Ep 381 ｜ Glennon Doyle’s Gospel vs. the Real Gospel
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Summary
Pastor James Coates update on his release from jail. Pastor Coates has been in jail since March 5th. He has been ordered to stay in jail until May 5th, when his trial date is set for May 3rd.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Today
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I am going to give you an update on Pastor James Coates. Most of you listened to or watched
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the episode with his wife Erin Coates from last Thursday. If you haven't done that yet,
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I highly recommend you do so. I heard from so many of you, some of you who are new to the podcast,
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some of you who have been listening for a long time, some of you who disagree with the choices
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of Pastor James Coates, but really were encouraged, edified, and emboldened by that interview.
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Erin Coates has such a sweet, godly spirit, and wherever you fall on this issue, whether you
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think that James Coates should be obeying these government edicts or not, I really think that
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you can get something out of last Thursday's episode. And if you're someone who has the
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propensity or you are inclined to push back on this situation and quickly dismiss it as something that
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is not qualifying as persecution, then I do highly recommend you go listen to last Thursday's episode
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and the episode that I did, I think a couple weeks before that, explaining the whole situation.
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We have talked about the details of it before, but I'm going to give an update for you today,
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and then we're also going to compare it to another case that's going on there in Edmonton,
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and just the hypocrisy of the so-called justice system there. And we're going to tie that into a
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conversation about social justice and what social justice actually is, and very often what it looks
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like. And then we're going to transition into this very interesting article that I read in New York
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Times about Glennon Doyle. She is the author of the book Untamed. She kind of styles herself as a,
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I want to be as charitable as possible and as fair as possible, a new age kind of Christian self-help,
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self-empowerment guru. And I'm going to talk about that article and what it has to tell us about
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the theology of millennials and what I think the human heart, and in particular, the young female
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heart is searching for and where it can actually be found. So let's go ahead and start out with this
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James Coates update. So according to the Christian Post, quote, court orders pastor to remain in jail
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until May trial, until May trial for violating COVID-19 restrictions. So you probably remember
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that they had filed an appeal and they were going to know the results of that. Last Thursday,
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Aaron was hoping and his lawyers were hoping that he would be released from jail for the next couple
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of months until his trial in May. But the court said, no, we're going to continue to enforce the
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conditions of his bail. And a higher court also agreed that, yes, he violated the law. He is saying
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that he is going to continue to violate the law if he gets out of jail. And so he needs to stay in jail
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until the beginning of May, until his court date. And one of the conditions of his bail is that,
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hey, you got to follow the rules. You got to limit the capacity to the congregation of the congregation,
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you know, to 15 percent, which is why he is in jail in the first place. That's something that he was not
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willing to do because he feels that according to scripture, he reads according to scripture,
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that his responsibility, his obligation as a shepherd of his flock, as a leader of this church,
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is to have as many people that want to hear the gospel in person. And he was not willing to turn
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people away according to this government edict. You'll remember Aaron said they have taken all kinds
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of precautions. There have been no COVID outbreaks that have been associated with this congregation.
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And so, of course, many of us feel that these are draconian measures being taken by the Canadian
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government to make a point. And a lot of people are accusing James of trying to make a martyr out
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of himself. It almost seems like the government is trying to make a martyr out of him. So going on
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with this article from the Christian Post, it says the Edmonton Court of Queens bench Justice Peter
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McAllison ruled Friday, March 5th, that Pastor James Coates of Grace Life Church must remain
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in jail until his trial scheduled to take place from May 3rd to May 5th in Alberta Provincial Court
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in Stony Plain. Coates was detained at the Edmonton Remand Center on February 16th. He refused to agree
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to bail conditions that he does not attend or conduct services at Grace Life Church unless they comply
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with government guidelines requiring capacity limits and social distancing. Coates and Grace Life Church
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are represented by the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms. They argue that the
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bail conditions and health orders violate his charter freedoms of conscience, religion, expression,
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association, and peaceful assembly. Of course, I would agree with that. JCCF planned to file an appeal
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to the Alberta court of Queens bench to continue seeking Coates' release from jail before his trial
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date. The president of JCCF, John Carpe, says this is just too much. This punishment is too much
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for a pastor who just wants to preach to his church. He is not posing any kind of danger to society. People
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are free to not come to his church if they don't want to or if they're uncomfortable. The people there
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are typically keeping a distance and are taking precautions according to their conscience. And so
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there really isn't a scientific or a medical or even a legal reason they are arguing for this.
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He contends, his lawyer contends, that the arrest is a violation of Pastor Coates' charter rights
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and freedoms. And he said that charter freedoms do not disappear because the government declares
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regular church services to be outlawed while allowing hundreds of people to fill their local
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Walmarts. And that's also a contradiction that we talked about last week with Aaron, that these major
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stores are allowed to have hundreds or thousands of people in their stores at once, apparently, but
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they are not allowed to have their congregation meet together unless it is limited at 15% capacity.
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Now, here is an interesting story that raises a lot of questions and a lot of concerns. So
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there are people obviously who are so adamant saying that, look, this is not a Daniel from the Bible
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moment. This guy is not being persecuted. There's no double standard here. The government is just
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enforcing the law. This is what they're supposed to do. And if he really loved his neighbor, he wouldn't
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be having them meet together. He wouldn't be killing people in his congregation. I saw someone on Twitter
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saying if he was really a pastor who cared about his congregation, he wouldn't be killing them by
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congregating as if the people in the congregation don't have agency, like don't have the free will
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to decide whether or not they want to take the risk of showing up for church. And by the way,
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there have been no deaths that have been traced back to this congregation. So again, it's just a
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assertion, but we use hyperbole. People use hyperbole in those cases in order to try to make
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something sound as dangerous and harmful as possible to prove their point. But the fact of the matter is,
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it's not accurate. But there should be something that even those critics, even those dissenters are
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willing to face. And that is that there is a duplicitous standard going on here, especially
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when you look at this one case in the exact same area. Global News is reporting this, that a child
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predator has been re-released from prison. So Edmonton police put out this PSA on Twitter saying,
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hey, this child predator, he has been released. This is now the third time I believe that he is
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being released from prison. So let me read you who exactly this guy is. Convicted child sex offender
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Kyle Larson was released on Monday, March 1st in Edmonton, Alberta. He has a long history of these
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types of crimes, including a case in 2008 where he was convicted of inappropriate behavior with a six
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year old. That is an appropriate sexual behavior with a six year old. He has been arrested and
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released multiple times after re-offending. Each time he is, the police issues a warning to the public,
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one of them being will commit another sexual offense against someone under 16. So it is known that this
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guy is a serial child sex abuser. He has also abused a 10 year old, I think lured this child into a
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basement and then sexually assaulted them. I don't know the details of these assaults,
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but this is sexual molestation, sexual assault of children. And this guy has been released
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several times. And so the question that you might be asking that I think any sane person is asking
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is why? Why? And there are some attempts to answer this. The article goes on to say,
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according to the Edmonton police chief, they have no say in whether or not he gets released.
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All they can do is try to prevent him from re-offending. Michael Cooper, a member of parliament
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from, or a member of parliament for St. Albert Edmonton said, it keeps happening because
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unfortunately, our laws are not keeping dangerous criminals behind bars. That's really the bottom
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line. It is a revolving door. Unless you're designated a dangerous offender or subject to a
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long-term supervision order. The fact is far too many individuals who are dangerous are let out into
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the street, which is strange because you would think that this guy who has been sexually assaulting
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minors over and over again, that he would qualify as someone who is a dangerous offender. According
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to MP Cooper, the threshold for being designated a quote, dangerous criminal is very high. In a
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statement to global news about why high risk offenders are let out of prison, the parole board of Canada
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wrote the decision-making process is very systematic and highly structured. Is it? Is it?
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The risk assessment process focuses on three major components, the offender's past behavior,
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present, how the offender's behavior has changed, and future, release plan, community support,
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and supervision strategies. The Correctional Service of Canada said a number of factors help
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determine an offender's risk of public safety. Factors is the nature and gravity of the offense,
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the offender's degree of responsibility, their level of engagement with their correctional plan,
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the availability of support in the community, victim concerns, indigenous social history,
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and recent professional opinions such as those from healthcare, mental health, and police comments,
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in addition to any previous decisions. An inmate is detained past their statutory release when they are
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on, when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the inmate is likely to commit one or more of the
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following before the end of their sentence, an offense causing serious harm or death, a sexual
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offense involving a child or serious drug offense. So again, how does this not apply? How does this not
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apply? I don't understand how he qualifies in any circumstance, by any stretch of the imagination,
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to be released from prison. So the one thing I think about, so the factors that are included
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in deciding whether or not someone is going to be released from prison is the nature and gravity of the
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offense. So is the nature and gravity of sexually assaulting, sexually molesting, I don't know,
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possibly raping six and 10-year-olds, is that not enough? Is that not grave enough? And knowing that
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he has been released several times and always recommits the same kind of crime every time,
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like in whose interest is it that this guy is let out on the streets, but a pastor whose biggest so-called
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crime is preaching the gospel to a congregation of a couple hundred people stays in jail.
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Can you tell me how this amounts to any sort of justice whatsoever? And something I talked about
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last week is that so many people who claim to be social justice advocates, who claim to be criminal
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justice advocates, have no problem with what's happening with James Coates. They see it as totally
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fine. They see it as something that he deserves. They see it as something that should be happening
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because he violated COVID restrictions. And well, he deserves it. We need to lock up all the pastors
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who are not bowing down to Caesar. And then when it comes to things like this, we're supposed to add
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nuance to it. We're supposed to be more, what's the word that is used ad nauseum, empathetic towards this
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person. We're supposed to just understand that restorative justice rather than punitive justice
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is what should be preferred here when it comes to this child sex predator. I don't think so. I don't
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think so. I think that's evidence of a very convoluted and contradictory mentality that I do not think in
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any way aligns with any real definition of justice, which of course is God's definition of justice,
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biblical justice. It is social justice, which is very often as we are about to get into social
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injustice, but it is not actual justice. And seeing, I think seeing this hypocrisy
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on full display with these two cases right next to each other is a really important moment for us
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to learn from. And this is not necessarily representative of the entire justice system,
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whether it's in Canada or the United States, but you can see what kind of mentality and what kind of
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social justice proclivities could lead to this kind of injustice, because that's what it is.
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Thomas Sowell says this in Quest for Cosmic Justice, and I'm kind of paraphrasing,
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what is often called social justice should actually be referred to as social injustice,
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since exactly what is ignored is the cost to society. So in Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell,
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he argues that when people use the word social justice, what they actually mean is cosmic justice,
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or what he describes as cosmic justice. And so it's trying to basically socially engineer
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different circumstances and different situations so everyone ends up in the same place to achieve
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this newfangled definition of equity, which is equal outcomes. And so trying to make sure
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that no one is getting any kind of upper hand or any kind of opportunity or any kind of help up that
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someone else is not getting to make sure that everything is arranged in such a way that everyone
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has an equal outcome in their life. That is the new left wing definition of equity. It's not just that
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everyone is treated fairly under the law or that the law is applied equally, but that the law is applied
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in such a way that everyone ends up in the same place. So if that means discriminating against one
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group to try to give advantages to another group, that would be a form of social justice. That would
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be a form of what Thomas Sowell calls cosmic justice, which he argues actually has a high cost to society
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and actually ends up in a form of injustice. So I'm going to give you some examples of that.
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An example that he gives in the book, and again, I was drawing this from memory this morning,
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and so I'm going to paraphrase some, but say that a pizza place in a particular area,
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say that they said that they won't deliver to a few particular neighborhoods because the
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neighborhoods are very high crime neighborhoods and the pizza parlor just doesn't want to take the
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risk of sending their employees to these very high crime neighborhoods, especially at night. And so
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they have decided that they're not going to deliver pizzas to these particular neighborhoods and say
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these neighborhoods are predominantly black. An activist group hears about this. They accuse the
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place of racism in the name of social justice. They rally all of the powers of social media and all the
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social influence that they have to pressure this business to start delivering to these neighborhoods
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because it's racist if they do not. So the business bends. It feels like it has to. It doesn't want to
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get harassed. Their Yelp page is getting spammed with all these negative reviews. Social media is lit up
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with accusations of racism against this pizza parlor. And so they say, OK, fine, we will start delivering
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to these high crime neighborhoods. In order to do that, though, they've got to hire three more employees
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to cover the ground. They also have to pay the new and current delivery workers more for the risk of
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delivering to these high crime neighborhoods. And in order to cover this greater cost, they have to
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raise the prices on the pizza. And because they have to do all of these things, because the pizza prices
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are now higher, this cuts business down, not just in the new neighborhoods, which are not buying the
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pizza, but also among the business's original clientele who can just go somewhere down the street
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and get cheaper pizza. So ultimately, this place cannot sustain the cost. So they shut the business down
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and say the owner was not some rich, privileged guy. He was just a man who had grown up in that
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community, had come from nothing and finally was able to make something for himself and his family.
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Say all the teenagers he employed were were themselves trying to get out of those high crime
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neighborhoods, out of poverty, save up money for college. Now no one has a job. And for what?
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For what? This was a high cost on the community, on society. And for for no good reason, for for
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something that actually wouldn't have ultimately benefited anyone, because those neighborhoods
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weren't actually buying the pizza, especially after the prices went up. Remember, for every liberal
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policy that sounds good, the question should be, what is the cost? And I'm not just talking about the
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cost to the taxpayer, although that absolutely matters. I'm talking about the societal cost, too.
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The same thing with a federal minimum wage raise. So if we raise the federal minimum wage to $15,
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most small business owners cannot afford that. They cannot stay afloat and will either raise their prices,
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which threatens the existence of their business, or they will fire their employees. Because if you've got
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three employees that you're currently paying $10 an hour, so $30 an hour total, and now you have to pay
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them $15 an hour, so that's $45 an hour total, you're going to hire, you're going to fire one of
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the employees to get back down to $30 an hour. So you have the money to keep running your business
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and not raise the prices on your clients. So they will keep coming and you can keep your business
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afloat. And the big companies are just going to automate so they can cut costs so they don't have
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to hire more employees under this new law. So this just leads to further unemployment. The cost to
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society is high. And it's bad. It sounds really good, but it doesn't end up making economic sense.
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Washington University conducted a study on Seattle's minimum wage law, which phased in an increase in
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minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021 this year. The Seattle Times reported this a couple years ago.
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Seattle's minimum wage law is boosting wages for a range of low-paid workers,
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but the law is causing those workers as a group to lose hours. And it's also costing jobs,
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according to the latest study on the measure passed by the city council in 2014. So it's boosting pay
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in low-wage jobs by about 3%, but also resulting in a 9% reduction in hours worked in such jobs.
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That resulted in a 6% drop in what employers collectively pay and what workers earn for those
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low-wage jobs. So for an average low-wage worker in Seattle, that translates into a loss of about $125
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per month per job. The report also estimated that there are about 5,000 fewer low-wage jobs in the
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city than there would have been without the law. So what is the cost to society of low-wage workers
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losing $125 a month and there now being 5,000 fewer jobs for people to work in? It's not good.
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It's not a good cost. So anytime you hear any proposal, it doesn't matter if it's Republican
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or Democrat, although it's typically Democrats that are making these kinds of proposals,
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especially the kind that sound good and progressive and involves giving someone something,
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maybe it truly is good. Maybe the cost is absolutely worth it, but the question should
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always be asked. And by the way, just because someone asks the question, asks what is the cost on
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the other side of this equation? What is this equation? Is this ultimately going to be better
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for everyone? Or is it going to maybe possibly benefit a few people at the expense of everyone
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else? Just because you ask those questions and think critically in that way doesn't mean that you
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lack compassion. It actually means that you are compassionate, but you're also thoughtful.
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You're also critically thinking. We can't just accept a proposal that sounds good and progressive
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and wonderful and compassionate and helpful without thinking about what the cost is. That's
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actually not compassionate at all. Bail reform is another example. It sounds good when you hear,
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for example, that someone shouldn't be locked up because they can't afford bail. Like I agree with
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that. I do think that our justice system does tend to favor people who have money. And I do think that
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that's a problem. I don't think the bail reform that we are seeing coming down the pipeline
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actually solves that problem very well because there's another cost that's associated with it
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because it's also corresponded with a huge spike in crime in places like New York and Houston.
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And of course, criminal justice activists say that there's no correlation there whatsoever.
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Some of the liberal media is saying that there's no correlation there, but there are many,
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including police officers, who would beg to differ with that assertion.
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Um, another, another thing, of course, that we talked about a lot is boys who identify as girls
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playing, uh, playing girls sports. It sounds good because it sounds inclusive because you don't
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want to exclude anyone. That is of course, uh, a very, uh, American tolerant sentiment that we don't
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believe in discrimination and exclusion. We believe in inclusion. Um, and so when you hear phrases like
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trans girls are girls and let trans kids play sports, of course, that sounds good. That sounds
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like something that you want to accept, but what's the outcome domination of girl sports by boys, lack
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of confidence and safety for girls, decrease in scholarships and athletic opportunities for girls
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that we don't have girl sports anymore. Is that better for society? So again, social justice tends to
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try to rearrange everything for the supposed benefit of the few at the expense, uh, of the rest of
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society. So at the cost, uh, to the rest of society, that is what social justice, cosmic justice
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arrangements very often tend to do and how this correlates to what we're seeing in Edmonton. Um,
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it shows that social justice, this kind of these criminal justice laws that are allowing this child
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sex predator to be released from jail in the, in the hopes of restoration and the hopes of
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reconciliation with society at the cost to his victims. Um, while there is a pastor in jail,
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because apparently him being released from prison and preaching the gospel in a church, um, apparently
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that is more dangerous. That is a form of this kind of new fangled, perverted social justice that is
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actually just injustice. Um, because as you're trying to reach some form of convoluted justice
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for this child sex predator, you are costing the rest of society. And so that is why whenever people
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use the term social justice, even though it sounds really good, I'm always very hesitant to give any
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kind of a pat on the back because I want to know what do you mean by that? Some people, when they,
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when they say social justice, all they mean is good causes. Like all they mean is helping the poor
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voluntarily. And all they mean is feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, all of the things
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that Christians are called to do or trying to end sex trafficking or, uh, trying to help those who are
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in need running abuse shelters for women. When some people say social justice, they mean that,
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but just understand, uh, that there is also a, I would say a dominant and a very dangerous form of
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social justice that tries to, um, at least it says it tries to uplift the few at the cost, uh, of the
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many. And that is not justice. That's not impartial, truthful, direct, proportional justice as the Bible
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outlines for us. And we do not know what justice is outside of what God tells us it is. It doesn't
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matter if you're secular. It doesn't matter if you're atheist. It doesn't matter if you're a
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progressive or a conservative. The fact of the matter is, is that there has to be a source of
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transcendent truth. There's no argument for justice. There's no argument, uh, for objective truth or
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transcendent morality or universal values outside of a supreme moral lawgiver. And so saying that our
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justice needs to align with God's justice is, is not saying that we should live in a theocracy because
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as I've said many times, I don't think there's any biblical precedent for setting up a theocracy
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here on earth. I am not ever trying to set up a theocracy here on earth, but, uh, yes, there is a
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separation between church and state, which I think is a very good thing. It's supposed to protect the
00:26:01.620
church from the state in as much as it protects the state from the church. Uh, but there is not and
00:26:08.260
cannot be a separation, uh, between God who establishes and defines justice and our establishment
00:26:15.820
and definition of justice, because then it's just subjective. Then it's defined by what? A few social
00:26:22.680
elites, a few, uh, political elites, a few activists who give us new definitions of what justice and social
00:26:30.520
justice are. I don't think that's a better alternative. And people say, well, no, it's just,
00:26:35.020
you know, according to common sense. Well, obviously not. Obviously not. I don't think
00:26:38.940
common sense tells us that a child sex predator should be released from prison while a pastor
00:26:43.600
stays behind bars and basically solitary confinement. And I got some pushback on that. Uh, when I say
00:26:50.040
solitary confinement, yes, it is because of so-called COVID restrictions. He's not actually
00:26:55.120
being, it's not technically solitary confinement, but he is by himself in a cell all day, supposedly
00:27:03.020
to protect him and to protect the other inmates, uh, from COVID. And so that is solitary confinement,
00:27:10.060
literally, even though it's not technically like a part of the conditions of his incarceration. So I
00:27:16.000
just wanted to clear that up. All right. So there is this New York times op-ed that I wanted to talk
00:27:25.040
to you guys about, and it was titled the empty religions of Instagram. And it is by a woman
00:27:32.900
named Leah Stein. She is the author of the novel self care, which is actually a satire of the wellness
00:27:39.580
industry and influencer culture. Um, I love satire that makes fun of that world. You guys who follow
00:27:47.780
me on Instagram. No, I forget even the title of the account, but there is an account that I recently
00:27:54.200
started following that doesn't have very, very many, uh, very many followers right now, but I'm
00:27:59.280
trying to change that because I think it's so funny. It makes light of, and makes fun of all of
00:28:03.540
the self care, self love mantras and how hollow they are that we are seeing on Instagram. Um, and I
00:28:10.640
think it's, I think it's good. I think it's about time for us to kind of take a step back and realize
00:28:15.280
just how vapid some of this encouragement that we are getting is. Um, and this article touches on that,
00:28:22.260
but also touches on just how attractive and appealing Glennon Doyle is. If you don't know
00:28:27.940
who Glennon Doyle is, we've talked about her several times on this podcast. I wrote about her in my book.
00:28:32.580
Um, she was known as like a Christian mommy blogger for a very long time that she ended up getting
00:28:37.880
divorced from her husband. She married Abby Wambach who, uh, was a professional soccer player and she
00:28:46.380
has written several bestselling books. Her blog was extremely popular. She's got tons of followers
00:28:52.200
on Instagram and her book untamed that she wrote sometime, maybe at the beginning of, of last year.
00:28:58.420
Um, it has been on the New York times bestseller list for now 51 weeks, I think, which is like an
00:29:05.020
amazing feat. And so she is extremely popular. She is extremely attractive to a lot of women
00:29:10.660
who are just looking for some kind of new cathartic religion that is not the same as the,
00:29:19.260
as the traditional forms of religion and especially Christianity that, uh, we, or that they feel like
00:29:26.280
they typically see in America. And I think that she still considers herself a Christian, although she has
00:29:34.000
some very unorthodox beliefs, obviously her beliefs on sexuality and marriage are different than
00:29:41.660
traditional Orthodox Christianity. Uh, but also her view of God is, um, interesting. She refers to God
00:29:49.980
as a she, and some of her definitions and metaphors of God are really more, um, new age than anything that
00:29:58.180
we would see reflected in the Bible. But let me get into this article that tells you a little bit
00:30:04.360
more about who she is and why so many people love her. So this article says, quote, Ms. Doyle's gospel,
00:30:10.140
an accessible combination of self-care, activism, and tongue in cheek Christianity can worship at any
00:30:16.120
time of day or night at the electric church of her Instagram feed by replacing a rigid dogma of
00:30:21.080
religion with the confessional lingua franca of social media. Ms. Doyle has become a charismatic preacher
00:30:27.160
for women like me who aren't even religious. Uh, 22%, this article notes, and we've talked about
00:30:34.060
this before, 22% of millennials are not affiliated with a specific religion. We are known as religious
00:30:39.300
nuns. And I always have to spell this N-O-N-E-S, not religious N-U-N-S. That would be a super interesting
00:30:47.100
trend if millennials were just like joining these convents, but they are known as religious nuns.
00:30:53.000
In February, Ms. Doyle posted a virtual sermon to her followers on Instagram, encouraging them to
00:30:58.200
embrace quitting as a spiritual practice. More than 100,000 members of her congregation liked it.
00:31:03.320
Followers responded with prayer hands emojis, God bless yous, and one hallelujah sister. She is, uh,
00:31:10.000
she is known as an instavangelist. She has a largely female following, shows how many American women are
00:31:16.320
desperate for good vibes, for coping skills, for modern life, and proactive steps to combat injustice.
00:31:22.100
And inequality. The article says, left-wing secular millennials may follow politics devoutly, but the
00:31:28.140
women we've chosen as our moral leaders aren't challenging us to ask the fundamental questions
00:31:32.220
that leaders of faith have been wrestling with for thousands of years. Why are we here? Why do we
00:31:36.540
suffer? Uh, what should we believe beyond the limits of our puny selfhood? And so she's saying that,
00:31:42.980
uh, they aren't asking these kinds of big and existential questions. They're actually bringing us
00:31:48.400
not outward as traditionally faith has, and especially Christianity has, but actually
00:31:53.140
inward, uh, towards who we are. We talk about this a lot in my book, you're not enough and that's
00:31:59.120
okay. Escaping the toxic culture of self love, which as you can tell is the exact opposite of
00:32:04.320
Glennon Doyle's book, how this kind of new age, um, melding with Christianity says, rather than go
00:32:11.900
outside of yourself, rather than look to God to tell you who you are, rather than looking upward to
00:32:19.000
find your purpose or to find some kind of transcendent meaning in your life, you need to
00:32:23.820
look inward. You need to go in some kind of inward path, inward journey of, uh, self-discovery and
00:32:30.900
self-fulfillment. And once you find your real self, like once you throw off all of these societal
00:32:36.360
expectations, all of these unfair standards that have been placed on you by other people,
00:32:42.560
whether it's by the patriarchy, whether it's by systemic racism, whether it's, uh, by capitalism,
00:32:48.900
whether it's by toxic relationships and all of these things that are just trying to tell you who
00:32:54.240
you are. Once you throw all of those things off, what you'll find deep inside of yourself is some
00:32:59.360
inner, wonderful, perfect goddess that is worth following. That is worth trusting. That is worth
00:33:05.940
tapping into. And once you find her, once you've unreleased, uh, released her in, um, uh, uncaged
00:33:13.200
her, then finally, finally, you will have all of the things that you want in life. You will have the
00:33:19.940
power to, uh, get the job that you want to start the business, to have healthier relationships, to jump
00:33:26.720
off the deep end, whatever that may be. Just once you find in love and adore and empower that deep and
00:33:33.820
inner goddess that is, that is laying down beneath there, beneath all the muck and the mire, then
00:33:39.100
finally you will be free. So that's the opposite of what Christianity tells us. Christianity does tell
00:33:45.140
us that we are lost in the muck and the mire, but not of the outside world, but really of our own sin.
00:33:52.240
So it blames our problems with identity and, and purposelessness and, uh, jealousy and insecurity
00:33:59.540
and temptation and all of these things on our own sin, not on society and not on symptoms,
00:34:07.360
not on other people, but actually something that we have in our own hearts. And that what we find
00:34:14.040
when we look inside of ourselves, when we go deep inside of our hearts and deep inside of our identities
00:34:19.380
is not some inner goddess, is not some beautiful, perfect princess that is waiting to come out and
00:34:27.220
to reign her world, reign over her world boldly, but is actually a person that is in need of a
00:34:34.500
savior, like a sinner, a depraved person who, as Ephesians 2 says, is dead in our sin apart from
00:34:41.180
Christ, who can do nothing to save ourselves, nothing to ultimately make ourselves better.
00:34:46.360
We might be able to take some steps towards moralism or self-discipline to be able to lose weight or have
00:34:52.660
better relationships or get the job that we want or to save money, whatever it is that we want to do.
00:34:58.400
It might be possible for us to do those things, but ultimately Christianity holds that you are unable
00:35:04.220
to save yourself eternally. You are unable to sanctify yourself. Ultimately, you are unable to
00:35:11.420
fulfill yourself. You are unable to ultimately satisfy yourself. And even if you take all of these steps
00:35:18.500
and read all of Glennon Doyle's books and you do all of these things in the way of self-care and
00:35:24.880
self-empowerment and self-confidence and self-sufficiency and self-love, you probably will
00:35:30.340
feel better about yourself and feel good about yourself for a little while. But at the end of the
00:35:34.740
day, you will still be thirsty. You will still be hungry. You will still be asking these questions that
00:35:39.860
these instavangelists are not asking or answering for you, which is, who are you? Why are you here?
00:35:47.220
Where are you going? And is there anything bigger than you and your own happiness and your feelings?
00:35:54.940
At the end of the day, you can follow Glennon Doyle. You can follow Brene Brown. You can follow all of
00:36:00.820
the people that are in this article who are extremely popular, who will probably help you in the short term
00:36:07.020
in particular ways. They will definitely help you feel good about yourself in the morning sometimes.
00:36:14.020
They will definitely help boost your self-confidence sometimes. They will definitely make you laugh or
00:36:20.560
make you happy or maybe even give you the confidence to ask for a raise sometimes. But at the end of the
00:36:26.500
day, they're still not answering the questions that are plaguing you when you wake up at night and
00:36:31.180
wondering if there is something more than this little universe that you have created around yourself.
00:36:36.240
And that is why ultimately these gospels of self-help and self-sufficiency will fail you.
00:36:45.140
Because here's one thing that we all want to know. In addition to who are we? Why are we here?
00:36:51.980
Who made us? Where are we going? Is there a reason to care about something outside of myself? Why do I
00:36:58.860
feel like even though I've dedicated all of my time to me and all of my time to my happiness and all of
00:37:04.460
my time to my success and my stability and my mental health, why do I still feel like it's not
00:37:11.220
enough? Why do I still feel like I'm running on empty? Why do I still feel like I am just being
00:37:17.040
tossed on the waves of my emotions and my circumstances? Why is it not enough? In addition
00:37:23.560
to that question, we also want to know what's going to happen with evil. Like how is bad going
00:37:29.420
to be dealt with? Because we look around and we realize, okay, the world is bigger than us. It's
00:37:35.100
not just about my problems. It's not just about my feelings. There are also people that are really
00:37:39.460
hurting. There's a lot of injustice that goes on in the world. Like who's going to do anything about
00:37:45.260
that? Yeah, of course we can do what we can and we help other people and we love other people and we
00:37:49.780
serve other people. But I want to know that something is going to happen to the evildoers. I want to
00:37:55.460
know that ultimately it's going to be taken care of, that ultimately good is going to triumph. It's
00:38:01.420
not going to be darkness pushing forward forever and ever. And these instavangelists, this me-centered
00:38:07.660
theology, which I call in my book me-ology, cannot answer that. It tries to in the way of social
00:38:14.580
justice, which as we've talked about before, is actually so often injustice and does not have
00:38:20.420
the answers to the societal ills that we are facing, to the real injustice and depravity that we see on a
00:38:26.400
daily basis. But ultimately this me-ology fails to tell us how that is all going to be taken care of.
00:38:34.660
That's something that I think the human heart craves. The human heart craves real justice. We want to
00:38:40.940
know that evil and wickedness are going to be taken care of. And this pithy, superficial,
00:38:48.820
pseudo-Christianity, new age type spiritualism cannot offer that. It cannot offer you anything
00:38:57.560
besides making you feel good about yourself for a little while, which will have, like I said,
00:39:03.300
some short-term positive benefits. It absolutely will. But long-term, it doesn't have anything to say
00:39:09.460
about eternity. It doesn't have anything to do for your soul. It doesn't have anything in the way of
00:39:16.180
good defeating evil. It doesn't. It's not going to offer the things that your heart is longing for.
00:39:24.400
You are still going to be thirsty. You're still going to be hungry. You are still going to be
00:39:28.520
wanting. And I'm telling you that you can only find that satisfaction in the one who calls himself
00:39:34.080
living water in the one who calls himself the bread of life. And that is Jesus Christ himself,
00:39:38.700
who thankfully, unlike the trends of these insta evangelists says in Hebrews 13, 8, that he is the
00:39:45.380
same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the one who made you. He is the one who has been here since
00:39:50.820
the beginning before time began, who loves you, who died for you, who has something to say about sin,
00:39:58.380
who has something to say and do about injustice, who made all of, who promises to make all of the
00:40:05.560
wrongs that you see both in yourself and in the world right one day. So that starvation that you
00:40:12.140
feel for fulfillment, for sufficiency, for satisfaction, for someone to do something about
00:40:18.680
the sin that's inside of you and the sin that you see in the world, that can only be found in Christ.
00:40:23.320
And unfortunately, these are diversion tactics. People like Glennon Doyle, other people in her
00:40:29.600
circle, they're trying to tell you that you can be satisfied, continuing to live how you live.
00:40:35.140
There's really no such thing as sin besides what Glennon Doyle says is sin, which I think she would
00:40:39.600
say is like, I don't know, the only sin is being her definition of a bigot. But there's no real
00:40:46.000
definition of sin according to God. There's not this whole thing of holiness or unholiness. There's not
00:40:52.580
this salvation or lack of salvation. There's not real sanctification or lack of sanctification that
00:40:58.140
you just do what feels good to you, what your inner goddess is telling you feels right, and everything
00:41:04.200
will fall into place because you can be trusted. You can be followed. You can empower yourself.
00:41:10.280
You can fulfill yourself. There is no idea of letting go of sin and letting go of the things that God
00:41:20.740
calls bad in exchange for what God calls good and right and true. Instead, it's just getting to know
00:41:27.220
yourself better. Instead, it's just following yourself more closely. And like I said, that sounds
00:41:33.640
really good. At the end of the day, it will fail you. And it's contradictory to Christianity. And I know
00:41:39.300
a lot of people who profess to be Christians who think they get something out of people like Glennon Doyle.
00:41:44.420
And unfortunately, you are just being fed something that tastes really good. But just like what we
00:41:50.980
talked about with social justice, there's a high cost to it. There's a high cost to it. And by the
00:41:56.000
way, all the things that you are failing to find in her and find in yourself can be found in an eternal
00:42:02.920
and in a fulfilling way in Jesus Christ himself. Because guess what? Glennon Doyle doesn't know you.
00:42:08.600
She doesn't know your name. None of these instavangelists do.
00:42:10.860
They don't care about you. They can't care about you. Of course, they're very good at attracting an
00:42:16.640
audience. And I'm sure they're genuine and sincere behind that. But they don't know you. So when they
00:42:22.000
tell you that you're perfect, that you're beautiful, that inside you have an inner goddess, that you are
00:42:26.620
just fine the way that you are, they don't know that. They're speaking into a screen and you're hearing
00:42:32.760
it through a screen. They don't know you at all. They don't know your habits and hangups. They don't know
00:42:37.300
what type of friend you are, what type of mom you are. They don't know the problems that you face.
00:42:42.020
And at the end of the day, when they lay their head on the pillow at night, they don't really care
00:42:47.700
because they don't know you. They don't have, they're just human beings. They don't have the
00:42:51.560
capacity to care about everyone. Not faulting them for not caring about everyone. They can't. But guess
00:42:56.500
who does? Guess who knows you? Guess who knows your name? Guess who knows your sins? All of your
00:43:02.240
habits and your hangups and your past and your present and your future and your struggles and the
00:43:06.420
problems that you're facing? And guess who does care? Guess who can and will and does bear those
00:43:11.480
burdens? That is Jesus Christ himself. And yes, of course, the way of following Jesus is much more
00:43:16.680
difficult and much more trying than the way of following Glennon Doyle. Of course it is because
00:43:22.080
he asks us not just to give some things up, to give ourself up. As C.S. Lewis says, he doesn't just say,
00:43:29.500
I want some of you. Give me some of you, but nothing that's too hard. He says, I want all of you,
00:43:34.440
every single part of your heart and your soul and your mind, I am going to eventually claim.
00:43:40.060
That is the exchange that Jesus gives us. He says, I want everything. I want every single part of you
00:43:47.060
in exchange. I am going to give you inexpressible joy. I am going to give you peace. I am going to
00:43:52.820
give you fulfillment. I am going to give you satisfaction, even when it's hard, even when it's
00:43:58.060
sad, even when you face trials. And beyond that, I am going to give you an eternal glory that you could
00:44:03.560
never even start to deserve, but I'm going to give you because I love you. And by grace through faith,
00:44:08.680
this is the deal that I made when I died on the cross and rose again. That's a better gospel.
00:44:13.940
That's better news, you guys. I promise you that's better news. So let's compare some of the
00:44:19.980
things that we hear from these insta-evangelists to what the Bible tells us that is a harder but
00:44:26.280
better gospel. Luke 9, 23 through 24. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me,
00:44:32.260
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Take up his cross. Deny himself and
00:44:38.240
take up his cross. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
00:44:45.900
will find it. So we're not told to go deeper inside of ourselves to find our inner goddess. We're actually
00:44:53.000
told to deny ourselves and to lose our life so we can find it in Christ. To take up our cross,
00:44:58.900
a form of brutal and torturous crucifixion, to lay down our old self and to find new life in Christ.
00:45:05.400
1 Peter 1, 13 through 18. This speaks to who we were, now who we are, and what we are called to do.
00:45:13.460
Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace
00:45:19.380
that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So your hope is not found in yourself
00:45:24.160
or what's right in front of you, but in the hope that will be revealed to you in the day of Jesus
00:45:28.960
Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. And so
00:45:34.520
change is necessitated. Change is a part and parcel with the Christian life.
00:45:41.040
But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written,
00:45:46.940
you shall be holy, for I am holy. That's what we Christians are called to and empowered to do
00:45:51.220
by Jesus Christ. And if you call on him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one's
00:45:56.640
deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed
00:46:01.760
from the futile ways you inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or
00:46:06.840
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
00:46:11.560
When people say that Jesus doesn't care about sin, that God doesn't really care about sin,
00:46:17.100
that when he talks about sexual immorality or when he talks about the different things that he calls
00:46:21.820
bad and wrong and sinful, that he doesn't really care about that. All he cares about is that you
00:46:26.100
feel good about yourself, that Jesus is just this kind of hipster friend who comes along and tells you
00:46:31.780
that you're pretty and that your hair looks awesome and that you can do anything that you want to do.
00:46:35.820
I just wonder what Bible they're reading. God cared so much about sin that he died for it,
00:46:40.620
that we were ransomed. We were bought with a price, this passage says, from the futile ways,
00:46:45.780
the useless ways, the purposeless ways, the pointless ways, the hollow ways, the empty ways
00:46:51.380
that we used to know. And that this passage says that our forefathers used to know and engage in.
00:46:56.880
And now we've been brought into something better, into something more fulfilling. And this entire book
00:47:02.860
speaks to, yes, there are trials that you're going through. Yes, it's really hard, but your hope is
00:47:08.020
in heaven and it's worth it because Jesus ransomed you. He bought you from your old ways. And so when
00:47:14.640
we hear that we don't have to change when we become Christians, sure, it's true that you don't have to
00:47:20.260
change to come before Christ, that God does love you exactly as you are. But as you've probably heard
00:47:27.560
people say before, he loves you too much to let you stay as you are. Ephesians 4, 17 through 24.
00:47:35.440
Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility
00:47:41.360
of their minds. So there again, we see that word futility, that how we were before Christ was futile.
00:47:49.720
It was pointless. It might've felt good, but it didn't have any purpose in it. It was vapid.
00:47:55.000
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God. And by the way,
00:48:00.100
when they say Gentiles here, they're talking about non-believers. They are darkened in their
00:48:04.120
understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to
00:48:08.480
their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality,
00:48:13.620
greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way that you learned Christ,
00:48:18.680
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus to put
00:48:22.880
off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful
00:48:28.280
desire. So that's different than the Instavangelist gospel, which says deep down within you is a
00:48:35.160
beautiful and perfect and flawless self that you just have to, you know, dig past the patriarchy and
00:48:41.780
societal expectations to get to. No, we're told that we have an old self and a new self. We don't have
00:48:47.620
like a best self or a deeper self or a true self. We've got an old self who is corrupt through
00:48:53.460
deceitful desires, this passage says. And then we have a new self, which verse 24 says is created
00:49:00.280
after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. Colossians 3, 9 also says, put off the
00:49:08.720
old self and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
00:49:14.140
So Christianity believes in the old self and the new self, as I talk about in my book,
00:49:18.520
not the best self and the truth self and the disingenuous self, whatever it is that this new
00:49:24.360
fangled new age Christianity, pseudo Christianity tries to present. That's not the dichotomy. That's
00:49:31.120
not the reality that the Bible gives us. And then when it comes to this idea that it's okay to be selfish,
00:49:37.740
which is what something that Glennon Doyle says, that it's okay to be self-seeking, that it's okay to put
00:49:43.200
your self first constantly. It's okay to make sure that your happiness is number one in your life.
00:49:50.600
The Bible tells us something different. Philippians 2, 3 through 7, do nothing from selfish ambition
00:49:56.000
or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. That is something
00:50:00.640
that I fail at, that every single one of us fails at so often. Let each of you look not only to his own
00:50:06.560
interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
00:50:11.200
Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
00:50:16.640
but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. So even the God of the universe, holy and perfect
00:50:23.540
and royal and righteous in every single part of his ways, he emptied himself. He took on the form of a
00:50:29.540
human being just to be, to be close to us, to be able to sympathize with our weaknesses,
00:50:36.560
as Hebrew says, to be able to obey the father, to glorify the father, to bring more people to
00:50:42.620
himself, to reconcile an unholy people to a holy God through his death and resurrection.
00:50:49.300
And then finally, 1 Corinthians 6, 18 through 20 talks about, again, the old self and the new self
00:50:56.100
and how we are committed to God in every single part of ourselves, including our bodies. It says,
00:51:02.880
flee from sexual immorality. And it doesn't just say that. It tells us why. Every other sin a person
00:51:09.360
commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do
00:51:14.140
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
00:51:19.300
You are not your own, for you are bought with a price. So glorify God with your body. And so it tells
00:51:26.680
us the why behind obeying God, not just in heart, not just in mind, not just in this kind of intangible
00:51:33.340
way, but actually using our bodies, which God cares about so much in a way that glorifies him,
00:51:39.480
in a way that aligns with what he says is moral and is good and is true. Now, if you are someone who
00:51:47.780
has committed, according to the Bible, what amounts to sexual immorality, there is all of
00:51:56.900
the forgiveness, all of the grace, all of the compassion, all of the love, all of the acceptance
00:52:03.140
for you. That is a beautiful thing that we see about Jesus is that we see direct alignment with
00:52:09.940
the word of God and with the commands of God. We also see incredible mercy, incredible grace,
00:52:15.580
incredible kindness and forgiveness as he deals with all kinds of people, in particular women
00:52:20.060
during his ministry that we see specifically chronicled in the gospels who were caught in
00:52:26.600
adultery or who were guilty of adultery. And he doesn't just ignore their sin. He doesn't push
00:52:32.740
their sin to the side, but he looks them in the eye. He treats them with gentleness and compassion,
00:52:38.180
and he tells them to go and to sin no more. And he forgives them of their sins, which meets
00:52:44.760
the need that we have that these insta-evangelists, so-called gospel proclaimers cannot give us.
00:52:51.680
He deals with our sin. Romans 2 says that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance,
00:52:58.420
and there's so much there. It's actually, yes, God does have wrath, and he does have vengeance,
00:53:04.620
and he does have discipline, but we're not told that those are the things that bring us to repentance.
00:53:09.200
We're told that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. And furthermore,
00:53:13.520
we're not told that God's kindness leads us to complacency. We're not told that God's kindness
00:53:17.800
leads us to stay as we are. We're not told that God's kindness leads us to self-empowerment and
00:53:22.840
self-discovery. We're told that God's kindness leads us to repentance of our sin. That's how much
00:53:28.940
he loves us, is that he deals with our sin. He provided a way to deal with our sin, not just now,
00:53:34.240
but forevermore. That's something that you're not going to find in Glennon Doyle or any of these
00:53:38.900
instavangelists. You're not going to find it in me. You're not going to find it in any one person
00:53:44.020
besides the person, the God-man, Jesus Christ. That is the gospel. That is a better gospel. That's
00:53:51.160
a better way. It's a harder way, but it is far in a way worth it. And that I can promise you because
00:54:01.020
God promises you. All right, that's all I've got for today. I will see you guys back here. And this week,
00:54:06.900
we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about H.R. 1, that big voting bill.
00:54:12.380
We are also going to talk about a couple other bills, the spending bill and all of that. We're
00:54:20.040
going to talk to a couple legislators. I think that we are going to talk to Rand Paul, Senator Rand Paul
00:54:25.300
on Thursday. So I'm super excited about that. And so we are going to have to get into some political
00:54:29.880
stuff this week, but it is really important for us to know what is in those bills. I also want to say
00:54:35.420
one more thing. I know we're, uh, we're cutting it close to an hour, but a few of you have brought
00:54:41.540
up that the Max Lucado, um, the Max Lucado episode that I did, that is, has like blown up on, on
00:54:49.320
YouTube comparatively for like, for this channel. Um, there's a lot of people watching it. I got a ton
00:54:54.180
of positive feedback and I'm very thankful for that. But one piece of feedback that I've gotten
00:54:58.120
that I think is, is totally fair. And I want to address is that it seemed like, especially from the
00:55:03.800
thumbnail that I was lumping in Max Lucado with these two other people that have been found guilty
00:55:10.060
of, um, being a part of sexual scandals and sexual immorality. And that was not even a thought in my
00:55:17.640
head. And I should have been more thoughtful about it. The theme of the episode was supposed to be,
00:55:22.420
what do you do? And how do we think about, um, teachers disappointing us? And I did say twice in the
00:55:28.940
episode that, okay, these two stories, Carl Lentz and Ravi Zacharias are very different than this
00:55:34.060
story with Max Lucado. I did specify that twice, but I can definitely see just how the, the lumping
00:55:40.280
of all of them together in the thumbnail in particular, which we are going to change makes it
00:55:44.240
seem like if you're just scrolling through, like I'm trying to accuse Max Lucado of that. And that was
00:55:48.920
not at all my intention. You'll also probably notice that in the video, I don't like the question
00:55:56.020
of the video is like, is it time to let go of Max Lucado? And I don't necessarily answer that
00:56:02.320
question. I don't answer any of those questions in the episode. I just tell you what happened and
00:56:07.320
what the Bible says. Um, and so the question is supposed to get you to ask that question. I just
00:56:13.840
wanted to clarify that because it is never my desire. If I want to treat people how I want to be
00:56:18.760
treated, I don't want to be mischaracterized. I certainly don't want slander perpetuated against me.
00:56:25.240
And so that was never the goal. We stuck to the facts. We stuck to what the Bible said. We stuck
00:56:30.520
to what has been reported in that. And you can still disagree with anything that I said, but the
00:56:35.640
last thing that I want to do is mischaracterize because, um, that was not at all my goal. And so I
00:56:42.080
apologize if that is the impression, um, that I gave and I do take responsibility for that. Uh, all
00:56:49.640
right. That's all I've got for today. I will see you guys back here tomorrow.