Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 226 ｜ Wisdom, Not Worry

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. I hope everyone is having a great week. So if you

00:00:07.440 are watching this on YouTube, you can tell that it looks different. And if you are just listening

00:00:12.040 to this, you can tell that it sounds different. That's because I am recording this episode of

00:00:15.980 Relatable from the comfort of my own home. We are taking every precaution to make sure

00:00:22.220 that everyone stays healthy. And by we, I mean Blaze TV, but also my family and I, we are trying

00:00:28.320 to, you know, be as prudent as possible to make sure that we can stay as healthy as we

00:00:33.480 possibly can. So I can keep on giving you this podcast every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

00:00:38.500 We are going to talk about the coronavirus today. I know that a lot of you are like, I'm just

00:00:43.480 over this. Like, I don't want to hear about it anymore. I'm tired of all the analysis. I'm

00:00:47.960 tired of all the updates in the news and the commentary. And look, I get it. And if you

00:00:52.140 really don't want to hear anything about it, then you might just want to kind of bow out

00:00:55.960 right now. Like you might not want to listen to this episode and that's understandable.

00:01:00.320 But my goal is to never just bog you down with information just so you're filled with

00:01:05.320 a bunch of stats and figures and fear mongering. That's certainly not what I want. I want you

00:01:11.720 by the end of this to feel informed. I want you to feel equipped and I want you to feel

00:01:15.860 even refreshed and encouraged. But I do want you to have the information that I think is pertinent

00:01:21.100 to you so that we can make the wisest decisions possible, not out of fear, but out of compassion

00:01:27.420 for those around us, out of care and wisdom. And that is why the title of this podcast episode

00:01:33.680 is Wisdom Not Worry. I did a podcast episode a week ago called Prepared Not Panicked. I think

00:01:39.520 that's what it was. And I still stand by the things that I said in that episode, although

00:01:45.580 the coronavirus, of course, has developed since then and the news has developed and the recommendations

00:01:51.400 and all of that have changed. The principle that I talked about of being prepared for this,

00:01:56.280 not underestimating it, not having some kind of glib attitude to where we pretend like we just don't

00:02:01.860 care because it affects people that are in different groups than we do, that that's not loving,

00:02:06.240 but that we also shouldn't be panicking and we shouldn't be, you know, running around like

00:02:11.200 chickens with our head cut off, pretending like we don't know who the God of the universe is.

00:02:14.780 So the same thing applies today. We need to apply wisdom, but we don't need to be worried. And I'm

00:02:21.020 going to give you an update on what is happening with this virus. I'm going to give you an update

00:02:27.000 on the numbers while I am, when I'm recording this, which is Monday. So it's, it might be a little

00:02:33.820 bit different by the time you listen to this, which will be Wednesday. I will update you on the latest

00:02:38.340 state and federal efforts to curb the virus, as well as the latest CDC recommendations. I'll tell you

00:02:43.240 what I think about these things. I'll tell you what my family's doing, my own humble suggestions

00:02:47.900 to you based on recommendations from these experts. We'll talk to, we'll talk about the erroneous

00:02:53.620 responses to all of this on both the right and the left, the conspiracies that are abounding during

00:02:59.100 this whole chaotic situation, which will take us into how we as Christians right now should be

00:03:04.800 thinking through, praying through and reacting through all of this madness. So it's going to be a jam

00:03:10.520 packed episode. I have a lot of things to say because I've been hearing about all of it and

00:03:15.780 thinking through all of it for the past few days while I haven't had any episodes to record. And

00:03:20.780 there's just a lot going on. Like, and if you feel exhausted by this, understand that I get that.

00:03:26.960 And I hope that this episode doesn't exhaust you further, but energizes you, or at least encourages

00:03:33.840 you as you can take this information to just make the most discerning steps possible for you and

00:03:40.260 your family. So first let us start with some basic facts about what is going on. So as of Monday,

00:03:46.780 according to the New York times, there are 3,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United

00:03:51.560 States are in 49 States in the United States, West Virginia, as of now only state without any

00:03:57.840 confirmed cases that could be that they don't actually have any cases at all, or it could just

00:04:03.040 be that they haven't tested people who actually have the cases. And that is the thing to remember

00:04:08.260 about this 3,600 number, the 3,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus. There could be, and probably

00:04:14.900 is, there probably are a lot of people who have it, a lot more people than 3,600. However,

00:04:22.580 because tests right now currently are limited, that's how many confirmed cases that we have,

00:04:28.100 but it doesn't actually represent probably the number of people who actually have it. At least

00:04:33.700 65 people have died. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy

00:04:39.800 and Infectious Diseases, who has been a leader of this effort to curtail the virus for the Trump

00:04:44.680 administration, says that we have not yet reached our peak, that more people will die until we start

00:04:51.360 to see a drop-off the way that China has reported having, and South Korea now has. Just a reminder

00:04:59.720 about the nature of the coronavirus, this has been a point of contention online. I posted about the

00:05:06.720 importance of social distancing on Instagram, and I got a lot of pushback from people saying

00:05:12.980 that, oh, well, I'm just going to live my life. I don't even want to heed that advice because I'm

00:05:18.460 not living in fear, and oh, by the way, this is not even as bad as the flu. Well, I just want to remind

00:05:24.340 you of what experts who are much smarter than you and I are saying about the coronavirus and how it

00:05:30.120 is different than the flu. So it's not like the seasonal flu. It's not like H1N1, which is the

00:05:36.040 swine flu that came to America in 2009. According to the numbers that we have, the coronavirus is

00:05:42.340 actually much deadlier than the flu. According to the CDC, the flu kills less than 1% of people

00:05:50.060 over 65 every year. For anyone younger than 65 who catches the flu, you have about a 0.01 to a 0.06%

00:05:58.940 chance of dying. So 0.01 to 0.06% chance of dying. The coronavirus kills 15% of people over the age of

00:06:09.940 80. Over 70, you've got an 8% coronavirus death rate. So that's like between 70 and 79. Between 60 and 69,

00:06:19.520 you've got a 3.6% death rate over 50. So between 50 and 59, you've got about a 1.3% death rate.

00:06:27.160 Younger than that, the death rate is about 0.2 to 0.4%. So really good chance that if you catch it 1.00

00:06:33.320 and you are younger than 50 years old, you've got a really good chance of surviving. That is a low

00:06:41.360 death rate, of course, but it is still much deadlier than the flu, about 10 to 15 times deadlier than the

00:06:48.940 flu. Now this word deadlier, I've realized is very confusing to a lot of people. When most people

00:06:55.520 hear this word deadlier, they are apparently thinking, I've realized as I've watched these

00:07:00.140 conversations online and have been a part of some of these conversations online, that people are

00:07:04.960 thinking about a number, but deadlier doesn't actually point to the number of deaths. It points

00:07:12.460 to the percentages. So the proportion, not the actual number. So for a simple way to think about

00:07:18.700 that, if a thousand people get the flu every year and only a hundred people get the coronavirus,

00:07:24.100 you are obviously more likely to get the flu than the coronavirus, but coronavirus is still

00:07:29.340 deadlier. So I just wanted to explain that. And at the rate the coronavirus is spreading in the

00:07:34.140 United States and knowing what we know about the disease that is so highly communicable,

00:07:39.020 that death toll we know will rise, especially for those in older populations, especially for those

00:07:45.260 who are immunocompromised. But young people are also not immune to this. Babies are not immune to

00:07:51.500 this. Pregnant women are not immune to this. They might not be as vulnerable as other groups, 0.96

00:07:57.020 but it's not something we want to mess around with. They're still susceptible. We all are. And by the

00:08:02.180 way, we should also stop doing this thing where we act like something's not a big deal if it doesn't

00:08:08.960 affect younger populations, if it doesn't affect strong, healthy people, as if the lives of those

00:08:15.480 who are immunocompromised or who are older don't matter as much as ours do. Of course they do. 0.99

00:08:22.480 We have to remember, especially as Christians, that all of us being made in the image of God means that

00:08:27.460 we have the same dignity. We have the same innate worth. And for us to not care about something because

00:08:33.020 it doesn't, it doesn't affect or the possibility of it affecting our specific demographic is low.

00:08:41.060 For us to toss that to the side is something that we don't really have to focus on is unloving. It

00:08:47.640 lacks compassion. It's certainly not the kind of attitude that you and I are called to. The swine flu

00:08:53.500 of 09 had a 0.02% death rate. So again, about 10 times less deadly than the coronavirus.

00:08:59.940 With coronavirus, you can be asymptomatic, an asymptomatic carrier for up to 14 days. That is

00:09:06.320 another danger to this thing that you can be walking around feeling totally fine and passing it along to

00:09:12.400 other people who are either vulnerable themselves or who are around people who are. So if you are at some

00:09:18.920 bar and you don't know that you have coronavirus, you are unknowingly exposed, you pass it to the

00:09:24.460 people next to you who then go home to their dad who's going through chemo, their grandmother,

00:09:30.160 their immunocompromised sister, then these people will get it. And there is a good chance that either

00:09:36.220 they won't make it or they will at least be in the ICU. And this is why you guys, Trump's top medical

00:09:42.760 experts, the CDC, health officials around the world are telling us to stay inside as much as possible.

00:09:48.380 I'm not talking about not going on a walk. I'm talking about canceling vacation plans,

00:09:54.400 canceling work travel if you can, work from home if you can. That's not possible for everyone or even

00:10:00.600 most people. And I understand that. To avoid any kind of unnecessary travel, the CDC has actually

00:10:07.380 recommended that we avoid gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. I mean, that's

00:10:12.540 crazy. I'm not saying that's crazy. Like we shouldn't be doing that, but it's crazy to think about.

00:10:18.060 Like that that's the situation that we are apparently in. I don't know how that's going

00:10:22.240 to be enforceable. I don't know if people are going to abide by that. My guess is not. Judging by

00:10:29.020 the behavior of people that I saw on social media for over the past weekend, I don't think that that's

00:10:36.620 probably going to be happening. I think people are probably going to defy that. More than 30 states

00:10:44.440 have announced school closures. State governments are forcing restaurants and bars to close and to

00:10:49.200 offer takeout or delivery only. Washington, California, New York have banned large gatherings.

00:10:54.680 Curfews are being enacted. Again, I just don't know how they are going, how state governments are

00:11:00.220 going to enforce that. It's just a little bit troubling for me. Everyone is being encouraged

00:11:05.080 to stay home as much as you can. Yes. Like I said, a lot of people still have to go to work. And of course,

00:11:10.380 you have to do what you have to do to provide for your family. Of course, the advice is that as much

00:11:16.320 as you can, keep your distance from people. And of course, be smart. Of course, wash your hands. Of

00:11:21.140 course, if you feel bad, please stay home. Please. If you have a sore throat, if you have a cough,

00:11:26.860 if you have a fever, if you just feel like, okay, I feel like something is coming on, please take every

00:11:33.160 precaution that you can try. If there is any possible way for you to not leave your house,

00:11:38.980 to not go among crowds, to not go to the grocery store. If you've got anyone in your life who can

00:11:43.940 do that for you, please stay home. And even if you feel good for the next couple of weeks, at least,

00:11:51.000 I think we all need to be careful. We all need to socially distance as much as is possibly

00:11:57.240 reasonable. I don't think that there would be such a state government crackdown if people had taken

00:12:05.400 these recommendations seriously first. But unfortunately, like I said, it seemed like over

00:12:11.340 the weekend that just wasn't happening. Bars and restaurants in the most infected cities in the

00:12:15.480 country were packed. I think these actions are regrettable. It's too much government involvement

00:12:21.460 for my liking. But I mean, what do you do? Well, what do you do? I don't know. I can't pretend to

00:12:27.820 know the answer of what the right thing is in all of this. There is this very unfortunate attitude

00:12:34.500 among people, I would say mostly older conservatives and just some ignorant young people that is saying, 0.95

00:12:41.360 well, I'm not going to live in fear. Well, I'm not going to worry about this. It's probably not going 0.95

00:12:46.320 to affect me. I'm healthy. I probably won't get it. And like I was saying just a few minutes ago,

00:12:52.580 this is not just about you. Like it's not just about me either. This is about the entire network

00:12:57.360 of people that you might be infecting. What we're trying to accomplish by social distancing

00:13:02.940 is slowing the spread of the virus. So fewer people get infected. So fewer compromised people get

00:13:09.500 infected to make sure that our hospitals are not overrun by a large spike. We're trying to

00:13:14.360 spread the infection out over a longer period of time. So the hospitals can handle the number of

00:13:21.740 people that actually need their help. Following the recommendations of officials to socially distance

00:13:27.940 is compassionate. It is caring. It is cautious. It is thinking of your neighbor. It is loving your

00:13:35.580 neighbor as yourself. A high number of deaths in a short period of time is not only bad, obviously,

00:13:44.200 for the country, but it overruns our hospital system so that they are completely overwhelmed

00:13:50.640 and unable to give the care that people really need. And in some cases, it will be a matter of

00:13:57.660 life and death for people. But if the hospital doesn't have any beds, they don't have any beds.

00:14:03.020 So the more we can slow this down by social distancing, the more that we can lengthen this so it's not this

00:14:10.020 high spike of deaths in a short period of time, the better it's going to be, not just for the

00:14:14.680 American public, but also for our hospital system. And I will show you this little graph that shows

00:14:21.760 the difference between not taking any precautions. So you see the high spike versus taking precautions

00:14:28.460 and how different that curve is. So you'll hear a lot of news anchors say flattening the curve or health

00:14:34.100 officials. They'll talk about flattening the curve. That is what we are trying to do by socially

00:14:39.200 distancing as much as we can. Now, I got a lot of complaints about this over the weekend from people

00:14:45.320 saying, no, I'm just going to live my life. No one can tell me what to do. I understand that. I really

00:14:52.480 do. Let me give some caveats to what I'm saying as I recommend this social distancing. And by social

00:14:58.980 distancing, just so I'm clear, I mean, staying in your home with your family as much as possible. Yes, like I

00:15:08.780 said, going on walks and things like that. But if you can work from home, work from home. If you could avoid

00:15:14.600 going into crowds, do that. If you could avoid travel, do that. Try to stay six feet away from people, not the

00:15:20.660 people living in your house if you're not sick, but just other people that you see. That is how we flatten this

00:15:26.920 so-called curve. Now, there are caveats to all of this that I want to make clear that I understand.

00:15:33.920 Number one, I understand that people have to work. If you have to go to work, go to work and take 0.96

00:15:40.000 whatever precautions that you can. My husband and all his co-workers are working from home. I obviously

00:15:44.960 work from home, but this isn't viable for everyone. And I totally get that. Not everyone is in this

00:15:50.840 situation. Do what you have to do. Just wash your hands, try to keep your distance from people and

00:15:55.380 especially to the doctors and the nurses and the first responders who obviously don't have the

00:16:00.020 option of working from home and are maybe busier than they've ever been. And in the coming weeks,

00:16:05.500 thank you so much. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for going to school for this. Thank you for

00:16:10.360 working hard. I am thinking about you. I am praying for you and you do. It might seem like a thankless job

00:16:15.960 so much, but know that there are so many of us who are so incredibly thankful for what you do.

00:16:21.320 Number two, I'm not saying, like I've said a few times now, I'm not saying to not go outside. I got

00:16:27.460 a few people saying, are you saying that we shouldn't be in the sun at all? No, I am certainly

00:16:32.500 not saying that. We go outside every day. I try to go on a walk every day. Number three, I know that

00:16:38.440 there is an argument for still supporting local and small businesses. Totally. If there's a way that

00:16:43.800 you can do that online, if there's a way that you can do that without actually going into the

00:16:48.240 restaurants, if there's a way that you can support them without getting into crowds, do

00:16:52.720 it. But it's not a good enough excuse to possibly infect people who could very well die from this

00:17:00.080 virus, in my opinion. Number four, yes, Christians are called to serve at risk to ourselves. As I

00:17:07.360 mentioned at the top of this, if there is an opportunity for us to serve people who need our

00:17:11.880 help to go buy groceries for an elderly couple, send food to someone who's sick, then yes, we

00:17:18.020 should take it. But if your reasoning for not following these recommendations of social

00:17:23.940 distancing is because you don't want to be inconvenienced or you don't want to quote, live

00:17:29.240 in fear, I need to humbly suggest to you, and of course you can take my advice or leave it,

00:17:35.980 that you are not thinking of others as you should. We are all tempted to selfishness. I certainly

00:17:42.480 am on a second by second basis, but consideration and compassion right now means being temporarily

00:17:49.140 inconvenienced for long-term well-being, not just of yourself, but also of other people. We will be

00:17:55.300 okay. We'll be okay with being inconvenienced for a little bit. Like if you're a young single person 0.94

00:18:00.160 and you're like, oh, I've just got to go out and got to hit the bars every weekend. And you're like,

00:18:05.220 I'm sorry, I'm just not going to stop going out with my friends. You need to take a step back and

00:18:09.320 realize that kind of behavior right now is selfish. It just is. If you're the kind of person who is

00:18:15.700 like, I'm not going to stop anything that I'm doing. I'm not going to change any of my behavior

00:18:19.600 whatsoever because I just want to live my life and not worry about other people. I encourage you to

00:18:25.700 expand your outlook beyond your well-being and your life and into the lives and the well-being of

00:18:32.560 other people, many of whom you don't know and will never know. Our great-grandparents

00:18:38.440 survived a Great Depression. They fought on the beaches of Normandy and we are being asked,

00:18:45.340 you've probably seen this go around social media, we are being asked to stay inside and to sit on our

00:18:49.960 couch for a little bit more. We can do it, guys. I promise we can do it. And I know it's not that easy

00:18:54.860 for a lot of people. Like maybe you got five kids at home and you have turned into a homeschool mom

00:19:01.400 real fast and you were trying to figure out how to balance all of this. There are a lot of people

00:19:06.560 unfortunately out there who are, might be rolling their eyes at you and saying, oh, you should know

00:19:11.040 how to do this already. It's not that hard. Maybe you should be homeschooling anyway. You know what?

00:19:15.400 That's not everyone's position and if you are finding this to be a difficult transition going from

00:19:20.780 having all your kids at school to having all your kids home all day long, I understand that it's not

00:19:26.840 because you don't love your kids. You're just trying to figure out how to best educate them,

00:19:31.700 how to best love them and serve them during this really crazy time. And if you feel exhausted by

00:19:36.600 that, like that's, that's okay. I get that. But there are a lot of moms out there who are willing

00:19:42.540 to encourage you, who are willing to equip you. One of my friends, Bethany Mandel, she homeschools her

00:19:47.660 kids. She's an awesome mom and she has so many good tips. She's written quite a few blog posts,

00:19:53.760 I think, that are giving tips to moms who now have found themselves in the position of being 0.71

00:19:58.840 homeschool teachers for the first time. She has a lot of tips for you guys. So I would follow her

00:20:03.140 on Instagram and maybe check out some of the articles that she's written. But we can do this.

00:20:08.260 Like I know that there are tons of sacrifices that people are making, but I do think as is reasonable,

00:20:14.300 it is worth it for us to make these sacrifices. Now to the reaction. Sorry, I know that there's like

00:20:20.640 sounds happening on my computer. I'm not really sure how to fix that when I'm using my computer

00:20:25.700 to, um, to record this. So sorry, it's just one of the blessings of recording this from my house on

00:20:31.980 my own computer. So now to the reactions, which I just touched on a little bit. It seems that a lot

00:20:37.360 of people who are refusing to believe that this is serious at all and refusing to change anything

00:20:41.900 about their lives are conservatives. They see this as a media weapon to take down Donald Trump.

00:20:48.700 They see this as, um, a conspiracy to take down capitalism. They see this as an attempt

00:20:55.340 at government control. And so to make a point, some of you are refusing to comply, or maybe,

00:21:01.060 you know, some people like this, that some of, um, some of them are saying, well, I, I just don't

00:21:06.920 want to, you know, I just don't want to feed into the media frenzy and I'm not going to be a puppet

00:21:12.480 and I'm not going to be a sheep, but I'm going to think for myself and I'm not going to follow

00:21:15.740 these recommendations. So here's where I can sympathize with that. Number one, I do think

00:21:22.480 that the media is using this to hurt Donald Trump. I do think that they are instilling

00:21:27.400 panic to make Trump look incompetent. So totally agree with you there. Number two, I have seen 1.00

00:21:34.600 socialists on Twitter tweet things to get hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets, uh, trying

00:21:39.960 to point out that this is why capitalism is bad because all our supplies are running out.

00:21:44.380 They're taking pictures of empty shelves at Kroger and things like that. These people are

00:21:48.200 idiots. I'm sorry. There's no nicer way to say that. I can't be gentler than that. Like 1.00

00:21:52.880 these people are idiots in a socialist country. Things run out because the supply is low in 1.00

00:21:58.460 capitalist countries. Things run out because demand is high in capitalist countries. Supply

00:22:04.040 will eventually meet demand. Like those shelves that are empty now are going to be restocked by

00:22:09.160 tomorrow or next week. In a socialist country, when supply runs out, you're just, you're just out of

00:22:15.280 luck. So there's the difference. So I understand. I sympathize with that position that people are

00:22:19.560 saying people are trying to use this whole thing to show why capitalism is bad, why the government

00:22:23.760 just needs to take over and give people money. You're right. People are probably using it for that

00:22:29.220 purpose. So number one and two, I do believe people are using this against Donald Trump. I do believe

00:22:34.100 people are trying to use this strangely against capitalism. Uh, number three, I do see how this

00:22:39.320 lays the groundwork for more government control, uh, governments shutting down businesses, not

00:22:44.340 exciting, a little troubling. People are concerned about forced vaccinations. I'm not exciting. I

00:22:50.480 wouldn't put that past state officials. Like I said, don't, don't like that. We are in this position

00:22:55.940 to where governments are taking these actions, but I can't tell you what the better answer is. If this

00:23:03.780 is a virus that is infecting people and killing people and people are not heeding recommendations

00:23:09.120 at all, I don't know exactly the proper balance. Um, I think for the most part, private companies

00:23:15.060 are doing the right thing on their own. I think a lot of individuals are doing the right thing

00:23:18.940 on their own. I think canceling things like South by Southwest, March Madness and things like that.

00:23:23.920 While it was really sad, while it's certainly not good for morale, I do think that these were good

00:23:28.280 moves. Um, but when you've got bars and restaurants still packed on the weekends,

00:23:32.940 and we know for a fact that we've seen other countries like Italy, uh, that this will,

00:23:38.160 we know for a fact that, uh, in countries like that, that behavior like this actually worsens

00:23:42.900 the spread of the virus. I think state governments have a really tough decision to make. Uh, of course,

00:23:49.040 when you have people like Bill de Blasio shutting down bars and restaurants and then telling everyone

00:23:53.580 to stay inside while he was caught going into the YMCA Monday morning, I mean, that's a pretty good

00:23:59.440 reason for people to maybe be a little bit skeptical and see some hypocrisy in this.

00:24:04.600 So yes, to the people on the right who see this as, um, a tool of the media of tool of people who

00:24:13.080 don't like Donald Trump, who don't like the West, who don't like capitalism. I understand that. Uh,

00:24:18.360 there are certainly consequences as well as shutting down a whole portions of the country.

00:24:22.780 But the fact is no company or state government wants to be responsible in any way for the spread

00:24:28.720 of the deadly virus. And so they're taking every precaution. Um, there is a difference in having

00:24:34.060 these concerns that this virus is being weaponized by our political opponents to, um, to, in an effort

00:24:43.720 towards goals that we disagree with and thinking that this virus is made up to do those things. Does

00:24:50.700 that make sense? So that's where I don't agree. I agree that this virus is being weaponized by

00:24:56.880 political opponents in really stupid ways. And we should resist that kind of rhetoric and resist 1.00

00:25:02.520 that kind of hysteria. But I don't think it was contrived to do that. Like, I don't think it was

00:25:07.720 just a conspiracy to do that. I don't, I think there are people on the right who think that Democrats

00:25:13.140 and some, like, I don't know, globalists somewhere in the world on the left decided to leak this virus

00:25:20.520 in order to defeat Donald Trump. And that, that is a conspiracy that I don't think people should

00:25:26.540 be pursuing. And there's a difference in our reaction, depending on which side of that we

00:25:32.460 are on. So if we think that the media just happens to be weaponizing this and ginning up hysteria in

00:25:37.880 order to hurt Donald Trump, and that some people on the left are doing that as well, then we could

00:25:42.580 say, okay, we're not going to be a part of the panic, but we're still going to be prepared because

00:25:46.340 this is a real virus. But if you're on the other side to where you think that this virus is completely

00:25:51.220 made up in order to do those things, well, you're not going to take precautions. You're going to say,

00:25:56.020 well, I'm just not going to be a part of that at all because it's not even real. Well, it is real.

00:25:59.680 It is real. So if you're on that side that this virus is just entirely made up, then you need to

00:26:05.040 hop off that. You can still be on the other side to where you think the panic is too much, to where

00:26:09.560 people are politicizing this too much, but you still need to take precautions because you're not the

00:26:13.940 only one that's at risk. Like I've said, there are people probably a lot more vulnerable than you

00:26:18.280 that are around you, or at least around other people who are around you that you need to be

00:26:22.240 thinking about in the steps that you take. Trump himself is making a lot of the recommendations

00:26:28.920 that the CDC is also making. So if you think that this is a conspiracy against Donald Trump,

00:26:34.680 that apparently Donald Trump is on the side of conspiracy. So you're going to have to

00:26:40.700 square that circle for me. I don't think that that logic follows. I do think that one reason

00:26:48.180 that there are many people on the right who are reacting this way is because Trump himself did

00:26:52.700 downplay it at first. Just last week, he tweeted that this is not as bad as the flu. He's been

00:26:57.440 saying since the beginning that things aren't going to get that bad here. And I think his intentions are

00:27:02.100 good, but it gave people the sense that this isn't something to take seriously. And now you have

00:27:06.860 people who still have that attitude. No one is telling you guys to live in fear. No one is telling

00:27:12.660 you to be paranoid. No one is, no one is telling you that you can't go outside. No one is telling

00:27:17.480 you that you can't serve those who need help. I'm just suggesting that you don't defy recommendations

00:27:23.440 for social distancing because you're trying to prove a point. You have no idea of the people you

00:27:28.420 might affect. Don't be self-centered. Don't be defiant because it thinks you, you think it makes you

00:27:34.260 some valiant rebel. Just consider other people. And then there is the reaction on the other side

00:27:40.000 of the spectrum, particularly on the left side of the aisle, which is sheer and absolute panic

00:27:44.020 and politicization that this is all Trump's fault. We're all going to die. The world is over. This

00:27:48.780 is why we need socialism. This is why we need Medicare for all. This is why we need a Democrat

00:27:52.820 in office. Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, the America-hating trifecta have all

00:27:59.980 tried to make the case that this is why we need single-payer healthcare. Why? So we can have fewer

00:28:05.720 hospitals. So we can, so our hospitals can be overrun more than they already will be. So the

00:28:12.080 quality of care can go down. So we can have no medical innovation whatsoever. Of course, that's

00:28:17.660 not their reasoning, but that's exactly what would happen in a Medicare for all system. Every

00:28:22.820 advancement, as far as both testing and vaccines go, have been thanks to the free market, private

00:28:28.300 companies stepping up and leading the way for innovation. As I've said many times, there are

00:28:33.380 problems with our current healthcare system. There are problems with how Americans and American 0.99

00:28:38.740 doctors view holistic health. American healthcare in general has the tendency to over-medicate,

00:28:45.620 to be overly invasive, to completely ignore or even laugh at the idea of preventative care and

00:28:51.480 natural options. They almost always, it seems like, opt for synthetic pills that manage systems rather

00:28:57.560 than actually get to the root cause and cure your problem. This is one reason why life expectancy

00:29:03.220 is not as high in the United States as it should be and why the maternal mortality rate is way too high

00:29:09.840 for this wealthy of a country. And people get ripped off by hospitals. They get ripped off by insurance

00:29:16.120 providers. All of that does, of course, happen in the United States. But we also are the world's almost

00:29:22.640 exclusive source of medical advancement, research and innovation. The world depends on us for

00:29:29.220 advancements in care. Other countries may do a better job of helping patients with everyday illnesses

00:29:34.920 and kudos to them. We can learn something from some of these countries, but there is no better place

00:29:40.300 in the world to have surgery or get treated for cancer or any other kind of life-threatening illness.

00:29:46.420 We have more doctors and nurses and health centers per capita than any other country.

00:29:51.300 If you are rich in the UK, you come here for your heart surgery. If you are rich in Canada,

00:29:56.300 you come here for your hip replacement. Otherwise, you are going to be put on a waiting list

00:30:00.440 and you could wait months or even years to get the care that you need, even for something like

00:30:06.820 cancer treatment. In the US, you need it. You got insurance to cover it. You will get it either

00:30:11.720 that week or the next week. You are going to get the care that you need very quickly.

00:30:16.720 The AOCs of the world would like you to believe that where there is socialized medicine, 1.00

00:30:21.600 there is both equality and quality of care, and that is just not true. If you are extremely wealthy

00:30:28.220 in a place where there is socialized care, there are places that you can go to pay out of pocket

00:30:33.440 and get much better care than the average folk who have to go to the government-run health care

00:30:38.900 centers. There are American-run health centers in the UK where rich people go. Why? Because the quality

00:30:44.140 of care is so much better. It's so much better when it is a privately-run health care center.

00:30:50.760 There are Americans in the media. There are Americans on Twitter saying that Italy has better

00:30:55.440 hospitals than we do, a better and a more advanced health care system, and so our outlook is going to

00:31:00.680 be a lot more grim than theirs. That's just not true. In general, that is just not true. Talk to the

00:31:05.600 people in Italy. The North in Italy has really good hospitals. The South doesn't. Overall,

00:31:10.840 Italy's health care is not the same. It's not on the same playing field at all as America's health

00:31:17.180 care. Have you seen the pictures of what's happening over there in Italy? I mean, God bless

00:31:21.980 them. I mean, thank God for the doctors and nurses over there. It's not their fault. They're doing

00:31:26.120 everything they can. I believe that they are trying to do their very best to save as many people as

00:31:32.700 possible, but they are gymnasiums lined with cots with sick people on them. That's how they're having

00:31:40.100 to treat people right now. There are people on the left who would say absolutely anything. Take any

00:31:46.360 opportunity to make America look bad. Take any opportunity to criticize America and say why

00:31:50.960 every other country is better than we are, and President Trump is more incompetent and more evil

00:31:56.520 than any other leader on the world stage, and they are taking this opportunity, a pandemic, to do that

00:32:01.380 as well. Let's remember, the virus started a few months ago in China. China, being the communist 0.99

00:32:07.980 country that it is, would not let world health officials, including officials from the United

00:32:12.500 States, into the country to help. They denied and downplayed the problem for weeks, maybe months,

00:32:17.660 until stories from Chinese doctors and citizens became public and the virus started spreading

00:32:22.500 because, like all communist regimes, the Chinese Communist Party has to seem like it is in control.

00:32:29.120 The main Chinese doctor who tried to warn the world about the coronavirus and how deadly it was

00:32:33.840 and how terribly China was handling it. He was put in jail, and he was forced to recant his statement.

00:32:41.100 Citizens who took videos and photos of the body bags upon body bags being heaped into vans and lay

00:32:46.920 in the street were thrown into jail. Who knows what happened to these people? People were forced into

00:32:51.780 their homes and left to die because the hospitals were totally overwhelmed and were receiving no help

00:32:57.460 whatsoever from the Chinese government. This is communism. Communism always, unconditionally, 0.84

00:33:03.100 without fail, is evil. Everywhere communism goes, suffering and death ensues. And as Vladimir 0.87

00:33:09.500 Lenin himself said, communism is the end or the goal of socialism. Communism also peddles propaganda.

00:33:16.360 So the Communist Party propaganda machines in China are now attempting to blame the virus on the United

00:33:21.680 States, saying it started here, saying that it was contrived by the FBI. This is typical anti-American

00:33:29.640 propaganda that the rest of the world, rest of the totalitarian world has peddled in for centuries.

00:33:35.940 They hate us. They hate our freedom. They hate our prosperity. They hate our opportunity.

00:33:40.980 They hate our way of life. They hate our democracy. And unfortunately, very unfortunately,

00:33:46.440 we have in the United States, including some in the media, who share in many of these sympathies,

00:33:51.900 who are so hungry for any opportunity to criticize the United States and declare why another country,

00:33:57.800 even a communist regime that literally has thousands of Christians and Muslims in concentration camps

00:34:02.200 right now as we speak, is better than us. Anyone who tells you that China has done a better job at this 1.00

00:34:09.920 than the United States is lying to you. Who at all tries to tell you that China is better than America?

00:34:16.440 China has literally bought into Chinese communist propaganda that unfortunately has been repurposed

00:34:23.740 and reused by those who hate Donald Trump in this country and who have been brainwashed by postmodern

00:34:29.320 professors into believing that America is a bad actor on the world stage and that every other country

00:34:34.440 is a victim of our imperialism and oppression. The view of the world that these people hold is not only

00:34:41.960 inaccurate, it's going to place you time and again on the side of countries and regimes that actually

00:34:47.680 oppress their people. Read a freaking book. Read a freaking book. Think about it. Don't let your brain be 0.99

00:34:53.360 turned to mush by postmodernism. Now, all of that said, America has not handled this perfectly, not even

00:35:01.720 close. And I do believe that truthful criticism of this administration during this crisis is absolutely

00:35:07.640 justified. It's always justified to criticize our leaders when criticism is due. Everything rises

00:35:15.440 and falls on leadership and there are problems with how things have been handled. There are some good

00:35:19.960 things, some very good things, but there are also some bad things that we shouldn't be afraid to call

00:35:24.480 out. There has been confusion about where the tests are and how available they are. Why are so many

00:35:29.860 people having to jump through so many hoops in their district to get tested when they have symptoms

00:35:35.540 and have been knowingly exposed while NBA basketball players, NBA basketball players, that's a little

00:35:41.200 redundant. NBA players are getting them easily, apparently. Apparently, there were thousands of

00:35:47.140 people traveling from Europe to the U.S. over the weekend whose temperatures were not checked, who went

00:35:52.080 through no kind of screening process before being able to go home. President Trump has now banned travel

00:35:57.160 from Europe, except for U.S. citizens, by the way. He originally said that this applied to trade and then

00:36:02.260 he went back and said, no, that doesn't apply to trade. The wait times at Chicago O'Hare, DFW, LAX over

00:36:09.980 the weekend for these travelers coming in from Europe were insane. People huddled together in these 1.00

00:36:15.340 airports, exactly what you're not supposed to be doing in a social distancing situation, huddled together

00:36:19.880 in these airports for hours because there weren't enough CBP or CBC agents to do the screenings.

00:36:27.020 But the team that Trump has put together, this is the good part, the team that Trump has put

00:36:31.460 together, led by Pence, I do believe has made every effort to communicate as clearly and as regularly

00:36:37.840 to the American people as possible. Millions of test kits are apparently on their way. They have

00:36:42.560 partnered with Google and others in the private sector to create a website that will make getting

00:36:47.360 tested easier. They have rolled out recommendations, it seems like, every other day to us as individuals,

00:36:54.400 to businesses. They've met with governors. I do believe this team is doing the very best job

00:36:58.740 that they possibly can at this point. If you think things would be going better under Biden or Hillary

00:37:05.960 or Bernie, you are crazy. There's no evidence to that whatsoever. I mean, there's not, there's just 0.93

00:37:12.480 none. Bernie would be the worst. There's actually good evidence that it would be much worse under

00:37:17.320 these people. Bernie would be the worst though because he has no leadership ability whatsoever.

00:37:22.240 He's never proven that. He has no leadership bone in his body. Everything just needs to be free.

00:37:26.720 That's his only solution to anything. He never answers how things are going to be accomplished.

00:37:32.020 Trump, as always, though, he needs to stop tweeting. He needs to stop tweeting. Stop making this about

00:37:36.960 the media. Stop making this about himself. Stop making this about electability. Stop making this about

00:37:41.440 what past leaders have done. We'll do that. Like, there are people in the media, not me, but there are

00:37:47.480 people in the media who will carry Trump's water. Like, they will defend President Trump. He doesn't need to be

00:37:52.200 doing that on his own. He needs to concern himself with leading and assuring and not with picking

00:37:57.500 fights. That is going to be the most important thing for him in the election. And I don't think,

00:38:03.200 I don't know if the people around him don't understand that or they feel powerless to make

00:38:07.800 sure that happens. But this is not the time. It's not the time. And what we learn from this,

00:38:14.980 something that the left just doesn't seem to understand, is that the government, no matter who is

00:38:19.500 in charge, cannot save you. The federal government cannot save you. It would not matter if a Democrat

00:38:24.500 was in charge. It would not matter if it was a socialist government. It would be far worse if

00:38:28.980 we were in a socialist government. But it wouldn't matter if you had the exact president that you

00:38:33.560 wanted. The government can't save you. The federal government is, in general, ineffective and efficient

00:38:38.740 compared to the efforts of the private sector and individuals. The government is not trustworthy.

00:38:43.540 We need to take our own responsibility. We cannot put our trust in bureaucracy ever. The federal

00:38:48.320 government has a role. They can do things well-ish and they can do things really badly. But we can't

00:38:55.300 put all our trust in them. As a refresher, what we see from this pandemic is the importance of advanced

00:39:02.520 medical care, of strong border security, of small federal government, and a free enterprise. Not all

00:39:08.500 the lessons that socialists think that we're supposed to be drawing from this, that we need

00:39:11.880 totalitarianism. I mean, that's just insane. We've seen how totalitarianism has made this worse.

00:39:17.720 Just look at China. So another thing that I want to talk about is that this entire chaotic mess 1.00

00:39:25.240 has given opportunity to conspiracists, to maybe it's conspiracy theorists, maybe that's the better

00:39:34.980 way to say that, to drum up a lot of anxiety, drum up a lot of imaginative narratives about what's

00:39:44.420 really going on in all of this. This gives, of course, people who come up with conspiracy theories

00:39:50.800 on the internet and try to gain a following doing that, they have the perfect recipe for that in

00:39:58.520 this coronavirus because it's this foreign virus. We're not really sure where it came from. We're not

00:40:05.100 really sure how it spread the way that it has. We're not really sure how it's getting solved. And so

00:40:11.560 you really have so many ingredients from a conspiracy theorist perspective to write this

00:40:18.740 wild tale that people will latch onto because we inherently want to look for answers. People like

00:40:24.640 knowledge. People especially like secret knowledge. That's why there are so many Gnostics in the world. 1.00

00:40:30.300 There are so many people right now, especially in the rise of the new age, that are always looking

00:40:34.320 for secret knowledge. Like they want to believe that they finally found, um, the secret path that

00:40:41.640 has been, uh, that has been covered up by years of, I don't know, whether it's corruption or arbitrary

00:40:50.480 societal standards or insecurities or whatever it is. And they finally found this gem, this wealth of

00:40:57.900 knowledge. And if they just hold on to this secret knowledge, then all of the answers of the universe

00:41:03.700 and all of the answers of their own life will be unlocked and they'll finally be satisfied.

00:41:08.560 So this happens a lot in, like I said, the kind of new age yoga-y worlds that so many young women

00:41:16.220 are caught up in. It is definitely a part of the whole self-love movement, but there is also a part

00:41:21.980 of that in conspiracy theories that I think a lot of, especially conservatives, like to latch onto

00:41:28.380 because conservatives are anti-establishment. We are anti-big government. We are inherently very

00:41:35.000 skeptical. We ask a lot of questions. And I do think that makes sometimes people that are on the

00:41:40.280 right side of the aisle a little bit more susceptible to conspiracy theories. And when it comes to this,

00:41:45.280 uh, coronavirus, you've got people saying, you know, this conspiracy against Trump, this is

00:41:50.400 actually not a conspiracy against Trump. It is Trump's efforts to, uh, drain the swamp. There's

00:41:59.280 something, there's a conspiracy out there about like, uh, that I don't even know. I'm not even going

00:42:04.840 to give voice to all the conspiracies out there because so many of you have sent me examples of

00:42:09.760 these conspiracies that this was actually prophesied a while ago. Maybe I'm not saying, I don't know.

00:42:15.220 I don't know the answer. And I don't know the answer to all of these theories. Some of them

00:42:21.360 may be having more credibility than others. I have no idea. Here's the point is that you don't either.

00:42:27.960 Like you don't know. You don't know. I promise you, you have not found secret knowledge that the

00:42:33.780 universe has been hiding from you. That if everyone just believed this, then they would unlock some kind

00:42:40.100 of treasure trove of wisdom that would make the world work in better order. I know that there are

00:42:46.200 a lot of people out there who believe that about whatever conspiracy theory that they have found,

00:42:51.740 not just when it comes to something like this, but even when it comes to something about whether

00:42:56.260 the earth is flat or round, like people are just looking for secret knowledge. They're looking for

00:43:01.660 communities attached to that secret knowledge because we all want to be a part of something bigger

00:43:05.780 than ourselves. But as Christians, we need to avoid thinking about these conspiracies. I know

00:43:11.860 it's exhausted a lot of you, all the conspiracies that you're seeing, because you don't know who to

00:43:16.040 trust. You don't know who to follow. You don't know who to believe. Anyone who is trying to get you

00:43:21.480 to believe in these theories that have no basis, as far as you can tell in reality, you got to unfollow.

00:43:28.580 Like you got to get out of that trap. You got to get out of that mess that is only going to cause

00:43:32.900 more chaos in your mind, more confusion, more anxiety. God is not the author of anxiety.

00:43:38.380 He is not the author of chaos. He is the author of peace. And if you're reading conspiracy theory

00:43:44.320 on top of conspiracy theory, and you are working yourself into a tizzy, I can tell you right now,

00:43:48.240 that is not God's will. I promise you. Isaiah 8, 12, do not call conspiracy all that this people

00:43:55.480 calls conspiracy and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts,

00:44:00.660 him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear and let him be your dread.

00:44:05.980 Ooh, yes. Let's fear the Lord. Let's not fear conspiracies. Let's fear the Lord. Let us have

00:44:13.260 that healthy dread of the God of the universe, the great I am, who raises up mountains and can

00:44:20.020 destroy them at any time that he wants to. Who can end all of this at any second that he desires?

00:44:26.060 Let's fear him. Let's not fear these crazy conspiracies. 1 Timothy 6, 3 through 5. This is

00:44:33.620 talking about false teachers. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the

00:44:38.180 sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed

00:44:43.040 up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy. Hello.

00:44:48.700 And for quarrels without words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,

00:44:56.840 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth,

00:45:02.720 imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Shoot, y'all. Shoot. Y'all might need to go back and read 0.99

00:45:10.200 that again. 1 Timothy 6, 3 through 5. Isaiah 8, 12. Now let's contrast that with the spirit that we are

00:45:17.520 supposed to take on as Christians is people who believe in the mighty fortress that is our god.

00:45:24.300 If you haven't listened to Monday's episode, I highly encourage you to do that. We will be reminded

00:45:29.340 of the truth of who god is in that episode. And you will, because of who god is, because of god

00:45:36.700 being our strong defense, our strong tower, our god of refuge and strength, you will have peace

00:45:44.720 knowing that that is the god who takes care of you. Let's read parts of Psalm 27.

00:45:50.500 The lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The lord is the stronghold of my life. Of

00:45:57.200 whom shall I be afraid? One thing I asked of the lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the

00:46:05.080 house of the lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his

00:46:10.780 temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover

00:46:16.560 of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the

00:46:22.900 lord in the land of the living. Wait for the lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for

00:46:30.180 the lord. So let this be our posture instead of anxiety. Let this be our attitude instead of worry,

00:46:37.760 instead of paranoia, instead of panic, but also instead of carelessness. Like instead of just

00:46:44.060 pretending that prudence doesn't matter and wisdom doesn't matter and thinking of other people

00:46:50.840 doesn't matter. Let us find the balance in God's word of trusting God, being as cautious as we can,

00:46:57.380 but not letting fear, not letting fear paralyze us and not letting ourselves go down these rabbit trails

00:47:04.380 of anxiety that are aligned with conspiracy theories that have no grounding in reality.

00:47:12.680 And even if they do have grounding in reality, we're never going to know whether they are factual

00:47:17.500 or not. And so trying to decipher and discern whether they are not is just going to put us in

00:47:23.320 a tizzy that, like I said, I don't think it's God's will and ultimately doesn't matter. Like if you want

00:47:27.680 to know truth, if you're really looking for the secret answers that you long for, if you really want to

00:47:32.520 know the key to satisfaction, the key to wisdom, fear the Lord and read his word and get your strength

00:47:39.600 and your wisdom and your knowledge and your insight and your perception from him, you won't go wrong.

00:47:44.520 You won't go wrong. Log out of those blogs. Like stop, stop following that girl on Instagram who 0.90

00:47:50.800 claims to have secret prophecies and secret revelations from the Lord. If it doesn't align with

00:47:55.340 God's word, you got nothing to do with her. Okay. Um, so just a reminder that we are supposed to be

00:48:03.460 wise in all of this, but we're not supposed to be worried. We know who is in control of all of it.

00:48:09.120 Like we know how the world is going to end. The Bible tells us this. Um, it's not through coronavirus.

00:48:16.020 It's not through climate change. Like God tells us how it's all going to go down and what we can take

00:48:22.260 comfort in as Christians is that God is one day going to rule an absolute perfect peace. And we're

00:48:28.560 not going to have sickness. We're not going to have coronavirus. We're not going to have the media.

00:48:32.020 We're not going to have partisanship. We're not going to have panic. We're not going to have worry.

00:48:36.440 We're not going to have any of these things to think about. We are going to be filled with peace

00:48:40.900 and joy and absolute serenity, worshiping our God, our savior, the God who has been in charge of all of

00:48:47.960 it since the very beginning. Okay. So be wise. Don't be worried. Take care of your families.

00:48:55.660 Take care of the people that are around you. Check in on the people that you know who might be lonely

00:48:59.880 and just do the best you can do the best you can. I think that's all we can do. We'll be talking more

00:49:04.920 about this as the days and the weeks go on. If you've got suggestions for other things that you

00:49:09.520 would like me to talk about, just let me know. Thanks for bearing with me as I know there were like

00:49:13.280 sounds in the background and this doesn't look and sound like you're used to. Thank you for

00:49:18.680 being gracious. Love you guys. I will see you on Friday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 18, 2020

Ep 226 ｜ Wisdom, Not Worry

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