Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 729 ｜ The Unmatched Generosity of Christians ｜ Guest： Andy Schoonover

00:00:00.000 Christians give more charity than any other group in the world.

00:00:07.100 We will talk about a study that reveals the stunning statistics about how much Christians 0.99

00:00:11.960 contribute in the way of generosity.

00:00:15.440 Also, we will look at a few polls that show what Christians think, especially the younger

00:00:21.920 generations of Christians about climate change, about same-sex marriage, and what this all

00:00:28.620 means.

00:00:28.960 We will also be talking to the head of a sponsor of this show, CrowdHealth, about what

00:00:35.720 his company is doing and how they're helping Christians who have health care costs, how

00:00:41.020 we can come together to help each other navigate this medical world and help each other when

00:00:49.020 we are going through medical crises and meeting our medical needs.

00:00:54.520 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:57.840 Go to GoodRanchers.com.

00:01:00.060 Use promo code ALLY at checkout.

00:01:01.800 That's GoodRanchers.com.

00:01:03.060 Promo code ALLY.

00:01:03.760 Okay, I wanted to talk about a few interesting studies that I've seen about Christians, what

00:01:18.800 Christians do, and what Christians think. 0.81

00:01:21.860 The first study that I wanted to look at was a study about climate change.

00:01:27.080 I get emails from Pew Research that I signed up for, and sometimes they have a study that

00:01:32.740 really interests me.

00:01:34.540 The title of this study, or the headline advertising this study, is, Younger Evangelicals in the U.S.

00:01:40.720 are more concerned than their elders about climate change.

00:01:45.540 And this doesn't really surprise me, necessarily.

00:01:48.680 If you look at the views of each generation, you will see, whether they're Christian or not,

00:01:56.540 each generation gets more progressive, more liberal than the last.

00:02:00.000 That is a result of education in this country and the ideology that characterizes most public

00:02:07.220 education, even some private education.

00:02:09.600 That is also the result of what people see on social media, what they're fed via Snapchat,

00:02:17.840 via Instagram, via TikTok.

00:02:20.860 That's the ideology that's pervasive in Hollywood.

00:02:24.220 And so all of the forces, all of the secular forces, lean to the left.

00:02:30.320 And that has infected, unfortunately, many pulpits.

00:02:33.620 Many pulpits who think that they can outlove God by disagreeing with God and what he says

00:02:38.660 about marriage and what he says about sexuality and what he says about righteousness and sin.

00:02:43.880 And so they are essentially preaching a false gospel that sounds more worldly than it does

00:02:48.200 biblical.

00:02:49.320 And thus, you have a lot of young people who are confused.

00:02:52.740 Now, I'll talk about why I think that is the case when it comes to the climate.

00:02:57.140 That's not because I think that it's wrong to care about the environment or we shouldn't

00:03:01.180 care about the earth or that we shouldn't recycle or that we should just, you know,

00:03:06.440 throw trash around and things like that.

00:03:08.900 That's not what I'm saying.

00:03:09.760 Of course, I think that we should care about the earth because we read in Genesis that we

00:03:13.840 are given dominion over the earth.

00:03:15.280 We should steward it.

00:03:16.420 We should work the ground.

00:03:17.880 We should produce good things out of it.

00:03:19.820 We should take care of animals.

00:03:21.080 We can have compassion for all of those things while still realizing that there are some

00:03:25.700 very serious, very fundamental questions about climate change ideology, because that is what

00:03:31.600 it has become.

00:03:32.480 It is climate change ideology.

00:03:34.440 It has become a religion.

00:03:35.680 No matter how many times they've been disproven, no matter how many Al Gore predictions have been

00:03:41.360 wrong, they continue to double down.

00:03:43.400 And they use the existential, the existential threat of climate change, or so they say is

00:03:50.060 an existential threat to scare you into doing what they want you to do for their own political

00:03:57.140 ends.

00:03:57.600 And when I say they, I'm talking about those of the World Economic Forum.

00:04:01.140 I'm talking about Democrat politicians.

00:04:02.700 I'm talking about the global politicians that are, for example, shutting down farms in the

00:04:09.000 Netherlands that are forcing people to drive electric cars, trying to get rid of gas cars,

00:04:16.220 shutting down oil production sites in the United States, only to rely on other terrible countries 1.00

00:04:23.580 committing all kinds of human rights atrocities for our oil, all in the name of helping the 0.99

00:04:29.500 environment, trying to stop the production of meat, getting people to eat bugs, all because

00:04:34.940 they say that this is going to help the globe.

00:04:38.380 This is going to help us save the world from the deleterious effects of climate change.

00:04:43.820 Of course, they don't talk about how healthy the barrier reef is doing.

00:04:48.240 They don't talk about all of the cycles of climate change that the universe has gone through

00:04:52.540 and that we are still here.

00:04:54.040 However, this is really just a premise for them to transform society, for them to take

00:04:59.340 more control, and for them to push policies that give them more power and money.

00:05:03.920 There's a lot of money, as we have talked about several times, in green energy.

00:05:08.760 There's a lot of money in making these windmills and making these solar panels that are also,

00:05:14.160 by the way, really bad for the environment.

00:05:16.540 There's a lot of power and a lot of governments and a lot of NGOs when it comes to climate change,

00:05:22.340 activism, and ideology.

00:05:23.920 We'll link a couple past episodes, one that I did with Jackie Daly, and then another one

00:05:29.840 that I did recently with an author who talks a lot about the Great Reset and climate change.

00:05:37.160 And you can learn a little bit more just about how false a lot of the assertions are when it

00:05:42.920 comes to climate change activism.

00:05:44.480 So it doesn't really surprise me that a lot of young people, even young Christians in the

00:05:49.900 country, say that they believe it.

00:05:52.120 So this is the Pew Research poll.

00:05:56.040 In the U.S., young adults are more concerned than their elders, both in the overall population

00:05:59.900 and within religious groups, about climate change.

00:06:04.720 So all U.S. adults, apparently 57%, 57% say that global climate change is an extremely slash

00:06:14.660 very serious problem.

00:06:17.020 That actually surprises me.

00:06:18.760 Also, 53% of all U.S.

00:06:22.280 adults say that the Earth is getting warmer mostly because of human activity.

00:06:29.340 I would say that the evidence for that is shaky at best.

00:06:33.280 And then they break this down by different belief systems and then also by age.

00:06:37.720 And so Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to believe this.

00:06:44.560 Only 25% of Republicans say that global climate change is an extremely serious problem versus

00:06:50.900 83% of Democrats.

00:06:53.840 I mean, that's just a clash of worldviews, a clash of facts right there.

00:07:01.700 Evangelical Protestants always holding down the fort in the base department. 0.99

00:07:06.040 Evangelical Protestants always on every single subject.

00:07:10.580 We are the most conservative across the board.

00:07:13.480 That's why we are demonized so much.

00:07:15.380 It's white Evangelical Protestants, more than Catholics, more than mainline Protestants, more 0.69

00:07:20.940 than any other group.

00:07:22.480 Evangelical Protestants are always holding down the fort on the most conservative things. 1.00

00:07:26.620 Only 34%, actually, that's too high.

00:07:29.360 34% of Evangelical Protestants say that global climate change is an extremely serious problem.

00:07:37.740 28% say it's somewhat a problem.

00:07:40.920 And 38% say that it's not a serious problem at all.

00:07:47.940 And then mainline Protestants, obviously more.

00:07:50.420 Catholics, what did I say? 1.00

00:07:51.960 57% of Catholics versus 34% of Evangelical Protestants say that this is an extremely big deal.

00:08:00.420 Religiously unaffiliated, 70%.

00:08:03.040 Again, not surprising.

00:08:04.680 Everyone is looking to worship something.

00:08:06.300 Everyone is looking for an ideology.

00:08:08.620 Everyone is looking to be attached to something, to have a cause.

00:08:13.500 And so it doesn't surprise me that the religiously unaffiliated, who are almost always Democrats, 0.66

00:08:18.760 are looking to this to kind of be their guide.

00:08:21.500 Let's look at the headline breakdown here.

00:08:36.460 So Evangelical Protestants ages 40 plus, only 31% say that it's an extremely big problem.

00:08:44.060 And then 18 to 39-year-olds, that's my category.

00:08:48.100 41% say that it's an extremely big problem in the world.

00:08:53.260 And 75% say that it's either somewhat or an extremely big problem in the world.

00:09:00.920 And so it's really the 40 plus Evangelical Protestants.

00:09:05.340 Let's see.

00:09:06.560 Yeah, the 40 plus Evangelical Protestants, the 40 plus Republicans that are the ones who are

00:09:13.520 like putting their stake in the ground and say, no, this is not an extremely big problem.

00:09:18.060 Maybe you could say it's a problem.

00:09:20.060 Maybe you could say that there are better things that we can do.

00:09:22.360 I'm not saying that we shouldn't.

00:09:23.820 Again, not saying we shouldn't care about the environment.

00:09:26.620 But like if you are looking at a list of priorities, it doesn't even come close to the top of the

00:09:33.820 list.

00:09:34.500 That's what I think.

00:09:35.760 Yes, I think also people say that this is a problem.

00:09:38.420 Most people don't vote on it.

00:09:40.100 Most people don't live their life this way, by the way.

00:09:42.560 Some of the biggest advocates of climate change policy are the ones who are flying to the World 1.00

00:09:48.460 Economic Forum on a private jet several times a year and eating Wagyu beef.

00:09:54.320 So it's not and it's not hypocrisy.

00:09:57.000 It's hierarchy.

00:09:57.600 As the saying goes, they just believe that you shouldn't have access to these things,

00:10:01.480 that you are populating too much.

00:10:03.680 You're taking up too much space.

00:10:05.360 You're eating too many hamburgers.

00:10:07.640 You're driving your truck too much.

00:10:10.180 But they can do all of these things because they matter.

00:10:13.000 They're cleaner than you.

00:10:13.940 They're more responsible than you.

00:10:15.800 They're not part of the great unwashed as you are.

00:10:18.760 And so, of course, they have been very successful in pushing their propaganda because their power

00:10:23.720 and their riches depend upon it.

00:10:26.720 And so, unfortunately, young people, as young people often are, are kind of taken by a lot

00:10:31.820 of this rhetoric.

00:10:33.040 But let me read you the Bible verse that I always read when it comes to the subject of

00:10:42.300 climate change.

00:10:43.140 So here's what God promises.

00:10:44.780 If you're a Christian, you believe the Bible is the word of God.

00:10:47.180 It's an error.

00:10:47.660 It's infallible.

00:10:48.460 We believe that God is good.

00:10:49.600 We believe that he created the heavens and the earth.

00:10:51.140 He's in control over all of it.

00:10:55.060 So this is what God says after the flood.

00:10:58.840 He says,

00:10:59.700 I will never again curse the ground because of man for the intention of man's heart is evil

00:11:03.460 from his youth.

00:11:04.580 Never will I ever or neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have

00:11:09.860 done.

00:11:10.620 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and

00:11:17.560 night shall not cease.

00:11:20.180 That is Genesis 8, 21 through 22, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,

00:11:26.420 day and night shall not cease.

00:11:28.960 It won't cease.

00:11:29.600 There is actually nothing that we can do to quicken the end of the world.

00:11:35.500 OK, like this is our father's world and he's got it in his hands.

00:11:41.760 That doesn't mean that we should be irresponsible or that we shouldn't care, but he is sovereign

00:11:45.580 over all of that.

00:11:46.340 He has promised that seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night

00:11:50.020 shall not cease.

00:11:52.100 So let's do our best to take care of the things that we can.

00:11:55.380 But I do not agree with most of climate change policy, which is actually more concerned with

00:12:00.080 depopulation than it is actually helping the world.

00:12:04.280 We've talked about this many times with Justin Haskins as well.

00:12:07.820 And again, we'll link some of those past episodes.

00:12:10.300 So young people, and I guess I include myself in that category because Pew said it's 18 through

00:12:15.660 39 year olds who believe in a lot of this nonsense.

00:12:18.460 Remember the word of God, that God is totally in control and also understand much of climate

00:12:25.280 change activism is a religion in itself, which stands opposed to Christianity.

00:12:30.640 Evangelical Protestants keep holding down the fort when it comes to this kind of stuff. 0.99

00:12:35.100 All right.

00:12:35.580 Another study that I wanted to look at in line with that two other studies, but I also thought

00:12:41.940 that this was interesting and I meant to talk about it a while ago and just didn't get to it.

00:12:45.800 When we've been talking about the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, that redefined something

00:12:51.200 that the government doesn't have the power to redefine marriage because it's pre-America,

00:12:55.800 pre-civilizational.

00:12:57.300 The government did not create marriage.

00:12:59.260 Marriage is based on the biological complementarianism of one man and one woman that you do not find

00:13:06.460 in any union of any other type of person.

00:13:11.320 And that's what marriage is.

00:13:12.980 It is immutable.

00:13:13.820 It is a part of nature and societies all over the world for all of time have recognized

00:13:19.700 that special status of the only child-producing and child-protecting institution that exists

00:13:27.320 that predates America and the government.

00:13:29.640 So Congress can write all kinds of laws.

00:13:31.820 They can write a law saying that a zebra is a dog.

00:13:34.220 It doesn't make it so.

00:13:35.160 They can write a law saying marriage is between like a tree and a bike.

00:13:38.860 It doesn't make it so.

00:13:39.880 It doesn't make it so.

00:13:40.620 And so a lot of people, however, have gone along with Obergefell, which was decided by

00:13:46.260 the Supreme Court in 2015, saying that this is a legal right of any two adults to get

00:13:52.380 married, which of course has led to a lot of infringement upon religious liberty and this 0.94

00:14:01.500 respect for marriage act so-called will only ensure that further.

00:14:07.460 However, most Americans believe that gay marriage, same-sex marriage, as it is called,

00:14:15.220 is good for society or the legalization of it is good for society.

00:14:19.380 That's just where most Americans are. 0.84

00:14:21.360 Actually, it was only seven years ago when Obergefell was decided.

00:14:26.480 And before Obergefell was decided in 2015, still a majority, a slight majority, but the

00:14:32.180 majority of Americans did not believe that homosexuality was good for society.

00:14:37.320 That shows how fast minds change about things, especially when it's shown to you in the media

00:14:43.560 and when it becomes popular and when it becomes comfortable.

00:14:46.560 Of course, I mean, minds are going to change.

00:14:48.520 They've been extremely effective in that.

00:14:49.900 So most Americans, about 60% of Americans say that same-sex marriage is good for society

00:14:58.420 and only 19% say it's very bad, 18% say it's somewhat bad, 25% say it's somewhat good and

00:15:07.240 then 36% say it's very good.

00:15:09.580 So you've got about 61% that say that it's good for society.

00:15:13.500 I always think it's interesting how this breaks down when it comes to like male, female and things

00:15:18.880 like that.

00:15:19.400 And so for men, there are 40% of men in the United States think that same-sex marriage

00:15:25.700 is bad for society.

00:15:27.680 Only 33% of women believe that.

00:15:30.540 63% believe that it is great for society.

00:15:34.160 Let's see.

00:15:36.340 Asian people are actually the most likely, that surprises me, the most likely to say that

00:15:41.880 homosexual marriage is good for, or unions are good for society. 0.93

00:15:49.300 And let's see.

00:15:50.560 The least likely to say it.

00:15:52.760 Uh-oh.

00:15:53.260 This is going to make the intersectionalists just so distraught. 0.90

00:15:57.600 Black Americans, least likely to say that same-sex unions are good for society.

00:16:04.540 57% versus 61% of whites, 60% of Hispanics, 70% of Asians, 39% of Black Americans say that

00:16:14.200 it's bad for society, most likely to say that it's bad for society, which is fascinating because

00:16:19.040 about 90% of Black Americans or more vote Democrat.

00:16:23.620 And this is a key part of Democrats' platform.

00:16:26.680 Ages 18 to 19, or ages 18 to 29, most likely to be for it. 0.98

00:16:32.200 75% say that it's good for society.

00:16:34.840 And that goes down by age group.

00:16:37.000 65 plus, 50% say that it's good for society.

00:16:40.060 So this really is just an issue that most Americans don't really care about.

00:16:44.880 They're not really thinking about the morality of it.

00:16:47.380 Now, if you break it down, though, by Republican and Democrat, 66% of conservative Republicans

00:16:54.940 say that homosexual marriage is bad for society. 0.96

00:16:58.640 Only 32% say that it's good.

00:17:00.540 Democrats, 80% say that it is good for society.

00:17:06.020 So just like on all things, really, on all issues, Republicans are much more divided and

00:17:10.620 much more heterodox across the board than Democrats are.

00:17:13.500 Democrats are much more likely to just be a part of groupthink, really, than Republicans

00:17:18.360 are.

00:17:18.760 I know they want to think that it's the opposite, but it's not.

00:17:22.000 If you look at, really, how Democrats and Republicans think on every issue, there's a lot more disagreement

00:17:26.760 within the Republican Party on these issues than there is in the Democrat Party.

00:17:31.160 Now, who we got?

00:17:32.860 Okay.

00:17:33.440 So we've got white evangelical Protestants taking the lead. 0.92

00:17:39.680 Is anyone surprised in saying that gay unions are not good for society? 1.00

00:17:45.860 71% of white evangelical Protestants say that versus only 32% of Catholics.

00:17:53.020 Now, two, my lovely Catholic friends, whom I link arms with when it comes to abortion and

00:17:59.400 when it comes to a lot of these issues, who I am very thankful for.

00:18:02.960 One thing that my Catholic friends say whenever I talk about the Reformation or whether I talk

00:18:08.240 about the why I believe in by grace through faith alone, why I'm a Protestant, they will

00:18:15.600 say that, oh, we are mourning all of these denominations.

00:18:19.480 And the reason why Protestants are so theologically incorrect and they get, you know, things wrong 1.00

00:18:26.200 on a lot of these issues.

00:18:27.820 Like, I've even seen some Catholics say that, like, Protestant theology is to blame for, like,

00:18:32.680 transgenderism and a lot of these liberal issues.

00:18:34.800 It's because we believe in reading the Bible ourselves and because we don't look to the

00:18:41.220 church or the Catholic church or a pope or one particular teacher to tell us what the

00:18:47.460 Bible says and to tell us what the Bible means.

00:18:50.960 Yes, we believe in teachers.

00:18:52.180 We believe in wisdom.

00:18:53.140 We believe in sound interpretation.

00:18:55.180 We believe in wisdom from the Holy Spirit.

00:18:56.800 But we do believe that the individual can have those things.

00:19:02.080 Traditions, church is important and all of that.

00:19:03.980 But the word of God is supreme.

00:19:07.820 And I hear that believing that is what leads to moral relativism, what leads to the acceptance

00:19:14.180 of, like, cultural things.

00:19:15.980 But my friends, if you look at white evangelical Protestants versus Catholics, line us up on any

00:19:25.300 issue, whether it's marriage, gender, sexuality, abortion, Republican versus Democrat, any of it.

00:19:33.480 And we are, in general, we are more conservative, far more conservative in what I would call far

00:19:41.380 more in line with scripture when it comes to marriage and gender than statistically, in

00:19:48.360 general, Catholics are.

00:19:50.320 Catholics are far more liberal, far more cultural.

00:19:54.740 I'm not talking about those of you who are listening to this podcast and agree with me.

00:19:57.900 I'm talking about statistically than Protestants are. 0.97

00:20:00.220 So I always find that interesting.

00:20:03.040 I always find that argument interesting that Protestants have, like, led to liberalism when, 0.58

00:20:09.940 in general, Protestants are actually far more conservative on these issues than, in general,

00:20:15.440 Catholics are.

00:20:16.740 I personally believe that that is actually the importance of knowing the Word of God yourself

00:20:21.940 and reading the Word of God yourself.

00:20:23.940 And I'm very thankful that Catholics, especially in recent years, there have been amazingly popular

00:20:29.100 podcasts that are walking Catholics through the Bible.

00:20:31.960 I want that.

00:20:33.340 Like, the rise of the Bible study and the personal study of scripture.

00:20:37.980 I know that a lot of Catholics don't like the Protestant Reformation, don't like Martin Luther,

00:20:42.080 but that is a product of the Reformation.

00:20:45.000 And I am glad that in recent years, in recent decades, Catholics have come on board, like,

00:20:52.140 with a lot of that.

00:20:52.800 I want that.

00:20:53.500 I want that.

00:20:54.520 I want everyone to be reading the Word of God.

00:20:56.420 I think that reading the Word of God is what drives someone to be conservative.

00:21:02.520 Um, and so that's what I think the difference is.

00:21:06.540 And I always just think that it's a little bit of a strange argument when my Catholic friends

00:21:10.180 try to throw that in my face and say that Protestantism leads to liberalism.

00:21:14.240 That just doesn't seem to be statistically true.

00:21:18.160 So I don't think it's a surprise, then, that a lot of Republicans, obviously, are on board

00:21:23.180 with something like the Respect for Marriage Act.

00:21:25.180 It is surprising, though, that they are willing to do so without any religious liberty protections

00:21:30.620 whatsoever, which is what they have essentially done, especially in the Senate.

00:21:36.080 And they just seemingly don't care.

00:21:40.160 They just don't care.

00:21:41.200 They don't even care about trying to serve their constituents who simply say, hey, just

00:21:46.160 respect my religious beliefs.

00:21:47.760 Don't push this on me.

00:21:48.920 Don't force me to say something I don't want to say or do something that I don't want to

00:21:52.040 do.

00:21:52.460 And some Republicans in the House and the Senate don't even care about that.

00:21:55.760 It's not surprising to me that they have embraced this new redefinition of marriage.

00:22:01.000 It is disappointing to me that they have decided that our religious liberty shouldn't even be

00:22:08.360 protected and that sexual rights are more important than constitutional rights.

00:22:12.220 All right.

00:22:24.020 Last study that I wanted to talk about before we get into a short interview was a study about

00:22:30.320 the importance of philanthropy and who is actually giving, who is giving in society today.

00:22:37.220 I saw a tweet and it is, it was by Scott Salls and he tweeted this, Christian philanthropy

00:22:45.220 accounted for 70% of all American philanthropy in 2022 at $300 billion total.

00:22:53.140 Christians also outgave the U.S. government in addressing global poverty. 1.00

00:22:57.820 Whatever folks might say or think, the church remains a seismic value add to the world.

00:23:04.140 So this is actually from Philanthropy Roundtable.

00:23:08.680 They are the source of this study and they look at this stuff every year and they look

00:23:15.000 at who is giving the most worldwide.

00:23:19.740 And Christians worldwide are fighting poverty more effectively than the U.S. government and

00:23:26.380 are giving more money than even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

00:23:30.640 Christians are the ones who are carrying on their backs the needs of the most vulnerable 1.00

00:23:41.780 in society by giving not just their money.

00:23:45.160 I mean, we're talking billions of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars of

00:23:49.540 hard-earned money that Christians give every year to organizations that are fighting poverty,

00:23:54.600 that are fighting sex trafficking, that are advocating for adoption, that are helping children,

00:23:59.980 that are helping the poor around the world, the most vulnerable and marginalized people

00:24:03.760 in the universe.

00:24:05.040 Christians are helping, but also through their time and through their energy, service, hours

00:24:11.420 are being given to these communities by Christians.

00:24:16.140 Now, religious affiliation in the United States, as Philanthropy Roundtable notes, has gone down.

00:24:21.940 In 1972, 95% of Americans identified as Christians.

00:24:26.740 And then in 2016, that was 71%, according to Pew Research, and that's even lower than that.

00:24:33.000 And yet, Pew or Philanthropy Roundtable notes that the greatest indicator of whether or not someone

00:24:40.140 is going to give to charities in any given year is still religious affiliation.

00:24:45.400 Now, they asked those that they polled this question, churches, synagogues, and other houses

00:24:51.940 of worship contribute blank to solving important social problems.

00:24:55.820 In 2001, only 21% said nothing or not much.

00:25:00.540 So 21% in 2001 said that churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship contribute nothing

00:25:09.000 to solving important social problems.

00:25:11.220 But by 2016, that had changed to about 40%.

00:25:14.180 So 40%, and now even more, are saying, well, the church really isn't that significant.

00:25:22.060 And 51% are saying that religion is actually the problem in our society rather than the solution.

00:25:31.640 57% say that good works and charitable work, all the charitable work that we see, all the money

00:25:37.940 that's given, would all still happen if there were no people of faith or religious organizations

00:25:43.440 to do them.

00:25:44.080 Oh, my gosh.

00:25:45.940 You have to be completely, completely detached from reality, know nothing about history whatsoever,

00:25:51.940 know nothing about charity in the United States, know nothing about who built the hospitals,

00:25:56.800 who built the adoption agencies, who built the orphanages, who built the universities.

00:26:01.320 You have to literally know nothing about charitable giving at all to make a statement like that.

00:26:07.340 But it's really, really incredible.

00:26:10.180 And yet, when we look at the numbers, they asked, who did the volunteer work?

00:26:17.300 Who does the most volunteer work?

00:26:19.760 They say that Pew Research Center investigators examined the behavior of a large sample of the

00:26:23.960 public across a typical seven-day period.

00:26:25.600 They found that among Americans who attend services weekly and pray daily, 45% had done volunteer

00:26:31.300 work that week versus only 27% among the rest of the population.

00:26:39.780 They also found that Americans who go to church weekly and pray daily are much more likely to

00:26:45.720 gather with extended family, to have more of a community, to have more of family connections

00:26:53.380 in their lives. Also, I think this is all connected together, gave to the poor in the past seven

00:27:00.460 days. This was a question that was asked. 65% of Americans who attend church weekly and pray daily

00:27:07.540 gave to the poor in the past seven days versus only 41% of other Americans. They also found

00:27:15.960 that two-thirds of people who worship at least twice a month give to secular causes even,

00:27:21.200 compared to less than half of non-attenders. And the average secular gift by a church attender

00:27:25.640 is 20% bigger. And this was also documented by the New York Times a couple years ago,

00:27:32.760 that Republican counties give far more on average in charity than blue counties do. And I think one

00:27:39.400 of the reasons for that is because red counties are mostly Christian, and it's mostly Christian

00:27:44.060 conservatives who are giving the money, who are donating to charity.

00:27:48.860 Religious charity dominates U.S. philanthropy. America's tradition of voluntary charitable giving

00:27:56.680 is one of the clearest markers of U.S. exceptionalism. As a fraction of our income,

00:28:01.240 we donate over two and a half times as much as Britons do, more than eight times as much as Germans,

00:28:06.460 and at 12 times the rate of the Japanese, American religiosity plays the central role in that

00:28:12.640 distinctive pattern. That is what de Tocqueville said hundreds of years ago about America,

00:28:18.700 that the thing that distinguishes us from every other country is our Christianity. It is what makes

00:28:24.200 us hard workers. It is what has driven the beliefs that we do about human beings and about human rights.

00:28:30.240 It is what has righted our wrongs throughout history. It is what has always helped us correct course

00:28:36.020 to get closer to the ideals and ideas upon which we were founded, that all men and women are created

00:28:42.800 equal and are given certain inalienable rights by the God who created us. It is what has made America

00:28:49.320 exceptional. And it is the reason for our chaos. The reason for our weakness today is because of the

00:28:55.380 abandonment of those Christian values. That's it. The annual Given USA tabulation show a third of our

00:29:01.300 donations is going to religious causes in the U.S. But Given USA statisticians acknowledge that this is

00:29:07.700 an underestimate. Their calculations include only gifts to houses of worship and related mission

00:29:13.320 organizations. But there are a lot of organizations that are excluded from that. Most U.S. charity is

00:29:21.820 religious. 41% goes to congregations. 27% goes to groups with no religious ties. And 32%

00:29:28.560 goes to religious charities. So 73% of all American charitable giving goes to religious causes and to

00:29:38.520 churches. Also, religious Americans adopt children at two and a half times the overall national rate.

00:29:47.080 They play a particularly large role in fostering and adopting troubled and hard to place kids. Local

00:29:51.940 church congregations aided by umbrella groups like Catholic Charities provide most of the day-to-day

00:29:56.960 help that resettles refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the U.S. Research shows that the bulk of volunteers

00:30:02.840 mentoring prisoners and their families, both while they are incarcerated and after they are released, are

00:30:07.480 Christians, eager to welcome offenders back into society. The educational alternative that draws most of the 1.00

00:30:13.180 headlines today is charter schooling, which serves 3 million children, much less acknowledges the fact that

00:30:17.740 3.8 million children are educated every year in religious schools. These religious schools offer

00:30:24.180 qualitative advantages. Their students experience less violence and bullying and feel more secure,

00:30:28.780 exhibit better citizenship skills, are more engaged with their community, and produce average SAT scores

00:30:33.760 more than 100 points higher than public school students. Religious hospitals care for one out of

00:30:38.920 every five U.S. hospital patients. Catholic institutions account for 16% of all hospital beds,

00:30:45.060 and additional large care health care systems are run by Adventists, Baptists, Methodists, Jews,

00:30:49.580 and other faith groups. Faith-based organizations are at the forefront of both care and recovery for

00:30:54.760 the homeless. A 2017 study found that 58% of the emergency shelter beds in 11 surveyed cities are

00:31:00.740 maintained by religious providers. Local congregations provide 130,000 alcohol recovery programs. This

00:31:08.520 honestly can kind of make me cry. Local congregations provide 120,000 programs that assist the unemployed in

00:31:15.200 the United States. Local church congregations provide 26,000 programs to help people living with HIV and

00:31:22.100 AIDS, one ministry for every 46 people infected with the virus. Churches recruit a large portion of the

00:31:27.840 volunteers needed to operate organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, America's

00:31:32.840 thousands of food pantries and feeding programs, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Red Cross, and other

00:31:37.640 volunteer-dependent churches. It is really incredible, really incredible the impact that the church still

00:31:46.600 has today. And I don't think that those who demonize the church recognize everything that is going to be

00:31:53.420 missing when you get your wish of being able to tax churches out of oblivion, when the state is able to

00:31:59.920 control what the church can and can't say. There's a lot of people that think that we should remove the

00:32:05.760 tax-exempt status of churches because they shouldn't be given special privileges. You have no idea what

00:32:13.000 you will be taking away from communities and from the most vulnerable when you do that. And honestly,

00:32:19.060 I don't think that those activists care at all. They just want more power to the state and less power to

00:32:24.700 churches, less influence of churches. I mean, that will lead to death. That will lead to all kinds of

00:32:32.660 further atrocities and deprivation far beyond our imagination. The church, the Christian church, 0.86

00:32:39.860 is the greatest force for good in the world, has been for 2,000 years. That doesn't mean that people

00:32:45.700 haven't done bad things in the name of Christianity. Of course they have. It doesn't mean people haven't 1.00

00:32:49.520 wrought destruction in the name of Jesus. Of course they have. But the true living church of God around 0.66

00:32:55.220 the world, the little c Catholic church, meaning the universal church, has done more good for more

00:33:01.420 people than any other institution, than any other force by far. And a great example of that is my next

00:33:09.720 guest. He is the owner of a company called CrowdHealth. And CrowdHealth is changing how we do

00:33:17.420 health care coverage. It's a community of Christians coming together to help cover each other's health care

00:33:22.760 costs without getting in the winding and troubled web of health insurance. And so this is a great

00:33:32.300 conversation and a good way for us to get involved and to help more people. And just encouraging to see

00:33:38.840 what Christians are doing for each other. So as views change and as younger generations are still

00:33:44.680 trying to work out what the Word of God actually says about all of these issues, let us be encouraged by

00:33:49.520 the fact that God is still on the move and he is still using Christians to be ambassadors of truth

00:33:54.360 and goodness. So without further ado, here is our conversation with the CEO of CrowdHealth.

00:34:07.580 Andy, thanks so much for joining us. All right. Could you tell us who you are and what you do?

00:34:12.900 Yeah, sure. Name is Andy Schoonover. I'm the CEO and founder of CrowdHealth,

00:34:18.260 which is a new, innovative way of paying for health bills. I started the company because

00:34:26.280 a few years back, I had health insurance, went on healthcare.gov and got health insurance I thought

00:34:33.000 was my only option. And I kind of joked that it worked until I had to use it. My little one,

00:34:38.980 who was one at the time, was having recurring ear infections. And so we went to the ear, nose and

00:34:43.480 throat doctor who told us that she needs tubes in her ears. If you're a parent out there,

00:34:47.520 I'm sure many of you have gotten the same message. So went to the local hospital,

00:34:52.420 got tubes in her ears. It was a 15 minute procedure and it was $8,000. And I was just

00:34:57.860 blown away by that. But not only that, a few weeks later, I got something from my health

00:35:02.740 insurance plan that said that it was medically unnecessary and so they weren't going to pay for

00:35:08.380 it. So as a result of that, we started a new company because we thought that people can do better

00:35:13.720 than what health insurance is currently offering us. And so we're really excited about this service

00:35:21.460 and excited to tell you more and your audience more about it.

00:35:24.060 Yeah. Tell us. I mean, obviously my faithful audience who listens to all the episodes has

00:35:31.100 probably heard me talk about crowd health before, but it's always different to hear it from the person

00:35:36.900 who started it. So you told us the origin story, but just tell us what it is, what its mission is

00:35:44.000 and how it's grown.

00:35:45.880 Sure. Yeah. No. So it's, it's totally different from health insurance, totally different from health

00:35:50.920 shares, which I'm sure your audience is familiar with. You know, the way that we work is every month

00:35:55.700 you put $175 into an account, that account is yours. Um, and that money accumulates over time

00:36:04.200 so that when somebody in the, um, community has a health problem, let's just say that my daughter

00:36:09.920 falls off her bike and has a $5,000, um, health bill, I'll pay the first $500 of that. And then 1.00

00:36:16.540 crowd health will go to the community and say, Hey, can we get 45 of you to give a hundred dollars

00:36:22.140 from that account that you set up to help Andy's family with that broken arm. Um, and if you say

00:36:28.280 yes, then a hundred dollars is transferred from your account to my account. Um, and you know,

00:36:34.780 eventually we'll have, you know, the $4,500 to, to pay for my, my daughter's, uh, you know,

00:36:40.980 falling off of her, her bike or broken arm or whatever it is. Um, you know, I think the cool thing

00:36:45.240 about this is, you know, generally with health insurance companies, you're paying into a, you know,

00:36:51.040 this pot, um, and it disappears, right. You never see that again. Um, and this is, you actually know

00:36:57.840 that you're helping Andy's, uh, family in Austin, Texas pay for, um, his daughter's broken arm. And

00:37:06.000 so, you know, you think that, that there's a humanity to that, that, um, you don't get with

00:37:11.320 having a health plan or even some of these health shares. And so we think that's just a cool thing.

00:37:17.120 We're trying to bring humanity back to healthcare. And one difference too, from insurance providers

00:37:23.160 is that there are no doctor's networks and there's not a whole lot of restrictions that people have

00:37:27.620 to worry about. Right. Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, one of the things that I know my wife asked

00:37:32.780 me when we think about health insurance is like, can we go to the same pediatrician? Can I go to the

00:37:37.320 same OBGYN? Can I do those? And, you know, we allow people other than, you know, we had that famous

00:37:42.680 statement back in, you know, what it was 10 years ago, you can keep your own doctor, right? Which

00:37:47.260 actually wasn't the case. Um, and someone stood up and said, you lie and he was right. We won't

00:37:54.080 mention any names, but, um, you know, in this case, it's literally, there's no doctor networks. So you

00:37:59.060 can go to whoever you want. Um, we just asked that for the big events that you come to us and let you

00:38:05.200 help you find a really high quality doctor at a really good price. So we had a woman up in Dallas who

00:38:12.620 needed a, um, who's going through cervical cancer right now. So she needed a full hysterectomy. 1.00

00:38:17.980 She went to her local, uh, hospital in Dallas who told her that it was going to be $40,000.

00:38:23.300 She called us and she said, wow, you know, like I really feel bad for the community because I don't

00:38:27.680 want to burden them. You know, can you guys find me a better place to do this? And we found a doctor

00:38:31.780 who was actually, um, better at this procedure, um, and for $9,000. So that's a 75% savings versus what

00:38:42.080 their local hospital could do. So yeah, we just asked people to let us help them find a really

00:38:46.280 good doc at a real, really great price. Which is what everyone wants anyway. So the fact that that

00:38:52.820 is a service that y'all provide helping people find good doctors and the fact that this is a

00:38:57.700 community, there is, uh, there's a lot of benefit to that if you're trying to find a good provider,

00:39:04.080 because someone over here says, oh yeah, you know, I have a, an aunt down in Dallas. She just went

00:39:09.540 through breast cancer. She loved her surgery, whatever it is. There is a benefit to that,

00:39:14.740 that really can't be provided by your typical insurance company. Yeah. And we don't, we don't

00:39:20.660 want you to have to negotiate with your doctor. Like that seems like an awkward thing. Um, and I

00:39:25.680 don't particularly like negotiating for a used car or whatever it ends up being. It's like, um, let us

00:39:31.220 go in and ask your doctor to, you know, if we can pay them cash, if you can pay them cash, ultimately

00:39:37.380 on the day of that procedure, you know, will they give you a discount for that? And we're seeing

00:39:42.540 anywhere from 30% to 80% discounts by actually just paying them in cash on the day of that, that

00:39:49.260 procedure. You know, these doctors are typically not getting paid for 60, 90, 120 days from the health

00:39:55.720 insurance plan. It takes them, it costs them about 30% of their revenue to actually bill a health

00:40:02.260 insurance plan. So these doctors are our biggest advocates. There are huge fans. They don't want

00:40:08.260 to deal with the health insurance plans. You know, they want to deal with the health insurance plans

00:40:12.000 less than you want to deal with the health insurance plans. And so they, they love crowd

00:40:15.920 health. And actually, I think it's the second, maybe the third largest group of crowd health

00:40:20.300 members are doctors. Um, interestingly enough, you know, I'm wondering if you guys have

00:40:25.860 come up against any kind of political or regulatory obstacles, because I could see how insurance

00:40:33.720 companies and politicians who are kind of funded by, uh, some of these lobbyists and insurance

00:40:40.040 companies don't like you guys and probably don't want you to grow. So is that something that you guys

00:40:47.520 have experienced? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I've kind of termed it the medical industrial complex,

00:40:52.600 which is, you know, these big health insurance plans, these big hospitals are funding these

00:40:58.400 government officials who are making legislation that, um, help them that create barriers to entry.

00:41:04.960 And so, yeah, for sure. We've, we've had some, some interest from, you know, primarily the politically

00:41:11.780 left to our income to this Medicare for all, you know, mentality. Um, and we don't think that the

00:41:18.180 government should be involved in our healthcare. I am adamantly against that. That's a hill I will die

00:41:22.540 on. Um, and so I think, you know, we need to bring healthcare back to, to individuals, you know,

00:41:28.760 just a quick, quick story is we had a member who's 19 years old, um, who got her hand caught in the

00:41:35.780 prop of a boat over the summertime. And so this was a big bill, tens of thousands of dollars, as you can

00:41:41.440 imagine. We went to crowdfund surgery and exactly. Yeah. Reattachment, all physical therapy, all these

00:41:47.980 things. So we went to our group of people and we said, Hey, will you help this 19 year old in

00:41:52.820 Tennessee? And, um, we actually had people come back and said, you know what, I want to give more

00:41:57.600 to this person. Like, I want to get more than what you've asked for to this person, you know? And so

00:42:02.280 to me, it's like, man, like that's bringing humanity back to healthcare. Cause these, these big health

00:42:07.420 plans, like you don't know where your money is going. You know, if you're on Medicare or some of these

00:42:11.780 big government plans or Medicaid, like you send your money to the government and you have no idea

00:42:16.280 where, you know, your money is going. And I truly believe that, you know, over a period of time,

00:42:21.220 starting probably in the seventies, the government and insurance companies have wedged themselves in

00:42:26.660 between us and our neighbors and have kind of alleviated us from the responsibility of like

00:42:32.720 truly loving our neighbor. Well, um, and so, you know, what we're trying to do is ultimately is,

00:42:39.140 is saying, Hey, you know, like you can love your neighbor well through healthcare by helping somebody

00:42:44.040 else in need when they need it. And like, that is fundamentally the mission that we're trying to

00:42:48.820 kind of reestablish here is kind of a sense of generosity of loving your neighbor within healthcare.

00:42:54.160 Cause we've been doing that for hundreds of years and it wasn't until the seventies where

00:42:57.160 these health plans basically said, no, we're not going to allow you to do that anymore.

00:43:00.980 Yes. I think people have noticed maybe more than ever over the past, than over the past couple of

00:43:06.060 years, that there is a war on interdependence and that there is a war on community dependence.

00:43:12.640 There is a war on the family and communities and churches relying on one another, taking away that

00:43:18.680 interdependence, bringing people into isolation, which forces people then to depend on the state for

00:43:24.080 a variety of needs. And the medical industrial complex, again, as we saw over the past couple of

00:43:29.240 years, plays a really big role in that isolation and dependence on the government. And so this is a,

00:43:37.600 maybe seemingly for some people, small, but really impactful way to wage a war against that push for

00:43:48.080 isolation and against the interdependence and the loving of neighbor that God calls us to.

00:43:55.240 We talk a lot like, what can we do? What can we do? The powers that be are trying to drive us into,

00:44:01.020 you know, globalism and dependence on the states. And I've always said, localization and community

00:44:10.020 dependence is one way that you can push back against the powers that be that are trying to

00:44:15.960 drive us apart. And this is one way to do that. One last question that I have.

00:44:21.860 Just real quick, I wouldn't say this is a small way. Like this is, you know, that the health care

00:44:27.260 is $4 trillion that we spend every single year. Like this is the largest industry on the planet.

00:44:33.540 Right. And the government is slowly but surely trying to take away that component of our decision

00:44:40.980 making process. And so, you know, if the government is able to suck up, you know, $4 trillion worth of

00:44:46.820 our own money, you know, ultimately, then, you know, I think that's a problem. And I think we've

00:44:53.340 seen it even with healthcare.gov, which it is, you know, these third party insurance plans that are

00:44:58.820 on these healthcare.govs, but it is subsidized by us, the taxpayers for, you know, everybody up to like

00:45:05.080 three or 400% of the poverty line. So in essence, what they've done with healthcare.gov over the last

00:45:09.900 literally three months is they've expanded the subsidies on that, which in essence is what it's doing is

00:45:15.260 it's expanding Medicaid. And so I think that's a problem. And so, you know, if your listeners get

00:45:22.240 come away with nothing else, I would say, you know, you may be in a decision process right now

00:45:27.220 on where to get your healthcare. You know, you can go to your state marketplace or healthcare.go,

00:45:32.980 depending on what state you're in. All I'm saying is that action actually props up a government

00:45:39.640 ownership of your healthcare. And so whether it be CrowdHealth or HealthShare or some other

00:45:44.600 alternative, you know, I would, I, all I would ask your, your audience to do is consider an

00:45:48.460 alternative. Yes. And that's why I said seemingly small way, because I think some people would see

00:45:54.760 it as well. What difference can I make in making this choice? This is just me. This is just one

00:45:59.500 family. This is just one individual that's making that choice. It's seemingly small, but of course,

00:46:04.120 just like all choices collectively, they can make a huge difference. And so you're absolutely right.

00:46:08.380 We just saw it in the elections, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. One last question that I have

00:46:13.360 before I close this out, something that people are growing increasingly concerned about when it comes

00:46:18.160 to their insurance. And certainly if they are dependent upon government insurance or government

00:46:25.500 coverage is paying for through their dollars, surgeries that don't align with their values,

00:46:34.400 like abortion or like the kind of transgender surgeries that we are seeing that people are just 1.00

00:46:42.400 not comfortable with. So I know it might be like a tough question. I don't want to put you on the

00:46:47.480 spot, but how does your company deal with that? Cause I know a lot of Christians listening in this

00:46:51.080 audience, they don't want any part of that. Yeah, no, it's not a tough question at all. It's probably

00:46:55.620 the easiest question yet. It's like, I'm a believer. I will not allow my company to fund anything that

00:47:00.700 are against biblical principles. And so you have my word that that's not going to happen. So before

00:47:07.220 CrowdHealth, I was in a faith-based ministry that I ran. And so you can, your audience can be assured

00:47:13.280 that that will not happen. Amen. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. And as my audience will

00:47:20.700 hear me say later this week, when I read the actual ad, if people go to joincrowdhealth.com, you can use

00:47:26.900 my code Allie. You said it's typically $175 a month, correct? But with my code, it's $99 a month for

00:47:34.000 the first six months, which is an amazing deal. You save a lot of money. Plus you're going to save

00:47:39.260 a lot of money with this anyway. And so thank you so much. Thanks for just obeying the Lord and going

00:47:45.960 out and starting something. A lot of people talk about doing things and making a difference and

00:47:50.380 it's just lip service and you're actually doing it. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

00:47:56.380 Thank you. And thank you for everything you do as well.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 22, 2022

Ep 729 ｜ The Unmatched Generosity of Christians ｜ Guest： Andy Schoonover

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