Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 223 ｜ Prepared, Not Panicked

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. I hope everyone has had a great week that you are

00:00:06.140 staying healthy, you are washing your hands, you are covering your cough and all that good stuff

00:00:13.400 and staying home if you are sick and maybe skipping the visit to the nursing home for the

00:00:19.520 next few weeks because we're all trying to take every precaution that we can to make sure that we

00:00:24.620 and those that we love stay healthy, right? That's what we're going to talk about just

00:00:28.660 a little bit more today. I know we talked about the coronavirus last week and you might be thinking,

00:00:32.860 oh my gosh, I'm so tired of talking about this, but hopefully I'll offer a perspective that is

00:00:38.780 refreshing, that is comforting while still realistic and one that you haven't heard over

00:00:44.880 and over again. I do think it's important that we stay in the know on this and that we don't just

00:00:49.380 push it to the side and pretend that it's not happening, that does a disservice to ourselves

00:00:53.480 and to those around us. So we're going to talk about that, not for too long, but we are going

00:00:58.260 to dive into it. Then we're going to finally get to a little bit of the AOC monologue that she gave in

00:01:05.220 regards to religious liberty. And then we are also going to touch on, if we have time, some election

00:01:13.980 update and the latest Supreme Court case in which or about which a lot of liberals are mad, especially

00:01:23.260 busy, Philip. So I'm going to try to get to all of that and maybe even more if I have time, but I got

00:01:28.260 to go kind of quickly through it. Okay. So coronavirus, things aren't looking great. Things aren't looking

00:01:35.100 as bad as they could, but they're also not looking great. So we've got the death toll that is rising.

00:01:40.820 We've got the number of infections that are rising. We've got the number of community infections that

00:01:46.260 are rising. We've got people who haven't traveled outside of the country, just maybe have traveled to

00:01:51.200 another state or haven't traveled at all. They've come down with the coronavirus and it's very hard

00:01:55.660 to figure out where they actually got it. It's one thing if everyone who has it in the United States,

00:02:02.040 we know that they either visited Italy in the past couple of weeks or they visited Iran a few weeks

00:02:08.060 ago or recently or China. But when we have people in California and even in Texas just showing up with 0.53

00:02:14.840 the coronavirus and of course a lot of other states as well, but showing up with the coronavirus

00:02:19.580 without any known source outside of the United States, of course, that's when things get a little

00:02:25.840 bit panicked because it becomes much harder to contain. We've got an incubation period. So that is

00:02:32.380 the period that you have coronavirus inside of you, but you're not actually showing symptoms. The

00:02:37.120 average is 5.1 days. So you could go 5.1 days with the coronavirus. You're walking around,

00:02:44.120 you're breathing on people, maybe you're coughing here and there, and you're getting that on people,

00:02:49.840 you're kissing your spouse or your baby, and you have no idea that you have probably infected those

00:02:56.580 around you because you don't have any symptoms and you don't think that you have it. That's one of the

00:03:01.280 unfortunate things about coronavirus. So there are two extreme reactions going on right now in the media,

00:03:08.380 maybe even among your friends about coronavirus. One extreme reaction is that we should absolutely be

00:03:13.680 panicked. We should be freaking out. Everyone needs to go to the store, get toilet paper,

00:03:19.900 get all of the apocalyptic things, spend $5,000 on freeze-dried food that you can have for the next

00:03:31.220 25 years just in case we're quarantined for the next couple of decades. That is one reaction. And

00:03:37.300 in the media, it's manifesting itself in a very political way that we talked about last week saying 0.71

00:03:42.820 Trump is incompetent. His administration has no idea what they're doing. Trump doesn't care about

00:03:48.400 this. He doesn't care about people. He just cares that he is protected from this. He is such a failure.

00:03:55.340 He is so inadequate. That obviously is an incorrect reaction. All of the absolute panic, 1.00

00:04:03.200 the blaming on President Trump and his administration for this is absurd. It's not based in fact. It's not

00:04:10.100 based in any kind of reasoning whatsoever. It is just a way to try to drum up panic and outrage that

00:04:18.000 is going to work against President Trump. Now, not everyone who was freaking out is against President

00:04:22.500 Trump, but a lot of the people, particularly in the media, who are freaking out, who are trying to

00:04:27.560 make this bigger than it is. And like I'm going to explain, I do think it's something that we should

00:04:31.900 care about, but they're trying to make it even bigger than it is because they know that it is an

00:04:37.080 advantageous strategy against Donald Trump, not just to continue to, um, hurt the market and hurt

00:04:44.440 the economy. I don't know if that's, you know, their deliberate intention, but that is what's

00:04:48.360 going to happen, but also just to make President Trump look bad. And like I said last week, if that

00:04:54.000 is your motivation, that that's shameful because what it looks like, and again, I'm not saying that

00:04:58.820 the people who are drumming up this outrage and making it bigger than it is and blaming this on Trump

00:05:03.160 when they shouldn't be blaming it fully on Trump. Uh, I'm not saying that this is their direct

00:05:08.060 intention. I'm just saying this is what it looks like when you are using something like a deadly

00:05:12.960 virus to work against your political opposition or against someone that you don't like. It makes it

00:05:19.800 seem like you like the panic, you like the pandemonium, uh, or at least you have like a morbid,

00:05:26.820 uh, interest in it and a morbid satisfaction. And it makes it seem like you are using people's

00:05:32.860 death to your political advantage, which then makes it seem like you're okay with more people

00:05:39.040 dying. Now, again, I don't think that that is the true motivation of people who are using this

00:05:44.760 against President Trump. I'm just saying it doesn't look good. It doesn't look like the

00:05:50.040 compassionate, like the reasoned response, because if you were drumming up all of this outrage and all

00:05:55.820 of this panic, uh, it's not good for the collective. It's also not good for the individual. I was on the

00:06:01.480 Ingram angle on Monday night. And I talked about that actually individually having this kind of

00:06:08.880 nervousness, this kind of anxiety all of the time, this kind of negativity thinking that for example,

00:06:14.540 the president is out to get you and that he has completely left America by the wayside and he's

00:06:19.080 totally abandoned us and having all of this negative energy, constantly spewing hate on Twitter,

00:06:23.900 whatever. I mean, there are people who are saying they hope President Trump get it on Twitter. I mean,

00:06:27.720 that doesn't represent obviously everyone on the left or everyone who doesn't like Donald Trump.

00:06:32.400 There are gross people on both sides on Twitter, but there are these kinds of arguments on Twitter

00:06:36.540 saying, oh, this would be karma. This would be justice. If people at CPAC, uh, got, uh, got the

00:06:43.280 virus, if President Trump, if Mike Pence got the virus, there are people that are saying that, oh,

00:06:47.540 this would be great vengeance. This would be justified. Or this is, uh, this is what they get for saying

00:06:53.360 that Corona virus was a hoax, which by the way, Republicans and president Trump never said that

00:06:57.640 Corona virus was a hoax. So if that is, uh, your mentality, and if that is where you are spending

00:07:05.640 your time and spending your energy, that's not good for even your individual immune system.

00:07:10.980 Like that negativity, uh, suppresses in a way your immune system, the more anxious we are,

00:07:17.600 the less sleep that we're getting, the more angry we are. Like it actually has a negative,

00:07:22.040 a physical effect on your health. And so again, people who are drumming up this outrage because

00:07:28.820 it's politically advantageous because they don't like Donald Trump drumming up panic in order to

00:07:34.320 cast a narrative against Donald Trump is doing a disservice to themselves, doing a disservice to

00:07:40.640 their listeners, doing a disservice to all of the people who are in their influence, even just on

00:07:46.880 an, uh, immune system level. Uh, but also of course it, it isn't good for the economy. Now,

00:07:53.220 my number one concern isn't that, uh, oh my gosh, the, the markets aren't doing well. Obviously that's

00:08:00.280 a really big deal. Obviously that really matters, but I'm not going to encourage people. Hey, go out.

00:08:05.160 Hey, travel. Hey, just keep on doing whatever you're doing or else the economy is going to go bad.

00:08:09.660 Because that to me also seems like the other side where people don't want the economy to stall just

00:08:15.840 because they want president Trump to be cast in a good light. I obviously don't think that's the

00:08:21.260 right reaction either, but we'll get to the other side in just a second. So the one bad side is

00:08:26.220 absolute pandemonium, absolute panic, absolute freaking out, which like I said, is unhealthy in

00:08:32.280 more ways than one. And then the other side of this, um, now, like I said, Republicans aren't saying

00:08:37.260 that this is a hoax. I don't know of anyone in the media who has said that this is a hoax.

00:08:42.280 President Trump said that the, the liberal media's reaction or narrative about him not caring about

00:08:48.620 this is a hoax. He never said coronavirus is a hoax. And from my perspective, even though not all

00:08:53.280 of his press conferences have been perfect, I don't think all of his tweets have been helpful.

00:08:57.580 Hey, what's new? I have always thought that about his tweets, but, um, I have not gotten the feeling

00:09:03.940 that he doesn't care about this. Like I have not gotten the feeling that president Trump is

00:09:08.380 complacent about this. Even if you think that president Trump is this narcissist who only cares

00:09:13.220 about himself, even if from that perspective, it wouldn't make sense for him to not care about the

00:09:19.480 coronavirus. Like that would in the most superficial sense, not be good for his, uh, election re-election

00:09:26.580 possibilities. Right? So even if you think he's selfish, it doesn't make sense for him not to care

00:09:31.380 about the coronavirus. I don't think he's selfish. I actually think that he does care about what's

00:09:36.100 best, uh, for the American people in this case. Hopefully the hope is in all cases, but especially

00:09:41.380 in this, in this case, I'm not afraid to criticize president Trump when criticism is justified.

00:09:46.900 And by the way, I don't think he's immune from criticism just because we're in the middle of an,

00:09:52.700 of an epidemic. I think it's okay for people to issue legitimate criticism towards him.

00:09:57.320 But I do think, like I said, the pandemonium and the absolute panic and the ginning up outrage for

00:10:02.020 the sake of political advantage is wrong. But, um, I don't think that he's complacent and I don't

00:10:08.140 think that kind of criticism is justified. So however, if there are any people on the other side

00:10:16.720 of the spectrum who are complacent, who are saying, this is not a big deal. People just need to go on

00:10:21.940 with their lives and forget that it happened. People just need to wait till this gets out of the,

00:10:26.040 out of the, uh, new cycle. Oh, the flu kills a lot more people every year. We shouldn't worry about

00:10:31.560 this. Yes. The flu does kill more people every year, but this is different. We've had the flu

00:10:37.320 since basically the beginning of modern medicine. Uh, we haven't had the coronavirus. There are

00:10:43.940 different kinds of coronaviruses, but we've never had this particular coronavirus. And so our internal

00:10:49.660 defensives just aren't quite as prepared to handle the coronavirus or COVID-19, the Wuhan virus,

00:10:57.680 whatever you want to call it. We'll get to that part in a second. We're just not as equipped, uh,

00:11:01.900 immune system wise to be able to fight something like this off. And the death rates really don't look

00:11:08.000 good for senior citizens. And even for people over 60, people over 60 are getting, uh, infected at

00:11:14.180 higher rates than, uh, young and healthy people. But there are people who are young, who have been

00:11:19.680 infected and who are not doing well because of this virus. So it's not exactly like the flu.

00:11:26.260 We obviously don't have a vaccine against the coronavirus. And I know that, uh, you know,

00:11:31.040 a lot of people are skeptical about vaccines. A lot of people have really good reasons for that.

00:11:35.960 So I'm not trying to start that conversation right now, but that is one reason why coronavirus

00:11:40.440 is different from the flu. Um, so it's the comparison and Trump has made this comparison

00:11:47.020 and I totally understand. He's just trying to reassure people. I don't know that it's an apt

00:11:51.340 comparison. It's just different. It seems to be hitting the population differently. It seems to be

00:11:57.520 spreading a lot. And look, here's one thing I want to say. Uh, so well, let me finish this first.

00:12:03.820 So the pandemonium is wrong. The absolute complacency or apathy or pretending like this is not a big deal

00:12:09.600 and isn't going to affect our lives and we should just ignore it. That's wrong too. This is something

00:12:14.980 that is happening. This is something that may affect our lives. This is something that we should

00:12:19.240 care about, that we should take a precaution for because both sides of this reactionary perspective

00:12:26.500 are unloving, especially from a Christian perspective. If we are called to love our neighbor 0.93

00:12:31.420 as ourself, then Jenny, not panic just because we don't like the president or I don't know,

00:12:38.820 because we want attention or because we want to be a part of this kind of chaotic conversation,

00:12:43.400 this cacophony of craziness, uh, that is on the, the pan, uh, the panicking reactionary side of this,

00:12:51.420 uh, then that's not loving to those around us. Like I said, that's not good for anyone to have a

00:12:57.520 disproportionate, uh, reaction to this. And then on the other side, being complacent, pretending like

00:13:03.160 it's not a big deal, not taking the necessary precautions. There are people, there are people online.

00:13:08.000 There are people that are probably going to comment on this YouTube video that are saying,

00:13:10.900 I'm not doing anything differently. Sure. I have a cough, but it's my, it's my choice. I've actually

00:13:15.980 seen people say, you know, it's their choice. If people are sick and they want to go out. Yes,

00:13:20.120 of course it's technically their choice. I don't believe people should be punished by law,

00:13:24.340 but there are people who are resisting because they either don't like the CDC, they don't trust

00:13:30.180 authority, or they truly do think that this thing is just a way to, uh, I don't know.

00:13:35.880 They just think that it is some kind of hoax. If there is anyone on that side and they're resisting,

00:13:41.000 washing their hands more or not going out in public or taking necessary precautions,

00:13:44.880 that's also not loving because you might be able to fight off the sickness, but you might be around

00:13:50.580 people who are going to be around other people who can't either they're around their grandparents

00:13:56.120 or they're around some kind of immunosuppressed person. They're around someone with cancer. And if

00:14:02.200 someone has diabetes, if they've got heart disease, if they've got a lung disease, if they've got cancer

00:14:06.860 and they contract, uh, this virus, then they are pretty much done for. So in order to be considerate

00:14:13.980 in order to be compassionate, we have to be somewhere in the middle. And this is almost always the case

00:14:19.540 when it comes to any kind of reaction that both sides of the extreme spectrum, both sides of the

00:14:25.180 spectrum that are extremes are wrong. That the truth, that the compassionate approach lies somewhere in the

00:14:30.920 middle. That, uh, we as Christians, we cannot resort to panic when it comes to something like

00:14:37.120 this because as scary as this epidemic might seem, and there is justified fear surrounding it. The fact

00:14:43.880 of the matter is, is that God is still on his throne, that he knew that this was coming, that he is

00:14:49.940 sovereign, that he is in control, that he is not freaking out, that nothing surprises God. Nothing is

00:14:56.420 unexpected. Nothing makes him go, Oh gosh, I started something that went way too far. I don't know how

00:15:03.040 we're going to do this. Okay, guys, let me call in the cleaning crew and we got to kind of figure this

00:15:07.780 out. Let's strategize. That's not what God does. He doesn't come in and clean up the mess. He is

00:15:13.660 sovereign over all of it. He is not bound by time. And so he is, uh, completely, he completely has, uh,

00:15:23.120 a perfectly controlled grasp over the entire situation. Remember the Bible says not even a

00:15:29.300 sparrow falls out of the sky apart from the father's will. And so, uh, we have to trust that

00:15:36.700 God is good, that God is faithful, that God knows what he's doing. But just because we know that God

00:15:44.940 is good, not even, but I would say, and we know that God is good and faithful and in control. And that

00:15:50.900 calms our anxieties, that calms our fears, uh, we can have peace. We can even have joy in this

00:15:57.840 tribulation, in this trial, especially if you are someone who was affected by this, you are very much

00:16:04.260 in a trial right now. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't pray. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't

00:16:09.580 prepare. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take precautions. Of course we could. We trust fully in

00:16:15.440 the Lord, doing what we can to be good stewards of our bodies, to be good stewards of our families,

00:16:20.900 to be good stewards of our resources, uh, to do everything we can to be as compassionate as

00:16:26.880 possible to those around us. And being compassionate to those around us means not going outside when

00:16:31.560 you're sick, not going to public places. If you can at all avoid it, washing your hands very thoroughly,

00:16:37.140 covering your coughs, uh, doing things that are, uh, considerate of other people as well as your own

00:16:46.300 ability to fight off this sickness. I don't think we talked about this on Monday as well. I don't think

00:16:53.520 that we need to be, you know, buying a ton of toilet paper and paper towels and things like that. But if you

00:17:00.580 need to add a multivitamin to your diet or to someone else's or to your family's diet, more vitamin A,

00:17:08.060 more vitamin D, if you're trying to get more time in the sun, uh, to make sure that you have that vitamin

00:17:13.560 D, more vitamin C, uh, echinacea, whatever it is, I, I think that that is very wise. That's very prudent. That

00:17:20.720 is using the resources that God has given you, that God has given us, uh, to do what we can, but realize that

00:17:27.540 we can take all the multivitamins in the world, that we can be as prepared as possible. We can drink all

00:17:31.600 the water, get all the sunlight that we possibly can and still, and still, uh, know that God is

00:17:39.700 completely sovereign and in control. And we are not, there are things that we cannot control. There

00:17:44.100 are things that we cannot know. And if, uh, this pandemic is any indication, there are things that

00:17:49.860 we cannot predict. And so we do what we can, uh, we stay inside when we need to. We, yes, we,

00:17:57.280 we might need to avoid travel at some point. Like we might need to avoid our kids actually being in

00:18:04.140 the physical classroom. We might need to actually avoid meetings. We might need to actually avoid

00:18:08.900 large sporting events. I'm not saying we have to do that right now, or that everyone is obligated to

00:18:14.860 do all of those things right now, but it is not, uh, it, it's not unrealistic for us to, to,

00:18:22.080 for us to be mildly inconvenienced for the sake of our health and for the sake of others' health.

00:18:28.600 We also need to pray, not just for our families and ourselves, but pray for people who are, uh,

00:18:36.560 pray for the homeless, pray for those who don't have any defenses whatsoever. So what are they going

00:18:42.180 to do? Uh, if there's some kind of quarantine, what are they going to do if they have coronavirus

00:18:47.000 and they don't know it? Not only what is that going to do for them, but what is that going to do

00:18:51.520 to all of the people that are around them? Uh, let's pray for the Christians in Iran,

00:18:56.600 pray for the Christians in China, pray for the Christians in Japan, in South Korea,

00:19:01.120 these highly infected places, uh, pray that God would protect them, uh, keep them healthy,

00:19:06.640 protect the church, but also that they would have a joy, that they would have a peace, uh,

00:19:11.220 throughout these trials, throughout this sickness that other people would notice,

00:19:15.580 and that the gospel would spread even faster than the coronavirus does, that, uh, it would catch

00:19:21.080 on like wildfire, that even as coronavirus is hurting people's bodies, that Jesus would be

00:19:26.200 saving people's, uh, souls. And like I said, or like we have said, uh, God is completely sovereign.

00:19:33.020 Nothing can happen apart from his will, but he has ordained people to pray, has ordained people,

00:19:38.380 uh, to spread the gospel. And there is nothing, no sickness, no famine, uh, no government policy

00:19:47.460 that can stop, that can hinder God's will from being done. And God's will is that we spread the

00:19:54.040 gospel. So that's another prayer that we can pray. We should be praying all of those things. And we

00:20:00.220 should be praying for God to, this is something I prayed this morning, that God would thwart the evil

00:20:04.840 plans of regimes that are trying to make this, uh, trying to use this situation to oppress their own

00:20:12.820 people and try to even oppress the people outside of their country. So for China, for example, they are 0.83

00:20:19.140 now demanding an apology from any countries that have criticized them. They actually specifically

00:20:25.880 called out a Fox news host, uh, saying that because a Fox news host actually said China should apologize

00:20:32.440 for this. And he's right because China didn't allow in world health officials or American health

00:20:39.680 officials. When we tried to help several weeks ago, because they wanted to save face because

00:20:44.860 communism, commies going to commie communism is going to communism. That's what they're going to do. 0.85

00:20:50.300 That is why the Chinese outbreak has been so bad, but the Chinese communist party who is solely

00:20:56.380 and exclusively concerned with their own image, not at all concerned with the wellbeing of their people,

00:21:02.440 they are saying everyone else needs to apologize. And Oh, by the way, Tucker Carlson reported this

00:21:07.280 on his show Monday night. Oh, by the way, we might withhold medical supplies that you guys need

00:21:12.700 because in all of our stupidity over the years, America has decided that we need to rely heavily 0.97

00:21:19.020 on China, not just for medical supplies, but for lots and lots of things. Our economies are so 1.00

00:21:24.200 inextricably intertwined that China can make a threat, which is actually credible and say,

00:21:29.640 hey, we're going to cut off a lot of the medical supplies that we give you guys, a lot of the

00:21:34.960 ingredients for things like antibiotics and good luck, good luck with this epidemic. Good luck with

00:21:41.500 your other sicknesses until you bow down to us, basically until you say sorry to us, until you stop

00:21:49.220 restrictions on travel or whatever it is, this is what we're going to do. I mean, this is a type of

00:21:55.540 biological warfare, but look, America, y'all know that I love America. We did get ourselves into

00:22:00.980 this mess by depending so much on China for so many years that they are able to actually threaten 0.98

00:22:07.220 something like this. And we have to either, well, maybe we don't have to comply, but we actually have

00:22:13.060 to fear a threat like that for them to say, we're going to withhold the ingredients that we supply to

00:22:17.420 you guys for making antibiotics, antibiotics that in a lot of cases save people's lives and stop,

00:22:23.920 not the coronavirus, but other sicknesses from getting worse and turning into something else that

00:22:28.620 really truly is, like I said, life threatening. So that's terrifying. And I have prayed that God

00:22:35.120 would thwart any kind of plans, that God would thwart any kind of evil that any regime is trying to

00:22:44.640 put forth and use to hurt people even more than they already have. The Chinese Communist Party is also

00:22:53.040 saying that, hey, look, we don't know where it started. We don't know where it started. Some

00:22:59.600 people are saying it started here, but we're the victims here. We didn't perpetrate this. Okay. Okay.

00:23:05.260 That's not true. We know that it started in Wuhan. We don't know specifically how it started.

00:23:11.280 Probably a wild animal market, but there are other theories out there as well.

00:23:16.180 So, and yes, this, the reason why this spread is because the communist party didn't take care of

00:23:23.220 it, how they should have and when they should have. I mean, there were journalists that are now

00:23:27.400 imprisoned by the way, by the Chinese communist party, or not even journalists, I think just citizens

00:23:31.980 that took videos of what is going on in the hospitals of people quarantined inside their home,

00:23:37.120 unable to get healthcare. What was going on inside their hospitals is that Chinese doctors and nurses 1.00

00:23:41.820 were saying, I've been awake for an entire week and I can't help these people anymore. I don't know

00:23:48.540 what to do. I'm not getting the resources. I'm not getting the support that I need. I am not,

00:23:53.660 we are not getting any help from the government here. We're just kind of left here to do whatever

00:23:59.780 we can. I mean, these doctors and nurses absolutely distraught and body bags upon body bags. The citizens

00:24:05.820 who took videos of that to show you what's really going on in China with the coronavirus got sent to jail.

00:24:11.420 And now, because communists are communists, they're coming out and saying, oh, you guys need to

00:24:17.040 apologize to us. We've actually done a great job. This is communism. Power corrupts, absolute power

00:24:22.980 corrupts, absolutely. I was actually just reading Ronald Reagan's book, An American Life, where he talks

00:24:27.740 about China in the 1980s and how there was a hopeful turn towards free markets and towards capitalism and

00:24:36.420 away from communism. And he had this hope that maybe China would embrace freedom. And China did embrace free

00:24:44.080 markets in order to fund its communism, but it is not free. People are not only persecuted, they are killed,

00:24:51.540 they are slaughtered. Muslims and Christians, they're sent to basically concentration camps. The organs of people 0.98

00:24:58.460 who are in these camps are harvested for Chinese research. China is a bad actor in the world. And we 0.99

00:25:05.200 don't need any moral relativism from people saying, I mean, it's just amazing. People, Chris Hayes, for example,

00:25:12.300 saying it is absolutely disgusting. It is disgusting to call this a Wuhan virus. It's disgusting. There was

00:25:19.460 another NBC person who said this is disgusting to call this, you know, the Chinese coronavirus or it is 0.69

00:25:27.060 it's racist to call it that. Was it racist to say West Nile virus? Was it racist to say Ebola, which is

00:25:36.080 named after I think it's a river in Africa? Like, is it racist to call a virus by the name of where the virus

00:25:43.740 actually originated? And I actually think that it's important to do that. So we remember where the

00:25:49.240 origin is. I'm not saying that America has been perfect in this. I'm not saying that, you know,

00:25:55.220 we shouldn't do the same. If something originated in America, like, fine, call it whatever, you know,

00:26:01.640 wherever city it originated in. I think it's actually important for us to remember in this particular case,

00:26:08.080 who was responsible, maybe not for the start of this virus, but who is responsible for the spread of

00:26:13.680 this virus and for us to remember the detrimental effects of communism, for us to not let China off 0.94

00:26:20.980 the hook and for us to remind our elected officials to do what they can to extricate America from China. 0.99

00:26:29.580 So we are not so wholly dependent on such a bad actor. I am really unconcerned with like superficial

00:26:37.560 worries about, oh, is it racist to say where this virus originated? I don't think Chinese people are

00:26:44.440 bad. Like, I don't think that they are inherently more apt to give us a virus. There's nothing about

00:26:51.800 that at all. This is about the Chinese communist regime, which not only is a bad actor on the world 0.99

00:26:58.200 stage, but also oppresses its own people. Again, this is just the insanity of social justice. Never looking at

00:27:04.420 both sides of the equation, always looking at the most like virtue signally superficial shallow thing

00:27:10.380 to be mad at and never looking at the fact that, you know, maybe it's fine. Like maybe it's fine for

00:27:15.880 us to criticize a communist party that is hurting its own people as well. That is hurting Muslims,

00:27:20.580 that is hurting Christians, that is hurting secular people in China by not allowing them any freedom

00:27:24.900 whatsoever and not offering the resources that they need to. Funnily enough, Chris Hayes, the guy who said

00:27:31.740 it was disgusting to call this the Wuhan virus, tweeted like a day earlier, are there any good

00:27:37.540 books on the Spanish flu? Oh, the Spanish flu. Oh, no, that is very racist of you to even bring up

00:27:44.760 the Spanish flu. We actually don't call it the Spanish flu. We call it something much more scientific,

00:27:51.940 Chris Hayes. So how dare you? How dare you? Okay, so I said that we weren't going to talk about the

00:27:57.720 coronavirus for very long and here we go. We talked about it for a really long time, but that's because

00:28:03.200 it's important and I want you guys to avoid being on the extremes. Like I said, be cautious, be

00:28:09.500 considerate, be compassionate, but we don't need to be a part of the chaos. We don't need to be a part of

00:28:15.020 the pandemonium. God is on his throne. We take whatever precautions that we can in wisdom. We limit the

00:28:22.360 activities that we need to limit without, you know, living in isolation and in fear. So, okay, that's

00:28:29.780 all I wanted to say about that. Now, let me get to this because if I don't get to this, then we'll

00:28:37.280 never get to it because I've been saying for two weeks. Okay, so AOC. AOC was in a hearing for a woman

00:28:47.480 who identifies as a man. It was a congressional hearing and this particular woman, I have to get

00:28:56.600 these things straight. So a woman who identifies as a man, he is suing a hospital, a Catholic hospital,

00:29:05.400 because the Catholic hospital would not perform a hysterectomy on this woman who identifies as a man

00:29:14.280 because it is against their religious beliefs. There was no medical reason for her hysterectomy.

00:29:21.720 It was simply because she wanted to feel more like a man, even though you could remove every single

00:29:28.040 organ from your body if you wanted to, and it still would not make you a man, like you would still be 0.64

00:29:33.780 a woman. So AOC goes on this rant, and I'm just going to play you a few seconds of it. 1.00

00:29:40.880 It's very difficult to sit here and listen to arguments in the long history of this country

00:29:52.340 of using scripture and weaponizing and abusing scripture to justify bigotry. White supremacists

00:30:00.780 have done it. Those who justified slavery did it. Those who fought against integration did it, 0.88

00:30:07.520 and we're seeing it today. So you see how she turns the idea of religious liberty on its head 0.99

00:30:14.000 by saying that people are using the argument of religious liberty or are using the Bible or are

00:30:20.340 using religion in order to hate people, in order to discriminate against people. Her argument,

00:30:26.780 she says, is that everyone is holy, that everyone is sacred, and that we have to treat people as if

00:30:31.620 they're holy and refusing a woman who identifies as a man. The removal of her uterus is bigoted,

00:30:39.960 is wrong, and it's done in the name of religion, but it's just thinly veiled transphobia or whatever

00:30:50.340 she would say. Well, first of all, obviously her theology is off. We know that AOC's theology is off.

00:30:56.240 If her theology was on point, she wouldn't be a socialist. If she believed what the Bible said,

00:31:01.400 she wouldn't believe in abortion. She would also believe in the inerrancy and the authority of 0.99

00:31:07.260 scripture, which says that God made them man and female. She would understand that God defined 0.82

00:31:12.920 marriage, that God defines morality, that he says what is and what isn't, what's right and what's wrong,

00:31:18.200 but AOC doesn't believe that. AOC is a moral relativist who uses Jesus to advance her political

00:31:25.420 agenda in a way that's convenient but not correct. So her remark that everyone is holy, everyone is

00:31:33.020 sacred, that's obviously not a biblical remark. Now, she identifies as a Catholic, and I don't know

00:31:38.760 enough about Catholic theology to know if all Catholics believe that, but that's not actually

00:31:43.340 a biblical perspective. Not everyone is holy. Everyone is valuable. Everyone is made in the image

00:31:49.060 of God, and therefore we are valuable than any plant and any other animal. We've talked about that a lot,

00:31:54.180 but not everyone is holy. People who are Christians, people who are in Christ are holy,

00:32:00.300 they are sacred, that means set apart, so they are different because of the indwelling of the Holy

00:32:05.400 Spirit, not because of any good that they've actually contributed. But even if it were true

00:32:10.080 that everyone is holy, which like I said isn't biblically correct, that does not force a Catholic

00:32:16.740 hospital to remove a woman's uterus just because she decides she feels like she is a man. When that 0.94

00:32:24.140 Catholic hospital abides by the word of God, which says very clearly that the Lord made them male and

00:32:30.000 female. And so what she's trying to do is turn it on its head and say, religious people are 0.97

00:32:36.140 discriminating, that's not loving, that's not sacred, that's not holy, that's not right, whatever it is.

00:32:41.860 The real perspective of that, she's trying to go at it from the wrong and unconstitutional 0.99

00:32:47.720 perspective. The real constitutional, logical perspective on that is that by saying that this

00:32:53.360 Catholic hospital has to perform a hysterectomy, a non-medically necessary hysterectomy

00:33:00.340 on someone who identifies as a man means that you are forcing people, you are forcing Americans who have 0.95

00:33:07.700 a First Amendment right to the freedom of religion, you are forcing Americans to go against their

00:33:13.240 religiously held beliefs. You are forcing them to abide by your religion, AOC and leftists, which is 0.55

00:33:21.880 secularism, which again goes against the First Amendment, which prohibits any establishment of

00:33:27.340 religion. See, they like to think the people who are against these religious freedom arguments because

00:33:32.960 they believe that it's just another name for bigotry. These people like to claim that, oh,

00:33:38.740 you know, religion doesn't have a place in the public square. What do you call the thing that

00:33:42.940 you're propagating? It's a religion by the name of secularism. They are forcing secularism on people

00:33:49.200 who hold sincere religious beliefs, who are Christians, who are Catholics, who abide by the word of God and

00:33:56.000 say you have to be a secularist. You have to pretend that there is no God who is a moral authority.

00:34:00.980 You can believe those things. You can believe those things, which the left likes to reduce

00:34:05.940 religious liberty to just your privately held beliefs, but you're not actually allowed to act

00:34:10.260 on those things. You're not actually allowed to abide by the Bible. You have to push those to the side

00:34:15.900 when it comes to your job. This is the same thing with the florist in Colorado, Jack Phillips. They said

00:34:21.960 you have to bake this cake for this gay couple who is getting married, even though it goes against his 1.00

00:34:27.180 religious beliefs. They believe that you should push those religious beliefs to the side. You

00:34:33.180 should abide by secularism and you should do whatever they say. If AOC says that it's fine

00:34:38.820 for a woman to identify as a man and take her uterus out in an effort, a failed effort, to be more like 0.97

00:34:46.320 a man, then you, Catholic hospital, you have to believe that too. And if AOC or if Pete Buttigieg says

00:34:52.740 that, oh, life begins at first breath, and so abortion up to nine months is fine according to

00:34:58.680 the Bible, well, then their absolutely inane interpretation of the Bible must be yours publicly 0.93

00:35:05.740 too. So don't let AOC or anyone else shame you or convince you that you're the extremist,

00:35:14.200 that you're the religious bigot. They're the religious bigots, and their religion is secularism.

00:35:22.120 Their religion is agnosticism. I know both Pete Buttigieg and AOC identify as Christians,

00:35:28.420 but they believe that you should not, if you are someone who actually takes the word of God

00:35:32.700 seriously, you should not be able to live out your beliefs in the public square. You shouldn't,

00:35:39.780 one day it will be that we shouldn't even talk about those things, and we already kind of see that.

00:35:44.560 There are certain states that say, oh, it's hate speech for a pastor from a pulpit to say that,

00:35:50.740 you know, marriage is between one man and one woman. We hear about conversion therapy being

00:35:57.300 banned, which is really just counselors saying, telling people who maybe they have same-sex

00:36:03.620 attraction and they don't want to because they know it's against God's word. And so a counselor

00:36:07.460 being able to say, you know, here's what God's word says about this. Here's what we can do.

00:36:11.800 Here's how we can pray in a very loving and gentle, compassionate way. There are states like

00:36:16.040 Virginia, like California saying that that is banned. So the left, including AOC,

00:36:22.500 they believe that you should not have the liberty as a religious person to actually act out your

00:36:28.660 beliefs. Yes. Discrimination. I know that's a scary word, but discrimination is something in certain

00:36:37.040 cases that is allowed according to your religious beliefs. Like a church or a private school that is

00:36:44.580 a Christian private school should not be forced to hire a person whose lifestyle does not abide by

00:36:52.740 the worldview and the perspective, the biblical perspective that those institutions have. And I

00:36:58.560 think it goes the same for hospitals. Now, should we as Christians love everyone? Yes. In that we

00:37:07.580 should show compassion towards everyone. We care about them knowing Jesus. We see them as people

00:37:13.480 made in the image of God. We know that no matter someone's sexual orientation or gender identity,

00:37:18.020 that they are equally as valuable as us in that they are made in the image of God. But does that

00:37:24.580 fact mean that we have to be compelled and forced by the government to provide services that go against

00:37:30.660 our sincerely held beliefs? No, no. So AOC unfortunately doesn't understand this. I would like her to look at

00:37:37.760 the countries in which religious liberty has been hindered throughout history. How has that worked out for

00:37:42.980 people? Not just Christians, not just people with other beliefs, but people who are secularists like

00:37:49.880 she is, people who are atheists and agnostics. It never works well when the government tries to limit 1.00

00:37:55.940 people's religious freedom. Again, it is the religion of progressivism, the religion of secularism

00:38:03.100 that they are trying to establish as the national religion. It's going to get harder and harder

00:38:08.280 for Christians to be Christians in the public square, to speak like Christians, to act like 0.64

00:38:12.900 Christians in the public square. When this idea that you can't actually be a Christian out in public

00:38:18.000 or in how you conduct your work, when this idea becomes mainstream and we have to speak up about

00:38:23.800 it now and we can't be afraid. We can't be afraid because we are obligated. Just as Daniel did when he was

00:38:32.780 ordered not to pray and he prayed in the Bible, we are obligated to follow God, not follow institutions

00:38:39.200 made by man. We are called to follow the Lord, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We are

00:38:46.080 willing to follow God no matter what, as frightening as it can be. But as long as we are here, we should

00:38:53.020 be advocating for and fighting for religious liberty, not just for us and what we believe, but for

00:38:58.500 everyone. Okay, that's all I have time for today. I know that we had other things that we were talking

00:39:06.440 about. This Friday, I am finally interviewing Lila Rose. You guys have asked me to interview her.

00:39:12.860 We're going to talk about a ton of things. We're going to talk about abortion, obviously, but we're

00:39:17.160 going to talk about birth control. We'll probably touch on IVF. And we are also going to talk about

00:39:23.900 some of the differences in Catholicism and Protestantism. She is a Catholic and so should be a

00:39:28.160 really good discussion. And I look forward to you guys listening to it. I will see you then.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 11, 2020

Ep 223 ｜ Prepared, Not Panicked

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