Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 204 ｜ Should Christians Own Guns？

00:00:00.400 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Thanks so much for listening or watching if you are

00:00:05.500 watching on YouTube. If you do love this podcast, I would greatly appreciate you leaving a review

00:00:13.380 on iTunes or just telling your friends about it. Whatever you want to do to show your love

00:00:17.860 of Relatable, that would mean so much to me. You guys have been faithful to do that over

00:00:23.020 the past couple of years and it is awesome. Best listeners ever. So thank you so much

00:00:28.660 for that. Today we are going to talk about a subject that I get asked about a lot is the

00:00:33.700 Second Amendment. We're going to talk about it a little bit. Really, I could go in depth

00:00:37.180 into the history of the Second Amendment and all of that, but I want to approach it more

00:00:42.120 from answering it as a Christian because there has been this debate that's kind of broken

00:00:48.300 out over the last couple of weeks among Christians. It's really been around for a very long time,

00:00:53.280 but it comes and goes about whether or not Christians should own guns. Should we care 0.62

00:00:58.780 about the Second Amendment? Should we support the Second Amendment? And so I'm really just

00:01:02.260 going to scratch the surface of that conversation and the reason we're not going fully into it

00:01:06.860 today is because there are some other questions that I got from you guys that I want to answer,

00:01:11.740 but let's start with this gun debate. So like I said, this has been happening, if not for centuries,

00:01:18.660 at least for decades, and certainly the past few years as things have just gotten more and more

00:01:26.180 political, but especially even more recently over the past couple of years, there have been all kinds

00:01:32.920 of divisions within the church about political issues. And I would say guns probably hasn't been the

00:01:40.960 biggest one. Some of the most divisive issues have been gay marriage, transgenderism, race, abortion.

00:01:50.480 Guns hasn't necessarily been at the forefront, but because a couple of weeks ago there was that

00:01:56.160 terrible shooting in White Settlement, Texas, where the awesome FBI agent shot the shooter in the head,

00:02:03.980 and so instead of dozens of people being killed that day, only two people were killed.

00:02:08.500 And most people, I mean, most people on the right, most conservatives, and I would assume most

00:02:13.940 conservative Christians, hailed this guy as a hero. I believe rightly so. I mean, he was brave.

00:02:21.260 He didn't hesitate. I don't know if you have seen the video. It might be kind of, and I don't say this

00:02:27.260 word ironically. I say this sincerely. It might be kind of triggering, and so, because you do see someone

00:02:32.320 get shot, but you also see a stunning act of heroism of someone who was so well trained that he

00:02:38.180 got out of his gun. He leaned forward. He shot the shooter in the head, and so many people were saved

00:02:43.540 because of that. I mean, I just think that it is a stunning act of bravery, and I am so thankful

00:02:49.520 for the selflessness and the preparation and the sacrifice of this man. Even though he didn't have

00:02:57.400 to sacrifice his life, thank goodness, he did sacrifice his safety, certainly. So there was a tweet

00:03:05.840 that went out by someone who is a Christian who has an interesting perspective on this,

00:03:11.300 and we went back and forth on Twitter, and I don't know enough about this person, so I'm not

00:03:16.560 questioning their faith. We obviously have different political perspectives. Apparently, we have different

00:03:22.380 theological perspectives, too. I'm not going to malign his entire character or his entire faith or heart

00:03:27.940 or anything like that. I just happen to passionately disagree with this. So he, in general, said that

00:03:34.880 this guy who shot the shooter, that this trained, I think he used to be an FBI agent, but he certainly

00:03:41.380 was well trained with his gun. He owns a gun range in Texas. He said that this guy, this tweeter said that

00:03:47.120 this guy did the pragmatic thing, but not the godly thing, and that Christians are called to be godly,

00:03:53.540 but not pragmatic. So obviously, this got Christian conservative Twitter very upset,

00:04:00.280 and I was included in that. But to give him credit, or to be fair, he is certainly not alone

00:04:08.280 in this thinking. John Piper, for example, he wrote an article back in 2015 that is titled,

00:04:16.520 Should Christians Be Able to Arm Themselves? And I will link it. It's from Desiring God, and I want you 0.98

00:04:22.180 to be able to read that on your own. As always, John Piper lays out a very biblical argument, or it's

00:04:27.020 an argument that is based in the Bible. And I love John Piper. I go to him as my source. Not

00:04:36.480 personally. I don't know him personally, but I go to Desiring God. I go to his podcast, Ask Pastor John

00:04:41.040 for many of my theological questions. And in this particular article that he wrote from this, I have

00:04:48.420 more questions than I do counter arguments to him. I would just want to ask a bunch of clarifying

00:04:54.300 questions. And maybe some of them are rhetorical questions. I don't want them to come across as

00:04:58.980 sarcastic, but they are rhetorical. So some of the points that John Piper makes in this article from

00:05:04.980 2015 is that Christians are not to return evil for evil, but they're to return evil for good, or evil 0.98

00:05:12.100 with good. And I think that's from Romans 12. He makes the point that our hearts are to move away from the

00:05:17.060 desire for self-protection and self-preservation and towards willing suffering and sacrifice. He

00:05:22.640 makes the point that we are to enter into heaven gladly, and that that is a testimony of our faith

00:05:27.300 in Christ. He also makes the point that we are to trust in God as our refuge, not in a gun.

00:05:35.160 So he also says, so, well, here's one of my first questions that he does address in this article,

00:05:42.360 and that I did ask the person who tweeted that this man who defended his church against a mass

00:05:49.820 shooting did an ungodly thing. This is the question I have, and John Piper addressed it.

00:05:55.540 Would you protect your wife and kids from an armed intruder? Or would you simply stand to the side?

00:06:01.980 Would you try to karate chop them? Like, what would be the options here? And I didn't say this part,

00:06:09.060 but I'll say it now. And it's kind of graphic, because I really want people to think about this,

00:06:14.080 who hold to the position that John Piper apparently does, and that this guy apparently does,

00:06:19.100 just to put this into focus. And I'm warning you now, you probably don't want your kids to hear

00:06:23.020 what I'm about to say. Could any Christian man honestly say that if his wife and daughter were 0.92

00:06:29.540 being raped, were being assaulted and murdered in his own home or wherever he can see it, and he had

00:06:35.900 the power, he had the ability to do something about it, that this man would not employ every possible

00:06:42.780 tool that he had to stop it? If the criminal had a gun and therefore he probably couldn't be stopped

00:06:48.560 by hand-to-hand combat, at least not effectively, would it be the loving and godly thing to do for

00:06:54.760 this husband and father to sit back and to watch? Or to employ knowingly ineffective tactics or

00:07:01.420 ineffective means to protect his wife and daughter when he could have a very effective

00:07:06.400 means in wielding a firearm? Now, Piper says that this question is ethical reductionism,

00:07:16.940 but I don't think so. I think it's a legitimate question, because if we shouldn't protect ourselves

00:07:21.860 against violence and instances of religious persecution, should we, according to his interpretation,

00:07:27.400 protect ourselves against other kinds of violence? And beyond that, can we protect other people?

00:07:33.260 Is that, according to John Piper's interpretation and this guy who tweeted this, is that godly?

00:07:39.540 Is a husband who refuses to defend his family against violence really loving his wife as Christ

00:07:46.000 loves the church, as he's called to do in Ephesians 5? It's just, I'll just be honest with you,

00:07:50.840 it is very hard for me to see how a capable man stepping aside or employing ineffective memes,

00:07:57.640 like some kind of karate chopper, I don't know, trying to stop him from wielding his AR-15 with his

00:08:04.540 bare hands, that to me, when you have the option of having an equalizer of a gun, a stepping aside or

00:08:12.360 using ineffective means, it, to me, it seems, uh, it seems like cowardice. It seems wrong. It seems

00:08:22.300 like not a true reflection of God the Father, not a true reflection of the sacrificial behavior of

00:08:27.760 Christ. Uh, other questions that I have in this, am I loving my neighbor if I see that he, she, or she

00:08:35.260 is in danger and I don't help them by doing what I can to fend off their attacker? Am I really

00:08:40.500 helping the least of these if I don't use whatever means I can to defend the vulnerable against murder

00:08:46.520 or violence? Uh, I may be taking the life of the shooter or attacker, but in doing so, I'm also saving

00:08:52.660 the life of dozens, maybe hundreds of people. Uh, sure, the ideal would be to stop their violence

00:08:57.980 without deadly force. I agree with that, but what if that's not possible? Should I just stand by and

00:09:03.660 watch? Should I hide as, as women and children and, and babies and handicapped people as people

00:09:11.080 who can't defend themselves get slaughtered? Is that really my most loving role? Is that how I care

00:09:18.400 for the least of these? I just don't see, I don't see that being the biblical case. Um, is defense with

00:09:24.940 a gun? This is another question that I have. Is defense with a gun the only impermissible form of

00:09:30.280 defense according to this pacifist interpretation? What if you kill someone with your bare hands

00:09:35.200 because they're trying to kill someone else? Is that allowed? And if so, why? Why is a gun the 0.97

00:09:40.560 only restriction here? Um, in light of the logic of this article, is all war also condemned by the New

00:09:47.920 Testament? Uh, the biggest thing for me is that it simply seems to lack compassion, not to do everything

00:09:55.360 possible to help those who are in danger as much as we can. Uh, I cannot imagine not taking every measure

00:10:02.240 possible to protect a child, for example, from a murder or a kidnapper. Um, I am open, of course, to

00:10:08.520 being wrong on this, but I cannot bring myself to agree with this interpretation of this issue. And to go

00:10:17.380 beyond that, when we're not just talking about self-defense or defense of someone else, defense of the

00:10:22.800 vulnerable defense, which I would argue anyone standing in front of a shooter is vulnerable, but

00:10:28.200 especially people who are physically incapable of defending themselves. I mean, I just cannot imagine

00:10:33.980 that the godly thing to do would be to stand by and to watch that happen as a baby is gunned down. If I

00:10:39.400 am physically able to stop it, I cannot imagine that that is what, that is the right thing to do. I just

00:10:46.760 can't. But even beyond that, if we're just talking about the defense of the Second Amendment, I very much

00:10:51.520 think that there is a Christian defense for the Second Amendment. Um, not because you have to be 0.99

00:10:55.640 a gun nut. You don't even have to own a gun yourself. You could be totally uncomfortable with

00:11:00.400 guns yourself and still support the Second Amendment. Why? Because you believe in what the founders

00:11:04.640 believed in. Like, you believe in a protection from tyranny. And people say, oh, well, that's, that

00:11:10.280 doesn't mean anything today. You're not really afraid of tyrants. Yes, the Second Amendment protects the

00:11:15.280 First Amendment. It protects the other amendments. There is, uh, a practical and, uh, even a big

00:11:22.640 picture reason for Americans being able, being free to own a gun. And you don't have to own a gun

00:11:30.340 to see that the Second Amendment protects the first. So if you are a Christian who cares about the First 0.87

00:11:35.420 Amendment, you care about free speech, you care about freedom of religion, you care about freedom of the

00:11:40.080 press, freedom to petition the government, freedom to assemble. You care about all of these very

00:11:45.520 precious liberties that matter so much, uh, that don't, uh, of course, God is not limited or freed by

00:11:53.540 our Constitution, but who have created so much human flourishing. If you're a Christian who cares about 1.00

00:11:58.540 the First Amendment, then you necessarily have to care about the Second Amendment. Yes. And of course,

00:12:03.820 there's just the argument for personal liberty in general. And again, I'm going to make the least of

00:12:09.240 these argument. It's hard for me to justify. I can't, I can't make an argument for having compassion,

00:12:17.640 for example, for the single mom who lives in the inner city, who is protecting their child,

00:12:25.180 who is up against the threat of violence every night. I cannot justify a policy that would make it

00:12:30.580 illegal for her to own a firearm. I just can't see how that is the compassionate and the godly take.

00:12:37.660 Again, I think we should be against violence in general, um, violence that the Bible rules as

00:12:45.540 bad violence. There is sometimes there is effective violence. There is, I don't want to say good

00:12:51.380 violence, but I guess necessary violence. We should be as peaceful as we possibly can. We should be as

00:12:57.760 submissive as we possibly can while always looking out for the needs of other people, for the safety and

00:13:04.420 protection of other people. And I do think for the safety and protection of yourself to a degree,

00:13:09.940 yes, we know that every human being, every Christian who wields the gospel or who shares

00:13:15.500 the gospel, every Christian is going to suffer for the name of Christ. And I'm not saying we should 1.00

00:13:21.220 constantly be seeking comfort, but I also don't see a good biblical case for purposely,

00:13:28.420 for purposely making ourselves vulnerable when we do have this incredible freedom and this

00:13:33.340 incredible right to defend ourselves and our families and our communities and our neighborhoods,

00:13:37.340 uh, from evil. So again, I'm open to being wrong on this. I am open to conversation about this,

00:13:46.320 but it's very, it's very hard for me to see that the compassionate take is to rob people of their right

00:13:53.280 to own a gun and to not save other people, uh, from an attacker who has a gun with our own guns.

00:13:59.660 I just, I don't see it. I don't see the logic behind it. Okay. I'm going to answer some of the

00:14:04.760 questions that you guys have. Okay. I want to talk about a trend that people have asked me about in

00:14:11.500 the past and I keep meaning to do a podcast episode on it and I just have it. So you guys have probably

00:14:19.320 seen the phrase, okay, boomer, and it's gotten to the point to where it's not really funny anymore.

00:14:25.400 It kind of had its heyday to where people were saying, okay, boomer. And if you don't know what

00:14:30.660 it means, I'll tell you what it means because many of you have escaped the terrible clutches

00:14:37.780 of Twitter in your life. You have decided not to be on Twitter. So you might, maybe you've never

00:14:42.300 heard of okay, boomer. And for that, you should be grateful, but it's basically in response to

00:14:48.380 something someone says that is baby boomer like. So something that is outdated or even something that

00:14:54.740 is kind of like more conservative, like pull yourself up by your bootstraps or anything that

00:14:59.580 is like traditional, people will say, okay, boomer too. Or if you complain about something or you

00:15:06.600 complain to someone, someone might call you like a Karen, kind of all in the same boat. Okay, boomer.

00:15:12.720 It's making fun of the baby boomer generation. There's a lot of young people that have a huge problem 0.80

00:15:18.560 with the baby boomer generation that blame baby boomers for all of our economic problems, 0.62

00:15:24.480 for all of our social problems, for all of our political divisiveness, which is just hilarious.

00:15:29.680 I mean, younger generations have been doing this for ever and older generations have been looking

00:15:35.240 at younger generations for a long time and have been saying that, um, you know, y'all are going to

00:15:41.660 ruin everything, which I don't happen to disagree. It might. I'm wondering if generation Z like 1.00

00:15:47.140 has its name for a purpose because it's just going to be the end. We're not, America's not going to

00:15:53.100 carry on anymore because generation Z, that's another thing I wanted to talk about. I read an

00:15:57.060 article that generation Z is the most biblically illiterate generation that has ever existed in 0.73

00:16:01.100 the United States. I have absolutely no problem believing that whatsoever. Not only have they been

00:16:05.620 indoctrinated by public schooling for the most part, but, uh, they have also just, their minds have

00:16:12.180 been so infected by social media and media in general. They just don't know. And they have so

00:16:18.280 many lies that fill their mind and they just don't know. And I just don't think that they're taught the

00:16:22.940 same critical thinking skills and tools of analysis that, um, a lot of older people believe not all

00:16:29.600 generations, of course, but a good chunk of them anyway. So it might be true. Baby boomers in the 1.00

00:16:35.880 silent generation might be correct in saying that the younger generations really are going to ruin 1.00

00:16:40.960 the country. But, um, yes, a lot of younger generations have complained about older generations

00:16:47.960 for a long time. And maybe some of the complaints are true. Maybe some of the economic problems are

00:16:54.800 because of the baby boomers. Maybe they have some outdated ideas, whatever. It's really what I've 1.00

00:17:00.560 noticed is that it's mostly like, it's mostly the people on the left that are saying that,

00:17:07.700 uh, for example, young people, if they take out a debt to pay for college, they should pay that debt

00:17:12.360 back and not rely on someone else to pay that debt for them. Any kind of argument for taking

00:17:17.720 responsibility, someone will say, okay, boomer too. And the point that I want to make is with all of

00:17:24.100 this is that there is this, um, I don't like it. I'll just say that. I don't like the whole okay

00:17:30.720 boomer thing. First of all, I never thought it was funny. It's used by people who don't really have

00:17:34.720 an argument for something that someone is saying. And maybe someone is making an argument that's a

00:17:39.660 bit out of touch or outdated, but I don't like the generational warfare. I just don't like it.

00:17:45.180 Uh, I feel like I can criticize millennials because I am a millennial and there are many things that I do

00:17:50.240 and think and say that are very millennial. Like I'm very much a typical millennial in a lot of ways

00:17:55.520 and a lot of ways I'm not, I got married young. I have a kid. I am conservative. I am a Christian

00:18:04.640 who goes to church. So in that way, I'm not a typical millennial, but in a lot of ways, I totally

00:18:10.060 am with social media and Amazon and Uber eats and all of the quick and easy stuff that millennials are 0.97

00:18:18.820 addicted to. So am I Netflix, all of that. So I feel like I can criticize, uh, I can criticize

00:18:25.880 people in my own generation, but this generational warfare stuff of young people saying that baby

00:18:31.820 boomers are the source of all of their problems. It's just, in my opinion, it is just another 1.00

00:18:38.720 consequence of Marxism. It's just another consequence of the divisiveness that leftism has

00:18:45.800 really stoked over the past few years. It's there's class warfare. And so you see a lot of people on

00:18:52.560 Twitter saying eat the rich, uh, not just on Twitter, just in general, as socialism becomes more

00:18:58.080 mainstream in America, you see a lot of people, uh, obviously talking about how, um, white, obviously we

00:19:06.660 agree that white supremacy is a problem, but labeling things that aren't white supremacy is white 0.99

00:19:11.140 supremacy, making the stupid claim that only white people can be racist. And so you see a lot of racial 1.00

00:19:17.200 warfare. You see the left propagating religious warfare, demonizing, not just Christians, but also

00:19:23.560 Jewish people. You see, uh, so you see class warfare, you see religious warfare, you see racial warfare, 0.99

00:19:30.480 you see cultural warfare. Uh, the left is constantly pitting one group against the, uh, the other. And the

00:19:36.260 reason why I say it's a Marxist mentality is because Marx taught to view the world between, or through

00:19:42.260 the lens of the oppressor versus the oppressed. And so they constantly have to give people oppression

00:19:49.020 points and decide who gets the most social or cultural or political capital. And so if you've got,

00:19:55.700 you know, a white man versus a white woman, then the white woman has more oppression points. And so you 1.00

00:20:01.260 have to believe her, like in the case of Dr. Ford and so on. So I've talked about intersectionality

00:20:07.360 many times. That's the tool that they use to decide who is on the side of the oppressed, who is on the

00:20:12.720 side of the oppressor. And that's why it's so hard for them to talk about, for example, a situation in

00:20:18.000 which like the black Hebrew national nationalists, uh, the cult group that has been attacking, uh, Jews

00:20:26.080 in parts of the country. They won't talk about that because that messes with their whole

00:20:31.040 intersectional idea that white supremacy is the only problem of racism that we have. The truth is

00:20:36.920 white supremacy isn't the only problem of racism that we have. We have lots of different forms of

00:20:42.780 racism in this country. Some of it has to do with white people. Some of it doesn't have to do with 0.56

00:20:46.940 white people, but the Marxist mentality will not allow them to take notice of that because they are 0.98

00:20:53.620 so entrenched in this idea of the oppressed versus the oppressor. They have to see people only as

00:20:59.480 associated to their groups and, uh, they don't see people as individuals. And so they have to assign

00:21:06.640 oppression points according to your group associations, not to who you are as an individual.

00:21:10.980 And that makes their worldview totally messed up. So all that to say that is what causes them to

00:21:17.840 constantly wage warfare one group against another. So male versus female, gay versus straight,

00:21:24.940 black versus white immigrant versus non-immigrant. And of course you could say the conservatives have

00:21:31.920 waged that same, that same kind of war. It's just in a different way and coming from a different

00:21:36.520 place. And we've talked about that before, but it's also a generation versus generation. So to me,

00:21:42.980 the okay boomer as innocuous as it might seem is actually a pretty gross product of the division

00:21:50.420 that we have in our country. That is much things, not entirely things, but as much things to the

00:21:56.240 Marxism that has become so popular over the past. I mean, it's been around for a long time, but

00:22:01.400 especially over the past decade. And as I always say, certainly Christians are not Christians, but 0.93

00:22:07.420 conservatives have their own fault in this. President Trump hasn't been the most unifying

00:22:11.960 president that we have ever had. He hasn't been the most divisive either, but he hasn't been the most

00:22:15.980 unifying. Conservatives are not a unifying across the board. But Marxism is certainly what has drawn

00:22:22.960 us apart. The left and the right started coming far, far apart, becoming more and more polarized,

00:22:27.900 not during President Trump's presidency, as we always talk about, but during President Obama's

00:22:32.140 presidency. That is when we moved so far apart ideologically. And Marxism, far leftism had a huge

00:22:37.780 part of that. I mean, you can look at the studies that I always cite on Pew Research that show there are a

00:22:42.740 lot more people on the far left than there are on the far right, and they have moved that way over the

00:22:47.700 past 10 years, whereas the right has stayed pretty much in the same place. So I'm just saying, I don't

00:22:56.880 like, I think the OK Boomer thing is immature, and I also just think it's a product of the oppressed 0.99

00:23:04.880 versus the oppressor stupid dynamic, Marxist dynamic that's been going on. And I don't think that it's 0.97

00:23:12.560 productive because there might be mistakes. Sure, I'm sure there are mistakes that baby boomers made. 1.00

00:23:17.660 There are mistakes that every generation made. But we would be very, we would be totally remiss

00:23:23.320 if we did not learn from, that's our parents' generation. If you're a millennial, your parent

00:23:28.480 is a baby boomer. If they were born, I think it's between 1946 and 1966. I think that's what it is.

00:23:35.660 My parents were born in 1960, and so they're baby boomers. I mean, we would be so stupid 1.00

00:23:40.340 not to learn from them because every generation makes mistakes, but they still have decades 0.99

00:23:46.000 of wisdom on us, decades of experience. And a lot of our families, a lot of our parents were

00:23:55.020 the first parents in their entire family line to actually make something of themselves,

00:23:59.820 to actually be financially successful, to actually be able to provide something for us that they

00:24:05.300 weren't provided for. That was definitely true of my family. I think that's true of a lot of your

00:24:09.840 parents too, so we would be absolute idiots not to learn from them when it comes to leadership, 1.00

00:24:15.160 when it comes to business, when it comes to life, when it comes to spirituality. They don't have it 1.00

00:24:20.220 all together. No generation dies. But we are missing out on a lot if we think that we are the sources of

00:24:26.900 our own wisdom. And that explains why a lot of young people on the left are as naive as they are,

00:24:33.060 why they are so enchanted by socialism and even communism. I saw a poll the other day that said 36%

00:24:38.980 of young people think that communism isn't bad. Newsflash communism and Nazism be the same amount 0.85

00:24:45.960 of evil. Same amount of evil. Okay? I know that's a controversial statement, but it's true. Communism is 0.83

00:24:51.580 just as evil as Nazism. But that would probably be why a lot of people on the left are the way that they 0.60

00:25:00.580 are. They are unwilling to learn from people, certainly Generation Z. And I think we're probably 0.83

00:25:08.000 all like this when we're teenagers and young 20s, but unwilling to learn from people that are older

00:25:15.100 than us. That doesn't mean that we have to agree with all of their ideas, but it does mean that we

00:25:19.060 should draw wisdom from them. And every time someone says something that we don't like or we feel

00:25:23.400 it's outdated, every time, if we just respond with, okay, boomer, I mean,

00:25:27.160 first of all, it's just not funny anymore. And secondly, I think that it is, I think that it's

00:25:34.860 indicative of immaturity and an unwillingness to learn the things that we need to learn.

00:25:44.580 And another thing is, my dad and I talk about this a lot. So there is a consequence with this

00:25:51.000 called generational warfare and the liberalization of younger generations. One consequence of that is

00:25:58.040 that people are getting married later. Now, I know a lot of you out there, you want to be married,

00:26:04.340 but you just haven't found anyone. So I'm certainly not speaking to you, but to the people who have

00:26:08.880 purposely, you know, put off marriage until they're 35 and then they have kids when they're 40. Again,

00:26:15.760 I'm not talking to those of you who maybe that wasn't part of your plan, but that just happened.

00:26:20.920 I'm talking to the people who decided, you know, I'm just going to commit to my career until I'm 35

00:26:25.560 and I'm not going to get married on purpose. And I'm just going to have one kid when I'm 38.

00:26:30.160 One of the natural consequences of that is that kids like this next generation of kids,

00:26:35.100 they're not going to have grandparents. Like their grandparents are going to be 80 years old when

00:26:39.240 they're born. Whereas I so benefited from having a close relationship with my grandmother. My husband

00:26:46.280 had a close relationship with his grandparents. I so benefited from her wisdom, from her presence in

00:26:52.240 my life, from her companionship, from her spiritual shepherding. I mean, grandparents are so valuable in

00:26:58.680 the lives of children and in the lives of parents. Like I can't imagine not being able to have my parents

00:27:04.540 to go to for parenting advice and just life advice in general. So one consequence of this

00:27:11.120 hyper-individualization that our society has latched onto that has resulted in people getting married

00:27:18.080 later and having kids later and later, one consequence of that is going to be a lack of

00:27:22.340 grandparents. At least the grandparents are going to be too old by the time their child or their grandchild

00:27:28.460 is old enough to appreciate them, uh, that they're not going to have any kind of influence or

00:27:35.040 relationship. And that's a problem. That's a problem. Uh, that's a huge problem that we're not

00:27:41.280 going to be able to have that wisdom on hand from older generations. So just something, just something

00:27:48.100 to think about. I think that's a very negative consequence by the way. And I'm very thankful for

00:27:52.780 my parents who also happen to be baby boomers. Um, okay. There was one other question about,

00:27:59.680 there was one other question that I wanted to answer that really had nothing to do with any of

00:28:04.300 this stuff, but I asked you guys to send me questions that I want to try to get to as many

00:28:09.440 as I can, but I'm just going to leave on this one. Um, so someone asked me what I think about,

00:28:15.800 so this is for moms. If you're not a mom, you might not understand what I'm about to say,

00:28:20.440 but if you are a mom, you might understand. So someone asked me, uh, what I think about fed

00:28:25.260 is best. And it kind of maybe has to go with what we were just talking about. So fed is best

00:28:30.020 is a phrase that's used in the mom community, especially online to say, whether you nurse

00:28:34.720 your baby or whether you get formula to your baby, all that matters is that you're, uh, that your baby

00:28:40.620 is fed. And I don't know where this person who is asking me the question is coming from. So I'm not

00:28:45.360 going to assume that I just, to be candid, I, in general, I in general agree with that. Yes.

00:28:51.060 That is best. Whether you feed your child formula or you nurse your child fed is obviously best.

00:28:56.880 If you are committed to nursing your baby and it's just not working, like baby isn't latching,

00:29:03.440 you're not producing enough, whatever, uh, then that's not best. And you know, obviously it would

00:29:09.580 be time to move on according to whatever your pediatrician says, whatever you can do to sustain

00:29:16.160 and to nourish your child is obviously the best route. I think the question is coming from a place

00:29:23.000 of, do I feel that people use that phrase simply because they don't want to be inconvenienced by

00:29:30.640 nursing or they just don't like nursing. And so they've just decided not to do it. It's real. I'm

00:29:38.000 very slow. I am very slow to give any kind of judgment or condemnation on that because there's

00:29:44.060 so many different variables that come with feeding your child. And I do not claim to know all of it,

00:29:50.000 but I have gotten this question a couple of times. Of course, I believe that any choice that we make

00:29:56.760 for our child, whether it comes to nursing them or whether it comes to school or whatever it is,

00:30:02.760 any choice that we make on our child for our child that is based on our own, strictly on our own

00:30:08.780 convenience and not for what is best for them, it's probably not the best choice. Now, I do think

00:30:15.700 that our lives and our mental health, if you will, obviously factors into the choices that we make for

00:30:22.740 our children 100%. But, uh, are we also called to do things that are hard, that are uncomfortable,

00:30:30.060 that are painful, that benefit our children? Yes. And so it's a balance. That's really all I can

00:30:36.460 say. I know that's kind of general because like I, we exclusively nurse. There are a lot of people

00:30:42.540 that I know that don't and wanted to, and there are a lot of people that have chosen not to. It's

00:30:47.960 very hard for me to say what is best for everyone in that situation, but any choice that we make,

00:30:52.880 no matter what it is as a mom that is strictly based on our selfishness, that is strictly based on

00:30:58.240 our comfort and convenience is probably not the right choice to make. But when it comes to this

00:31:03.800 particular issue, it's so hard to say what is best for a particular mother and child. And in general,

00:31:10.580 I mean, I do trust that women make, make the best decision. I don't think that there are very many

00:31:15.520 moms who are only saying, I only want to do what's best for me and I don't care what's best for my baby. 1.00

00:31:22.140 I mean, I hope that's not true. I know we talk a lot about the toxic mom culture online who

00:31:27.520 is constantly talking about how terrible mother is and how mothering is and how terrible their kids

00:31:33.360 are. And that's awful. And I hope that this is not a consequence of that of people just not caring

00:31:38.160 what's good for their kids. But I think most moms want to do what is best for their children while 1.00

00:31:43.820 also considering as much as they have to their own health. So that's all I have to say on that.

00:31:51.440 Okay. Those are all the questions that I'm going to answer today. I always take way longer. And so

00:31:56.560 I'm not able to answer them, but I am doing the Instagram live. So tune in there. I don't know

00:32:02.620 what I'm going to do it this week, but I'll let you know. And thank you so much for listening as

00:32:06.620 always. And we will be back soon.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - January 13, 2020

Ep 204 ｜ Should Christians Own Guns？

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