Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 469 ｜ Responding to Beth Moore & Advice for Gen Z

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so

00:00:14.340 far. Today we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about Beth Moore's

00:00:20.960 Twitter rant from yesterday about people loving their neighbor by wearing their masks. And

00:00:28.980 then I'm going to talk about some stats surrounding that. And then you might have seen my Instagram

00:00:36.920 stories where I was talking about this phenomenon or my tweet that talked about this too, this

00:00:40.900 phenomenon that I've noticed among Gen Z of wanting to avoid risks as much as possible. So some of

00:00:49.380 those risks that I've noticed them avoiding are getting their driver's license and driving by

00:00:53.740 themselves dating people and even leaving their house to go to college or to move out of their

00:01:02.240 house. And it's not going to be critical, that segment of the podcast, because look, I'm a

00:01:09.960 millennial. And just five minutes ago, we were talking about how terrible millennials were and how

00:01:14.740 we are pushing off responsibility and commitment and all of that stuff. So I just want to give some

00:01:20.320 advice to my 17 year old self and to teenagers who are kind of in the throes of everything that has

00:01:31.260 gone on for the past year and a half and find themselves kind of drowning in that anxiety that

00:01:35.540 I think is crippling a lot of Gen Z. Gen Z are not only teenagers, I think they're born, I'm pretty

00:01:40.980 sure it's 1997 and after millennials are 1981 to 1996. According to Pew Research, I'm 1992. So I'm

00:01:50.800 right in the middle of millennial. So I want to give some loving advice and maybe some tough love

00:01:56.140 to that crowd. And so it will end with an encouraging portion of this podcast episode. But first,

00:02:04.720 we're going to talk about Beth Moore and her little rant about how crucial it is to wear a mask in

00:02:12.560 order to love your neighbor and to follow Jesus. But let me back up, give you some context for the

00:02:19.320 few of you who don't know who Beth Moore is. She's the famous Southern Baptist author, creator of dozens

00:02:25.300 of Bible studies since I think the 1980s. She really likes to, at least for the past few years in the Trump

00:02:31.080 era, weave in and out of politics. And at the same time, claim that she's not being political at all and

00:02:36.700 just that she's simply following Jesus. I guess she's implying that if other people follow Jesus the way

00:02:43.420 that she does, they would land where she does on, for example, Trump or nationalism or immigration or

00:02:50.760 critical race theory or social justice, and now on masks and loving your neighbor. So let's read her

00:02:57.980 latest thread. She says,

00:02:59.520 If we are in Christ, it is unconscionable for us to in any way politicize this virus. What on earth are we

00:03:07.520 doing? Question mark, question mark, question mark. Our sides are not more important than lives. We are

00:03:12.580 Jesus' people called to serve sacrificially. For the love of God, we gotta love our neighbors, even our

00:03:18.800 enemies. For all our Jesus' talk, where on the ever-loving earth is our Jesus' walk? If you are not a

00:03:26.020 Christian, I'm not talking to you. But if you are, Jesus wasn't playing when he called us to a whole

00:03:30.400 different ethic from the world. We're not loud mouth boasters. We're servants. We serve. Stare in

00:03:36.220 the face of what some of you are saying. My rights are more important than your life. Sorry, not sorry.

00:03:43.500 If you're not going to get vaccinated, for the love of God, put on a mask in places. And I'm speaking

00:03:48.980 loudly because she is using all caps. Put on a mask in public places with vulnerable people.

00:03:55.340 Go ahead and unfollow me. I don't care. Follow Jesus. So she loves dropping bombs like this and

00:04:02.900 then walking away and just insisting that it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do

00:04:07.360 with the gospel. First, let me say that unfortunately, and I mean that sincerely, the virus has always been

00:04:13.820 political. It's been political from the very beginning when Trump first said that, hey, we

00:04:18.480 should maybe not have travel from and to China. People called him a xenophobe. I mean, you had Nancy

00:04:24.740 Pelosi in February of 2020 say, oh, you should go down to Chinatown. And in San Francisco, it's

00:04:30.620 perfectly safe. You had Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City, saying a similar thing that people

00:04:34.980 should go out and enjoy their lives. It's nothing to worry about. Really, just in an effort to push back

00:04:40.500 against Trump and disagree with Trump when he said, hey, we should probably be limiting travel.

00:04:45.360 You had people calling him all kinds of names synonymous with bigotry and racism because he

00:04:51.600 said those things. And then when it seemed like he wasn't taking things seriously enough, when he said,

00:04:56.040 you know, hey, masks probably aren't going to help all that much. Then they had to take the

00:05:00.680 opposite position. Every single death that happened while Donald Trump was president was attributed to

00:05:06.240 Donald Trump and his presidency. And yet every death that has happened since Biden took office,

00:05:10.500 has in no way been attributed to Biden and his actions. So unfortunately, this has been politicized

00:05:16.960 from the very beginning. So to just say that people that are hesitant about wearing masks,

00:05:22.300 at least at this point, are making this political. Well, that that's missing the big picture here.

00:05:27.960 Like that's missing what has been going on for the past year and a half. Now, I will give Beth more

00:05:33.000 credit that she tweeted back. I think it was in November, whenever Donald Trump or October,

00:05:37.720 whenever Donald Trump and Melania tested positive for coronavirus. She tweeted that as soon as she

00:05:43.720 got the news, like she immediately started praying for them and, you know, asked God to heal them and

00:05:51.240 all that stuff. So I think that's all well and good. But still to say that only the people that are

00:05:56.960 refusing to wear a mask are the ones that are politicizing this and aren't caring about people's

00:06:02.280 lives. I'm sorry. I just I don't think that's true. This has been politicized from the very

00:06:07.560 beginning. And at least from my perspective, it started being politicized by people on the left

00:06:12.400 who saw this, unfortunately, as an opportunity to defeat Donald Trump in the presidential election

00:06:17.720 and therefore, you know, pushed back on him every which way when it came to everything that he said

00:06:23.720 or suggested about the virus, even when he ended up being right. And I think that's really sad because

00:06:29.580 that probably did that that kind of panic and that kind of unnecessary disagreement from political

00:06:35.340 pundits and politicians, I think has had a really, really negative effect on our country. And who

00:06:41.220 knows, maybe in some way and directly cost lives. Now, I can relate, I will say to give her a little

00:06:49.080 bit more of the benefit of the doubt, I can relate to her thinking that says, I'm not being political.

00:06:55.160 I'm just saying that something that I know was true and I know is biblically true, because as a

00:07:00.960 Christian, you don't make political statements unless you believe they align with scripture,

00:07:05.000 or at least that they're not against scripture. For example, like I'm pretty clear that I think most

00:07:10.960 progressive policies and ideas are not supported by scripture. However, I also know that the Bible

00:07:16.540 doesn't directly speak to every single policy and God is not Republican or Democrat. And I should

00:07:23.000 never try to pretend that he is. Therefore, you will not hear me say that, for example,

00:07:28.200 you believing in single payer health care means that you don't love Jesus, or even you believing

00:07:33.060 in open borders means that you're not following Jesus. I think those policies are really destructive

00:07:39.600 and that they can lead to real, tangible, significant harm for people. They might be helpful to some

00:07:46.080 people on one side of the equation, but I think the harm outweighs the benefits when it comes to those

00:07:51.380 two policies. And those are just two examples. And I could make the argument that voting Democrat at

00:07:57.360 all means that you are not loving your neighbor. I could make that argument. I could say that you're

00:08:01.560 not loving your unborn neighbor by voting for the party that not only openly and brazenly celebrates

00:08:07.240 abortion as a sacred right, but also forces taxpayers to fund the killing of babies. I could say you're not

00:08:13.300 loving your neighbor by voting for the party whose policies have decimated every major city in the

00:08:18.480 United States. Progressive progressive district attorneys, mayors, city council and school board

00:08:25.640 members. Judges have brought absolute destruction on cities like Austin, Houston, where Beth Moore lives,

00:08:34.420 by the way, according to her Twitter page, L.A., San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York, D.C., Chicago,

00:08:41.800 Atlanta. They have hurt these cities through policies that enable and encourage a rise in

00:08:49.040 violent crime and murder. Tent cities, public drug use, public defecation, general chaos and

00:08:54.900 deterioration. So I could say you're not loving your poor neighbor by voting for the party restricting

00:09:01.180 the police's ability to serve in poor minority neighborhoods in the name of anti-racism. That's

00:09:07.800 the only security that poor women and children have. And it's a problem that you and your suburbs

00:09:12.700 will likely never have to bear the brunt of. It's not loving your poor neighbor by voting for the

00:09:17.460 party against allowing families to have school choice for their kids. I'm sorry, you can't tell

00:09:22.640 me that the cities who are enabling lawlessness and inescapable dependence on the government are doing

00:09:27.900 a better job of loving their neighbor because they're requiring everyone who is not living on the

00:09:32.900 street to wear a mask when they're in public. So you see how easy that is to make those kinds of

00:09:39.320 arguments like we could do this all day and someone from the other side of the aisle could level the

00:09:44.380 same charges against me. I think it's wrong to vote Democrat. I do. That does not mean that I think

00:09:50.280 Republicans are anywhere close to perfect, but I think Democratic policies, especially today,

00:09:55.580 are destructive. But, and here's my point, I know people who love Jesus who voted Democrat in the last

00:10:04.600 election. And even though I think their reasoning is really faulty, I see the sincerity of their faith

00:10:10.560 and the fruit in their life. And I hope that even though they may disagree with me on certain things,

00:10:15.660 they would give me the same benefit of the doubt. Now, I do typically see Christians who start voting

00:10:21.560 Democrat, also start becoming more liberal theologically, but that's a different subject.

00:10:26.960 I do believe these people in their hearts love their neighbors and they are voting in a way they

00:10:33.140 think is helpful. I am voting in a way I think is most helpful. Politics is a way to love your

00:10:40.040 neighbors because policies affect people, as we say so often, especially the most vulnerable.

00:10:44.900 But it is not the only or even the primary way to love your neighbors. What I think we see reflected

00:10:50.440 most in Jesus' ministry is that loving your neighbor most powerfully is found in the direct

00:10:56.520 personal voluntary meeting of a person's needs. That means if someone, in my opinion, erroneously

00:11:03.440 votes Democrat, but I see that person's kindness and gentleness and goodness and faithfulness to the

00:11:09.420 truth of God's Word and love for their fellow man, I'm not going to accuse that person of not

00:11:15.260 following Jesus or not loving their neighbor. So all this to say, and this may not seem like it

00:11:21.520 relates to Beth's thread, but it does. I'm coming back around to that. Because my point is that people

00:11:27.400 can do and believe and advocate for different things than I do, political or not. And unless those

00:11:33.900 things are in direct and intentional contradiction to scripture and the gospel, for example, I think

00:11:40.860 advocating for abortion is in direct contradiction to scripture. I do not believe it's right to accuse

00:11:47.460 that person of not loving Jesus and those around them. Even some things that I believe to be unbiblical,

00:11:54.400 like open borders, and really tangibly harmful to both the migrants and the people living here,

00:12:01.220 I recognize that this is not a salvation issue. And if you're saying that someone isn't following Jesus

00:12:07.060 because they're not wearing a mask, you're basically saying that they're not a Christian.

00:12:11.740 That's what I take from Beth Moore's thread. Now, I know what the pushback may be, that a mask isn't

00:12:19.080 political. It's a direct way to love your neighbor. But see, I've just listed some very real things that

00:12:25.200 I believe are unloving to your neighbor that you are enabling by voting Democrat. And you may disagree,

00:12:31.040 and that's fine. But the point is that we all do things that can be interpreted as selfish or

00:12:37.700 unloving. And this does seem like a log in your own eye situation here when we're talking about

00:12:46.880 masks and not wearing masks being a symbol of not loving your neighbor. So you're telling me the person

00:12:54.540 who gives their time and their money and their energy to helping those in need, but doesn't believe

00:13:00.000 there's a good reason to wear a mask in most places? Is it following Jesus? Like, what if this

00:13:05.840 person has read the data and is convinced that it's really not that effective? Because look, the reality

00:13:12.540 is the evidence is mixed on masks. The largest study on masks was a Dutch study, we will link it in the

00:13:19.780 description to this podcast, that found that masks do not prevent infection for the wearer, but may,

00:13:26.840 keyword may, prevent the spread of infection. The study, however, could not really prove the latter

00:13:33.960 because everyone in the study was healthy. So really the best evidence that we have that masks

00:13:39.360 mitigate the spread is theoretical. 895 masks are proven to be able to definitely stop the particles,

00:13:47.640 we know that. But surgical masks, we also know help less. Cloth masks help even less than that.

00:13:54.340 So then, by Beth Moore's logic, is it fair to say that only wearing a cloth mask is not loving your

00:14:01.100 neighbor? Wouldn't it be fair to say that you have to be wearing an N95 mask to love your neighbor?

00:14:07.560 Like, if we're going to go in that direction of logic? It really, this goes to a much bigger question.

00:14:14.940 The question is, like, what actually is loving your neighbor? Like, how much do you have to pay?

00:14:22.260 And how much do you have to give up for yourself and your family to love your neighbor? Like,

00:14:30.460 what really is the definition? I do think in some instances, it can be more loving to wear a mask.

00:14:37.880 Like, if you have a friend who is immunocompromised, who says, hey, look, I would love for you to come

00:14:44.360 over and drink coffee and hang out with me. But look, it would make me a lot more comfortable

00:14:50.160 if you wore a mask. I personally do think the loving thing to do, it's such like a low cost to

00:14:55.360 me. If that makes my friend more comfortable, you know, even whether they're immunocompromised or not,

00:15:01.220 and they want to hang out with me and they need some encouragement and fellowship, and I'm going

00:15:05.160 to go over to their house and they tell me they'd be more comfortable if I wore a mask, then I'm going

00:15:09.760 to wear a mask because that's not a big deal. Now, if, say that friend was coming over to my house

00:15:16.600 and that friend had a toddler and say, I have a pool in my backyard. And that friend says, look,

00:15:23.520 in order for me to come over to your house today, I'm going to need you to buy one of those fences

00:15:30.800 that goes around your pool because I am nervous about my child drowning in your pool. Now, those

00:15:37.920 fences are really expensive. They're probably five to $10,000 in some cases. Maybe some are a little bit

00:15:43.060 cheaper, but you have to get someone to come out and put the fence up. Like, it's a very complicated

00:15:47.100 process. I might say, you know what? Like, I really care about your child's life a lot, but let's maybe

00:15:53.760 take some other measures to prevent a drowning accident because I obviously don't want that to

00:15:59.300 happen either. But hey, like, I'm probably not going to spend $5,000 doing that when there are other

00:16:06.300 things that we can do to prevent that from happening or we can go a different place. Like, is that not

00:16:11.320 loving my neighbor because I am not willing to pay that cost for them to feel comfortable and to

00:16:19.400 mitigate a particular risk? Like, I think that these are very fair questions that we need to ask

00:16:25.180 ourselves. And when it comes to masks, especially because there is a lot of really shaky evidence

00:16:32.120 that you are doing a whole lot by wearing a mask. Are you loving your neighbor to wear a mask when you go

00:16:39.460 into Target or into the grocery store? I personally don't think so because now you could make other

00:16:46.120 arguments for wearing it, but we're talking about specifically loving your neighbor. I don't think so

00:16:51.160 because that's not how the virus spreads. And so if you're going into Target, you're probably not going

00:16:56.140 to be within six feet of someone. And so how are you actually loving your neighbor by wearing a mask?

00:17:02.280 And if you know for a fact that you're not sick, like I know we talk about asymptomatic spread,

00:17:06.580 but even the evidence on asymptomatic spread being something that is actually driving the virus,

00:17:11.780 that evidence is also shaky. So we're talking about a lot of theory, a lot of shaky evidence.

00:17:17.640 And if you are judging someone's love for Jesus and love for neighbor based on shaky evidence of cloth

00:17:24.040 masks being worn in places like grocery stores, I just don't think that's very good theology.

00:17:29.140 And I also, I don't think that's actually very loving to make that kind of judgment. Again,

00:17:33.840 it seems like a log in your own eye kind of situation here that we are warned about

00:17:38.500 very thoroughly in Matthew 7 and in other places like Romans 2.

00:17:52.240 And so I just, I'm not sure that this logic holds up. And if we look at other statistics,

00:17:58.160 for example, like the 2017 through 2018 flu season, it was a really, really bad flu season.

00:18:05.940 The CDC estimates that over 640 kids died from the flu in 2017 to 2018. And that's just a few month

00:18:14.920 period. And we've only had about 400 kids in the past year and a half die involving COVID. And that's

00:18:24.040 the CDC's terminology. And I'm actually going to, just as an aside, I am going to make a separate

00:18:29.860 video and a whole separate post talking about kids specifically wearing masks and kids in COVID.

00:18:35.820 I'm going to include all the links and all of that for you, because a lot of you guys have been

00:18:39.220 asking me about that. But I mean, that was a very severe flu season. There were 11 million kids

00:18:46.860 that tested positive for the flu, a little over 640 kids that are estimated to have died from the flu.

00:18:53.240 In those few months of the flu season. And we don't even talk about it. Like, I highly doubt

00:19:00.700 that Beth Moore wore a mask. Like, was she socially distancing during that time? Like,

00:19:06.120 we didn't blame that flu on Donald Trump. Like, as far as I know, there weren't a bunch of think

00:19:12.360 pieces, you know, blaming Christian conservative anti-vaxxers on the hundreds and hundreds of kids

00:19:19.220 that died from that. And there were tens of thousands of people and other age groups that

00:19:23.780 died of the flu in 2017 to 2018. And like, we didn't take any measures. We didn't pull kids out

00:19:30.280 of school. We didn't say, hey, you should probably virtually learn and isolate. And we could have,

00:19:36.000 and that could have saved lives, by the way. Maybe it could have. If after a hundred kids died from

00:19:41.740 the flu, we said, you know what, we're going to pull all kids out of school. We're going to shut

00:19:45.960 down the economy. And we're going to make sure that, you know, we're going to limit movement.

00:19:50.920 Everyone's going to have to wear a mask. I mean, we could have done that. That could have saved lives.

00:19:56.080 But we made some kind of calculation. Or maybe we just didn't even think it was an important

00:20:00.940 enough thing to make any kind of calculation. But someone made a calculation somewhere that said,

00:20:06.640 it's not worth it. And that might sound calloused, but that's exactly what happened.

00:20:10.500 Like, there were calculations that were made, I guess, in that flu season that said, even though

00:20:16.280 there are hundreds of kids dying from this right now, even though there are thousands of people

00:20:20.460 across the country dying from this, we're not going to close down schools because kids have to be in

00:20:25.260 schools. We're not going to wear masks because that would, you know, cause a lot of trouble.

00:20:29.920 And so I'm just wondering, like, what changed, especially if we're talking about protecting

00:20:34.200 kids and protecting immunocompromised people, which are at a comparable risk of the flu

00:20:40.080 every year? Like, what changed in those calculations? Like, why wasn't it not loving

00:20:45.980 your neighbor in 2017 to 2018 to not wear a mask or to stay inside or to not go somewhere? Like,

00:20:57.260 when did the logic change? That's what I want to know. Now, I understand that COVID is a lot

00:21:04.040 deadlier than the flu for particular groups. That's true, but it's not necessarily deadlier

00:21:12.760 for very, very vulnerable populations in general. It's not deadlier for kids in general. And so could

00:21:21.940 you make the argument by Beth Moore's logic that you not staying home and not wearing a mask in 2017

00:21:28.500 to 2018, you weren't loving your child's neighbor by doing that? So my point is that this is really

00:21:35.960 messy. Like, it's a really complex, it's really complicated because again, we go back to how much

00:21:43.180 do I have to pay? How much do I have to sacrifice in order to be considered loving to my neighbor? Like,

00:21:51.040 how much do I have to sacrifice my kids' well-being in order to love my neighbor? Like, if a parent thinks

00:22:00.780 that their kid, especially like their two-year-old, is harmed from wearing a mask, that it's not healthy

00:22:07.740 for them, that it's not good for them, are you saying that they're not loving their neighbor by

00:22:13.120 refusing to allow their kids to wear masks? Because the truth is, like, we take risks every day. We take

00:22:20.020 risks every day that could negatively harm someone around us. Every time you get in your car, every

00:22:27.500 time you go out and really do anything, like, you are doing something that could negatively impact

00:22:33.940 someone around you. Are you telling me that you have never gone out, you've never gone in public

00:22:39.100 with the sniffles? Or even maybe knowing that you have a cold or knowing that you have the flu,

00:22:44.520 you're telling me that you never ran to the grocery store to get something, knowing that it's possible

00:22:48.400 that you could transfer that sickness to someone else? Or are you telling me that that wasn't loving

00:22:53.340 Jesus when you did that? Like, everyone takes risks. I definitely think as far as we can, like,

00:23:01.500 we shouldn't go in public when we're sick or send your kids to daycare or school when they're sick.

00:23:07.380 Yes, I think that could be seen as a form of selfishness. All I'm saying is that this is

00:23:14.300 extremely judgmental when there are so many other factors and so many other points and so many other

00:23:21.600 data points that come into play when it comes to wearing masks and a lot of the mitigation measures

00:23:27.200 that we have taken when it comes to COVID. So to say outright that someone who refuses to wear a mask

00:23:34.200 in public is not loving their neighbor, I just don't think holds up to scrutiny. I hope that makes

00:23:41.400 sense. I'm willing to hear your perspective on it. But I've seen this over and over and Kamala Harris,

00:23:47.400 who, I mean, I don't want to hear what Kamala Harris has to say about loving your neighbor.

00:23:53.100 She said, you know, getting the vaccine is loving your neighbor. That's a whole other thing. Once

00:23:57.720 again, there's so many factors and so many angles from which to approach that, that I just don't think

00:24:05.000 you can say across the board that that is what it means to love your neighbor. I don't want to hear,

00:24:09.140 I don't want to hear from Kamala Harris, who believes that late term abortion is a human

00:24:17.120 right. I don't want to hear from her what it means to love your neighbor. Like, I don't,

00:24:22.720 I don't see, I don't see fruit in her life. Like, I have no reason to believe that she's

00:24:27.520 a believer. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to hear from her what it means to love your neighbor.

00:24:31.480 And I think that, by the way, there are plenty of people on the right and the left that talk about

00:24:36.120 God and talk about Jesus, politicians I'm talking about that I have no idea if they're saved or not.

00:24:41.200 So I'm not just saying that because she's a Democrat, but certainly the things that she

00:24:44.000 advocates for, I mean, I think that I have a reason to question her trustworthiness when it comes

00:24:49.780 to her definition of loving your neighbor. So I just wanted to respond to all of that because a lot

00:24:56.440 of you asked me to respond to Beth Moore's little, little rant. She'll go back to pretending like she

00:25:04.480 is not political at all. Just own it. Just own it. It's okay to be political. It's okay to make

00:25:10.260 a political statement as a Christian, but don't pretend like you're not. That's, that's my, that's

00:25:15.620 one of my beefs with this whole thing. All right, that's it on that. It was a little bit of a ramble.

00:25:26.280 I know I was kind of thinking through the logic of that as I was speaking, but I hope it gave you

00:25:30.440 something to think about yourself. And like I said, I'm actually going to have a more organized

00:25:34.400 video and I'm going to be able to organize some resources and links for you guys when it comes to

00:25:40.900 specifically pediatric cases and kids wearing masks. Because a lot of you, so many of you every day

00:25:48.040 message me and say like, oh my gosh, my school district just mandated masks for kindergartners.

00:25:52.620 I got a message today from someone who said that your area is mandating masks in public

00:25:57.460 for kids as young as 24 months, two years old. I mean, that's insane. And I've got a lot of data

00:26:04.460 that I think rebuts any mandate for kids, especially that young wearing masks. And I'm not talking about

00:26:12.940 like data anecdotes from hollysholistics.com. If that's your website, I am not, I'm not shaming you.

00:26:20.280 I'm just saying that the data that I'm talking about is coming from medical journals, American Academy

00:26:26.240 of Pediatrics. And so I'm going to put all those together for you guys. I'm going to make it a

00:26:31.440 resource that you guys can refer back to. All right. I want to talk about Gen Z. I want to talk

00:26:38.580 about Generation Z because I talked about something on Instagram that got me a ton of messages and it

00:26:47.020 got me a lot of replies to the tweet that I put out about it. Basically, almost all affirming that's

00:26:53.120 my observations about Generation Z are true. And I said when I was first saying these observations

00:27:00.120 that I'm not trying to describe the generation as a whole. These are just anecdotes that I've

00:27:04.680 received from parents and members of Generation Z themselves talking about just some of the fear

00:27:10.660 and anxieties and propensity towards depression and insecurity and paranoia that a lot of people in

00:27:17.460 Gen Z have. And one of the things that I have noticed that got me thinking about this that I

00:27:24.120 really think is a unique phenomenon among this generation is the deferrence or the deferral of

00:27:31.020 driver's licenses. So I have heard from several parents over the past few years and from teenagers

00:27:37.580 that they don't want to get their driver's license when they turn 16 or that they get their permit when

00:27:43.460 they turn 15 because your parent makes you. But then after several years pass by and you still

00:27:50.100 don't want to get your driver's license, there are some people that messaged me said that you are in

00:27:55.260 your 20s and you still don't like to drive by yourself. There are people that parents that

00:28:00.340 messaged me that said like you have had to force your child to go get their driver's license so that

00:28:05.660 they can drive independently. And there's just not a desire for that. I've got a lot of teachers,

00:28:10.520 a lot of mentors, a lot of youth pastors that have messaged me and affirmed that this is really

00:28:15.300 true. This is really widespread, that a lot of young people have anxiety about driving with

00:28:20.520 themselves. Now, maybe part of that is good because there's a reason why insurance is so high for

00:28:27.960 especially boys who are 16 years old, but also girls, because the front part of your brain isn't

00:28:34.060 fully developed until you're about 25. And so your ability to be able to see long-term consequences,

00:28:40.760 even when you're driving on the road, to be able to deduce, okay, if I do this, this is going to

00:28:45.960 happen, it's extremely limited. And I know if you're a teenager listening to this, you don't think that's

00:28:50.440 true. Of course, I didn't think that was true either. But my driving record speaks to the reality

00:28:56.960 that I was reckless without really realizing that I was reckless or without trying to be reckless.

00:29:03.060 It's just that you are not able to kind of make those judgments very well when you are so young.

00:29:07.960 So part of me is like, okay, you know, maybe this is good. I wouldn't really mind if my kids

00:29:13.160 weren't, you know, dying to get out of the house and wanting to drive by themselves with all of their

00:29:18.340 friends when they're just 16 years old. But it struck me how different this is, how different this

00:29:23.160 attitude is from how I felt when I was 16 and how my friends felt. I mean, you were so cool if you

00:29:29.300 were one of the first people that got their driver's license. And it was such a bummer.

00:29:33.280 Like I was on the younger, younger part. Most people in my grade were born in 1991. And then

00:29:39.300 there are the other half of us, or the other percentage of us were born in 1992. And you

00:29:44.000 were considered kind of on the younger side if you were born in 92. And so I had to wait a little

00:29:48.500 bit to get my driver's license. And I loved driving around with my friends. One of my friends,

00:29:55.860 she was one of the first people, maybe she'll listen to this podcast. She was one of the first

00:29:59.420 people to get her driver's license. And she had this like old Buick. And it was just so cool for

00:30:05.140 her to pick me up from my house. And we would like listen to CDs. Now, if you're 17 years old,

00:30:09.520 maybe you don't know what a CD is. But this was before we, you know, primarily listened to,

00:30:17.060 you know, or primarily had Bluetooth or listened to listen to our iPods and all that stuff.

00:30:25.480 So it was just really cool to have that independence. And I just could not wait. I could

00:30:30.180 not wait to drive. I couldn't wait to be independent. I couldn't wait to go to college. I actually

00:30:34.460 specifically wanted to go out of state for college. And this was not because I didn't like

00:30:39.340 my parents or didn't like my friends in high school or didn't like, you know, Texas where I

00:30:44.620 grew up. I just wanted something different. Like I love the thought of independence. Of course,

00:30:49.480 this could also just be my personality. My dad says that I've been 26 years old since I was

00:30:54.520 six. And that is probably true. I've always loved the idea of being an adult. And I understand not

00:31:00.800 everyone is like this, but it seems like all of my friends were also very excited about the

00:31:05.200 independence that comes with getting older. And now it seems like it's the opposite, that there is

00:31:10.160 just no excitement for young people when it comes to being on your own, taking the risk of driving.

00:31:18.440 There is a risk that comes with this, but it even, I am hearing, bleeds over into their ability to

00:31:25.160 create relationships, specifically romantic relationships. Now, I do remember when I was like

00:31:31.100 in seventh grade, I think, yeah, I got my cell phone, a little flip phone when I was for Christmas,

00:31:36.980 when I was almost 13 years old. Now looking back, I think that was probably too young, but

00:31:41.600 texting with people was like really exciting. And texting boys was like really exciting. And then when

00:31:48.500 you would see them in person, you like wouldn't want to say anything, but you would have like,

00:31:52.280 you know, a thriving texting relationship. And then when you saw them at their locker, when you were in

00:31:57.400 middle school, you didn't want to say anything. So I remember that, but not when I was 18. Like now

00:32:02.680 I'm hearing 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds who talk to people on dating apps, who talk to people on

00:32:09.040 Snapchat. That's apparently the primary mode of communication who just are really scared to,

00:32:17.820 for guys to actually ask a girl out or to have any kind of like in-person meaningful relationship

00:32:27.100 or dating life in real life. And that is also very troubling to me. There seems to be, and I think

00:32:36.620 that the data shows this, a significant rise in anxiety and even I would say almost agoraphobia,

00:32:44.780 like the fear of going outside when it comes to young people. Now, I think the past year and a half

00:32:50.040 understandably has helped that, has, or not helped, but exacerbated that, worsened that, I should say.

00:32:56.360 But I think it happened before that. I think a lot of it has to do with social media. A lot of it has

00:33:02.420 to do with liking how we sound or liking how they sound, I should say, and look on social media versus

00:33:10.040 how they're able to present themselves and communicate and form relationships in real life.

00:33:15.440 I think that they, a lot of them have, have had parents who have produced that kind of anxiety in

00:33:24.380 them. Um, I think that living your life primarily virtually through technology on the internet,

00:33:31.000 through social media and parents who have allowed kids, uh, to do that and have not challenged them

00:33:36.960 to take risks and to build those kinds of in-person relationships. I think all of this and more has

00:33:43.300 played into a generation that is afraid of growing up, like a generation that is afraid of going out on

00:33:49.720 their own. Now, millennials did also, I would say younger millennials, like 1990s millennials like

00:33:56.140 me and even younger than me, um, also had that problem. I mean, we were talking about, you know,

00:34:01.360 five years ago, how millennials don't want to move out of their house, how they're living at home until

00:34:05.380 they're 30 and all that stuff. It seems to me that that is even more prevalent, um, in generation Z.

00:34:11.180 Now, not everyone of course is like that. I've talked to a lot of you who are in generation Z,

00:34:15.760 who don't feel that way, that you were excited to get your driver's license, or you have had a

00:34:20.160 boyfriend for a long time. You're excited to get married and all of these things, but I don't think

00:34:24.640 that's typical. I was actually looking, if I can pull it up, I will. I was looking at this, um,

00:34:30.160 album, uh, by some generation Z person, like, uh, this new album that came out and, um, all of the,

00:34:40.980 all of the, uh, uh, songs on the album were just about how like terrible life is. Okay. So this is

00:34:48.980 by, I pulled it up. So this is by Nessa Barrett. I don't know who this person is. This just goes to

00:34:54.400 show also that I'm old. Um, 5.7 million followers, this Nessa Barrett person, I've never heard of them.

00:35:01.680 So apparently this person's album came out. It's called Pretty Poison. And here are the seven songs.

00:35:07.760 One, Pretty Poison. Two, Keep Me Afraid. Three, I hope you're miserable until you're dead.

00:35:12.900 Four, Grave. Five, Scare Myself. Six, I want to die. Seven, Sincerely. Okay. Uh, so like if these

00:35:22.300 are the kinds of songs and the kinds of things that kids today are consuming that apparently

00:35:27.500 characterize how they feel, then I think that's a pretty, you know, that's a pretty sad, but accurate

00:35:33.200 indication of where their mental health is. And now I wrote about this a lot in my book

00:35:37.580 by the way, just shameless plug today is August 11th. It's been exactly a year since my book.

00:35:42.720 You're not enough. And that's okay. Came out. And we talk about this, actually this phenomenon of

00:35:47.740 just totally unstable mental health and, uh, how people really are riddled with all kinds of

00:35:54.880 anxiety and worry and, and fear and insecurity and paranoia. And we're told that the answer to that

00:36:00.920 is just to love yourself more. But I don't believe that because we're looking at a generation,

00:36:05.480 generation Z who has been absolutely conditioned to love themselves and focus on themselves and

00:36:10.700 rely on themselves completely, um, who have been encouraged to make everything about them,

00:36:16.500 um, and to put off any kind of inconvenience or sacrifice or risk. And they are the least

00:36:22.920 mentally healthy generation by far that we have. Whereas older generations who have gone through a

00:36:28.160 lot harder than we have, who have had a lot less luxury than we have, don't have the mental health

00:36:33.420 problems that young people have today. And so it doesn't make sense that in the age of self-love

00:36:39.040 and self-empowerment, um, that if those things are the answer, self-love and self-empowerment to

00:36:44.460 bad mental health, that we are continuing to see such bad mental health. Maybe the problem is,

00:36:49.560 is that we are encouraging young people to focus on themselves way too much, way too much. And that we

00:36:56.220 have convinced them that convenience and safety and insulation and comfort, um, are the most important

00:37:04.220 things in life and the things to value most in life. Um, and I think that that's a problem. Now I am

00:37:09.800 someone who I think my propensity as a parent will be to hover and will be to do anything I can to keep

00:37:17.920 my kids safe. I think that is going to be my tendency. It will take effort for me to make sure

00:37:24.760 that my kids are taking, um, make sure that my kids are taking calculated safe risks, uh, that my

00:37:31.560 kids are challenged, that my kids are able to, you know, obtain the independence at an age appropriate

00:37:38.920 time, um, that they need. It will be my tendency to try to keep my kids safe for as long as I can,

00:37:45.640 because that's just who I am. Like I can be a very anxious person, um, in that way. And so if that's

00:37:51.420 you as a parent, I understand that, but I think we can see, we can learn from generation Z that that's

00:37:55.940 actually not healthy. It's not healthy for kids to be scared all the time. It's not healthy for kids

00:38:00.900 to just stay home. It's not healthy for kids to not spread their wings and fly and to take those

00:38:05.980 calculated risks. There's some fear that comes to that, but I actually think that it's more important

00:38:11.000 to have strong and brave and bold kids than it is to have kids that are, that just want to stay home

00:38:17.600 all the time and not say anything that might ruffle feathers. I think another thing is like,

00:38:21.960 they're so addicted to perfectionism because all of their lives have been spit online and cancel

00:38:27.400 culture and online bullying is so rampant among kids that they don't want to say anything that might

00:38:32.340 go against the grain that might go against the mainstream. Think that's what characterizes a lot of

00:38:36.580 their politics that they haven't even really thought about whether abortion is right or wrong

00:38:41.360 or whether socialism is right or wrong or whether patriotism is a good thing that, you know, we should

00:38:46.220 don or take off. I don't think many of them have thought about that because they are so, so, so addicted

00:38:51.540 to groupthink. And they have seen when people go outside of groupthink, what happens to them, they become

00:38:57.380 these social pariahs. And that's the worst thing I think that you can be as a young person,

00:39:01.960 that they're really not willing to step out of the bounds of that. And we have so poorly modeled

00:39:07.600 what good debate and dialogue looks like, what it looks like to be able to have conversations,

00:39:13.320 I think. We're just modeling that so incredibly poorly as adults, as millennials, as, you know,

00:39:19.600 Gen X in general, that of course they're scared. Of course they're scared of those things. Of course

00:39:24.860 they're scared to swim upstream. And so I think that you unfortunately just have a lot of scared,

00:39:30.440 paranoid, insecure, self-centered group thinkers. And Generation Z, again, not all of you, and I'm

00:39:39.120 not criticizing you. I think a lot of it is a part of your environment. Some of it is your choices,

00:39:43.620 yes, but a lot of it is stuff that you have inherited, unfortunately, from older generations.

00:39:49.460 And the question is, because I think all of that stuff that I've listed is so unhealthy,

00:39:54.100 like how can you leverage the good things about your generation to be different from the people that

00:39:58.820 are only going to go with the flow when it comes to the negative aspects of your generation?

00:40:04.760 And I'll answer some of those questions in just one second.

00:40:12.620 All right. So here's my advice to Generation Z. And I've given, you know, different forms of this

00:40:18.560 advice before, and I'm speaking to someone who's 29. So I'm not speaking to someone who has like a ton

00:40:22.840 of more life experience than some of you, but I have been 17 before. And if I were in your same

00:40:28.200 position, like if I were 17 right now, I'd be the same way as you. So I don't think that I'm like,

00:40:33.740 that we're inherently better because we're older. And it's the same of every generation. Every

00:40:37.960 generation turns around and criticizes the previous generation. And I think some of that is valid and

00:40:42.040 some of that is not. Because the truth is, like if baby boomers were teenagers the same time

00:40:47.940 millennials were, they would have the same problems. And if I were a teenager now,

00:40:51.520 I'd have the same problems, the same negative characteristics that you do. But there are

00:40:56.980 characteristics that are not going to change just because, or there are characteristics of success,

00:41:02.680 I should say, that are not going to change just because you Generation Z have a hard time

00:41:07.800 embodying them. Because your bosses are not going to be Generation Z. Your bosses might not even be

00:41:14.480 millennials. Your bosses are probably going to be Gen X. And even for a while, still younger baby boomers.

00:41:20.140 I mean, baby boomers are still, there are some that are in their 50s. There are some that are

00:41:24.860 significantly older than that. But the youngest baby boomers, I believe, are in the latter parts

00:41:29.720 of their 50s. So they're still going to be your bosses, which means they come from a different

00:41:33.380 area than you. They have different values than you. And I do think that there's something to learn

00:41:38.020 from them. And yes, even to learn from us very old and wise millennials. And some of the things that I

00:41:44.160 would encourage you to do to stand apart from your generation, because there's good news about

00:41:49.680 your generation being agoraphobic, being so paranoid and scared and insecure and unwilling to take risks

00:41:55.340 and to work hard for the sake of working hard, to move out of their houses, to drive, to sacrifice

00:42:01.160 and embrace inconvenience and all of these things, is that there's a very low bar. There's a very low bar

00:42:06.940 for success. There's a very low bar for standing out. And so you will be able to stand out from your

00:42:12.700 generation by just taking a few steps. One of the things that I think that you can do is you can read

00:42:17.980 more than you scroll. I'm preaching to myself too, by the way. Something that I used to do a lot in high

00:42:22.600 school that I don't do as much as I used to was read. I didn't have the option to do Snapchat and stuff

00:42:28.820 in high school. So it's a little bit difficult. But I've got a whole recommended resources list on

00:42:36.880 my show that I can link in the description to this podcast that I recommend you go through. They're

00:42:42.220 not always the most exciting books in the world. But if you want to think differently and learn things

00:42:47.080 that are broader and bigger and more profound than your peers, especially if you're a teenager,

00:42:52.080 then I recommend reading rather than getting all of your news and information from Instagram and

00:42:56.340 Snapchat. Those Generation Z influencers that you follow on TikTok, even those other celebrities

00:43:02.120 that think that they know things about Palestine and Israel, that think that they know things about

00:43:06.240 the transgender issue, think that they know things about capitalism, socialism, all that stuff,

00:43:12.500 they probably don't. They probably don't know anything. You and I should both be learning from

00:43:18.700 people that are smarter than us, learning from people that know a lot more than us and have actually

00:43:22.940 studied this, not just from people who post pretty pictures on Instagram and are sharing the meme

00:43:27.420 that someone from some political campaign told them to share or paid them to share on social media.

00:43:33.940 So and even if you're not interested in just reading Thomas Sowell all day, which I understand,

00:43:38.440 like read fiction, read classics, read stuff that has nothing to do with politics or culture or anything.

00:43:45.100 Like your brain is getting exercised and is learning creativity, is learning how to communicate and

00:43:50.720 write when you are reading fiction, too. Now, I read a lot of trash fiction when I was in high school.

00:43:55.540 I was in high school when Twilight came out and that literally consumed my life for like years.

00:44:01.220 That's really sad. But I, you know, I read all that kind of trashy fiction when I was in high school.

00:44:06.540 Probably shouldn't have. I think that it probably was not good for me emotionally, but it's still,

00:44:13.880 I think, better than just than just scrolling. So I encourage you to read fiction,

00:44:19.240 read old fiction, maybe read some new fiction. Be careful about the values that it's promoting.

00:44:23.740 Make sure that you're a critical thinker through all of that. Read C.S. Lewis. Read the things that

00:44:28.020 are actually going to edify your mind. You will become a better writer. You'll become a better

00:44:32.120 talker. You'll become a better thinker. You'll become more creative that way. Those are all things

00:44:36.860 that are going to be lacking in people in your generation because your mind actually atrophies.

00:44:42.240 It actually weakens from spending all of your days on social media. And that leads me to the second

00:44:47.340 thing is that if you are a critical thinker, if you are asking questions about the things you read,

00:44:52.600 about the things that you see, about the things that you see shared, then you are already going

00:44:57.420 to be far and above most people your age. If everyone your age thinks something about something,

00:45:03.960 then you should just start questioning that. You should start with the question,

00:45:07.100 is that really true? You should use a search engine, which is a really wonderful part about

00:45:12.140 technology today to pick apart some of the things that people are saying in your generation to ask

00:45:17.960 yourself if the research really backs that up. And don't just look at the Huffington Post or Teen

00:45:22.280 Vogue to try to support your arguments. Because again, these are all going one direction. Just try for

00:45:28.280 a day to go against the grain of what you're thinking and really start breaking down people's

00:45:32.160 arguments and ask yourself if they make sense. So be a good reader, be a good thinker. The next one I

00:45:38.000 would say is be a good writer. This will always matter. I don't care how much we decide that we are

00:45:43.560 going to flout the rules of grammar, how much it doesn't matter how someone spells or the grammar

00:45:48.820 that people use. Look, if I am your boss, which maybe I will be one day. Who knows? Maybe I will be

00:45:55.020 some of your boss. If I am your boss, I care if you can use proper grammar. I care if you can write a

00:46:01.660 proper email. I care if you know how to form a sentence in a way that's not a comma splice or a

00:46:07.720 run-on. I care about that. And I guarantee you there are other people in my generation who may

00:46:12.500 be your bosses one day and older than us who care about that kind of thing. Be a good writer. There

00:46:17.900 will never be a lack of a need for a good communicator. It doesn't have to be your number

00:46:24.940 one thing that you're great at. You don't have to be this wonderful creative writer. You might be a

00:46:28.880 scientist, mathematician. All that is well and good, too. But something to keep in your back

00:46:33.400 pocket is to be a good writer. The way that you do that is you become a good reader or consistent

00:46:39.600 reader. That's one way, at least, to do that. And you can also practice writing all that good stuff.

00:46:44.340 And the last one is be a good communicator. Be able to hold a conversation with someone,

00:46:48.820 someone your age, someone of the opposite sex, someone who is older than you, someone who is younger

00:46:52.880 than you. Learn what it means to be adaptable and accommodating to people who are not like you.

00:46:58.180 That's one great thing about your generation is that your eyes are open to all different kinds

00:47:02.740 of people who don't look like you, who don't have the same background as you, who don't come from the

00:47:07.000 same socioeconomic class, religion as you. And all of that can grow a lot of compassion and empathy in

00:47:12.660 you. And I think that's all well and good. But you need to learn who you are, what your true identity

00:47:18.540 is. And I'm not talking about the million sexual identities that people make up on a daily basis on

00:47:23.320 TikTok. I'm talking about knowing why you're here, what your purpose is, knowing the God who made you,

00:47:29.420 knowing what your worldview is, especially if you're a Christian, which I assume if you're

00:47:32.720 listening to this podcast that you are, understand the Word of God, understand who He is and who you

00:47:38.520 are in light of what He has done for you. What is right and wrong and good and right and true

00:47:43.560 according to God's Word, not according to what Instagram influencers and TikTok influencers say.

00:47:48.140 Be confident in those things. And from that place, be able to have a confident conversation

00:47:53.300 and communication with people of all different ages and all different types around you.

00:47:58.660 That will, those things alone will make you a leader. Those things alone will make you a leader.

00:48:03.840 What else will make you a leader? And this is my last thing because I've got it in this,

00:48:07.540 is to refuse to be ridden by anxiety and the self-centeredness that causes anxiety.

00:48:14.740 So realizing, and this is so unfortunate, it's not your fault that you've been raised in an age that

00:48:20.840 you are made to think that you have to be everywhere at once and that you have to know

00:48:24.840 everything at once and that the weight of the world and climate change and climate hysteria and

00:48:31.060 the weight of every pandemic and the weight of every negative news story is on your shoulders and

00:48:35.340 you think you have to know about it and know what to do about it. That's not your fault that that is

00:48:41.280 weighing on you and has caused you to be anxious, but release that. Okay. The weight of the world is

00:48:46.640 not on your shoulders. You, like everyone else, you are finite. You are fallible. You need like

00:48:51.720 every human that has ever existed. This is just true about human nature. I heard a doctor say this

00:48:56.420 recently. You need a simple life. Okay. We all need to live simple lives. We need stable and simple

00:49:03.040 lives. Like kids need two parents that love them very much and that support them and that can help

00:49:10.080 them. Uh, kids need some kind of stability. And if you're raised in a home that is not stable,

00:49:14.940 you need to try to make your life as simple and as stable as possible. You need to join a church.

00:49:21.660 You need to get off social media. You need to stop thinking that every problem in the world

00:49:27.000 is on your shoulders, or you need to stop thinking that everyone is out to get you. You need to stop

00:49:31.880 thinking that death is knocking on your door every second. The fact of the matter is you need to leave a,

00:49:37.580 you need to lead a simple and stable life and be involved and rooted exactly where you are

00:49:43.720 and seek to make the lives of those around you better. I promise. I'm not saying that is

00:49:48.820 the cure for all anxiety and depression. I'm not saying that. I actually think counselors and

00:49:53.120 medication can all be very helpful, but I promise you it will help. I promise you. There's so much more

00:49:57.720 that I could say so much more on this, but I hope just a little bit of that is helpful. And if you

00:50:02.580 guys want me to do an expanded episode on something like that, I will. All right. That's all I've got

00:50:07.960 time for today. Please tune into tomorrow's episode. So important about the Great Reset and

00:50:13.520 everything that's happened over the past year and a half. It'll be a really, really good and

00:50:17.160 informative episode. And I will see you guys then.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - August 11, 2021

Ep 469 ｜ Responding to Beth Moore & Advice for Gen Z

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