Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 775 ｜ Pastors： Stop Trying to Be Nicer Than God

00:00:00.000 Pastor Mike Todd goes viral for saying some seemingly troubling things about transgenderism

00:00:05.840 and homosexuality. And another so-called pastor is also gaining attention for stating that drag

00:00:11.960 is holy. And a courageous Christian hockey player refused to go along with his team's

00:00:17.640 pride night earlier this month. Also, we'll give a brief update on Trump's potential

00:00:22.920 arrest. A lot going on. This is all brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:27.440 Go to GoodRanchers.com. Use promo code ALI at checkout. That's GoodRanchers.com. Code ALI.

00:00:41.060 Hey, guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone's having a wonderful week.

00:00:46.160 If you have not listened to yesterday's episode where I had my dad on, he talked about his life

00:00:50.900 story. But we also talked about Trump's apparently impending arrest and what that may look like. He

00:00:58.540 gave some predictions based on some information that he got yesterday. Trump was not arrested

00:01:06.120 yesterday. We're not really going to get in depth on that. I just wanted to say that off the top.

00:01:10.820 He is possibly still awaiting arrest. But as my dad said yesterday,

00:01:15.940 there's probably not going to be a perp walk. Remember, he's still protected by Secret Service.

00:01:20.580 Secret Service is not going to allow that. And so we'll see what this actually looks like.

00:01:27.400 Again, go back and listen to yesterday, why we think that this is just a complete and total witch

00:01:32.680 hunt. There is no grounding in the rule of law, no integrity, none of that. This is a political

00:01:38.640 show. And this is also kind of sparked a conversation about the presidential election,

00:01:43.960 whether this is going to help or hurt Trump, whether DeSantis' response is going to help or

00:01:49.120 hurt him. I honestly don't think this is going to stick as much as people think it will. I know it

00:01:56.120 seems like that, and maybe for some people it will. But look, news moves fast. There's going to be

00:02:01.520 another thing, another dramatic scene that plays out in the next few months. Remember, a year is a long

00:02:09.640 time. It's going to be about a year before the presidential election really starts heating up.

00:02:14.820 Governor DeSantis hasn't even announced whether he is going to run for president. So as much as I

00:02:21.160 think people today believe that this is going to be the deciding factor for who becomes the Republican

00:02:28.800 nominee, I think it could have an effect. I don't think it's going to have as big of an impact as

00:02:34.400 people think. Remember, people have amnesia. Things are said, things are done by politicians,

00:02:40.020 and people forget very quickly. They care much more about what that president may or may not do

00:02:47.340 for them and their family. So that's where we are. We still don't know if President Trump is going to

00:02:51.620 be arrested. It's a sad day in our country where this is even a question. Remember, this is over a

00:02:57.320 misdemeanor. The statute of limitations has expired on this misdemeanor. They are trying to make it a

00:03:03.140 which is absurd. So we'll see. We'll see what pans out, and we'll see what happens there.

00:03:13.000 And I don't know. Sometimes I just don't have the answer to the state of this country except for

00:03:18.240 God is totally sovereign. That's one of the things that we're going to talk about today. We're going

00:03:21.600 to talk about the consistency of God, the consistency and reliability of God's Word, and what some

00:03:28.940 pastors and Christian leaders say don't seem to correspond with that reality. And we're going to

00:03:35.400 start out with this story about Mike Todd. Mike Todd is a pastor of a large church called Transformation

00:03:43.040 Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We've talked about Mike Todd before. He had that egregious scene on stage at

00:03:50.200 his church where he actually spit into his hands, like hocked a loogie into his hands. This really

00:03:54.780 grosses me out to say, and like put it on the face of someone in the congregation that he brought up

00:04:02.040 on stage trying to make some kind of biblical illustration. All right, it was really gross. 0.76

00:04:06.540 He ended up apologizing for that. But that's, of course, not the only thing. I disagree with Mike

00:04:10.100 Todd theologically on quite a few things. He leans prosperity gospel. You can go back and you can

00:04:15.520 listen to his sermons. You can read some of his books. I feel very confident in saying that.

00:04:20.260 That's not to say he doesn't say things that are also true and that are also edifying at times.

00:04:25.480 I mean, the same is true for almost any pastor that calls themselves that is a prosperity preacher

00:04:32.480 and health and wealth, name it and claim it preacher. There are things that Joel Osteen says

00:04:37.300 that are uplifting, that are biblical, that are true, that doesn't mean that he doesn't present

00:04:42.120 in a lot of ways a false gospel. I don't think Mike Todd is necessarily on the level of Joel Osteen,

00:04:47.700 but certainly leans towards the health and wealth, name it and claim it kind of theology.

00:04:53.920 And now he is under fire for a viral clip that's going around. It's from a sermon from March 5th.

00:05:00.180 And the sermon is titled Power Trip to Power Flip Serve the Kingdom. It's part four in a sermon

00:05:07.820 series called King Dumb, D-U-M-B. It's a play on words to indicate that if you don't have biblical

00:05:14.020 knowledge, you can't know God. And here's what I'll say. So I saw this clip going around and I was

00:05:18.720 like, oh my gosh, I've got to respond to this. This is so sad that a pastor doesn't know how to

00:05:23.040 talk about this very sensitive, but very clear subject of sexuality and gender identity. And I

00:05:29.920 was just totally ready to slam him for this because this just breaks my heart when you have someone who

00:05:36.200 is so talented and so influential, has so many people sitting in front of him asking for wisdom,

00:05:41.440 when he just so clearly gets it wrong and pretends that the word of God equivocates on this.

00:05:46.280 But as usual, the clip was kind of pulled out of context. And I'm not saying that I agree with

00:05:52.260 everything that was said, and I'm going to play you a little bit of the clip, but I am going to read

00:05:56.000 you the context. And I think that it's better than what people are saying on Twitter. He actually

00:06:02.040 offers more clarity than what he appears to offer in this clip. So we'll talk about the good and bad

00:06:07.340 and the ugly. And the reason I'm doing this is not to pick on Mike Todd, because we all say things

00:06:11.680 that we don't mean, or maybe we say things and we look back and we wish that we had said it better

00:06:16.000 or more clearly. That is certainly true of me. I've done so many interviews and so many podcasts.

00:06:20.160 There are so many things that I look back on and I'm like, that's not necessarily theologically

00:06:24.040 correct, or I wish I would have just explained that better. And so I'm not trying to pick on him.

00:06:28.180 What I am trying to do is to offer an example of one way to explain these sensitive,

00:06:34.340 identity-centered subjects. And then for us to compare that to what God's word actually says,

00:06:39.420 which is always so graciously clear on these so-called culture war issues. So let me play you

00:06:45.840 this clip that's going around that is so controversial, especially among conservative evangelicals.

00:06:52.420 As a pastor, like, so what do you think about gay men? I don't know. I don't know why you're 1.00

00:06:57.260 wrestling like that. And I don't know what to do to help you, but to stand with you

00:07:00.800 and pray with you and not, and you're welcome at Transformation Church.

00:07:09.060 Trans is in the title. Transformation, you can be here. Oh God. 1.00

00:07:16.220 You want your love here? I want you here.

00:07:30.800 All right. So that's what's circulating on social media where he says, people ask me what I feel

00:07:36.920 about gay marriage. And I'm like, I don't know. And then he says, trans is literally in our name.

00:07:41.860 You can be here. And it's really hard to even tell what he's saying because he got all these people

00:07:46.440 in the audience cheering after every word. And look, I know that I'm not a charismatic. And so I'm

00:07:52.180 used to kind of like my prim and proper Southern Baptist church where you don't kind of make that

00:07:58.900 noise. And I'm not, so I'm not saying that that's wrong. I don't want like my bias to influence what

00:08:05.440 I'm about to say, but it does seem like it's, I mean, it's the same way, like a, you know,

00:08:13.180 a Stephen Furtick church where he has people in the front that are cheering on the things that he has

00:08:18.380 to say, this just feels less like preaching from the word of God, less like trying to point to God

00:08:23.620 and more about him and more about a performance and more about what he's saying. I mean, after

00:08:27.960 every single word, you've got people standing up and cheering. Well, he's not even saying anything.

00:08:32.460 Like he literally said one word. Why are we cheering for what he said? Trans is in our name.

00:08:37.300 And they literally showed the congregation. There's people standing up and applauding for that.

00:08:41.400 What is going on here? What is going on? So I do take issue. I'm okay with different types

00:08:48.320 of worship styles and all different kinds of things, as long as they are biblically based.

00:08:53.400 I don't think that the only one way to worship is how Southern Baptists worship at all. But when I

00:08:58.020 see things like that, and when I know that he leans kind of toward prosperity, it just makes me feel

00:09:02.520 like, okay, is this really a church service? Or is this some kind of performance where you're trying

00:09:06.260 to get affirmation from people for basically not saying anything? So, but I do want to give him the

00:09:12.040 benefit of the doubt here, because what he said right there, absolutely ridiculous. 0.99

00:09:15.220 Absolutely ridiculous. Trans is in our name. And so you're welcome here. However, if you look at the 1.00

00:09:21.080 context of what he's saying, what he's actually saying is not justifying transgenderism, is not

00:09:28.280 justifying what is typically referred to as gay marriage. If you look at the context of what he's

00:09:33.880 saying, he is actually saying, look, this is a complicated subject. Okay. He might be saying that,

00:09:39.040 or this is really uncomfortable. It's culturally inconvenient. All I know is what the kingdom of God is.

00:09:45.120 All I know is what the Bible says. And I don't know that I would say that he's apologizing, but

00:09:49.940 kind of, he's kind of saying, look, this is just what the Bible says. So let me read you a little bit

00:09:56.100 of what he actually says here that I think makes these out of context clips better. So he, around 45

00:10:04.160 minutes into his sermon, he starts talking about how to serve in God's kingdom. You have to submit and

00:10:08.120 relinquish your opinion on things. And he said, God's already decided some stuff that we think we can have

00:10:13.820 an opinion on. God decided male and female. And then the audience kind of mildly cheered. Okay.

00:10:20.240 So he said that. I think that that sentence alone is really important context that he said, God decided

00:10:26.540 male and female. So he's going back to Genesis 1, 27. God already decided that. We got to relinquish

00:10:31.680 our opinion on that. He said, no, I need you all to hear my heart on this. I'm, this is not a bashing.

00:10:38.360 Um, and he said, if I was there, maybe I would have told him, is there something in the middle

00:10:45.540 you could do? I feel you. And I wish there was an option of other in the kingdom and culture. You

00:10:50.300 can make it whatever you want to in culture. You can build whatever you want to. But the truth of

00:10:53.600 the matter is that if we are going to submit under what the King says, I'm going to have to wrestle

00:10:57.520 with that. I don't even fully understand. So very unclear, but basically he's saying, look, I don't want

00:11:03.380 to be anti-transgender. I don't want to say that it's only male and female. This is just what God's

00:11:08.660 word says. And I can sympathize with that. I do take issue with kind of the caveating, the nuancing 0.99

00:11:13.740 and the apologizing for God's word as if like we are more compassionate than God, as if we're nicer

00:11:20.300 than God or kinder than God or more loving than God. I think we can stand on God's word without

00:11:25.260 apologizing for it. But I understand the sentiment. He's like, yeah, this is inconvenient. This is

00:11:30.040 uncomfortable, but this is what God's word says. So he says, well, why did, so he's quoting, well,

00:11:37.700 why did? I don't freaking know. No, honestly, I wish God would have made it so much simpler.

00:11:41.920 And it was like A, B, C, or D, like frick. No, I'm serious. This is a sermon. As a pastor, it's like,

00:11:49.040 so what do you think about gay marriage? I don't know. But I do know in the kingdom, I'm not the king.

00:11:54.580 I don't know why he decided to do it like this. I don't know why you're wrestling like that. And I

00:12:00.360 don't know what to do to help you, but to stand with you and pray with you. And you're welcome

00:12:04.020 at Transformation Church. Trans is in the title, Transformation. Transformation can be here.

00:12:10.740 You're loved here. I want you here. And then he says, so again, that was the problematic part that

00:12:15.660 people are taking issue with. And then he says, will I marry you? And what he means by that, like,

00:12:20.000 will I officiate your marriage if you are two men or two women? He says, I can't. Not because I don't

00:12:25.700 think you found love, just as a kingdom ambassador. When I look back at the orders that are in the

00:12:29.560 constitution of the kingdom. I know people don't like to talk like this because they want it to be

00:12:34.220 black and white, but there's some things on earth I don't have the answers to. And so when I don't

00:12:37.700 know, I just default. I come sub to the mission. Got it. I know people are going to try to make

00:12:45.920 this clickbait and make it something I didn't say. I hope you hear the heart of what I'm saying.

00:12:48.940 I wrestle and pray for all types of people all the time. How freaking unfair it must feel to feel

00:12:53.900 something every day of your life and it not line up with the God you love. I don't have all the

00:12:59.260 answers. So that's the context of what he's saying. And some of what he says, obviously there, it's true 0.98

00:13:06.480 that God already decided this. It doesn't matter our opinion. He's also trying to show some empathy

00:13:11.480 there that I understand you feel a certain way. Maybe you're confused about your identity.

00:13:15.220 Maybe you are attracted to a certain gender and that's simply not what God's word says is holy.

00:13:21.560 That must be really hard. So I can appreciate that. What I don't appreciate here is the lack

00:13:26.800 of clarity. And again, the apology for what God's word says and for the constant saying,

00:13:33.020 I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Because while he says that he is standing on God's word,

00:13:38.180 he is also giving himself an out. And I don't think that we need to let God off the hook.

00:13:45.700 I don't think we need to give ourselves an out. Again, if God created all of this,

00:13:51.760 if he's in charge of all of this, if he is the authority over all of it, if he is the definer of

00:13:56.680 all things, the arbiter of right and wrong, what's true and what's false. Like if Genesis 1,

00:14:03.000 one is true, that God created the heavens and the earth, then yes, we can submit to his authority

00:14:08.240 on all things, but we can do so without caveat or apology. Sure, we can have empathy. We can say,

00:14:15.040 wow, it must be really hard to be tempted by that. I'm also tempted by things. I'm also confused

00:14:20.340 about things. I understand that this runs counter to what the culture says, but, and here's something

00:14:24.900 else that he doesn't do in this long segment is actually go to the word of God and read the word

00:14:29.980 of God. Like if you don't know, if you're confused about what to say, if you're trying to find the

00:14:34.620 right words, then the truest and best and most effective thing that you can do is read God's

00:14:39.900 own words rather than relying on, on our faulty and fallible wisdom. The Bible is so clear about

00:14:47.300 this. And it also troubles me that he says, I don't know why God did it this way. I don't know why

00:14:52.620 God made us male and female. I don't know why God says marriage is between a man and a woman.

00:14:57.180 Dude, you're a pastor. You should know. You should know. It actually doesn't help your

00:15:02.620 congregation to say, I don't know. That's not humility. That's ignorance. And you have too much

00:15:08.780 influence to be ignorant at this point. And actually, I think that he might not be ignorant. 0.98

00:15:14.600 He just doesn't really want to say it. He doesn't want to say it because to me, it seems like he's so 0.85

00:15:20.160 scared of sounding like a bigot or of being criticized for being conservative or whatever

00:15:27.840 that he just, he knows the truth. It's clear here. He knows the truth and he's willing to kind of say

00:15:33.480 it or imply it, but he doesn't want to explain the whole thing, at least in this sermon. And I tried

00:15:38.780 to give as much context as possible. I mean, we've given this alliteration a million times. Please,

00:15:44.380 Mike Todd, you can use it. I mean, you might not want to say this is from Allie Stuckey in your sermon.

00:15:49.600 I'm not sure how that's going to fly, but maybe just say that someone said marriage between a man

00:15:57.640 and a woman, according to the Bible, is rooted in creation. We see that in Genesis 1. It's

00:16:02.400 reiterated throughout scripture. One example is honor your father and mother. It's repeated by

00:16:07.840 Jesus himself, Matthew 19, 4 through 5. That is so clear. It is reflective or representative of Christ

00:16:14.980 in the church. We read that in Ephesians 5. And therefore it is reflective of the gospel. Wow,

00:16:22.280 there is spiritual, there is eternal significance to the definition of male and female, and therefore

00:16:27.140 the definition of marriage between a man and a woman. It's all there. And so even the people who say,

00:16:32.680 oh, we can't listen to Leviticus or we can't listen to 1 Corinthians or we can't listen to Romans 1, 0.85

00:16:37.100 which that's all silly. Look, okay, even without those totally legitimate and valid verses and

00:16:44.500 passages, by the way, which are very explicit, we can look at what God calls holy, what God

00:16:49.800 calls good. And we can say there is some kind of mysterious, spiritual, eternal significance to

00:16:57.540 the definition of things. And because God is so good, and because God is so powerful, and because God is

00:17:03.700 love, as 1 John 4, 8 says, we can and must as Christians submit to him in these things, that's

00:17:10.500 the why. That's the why. As a pastor, as someone who I think God has gifted in so many ways, has

00:17:19.620 obviously gifted him a congregation to steward, he needs to know why. No, it's not enough at this point

00:17:28.220 in your ministry to say, I don't know. I don't know why God made us male and female. I don't

00:17:34.180 know why God made marriage this way. I appreciate you saying that he did. I do. People need to hear

00:17:41.900 that. People do. But people want to know why. It's innate. It's the same reason why when we're toddlers,

00:17:47.520 we say, why is something like this? Why do we do this? We want to know why. As a pastor, that's your job

00:17:54.560 as far as you can. And the good news is that we don't have to rely on our own wisdom or our own

00:17:59.420 smarts, our own knowledge to tell people why. Again, the truest and most effective, most loving

00:18:04.700 thing we can do is simply agree with God. How do we agree with God? We look at, we read, we preach

00:18:10.460 what God's word says, and we say, I agree with that. Not because I fully understand it, not because

00:18:15.700 it's easy, but because I am called to imitate God. And because I want to love my neighbor, the only way I

00:18:21.520 can do that is to imitate and follow the God who says he is love. And that God who says he is love

00:18:26.160 says that he made us male and female, and that marriage is between one man and one woman, period.

00:18:30.700 End of story. Of course, that's going to get backlash. Of course it is. Of course, people are

00:18:36.880 going to call you unloving. Of course, people are going to call you hateful. Yeah, that's the story

00:18:41.960 of the church. That's been the story of the church for 2000 years, being both misunderstood and

00:18:46.840 maligned. And all we say is to God be the glory. Most loving thing that we can do is to speak the

00:18:54.220 truth without caveat and without apology. So that's just what I encourage. That's what I encourage

00:19:00.320 every pastor, every Christian to do. And we're going to fail at that. I also want to just caution 1.00

00:19:06.520 because I've fallen into this trap too. I have. And I apologize for any time I've done this. It's

00:19:11.180 never been purposeful. Just caution people against taking words like this out of context,

00:19:17.440 because I do think that Mike Todd deserves a little more credit, a little more credit on this

00:19:22.660 than he's getting, even though there are things to say with how he kind of handled this.

00:19:27.580 It wasn't a complete like affirmation of transgender ideology or gay marriage. So I think it's important

00:19:35.520 to just kind of note that. But I did want to respond to it because I do think that responding

00:19:42.020 to things like that can show people, and not that I'm perfect at this again, show people what the

00:19:48.240 right response is based on what God's word says. It's actually such a gracious gift that God gives

00:19:52.880 us so much clarity on this issue that we don't have to wonder what's gender, what's marriage,

00:19:57.860 what's holy sexuality. God is so abundantly clear because being sovereign, he absolutely knew that this

00:20:04.040 is going to be a difficult issue for the culture and for individuals. And so he lays it out for us.

00:20:08.980 Thank you, Lord.

00:20:21.540 All right. You've probably seen this other clip circulating that has gone viral. And this is a

00:20:28.280 progressive pastor who is talking about drag. And if you don't know, if you're a sweet summer child

00:20:35.600 and you don't know what drag is, I actually had someone the other day in my church who could not

00:20:41.840 think of the term drag or drag queen and was trying desperately to explain what he was talking about.

00:20:48.160 And it really made me laugh. And I was like, wow, I love that you are so disconnected from the

00:20:53.660 craziness that is Twitter that you can't think of the word drag. So for those of you who don't know,

00:20:59.700 drag is when men, grown men, well, I guess in some really scary and perverse cases, these are

00:21:06.760 young boys also. Something that happens in the United States dressing up like women. Now, very often 0.99

00:21:13.420 they are wearing prosthetic breasts, thongs, corsets, fishnets, high heels. People will tell you that

00:21:22.120 it's not innately sexual. Look, a man dressing up as a caricature of a woman is always going to be 0.72

00:21:27.960 inappropriate, in particular for children. Cross-dressing, a man dressing like a woman is 1.00

00:21:34.900 wrong. But also in the sexual and caricature-like nature of drag, it's not something that will ever

00:21:41.940 be glorifying to the Lord. However, this particular pastor, Reverend Dr. Caleb J. Lines,

00:21:48.920 he posted this on his TikTok. Here's his argument to the contrary.

00:21:55.760 Drag is holy. There has been an assault on the rights of drag performers in this country,

00:22:03.640 and we must call out the hypocrisy and the injustice. Jesus called himself a mother hen longing to gather

00:22:12.820 up her chicks. Gender is a construct, you see. And if Jesus can be a mother hen, then you can dress 0.99

00:22:21.360 in drag. I've even heard it said that Jesus was, and humanity is, God in drag. So let me say this again

00:22:31.140 for those of you in the back, drag is holy.

00:22:38.280 I was expecting there to be a lightning storm right after all of that blasphemy. I mean, 1.00

00:22:43.520 that person, I think it's safe to say, is not a believer. He is not a believer in Jesus Christ.

00:22:48.140 He does not believe in the basic tenets of Christianity. He doesn't believe. In Genesis 1,

00:22:52.960 the first chapter of the first book of the Bible that contains many of the fundamentals of our faith,

00:22:58.040 what we understand about human nature and the nature of God, the nature of creation,

00:23:03.060 which, as we just said in that first segment, God made them male and female, made them in his image,

00:23:09.740 male and female. Genesis 1, 27. Right there, we've got the definition of marriage. We've got the

00:23:14.640 definition of gender. And what I believe is the first implicit condemnation of abortion, that we are

00:23:21.060 different from all the creatures in creation. We are actually made in God's image. There is something

00:23:26.520 special about humans. And actually, in Genesis 9, 6, when God demands, commands the death penalty

00:23:34.960 in cases of murder, what he refers to as his reasoning is that human beings are made in God's

00:23:42.860 image. That's how valuable we are. That's why murder is so egregious. It's different than animal

00:23:48.080 sacrifice. Human beings are different. We are special. We have an innate worth and innate value because

00:23:53.400 Genesis 1, 27, we are made in the image of God. And being made in the image of God means being made

00:23:58.800 male or female. Now, whenever I say this, people like to bring up, what about intersex? So there's

00:24:05.440 a very rare disorder that affects maybe, maybe 0.2, it might even be 0.02% of the population in which

00:24:12.460 there are hormonal differences or there are even physical differences where there are traits of both

00:24:19.760 male and female existent in a human being. Look, this is a fallen world. People are born in all

00:24:25.380 different kinds of ways that humans are not supposed to be ideally born into. There are people who are

00:24:29.520 born with just one leg. And do we say that human beings can have one leg or two legs? No, we say

00:24:35.500 human beings are bipeds because we understand human nature. We understand that human beings as a species

00:24:40.500 have two legs. They are bipeds. And we also understand that people are born with different anomalies.

00:24:45.060 The exception does not rewrite the rule. That is the case with intersex. Intersex has nothing to do 0.99

00:24:49.840 with transgenderism whatsoever. Of course, those people are also made in the image of God.

00:24:54.560 They just are part of, just as we all are, a fallen world. So they're a part of all of our buddies

00:25:00.300 that are not perfect. But Jesus or God made the human species as male or female. That's very clear.

00:25:09.280 So when this pastor, so-called, says gender is a social construct, there is no biblical basis for

00:25:17.160 that whatsoever. There is no biblical category whatsoever for something outside of male or

00:25:22.040 female. There is no possibility, according to the God who created all of this and defines all of this, 1.00

00:25:27.380 to identify as something other than what your biology is. So I also take issue when people say,

00:25:34.080 this person didn't say it, but people say this a lot. You especially see this on like the

00:25:38.700 feminist activist side, people who are called TERFs, people who are against transgenderism,

00:25:43.280 but are typically on the left. They'll say sex, not gender. We shouldn't even be using the word

00:25:47.680 gender. Gender and sex are different. Gender is femininity or masculinity. These are social

00:25:53.520 constructs that we should just do away with and shouldn't even think about. We should base our laws

00:25:59.340 on sex, not gender. Look, those categories are the same. Those categories are the same. Sex and gender

00:26:05.180 are the same thing. I don't think that we should try to separate them because that is actually the

00:26:10.680 basis of transgender ideology. This idea that you can actually identify as something that is other 0.98

00:26:15.740 than what your chromosomes say that you are and you can't. It's not possible. And this all goes back to

00:26:23.280 people's, people don't even realize this all goes back to how you think about human nature. This all goes

00:26:28.400 back to teleology, the purpose of why we were made, who you think God is. If you worship the God of

00:26:35.740 self rather than the God of scripture, of course, you think that you can identify as something other

00:26:40.340 than what you are. But if you believe that there is a power that is higher than you, who is the

00:26:45.180 authority over you, who actually created you, then you cannot identify as anything other than what he

00:26:50.920 made you to be. That's actually really freeing that we don't have the power to identify ourselves or

00:26:57.080 define ourselves that he already did that for us. Thank you, Lord. But this pastor, this person who

00:27:05.640 says that he's a pastor doesn't understand that. He worships the God of self and therefore he believes

00:27:10.800 that he is more loving than God, that he is more compassionate than God. So of course, he calls what

00:27:16.040 God calls an abomination holy. He has exchanged the truth of God for a lie. So he elevates sin as good.

00:27:25.880 Of course, that's what all people with depraved minds do. That's what all people who worship the

00:27:32.340 prince of the power of the air, as Ephesians 2 calls Satan, do. They continue to get it wrong.

00:27:39.240 They confuse light for darkness and vice versa. The problem is, is that he now can amplify this

00:27:47.420 confusing, this demonic message to millions of young people via TikTok, who are going to be

00:27:55.200 very confused by this. No, of course, drag is not holy. Drag, like any other sin, like any other

00:28:02.220 subversion of nature, is idolatry and is unholy. We had a previous drag queen on. He used to be a drag queen.

00:28:13.200 He used to be on that scene. And thankfully, the Lord brought him to repentance. Can a drag queen be saved? 0.99

00:28:20.100 Can a drag queen become holy? Absolutely. They're not more far off. They're not farther off than any of us

00:28:29.540 were before we came to Christ. There's a radical equality that's brought to us by the gospel as we

00:28:34.540 read, again in Ephesians 2, that we are all equally dead in sin apart from Christ. And then by grace

00:28:40.660 through faith, we can be made alive in Christ. And so no one is too far off. No one is too far gone.

00:28:48.760 No one is too perverse or too sinful or too transgressive. But any so-called ambassador of God, 0.83

00:28:57.020 so-called pastor that doesn't preach repentance to this community or any other community who is

00:29:03.780 continuing to sin and celebrate sin cannot, in good faith, call themselves a representative of

00:29:11.540 Christ in the church. The reality is this pastor hates God, and therefore he hates the people around

00:29:17.060 him. He thinks that he is loving. He thinks that he is compassionate, but at the expense of their

00:29:21.500 souls. So how loving is that really? So I pray for this pastor and all pastors like him that

00:29:28.000 they would repent, that they would know the God who is love and who also is truth. It's really

00:29:35.060 revealing having all of this kind of information and these differing perspectives on TikTok.

00:29:42.760 Because then you see, wow, this is really how progressives see the world and see God. I mean,

00:29:47.920 it is confusing to me why these people even, why do you even want to pretend to be a Christian? 0.56

00:29:54.660 Like, if you have no interest in submitting to God's word, if you don't even think the Bible is

00:29:59.880 really God's word, like, do you just like to play dress up? You just like to put on the robes? You

00:30:04.740 just like the MDiv? Like, you just like the letters after your name? You just like the power that comes

00:30:10.660 with leading a local congregation? Or you just, I guess, want a semblance of the comfort

00:30:14.860 that you think comes from pseudo-Christianity? Like, I don't know, maybe that's it. But gosh,

00:30:22.200 there are better things to do if you don't actually believe that God is the authority over all of this,

00:30:28.320 then go to church on Sunday. I mean, go to brunch. If you're just going to worship yourself,

00:30:33.860 there's no need for all of the pretense. I think actually, it'd probably be better if you were

00:30:39.760 dishonest with yourself and the world, that you worship yourself, and that you're more interested

00:30:45.160 in what Satan has to say than what God has to say. Okay, here's a little bit of a happy story.

00:31:02.520 I don't know if it's necessarily happy, but it's an example of someone not equivocating and not going

00:31:09.680 against what God's word says and actually doing the opposite, being a salmon, as we say, swimming

00:31:14.740 upstream against the chaos of the culture. So there is an NHL player who refused to wear pride-themed

00:31:22.800 jersey in support of the LGBTQ plus community. This is a report by Deadline. It was contributed to

00:31:31.780 by the Associated Press. And if this story sounds really familiar, if you're like, oh,

00:31:36.920 we talked about a very similar story a few months ago, that's because this is the second NHL player.

00:31:43.120 There was another NHL player. Let's see, his name was Ivan Provorov, also declined to do this back in

00:31:53.720 January. Also, the New York Rangers recently opted not to wear pride jerseys or use pride stick tape as

00:32:00.580 part of their pride night in January, despite previously advertising the plan. So there's

00:32:06.400 some pushback here. I'm also just like very confused what's going on here. I thought pride month was in

00:32:10.860 June. And even if this were happening in June, like why do these sports teams have to wear rainbow

00:32:17.920 jerseys and like rainbow hockey sticks? Why? What like what? What are they exactly supporting? What is

00:32:25.500 going on here? Why do they have to make this statement? So now there is the second NHL player

00:32:31.200 who is saying, no, I'm not going to do that. Thanks so much. This is a San Jose Sharks goalie,

00:32:36.580 James Reimer. He's declined to participate in pregame activities on Saturday, March 18th,

00:32:42.200 on that pride night that would require him to wear a promotional pride themed jersey. Reimer issued a

00:32:48.320 statement saying that he always strives to treat everyone with respect and that members of the

00:32:55.600 LGBTQ community should be welcome in hockey. But he says, in this specific instance, I am choosing not

00:33:04.040 to endorse something that is counter to my personal convictions, which are based on the Bible, the

00:33:08.840 highest authority in my life. So this is similar to what Ivan Provorov said back when he said he wasn't

00:33:15.980 going to do this. Not quite as he wasn't quite as eloquent. He just said, you know, this goes against

00:33:20.740 my faith. So the Sharks, the San Jose Sharks, said in a statement that they are proud to host Pride

00:33:27.940 Night, saying the event reinforces the team's commitment to inclusiveness. As we promote these

00:33:33.080 standards, we also acknowledge and accept the rights of individuals to express themselves,

00:33:37.080 including how or whether they choose to express their beliefs, regardless of the cause or topic.

00:33:41.420 As an organization, we will not waver in our support of the LGBTQIA plus, plus, plus, plus, plus,

00:33:50.260 community and continue to encourage others to engage in active allyship. Why? I just, I really do.

00:33:59.720 I fail to understand why a hockey team needs to make a statement about this at all. Why? There was a time

00:34:07.820 where we had neutral institutions. Well, I don't even know if you could say it was neutral. They

00:34:14.520 tried to be neutral, as neutral as possible, at least when it came to these kind of contentious

00:34:19.460 issues. And whether you think it's contentious or not, millions of Americans do. And it's not so much

00:34:26.060 for most Americans. Most Americans are not conservative Christians like me. Most Americans don't really care

00:34:32.600 about the L and the G or even the B. But when you start talking about the T, which is what Pride 0.59

00:34:39.780 Night now represents, now you're talking about men pretending to be women, or in some cases of some

00:34:49.640 famous TikTok stars, men pretending to be six-year-old girls and getting celebrated for it and millions of

00:34:56.280 dollars and sponsorships and recognition by the White House. You're talking about men going into

00:35:02.460 girls' bathrooms. You're talking about men playing in female sports so that women no longer have a fair 1.00

00:35:09.140 shot at scholarships or championships or opportunities. You are talking about minors getting double

00:35:16.460 mastectomies. You are talking about nine-year-old boys getting chemically castrated with the same drug

00:35:23.260 that is given in many states to pedophiles to chemically castrate them. So when you're now talking

00:35:29.600 about pride and you're talking about pride night and you're talking about the pride flag, you're

00:35:35.020 including all of that. And whether or not you think it's great that girls as young as 12, places like

00:35:42.100 Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, according to one psychologist, are getting double mastectomies,

00:35:48.400 like maybe you think that's awesome. Maybe you think it's great for 10-year-old boys to go on puberty

00:35:53.700 blockers. Maybe you think it's awesome and amazing and fantastic for adolescents to be rendered permanently

00:36:01.360 deformed and sterile because they're temporarily confused about their gender because they have other

00:36:06.720 mental health issues that are underlying there. Even if you agree with all of that, there are millions

00:36:13.940 of Americans who don't. And there is absolutely no reason for any entity to encourage in any way

00:36:22.900 their players, their employees to represent a movement that glorifies all of those things. 0.83

00:36:31.340 It's actually very sick. It's very disgusting. And so I applaud this person for saying, no, I'm not 0.98

00:36:39.480 going to do that. And I guess if I'm going to give any points to the San Jose Sharks, at least they say

00:36:45.200 we support our players right to express themselves how they see fit. I'm sure that this person, James

00:36:53.940 Reimer, has been given a lot of hate. I'm sure he's gotten a lot of pushback, even though ostensibly

00:37:02.100 they're saying that they support their players right to choose whatever they want to say. I'm sure it has

00:37:07.420 been difficult for him just being the only one on his team. And it's sad too, because I highly doubt

00:37:14.840 he's the only Christian on his team. I highly doubt he is only one of two Christians in the NHL.

00:37:21.720 But how many players, and I understand this to a certain extent, but how many players,

00:37:26.160 how many students, how many employees across the country just sit down and shut up because they want

00:37:31.800 to keep their job. They want to get a good grade. They don't want to get canceled. They don't want to

00:37:36.960 get mean messages. They know that it's wrong, but they would rather seek the approval of men than

00:37:42.680 the approval of God. And look, I'm not saying that it's easy to stand up, to share the arrows,

00:37:49.400 to raise a respectful ruckus about the things that matter. I'm not saying it's easy to get to face that

00:37:55.180 kind of exclusion or to face the threat of firing and not being able to feed your family. And I'm not

00:38:00.000 saying that you have to stand up in every single scenario. But if we know anything about moral and

00:38:05.840 sexual revolutions, political revolutions, as we've seen throughout history, the most effective

00:38:10.660 thing that you can do, even if it's just effective in cleansing your own conscience, is not lie. And

00:38:16.620 at this point, waving a pride flag is lying. It's lying. Because now included in that is the belief 0.99

00:38:25.240 that men can become women and vice versa. And it's actually always been lying. Because I mean,

00:38:32.420 it's also the belief that two men and two women can form a marriage in the same way that a man or a

00:38:41.100 woman can, defying all science, defying all tradition, defying all of human history, defying 1.00

00:38:47.120 God himself. But now, I mean, you are blatantly denying biological reality at the risk of women's 1.00

00:38:57.540 safety and fairness. I mean, now, by waving the pride flag, you are endorsing men being put in 0.89

00:39:04.940 women's prisons, even when they have been convicted of violent rape. You don't believe me? Just go to 1.00

00:39:11.500 their Redux site. Go to their website, their news site, and you can read all of the stories of this

00:39:17.640 happening. Now, when you wave the pride flag, you are celebrating that. It's all wrapped up. 0.99

00:39:25.340 So maybe think about that.

00:39:27.540 Even if you're not a Christian. Of course, if you're a Christian, you shouldn't be waving the 0.99

00:39:30.780 pride flag at all. But even if you're not, just think about whether or not you want to endorse

00:39:35.040 that. Why would the NHL be endorsing that? Why would any of these corporations or entities be a

00:39:40.720 part of that, celebrating that? The White House celebrates that. Again, just aghast that anyone who

00:39:46.200 calls themselves Christians could be in support of an administration or a political party that

00:39:52.500 celebrates that kind of thing. Of course, there are Republicans who are too. I think I saw a Republican

00:39:56.660 from the state of Kentucky, some legislator. I don't know if we have that clip. We happen to have it in

00:40:03.100 the server somewhere. Maybe not. But it was a Republican state legislator, I think, in Kentucky,

00:40:09.660 saying that his grandchild has come out as trans and he has to support that. So he's against

00:40:16.220 anything that would stop the genital mutilation of children who happen to be confused about their

00:40:24.380 gender. You know, that never happens on the other side. Like, you never see those exceptions from 0.60

00:40:28.680 Democrats being like, oh, maybe dismembering babies is not great. Like, you never see them making some

00:40:34.280 kind of brave speech, being heterodox, going against the majority of what their side thinks about

00:40:40.080 things. You don't see Democrat legislators standing up and saying, I don't know if we should be

00:40:45.460 chemically castrating little boys. Doesn't really sound like a good idea. But our side,

00:40:50.300 we have defectors all the time. And yet, of course, we are the ones accused of being the brainwashed

00:40:57.260 fascist, even though we have plenty of people on our side who, unfortunately, we keep electing that

00:41:04.580 are continually wrong on the most basic fundamental issues. But there are people like this, like the

00:41:11.220 NHL player who stand up and say, you know what? I know it's not going to be popular. It's not going

00:41:16.180 to be lucrative. I know I'm going to get a lot of hate, but scripture, highest authority. And so I'm

00:41:22.140 going to submit to that. So I appreciate that. I appreciate this person who was willing to go into

00:41:29.120 the metaphorical fiery furnace instead of bowing down before Nebuchadnezzar. I mean, that's what it is.

00:41:35.540 The pride flag at this point is an idol that we have to refuse to bow down to, and there will be 1.00

00:41:40.840 pushback. I mean, just look at the cake baker in Colorado. He has suffered for a decade plus because

00:41:48.960 he didn't want to violate his conscience in creating a cake. So there's a cost when it comes to this.

00:41:54.940 Don't let people tell you that these are just culture war issues. These are just political issues.

00:41:59.480 We just need to love people. Look, for the Christian, these are not primarily political or

00:42:03.700 culture war issues. These are primarily biblical issues. These are primarily Genesis 1 issues.

00:42:08.280 And if you as a Christian are not willing to, you're not courageous enough to stand up for

00:42:13.040 Genesis 1, Genesis 127, I have a really hard time believing that you are going to be courageous

00:42:19.780 enough to stand up for John 14, 6, that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, and that no one comes

00:42:25.400 to the Father except through him. That is much more offensive than the reality that God made us male

00:42:31.260 and female. So let's go ahead and count the cost on this easy stuff, this really simple stuff,

00:42:36.720 this really straightforward stuff that is so easily seen in biology, before we are fully counting the

00:42:42.300 cost for preaching the gospel that everyone is a sinner separated from God, which again is far

00:42:48.580 more offensive than the reality of gendered biology.

00:43:05.680 All right. So just a reminder, you've got until tomorrow night to enter our giveaway. If you don't

00:43:10.640 know what I'm talking about, go back and listen to Monday's episode. We've got a giveaway with all

00:43:14.640 kinds of free stuff from our sponsors. We've got amazing gift cards from Good Ranchers, Carly Jean

00:43:20.200 Los Angeles, other fun products, merch. We've got new merch, guys. We've got amazing merch. I can't

00:43:25.640 wait for my merch to come in when it does. I will probably only be wearing that merch because I love

00:43:31.620 it so much. If you go to AllieMerch.com, we'll put the link in the description of this episode,

00:43:37.900 AllieMerch.com. You can see all our new merch and we've got even more awesome stuff that's coming

00:43:44.180 your way. I don't know when, in the coming months. You can use Allie10 at checkout for 10% off. Allie10

00:43:51.520 at checkout for 10% off. This will make a great Mother's Day gift, guys. Guys, Related Bros out

00:43:58.480 there, for the Related Bells in your life, they want a corduroy hat, okay? They want a be a salmon

00:44:06.240 crew neck sweatshirt. They want a tote bag with Related Blonde. They want these things. I'm just letting 0.99

00:44:13.860 you know right now and she's got it in her cart and she's wondering whether or not she wants to 0.94

00:44:20.320 spend the money on that. You know what? You just need to go ahead, get it for her, get it for her

00:44:27.040 birthday, get it for her for Mother's Day. She will love it and she will thank you. I promise. I'm just

00:44:32.700 giving you a little tip for your marriage or for your relationship with your fiance or your girlfriend.

00:44:38.060 She wants relatable merch for these things. All right. Let's see. I don't know what we're going

00:44:44.020 to talk about tomorrow. Let me know if you have any suggestions. On Monday, we are going to have

00:44:49.220 Ginger and Jeremy Vuolo on the show. I'm super excited about that. Feel free to send in some

00:44:56.560 questions for them. My episode with Ginger Duggar Vuolo that we did in January did amazingly well.

00:45:04.480 You guys were so interested in her story and what she had to say about her upbringing and

00:45:09.200 the theology that kind of characterized her upbringing. I would go back and listen to that

00:45:13.740 episode if you haven't just as like a part one and then we're going to do a follow-up on that on

00:45:18.040 Monday with both of them. They're going to be in person, which I'm really excited about. So lots of

00:45:22.580 fun stuff coming up. All right. Thanks so much for joining and we will be back here tomorrow.

00:45:34.480 We'll be back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 22, 2023

Ep 775 ｜ Pastors： Stop Trying to Be Nicer Than God

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