Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 280 ｜ The Madness Ravaging America's Cities

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and I also

00:00:16.340 hope you liked Friday's episode. We talked about the corruption of a large portion of the public

00:00:21.960 school system and teachers unions and the dire need for school choice, especially for poor and

00:00:30.860 vulnerable communities. If you have not listened to that conversation yet, go back and listen to

00:00:35.300 Friday's episode. Such an important interview and I learned so much and I really hope that you learned

00:00:40.580 a lot too. I got a lot of good feedback. So thank you guys for that. Definitely go listen. By the

00:00:45.160 way, if you love this podcast, it would mean a whole lot to me. If you left me a five-star review

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00:00:56.320 or you don't have to do that at all. You can just leave five stars, whatever is easiest for you.

00:01:00.500 But thank you guys so much to those of you who have left me those positive reviews. It really

00:01:04.660 means a lot to me. Also, if you are watching on YouTube, you see that I have the final copy of my

00:01:13.060 new book, You're Not Enough and That's Okay, Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love, which comes out

00:01:19.540 August 11th. And I am going to have it right here next to me for probably, I don't know,

00:01:26.400 the next month and a half or so just to remind you guys to order the book, pre-order the book

00:01:31.640 if you would like to. Now you can go to alibethstucky.com book and you can see all the places

00:01:36.520 you can find it. If you are international, I've gotten this question a lot, you're not going to be

00:01:41.340 able to purchase it just straight from the Amazon link that I have on my website. You're going to have

00:01:47.420 to go to like the Canadian domain or the Australian domain or the UK domain, whatever it is, in order

00:01:53.900 to be able to buy it. You can buy it internationally, but you just have to go through the right medium

00:02:00.740 to do that. And a reminder, if you are a woman and you join my Women's Book Club with Ali Stuckey

00:02:07.700 on Facebook, we will be going through this book together and I will be publishing videos that are

00:02:14.760 exclusive to this book club that are going to be walking through a study on the book. So anyone can

00:02:24.860 have access to the study guide that can accompany the book, but only the women who are in this online

00:02:32.080 book club on Facebook are going to have access to the videos that I'm going to be putting out

00:02:37.120 leading that discussion. We're going to start the discussion a couple of weeks after the book

00:02:41.600 comes out. So make sure that you pre-order right now. If you haven't already, make sure that you

00:02:45.540 join that book club. And if you've already done all of those things, you can invite your friends to

00:02:50.980 join the book club. Also, if you pre-order, email aliebstuckey at penguinrandomhouse.com with your

00:02:56.980 proof of purchase, and you will be sent a free excerpt. And if you want to, they'll also send you

00:03:02.060 different graphics that have quotes from the book that you can post on your social media.

00:03:07.120 If you so choose. So just a couple announcements to start the show today. We are going to be

00:03:14.780 talking about first, I'm going to talk about some good news. Then we're going to talk about some of

00:03:19.760 the chaos that's raging and waging, I guess, in the streets of our major cities, why these things

00:03:27.320 are happening, at least in my opinion and to my perspective. And we are going to be talking about

00:03:34.020 how some of this madness is infiltrating our institutions, including the church, and how,

00:03:40.740 quite frankly, the gospel is better. And as I will explain, that is not bypassing the problems

00:03:47.600 that we're experiencing. That's not just slapping a band-aid on it. That is looking at the problems

00:03:52.240 in the face and realizing that the antidote to all the chaos and the confusion and the division that we

00:03:57.400 are feeling as a country can only be rectified and reconciled and solved in Jesus Christ, in our

00:04:03.900 creator, in the great reconciler and savior. So we will go through all of that. I know talking about

00:04:10.060 some of the bad news, the bad things that are going on in our world can be anxiety-inducing. That's never

00:04:14.980 my goal. But I do think it's important for us to be able to look out at the things that are happening

00:04:21.440 in our country that might not be affecting us, you and I, tangibly. You and me, tangibly, is grammatically

00:04:29.740 correct. But they are affecting people in these communities where, for example, violence has surged

00:04:36.660 and where mobs are still running the streets. So I do think it's important to just at least temporarily

00:04:42.720 take our eyes off of what's right in front of us and to remember the people who are most vulnerable

00:04:49.760 to the violence that's happening across the country and talk about, you know, what we can do about some

00:04:56.000 of these things and analyze where these problems are coming from. So we are going to start with good

00:05:01.740 news, as I promised. We talked about on Monday the hope that we have in Christ, and this bears repeating

00:05:07.880 and explaining even further. It can't be repeated enough. The hope we have that one day he will rule

00:05:13.520 in perfect peace. He will rule in justice. He will rule in righteousness. He will have defeated

00:05:19.560 sin and death forever. There will be no violence. There will be no mobs. There will be no lawlessness,

00:05:25.160 no deceit, no partisanship, no politics, no elections. All the evil that we see around us,

00:05:32.360 all the division that we see around us will go away. All wickedness will be avenged. No

00:05:37.180 evildoer will go unpunished. All wrongs will be made right. All injustice will be paid for.

00:05:43.280 No abuse, no manipulation, no exploitation. God is going to defeat all of it, including Satan,

00:05:49.400 the father of lies, the accuser, the originator of all of this confusion and chaos, and he will also

00:05:55.840 defeat death. And all of those who have put our faith in Christ to follow him will live in total

00:06:01.800 freedom and total joy and total peace forever and ever. We won't have any concerns. We won't have

00:06:08.360 any worries. We won't have any anxieties. We won't have any jealousy. We won't have any factions. There

00:06:14.240 will be people there where Jesus is ruling, whom we disagreed with on earth, theologically,

00:06:20.960 politically, ideologically, and we will be enjoying each other's company as brothers and sisters in

00:06:29.220 Christ, fully enjoying the fullness of justice and righteousness and peace under the rule of Christ.

00:06:37.540 Let me read you portions of Psalm 37. Maybe my favorite Psalm, I encourage you to read this

00:06:42.980 chapter as often as you need to. There is such peace that comes with the truth that this chapter

00:06:49.400 discusses. Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon

00:06:55.800 fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and

00:07:02.360 befriend faithfulness. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over

00:07:08.680 the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. In just a little while,

00:07:15.060 the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there,

00:07:19.800 but the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Also part of this

00:07:26.940 chapter is verse 4, which says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of

00:07:33.020 your heart. We actually talked about that in a most misused episode that you can go back and listen

00:07:38.480 to or watch where we talk about the entirety of this chapter if you're interested in that. But this,

00:07:44.520 what I just read to you from Psalm 37, is what we as Christians have to look forward to. It's coming.

00:07:49.460 It is a reality that we are going to experience. It's not just a figment of our imaginations. It's not

00:07:55.740 just a mirage. It's coming. We will experience that actually, really, one day. That's going to be

00:08:03.160 the reality, the only reality for Christians in the future. And what a privilege that is. Like,

00:08:09.320 what a blessing it is to be a Christian that as we look at the chaos all around us, we actually have

00:08:14.540 something to look forward to. We have something tangible to hope in, and that is perfect peace.

00:08:19.440 How amazing is it that God has given us that privilege? He could have done away with us forever.

00:08:25.240 He could have satisfied His wrath on all of us, deserving and totally depraved sinners. But

00:08:32.940 instead, He made a way for us through His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be reconciled to Him forever and

00:08:39.440 live with Him in perfect peace for eternity. How awesome is it to be a Christian? We talk a lot about

00:08:46.620 privilege today. That is the greatest privilege. That is the greatest privilege that anyone could ever

00:08:52.300 have to be co-heirs with Christ, to be children of God, and to be able to enjoy His kingdom for

00:08:59.300 eternity. What a privilege. So thank God for that. And what a contrast that future hope is, well,

00:09:06.860 that current hope for that future reality is, to what is going on in the world right now,

00:09:11.000 to the chaos and the violence that is raging in our streets. And I do think it's important,

00:09:15.940 like I said, for us to look at the things that are going on beyond our doorstep. And that is not to

00:09:22.020 weigh us down with the weight of the world. Because as I've talked about before, social media and media

00:09:26.680 make us feel like we are omnipresent, like we are omniscient and omnipotent, but we're not. We're

00:09:34.660 finite. We don't have the capacity or the responsibility to care about everything that is going on at all times.

00:09:43.880 What we are called to do is to fulfill the roles that God has placed us in well, to steward the

00:09:49.480 gifts, the responsibilities that God has given us well, and to concern ourselves with what is right

00:09:55.040 in front of us. But I do think it's important for us to remember that while you and I might be

00:10:02.420 insulated from a lot of the dangers that are unfortunately manifesting themselves across the

00:10:08.280 country right now, there are people who are considered the least of these in these vulnerable

00:10:13.760 communities who unfortunately are taking the brunt of this chaos and violence. And I do think it's

00:10:19.460 important for us to extend our compassion to them and to do what we can to pray for them, to vote in a

00:10:26.860 way that helps them. And that requires us kind of understanding some of the things that are going on.

00:10:32.460 So what is going on? Seattle, Portland, other major cities in America are going on about 60 days of

00:10:40.900 rioting, looting, arson every night, reportedly from about midnight to 4 a.m. They are rioters that

00:10:47.520 are dressed in all black. They are wearing masks. They're writing graffiti on walls. They're burning

00:10:52.380 down federal buildings. They are looting stores. They're breaking windows. Here is some footage showing that.

00:11:02.460 You may have seen, if you're watching this on YouTube, the phrase ACAB that's graffitied in a

00:11:22.220 lot of places on a lot of walls. That stands for, and I'm about to say, a not so great word. So if you

00:11:29.060 are listening with kids in the car, you might just want to skip forward or pause whatever you need to

00:11:34.060 do. ACAB stands for all cops are bastards. So very often you see that graffitied on walls along with

00:11:40.860 the Antifa A. That's kind of a symbol of what they say these riots are about. And that's what these

00:11:47.260 riots were supposedly originally about. They started after the George Floyd incident, and they have not

00:11:53.680 abated in two months now. The so-called demonstrators will say that this is still

00:11:58.980 about police brutality or this is about justice or this is about racism. But I think it's very

00:12:05.160 legitimate at this point to ask ourselves if what's going on in these streets correlates at all

00:12:10.820 with justice or George Floyd or police brutality. Here's a leader at one of the demonstrations

00:12:16.900 stating their mission. Hi, everyone. As many of you know, my name is Lilith Sinclair. I'm an Afro-Indigenous

00:12:24.500 non-binary local organizer here in Portland, organizing for the abolition of not just the

00:12:30.780 militarized police state, but also the United States as we know. So I appreciate her candor because

00:12:36.500 that is what this is really about. And I do, I honestly commend some of them for just coming out

00:12:43.960 in saying that. And we should just be real. We should take them at their word. These are mostly

00:12:49.680 at this point, mostly, not all, but mostly white rioters that are burning down buildings and looting

00:12:55.340 Amazon stores in places like Portland and Seattle. And they're not doing it for George Floyd. It's not

00:13:01.940 for racism. It's not for justice. At the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, a 16-year-old

00:13:08.700 black young man was shot and killed by a member of one of the riots that allegedly existed for

00:13:15.780 justice. This is not about what happened to George Floyd. It's not about police brutality. It's not

00:13:22.020 about white supremacy. If it were, do you honestly think some of these same rioters would be taking

00:13:28.360 down statues of people like Frederick Douglass in places like Rochester, New York, if this was really

00:13:35.720 about just white supremacy and racism and police brutality, do you think they would be taking down

00:13:40.800 statues of Grant, a union general? No, of course not. This is about a revolution, a desire to obliterate

00:13:47.820 America as we know it and replace it with what they feel is a communist utopia. And they believe the way

00:13:54.460 to get there is through anarchy, through destruction until there is nothing left. And they have to rebuild

00:14:01.160 the utopia or what I would say is a dystopia that they desire. And the democratic leaders of these

00:14:07.300 cities are not only allowing these things to happen, they are aiding and abetting them. Jenny Durkin,

00:14:13.000 mayor of Seattle, insisted for weeks that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was peaceful, even though we

00:14:19.700 saw reports every day, we saw videos every day of violence, of arson, of vandalism that were happening

00:14:25.180 on a daily basis. She said that the area in this city is known for freedom of expression. It's known

00:14:31.200 for these kinds of demonstrations. We don't need help from the federal government. It's all well and

00:14:35.480 good. And I support the rioters. That's what she was saying for weeks until those rioters showed up

00:14:41.440 at her house one night and then she shut it down quickly. It was like the next day she decided that

00:14:46.600 those that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was an unlawful gathering. And she called in the police to

00:14:52.680 make the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone disperse. So when it affected her, when the chaos was on her

00:15:00.040 doorstep, that is when she decided, OK, these demonstrations are no longer peaceful. That's after a 16

00:15:07.080 year old young black man had died in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. So maybe if Jenny Durkin, the mayor

00:15:12.800 of Seattle, had cared about how this chaos was affecting other people beside her, besides her earlier, that

00:15:20.540 young man wouldn't have died. Maybe these livelihoods, the livelihoods of the people who

00:15:26.240 own the businesses in this area wouldn't have been destroyed if she had cared about people other than

00:15:31.540 herself. But she didn't. Ted Wheeler, mayor of Portland, is on the liberal airwaves saying President

00:15:36.760 Trump is sending in federal officers and he's sending in secret police. And that is wrong. These are

00:15:44.100 paramilitary forces. It's all a lie. It's a conspiracy theory that these unmarked forces are taking people

00:15:53.320 and putting them into unmarked cars. That's not happening. The federal forces that are there are

00:15:58.080 there to protect federal property that is in their job description that is absolutely lawful. And all of

00:16:04.160 their uniforms have have a signifier on it of who they are, either border patrol or police. That is a

00:16:13.460 conspiracy theory to say that these fascist secret forces are coming in and kidnapping people and

00:16:19.800 putting them in their cars. But that's what the mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, has said. He's saying,

00:16:25.160 you know what, they're agitating and otherwise a very peaceful situation. We don't need federal forces

00:16:30.240 in there. I love how these people talk about the rioters and the demonstrators like they're fire ants.

00:16:37.300 Like, oh, if someone comes in and agitates them, they're just going to get angry. Like they're just a

00:16:41.200 bunch of animals. Like they don't have any rational capacity at all. It's so patronizing and

00:16:45.960 condescending. Well, here is Ted Wheeler trying to reason with these very peaceful protesters.

00:16:52.120 So that didn't work out. Yet Ted Wheeler is still saying, no, no, no, no, no. This is all well and

00:17:17.260 good. I'm standing with them. Dude, they hate you. They hate you. It's amazing how weak these leaders

00:17:23.720 are. Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, assured everyone the protesters were

00:17:30.260 peaceful and reasonable. Here's what happened when he said, well, maybe I'm not going to actually defund the

00:17:37.100 police. So again, that didn't go over well. It's almost like mobs don't want to have conversations.

00:18:04.980 However, after that, the Minneapolis City Council did move to defund the police at the end of June,

00:18:12.020 even while the murder rate in Minneapolis increased by almost 100 percent from this time last year.

00:18:18.680 Of course, while they defunded the police, they used 152,000 taxpayer dollars for their own personal

00:18:26.460 security personnel to protect them from the mobs. So they took away the security for the poor people,

00:18:33.080 but they kept taxpayer security for themselves. Great. Typical Democratic nonsense. Speaking of a

00:18:39.100 rising crime, let's look at the city of Chicago. Compared to last year, both shootings and homicides

00:18:44.340 have shot up to rates that have been unseen in decades. The victims are almost all black. The

00:18:50.520 perpetrators are almost all black. Among the victims are multiple three-year-olds, a 13-year-old girl,

00:18:55.020 and many hundreds of young black men. And because Trump is trying to send federal help to Chicago,

00:19:01.880 who is experiencing a crisis resulting in a massive loss of life, Lori Lightfoot's ego is hurt. And

00:19:08.960 here's what here's what she has to say. The president has been on a campaign now for some time against

00:19:15.500 Democratic mayors across the country. Whether it's me, whether it's Keisha Lance Bottoms in Atlanta,

00:19:21.900 whether it's Muriel Bowser in Washington, CC, whether it's Jenny Durkan in Seattle. You see a

00:19:28.380 common theme here? The president is trying to divert attention from his failed leadership on COVID-19.

00:19:37.100 So while hundreds of young people, children, babies are dying on her watch at rates higher than they

00:19:44.960 have seen in 30 years. Lori Lightfoot is concerned about sexism, about President Trump possibly being

00:19:53.540 sexist in his criticism. Well, she's the only one that only named female mayors. President Trump has

00:20:01.580 also gone after Bill de Blasio. President Trump has also talked about Ted Wheeler of Portland. So

00:20:06.940 she's the only one making that connection. And it just shows how insulated she is from the cares and

00:20:12.680 concerns and the tragedies that are happening on her doorstep as the blood of hundreds of her

00:20:18.860 constituents are coloring the streets of Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is worried about maybe implicit

00:20:26.620 somewhere mysterious misogyny from the president of the United States. It's amazing. Or maybe,

00:20:33.220 maybe it's because she and the other mayors that she listed are doing their jobs. If you want to prove

00:20:39.060 female empowerment, if that's really what we're talking about, try and being a powerful leader

00:20:42.920 instead of a weak one. Under Mayor Bottoms' watch in Atlanta, that is a female mayor of Atlanta,

00:20:49.120 an eight-year-old black girl was murdered by rioters a couple weeks ago. Under Mayor Jenny Durkin's

00:20:55.200 watch in Seattle, a 16-year-old black boy was murdered by rioters amid protests over Memorial Day

00:21:00.320 weekend. Under Mayor Lightfoot's watch, Chicago had the deadliest weekend in 30 years. 84 people shot,

00:21:05.820 24 killed, almost all of those black Americans. And those are just a few of the examples of violence

00:21:11.460 that have occurred in Atlanta, in Seattle, in Chicago recently. So if these ladies, these female

00:21:17.540 mayors don't want help from the president, maybe they should do their jobs. And like I said, it's not

00:21:23.240 just female mayors that are dropping the ball here. Ted Wheeler, mayor of Portland, the fellow that you saw

00:21:29.120 mobbed by the mob, the mayor of Minneapolis, Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City, where crime and

00:21:36.420 homicides are surging, where a black one-year-old was shot in the stomach and died a couple weeks ago,

00:21:42.120 has reallocated $1 billion from the NYPD. And he is spending his time painting Black Lives Matter on

00:21:50.380 the road when black people are dying because of his reallocation of funds from the police. Again,

00:21:56.220 I ask for the millionth time, which black lives matter and to whom? Which black lives matter and

00:22:04.460 to whom? All of these Democratic mayors who use the hashtag and they say the phrase and they paint

00:22:11.800 the phrase and they support the organization, black lives are being murdered at insane rates on their

00:22:19.560 watch as we speak. And these are preventable deaths in large parts. They could be prevented by

00:22:25.820 cracking down on the rioting and the looting and not demonizing and defunding the police.

00:22:33.580 Thousands of black lives are being lost every day in this country due to intra-community violence and

00:22:39.700 they don't have any organizations rallying for them. They don't have anyone protesting for them.

00:22:45.020 They don't have any angry teenagers throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers for them.

00:22:49.740 No statues are being torn down for them. Yes, in Chicago, just the other night, in the middle of the

00:22:55.120 night, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had the statue of Christopher Columbus taken down and she saw this

00:23:00.760 as a great victory. Look, taking down the statue of Christopher Columbus is not going to bring those

00:23:06.020 dead babies back to life, Lori Lightfoot. That's not going to make you a good mayor. And that's what

00:23:11.400 all of this is. So much of this is virtue signaling while ignoring the problems that are literally killing

00:23:17.260 flesh and blood human beings. Just because you say that Black Lives Matter doesn't mean that you

00:23:23.740 actually think they do. If your actions are not lining up with that phrase. Black Lives Matter,

00:23:29.340 the organization, supports the defunding of the police. The police are the only line of defense

00:23:34.100 for people, especially women and children, that don't have the resources or the ability to protect

00:23:39.220 themselves. Yes, there are bad apples in the police force, and that is dangerous. That's worse than

00:23:44.420 having like a bad apple in a financial firm because these people are armed and they're going into these

00:23:50.600 vulnerable communities. And if you've got a bad apple that is carrying a gun, of course, the effect

00:23:55.860 of that bad apple is going to be the loss of life and injustice. And we should absolutely care about

00:24:01.040 that. I want to do whatever we can to minimize those cases. And I want bad cops to be brought to

00:24:06.540 justice quickly. Absolutely. But police officers, if we're honest, and if we look at the data,

00:24:13.360 are the least of the problems that are facing the inner cities right now. A 2015 Gallup poll after

00:24:20.140 Ferguson found that only 8% of Black Americans want a smaller police presence in their communities.

00:24:26.160 33% said they wanted a larger presence of police compared to only 18% of white people who said that

00:24:32.840 and 27% of Hispanics. So white people are actually the least likely to say they want

00:24:39.540 a larger police presence. And Black people are the most likely to say that they would like a larger

00:24:44.960 police presence in their communities. So who are these mobs and these activist groups really

00:24:50.220 represented in their push to defund the police? Not the majority of the Black community, apparently.

00:24:55.040 They're representing the radical fringes of the left, the majority of whom happens to be white,

00:25:00.000 who don't represent the concerns and the tragedies that are going on in these communities.

00:25:04.300 And these fringes right now are destroying cities that are made up of large minority communities.

00:25:11.620 And these Democratic politicians in these cities who are ordering the police to stand down,

00:25:16.560 who are reallocating funds away from their police departments, who are demonizing the police,

00:25:20.920 that the police are afraid to go into these violent neighborhoods, they're afraid to do their jobs,

00:25:26.140 are only making matters worse. Those are just the facts. And again, it is the underprivileged,

00:25:31.720 the poor, the weak, the elderly, the disabled, the babies, the women who are made most vulnerable

00:25:38.040 when crime goes up because of a lack of policing. But here is what people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

00:25:45.020 have to say about defunding the police.

00:25:47.980 When people ask me, what does a world where we defund the police, where defunding police looks like,

00:25:54.540 I tell them it looks like a suburb. Because in Yorktown Heights and in a lot of these communities

00:26:01.940 in Westchester, what is the most important thing that is like politically the most important thing

00:26:10.160 that the world revolves around? It's school funding. People will uproot their entire lives.

00:26:15.660 You will see people go nuts for school funding.

00:26:18.300 What? Girl, what? First of all, first of all, the suburbs have police. They have a police force.

00:26:27.960 Does she not realize that? Second, criminals don't just stop committing crimes. So her logic sounds

00:26:33.740 like she thinks the police are causing the crime. And if police just stopped policing,

00:26:39.680 then criminals would stop committing crimes and inner cities would start just

00:26:43.120 looking like the suburbs. So I guess drive-by shootings of cookouts where a one-year-old baby

00:26:49.600 is murdered or the drive-by shooting that happened the other day by a funeral that shot and killed

00:26:55.620 several people. Those things would just stop happening. Everything would look like the suburbs

00:26:59.820 once we defunded the police. Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. Also, the most vulnerable,

00:27:05.940 the poor, are left behind when the rich people, which they inevitably do,

00:27:11.040 leave these cities and leave these areas because of a lack of policing and because of danger. They

00:27:17.280 leave places also where this mob rioting is happening, places like Portland and Seattle, because

00:27:23.680 they don't want to deal with the madness. They want to protect their families. So the rich and the

00:27:27.920 middle class, if they can afford it, they leave and they move outward and they abandon these cities.

00:27:33.540 And then you have the poor and the vulnerable that are left to pick up the pieces. And just as an

00:27:39.800 aside, for all the people who are leaving these liberal cities, fleeing to the mountains, fleeing

00:27:44.880 to rural areas, fleeing to the suburbs, please just leave your liberal policies behind. Please take notice

00:27:52.820 of how the quality of life in your cities. So San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, New York City,

00:27:59.840 Baltimore, Austin has gone down while homelessness and crime have gone up. Please take notice of these

00:28:07.240 things and resist bringing your liberal ideals and ideas to the red counties, the red states, the red

00:28:14.760 cities, the red areas that you are fleeing to because they're more peaceful. There's a reason why they're

00:28:19.520 more peaceful. There's a there's a reason why they're cleaner and more prosperous. And it's because they don't

00:28:25.120 have the liberal values and the liberal policies and the liberal politicians that you had in the cities that

00:28:30.740 you used to live in that are now run down. Democratic policies sound good and end badly. Every time,

00:28:38.260 always, they make their cities worse. Many cities are prosperous despite their liberal policies, not

00:28:44.460 because of them. Democratic governors who do do a good job leading their cities very often are moderate

00:28:50.640 in economic matters, moderate in some of their policies. And that doesn't mean that no Democrat has

00:28:56.940 ever had a good idea or ever had a good policy prescription or that they don't ever bring up

00:29:01.840 good points. Again, I think that it's important to have a liberal perspective. I don't want to live in

00:29:06.180 a country where everyone ideologically agrees. I do want to live in a country where we have shared

00:29:10.380 fundamental values and we're able to have spirited discussions and debates about the policies that get

00:29:16.060 us closer to those values like liberty and justice for all. But the fact of the matter is the leftism that

00:29:21.960 is currently being propagated by this Democratic Party in these major cities is toxic. It is destructive.

00:29:29.580 And I don't think Republicans, to be fair, have done nearly enough to mitigate this madness. I think a lot

00:29:36.580 of Republicans are weak right now. I think a lot of Republicans, not all certainly, but a lot of

00:29:41.540 Republicans are silent that they're not doing a good job of leaving. They're not doing a good job of

00:29:46.720 representing the conservative cause or conservative concerns. Instead, we have some Republicans

00:29:51.600 in Congress pitching to change Columbus Day. Is that really what we need right now? Is that the

00:29:58.640 representation that we voted for when we voted you into Congress? President Trump and his

00:30:04.600 administration are finally sending federal officers into these cities, which is good for the law-abiding

00:30:10.160 citizens there. Even Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago has said, OK, OK, OK, yeah, we need some help to crack

00:30:15.280 down on gang violence. So you know what? We should give credit where it's due and we should give

00:30:20.060 grace where there should be given grace. And Mayor Lightfoot, even though she is unfortunately

00:30:27.100 has been a terrible, weak leader, at least she was able to lay down her ego long enough to be able to

00:30:32.860 say, OK, you know, we need federal forces and we need people to come in. Might be too little too late,

00:30:38.640 but I'm glad that she is accepting that help. And thank goodness that President Trump is

00:30:44.560 willing to go in and help these cities. He would be able to say, you know what, we're actually not

00:30:51.000 going to go protect federal property. We're actually not going to help them crack down on crime because

00:30:56.340 they could say he could say, OK, these cities are run by Democrats. They made their bed. We should just

00:31:01.160 let them lie in it. But he is realizing what a lot of people are realizing, that that's not fair for the

00:31:06.740 law abiding, especially the poor citizens in those cities that are the victims of this violence and of

00:31:15.140 this madness. So I don't even know if it's politically advantageous for President Trump to send help

00:31:21.920 into these cities, but he's doing it because it's the it's the right thing to do. And I'm very glad that

00:31:27.880 he is. Again, I just want to reiterate that all of this madness that is happening, the riots and the

00:31:34.900 mobs. It's not about black lives. It's not. If it were about black lives, not just for these

00:31:39.960 rioters and the mobs, but also for these Democratic politicians that are pandering to the mobs and

00:31:44.700 allowing violence to ravage their streets. If it were really about black lives, they would be out there

00:31:50.680 supporting policies that save and help black lives. They would be, for example, I mean, you listen to

00:31:57.100 this on Friday, they would be supporting school choice, something that specifically and quantifiably

00:32:01.960 helps black children. They would be doing everything they can to support the cohesion of the family. We

00:32:07.340 know what fatherlessness does to people of all ethnic backgrounds. It increases the rates of

00:32:12.540 depression, anxiety, dropping out of high school, teen pregnancy, teen delinquency. That's what

00:32:18.940 fatherlessness causes. And so these politicians who say they care about black lives should be doing

00:32:24.920 everything they can to push for and support the cohesion of the family. They would be against

00:32:30.680 Planned Parenthoods that are setting up shop in minority communities specifically that are

00:32:36.600 killing thousands of black babies every year disproportionately. As we know, Planned Parenthood

00:32:40.440 was founded by a eugenicist who spoke to the KKK, Margaret Sanger. But that institution, that murder

00:32:47.180 mill is apparently fine. We're apparently supposed to support that while simultaneously saying that black

00:32:52.940 lives matter. What about the thousands of baby lives that are murdered every year in Planned

00:32:57.480 Parenthood? We are on the same page, by the way, about the evils of police brutality. One thousand

00:33:04.180 percent racialized police brutality is, I think we all agree, is something that is wicked. However,

00:33:12.200 and this is so controversial to say, but the data just proves this to be true, racialized police brutality

00:33:17.660 is not an epidemic. And I agree that one racialized death, one unjust death, is one too many. All of them

00:33:25.380 are wrong. Any kind of unjust use of police force needs to be condemned. It needs to be investigated.

00:33:33.020 The police officer needs to be held accountable. Tatiana Jackson, Justine Damon, Daniel Shaver,

00:33:38.420 Philando Castile, Elijah McClain are just a few of the situations that I think from, it seems from what

00:33:45.120 I know, were a questionable, questionable use of force. And I think that those things need to be brought to

00:33:53.380 justice. However, the justice system sees fit. Any instance should be investigated. Any instance should

00:33:59.560 be brought to justice. But the numbers simply do not bear out the idea that police are disproportionately

00:34:05.500 targeting minority communities. You can go back and you can listen to the episode, Does the Truth Matter

00:34:10.200 and Which Black Lives Matter? to learn more about that. Those are two different episodes that talk about

00:34:15.960 this issue in depth in some of the numbers. So to use that issue of racialized police brutality and

00:34:23.260 then extrapolate it into a nebulous conversation about systemic racism in which all disparities that

00:34:29.580 we see between the ethnicities are labeled systemic racism, rather than actually looking into the many

00:34:35.500 factors that can play into disparities, to use it as a springboard to try to revolutionize

00:34:41.100 corporations, sports, academia, the church, language, in a way that chastises white people as a group and

00:34:47.920 elevates non-whites as a group based on nothing except for generalizations is not productive. Like if we are

00:34:56.060 going to talk about prejudice, which has existed in America and exists, I'm sure, in places today because

00:35:04.760 people are sinful and unfortunately hold prejudices in their hearts. If we are going to talk about

00:35:10.540 where those things exist and where discrimination exists, whether it's in legislation, in the church,

00:35:16.000 I think we should talk about that. If pastors want to talk about it, I think that they should talk

00:35:20.520 about it. But we have to be specific. We have to talk about what this prejudice actually looks like

00:35:25.240 tangibly, where it's showing up, how to rectify it, and in a Christian sense, how to repent from it if it is

00:35:31.000 something that we are personally responsible for. And there are some people that are doing that, and that's

00:35:35.720 really good. I think that that's important. There are crucial conversations happening. So I'm not lumping

00:35:42.020 all of the conversations about discrimination and prejudice together and saying that it's all

00:35:46.920 contributed to mob violence. I'm not saying that at all. But we need to be careful because this kind of

00:35:53.640 undefined gospel of grievance that we see in some places that says white people are all inherently racist,

00:35:59.360 all American institutions are white supremacist. The idea, like the Modern Museum of African American

00:36:05.780 History and Culture said, that the idea of individualism is just whiteness. The idea of

00:36:13.080 rational thinking is just whiteness. The idea of hardworking is just whiteness. We really have to be

00:36:17.780 careful with that because that is a gospel of grievance that tears down not just individuals, but entire

00:36:22.620 societies. It's not helpful. It's not biblical. Assuming that your white neighbors are racist,

00:36:28.540 and that the principles that America was founded on are therefore racist is not the path to

00:36:36.280 reconciliation. Assuming that someone is racist just based on the color of their skin is not loving

00:36:40.420 your neighbor. It doesn't build a path to the kind of unity that people within the church and people

00:36:45.800 outside of the church say that they want. So we have to realize that America, both its individuals

00:36:52.100 and its institutions simply are much less ethnically prejudiced than some people want us to believe.

00:36:59.700 Again, that doesn't mean that prejudice doesn't exist, but because this is all a useful wedge to

00:37:04.680 divide us, it's a useful springboard for a socialist revolution, for these anarchists to carry out their

00:37:11.280 revolution and burn cities to the ground. It's a good distraction for these democratic politicians who

00:37:16.880 are failing their cities because it can be used as a way to precipitate these things, and it can be used

00:37:27.660 as a way to justify a revolution. We have to be careful not to buy into any exaggerated descriptions

00:37:35.260 of ethnic prejudice. I'm trying to get away from using this word racist because race is a social

00:37:41.540 construct that is not helpful when we're talking about these subjects. And I think we have to realize

00:37:48.840 that it's being highlighted and exploited as a means of division and destruction, which is really

00:37:54.100 unfortunate because it makes it very difficult to have productive conversations about where prejudice

00:37:59.780 really exists and where injustice and unfair inequality of opportunity really exists. Booker T.

00:38:06.100 Washington spoke of race baiters who make their living off of this kind of stuff. He said,

00:38:11.140 some of these people do not want the black man to lose his grievances because they do not want to

00:38:15.920 lose their jobs. So just realize that some people are capitalizing off of the chaos that's happening

00:38:21.420 right now. And so we have to be discerning. We have to discern between the people who are having a

00:38:26.100 productive dialogue about prejudice and people who are preaching a useless, counterproductive gospel

00:38:32.220 of grievance, who are using the chaos to build a revolution that seeks to take down and tear down

00:38:37.920 everything that has ever made America the land of opportunity that it is, but also to take down

00:38:44.280 things that have made humanity strong and cohesive, freedom, faith, the nuclear family. Certainly Black

00:38:50.660 Lives Matter as an organization falls into that category. Again, go back and listen to the episode,

00:38:55.700 Which Black Lives Matter? They are admitted Marxist. They want to dismantle the nuclear family. They believe

00:39:00.980 anti-capitalism is anti-racism. They realize that focusing on only a certain kind of death of a black

00:39:10.040 person is useful for their Marxist goals. And speaking of BLM, Rutgers University says that they are standing

00:39:16.780 in solidarity with that organization by de-emphasizing grammar and sentence structure in their English

00:39:22.880 classes to try to close inequities between white and non-white students. Talk about the soft bigotry of

00:39:30.440 low expectations. And this is part of what I'm talking about. These counterproductive goals that

00:39:35.060 are happening that are driving us further apart and only are going to create more disparities and

00:39:39.820 division and resentment. This is the same kind of thing we saw in that whiteness document in the

00:39:45.320 Modern Museum of African-American Culture associating whiteness with punctuality, with hard work, with

00:39:50.980 accuracy, with the scientific method, all things that aren't white but are universally positive and

00:39:56.940 lend to people's success and always have. The ability to write and to speak well and accurately

00:40:03.520 will always be valuable. It will always get you farther than your peers. So Rutgers, instead of

00:40:10.120 providing ways to maybe help these students reach higher standards, they're lowering the standards for

00:40:14.500 these students. And you know what that does? Like I said, that creates more disparities because the

00:40:19.020 students who do know proper grammar and can speak well and write well are not going to stop using it.

00:40:23.760 They're not going to dumb themselves down and they will continue to be more successful. They are going

00:40:29.480 to be more likely to get a job. They are going to be more likely to get into grad school because they

00:40:33.840 can write proper emails and handle themselves in an interview because they continue to hold themselves

00:40:38.520 to high standards that the teachers refuse to hold other people to. So that creates more

00:40:44.820 disparities. And this is what this brand of leftism seeks to do. It aims to bring everyone to the lowest

00:40:50.480 common denominator rather than helping those at the bottom reach the high standards that are needed

00:40:55.480 to succeed. Because actually, as critical theory would assert, the existence of objective standards

00:41:00.740 is oppressive. This kind of paternalism is what hurts communities. And you can call me crazy,

00:41:06.940 call me some kind of radical, but I believe that people of all ethnicities have the same capacity to

00:41:13.660 succeed if they are willing to work hard and apply themselves. And I don't believe that we should be

00:41:20.320 lowering the standards for anyone because I believe that everyone is able, no matter where they started,

00:41:26.460 everyone is able to accomplish the things that they want to accomplish. That's not to say there aren't

00:41:31.700 obstacles in some people's way that other people don't have in their way. That's not to say that some

00:41:36.920 people aren't born with certain privileges that other people aren't. But I do believe that every

00:41:42.340 ethnicity has the capacity to reach high standards without us actually lowering those standards. But

00:41:47.380 remember, the people who propagate this kind of leftism, they do not see making something of

00:41:53.180 yourself or getting a job or starting a family or providing for them as necessarily good. They actually

00:41:58.460 see these things as an oppressive American dream or an idolatrous American dream. They actually see

00:42:04.060 the oppressiveness of, for example, the family hierarchy. They are okay with everyone being

00:42:11.820 dumb. They're okay with everything being subjective because socialism is much more easily put upon

00:42:18.220 people who are uncritically thinking. Again, all of this stuff that's happening, the chaos,

00:42:24.500 the revolutions of our institutions is not about Black lives or the lives or success of Black people.

00:42:32.360 For some, yes. But for those who are wielding power right now, who are allowing and exacerbating

00:42:37.800 this violence and this chaos and the revolution of our institutions, no. And all of this is causing

00:42:42.860 terrible division where there just wasn't before. Have there always been tensions between the ethnicities

00:42:48.520 in America? Yes, of course there have. There have been obviously tensions between Black Americans and

00:42:54.800 White Americans. There have been tensions between Black Americans and Korean Americans. There have been

00:42:59.120 tensions between Jewish Americans and Black Americans. And we have a history of evil prejudice

00:43:04.240 against, I would say, predominantly Black Americans, but also other groups that exacerbate those tensions

00:43:10.040 today that make them worse. But I do believe that we were headed, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago or

00:43:17.560 more, maybe 15 years ago, towards a post-racial America. And that we have taken huge steps backward,

00:43:23.960 huge steps backward, at least in part because of the tenets of critical theory infecting academia,

00:43:31.320 the identity politics by Obama and others like him, the new wokeness that has infected corporations

00:43:38.460 and curriculum because of Marxist intersectionality that splits people up as the oppressed versus the

00:43:43.780 oppressor based solely on their skin color and their group identity. These have created resentment.

00:43:49.340 They have glorified victimhood, which is just crushing to unity. It's crushing to any idea of

00:43:55.360 reconciliation. It's crushing to progress. We just can't move forward under the burden of

00:44:00.880 intersectionality. It's too heavy for a unified people to bear. Now, I want to show you a picture

00:44:06.180 that is very disturbing. So if you're watching on YouTube, consider this your trigger warning.

00:44:10.780 If you want to look away, if you want to fast forward, I'm also going to describe it. So if you want to

00:44:15.860 fast forward through this, then you can do that. This is a picture of an Ohio man by the name of

00:44:23.740 Isaiah Jackson. He is putting his knee on the neck of a baby, wearing only a diaper who is laying on

00:44:30.140 his stomach. His face is clearly crying out in distress with another person holding the baby's

00:44:36.200 hands behind his back. This is sickening. My stomach is in knots just describing this. I don't know

00:44:43.700 if I will ever get this terrible picture out of my head. The caption on the picture says BLM now,

00:44:50.640 MFs. It's relevant to the story that the man who is kneeling on the baby is black and that the baby

00:44:57.460 is white. Thankfully, the man who has a criminal past has been arrested and charged, and we should

00:45:03.120 pray for justice and for the welfare of that poor child. Now, this is just a random person. This is not

00:45:09.580 representative of everyone who says Black Lives Matter. Certainly not. It's not even representative

00:45:14.120 of the organization necessarily. So why do I show this picture that has been making the rounds for

00:45:21.180 the past few days and has made a few obscure but not any mainstream headlines? Because it is representative

00:45:29.060 of the mindset that is being encouraged by this movement, that people of a certain skin tone have

00:45:36.020 the right to be angry and to lash out at all people of another skin tone because of injustices that have

00:45:43.360 historically been perpetuated by white people. I mean, that's really what we're told. That's what

00:45:49.140 this whole anti-racism movement says, both outside the church and inside the church, that all white

00:45:54.560 people are complicit. The book White Fragility says that all white people are born into racism, that white

00:46:00.280 people bear a corporate responsibility for the injustices of America's past, that all white people

00:46:05.240 need to repent of the sin of racism, whether or not they have ever been actively racist. And while I

00:46:12.160 believe that Christian books like White Awake, The Color of Compromise, and Be the Bridge all have very

00:46:18.980 good and very important components to them, and I encourage you to read them and to take what is true

00:46:28.640 and to dismiss what is not true. I'll never tell you not to read something. They have important parts of

00:46:33.520 them, but an argument made in all of these books is that white people today are at the very least

00:46:39.820 corporately complicit in perpetuating prejudice against black people and that we all need to

00:46:46.080 repent. All white people have benefited from white supremacy and therefore we all have to, quote, do the

00:46:51.840 work of dismantling it because all white people are in a way guilty. But what I'm trying to point out

00:46:58.820 by this picture is not that any of those authors would ever condone what is happening in this

00:47:03.560 picture or that this is what their intention is at all. I'm just trying to take you to the logic of

00:47:08.940 that kind of thinking that is represented in this picture. Because if all people who just share a

00:47:15.280 certain melanin count are complicit in the system of racism and are therefore guilty and are therefore

00:47:22.000 it's necessary for them to repent, then why not hold babies who are whites to that standard too?

00:47:31.980 Why are babies not held liable? If white people today are guilty because we've benefited from white

00:47:36.300 structures and are therefore racist, whether we've actively been racist or not, as white fragility

00:47:41.960 asserts, doesn't that mean that white babies are also guilty? And if so, why not harbor resentment

00:47:48.280 against them? Why not be angry at white babies? If the standard of guilt isn't what you have ever

00:47:54.240 said, isn't what you have ever done, but is based on the group that you're a part of or the color of

00:47:59.280 your skin, then why not punish a white baby for what a white police officer did to George Floyd?

00:48:04.120 I'm not saying that this, again, is the explicit argument that is made in any of these books. It's

00:48:08.220 not. And there's no doubt, again, that these authors would all be aghast and they would all be

00:48:12.780 appalled and they would all condemn what was happening in those books. I am trying to get you to see

00:48:17.040 the logical conclusion to the argument that guilt and responsibility is assigned to people

00:48:21.620 based on their skin color rather than on what they've actually done. This is where that gets

00:48:26.900 you. Anger toward people who have done nothing to you, nothing to anyone who looks like you,

00:48:32.780 and especially the ones who can't defend themselves. Thomas Sowell says this,

00:48:37.000 it is self-destructive for any society to create a situation where a baby who is born into the world

00:48:42.180 today automatically has pre-existing grievances against another baby born at the same time

00:48:47.580 because of what their ancestors did centuries ago. That's true. It is absolutely self-destructive.

00:48:55.040 Identity politics, intersectionality, Marxism, critical theory, they are all meant to divide and

00:49:01.360 destroy, not build. It's not in their nature to build. So let me ask, let me ask this. In the church,

00:49:08.680 do you think that all of this, this idea of corporate guilt and corporate innocence,

00:49:14.080 corporate grievance, not based on what you've actually done, not based on the intent of your

00:49:18.840 heart, not based on what you've said, but just by nature of the color of your skin,

00:49:23.420 do you think that that philosophy is lending itself to unity and so-called racial reconciliation?

00:49:30.960 Is assuming all white people are racist loving your neighbor? Is encouraging non-white people

00:49:36.220 to harbor resentment toward people that they don't know solely based on their skin color,

00:49:41.620 loving your neighbor? A resentment that, like all resentment, hurts their own hearts and souls.

00:49:46.340 It doesn't. That's not going to lead to peace. That's not going to lead to reconciliation. What

00:49:51.460 will happen is, unfortunately and tragically, many white people will avoid being friends with non-white

00:49:57.420 people because they're going to assume that they think that they're racist and that they hate them.

00:50:03.100 And then many non-white people will avoid white people because they assume that all white people

00:50:07.900 are racist or complicit in racism, as we've been told. And that's not right. None of that is good.

00:50:13.260 None of that is progress. None of that is what should be happening in the church. While the world divides

00:50:19.700 itself by assigned oppression points and identity groups, the church doesn't. We refuse to assume the

00:50:25.500 worst about people based on their skin color, especially we refuse to allow resentment and disdain

00:50:31.500 and bitterness fester in our hearts. We refuse to hold a group liable for the sins of other people who

00:50:37.040 happen to have the same melanin count as them. We refuse to resist friendships because we presume

00:50:42.880 people's motives or their hearts. That is not what we do. That's what the world does. And that's why the

00:50:49.600 world is erupting in chaos right now. That is not what Christians do. But this mindset is eating the

00:50:55.620 church. And like I said, a lot of the conversations right now happening around prejudice, around

00:51:00.920 injustice are good and productive when they are rooted in the gospel. And a lot of the components

00:51:05.860 of the books that I listed are good and interesting. Like we should think about the history of the church

00:51:12.840 and how the sin of prejudice and hate has disproportionately affected black people in

00:51:17.940 the country. And as I've said so many times, these are topics that are worthy of reading about and

00:51:23.680 discussing even from the pulpit. I agree that there are problems in the church that we have turned a

00:51:28.580 blind eye to. I understand that there is pain that many black Americans feel that I will never understand

00:51:35.780 because for many of them, they heard stories from their parents and grandparents about what it was like

00:51:40.420 to be hated or terrorized for their skin color and that they have likely experienced a kind of

00:51:45.640 ethnic disdain that I will never experience. I agree that we should listen to people's hearts and

00:51:51.460 experiences and perspectives. We should mourn with those who mourn. We should hate hate. We should want

00:51:56.320 justice. We should strive for a church that treats everyone equally as image bearers and for Christians as

00:52:02.980 co-heirs with Christ. But when we talk about these subjects, we have to be specific in naming the

00:52:08.260 problems and we have to be biblical in naming the solutions because we have the solution to prejudice

00:52:14.300 that the world doesn't have. We have the great equalizer. We have the great unifier. We have the gospel.

00:52:20.880 We have the message, the power that enables us to love people unconditionally and completely no matter

00:52:27.100 what they look like. Galatians 3 27 through 29. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put

00:52:34.120 on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male nor female

00:52:39.600 for you are all one in Christ Jesus and you are Christ's. Then you, and if you are Christ's, then you

00:52:46.620 are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Colossians 3 11 through 13. Here there is

00:52:53.300 not Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all

00:52:59.420 and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness,

00:53:06.540 humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if anyone has a complaint against

00:53:12.020 another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Ephesians

00:53:20.240 4 1 through 6. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner, walk in a manner

00:53:25.860 worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience,

00:53:30.840 bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

00:53:35.280 There is one body and one spirit, just as you are called to the one hope that belongs to your call,

00:53:40.060 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and

00:53:45.080 in all. Ephesians 4 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from

00:53:52.140 you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in

00:53:57.340 Christ forgave you. Last one. 1 Corinthians 13 4 through 7. Love is patient and kind. Love does not

00:54:04.080 envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or

00:54:10.140 resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things,

00:54:15.360 believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. So you're telling me after listening to

00:54:22.040 that, that the gospel isn't enough, that the gospel is insufficient. And in some cases, as some

00:54:28.540 unfortunately self-proclaimed Christian teachers have said, inappropriate. After listening to all the

00:54:34.980 answers that we need to the problems that we face are listed right there, that we need to borrow

00:54:41.200 the critical theory, philosophies of the world that assign corporate complicity based on skin color

00:54:46.200 and expect corporate guilt and repentance based on skin color, I showed you an ugly picture that

00:54:52.420 represents where that logic takes us. It's not to peace. It's not to unity. It's not to love. It's not

00:54:58.360 to justice. We can discuss the sin of hate and prejudice as the epistles often do without using the

00:55:06.520 divisive philosophies of a world that does not know God. Look out your window and see what a world

00:55:13.820 that does not know God looks like. That's not what the church is supposed to look like. That's not what

00:55:18.620 the church is supposed to be engaging in right now. So we as Christians, what must we do? We have to

00:55:24.240 resist the urge to be afraid of friendships and relationships because of assumptions of how

00:55:29.640 a certain kind of person thinks. We resist the mistrust and the defensiveness and the resentment

00:55:36.620 that are all the products of these worldly philosophies of identity politics and Marxism

00:55:42.840 and so much of the so-called anti-racism movement. We assume the best in our brothers and sisters in

00:55:49.960 Christ and we realize that any grievance that we hold toward someone else, God has every right to hold

00:55:57.640 that grievance toward us. And instead of holding it against us, he has sent his son so that we could

00:56:02.680 be forgiven of that grievance forever. And we are told to forgive other people as God in Christ has

00:56:08.220 forgiven us. And we also shouldn't assign grievance to people who haven't done anything to us just

00:56:14.040 based on the group that they belong to. That goes for people of all ethnicities who bear the name of

00:56:21.460 Christ. That is not what the church is supposed to look like. We are supposed to be unified in the

00:56:26.200 gospel, which says that we were all dead in sin, not different levels of dead. We were all dead in

00:56:32.360 sin. We were all undeserving of God's grace, of his mercy, of his forgiveness. But God, he made us alive

00:56:39.180 together with Christ. And so now we are all equal and we should be treating our brothers and sisters

00:56:43.480 in Christ as such. So we assume the best in our brothers and sisters in Christ. We see those outside the

00:56:51.180 church as lost people in need of a Savior. We pray that the Holy Spirit would give us power to love

00:56:56.400 people in a way that shows the world what real unity and reconciliation look like. And that is impossible

00:57:02.500 without the saving grace of the gospel. It's impossible. No other tool, no other theory, no other mindset

00:57:08.460 will get us there. None. If the gospel reconciled Jews and Gentiles through their belief in Christ,

00:57:16.020 then surely it is enough to reconcile people with different melanin counts today. Remember,

00:57:21.920 Paul represented a group and he himself actually persecuted to the death many Gentile Christians

00:57:28.760 and many Jewish Christians as well. And then he became a missionary to a lot of these people. There was a

00:57:35.020 lot of actually direct forgiveness that was necessary in order, I'm sure, to accept Paul. But it's very

00:57:42.280 clear through the epistles that we are all made equal before Christ. We are equal in our depravity.

00:57:48.260 We are equal in our sin. And once we are made alive in Christ by his grace, we are co-heirs. We are

00:57:55.600 brothers and sisters in Christ. And that is the reconciliation that we need, first to God, which

00:58:02.200 brings us at peace with each other. If the gospel, again, could reconcile two groups like the Jews and

00:58:09.000 the Gentiles, then surely it is enough to reconcile people with different melanin counts today.

00:58:13.840 That is what the gospel does. It takes people whose ancestors hated each other and makes them brothers

00:58:19.040 and sisters. And there's no better news than that. There's no better hope than that. And so let that be

00:58:26.180 what we cling to. Let that be the driving force behind our conversations about justice and prejudice

00:58:33.460 and love and hate and holiness and sanctification and caring for the least of these. That is the only

00:58:41.660 way to peace. That is the only mindset that will bring unity and joy rather than grievance and

00:58:48.660 resentment. Those are not only not fruit of the Spirit, they're actually fruit of Satan. And so we

00:58:54.800 need to resist that. People of all ethnicities with everything we can and cling to the hope of Christ,

00:58:59.740 which does not only bring us gladness, but also the reconciliation that we seek.

00:59:04.500 Okay, that's all I have for today. That was a long episode. I'll be back here Wednesday. We'll be

00:59:09.120 talking about another really important and heavy but really crucial topic, but I will just

00:59:14.840 leave it to your imaginations. Okay, I'll see you then.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - July 27, 2020

Ep 280 ｜ The Madness Ravaging America's Cities

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