Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 59

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, what's up? It's Allie and this is Relatable. Today we are going to talk about

00:00:06.100 two things, maybe other things. Who knows what's going to pop into my mind on this Tuesday afternoon.

00:00:11.740 We are going to talk about George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States,

00:00:17.480 who passed away on Friday, November 30th. And then we're going to touch on Lauren Daigle.

00:00:22.900 This is something that a bunch of you guys have been asking me about and asking me to address.

00:00:27.260 Uh, so I am going to touch on that at least briefly, and then I might be able to answer

00:00:33.100 some of your questions. It just kind of depends on how much time we have. Uh, but before we go into

00:00:38.520 all of that, I need to remind you yet again, how great my pillow is. So I was speaking somewhere

00:00:44.780 last week and, uh, one of you who may be listening right now came up to me and said, okay, Allie,

00:00:50.720 like, do you really love these pillows as much as you act like you do? And I said, yes, I do.

00:00:56.700 Yes, I do. And that is why it is so difficult to travel because I don't have my bolster sleep

00:01:03.420 pillow. So I feel like I don't sleep as well at the hotel because you know, they only have those

00:01:07.360 feather pillows, which I used to sleep on all the time, but I didn't realize how much I was missing

00:01:11.840 out until I got a bolster sleep pillow. It keeps its form all night. It's made out of this material

00:01:17.060 called tin cell, which really makes it not only just comfortable and sleek and nice, but also it

00:01:22.120 keeps cool all night. So there's no like flipping over to get the cool side of the pillow.

00:01:25.900 You always have the cool side of the pillow. Uh, it gives you enough support, but not to the

00:01:30.580 point where you feel like, Oh my gosh, I can't, it doesn't give me any give. It doesn't conform

00:01:34.920 to my head at all. It was so great that my husband got one for himself because he kept

00:01:39.160 on stealing mine. So we both have our bolster sleep pillows. They're awesome. Uh, every time

00:01:43.960 you buy a bolster sleep pillow or a bolster sleep product, they also sell mattresses. You are

00:01:48.340 also helping people in Haiti. Uh, they help them get jobs and train them to get practical

00:01:52.600 jobs to be able to, uh, support their family. So it's really just a cool thing all around.

00:01:57.980 Uh, you can go to bolstersleep.com and then you can use promo code Allie. That's a L L I E.

00:02:03.240 You get 10% off a pillow, a really good deal. And also makes for a really good gift because

00:02:08.980 it's practical. And it's also, uh, just, uh, something that maybe not that someone wouldn't

00:02:14.580 buy for themselves. So go to bolstersleep.com, use promo code Allie, great Christmas gift for

00:02:19.640 yourself or someone else. Okay. Now that we have covered that. And by the way, if you hear that,

00:02:25.220 I, um, am a little bit, even more nasally than usual, it is because I'm a little bit under the

00:02:30.660 weather. Uh, if you guys watch my Instagram stories, which I, every time I go speak somewhere

00:02:37.120 that I swear, every single person who comes up to me is like your Instagram stories. I don't know

00:02:42.980 what it is about them. I just kind of put out there what annoys me in my traveling experiences,

00:02:49.340 because I travel a lot. And one of the things that I spoke about, um, was that there was this

00:02:55.800 woman and this kind of happens a lot who was coughing into the air when I was going through

00:03:00.180 security, uh, just coughing freely. And she was telling people, Oh, this is not contagious.

00:03:05.880 Don't, don't worry. I know it sounds really bad, but it's not contagious. And then, but her husband

00:03:10.480 was also coughing. So it just, is it just a coincidence or is it really not contagious? Plus I don't really

00:03:15.220 care. I don't care what you have. I don't want it. And I just don't want your germs anyway. Like I

00:03:20.480 don't want your breath on me. I don't want your spit on me. I don't want your germs coming my

00:03:25.480 direction. I am a germaphobe. Um, I just have always been like super freaked out about that.

00:03:30.580 So I hope she saw me like covering my face with my sweater because I do not want your germs. That is

00:03:36.480 just one of my peeves when people cough out into the open or when they go somewhere and they

00:03:43.160 get their, get their germs everywhere. I just don't like it. Anyway, all that to say,

00:03:48.240 that's probably why I'm sick right now. I don't know if it's because of that woman or just because

00:03:52.220 planes are gross or I shook someone's hand who was maybe sick. I don't know, but I am feeling

00:03:58.040 a little under the weather right now, but nothing could stop me from talking to you guys,

00:04:02.440 which is my favorite part of my week because I love you, which is just a reminder. Sometimes I like

00:04:07.700 to tell you guys this from time to time, just how thankful I am for you that you actually

00:04:11.540 listen to this podcast that you follow me on any various channels that you follow me on.

00:04:16.360 You guys are awesome. I love, love, love when I get to meet you in person. When I go speak,

00:04:21.520 I was at two different colleges last week and I got to meet so many of you, such great turnouts,

00:04:26.740 such a awesome, respectful and engaging questions from people on both sides of the aisle.

00:04:31.660 And there's nothing, even though it's really sometimes difficult to travel,

00:04:35.860 there's nothing that gives me more energy than talking to you guys. I love what I do.

00:04:40.120 A lot of you guys ask me, you know, you deal with hate or criticism or whatever it is,

00:04:45.620 or how do you not get bogged down in politics and just the craziness of the world and this

00:04:51.280 feeling that the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of you guys, because you guys

00:04:56.360 keep me motivated, you guys and your support make me feel so encouraged and remind me that even this

00:05:02.800 small, tiny thing of what I do, which is a podcast that relative to the rest of the world

00:05:07.020 reaches like a grain of salt, that it's important to some people. And that is motivating. So again,

00:05:13.580 just thank you guys for being who you are, for following me and for your constructive criticism,

00:05:19.360 your feedback, your support, your encouragement, all of that. Just thank you for that. You even get

00:05:24.360 me through these sick days that I am dealing with right now. Okay. So let's move on from that and

00:05:32.500 talk about what we're actually going to talk about today. And that is George Herbert Walker Bush.

00:05:38.000 So George HW Bush, he was the 41st president of the United States, but that's not all he was. He

00:05:43.540 actually had a very significant career and would have lived what would be considered a remarkable life,

00:05:50.060 even if he had never become commander in chief. So he was born in 1924, which means he was part of

00:05:55.880 the greatest generation or what used to be called the GI generation. It's the generation that fought in

00:06:01.400 world war two. Um, he was one of the people who fought in world war two, uh, a few months after

00:06:07.560 his 18th birthday, or maybe it was right at his 18th birthday. Uh, he volunteered for the Navy. He

00:06:13.940 was, uh, he was a Naval pilot. And, uh, I've heard so many stories of people, and this is just such a,

00:06:20.860 such an interesting point about the greatest generation is their eagerness to fight that men who

00:06:27.660 were denied the ability to actually go overseas and fight for their country committed suicide,

00:06:34.700 just because there was this such a, there was such a sense of honor and a sense of duty that was

00:06:40.160 associated with fighting for your country and defending, uh, the values that your country stood

00:06:45.440 for a completely different time. Um, but there was no doubt that George HW Bush was one of those

00:06:51.100 passionate Patriots who wanted to fight for his country. He put off Yale. He was already accepted

00:06:55.820 into Yale, was going to Yale, but he decided to put that off for a year so he could go and serve

00:07:00.200 his country. He was the youngest fighter pilot at the time at the age of 18 years old. And he happened

00:07:05.420 to be a really, really good Naval aviator. Uh, he was a decorated pilot. He was shot down by Japanese,

00:07:11.700 uh, anti-warcraft or anti-aircraft fire. Uh, two men with him died, but he survived. He felt so

00:07:20.240 guilty about this. Maybe not guilty, but just confounded, confused, um, sad, no doubt. Maybe

00:07:27.940 there was a little bit of guilt and a little bit of responsibility. He was actually flying the plane.

00:07:32.900 He wrote a letter to the families of these men who had died. And the sister wrote back and said,

00:07:38.240 look, there is absolutely nothing to feel guilty for. My brother time. And again, told me that you

00:07:42.920 were the best pilot out there. And so you have nothing to feel guilty for, you know, thank you for

00:07:48.320 everything you did. And I think that just speaks to not only who he is as a person that he wrote

00:07:53.200 these letters at the age of 18 years old. I mean, how selfish are all of we at 18 years old,

00:07:58.100 but also that he was competent in his work and that he was a man of courage and that he was a man of,

00:08:04.880 of, of valor, a man of honor, that he was not only strong and brave, but he was also empathetic.

00:08:10.800 Um, and we really saw that throughout his career. Uh, we know obviously that he was married to

00:08:16.260 Barbara Bush for 73 years, 73 years longer than many, if not most people live. Um, so they were,

00:08:25.240 uh, married in 1945. They stayed married until she died earlier this year in 2018. A lot of people

00:08:32.100 thought that he was going to die very quickly, maybe even weeks after that. Sometimes that's how

00:08:36.820 it happens when people are so intertwined and so close and so in love the way that Barbara Bush and

00:08:42.060 the way that George HW Bush were, um, it's very normal for one to die or right after the other,

00:08:48.040 particularly the man. Um, it's just a very interesting part of, of male nature that they

00:08:53.540 can't exist very long on their own. That's why men get married faster. That's why they die faster

00:08:58.620 when they're alone. They just can't function very well without the woman that they have been

00:09:02.480 depending on for so long. So we were all surprised quite honestly. And even the people closest to him

00:09:07.600 were surprised that he lasted as long as he did. But apparently when she did die in April,

00:09:13.740 um, he said that he wasn't ready to go yet, which is pretty remarkable considering the life

00:09:20.460 that he had lived. He, um, is survived by his five children, 17 grandchildren, eight great

00:09:26.960 grandchildren, and two siblings. They did have another daughter named Robin who actually died at

00:09:33.160 the age of three of leukemia. Uh, I encourage you guys to go read the story. I'm sure it might even

00:09:39.100 just be on the internet somewhere, but a really, really good biography of George HW Bush that I've

00:09:44.440 read and loved is by John Meacham called destiny and power. You really get a comprehensive look at

00:09:49.320 George HW Bush's entire life. Um, and especially his presidency. But I just remember reading the story

00:09:55.600 about Robin dying at the age of three when she had leukemia. And of course, then, you know,

00:10:00.160 there were no treatments for, or no adequate treatments for what she had. It was basically

00:10:05.340 just like make her comfortable until she dies and reading just how distraught they were and how,

00:10:12.780 um, absolutely broken they were over the death of their child. I remember just being in tears over

00:10:20.560 that. I think a lot of times we think about older generations being more stoic, being more okay

00:10:25.940 with death, not being quite as feeling as we are, but I don't think that there is anything to get

00:10:32.340 used to or anything to be desensitized to when it comes to, especially the death of a child. I've heard

00:10:37.640 that it is the worst pain that you could ever have worse than losing a spouse, worse than losing a

00:10:42.580 parent, sibling, friend is losing the death of a child. That is part of you in a way that no one else

00:10:48.400 in the world is. And just the way that they have held onto her memory, I could start crying right now.

00:10:53.560 I'm not going to. The way that they've held onto her memory apparently over the years is

00:10:57.920 really touching. And of course, that's part of the hope. You, uh, you know, you don't know for

00:11:03.080 sure, but of course, Barbara and George profess to be born again Christians. And so, um, if, if that is

00:11:09.620 true, they are in heaven and we don't know exactly what the mystery of heaven will be like, how much we

00:11:16.220 will recognize one another, um, or how preoccupied we will be with reuniting with people, uh, that we

00:11:23.800 knew here on earth. I'm not entirely sure, but there is hope maybe even just in a human sense that

00:11:28.980 Robin and Barbara and George are all together and that they are all reunited and that they are

00:11:34.920 sharing in that joy of Christ together. There of course is joy and hope and peace and solace found

00:11:40.580 in that. And I hope that's the case. And I don't want to be theologically incorrect in that. Um,

00:11:46.640 and maybe it's just my human fallible sense of wanting our earthly definition of joy to be made

00:11:52.540 manifest in heaven. I don't know how exactly that happens, but, uh, there is just, uh, that's a,

00:11:59.240 that's a nice thought to have. And I hope that they are reunited and I hope that, uh, they are all

00:12:06.100 at peace in Christ. Um, so a little bit more about his life, because a lot of you messaged me just

00:12:12.740 asking to know more about him. So after he went to the war and was obviously very heroic in the,

00:12:18.900 in the war, he came back, he went to Yale after Yale, he moved to Texas. He got into the oil business.

00:12:24.920 So a lot of people wonder, uh, a lot of people think, I think that the Bushes are a Texas family and

00:12:29.360 they are, but they really started up North that has not been forever and ever. So he moved to Texas to

00:12:34.780 get into the oil business. After that, he went into politics. He was a representative. He was

00:12:39.540 actually CIA director. He was ambassador to, I think the United nations. Um, then of course we

00:12:45.640 know him as vice president to Ronald Reagan during both of his terms. And, uh, after that he became

00:12:53.000 president and at the Republican national convention, 1988 is when he talks about that thousand points of

00:12:59.760 light. And so we hear that phrase thousand points of, of light a lot. Uh, president Trump actually

00:13:04.740 recently mocked the thousand points of light. Um, it later became a, uh, nonprofit organization.

00:13:11.140 I think it was nonprofit organization that promoted volunteerism and, uh, humanitarianism.

00:13:16.440 That was a really a big part of George HW Bush's and Barbara Bush's life, uh, was volunteerism and

00:13:22.200 helping those that are in need. And so that's what thousand points of light became. But it at first

00:13:27.780 was in this 1988 speech that he gave at the Republican national convention. Um, he really talked about

00:13:33.300 his Christian values and the, and the agenda that he wanted to push when he was president. Um,

00:13:39.020 he was against abortion. He was for capital punishment for prayer in schools for the pledge

00:13:43.140 of allegiance. Uh, he also said, I think it was pretty sure it was in this speech when he said

00:13:48.220 no new taxes. Um, well, he ended up breaking that promise. That's why you see a lot of people saying

00:13:54.740 that they didn't really like, um, George HW Bush. And there were a lot of conservatives saying that,

00:14:00.320 and there were a few more reasons for that, that I'll get into in, uh, just a little bit.

00:14:05.360 So he was president from 1989 to 1993. He was the first president. And I think it was 152 years

00:14:12.040 who was an incumbent vice president who became president. You can see why this is pretty rare

00:14:17.040 after about eight years of a president, they're usually not just ready for a new administration,

00:14:22.000 the people, but they're really ready for a new party and a new vision. Um, so it was pretty

00:14:27.720 incredible and really speaks to the popularity of Ronald Reagan, uh, a very innovative and popular

00:14:35.180 president that George HW Bush was elected to carry on, uh, that agenda and really carry on that message

00:14:42.840 of hope that Ronald Reagan so successfully pushed. Uh, but he did lose in 1993. He was defeated by,

00:14:49.040 uh, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton, the, the unconditionally charming guy that offered something new and

00:14:56.080 something fresh, something different. It probably wasn't so much that George HW Bush wasn't a good

00:15:01.880 candidate or didn't do a good job running. It's just that Bill Clinton was new. Everyone liked Bill

00:15:06.260 Clinton. People liked Bill Clinton a lot, not his entire presidency, but, uh, pretty steadily in,

00:15:12.740 in his presidency. And he still has a good reputation despite all of the crazy stuff that

00:15:17.180 he did. Um, but under, under president George HW Bush's leadership, a lot of things happen that

00:15:24.160 sometimes we overlook the cold war ended under his leadership. He helped create conditions for

00:15:28.540 the elimination of the federal deficit that happened under Bill Clinton. Um, he negotiated

00:15:32.600 NAFTA. And I think more than anything, the people, and the thing that people really remember George HW

00:15:38.580 Bush by was his, uh, decency was his ability to just be congenial, to be conciliatory, uh, and to

00:15:48.280 reach across the aisle and to put politics aside when he needed to, he was a politician, but to put

00:15:53.640 politics aside when he needed to. And remember that the person across the aisle, his so-called

00:15:58.300 enemy or adversary was a human being and wasn't American. Like I said, that doesn't mean that he

00:16:03.560 didn't fight hard. Uh, it was certainly when he ran for president, he was, uh, he was adversarial

00:16:10.440 against his adversary. Um, but he remembered that the people that he was competed against were people

00:16:16.460 that they were Americans. And at the end of the day, that's really what mattered to him. Uh,

00:16:20.880 he wrote a letter to Bill Clinton after he lost, uh, January 20th, 1993. And he said,

00:16:27.140 dear Bill, when I walked into this office just now, I felt the same sense of wonder and respect

00:16:31.440 that I felt four years ago. I know you will feel that too. I wish you great happiness here. I never

00:16:36.900 felt the loneliness. Some presidents have described. There will be very tough times made even more

00:16:41.580 difficult by criticism. You may not think it's fair. I'm not a very good one to give advice,

00:16:46.620 but just don't let the critics discourage you or push your off, push you off course. Sorry. I'm

00:16:51.780 trying to read his handwriting. Uh, you will be our president. When you read this note, I wish you

00:16:56.820 well, I wish your family. Well, your success now is the country success. I am rooting hard for you.

00:17:02.180 Good luck, George. I mean, if that doesn't make you wish for another time, like, I don't know what,

00:17:10.080 well, that just that display of class and of grace and the remembrance that, that even though we might

00:17:18.760 disagree on everything, everything fundamental, maybe even moral, spiritual disagreements, maybe

00:17:23.500 we disagree in the core of our being that you can look at someone else and say, he didn't say this,

00:17:28.940 but just the implication is that you are made in God's image. You have just as much value as I do.

00:17:34.220 And on a more surface level, you were fairly elected as the president of the United States.

00:17:39.740 And I will respect your leadership. Even if I don't agree with all of your decisions,

00:17:43.400 if we could just get to that point in our politics right now, we would be so much better off. That

00:17:49.580 doesn't mean we have to agree. It doesn't mean that we have to forsake our values or forsake our

00:17:53.620 principles or stop calling people out on the other side when they're wrong. But if we could just,

00:17:58.240 at the end of the day, be able to put it down and say, you're an American and I love you,

00:18:03.400 despite your politics, just because you're a human being and our relationship as human beings

00:18:08.740 transcend all of our disagreements, we would be so much better off. And, you know, sometimes I think

00:18:14.640 that actually most Americans do think that way. Actually, most of the Americans do feel that way.

00:18:20.400 But man, you log on a Twitter for 15 minutes and that hope will be shot down real fast. But you have

00:18:27.940 to also wonder what's reality. Is Twitter reality or is how you interact with your next door neighbor

00:18:33.060 reality? I think that the second is reality. And maybe we need to get more plugged into that.

00:18:38.420 And I don't want to blame everything on social media, but I don't think it's helped in bringing

00:18:42.180 our country together. And you just look back at the time that George H.W. Bush led, that Reagan led,

00:18:49.020 then you look back even further towards World War II and all of the things that really brought us

00:18:54.740 together. We were a different people. We were a different character. We had a different moral

00:18:58.860 makeup than we do now. We are so fragmented, so divided, so individualistic. And that is why

00:19:05.640 I am so emotional when these people die. So it's been a big year. And I don't even know if it's been

00:19:12.980 all in 2018. I can't even remember. But I cried this hard when Barbara Bush died, when Billy Graham

00:19:19.000 died, when John McCain died, and now when George H.W. Bush died. My husband can tell you that I

00:19:24.540 bawled at everyone that I cry so hard whenever I'm reading anything about Ronald Reagan. I have a very

00:19:31.760 intangible but real attachment to this period in history and to this generation, to the greatest

00:19:40.920 generation for holding and for representing what I think makes America great. And it's also just this

00:19:49.300 fear and this anxiety that it might be gone. And it's also this sense of heavy obligation,

00:19:55.380 heavy responsibility that, okay, well, I'm still alive. I'm still here. I have a voice. I have

00:20:01.340 the ability to carry this on. What's stopping me from carrying on some of those characteristics and

00:20:07.420 some of that moral fortitude that we see from those people into this generation. And then you think about

00:20:12.740 that, whoops, I just hit my microphone. It seems like such a daunting task. And I think that's why

00:20:19.720 I get so overwhelmed that I cry because I didn't know any of these people as people. I don't even

00:20:24.760 agree with all of their politics, probably. I'm just guessing. But they represent something bigger

00:20:30.300 than that. And they represent a task, I think, for all of us who love God and believe in the biblical

00:20:36.700 moral order and also love America and feel that burden to carry it forward, that we feel the

00:20:44.740 heaviness and just kind of the sadness. And I think sometimes a sense of despair because of that. But

00:20:49.920 I don't think that we should feel despair. I think that we should look at the life of someone like

00:20:54.120 George H.W. Bush, look at the life of John McCain, look at the life of Billy Graham and Ronald Reagan,

00:20:59.140 all people who, because they're people are imperfect, maybe have politics that we don't like,

00:21:04.820 but they all represent this kind of courage that I think all millennials and all young people can

00:21:09.320 learn from and that we can take with us and that we can hold in our hearts and apply to our lives

00:21:13.900 and carrying forward the values that have made America good and made America great and the things

00:21:19.040 that we believe in. I don't think that we are that far off. I don't think that we are completely

00:21:25.600 hopeless. You know, Ronald Reagan always said that liberty is one generation away from dying.

00:21:31.240 Well, it can't die in this generation because there are too many of us that are that are like

00:21:37.300 us. There are too many of us who do care about liberty. It might not always seem like that,

00:21:41.160 but we do exist. Any of us who care about the passing of someone like George H.W. Bush and can

00:21:46.140 look at his life of public service and say, yes, that's what America is about, even if I didn't like

00:21:51.660 every single policy that he put forward. If we can do that and attach ourselves to the goodness of the

00:21:57.320 Americans that have gone before us, especially the Americans in the greatest generation, I think

00:22:01.780 we'll be OK. But we can't lose that. We can't be afraid to fight the moral fight. We can't be afraid

00:22:07.040 to fight for the goodness of America. We can't be afraid of those things, even when we are bullied,

00:22:12.340 even when we are pushed aside, even if we do live in the most polarized time in American history.

00:22:17.620 That just means that we have to be more bold. That means we have to have even more fortitude

00:22:21.600 that maybe this we were actually made to be a part of this generation to face these kinds of

00:22:27.500 challenges. So I'm just encouraged by his life. I'm encouraged by his strength. I'm encouraged by

00:22:32.820 his commitment to decency, to integrity, and to honesty. Now, you will hear probably if you're

00:22:38.240 someone who doesn't know everything about why people hate George H.W. Bush, hate George W. Bush,

00:22:45.600 even hate Ronald Reagan. The reason is because of this term called globalism.

00:22:51.260 And they believe the people who oppose them, these are conservatives who oppose them,

00:22:57.680 by the way, liberals oppose them because they're Republicans and they were anti-abortion and

00:23:01.900 they were Christians. That's why they hate those people. But the reason why a lot of conservatives

00:23:07.000 don't like these people is because they believe that they are globalists and that George H.W. Bush

00:23:12.140 pushed something called the New World Order. Let me tell you right now, that is a conspiracy theory.

00:23:18.640 That's a conspiracy theory. There is no truth to it whatsoever. I've gotten so many messages over

00:23:23.020 the past few days saying, you shouldn't be honoring this person. He was part of the Illuminati.

00:23:30.200 He was a Satanist, part of the New World Order. Give me a freaking break, people. Get off YouTube

00:23:36.820 for one second and just read some actual history about the man. Check your primary sources. Come on.

00:23:44.480 So it's this conspiracy theory. So September 11th, 1990, George H.W. Bush gave a speech about a New

00:23:51.320 World Order. This was the end of the Cold War. He was talking about a New World Order that would be a

00:23:57.660 New World Peace. There would be a different way for us to operate together. People take this as

00:24:02.420 there being, as him advocating for a New World Order, for open borders that we all operate under one

00:24:08.120 currency, which a lot of people believe or they think it's a sign of the end times, that that's a

00:24:14.560 biblical sign of the end times. And so that he was a part of that, that he was aiding the Antichrist

00:24:20.320 and that George W. Bush, especially since 9-11 happened on September 11th in the same way that

00:24:27.180 this New World Order speech did in 2001, that there is some mysterious, crazy conspiracy to that.

00:24:34.260 It is kind of crazy that Benghazi also happened on 9-11. But anyway, they believe in this crazy

00:24:40.440 conspiracy theory that he was this horrible Satanist and that he's going to hell because of

00:24:44.280 that. Literally, get out of your mom's basement, get off YouTube, read some history. There is no

00:24:50.720 truth to that. There's no proof to that. No, I'm not saying that every policy he advocated for was

00:24:54.880 perfect. I'm not saying that we probably agreed on everything. I don't think that we probably did.

00:24:59.260 I probably didn't even agree with Reagan on everything. And that is saying a lot.

00:25:03.360 I just don't know if I do or not. But our honoring of these people are not because we agree with every

00:25:08.860 single policy that they put forward. But for the strength of their character, that was really

00:25:13.420 underneath that. And, you know, a lot of people have said, you know, he's not in heaven. We don't

00:25:18.340 know if he's in heaven. Sure. We don't know if anyone's in heaven. He professed to be a born again

00:25:22.900 Christian. There's a lot that's recorded about his faith as well as Barbara Bush's faith.

00:25:27.060 So I'm certainly not I don't say anyone is anywhere necessarily, but I am going to assume

00:25:34.760 because he professed Jesus Christ is his savior that, yes, he is in heaven with his wife. And I

00:25:40.320 think that that's OK. So everyone who has their panties and a lot about this, just calm down.

00:25:46.420 It's not only conservatives. Conservatives also had some I say conservatives lightly. People on the

00:25:51.800 right also had a freak out about John McCain, too, saying that he was part of all of that

00:25:58.280 globalism stuff, whatever. It's just it's just crazy and it's rude. But of course, people on the

00:26:03.660 left are doing the same thing about George H.W. Bush. They're kind of there are some people,

00:26:08.700 a lot of people on the left are honoring him, but there are definitely journalists, particularly at

00:26:12.360 the Atlantic, who are trying to paint him as this just privileged guy who was born into wealth that

00:26:18.120 really didn't do anything on his own. One headline actually questioned the moral courage of George

00:26:23.980 H.W. Bush, saying that, sure, he was charming and nice and polite, but was did he really have moral

00:26:29.140 courage? It's funny because the person who wrote that, I don't think I don't think volunteered for

00:26:36.080 the Naval Air Force or for the to be a Naval pilot when he was 18 years old, put off college for that

00:26:43.180 risked his life for his country. But we need to question whether he has moral character. George

00:26:50.020 H.W. Bush had moral character or had moral courage. OK, OK. Yes. Let's ask a member of the

00:26:56.320 greatest generation, a World War Two vet, a decorated pilot who was shot down by Japanese

00:27:01.040 anti-aircraft fire if he has moral courage. OK, so we definitely have people on the left who are

00:27:08.100 questioning just who he was. You can question his politics, but I don't think you can question

00:27:14.620 George H.W. Bush's character and his patriotism, which is what we are honoring and what we should

00:27:20.880 be proud of. And I'm just thankful that he served our country. I'm thankful that he was a member of

00:27:27.500 the greatest generation that lasted so long. That's such a fascinating generation that we all need to

00:27:31.960 know more about. And that's OK. So that's all I'm going to say about George H.W. Bush. I'm praying

00:27:38.500 for his family. I'm praying for comfort. I'm praying for peace. I'm praying that all of them

00:27:42.540 would come to know Christ and that Christ would be glorified through his funeral and through the

00:27:46.880 memorial and everything. This is such a difficult time, even though he was 94 years old. It doesn't

00:27:53.040 necessarily ease the pain of the people that have known him for so long. So I'm just I'm grateful.

00:27:59.020 I'm grateful for his life and everything that God did through him. So I'm just going to quickly

00:28:03.640 touch on Lauren Daigle. You guys told me that she wanted me to talk about that. I saw on the

00:28:10.620 Christian Post that she had an interview where she was asked about her stance on homosexuality

00:28:16.440 and that she there was also this audio recording that I heard of it. And actually, I'll just I'll

00:28:24.780 I'll play it for you. Do you feel that homosexuality is a sin?

00:28:31.080 You know, I can't honestly answer on that in the sense of I have too many people that I love that

00:28:40.040 they are homosexual. I don't know. I actually had a conversation with someone last night about it.

00:28:46.820 And I was like, I can't say one way or the other. I I'm not God. So when people when people ask

00:28:57.180 questions like that, that's what my go to is. Like, I just say, read the Bible and find out

00:29:03.280 for yourself. Because and when you find out, let me know, because I'm learning to.

00:29:08.260 So she said that she didn't know whether or not homosexuality was a sin. Now, let me say first,

00:29:15.360 I don't really understand why she was asked this question. Like, I do think it's weird that this

00:29:21.580 has become like the question that prominent Christians are asked. I just think it's odd.

00:29:29.260 Like, are you trying to trap them? And it makes it seem to like we think that homosexuality is like

00:29:36.200 the sin that's leading all other sins. It just is kind of odd. Now, it probably was because she

00:29:41.680 was on the Ellen show. Some people had contention with her being on the Ellen show. And so when she

00:29:47.860 said she doesn't know if homosexuality is a sin, go read your Bibles and figure it out for yourself.

00:29:53.120 I think that was just confirmation for a lot of people. I asked your thoughts on Instagram,

00:29:58.260 what you guys thought the vast majority of you sent me the same thing saying, wow, I really wish

00:30:02.780 that she would have just spoken the truth. And I wish she would have realized that speaking of

00:30:06.140 the truth is actually the loving thing to do, because you'll notice that she said, you know,

00:30:10.120 I love a lot of people who are homosexual. So I don't really know if it's a sin. Go read your Bible

00:30:14.260 and tell me what you learned. Well, the question is, of course, why isn't she reading her Bible?

00:30:19.940 She is a prominent Christian who has influence over Christians. She sings songs that many of them are

00:30:25.640 founded in scripture. And so it just kind of makes you a little bit nervous if someone with that kind

00:30:30.700 of influence is going to tell other people to read their Bibles, but she's not willing to do it on her

00:30:34.760 own. Now, I completely understand this is a really awkward and uncomfortable question to answer.

00:30:41.560 It totally is, especially when she has kind of woven her way into the mainstream. She doesn't

00:30:45.760 want to make anyone mad. I totally get that. But as Christians, of course, 1 Peter 3.15, I think it

00:30:51.920 is, tells us to have an answer for the hope that we have. And we are supposed to approach the Bible,

00:30:57.400 not just in obviously a loving and a personal way. We talked about this last week,

00:31:01.160 but also in an intellectual way and a desire to know. And knowing these things and knowing our

00:31:06.600 Bibles and knowing good theology is virtuous. It is what we are called to do. It's actually

00:31:11.720 demanded of us to know the Word and to hide the Word in our hearts. Now, if you don't know something,

00:31:18.220 you truly don't know something, and that's fine. And owning up to something and saying that you don't

00:31:23.820 know it, okay, maybe that's a sign of humility. But there really is no excuse for someone who has

00:31:30.060 been walking with Christ for a while not to know pretty prominent parts of the Bible and what the

00:31:36.740 Bible is really clear about. And it is really clear on homosexuality. Leviticus 18.22, Leviticus

00:31:43.780 20.13, 1 Corinthians 6.9, 1 Timothy 1.10, Romans 1.26 through 28. So it's in the Old Testament and in the

00:31:51.880 New Testament, there has been a lot of effort by progressive Christians to say that the Bible

00:31:57.460 doesn't really say this or it doesn't really mean this. Of course, all of that is fruitless. The

00:32:02.300 Bible is extremely clear about that. And of course, how men and women are made, it's very obvious.

00:32:06.660 The only sexual relationship in the Bible that is actually condoned is relationship in marriage

00:32:12.440 between a man and a woman. We see that extremely clearly in the New Testament. We see that particularly

00:32:18.020 in Ephesians 5 that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and wives are to

00:32:23.600 respect their husbands. There is an intentional dynamic there. There is a purposeful complementary

00:32:30.560 relationship and a headship relationship, the man being over the woman. We don't see any evidence for

00:32:38.400 the goodness of a so-called egalitarian marriage in the Bible in which the man and the woman, the husband

00:32:44.700 and the wife has the exact same role. And so if you think about homosexual marriage like that,

00:32:49.480 you have to wonder, not only does it fall against God's biological plan for a man and a woman to

00:32:54.680 literally fit together, but also it doesn't fall into this complementary headship design that God

00:33:02.640 very clearly lays out for marriage in multiple parts of the New Testament, representing Christ in

00:33:07.900 the church. So it goes against the physical and the spiritual design of what marriage should be.

00:33:14.680 And there's really no way to get around that. Now, the loving thing for us to do, the loving thing

00:33:20.920 for us to do is to speak that truth. Because if we believe that God is real, that God is true,

00:33:26.680 that he is who he says he is, and therefore his word is true and good and is beneficial for

00:33:33.220 instruction and for reproach, then we also believe that that command against homosexuality is loving

00:33:39.420 and good and beneficial. It doesn't mean it feels good. It doesn't mean it's convenient. It doesn't

00:33:43.840 mean it's comfortable. But if we believe that God's word is true, that we have to believe it's also

00:33:48.480 the right thing and the best thing for human beings. Loving is actually speaking that truth.

00:33:54.500 Now, that said, when people are lost, when they are without Christ, no matter what sin they're in,

00:34:01.020 whether it be homosexuality, whether it be just sex outside of marriage with heterosexual sexual

00:34:07.660 relations outside of marriage, if they are without Christ, what the Christian's job is, is to obviously

00:34:14.480 through the Holy Spirit, is to call that person to belief, to repentance, and to a relationship with

00:34:21.160 Christ, not into quote unquote, a straight life. That's not what they're necessarily repenting from

00:34:28.860 first. What the unbeliever always is repenting from is unbelief. And then they turn to Christ and

00:34:35.300 through sanctification, Christ convicts them of their sin. Of course, he uses community and he uses

00:34:41.740 accountability to make that happen as well. And so I'm not saying that our role is to go to our lost

00:34:47.440 brother and sister who is, or our lost friend who is caught in homosexual sin and say, hey, stop being

00:34:54.820 gay. No, that wouldn't be the right thing to do. Romans 2, I believe says that God's kindness leads

00:35:00.540 us to repentance. And so it is through our love. It is through our appeal to them through the gospel

00:35:05.680 in which they are saved. And Christ takes care of the sin that is in their heart, whatever that might

00:35:10.800 be. But that doesn't mean when we are asked to give an answer for what we think about sin,

00:35:15.280 that we just obfuscate and that we just say that we don't know. And we just pretend like we don't know.

00:35:22.920 No, we can say that we know and still be loving and still be kind and still be gentle. That is exactly

00:35:29.900 what Jesus did when he spoke to the woman that was caught in adultery. When he spoke even to the

00:35:34.920 paralyzed man, he said, go and sin no more. He didn't just say, go and keep doing what you're doing.

00:35:40.300 I love you. He said, no, like I see you. I recognize you. I heal you. I forgive you and go

00:35:47.820 and don't sin anymore. That was the loving thing to do. Are we really going to say that Christ wasn't

00:35:52.500 loving for calling out their sin? Of course not. Of course not. So in our era, we have this idea that

00:36:00.960 talking about sin is not loving, that it's not kind, but the Bible tells us a completely different

00:36:06.520 picture, a completely different picture. Now, if all we're doing is pointing fingers and condemning

00:36:11.620 without loving the people around us, then we are in the wrong. We're no better than Pharisees.

00:36:15.720 But if all we're doing is being nice to people without speaking truth, then we're no better than

00:36:21.140 a non-believer. So just keep that in mind. Those are my thoughts on it. And I know it's a very unpopular

00:36:28.960 view nowadays, but I'm a Christian. I have a lot of unpopular views. Anyone who believes in the Bible

00:36:34.560 and is a Christian also holds that view. If you don't hold that view, then you don't believe the

00:36:40.820 Bible, in which case I would evaluate your heart. So anyway, complicated topic. I'm not saying that

00:36:48.060 Lauren Daigle is not a Christian. She just might've had a moment of weakness. She might've really not

00:36:53.360 known, in which case that's a problem too, but I'm not condemning her. I'm not in that situation that

00:36:59.600 she is. And I hope that she repents and we should pray for that. I'm not condemning her,

00:37:05.680 but in that particular answer, yes, she was in the wrong. It was not a good answer. I was really

00:37:10.560 encouraged by all of you who reiterated that and told me that on social media, I probably didn't

00:37:15.980 respond to you, but I appreciate all of the people who hold that same perspective. I was actually

00:37:20.760 surprised at the number of messages I got about it. So just want to touch on that because a lot of you

00:37:25.020 asked me about it. I love you guys. I will see you here on Thursday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 04, 2018

Ep 59 ｜ Is Decency Dead？

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