Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 05, 2020


Ep 259 | Why Cultural Christians Are Going Extinct | Guest: Dr. Albert Mohler


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

177.15533

Word Count

5,707

Sentence Count

340

Hate Speech Sentences

13


Summary

Dr. Albert M. Moeller is the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of The Gathering Storm, a book about secularism, culture, and the church. He is also the host of the podcast The Briefing, and has been a long-time member of the Southern Baptist Convention.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Friday. So I am so excited about the conversation that
00:00:15.800 we are having today with Dr. Albert Moeller. He is a podcast host of a podcast that I have
00:00:23.060 listened to for years now called The Briefing. He is also the president of Southern Seminary
00:00:29.220 and he has been in the Southern Baptist Convention for a very long time, very influential in Christian
00:00:35.400 thinking on culture and politics. And so this is going to be a great little break from the very
00:00:41.580 intense episode that we had on Wednesday. This will also be a very engaging and insightful
00:00:46.280 episode for you, but we're going to take a break from some of the very controversial and intense
00:00:51.100 things that we talked about on Wednesday, talk about some other very important things today
00:00:55.900 about how Christians confront the moral revolution that has been going on, how we disciple our
00:01:01.080 children, how we should think about voting in November and all of the very pressing issues
00:01:06.640 that Christians are feeling the pressure from. Now, without further ado, here is Dr. Albert
00:01:13.740 Moeller. Dr. Moeller, thank you so much for joining me. I'm very glad to be with you, Allie. I think
00:01:20.060 everyone listening knows who you are and what you do, probably listens to your podcast. But
00:01:24.880 just in case there are a few people out there who don't, could you give everyone an introduction?
00:01:32.480 Well, I'm Albert Moeller. I serve as president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
00:01:36.960 in Louisville, Kentucky, and I'm an author, writer, speaker, and I do two podcasts, a daily podcast
00:01:44.720 five days a week called The Briefing, which is a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian
00:01:50.420 worldview. And that's a daily take on what I think Christians ought to be thinking about as we engage
00:01:57.880 the world around us. And then a podcast, Thinking in Public, which is a long-form conversation. It comes
00:02:04.320 out fairly regularly, conversations with authors, thinkers, especially authors, who, some of whom are not
00:02:13.920 Christians, as a way of engaging ideas and having a fruitful conversation. And so that's a part of
00:02:23.560 what I do. It's a lot of fun, and it's a fast life. Yes, it is, especially with everything that's
00:02:29.160 going on. I'm sure even you sometimes feel overwhelmed with just the amount of news that
00:02:34.940 you have to cover and analyze every day. You just wrote a book. You've written several books, but you
00:02:39.740 just wrote a book, The Gathering Storm. Can you tell everyone why you wrote it and what it's about?
00:02:46.760 Yeah, the subtitle of the book is Secularism, Culture, and the Church, but the title has a story,
00:02:52.600 and some will hear it. They'll know it already. Winston Churchill, after the Second World War,
00:02:59.280 wrote his six-volume history of that war, and the first of the six volumes was entitled The Gathering
00:03:04.220 Storm. And it was about the gathering storm clouds over Europe, in particular, in the 1930s.
00:03:10.420 Churchill saw what was coming. So many of the most respected, intellectual, aristocratic people
00:03:18.100 around him and throughout Europe refused to see what was happening. He was honest about it. He was
00:03:22.440 right about it, horrifyingly enough. And I just use that as a metaphor. I'm not saying that 2020 is
00:03:29.620 the 1930s. But I am saying, in our own time, there are significant clouds on the horizon. There's a
00:03:36.520 gathering storm. And I think most Christians perceive it. They know the world's changing in
00:03:41.040 fundamental ways around us. So I try to explain the most fundamental of those changes and look at it
00:03:47.480 through several different lenses, from everything from sexual morality in the family to generational
00:03:52.880 change and how cultures produce. But the big story here is the secularization of the culture.
00:03:57.980 How did we, in just a brief analysis, you could probably talk about this for a long time,
00:04:03.340 and you probably discuss it in your book, but how did we get to this place to where you talk about,
00:04:08.280 for example, the sexual revolution a lot, which is really just one example of how truth has become
00:04:14.160 relative and subjective or redefining even basic biological definitions like gender? Are we here just
00:04:21.680 because of the natural trajectory of the sinfulness of man? Did Christians and the church have some part in
00:04:30.200 this? What happened?
00:04:33.580 Well, that's a brilliant question, Allie. And it has to be answered in one sense, yes, to everything you just said.
00:04:41.100 That's all a part of what's taken place. But I think the big story here is, of course,
00:04:47.060 the Christian understanding that human sinfulness distorts reality and that, you know, the achievement
00:04:55.640 of a stable, healthy society is a very rare thing and has to be explained as a very rare achievement
00:05:04.180 in a fallen world. But as we're looking at our society, the trajectory of Western civilization,
00:05:09.200 clearly something massive happened when we entered what we might call the modern age. And a secular
00:05:16.540 alternative appeared to Christianity. And it's not that everyone was a believing Christian
00:05:21.440 before the modern age. It's just to say Christianity was the only available worldview. So, you know, it was
00:05:27.560 the only basic intellectual structure. But the modern age brought an alternative intellectual structure.
00:05:33.900 And I think what most Christians don't understand is that that alternative is now the mainstream. It is
00:05:40.620 now by far the most influential worldview. And so we're seeing a transformation of morality, reality.
00:05:47.420 You just go down the list because what had been a society that operated on in basic agreement with
00:05:56.060 Christian moral judgments, it doesn't any longer.
00:05:59.300 Right. Can you tell me what Christians, having that information and knowing all the problems that
00:06:06.740 we're facing, can you tell me some things that Christians can do? I mean, we know some of the
00:06:12.340 basics. We know, read the word of God, pray, be involved in your church, do all the things that
00:06:15.980 the Lord calls us to do. But I think people want to want to push back, but they don't know the balance
00:06:23.520 between, you know, idolizing politics, idolizing political leaders, getting too caught up in that.
00:06:29.300 But actually being proactive and pushing for the things that we as Christians know are good and
00:06:33.780 right and true.
00:06:36.260 Yeah. You start in the right place. What Christians always need to think of first and what we do
00:06:42.200 is what we're commanded to do. Even the ordinary means of grace, you know, the preaching of the
00:06:48.260 word of God, the preaching of the gospel, evangelism, missions, the devotions of the Christian life.
00:06:56.560 All this is where we start. But we also understand that it's not by accident we are in a particular
00:07:02.680 culture, a particular time. That means we have a particular responsibility. And so, you know,
00:07:08.520 the first commandment, as Jesus said, is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and
00:07:14.120 mind. And the second commandment, Jesus said, is likened to it. You should love your neighbors
00:07:17.440 yourself. So a part of loving neighbor means that we are politically active because politics is,
00:07:23.820 by the way, just any negotiation in the social sphere. And we want that negotiation. We want
00:07:29.380 laws and policies that we think will be right and will lead to human happiness and joy and flourishing
00:07:36.100 and healthy families and the right moral and social outcomes. So in a Christian worldview,
00:07:44.700 Allie, and you know this well, everything we're called to do in the world is non-utopian.
00:07:55.400 We don't believe that politics will bring in the kingdom of Christ. Only Christ will bring in the
00:07:59.660 kingdom of Christ. But between here and now, we have a responsibility. So we seek to be good stewards
00:08:05.180 of that responsibility. To answer your first question again, just to say, I think one of the
00:08:10.720 most important reasons I wrote this book is to help Christian churches and Christian families. Parents
00:08:15.760 say, we have to raise our children and seek to disciple Christians with a whole new serious and
00:08:23.280 sober understanding of the challenges that we as Christians are going to face. Which can feel like
00:08:28.280 an overwhelming challenge. I'm a new mom, and even though there's so much that I know that my 11-month-old
00:08:35.100 doesn't understand, I already feel a kind of urgency for her to understand the gospel. And something
00:08:42.840 that I've prayed for her since I was pregnant that I just have felt continually compelled to pray for
00:08:47.900 her is that she would be wise. Of all things, of course, we know that wisdom starts with the fear
00:08:54.060 of the Lord. And so that is a given. But just that she would be wise, that she would be discerning.
00:08:58.800 We see such a lack of wisdom, not just in the secular world, but within the church. And a lot
00:09:04.900 of Christians, I know you just gave so many wonderful things that we can do. I think they
00:09:10.920 still feel overwhelmed with how to challenge specifically their Christian friends who they
00:09:16.420 see latching on to worldly ideas, whether it be about marriage or whether it be about the idea that
00:09:22.020 you just explained that we actually do need to bring a utopia here on earth. And that's the only way for
00:09:26.800 justice and freedom and equality and all of that stuff. A lot of Christians are very frustrated
00:09:31.480 not knowing how to share wisdom and to speak wisdom to their Christian friends or their Christian
00:09:39.680 children who disagree with them. So what advice would you give to those people?
00:09:45.520 You know, Ali, I've had some interesting thoughts of late along these lines. And by the way,
00:09:51.760 congratulations on becoming a mom. I will tell you that my wife and I think being grandparents to two
00:09:59.880 little boys is just about the perfect thing. But it changes your perspective. And here's something I've
00:10:06.460 been thinking about of late. A part of what I think Christians don't recognize is that we used to kind of
00:10:12.820 think that we can raise our children in our families, live in our neighborhoods, you know, worship in our
00:10:18.660 churches, do the things we do. And someone out there is going to do the hard work of thinking
00:10:23.760 and confronting all these issues and thinking about all these moral questions and all the rest.
00:10:30.480 And they'll do that for us. And, you know, there was a time when that was kind of true. But a part of
00:10:35.800 the reason I wrote this book is it's not true anymore. Now every parent has to become a moral expert.
00:10:41.280 Every Christian home has to become a think tank. And one of the things I said to some parents the
00:10:49.980 other day is I said, you know, here's the thing. Lots of Christian parents used to think, you know,
00:10:54.320 we've got our kids for 17, 18 years, then we send them to college. We got to get them ready for the
00:10:58.920 battle of ideas when they go to college. And I want to say, no, that's not wrong in the past. Maybe
00:11:05.380 it's wrong now. You've got to battle for ideas amongst three-year-olds now. You know, it's all
00:11:13.140 the time. And so, you know, even when you listen to the conversation going on, you know, as you watch
00:11:21.360 the kids at the playground, you realize there's a battle of ideas right here. Yep, absolutely. And
00:11:26.680 I think some parents feel, maybe they feel unequipped. Something that I think is really
00:11:31.860 simple that so many take for granted. They think that there is some magical formula to being able
00:11:39.140 to teach your kids in a godly way. And I know there are so many wonderful resources about that.
00:11:43.540 And you've written and talked about that a lot. But I think a lot of parents think that maybe the
00:11:48.420 Bible isn't enough, that having a godly pastor, you know, exegetically preach to you and help you
00:11:55.460 isn't enough, that there has to be something else. But I think parents take for granted not only the
00:12:01.040 wisdom that is in the Word of God, but also their own abilities that the Lord has given them to be
00:12:07.360 able to specially parent and mentor their child. I think a lot of parents have maybe even been
00:12:12.600 convinced that they are unequipped for that. And so they feel more comfortable kind of pawning their
00:12:18.040 kids off either to their Sunday school class, which of course Sunday school can be great, or their
00:12:22.740 public school or even their private school. And I've noticed that even at private schools, you can't
00:12:27.180 trust that. You can't trust anyone to mentor your kids except for you. And so you're absolutely right.
00:12:34.700 Yeah, you know, as you as you think about this, Peter and Bridget Berger, a team of sociologists,
00:12:43.020 Peter Berger, maybe the most influential sociologist in the United States the last century.
00:12:48.500 He and his wife wrote a book years ago about the family in which they said,
00:12:52.040 the family is being besieged by experts. And the average parent, and they wrote this back in the
00:13:00.400 1970s, they said the average parent now thinks himself or herself incompetent to parent their
00:13:07.040 children. They've now got to reach out to experts. But as Berger pointed out, those experts come with
00:13:13.360 an ideology. And so, you know, the experts are the parents. I just want to say that to parents,
00:13:19.920 you actually are the experts. And God intended you to do this, and you can do this. Armed with
00:13:25.700 the Word of God, part of a faithful gospel church, you can do this. And I just want to encourage parents,
00:13:31.900 you are the experts. You are the think tank. You are the intellectual elite in your family. And
00:13:38.700 you've got to do that heavy lifting. You can do it.
00:13:41.240 Yes, absolutely. And you don't have to have, you don't have to have gone to seminary. You don't
00:13:46.200 even have to know everything about the Bible. Like there are some parents that I know that are
00:13:50.920 really just now starting to read the Bible because of the very problems that you're talking about.
00:13:55.400 They want their kids so desperately to know God and to know good and evil. And they've realized,
00:13:59.280 they've looked into their own hearts and said, well, I don't really know. I'm looking at all of
00:14:03.500 these issues and I don't really know. So they have started taking the Bible more seriously. And that's part of
00:14:08.300 the reason why I, even in the midst of all this craziness and negativity that it seems like the
00:14:12.180 world is just, you know, burning down around us. And sometimes it literally is. I see a lot of hope
00:14:17.980 even for future generations, because for the first time in a long time, I think that parents are,
00:14:24.320 a lot of Christian parents are taking discipleship of their kids and understanding the Word of God
00:14:29.380 really seriously. So do you think that there is reason to hope for the generation that our children
00:14:36.040 represent? Yeah. You know, one of the things I often say, Allie, is that we're about to find
00:14:41.480 out where the Christians are. Right. Because the age of cultural Christianity is disappearing. People
00:14:46.820 who identified as Christian because it was kind of the popular thing to do, no longer the popular
00:14:51.020 thing to do. So that means the people who identify as Christians are going to be more and more really
00:14:56.780 seriously minded Christians. And seriously minded Christians do what Christians do. So, you know,
00:15:03.380 even as parents think of this, one of the real points of Christian wisdom and parenting children
00:15:09.740 throughout the history of the Christian church has been what's right in the Bible, you know, hide
00:15:13.180 the Word in their hearts. And so my wife and I were just so thrilled, our daughter and son-in-law
00:15:22.420 raising those two little boys, now two and four, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
00:15:28.080 So four-year-old Benjamin just looked at us on FaceTime the other day and recited the 23rd
00:15:34.380 Psalm. Four years old. You know, it's so sweet. The little voice, you know, you anoint my head
00:15:39.820 with oil. Yeah. Making sure he gets every word right. Yeah. So a little dick shit. And then I
00:15:46.740 realized I don't even know how many of those words he fully understands, but that word's hidden in his
00:15:52.220 heart. It's the Word of God. It will do a work which only the Word of God can do. And I just want
00:16:00.880 Christian parents to fill their children with the Word of God, because that's going to make more of
00:16:06.780 a difference than filling them with mere arguments. Yes. And there's such an urgency to do so. You've
00:16:12.480 talked about on your podcast, I've talked about on this show, that there is a very powerful force that
00:16:17.600 has been around for a long time, but seems maybe more powerful than ever, trying to disintegrate
00:16:24.100 the parent-child relationship. We hear that a lot, especially recently. It's really, you know,
00:16:29.420 that communistic idea that children don't belong to their parents. They belong to the community or
00:16:33.880 even belong to themselves, that there should be no traditional nuclear family because it's a part of
00:16:39.720 patriarchal oppression and all of that nonsense. So people have to understand that in the government,
00:16:45.060 cultural, social influences, there are people who don't want you to homeschool your kids,
00:16:49.320 don't want you to private school your kids, don't want you to teach your kids at all.
00:16:52.940 I think that it was a Harvard professor that recently said that it's authoritarian for a
00:16:57.020 parent to want to homeschool their children. So parents just have to understand that there's an
00:17:00.820 urgency right now. It is. It is. Oh, explain that. Explain that.
00:17:05.320 The right way. What I mean is parents are to have authority. I mean, in fact, God gives parents the
00:17:10.740 responsibility to teach their children. And what that Harvard professor was now infamously pushing
00:17:17.280 back on is that parents would impose upon their children their own worldview. That's actually what
00:17:23.540 parents do. But that also tells us something else. And it tells us, and John Dewey, who was one of the
00:17:30.140 major formative figures in public school education in this country back in the 20th century, he openly
00:17:36.140 said, what we need to do is to separate children from the prejudices of their parents. And he
00:17:42.640 actually meant that in religious terms. He meant that theologically. He saw, you know, the religion
00:17:49.320 of parents as a very dangerous thing. And his point is, you can't have secular children if religious
00:17:56.520 parents keep raising their children religiously. And his concern was, you know, Orthodox Judaism in
00:18:01.600 certain parts of the country and Roman Catholicism and, of course, conservative evangelical parents.
00:18:07.960 But that's our responsibility. And so I just want to say, don't be scared off by the experts who say,
00:18:14.060 you know, you need to give your children lots of options. I don't I don't I don't believe that,
00:18:20.300 by the way, that's even good for children or sane. No, no, not at all. And as C.S. Lewis says,
00:18:26.260 there is no neutral ground. I think some people think of public school or non-religious spaces as
00:18:31.960 neutral. Well, they have, you know, just as much of a faith as we do and just as much of an ideology
00:18:36.640 as we do. And it points in different moral directions. And I think parents, all people,
00:18:41.540 but parents especially need to realize there is no neutral ground for you or for your children.
00:18:45.920 It's either claimed or counterclaimed. Absolutely right. You know, just in recent days,
00:18:52.520 history's come out of Sesame Street, the television program. And this history has made clear what we
00:18:59.520 all all knew already. And that was that there's very much a worldview behind Sesame Street. And
00:19:04.940 but I think a lot of parents think of Sesame Street as a, you know, it's just Muppets and vocabulary
00:19:10.480 and math. But no, there is massive worldview, social, moral messaging, you know, that has from
00:19:17.100 the very beginning come through Sesame Street. In fact, it was kind of a, a, an intentional effort
00:19:23.360 to provide an alternative to what was seen as a, you know, too quiet, stayed and, and stereotypical
00:19:31.420 Mr. Rogers neighborhood. But, you know, it's just a reminder, just as you say, I, and this is
00:19:36.720 something on the briefing and in my preaching and teaching, I come back to all the time. The myth
00:19:40.980 of neutrality is a deadly, deadly myth. There is no neutral space on a fallen earth.
00:19:47.580 Right. Okay. I want to talk to you about President Trump. So 2016, you're not a supporter of President
00:19:55.620 Trump. You wrote an op ed about it. And now recently you have talked about possibly supporting him. Is
00:20:02.300 that correct? It is. I was answering the question about how I expect to vote in the 2020 election.
00:20:09.860 And so I'll just be clear with you, Allie. I, I have never voted for a Democrat because in my
00:20:18.200 entire adult lifetime for president, my entire adult lifetime, the Democratic and the Republican
00:20:24.720 parties have been pretty split apart on big issues. And the first election in which I was capable of
00:20:31.760 voting was 1980. And that decision was very clear. I'd actually worked for Ronald Reagan as a volunteer
00:20:38.320 in 1976, uh, before I was able to vote. And so, uh, the big question for me, uh, was Donald Trump in
00:20:46.480 2016. And I mean, uh, this is a man who has celebrated his own immoral behavior, uh, his, uh, his, his,
00:20:54.700 his character, his, I mean, even the way he presents himself. I mean, he, he, uh, he, he's often
00:21:00.660 basically, uh, dismissed, uh, dismissed any kind of traditional biblical Christian morality in that
00:21:07.200 sense. Um, and so, uh, and I have been so involved in national debates calling for Bill Clinton to
00:21:16.040 resign the presidency, uh, because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and, and, uh, issues of perjury.
00:21:22.840 Um, and so I didn't feel that I could, uh, vote for Donald Trump and I didn't, I certainly didn't
00:21:29.440 vote for Hillary Clinton. I, I just, I just didn't. I reluctantly, I wanted to vote for the platform,
00:21:36.100 uh, of the, the Republican party, but I, I, I didn't vote reluctantly. So, uh, for president,
00:21:43.160 uh, but, uh, uh, for Donald Trump for president, but in 2020, I just honestly wanted to say when I was
00:21:49.960 asked the question, I expect that I will. And, uh, so if you're asking me what's changed, what's
00:21:54.980 changed is, um, I've come to the conclusion that, uh, that Americans don't get to choose their, uh,
00:22:02.420 their presidential candidates any longer. Um, the primary process. So in other words, it's not that
00:22:09.020 all Republicans get together and say, who are we going to nominate? It's a, it's a long primary
00:22:13.240 process with other factors involved, but we do decide who we vote for at the end. And, and it's a
00:22:18.780 party platform. You look, if you look at the democratic party platform in 2020, uh, and the
00:22:23.820 Republican party platform in 2020, they're going to be in diametrically opposite worlds. And, uh,
00:22:29.860 so I expect that I reluctantly didn't vote for Donald Trump in 2016. I probably reluctantly will
00:22:36.740 vote for Donald Trump in 2020. Uh, pretty sure of that, uh, because I, I think it's going to matter
00:22:43.240 which party apparatus is in, uh, authority, especially in the executive branch. And I also
00:22:50.520 say that president Trump in appointments and in so many other policies has done what he said he would
00:22:55.060 do. And, uh, I, I, I, I think that, uh, the election of, uh, of any Democrat, uh, including Joe Biden
00:23:03.340 will mean the election of a, an executive branch that will undo, uh, almost everything they can.
00:23:10.140 And, uh, I think, uh, with the issues of religious liberty, I mean, just in the background of this,
00:23:15.160 think of the Obama administration's contraception mandate and, uh, think of the transgender issues,
00:23:20.320 even this week, uh, you know, very much in debate with the, uh, department of, uh, of education.
00:23:27.220 Uh, I, uh, I, I, I know I'm not any happier, uh, about president Trump as, uh, as a man in the
00:23:36.740 span of his lifetime and how he's chosen to live his life. And, and, and, and even as he presents
00:23:40.820 himself, uh, but, uh, but I, I, I do recognize that, uh, uh, the, the presidential choice we make
00:23:49.060 and, uh, and in American history, it's, it's so often been the choice of this candidate or that
00:23:54.420 candidate, the way we talk, but in reality, the way people vote, it has been really that party or
00:24:01.360 this party. And I'm just being honest about that. Uh, I, uh, I think when it comes to the great
00:24:06.480 worldview divide in this country, neither party's perfect and the gospel and the kingdom of Christ
00:24:11.720 don't write in with any party. Uh, but politics does matter. And I'm just trying to be a good
00:24:17.020 steward of that. And, and as a public intellectual and leader, uh, evangelical, I just feel the need
00:24:23.800 to do that honestly. So I'm not offended by the question, Allie. I just hope to answer it
00:24:28.300 faithfully. Yes. Well, you and I are on the same page. I did vote for president Trump in 2016,
00:24:33.060 having a lot of the same concerns that you did. Um, but also a lot of the same, you know,
00:24:38.500 insight that you just revealed right now that, uh, the two platforms are so diametrically opposed
00:24:43.800 and the problems at stake are, are so dire that it's really what the party, what his party represents,
00:24:49.180 which like you said, Republicans certainly haven't been perfect and could be a lot more courageous on
00:24:53.560 the issues. But it's so hard for me to imagine doing anything or voting in any way that might
00:24:59.580 make it more likely that a Democrat becomes president. However, my question is that I've
00:25:03.920 personally struggled with, that I know a lot of Christians have struggled with is when does,
00:25:09.280 or if at all, does a person, um, eclipse a person's immorality eclipse the platform? So the Republican
00:25:17.680 platform stays what it is. The democratic platform stays what it is. Is there anything that Donald Trump
00:25:22.960 could say or do that you would say, okay, that's enough. I can't vote for him.
00:25:29.000 Well, the answer to that can't be no. Right. I mean, I'm not about to say there's nothing that
00:25:34.740 someone could do, but, uh, I, I've learned at this point in my life, uh, and I'm 60. So I'll just say
00:25:42.100 I'm in the seventh decade of my life. Uh, a bit of wisdom that I think I've learned is I can't really,
00:25:48.980 uh, contemplate many hypotheticals anymore. I've got to deal with the actuals. And I think by the
00:25:54.380 way, that's a good Christian affirmation. That's the tradition known as Christian realism. Uh, I
00:26:00.280 could think of all kinds of hypotheticals, uh, but I've got to deal with the actual. So in any given
00:26:06.340 situation where I have to make a moral decision, I've got to deal with the alternatives presented to
00:26:12.000 me. And so, uh, you ask a hypothetical question and it's tempting to answer it. Uh, but anything
00:26:19.600 so you could say, you know, uh, uh, uh, the president made a statement when he was a candidate
00:26:25.260 saying I could shoot someone in my, you know, my base would still support me. Uh, I don't think
00:26:30.020 that's true by the way. Uh, however, I don't think that's, I don't think that's the right place to draw
00:26:35.380 the line. So, I mean, even just, just talking to you now, I think hypotheticals, uh, aren't helpful
00:26:40.920 anymore, but the actuals are. And, uh, and then, and this is where, uh, a part of the Christian
00:26:46.880 political calculus in a fallen world has to be, I've got two very imperfect options here,
00:26:55.140 but both will have consequences. I've got to live with my decision based upon those consequences.
00:27:02.720 And, uh, I really think, and as part of the reason why I wrote this book, The Gathering Storm,
00:27:06.860 Ali, is because I think in 2020, we're at a hinge moment of history in which if, if there were to be,
00:27:14.160 uh, I mean, you listen to the conversation going on to the democratic left and that's becoming the
00:27:19.780 center of the democratic party. Uh, if those policies were to be put into place, um, I, I think it would,
00:27:28.040 uh, it would be a horrifying thing. Yes. And so, uh, sometimes in politics, you say,
00:27:34.240 this is the best thing I know to do now. We will hope for a better opportunity or option later.
00:27:41.040 Uh, but never perfect. And this is where some evangelicals have, have, uh, have, have had too
00:27:46.620 much faith in some candidates who've always let us down. Um, no candidates, perfect politics is the art
00:27:53.160 of the possible. Otherwise they don't get elected. And so every single president I voted for has
00:27:58.300 disappointed me in some way, but, uh, the alternative would have disappointed me a lot more.
00:28:03.120 Right. And would have been a lot more probably consequential in a way that you don't agree
00:28:08.200 with. Um, so do you think that Christians though, and this is probably the last question
00:28:14.820 or two, do you think Christians have an obligation to still, is it hypocritical? I guess is what
00:28:21.420 I'm asking for Christians to vote for Donald Trump because of the reasons that you and I both agree
00:28:26.900 with, but still criticize him when we know he needs to be criticized because the rebuttal from the
00:28:34.280 other side is, well, you voted for him. How could you criticize all these things you say you don't
00:28:38.180 like? Well, I, uh, I'm trying to do that. I've tried to do that. I'm very supportive where I can
00:28:45.400 be supportive, but I I'm critical where I have to be critical. Uh, just trying to be a consistent
00:28:50.580 Christian making these evaluations. But I think we have to press back on this premise, uh, Allie,
00:28:56.060 because, uh, there, there's no one who, uh, who wants to buy the entire product of any candidate,
00:29:03.040 especially after, you know, the, the, so what's interesting to see is how many people who voted
00:29:08.220 for Barack Obama, uh, amongst Democrats were very dissatisfied with him at the end. Uh, you know,
00:29:14.560 in other words, politics is, is, is not a perfect business, but, uh, I also think we have to press
00:29:20.080 back on the premise. So if, uh, if, if, if you ask me who should be president of the United States,
00:29:27.140 uh, I would come up with a name not identified with presidential politics, but no one, no one asked
00:29:34.800 me that no one would care how I answered because when it comes down to it, the electoral college is
00:29:39.280 going to deal with two major candidates in, in likelihood who, uh, one of whom is going to be
00:29:45.280 president of the United States. So your decision, and when someone says that to you, your decision
00:29:50.220 is not that of 330 plus million Americans, you chose Donald Trump, but rather that the option
00:29:57.320 presented to us was Donald Trump and the administration that would follow his election,
00:30:02.720 or in this case, Joe Biden and the administration that would follow his election. So, um,
00:30:09.280 yeah, I would, I, I, uh, I understand and sympathize entirely with the question. I feel
00:30:13.880 it, but I just want to press back a little to say, that's not what you do in an election. You
00:30:17.820 don't in an election for president, you don't go in and say, here is my perfect candidate. You say,
00:30:23.760 right. There are two names here. Uh, and obviously there are other things you can write people in
00:30:28.720 or whatever, but in terms of who's going to be elected, there are two names here. And, uh, I've got
00:30:33.620 to make a decision based upon that. Yep. That was exactly how I felt. And I know a lot of people
00:30:38.660 felt in the last election, and that's exactly how I'm feeling probably even more so as you
00:30:43.260 are going into this election, but important conversations and debates to have. I know
00:30:47.240 there are a lot of faithful Christians that might, you know, slightly disagree with what
00:30:51.660 you and I think about that. And as I always say on my show, I welcome them to reach out
00:30:55.460 to me and let me know their perspective on that. Um, just to end, could you remind everyone
00:31:00.460 or tell everyone where they can buy your book and any other information you would like them
00:31:05.320 to have? Well, thank you. Uh, they can buy the book wherever books are sold, uh, online.
00:31:11.760 And, uh, these days that's where we're doing a lot of our business and, uh, you know, hope
00:31:15.840 you'll support your, your local Christian bookstore, your, and your, your local bookstore in town,
00:31:20.040 but that's not as possible these days. So online, certainly amazon.com and just about everywhere
00:31:25.480 else books are sold. Uh, it can be found. And, uh, my podcast and, uh, the rest of what I
00:31:31.880 write and speak and, and produce is found at Albert Mohler. That's M-O-H-L-E-R.com.
00:31:37.440 And especially the podcast, the briefing and thinking in public. Perfect. Well, thank you
00:31:42.100 so much, Dr. Mohler. And thank you for everything you do and just the clarity that you give on
00:31:46.600 so many of the, uh, most important issues that we're dealing with. Well, thank you, Allie.
00:31:52.520 And I have to tell you, this has been a particularly, uh, good conversation. I appreciate, uh, the very
00:31:58.440 intelligent and careful way, uh, that you pose these questions. This is the kind of conversation
00:32:03.060 you help Christians, uh, to, uh, to model in order that they can have this kind of conversation in
00:32:07.920 their own church and their own home. So God bless you for that. Well, thank you so much. That means
00:32:11.520 a lot to me. God bless you as well.