Ep 1226 ｜ I Went Down the Labubu Rabbit Hole So You Don't Have To
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Summary
Is gentle parenting on its way out? Is TikTok the new TikTok? And is La Boo Boo's demonic also is gentle parenting coming out? We ve got all of this and more on today s episode of Relatable.
Transcript
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Our La Boo Boo's Demonic also is gentle parenting on its way out.
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We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable.
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And also, if you love this show, please make sure that you are subscribed across all platforms,
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It keeps the lights on for us and allows us to give you free content that you love.
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Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that you're having a great start to your week.
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Do I look a little brighter for those of you who are watching on Spotify and YouTube?
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We've seen some feedback over the past couple of years that it looks dark to you on your screen.
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And I started to notice that myself, that I always felt like I had to turn up my screen
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brightness to be able to see this show more clearly.
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We're going to kind of play around with the lighting over the next couple of weeks to make
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sure that it looks top notch, maybe add some depth behind me.
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I love my set and the lighting and all that good stuff.
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I think it looks great, but we're always trying to make it look even better and easier and
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Also, if you notice what I'm wearing, if you're watching on Spotify or YouTube, I'm wearing
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This is a little embroidered R that matches the R of the relatable brand that you can see
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And on the back, it says, plant seeds that bloom in eternity.
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That was something that we talked about on an episode not too long ago.
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And you guys said that it meant a lot to you, the monologue that we had about that, that
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that is how we can discern how best to use our time, the things that we should actually
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focus on and the things that we should forget about.
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Is this a seed that we're planting in this moment that will bloom in eternity?
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Anything that you do in raising your kids, discipling your kids, anything you do for the glory of
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The time that we waste, that we all waste just scrolling or consuming things that don't
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Those are not seeds that will bloom in eternity.
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And so we need to think about how we are spending our time, the words we are saying, the energy
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And this shirt, which I love, we'll put up a picture of the back of it.
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We've got all different kinds of merch available to you, brand new through Carly Jean Los Angeles.
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We combined forces with them to make these awesome shirts and totes and hats.
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You can go to AllieMerch.com and you can check them out.
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If you don't know what a labubu is, that's okay.
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You are probably like me and you have no real reason to know what it is, aside from the
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fact that everyone else seems to be talking about it.
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I would not be bringing this information to you, however, if it were not relevant to you,
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And maybe you've got little kids like me and so they are totally unaware of what's going
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But it does say something about where our culture is, what we actually value, and the
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kinds of forces that are influencing the young people who are going to be our future
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And I do think that this is a significant cultural moment that we should analyze.
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And it's also just good to know about the things that are really popular and whether they are
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things we should promote and be okay with, whether they're neutral or whether they're bad.
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So I will give you my analysis after just explaining what the heck a labubu is.
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It was inspired by a Hong Kong author and artist, K-Sing Lung's book series called The Monsters.
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And the labubu doll is based on one of the characters in that book series.
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But now the labubu has become this global collectible craze.
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And that is because it is sold by a Chinese company called Potmart.
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They are very good at making their products go viral.
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One of their strategies is selling collectibles in what's called a blind box format.
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So where buyers discover the specific color or design of the product only after opening it.
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People like to make social media content out of that.
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And that has been a big precipitant of labubu's rise since the character turned into this plush doll.
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It was a craze there first, but of course, this is now coming to the U.S.
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People attach them as keychains to their purses, to their strollers, to their belt loops.
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It really gained momentum after celebrities like Dua Lipa and Rihanna started wearing them in public.
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And then, of course, TikTok has boosted this trend.
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But you've got a lot of people wondering, okay, what is behind this craze?
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And some people have drawn a connection between labubu and a Mesopotamian demon that in its
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And some people are even just saying, I think that this movement, this trend, and maybe the
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dolls themselves are demon possessed because the people that own these dolls seem to not
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So I will give you a biblical take on that as well as just some facts about what labubu
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But first, let me show you the level of obsession that I'm talking about here.
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So just as a note, these are not kids in these compilations.
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One was a grown man, I believe, and the others were grown women unboxing this genuine excitement
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about opening this little toy and whatever color it was, I guess, is really amazing to
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There are 2.2 million TikToks using the hashtag labubu.
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And Popmart, that company from China that's selling it, raked in $423 million last year
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Last month, a mint green four-foot version of labubu fetched $150,000 at an auction in Beijing.
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Already this summer, New York has been subjected to a labubu fashion show, a labubu rave, labubu
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They actually had a professional tattoo artist tattooing labubus.
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It was in Washington Square Park and actually a lot of people showed up.
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There was a competition for the best labubu accessorized outfit.
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It pretty much turned into a runway, a labubu runway.
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We've got this advertisement for a labubu rave in Edmonton.
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And then we've got labubu pride, a pride event and a drag show that was happening in Brooklyn,
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That was labubu themed again, all grown adults doing this.
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There's definitely a conversation to be had here about the links between this and the real
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life baby doll phenomenon that we talked about last week with just perpetual adolescence of
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adults and how absolutely disordered and damaging that is for a society when you have grownups
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So a little bit more about labubu until I get into some theological and cultural analysis.
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We'll tell you what the character is that it's inspired from and why people are asking this
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Okay, let's talk a little bit more about where La Boo Boo came from.
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So as I said, La Boo Boo is a character in a trilogy, the Monsters trilogy, by a Hong Kong
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And in this trilogy, La Boo Boo is a little mischievous but kind-hearted elf.
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So you can see what the keychain itself looks like.
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It's got these big kind of saucer-shaped eyes, and it's kind of got a furrow in its brow,
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And this is one of the keychains, but of course, it comes in all different kinds of colors.
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This Monsters trilogy that was launched in 2015 by K-Sing Lung, it's a fantasy picture
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book series using minimal text and black and white illustrations.
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They're seen as collector's items, and that kind of scarcity, of course, always promotes
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And one storyline involves La Boo Boo's playful relationship with Taikoko, a shy skeleton
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character who is her boyfriend, often the target of good-natured pranks, just to kind of give
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She is the main character of the series, and she is described as, you know, she's this mischievous
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And she has good intentions, however, but she is this person that, or this elf, this monster
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K-Sing Lung moved to the Netherlands when he was seven, and that is where he developed what
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he calls this kind of fascination with Nordic fairy tales and folklore.
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And so his traditional, or his stories that he wrote and the depictions that he drew were
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kind of based on these Scandinavian and Germanic pagan culture stories.
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This includes gods like Odin and Thor, creatures like trolls and elves and tales about bravery,
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And so that's where he got his inspiration for this trilogy that includes the phenomenon
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He started creating, or maybe he didn't start creating, but he partnered with a company that
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started creating these LeBouBou dolls back in 2015, but then PopMart took over in 2019,
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and that is when they became this global trend of these collectible figures.
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Whenever PopMart announces, okay, we've got a new LeBouBou doll, it kind of reminds me of
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the Stanley phenomenon when everyone was trying to buy a Stanley and they would sell out and
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you did, you had people like collecting, you probably still do all these Stanleys and these
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I mean, Brie and I even fell prey to that just a little bit.
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I mean, we weren't collecting them, but we were trying to get our Stanley.
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These kinds of things just work, like the feeling of scarcity and that there's something
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It's the same kind of psychology that plays into someone's mind when they're gambling and
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not knowing what you are going to get and knowing that there's only so many prizes or
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like winning chances to be able to get or to give out.
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At physical stores, like there's a LeBouBou store in Los Angeles, fans line up for hours,
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sometimes overnight for new releases with stores limiting purchases to prevent scalping.
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Let me just show you a video again of adults in a Pop Mart line.
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So it's a Pop Mart line, not a Pop Mart store, not a LeBouBou specific store, but this is in
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They put it on Instagram already, but no one is budging.
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They posted everything and no one's trying to take off anywhere.
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They're like, that we're going to bombard this place or something.
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Okay, there was a rare LeBouBou doll that was sold on eBay just last week for $10,500.
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And there are also fake LeBouBous dubbed LeFouFous that are, you know, being sold.
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And I guess people are being tricked by this or people are okay with the knockoff.
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LeBouBou sales in North America surged 900% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the
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previous year, reflecting the trends hold on U.S. consumers.
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You've got a few celebrities, like I said, who have been showing their LeBouBous.
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She's, and we've got Rihanna who also has her LeBouBou on her, what it looks like, a Louis
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Just like everything else, there's going to be a peak.
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But also, the Chinese government seems to be wanting to intervene here.
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According to CNBC, I just thought this was interesting.
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On June 20, 2025, China's state-run People's Daily, that's an outlet, published an editorial
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urging stricter regulations on blind box toys and trading cards, specifically targeting sales
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to children under eight, proposing measures like age verification, app payment, and mandatory
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Although PopMart was not named, the editorial criticized businesses for encouraging young
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children to spend heavily on blind cards and mystery boxes, a model central to PopMart's
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Following the editorial, PopMart's share price dropped 12.1% in the week ending in June 20,
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2025, despite the initial drop, PopMart's stock has recovered, reaching levels close to its
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So China says that they want to shield its own children from addiction to blind box toys.
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But PopMart has grown so much here, and obviously those regulations wouldn't have a huge effect
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on America, and so they can probably recover any loss that they endure in China by just becoming
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They don't typically have good motivations behind what they're doing.
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So I'm certainly the last person to give the CCP credit.
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But they are pointing out a real problem, that this is kind of a predatory business strategy,
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Now, you could argue that they're targeting adults, and as misguided as it may be, adults
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I don't know if it's true if PopMart is targeting adults or not, but they are toys.
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And you could see how there are probably a lot of children who obsess over these things,
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especially when you've got the collectible aspect of it, especially when you have this
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So it's true that these companies should not be preying upon the naivete, the impressionability
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of children in this way, but also it's a parent's job.
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It's a parent's job to say, no, we're not going to do that.
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And we'll get into more of that in just a second.
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Is it, is Labubu an iteration of a Mesopotamian demon called Pazuzu?
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Is there something actually satanic, intentionally satanic behind this?
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But first, let me pause and tell you about two things.
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It might feel like you're alone in discipling your kids.
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Bring your mom, bring your mother-in-law, your sisters, your friends, your small group,
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All right, before we get into this question about the demonic aspects of La Boo Boo, let
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We rely on it every night in the Stuckey home when we're eating at home, which is almost
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You're also supporting a Christian family-owned company.
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They want to help this American industry of farmers and of ranchers.
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Get that all-American meat delivered to your front door on dry ice every month.
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Okay, so for the past few months, critics online, critics of Labubu, have connected the Labubu
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character to a Mesopotamian demon, Pazuzu, noting the similar appearance, specifically
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No, it reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are.
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But okay, so people are saying also the name is similar.
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Pazuzu was known as the king of the demons of the wind and controlled the west and southwest
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So people are saying there's also some similarities there.
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Because Labubu, even though she's this kind of innocent elf, she is also creating chaos
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Though he was considered an evil underworld demon, people would pray that instead of bringing
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destruction, he would use his power to protect them.
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We see this troublemaker in Labubu, who is actually depicted as kind-hearted and good and innocent.
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And then you've got Pazuzu, this demon over here, who is a dark kind of lord of the winds
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who creates chaos that people are hoping underneath it all has a kind heart that he will use to
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They would keep charms of Pazuzu, this is according to World History Encyclopedia, they would also
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keep charms of Pazuzu in their homes and pregnant women would wear them around their necks, according
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to God's demons and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia, an illustrated dictionary by Jeremy Black.
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So, also similar there, keeping kind of icons and depictions of a particular mischievous person
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that they hope bring some kind of good fortune.
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Now, I'm not saying everyone who owns Labubu is doing it because they think it's some kind
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of talisman, but there does seem to be an obsession that would lead me to believe that there is a
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deeper belief here about the power and value of Labubu and what this character can add to their
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However, Pazuzu is not, there's not a direct correlation here, it's not a direct comparison.
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For example, he's male, Labubu is supposed to be a little girl, Pazuzu has wings, the talons
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of a bird, also some weird descriptions of genitalia.
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Um, but people are still saying, even if it's not supposed to be Pazuzu, like, I would also
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say it's also just possible that in Nordic mythology, there are some similarities with
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Mesopotamian mythology and probably Roman and Greek mythology, too.
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Like, paganism and mythology, they're really not all that different across cultures.
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And so I don't know if it is a purposeful reiteration of Pazuzu, the demon, the way some
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people are saying, although I do think Pazuzu and Labubu sound so similar that it's not the
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But even if this comparison is not legit, there are people on TikTok who are claiming that their
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One TikTok video shows a little girl claiming her doll's eye color is changing and that its
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I'm not going to show it because it is a child who should not be on TikTok, by the way.
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There's also a TikTok user named Tori Halford that threw two Labubu dolls away after she said
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she almost died the day after she purchased them.
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But she believes that there was some kind of misfortune that was brought upon her.
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She doesn't even say what exactly her near-death experience was because she purchased this Labubu
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And then you've got another TikTok user named Jessica who burned her Labubu for, quote,
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This thing has been ruining my life and it is cursed.
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Are they just trying to make content that they know will get a lot of views?
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Some Christians, however, have said that they, so, well, I don't know.
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This person is Catholic and she said that she's taken her Labubu to church and that she is
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showing her doll at mass and that she asked her priest to give the doll a blessing.
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Here's something for me, Father, please bless this plushie so that it will be a source of
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evangelization and outreach, especially to those who are most persecuted.
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And for my Catholic listeners out there, I am not showing that to say that this is what
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I'm sure there are a lot of people in all different kinds of churches doing weird stuff.
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Just showing you an example of a very popular TikTok video that we saw that shows something
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I don't think it is possible for something to be demon possessed, for an object to be demon
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I think of 1 Corinthians 8, when Paul tells Christians that they are free to eat meat sacrificed
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I'm not saying that this is justification for buying the boo-boos.
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I'll tell you why you shouldn't do that in a second.
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But when we're talking specifically about this idea that these TikTokers are purporting that
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these objects are demon possessed, I think that is superstition and not a biblical understanding
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He's the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,
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But then on the other side, we have the power of God.
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And the power of God will once and for all defeat Satan.
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However, do these powers infuse inanimate objects?
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I do not believe that is something that happens or that we should be worried about.
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So the reason why I'm bringing up this passage of Paul, 1 Corinthians 8, 4 through 6, he's
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We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.
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For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many
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gods and many lords, he says, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things
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And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
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He does emphasize, though, the reason you wouldn't eat food sacrificed to idols is because it
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But the point he's making here is there is no inherent power in those icons or in those
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And we worship the Creator rather than the creature.
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And this, of course, is an Old Testament command against idolatry.
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That is what we read in the Old and the New Testament reiterated by Jesus himself.
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But also, we are commanded to have no other gods before God.
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We read in Exodus 23 through 5, you shall have no other gods before me.
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You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
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above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under earth.
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A lot of people need to understand that this is a big commandment that still applies to
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For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
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children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
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Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
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fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
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I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom
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Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion,
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1 John 5, 21, little children, keep yourselves from idols.
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So that is my problem with one of my problems with labubus, is that it encourages idolatry,
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that this fixation on materialism and collecting that which is here today and gone tomorrow is
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So from a biblical perspective, this is absolutely idolatrous.
00:33:25.720
Now, is it possible for you to buy a labubu and not worship your labubu, not be a part of
00:33:37.640
Again, that object in itself does not possess power.
00:33:45.760
This kind of scary, creepy toy that is kind of marketed as a child's toy, but also targeting
00:33:55.880
It's a trend that I find very culturally disturbing.
00:34:00.680
So for example, there are these different dolls that fit this category, Monster High dolls.
00:34:07.200
This is created by Mattel, where you have these witches, these very scary looking dolls that
00:34:13.640
again, are for children technically, but they are also being purchased by adults.
00:34:19.540
You will remember in 2022, Balenciaga faced a lot of backlash.
00:34:26.640
We'll link it in the description for featuring children holding teddy bear bags in bondage gear.
00:34:33.960
Of course, this sparked accusations, I think well-founded accusations of promoting child
00:34:41.260
Even Kim Kardashian, who has worked with Balenciaga for a long time, had something to say about
00:34:46.920
I'm sure that was just a PR statement, but she did actually say something, which, you know,
00:34:52.140
it's because it was a result of such, you know, bipartisan outrage about this.
00:34:57.740
Because understandably, if you don't know what BDSM gear is, I won't explain it to you, but
00:35:05.900
And the children in these advertisements were carrying around these little plushy bears that
00:35:10.780
again, looked kind of cute, but kind of scary in BDSM gear.
00:35:16.380
And then there also, if you remember, there were all kinds of things.
00:35:19.940
There was a Supreme Court case, if I'm remembering correctly, that was in one of these advertisements
00:35:26.120
and like papers strewn across a desk in one of these pictures that had to do with child
00:35:32.880
pornography, like of all of the papers in all of the court cases to put in an advertisement.
00:35:40.500
You put that Balenciaga in your advertisement along with children that were holding these
00:35:49.180
I'm telling you, this is a really strange trend.
00:35:54.640
And then also, there is the trend of straight-up idolatry.
00:35:58.920
In Thailand, the Labubu character has been incorporated into Buddhist amulets, sacred
00:36:03.900
tattoos, due to its perceived ability to bring wealth and good fortune.
00:36:10.260
Labubus were also featured in a Taoist ritual at a temple in Singapore during the Nine Emperor
00:36:17.660
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is an 11-day Taoist festival honoring the nine emperor gods who
00:36:23.260
they believe or did believe at some point were celestial deities.
00:36:26.920
And you can see this picture here incorporated in that.
00:36:30.520
And so there is, whether it's in the West or the East, this is casting some sort of spell
00:36:40.140
Whether it is the kind of outright idolatry, idol worship, pagan worship that we are seeing
00:36:47.080
through Labubus in a place like Thailand, or whether it's just part of this worship of
00:36:53.540
materialism and worthless items, or whether it is part of this very strange and disturbing
00:37:12.160
Either way, the combination of childlikeness and innocence and demonic characteristics like
00:37:21.360
chaos making, I think is a very dangerous influence on the people who are purchasing these items,
00:37:30.620
and especially on the culture that our children are growing into.
00:37:38.680
On the one hand, by itself, this is just a plushie doll.
00:37:44.060
Should we really be thinking about it this hard?
00:37:47.440
On the other hand, the things we give our children, the things we promote to our children,
00:37:53.340
really matter, especially if it sends them down a particular pipeline of interests.
00:37:59.940
So I will tell you exactly how I think we should think about this as moms and dads in just a second.
00:38:05.240
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Labubus may not be demon-possessed, but they are dark, and the obsession is idolatry that we should keep our kids far from.
00:39:45.960
I also think Labubu obsession is a rabbit hole into more sinister fixations.
00:39:55.140
Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.
00:40:00.480
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness.
00:40:04.100
We should keep our kids as far away from all forms of darkness and lead them toward what is beautiful and what is true.
00:40:11.840
And I think it's really easy as parents to encourage anything that makes our kids happy, especially for parents who maybe you have a child who is left out at school, has a hard time fitting in.
00:40:25.760
Maybe they don't feel like they're good at anything, and they finally find something that makes them feel good.
00:40:44.860
Maybe they've found something that fosters creativity.
00:40:52.320
And then you as a parent start to wonder, huh, is this healthy?
00:40:57.800
They're spending so much time watching this, playing this, talking to those people.
00:41:06.800
They have so few things that bring them happiness in life, this kid who might feel different.
00:41:13.520
And you would feel cruel taking that thing away that they are obsessed with.
00:41:18.520
But while I totally understand that, while I think that is a natural tug that you have in your heart to want your child to feel included and accepted and a part of something and liked and normal, here's the truth.
00:41:40.340
And your responsibility to God is not to always make them happy, but to help them be holy.
00:41:48.560
Do everything you can to cultivate a fixation on Jesus and a distaste for evil.
00:41:58.820
And I think that this labubu craze leads kids into a really bad and obsessive place, into things that are dark, things that are not of God.
00:42:13.540
That does not mean that I think that it's inherently demon-possessed.
00:42:22.140
That something is either of God or it is of Satan.
00:42:25.620
And we should do everything we can in stewarding this gift of children that God has given us to steer them in the direction of what is good and right and true.
00:42:36.120
And labubu is not leading to anything that is good or right or true.
00:42:46.560
Hopefully you have a good understanding of that now.
00:42:49.740
And by the way, I also think this about most anime.
00:43:06.260
Not that you have a bad kid if they have, like, any interest in any of these things.
00:43:13.320
But from what I know, these companies are predatory.
00:43:18.320
And I think when we ask the question, does this lead our child into good things, in a good direction, in interest, in that which God calls holy and good and beautiful or not, it's pretty obvious.
00:43:38.500
It is so hard to rein in our child's interest when things make them happy but aren't of the Lord.
00:43:49.940
Speaking of parenting, the Wall Street Journal published this really interesting article about gentle parenting.
00:43:56.340
That's something that we've been talking about for a while that has been a trend.
00:44:00.820
And I would say not just gentle parenting because gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit.
00:44:12.480
All of the things that God calls us to be, both just as—whether it's a professional person, you should be like that at work, and you should be like that with your kids in parenting.
00:44:24.580
And so there's nothing wrong with being gentle as a parent.
00:44:28.060
But gentle parenting, this trend, has turned into permissive parenting, where you will see these parenting experts will say, oh, I'm not for permissive parenting.
00:44:38.380
But then when you ask them how do you enforce boundaries, not just how do you state your boundaries, because all of us are really good nowadays of stating our boundaries, but how do you actually enforce boundaries with your children?
00:44:51.540
It comes down to, it seems to me, and I'm not saying every gentle parenting expert says this, it comes down to distracting your kids, manipulating your kids, bribing your kids, or just permitting your kids to walk all over you.
00:45:06.580
There has to be some kind of enforcement with their kids.
00:45:10.880
I am not saying that it has to be draconian at all.
00:45:14.900
I'm not saying that it has to be harsh, but there has to be rules.
00:45:22.060
And there has to be some way to enforce those boundaries.
00:45:25.980
Again, talking about our responsibility as parents.
00:45:30.580
When we read in Proverbs that if you spare the rod, you will spoil the child.
00:45:34.720
Well, that's not, by the way, specifically talking about spanking.
00:45:43.300
A rod of discipline, especially if you are looking in the context of a shepherd, that is used to train and to guide, not to beat.
00:45:53.240
And so you could make a justification if you wanted to for spanking, but that's not what that verse is about.
00:45:59.740
The truth is, if you don't discipline your kids, if you don't have rules, if you can't say no to your kids, if you don't have parameters, if you don't have regulations, discipline, direction for their life, you are spoiling them.
00:46:11.120
We also read in the book of Hebrews that the Lord disciplines the ones he loves.
00:46:16.320
That if you don't discipline your child, it's not because you love them, it's because you hate them.
00:46:20.780
And so these permissive parenting experts are not showing us how to love our children.
00:46:25.800
We can gently discipline and guide our children and point them in the right direction.
00:46:32.340
I think that's what Christians are called to do.
00:46:35.140
And when we go outside of those bounds, when we yell, when we get too angry, when we lose self-control ourselves because of whatever frustration we have in the moment, we should be seeking forgiveness and repenting of that.
00:46:47.420
I think that is just in general, big picture, biblical model of parenting, not the secular permissive parenting, because the secular world believes that all rules are wrong and that any standard of behavior or like standard of attire is some form of oppression.
00:47:09.360
We are to be stewards of order both in and outside of our home.
00:47:12.620
So now we have a reaction to this permissive parenting.
00:47:18.440
The Wall Street Journal says gentle parenting is out.
00:47:21.480
I would say permissive parenting is out, but it is, you know, euphemistically called gentle parenting sometimes.
00:47:27.820
And they say that the new parenting craze is F around and find out.
00:47:34.960
If you don't know what that is, that is a phrase that's used very often online.
00:47:42.000
So this parenting approach, the Wall Street Journal says, prioritizes direct consequences for a child's actions, diverging from the emotionally nurturing, gentle parenting trend.
00:47:53.140
This kind of parenting prioritizes teaching children accountability through tangible repercussions.
00:48:03.280
Tangible repercussions for bad actions, for disobedience.
00:48:08.760
It's also called tough love or authoritative parenting.
00:48:14.640
And some people say, oh, authoritarian parents.
00:48:21.200
If you're not the authority in your home, your three-year-old is going to be the authority in your home.
00:48:26.000
And you are setting them up for failure if your three-year-old is the authority in your home.
00:48:31.460
I am not saying any of this is a perfect parent, by the way.
00:48:36.180
You should listen to people who have 16 and 60 years of parenting under their belt.
00:48:43.480
But I can tell you from experience that if you as the grown-up are not the authority in your home, someone is going to be the authority.
00:48:50.100
And your kids should not have to carry that burden.
00:48:52.460
They don't have the emotional regulation, the maturity to be able to do that and make their own decisions every hour of every day.
00:49:01.000
This kind of parenting, says Wall Street Journal, involves letting children face the natural outcomes of their actions.
00:49:07.420
It's based on the idea that parents can ask and warn.
00:49:09.900
But if the child breaks the rules, mom and dad aren't standing in the way of the repercussions.
00:49:22.900
Go find it in the trash under the lasagna you didn't eat.
00:49:26.640
Parenting that's light on discipline has dominated the culture in recent decades.
00:49:30.340
But critics blame the approach for some of Gen Z's problems in adulthood.
00:49:33.280
Yes, like not being able to look in people's eyes, like looking at you like you are a crazy idiot for asking for coffee when you're literally at a coffee shop.
00:49:44.980
And just like the overemphasis on, I'm sorry, like that's outside of my realm of comfort.
00:49:57.180
But the overemphasis on this is what I am entitled to makes some Gen Z, not all Gen Z, some Gen Z really bad employees, really bad friends, and just really difficult to be around.
00:50:11.140
I have been around stellar Gen Z people, stellar teenagers and young adults.
00:50:16.640
And the difference is, the difference in these young people is that they had good parents.
00:50:23.040
They had parents who said, no, you're not going to get a phone.
00:50:25.240
I'm sorry, you're not going to get a phone when you're 11.
00:50:27.500
You're not going to have social media when you're 13.
00:50:33.220
But as Christians, we're called to be different.
00:50:35.340
So get used to being weird because as Christians, you're going to be seen weird everywhere you go for the rest of your life.
00:50:40.380
The parents that were okay with that, the parents who knew that their role was to steward and to be an authority and to love their children in that way,
00:50:48.860
while still being as kind and as gentle and as supportive as possible, those are the kids I've seen that can look you in the eye,
00:50:58.300
that can sit through dinner and they're not looking at their phone.
00:51:05.400
They're willing to work hard even when it's not fun.
00:51:08.840
We all want to raise kids who turn into those kinds of young adults.
00:51:15.220
But so many parents, I think especially Gen X parents, were just convinced that disciplining your kids is mean,
00:51:21.720
that it's brutal, that it's unkind, and that you're supposed to be your kid's friend.
00:51:28.260
There are times when you can act like your kid's friends, but not all the time.
00:51:33.160
That is not your primary job, and that's not the way to love our kids.
00:51:37.600
Now, I'm not endorsing every form of punishment that is listed here, but yes, having tangible repercussions for our kids' actions is loving.
00:51:52.080
Here's an example of this that I would not do because it's lack of self-control and immature.
00:51:57.680
Maybe some of you disagree with me out here, but there are also, again,
00:52:01.060
this is a secular response to secular, you know, psycho takeover, psychology takeover of parenting.
00:52:09.320
So there's a Fafo parent, Fafo parent, that's included in this article,
00:52:13.340
who says that she bit her child back to stop the behavior of biting.
00:52:22.820
I don't think, I would not advocate for something like that.
00:52:26.260
Um, but I do think that there should be tangible consequences that make sense that are directly related to what your child does,
00:52:34.800
because not only are you loving them, but you're also loving your neighbors by disciplining your child in a healthy way.
00:52:39.980
So I would say the response to the gentle parenting, we're moving better in the right direction.
00:52:50.980
I've just got one more thing to say, and it's a very happy clip to react to.
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I just wanted to play this clip from Joe Rogan's podcast.
00:54:42.380
He is the founder of the Three of Seven Project, and that is a ministry fostering physical,
00:54:47.500
mental, and spiritual growth through wilderness training and faith.
00:54:53.740
He reminds me a ton of Phil Robertson, a lot of Jace Robertson, but he did such a masterful
00:54:59.180
job of sharing the gospel to Joe Rogan, and you could tell that Joe was affected by what
00:55:10.120
If you're going to go watch it, I encourage you to start at like 15 minutes in because that's
00:55:16.320
And I just thought that Chad was very effective and very humble, and there were lots of different
00:55:22.040
parts I wanted to play, but I thought this clip was a really good summation of the gospel.
00:55:28.180
You know, I'm wondering, Joe, if the Almighty ain't calling you.
00:55:38.360
I think a lot of people are wondering what the Almighty is doing, what he's working.
00:55:50.640
See, Scripture is dripping with something that's called election.
00:56:00.680
A lot of people get mad about me talking about this, but this truth that we will never
00:56:14.620
choose God, the Almighty, we will never choose to believe.
00:56:20.780
As a matter of fact, Scripture actually says over and over again, the whole message of the
00:56:42.500
The message of the cross is foolishness to man.
00:56:49.620
We will never choose to believe in the message of what we call the gospel.
00:56:58.760
That is, that Jesus Christ died on the cross according to the Scriptures.
00:57:03.720
He was buried and that he rose again by his own power according to the Scriptures.
00:57:12.920
And the only way that we can or will ever believe that, like truly place our faith in
00:57:20.460
that and everything that's contained in that statement right there, because there's a lot
00:57:25.460
there, you could literally spend the rest of your life meditating on that right there,
00:57:31.940
the gospel, the what was done on the cross and by way of the resurrection of Christ.
00:57:47.440
And the only way that you can believe that is if the Almighty in his grace
00:58:01.500
There are so many other good parts of that, but it's absolutely true.
00:58:04.680
Just when you look at the fact that we are spiritually dead, as Ephesians 2 says, a dead
00:58:11.100
A dead person can't take themselves to the hospital.
00:58:13.240
A dead person can't clean themselves up and make themselves acceptable before God.
00:58:20.220
It is only by grace through faith that God makes us spiritually alive and saves us.
00:58:28.660
The past two people that have done a great job of sharing the gospel to Joe Rogan on his
00:58:36.960
A lot of people say, you don't care about evangelism if you're a Calvinist because you
00:58:43.720
We are compelled by the power of the Holy Spirit and obedience to God to evangelize, share
00:58:49.900
the gospel with others because it is the preordained means by which God has chosen to accomplish
00:58:59.200
Just like the mystery of prayer, although God is omnipotent, he uses prayer to work and
00:59:07.720
And so because we are commanded to do it, we share the gospel even on a podcast like Joe
00:59:16.700
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Thank you guys so much for listening and watching.