Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 568 ｜ The CDC's 'New' Speech Milestones & the Latest on Canada's Crackdown ｜ Guest： Pastor Steve Richardson

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

00:00:05.780 episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Craft beef, better than organic

00:00:11.380 chicken, all American made, shipped right to your front door. Use goodranchers.com slash

00:00:16.580 Allie, goodranchers.com slash Allie. All right, guys, we've got a lot to talk about today. We

00:00:31.200 are going to talk about a couple things. We are going to discuss the CDC quietly changing the

00:00:37.340 developmental communication, fine motor skills, milestones for toddlers, and what this may have

00:00:43.600 to do with the harms of mask wearing and virtual learning, lockdowns, things like that. We are

00:00:48.660 also going to talk to a Canadian pastor who has been on the ground in Ottawa, Canada, where the

00:00:55.240 protests are happening, where Justin Trudeau has seized the bank accounts of peaceful protesters

00:01:00.580 and has ordered the police to break up the demonstrations. The police are doing that.

00:01:04.580 They're following orders very violently, as we will see. So he is going to tell the truth about

00:01:09.820 what's going on there, because we keep hearing that these are violent protesters, they're terrorists,

00:01:14.600 they're fascists. Well, he is going to bust a lot of the myths that we have been hearing from

00:01:18.780 our propaganda peddlers here in the United States and in Canada. He is also going to deliver us a

00:01:24.740 message of gospel hope that I'm really excited for you to listen to, because man, that is what we

00:01:30.820 need in all of these crazy times. So first, before we get into that, I'm going to talk about this

00:01:35.720 CDC story. And then I'm going to tell you why we have to care about what's going on in Canada.

00:01:42.100 And I'm going to tell you why these stories, why the encroachment of the tyrannical government in

00:01:50.880 Canada matters so much for those of us who are in America. So I'm going to articulate that as clearly

00:01:57.620 and as emphatically as I possibly can, because there are too many people who just don't, who just,

00:02:04.260 quite frankly, don't get it and they need to. OK, the time is now for us to understand what's

00:02:10.760 happening in Canada and why it matters here. But first, before I get into all of that, let's talk

00:02:15.920 about this crazy CDC story, because I saw a lot of you freaking out about it on social media and

00:02:20.780 totally rightfully so. This is a crazy story. And some of you don't know this story and it's just

00:02:27.060 going to blow your mind. So the CDC has quietly changed many of the communication, fine motor skills,

00:02:35.560 developmental milestones for toddlers, specifically for ages about 18 months to 30 months. They've

00:02:44.460 changed the standard and they haven't just changed the standard. They've actually lowered the standard.

00:02:48.920 And you have a lot of speech pathologists who are speaking out, who are very angry about this

00:02:53.860 and are worried about the implications for kids. And I'll get into more of that in what they're

00:03:00.960 saying in just a second. Let me tell you, though, what exactly happened. So the CDC quietly changed

00:03:07.420 the developmental fine motor skills and communications milestones for toddlers. And so let me compare

00:03:15.820 what the milestones were in March of 2021 and what they have just changed it to without saying,

00:03:22.060 hey, here's the science behind this. Here is why we changed these milestones, which have been in place

00:03:27.500 for decades. By the way, this is not like, oh, they change it every few years as the data develops,

00:03:32.220 as the science comes out. And they are at odds with other organizations who are experts in young child

00:03:40.120 development and communication. So previously, the CDC was saying that two-year-olds, by the time they're,

00:03:47.240 by the time they turn two, they should be able to put sentences together that are two to four words.

00:03:52.060 They should be able to follow simple instruction. They should be able to point to things, name things

00:03:56.780 in a book, familiar things that they have seen before. They should be familiar with people,

00:04:04.160 the different kinds of people, their different body parts. But now they've actually lowered those

00:04:08.680 standards. So the CDC is saying that they should be able to point to things in a book when you ask.

00:04:14.320 So where is the bear? They should be able to point to that. They should be able to say two words

00:04:19.240 together rather than two to four word sentences, just two words together, like more milk. Points to

00:04:24.920 two body parts when you ask him to show you. Uses more gestures than just waving and pointing,

00:04:30.460 like blowing a kiss or nodding yes. Honestly, things like nodding yes and blowing a kiss, that's

00:04:35.900 something that kids really should be doing before two years old. So the CDC is changing these milestones

00:04:42.340 and they are lowering the standard for kids and communication. It's obvious that they are trying

00:04:51.800 to say that now two-year-olds really shouldn't be quite as independent when it comes to what they

00:04:58.140 are communicating. Really, they should still be, the CDC is now saying, kind of in responsive and

00:05:04.400 repetitive mode. But in reality, if you look at other standards by other pediatric organizations that

00:05:10.700 specialize in this kind of thing, speech development, communication for kids, by two years old,

00:05:16.700 they should really be past that. And while there is a range of development for children, these standards

00:05:22.960 are really important because they help parents understand when their child might need to go into

00:05:29.360 speech therapy or to look for early intervention or to simply work with their child more. Maybe parents,

00:05:36.480 they look at the standards and they say, okay, you know, my child is two years old and they're

00:05:40.500 only saying two words. I need to be working with them a little bit more and ensuring that they're

00:05:45.020 communicating better and more effectively. But now that the CDC has lowered these standards, again,

00:05:50.680 it seems arbitrarily they haven't revealed the science behind why parents aren't going to know

00:05:57.640 that they actually need to intervene. The CDC has also added a 30-month milestone. This did not exist

00:06:05.300 previously. And these markers include, says about 50 words, says two or more words with one action like

00:06:12.060 doggy run, names things in a book. When you point and ask, what is this? Says words like I, me, or we.

00:06:20.140 So this is at two and a half years old. The problem is, is that previously two-year-olds were supposed to

00:06:27.800 say more than 50 words. And according to the ASHA, if a two-year-old could not say 50 words, that was

00:06:35.040 actually a sign that that child needed some kind of intervention. They needed some kind of help.

00:06:39.580 They needed some kind of speech therapy. Now, again, because that standard is lowered and we don't

00:06:47.820 know why, parents aren't going to know to seek out the help that they need. So people are

00:06:56.020 understandably upset about this. They're frustrated with this because they feel like

00:07:01.680 the standards are just going to the least common denominator. And this is not actually going to

00:07:07.980 help kids who need the help. And this is not going to make kids better communicators. Simply lowering

00:07:15.260 the bar because so many kids are behind over the past two years is not what is going to help kids

00:07:23.660 develop in their language and communication and find motor skills. Providing the resources,

00:07:32.300 providing the tools, providing more resources and training for speech pathologists, more resources

00:07:38.120 for parents. That's what we need to be doing. What it seems like to me, and this is just speculation,

00:07:42.900 but it also seems like common sense, deductive reasoning. The CDC doesn't want to admit that mask

00:07:48.620 wearing on nursery workers, on babysitters, even on parents has been extremely detrimental to kids

00:07:57.160 development over the past couple of years. I mean, we've seen the data about this, that toddlers on

00:08:01.820 average have a lower IQ than kids that were born pre-pandemic on average. And they're not admitting 0.76

00:08:10.760 that this probably has to do with a lot of the arbitrary, unscientific restrictions and mask

00:08:16.740 mandates that have been put in place that have seriously affected kids. I mean, this is just

00:08:21.380 obvious. You don't have to be a speech pathologist to know this, although I happen to have talked to

00:08:25.620 a lot of speech pathologists. Their jobs, especially where they have to wear a mask, has been rendered

00:08:30.960 almost impossible. It is a normal part of human communication, human understanding to read lips.

00:08:37.340 It's actually very hard to understand what someone is saying when they are wearing a mask,

00:08:43.080 especially if you are learning language. I was on the plane a couple days ago with my husband. And

00:08:48.840 of course, we have to wear our masks and he's trying to say something to me, but he obviously doesn't

00:08:53.620 want to talk too loud because we're on an airplane. I literally could not for the life of me understand

00:08:59.320 what he was saying. He had to pull down his mask and use the same volume to communicate what he was

00:09:06.040 trying to say to me. I had to read his lips to understand what he was saying. I mean, you can

00:09:12.220 multiply that times 10 if you're talking about a child who is just learning how to talk, how to form

00:09:17.880 words. And then you can multiply that even more when you're talking about a child that either has

00:09:22.120 special needs or is just a little bit behind when it comes to speech. They're trying to learn how to

00:09:26.520 say their R's. They're trying to learn how to say their L's. They're trying to understand, especially kids

00:09:31.140 with autism, trying to understand human emotion, understanding facial expressions to try to mimic

00:09:38.360 those facial expressions and emotional reactions and also understand emotional reactions in other

00:09:43.700 people. I mean, that's also part of building empathy and good listening skills, not just good talking

00:09:48.820 skills. All of that is taken away with masks. And so to think that mask wearing wouldn't have

00:09:55.020 negatively affected kids in their most formative years, it's illogical. That is 1.00

00:10:00.780 anti-science. But we already know the CDC is an anti-science organization. I'm sure there are a lot of

00:10:06.680 great scientists that work there, but they are a political front and they are never going to admit

00:10:11.440 that they were wrong on masks. They were wrong on recommending any kind of virtual learning if they

00:10:16.780 ever when they ever did. They were wrong to side with the teachers unions and Democratic politicians

00:10:22.920 when it came to shutting down schools and lockdowns and things like that. They were wrong. And we may

00:10:28.780 have irreversibly damaged an entire generation. This also, I think, reflects really the progressive

00:10:35.360 ideology about anything when it comes to economic policy, when it comes to social policy, when it

00:10:40.100 comes to any kind of academic policy. They always try to achieve their convoluted versions of equity

00:10:46.840 and equality, not by trying to raise up those at the bottom, but by trying to lower the standard to

00:10:54.420 have some kind of fake definition of success. I'm sure you guys saw this story several weeks ago.

00:11:01.560 There was a story about a high school in Baltimore where it was like 70% of the graduating class

00:11:10.640 had a kindergarten reading level. Kindergarten reading level, guys. A lot of kindergartners go

00:11:16.700 into kindergarten not knowing how to read. And by the time they are finished with kindergarten,

00:11:21.420 I mean, they can read like really short words. We're talking about like the basic Dr. Seuss books

00:11:26.660 for a lot of kindergartners. You're talking about 18 year olds who could barely even read at a

00:11:32.740 kindergarten level. And yet the part of this story that was stunning was that they had this particular

00:11:39.120 high school still had like an 80% graduation rate. So what was going on there? Was it because all of

00:11:45.060 these kids just happened to be really good at math and science? They just happened to kind of be bad

00:11:49.060 readers. And so they were still, you know, graduating, reaching high standards in other

00:11:53.400 ways. No, it was because this school, just like schools in a lot of liberal areas, simply lowered

00:11:58.520 the standards. They didn't require them to be able to read hardly at all. They're almost, they're

00:12:02.880 basically illiterate. And you could be illiterate in this district and graduate from high school.

00:12:07.720 They lowered the standard to say, hey, we have this high graduation rate. That's what progressive

00:12:12.280 policy so often does. Even if you think about like the principles of socialism, it's not actually

00:12:17.260 uplifting those at the bottom. It's just taking away with the people at the top, not even people

00:12:22.460 at the top, but people in the middle have given it to those at the bottom. So everyone has equal

00:12:28.140 levels of misery. That's what the CDC story reminds me of. Rather than, again, equipping people who are 0.95

00:12:35.060 struggling to help kids who have fallen behind, especially over the past couple of years, we're just

00:12:40.200 going to make sure that all toddlers fall behind. And like, when did they catch up, by the way? Because it

00:12:45.200 has been known, again, for decades, that if a two-year-old can't do the things the CDC used to

00:12:50.460 say that they had to do, like speak 50 words or more, that that was a serious problem. That was

00:12:55.840 a developmental problem. Again, that necessitated intervention. So that's no longer the case. Like

00:13:01.800 if we're saying, okay, fine, you can be two and a half and you can be not saying 50 words. And just

00:13:06.440 for reference, like I have a two and a half year old. And I mean, she is very smart, but I, you know,

00:13:12.340 I think a lot of two-year-olds are like her. I mean, she's always loved like books and words and

00:13:17.640 songs and all of that. But she probably knows, because we keep track of this, she probably knows

00:13:22.520 300 words. She just loves, she's very observational. She loves naming things. And she just, sometimes she

00:13:28.860 just shocks me with how much she knows. And I don't even remember teaching her that, but she probably

00:13:33.160 knows 300 words. So that's, that's her. And then this is the CDC saying that when you're two and a half,

00:13:41.140 you shouldn't even know 50 words. Oh my goodness. She probably knew 50 words. Like, I don't know,

00:13:46.520 right after she turned one. And, you know, I think, yes, she is smart, but I think that there

00:13:52.280 are a lot of smart two-year-olds who we are now going to say, like other people don't have to try

00:13:57.960 to reach that standard. Talk about creating gaps. Like this is actually not going to create the equity

00:14:03.900 or equality that maybe the CDC and progressives say that they want, because I'm not going to stop

00:14:10.840 teaching my children and making sure that they know tons of words by the time they're two or two

00:14:15.540 and a half. I'm not going to start applying the CDC's lower standards to my kids. I'm going to ensure

00:14:23.160 that they know as much as humanly possible. But then maybe you have new parents who don't know any

00:14:28.500 better, who look at these new CDC standards and just think, well, yeah, 50 words is fine by two

00:14:33.460 and a half. And they're not going to get the intervention or the help or the speech pathology

00:14:36.740 that they need. This is a huge problem. So again, going back to my question, which I never really

00:14:40.960 fleshed out, like when, when do they catch up or are they just going to be set back for the rest of

00:14:47.620 their lives because of these lower standards? Are they going to be bad communicators, bad readers,

00:14:52.900 have bad reading comprehension for the rest of their lives? Like at what point do they get to

00:14:58.220 the standard that is necessary to be a productive working human being? And of course, it's hard not

00:15:03.440 to kind of get conspiratorial and ask if, is that, is that the purpose? Is the purpose to hold young

00:15:09.360 people back? I don't know. I just know that this is wrong. Again, the CDC is so untrustworthy.

00:15:15.160 It's so untrustworthy that of course people aren't going to listen to them when it comes to other health

00:15:20.460 measures because they are so, same with the American Academy of Pediatrics, they are so

00:15:25.060 political and they don't actually communicate the science, if there is any, behind the things that

00:15:31.160 they do. Never articulated science behind child, especially two-year-old mask wearing. They never

00:15:37.160 articulated the proper science behind how the vaccines were actually going to be effective. They've

00:15:43.480 never even articulated good science or provided good studies for universal mask wearing for adults.

00:15:49.140 And now, unfortunately, our kids are going to be negatively impacted by this. And this makes me

00:15:56.360 really sad. And I feel for a lot of you speech pathologists, you've been put in a really hard

00:16:00.540 place. I would just encourage you, even though I don't know everything that you do, I would just

00:16:04.780 encourage you to keep on raising the bar because you are why there can be high standards because you

00:16:11.060 help kids who just need a little extra help to reach the standards that are in place and have been in

00:16:17.120 place for a very long time for a reason. So keep pushing your kids, keep pulling out their potential.

00:16:22.920 What you do as a speech pathologist is so, so important. And don't worry about the CDC

00:16:28.980 lowering standards. They're a political, arbitrary, ideological, almost governing body at this point

00:16:38.680 that in a lot of ways, not always, but in a lot of ways really just needs to be ignored. At the very

00:16:43.620 least, they need to be rebuked. All right. That's all I want to say on that. There's a lot more that

00:16:48.280 we could say. Maybe we'll have a speech pathologist on sometime in the future to talk about why this is

00:16:53.200 such a big deal. I just wanted to give you my perspective as a mom. This just makes me really

00:16:57.480 sad. And I know that I speak for a lot of you when I say not my child, not my child. I don't look to the

00:17:04.440 CDC to tell me how advanced my child should be verbally. We should all be dedicated to as much

00:17:14.820 excellence as possible. One thing I want to say about that, I think it also has to do with not

00:17:18.900 just COVID stuff, but also just like the rise of virtual babysitters in that I think a lot of kids

00:17:25.100 are in front of screens more than they used to be. And that is probably negatively affecting

00:17:29.920 their development in some ways, in some ways, too. Probably. That's, again, just my guess. All

00:17:37.280 right. Okay. So before I get into the conversation with the pastor, Pastor Steve Richardson, let me tell

00:17:45.980 you why we've talked about Canada so much. So we typically focus on this show on American culture

00:17:52.960 wars and issues within the American church, but we've also dedicated quite a few episodes to Canadian

00:17:58.660 tyranny. And the reason for that is this. Canada is our closest ally. They're supposed to be a free

00:18:07.060 representative democracy. They're supposed to, alongside us, uphold the ideals of Western

00:18:12.980 civilization. They're supposed to respect freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of

00:18:19.140 protest, and the right to due process. And in the last year alone, they have failed on each of those

00:18:25.040 vital fronts. So they threw James Coates in prison last year for refusing to close the doors to his

00:18:31.800 church. And he was just one of a few pastors that were imprisoned for this crime. And the total lack

00:18:37.680 of outcry from Christians here in the States who pride themselves in, quote, speaking truth to power

00:18:43.320 and social justice and making good trouble was and still is appalling. And then you've got Bill C4,

00:18:51.160 which we've talked about, which is billed as a ban on conversion therapy, but is actually just an

00:18:57.880 outright criminalization of biblical counseling, of talk therapy and Christian speech. It is an attempt

00:19:03.940 to criminalize Christianity, which is in the business of conversion, not from gay to straight,

00:19:10.600 but from dead in sin to alive in Christ, which does involve repentance from a whole host of lifestyles

00:19:16.580 and behaviors. Thus, it is a bill, Bill C4, to make Christianity illegal. Now we are seeing Canada 0.59

00:19:24.660 crush the freedom to protest, arresting peaceful demonstrators, seizing their bank accounts so that

00:19:31.260 reportedly even family members of protesters are having difficulty withdrawing money. Trudeau invoked

00:19:36.660 emergency powers, something that has never been done to basically turn Ottawa into a police state.

00:19:42.420 This also violates the right to due process, all because truckers and other working class Canadians 1.00

00:19:49.520 were opposing, are opposing the vaccine mandates and the lockdowns and the restrictions that have

00:19:56.260 unscientifically and in such a draconian and cruel way have inhibited the lives and the freedoms

00:20:06.060 of Canadians. All because they resisted that. Trudeau and his regime have crushed them. So without

00:20:14.540 committing an actual crime, Canadians are being punished, left destitute because they disagree with

00:20:20.340 the government. And what are all the loud and proud pro-democracy leftists in America doing?

00:20:26.940 Nothing. They don't care. They think Trudeau, the same guy who said in 2013 on tape that he admires

00:20:34.960 China because of its, quote, basic dictatorship, is right for punishing these truckers and working 1.00

00:20:41.920 class families. They think it's great. They would not bat an eye if the police started spraying these

00:20:46.800 people with bullets. And how do I know? Because similar things have happened, have been happening in

00:20:52.240 countries like Australia and France for the past year. Peaceful anti-lockdown protests met with

00:20:57.160 brutal disproportionate police force. These are not just rumors. We can see on Twitter videos of this

00:21:03.800 happening. And the same people who claim to care about police brutality here just pretend like it

00:21:11.060 doesn't happen. And now they're saying that this is law and order in Canada. Okay, so just so I get

00:21:18.100 this straight. When BLM and Antifa are literally assaulting and murdering innocent people, they're

00:21:24.100 burning down buildings, they're ruining communities, filled with people who did nothing wrong. When

00:21:30.760 they're threatening to murder cops, that doesn't count as something that requires a police response,

00:21:36.700 but peaceful protesters in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France do. So violent riots are the voice

00:21:45.700 of the unheard, but peaceful protests aren't? Where's the bodily autonomy crowd, by the way? So you'll

00:21:52.360 march for your right to kill your baby, but not for someone's right to earn a living without getting a

00:21:57.840 vaccine that they don't want? Where are all the socialists? Wasn't it Karl Marx who said workers of the

00:22:03.920 world unite? They're uniting right now. They're literally uniting right now in Canada and in other

00:22:09.260 nations, and you're cheering on their oppression? So to everyone who looks back on the 20th

00:22:15.400 century, when tyrants came to rise in Italy and Germany and the Soviet Union and Cambodia,

00:22:22.380 and who says, I know I would have stood up for the people being targeted by the government. I would

00:22:28.580 have stood up for their freedoms. I would have been on the right side. Where do you stand right now?

00:22:34.100 Look at where you stand right now. That's where you would have stood then.

00:22:38.180 You know, I don't agree with many of the narratives and the arguments put forth by

00:22:44.280 Black Lives Matter. That's no surprise. There's so much propaganda that goes out after a news story

00:22:49.760 is released about a police officer and a black man. And yet, number one, I do think that they have

00:22:56.260 legitimate points about the power and the authority of the police and how that can be used arbitrarily,

00:23:05.260 and that can absolutely be used for oppression. I've always said that. And number two, I will always

00:23:10.380 defend, no matter how much I disagree with them at a certain point, I will always defend their right

00:23:15.220 to protest, their right to free speech. Same with pro-abortion groups. Same with just about any

00:23:20.300 group or cause or organization that exists. I will vehemently and publicly disagree with them,

00:23:25.540 but I will stand up for their ability to exercise their constitutional rights. I understand that's what it

00:23:31.020 takes to live in a free society. I want to live in a free society. I do agree with the protesters in

00:23:37.180 Canada. I agree with their aims. Vaccine mandates and lockdowns are oppressive. They're cruel. They're

00:23:42.000 unscientific. But I would disagree with them inflicting violence on innocent people and the

00:23:47.440 desecration of property, no matter how much I might agree with what they're fighting for or what

00:23:52.580 they're claiming to fight for. That's called a principle. Quite a few people apparently have never heard of

00:23:58.480 that. And to those who say, well, how could you care more about this? How could you care more about

00:24:04.400 Canada than what's going on in Ukraine? Russia is invading Ukraine and thousands of people may die

00:24:09.660 or become refugees because of that. And to answer that question or that critique, let me give you

00:24:15.380 a metaphor to explain. If something bad happens to a friend of yours, say they get mugged in the

00:24:21.900 neighborhood right next to your neighborhood, and then you turn on the news later and you see that a

00:24:27.340 stranger in another state was murdered by a gang. Are you a bad person for caring more about your

00:24:33.620 friend who was mugged a mile from your house than you care about the random person murdered? No,

00:24:40.500 that's normal. I would even say that's natural. Now, that doesn't mean that you think getting mugged is

00:24:45.200 worse than getting murdered. That doesn't mean that you don't care about the person who just got

00:24:49.740 murdered. It just means that you care about your friend and you care about yourself and your

00:24:55.280 family and their safety. I really think that's instinctive and that's normal and that's right.

00:25:01.220 That's what's going on here. I care more right now about what's going on in Canada than in Russia,

00:25:07.700 not because I think Russia should invade Ukraine or not because I don't think there will be

00:25:12.520 dire consequences to that. I think that's horrible. But that's also Russia. They are, 0.93

00:25:18.120 unfortunately, an imperialistic, brutal dictatorship. So I can say, yeah, that's really bad.

00:25:23.700 But look, we've also got really big problems in our own backyard right now. Plus, just to be honest,

00:25:31.760 I'm a little skeptical of the motivations of at least some or maybe even many of the politicians

00:25:36.920 and media saying that we have to care about Russia first and foremost or what's going on with Russia.

00:25:43.460 We have to care about Ukraine first and foremost for the sake of democracy and the sovereignty of

00:25:47.780 their borders. Well, first, again, many of those politicians are decidedly against democracy here

00:25:53.480 in the West. And two, these are many of the same people who don't care about enforcing our own

00:25:59.240 border laws. So why is the sovereignty of Ukraine and their borders more important than our own?

00:26:04.580 Like, isn't it kind of logical to be a little skeptical of the motivations of people who care

00:26:10.260 more about Ukraine's borders than our own? Why is it that so many of the same people who have no 0.95

00:26:15.520 problem with our borders being wide open are so concerned with the borders of an Eastern European

00:26:20.500 country that isn't even in some ways even all that democratic? We can say, yeah, what's going on in

00:26:28.520 Russia is bad categorically, objectively. Lots of countries do bad things, including China, which is way

00:26:36.500 more of an international threat, in my opinion, than Russia. And a lot of the same people who care so much

00:26:43.120 about what's going on in Ukraine don't care at all that that China has been colonizing countries in

00:26:48.800 South America and Africa for years and has said nothing about the fall of Hong Kong. So again, I'm

00:26:57.000 just a little skeptical about the motivations there. I'm not saying that what's happening in Russia and

00:27:01.960 Ukraine doesn't matter again or that I approve of it. I just care more right now about what is going on 1.00

00:27:11.160 in our backyard. I'm watching our closest ally, a supposedly democratic country, devolve into

00:27:17.700 tyranny. And that's not supposed to be high on my priority list. I would have to hate my own country,

00:27:24.800 be apathetic toward liberty and be totally calloused toward my children and their future to not be paying

00:27:30.440 super close attention to what's going on in Canada. Canada is a bellwether of what's to come in the

00:27:36.960 United States. So it is only right, logical, reasonable to dedicate my attention to this.

00:27:43.140 We will talk about Russia and Ukraine in the coming weeks and months, I'm sure, but not today.

00:27:48.140 Today, our eyes are here on the United States and on Canada. And in just one second, we are going to

00:27:54.400 talk to a pastor who is going to give us an up-close and personal look at what's actually going on

00:27:59.920 there and give us the Christian perspective. Okay, so one more thing before we actually start

00:28:06.860 that conversation, because I want to set this up and I want to give you a picture of what's

00:28:11.800 really going on, like why this is such a big deal, why I'm so fired up about this. If you're not on

00:28:18.420 Twitter, you haven't seen this because, of course, most of the mainstream media besides, you know,

00:28:22.980 the Blaze, Fox News and, you know, conservative media, they're not playing this stuff. And so I

00:28:29.820 just want you to see what's actually happening. First, we're going to play the protests, the

00:28:36.400 demonstrations themselves, which we've done a few times. Just to show you, this is not like some

00:28:43.600 violent insurrection. This is not a bunch of people desecrating property like we saw in several

00:28:50.180 cities in the United States last year in the name of so-called racial justice. I mean, these are

00:28:56.480 people, just normal, salt-of-the-earth people who are having a good time and truly trying to be as

00:29:02.780 peaceful as possible. So here's one piece of footage of a couple dancing that was taken this weekend.

00:29:20.180 So, I mean, that's just pure, like, does that look like, does that look like a protest or a

00:29:32.480 demonstration that needs to be broken up by police with batons? No, no, I don't, I don't think it does.

00:29:39.960 And I'm not saying that that's indicative of every single part of the protest, but talk to anyone who

00:29:45.320 has been there, who is not purposely trying to spout some kind of anti-conservative propaganda,

00:29:51.540 and they'll tell you that's what it's like. Spirits are high. People are trying to be joyful

00:29:55.720 and steadfast. And then here is the response of protesters. So I just want to set this up for

00:30:04.060 those of you who are just listening rather than watching on YouTube. This is, these are peaceful

00:30:09.360 protesters and you see a line of police officers who are trying to push back against them. And the

00:30:16.960 protesters are yelling at the, are yelling at the police officers, I love you. I love you. I mean,

00:30:25.280 that's incredible. Here's that clip.

00:30:27.060 So that loud bang that you heard is the police officers. That's their, that's their warning

00:30:51.980 bang. So you heard the protesters saying, I love you. I love you to the line of police officers.

00:30:56.240 And then you heard that loud bang, which is basically a warning that we're about to push

00:31:00.920 back against you until you leave. And as we will talk about with this pastor, and as you're about

00:31:05.320 to see, that also means abuse by the police. There was one clip that was going around of a woman who

00:31:12.560 had a walker who was at the protest, who was knocked over by a police officer on a horse. And then

00:31:20.160 you actually see the horse walking over this woman. She, um, was later hospitalized. Here's the footage

00:31:28.000 of that. So the Ottawa police of course is saying, Oh no, someone that no, someone threw a bicycle in

00:31:40.100 front of a horse and injured the horse. And we had to push, we had to push them out of the way. That is

00:31:45.180 an elderly woman. That's an elderly woman that is not a man with a bicycle. I mean, this is straight

00:31:51.920 out of, I mean, I know people are like, don't compare, don't compare to Nazi Germany. I'm not

00:31:57.980 saying it's the exact same thing as what happened to Nazi Germany. Okay. But as Brett Weinstein said

00:32:05.360 on this podcast, whenever you get in the same quadrant of any form of totalitarianism, it's time,

00:32:11.500 whenever you get to that proverbial segment of the library, that's when you look around and you say,

00:32:15.560 I don't think we should be here. I think we should head on out. That's what Canada needs to do right

00:32:20.120 now. They need to look at what's going on, whether you're on the right or the left. And you just say,

00:32:24.840 you know what? I think that we are in the wrong segment of the library. You can say it's not exactly

00:32:30.560 like Nazi Germany. I'm not saying that it is exactly like Nazi Germany, but there are too many 0.93

00:32:35.880 similarities, how the police are acting to what went on in the 20th century to say that it's,

00:32:43.340 oh, that's a little bit fascist-y for my comfort. All right. So that was the trampoline of the

00:32:49.220 elderly woman. She is alive. She did go to the hospital. She did get treated. There was some

00:32:54.040 misinformation about who she was going around. And then some people were saying that that's not true.

00:32:59.340 The Ottawa police saying that that clip was deceptively edited. If you watched it, like

00:33:02.900 there's no editing. I'm pretty, I think I'm pretty good at recognizing when something

00:33:08.320 is edited. I don't see how that could be changed by any context. If, I mean, I will be the first to

00:33:15.600 let you know. If so, I would love for there to be somehow more context to the police officers

00:33:22.220 trampling a woman with a walker. I would love to be corrected on that. All right. And then here's 1.00

00:33:29.460 more brutality from the police, which again, I just, there's just no amount of context that could

00:33:34.960 justify this. I mean, that just makes me want to cry. Makes me want to cry. You're seeing the police

00:33:55.560 knee this guy in the stomach who's not armed. He's just trying to defend himself, holding his hands

00:34:00.520 up. He starts crumpling to the ground. And then a wall of police officers tries to cover up the

00:34:07.700 beating, what's happening. And so that the camera can't see it. And then here's this woman. She is

00:34:14.680 in Ottawa. She is trying to get some coffee. And here's how the police handle that interaction.

00:34:20.640 I can't even go down there for a coffee. Go grab yourself in the red zone right now. If you don't

00:34:25.320 leave right now, you will be arrested. Do you understand me? I can't go for a coffee.

00:34:31.260 Grab yourself. If we see you, we'll be patrolling all day. We see you again. It'll be different.

00:34:37.160 Leave. I tell you. Take your camera and get out of here.

00:34:41.660 I mean, if you're not watching on YouTube, you really need to. It's hard for me to describe that.

00:34:46.080 She's filming it, obviously, with her phone at the end. You see the police officer grab her phone.

00:34:51.200 Like, push it down. And then you actually see the camera is then aimed right at the gun that's on

00:34:58.340 the holster. And he's saying, what did I tell you? If I see you again, it's going to be different.

00:35:03.040 What does that mean? So these people are being threatened, threatened with their lives. I mean,

00:35:09.240 they're being threatened with violence by the police in a so-called Western democracy

00:35:15.100 for peacefully protesting, for walking outside trying to get coffee. She's not doing anything. 0.85

00:35:20.640 And you're going to tell me this isn't the biggest freaking story in the world right now?

00:35:25.900 I'm sorry, but no. Thankfully, our guest is going to, well, his story is gut-wrenching,

00:35:33.680 but he's a lot calmer than I am about this. And so he's going to remind us, he's going to give us,

00:35:39.660 remind us of the peace of Christ and the hope that we have. And it's good too, because it's easy for me to

00:35:44.880 get very worked up about all of this. We have to care, but we have to balance it with trusting

00:35:50.920 God's sovereignty. And that's exactly the balance that our next guest brings us. So finally, no more

00:35:56.020 buildup. Without further ado, here is Pastor Steve Richardson. Pastor, thank you so much for joining

00:36:03.220 us. Can you tell everyone who you are and what you do? So I am Steve Richardson, pastor of New Life

00:36:10.040 Presbyterian Church in Tilsonburg, Ontario. And I've been following some of your tweets about what

00:36:16.640 is going on there in Ottawa and different parts of Canada. Can you tell our American audience who,

00:36:24.820 like a lot of Canadians, are basically just hearing the negative side of the story, or really what I

00:36:29.540 would say is propaganda, that these are violent protesters, they're breaking the law, and Trudeau

00:36:35.440 is just, you know, very gently kind of enforcing law and order so that Canadians can get back to

00:36:42.720 their life. What would you say to that as someone who has kind of been on the ground and talked to

00:36:47.940 people and who really knows what's going on? So I went up a couple weeks ago and met some of the

00:36:56.040 protesters, well, a number of protesters saw the kind of environment. It was a happy environment. The

00:37:01.120 message was peace and love. I know some of the truckers that are there and all of them fully

00:37:07.640 committed to peace. Their desire is simply that our freedoms, our liberties would be given back to us

00:37:13.700 as people. We'd have the right to make decisions for ourselves. So what I saw when I first went up was

00:37:19.080 just this very upbeat, positive atmosphere. I went back on Friday night and I ended up in Ottawa on

00:37:28.220 Saturday morning. And I went because I was seeing on social media what was happening, the brutality on

00:37:34.280 the part of the police, and I couldn't bear to just watch it and do nothing. So I went up and I, like the

00:37:40.100 others with me, took with me two other pastors and another fellow, and we went, also committed to be

00:37:46.080 peaceful. And so we joined with the remaining group that was there. And we watched as the police

00:37:53.920 began to make their, um, their march forward. And I can tell you that I was stunned right from the

00:38:01.320 beginning with the level of violence that was used on entirely unnecessarily. So just picture you've

00:38:08.020 got, you've got, uh, uh, uh, crowds of, uh, unarmed peaceful protesters. Some of them were, uh, hurling

00:38:15.740 insults and those became worse as the police became, uh, more violent, but you've got this, these rows of,

00:38:22.440 uh, officers armed, some with batons. Um, and, uh, all of a sudden they would begin to push and,

00:38:29.360 and move quickly and, and, uh, striking with their batons, retreating protesters. Uh, I myself was,

00:38:37.840 uh, on four separate occasions assaulted by a police officer, um, different officers, different scenarios.

00:38:45.340 Uh, and I can say that none of them were provoked. I wasn't hurling insults. Uh, I wasn't, uh,

00:38:51.100 involved in any kind of, uh, altercation at all. I was simply there with the people,

00:38:56.320 uh, just happened to get in the way. And when you say assaulted, what, what was that specifically?

00:39:02.460 The first time I was struck by a police officer in the head, um, and thrown to the ground. The second

00:39:08.440 time, um, I was trying to help, uh, a, an older man who had been knocked to the ground and was being

00:39:15.020 beaten. And I was struck with a baton. The third time I was set beside a truck driver who got out

00:39:21.840 of his truck. He got done. I had said to him, you know, we're with you. So he got done on his knees,

00:39:27.140 put his hands on his head and surrender. I decided to do the, do the same. I thought, okay, he's going

00:39:31.540 to be arrested. And I was watching how they were arresting these men. And every time they were

00:39:35.780 brutal, they didn't peacefully arrest these men. They were, they would often beat them.

00:39:39.700 And these are truckers. These are truckers who were, who had hands on their head in full

00:39:45.120 surrender, quiet surrender. So I'm sorry, I'm just going to pause for a second, just because I want

00:39:49.520 to make sure that everyone has the context. Not everyone has, a lot of people in America really

00:39:53.860 haven't been following this very closely. Of course, we've talked about it on our podcast a lot,

00:39:58.460 but the American media is focused, you know, on other things as you can imagine. And they're

00:40:03.440 certainly not covering what you are describing. So we know kind of what is, why the police are there

00:40:11.840 because of the emergency powers that were invoked by Justin Trudeau. And we know that the police have

00:40:18.000 been trying to basically break the back of these protests for the last week or so. You described

00:40:25.700 though, a couple minutes, minutes ago, I think it was in Ottawa that you said that you saw the police

00:40:31.080 marching forward. Like, tell me what that confrontation was like, like what, what exactly

00:40:38.020 did that look like? And when you're saying that you saw several instances of violence, police against

00:40:42.920 peaceful protesters, what exactly went down in those incidents? So if you can picture, you've got

00:40:50.640 the trucks, the remaining trucks were on one side and you've got a line of protesters who are standing

00:40:57.340 there in a sense trying to protect the truckers. But of course, without any weapons and without any

00:41:04.760 violence. I mean, they don't dare touch the police officers. No one did that I saw. And had they done

00:41:09.960 so, it would have gone very badly for them. So you've got the line of protesters and there's a face-off

00:41:16.520 and you've got rows and rows of police and various kinds of uniform. Some who are on, there's no

00:41:25.380 markings, no names, no badge numbers, and heavily armed, more police than there are protesters.

00:41:33.940 There would be a sudden loud bang and then they would begin to march forward. And the march forward

00:41:40.180 was a rush. We didn't have, there was no, the warning was the bang and then they would begin to rush

00:41:45.380 forward. If you got trampled, if you got anybody in the way would of course be pushed. But often

00:41:51.820 struck with batons, knocked to the ground. If somebody was knocked to the ground, instead of

00:41:56.880 helping them up, the police kicked, beat them with their batons. I saw this again and again and again.

00:42:06.040 Wow. And how did this, what effect did this have on the protesters? Did this make the,

00:42:15.240 the protesters dissipate? Like how, what, what was the impact of this?

00:42:21.680 It was very emotional. I, there were a lot of tears. A lot of people are just brokenhearted.

00:42:26.200 A lot of protesters saying, guys, what, why, why are you doing this? Well, you don't need

00:42:29.840 these weapons. Why are you hitting us? We're peaceful. We just want peace.

00:42:34.620 Of course, the police, there was no introduction on their part. There was, there was some anger. I mean,

00:42:41.840 some of the protesters would, would hear insults like Nazi. And I think that's the only, the only

00:42:47.860 thing that I could say against the protesters are that points, the insults were pretty serious. But

00:42:53.020 you can imagine their frustration and anger as they were seeing these kinds of things, not being able to

00:42:58.380 do anything, realizing that they, they, there was, it was futile to attempt to in any way resist the

00:43:05.200 police. So for the claims that these are violent protesters, insurrectionists, rioters, is there any

00:43:14.300 truth to that, at least from what you've seen of these protesters? I saw nothing of them. I saw,

00:43:21.380 of course, you got a mix of people. I saw a lot of just ordinary Canadians, working Canadians, and I

00:43:29.020 was, I was actually stunned at the, the, the peace and the self-restraint of these people. There were

00:43:36.760 certainly a few that were trying to rally the crowd to, to, to hold the line, but holding the line

00:43:41.600 simply meant standing there as the police pushed them. But there was, there was a real general spirit

00:43:47.560 of wanting to be peaceful and not allow the police to, to, to sort of, to suck them into a confrontation.

00:43:56.160 And so it was, it was, that was quite moving. And I can tell you, I saw nothing of violence on the part of the

00:44:02.540 protesters, not on Saturday, not the previous week. It's possible there were occasional moments, but if you saw

00:44:11.760 what I saw, what would have amazed you is the self-restraint. To see, for example, an older man,

00:44:17.000 on the ground, being beaten, helpless, it would took all that was in me, not to act out, to protect him.

00:44:27.300 Yeah. I can imagine that's just kind of instinctive. And so you said that the police don't respond,

00:44:35.720 that they don't, you know, have any interaction on their part with the people who are either

00:44:39.760 hurling insults at them or who are just asking them, why are you doing this? Does it surprise

00:44:46.980 you that the police, at least in Ottawa, have followed these orders, that they're willing

00:44:52.200 to treat their fellow working class Canadians in this way? Has that shocked you?

00:44:58.920 Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's probably what caused so much dismay and so many tears on Saturdays.

00:45:06.080 I think we're shocked that our fellow citizens would do this, would in some cases seem to relish it.

00:45:11.840 Um, I, um, I had one encounter where a police officer spoke to me. I was stuck myself and a

00:45:18.400 reporter were stuck between two trucks and the crowd on the other side and we couldn't move and

00:45:24.120 he's pushing us. Um, and, uh, and so I, I, we tried to reason with him and the reporter said,

00:45:32.340 I'm a reporter. I can't move. I said, I, you know, I'm a Christian pastor. We're stuck here.

00:45:36.760 And he just looked at us and said, I don't care. Wow. So I think that reflected very much the spirit

00:45:43.320 of it. There were occasional police officers who, who had tears in their eyes. I think not everyone

00:45:48.540 there wanted to be there, but there were definitely those who seemed to enjoy it.

00:45:53.240 Wow. That's really such a shame. I think the feeling of helplessness is what makes me the saddest

00:45:59.260 in thinking about, in thinking about this, that there's no reasoning with the people who are

00:46:04.360 inflicting this kind of violence and brutality, um, because there's really no rationale. There's

00:46:10.280 no rationale to it. I'm sure they have their own, the police have their own, you know, justifications.

00:46:15.440 Maybe they just say, we're just following orders. We're just, um, doing our job, which that in itself

00:46:21.260 is quite frightening in your opinion. Yes. Where do you think this goes from here?

00:46:27.480 It's hard to say. I, I, I see a growing momentum on the part of ordinary Canadians to, uh, resist and to

00:46:37.800 want to do something. I've heard of a call for a general strike across the nation. I know there's a

00:46:43.520 convoy in, in BC. Um, I don't know, but I, I mean, I fear, uh, that the peaceful protesting not being

00:46:53.220 received, not being heard, uh, will at some point, uh, turn to violence. And, uh, that's, I think that's

00:46:59.860 the fear of many right now. Now, this is not your first time, um, dissenting, disagreeing with the

00:47:08.100 Canadian government. You racked up, I think it was $600,000 in fines. Is that correct? And, and, um,

00:47:16.820 you were, I guess, faced with six years imprisonment because of your defiance to lockdown orders,

00:47:21.920 your refusal to close your church. Is that correct? Yeah. So basically, um, on six separate

00:47:28.560 occasions, I was charged by the police, uh, for gathering my congregation for worship and each

00:47:35.000 charge carried with it a maximum of $100,000 in fines and one year in prison. So the total tally

00:47:42.200 at the end, uh, was six years in prison, $600,000 in charges and, uh, in fines. And thankfully, um, that

00:47:49.860 has been resolved in court at this point. But, um, yeah, I mean, and, and of course in our case,

00:47:55.500 it, it wasn't a protest. It was simply, uh, Christians meeting for worship.

00:48:01.460 Wow. Um, and you were officially censored by the Canadian Presbytery for violating his ordination

00:48:08.260 vows and not following the right procedure for leaving the ARP. Can you tell us a little bit more

00:48:14.320 about what that's about? Yeah, I don't want to say too much, uh, uh, for, for their sake more than

00:48:20.700 anything else, but, um, the, uh, the decision on my part to, uh, obey God rather than men, uh, angered

00:48:28.800 my Presbytery. I was charged with being schismatic and, um, the, uh, the decision, uh, to leave the

00:48:37.100 denomination was not also not received well by the Presbytery. And so they decided to excommunicate me

00:48:43.880 without trial. And, um, uh, as far as they're concerned, I am no longer ordained, but happily

00:48:50.220 that I'm part of another Presbytery that has decided, uh, to, uh, ignore, I guess, what, uh,

00:48:57.760 the Canadian ARP decided to do. Can you tell us a little bit about the theology behind the, um,

00:49:08.060 the civil disobedience that you have participated in over the past couple of years? Because while

00:49:15.140 you and I are on the same page, you have even Christians and of course, non-Christians, both 1.00

00:49:19.940 in America and Canada who say, you know what, this is not the right thing to do to stand opposed to

00:49:26.560 the government when it comes to vaccine mandates or lockdowns. You've got Christians making the 1.00

00:49:30.420 argument of Romans 13 that you just need to obey civil authorities. Obviously you disagree

00:49:35.680 with that line of argumentation. Can you just articulate a little bit of why you disagree

00:49:40.440 with that and why you've taken the stand that you have?

00:49:43.620 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's two separate issues. I would say that the far greater issue

00:49:47.980 is the church. Uh, so, um, when we, when we disobeyed the government back in 2020 and in 2021,

00:49:57.380 it was because it's absolutely clear in scripture that the governments are under the authority of God.

00:50:05.680 Their authority is borrowed and they are to uphold the law of God. God's law says that we are to

00:50:11.080 worship him. It tells us when we're to worship him, how we're to worship him. And the government

00:50:16.320 has no authority in the church. And so it was as clear as day to me that when the government begins

00:50:22.420 to interfere with the worship of God, tell the church how to worship, when to worship, um, whether

00:50:27.480 they can worship, that we simply have to disobey them. We don't have to do so in a, um, a rude way.

00:50:33.400 We ought to be quiet and peaceful about it, but we must do it. And our forefathers,

00:50:37.540 um, uh, they did so that's the history of the church. So that was as clear as day to me that

00:50:43.120 this, the other issue in terms of, uh, civil disobedience, if it's, um, going to a protest

00:50:48.700 that the government has decided is unlawful. Uh, I think that's, um, uh, maybe less clear

00:50:54.840 than the other, but it, to me, the, the justification for that is the same justification

00:51:00.320 that sent my grandfather off to World War II, that it's worth fighting for liberty. We are

00:51:06.520 citizens of the country as well as citizens of heaven. And so, um, it falls on us to defend the,

00:51:13.120 the freedoms that are God given. And if we don't stand up, then our children and grandchildren suffer.

00:51:19.780 Yes. Do you agree with the statement by John Knox? We, I think we still have it up that resistance

00:51:26.400 to tyranny is obedience to God. Is that a maxim that you agree with? Absolutely. Yeah, I, I agree

00:51:33.360 with it too. Unfortunately, you know, even among those who, okay, say you disagree with that, say

00:51:38.800 you have theological contentions with that statement there. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians, 0.96

00:51:43.780 a lot of so-called evangelicals here in the United States, that they allow their disagreement in that

00:51:49.620 with that to, um, refuse to stand up for people like you or James Coates. They refuse to even see

00:51:57.340 it as a religious liberty issue. And they have their Christians like Russell Moore, like Tim Keller,

00:52:05.480 Francis Collins, who have basically castigated anyone who has, you know, kept their doors open and

00:52:12.740 defied lockdown orders. Has that surprised you seeing the, the cowardice and really the divisiveness

00:52:19.560 lack of integrity of a lot of Christians who have kind of thrown other Christians under the bus? 0.98

00:52:26.340 Yes and no. Uh, so when it comes to some like Russell Moore or Tim Keller, it hasn't surprised me.

00:52:31.500 There's been a trajectory we've seen already, uh, with others, it has been a tremendously surprising

00:52:36.200 and disappointing. But I think at the heart of this is, uh, that we are beginning to see more clearly

00:52:41.840 that Christianity has become very man-centered. It has been, uh, become very much, uh, influenced by

00:52:50.400 humanism. So everything is, is, is along the horizontal. It's about what, uh, is best for my

00:52:56.580 neighbor? Uh, what does the world think of us? All along the horizontal. And we have forgotten God.

00:53:02.460 That what people are not thinking about is how these things affect God. So people might get upset.

00:53:07.240 They might get riled up if a, if a, uh, a neighbor is trampled on the ground, but if Christ is trampled

00:53:14.100 on, his rights are trampled on, his church is trampled on, uh, most Christians seem to have little 0.98

00:53:20.540 problem with that. And so we've seen this, uh, compromise and this, I think cowardice. Um, but I,

00:53:27.620 I think it reflects, uh, a failure to recognize what belongs to God and that he is worthy.

00:53:33.540 Hmm. You know, I'm not sure if you meant to do this, but, um, Alexander Solzhenitsyn who wrote

00:53:40.560 the Gulag Archipelago, who is obviously a dissident to the Soviet regime or was, um, he said that the

00:53:49.580 reason why they got to where they were, uh, with the totalitarianism that reigned in the Soviet Union

00:53:57.840 was that men have forgotten God. Now, when I hear that from Solzhenitsyn, I think of atheists or I

00:54:05.000 think of agnostics, people who have just shunned the faith. What I think is interesting and very

00:54:10.780 profound, maybe unintentionally on your part is that you use, we have forgotten God to actually talk

00:54:16.640 about professing Christians, Christians who are looking at their faith as exclusively horizontal 0.68

00:54:22.500 rather than vertical. And maybe that is actually why here in the West, we are where we are, not just

00:54:29.360 because men in general have forgotten God, but because professing Christians have. So interesting,

00:54:35.440 uh, but a sad state of affairs. Absolutely. Can we end though on, um, a bit of a, a hopeful note for

00:54:42.660 those who don't know the gospel, who don't know the hope that you have and why you can remain hopeful

00:54:47.640 and steadfast and joyful, even in the midst of the threat of tyranny and the consequences that you've

00:54:53.420 endured over the past couple of years. Can you just share that hope with people? Yeah, sure. Before

00:54:59.640 I do just want to say too, that I heard a pastor say just yesterday that we do not give up what we

00:55:05.200 love. Um, there are many people who draw the line with their children. Uh, they, they would allow the

00:55:10.740 government to have anything but their children. Well, as Christians, we love no one more than we love

00:55:16.340 Jesus. And we, and we loving Jesus means that we worship him. And so the one thing we will not give

00:55:22.780 up is worship. Uh, what, and as far as the message of hope, I mean, the reason why we love him is, uh,

00:55:29.900 not only because of who he is, but what he has done that when we were lost in sin, uh, Christ died for

00:55:37.240 us. And that though we deserve, because of how we have lived, though we deserve to be punished in hell

00:55:45.020 forever and ever, that Jesus has paid for our sins at the cross. And there's not a single sinner

00:55:50.320 that is too sinful, that is too far gone to be rescued by this savior. Uh, the wonderful message

00:55:58.020 of the gospel is that Christ has paid it all. It's free to all who will come. And he has said he will

00:56:02.620 cast out no one who does come. So we look at what's happening in our country and what's going on 1.00

00:56:08.020 across the world. Um, I have hope and peace because I know first of all, that Jesus Christ

00:56:13.320 is King, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. The kingdom will continue

00:56:18.620 to advance world without end. And that it is often the case that when the church is under,

00:56:23.500 uh, persecution, that it has thrived. And as I look at a church that seems to, as the Bible says,

00:56:30.040 wax fat and become complacent and, uh, lukewarm, that what would be the most helpful, I think,

00:56:39.140 though I don't relish it, would be persecution. Because then it seems that God's people are cast

00:56:45.160 upon God and, uh, begin to see the vanity of what the world offers. And it is then that they become

00:56:51.840 alive. And so perhaps, uh, this is what we need. Perhaps we'll see in the next, uh, generations,

00:56:57.160 hard times, but also joyous times and refreshing from the presence of God.

00:57:03.220 Yes. The true church is refined by fire, not destroyed by it. And I think that is a place

00:57:10.080 where we can put our hope and that ultimate victory is sure. Even if we don't see small

00:57:16.000 scale victories, political victories here in this life, we will see an all encompassing total victory

00:57:22.600 when Jesus rules in totality. And, um, that's certainly where my hope is drived. So thank you

00:57:29.940 so much. Thank you for sharing what you have. We will continue to pray for you. I encourage people

00:57:34.700 who listen to this show and who are watching this to send you encouragement and to pray for you

00:57:39.600 and all Canadians, but especially Canadian Christians and, and pastors. So thank you so much.

00:57:46.000 Thank you for having me. It's been good.

00:57:47.320 Okay, guys, that's it for today. We've got lots of good stuff coming out this week that I'm

00:57:57.400 really excited about. I know we've done a lot of interviews over the past two weeks,

00:58:01.380 but that's because there's so many people to talk about who have so much good expertise to lend.

00:58:07.140 Um, if you haven't listened to last week's episodes, we did a lot of goods. We just did,

00:58:12.160 we covered so much last week. So make sure you go back and listen to those.

00:58:15.080 I also did a bonus birthday episode on Friday, just gave a little

00:58:18.680 life advice and travel down memory lane. And so go listen to or watch that. If you haven't,

00:58:25.920 subscribe on YouTube and also leave us a five-star review. If you love relatable

00:58:31.180 on Apple podcast. Thanks so much for listening. We will be back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - February 21, 2022

Ep 568 ｜ The CDC's 'New' Speech Milestones & the Latest on Canada's Crackdown ｜ Guest： Pastor Steve Richardson

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