Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 28, 2020


Ep 319 ｜ Piper, Policies, Personality & Priorities


Episode Stats

Length

56 minutes

Words per Minute

166.95805

Word Count

9,486

Sentence Count

536

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

10


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week
00:00:15.480 so far and that you enjoyed last week's episodes. I was out of town and so we pre-recorded those
00:00:21.860 episodes, did it a little bit differently, had an interview on Wednesday with John Cooper
00:00:27.120 of Skillet. I got amazing feedback from that interview and I knew that I would because he's
00:00:34.080 so awesome and has such wonderful insights. So if you haven't listened to last Wednesday's episode
00:00:39.660 with John Cooper of Skillet, I highly recommend you doing so. Then Friday I talked to Burgess
00:00:45.540 Owens. He's running for Congress. Amazing person and so wise and patriotic. So go listen to Wednesday's
00:00:53.780 last Friday's episode. And then Monday we talked about health care and the differences between the
00:01:00.500 Republican perspective on health care and the Democratic and Joe Biden's perspective and plan
00:01:06.200 on health care. We've covered now all of the topics, the big topics that we are going to cover
00:01:12.420 before the election. Today we're going to kind of do a recap and a further analysis and a further
00:01:20.140 justification from my perspective of voting for Donald Trump. I'm going to talk about that John
00:01:26.780 Piper article that went around and my response to it and my take on this. I'll also talk about Al
00:01:33.640 Moeller's response to it or at least I don't even know if it was a direct response but his perspective
00:01:39.060 on voting and who he is voting for. So for the past nine Mondays, we have talked about a different
00:01:49.660 subject that a different policy subject that pertains to this election. So we talked about
00:01:57.340 abortion. We talked about religious liberty. We talked about immigration. We talked about
00:02:02.420 justice, what justice actually is versus social justice, the government's role in implementing
00:02:08.820 justice, foreign policy, the economy, education, health care, the environment, comparing and contrasting
00:02:17.240 Trump versus Biden, Republicans versus Democrats. As I always say, you guys know I'm a conservative
00:02:24.220 so you all know where I stand and typically where I'm going to land on these subjects. I don't hide
00:02:31.760 that for some reason. You have people coming to this podcast thinking that I am somewhere in the
00:02:38.900 middle that I'm agnostic on politics and I don't necessarily have a particular side that I'm coming
00:02:45.300 from. No, I am very clear from the outset that I am a conservative. I have a conservative worldview.
00:02:53.620 But again, as I've said many times, even from that perspective, it is never my desire to misconstrue
00:03:00.240 something, to leave out a side of the story, to leave out a fact in order to get you to agree with
00:03:05.840 me. My goal is always to represent things as factually, as honestly as I possibly can. When I have
00:03:12.620 an accidental inaccuracy, which I've had before, people have reached out to me and they've kindly
00:03:17.760 said not just, hey, you're wrong about this, because that doesn't cut it. If you just say,
00:03:23.420 oh, this show is full of inaccuracies and this is lies and falsehood and false rhetoric, well,
00:03:29.220 that doesn't tell me anything. That just makes me think that you disagree with me. But if there's
00:03:33.060 something that's factually wrong or you disagree with me on something, you think that I misrepresented
00:03:37.160 something, then you need to come to me and reasonably, thoughtfully lay out your case or point
00:03:43.900 to the real fact that corrects my inaccuracy or give me an argument for your side. Now, if we just
00:03:50.720 end up disagreeing on a particular subject, I'm not necessarily going to come on this podcast and
00:03:54.960 correct it. But if you point out something where I am factually wrong or I have grossly exaggerated
00:04:01.800 something or I've misconstrued something, then tell me. And if you are correct, I will correct it
00:04:09.240 on air as I have done before. But what so often happens is that I'll get a message or I'll get a
00:04:15.000 review saying, this is wrong. This is not true. This is not right framing. This is polarizing, whatever.
00:04:23.500 Look, you got to be able to articulate why. You can't just tell me that you think that. You have to
00:04:28.800 tell me why you think that. If you articulate thoughtfully why. I am wrong about something. I will
00:04:35.400 typically, I don't get to all of my messages on Instagram, but I very often will engage with you.
00:04:44.220 But the kind of sassy, sarcastic, well, this is wrong and I'm not going to explain why. You can
00:04:50.720 Google it. Come on. That just makes me think that you don't actually know. And if you do know,
00:04:55.780 I want to know too. And if you are correct that I said something wrong, I will happily and humbly
00:05:01.640 correct it on air. Over the past few weeks, there's been a lot of pushback. There's been
00:05:07.340 more praise and gratitude towards this show and especially its guests than ever over the past
00:05:14.320 few months. It feels like we have been going full speed since the riots and the protests broke out in
00:05:21.660 Minneapolis a few months ago. There's been so much to cover, so much subject matter to dig into.
00:05:29.580 We've had so many wonderful guests bring us their insight and analysis. We've had John MacArthur. We
00:05:35.400 had Wayne Grudem. We had Albert Moeller, Votie Bauckham, Ted Cruz, Megyn Kelly, Neil Shinvi,
00:05:39.800 Monique Dusan. Lots and lots of commentators, authors, theologians, writers over the past few weeks to
00:05:45.660 help us answer the really tough questions that are before us about the crazy things that are going on
00:05:52.940 in the world. We have talked about critical race theory, the inherent contradictions and dangers
00:05:58.400 of intersectionality, the murderous history of left-wing revolutions around the world, the
00:06:03.060 ineffectiveness of socialism and communism, the importance of the Supreme Court. We've talked about
00:06:08.580 police brutality. We've talked about social justice versus biblical justice, the state of American
00:06:13.960 theology, and how it influences what we think about politics and culture. We have covered a lot of
00:06:21.820 ground, and I'm very thankful to all of you guys who have been following along. I'm so thankful to all
00:06:26.640 of you who have sent me emails and messages telling me what you've learned, especially from a particular
00:06:31.480 guest or any specific episode. I'm also thankful for those of you who have thoughtfully, kindly reached
00:06:38.320 out to me and told me that you happen to disagree on something or you've pointed out something that is
00:06:43.280 factually wrong. I am very thankful. Now, I've also gotten a lot of passionate pushback from people who
00:06:50.220 refuse to tell me why they disagree or why I'm wrong, and in a way, it's understandable because we have
00:06:56.060 been talking about a lot of subjects that solicit emotion. So when I say I've gotten emotional responses,
00:07:01.000 I don't mean that in a way that's condescending. We have been talking about a lot of things that
00:07:05.860 rightfully, that understandably, solicit a lot of emotion and a lot of passion.
00:07:17.140 And that's okay. That's okay. But it's not necessarily what creates constructive dialogue.
00:07:23.800 Again, if we can't talk about why we disagree, what the facts are surrounding it. We've talked about
00:07:30.740 in that vein, we've talked about the dangers of something called standpoint epistemology,
00:07:36.180 which is that you determine what truth is based on your subjective standpoint. And people who are
00:07:42.880 considered more oppressed and more marginalized have more access to universal truth than someone
00:07:48.800 who is less oppressed and less marginalized. So we no longer operating on a shared set of facts
00:07:54.040 or on a shared sense of reality, but we are now arguing which standpoint is more valid in our
00:08:01.240 pursuit of truth. And that is disastrous for any kind of constructive dialogue or any true
00:08:07.620 pursuit of what is actually true. And so I don't see it to be productive at all to operate from
00:08:15.360 that vantage point. We've talked about all of these things, all of these very deep, theological,
00:08:22.480 philosophical, philosophical, ideological, political, social issues. And you guys have taught me so much
00:08:29.520 in your feedback and the people who have been on this podcast have as well. Now, it's hard when I do
00:08:40.100 receive accusations of deceit or when I hear mischaracterizations or when I receive demeaning comments
00:08:51.900 or messages to not reciprocate with the same level of sassiness. And I say all of this because I know
00:08:58.900 that so many of you relate to me. So many of you who have engaged with people across the aisle for the
00:09:04.960 first time ever are receiving this kind of pushback and you are tempted to respond in kind with the same
00:09:11.720 level of sarcasm and sassiness. And we have to be thankful for the times that the Lord bridles our
00:09:19.140 tongue and we have to work towards self-control with the power of the Holy Spirit. I fail at that
00:09:24.220 sometimes in those kinds of heated exchanges. And I just pray for more self-control and for God to give
00:09:32.320 me a spirit of gentleness and to give me a spirit of grace that I so often fail to represent. And I hope
00:09:37.740 that you all are praying that too, because the fact of the matter is, is that we still have to share this
00:09:43.580 country after the election. We're going to have to coincide and coexist with the people that we
00:09:49.100 disagreed with on November 2nd, on November 4th. We are still going to live next door to the neighbor
00:09:56.420 that is on the opposing side of the aisle. And our goal as Christians will still be to love God with all
00:10:03.620 of our hearts, minds, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself, all of our neighbors.
00:10:09.380 So let us do whatever we can to glorify God in every way and ask forgiveness when we don't,
00:10:15.980 which is daily, if not moment by moment, by the way. So I just want to say to anyone listening
00:10:22.280 who already voted for Joe Biden, you're probably not listening to this podcast, but maybe you are,
00:10:26.900 or who knows that you will vote for Joe Biden, and I'm not going to be able to persuade you otherwise.
00:10:32.300 I'm glad that you're here. And as assured as I am, and as passionate as I am about the topics that
00:10:38.260 we are going through today that we have gone through for the past several weeks, that doesn't
00:10:43.940 change what I think about you. Yes, I believe that you are wrong in this particular arena,
00:10:51.480 just like you think that I am wrong. But I also know and appreciate the fact that you are a person
00:10:56.120 made in the image of God. I don't think you're stupid. I don't think that you're wicked. I'm not
00:11:01.260 doubting your sincerity. I'm certainly not doubting your salvation. That's not my role.
00:11:06.760 Well, I simply think that you are incorrect. And I understand that there are some people that
00:11:12.260 cannot separate the statement that I think you're wrong from the idea that someone hates you. But I
00:11:18.900 think it's very important for us to be able to do that, not just as Americans who want to preserve
00:11:23.880 our republic, but also as Christians, we have to be able to say, look, I disagree with you. And here's
00:11:29.960 where I think that your views do not align with God's word. Here's where I think that you are factually
00:11:35.260 incorrect. But I'm not doubting your sincerity. I'm not doubting even your intentions. And I am
00:11:41.660 certainly not doubting your salvation. We simply disagree. I don't hate you. But I do believe that
00:11:48.020 you're wrong. I am not going to harbor resentment towards people who vote for Joe Biden. I'm not going
00:11:53.980 to view them as my enemy. This is what theologian Charles Haddon Spurgeon said. I will not say do not
00:12:00.820 attend to politics. But I do say do not let politics stain you. I believe that it is possible
00:12:08.000 while still being assured and informed and even passionate about what's going on politically,
00:12:14.660 that you can do all of those things without being stained by politics. I think it's necessary
00:12:21.800 for Christians to be involved and to vote, to exercise that right for which so many people have
00:12:27.360 fought and died in which millions around the world will never, ever get to exercise. Here's
00:12:33.320 how Spurgeon also put it. We are now called upon to exercise one of the privileges and duties which go
00:12:39.860 with liberty. Let no man be neglectful in it. Every God-fearing man should give his vote with as much
00:12:46.600 devotion as he prays. I happen to agree with that. Now, why? Not just because it's a right and it's a
00:12:53.940 privilege, but because the people who represent us and the policies they push and present have a real
00:13:02.280 effect on us. They have a real effect on our children, on their schools, on our churches, and
00:13:07.240 especially on those who may be outside of our circles, the most vulnerable in society, the most
00:13:13.340 marginalized in society. Policies have a real effect on their everyday lives, on our everyday lives.
00:13:19.760 Choosing politicians matters because policies matter because people matter. That is why I don't
00:13:26.760 believe in a throwaway vote, in voting a third party, at least not in this election. Now, I totally
00:13:33.280 respect people who take this position. I really do because I see the argument. I don't think that
00:13:40.020 these people are just being lazy or being ignorant. I think that these are very thoughtful people who have
00:13:45.740 thought through it and prayed about it. And I see the logic of the conclusion that they come to. But
00:13:52.280 in my view, there's just too much on the line right now. The two visions for the country are too
00:13:59.880 disparate, are too vastly different for me to risk the nation and future generations becoming victims
00:14:06.840 of the kind of left-wing governance that has ravaged nations both culturally and economically
00:14:13.020 throughout history. So this is why I disagree with Pastor John Piper on his recent article. He's a theologian
00:14:21.380 whom I greatly admire. I recommend him very often. I've learned so much from him. I love his podcast,
00:14:28.280 Ask Pastor John, in addition to his sermons and his mini writings and his website, Desiring God. All of these
00:14:37.220 resources have enriched my faith so much. And even though I disagree with him on this article, I don't
00:14:43.800 doubt at all his love for God and his commitment to the scriptures and his dedication to the gospel. I
00:14:50.640 just land in a different place than he does. And trust me, I understand that it's a little bit strange
00:14:59.020 to disagree with someone whom you know knows more about God in the Bible than you do, whom you know is
00:15:06.260 probably smarter than you, wiser than you. That's how I feel when I disagree with other people, with other
00:15:11.640 men who have had a huge impact, a positive impact on my faith, like Tim Keller and Matt Chandler. Like
00:15:18.060 these are two men who have had a hugely positive influence on my faith, especially in high school
00:15:23.860 when I was really, my faith was becoming my own, was becoming real and relational. But I disagree with
00:15:31.840 them. Dramatically, drastically on the issues of critical race theory and social justice, I simply
00:15:38.200 think that they are gravely mistaken. It's possible for people to be very wise, very godly, and wrong.
00:15:44.960 I've been wrong more times than I can count. But it's okay. We cannot say just because someone
00:15:53.500 is smart or just because someone is godly, that means that they can never be wrong. The only one that is
00:15:59.220 infallible is God. And so we all have the capacity and propensity to be wrong. And there are people
00:16:05.900 who are equally as smart and as godly who happen to disagree with John Piper and with others on
00:16:11.580 politics and on this particular subject of who to vote for. And I will get to one of those very good
00:16:17.400 responses by Albert Moeller at the end of this episode. So John Piper wrote last week an article
00:16:24.760 titled Policies, Persons and Paths to Ruin. The article didn't surprise me at all. A lot of you
00:16:30.420 have read it. It seems like him. I agree with a lot of it. But like I said, I just I don't come to
00:16:37.140 the same conclusion. And I'll explain why. First, I'll read you a little bit of what he writes in the
00:16:42.640 article. He says, I remain baffled that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual
00:16:48.500 immorality, unrepentant boastfulness, unrepentant vulgarity, unrepentant factiousness, and the like
00:16:55.600 to be only toxic for our nation while policies that endorse baby killing, sex switching, freedom
00:17:00.940 limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly. My point so far is simply to raise the
00:17:06.780 stakes of what is outwardly modeled in leadership so that Christians are given pause. It is not a small
00:17:12.700 thing to treat lightly a pattern of public behaviors that lead to death. There is a character
00:17:17.980 connection between rulers and subjects. When the Bible describes a king by saying he sinned and made
00:17:24.660 Israel to sin, 1 Kings 14, 16, it does not mean he twisted their arm. It means his influence shaped
00:17:30.780 the people. That is the calling of a leader. The justifications for ranking the destructive
00:17:36.100 effects of persons below the destructive effects of policies ring hollow. I find it bewildering that
00:17:43.820 Christians can be so sure that greater damage will be done by bad judges, bad laws, and
00:17:47.940 bad policies than is being done by the culture infecting spread of the gangrene of sinful
00:17:52.100 self-exaltation and boasting and strife stirring. I think Roe was an evil decision. He's talking
00:17:57.680 about Roe v. Wade. I think Planned Parenthood is a code as a code name for baby killing and
00:18:02.540 historically at least ethnic cleansing. And I think it is baffling and presumptuous to assume
00:18:07.440 that pro-abortion policies kill more people than a culture saturating pro-self pride. Before I give my
00:18:14.560 take on that, let me also read the editor's note at the end of his article that was added later.
00:18:19.520 It says, after this article was published, John Piper tweeted, the article we post today explains why I
00:18:25.500 won't be voting for Biden or Trump. That choice to write in is relatively unimportant, but the reasoning
00:18:30.360 really matters. He then linked to his 1995 article on abortion as a stake in the ground he hopes never to
00:18:37.060 move. So the reason he said this is because for some reason that I cannot possibly discern,
00:18:44.980 people who identify as Christians who are openly supportive of Joe Biden were sharing this article
00:18:50.280 and praising John Piper, which is just crazy, not only because this is a guy that they never,
00:18:56.300 ever, ever agree with on any kind of theological or social issue at all, but also because this article
00:19:03.220 did not align with the views of someone who is openly voting for Joe Biden. John Piper is and was
00:19:09.060 in this article explicitly against abortion, sex switching, baby killing. He is against pro-abortion
00:19:15.280 candidates, Planned Parenthood, and anything connected to abortion. His argument is that arrogance is just
00:19:22.660 as deadly as abortion. And while I agree that that is spiritually true, that is spiritually true that an
00:19:30.120 unrepentant, arrogant person who does not place their faith in Christ, whom God does not save,
00:19:37.160 is just as bound for hell as someone who advocates for abortion or someone who commits an abortion.
00:19:42.580 That is obviously biblically true. I obviously agree that pride has an effect not just on a person's
00:19:50.080 soul and a person's words, but also on the people who are around them and the people who are under their
00:19:56.300 leadership. But when we're talking about, um, the deadly effects, the tangible deadly effects that
00:20:05.160 that character quality has on a nation, I cannot agree that it is as deadly and as dangerous as
00:20:11.580 abortion. It's again, not that arrogance isn't dangerous or that we should commend it or ignore it
00:20:17.140 or that it doesn't have consequences, especially eternal consequences. It does. Proverbs 8, 13 says,
00:20:22.840 The fear of the Lord is the hatred of evil. So if you fear the Lord, you hate evil. Pride and
00:20:28.880 arrogance in the way of evil and perverted speech, I hate. So God hates pride. He hates arrogance. That
00:20:34.680 means he hates the way of many politicians on both sides of the aisle. Uh, ego is rampant in Washington,
00:20:41.380 D.C. and in the halls of power throughout the country. God hates deceit. He hates manipulation.
00:20:45.920 He hates haughtiness. These are things that I see though, not just displayed in Trump,
00:20:52.840 but in both Biden and Trump, uh, and certainly also in Kamala Harris. So when Piper says that it is
00:20:59.920 a prideful heart that leads to baby killing, that's what he says in the article. Then to me,
00:21:05.720 that means that Biden and Kamala must also possess those prideful hearts since they advocate
00:21:11.220 for baby killing. Uh, just because Trump's pride is displayed on Twitter and Biden's is displayed more
00:21:18.360 inconspicuously through influence peddling via his son internationally or calling a voter at a town
00:21:24.680 hall fat and challenging him to a pushup contest or telling a factory worker that he's full of,
00:21:31.020 uh, uh, a cuss word that we don't say on this podcast, uh, in a discussion about guns or, or
00:21:37.440 insane poor kids or just as talented as white kids or an openly advocating for our federal tax dollars to
00:21:43.980 fund abortion or claiming that if he had been in charge at the beginning of COVID, that things
00:21:48.020 would be drastically different. Uh, that doesn't mean just because Biden's pride is displayed in
00:21:53.600 those, those ways that are seemingly more culturally palatable or are more acceptable to our left-wing
00:22:00.740 media. That doesn't mean that Biden is actually less prideful than Trump. And I'm not saying that
00:22:05.100 that's the argument that Piper is making, but when I read Piper's article, that's what I think that
00:22:11.080 we have two candidates that have pride. We have two candidates that have arrogance. Biden is smoother
00:22:18.920 than Trump is in some ways, in some ways. He's more politically correct. I'll say that just as Obama
00:22:25.660 was, uh, the divisive things that he says, like, if you don't vote for me, you ain't black, or that
00:22:31.060 it's a good idea to direct funding away from the police. They're not made into major stories by the
00:22:36.720 media the way that Trump's comments are, but that doesn't make him any less prideful. I just don't
00:22:42.480 see evidence that Biden's sins just because they're different and less flashy are worse than
00:22:47.960 Trump's sins. So Biden too is accused of sexual assault. Biden too has said things that people have
00:22:53.940 called racist, like all black people think the same way. In an interview with Yahoo News a few weeks
00:22:59.220 ago, he said in 2007 that Obama is the first clean mainstream African-American man, according to CNN.
00:23:06.840 Biden had to drop out of his first presidential race for plagiarizing a speech and for telling a
00:23:11.660 lie that he later had to say was a lie, that he was the first person in generations in his family
00:23:16.120 to go to college under his vice presidency. You've got the Fast and Furious scandal, the IRS scandal,
00:23:22.260 the Benghazi scandal, the fact that he was in charge of relations between the U.S. and China
00:23:26.580 and the U.S. and Ukraine while his son Hunter Biden was making hundreds of thousands of dollars
00:23:30.780 from them and allegedly making gains for the whole Biden family. Again, I'm not saying that
00:23:35.820 that Piper is saying that Biden is not sinful in this way, but he seems to draw a dichotomy between
00:23:42.740 prideful Trump and pro-abortion Biden. And from what I see and from what I know about Biden is that
00:23:50.100 in reality, we've got two candidates that represent that kind of arrogance and that kind of divisiveness
00:23:56.160 that Piper seems to be almost exclusively ascribing to Donald Trump. We've got two prideful,
00:24:03.620 sinful candidates whose rhetoric does have an effect on society and helps shape our culture.
00:24:09.420 the things that both of them say do absolutely matter. But we only have one prideful and sinful
00:24:18.700 candidate who also believes in federally funded abortion and codifying Roe v. Wade in an assault
00:24:25.380 on religious liberty via something like the Equality Act on capitulation to Iran and China
00:24:30.800 and more government control over our health care and redirecting funding away from the police
00:24:35.540 and fighting against school choice in charter schools and in raising taxes and who is running
00:24:40.980 with the senator that the nonpartisan GovTrack ranks as the most liberal member of the Senate.
00:24:46.660 She is the most liberal on abortion, on health care, on immigration. And then we have another
00:24:52.300 prideful and sinful candidate who has protected the Hyde Amendment, has redirected funds away from
00:24:59.120 Planned Parenthood via Title X reform, who has appointed three constitutionalist lifetime Supreme Court
00:25:04.900 justices, including the pro-life constitutionalist and mother of seven, Amy Coney Barrett, who was just
00:25:09.960 confirmed on Monday and has appointed 284 federal judges, 242 of whom of which have been confirmed by
00:25:19.700 the Senate, who delivered on tax cuts and whose deregulatory and economic efforts helped bring about
00:25:26.000 a booming economy with record unemployment. This was, of course, pre-coronavirus lockdowns,
00:25:32.260 who has helped broker three peace deals between Arab nations and Israel, with hopefully more to
00:25:37.240 come, who helped defeat ISIS, under whose leadership the life of Kayla Mueller was avenged,
00:25:42.520 who ensured the return of Otto Warmbier to his family from North Korea, who has championed school
00:25:48.480 choice more than any other president, whose administration has fought for religious liberty
00:25:52.600 and for free speech, who banned critical race theory funded by the taxpayer in federal agencies.
00:25:58.600 Now, if you have questions about any of those, if you want clarification, if you want the reasoning
00:26:04.420 behind it, if you're thinking about rebuttals to those before, before you consider those and before
00:26:11.100 you send me an email, please go back and listen to every single episode I have done on all of those
00:26:16.320 subjects. Everything that I talked about Biden fighting against and everything I talk about Trump
00:26:21.160 fighting for, I have done an episode outlining all of the details of those and probably answering a lot
00:26:27.020 of your questions and pushing back on a lot of the misinformation that the media has been peddling
00:26:31.440 about some of those things. If you are wondering why, for example, I support school choice, or if
00:26:37.780 you're wondering about the details of the peace deals, I have answered all of those wonderful,
00:26:42.320 great questions. I will link those past episodes and some of the interviews I've done on these
00:26:48.020 subjects in the description of this episode so you can easily go listen to them. You can binge listen
00:26:52.640 on all those episodes, put it on like one and a half times or two times. You can do that on Apple
00:26:56.840 Podcasts. It'll go by a lot, a lot more quickly. Now, I will say with all the things that Trump has
00:27:04.680 accomplished that are really good, it's a real shame, just to be honest, that Trump really gets
00:27:11.260 in his own way so much of the time. And what I mean by that is that he wastes petty time on,
00:27:18.820 or he wastes time on Twitter being petty. He punches down at people. He doesn't take criticism
00:27:23.940 well. He can be a bully. He calls people names on Twitter before he was president. He was known for
00:27:29.740 promiscuity. He was known for bragging on camera about grabby women. He was known for his ego.
00:27:36.260 He says ridiculous things regularly, especially at his rallies, especially when you have a media
00:27:43.100 that is scrutinizing your every move and refusing to pray anything remotely positive about
00:27:48.800 your accomplishments. This kind of bad behavior is very often going to overshadow any good that you
00:27:55.020 do. Part of it is the media's fault for refusing to report on the good things that he's done
00:28:01.680 and for even just outright lying and for holding different standards for what they report on when
00:28:07.540 it's Trump versus what they report on when it's Biden. But part of that is also Trump's fault.
00:28:12.760 Part of that is a lack of self-control. However, saying all of that, I believe that we can criticize
00:28:20.700 the bad parts of Trump. We can condemn the bad parts of Trump and even recognize that the bad
00:28:26.100 and very loud parts of Trump's character have an effect on our culture, on the temperature of our
00:28:31.000 country. But before we go too far with that, before we blame Trump's flaws or rhetoric on our division,
00:28:37.860 we have to remember that this division, this tension that we have was not created by Trump.
00:28:45.200 I think a lot of people, especially on the left, think that the golden years of America were when
00:28:50.300 Obama was president. There is absolutely no piece of data whatsoever that backs that up. None.
00:28:57.400 The division that we are feeling existed when Trump became president. Has it gotten worse over the past
00:29:03.680 few years? Yeah, for a variety of reasons. But really, we were just a powder keg about to explode
00:29:09.400 back in 2017. Like, we were so divided. And I'm going to read you some statistics that actually
00:29:15.700 prove that. According to Pew Research in 2011, the median Republican and the median Democrat both had
00:29:22.320 views that were moderate toward the middle. There were a lot of us that had a lot of moderate,
00:29:28.360 middle of the road views. Republicans and Democrats shared many views with a large number of Americans
00:29:35.340 in the middle. I'll put this chart up on YouTube if you are watching, and I will make sure to include
00:29:40.120 the links to these studies in the description. By 2017, though, the political middle had significantly
00:29:48.360 diminished with the right moving slightly to the right. So the median Republican moving slightly to
00:29:53.280 the right, and the median Democrat moving way over to the left, with a higher number of Americans than
00:29:59.140 ever on the far left than on the far right. From 2014 to 2017, the median Republican didn't move at all,
00:30:06.740 while the median Democrat moved significantly over to the left. The left in this country has moved way
00:30:13.220 left, especially in the eight years Obama was in office, while the views of Republicans have changed
00:30:19.240 slightly, but not as drastically, and in some cases have gotten more liberal. In no cases that we are about
00:30:26.420 to go through have Democrats become more conservative on any issue. They have moved to the left on
00:30:31.500 everything that is not necessarily true of Republicans moving to the right on everything. According to another
00:30:37.280 study by Pew, 82% of Democrats in 2017 believed our economy favors powerful interests compared to 71% in
00:30:45.820 2014. Only 17% of Republicans believed that in 2017, compared to 27% in 2014. In 1994, 49% of Democrats said
00:30:58.180 poor people have hard lives because the government doesn't do enough, versus 28% of Republicans. In 2017, that
00:31:06.220 number was 76% for Democrats, and just 25% for Republicans. So from 1994 to 2017, there was a big shift in
00:31:15.160 perspective on poverty and the government not doing enough among Democrats from 49% to 76% thinking that
00:31:22.400 the government needs to do more, whereas it went from 28% of Republicans thinking that in 1994 to just
00:31:29.420 25% in 2017. So not much of a change at all, and a huge gap between what the left and the right thinks
00:31:36.560 about poverty and what the government should do about it in 2017. In 2010, 76% of Democrats said global
00:31:43.700 warming is a real threat compared to 92% of Democrats who said that in 2017. Only 34% of Republicans said that in
00:31:51.400 2010, and then 52% in 2017. So actually became more liberal on that subject, but still a huge gap, a 40-point gap
00:31:59.760 between what Democrats think about global warming and what Republicans think about global warming. In 2010, 57% of
00:32:06.580 Democrats believed that America needs to do more to ensure equal rights for black people. By 2017, that
00:32:15.580 percentage among Democrats had skyrocketed to 81% and went up to only 36% among Republicans. So 2010, 57% of
00:32:25.420 Democrats believed that America needs to do more to ensure equal rights for black people. That number shot up
00:32:31.280 after Obama had been president for both of his terms to 81% by 2017, whereas it only went from 30% to 36%
00:32:39.540 among Republicans. In 1994, only 32% of Democrats and 30% of Republicans believed immigrants strengthen our
00:32:47.660 country. So about even a minority of Republicans and Democrats back in 1994 believed that. In 2010, 48%
00:32:55.040 Dems, 29% Republicans. By 2017, 84% of Democrats believed that. A huge change. And 42% of Republicans
00:33:03.580 believed it. So again, Republicans, more Republicans shifted to a leftward position on that. And Democrats,
00:33:10.440 a large number of Democrats moved to the left on that. Still a huge gap between what Republicans and
00:33:15.940 Democrats think about immigrants, specifically illegal immigration.
00:33:25.080 Okay, guys, let me take a quick break from all of that to tell you guys about an awesome deal that is
00:33:32.660 being put on by Blaze Media. So this is the most important discount that they have ever done. And that
00:33:39.600 is $30 off an annual subscription. This is making Blaze TV available for the incredibly low price of
00:33:45.940 $5.75 a month. That is crazy. And so when you subscribe to Blaze TV, you are not just getting
00:33:53.820 more access to me because I know it's so wonderful to watch this podcast and to listen to this podcast,
00:34:00.420 but you are getting access to exclusive content that is only available to subscribers. And you're
00:34:06.040 getting access to all other kinds of people that work at Blaze Media, not just me. You're getting access
00:34:11.080 to Glenn Beck, to Phil Robertson, to Lauren Chen, to Steve Dase, all of these people who have
00:34:16.740 excellent analysis and a lot of entertaining content. And so you sign up for Blaze TV, $5.75 a month.
00:34:25.220 That is an amazing, amazing deal. With big tech censorship, you just never know when someone is
00:34:31.040 going to be to platforms. You never know when this podcast is going to be taken off YouTube or when
00:34:35.720 you're not going to be able to get it on Apple Podcasts anymore. Well, being a subscriber to Blaze
00:34:40.300 TV ensures that you are still able to get my content and other kinds of conservative content
00:34:45.360 on a platform that's not going to be censored, that's not going to be taken down. And all you
00:34:49.920 have to do to keep Blaze TV giving you this awesome content is to pay $5.75 a month. That is well worth
00:34:58.980 it. See it as an investment, not just in your own life and in your own knowledge, but also
00:35:03.860 in conservatism in general, in an alternative point of view, alternative media in general,
00:35:09.500 there is strength and power in numbers. And so we need as many of you as possible to subscribe
00:35:15.220 to Blaze TV. You can go to blazetv.com slash Allie, use promo code Allie. So make sure you do that,
00:35:23.180 blazetv.com slash Allie, promo code Allie.
00:35:26.020 By 2017, both 81% of Republicans and Democrats held unfavorable views towards the people of the
00:35:41.480 other party. So 2017, 81% of Republicans and 81% of Democrats held unfavorable views toward people of
00:35:49.920 the other party. This is before, uh, this might've been right when Trump took office, but this was
00:35:56.160 before, uh, Trump had had any kind of effect as president. So we were vastly, vastly divided in
00:36:02.360 major ways by the time Trump took office. And some of the biggest shifts, especially on the left side
00:36:07.760 happened in the eight years that Barack Obama was president, especially when it comes to race.
00:36:13.300 Another Pew chart, uh, that shows this is one that says that in 2010, 28% of Democrats believe
00:36:21.540 discrimination is the main reason black people can't get ahead these days. So 28% 2010 Democrats
00:36:27.900 said that by 2017, that number had leapt to 64%. The chart goes all the way back to, uh, to 1994 and 1994,
00:36:36.620 only 39% of Democrats believed this by 2010, 28%. So it went down from 1994 to 2010. But then by 2017,
00:36:47.280 after Barack Obama had, uh, had, uh, served both of his terms, that number shot up to 64%,
00:36:54.720 much higher than it was in 1994, much higher than it was in 2010. Uh, only 26% of Republicans in 1994,
00:37:02.840 9% in 2010 and 14% in 2017 believe that discrimination is the main thing holding black
00:37:09.220 people back. So again, this is a huge gap between the left and the right, uh, that is mostly
00:37:14.260 attributed to a seismic shift in the thinking of the democratic party specifically while Barack
00:37:20.340 Obama was president. A shift that corresponds not to what is actually going on in the country. So
00:37:26.380 no kind of quantifiable increase in discrimination was going on against black people at the time that
00:37:32.600 Democrats shifted so much on this issue, but actually corresponds to newly popularized ideology
00:37:38.660 and identity politics that became more pervasive during those years. Uh, here's more evidence of
00:37:45.180 this. According to a different study, uh, by Pew, 40% of Hillary Clinton voters in 2016 said they
00:37:51.460 believe white people benefit a great deal from advantages, uh, that people of other races do not
00:37:56.880 have versus only 4% of Trump 2016 voters. Now, four years later, 59% of Biden voters say they believe
00:38:06.720 this versus only 5% of Trump 2020 voters. So again, we see a huge shift on the left side,
00:38:11.860 not on the right side when it comes to race and things like white privilege. 57% of Clinton voters
00:38:16.960 in 2016 said they believe that it's a lot harder to be a black person than a white person in this country
00:38:21.640 versus only 11% of Trump voters. 74% of Biden voters now say this is true versus only 9% of Trump voters
00:38:29.700 in 2020. So again, a huge shift in the perspective of race and racism on the left that hasn't necessarily
00:38:37.400 corresponded to any real changes, um, any real increase in discrimination, um, but in a shift in
00:38:45.340 ideology that simply hasn't happened on the right side of the aisle. Biden voters are also more likely
00:38:51.420 to believe that there are serious impediments to women's success in this country than Clinton
00:38:55.420 voters were four years ago, whereas Trump voters today are less likely to believe this than they
00:39:01.420 were four years ago. 69% of Clinton voters believed in 2016 that society is just as well off if people
00:39:07.900 have priorities, uh, other than marriage and children versus 77% of Biden voters that believe that
00:39:14.700 Trump voters, uh, Trump voters, uh, went from 41% to 44%. That percentage is actually very high, but
00:39:21.960 again, two totally disparate worldviews are our views of society and our priorities and our values and
00:39:29.840 reality is so vastly different. And the left has changed significantly over the past 10 to 14 years.
00:39:37.260 Uh, in 2009, when Obama took office, according to Gallup, 78% of Republicans were extremely proud to be
00:39:44.620 an Americans, uh, to be Americans, uh, to be Americans versus 45% of Democrats. By the time Obama left in
00:39:50.520 2017, 72% of Republicans were extremely proud. So that didn't shift too much for Democrats by in 2013,
00:39:58.260 uh, for Democrats in, in 2013, they peaked at 56%, the majority of them being extremely proud to be an
00:40:05.760 American, but that dwindled the last four years of Obama's presidency to 43%. So while their Obama was in
00:40:14.000 office, their patriotism dwindled down by 2019, that number had fallen to 22% among Democrats who say
00:40:22.180 that they're extremely proud to be an American, but it remained 76% for Republicans. So again, while
00:40:29.600 their own Obama was in office, Democrats became less proud of their country. Republicans actually did too
00:40:34.980 a little bit, but the majority, the vast majority was still proud to be an American. That number changed
00:40:39.920 very slightly. And the pride reported in 2019 among Republicans is the same as it was going as far back
00:40:46.500 as 2006 and higher than it was, uh, in 2001, when this particular study starts for Democrats, their
00:40:53.040 patriotism fell 23% from 2009 to 2019 and is 32% less than what it was in 2001. Democrats have changed a lot.
00:41:04.100 Leftism has changed a lot. It has marched leftward. Uh, they have moved further to the left on almost
00:41:10.820 every subject. It is not true that the right has moved further to the right on every subject.
00:41:16.080 All of these huge gaps in perspectives existed before Trump took office. The left has continued
00:41:22.180 to shift while Trump voters have stayed about the same on many issues. We disagree and have disagreed
00:41:28.760 on very fundamental things. We do not see the world the same way at all. Democrats' views on race,
00:41:36.220 on immigration, on patriotism, on abortion, on the Supreme Court, socialism, transgenderism,
00:41:41.980 religious liberty, free speech have all shifted to the left drastically in the last five to 10 years
00:41:47.320 alone. You see this not just in polls, but you hear it in their speeches. You read it in their articles,
00:41:52.980 in their tweets, and in their platforms. So when you hear that conservatives have become radical,
00:41:58.000 no, no, no, no, no, no. The perception of conservatives has changed drastically because
00:42:03.720 the left has changed. The left has moved left. The Democratic Party has moved left. The shift has
00:42:10.120 not occurred predominantly, or even comparatively at all, on the right. Our country changed a lot
00:42:17.240 while Barack Obama was president. And if you're a liberal, maybe you think it changed for the better.
00:42:21.280 That's understandable coming from your perspective. But chances are you didn't really even notice that
00:42:26.660 it changed a whole lot. And that we actually got a lot more divided. That tensions actually raised a
00:42:32.800 lot. Remember, the riots in Ferguson and all of that that started happening. The police officers that
00:42:41.360 were shot dead in Dallas in July of 2016. That all happened while Obama was in office. We on the right
00:42:50.260 noticed. We noticed that shift. We noticed that change. We were talking about it. That the country
00:42:55.520 isn't the same anymore. That we don't agree on the fundamentals anymore. We were talking about that
00:43:00.820 when Barack Obama was in office. People in the middle and on the left largely did not notice. And
00:43:06.900 the media has done such an effective job of making you think over the past four years, that the past
00:43:13.060 four years have been terrible for the country. But while Barack Obama was president, everything was
00:43:17.980 just normal. Everything was nice. Everything was smooth. Everything was good. That is a rewriting of
00:43:23.400 history. I mean, that is some Orwellian kind of memory-holing of the bad things that happened while
00:43:37.840 Barack Obama was president and the division that was getting worse while Barack Obama was president
00:43:43.020 in the name of defending him, in the name of defending the Democratic Party. Trump did not do the dividing.
00:43:51.220 Now, I'm not saying that he has been the great healer or the great reconciler either. But he has
00:43:57.020 mostly pointed out the fissures that already existed. He did not create them. I say all of this to say
00:44:03.240 if pride in politicians is the big driver of division and destruction in this country, then we had very
00:44:10.220 prideful politicians, if not more prideful politicians, before Donald Trump. And especially during the years,
00:44:16.440 Biden was vice president. And I simply do not believe that Trump's arrogance can do near the
00:44:22.560 amount of damage to our country than was already done before he took office. And I think the policies
00:44:28.480 that are advocated by every other candidate are far more damaging and far more dangerous. I think the
00:44:34.120 rhetoric of identity politics, intersectionality, and critical race theory are far more divisive,
00:44:39.000 far more destructive, far more destructive, far more dangerous and damaging than Trump's rightfully
00:44:45.320 condemned Twitter schoolyard bullying, which again, I think is bad, but I don't think has nearly
00:44:54.060 the detrimental effects that the rhetoric of identity politics and divisiveness that we had under Barack
00:45:02.200 Obama and that we have heard from, from politicians on both sides of the aisle. I don't think that his
00:45:10.780 rhetoric is nearly as damaging or as far reaching as that kind of rhetoric. Now, Al Mohler, he wrote what
00:45:17.700 I thought was an excellent article about all of this, defending why he is voting for Donald Trump,
00:45:24.100 despite the bad things that he has said, and despite some of the bad things that he has done. I want to
00:45:29.200 read you the entire article. I won't do that because it's long, but I will link it. I really want you to
00:45:34.960 go read it. I think it's really good. Maybe you're not going to agree with it, but it's very thoughtful.
00:45:40.740 I've had Al Mohler on this podcast. He talked about voting for Trump and his reasoning behind that. You
00:45:45.100 should definitely listen to that episode, but let me read you some of that article so you get the gist
00:45:50.140 of it. Here's one thing that he said that I thought was a really good point. He says, if elected, Biden would
00:45:55.040 be the oldest individual ever elected president of the United States. Both candidates are over age 70.
00:46:00.600 That makes the vice presidency all the more important. I do not have to blink into citing the
00:46:04.660 prospect of a President Mike Pence versus a President Kamala Harris. Yeah, and that should be
00:46:10.560 obvious for anyone who has even slightly conservative Christian worldview, considering that Kamala Harris is
00:46:19.700 the most liberal member of the Senate and who is not just moderately pro-choice, but rabidly pro-abortion
00:46:27.880 as her record shows. Al Mohler goes on to say, if I'm electing a neighbor, it would be Biden hands down.
00:46:35.580 I am not voting for who will be my neighbor. I am voting for who will be president of the United States.
00:46:41.680 He says, I see politics and culture as being temporal, but nonetheless, with very real significance for
00:46:46.700 human beings and the communities we build. He says, I believe that human dignity and human rights are
00:46:51.140 grounded in the transcendent truths of God, who is the source of all being and truth. When I talk
00:46:56.200 about a biblical worldview, that is what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about us having to agree on
00:47:00.720 everything, but that is the foundation for a biblical worldview. He says, I cling to the gospel of Jesus
00:47:05.540 Christ and the saving truths of redeeming grace, but I'm also thankful for the common grace, whereby all
00:47:10.420 humanity formed in the image of God is accountable to universal truths embedded by the Creator in His
00:47:15.200 creation, including the goods of marriage and family and community and economy and culture.
00:47:20.720 I believe that denying these universal truths is destructive of civilization. That is what makes
00:47:25.920 him a conservative. He says the Democratic Party is now so pro-abortion, and yes, that is the right term,
00:47:32.900 that it has declared opposition to any restriction on abortion and demands taxpayer funding for abortion.
00:47:38.300 This is accurate. Led by Democratic governors, states such as New York and Illinois have adopted new
00:47:43.540 abortion legislation that effectively allows for abortion right up to the moment of birth. That is not a myth.
00:47:49.220 We have covered it in full on this podcast, read the legislation word for word.
00:47:54.120 Those who deny this reality are dishonest. Albert Mueller says the Democratic Party is linked hand in hand with
00:47:59.440 Planned Parenthood, which is not only the nation's largest abortion provider, but is also the engine for the
00:48:04.200 culture of death, unmasked for having targeted unborn babies for the strategic removal of specific organs
00:48:10.240 and tissues. Imagine voting for the party that is funded by that organization.
00:48:16.720 Biden, on the other hand, has already indicated that he would immediately put the Obama administration.
00:48:23.440 So now he's talking about religious liberty. I skipped some stuff. Biden has already indicated that he would
00:48:28.240 immediately put the Obama administration contraception mandate back in place, stripped of the religious
00:48:33.160 liberty protections President Trump has established. Go listen to the religious liberty episode to know more
00:48:37.740 about that. The Democratic Party has also decried other forms of conscience protection and would
00:48:43.040 deny religious liberty to Christian cake bakers, wedding photographers and pharmacists. He's talking
00:48:47.240 about the Equality Act. We've also done a podcast on the Equality Act. Christians in many medical fields
00:48:52.720 will face the reduction or removal of conscience protections related to abortion. On issues such as
00:48:59.320 the transgender revolution, which will reshape the entire society, Al Mohler says, Biden went so far in a recent
00:49:05.460 town hall appearance that he said he would support transgender demands all the way to supporting
00:49:10.940 gender transition among eight and 10 year old children. That is a direct quote. There should be
00:49:15.640 zero discrimination, Biden said. Keep in mind that zero discrimination in that context means enforce
00:49:20.460 submission to transgender claims throughout society. That means your Christian college, adoption agency,
00:49:25.800 mission board or school. The Democratic administration will steamroll these issues through the entire society
00:49:30.780 and leave no arena untouched. He says, I see some who claim to be conservative falsely ascribing a
00:49:38.280 virtue to a Democratic candidate and failing to concede that a Biden election would lead to direct
00:49:43.040 threats to conscience and religious liberty among American Christians. And I would add all Americans.
00:49:49.000 It's not just Christians that religious liberty protects. It's Muslims. It's Jews. It's atheists. It's
00:49:54.880 agnostics. Religious liberty is for everyone. But from a Christian perspective, yes, we are looking
00:50:00.220 at the liberty to be able to say and to believe and to practice the things that we want to say and
00:50:06.520 believe in practice. He describes character in this way, because a lot of people talk about President
00:50:11.220 Trump's character. He says, character is some strange combination of the personal, the principled,
00:50:16.540 and the practical. Let me put it another way. I think this is such a good point that he makes.
00:50:22.060 I cannot accept the argument that a calm man who affirms the dismembering of babies in the womb
00:50:28.920 has a superior character to a man who rants like Genghis Khan, but acts to preserve that life.
00:50:36.220 He says, in my ideal world, I would vote for a candidate in whom the personal, the principled,
00:50:39.880 and the practical earn my admiration. I do not live in that world. I live in this world,
00:50:45.020 and I must act accordingly. So I completely align with that view. I disagree with the idea that
00:50:54.120 policies don't have a greater and a deadlier effect. Something like the direct killing of
00:50:59.100 babies, like abortion, doesn't have a deadlier effect than Trump's tweets. I'm not saying that
00:51:05.840 Trump's tweets don't have any effect. I'm not saying his rhetoric doesn't matter at all. I'm not saying
00:51:09.980 that he shouldn't be held accountable for his words, but I cannot see the equivalence of those
00:51:16.880 two issues. And I just don't see that there is a case to be made that Biden's character,
00:51:24.560 or Kamala Harris's character, is better than Donald Trump and Mike Pence's. I just don't see it. And so
00:51:31.640 this dichotomy that John Piper has articulated between the arrogant, boastful, divisive guy and
00:51:39.420 the other guy who just happens to support pro-abortion policies, I don't think that is a
00:51:45.860 correct assessment at all. I think, again, you've got two prideful, sinful candidates in different ways,
00:51:51.860 and then you have one candidate that supports policies that are good for every single segment
00:51:58.940 of society, especially the most vulnerable. I am more aligned with John Piper's wisdom that he
00:52:06.600 shared in 2004 than what he shared in 2020, even though I still very much respect John Piper
00:52:13.880 and will continue to go to him for wisdom. John Piper says,
00:52:19.680 Now, if you are dissatisfied today in 2004, if you are dissatisfied today the way I am, why vote?
00:52:25.340 The answer is that if you don't, you are guilty of the very oversimplification you condemn.
00:52:30.960 There is no escape from responsibility by pointing out the imperfections of leaders.
00:52:35.580 That is the only kind of leader there will ever be. Our calling in this world is not to wait for
00:52:42.660 the arrival of the perfect, but to pick our way through the thicket of flaws. We would be arrogant
00:52:48.280 to put ourselves above this fray and say a curse on both your houses. I think this also applies
00:52:54.200 to not voting for either candidate in this case. I do wonder, and I don't mean this in a sarcastic
00:53:02.020 or rude way, but I honestly do wonder, if Biden becomes president, Democrats take over the Senate,
00:53:09.220 they keep the House, and they're able to ram through all the things that they want to do.
00:53:12.420 They pack the Supreme Court. They pass the Equality Act. They limit the First Amendment.
00:53:19.720 They strip people, doctors, cake bakers of conscience protections and religious liberty.
00:53:27.820 If parental rights are destroyed, if private and charter schools are regulated, if churches
00:53:32.380 are regulated, not just in their speech, but also in their hiring processes, will John Piper speak out?
00:53:40.140 Will he feel that he has the right to say, these policies are bad? They're destructive for society.
00:53:46.340 They are ungodly. They're against the family. They're against the church. They're against all
00:53:50.840 the things that have made this country both good and great. They make not just this country more
00:53:56.820 dangerous, but the world more dangerous. Will he feel like he has the right to do that when he decided
00:54:02.340 that he didn't want to say in who actually won this election? I don't know. I don't know. He goes on to say
00:54:10.720 in this 2004 article, the Lord Jesus does not give us the luxury of disengagement. He says, quote,
00:54:15.940 render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Caesar, even pagan
00:54:23.600 Caesar, has his claim on our lives. Why? Because God Almighty, whom we serve above all men,
00:54:30.580 made human governments his way of running the world. Let every person be subject to the governing
00:54:36.600 authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by
00:54:41.240 God. Romans 13, 1. In a democratic republic like ours, that means at least vote. God has commanded us
00:54:49.780 as aliens and exiles on the earth, seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray
00:54:55.360 to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Jeremiah 29, 7. This is now
00:55:01.360 the third time that we have talked about that verse in that passage on this podcast. We are citizens of
00:55:08.680 two kingdoms, John Piper says in 2004. The kingdom of God, our ultimate allegiance, and the kingdom of
00:55:13.660 this world. The ambiguities are many. The complexities are great. The possibility of political miscalculation
00:55:19.520 is real, but Christ came into the world to save sinners. Therefore, we do not panic at the
00:55:24.140 possibility of error. It is worse to run than to risk. Yes and amen. So that is where I land in this
00:55:32.440 2020 election, which means that I am going to vote for the imperfect candidate whose policies that I
00:55:39.120 believe, strongly believe, based on every piece of evidence that I have, are best for every demographic
00:55:47.200 of this great nation, not hesitating to criticize when necessary, and certainly not looking to him
00:55:53.980 as my savior or my hope, which means that I still love you if you vote third party. And yes, people who
00:55:59.620 vote for Joe Biden too, I strongly disagree with you. But of course, you are my neighbor. I happen to
00:56:06.680 think that you are wrong here. I've been wrong very many times in my life. And I do believe that if Joe
00:56:12.680 Biden wins the election, that it is a grave mistake. It is a grave mistake to have voted for him. It is a
00:56:19.680 grave mistake to have voted Democrat. Of course, I believe that. You, if you're on the other side,
00:56:24.460 believe that it's a mistake to vote for Donald Trump and a mistake to vote for Republicans. We disagree
00:56:31.220 on this issue. But I see no issue at all with voting for Trump in this election. And I think that
00:56:39.160 there's a lot of good reasoning and a lot of good policies that back that up. Thank you guys so
00:56:45.040 much for listening. I will be back here on Friday.