Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 27, 2021


Ep 410 ｜ Can Someone Be a 'Christian Witch'？ ｜ Q&A


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

174.70836

Word Count

5,616

Sentence Count

312

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

12


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.
00:00:11.820 Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.
00:00:13.680 Today we are doing another Q&A.
00:00:16.560 This is a pre-recorded maternity episode.
00:00:18.880 You guys sent me a lot of your questions on Instagram and I am going to answer those.
00:00:24.780 If you have not left a review for this podcast and you love this podcast, it would mean so
00:00:29.780 much to me.
00:00:31.040 If you left a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, of course you can listen anywhere, but if
00:00:37.600 you could go to Apple and leave that five-star review, maybe just tell us briefly why you
00:00:42.040 love the show, that would mean so much to me.
00:00:44.940 Thank you so much.
00:00:45.960 And if you haven't subscribed on YouTube, if you're on the listening side of this, you
00:00:50.420 can go do that as well.
00:00:51.620 The channel name is just Allie Beth Stuckey and typically the video version of this comes
00:00:56.400 out between five and six central time.
00:01:00.580 All right.
00:01:01.300 I'm going to answer a question first about what it means to be a so-called Christian witch.
00:01:08.720 One of you sent me a question saying that one of your friends identifies as a Christian witch
00:01:16.100 and this is actually not the first time I've heard this.
00:01:19.000 Now, you might never have heard of this if you're listening to this and you're like, what
00:01:23.140 the heck are you talking about?
00:01:24.240 That sounds like a paradox and you're absolutely right.
00:01:26.980 It is a paradox, but I've actually spoken to someone who identifies as a Christian witch
00:01:33.200 and she really doesn't see anything incongruent with it.
00:01:36.160 She believes or she says that she believes that, you know, Jesus is the son of God who died
00:01:41.820 for her sins.
00:01:42.880 I didn't really get into all of her different theological points because I was kind of stuck
00:01:47.520 on this hang on, you call yourself a witch thing, but she engages in witchcraft and I
00:01:54.560 and others that were engaging with her tried to kind of explain why that just cannot coexist.
00:02:00.960 And so I'm going to explain it as well as I can today.
00:02:04.200 So your friend who identifies as a Christian, which I think that it's safe for me to say,
00:02:08.340 I don't think this is me being judgmental.
00:02:11.100 I think this is just me reading and applying the Bible, is not a Christian.
00:02:16.440 There maybe is a chance that she's just thoroughly confused for the time being, but it is very
00:02:22.540 likely that she is not filled by the Holy Spirit, that she has taken parts of Christianity that
00:02:28.040 she likes and then she has taken parts of witchcraft that she likes and maybe part of the
00:02:34.600 new age that she likes.
00:02:36.260 And she's kind of mixed it together in some kind of religion that makes her feel in touch
00:02:42.460 with different parts of her personality and different parts of her interests.
00:02:46.140 But the fact of the matter is, is that Christianity is exclusive in that sense.
00:02:50.560 It's a very inclusive religion in that anyone can be called by God to be a Christian.
00:02:57.580 You don't have to do something for God in order to be accepted.
00:03:01.260 God came down, became flesh, sacrificed himself, rose again to reconcile you to God and then
00:03:10.000 to defeat death and sin on your behalf.
00:03:13.960 And so he does the work and only by grace through faith can anyone, no matter how sinful, come
00:03:20.100 to God or really be saved by God.
00:03:23.540 But it's exclusive in the sense that God is a jealous God.
00:03:28.460 And Jesus says in John 14, 6, that he is the way, the truth and the life.
00:03:34.300 No one comes to the father except through him.
00:03:36.740 So it's exclusive in the sense that it does not leave an option for other kinds of so-called
00:03:42.440 spirituality, other kinds of faith or other kinds of doctrines to share its place in our
00:03:48.700 hearts.
00:03:49.200 When God says that he's a jealous God, what he means by that is that he does not allow idolatry.
00:03:54.660 He doesn't allow his glory to be shared with anyone else.
00:03:58.040 He's not going to sit on a throne of your heart when you become a Christian.
00:04:02.340 He is not only going to sit on the throne of your heart, but as the ruler of your heart,
00:04:06.740 he is going to claim everything.
00:04:08.820 There's this wonderful passage in Mere Christianity by C.S.
00:04:12.500 Lewis where he says, Jesus didn't come to save some of you.
00:04:16.040 He didn't come to claim authority over some of you.
00:04:18.720 He came to claim all of you.
00:04:21.120 Everything in your life, everything in your heart is eventually, if you are a Christian,
00:04:26.340 going to be claimed by Christ because he doesn't give you an option to just see him as a prophet
00:04:34.480 or see him as a teacher.
00:04:35.960 He's either a lord, a liar, or a lunatic.
00:04:39.200 And so it's not possible to be a Christian and then also engage in witchcraft.
00:04:46.680 God makes this very clear in the Old Testament.
00:04:49.420 Leviticus 19.31, he tells his people,
00:04:52.620 Do not turn to mediums or necromancers.
00:04:55.000 Do not seek them out.
00:04:56.480 And so make yourselves unclean by them.
00:04:59.140 I am the Lord your God.
00:05:00.600 Now, a couple notes.
00:05:02.520 I know we are not ancient Israel.
00:05:04.140 We don't follow all of the cleansing laws of ancient Israel, but we do look at the laws,
00:05:09.380 for example, the moral laws, and we still apply those like the Ten Commandments aside
00:05:13.720 from, and this is debatable, but aside from keeping the Sabbath exactly the way the Jewish
00:05:19.420 people do, we do believe in keeping the moral law because Jesus fulfills the moral law or
00:05:25.720 he reapplies and reemphasizes the moral law in the Gospels.
00:05:31.240 But we don't follow the cleansing laws as Christians because he has become our cleansing.
00:05:35.480 He has become our sacrifice.
00:05:37.480 He became our perfect sacrifice once and for all.
00:05:41.280 So we don't have to do these burnt sacrifices or animal sacrifices anymore because Jesus has
00:05:47.880 become that eternally on our behalf.
00:05:51.240 But when we look at the laws of Israel, whether it's the cleansing laws or whether it's the
00:05:56.140 moral laws, we do look for the principle and we say, okay, God has not changed.
00:06:02.800 What can we learn from what God told Israel for today?
00:06:08.000 And there's a very systematic way to interpret the Old Testament as it applies to Christian
00:06:14.560 life today.
00:06:15.260 I really recommend Systematic Theology, for example, by Wayne Grudem, and also Politics
00:06:20.660 According to the Bible by Wayne Grudem.
00:06:22.420 It gives a lot of insight into all of that.
00:06:24.380 But this particular verse, do not turn to mediums or necromancers, do not seek them out, and
00:06:29.780 so make yourselves unclean by them.
00:06:32.480 I am the Lord, your God.
00:06:34.520 We see this kind of sentiment throughout the Old Testament, and it's not, it doesn't seem
00:06:39.580 to be just this kind of seemingly random cleansing law in the same way that we might look at a
00:06:46.680 law against eating shellfish or mixed fabrics or something like that.
00:06:52.100 This is always paired with other kinds of evil and other kinds of idolatry.
00:06:58.060 And because in the Ten Commandments we see a command against idolatry, we can rightly apply
00:07:04.140 a verse like this to our lives today and say, okay, this would still be something that God
00:07:09.420 hates because of the reasons that He gives.
00:07:12.140 It is always associated with other kinds of evil that God detests.
00:07:17.360 Deuteronomy 18, 9 through 12 says,
00:07:19.880 When you enter the land the Lord your God has given you, do not learn to imitate the
00:07:24.200 detestable ways of the nations there.
00:07:26.480 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices
00:07:31.180 divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells, or who is a medium
00:07:37.860 or spiritist or who consults the dead.
00:07:40.560 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.
00:07:46.620 And so you see how these things that we would probably call new age today, which actually
00:07:52.900 obviously are a very old age, is also associated with child sacrifice.
00:07:58.580 And we actually see that multiple times throughout Scripture, in particular the Old Testament, that
00:08:04.700 whenever God talks about witchcraft, whenever He talks about psychics, whenever He talks
00:08:09.360 about necromancers—necromancers, by the way, are people who claim to have some kind
00:08:13.840 of connection with the dead and speak through the dead or can summon the dead for purposes
00:08:19.660 of divination and so-called prophecy, or they would call it prophecy.
00:08:27.920 Whenever we see God warning against those things, we often see not just a warning against idolatry,
00:08:33.380 but also a warning against other kinds of evil, like child sacrifice.
00:08:37.580 In 2 Kings 21, 6, for example, Manasseh was an evil ruler who reigned in Judah.
00:08:44.060 And this verse 6 says,
00:08:45.360 And he burned his son as an offering, and used fortune-telling and omens, and dealt with
00:08:50.420 mediums and with necromancers.
00:08:52.540 He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
00:08:57.260 So this chapter, 2 Kings 21, talks about the evil that characterized this ruler.
00:09:03.240 Manasseh in Judah in this particular verse.
00:09:06.800 Again, it's interesting.
00:09:08.580 In the long list of this chapter of what Manasseh did wrong, this verse puts dealing with mediums
00:09:17.620 and necromancers right alongside with burning his son as an offering.
00:09:23.140 So we see more than once in the Old Testament that witchcraft, psychics, magic, mediums are
00:09:30.020 being linked to child sacrifice, because it's what happens when we, and this is biblical
00:09:35.420 language, whore ourselves out to other gods.
00:09:39.300 We become, we start to glorify that which is evil in God's sight, like abortion.
00:09:45.440 Now, that doesn't mean that everyone who glorifies abortion calls themselves a witch.
00:09:49.300 That doesn't mean that everyone who calls themselves a witch is for abortion or is for child sacrifice.
00:09:54.000 But the point is, that's what it does to the human heart.
00:09:57.780 When we start to engage in that kind of idolatry, we get, as we talk about many times on this
00:10:04.560 podcast, brains of mush and hearts of stone.
00:10:07.800 So you start to call evil good and good evil.
00:10:12.180 As Romans tells us, things start to switch in our mind.
00:10:16.480 We start to love darkness and we start to hate the light and we start to call the darkness
00:10:21.320 light and anyone who calls the light, light, we begin to hate.
00:10:25.360 And so it is impossible for this kind of darkness, which is represented by witchcraft to coexist
00:10:31.440 in the hearts of people who love the light, who love Jesus Christ.
00:10:35.240 John 3, 19 through 21 makes this very clear.
00:10:40.000 And this is the judgment.
00:10:41.640 The light that's Jesus in this context has come into the world and people loved the darkness
00:10:46.840 rather than the light because their works were evil.
00:10:50.020 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest
00:10:54.820 his work should be exposed.
00:10:56.720 But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his
00:11:02.380 works have been carried out by God.
00:11:06.220 We've talked about this metaphor on this podcast before.
00:11:09.320 I think it was the episode when we were talking about the Satan shoes and the Satan music video
00:11:18.740 by that rapper.
00:11:19.860 But people who love darkness, like we all once were, as Ephesians 2 said, we all love darkness
00:11:27.380 at one point.
00:11:28.500 When someone turns the lights on for you, if you're sleeping, you've been sleeping for a
00:11:33.380 long time.
00:11:34.780 It's pitch dark.
00:11:36.240 Someone just comes in.
00:11:37.220 They turn the lights on.
00:11:38.640 What's your reaction?
00:11:39.780 You're super offended by that.
00:11:41.540 Or you're just angry.
00:11:42.600 You're mad.
00:11:43.220 You're annoyed.
00:11:43.660 It kind of hurts your eyes.
00:11:45.100 You're not going to be glad that someone turns the lights on for you.
00:11:48.520 It was very comfortable how you were sleeping.
00:11:51.340 You enjoyed the darkness.
00:11:53.560 You didn't want the lights on.
00:11:55.220 You were very comfortable in your slumber.
00:11:57.580 And then someone comes on and they turn the lights on.
00:12:00.060 You're going to be angry at that.
00:12:03.240 And unless you let yourself get used to that, unless you accept the light that exposes all
00:12:11.660 the things that you didn't want to see, unless you allow your eyes to adjust to that, you're
00:12:17.600 going to want to go back to sleep.
00:12:19.100 You're going to love the darkness and want to go back to the darkness.
00:12:22.880 But if you allow your eyes to adjust to the light, you realize how much better it is to
00:12:27.060 be awake, like how much better it is to be in light.
00:12:30.760 But this particular passage in John 3 is saying, yeah, light came into the world.
00:12:36.840 Someone turned the lights on when all these people were sleeping and pitch dark and they
00:12:40.780 hated it.
00:12:41.860 They wanted the light to go away.
00:12:43.500 They wanted to turn the light back off.
00:12:45.500 And I think that's important for us to realize too, when we talk to our friends who are still
00:12:49.480 in darkness, again, as we once were, yes, they're going to be very angry because darkness
00:12:55.480 hates the light.
00:12:57.260 But it's also important for us to remember that the light is not scared of darkness.
00:13:00.760 The light is not scared to turn on.
00:13:02.680 As Jesus also says, a city on a hill is not supposed to be hidden.
00:13:06.740 You don't light a candle and then put it under a basket.
00:13:09.900 And so we are not scared to turn on lights.
00:13:12.120 That's what we should be as Christians.
00:13:14.100 We go into rooms, we turn on lights.
00:13:16.340 We turn on a lamp.
00:13:17.620 We light a candle.
00:13:18.780 That should be our goal in every sphere that we occupy, every relationship that we have.
00:13:23.460 And that doesn't mean aggressively calling people out in every conversation that we have.
00:13:28.580 That just means showing the light of the gospel and sharing the light of the gospel in word
00:13:33.680 and in deed in all things that we do.
00:13:36.040 Christians are constantly turning on lights.
00:13:38.280 That's going to make a lot of sleeping people mad.
00:13:41.080 And this might be the case for you who asked this question for your friend who is pretending
00:13:45.920 that she can have a partnership with darkness and light at the same time.
00:13:50.440 It's just not possible.
00:13:52.320 God does not coexist with idols.
00:13:55.560 He just, he won't do it.
00:13:58.120 And so your job as her friend is to lovingly keep on turning on that light, even when she
00:14:04.880 tells you that she would rather be asleep in the darkness.
00:14:08.920 Ephesians 5, 8 through 12 says, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light
00:14:14.100 in the Lord.
00:14:14.660 So all of us were once darkness.
00:14:16.560 We don't have judgment or personal condemnation towards those who are in the darkness.
00:14:21.940 We don't think that we're better than them in any way.
00:14:25.240 We're not unkind to them because we know we were all darkness at one point.
00:14:29.780 We've been there.
00:14:30.640 We've been the person asleep in slumber, not wanting to wake up angry when someone turned
00:14:35.920 the lights on, on our sin.
00:14:38.480 And so we understand.
00:14:41.000 For at one time you were darkness, Ephesians 5 says, but now you are light in the Lord.
00:14:45.840 Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right
00:14:50.520 and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
00:14:54.660 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them for it is shameful even
00:15:00.700 to speak of the things that they do in secret.
00:15:04.260 The rest of that chapter is really wonderful and enlightening as well.
00:15:09.640 No pun intended.
00:15:10.400 And you'll know what I mean if you read the chapter.
00:15:11.840 But so I would encourage you to speak the truth to your friend, and it might make it a
00:15:18.840 little bit easier that she identifies as a Christian because maybe she would be responsive
00:15:24.120 to biblical truth.
00:15:25.940 She is claiming to believe, I guess, that God and his word have some kind of authority or
00:15:32.220 influence in her life.
00:15:34.060 And so I would also read the book Tactics by Greg Kokel.
00:15:37.280 Um, he gives very, uh, wonderful tips and engaging in these kinds of difficult apologetics
00:15:43.900 conversations in a way that is kind, in a way that is inquisitive rather than accusatory.
00:15:49.600 So perhaps she just needs to be made to think about her faith.
00:15:53.920 Like maybe she just needs to think about, okay, how am I allowing these two things to coexist?
00:15:59.020 Maybe she just needs to be prodded just a little bit and she just needs to see the inconsistency
00:16:04.060 in that.
00:16:05.080 Um, and so I have a lot of hope and a lot of optimism for your friends and for your
00:16:12.840 ability to be able to talk to her and to love her and to turn the light on and show the
00:16:17.620 gospel, um, show the gospel to her.
00:16:21.340 And so I hope that was, I hope that was helpful.
00:16:24.020 I hope it gave clarity to you and hopefully a little bit of equipment as well.
00:16:27.440 All right.
00:16:37.800 Next question, your favorite built bar.
00:16:41.540 Um, so a lot of you guys love bill barn.
00:16:44.320 I'm so excited about that.
00:16:45.300 They're just a great sponsor.
00:16:47.140 And I've told you guys before, I do not say that I have personal experience with one of
00:16:51.740 my sponsors.
00:16:52.240 If I don't like, I'm not going to tell you, Oh, I tried this service and it was wonderful.
00:16:56.540 I saved so much money if I haven't done it yet.
00:16:58.640 Now I still might encourage you to do it, but maybe it's not a service necessarily that
00:17:03.400 we have had a chance to use or that we have to use.
00:17:06.780 But I also am very picky about my sponsors.
00:17:09.660 I don't say yes to every sponsor request, um, because it doesn't apply to you guys, or
00:17:15.920 I just don't think it's a good fit.
00:17:17.920 Um, and so I only talk about sponsors that I think could really help you guys.
00:17:24.000 And I only say I have personal experience with my sponsors.
00:17:27.420 If I really do have personal experience, I have a lot of personal experience with built
00:17:31.340 bar.
00:17:31.820 I would not tell you guys that they're an amazing tasting and filling protein bar.
00:17:37.160 If I had not personally experienced that.
00:17:39.760 And I have, and I've tried, I think almost every single flavor.
00:17:44.780 One of the ones that surprised me, that was really good because I'm not like the biggest
00:17:48.540 mint fan in the world, but the chocolate mint one is really good.
00:17:52.460 Like you guys know 18 flavors, chocolate flavors.
00:17:56.480 And I'm also not like a chocolate fruit person quite as much, but I do like they're like chocolate
00:18:00.980 raspberry, even chocolate cherry.
00:18:03.440 Again, not one that I would typically go to, but it's good.
00:18:06.800 The only one that I have not tried and it's probably very good.
00:18:10.980 I just don't like coconut.
00:18:12.600 There's chocolate coconut and I'm just not, I just don't typically like coconut flavor.
00:18:17.280 So I just haven't even tried it, but I'm sure if I did try it, it would be really good.
00:18:21.300 So probably chocolate mint or peanut butter brownie.
00:18:25.220 Those are both really good flavors, but they're, they're all good.
00:18:29.100 Okay.
00:18:30.560 Next story.
00:18:31.860 How to stand up to teachers in high school without disrespecting authority.
00:18:37.180 So I love this question and I love the heart behind it because that was not my heart in high
00:18:45.080 school.
00:18:45.300 Like I've always had kind of a problem with authority a little bit.
00:18:51.000 Like I, just from a very young age, the idea of respecting someone or deferring someone just
00:18:59.680 to someone, just because they are in a particular position or they have a certain title, it's
00:19:04.660 just never sat well with me.
00:19:05.820 And I'm not saying that's a good thing.
00:19:07.500 I actually think it's very important to teach kids in particular situations to respect authority
00:19:14.140 and to defer to people who are in authority.
00:19:16.660 Now, I don't think that we should teach our kids to do that unconditionally because there
00:19:20.500 are a lot of people, a lot of adults that abuse authority at the expense of kids.
00:19:25.240 And so I do think it's important to teach kids to be discerning and to push back when
00:19:29.040 they do need to push back.
00:19:30.540 I probably went too much in the direction of pushing back.
00:19:33.320 And I was the same way, you know, I was the same way with my parents.
00:19:36.340 And again, I'm not glorifying that because we are called to respect our parents in the
00:19:41.880 Bible, but I was very, you know, independent minded growing up and that certainly transferred
00:19:49.620 into high school.
00:19:52.940 Although there were a lot of teachers that I really started to love in high school, I
00:19:56.420 just wasn't, I wasn't like a school person.
00:19:58.900 Not that I didn't do well in school because I did do pretty well in school and in college,
00:20:03.200 but I just didn't like it.
00:20:05.200 I didn't like the whole structure of it.
00:20:07.080 I didn't like sitting down in class.
00:20:09.060 I didn't like math or science.
00:20:11.560 There were only a few subjects that I really liked and I really enjoyed.
00:20:15.000 And I would have rather spent my time out of class reading and discussing and things like
00:20:19.080 that than sitting in a class and going through, you know, fill in the blank worksheets and things
00:20:24.360 like that.
00:20:24.800 So in that sense, I just didn't like school, not organized, always losing my pens, didn't
00:20:30.080 really love authority and all of that kind of stuff.
00:20:33.120 I'm making myself sound like some like crazy rebel and I wasn't at all.
00:20:37.440 I just had a bad attitude towards some things.
00:20:39.580 And so I love that this person who is asking this question actually cares about respecting
00:20:43.880 authority because that was just not something that was top of mind for me for high school.
00:20:49.980 And again, not saying that that is great.
00:20:52.660 I think that there should be a balance probably that we teach our kids and that the reality is,
00:20:58.380 is that you, person who is asking this question and all people who are in high school or this
00:21:02.960 age are under the authority of the Lord first.
00:21:06.040 It sounds to me like you're probably a Christian, that you have a hard time with some of the
00:21:10.720 things that you are learning, maybe because you find them morally repugnant, maybe because
00:21:14.300 you find them historically inaccurate.
00:21:17.220 And so I love that you are critically thinking and you're wondering, OK, how can I stick to the
00:21:23.160 truth without disrespecting my teachers?
00:21:25.460 And also, I'm guessing your question is how to do well in class.
00:21:28.160 You don't want to be ostracized either.
00:21:29.900 You don't want to be bullied, certainly not by your teachers or mistreated or anything like that,
00:21:33.860 which you shouldn't be.
00:21:34.940 But unfortunately, a lot of people are at the risk of that these days.
00:21:38.040 If you don't fall in line with the particular ideology of your school or your teacher,
00:21:42.620 you are worried about not getting a good grade, which is very, excuse my language, stupid.
00:21:48.120 But I understand that fear.
00:21:49.780 And that's what a lot of kids are facing today.
00:21:51.440 But you are under the authority of the Lord first, and he is most concerned with you pleasing
00:21:58.340 him.
00:21:59.360 You are also under the authority of your parents for the time being, although I'm guessing if
00:22:03.780 you're in high school, you have more freedom and flexibility than you probably did in middle
00:22:09.200 school or lower school.
00:22:10.120 But they still have authority over your life in a lot of ways, which is a very good thing
00:22:14.820 in high school, even though we feel like we know everything at 16.
00:22:18.700 That's what that's what that's why being a teenager can be so dangerous.
00:22:23.140 And that's why, like, you know, teenagers insurance, car insurance is so insanely expensive
00:22:29.900 because we make stupid decisions and we don't think through consequences and we don't think
00:22:35.880 through the next step.
00:22:37.580 And that's because our frontal lobe is not developed until we're 25.
00:22:40.960 So we're doing the best we can.
00:22:42.060 Plus, there's hormones and insecurity and all of that.
00:22:44.900 Being a teenager is a tough time.
00:22:46.400 But I think the most dangerous part of it is that you actually think that you have all
00:22:49.900 the life experience that you could possibly need to be the wisest person in the world and
00:22:55.280 that your parents know absolutely nothing and that you've got everything figured out.
00:23:01.980 But it's good that you that we do still, while we're teenagers, have authority in our lives.
00:23:07.380 Any attempt, by the way, by the left to subvert that authority or subvert that care and wisdom
00:23:14.080 and guidance that parents give to teenagers is so dangerous.
00:23:17.980 It's so dangerous.
00:23:18.680 It actually makes teenagers more vulnerable.
00:23:21.000 And I'm not talking about, you know, abusive situations where parents are abusing their authority.
00:23:25.560 I'm just talking about the normal parent-child relationship that should extend through adolescence
00:23:31.500 because we're just not to the point yet of being able to make good, long-lasting decisions.
00:23:37.780 Our brains just aren't there yet.
00:23:39.620 So God has given us the family structure to be able to protect us from making decisions
00:23:44.180 that could ruin our lives.
00:23:46.420 That's why fathers are so important, in particular mothers too, but especially fathers.
00:23:51.620 And I know I'm going off on a tangent, but that's why we see so many studies saying where
00:23:57.380 there is fatherlessness in a family, there is a much higher rate of teen pregnancy.
00:24:02.500 There's a much higher rate of teen delinquency, of dropping out of high school, of low grades,
00:24:07.560 depression, anxiety.
00:24:09.260 God actually created us to need the direction, the discernment, the help, the love, compassion
00:24:14.420 and care and protection and provision of a father.
00:24:18.120 I certainly don't think it's a mistake that he refers to himself as a father, but he has
00:24:22.200 given us fathers who are supposed to be an earthly representation of that.
00:24:26.040 Of course, not everyone enjoyed that while growing up, but all that to say, the parent-child
00:24:32.340 relationship is so important.
00:24:33.760 God created it.
00:24:34.760 He intended it that way.
00:24:35.920 And again, any attempts by ideologues, by progressives, by the government to try to usurp
00:24:41.660 that authority, it only makes kids vulnerable.
00:24:45.440 I saw this, I saw a change in the law in the state of Washington, for example, that
00:24:49.560 said now 13-year-olds, the parents of 13-year-olds will no longer have any access to the medical
00:24:57.880 records of their child, 13 years old.
00:25:01.820 I mean, that is a child.
00:25:03.660 You're a child.
00:25:04.600 And so as a parent, are you in violation of the law?
00:25:07.860 If you're trying to look at your child's labs and your child's numbers to try to help
00:25:11.860 them figure out what's wrong and what the best path is, I mean, that is, of course,
00:25:17.660 what the left does.
00:25:19.120 That's what progressivism does.
00:25:20.420 As we've said before, it only knows how to tear down.
00:25:23.040 It doesn't know how to rebuild.
00:25:24.420 And so because progressivism holds, just like communism always has, is that the parent-child
00:25:30.720 relationship is actually oppressive and the family structure is actually oppressive and
00:25:35.020 gets in the way of the advancement of communism.
00:25:38.300 It has to be destroyed little by little.
00:25:40.880 And so these laws that are made in the name of privacy are meant to disintegrate the family,
00:25:48.660 and it's not good.
00:25:49.500 Again, the people who pay for that are teenagers.
00:25:52.220 So that was, I know, that was a rant that was an aside from my answer to this question.
00:25:58.840 So all that to say, the reason why it's relevant is that authority is important.
00:26:03.000 Teacher's authority is important.
00:26:04.160 Parents' authority is important in a child's life, in a teen's life, to a certain extent,
00:26:10.680 but the Lord's authority is supreme.
00:26:13.480 It is most important.
00:26:14.780 And if you are tempted to sin, or you are asked to sin, or you are caused to sin, or you
00:26:21.600 are asked to affirm that which you know is not true, either is not biblically true, is
00:26:28.220 not morally right, is factually incorrect, then I do think it is your responsibility first
00:26:34.140 to obey the Lord and to refuse to do those things.
00:26:37.540 Easier said than done.
00:26:38.760 But I think if you have a concern about the curriculum, if you're like, okay, this curriculum
00:26:43.520 is divisive.
00:26:45.240 It's trying to tell me that my friends who are white are my oppressors.
00:26:49.340 It's trying to tell me that I'm oppressed by them.
00:26:52.640 It's starting to create this kind of self-loathing and resentment.
00:26:55.700 It's starting to make me see people only by their skin color rather than who they are and
00:27:01.120 their character.
00:27:01.780 Or if you're concerned with how they're teaching history that doesn't seem to be correct, that
00:27:07.240 doesn't seem to be factual, or if they're trying to teach you that Christianity is oppressive
00:27:13.280 and evil, whatever it is, I do think that you have the responsibility and by the way,
00:27:18.420 the total ability and equipment to maybe along with your parents and maybe along with other
00:27:23.580 concerned families to raise these concerns with your teacher and with the administrators
00:27:28.660 and to be able to articulate your case for why you don't think this curriculum is not
00:27:32.880 only right, but also not productive.
00:27:35.820 You're not trying to say that the teacher has to only teach that which you completely
00:27:40.700 agree with.
00:27:42.200 But the standards need to be objective.
00:27:45.420 It needs to be factually correct.
00:27:48.860 And we should push back against any kind of curriculum or direction that is causing people
00:27:56.800 to feel uncomfortable about their immutable characteristics like race and is causing resentment
00:28:02.380 against the students because they are weighing themselves on some scale of intersectionality
00:28:08.340 and oppressed versus oppressor.
00:28:09.920 That is not of God.
00:28:12.000 As James 3 talks about, anything that creates that kind of hatred, anything that creates that
00:28:21.480 kind of jealousy and rivalry and deceit is a wisdom that is actually demonic.
00:28:28.060 But wisdom from above is peaceable.
00:28:31.340 It doesn't show partiality and it bears good fruit.
00:28:35.220 And so I think we have to use discernment to be able to tell the difference.
00:28:38.240 But you are equipped to be able to, hopefully with your parents, hopefully along with other
00:28:44.660 families, to be able to raise your concerns.
00:28:46.360 That's a way to respectfully raise your concerns.
00:28:49.800 Also, in small ways, if you're willing to just raise your hand in class and to just say,
00:28:55.100 hey, like, what about this?
00:28:56.940 Or have you ever, like, thought of it this way or something?
00:29:00.640 Again, I would say Read Tactics by Greg Kokel.
00:29:03.020 I wonder if that would help you in, rather than coming across as combative to your teacher,
00:29:09.760 being inquisitive and being curious and kind of pressing in on some of the assertions that
00:29:15.480 your teachers may be making that you don't agree with.
00:29:18.220 Maybe you do this in front of the class.
00:29:20.000 Maybe you don't.
00:29:20.740 Maybe it's in private conversation.
00:29:22.440 Now, in my experience, people in that kind of authority can get defensive if they feel like
00:29:27.380 a kid is questioning their expertise.
00:29:29.860 It's kind of like when you question a doctor's opinion or diagnosis that he gives you.
00:29:34.500 Sometimes, you know, doctors, they get all ruffled because of that.
00:29:38.020 But the fact of the matter is, you have every reason and every responsibility and every right
00:29:42.040 to be asking those questions.
00:29:43.200 That's part of what it means to learn.
00:29:44.900 I would also encourage you to kind of take that inquisitiveness and take that curiosity
00:29:49.480 and pressing against the mainstream dogma in any group projects that you do when you're
00:29:54.760 talking to any of your friends.
00:29:56.140 Just encourage your friends to start pushing back, even in their minds, against everything
00:30:02.320 that they are being told politically, ideologically.
00:30:06.620 I think what's most important is that we have kids that can think critically.
00:30:10.980 Yes, I come from a biblical worldview, and I wouldn't have that worldview if I didn't think
00:30:16.300 that it was the correct worldview.
00:30:18.040 But I think one thing that really worries me is youth's seeming inability today to think,
00:30:26.280 to think through good arguments, to be able to actually reason, to be able to come up with
00:30:32.480 an argument that's not filled with a million logical fallacies.
00:30:35.680 And I also am worried about youth's inability to write, their inability to communicate, their
00:30:44.120 inability to be able to articulate things in a way that's grammatically correct or rhetorically
00:30:49.860 compelling or anything like that.
00:30:51.780 I think it's that mind-shrinking and critical thinking inability that is going to spell disaster
00:31:02.840 for our future.
00:31:04.560 I think the fact that most teens today, unlike when I was a teenager, are spending their time
00:31:10.920 numbing their brains, scrolling through TikTok rather than exercising their minds, even like
00:31:17.240 in a good conversation or a good book or something like that.
00:31:20.740 I think that is what is going to spell disaster.
00:31:23.940 So if you can be someone who critically thinks, who can ask questions when you're told something,
00:31:28.500 who can push back against the mainstream or the popular ideas that are being perpetuated in
00:31:40.180 your circles or in your school, I think that you're on a really good path.
00:31:44.480 And so I just really appreciate this question.
00:31:47.520 Of course, I believe and know that you are trying to do this in a way that is kind and
00:31:52.600 trying to do this in a way that really, that is really helpful.
00:31:57.520 And so also just pray for the boldness and the ability to be able to do that.
00:32:03.220 All right.
00:32:03.800 That's all I've got time for today.
00:32:05.880 I will see you guys back here soon.