Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 381 ｜ Glennon Doyle’s Gospel vs. the Real Gospel

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Today

00:00:14.840 I am going to give you an update on Pastor James Coates. Most of you listened to or watched

00:00:22.480 the episode with his wife Erin Coates from last Thursday. If you haven't done that yet,

00:00:26.720 I highly recommend you do so. I heard from so many of you, some of you who are new to the podcast,

00:00:32.580 some of you who have been listening for a long time, some of you who disagree with the choices

00:00:38.340 of Pastor James Coates, but really were encouraged, edified, and emboldened by that interview.

00:00:45.900 Erin Coates has such a sweet, godly spirit, and wherever you fall on this issue, whether you

00:00:51.440 think that James Coates should be obeying these government edicts or not, I really think that

00:00:56.340 you can get something out of last Thursday's episode. And if you're someone who has the

00:01:01.220 propensity or you are inclined to push back on this situation and quickly dismiss it as something that

00:01:09.880 is not qualifying as persecution, then I do highly recommend you go listen to last Thursday's episode

00:01:16.960 and the episode that I did, I think a couple weeks before that, explaining the whole situation.

00:01:21.840 We have talked about the details of it before, but I'm going to give an update for you today,

00:01:26.820 and then we're also going to compare it to another case that's going on there in Edmonton,

00:01:31.240 and just the hypocrisy of the so-called justice system there. And we're going to tie that into a

00:01:37.220 conversation about social justice and what social justice actually is, and very often what it looks

00:01:43.900 like. And then we're going to transition into this very interesting article that I read in New York

00:01:49.600 Times about Glennon Doyle. She is the author of the book Untamed. She kind of styles herself as a,

00:01:58.700 I want to be as charitable as possible and as fair as possible, a new age kind of Christian self-help, 0.99

00:02:05.460 self-empowerment guru. And I'm going to talk about that article and what it has to tell us about

00:02:11.180 the theology of millennials and what I think the human heart, and in particular, the young female

00:02:16.420 heart is searching for and where it can actually be found. So let's go ahead and start out with this

00:02:22.700 James Coates update. So according to the Christian Post, quote, court orders pastor to remain in jail

00:02:29.440 until May trial, until May trial for violating COVID-19 restrictions. So you probably remember

00:02:36.720 that they had filed an appeal and they were going to know the results of that. Last Thursday,

00:02:44.700 Aaron was hoping and his lawyers were hoping that he would be released from jail for the next couple

00:02:51.180 of months until his trial in May. But the court said, no, we're going to continue to enforce the

00:02:58.300 conditions of his bail. And a higher court also agreed that, yes, he violated the law. He is saying

00:03:06.140 that he is going to continue to violate the law if he gets out of jail. And so he needs to stay in jail

00:03:11.460 until the beginning of May, until his court date. And one of the conditions of his bail is that,

00:03:18.940 hey, you got to follow the rules. You got to limit the capacity to the congregation of the congregation,

00:03:24.600 you know, to 15 percent, which is why he is in jail in the first place. That's something that he was not

00:03:30.180 willing to do because he feels that according to scripture, he reads according to scripture,

00:03:35.800 that his responsibility, his obligation as a shepherd of his flock, as a leader of this church,

00:03:42.180 is to have as many people that want to hear the gospel in person. And he was not willing to turn

00:03:50.620 people away according to this government edict. You'll remember Aaron said they have taken all kinds

00:03:55.620 of precautions. There have been no COVID outbreaks that have been associated with this congregation.

00:04:01.360 And so, of course, many of us feel that these are draconian measures being taken by the Canadian

00:04:08.540 government to make a point. And a lot of people are accusing James of trying to make a martyr out

00:04:15.500 of himself. It almost seems like the government is trying to make a martyr out of him. So going on

00:04:21.340 with this article from the Christian Post, it says the Edmonton Court of Queens bench Justice Peter

00:04:27.020 McAllison ruled Friday, March 5th, that Pastor James Coates of Grace Life Church must remain

00:04:33.620 in jail until his trial scheduled to take place from May 3rd to May 5th in Alberta Provincial Court

00:04:39.140 in Stony Plain. Coates was detained at the Edmonton Remand Center on February 16th. He refused to agree

00:04:46.920 to bail conditions that he does not attend or conduct services at Grace Life Church unless they comply

00:04:52.540 with government guidelines requiring capacity limits and social distancing. Coates and Grace Life Church

00:04:57.460 are represented by the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms. They argue that the

00:05:02.800 bail conditions and health orders violate his charter freedoms of conscience, religion, expression,

00:05:10.400 association, and peaceful assembly. Of course, I would agree with that. JCCF planned to file an appeal

00:05:17.740 to the Alberta court of Queens bench to continue seeking Coates' release from jail before his trial

00:05:25.280 date. The president of JCCF, John Carpe, says this is just too much. This punishment is too much

00:05:32.560 for a pastor who just wants to preach to his church. He is not posing any kind of danger to society. People

00:05:39.420 are free to not come to his church if they don't want to or if they're uncomfortable. The people there

00:05:44.260 are typically keeping a distance and are taking precautions according to their conscience. And so

00:05:51.220 there really isn't a scientific or a medical or even a legal reason they are arguing for this.

00:05:58.900 He contends, his lawyer contends, that the arrest is a violation of Pastor Coates' charter rights

00:06:03.060 and freedoms. And he said that charter freedoms do not disappear because the government declares

00:06:09.200 regular church services to be outlawed while allowing hundreds of people to fill their local

00:06:13.800 Walmarts. And that's also a contradiction that we talked about last week with Aaron, that these major

00:06:20.320 stores are allowed to have hundreds or thousands of people in their stores at once, apparently, but

00:06:27.680 they are not allowed to have their congregation meet together unless it is limited at 15% capacity.

00:06:36.940 Now, here is an interesting story that raises a lot of questions and a lot of concerns. So

00:06:43.500 there are people obviously who are so adamant saying that, look, this is not a Daniel from the Bible

00:06:50.280 moment. This guy is not being persecuted. There's no double standard here. The government is just

00:06:57.640 enforcing the law. This is what they're supposed to do. And if he really loved his neighbor, he wouldn't

00:07:02.640 be having them meet together. He wouldn't be killing people in his congregation. I saw someone on Twitter

00:07:07.780 saying if he was really a pastor who cared about his congregation, he wouldn't be killing them by

00:07:12.380 congregating as if the people in the congregation don't have agency, like don't have the free will

00:07:18.840 to decide whether or not they want to take the risk of showing up for church. And by the way,

00:07:24.400 there have been no deaths that have been traced back to this congregation. So again, it's just a

00:07:30.160 assertion, but we use hyperbole. People use hyperbole in those cases in order to try to make

00:07:36.340 something sound as dangerous and harmful as possible to prove their point. But the fact of the matter is,

00:07:41.160 it's not accurate. But there should be something that even those critics, even those dissenters are

00:07:47.880 willing to face. And that is that there is a duplicitous standard going on here, especially

00:07:55.860 when you look at this one case in the exact same area. Global News is reporting this, that a child

00:08:02.020 predator has been re-released from prison. So Edmonton police put out this PSA on Twitter saying,

00:08:08.500 hey, this child predator, he has been released. This is now the third time I believe that he is

00:08:14.020 being released from prison. So let me read you who exactly this guy is. Convicted child sex offender

00:08:20.920 Kyle Larson was released on Monday, March 1st in Edmonton, Alberta. He has a long history of these

00:08:27.880 types of crimes, including a case in 2008 where he was convicted of inappropriate behavior with a six

00:08:33.220 year old. That is an appropriate sexual behavior with a six year old. He has been arrested and

00:08:38.640 released multiple times after re-offending. Each time he is, the police issues a warning to the public,

00:08:43.360 one of them being will commit another sexual offense against someone under 16. So it is known that this

00:08:49.880 guy is a serial child sex abuser. He has also abused a 10 year old, I think lured this child into a

00:08:57.260 basement and then sexually assaulted them. I don't know the details of these assaults,

00:09:01.380 but this is sexual molestation, sexual assault of children. And this guy has been released

00:09:06.860 several times. And so the question that you might be asking that I think any sane person is asking

00:09:12.360 is why? Why? And there are some attempts to answer this. The article goes on to say,

00:09:18.160 according to the Edmonton police chief, they have no say in whether or not he gets released.

00:09:22.700 All they can do is try to prevent him from re-offending. Michael Cooper, a member of parliament

00:09:26.480 from, or a member of parliament for St. Albert Edmonton said, it keeps happening because

00:09:32.040 unfortunately, our laws are not keeping dangerous criminals behind bars. That's really the bottom

00:09:37.200 line. It is a revolving door. Unless you're designated a dangerous offender or subject to a

00:09:42.880 long-term supervision order. The fact is far too many individuals who are dangerous are let out into

00:09:47.780 the street, which is strange because you would think that this guy who has been sexually assaulting

00:09:53.480 minors over and over again, that he would qualify as someone who is a dangerous offender. According

00:10:00.780 to MP Cooper, the threshold for being designated a quote, dangerous criminal is very high. In a

00:10:07.000 statement to global news about why high risk offenders are let out of prison, the parole board of Canada

00:10:11.460 wrote the decision-making process is very systematic and highly structured. Is it? Is it?

00:10:17.500 The risk assessment process focuses on three major components, the offender's past behavior,

00:10:23.300 present, how the offender's behavior has changed, and future, release plan, community support,

00:10:29.420 and supervision strategies. The Correctional Service of Canada said a number of factors help

00:10:33.740 determine an offender's risk of public safety. Factors is the nature and gravity of the offense,

00:10:39.240 the offender's degree of responsibility, their level of engagement with their correctional plan,

00:10:44.160 the availability of support in the community, victim concerns, indigenous social history,

00:10:51.240 and recent professional opinions such as those from healthcare, mental health, and police comments,

00:10:57.660 in addition to any previous decisions. An inmate is detained past their statutory release when they are

00:11:05.280 on, when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the inmate is likely to commit one or more of the

00:11:11.140 following before the end of their sentence, an offense causing serious harm or death, a sexual

00:11:15.920 offense involving a child or serious drug offense. So again, how does this not apply? How does this not

00:11:22.220 apply? I don't understand how he qualifies in any circumstance, by any stretch of the imagination,

00:11:28.180 to be released from prison. So the one thing I think about, so the factors that are included

00:11:33.080 in deciding whether or not someone is going to be released from prison is the nature and gravity of the

00:11:37.520 offense. So is the nature and gravity of sexually assaulting, sexually molesting, I don't know,

00:11:43.320 possibly raping six and 10-year-olds, is that not enough? Is that not grave enough? And knowing that

00:11:50.060 he has been released several times and always recommits the same kind of crime every time,

00:11:55.760 like in whose interest is it that this guy is let out on the streets, but a pastor whose biggest so-called

00:12:01.220 crime is preaching the gospel to a congregation of a couple hundred people stays in jail.

00:12:06.960 Can you tell me how this amounts to any sort of justice whatsoever? And something I talked about

00:12:11.880 last week is that so many people who claim to be social justice advocates, who claim to be criminal

00:12:18.960 justice advocates, have no problem with what's happening with James Coates. They see it as totally

00:12:23.740 fine. They see it as something that he deserves. They see it as something that should be happening

00:12:28.100 because he violated COVID restrictions. And well, he deserves it. We need to lock up all the pastors

00:12:33.920 who are not bowing down to Caesar. And then when it comes to things like this, we're supposed to add

00:12:40.000 nuance to it. We're supposed to be more, what's the word that is used ad nauseum, empathetic towards this

00:12:47.240 person. We're supposed to just understand that restorative justice rather than punitive justice

00:12:53.040 is what should be preferred here when it comes to this child sex predator. I don't think so. I don't

00:13:00.060 think so. I think that's evidence of a very convoluted and contradictory mentality that I do not think in

00:13:05.680 any way aligns with any real definition of justice, which of course is God's definition of justice,

00:13:11.860 biblical justice. It is social justice, which is very often as we are about to get into social

00:13:18.020 injustice, but it is not actual justice. And seeing, I think seeing this hypocrisy

00:13:25.260 on full display with these two cases right next to each other is a really important moment for us

00:13:33.360 to learn from. And this is not necessarily representative of the entire justice system,

00:13:39.140 whether it's in Canada or the United States, but you can see what kind of mentality and what kind of

00:13:44.860 social justice proclivities could lead to this kind of injustice, because that's what it is. 1.00

00:13:52.420 Thomas Sowell says this in Quest for Cosmic Justice, and I'm kind of paraphrasing,

00:13:56.640 what is often called social justice should actually be referred to as social injustice,

00:14:01.520 since exactly what is ignored is the cost to society. So in Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell,

00:14:09.780 he argues that when people use the word social justice, what they actually mean is cosmic justice,

00:14:16.660 or what he describes as cosmic justice. And so it's trying to basically socially engineer

00:14:23.300 different circumstances and different situations so everyone ends up in the same place to achieve

00:14:30.280 this newfangled definition of equity, which is equal outcomes. And so trying to make sure

00:14:36.020 that no one is getting any kind of upper hand or any kind of opportunity or any kind of help up that

00:14:45.580 someone else is not getting to make sure that everything is arranged in such a way that everyone

00:14:51.800 has an equal outcome in their life. That is the new left wing definition of equity. It's not just that

00:14:57.920 everyone is treated fairly under the law or that the law is applied equally, but that the law is applied

00:15:04.420 in such a way that everyone ends up in the same place. So if that means discriminating against one

00:15:09.480 group to try to give advantages to another group, that would be a form of social justice. That would 0.96

00:15:15.280 be a form of what Thomas Sowell calls cosmic justice, which he argues actually has a high cost to society

00:15:23.380 and actually ends up in a form of injustice. So I'm going to give you some examples of that.

00:15:28.880 An example that he gives in the book, and again, I was drawing this from memory this morning,

00:15:34.000 and so I'm going to paraphrase some, but say that a pizza place in a particular area,

00:15:40.380 say that they said that they won't deliver to a few particular neighborhoods because the

00:15:46.580 neighborhoods are very high crime neighborhoods and the pizza parlor just doesn't want to take the

00:15:52.540 risk of sending their employees to these very high crime neighborhoods, especially at night. And so

00:15:57.860 they have decided that they're not going to deliver pizzas to these particular neighborhoods and say

00:16:02.940 these neighborhoods are predominantly black. An activist group hears about this. They accuse the

00:16:08.960 place of racism in the name of social justice. They rally all of the powers of social media and all the

00:16:14.980 social influence that they have to pressure this business to start delivering to these neighborhoods

00:16:20.980 because it's racist if they do not. So the business bends. It feels like it has to. It doesn't want to

00:16:27.300 get harassed. Their Yelp page is getting spammed with all these negative reviews. Social media is lit up

00:16:35.640 with accusations of racism against this pizza parlor. And so they say, OK, fine, we will start delivering

00:16:43.100 to these high crime neighborhoods. In order to do that, though, they've got to hire three more employees

00:16:48.480 to cover the ground. They also have to pay the new and current delivery workers more for the risk of

00:16:54.640 delivering to these high crime neighborhoods. And in order to cover this greater cost, they have to

00:17:00.660 raise the prices on the pizza. And because they have to do all of these things, because the pizza prices

00:17:05.500 are now higher, this cuts business down, not just in the new neighborhoods, which are not buying the

00:17:10.720 pizza, but also among the business's original clientele who can just go somewhere down the street

00:17:15.220 and get cheaper pizza. So ultimately, this place cannot sustain the cost. So they shut the business down

00:17:20.540 and say the owner was not some rich, privileged guy. He was just a man who had grown up in that

00:17:27.100 community, had come from nothing and finally was able to make something for himself and his family.

00:17:32.200 Say all the teenagers he employed were were themselves trying to get out of those high crime

00:17:37.680 neighborhoods, out of poverty, save up money for college. Now no one has a job. And for what?

00:17:42.700 For what? This was a high cost on the community, on society. And for for no good reason, for for

00:17:51.940 something that actually wouldn't have ultimately benefited anyone, because those neighborhoods

00:17:57.320 weren't actually buying the pizza, especially after the prices went up. Remember, for every liberal

00:18:03.400 policy that sounds good, the question should be, what is the cost? And I'm not just talking about the

00:18:09.020 cost to the taxpayer, although that absolutely matters. I'm talking about the societal cost, too.

00:18:14.540 The same thing with a federal minimum wage raise. So if we raise the federal minimum wage to $15,

00:18:21.880 most small business owners cannot afford that. They cannot stay afloat and will either raise their prices,

00:18:27.580 which threatens the existence of their business, or they will fire their employees. Because if you've got

00:18:33.080 three employees that you're currently paying $10 an hour, so $30 an hour total, and now you have to pay

00:18:38.680 them $15 an hour, so that's $45 an hour total, you're going to hire, you're going to fire one of

00:18:45.300 the employees to get back down to $30 an hour. So you have the money to keep running your business

00:18:49.720 and not raise the prices on your clients. So they will keep coming and you can keep your business

00:18:54.260 afloat. And the big companies are just going to automate so they can cut costs so they don't have

00:18:59.300 to hire more employees under this new law. So this just leads to further unemployment. The cost to

00:19:04.380 society is high. And it's bad. It sounds really good, but it doesn't end up making economic sense.

00:19:11.860 Washington University conducted a study on Seattle's minimum wage law, which phased in an increase in

00:19:17.200 minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021 this year. The Seattle Times reported this a couple years ago.

00:19:24.900 Seattle's minimum wage law is boosting wages for a range of low-paid workers,

00:19:28.700 but the law is causing those workers as a group to lose hours. And it's also costing jobs,

00:19:34.520 according to the latest study on the measure passed by the city council in 2014. So it's boosting pay

00:19:40.060 in low-wage jobs by about 3%, but also resulting in a 9% reduction in hours worked in such jobs.

00:19:47.600 That resulted in a 6% drop in what employers collectively pay and what workers earn for those

00:19:53.660 low-wage jobs. So for an average low-wage worker in Seattle, that translates into a loss of about $125

00:20:00.520 per month per job. The report also estimated that there are about 5,000 fewer low-wage jobs in the

00:20:08.200 city than there would have been without the law. So what is the cost to society of low-wage workers 0.63

00:20:15.860 losing $125 a month and there now being 5,000 fewer jobs for people to work in? It's not good.

00:20:22.800 It's not a good cost. So anytime you hear any proposal, it doesn't matter if it's Republican

00:20:28.220 or Democrat, although it's typically Democrats that are making these kinds of proposals,

00:20:32.880 especially the kind that sound good and progressive and involves giving someone something,

00:20:38.400 maybe it truly is good. Maybe the cost is absolutely worth it, but the question should

00:20:43.940 always be asked. And by the way, just because someone asks the question, asks what is the cost on

00:20:50.480 the other side of this equation? What is this equation? Is this ultimately going to be better

00:20:55.180 for everyone? Or is it going to maybe possibly benefit a few people at the expense of everyone

00:21:02.100 else? Just because you ask those questions and think critically in that way doesn't mean that you

00:21:06.000 lack compassion. It actually means that you are compassionate, but you're also thoughtful.

00:21:10.280 You're also critically thinking. We can't just accept a proposal that sounds good and progressive

00:21:15.280 and wonderful and compassionate and helpful without thinking about what the cost is. That's

00:21:19.560 actually not compassionate at all. Bail reform is another example. It sounds good when you hear,

00:21:25.840 for example, that someone shouldn't be locked up because they can't afford bail. Like I agree with

00:21:30.540 that. I do think that our justice system does tend to favor people who have money. And I do think that

00:21:37.980 that's a problem. I don't think the bail reform that we are seeing coming down the pipeline

00:21:42.580 actually solves that problem very well because there's another cost that's associated with it

00:21:48.100 because it's also corresponded with a huge spike in crime in places like New York and Houston.

00:21:53.320 And of course, criminal justice activists say that there's no correlation there whatsoever.

00:21:57.680 Some of the liberal media is saying that there's no correlation there, but there are many,

00:22:04.120 including police officers, who would beg to differ with that assertion.

00:22:07.560 Um, another, another thing, of course, that we talked about a lot is boys who identify as girls

00:22:13.260 playing, uh, playing girls sports. It sounds good because it sounds inclusive because you don't

00:22:18.280 want to exclude anyone. That is of course, uh, a very, uh, American tolerant sentiment that we don't

00:22:25.440 believe in discrimination and exclusion. We believe in inclusion. Um, and so when you hear phrases like

00:22:31.920 trans girls are girls and let trans kids play sports, of course, that sounds good. That sounds

00:22:37.940 like something that you want to accept, but what's the outcome domination of girl sports by boys, lack 1.00

00:22:44.140 of confidence and safety for girls, decrease in scholarships and athletic opportunities for girls

00:22:48.760 that we don't have girl sports anymore. Is that better for society? So again, social justice tends to 1.00

00:22:55.020 try to rearrange everything for the supposed benefit of the few at the expense, uh, of the rest of

00:23:02.860 society. So at the cost, uh, to the rest of society, that is what social justice, cosmic justice

00:23:10.360 arrangements very often tend to do and how this correlates to what we're seeing in Edmonton. Um,

00:23:17.040 it shows that social justice, this kind of these criminal justice laws that are allowing this child

00:23:23.580 sex predator to be released from jail in the, in the hopes of restoration and the hopes of

00:23:29.720 reconciliation with society at the cost to his victims. Um, while there is a pastor in jail,

00:23:38.120 because apparently him being released from prison and preaching the gospel in a church, um, apparently

00:23:44.880 that is more dangerous. That is a form of this kind of new fangled, perverted social justice that is

00:23:51.440 actually just injustice. Um, because as you're trying to reach some form of convoluted justice

00:24:00.520 for this child sex predator, you are costing the rest of society. And so that is why whenever people

00:24:07.760 use the term social justice, even though it sounds really good, I'm always very hesitant to give any

00:24:13.900 kind of a pat on the back because I want to know what do you mean by that? Some people, when they,

00:24:19.580 when they say social justice, all they mean is good causes. Like all they mean is helping the poor

00:24:26.940 voluntarily. And all they mean is feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, all of the things

00:24:32.380 that Christians are called to do or trying to end sex trafficking or, uh, trying to help those who are

00:24:38.760 in need running abuse shelters for women. When some people say social justice, they mean that,

00:24:44.720 but just understand, uh, that there is also a, I would say a dominant and a very dangerous form of

00:24:51.920 social justice that tries to, um, at least it says it tries to uplift the few at the cost, uh, of the

00:25:01.060 many. And that is not justice. That's not impartial, truthful, direct, proportional justice as the Bible

00:25:08.800 outlines for us. And we do not know what justice is outside of what God tells us it is. It doesn't

00:25:14.880 matter if you're secular. It doesn't matter if you're atheist. It doesn't matter if you're a

00:25:18.920 progressive or a conservative. The fact of the matter is, is that there has to be a source of

00:25:23.640 transcendent truth. There's no argument for justice. There's no argument, uh, for objective truth or

00:25:32.040 transcendent morality or universal values outside of a supreme moral lawgiver. And so saying that our

00:25:39.980 justice needs to align with God's justice is, is not saying that we should live in a theocracy because

00:25:45.480 as I've said many times, I don't think there's any biblical precedent for setting up a theocracy

00:25:49.860 here on earth. I am not ever trying to set up a theocracy here on earth, but, uh, yes, there is a

00:25:56.380 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 1.00

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 1.00

00:30:47.100 trend if millennials were just like joining these convents, but they are known as religious nuns. 0.99

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 0.94

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 0.97

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 0.80

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. 1.00

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. 1.00

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 1.00

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 1.00

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, 0.99

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 0.86

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. 0.87

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.

00:56:52.040 Bye.

00:56:52.920 Bye.

00:56:52.980 Bye.

00:56:53.040 Bye.

00:56:53.540 Bye.

00:56:53.940 Bye.

00:56:54.040 Bye.

00:56:54.080 Bye.

00:56:54.140 Bye.

00:56:54.240 Bye.

00:56:54.540 Bye.

00:56:55.140 Bye.

00:56:55.240 Bye.

00:56:56.140 Bye.

00:56:56.240 Bye.

00:56:56.340 Bye.

00:56:57.240 Bye.

00:56:57.340 Bye.

00:56:58.340 Bye.

00:56:59.340 Bye.

00:57:00.340 Bye.

00:57:01.340 Bye.

00:57:02.340 Bye.

00:57:03.340 Bye.

00:57:04.340 Bye.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 08, 2021

Ep 381 ｜ Glennon Doyle’s Gospel vs. the Real Gospel

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