Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 02, 2019


Ep 169 | Consent


Episode Stats

Length

31 minutes

Words per Minute

182.10432

Word Count

5,689

Sentence Count

4

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

7


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

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy wednesday i hope everyone has had a good week so far
00:00:05.680 i had a replay on monday of one of the most listened to podcast episodes that we have had
00:00:11.320 so far sometimes i do that if uh for whatever reason i am unable to record but i hope that
00:00:17.160 you guys enjoyed that i got a lot of messages from you guys saying that you did and that is great
00:00:21.580 i know that a lot of you wanted me to talk about impeachment today and i probably seem like the
00:00:28.600 worst podcast host ever because i posted a poll on my instagram stories and you guys most of you it
00:00:35.160 was a slim margin but most of you said that you wanted me to talk about impeachment and i'm not
00:00:39.680 talking about impeachment i really do truly care about what you guys want me to talk about pretty
00:00:46.340 much you guys totally dictate the content of this podcast but this particular time i just couldn't
00:00:53.820 wade into those waters i kind of missed the first part of that news cycle once you've missed
00:01:00.300 a big news cycle like this or at least a section of it it's really hard to get into it and i feel
00:01:05.820 like so many people have talked about it and it's so convoluted at this point that i i'm just not going
00:01:12.100 to dedicate this episode to that maybe maybe i will in the future if it gets to the point where i feel
00:01:16.460 like i really have to it's an important thing to read about but you can go online you can read about
00:01:20.920 it there are other podcasts that talk about it not that i would ever redirect you away from relatable
00:01:25.160 but today we are going to talk about an important subject that i think has more cultural and social
00:01:31.320 significance and much longer lasting significance and theological significance than the political
00:01:36.340 moments that we're going through right now with potential impeachment and everything that goes along
00:01:42.320 with that today we are going to talk about consent now an fyi for those of you moms who are riding
00:01:49.280 in the car with your little children or maybe you listen to this at night as you are getting food
00:01:53.640 ready for your kids those are some of the scenarios that some of you guys have told me
00:01:57.120 as you're listening to my podcast that you are in um this is a pg-13 episode just a little bit
00:02:03.720 there are some words some ideas that are mentioned that you probably i would guess are not ready
00:02:08.800 to talk about with your little kids so i just wanted to let you know about that before we get
00:02:14.240 started but we are going to talk about consent um it seems like a random topic to discuss but it's
00:02:20.380 actually a central question in our society's conversations about morality especially pertaining
00:02:27.100 to sex but not exclusively pertaining to sex a consent is used as the moral standard for many things
00:02:35.140 concerning the body from sex to hormone therapy to abortion to assisted suicide so we are going to talk
00:02:42.020 about if that is a good enough and effective moral standard for us to abide by so about consent like i
00:02:50.200 said this is a central component of our conversation today about morality particularly particularly as it
00:02:58.200 pertains to sexuality and to sex we hear that as long as something is consensual it is okay we hear
00:03:04.640 this a lot in these kinds of conversations uh we are going to talk about this not just from a moral and
00:03:11.460 theological perspective but of course from a biblical perspective as well i think it is important for
00:03:16.900 christians to be able to talk about this in a way that makes logical and moral and theological sense
00:03:23.060 so starting with the basics what is consent all of you i'm sure know the definition consent is permission
00:03:30.500 given to someone consent is an explicit agreement to something uh we hear about consent most often when it
00:03:37.440 pertains to two people in a sexual relationship a non-consensual sex would obviously be known as
00:03:43.720 rape uh from the secular point of view or from the secular world we hear that as long as everyone
00:03:49.920 involved in any kind of sexual act or relationship uh consents to what is going on then this is not only
00:03:56.860 permissible but it is considered good that is the only qualification for morality when it comes to sex
00:04:03.140 in the secular world today uh you have probably heard uh of the idea well it's actually not the
00:04:08.940 only qualification but we're going to get into the stipulations in a little bit and talk about why it
00:04:13.200 doesn't make sense uh you have probably heard the idea of ethical non-monogamy it was invoked to talk
00:04:19.080 about this a few years ago people still talk about it uh this is something that people engage in that
00:04:24.020 comes in many forms according to the experts over at huffington post it can range from open
00:04:30.020 relationships to swinging relationships to three-person relationships relationships that are
00:04:34.980 only sexual relationships that are committed and emotional brides.com of all places actually gives
00:04:41.960 us some insight into what ethical non-monogamy is so in describing ethical non-monogamy uh writer
00:04:49.180 gg engel says this a question often asked is wait if you're already having loads of sex with other people
00:04:57.140 aren't you being unethical af this is a quote from the article aren't we supposed to honor marriage
00:05:03.480 and keep it in our pants well here is her answer to that miss gg's answer on brides.com there is
00:05:09.800 nothing inherently wrong with being in an open non-monogamous relationship there's only something
00:05:16.240 wrong if your partner doesn't know you're in an open relationship you guessed it cheating cheating
00:05:22.020 is betrayal it is unethical and wrong an open relationship is not cheating let's say it together
00:05:27.620 an open relationship does not constitute cheating when a relationship is open in whatever form that
00:05:33.940 takes for the couple in question everyone involved knows what is going on and everyone is happy with
00:05:40.120 the setup the honesty is key so that's how brides.com describes this ethical non-monogamy it is ethical
00:05:47.800 because people are being honest and open and everyone is consenting so as long as everyone
00:05:53.020 is in agreement it is all okay no matter what and we should accept it and celebrate it um it is also
00:05:59.040 used consent is also used to defend the right of people and even young minors to engage in things
00:06:04.480 like hormonal therapy to alter their hormones to begin to physically change their bodies or physically
00:06:10.160 favor not turn into but physically favor the opposite sex this is the child's choice and the parents
00:06:16.640 should have no say our secular world says this will become law by the way if congress ever is able
00:06:22.760 to pass the equality act but consent isn't just the moral standard used to judge the rightness of
00:06:29.200 people's sexual behavior or their gender identity as people call it it is also used to justify things
00:06:35.880 like assisted suicide uh what its advocates call dying with dignity um it is also used to justify in
00:06:42.920 every situation no matter what for whatever reason abortion as long as a woman wants to get an abortion
00:06:49.680 her choice is not just okay but it is good it is honorable it is celebrated it is glorified uh in these
00:06:56.640 situations instead of consent sometimes you will hear the word autonomy or bodily autonomy uh so why is
00:07:04.840 consent or autonomy the standard of the morality of the body and is it a trustworthy standard
00:07:12.220 consent is an important moral standard and we will talk about why in just a second but consent becomes
00:07:18.580 the only sexual bodily moral standard possible in a culture that rejects the god of scripture
00:07:25.800 in a culture that exchanges the god of scripture for the god of self when you do not worship the god
00:07:32.580 of scripture you will worship something and the default idol that all of us will worship when we don't
00:07:38.040 worship the creator the god of the universe the only supreme moral law giver is the god of self we will
00:07:44.500 worship ourselves we will do what we want to do we will follow what feels good to us we set our own
00:07:50.420 standards for what is right and what is wrong based exclusively on what is most advantageous to us
00:07:56.700 that is why the only barrier that matters to the god of self is autonomy or consent or control that she is
00:08:05.000 approving of and in control of what happens to her um and as the god of scripture is concerned with his
00:08:11.880 own glory and the things that please him so the god of self is concerned with her own glory and the
00:08:18.060 things that please her just as the god of scripture is self-referencing for all things truth and all
00:08:24.660 things wisdom and all things righteousness so the god of self is also self-referencing in all things
00:08:31.280 truth and wisdom and righteousness but the god of self is very different than the god of scripture
00:08:38.100 the god of self is finite she cannot see the future she doesn't really understand the past she is
00:08:43.280 constantly making mistakes she is misjudging things she has very little control over anything
00:08:48.540 the god of scripture however is infinite he is not limited by time he pre-existed time as we know it he
00:08:55.280 knows the future he sees the past he has ever suspended in the eternal now he is all powerful he is
00:09:01.200 never surprised he has never caught off guard he has never made a mistake and is himself the source of
00:09:06.320 all knowledge all wisdom and all truth without him no absolute truth and no morality exists at all
00:09:13.620 which is precisely where we get the moral standard of consent without belief in god without the belief in
00:09:22.620 a transcendent supreme moral lawgiver the only reference that we have for what is right and what is wrong
00:09:28.940 is ourselves and as we are naturally self-seeking as we are naturally self-protecting creatures the
00:09:35.980 thing that we determine to make sure of is that everything that happens to us is what we want to
00:09:41.760 happen to us and furthermore if we want something to happen to us or we want to do something then
00:09:47.500 because uh the self is our god and because gods must be obeyed we should do it and no one has any right
00:09:54.460 to judge us for it because who are you to say how i worship my own god but like all matters of so-called
00:10:01.940 truth determined by the self uh the standard of consent is subjective it is arbitrary it is slippery
00:10:08.660 when it is by itself uh first it is important to note like we said earlier and said we would explain
00:10:14.480 that consent is an important standard uh the bible uh from a christian perspective it is a clear about
00:10:21.380 the dignity of human beings and the worth of the human body a sex is to be between one man and one
00:10:28.380 woman within the covenant of marriage where the husband is instructed to love his wife as he loves
00:10:33.600 himself to love his wife as christ loves the church so self-sacrificially and the wife is to respect and
00:10:39.220 submit to her loving husband uh in the old testament deuteronomy 22 also speaks to the evil of sexual assault
00:10:45.320 but it cannot consent cannot be the only standard because as we've noticed it is self-referential
00:10:52.640 in nature and anything that is self-referential that doesn't reference some higher power or some
00:10:58.160 higher authority is subject to change to preference changes to cultural changes to social and moral
00:11:05.500 changes in a society that is because autonomy and consent when not subject like i said to a transcendent
00:11:13.100 standard beyond the self it is used they are used to justify anything they can be used to justify
00:11:20.700 anything so for example let us take the case of consent as it pertains to sex right now non-consensual
00:11:29.040 sex between two adults of course is considered rape as is a sex between an adult and a minor because of the
00:11:35.760 power differential the minor is not viewed as having the ability to be able to consent to sex
00:11:42.960 so it is still considered rape but the question is from the secular point of view is why why is it
00:11:49.320 considered rape in the state of california a minor as young as 12 has a legal right to obtain gender
00:11:55.680 affirming therapy without parental consent so that would include a puberty blockers and hormone treatment
00:12:00.800 very possibly rendering them sterile for the rest of their lives it hasn't even been fully studied the
00:12:06.360 other kinds of permanent physical harm that this will cause children who go through this type of therapy
00:12:11.280 but we know that even post-surgery transgender transgender people are more likely to commit suicide
00:12:17.720 than the rest of the population this is actually not there is no statistics whatsoever that prove that this
00:12:23.680 is a due to stigma it is due to gender dysphoria that is classified as a mental disorder that is not
00:12:30.040 healed by sex reassignment surgery since such surgery does not make a man a woman or a woman a man
00:12:36.140 and this is from the heritage foundation a study in sweden on adults who underwent sex reassignment
00:12:41.660 surgeries showed that they were 19 times more likely than the general population to commit suicide
00:12:47.500 after undergoing operations this is particularly noteworthy because in sweden cultural support for
00:12:53.880 those who identify as transgender is very strong so social stigma is less likely to account for the suicides
00:13:00.700 so all of this to say if a child as young as 12 is able to make decisions for their lives
00:13:06.720 with serious lifelong and even fatal consequences simply in the name of consent and in the name of
00:13:14.160 autonomy why shouldn't they by the same logic according to the same people be able to consent to sex
00:13:21.380 with an adult what makes consenting sex according to this standard by these people any more serious or any
00:13:29.240 different than choosing to alter your body's chemistry in a futile effort to change your gender the logic
00:13:35.940 is inconsistent it just doesn't add up which is why we will without a doubt increasingly see something
00:13:42.680 like the normalization of pedophilia this is a why the language around it is already being sanitized
00:13:48.660 it is no longer pedophile the politically a correct term is minor attracted person this is what happens
00:13:56.140 when consent and autonomy are our standards of right and wrong everything is relative everything
00:14:02.640 is subjective whatever someone chooses to do must be acknowledged as the right thing to do as the same
00:14:09.260 goes for abortion where autonomy reigns so supreme that it disregards altogether the well-being and the
00:14:15.280 life of the distinct human being inside of her and sacrifices it a defenseless child on the altar of self
00:14:22.160 in the name of choice by justification of consent at the same child that would have been mourned had
00:14:29.080 she been miscarried by a mother who wanted her when consent is not subject to absolute truth and an
00:14:36.100 objective standard of morality it is used to justify anything and everything that the god of self demands
00:14:42.960 and the god of self always demands that which is most convenient the same goes for assisted suicide
00:14:50.060 uh because euthanasia is how people uh choose to die some people choose to die it is honored as
00:14:56.340 quote dying with dignity uh but here again we see the slippery nature of the standard of consent right
00:15:03.380 now people regard euthanasia as an acceptable choice only when someone has a terminal terminal illness
00:15:08.740 uh only when their quality of life is taking a nosedive because of chronic pain or chronic sickness
00:15:14.940 but again the question is why uh who says it can only be then if it's about the person's choice
00:15:22.040 uh why is suicide uh ever regarded with any sort of stigma uh just as someone should be able to get
00:15:28.920 an abortion on demand no questions asked in the name of choice why by that same standard should people
00:15:35.020 not be praised for taking their own life in the name of choice uh what we see in all of these things
00:15:40.320 is a society that is still wrestling uh between the values given to us by the god of the universe
00:15:46.820 and the values of the god of self uh that is why we see so much cognitive dissonance uh the only reason
00:15:53.760 why there are limits for now to the permissiveness of consent uh is because a we were made in the image
00:16:01.240 of god and something in us knows right and wrong and also because the west and particularly america are
00:16:07.780 still conditioned by a christian biblical ethic whether we admit it or not um it is the biblical
00:16:13.760 worldview that is solely responsible for any societal limitations that we now see for the standard of
00:16:20.760 consent um in the struggle between a biblical worldview and a secular materialist worldview accounts for this
00:16:28.720 cognitive dissonance that we see so let me explain that um here is uh here is what that means
00:16:35.140 uh the reason why child sex abuse is seen as wrong but children transitioning without parental consent
00:16:42.240 is not is because some people still cling to the christian ethic of protecting and honoring children
00:16:48.920 um after the jeffrey epstein scandal there was an interesting article for the theopolis institute
00:16:55.860 online titled jeffrey epstein was right by ralph smith um it is a response to the claim that epstein made
00:17:02.900 as was reported by the new york times that epstein uh said that criminalizing sex with teenage girls
00:17:09.620 was a cultural aberration and that at times in history it was perfectly acceptable so that was
00:17:14.540 epstein's justification for his horrific crimes um as this article on the theopolis institute goes on
00:17:20.740 to say that is absolutely true epstein was absolutely right uh that not just throughout history but even
00:17:26.720 today um in ancient eastern cultures both children and slaves were seen as sexual objects there was
00:17:33.360 nothing wrong with using them for sexual satisfaction uh this wasn't a crime it wasn't weird this wasn't
00:17:39.060 perverted there was no stigma around this this was simply what most men did i mean that is still the
00:17:44.640 case in most muslim countries today children are still seen in many cases um as sexual objects and
00:17:50.660 little girls are even married to adult men of course we know that muhammad himself
00:17:54.120 married a six-year-old consummated the marriage uh had sex with her when she was nine years old
00:17:58.940 um it was not until the spread of christianity and then even later the reformation and the
00:18:04.180 translation of the bible that changed how human beings see sex especially in the west um it was
00:18:11.560 christianity that emphasized what was already true in judaism that sex is sacred something shared
00:18:17.720 between a man and a woman in the context of marriage and that marriage should be monogamous
00:18:22.640 um all else the bible makes clear is called sexual immorality the bible of course doesn't give a
00:18:29.080 specific age for what is appropriate for marriage and we know uh that cultural standards have changed
00:18:34.240 over time it wasn't too long ago in the span of all of history that men and women were getting married
00:18:40.000 when they were 14 or 15 years old that's not the case anymore there used to not be a gap between
00:18:45.380 a childhood and adulthood there wasn't this kind of cushion of adolescence where you weren't yet
00:18:50.300 already grown but you weren't a child that is a relatively new phenomenon the idea of a teenager
00:18:55.500 is a relatively new phenomenon as soon as you were able to bear children you got married and you worked
00:19:01.080 that was your entire purpose um but because within the judeo-christian uh ethic and the judeo-christian
00:19:10.100 tradition procreation being fruitful and multiplying because it is a key purpose of marriage uh what is
00:19:17.220 implied is that those who are married are of childbearing age that the implication there from
00:19:23.460 the biblical text is that people who get married should at least be of childbearing age this was a
00:19:29.960 mental shift as christianity spread throughout the world and later throughout europe um it is a
00:19:34.760 mentality that has characterized how we have long viewed sex in the united states even despite efforts
00:19:41.240 to trying to change our mind to move away from this mentality uh the author of this article that i've
00:19:46.680 been citing also notes something else that is true the dignity afforded to women in the bible and the
00:19:51.660 worth ascribed to children in the bible is unique among all other religions uh two groups of people
00:19:57.200 typically viewed as objects among many cultures were given legal protection in mosaic law and were
00:20:03.340 specifically attended to and paid attention to by jesus christ uh jesus locked eyes with the woman
00:20:09.480 caught in adultery he healed the unclean woman he spoke to the samaritan woman at the well he was seen
00:20:14.240 first after his resurrection by women uh jesus told the little children to come to him after his
00:20:19.080 disciples tried to shoo them away and warned that if anyone causes one of these little children to
00:20:24.080 sin one of these little ones to sin it would be better that a millstone be hung around his neck and
00:20:28.640 tossed into the depths of the sea that is what the creator of the universe uh thinks about children
00:20:34.140 the bible is unique among other religious texts in its instruction to husbands on how to treat their
00:20:39.800 wives and fathers on how to treat their children colossians 3 18 through 21 says this wives submit
00:20:46.920 to your husbands as is fitting to the lord husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them
00:20:52.020 children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the lord fathers do not provoke your
00:20:57.500 children lest they become discouraged of course this is repeated also in ephesians 5 and 6 a christianity
00:21:04.220 is particularly concerned with those on the weak end of the power differential and the rest of the
00:21:10.260 world simply is not they're just not christianity is unique in this there is no logical reason outside
00:21:17.980 of the dignity and worth afforded to human beings as image bearers of the god of the holy bible to view
00:21:24.380 women and children as anything other than objects for those in power to use and abuse they will always
00:21:31.500 be physically lesser than men and could very well be taken advantage of but the christian ethic protects
00:21:36.960 them and sustains their inherent value of the innate worth of a human being more than that of plants or
00:21:44.300 animals is dictated by god rooted in creation is reflected in his plan of redemption for the human
00:21:50.700 soul through christ and it also speaks to why murder and inflicting harm is abhorrent and even harassment
00:21:57.700 and unkindness is wrong it speaks to why abortion is evil a child knitted together in his or her mother's womb
00:22:04.200 this is why assisted suicide is wrong these are all an assault on the image of god the imago dei
00:22:09.980 and without this standard of innate human value set by the god of scripture consent as a moral rule
00:22:16.520 just doesn't hold up for very long it is subject to change based on what the god of self
00:22:22.300 wants the materialist worldview does not have an answer as to why something like rape or sexual
00:22:29.200 assault or child abuse is wrong they can say it's common sense it's not common sense there are millions
00:22:36.240 of people in countries around the world who have never and will never consider consent or the age of
00:22:42.700 their sexual partner to be a variable uh to be considered and they will not be considered criminals or
00:22:48.420 perverts uh darwinism does not account for morality if we are just stardust if we are just matter if we are
00:22:55.460 just clumps of cells with no significance beyond ourselves and if the things that we view as right or
00:23:00.320 wrong are strictly determined by what uh by what allows humanity to advance if survival of the fittest
00:23:07.040 is the only qualification for what should or shouldn't be done then you have no basis to say that rape is
00:23:13.260 wrong you've got no basis to say that pedophilia is wrong you've got no basis to say that any form of
00:23:19.220 abortion or infanticide is wrong or that murder or assault is wrong as long as people are reproducing
00:23:24.580 enough for humanity to keep going you don't have a reason for your morality you've got no basis to say
00:23:29.920 that anything is wrong outside of what helps you why is it wrong to hurt someone else why is it wrong to
00:23:36.580 abuse why is consent a standard to abide by at all there is no answer to these things outside of the
00:23:44.620 rules given to us by the transcendent moral law giver the only true god the alpha the omega the
00:23:49.760 beginning the end the source of all wisdom and power and knowledge that is why consent by itself
00:23:56.440 without this is not a good enough standard consent alone without submitting to objective truth and
00:24:02.140 morality leads to the justification of decisions that hurt you and other people sexual immorality
00:24:08.440 harming your body with sex change surgery or hormone blockers abortion euthanasia this is where consent
00:24:14.600 alone autonomy alone gets us it's not a good enough standard this is also why by the way the founders knew
00:24:23.860 that if americans did not submit themselves to god the nation wouldn't be free for long when we are our
00:24:30.160 our own gods with our own subjective truths anarchy ensues and a centralized power has to step in
00:24:35.980 and to do something about it consent alone is not good enough the next time you hear someone say as long
00:24:43.040 as two adults are consenting to whatever they do that's the only moral standard you as a christian
00:24:48.900 have something to say to that that's not biblically true that's not historically true it's not logically true
00:24:54.600 it doesn't make any sense to the moral mind because we are all made in the image of god
00:24:59.640 it bothers us there is something about assault that bothers each of us we should listen to that and
00:25:05.820 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
00:25:13.780 to answer a question that i got on instagram so i made a comment about this a kid's creation book that
00:25:19.000 i was reading that said that adam and eve are or were the son and daughter of god and the only reason why
00:25:25.800 i'm not completely comfortable with that is the implication that it has the implication
00:25:29.860 is that all of god's creatures are all all humans on earth are god's children that's something that
00:25:36.300 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
00:25:41.620 and therefore we have inherent value and that is important that's why we respect the dignity of
00:25:46.100 individuals is because we were all made by god and we are equal in worth and in value in that sense
00:25:51.900 because we are image bearers however we are not all children of god children of god son or daughter
00:25:57.240 of god is a name that is reserved for those who have been adopted into god's family by way of jesus
00:26:02.740 christ this is what romans 8 14 14 through 17 says for all who are led by the spirit of god are sons of
00:26:10.900 god for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit
00:26:15.940 of adoption as sons by whom we cry abba father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
00:26:21.880 that we are children of god and if children then heirs heirs of god and fellow heirs with christ
00:26:27.880 provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified in him so there is a stipulation
00:26:33.680 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
00:26:42.260 the qualification we uh read in ephesians that the spirit is the down payment of our inheritance it is
00:26:48.580 what is given to us when we um become one with christ it is uh being raised from death to life
00:26:56.620 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
00:31:04.920 guys back here on friday
00:31:06.360 you