Ep 169 | Consent
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
182.10432
Summary
In this episode, we discuss the concept of consent and what it means to be "consentually consenting" in sexual relationships. Is that a good enough standard for us to abide by in our sexual relationships?
Transcript
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hey guys welcome to relatable happy wednesday i hope everyone has had a good week so far
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i had a replay on monday of one of the most listened to podcast episodes that we have had
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so far sometimes i do that if uh for whatever reason i am unable to record but i hope that
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you guys enjoyed that i got a lot of messages from you guys saying that you did and that is great
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i know that a lot of you wanted me to talk about impeachment today and i probably seem like the
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worst podcast host ever because i posted a poll on my instagram stories and you guys most of you it
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was a slim margin but most of you said that you wanted me to talk about impeachment and i'm not
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talking about impeachment i really do truly care about what you guys want me to talk about pretty
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much you guys totally dictate the content of this podcast but this particular time i just couldn't
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wade into those waters i kind of missed the first part of that news cycle once you've missed
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a big news cycle like this or at least a section of it it's really hard to get into it and i feel
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like so many people have talked about it and it's so convoluted at this point that i i'm just not going
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to dedicate this episode to that maybe maybe i will in the future if it gets to the point where i feel
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like i really have to it's an important thing to read about but you can go online you can read about
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it there are other podcasts that talk about it not that i would ever redirect you away from relatable
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but today we are going to talk about an important subject that i think has more cultural and social
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significance and much longer lasting significance and theological significance than the political
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moments that we're going through right now with potential impeachment and everything that goes along
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with that today we are going to talk about consent now an fyi for those of you moms who are riding
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in the car with your little children or maybe you listen to this at night as you are getting food
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ready for your kids those are some of the scenarios that some of you guys have told me
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as you're listening to my podcast that you are in um this is a pg-13 episode just a little bit
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there are some words some ideas that are mentioned that you probably i would guess are not ready
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to talk about with your little kids so i just wanted to let you know about that before we get
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started but we are going to talk about consent um it seems like a random topic to discuss but it's
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actually a central question in our society's conversations about morality especially pertaining
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to sex but not exclusively pertaining to sex a consent is used as the moral standard for many things
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concerning the body from sex to hormone therapy to abortion to assisted suicide so we are going to talk
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about if that is a good enough and effective moral standard for us to abide by so about consent like i
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said this is a central component of our conversation today about morality particularly particularly as it
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pertains to sexuality and to sex we hear that as long as something is consensual it is okay we hear
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this a lot in these kinds of conversations uh we are going to talk about this not just from a moral and
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theological perspective but of course from a biblical perspective as well i think it is important for
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christians to be able to talk about this in a way that makes logical and moral and theological sense
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so starting with the basics what is consent all of you i'm sure know the definition consent is permission
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given to someone consent is an explicit agreement to something uh we hear about consent most often when it
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pertains to two people in a sexual relationship a non-consensual sex would obviously be known as
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rape uh from the secular point of view or from the secular world we hear that as long as everyone
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involved in any kind of sexual act or relationship uh consents to what is going on then this is not only
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permissible but it is considered good that is the only qualification for morality when it comes to sex
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in the secular world today uh you have probably heard uh of the idea well it's actually not the
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only qualification but we're going to get into the stipulations in a little bit and talk about why it
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doesn't make sense uh you have probably heard the idea of ethical non-monogamy it was invoked to talk
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about this a few years ago people still talk about it uh this is something that people engage in that
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comes in many forms according to the experts over at huffington post it can range from open
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relationships to swinging relationships to three-person relationships relationships that are
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only sexual relationships that are committed and emotional brides.com of all places actually gives
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us some insight into what ethical non-monogamy is so in describing ethical non-monogamy uh writer
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gg engel says this a question often asked is wait if you're already having loads of sex with other people
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aren't you being unethical af this is a quote from the article aren't we supposed to honor marriage
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and keep it in our pants well here is her answer to that miss gg's answer on brides.com there is
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nothing inherently wrong with being in an open non-monogamous relationship there's only something
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wrong if your partner doesn't know you're in an open relationship you guessed it cheating cheating
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is betrayal it is unethical and wrong an open relationship is not cheating let's say it together
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an open relationship does not constitute cheating when a relationship is open in whatever form that
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takes for the couple in question everyone involved knows what is going on and everyone is happy with
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the setup the honesty is key so that's how brides.com describes this ethical non-monogamy it is ethical
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because people are being honest and open and everyone is consenting so as long as everyone
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is in agreement it is all okay no matter what and we should accept it and celebrate it um it is also
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used consent is also used to defend the right of people and even young minors to engage in things
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like hormonal therapy to alter their hormones to begin to physically change their bodies or physically
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favor not turn into but physically favor the opposite sex this is the child's choice and the parents
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should have no say our secular world says this will become law by the way if congress ever is able
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to pass the equality act but consent isn't just the moral standard used to judge the rightness of
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people's sexual behavior or their gender identity as people call it it is also used to justify things
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like assisted suicide uh what its advocates call dying with dignity um it is also used to justify in
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every situation no matter what for whatever reason abortion as long as a woman wants to get an abortion
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her choice is not just okay but it is good it is honorable it is celebrated it is glorified uh in these
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situations instead of consent sometimes you will hear the word autonomy or bodily autonomy uh so why is
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consent or autonomy the standard of the morality of the body and is it a trustworthy standard
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consent is an important moral standard and we will talk about why in just a second but consent becomes
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the only sexual bodily moral standard possible in a culture that rejects the god of scripture
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in a culture that exchanges the god of scripture for the god of self when you do not worship the god
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of scripture you will worship something and the default idol that all of us will worship when we don't
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worship the creator the god of the universe the only supreme moral law giver is the god of self we will
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worship ourselves we will do what we want to do we will follow what feels good to us we set our own
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standards for what is right and what is wrong based exclusively on what is most advantageous to us
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that is why the only barrier that matters to the god of self is autonomy or consent or control that she is
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approving of and in control of what happens to her um and as the god of scripture is concerned with his
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own glory and the things that please him so the god of self is concerned with her own glory and the
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things that please her just as the god of scripture is self-referencing for all things truth and all
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things wisdom and all things righteousness so the god of self is also self-referencing in all things
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truth and wisdom and righteousness but the god of self is very different than the god of scripture
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the god of self is finite she cannot see the future she doesn't really understand the past she is
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constantly making mistakes she is misjudging things she has very little control over anything
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the god of scripture however is infinite he is not limited by time he pre-existed time as we know it he
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knows the future he sees the past he has ever suspended in the eternal now he is all powerful he is
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never surprised he has never caught off guard he has never made a mistake and is himself the source of
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all knowledge all wisdom and all truth without him no absolute truth and no morality exists at all
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which is precisely where we get the moral standard of consent without belief in god without the belief in
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a transcendent supreme moral lawgiver the only reference that we have for what is right and what is wrong
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is ourselves and as we are naturally self-seeking as we are naturally self-protecting creatures the
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thing that we determine to make sure of is that everything that happens to us is what we want to
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happen to us and furthermore if we want something to happen to us or we want to do something then
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because uh the self is our god and because gods must be obeyed we should do it and no one has any right
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to judge us for it because who are you to say how i worship my own god but like all matters of so-called
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truth determined by the self uh the standard of consent is subjective it is arbitrary it is slippery
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when it is by itself uh first it is important to note like we said earlier and said we would explain
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that consent is an important standard uh the bible uh from a christian perspective it is a clear about
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the dignity of human beings and the worth of the human body a sex is to be between one man and one
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woman within the covenant of marriage where the husband is instructed to love his wife as he loves
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himself to love his wife as christ loves the church so self-sacrificially and the wife is to respect and
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submit to her loving husband uh in the old testament deuteronomy 22 also speaks to the evil of sexual assault
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but it cannot consent cannot be the only standard because as we've noticed it is self-referential
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in nature and anything that is self-referential that doesn't reference some higher power or some
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higher authority is subject to change to preference changes to cultural changes to social and moral
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changes in a society that is because autonomy and consent when not subject like i said to a transcendent
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standard beyond the self it is used they are used to justify anything they can be used to justify
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anything so for example let us take the case of consent as it pertains to sex right now non-consensual
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sex between two adults of course is considered rape as is a sex between an adult and a minor because of the
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power differential the minor is not viewed as having the ability to be able to consent to sex
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so it is still considered rape but the question is from the secular point of view is why why is it
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considered rape in the state of california a minor as young as 12 has a legal right to obtain gender
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affirming therapy without parental consent so that would include a puberty blockers and hormone treatment
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very possibly rendering them sterile for the rest of their lives it hasn't even been fully studied the
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other kinds of permanent physical harm that this will cause children who go through this type of therapy
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but we know that even post-surgery transgender transgender people are more likely to commit suicide
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than the rest of the population this is actually not there is no statistics whatsoever that prove that this
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is a due to stigma it is due to gender dysphoria that is classified as a mental disorder that is not
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healed by sex reassignment surgery since such surgery does not make a man a woman or a woman a man
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and this is from the heritage foundation a study in sweden on adults who underwent sex reassignment
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surgeries showed that they were 19 times more likely than the general population to commit suicide
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after undergoing operations this is particularly noteworthy because in sweden cultural support for
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those who identify as transgender is very strong so social stigma is less likely to account for the suicides
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so all of this to say if a child as young as 12 is able to make decisions for their lives
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with serious lifelong and even fatal consequences simply in the name of consent and in the name of
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autonomy why shouldn't they by the same logic according to the same people be able to consent to sex
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with an adult what makes consenting sex according to this standard by these people any more serious or any
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different than choosing to alter your body's chemistry in a futile effort to change your gender the logic
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is inconsistent it just doesn't add up which is why we will without a doubt increasingly see something
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like the normalization of pedophilia this is a why the language around it is already being sanitized
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it is no longer pedophile the politically a correct term is minor attracted person this is what happens
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when consent and autonomy are our standards of right and wrong everything is relative everything
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is subjective whatever someone chooses to do must be acknowledged as the right thing to do as the same
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goes for abortion where autonomy reigns so supreme that it disregards altogether the well-being and the
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life of the distinct human being inside of her and sacrifices it a defenseless child on the altar of self
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in the name of choice by justification of consent at the same child that would have been mourned had
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she been miscarried by a mother who wanted her when consent is not subject to absolute truth and an
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objective standard of morality it is used to justify anything and everything that the god of self demands
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and the god of self always demands that which is most convenient the same goes for assisted suicide
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uh because euthanasia is how people uh choose to die some people choose to die it is honored as
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quote dying with dignity uh but here again we see the slippery nature of the standard of consent right
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now people regard euthanasia as an acceptable choice only when someone has a terminal terminal illness
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uh only when their quality of life is taking a nosedive because of chronic pain or chronic sickness
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but again the question is why uh who says it can only be then if it's about the person's choice
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uh why is suicide uh ever regarded with any sort of stigma uh just as someone should be able to get
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an abortion on demand no questions asked in the name of choice why by that same standard should people
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not be praised for taking their own life in the name of choice uh what we see in all of these things
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is a society that is still wrestling uh between the values given to us by the god of the universe
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and the values of the god of self uh that is why we see so much cognitive dissonance uh the only reason
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why there are limits for now to the permissiveness of consent uh is because a we were made in the image
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of god and something in us knows right and wrong and also because the west and particularly america are
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still conditioned by a christian biblical ethic whether we admit it or not um it is the biblical
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worldview that is solely responsible for any societal limitations that we now see for the standard of
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consent um in the struggle between a biblical worldview and a secular materialist worldview accounts for this
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cognitive dissonance that we see so let me explain that um here is uh here is what that means
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uh the reason why child sex abuse is seen as wrong but children transitioning without parental consent
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is not is because some people still cling to the christian ethic of protecting and honoring children
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um after the jeffrey epstein scandal there was an interesting article for the theopolis institute
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online titled jeffrey epstein was right by ralph smith um it is a response to the claim that epstein made
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as was reported by the new york times that epstein uh said that criminalizing sex with teenage girls
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was a cultural aberration and that at times in history it was perfectly acceptable so that was
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epstein's justification for his horrific crimes um as this article on the theopolis institute goes on
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to say that is absolutely true epstein was absolutely right uh that not just throughout history but even
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today um in ancient eastern cultures both children and slaves were seen as sexual objects there was
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nothing wrong with using them for sexual satisfaction uh this wasn't a crime it wasn't weird this wasn't
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perverted there was no stigma around this this was simply what most men did i mean that is still the
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case in most muslim countries today children are still seen in many cases um as sexual objects and
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little girls are even married to adult men of course we know that muhammad himself
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married a six-year-old consummated the marriage uh had sex with her when she was nine years old
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um it was not until the spread of christianity and then even later the reformation and the
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translation of the bible that changed how human beings see sex especially in the west um it was
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christianity that emphasized what was already true in judaism that sex is sacred something shared
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between a man and a woman in the context of marriage and that marriage should be monogamous
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um all else the bible makes clear is called sexual immorality the bible of course doesn't give a
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specific age for what is appropriate for marriage and we know uh that cultural standards have changed
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over time it wasn't too long ago in the span of all of history that men and women were getting married
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when they were 14 or 15 years old that's not the case anymore there used to not be a gap between
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a childhood and adulthood there wasn't this kind of cushion of adolescence where you weren't yet
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already grown but you weren't a child that is a relatively new phenomenon the idea of a teenager
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is a relatively new phenomenon as soon as you were able to bear children you got married and you worked
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that was your entire purpose um but because within the judeo-christian uh ethic and the judeo-christian
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tradition procreation being fruitful and multiplying because it is a key purpose of marriage uh what is
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implied is that those who are married are of childbearing age that the implication there from
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the biblical text is that people who get married should at least be of childbearing age this was a
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mental shift as christianity spread throughout the world and later throughout europe um it is a
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mentality that has characterized how we have long viewed sex in the united states even despite efforts
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to trying to change our mind to move away from this mentality uh the author of this article that i've
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been citing also notes something else that is true the dignity afforded to women in the bible and the
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worth ascribed to children in the bible is unique among all other religions uh two groups of people
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typically viewed as objects among many cultures were given legal protection in mosaic law and were
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specifically attended to and paid attention to by jesus christ uh jesus locked eyes with the woman
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caught in adultery he healed the unclean woman he spoke to the samaritan woman at the well he was seen
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first after his resurrection by women uh jesus told the little children to come to him after his
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disciples tried to shoo them away and warned that if anyone causes one of these little children to
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sin one of these little ones to sin it would be better that a millstone be hung around his neck and
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tossed into the depths of the sea that is what the creator of the universe uh thinks about children
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the bible is unique among other religious texts in its instruction to husbands on how to treat their
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wives and fathers on how to treat their children colossians 3 18 through 21 says this wives submit
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to your husbands as is fitting to the lord husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them
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children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the lord fathers do not provoke your
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children lest they become discouraged of course this is repeated also in ephesians 5 and 6 a christianity
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is particularly concerned with those on the weak end of the power differential and the rest of the
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world simply is not they're just not christianity is unique in this there is no logical reason outside
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of the dignity and worth afforded to human beings as image bearers of the god of the holy bible to view
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women and children as anything other than objects for those in power to use and abuse they will always
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be physically lesser than men and could very well be taken advantage of but the christian ethic protects
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them and sustains their inherent value of the innate worth of a human being more than that of plants or
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animals is dictated by god rooted in creation is reflected in his plan of redemption for the human
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soul through christ and it also speaks to why murder and inflicting harm is abhorrent and even harassment
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and unkindness is wrong it speaks to why abortion is evil a child knitted together in his or her mother's womb
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this is why assisted suicide is wrong these are all an assault on the image of god the imago dei
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and without this standard of innate human value set by the god of scripture consent as a moral rule
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just doesn't hold up for very long it is subject to change based on what the god of self
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wants the materialist worldview does not have an answer as to why something like rape or sexual
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assault or child abuse is wrong they can say it's common sense it's not common sense there are millions
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of people in countries around the world who have never and will never consider consent or the age of
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their sexual partner to be a variable uh to be considered and they will not be considered criminals or
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perverts uh darwinism does not account for morality if we are just stardust if we are just matter if we are
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just clumps of cells with no significance beyond ourselves and if the things that we view as right or
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wrong are strictly determined by what uh by what allows humanity to advance if survival of the fittest
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is the only qualification for what should or shouldn't be done then you have no basis to say that rape is
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wrong you've got no basis to say that pedophilia is wrong you've got no basis to say that any form of
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abortion or infanticide is wrong or that murder or assault is wrong as long as people are reproducing
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enough for humanity to keep going you don't have a reason for your morality you've got no basis to say
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that anything is wrong outside of what helps you why is it wrong to hurt someone else why is it wrong to
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abuse why is consent a standard to abide by at all there is no answer to these things outside of the
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rules given to us by the transcendent moral law giver the only true god the alpha the omega the
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beginning the end the source of all wisdom and power and knowledge that is why consent by itself
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without this is not a good enough standard consent alone without submitting to objective truth and
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morality leads to the justification of decisions that hurt you and other people sexual immorality
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harming your body with sex change surgery or hormone blockers abortion euthanasia this is where consent
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alone autonomy alone gets us it's not a good enough standard this is also why by the way the founders knew
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that if americans did not submit themselves to god the nation wouldn't be free for long when we are our
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our own gods with our own subjective truths anarchy ensues and a centralized power has to step in
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and to do something about it consent alone is not good enough the next time you hear someone say as long
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as two adults are consenting to whatever they do that's the only moral standard you as a christian
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have something to say to that that's not biblically true that's not historically true it's not logically true
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it doesn't make any sense to the moral mind because we are all made in the image of god
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it bothers us there is something about assault that bothers each of us we should listen to that and
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then ask ourselves why that is okay so that's all i have to say about that i did want to uh i did want
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to answer a question that i got on instagram so i made a comment about this a kid's creation book that
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i was reading that said that adam and eve are or were the son and daughter of god and the only reason why
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i'm not completely comfortable with that is the implication that it has the implication
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is that all of god's creatures are all all humans on earth are god's children that's something that
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we hear a lot we're all god's children well no that's not true we are all made in the image of god
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and therefore we have inherent value and that is important that's why we respect the dignity of
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individuals is because we were all made by god and we are equal in worth and in value in that sense
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because we are image bearers however we are not all children of god children of god son or daughter
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of god is a name that is reserved for those who have been adopted into god's family by way of jesus
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christ this is what romans 8 14 14 through 17 says for all who are led by the spirit of god are sons of
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god for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit
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of adoption as sons by whom we cry abba father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
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that we are children of god and if children then heirs heirs of god and fellow heirs with christ
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provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified in him so there is a stipulation
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uh to be called a child of god all who are led by the spirit are a spirit of god are sons of god that is
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the qualification we uh read in ephesians that the spirit is the down payment of our inheritance it is
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what is given to us when we um become one with christ it is uh being raised from death to life
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in christ by way of the death and the resurrection of jesus christ when we are uh reconciled to god
00:27:03.200
by jesus that is when we are children of god so that is a special name for those who are christians who
00:27:10.080
are followers of christ it's not true that we are all children of god like i said you can recognize
00:27:16.040
someone's worth recognize someone's dignity and recognize that they are an image bearer of god
00:27:21.720
without qualifying them as a child of god that's just not theologically accurate and i think it's
00:27:26.520
important to make that distinction when we look at the reflection of adoption and when we look at the
00:27:32.580
the metaphor i guess it's not really a metaphor but it can be a metaphor of adoption um as it pertains
00:27:38.640
to god taking us in as members of his family he didn't have to do that but he chose to do that by grace
00:27:44.820
and that is why we are not all children of god but some of us are um that's all i have to say today
00:27:51.600
i think i was thinking about answering another question but now i can't think of what it was so
00:27:57.540
i'll have to save it uh if you guys have any recommendations for future episodes any recommendations
00:28:02.040
for future guests uh please let me know you can message me on instagram and i really do i really am
00:28:08.760
sensitive to what you guys want to hear i know we didn't talk about impeachment today and that's
00:28:13.560
something that you wanted to discuss i'm sorry for ignoring my poll results results maybe if you
00:28:18.440
guys really pressure me i'll talk about it next week but i'm gonna have to take some time to really
00:28:22.460
think about it another thing i wanted to talk about and dedicate an entire episode to is climate change
00:28:26.980
so i'm thinking about doing that next wednesday if that's something that you're interested in
00:28:31.160
also i just actually thought about one thing i wanted to address that i know we talked about on
00:28:35.160
social media uh first of all thank you so much to those of you who have reached out to me
00:28:39.420
after the vaccine episodes i know those were controversial i knew i was going to get pushed
00:28:43.820
back and that's okay i totally did not go into that conversation either of those conversations
00:28:48.520
thinking that oh everyone's going to be totally happy with me i guess i did naively think that
00:28:53.820
talking to both sides or talking to um at least two sides i know i didn't talk to someone who is like
00:28:59.820
adamantly anti-vaccine i talked to someone who advocates for people who are anti-vaccine or who
00:29:06.380
are vaccine hesitant or vaccine concerned vaccine questioning vaccine curious whatever you want to
00:29:11.240
call it i didn't talk to someone who is totally on the other end of the spectrum i talked to people
00:29:16.020
who represented two sides of it though and i guess i thought that that would appease people but
00:29:20.120
it did not appease some people and that's okay you can't make everyone happy but i've gotten so many
00:29:24.880
messages and emails from you guys saying how thankful you were for kind of non-emotional conversations
00:29:30.080
about vaccines and i'm very glad to have facilitated that i might talk about it again in the future
00:29:35.660
i think it's an important topic i really do i don't want to be someone who ignores it just
00:29:39.420
because i'm going to get pushed back every time i talk about it or just because it's going to be
00:29:43.160
controversial there are going to be people who unfollow me send me mean crazy messages leave me
00:29:49.320
one-star reviews whatever it's i mean yes it's annoying but i guess if you can't stand the heat get
00:29:54.600
out of the kitchen and i have decided to be in the kitchen on this issue just a little bit i mean i
00:30:00.400
haven't given um my opinions because i actually think because this is such a multi-faceted topic
00:30:06.600
it's really important for you to hear from experts and to make this decision on your own it's also a
00:30:11.640
very personal decision where i can stand uh very clearly is on the side though of personal liberty i do
00:30:19.680
get very worried and very wary of bureaucrats um forcing you basically basically in one way or another
00:30:27.780
forcing you to vaccinate if that's not something you choose to do do i think education is key do i
00:30:34.020
think conversations are key yes i do get worried about big government stepping in and saying this
00:30:39.200
is what you have to do with your children that really concerns me um and again i think that there's
00:30:44.780
even more to be said about all of that and and more to be explained there but i just wanted to give
00:30:50.200
that short little announcement thank you to you guys if you were very upset by those conversations
00:30:55.520
but you're still here thank you for still being here i'm glad that we have the opportunity to learn
00:31:00.200
together that's all i want to do is learn with you guys so thank you for listening and i will see you