Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 7 ｜ Can Liberals Love Jesus？

00:00:00.000 Okay, here we go. It is Wednesday, which means it is time for another episode of Relatable

00:00:06.140 with me, Allie Stuckey. You can also find me on crtv.com slash Allie, where I have weekly short

00:00:13.140 videos that dive into both theology and politics from a conservative millennial perspective.

00:00:19.420 You can also find me on social media if you want. If you don't want to, that's totally fine.

00:00:23.660 But if you do, my Facebook page is The Conservative Millennial. I am Allie B. Stuckey on Instagram.

00:00:30.000 And ConserveMalin on Twitter. I always keep those pages up to date, so they are great places to see

00:00:36.360 what content I'm putting out and what I am up to. In case you are new around here, this is a weekly

00:00:44.000 podcast where we take somewhat of a deep dive into one particular issue, and we talk about the

00:00:50.300 Christian political or slash and cultural implications of said issue. This week, we are going to ask the

00:00:58.820 question, can you be a progressive liberal and live out your Christian faith? Most of the country would 0.92

00:01:06.460 probably say yes, whereas I think probably 10 years ago or 20 years ago, they would have said no. But I

00:01:12.780 think today, most of the country would say yes. And a large amount of people would probably even say

00:01:19.300 that you must be a progressive liberal in order to be truly living out your Christian faith,

00:01:25.140 and would say that political conservatism is actually antithetical to Christianity. I really

00:01:31.040 think that's where we are. The idea is really getting more and more popular, more and more

00:01:37.080 mainstream by the day, even in denominations and sections of Christianity that used to be considered

00:01:43.140 traditional. So to answer this question, we have to first define our terms. So what does it mean to

00:01:50.620 be a progressive liberal in America? So for the sake of efficiency, I have to speak in somewhat general

00:01:57.720 terms. Every political and even religious ideology I know has nuances and different denominations of

00:02:04.920 people whose thinking might diverge from the whole. So if while I'm describing the political left,

00:02:12.260 you're like, hey, that's not me, or that doesn't describe everyone that I know who's on the

00:02:18.520 political left. Okay, well, maybe I'm not talking about you. Maybe I'm not talking about your

00:02:22.700 friends. There's really no way for me right now to describe every single facet of progressivism or

00:02:29.260 even conservatism. So I'm going to do my best, but I'm going to have to paint with a broad brush.

00:02:35.520 And also for the sake of efficiency, I am going to use the terms progressivism and liberalism

00:02:41.740 interchangeably referring to people on the left. Now, some people have a problem with that,

00:02:47.340 I know. And for very legitimate reasons, they don't like using the term liberal for people on

00:02:52.620 the left. But nevertheless, that's kind of what's easier here. And everyone knows what I mean when I

00:02:58.640 say progressive or liberal. I am going to make this very elementary because I never want to take

00:03:04.260 for granted what people in the audience may not know. If you are a political newbie, which I think a lot

00:03:09.560 of people who listen to me and watch my stuff are political newbies, and you don't really know

00:03:13.860 anything at all about politics, I want you to know that is totally okay. I never want anyone to listen

00:03:19.480 to this podcast and feel bad about something that they don't know or haven't heard of before. I mean,

00:03:24.940 the Lord knows that is a daily occurrence for me and probably for everyone, whether they admit it or

00:03:30.260 not. So we should all just be humble and learn together. So I am going to break it down to its most

00:03:38.500 simple right here. So you've probably heard people say the terms left and right when they are referring

00:03:45.740 to people's political beliefs. What they're referring to there is the spectrum of political

00:03:51.440 and even cultural ideology. So the left side of the spectrum is what we call progressivism or today's

00:03:58.760 liberalism. The right is what we call conservatism. The left typically, not always, but typically votes

00:04:05.580 Democrat. The right typically, but not always, votes Republican. Now, I know that you could say

00:04:12.340 that neither of these parties fully represent progressivism or conservatism. But again, for the

00:04:17.240 sake of simple explanations, we're going to leave it at that. The fundamental difference between the

00:04:22.900 political left and the right side of the spectrum is, and it's kind of this two-in-one deal, is what they

00:04:29.780 believe about the individual. And as a consequence of what they believe about the individual,

00:04:34.460 what they believe to be the role of the government. The left, by and large, believe that an individual's

00:04:41.080 rights are given to them by the government. The right, by and large, believe that an individual's

00:04:47.800 rights are inherent, given to them by a creator or interwoven in our DNA. That is why we are in a

00:04:54.920 constant battle over things like free speech and the right to bear arms. For example, the left believes

00:05:01.020 that these are rights that should be subject to government approval, rights that can be diminished

00:05:05.980 or taken away completely if the government sees fit, because the leftist political ideology says

00:05:11.880 that these rights come from the government, not from God. They are not inherent. Conservatives on the

00:05:17.580 right, in company with the founding fathers, believe that rights like the right to free speech and the

00:05:22.720 right to defend yourself with a firearm are rights along with all the other rights acknowledged in the

00:05:27.420 constitution that are inherent to every human being and therefore, in most cases, should not be taken

00:05:34.840 away by the government. Now, both sides, for the most part, claim to care about constitutional rights.

00:05:41.980 But progressives believe that the constitution gives us our rights, meaning they can be taken away.

00:05:47.900 But conservatives believe that the constitution acknowledges our natural rights, meaning they should not

00:05:54.760 be taken away. Every right outlined in the constitution flows from the reality that the

00:06:00.540 founders verbalized in the Declaration of Independence. All men were created equal and were endowed by their

00:06:05.940 creator with certain unalienable rights, among them being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

00:06:10.140 or property. Now, has our country been perfect in upholding this? No. It took some amendments and a lot

00:06:16.940 of effort to make sure our country was truly equal for men and women and people of different races to truly

00:06:22.580 have the same rights. But conservatives, at least conservatives today, believe the progress we've

00:06:28.960 made toward equality is because of the fundamental truth outlined in our founding documents. Whereas

00:06:35.300 most progressives believe that the progress we've made toward equality is in spite of our founding

00:06:42.440 documents. This is why you see progressives talking about the UK and Canada and Australia and Sweden,

00:06:48.800 how awesome they are, how we should be modeling everything after them, because most don't actually

00:06:53.920 believe in the foundational uniqueness and goodness of America. They look at the sins America has

00:06:59.640 committed, which do exist, and say that America is bad and we need to fix it by being more like other 0.67

00:07:06.000 countries. Conservatives today look at the sins America has committed and say those were bad, but America

00:07:12.860 itself is good and we need to fix them by being more American, which means actually manifesting what

00:07:19.100 Thomas Jefferson said in the declaration that we are all equal, all endowed by our creator with

00:07:24.300 particular fundamental rights that shouldn't be taken away from us. Conservatives believe in American

00:07:29.580 exceptionalism, not that Americans as people are superior in worth or even in morality to other people around

00:07:36.500 the world, but that America as an idea, a government for the people by the people is exceptional and is

00:07:43.640 the greatest and most successful experiment ever conducted in the history of the universe. And I know

00:07:49.860 I'm biased here, but on that we conservatives are absolutely right. I mean, point to any other country

00:07:56.660 in the world that has accomplished as much as we've accomplished in 250 years. What other country has led the

00:08:02.400 world in technological advancement the way that we have? What other country has cultivated wealth the

00:08:08.240 way that we have? What other country has fought as relentlessly for universal freedom as we have? What

00:08:14.040 other country has alleviated poverty? What other country has conquered so many frontiers? What other

00:08:20.240 country as young as we are has had as much equality and as many rights and opportunities as we have?

00:08:27.760 What other country stands as a beacon of hope and liberty for people fleeing tyranny?

00:08:32.400 None. The answer is none. So when people, particularly conservatives, say America is special,

00:08:39.400 when people say America is the greatest country on earth, when people say God bless America,

00:08:44.700 that is what they're talking about. They're not pretending that America is perfect, but they are

00:08:50.060 saying that it is the best shot the universe has ever taken. If you're born in America, if you get the 0.75

00:08:56.780 chance to become a citizen of this country, no matter where you're born, you have hit the jackpot.

00:09:02.400 In no other place in the world is the rags to riches story, the obscurity to influence story,

00:09:08.440 the failure to success story more possible and beyond that plausible. That is the reality that

00:09:15.300 conservatives are at least idealistic, idealistically aiming to protect. When we stand against illegal

00:09:22.580 immigration, when we stand against open borders, when we stand against repealing the second amendment,

00:09:27.140 limiting free speech and freedom of religion, we're trying to protect the sovereignty of the

00:09:31.900 best nation in the world, the exceptionalism that makes America great. But progressives on the other

00:09:39.900 side have a problem with America on a very basic level. Many, and now I think that this is actually a

00:09:48.160 fairly new development, believe that the founders were racist because they own slaves. They were

00:09:54.560 misogynistic because they didn't allow women to vote. This was a white man's government. And as such,

00:10:00.740 the cars have always been stacked against women and minorities. They truly believe many on the

00:10:06.400 progressive left that there is a cancer of white supremacy and patriarchy inextricably woven into our

00:10:14.620 founding. Therefore, they say American institutions must be completely deconstructed and reconstructed with

00:10:21.240 things like forced diversity and representation and the like. That is why you see such animosity towards

00:10:28.120 things like merit on the left because they believe nearly all, if not all, systems and institutions in

00:10:37.620 America are inherently discriminatory because of our racist founding and thus meritocracy must be inherently

00:10:44.140 unfair. And again, that is not everyone on the left. At least not everyone on the left says

00:10:50.880 these things. But the ideas I just articulated that used to be extreme are now becoming mainstream.

00:10:57.820 There was a Pew study from October of last year showing just how far Democrats have gone to the

00:11:03.280 left on virtually every single issue since 1990, while conservatives have stayed about the same.

00:11:09.680 So even though this kind of anti-Americanism I'm outlining certainly doesn't account for every single

00:11:14.700 progressive out there, it is a trend that's becoming much, much more popular on the left.

00:11:20.200 This idea that America is inherently bad because of our imperfect history and therefore reverting back

00:11:26.220 to what the founders intended for our country is outlined in the founding documents is problematic

00:11:30.040 because our foundation is faulty because of racism, etc. That is the idea that is being popularized on the

00:11:36.680 left. So are you tracking with me? OK, now here's here's the kicker. I just explained to you how the right

00:11:43.620 and the left view the individual and the right of each individual and where they come from.

00:11:48.760 The view of individuals and their rights determines also how each side views the role of the government.

00:11:55.940 The left, as you have probably picked up on by now, has a pretty negative view of the individual.

00:12:01.920 Remember, they don't believe that people have rights. They believe that they are given rights by the government.

00:12:07.600 So basically, though they wouldn't say this, they see people as tools or vessels of the state.

00:12:13.900 That's how they justify being pro-choice. They don't believe that people are born with rights.

00:12:19.540 They believe that the government gets to determine their rights. So they believe that people are agents

00:12:24.400 who must be kept in line or can only be kept in line via regulation. They do not believe,

00:12:30.320 for the most part, that people can regulate themselves, which partly, partly is true. We

00:12:36.760 know that people sin, people commit crimes, they abuse corporate power, etc. That's why there are laws.

00:12:43.160 But the left believes that the government must be involved in virtually every single part of our

00:12:48.860 lives in order for things to go OK. They believe basically that more government equals fewer problems.

00:12:55.700 That's it. More government equals fewer problems. That's what they believe. The more the government

00:13:02.740 takes on the role of caring for people, regulating the environment, businesses, other things, the better

00:13:08.200 off people will be. This is why individual liberty for them is low on their priority list. They believe

00:13:15.040 people should be willing to sacrifice much of their individual liberty for the sake of what they would

00:13:21.480 deem. The left would deem the common good. So, for example, the rich person should be happy to pay 50%

00:13:28.320 in taxes because it's going towards governmental programs that help the poor. So rather than allow

00:13:34.340 that rich person to keep most of their money so they can choose to give money to the poor how they see fit,

00:13:40.360 the left believes that the government is smarter and more compassionate than the average individual.

00:13:45.260 So they demand that as penance for your material success, you give half of what you earn so they

00:13:51.900 can distribute your money how they see fit. Now, the right has a higher view of the individual.

00:13:59.540 You would never think that watching the news these days. You'd think that we hate everyone.

00:14:03.900 But the truth is conservatives believe that though people are imperfect and even though we do have a

00:14:09.080 tendency towards selfishness and even evil, we still believe people do a better job of regulating

00:14:14.880 themselves than the government does. We actually believe that self-regulation and something called

00:14:20.080 the free market actually accounts for people's bit towards selfishness because supply and demand both

00:14:25.260 satisfies self-interest by earning people money and providing them with goods at a decent price

00:14:29.780 and in so doing also contributes to the common good. Now, Republicans in particular still believe that the

00:14:36.820 government has a role in our lives and that some regulation and government intervention are necessary

00:14:43.560 and good, but they believe in general that people should be paying less in taxes and should be able to

00:14:49.500 make the decisions they want to make without the government getting in the way. At least that's what

00:14:53.460 Republicans are supposed to think. This is in contrast to libertarian conservatives who really believe that the

00:15:00.620 government should be basically obsolete. It is possible, by the way, to be libertarian on

00:15:06.580 some things like marijuana or gay marriage, meaning you may not agree with it, but you don't want the 1.00

00:15:11.800 government getting in the way of it, and then be Republican on other issues. Just wanted to make sure I

00:15:17.880 clarified that. So the left believes in giving and taking rights from people, whereas the right believes

00:15:24.560 in preserving and protecting people's rights. And in case you haven't deduced this already, there is

00:15:31.680 dissonance in the left's position. On the one hand, they think America and its institutions, including

00:15:36.860 the government, are inherently bad and discriminatory towards people that they consider marginalized and

00:15:42.280 therefore should be deconstructed. But they also want to expand said government at the same time.

00:15:47.720 So they, I guess, believe that they are going to use and grow the thing that they think is fundamentally

00:15:54.800 flawed in order to fix these fundamental flaws. And if you think American institutions are fundamentally messed

00:16:04.540 up, I mean, wouldn't you want them to have less power, especially under Trump, whom they loathe? Trump's

00:16:12.780 presidency is actually giving them, I think, a good lesson on why none of us should want the central government

00:16:19.180 to have power. He's doing things they don't like and they're uncomfortable with how much this administration is

00:16:24.480 changing things. They want him and Congress to have less power so that they can't do as much. And I say,

00:16:30.360 yes, welcome to conservatives lives. We would love to decrease Trump's power and Congress's power. 0.98

00:16:36.240 We would love nothing more. That's all conservatives want. That's all we've ever wanted. All we want the

00:16:41.620 government to do is it's really simple, protect life, liberty and property and allow us to protect life,

00:16:48.760 liberty and property. That's it. Which is why conservatives for the most part are pro-life,

00:16:53.340 pro-Second Amendment advocates of free speech and freedom of religious expression. We want the

00:16:58.740 government to protect our fundamental rights, which means keeping this nation a sovereign nation,

00:17:03.920 a.k.a. curbing illegal immigration. We want them to protect us from imminent danger, foreign and 0.95

00:17:09.420 domestic, and we want them to protect and perpetuate our individual liberty. Conservatives want the people

00:17:15.500 to rule the government, not the other way around. Thomas Jefferson supposedly said, it's not confirmed,

00:17:21.720 some people say he didn't say it. But Thomas Jefferson, I think, said, when government fears

00:17:25.860 the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. I mean,

00:17:30.460 do any of you get the feeling that our government actually fears us? No. I mean, maybe possibly when

00:17:37.280 they're up for reelection. But most of the time, we are the scared ones. We're scared of what the

00:17:42.120 government is going to do to us. How much money are they going to take from me? Am I going to get

00:17:46.380 targeted by the IRS? Is the EPA going to do more damage to my industry? Are they going to come and

00:17:51.940 confiscate my guns? That's where the political left has gotten us. The expansion of the government

00:17:56.980 and the shrinking of individual liberty to the point where we are afraid of our elected officials

00:18:02.080 who work for us. And to be quite honest and fair, Republicans haven't really stopped the growing of

00:18:08.560 the government in a long time. Trump has done some. He's deregulated a good amount. But the spending

00:18:14.280 bill that was just passed is not an indication that the government is ready to relinquish any power

00:18:18.900 whatsoever. So, okay, the question is, what does this have to do with Christianity? The original

00:18:25.000 question was, can you be a Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, progressive liberal? Well, let's just say that I

00:18:33.940 think that there are several contradictions between the two ideologies. So, number one, Christians cannot 1.00

00:18:40.940 believe, as progressivism does, that the government should be the one to create rights. Because allowing

00:18:46.980 the government to be the creator of rights means that you ascribe power to the government that only

00:18:52.080 God has. That is unbiblical. So, if we have a logical line of reasoning here, it goes like this. 0.91

00:18:58.440 Christians, by definition, believe in the Bible. If you don't believe in the Bible, you're not a

00:19:03.060 Christian. Sorry. Christians believe in the Bible. The Bible says that God is our creator. As such, 1.00

00:19:08.640 he gave us inherent, internal, inextricable, inarguable worth as the only creatures made

00:19:14.780 in his image. He defines who we are and how valuable we are. And that value we see in the

00:19:21.820 creation account and throughout the Bible is both extremely high, God places an extremely high value

00:19:27.280 on human beings, and is also equal from person to person. So, when the founder said that all men are

00:19:34.440 created equal, they found that truth in the Bible. And that equality manifests itself in the

00:19:40.580 guarantee of life, first and foremost, the right to live and to protect innocent life, and the rights

00:19:45.760 to liberty and property, which have a necessary symbiotic relationship with our first inherent

00:19:50.640 right, the right to life. You can't have life and the protection of life without the right to liberty

00:19:55.880 and property, and you can't have liberty or property without the right to life. Progressivism says,

00:20:01.200 sorry, no, the government is free to take any or all of those rights away because they gave them to

00:20:08.220 you. This, ipso facto, means you do not believe that your worth comes from God. And if I haven't

00:20:14.580 made this clear enough, that's simply not biblical and therefore does not square with Christianity.

00:20:20.640 Now, you might be thinking, as a progressive liberal Christian, that's not it. I just believe that we need

00:20:27.060 to care for the least of these, like Jesus says, and progressive democratic policies are compassionate

00:20:32.880 because they give to the poor, which leads to number two. So, if the first problem with progressivism

00:20:39.880 is that it puts the government in the place of God, the second problem is that it also puts the

00:20:44.920 government in the place of the church. When the Bible says to sell everything we have and give it to

00:20:49.460 the poor, when we read in Acts 2, the fellowship of the believers in the early church, this is not a

00:20:54.500 government-dictated situation here. The early Christians were not selling their property and

00:20:59.180 possessions, helping out their fellow believers because the government told them to, which is

00:21:03.180 what the democratic progressive platform is. They did it through the power of the Holy Spirit, freely.

00:21:08.200 God loves a cheerful giver, the Bible says. Cheerful giving is encouraged when people have the freedom

00:21:13.380 to give their money out of their own volition, not when it's taken away from them by the government

00:21:17.960 and distributed to organizations and programs that may or may not be actually helping anyone. Like,

00:21:22.940 I don't know, 500 million dollars to Planned Parenthood every year, the number one killer

00:21:28.280 of unborn babies. Now, you could argue again that Republicans have also played an important role in

00:21:33.680 that. But what I'm arguing against is the general idea in any political party that giving more power

00:21:38.920 and money to the government is in any way a good Christian thing. If you are worried about the poor,

00:21:45.520 great. Vouch for a government system that lets you give your money away to the poor. You're worried

00:21:51.680 about the least of these, the lost, the marginalized. Awesome. Vouch for a government system that ensures 0.97

00:21:57.520 you have freedom of speech and freedom of religion so that you can go to these people and preach the

00:22:02.080 gospel without the fear of getting arrested. Give your time, your energy, your advocacy, money to causes

00:22:08.320 and organizations and businesses in the private sector so you know for sure that your investment is

00:22:14.000 actually going to things that you believe in and care about instead of things that you don't or shouldn't

00:22:18.940 believe in as a Christian, such as the abortion male Planned Parenthood. And you know what? I've 0.99

00:22:23.720 heard this from Christians, so I just need to address it as an aside. Do not give me the whole

00:22:28.020 they do so much more than abortions. We shouldn't define them by abortions. Christians can still

00:22:33.740 support Planned Parenthood. Okay. Okay. Well, a serial rapist might also collect coins, but do we

00:22:41.160 identify him as a coin collector? No. Does his hobby of collecting coins make him any less of a

00:22:47.300 serial rapist? No. Would you want to contribute to the coin collection of the serial rapist? No.

00:22:55.000 So just a touch on that, and we'll do a whole episode on that later. But for now, on to point

00:23:00.180 number three, which is being politically progressive has social implications. Social implications, by the

00:23:09.200 way, that are antithetical to what the Bible teaches. You cannot extract the democratic progressive

00:23:15.580 political platform. So if you're someone who says, well, I just believe in welfare for the poor,

00:23:21.280 you cannot extract that political position from its social positions and its social platform,

00:23:28.500 because they have been intertwined inextricably. And that is precisely what happens when you give

00:23:34.360 the government more power and money as progressivism demands. You are at the whim of whoever is in power.

00:23:41.000 They become the arbiters of not just your tax money, but of morality, of truth. If you would

00:23:47.200 like to know what the future of progressive politics looks like on a social and moral level,

00:23:52.180 then you don't need to look any further than California. California, where among a plethora

00:23:58.040 of other horrific problems that they are having, it is becoming illegal, illegal for a counselor,

00:24:05.920 teacher, or religious leader to counsel someone with either same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria

00:24:11.420 against those desires. So no matter the reason, even if it is for a legitimate religious reason,

00:24:18.420 or even if the reason that the counselor is telling someone this is to stay faithful to the wife and

00:24:23.840 kids, nope, can't do it. You will be in trouble with the law in California if you advise or publish

00:24:30.600 materials that advise anyone to not give into the desires that the Bible preaches against.

00:24:36.720 Monica Burke over at the Daily Signal has a good piece on this. Here's what she reports.

00:24:41.000 The bill defines sexual change efforts as any practices that seek to change an individual's

00:24:46.720 sexual orientation. This includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate

00:24:52.240 or reduce sexual romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex. This law would be

00:24:59.740 triggered when a transaction occurs, a counselor's payment and attendance fee, the cost of a book,

00:25:05.760 or a pastor's speaking fee. Anyone who is offended by a statement, teaching, or practice with regard to

00:25:12.560 sexual orientation and gender identity could then file a lawsuit against a minister, a counselor,

00:25:19.620 an author, a store, or educational institution that offended them. A lawsuit could devastate any of these

00:25:27.380 persons or institutions. First, the accused would be at the mercy of a judge to determine whether or not

00:25:34.020 AB 2943, that is the name of this bill, applies in their case. The California Consumer Legal Remedies Act

00:25:43.120 commands that it be liberally construed and applied. By this standard, individuals and institutions would be

00:25:50.260 vulnerable to crippling fines simply for speaking to millennia-old views on human sexuality.

00:25:57.620 That's what she writes over at the Daily Signal. Some people, which I think understandably so, are worried

00:26:04.100 that this would effectively ban the sale of Bibles in California, since the Bible is pretty, shall I say,

00:26:09.940 strict on the sex stuff. Snopes.com says, however, no, that's not true. It doesn't ban the sale of Bibles,

00:26:17.220 but I'm not really sure how that's not true. I'm not really clear on how that doesn't ban the sale

00:26:23.800 of Bibles, or at least open up bookstores who sell the Bible to possible lawsuits. The bill says

00:26:30.920 any practices, any. To me, that means preaching from the Bible or selling a Bible that is pretty clear

00:26:39.140 on its stance on sexuality. But that is where progressive liberal politics get us.

00:26:46.040 Christians might say, well, I don't want that. I just want the, you know, the helping the poor

00:26:51.720 stuff, the compassion for illegal immigrants and stuff. No, not so fast. You do not get one 1.00

00:26:59.000 without the other. You know why? Because while things like helping the poor with unlimited

00:27:03.580 unconditional welfare and letting in the illegal immigrants sound compassionate, they're actually 1.00

00:27:08.340 not. Neither of them help anyone or anything in the long term. Unlimited welfare motivates people

00:27:14.020 to stay unemployed and illegal immigration chips away at our sovereignty, which is necessary to 0.99

00:27:18.260 upholding any sort of rule of law and safety. And both are simply ways to get more people to depend

00:27:23.420 on the government, giving the government more power and more money, which in turn gives them the

00:27:28.000 authority to make moral decisions like the one we're seeing in California, which is basically the

00:27:32.700 all out censorship of Christians on the topic of sexuality. Do you see that? You see how they're 0.72

00:27:39.140 related because the politicians who advocate for illegal immigration, open borders and limited

00:27:43.920 welfare are also the people who believe that Christian leaders shouldn't be able to speak out

00:27:48.580 about sexuality or really anything. They have to be to get elected. That's the stance that they have

00:27:53.700 to take. There is no such thing, at least that I know of as a Democratic politician in the U.S.

00:27:59.260 Congress who is socially conservative or constitutionally conservative. None of them are

00:28:04.060 interested in protecting Christians' rights. By voting Democrat, you are also voting for these

00:28:09.840 kinds of infringements of liberty, the purpose of which are to criminalize Christian and traditional 1.00

00:28:14.920 viewpoints. That's just the bottom line. That's not hyperbolic. It's just true. You can see it in

00:28:20.040 California. And not only that, and this is point number four, greater government control always leads

00:28:27.480 to godlessness and human suffering. Let's back up for a second and explain how I got to this conclusion.

00:28:34.060 The end game for the political leftist socialism and economic system and eventually communism and

00:28:41.320 economic and political system where the government controls absolutely everything. People are taxed out

00:28:46.300 of their minds in order to shrink the gap between the rich and the poor. And they brand this as

00:28:50.540 compassion, which is why Christians buy into it. Because yes, in a socialistic society, theoretically, 0.83

00:28:56.600 the poor may have what they need, at least for a little while. They have what they need at the

00:29:02.980 expense, though, of the middle and upper class who are forced to give their money to the government so

00:29:08.440 the government can give it to the poor. But the only way for the government to have this power,

00:29:13.240 the power to tax us insanely and provide everything for the poor, is if we give them that power.

00:29:19.160 We give the government the power when we start surrendering little by little our liberties in the

00:29:23.180 names of protection and provision. That's the only way. Liberties, including religious liberty,

00:29:28.780 which is always one of the first to go in a socialistic society. Socialism is only possible

00:29:34.300 with a large centralized government and people worshiping whomever they want to, having values

00:29:39.900 not aligned with the state. Worshiping a system higher than the government is a threat to authoritarian

00:29:45.060 or socialist governments. There has never been a socialistic government in which religion and

00:29:50.940 specifically Christianity has thrived. Not only because often the government doesn't allow it to thrive,

00:29:56.420 but because people put government in the place of God in the church so they don't feel the need for

00:30:01.420 religion anymore. But how has that worked out? How has that worked out for mankind? Has placing 0.93

00:30:07.280 government in place of God in the church via socialism turned out well for people? No. Hitler and 0.90

00:30:13.520 the Nazis come to mind. Nazi stands for National Socialist, by the way. Stalin comes to mind. Mussolini 0.55

00:30:18.860 comes to mind. Mao comes to mind. And why live in the past? Venezuela comes to mind. North Korea, 0.93

00:30:23.700 China, China, and even all across Europe, which has largely adopted socialism. The church is almost

00:30:29.540 completely dead. Now, not every leader in country I listed was socialistic. Mussolini was a fascist,

00:30:35.280 but they are all totalitarian. The government having ultimate control after promising the people they

00:30:41.200 were going to care for them. Do you know how many people have been killed by communistic, which is the

00:30:48.020 ultimate form of socialism, by the way, communistic regimes over the past century? A hundred million.

00:30:55.020 A hundred million have been brutally murdered at the hands of communist governments.

00:31:01.540 If communism is the end result of leftism, of progressivism, and if communism has only ever

00:31:08.140 ended not just in the surrender of basic liberties, but in people suffering and death,

00:31:12.480 then why, why, why, why, church, would we ever go there? Don't you see that leftism is not

00:31:20.280 compassionate at all? That they're fooling you with words like tolerance and love and acceptance

00:31:25.660 and inclusion? They're tricking you into thinking that more government is the merciful choice, and it's

00:31:32.220 not. And gosh, I haven't even gotten into Marxism yet, but that will just have to be another podcast

00:31:39.660 for another day. So finally, the answer is no. If you are a Christian, you should not, cannot be a 1.00

00:31:49.740 progressive liberal. Now, let me qualify that. I think many Christians who advocate for progressive

00:31:55.980 policies think that they are doing so in compassion and goodness. They're just ignorant. In other words, I

00:32:05.440 think Christians who are progressives in their politics have a head issue, not necessarily a heart 0.57

00:32:10.780 issue. I think that they're not thinking and that they just don't know. Now, eventually, I will say

00:32:18.140 that not knowing something becomes a heart issue because eventually we make efforts to not know

00:32:22.800 something we really don't want to know because we don't want to admit that we're wrong. But I think

00:32:28.600 most Christians, if not all Christians, who claim to be liberal are just ignorant of what leftism really is 0.88

00:32:35.120 and what it has always throughout history led to. They think they're being compassionate when they

00:32:40.280 advocate for open borders and welfare, when in reality, these things are tied to an ideology that

00:32:46.500 is inherently and diametrically opposed to Christianity. And I mean, just to add a little 0.94

00:32:52.620 bonus here, and I know this is not indicative of every Christian who claims to be on the left,

00:32:57.060 I have never actually met a Christian who is liberal in their politics, who has remained grounded in 0.91

00:33:02.720 theology. I mean, it's funny. I think I said this last week too. It's almost like as soon as a

00:33:07.920 Christian starts advocating for social justice, they stop preaching the gospel. They start idolizing 0.99

00:33:13.260 things like tolerance and inclusivity and forget about repentance and holiness. That's because the

00:33:20.220 church doesn't need social justice. We have been doing the work of reconciliation for centuries,

00:33:26.400 and we don't need the secular world to label what we've always done. And when we do allow that,

00:33:33.220 we end up being influenced by the world more than we influence them, which leads to the diminishment

00:33:37.720 of the gospel in exchange for things like, quote, acceptance and superficial definitions of love.

00:33:44.160 And we see that. We see that the same people who advocate for liberal politics eventually fall into

00:33:49.340 liberal interpretations of scripture. For example, I have never heard a so-called Christian who has a liberal

00:33:56.120 open, progressive view of sexuality also say that they believe that Jesus is the only way to get

00:34:02.620 to heaven. They tend to believe that Jesus is right for them, but not for others. That's not

00:34:09.940 Christianity. And again, I am totally not saying at all whatsoever that Christians who are liberal in 0.97

00:34:17.440 their politics or who have voted Democrat are going to hell. I'm not judging people's salvation here.

00:34:23.240 I'm not in the business of that. I'm actually not even judging the genuineness of their faith,

00:34:28.140 necessarily. I'm judging their ignorance. That to say, all of this to say, I also want to make clear

00:34:35.700 that I do not believe that the Republican Party is by any means God's party. I mean, we've got a

00:34:42.000 Republican Congress and a White House that, like I've said, are still funding Planned Parenthood.

00:34:47.360 We have corrupt people in our party. God is so far above the right or the left or Democrat or

00:34:55.240 Republicans, governments, nations. OK, I know this and I think you all know this, too.

00:35:01.580 So this is not so much about party labels as it is your political ideology, which is important

00:35:07.720 because it should be defined by how you view individuals and their rights, which should be

00:35:12.740 shaped by the Bible. How the left views individuals, their rights and consequently how the government

00:35:18.720 can control individuals and their rights leads to a squelching of liberty, including religious liberty

00:35:24.280 and ultimately to human suffering. That ain't biblical. Leftism makes government both God and the church,

00:35:30.960 which are two roles we have seen throughout history that it plays very horribly. Conservatism is meant to

00:35:39.060 free the individual from the tyranny of the government so that we can be free to worship God and be the church,

00:35:46.280 which historically Christians have done very well. But all this to say, you don't need to take my word for this.

00:35:52.920 I encourage you to research this stuff yourself. Ultimately, what I say about this matters very little,

00:35:59.240 if at all. Study the Bible. Study economists like Karl Marx, Adam Smith. Study totalitarian regimes.

00:36:05.540 See the history of progressivism, communism, socialism. Study these things for yourself.

00:36:11.100 And if you find that I'm wrong, then I would love to hear from you. You can email me,

00:36:16.620 ally at the conservative millennial blog dot com. I always like to also take a step back and remind

00:36:23.140 myself as well as you all that one day there will be none of this. I will not have a political podcast

00:36:29.820 one day because there will be no political divisions. There will be no societal chasms,

00:36:35.020 no pundits, no partisanship, no opinions, just truth and peace and true love and worship and glory

00:36:43.060 and goodness and joy forever and ever because the King of Kings will rule and every one of his chosen

00:36:48.360 ones will spend the rest of eternity in uninterrupted worship and none of this will matter. We will be one

00:36:54.280 with each other and with Christ and all of this, this podcast, this president, our politics, this

00:36:59.820 nation, all of the world's history will be a distant memory and all that's going to occupy our minds at

00:37:06.700 that point on that day is Jesus. And sometimes I just need to remind myself of that, that that is true

00:37:13.080 because I tend to get bogged down with the craziness of what is going on in our world.

00:37:17.680 Um, okay. One last thing that has nothing to do with what I just said, I guess, bringing us back

00:37:23.920 down to earth again. Um, I don't have a name for this last segment. Like I usually do. I usually

00:37:29.020 try to do something like more fun. This is just like a random thing that I thought was crazy. I'm

00:37:34.900 sure most of you saw it. Uh, I was just surprised by it. And that is that Kanye West seems to have been

00:37:42.340 red pilled meaning red pilled means it sounds like he has become a conservative or is talking like a

00:37:48.220 conservative. Uh, this kind of started when he tweeted that he said, or he tweeted that he likes

00:37:54.160 the way that Candace Owens thinks who is a black conservative who works for Turning Point USA. She 1.00

00:37:59.460 makes videos and I don't know if he saw her videos or what it was. Um, and then he started tweeting about

00:38:05.880 stuff about freedom of thought and speech and the thought police and these conservative videos. He told a

00:38:11.440 radio host that he loves Donald Trump. I mean, wow. Like he's talking about victim mentality,

00:38:16.400 all this stuff that conservatives say all the time. It's crazy. Now, I think it's important to

00:38:22.660 also note that Kanye is still the same Kanye. Like he's probably insane. And I mean, he's always kind

00:38:30.160 of just been really eccentric. So I'm not really sure how, uh, how much we should take his words to heart

00:38:35.900 and his music is still ridiculously vulgar, although he is extremely talented. So I don't

00:38:41.920 think that we should be hosting him up as some kind of conservative spokesperson or hero. Definitely

00:38:47.140 not. But I will say, I think it's kind of cool to see someone that is so popular, legitimately popular

00:38:53.400 and mainstream articulate conservative or at least non-progressive liberal ideas in a world where

00:38:59.800 people feel like they need to hide and apologize for not being an extreme leftist. I just think that's

00:39:05.220 cool. I mean, all the Kardashians are on the left. I'm sure most of the people he hangs out with are

00:39:10.200 on the left. And for him to diverge from that at all, I just think that's cool. And I think it is

00:39:15.680 good if he can influence other people with that. I mean, we saw Shania Twain. She was in an interview.

00:39:21.260 I think it was over the weekend. And she said that she would have voted for Trump if she was an

00:39:25.520 American. She's a Canadian. And then she got so much hate that she sent out a four part apology on

00:39:32.500 Twitter for saying that hypothetically, if she was American, she would have voted for Donald Trump

00:39:38.420 because he seems honest. She apologized for it. I had to go into how she's not into discrimination

00:39:43.800 and all of that. It's awful. She was completely bullied into that. It's so sad. So I just thought

00:39:49.260 it was cool to see Kanye just not care what people think and say that he's breaking away from what every

00:39:55.280 other celebrity believes. And I don't know, maybe it'll have some kind of domino effect. That'd be pretty

00:40:01.720 cool. Okay. I think this is definitely the longest podcast I have had so far. So you're welcome to

00:40:07.520 those of you who asked for a longer podcast. I will see you next week. If you have a question,

00:40:14.580 feel free to reach out to me about that social media here. If you like my podcast, please rate it.

00:40:20.940 Please do five stars. Don't do four stars, please. It like really hurts me. If you don't like it,

00:40:25.400 feel free to send me constructive criticism. But if you do really like it, feel free to send me

00:40:29.420 a five star review and share it with your friends, especially your liberal friends who undoubtedly

00:40:35.320 will absolutely love this episode. Okay. Have a great week. Bye.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 24, 2018

Ep 7 ｜ Can Liberals Love Jesus？

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