when I hear these accusations of like, oh, if you want Christians in power,
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then you're some scary Christian nationalist and you just want empire.
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And you have confused like the lowly Jesus for this, like, I don't know, powerful emperor,
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Again, it just comes down to, like, who do you think has a better chance of making compassionate
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The person who believes in the God who created the world?
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Do you think that person is going to have a good understanding of the sanctity of life
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and the proper role of the government and family?
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Like, if you care about your neighbor, don't you want people in charge who believe in the
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God whose ways are better and higher than ours?
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Like, do you believe that the Bible is good or not?
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Do you believe that God's ways are better or not?
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As a Christian, you should believe those things.
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And shouldn't you want people who have the most influence over our policy to also believe
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And because politics affects policy and policy affects people and people matter, I want the
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people involved in politics and in charge of policy to understand that people matter,
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not just because they have some vague spiritual sense of people having significance, but because
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they understand someone's worth comes from being made in the image of God.
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Once we have that shared foundation, I think we're in a much better position to make good
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quality or a good policy that affects people's lives for the better and raises their quality
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So it's very strange when Christians to me are like, no, Christians should never be in
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a position of influence or power or seek that at all.
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It makes me think you don't really love your neighbor.
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By Saturday morning, after they posted this, after Wheaton posted this, the post was deleted
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and a second post was made with the comments disabled.
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On Friday, Wheaton College posted a congratulations and a call to prayer for an alumnus who received
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The recognition and prayer is something we would typically do for any graduate who reached
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However, the political situation surrounding the appointment led to a significant concern
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It was not our intention to embroil the college in a political discussion or dispute.
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Our institutional and theological commitments are clear that the college as a non-profit
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institution does not make political endorsements.
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Wheaton College's focus is on Christ and his kingdom.
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Okay, so they might say that this is not an apology, and they actually do say that, as we'll
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They didn't say that they were sorry, that's true, but their original post was also not
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They didn't say, hey, we really like your policies, guy.
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They said, this is what he has been appointed to, and we're praying for him, and congratulations.
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They would have done the same thing if this had been the Biden administration or the
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Kamala Harris administration, and they probably would have gotten pushback for it.
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But I think if they would have congratulated someone who was in the Kamala Harris administration,
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that there would have been people saying, why would you congratulate this person?
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Which I actually think they have more of a grounding to criticize Wheaton for that, because
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Wheaton claims to be a Christian college, and Kamala Harris's baby murdering and gender
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deception agenda is very blatantly black and white, anti-Bible.
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However, I would understand if Wheaton also congratulated a person who got to that position
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The fact that they deleted that post, that simply said congratulations, that simply said,
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Let's pray for him, that God would use him to bring glory to himself.
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The fact that they deleted that when people got upset, that amounts to an apology.
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A Wheaton College spokesperson later added that deleting the post was not an apology
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for their initial post, but it was for Mr. Vogt's own protection.
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What are these people going to do who are commenting on Facebook?
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A Wheaton College spokesperson told Religion News Service that this was, quote, in no way
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an apology for having expressed congratulations or for suggesting prayers for our alumnus.
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The social media post led to more than 1,000 hostile comments, primarily incendiary, on Christian
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It was not our intention to embroil the college or Mr. Vogt in a political discussion or dispute.
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Just, okay, let's give them the benefit of the doubt.
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Maybe they really thought, oh, we don't want him to see this.
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These are really awful comments, and we just want, you know, we don't want that.
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Still, just from a PR perspective, it looks really bad.
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Like, I wish, not that I am a publicist, but sometimes I just wish that I could give PR
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Like, if you really don't regret it, then repost it and disable the comments.
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But you've rewarded all of these people lashing out at the request to pray for an alumnus who
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I don't think Russ Vogt was concerned about being, quote, unquote, protected.
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He, quote, tweeted or, quote, posted a post about Wheaton College's explanation, if you
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don't want to call it an apology, and he just said, in all caps, with an exclamation mark,
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Hillsdale College, that's the conservative Christian college, we have read advertisements
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They said congratulations to Russ Vogt, the once and current OMB director on a Senate
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Then when all of this blew up on X about Wheaton College, with a lot of Christians calling
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them out, Hillsdale said, trigger warning, we will not be deleting our earlier post congratulating
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Now, a lot of this is really not surprising because we've seen a leftward drift in Wheaton
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I do believe that this is coming from a place of cowardice.
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I said on X that they are the perfect embodiment of what I call the mushy middle.
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They have chosen nuance and winsomeness over clarity and courage.
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When you're in that position of believing that the most virtuous kind of Christian that
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you can be is one that is well-liked by the world and that is accepted by secular progressives,
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you are always going to be susceptible to cowardice and compromise.
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You are always going to give in to the loudest bullies.
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A horrible, horrible example from the college that educated one of the most courageous and
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influential missionaries that's ever lived, Jim Elliott.
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Okay, so they didn't make any formal political endorsements, Wheaton College, in the 2024
00:25:37.400
election, but they did host a political event with anti-Trump speakers, Curtis Chang and
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They are extremely, they are extremely left-wing and progressive and anti-Trump, and they are
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a part of this group of people, kind of like Russell Moore and David French, who pretend to be
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somewhere in the middle and pretend to be nuanced and pretend to transcend politics and transcend
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partisanship, but really, and you've probably heard this phrase before, they punch right and
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They might sometimes slightly, softly criticize progressivism, but really, they're going after
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Trumpism and MAGA and the so-called Christian nationalism on the right that they think is
00:26:30.760
much more dangerous, they would say, to Christianity and the country than the baby murder and the
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gender deception, the genital mutilation, and the socialistic economic policies of the left.
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Really, they start with politics, and they try to fit their theology into their politics, not
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the other way around, no matter how much they tell you, that they are abiding by
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biblical principles, and they're just allowing that to influence their politics.
00:27:02.100
It is 100% the other way around, and these institutions exist to make Christians feel
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bad for voting a Republican and feel that the more and more compassionate thing to do is to vote
00:27:13.620
Democrat, and they won't get into the differences in policy when it comes to things like
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abortion, they will just focus on how bad Trump is, and then they will go back to this lazy
00:27:24.520
assertion that we've already refuted today, and that is, well, Christians shouldn't even
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Apparently, we're all supposed to have anti-Christian progressive secularists in power.
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It was hosted on Wheaton's campus last September alongside the after party.
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That's, we've talked about that with Megan Basham.
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You can go listen to our episode that we did on that a few months ago.
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It's the political Bible study program created by Curtis Chang and Russell Moore and David French.
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They say that their goal is to reframe Christian political thinking, aka don't vote Republican
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So this Curtis Chang person who hosted this event at Wheaton College, he said that Trump's
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victory is a disaster, a disaster for the country.
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I mean, this election, I think, was a disaster for our country, but it did wonders for my to-do
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Then around when I saw what was happening, I felt a surge of anger.
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I was just wanting to blame people for this outcome.
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And then I was like, oh, I'm actually feeling like anguish.
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So this was the election event that Wheaton College chose to host.
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As far as I know, they didn't also choose to host, I don't know, like a turning point
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Because remember, the after party is not nonpartisan.
00:29:00.820
And if your church hosted the after party or used their curriculum, then I would say that
00:29:09.040
Because either your pastor is completely ignorant, like not able to discern the true philosophy
00:29:15.380
or worldview behind curriculum that he has given his congregants, which would make him
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Or he is just openly progressive and is trying to shame his congregants out of being conservative.
00:29:27.520
And I would definitely talk to a pastor like that.
00:29:30.940
You can try to give him the benefit of the doubt.
00:29:32.660
But I would ask him specifically, what policies, what conservative policies and ideas do you
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Like whenever I have people that, you know, disagree with me or they just say, oh, Christians
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I'm like, okay, can you tell me what specifically you disagree with me on as a Christian and
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I think it's really illuminating to get into those conversations.
00:30:00.320
Jim Elliott has a plaque at Wheaton College, as he should.
00:30:07.020
And you guys probably already know who Jim Elliott is.
00:30:12.040
But he was the missionary who evangelized in the jungles of Ecuador, and he was killed by
00:30:32.020
And obviously, Elizabeth Elliott, his wife, had a very long career of speaking and writing
00:30:38.720
You guys know how much I love and admire Elizabeth Elliott, but Jim Elliott really just embodied
00:30:45.360
the boldness and the courage that Christians are called to.
00:30:48.460
And in 2021, Wheaton removed a plaque on their campus honoring alum Jim Elliott and replaced
00:30:57.360
it with new wording because the old plaque that had been there for years had used the phrase
00:31:08.560
It said he was killed by savage Indians, which is true.
00:31:12.780
So originally dedicated in 1957, the plaque was meant to honor the memory of Jim Elliott,
00:31:18.240
Ed McNully, and Nate Saint, as well as Roger Yauderin and Pete Fleming, who were all speared
00:31:28.120
Sorry, I think I said something different earlier.
00:31:29.960
In 1956, the old plaque said they chose the jungles of Ecuador inhabited by the Aca Indians for generations.
00:31:37.440
All strangers were killed by these savage Indians.
00:31:40.240
After many days of patient preparation and devout prayer, the missionaries made the first friendly
00:31:49.900
The college said that this language is now seen as offensive by students, faculty, and staff.
00:31:58.040
And instead of thinking, wow, someone truly laid down their life to share the gospel with
00:32:04.860
I can't believe that I get to, like, share an alma mater with this person.
00:32:15.760
And they went and they went to an office and they said, take this down.
00:32:22.000
It's not offensive that they murdered Jim Elliott by sparing him to death.
00:32:26.100
It's offensive that they were called savage Indians.
00:32:29.500
So the statement by Wheaton said, specifically, the word savage is now recognized.
00:32:35.360
And remember, this is like in the turmoil of 2020, 2021, that they're kowtowing in this
00:32:41.260
The word savage is now recognized as being inherently pejorative and having been often
00:32:46.700
used historically to dehumanize and mistreat native peoples around the world.
00:32:50.300
Well, they literally murdered him with a spear.
00:32:56.040
Wheaton explained that the reworded plaque will honor the martyred missionaries while
00:33:00.140
also respecting the warrainy people with whom they share the gospel of the love of Christ.
00:33:05.840
The phrase, savage Indians was replaced with indigenous peoples.
00:33:11.740
The plaque will now read in part, known for their violence to encroaching outsiders and
00:33:19.240
They were among the most feared indigenous peoples in South America at the time.
00:33:24.060
Look, I think if that had been the original wording, that would have been fine.
00:33:28.640
My problem is kowtowing to the progressive bullies to change something that didn't really
00:33:39.260
I think that it was fine that the language that they had before, I think it was completely
00:33:44.020
unnecessary to get caught up in the cries of these activists who really have no influence
00:33:54.280
We can also see some other progressive values from Wheaton.
00:33:57.140
If you look at LGBTQ issues in 2014, Wheaton hired a, quote, gay Christian blogger, Julie
00:34:03.220
Rogers, to join the chaplain's office to support sexual minorities on campus.
00:34:12.380
This happened under the same president who is currently there, Philip Ryken.
00:34:15.420
The administration knew Julie referred to herself as gay, but she would also be required to sign
00:34:20.360
the code of conduct that says marriage is between a man and a woman and sex is reserved
00:34:27.240
The president supported Rogers initially, though he encouraged her to maintain a lower profile
00:34:33.700
But she resigned a year later and began publicly advocating for so-called same-sex marriage.
00:34:38.800
And we say so-called because only God defines marriage and he defines it as male
00:34:42.640
and female unequivocally, so so-called same-sex marriage in the church.
00:34:46.800
So again, just like a general lack of discernment and I would say like a desire to compromise
00:34:52.320
we've seen from Wheaton Sexual and Gender Identity Institute at Wheaton College in 2019,
00:34:59.380
We've talked about him before, how he is really, I think, on the front lines of getting Christians
00:35:04.740
to compromise when it comes to gender and use so-called pronoun politeness.
00:35:09.200
He's a psychology professor who refers to himself as an evangelical Christian in LGBTQ plus studies.
00:35:15.900
He moved his Sexual and Gender Identity Institute from Regent University to Wheaton.
00:35:20.580
He promotes, quote, dialogue between people who view the topic of sexual identity differently
00:35:28.560
According to Christianity Today, he believes that using a person's preferred pronouns is kind,
00:35:32.240
courteous, and necessary for building a relationship with that person.
00:35:35.440
And, unquote, gay Christians, as mentioned earlier, Dr. Yarhouse is unclear or unwilling
00:35:40.400
to criticize the use of the term gay Christians.
00:35:45.760
And Rosaria Butterfield has come on the show to talk about this, and she says it really eloquently,
00:35:52.660
and I probably won't even say it exactly how she said it, but like, you're not going to
00:35:56.580
win people to the cross of Christ by affirming the very sin that Christ died to save them from.
00:36:04.000
And that is what is happening when you are using someone's preferred pronouns that don't correlate
00:36:12.180
The answer is really clear in Genesis 127 that God made us in his image as male and female.
00:36:18.620
And because God made us in his image as male and female, that is not only what we physically,
00:36:25.060
biologically are from the moment of conception, that is also theologically, teleologically also
00:36:32.860
Go back and listen to my conversation with Laura Perry Smalt, where she talks about how
00:36:36.600
her parents never gave in to her new identity as Jake, never called her he, him.
00:36:42.840
And it was her parents and her parents' Christian friends that she found refuge in after she realized
00:36:50.400
that she had made a big mistake in trying to transition, who never affirmed her fake male
00:36:54.860
identity, always affirmed who she was as a woman made in the image of God.
00:36:59.040
And it was their truth telling that God used to bring her back.
00:37:04.780
The most loving thing we can do is tell people the truth.
00:37:07.760
That's the difference between toxic empathy, which just cares about how someone feels, and
00:37:13.240
true love, which is defined in 1 Corinthians 13, 6, that love never rejoices in wrongdoing,
00:37:23.680
And so it doesn't surprise me that Wheaton is just weak.
00:37:28.600
They're just mushy because they have invited in this kind of deception multiple times.
00:37:36.560
And so it shouldn't be that surprising that once they let the Trojan horse of winsomeness
00:37:42.180
and nuance into their gates, that what came out was progressive secular nonsense, and that
00:37:52.180
And so we got to see that on display, and that is true of many institutions.
00:37:56.680
Like, Christians shouldn't kowtow to bullies, okay?
00:38:03.040
If you're going to apologize for something, if you are going to take back something that
00:38:07.740
you said, if you are going to correct yourself, whatever it is, do it because it is the right
00:38:14.640
Do it because it's what God has called you to do.
00:38:17.020
Do it because God has instructed you in that way in Scripture.
00:38:23.560
Don't do it because people are asking you to, and you feel bad, and you just want to
00:38:33.020
That is called making an idol of yourself because you care more about how you are thought
00:38:40.540
Christians are free to be courageous because we serve an audience of one, and Wheaton would
00:38:49.980
We've got some time to talk about Kanye and what is going on with him.
00:38:54.940
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I just want to talk about what is possibly going on behind the scenes here with Kanye West.
00:40:04.820
We talked a little bit on our Grammys episode about the display at the Grammys and how he
00:40:13.080
This was his first time going to the Grammys and I believe six years.
00:40:16.260
He showed up there with his now wife, whose name is Bianca, and she was buck naked, completely
00:40:24.760
And of course, this is probably a publicity stunt.
00:40:34.280
People also raised questions about, is she okay?
00:40:43.640
This is very scary and very sad because there were pictures of little kids like seeing this
00:40:55.060
And I questioned whether there's something demonic going on there.
00:40:59.840
We know that a few years ago he was leading Sunday services.
00:41:03.180
And even though I didn't love everything about that, because he was like partnering with
00:41:06.960
people like Joel Osteen, the infamous prosperity gospel preacher, but he was also putting out
00:41:14.260
amazing music like the album Jesus is Lord, which to this day, I will stand by the fact that
00:41:20.020
is an amazing album that is largely theologically solid.
00:41:24.880
And everyone, myself included, was really excited about that at the time.
00:41:29.360
Some of the things that he was saying about sexual morality and not wanting his wife to be scantily
00:41:35.660
And I think when you have especially a prominent Christian, any Christian, certainly, because
00:41:40.880
Satan just loves to steal joy and steal people's effectiveness and attack people, but especially
00:41:46.980
when you have a prominent Christian who has the potential to reach a lot of people with the
00:41:52.760
gospel and with righteousness, you are going to have Satan go after him.
00:41:58.800
And based on his latest rant on Axe, it does kind of seem like that's what's going on here.
00:42:05.220
I do think he obviously has mental health issues, but this seems to be very spiritual as well.
00:42:10.780
He went on this rant on Axe last Thursday in which he praised Adolf Hitler, and he said
00:42:18.260
that anti-Semitism is just some BS that Jewish people made up.
00:42:24.480
He said, some of my best friends are Jewish, and I don't trust any of them, okay?
00:42:30.660
And then he went on to defend his wife's nakedness at the 2025 Grammys.
00:42:47.640
Why would she listen to any of you dumb, broke people?
00:42:52.160
People say the red carpet look was her decision.
00:42:55.360
Yes, I don't make her do nothing she doesn't want to do.
00:43:03.100
She definitely wouldn't have been able to do it with my approval.
00:43:09.160
I have no respect or empathy for anyone living because no one living can have with me.
00:43:15.100
But I do love some people and I give them favor.
00:43:25.840
I did not see this, but I saw people talking about it.
00:43:32.360
He labeled his account not safe for work, essentially muting his account for regular users.
00:43:40.480
This is not the first time that he's posted anti-Jewish statements.
00:43:43.980
He said he was going to go death con three on Jewish people in 2022.
00:43:50.520
And so he seems to have some beef with Jewish people.
00:43:54.940
On Monday, West was dropped by his talent agency 33 and West.
00:43:59.140
His agent posted on Instagram that effective immediately, they no longer work with him anymore.
00:44:04.800
There is a former employee who is Jewish who is now suing Kanye, who says that she was subjected
00:44:14.200
to anti-Semitic vitriol, that he would text her things like,
00:44:22.100
When we think past just, wow, that's like a salacious thing to say.
00:44:26.060
I mean, when you think about what Hitler actually did, what the Holocaust actually was,
00:44:29.960
and that so many of the Jewish people here today actually have ancestors that were tortured
00:44:35.320
and murdered during the Holocaust for someone to be allegedly subjected to that kind of harassment
00:44:46.540
The lawsuit includes a series of texts that Kanye sent her, or she says, these are screenshots
00:44:51.320
from him, and another Jewish employee, he says things like,
00:44:55.880
welcome to the first day of working for Hitler, and called her ugly as F, again, texted her
00:45:05.480
Hours after she complained about the text messages to her manager, Kanye's attorney, sent her an
00:45:15.460
So I'm just, I'm very disturbed by what's going on with Kanye.
00:45:20.740
There will be people who will continue to say like, oh, there's some cryptic message.
00:45:26.860
There are always like people who claim that really Kanye is communicating something different
00:45:35.220
I don't think that there's any excuse for saying something like this, like this in combination
00:45:40.400
with posting the pornography and what went on at the Grammys, there's something very dark
00:45:48.660
And we should pray not only for him, but pray for his wife, pray for his children, pray for
00:45:54.580
Because obviously the Kardashian clan, they've got their own issues too.
00:45:59.400
I feel like these kids can't, like, you know, they don't stand a chance in some ways, but
00:46:03.780
to have this kind of instability to look at, to not even have like a present father that
00:46:11.460
you can rely on and trust, but then is also going out and posting pornography and hoisting
00:46:20.680
I mean, that's got to be extremely traumatizing.
00:46:25.420
And so I think we've just got to remember that Satan is a prowling lion.
00:46:30.360
He is always roaming around looking for someone to devour.
00:46:35.900
And right now it looks like he is devouring and has completely eclipsed Kanye's influence
00:46:50.760
And if you are breathing, there is hope for redemption.
00:46:57.420
There is hope for God to soften his heart and to change his mind and to win him back just
00:47:06.860
One of the things that I was worried about at the time, whenever someone who is prominent
00:47:11.020
becomes a Christian, I always just have the urge to tell them, like, just step back.
00:47:15.200
And I even think I said that at the time when I did an episode on his apparent conversion
00:47:19.940
a few years ago, like, just kind of go away for a while and read the Bible and learn how
00:47:28.160
And maybe that's not the calling for every person who converts to Christianity publicly,
00:47:33.400
but it seems like it would be a good rule of thumb.
00:47:36.680
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
00:47:39.340
It is harder for a rich man to pass through the eye or to get to heaven than it is for
00:47:54.720
But the power and the prominence and the money and everything and the fame, everything that
00:48:04.140
But the grace of God can transcend all of that.
00:48:10.180
I just had to respond to this Rick Warren post, which might be like the worst theological
00:48:18.280
And that's really saying something because you know the craziness that we talk about.
00:48:22.040
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Like this is the guy that discipled generations.
00:49:58.560
Maybe you were a high schooler and your parents were like, you got to read Purpose Driven Life.
00:50:01.820
And I'm sure that there were really, you know, good things.
00:50:08.760
But it was also widely criticized for being like prosperity driven.
00:50:14.220
It was like a graduation gift for a lot of graduates, I remember.
00:50:19.020
So Saddleback Church, this is the church that hosted Obama in 2008 when Obama famously said
00:50:24.440
that he supports marriage only between one man and one woman.
00:50:29.800
But Rick Warren has also been an advocate in the past few years of women being pastors
00:50:35.680
and not caused Saddleback to have a split from the SBC, the Southern Baptist Convention,
00:50:42.020
which holds to the biblical view that only men can be pastors.
00:50:46.520
And so Rick Warren has been sliding towards progressivism, I would say, for a while.
00:50:50.820
But he is a part of this crowd that is like, oh, winsomeness, nuance, transcending politics.
00:50:56.580
And here is his defense of that position, okay?
00:51:12.800
And then he's got the two thieves on the cross next to him, okay?
00:51:16.060
And here is what Brother Rick Warren decided to say.
00:51:22.800
They crucified Jesus with two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
00:51:31.340
If you're looking for the hashtag real Jesus, not a caricature disfigured by partisan motivations,
00:51:37.420
you'll find him in the middle, not on either side.
00:51:41.300
Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, it took me a good second to understand what Brother Warren is saying here, okay?
00:51:53.440
It took me a second to really, really imbibe and understand what he could possibly be arguing here.
00:52:01.720
Because certainly a pastor who has been a pastor for so many years is not saying,
00:52:06.280
because Jesus was physically in the center of Golgotha, that he had two people being crucified to his side,
00:52:15.280
that he is also the center of Republican and Democrats.
00:52:21.340
He's not saying that he's politically moderate because the cross is in the middle of the three crosses when he was crucified.
00:52:30.300
But it does seem like that is what he is saying.
00:52:35.000
It seems like he is saying that Jesus is not partisan.
00:52:38.460
And look at the fact that he was in the center of cross to prove that.
00:52:46.180
Jesus is not in the middle on the murder of children, on gender deception, the definition of marriage.
00:52:53.820
And he's really not in the middle on anything else.
00:52:57.000
We might have disagreements on where the Bible lands, on certain aspects of certain issues,
00:53:02.360
but he is not in the middle of our most contentious cultural conversations of our day.
00:53:09.620
In fact, I seem to remember him having a particular disdain for lukewarm people,
00:53:28.000
It's very clear on what God thinks about the sanctity of life, the value of image bearers,
00:53:34.920
the definition of marriage, the definition of gender.
00:53:39.760
It's only confusing if you want it to be for your political purposes.
00:53:44.500
Ironically, this kind of statement is far more partisan and political than those who simply say,
00:53:50.340
you know, Jesus being God and the word being God's word is like really clear on these so-called political issues of the day that are really just biblical theological issues.
00:54:06.260
That might cause some disagreements, and Christians can, in good faith, disagree on some things, but on the big ones, like on the big topics of our day that are in the center of our political discussions,
00:54:19.520
marriage and gender and identity and sexuality and abortion, the Bible is so extremely clear on that.
00:54:27.820
And so let's pray for Rick Warren that he would have the clarity that comes from God's word and the discernment that comes from the Holy Spirit.
00:54:38.120
We'll be back here tomorrow with Chief Related Bro.