Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 248 ｜ Seeking Justice & Speaking the Truth In Love

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy monday i hope everyone had a good weekend happy mother's day

00:00:06.240 to all you moms out there whether you are a biological mom you're a foster mom an adoptive

00:00:12.480 mom i am thankful for you i admire you and i know your families are thankful for you and admire you

00:00:18.880 as well women are just so amazing moms are so amazing the capacity that moms have to multitask 0.99

00:00:27.120 to comfort to care to nurture to get things together it's just incredible i'm so thankful

00:00:32.080 to god for creating women with this very special and unique set of abilities to mother it's just i i

00:00:39.280 love watching all of the moms in my life from my in-laws my own mom my grandmother who passed away

00:00:46.480 a few months ago watching her as i grew up just mother and grandmother so well i have been incredibly

00:00:52.960 blessed to have so many wonderful godly examples of moms in my life and i'm very i i'm thankful i'm

00:01:00.320 thankful for motherhood so happy mother's day to all of you out there today we are going to be talking

00:01:06.240 about ahmed arbory and this tragic incident that happened a couple months ago that we're kind of

00:01:12.160 just now hearing about in the news and has served as the center of a lot of conversation discussion

00:01:18.240 and even debate on social media for the past few days i would say probably the past week or so

00:01:24.240 a lot of you guys have asked me to give you my thoughts and i planned to do that actually last

00:01:31.280 friday and then i wasn't able to record the episode for that and it actually it worked out because a lot of

00:01:38.640 information and i would even say nuance has been added to this conversation since i was planning that

00:01:45.040 original episode and because i shared some of my thoughts on this incident on social media i've

00:01:51.680 had a lot of good discussion pushback conversation constructive criticism about some of the thoughts

00:01:57.360 that i shared that i think have been very helpful and in aiding me in uh coming up with the most holistic

00:02:05.840 and proper and biblical perspective on all of this so know that that's my heart behind talking about this

00:02:11.680 today is speaking the truth in love as graciously as sensitively as accurately as i possibly can that

00:02:20.320 is always what i want to do for you guys and i know that i have failed several times and you guys

00:02:25.520 have let me know when i fail and i'm so thankful for that and today if i fail if there's something that

00:02:32.080 i say that is not accurate if there's something that i say that is insensitive know that that's not

00:02:37.200 at all my intention and i welcome your constructive uh criticism and your feedback pushback whatever it

00:02:43.680 may be you can message me on instagram you can email me whatever it is i want i want to hear from you

00:02:51.120 i'm going to do the best i possibly can to approach this in the best and uh the most god honoring way i

00:02:58.160 know how and um i i hope that i hope to accomplish that but you guys always keep me in line and make sure that

00:03:05.840 i am doing that well okay let's get into this story uh like i said a ton of you guys have asked me to

00:03:11.920 cover this and and maybe a few of you listening to this don't care about my perspective at all like

00:03:17.280 a friend shared this with you and you're listening to this begrudgingly or you're listening because

00:03:21.920 you're looking for ways that i'm going to wrongly analyze this because it's such a sensitive topic

00:03:27.440 and i am obviously a white person talking about a story that has to do with race and that in and of

00:03:34.560 itself can be seen as controversial and i recognize that if that's you if you fall into one of those

00:03:40.640 categories that you are coming into this thinking that you are going to disagree with me that's okay

00:03:46.800 i'm glad that you're here i have an obligation to my audience to point them to the truth in the best way

00:03:52.080 that i can and uh i certainly as i said at the top welcome any criticism or or feedback or further

00:03:59.440 analysis and commentary that you guys might provide for me whether you disagree with me or not so first

00:04:05.280 i am going to give you the facts of what happened as we know them there's a lot of opinion a lot of

00:04:12.400 editorializing a lot of politicizing surrounding this story unfortunately and i i will share my opinion

00:04:20.160 later but my primary or order of business right now is to lay out exactly what we know and how we know

00:04:26.960 it sans my subjective opinion so understand that i am not picking and choosing information to fit into

00:04:32.400 a certain narrative i'm not trying to convince you of anything by telling you what we know i am going

00:04:38.640 to draw from the article what i believe is the original article article in a mainstream outlet from

00:04:45.120 the new york times um that was released on april 26th titled two weapons a chase a killing and no

00:04:52.640 charges by richard fausset i think that's how you pronounce his last name this is where we are

00:04:57.760 getting most of our original information right now since then a lot of other outlets have picked it up

00:05:04.640 but as far as i know this was the first article that started um kind of getting the ball rolling

00:05:09.600 and talking about this story so fausset reports that in brunswick georgia arbory a 25 year old black man

00:05:16.320 was killed by two white men a father and a son as he was running on a road on the afternoon of

00:05:22.240 february 23rd and the races are pertinent to this conversation because they are the reason

00:05:28.080 that people are talking about this and i think that's fair to say the reason this has become such

00:05:33.120 a big con conversation is because of the race of the perpetrators and the race of the victim

00:05:39.520 uh two men were directly involved with the killing greg and travis mcmichael who are father and son

00:05:45.760 according to police reports the mcmichaels believed arbory was a suspect in a series of burglaries

00:05:52.000 and that he had just been trespassing in a semi-constructed property close by there is now

00:05:57.760 video that has come out since this original article was published that confirms that arbory was inside

00:06:03.680 this construction property not taking anything uh but inside and looking around a 911 call released to

00:06:11.360 the guardian has an anonymous man reporting that a black man in a white t-shirt was trespassing on the

00:06:17.040 property and running away so it would appear that the mcmichaels were pursuing arbory because they

00:06:24.240 believed that he was a suspect not just of this trespassing but also of uh of a series of crimes

00:06:31.520 that's apparently what they believed according to this new york times article court records do show

00:06:38.000 that arbory had a criminal past and again i'm only bringing that up because the new york times article

00:06:43.440 mentions this he was arrested for shoplifting a number of years ago violating his probation in 2018

00:06:49.920 and indicted on charges of illegally carrying a handgun into a high school football game just to

00:06:55.760 clarify that does not mean that he was guilty of the crimes of burglary of which he was allegedly

00:07:01.760 accused by the mcmichaels and apparently others the person uh the person who called 911 uh this was

00:07:09.040 claimed in that 911 call and by the elder mcmichael greg in a police report uh the new york post actually

00:07:15.200 reported that there hadn't been a reported series of burglaries in the area though uh there is video

00:07:22.800 of ahmed uh arbory's killing and it was just released on tuesday for the first time we don't

00:07:29.600 know who leaked the video how it got into the hands of the person who posted it on the internet but it did

00:07:35.200 it shows arbory running at a pretty quick speed wearing khakis and a white t-shirt he runs up next

00:07:41.440 to a truck which is parked in the middle of the road with a man in the back of a truck and a man on the

00:07:46.800 outside of the truck these are the mcmichaels both armed with guns and arbory lunges towards the man 0.95

00:07:53.120 the son uh travis mcmichael who is carrying a shotgun and he is outside of the truck and then after

00:08:01.200 arbory lunges at travis mcmichael they kind of tussle and then you hear what sounds like two

00:08:06.320 gunshots arbory starts to walk and kind of run away and he stumbles to his death and your heart

00:08:13.040 just sinks it was a very disturbing very troubling very heartbreaking video to watch i don't necessarily

00:08:20.800 recommend watching the video unless you absolutely feel like you have to to see for yourself what really

00:08:27.440 happened um if you are wondering who was filming this and why we now know that the person who was

00:08:34.560 filming the video was a part of the chase and was in a vehicle behind the mcmichaels we don't know what

00:08:42.080 happened before this video we don't know if this was their first confrontation how long they had been

00:08:47.680 following him uh or anything like that all we know for sure is what happened uh in the video and what

00:08:54.800 i already told you according to the new york times which gathered police reports uh we also know that

00:09:00.880 until this week there were no charges made or actually last week now that i am recording this

00:09:06.480 uh there were no charges until last week made against the mcmichaels and they were not arrested

00:09:13.200 until just a few days ago and here's why the first prosecutor on the case george barnhill wrote a letter

00:09:19.920 to the police according to the new york times mr this is what the new york times says uh mr

00:09:24.640 barnhill also wrote that he did not believe there was evidence of a crime noting that gregory mcmichael

00:09:30.080 and his son had been legally carrying their weapons under georgia law and because mr arbery was a

00:09:35.600 burglary suspect the pursuers who had solid first-hand probable cause were justified in chasing him under

00:09:42.640 the state's citizens arrest law so that's what the first prosecutor george barnhill argued uh in a

00:09:48.880 separate document the new york times says mr barnhill stated that video exists of mr arbery burglar

00:09:54.560 rising a home immediately preceding the chase and confrontation uh so that is in quotations

00:10:01.280 the new york times uh the video shows mr arbery trying to grab the shotgun um oh no this is

00:10:08.080 continuing with the new york times saying this the video shows uh mr arbery trying to grab this

00:10:13.120 shotgun from travis mcmichaels hands mr barnhill wrote and that he argued amounts to self-defense

00:10:19.360 under georgia law travis mcmichael mr barnhill continued was allowed to use deadly force to

00:10:25.200 protect himself says the new york times uh that is why the mcmichaels were not arrested the original

00:10:31.600 prosecutor on the case argued that they shouldn't be arrested because it was a citizen's arrest in

00:10:36.720 self-defense however the prosecutor soon after recused himself after arbery's mom pushed him to do so

00:10:44.080 after finding out that barnhill's son worked at the da's office where greg mcmichael used to work

00:10:50.240 barnhill insisted according to the times that there was no bias or any kind of relationship between him

00:10:56.400 and greg mcmichael but he recused himself anyway so the case was then assigned to tom durden the current

00:11:04.240 prosecutor and he is now recommending that a grand jury in glenn county hear the case for consideration of

00:11:10.720 criminal charges that probably won't happen for a while because of restrictions due to coronavirus but

00:11:16.000 it will happen after the video came out i assume from mounting pressure the mcmichaels were arrested

00:11:23.040 and they now face murder in aggravated assault charges so that is what we know now let's go into

00:11:31.440 what is being said what the reaction has been and then i will say what we don't know and then what i

00:11:38.080 think so my opinion based on everything i know and everything that's being said again when i say

00:11:43.280 what is being said in the reaction i am not trying to sway your mind in any certain direction i'm not

00:11:49.440 saying these responses or reactions and disdain i'm just telling you what the uh what the predominant

00:11:56.080 reaction has been uh there is a graphic that was made by the naacp that says ahmaud arbery was running

00:12:03.360 in his neighborhood and was chased and murdered by two white supremacists the graphic is being shared

00:12:08.960 by celebrities by influencers all across social media and has received probably millions and millions

00:12:15.120 of views and likes and shares uh sean king whose backgrounds we won't get into right now but is he's

00:12:22.080 an activist with a lot of influence he started the hashtag run with mod and uh run with mod.com and uh

00:12:29.360 uh run with mod.com says that he was out for a jog when he was chased down shot and killed by two

00:12:35.520 white supremacists bernie sanders tweeted the men who murdered ahmaud arbery must be held accountable

00:12:41.440 and there must be justice for ahmaud's family there is no doubt in my mind that ahmaud would be alive

00:12:46.000 today if he were white kamala harris tweeted exercising while black shouldn't be a death sentence

00:12:51.280 taylor swift tweeted i'm absolutely devastated and horrified by the senseless cold-blooded

00:12:56.400 racially motivated killing of ahmaud arbery hashtag justice for ahmaud you saw pastors saying much of

00:13:02.800 the same thing you saw christian teachers and authors and influencers also posting the same

00:13:07.600 naacp graphic using the same kind of hashtags sending people to sean king's website saying that you know

00:13:15.360 this was uh these were two white supremacists who killed ahmaud arbery and i'm going to say something

00:13:22.800 now we're shifting into uh what we don't know so that is what happened and then what is being said

00:13:29.440 the predominant reaction uh there are other kinds of reactions too but i would say that's the mainstream

00:13:34.960 reaction and i am going to go into what we don't actually know and this is probably going to be the

00:13:41.040 most controversial part of the podcast and i don't mean it to be i don't mean to give the benefit of the

00:13:46.320 doubt to anyone i'm just being as honest and as also as well it's weird to say this but like as humble

00:13:54.160 as i possibly can not that i am trying to you know dawn humility in a way that makes me seem virtuous but

00:14:02.000 in just recognizing the things that i don't know in my limited ability uh to to understand holistically

00:14:10.160 this case this is going to be controversial to say we do not actually know the motivation of these

00:14:18.160 killers we know that ahmaud arbery was shot and killed we know what we see in the video we know

00:14:24.960 what's reported in the original new york times article that includes police reports but there are

00:14:30.720 a few things we don't know and we need to be okay right now with admitting that we do not know if the

00:14:37.520 mcmichaels were white supremacists maybe they were and if information comes out that says that they are

00:14:44.640 then i am more than willing to say okay we know this this was the motivation but right now we don't

00:14:51.040 actually know that or if they were just overzealous wannabe vigilantes if they were lunatics if they were

00:14:57.040 bad mean people or simply just bad mean people we don't we don't know they could very well like i said

00:15:03.520 have been terrible racist maybe so but we don't know that yet now this point that i'm about to say

00:15:13.120 about what we don't know let me just give you this caveat beforehand let me preface it what i'm about

00:15:19.200 to say is irrelevant to the end result that occurred but it's still important okay so what i'm about to

00:15:27.120 say is irrelevant to the end result that occurred but it's still important if we care about the truth

00:15:32.240 and i'll explain it a little bit more we don't know if arbery was out for a jog or if he was in

00:15:39.120 fact running away from the property on which he was trespassing the reason why that matters is not

00:15:45.440 because that justifies his death because it absolutely doesn't that does not mean that he

00:15:51.520 deserved to die because it absolutely doesn't the reason it matters is because if he was the suspect

00:15:58.880 in this crime or other crimes the headline that's being pushed that he was jogging in his neighborhood 0.98

00:16:05.280 and randomly hunted down and lynched by two white supremacists is based on conjecture rather than

00:16:10.720 fact and when it comes to a man's life and ensuring justice which is something that we all should want

00:16:16.240 the facts matter and we actually know that he wasn't jogging in his own neighborhood as the naacp 0.99

00:16:23.520 graphic that every celebrity shared said the original new york times article says that he was

00:16:28.400 in another neighborhood and the only reason that matters isn't because it somehow explains what

00:16:34.240 happened because it doesn't but because the truth especially when we're dealing with homicide

00:16:39.920 matters the judge and jury are going to think these facts matter so the truth is these men could

00:16:46.240 absolutely have been racially profile uh racially profiling arbery but we don't know that yet we just

00:16:53.280 don't and we can make all the assumptions in the world and some of them maybe they're all safe

00:16:58.320 assumptions that they wouldn't have done this to a white man you could definitely be right in saying

00:17:04.160 that but the fact is we don't know human beings do have a very profound capacity for evil unfortunately

00:17:12.320 but we don't know the motivation yet we might never know and here's my opinion on all of it based on

00:17:19.200 what i know these two guys no matter what their motivation is no matter what arbory had done 0.96

00:17:25.280 beforehand no matter what his criminal record was these guys were completely tragically and stupidly

00:17:32.960 and criminally out of line uh this wasn't a citizen's arrest this wasn't self-defense they were

00:17:39.440 aggressors this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't tried to track him down while they were armed 1.00

00:17:45.200 this was sinful this was wrong this was criminal this was hateful stupidity my opinion is that these 1.00

00:17:50.480 two guys thought that they were going to be heroes by taking matters into their own hands so they 1.00

00:17:55.200 tracked this guy down whom they uh in others claim was a suspect in a property crime and tried to stop

00:18:02.480 him and maybe they were racially motivated while doing so i don't know what i do know is that what

00:18:08.320 they did was wrong and even murderous uh if you think someone is a suspect of a crime you don't chase

00:18:14.240 them down with guns and box them in with your truck that's what appears to be happening in this video 1.00

00:18:19.520 that is unbelievably i mean that's so idiotic and psycho and irresponsible and because of their 1.00

00:18:27.360 absolute stupidity and aggression and immorality their uh their hatefulness no matter whether it was 1.00

00:18:35.440 racially motivated or not it was hateful their hatefulness towards someone who at the very least 1.00

00:18:40.560 didn't commit a crime that deserved a death sentence a young man is now dead at 25 whether

00:18:46.480 he committed burglaries or not is irrelevant to the tragedy and the immorality of what the mcmichaels

00:18:53.600 appeared to have done to him i have heard people try to justify it by saying that arbory went after the

00:19:00.080 son uh the the son who was carrying the rifle and that he was trying to take the gun from him i'm

00:19:05.040 not buying that from what i see in the video this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't charged after

00:19:10.960 him with guns and he was apparently unarmed they had absolutely no right to do that in my view it was

00:19:18.480 murder no doubt about that now the jury is going to decide and i pray passionately that justice will be

00:19:25.360 served but these two men obviously had no business doing what they did okay let's get into the rest of

00:19:31.600 this as far as why it has taken so long for the mcmichaels to be charged i don't know the reason

00:19:37.600 for that either my guess is because the first prosecutor didn't think the mcmichaels should be

00:19:43.680 charged which is what it sounds like from that original new york times article which was the wrong

00:19:48.880 view in my personal opinion and then remember that prosecutor recused himself and then it got past the

00:19:54.400 second prosecutor who was recommending that it go before the grand jury uh my guess is that unfortunately

00:20:00.160 there are probably a lot of cases like this throughout the country of all different

00:20:04.320 circumstances was the delay racially motivated again that's possible but i just don't know maybe

00:20:10.880 there are some people out there that know that for sure i just don't have any you know evidence to

00:20:16.560 show me that it definitely was and in a normal world uh where we could count on most people to care

00:20:23.040 about justice we could just end there we could all say there are some things that we don't know right now

00:20:28.400 but we want justice we want the truth this we could say this could be racial profiling this could be a

00:20:34.640 racist hate crime this could be a case of two overzealous vigilantes that had nothing to do with

00:20:40.080 race and everything to do with two people being violently irresponsible at the expense of a young

00:20:44.400 man's life uh we know that he was killed and from what we know it sure looks like murder and no matter

00:20:50.720 what the context of that murder is we want justice to be served uh let's let the judge and the jury see the

00:20:56.560 evidence let's hear from the witnesses and let us hope and pray that justice is executed uh that

00:21:02.800 should be our hope that should be our heart and our message right now that arbory was a young man

00:21:08.480 made in the image of god who shouldn't have died but he did and now we pray for his family we pray for

00:21:15.120 his mom who just had her first mother's day without her son who was in mourning right now we pray for

00:21:21.360 his dad who is in mourning right now who i'm sure are yearning much more than all of us

00:21:26.080 for justice to be served we should be praying for truth to come to light we pray for justice to be

00:21:31.200 expedient to be righteous and for somehow god to be glorified in the midst of this tragedy we point

00:21:37.280 people towards the gospel and we say this world is not our home and there's something better lying

00:21:41.760 ahead let me tell you about the place where there's no crying or sorrow or sickness or murder or racism

00:21:48.000 or hatred or outrage or any of that only peace and goodness and joy let me tell you about jesus who

00:21:54.400 forgives sins and heals our wounds who reconciles a holy perfect god and an unholy imperfect people

00:22:03.680 that should be our hope and our hearts and um what we care about right now what we are preaching right

00:22:11.600 now when it comes to stories like this that go viral christians have to remember remember that

00:22:17.440 our allegiance is to the truth not to trends our allegiance is to the truth not to trends so what

00:22:24.880 we have to ask ourselves before we comment on tragedies like this one especially one that has

00:22:31.760 attracted so much attention is first first before we react on social media and let me just say i'm

00:22:38.480 preaching to the choir because i have certainly done this imperfectly number one we should ask ourselves

00:22:43.360 is what i'm saying or sharing true is it true how do i know it's true and if you failed at this one

00:22:50.000 like i said join the club because so have i but that's what we need to ask ourselves in the midst of

00:22:55.760 these very emotional times is the commentary i am posting or sharing true do you know that it is true

00:23:04.720 or uh am i am i sharing this or do i know that it's true or am i sharing this uh because everyone

00:23:11.680 else i know is and i'm afraid if i don't i am going to seem like i don't care uh we should be asking

00:23:18.400 ourselves am i am i posting this because i care or is it because i need people to think that i care am i

00:23:25.040 afraid if i don't jump on that wave of outrage no matter how hyperbolic or fictitious it may be that i'm

00:23:31.440 going to be left behind again been there done that this as i've said a few times in the past week or so

00:23:38.480 is the difference these questions how you answer these questions is the difference between virtue

00:23:43.200 and virtue signaling uh virtue is what christians are called to pursue truthfulness christlikeness

00:23:49.280 love kindness goodness virtue signaling is something christians should avoid because it is a form of

00:23:55.120 deception and pride it is the facade of goodness in the form of saying something that sounds good

00:24:01.440 but is actually meaningless and even oftentimes untrue seeking virtue in these situations making sure

00:24:09.520 our responses to tragedy are truthful and productive is actually a much greater honor to the victim and

00:24:16.400 their family than uncritically latching on to the mainstream narrative if the mainstream narrative is

00:24:22.800 not rooted in truth sadly while a lot of people posting about this death are sincere and i am sure of

00:24:30.560 that that that in their heart of hearts they are sincere in this there are unfortunately a lot of

00:24:36.320 hustlers on social media who routinely exploit these kinds of deaths for personal gain by pushing on

00:24:43.920 verified versions of stories that fit the narrative that america is infected um irrevocably with white

00:24:51.840 supremacy these are not godly people these kinds of hustlers that unfortunately in the past not with this

00:24:59.360 one but in the past have made up hoaxes for self gain these are not people who care about the truth these

00:25:06.960 are not people who always care about the victims or the family so christians have to be careful about the

00:25:13.120 people that we are sharing about the people that we are latching on to uh the messages that we are latching

00:25:19.440 on to we need to ask ourselves again if we know what we are saying if the commentary that we are posting

00:25:26.320 is a true narrative or if it's being pushed by self-aggrandizing people who really have no

00:25:31.600 allegiance to the truth now does racism and hate uh do racism and hate and white supremacy exist of

00:25:38.160 course they do and these things are evil they should be called out as what they are as sin as first john 0.99

00:25:44.080 4 20 says you cannot love god and hate your brother but if we care about truth which as christians we

00:25:50.640 should we have to be careful not to jump onto narratives and storylines that are not based on

00:25:56.800 fact and one of those storylines is that as lebron james said black people are hunted down by white

00:26:03.040 people every time they leave their homes and while there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that many

00:26:08.960 black people have had this experience do have this experience and they certainly have different experiences

00:26:15.120 than me i i'm not saying that i have the same experience as them at all there are also many

00:26:20.480 black people who would tell you and i know many of them who would tell you that james's commentary is

00:26:25.280 not in alignment with reality and that's not me saying that from my experience that is uh other african 1.00

00:26:31.600 american people saying that from their experience um i saw a viral tweet that asked white people what

00:26:36.960 they are going to do to make sure that white people's kids don't kill their kids uh this feels this feels

00:26:44.560 like an exploitation of tragedy why because as callous as it seems to look at homicide statistics

00:26:51.280 broken down by race which i'm not going to do right now i will say they're available at fbi.gov you will

00:26:57.680 see that black lives are not predominantly claimed by white people and it's not even close and one

00:27:04.480 racialized crime is one too many and may we all cry out for justice for each one of them but one of the 1.00

00:27:11.680 big reasons why we can't come together during these conversations around tragedies and collectively

00:27:17.680 cry out for justice is that so quickly the reaction not only becomes untruthful but also selective and

00:27:25.360 partisan so for example hundreds of pastors and influencers and celebrities have posted about this

00:27:32.160 and the problem of white supremacy and that's that's fine to post about this it's a tragedy it's also

00:27:37.920 fine when necessary when needed and called for to talk about the sin of racism but it's also okay

00:27:45.600 to wonder why everyone posts about this awful murder but not the awful murder of molly tibbitts

00:27:51.600 the young woman who was murdered by an illegal immigrant i think it was last year or a couple

00:27:56.000 of years ago while she was also jogging like i said there's nothing wrong with expressing outrage about

00:28:02.160 the killing of someone there is a case to be made that there is a lot of outrage to be had about

00:28:07.920 this killing considering how long justice has been delayed but there is something wrong for the

00:28:13.520 christian at least there is something wrong with selective outrage because that means your reactions

00:28:19.280 are being dictated by what's popular rather than what's just and what's true i understand we can't

00:28:25.680 care about everything all the time there are probably a lot of stories that i have missed on that

00:28:32.240 you know on different kinds of issues and so i too have fallen victim to just caring about what

00:28:38.080 the media tells me to care about and part of my job is taking you know popular media stories and

00:28:43.200 breaking them down for you guys and offering you a different perspective on it but if we are only

00:28:48.720 posting about an instance of injustice because we know it's popular or at least it's popular among our

00:28:54.560 audience but we're unwilling to post about another instance of injustice because we know it's not popular

00:29:00.320 among our audience then it's a good time for all of us to make sure that our heart is in the right

00:29:06.240 place that goes for people on the left and the right again there's a difference between virtue and

00:29:12.320 virtue signaling and man have i been guilty of that what i see in this situation and in so many others

00:29:20.160 is the church taking cues from the world um it's like christians are looking over our shoulders

00:29:26.080 and seeing what the secular world world is saying to make sure that our messaging is falling in line

00:29:30.640 with the right narratives and that we're reacting in the right way i have seen more than one unfortunately

00:29:36.160 christian teacher use this as an opportunity to make sure that everyone knows the work they've already

00:29:41.920 they've already put into making sure that they're not racist and my question is is that really the best 0.96

00:29:48.320 message of hope that you have for people who are confused and are mourning over a tragedy what a darn

00:29:56.880 shame what a shame now as we've said are there racist and is there a reason to talk about that

00:30:03.200 of course were the mcmichaels racist i don't know maybe so but the truth is that our society so this is

00:30:10.320 kind of a counter to some of the narrative that's that that's going on uh our society our imperfect

00:30:17.280 society has thankfully by the grace of god and by the hard work of a lot of people come a long way

00:30:23.840 in racial equality and acceptance and thank the lord for that uh but one side would have you believe

00:30:30.000 that we haven't progressed at all since slavery that is simply not true and again praise god for that

00:30:35.920 america paid the price of blood in slavery and many americans since then have to continue to fight for

00:30:42.400 the simple recognition that men and women of all races are made in the image of god and are therefore

00:30:48.240 worthy of all the same rights america certainly has our faults and failures including slavery including

00:30:54.800 the chinese railroads including japanese internment camps including jim crow including injustices we see

00:31:00.240 to this day but we have triumphed over many of these faults and failures more quickly and more

00:31:07.120 resoundingly than any other nation on earth virtually every society on earth has slavery in its history

00:31:14.480 uh but no society on earth has fought against it as quickly and as fervently as america did and again

00:31:21.920 i'm not saying injustice doesn't still exist today but let's also take into account all of the fighting

00:31:28.560 and the victories that america has seen and experienced one side would have you believe that those don't

00:31:34.000 exist and that this is just another example of that i do have a problem with looking at this terrible

00:31:41.040 injustice through the lens of america is bad and fundamentally racist to the court hateful racists

00:31:47.920 exist and should be condemned but the ideals of the american experiment are still good when abided by

00:31:54.960 and they have incredible results our ideals and ideas have created the most prosperous country in the

00:32:01.680 history of the world it is our failure to abide by these ideals that all men were created equal by

00:32:08.160 god and therefore have equal right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that has always got us

00:32:13.680 into trouble and leads to suffering and i wish that we could all as americans point to this constitutional

00:32:19.760 standard that's the determinant of what we call legal justice but often we don't we too often let public

00:32:27.520 outrage determine what we decide is unjust which means that too often our ideas of injustice

00:32:34.080 are partisan and ideological again this goes for both sides of the aisle which means you have conservatives

00:32:43.200 usually being the only ones to talk about illegal immigrant crime because illegal immigrants obviously 0.99

00:32:50.640 are here illegal which means illegally which means that their crimes shouldn't be happening in the first place

00:32:55.440 uh only conservatives know the name molly tibbetts for the most part only conservatives know the name

00:33:01.200 kate steinley for the most part and then you have mostly liberals who are angry about things like police

00:33:07.120 brutality and some of the awful abuse that's going on in prisons but the fact is people who care about

00:33:13.920 justice rather than outrage should be angry about both we should be angry about all instances of true

00:33:21.200 injustice no matter where the partisan line is as christians we love justice as micah 6 8 tells us

00:33:28.320 we should be seeking justice god is a god of justice and praise him for that god is a god of ultimate

00:33:35.200 vengeance jesus himself is a judge who will judge the living and the dead but god's justice as we have

00:33:41.520 talked about so many times on this podcast is not determined by politics by social movements or by outrage

00:33:48.480 it is determined by truth in leviticus and deuteronomy and in the book of romans we read that god is

00:33:53.840 against partiality he's against being partial to the mighty or to the weak to the rich or to the poor

00:33:59.440 god hates bias in the court of law he hates showing favoritism in the court of law he says that we are to

00:34:05.120 judge in righteousness we see the people of israel in the old testament were to look at evidence and truth

00:34:10.960 in order to determine whether or not someone broke the law he believes in due process all the

00:34:17.040 fundamental ideas that we have by the way of justice and due process and property and rights

00:34:22.400 come from the bible they originate in the bible so when people say that we should separate the bible

00:34:26.080 from law they really don't know what they're implying um all of this means that we look at

00:34:31.840 each case we seek to know as much as we can we humbly accept and acknowledge what we don't know

00:34:37.760 and we pray and push for justice to be served we refuse to castigate an entire group of people based

00:34:43.760 on their immutable characteristics like whiteness or masculinity or uh or whatever it is and instead

00:34:50.480 we seek the truth and justice regarding the people involved uh we don't get whipped up into racial or

00:34:57.120 gender generalizations we don't take part in hyperbole we don't get won over by emotionalism

00:35:03.360 again preaching to the choir here uh the justice that we are looking for that we should all be looking

00:35:09.040 for is found in the word of god that we were all created in his image therefore our lives matter

00:35:15.760 the truth is reiterated in the declaration of independence again that we're all created

00:35:22.160 by god and should enjoy equal rights it's not found in hashtags it's not found in social media outrage

00:35:29.280 and blaming entire races of people and in joining forces with groups that we know don't glorify god

00:35:36.320 i am praying for arbory's family fervently and that's not just i'm not just saying that flippantly

00:35:41.280 i'm not just saying that to sound good that's not a virtue signal i am i'm praying for his poor mom

00:35:46.240 i'm praying for his dad i i'm praying for his friends i'm praying for the people who are mourning

00:35:50.400 this loss and who have had to mourn it for the past two months without knowing if justice would ever be

00:35:55.280 served i am praying for them i am praying that they would be comforted that they would know christ if they don't already

00:36:00.400 i'm praying that god would be glorified i'm praying for truth and justice to prevail for a fair trial

00:36:05.760 for a justice system to become more efficient to become more effective and condemning wrongdoing

00:36:10.400 without partiality i'm praying for the church that we would be bold and strong in the lord and in the

00:36:15.680 strength of his might and that we would pledge our allegiance to him which also means having an

00:36:21.200 allegiance to the best of our ability to the truth and may we be able to stand firm in all of that

00:36:27.920 um okay that's all i have to say i know i felt when i was talking about certain things that i'm

00:36:36.320 probably going to get a few messages about what i'm saying here and like i said i i welcome that i

00:36:40.960 i do no matter what side of the aisle you're on no matter uh where you are coming at this i want to hear

00:36:47.840 from you i do i i want your pushback critiques your thoughts whatever they may be and i look forward to

00:36:55.760 um talking to you guys and discussing this further with you and i hope that you guys have a great

00:37:01.280 rest of your day and i will see you back here on wednesday

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 11, 2020

Ep 248 ｜ Seeking Justice & Speaking the Truth In Love

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