Ep 537 ｜ The Josh Duggar Case： Is Purity Culture to Blame？
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the Josh Duggar case and what we can learn from it as Christians. We look at some of the reactions to the verdict and how we should look at this as Christians, as well as what we should do in the meantime.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Today
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we are going to talk about the Josh Duggar case and what we can learn from it. We'll
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look at some of the reactions to the verdict, respond to them, discuss how we should look
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at this as Christians. I will talk about what happened, what the case was, why he was charged
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and prosecuted, but I'll also kind of go down some different avenues that I thought of while
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I was preparing for this episode and some of the cultural issues and theological issues
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that I think this case speaks to. Before we get into all of that, I do want to just say
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that I am so sad and just heartbroken. It's gut-wrenching to look at the images and the
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video of the devastation in Kentucky and in what's called the Mid-South. I cannot imagine
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the pain that families are going through. I mean, definitely the pain of families who have
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physically lost not just their items, not just their possessions and their home, but also
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family members, friends. I mean, this is going to devastate communities for years to come.
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It is going to be so difficult to rebuild, not just physically, not just buildings, but also
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emotionally, financially for people. It's hard to even quantify the loss that is being experienced
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right now. But in the midst of the rubble, in the midst of the decay and the devastation,
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the church is showing up. There are Christians who are expending their time, their resources,
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their energy to ensure that people are cared for, to give people food, to give people shelter,
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to give people the resources that they need. And that is what the church does. Yes, we pray. Yes,
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we share the gospel. Yes, we love in the sense that we show people affection by giving them
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a hug and saying a kind word to them. But we also show up. We love through our actions. We are the
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hands and feet of Christ because we move forward with our feet, running into the chaos, running in
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to the destruction, running into the fire, not away from it. And we use our hands to put out fires,
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to rebuild, to help, to hold, to do what Christians have always done for all of Christian history.
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This is what the church does best. We run into the chaos and the confusion and the destruction.
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We rebuild. We bring peace. We bring clarity. And so as I am praying for everyone who lost someone,
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my gosh, there's just so much, there's so much sadness, guys. Like there's so much tragedy. There's so much
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corruption. And while this isn't a moral evil, there is still an evil and a sadness to,
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there's still an evil to, I think, be sad about here in the sense that this world is under
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under the curse of sin. And we are awaiting its restoration. We are awaiting the second coming
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of Christ when he is going to make all things new and he is going to rule in perfect peace. And we not
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only won't have any tornadoes or any hurricanes or any natural disasters, but we also won't have
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any corruption. We won't have any wickedness. We won't have any lying or manipulation or partisanship
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or any of the things that literally and figuratively tear us apart today. So there's something to mourn
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there. There is that moral aspect of it, theological aspect of it, in the sense that sin causes,
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in the grander sense, sin causes all destruction that we see and all decay that we see in the world.
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But thankfully, we have hope in Christ that he is going to make all things new and he is going to
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restore and reconcile all things to himself. And so that's one thing that we have to look forward to.
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But as I said, in the meantime, Christians are to run into the flames, run into the destruction and
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help to rebuild and to restore. And there are several organizations that are doing that.
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There are local churches that you can donate to. There are Samaritan's Purse. There is Convoy of
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Hope. And I have shared several links on my Instagram and my Instagram stories. And so I
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encourage you to go to my Instagram stories and to look at some of those. I'll save them to a highlight
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so they'll last longer than 24 hours. And so I encourage you to go look at that. And if there's
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nothing monetarily that you can do, then I do encourage you to pray the prayer of a righteous
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person, which is everyone who is in Christ, has great power. And already we see those prayers being
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answered and manifested through the work of the church and through the work of people who are
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just loving their neighbor by showing up and providing. And they'll continue to do that.
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And so in the midst of this tangible help that the church is bringing, we also pray that hearts are
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changed, that the gospel goes out and takes root. When it looks like God is doing one thing,
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he's doing a million things. And God's work doesn't always make headlines, but there are a million
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little glorifying things that are happening behind the scenes. People are being loved. Hearts are being
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changed. Souls are being won. Things are being restored and redeemed and reconciled. God is in the
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business of doing that. And he doesn't need a journalist to report on it in order for him to
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get the glory. God will get the glory. He will even get the glory in this. We know Romans 8, 28,
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God works all things according to the good of those who love him, even when we don't get it,
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even when everything looks exclusively bad. He is working and he is doing good things. If you are in
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the area, what I've been told is that local churches, local organizations need hands-on
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volunteers. They need people passing out the water bottles and the food and the supplies and all of
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that. I don't have, as I'm recording this on Monday morning, all of the information for which
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organizations are seeking help or how exactly to do that. My guess would be if you could connect to
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someone in the area, they could probably get you the information to be able to do that.
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If you are in Kentucky or somewhere close to these areas, then I would encourage you to,
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if you can, show up and help. This is, yes, what Christians do, but Americans in general are really
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good at this. Whenever disaster strikes, you see people driving, for example, from Dallas to Houston,
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or from Baton Rouge to Houston, or from Texas to Louisiana, wherever it is, it seems like Americans
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are so eager and ready to give their time and their energy to those who need help. I think that's really
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unique about the American experience and the American character, even in the midst of all of the bad that
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goes on here. Even in the midst of all of the corruption, Americans are really good, at least
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not necessarily the governments, but the constituents, the people are really good at taking care of their
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own. So let's lean into that even more. This won't be the last time that disaster strikes,
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unfortunately, but we can do what we can to try to help those who have been affected by it today.
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All right. I just wanted to give some comments there and some encouragement there. Now we're
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going to talk about this Josh Duggar case. So Josh Duggar bore the brunt of justice last week as he was
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found guilty for possessing child sex abuse material. Duggar, if you don't know, is the oldest child of
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Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. This starts at the long-running TLC show, 19 Kids and Counting. I think
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there was a subsequent show called Counting On. I don't know if he was in that show or not.
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Duggar, Josh Duggar and his wife, Anna, have seven children. Anna just welcomed their seventh child.
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This is not the first time that Josh Duggar has been in trouble. According to People Magazine,
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quote, in May 2015, a 2006 police report surfaced and revealed that he had been investigated as a teen
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for inappropriately touching five underage girls. Two of his sisters subsequently stepped forward as two
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of the victims. Josh publicly apologized for his, quote, wrongdoing. And this is also,
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according to People Magazine, quote, a few months after apologizing for his wrongdoing in the child
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molestation scandal, Duggar has confessed to cheating on his wife, Anna, developing an internet
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pornography addiction, and signing up for two paid subscriptions to Ashley Madison. Ashley Madison,
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People Magazine says, is an infidelity site, which prides itself with the motto,
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life is short, have an affair. Oh my gosh, that is demonic. Here is part of Duggar's statement that
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he released at the time in 2015, quote, I've been the biggest hypocrite ever while espousing faith
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and family values. I've secretly, over the last several years, been doing pornography on the
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internet, and this became a secret addiction, and I became unfaithful to my wife. The last few years,
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while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country, I was hiding my own
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personal failings. Josh Duggar says, as I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to
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choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all the hurt I have
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caused. So many, by being such a bad example, says Duggar, I humbly ask for your forgiveness.
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Please pray for my precious wife, Anna, and our family during this time. But obviously, there was more
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going on there, because in May of 2019, child sex abuse material, and that is the correct phraseology
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rather than child pornography, because all sex with a minor is sex abuse because a child cannot
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consent. So there was child sex abuse material that was found on a computer at a car dealership
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that Duggar owned, and this is according to Fox News, quote, federal authorities said they began
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investigating after a Little Rock police detective. Oh, let me let me just say, and you guys probably
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already know, that this is going to be disturbing. Some of the things, we're not going to get into any
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graphic depictions, obviously, of what was looked at, because we don't know, actually. I mean, maybe
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some people know more details, but I didn't go looking for all the details, and I don't think we need to
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know everything that he is guilty of. But still, we're talking about very sensitive and sad and disgusting
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subjects here. And so just FYI, I'm letting you know, as you could probably tell when you heard
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that we were talking about this, you probably don't want to listen to this episode with kids in the
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car. So again, according to Fox News, they began investigating after a Little Rock police detective
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found child, they say child porn files, were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent
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testified in May that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in
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2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned. The defense had argued that someone else
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downloaded or placed the child pornography onto the computer at Duggar's workplace, noting that no child
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pornography was found on Duggar's phone or laptop, but the jury was not swayed. The jury found him guilty
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on charges of possessing and receiving the child sex abuse material. The sentencing will happen in about
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four months. According to the judge, he faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines after
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his conviction. Okay, so first of all, right off the bat, 20 years, in my amateur opinion, ain't nearly
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enough for this. He apparently looked at child sexual abuse of toddlers. Okay, we're talking about two to
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three-year-olds being raped. 20 years for that? Now, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a judge. I wasn't part of
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the jury. I'm just saying that 20 years seems light for helping to create demand for the kind of material
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babies were raped to produce. And yes, I believe people who produce child sex abuse material should
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get the death penalty. No question. There are very few, very, very few crimes I think solicit the death
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penalty. Very few. But the production and distribution of the sexual abuse of children?
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Yes. Now, may someone share the gospel with the person who does that and may God change that
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person's heart? Absolutely. Even the most grotesque abuser alive, God can save and change 100%. But that
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does not negate the need for justice here on earth. You produce and distribute child sex abuse depictions,
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justice should be swift and final. I guarantee you, if we issued the death penalty swiftly and consistently
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for child pornographers and we upped the penalty even more for those who view the material, there'd be a big
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change. We cannot even fathom and should not even attempt to fathom the darkness and depravity present and
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the kinds of content Josh Duggar and others like him consumed. The physical and emotional and spiritual
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pain caused to helpless, innocent children for moments of fleeting, perverted pleasure? It's hard to think of
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anything more satanic. A millstone tied around someone's neck thrown into the sea would be a better
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consequence than what those people who do not repent of their sin will endure one day. And I know that
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what I'm about to say is kind of an aside, but, and kind of what I just said is a little bit of an aside
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and we'll get back to, we'll get back to the main point and talk more about this case. But I just want
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to take a moment to say and to remind you that children are the most marginalized, vulnerable group
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in the world. And our society hates them. Our society hates children. And I've seen that even
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more so in the past couple of years, whether it's sexual objectification, physical abuse, which has
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increased over the past couple of years, thanks to unfortunately kids who were, you know, locked out
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of their school, forced into their home, a lot of times with the people who were already abusing them.
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So that abuse just increased the abortion, the sick and unrelenting desire to indoctrinate
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kids with all kinds of confusion about their identity, the reproduction industry coupled with
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the redefining of the family, which equals babies and wombs becoming commodities, the COVID policies
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that have hurt them developmentally, socially, emotionally, and physically without providing
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them with any health benefits. The interests and the wellbeing of children are routinely disregarded
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and denied. Now, I'm not saying that all of these things that I just listed are on the
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same level by any means. I know some people are going to say that I said that. That's not
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what I said. That's not what I'm saying. I am giving you a range of examples that show
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how disregarded the interests and the wellbeing of children are. And as another aside, I do worry
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about this attitude towards children and this disinterest towards the interests and the needs
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of children getting worse as our birth rate declines as it is doing in the West. As more
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and more young people say they don't want kids. You don't have to be a parent to be compassionate
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towards children. You don't. I know a lot of people who are not parents who are so compassionate
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towards children. But for a lot of people, becoming a parent is what activates empathy for children.
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And even if you are already compassionate toward their plight, it is quadrupled, at least, when you
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have kids of your own. Because in every hurting child, you see your own child. And your heartache
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deepens and you're moved to advocate even more on their behalf. Matthew 19, 13 through 14.
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Then children were brought to him, to Jesus, that he might lay his hands on them and pray.
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The disciples rebuke to the people. But Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not
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hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. So it is no surprise that a world that hates God
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hates the children that he created and welcomed. Conversely, the church should be a refuge,
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a safe haven, a wall of protection for the children God created and welcomes. And too often,
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that is not the case. Too often, the church is where crimes against children are covered up,
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are excused, are handled internally, are blamed on the victim. The Bible is sometimes used and abused
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to justify the abuse of women and children in the church. Josh Duggar claimed, and maybe still claims,
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I don't know, to be a Christian. He worked for the Family Research Council for Crying Out Loud,
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which, by the way, is a great Christian organization. But he put up a front for them
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and everyone else to look like a good guy when apparently there was a lot going on
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behind the scenes in the deep crevices of his heart and mind. He was talking about the importance
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of heterosexual marriage when he himself was engaging in the abomination of an affair. He was
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touting family values and encouraging legislation based on Christian principles to the Republican
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Party while doing things that would destroy his family, destroy his Christian witness. He was acting
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as a husband and a dad, apparently still procreating with his wife while consuming the sexual abuse of
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children. And I suggest that that is worse, even worse, than a non-Christian doing the same things,
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committing the same heinous crimes. Why? Because of the hypocrisy. The one thing we see Jesus call out
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over and over again, in addition to lots of other sins, but one thing that we see him so consistently
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call out, and you can just see and read the hatred of this in his words, the thing that he hates,
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is looking good and holy on the outside while rotting with sin and depravity on the inside.
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And because of what that hypocrisy says to a non-believing world, I think in one sense,
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what Josh Duggar did while claiming to represent Christian values is worse than someone who doesn't
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claim to represent Christian values doing the same thing. So I don't blame people for saying that he is a
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hypocrite for being anti-LGBTQ and promoting family traditional values while having affairs and
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watching child sex abuse material. That is hypocritical. That is disgusting. That makes you
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a whitewashed tomb. You're giving one set of rules to others, acting like you are abiding by them when
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you're not actually abiding by God's law yourself. And honestly, Josh was doing much more harm to people
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by watching child sex abuse than some of the people that his work criticized. Now, sin is sin,
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yes, and harm is harm. But the hypocrisy, like I said, just adds another layer. Christians are called
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to a different standard, a holy standard. And we fall short, yes, but to point fingers in one direction
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toward another person's sin, while behind you is a whole host of hidden sin, the kind that actively,
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physically, sexually harms innocent children, that is just reprehensible beyond words. Now,
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he's not beyond God's grace and forgiveness and redemption. All of us, as Ephesians 2 says,
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are dead in sin. It is only by grace through faith that we are made alive in Christ. So that is still
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possible for Josh Duggar as it is possible for every murder, for every thief, for every abuser,
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for every kind of sinner in the world. And so as we condemn the actions of Josh Duggar, which are
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so disgusting and which God himself condemns, we all realize that we are sinners in need of salvation,
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in need of grace as well. Our sin doesn't look the same. It's not the same. And the imminent
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consequences are not the same. But we realize that we are all need of grace and mercy and forgiveness.
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But even in saying that, even in realizing that we are all sinners, that does not negate our
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responsibility to call an atrocity and an abomination. What is an atrocity and an abomination?
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Which is what Josh Duggar's actions and lifestyle was slash is. I don't know what he's up to now
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besides being in jail. It's devastating. This whole thing is devastating. It's so sad. My heart breaks
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for the victims, first and foremost. I'm also sad for his kids, who I know probably don't have the
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capacity, at least the younger kids, don't have the capacity to understand what's going on. They're
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not going to have a dad around. And I know that it's obviously good for Josh to be away from them.
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Totally in agreement on that. They are still going to be sad that they don't have their father. They
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don't understand, I'm sure, what he is guilty of. That hurts me for them. That really hurts me for
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them. I mean, there's going to be a lot of trauma that's dealt with here. I'm sad for his wife,
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who shockingly seems to be standing by him. She was seen holding his hand, walking into the courtroom.
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I'm sad that she's been through all this and will now be raising kids on her own. I'm sad for his
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siblings and for his parents. I know people want to throw all of them under the bus too. And
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I don't know very much about the Duggar parents and how they handled all of this. But at the end of
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the day, Josh Duggar is an adult who made his own decisions. A few siblings have released a
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statement, including Ginger Vuolo and her husband, Jeremy, who, by the way, are lovely people
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from everything that I know. They put out really good statements, thanking God for justice, expressing
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sympathy for the victims. I'm sure they're heartbroken and disgusted. And it's just not fair
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to indict the whole family because of the choices of one grown man. Now, there are people online not
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just pointing out the hypocrisy, which is fair, but also trying to claim that this is symptomatic of
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Christianity in the Republican Party. They are tweeting out pictures of Josh with Republican
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politicians. They're saying this is because of conservative theology within Christianity or purity
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culture. They're arguing that conservative evangelicalism and Republican values are
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what encourages and enables this kind of behavior, that it's toxic theology that makes this kind of
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stuff acceptable in the Duggar circles. Now, before I push back on that, I will say I don't know very
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much about the Duggar family theology. I know apparently it's some kind of fundamentalist theology, but even
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that word has been so misused and has a million different meanings and possibilities depending on who you're
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talking to. The women were raised not to wear pants. The parents decided early on not to use
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contraception, but there are a lot of people in a lot of different denominations that believe in the
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sinfulness of contraception, but well, specifically hormonal birth control, but really any kind of
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contraception. They obviously are very traditional. They're very conservative, certainly as far as gender
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roles go. There are some reports that say they're a part of some non-denominational
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religious organization, which with some seemingly, and again, this is based on reports of people who
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follow them much more closely than I do. Apparently, this organization has some cultish aspects to it,
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but here's the deal. With the Duggars, there's so much gossip about them online. There are so many
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conspiracy theories and salacious articles and assumptions about their private lives and what
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they believe. And the truth is, I don't know. I'm sure that now that many of them are adults, they and their
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families have their own Christian beliefs and probably don't share the same theology as their
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parents. Who knows? So I can't say that there was nothing in Josh's upbringing or in what he was taught that
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contributed to his actions. I don't know. But the truth is, none of us know. You really, you don't know. So you
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really can't say either way because none of us know everything that goes on in people's private
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lives. So in order to make the case that it's definitely conservatism and evangelicalism and
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purity culture in the Republican Party that caused this, you'd probably need to be able to make the
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same accusations against the rest of the siblings too, right? Like, can't you just simply say there are
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parts of a person's theology or background or belief system that you disagree with and you even find
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toxic without saying that it is the exclusive or even primary reason someone watched child sex abuse
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material? And come on. Like, we know this. We know that there are lots of non-Christian, non-conservative,
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non-so-called fundamentalist, non-Republicans who are sick perverts and abusers. We know that.
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All the guys in the CIA found guilty of watching child sex abuse material and then simply
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let off that we talked about last week that BuzzFeed reported on. You think these guys were
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some fundamentalist Baptists? Or what about Chris Cuomo's producer? This news just came out at CNN.
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John Griffin, who was just arrested for grooming and sexually abusing little girls, at least one girl
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as young as nine. A de Blasio employee a few years ago was arrested for possessing child sex abuse
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material. You think Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were big into Southern Baptist purity culture?
00:26:38.140
Remember back in March when the judge in Milwaukee, his name was Brett Blom, he headed up Drag Queen
00:26:46.460
Story Hour in his area and he was arrested for child pornography or child sex abuse material.
00:26:54.080
So don't even get me started. Don't even get me started on the fact that a lot of progressives
00:26:59.620
think it's normal for a grown man in fishnet tights and fake boobs to dance and read stories to little
00:27:05.660
kids in libraries. Or the child drag queen shows where grown men are throwing dollars at boys.
00:27:12.780
Or how about the story that I don't even think we ever talked about? This person named Alan Walker
00:27:17.340
at Old Dominion University, he argued for, he, she, I don't know, argued for the destigmatization of,
00:27:24.040
quote, minor attracted people. Or the Navy ship that was named after Harvey Milk, who so many on the
00:27:30.680
left idolize. And yet he preyed upon and raped a 16 year old boy when he was a grown man. Or the
00:27:38.720
thoroughly documented roving gangs of male Afghan immigrants throughout Europe attacking and raping
00:27:43.800
young girls. The list goes on and on of people not associated with conservatism or Christianity in
00:27:49.400
any way who are child predators and who aid in abet predation. So this idea that this is typical for the
00:27:55.800
right or for conservative Christians and that this is indicative in a broad sense of the toxicity of
00:28:02.260
conservatism politically or theologically, it doesn't hold up. Again, you could argue if you have
00:28:07.820
the facts to back it up that Josh's education and upbringing contributed to this in some way.
00:28:12.520
You could list specific beliefs that his denomination holds that you think encouraged this.
00:28:17.340
But does the rest of the family have this same problem? And is it not a problem in other belief
00:28:22.280
systems? The answer to the first, I believe, is no. And the answer to the second, I know, is no.
00:28:29.140
So we're going to have to dig a little deeper there. I'd also posit that if your first reaction
00:28:35.580
to the story is to find a way to blame Republicans, then you don't actually care about children.
00:28:40.560
You care about the left versus right battle. That's it. And that means you've got something very dark in
00:28:46.200
your heart that just needs a flashlight so you can examine it and clear out whatever decay
00:28:49.860
is rotting there. So here's the deal. God and his standards are the solution to the sin talked
00:29:01.080
about here and all sin, not the cause. God creating people in his image, as Genesis 1 tells us,
00:29:08.060
demanding that we love and care for those made in his image, giving us guidelines for how we should
00:29:13.140
treat one another and ourselves with respect as image bearers, giving us good parameters for sex
00:29:19.580
within a right definition of marriage and family. That, when abided by, leads to joy,
00:29:25.920
leads to fulfillment, leads to safety, leads to protection for women and children.
00:29:30.660
In Leviticus 20, we read that people in Israel and some of the sojourners with them had sacrificed
00:29:35.980
their children to a false god, an idol, Melech. And their punishment was the death penalty by stoning.
00:29:44.640
God abhorred their actions just as he abhors child sacrifice today, child abuse today.
00:29:50.420
He hates the trampling upon the vulnerable. We see that manifested so beautifully in the life of Jesus,
00:29:55.920
who specifically, specially attends to women and children in a way that was not societally normal
00:30:01.900
and condemns those who extort the weak and the powerless. God's commands for us in Scripture
00:30:09.020
are based on his holiness, his hatred for sin, and his love for us. He wants good things for us.
00:30:15.640
His boundaries and rules and precepts are good for people. I know you've got a lot of people saying
00:30:20.580
that the boundaries that are put forth by Christianity, by people who actually believe
00:30:26.940
that the word of God is authoritative, that those are the problems, that if we just liberate
00:30:32.380
ourselves from all sexual ethics and boundaries and people just do what they want to do at all
00:30:38.740
times, then somehow that's going to lead to better outcomes and more protection and safety for
00:30:43.460
children. It's the opposite. It's the opposite. His sexual ethic, his definition of right sex in
00:30:50.880
marriage is good. His definition of morality, of right and wrong is good. It's beneficial for us.
00:30:56.460
It's from God's definitions of all of these things that we have the basis for anything actually
00:31:03.040
good in society today. The concept of human rights being the most fundamental that would not exist
00:31:11.080
without Christianity in Scripture. The caring for children and the vulnerable would not exist so
00:31:18.160
prevalently in the West, at least as it has in history, without the foundation of Christianity
00:31:24.140
and Scripture. That doesn't mean that the West has always gotten it right or any country has always
00:31:28.960
gotten it right or the people within the church have always gotten it right, obviously, as we already
00:31:32.680
noted, because people are fallible. People are sinful. Institutions, countries, governments are made up of
00:31:38.060
fallible and sinful people. And so they are going to make mistakes on an individual and a systemic
00:31:45.780
level possibly. But anything good that has been accomplished, any good value that we have held
00:31:53.760
as a society has been because of Christianity, because of the God of the Bible. We want a society
00:32:00.280
that protects the vulnerable and honors sex and marriage in a healthy way. We will not get that
00:32:05.760
by running from the God who created those things. There's this really interesting article that I always
00:32:11.840
think about. It came out a few years ago, 2019. Yes, that was a few years ago, which is crazy,
00:32:17.200
by a man named Ralph Allen Smith called What Jeffrey Epstein Got Right. Sounds like a bit of a
00:32:26.460
scandalous title. But what he talks about is really interesting. And I'm just going to read you some of
00:32:30.800
that article. I wish I could read you the whole thing. I'll link it in the description to this episode.
00:32:34.440
But he says a lot of interesting stuff. And so I want to read you at least the most interesting
00:32:41.420
parts of it. So he said, quote, Jeffrey Epstein called our bluff. Writing in the New York Times,
00:32:45.960
James Stewart reports Epstein's opinion that criminalizing sex with teenage girls was a
00:32:49.900
cultural aberration and that at times in history, it was perfectly acceptable. Epstein was too
00:32:54.860
generous. What we now condemn as statutory rape didn't just occur at times in history. The unpleasant
00:32:59.600
truth is that historically speaking, using children, even relatively young children, as objects for men's
00:33:04.380
sexual satisfaction has been the rule, not the exception. What we call child abuse is a recent
00:33:09.860
category. It is not at all part of the way ancient peoples thought or acted. The ancient cradles of
00:33:15.900
civilization, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, did not have lost because the whole concept was simply
00:33:21.520
not part of who they were or what they believed. That's still the case in modern Muslim countries
00:33:26.520
that allow slavery. Some thought of as abuse or perverted. It was just what some men, actually very,
00:33:32.480
very many men did. So what happened to change all of this? Why is modern Western culture sensitive to
00:33:38.200
this matter? What made our modern postmodern world different? That is the question, but no one is
00:33:43.760
asking it. Why not? Because the answer is too embarrassing to admit. One thing and only one
00:33:50.040
thing happened to provoke a cultural revolution in one part of the world, though its influence has
00:33:54.540
reached others. I suspect anyone reading this essay will know very well what this revolution was.
00:33:59.860
Christianity and only Christianity transformed the way people viewed human sexual relationships by
00:34:05.740
universalizing the standards of the Old and New Testaments. The revolution was a slow process,
00:34:11.720
and the changes it brought varied from place to place. Often, the revolution was only in the
00:34:18.860
thinking of the Christian elite, like Augustine, whereas other sorts of elite gave lip service to
00:34:25.620
the ideas of the revolution, but in practice followed the good old ways. Satisfaction of sexual lust with
00:34:30.600
little discrimination about time, place, or means. The history of Europe includes too many examples to even
00:34:34.860
begin to offer a short list, but there was a real, even if gradual, change in thinking and social life.
00:34:39.820
Men in Europe were educated by the Christian church of every denomination to understand sex
00:34:44.040
as a gift of God intended for married man and woman. Within that sacred bond, it was, or should be,
00:34:49.560
holy, good, and beautiful. Outside of that sacred bond, it was forbidden. Consider the alternatives.
00:34:54.840
Was there any doctrine or practice in ancient Hinduism, a conglomeration of religious ideas and practices,
00:35:00.400
not a unified religion, that upheld the dignity of women and protected young women from abuse?
00:35:05.860
Just to ask the question is to answer it. The same is true for Buddhism. In Buddhism,
00:35:11.040
or in Theravada Buddhism, the oldest form of Buddhism, a woman has to be reborn as a man even
00:35:17.000
to have a chance at nirvana. Monogamy is not part of the religion or customs of the Buddhist lands.
00:35:22.760
Islam, of course, is the clearest example of all. According to Muslim sources, Muhammad
00:35:26.820
five years old and consummated the marriage when she was nine. At the time, child marriage was common
00:35:31.680
in the Arabic world, and what Muhammad did would not have been regarded as a prophet, became a
00:35:37.480
standard of righteousness for all time. Apparently, following the prophet's example, the Ayatollah
00:35:41.500
Khomeini is said to have married a 10-year-old girl. Allow what the modern West would call child
00:35:47.720
marriage. In none of those countries would the age of Epstein's young women be a problem. In fact,
00:35:52.200
in some Muslim countries, he could have married and divorced young women over and over without
00:35:56.620
legal problems. Ibn Saud, I don't know how to pronounce his name, the founder of Saudi Arabia
00:36:02.360
had as many as 300 wives, but as a good Muslim, never had more than four at a time. Only Christianity
00:36:07.840
required strict monogamy, clarifying the standard already implicit in Judaism. It is to the church's
00:36:13.200
shame that it has not been practiced as it should be. Abuses in Christian lands have been horrible as
00:36:19.020
well. But the Christian standard in Holy Scripture is clear. One man marries one woman until death
00:36:24.760
parts them. There is no specific requirement in the Bible about the age of marriage. However,
00:36:29.740
since childbearing is one purpose of marriage, it seems to be presupposed that the young woman to be
00:36:35.060
married should be of childbearing age. Strict monogamy and the dignity that the Bible as a whole,
00:36:40.420
and especially Jesus himself, accords to women, sets Christianity apart. In many ways, Epstein is
00:36:47.060
typical of the sexually liberated man of the 1960s. Sexual promiscuity is considered normal and
00:36:55.100
acceptable. Post-enlightenment, post-modern men, no history and comparative religion is on their side
00:37:00.280
when it comes to having sex with young boys or girls, not to mention animals. He talks about
00:37:06.700
Darwinism. If we are all just material objects, if we're all nothing more than grown clumps of cells,
00:37:13.840
then why can't a man or a woman simply follow his animal craving for sexual fulfillment? What could
00:37:20.620
possibly be the crime? Who could object to sex with young girls or boys, including small children?
00:37:26.340
He asks if all we are doing is following our animalistic urges that were put upon us by evolution.
00:37:35.720
It is only in biblical monogamy that one can find a standard that protects women and children from
00:37:40.560
predators. It is only if law requires and social custom adheres to Christian monogamy can one have
00:37:47.440
a society that upholds the dignity of men and women created as God's image and likeness. We've
00:37:52.900
jettisoned this heritage. Now everything goes. And in that setting, Epstein is not an aberration. He is
00:37:57.840
a symptom. Epstein was right. Our semi-Christian sexual standards are a historical aberration. He called
00:38:03.680
our bluff and forces us to make a choice. Either we embrace Christian standards or we create a world
00:38:08.700
of Epsteins, a world where Jeffrey Epstein looks a little less monstrous because we'll all have become
00:38:15.120
monsters. So the gospel is the answer. The gospel is the answer for people who profess to be Christians
00:38:23.060
but don't actually adhere to God's sexual ethics like Josh Duggar. The gospel is the answer for people
00:38:29.960
like Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. For every child abuser in existence, the gospel is the answer
00:38:34.980
both for forgiveness and the way forward. God's standards are the answer. If you look at Ephesians 5, which of
00:38:42.040
course, feminists and progressives throw out because it is seen as so patriarchal, the command that husbands
00:38:48.720
are to love their wives and wives are to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. The reality is, is that
00:38:54.440
structure, that command was radical at the time, not because it commanded husbands to, or not because it
00:39:01.740
commanded wives to submit to their husbands, but because it commanded husbands to love and to care for their
00:39:08.180
wives to the point of death, to the point of complete self-sacrifice. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ
00:39:13.980
loves the church and gave himself up for her. That was the standard that God called men to, that society at the time
00:39:20.560
was not calling men to. There was no protection for a woman, even within marriage, but God created
00:39:26.180
marriage, monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. God created the family for the protection
00:39:31.040
of women and children. God's ways always protect the most vulnerable. This is still God's world. He is
00:39:38.300
still the authority. He is still the answer for all of the problems that we face. Like I said, he and his
00:39:46.240
standards are the answer for those who profess to know him and yet act differently. His ways, his gospel
00:39:52.760
is the answer for those who don't know him and are committing some of the same sins and the same
00:39:59.460
crimes that we talked about today. We are not going to get good things by running away from God's
00:40:05.780
standards. We are only going to get a world that protects the most vulnerable by adhering to God's
00:40:13.360
standards for sex, for marriage, for self-respect, for respecting other people, for treating other
00:40:18.880
people with respect and with love. God and his standards are the answer. All right. So we're
00:40:26.860
talking about lots of different things this week. This is the last week that we are going to be in
00:40:31.360
studio. Starting next week, we will have pre-recorded episodes playing out. Next week will be some fun
00:40:38.400
Christmas episodes. I think I'll do a theology episode for next Thursday that is hopefully
00:40:43.240
encouraging to you right before Christmas. And then the next week, I'm having two awesome
00:40:48.500
conversations. Dr. Brett Weinstein, you probably know him. He is a scientist. He has been talking a
00:40:55.320
lot about how the government has totally fumbled the ball when it comes to their response to COVID.
00:41:00.940
He's been talking a lot about the vaccines and alternative treatments to COVID. But we're also going to
00:41:06.280
talk about, you know, he's a liberal. And we're also going to talk about how the left has become
00:41:11.960
so illiberal and the consequences that he's faced because of that. And we're also going to talk to
00:41:17.520
Victor Davis Hanson, who was one of the most brilliant people ever. And we're going to talk
00:41:22.420
about the state of the country and what the solutions might be for all of the problems that
00:41:27.660
we're facing. And so you can look forward to those four episodes coming out over the next couple of
00:41:32.560
weeks. Also, one of the episodes that we're doing next week will include some voicemails from you
00:41:37.400
guys that I asked for last week. So I asked you guys to send me your unpopular Christmas opinion.
00:41:46.880
So what is it? Like, what does everyone love about Christmas that you just think is weird,
00:41:51.360
that you don't like, that you don't enjoy? I want to hear it. I'll share some of my opinions too.
00:41:55.840
Leave me your voicemail and we'll play a few of them. Won't be able to play all of them,
00:41:59.960
but just leave it. Keep it, keep it quick. Keep it punchy. 682-503-1369. That's 682-503-1369.
00:42:09.520
Would love to hear your voicemail. Also, if you love this podcast, please leave a five-star review.
00:42:15.260
That would mean so much to us on Apple Podcasts. Thank you guys so much for listening. We will be