Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 28, 2023


Ep 778 | Take Heart, Nashville: Evil Will Not Win


Episode Stats

Length

57 minutes

Words per Minute

158.63663

Word Count

9,127

Sentence Count

694

Misogynist Sentences

11

Hate Speech Sentences

20


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 A 28-year-old woman shot up a Nashville private Christian elementary school yesterday,
00:00:06.620 killing three nine-year-old students as well as three adults who worked at the school.
00:00:13.720 This person also identified as transgender, was apparently a former student.
00:00:20.640 What exactly is going on here?
00:00:22.920 How should we think through this story?
00:00:24.220 How should Christians respond to this story?
00:00:25.840 How is the media responding to this story?
00:00:29.500 We've got a lot to talk about, a lot to analyze today.
00:00:32.660 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
00:00:36.020 Go to GoodRanchers.com.
00:00:37.540 Use promo code Allie at checkout.
00:00:39.080 That's GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.
00:00:50.120 Hey, guys.
00:00:50.960 Welcome to Relatable.
00:00:51.820 It is Tuesday.
00:00:53.500 And as you could probably tell from the open, we are going to try to get through this very
00:01:02.780 tough episode the best we can.
00:01:06.460 I posted on Instagram this morning, right before recording, just a request for prayer.
00:01:12.600 And I understand with everything going on in the world, it's a low prayer priority.
00:01:18.180 But I asked if any of you had a moment, if you could just pray that I would find words
00:01:23.980 of clarity and peace talking about something that feels really personal.
00:01:31.360 Before I started this, I mean, I was in the makeup chair and I was having to apologize to the woman
00:01:38.720 doing my makeup because I just couldn't stop crying.
00:01:42.820 Every time I think about this in the car this morning with my kids, I am just so overcome
00:01:50.300 with emotion.
00:01:52.440 Again, unfortunately, this is not that much of a rare occurrence.
00:01:59.920 This is something that it seems like we deal with pretty regularly.
00:02:04.460 And it always makes me emotional.
00:02:06.940 And yet, I don't know what it is exactly about this story that seems to have hit me a little
00:02:15.460 bit harder, seems to make me a little bit more emotional even than these similar tragedies.
00:02:22.440 have in the past, but I'm going to do my very best to keep my emotions as contained as possible
00:02:31.140 so I clearly speak to you.
00:02:32.660 And it's not because I'm trying to cover them up or to pretend that I'm tough or to be superficial
00:02:37.700 or anything like that.
00:02:38.860 It's just because it's really hard to blubber and blabber through such a serious episode.
00:02:47.020 I have a responsibility.
00:02:47.740 I have a responsibility to you guys to explain this, to try to offer comfort and understanding
00:02:54.220 as best as I fallibly can a biblical perspective of the chaos and confusion that's going on in the
00:03:01.540 world, and I can't do that well if I am crying the entire time.
00:03:06.080 So thank you for your prayers this morning.
00:03:08.560 And some of you sent me a message of something that I post on my Instagram a lot just as a
00:03:18.560 reminder, and it's the lyrics from one stanza of, this is my father's world.
00:03:24.400 This is my father's world.
00:03:26.160 Let me never forget that though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet.
00:03:31.060 So that's what we do here on Relatable.
00:03:33.880 We remind each other.
00:03:35.760 I remind y'all when you need a reminder that God is sovereign, that he is good, that he is
00:03:40.920 faithful, that nothing throws him off, nothing takes him aback, nothing surprises him, nothing
00:03:46.700 makes him look down and say, wow, I did not see that coming.
00:03:50.180 But even though sin and evil and wickedness grieves him, he is not apathetic, and he is
00:03:57.740 also not shocked.
00:04:01.160 He is sovereign over it all.
00:04:03.240 And sometimes I need you guys to remind me of that, and I also will remind you of that
00:04:11.040 when I can.
00:04:11.940 And so before we even get into this, because I'm sure a lot of you know the details, I
00:04:15.680 just, I want to remind you, and I wasn't sure, I'm still not totally sure as I'm
00:04:19.900 speaking right now, what order I'm going to go in and how I'm going to explain this,
00:04:23.760 how I'm going to weave in my opinion, my commentary, and different reminders as I'm
00:04:29.240 explaining to you the hard facts of this.
00:04:30.920 But let me just start out with a reminder from those of you know, if you've been listening
00:04:35.780 to Relatable for any amount of time, this is maybe my favorite chapter, one of my favorite
00:04:40.560 chapters of the Bible, and that is Psalm 37.
00:04:42.840 Actually, my brother and sister-in-law a long time ago, I think maybe for my 17th birthday,
00:04:48.160 they got me a James Avery ring, and it was an ictus.
00:04:53.300 And on the inside, it said Psalm 37, 1 through 7.
00:04:56.760 And of course, they couldn't know how much that passage has stuck with me through every
00:05:04.160 year, every stage of my life.
00:05:06.200 And I find myself, honestly, in every subject that we talk about, referring back to that
00:05:12.800 passage and really the entirety of the chapter.
00:05:15.200 It's really amazing how God works through things like that.
00:05:18.920 But here's Psalm 37, 1.
00:05:21.660 Fret not yourself because of evildoers.
00:05:24.260 Isn't that an amazing statement?
00:05:25.900 Think about all the things that we have to fret over.
00:05:29.520 Think about all of the wickedness that we have to worry about.
00:05:34.040 Think about all the things going on outside of our window that we can look at and very rationally
00:05:38.640 say, that's scary.
00:05:40.180 I don't want to confront that.
00:05:41.700 And yet here and in so many other places in the Bible, what does this God tell us?
00:05:47.080 Do not fret.
00:05:48.500 Do not worry.
00:05:50.620 Do not be anxious.
00:05:52.620 Do not fear.
00:05:54.280 So here he says it again.
00:05:55.820 Fret not yourself because of evildoers and be not envious of wrongdoers.
00:06:00.680 For they, this is why, he gives us a reason why.
00:06:04.040 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
00:06:09.440 So what do we do instead?
00:06:12.200 Trust in the Lord and do good.
00:06:16.420 Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
00:06:19.860 Let faithfulness become your friend.
00:06:21.980 Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
00:06:25.720 As we've talked about before, if you're delighting yourself in the Lord, he is the desire of your
00:06:30.940 heart.
00:06:31.660 Commit your way to the Lord.
00:06:32.820 Trust in him and he will act.
00:06:34.200 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day.
00:06:39.440 Then I'll skip around just a little bit.
00:06:43.200 Refrain from anger and forsake wrath.
00:06:45.700 Fret not yourself.
00:06:46.880 It tends only to evil.
00:06:48.220 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
00:06:55.920 I love this verse.
00:06:56.920 This is actually the verse that first came to mind this morning when I was thinking of Psalm 37.
00:07:00.660 In just a little while, verse 10, the wicked will be no more.
00:07:07.420 Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there, but the meek shall inherit the land
00:07:14.040 and delight themselves in abundant peace.
00:07:17.120 You know, when something like this happens, we have the tendency to ask, and I think understandably,
00:07:24.440 why and how?
00:07:27.900 And like, let's just pause there for a second.
00:07:29.800 Like, why would God allow something like this to happen?
00:07:32.780 Why isn't God doing something?
00:07:34.720 Surely we've contributed enough thoughts and prayers.
00:07:38.280 And like, let's just be really honest about our feelings there, because it's easy to kind of say,
00:07:42.500 well, you know, God is sovereign and bad things happen.
00:07:46.860 This is a fallen world.
00:07:47.900 All that's true.
00:07:48.740 But like, let's just be real.
00:07:50.300 If this is you and you're a parent and this happened to your child, you're thinking,
00:07:57.660 okay, I've said over and over again that God loves my child more than I do.
00:08:02.460 True.
00:08:02.940 That God cares for my child's well-being more than I do.
00:08:07.000 That God is more powerful than I do.
00:08:08.980 True.
00:08:09.920 And yet, would you let this happen to your child if you could stop it?
00:08:15.000 No, you wouldn't.
00:08:17.020 If you had the power, as God does, to protect your child from this kind of evil, from this
00:08:21.980 kind of violence, you would stop it.
00:08:24.220 And God did not.
00:08:27.620 That's a tough thing to reckon with.
00:08:30.260 That is a tough thing to reconcile.
00:08:32.360 Can we just embrace that for a second?
00:08:35.820 Can we just face that?
00:08:37.100 That that is really difficult to understand how a God who says he is love, 1 John 4, 8,
00:08:43.700 a God that we know from Scripture is all-powerful, completely good, completely faithful, that
00:08:49.460 he allowed something that we as fallible humans who are not characterized by love all the time,
00:08:57.360 that we would have not allowed?
00:09:02.100 That's tough.
00:09:03.400 That's tough to understand why an all-powerful and all-loving God, who we know has numbered
00:09:08.700 all of the hairs on our children's head, why he would allow that to happen when we as sinful
00:09:13.940 people would not.
00:09:16.240 And I don't have the answer.
00:09:18.740 I'm not going to give you a trite response that says, well, this is why God allowed these
00:09:24.980 children to be slaughtered.
00:09:26.420 This is why he allows mass shootings.
00:09:28.140 This is why he allows sex trafficking.
00:09:30.300 This is why he allows all these things.
00:09:31.840 Even though we, as finite human beings, would not allow those things.
00:09:36.840 I don't know the exact answer.
00:09:40.300 What I do know, and the only thing I can take comfort in, is that I know he's not doing
00:09:47.980 nothing.
00:09:49.280 I think that's our tendency to think, why did you do nothing, God?
00:09:53.240 Why did you stand to the side?
00:09:54.840 You could have done something.
00:09:56.040 You're all-powerful.
00:09:57.200 He's not restrained by anything.
00:09:59.420 Why didn't he stop this?
00:10:00.840 Why didn't he thwart these plans?
00:10:02.540 We would have done that.
00:10:04.340 And we're not as good as him.
00:10:05.720 We're not as strong as him.
00:10:07.840 Why didn't he do anything?
00:10:09.340 Why did he sit to the side and allow this evil to happen?
00:10:13.080 Look, he's not simply sitting to the side and allowing evil to happen.
00:10:18.060 Psalm 37 says that he is going to do something about it.
00:10:24.280 Not in the way that we always want him to.
00:10:28.140 Not always tangibly in the moment.
00:10:30.400 Not always physically.
00:10:31.840 But it is a mistake to think that God is tolerating evil.
00:10:36.420 Rather, his wrath is being kindled against the evildoer.
00:10:40.980 And one day, they will all be destroyed.
00:10:44.820 We will look at their place, and they will no longer be there.
00:10:48.740 Satan will one day have no power.
00:10:51.480 There will be no deceit.
00:10:53.620 There will be no sin.
00:10:54.900 There will be no sorrow.
00:10:56.240 There will be no shootings.
00:10:57.660 There will be no sickness.
00:10:59.020 One day, Jesus will rule in perfect peace and claim victory over wickedness.
00:11:07.480 That day is imminent.
00:11:09.840 That day is coming.
00:11:12.140 He is not doing nothing.
00:11:14.660 God hates evil.
00:11:16.380 He hates murder.
00:11:18.160 He hates murderers.
00:11:19.980 Yes.
00:11:21.560 More than we do.
00:11:24.360 He is angrier at wickedness.
00:11:27.260 He is more outraged by the injustice, by the violence that we saw yesterday than we are.
00:11:41.120 And while we might mistake sometimes his patience for apathy, let us not.
00:11:48.100 Let us not go to that error.
00:11:51.040 His patience is not apathy.
00:11:52.700 His patience is kindled, stored up wrath that will one day be poured out on the evildoer
00:12:02.860 in ways beyond our comprehension.
00:12:06.080 And listen, the only way to be rescued from that wrath, the only way to find refuge, the
00:12:14.060 only way to be righteous, to be the ones that Psalm 37 talks about, that looks to the wicked
00:12:20.620 and sees that they're not there, to inherit peace, to inherit eternal life is through Jesus
00:12:26.860 Christ.
00:12:28.100 That's the only way.
00:12:30.020 The only way we can become righteous, the only way we can be spared from the wrath that
00:12:35.320 we deserve because we are sinners and have rebelled from God is by grace through faith,
00:12:40.780 believing in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is God made flesh and came
00:12:46.900 to die for your sins and did not stay dead, but rose again three days later, defeating death.
00:12:52.760 And in that resurrection promised us the death is not going to hold either him down or us down
00:12:59.520 forever, but those of us who have been bought by a price through him will live forever in perfect
00:13:09.100 peace.
00:13:10.520 And for everyone else, there's wrath.
00:13:14.300 God is not doing nothing.
00:13:17.040 His eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch and always has.
00:13:26.620 So yes, be sad.
00:13:28.280 God, let's be sad.
00:13:29.980 Let's be confused.
00:13:32.100 Let's admit that we don't have the answers.
00:13:34.440 Let's cry with those who are crying.
00:13:36.940 Let us mourn with those who are mourning.
00:13:39.280 Let us be angry when we need to be angry.
00:13:43.120 Let us feel those things.
00:13:45.280 But let us not make the mistake of thinking that God doesn't care or that he is far off or
00:13:53.560 that he's doing nothing.
00:13:54.780 He's doing something beyond what we can comprehend.
00:14:01.260 All right.
00:14:02.860 Now that I've reminded myself and reminded you all of that, let's get in.
00:14:07.100 Let's get into the details of what actually happened here and some of the response.
00:14:12.240 Let's talk about the nitty gritty.
00:14:27.760 Let's talk about what happened yesterday.
00:14:29.700 So Monday, March 27, 2023.
00:14:31.980 And actually, this is probably going to be the part that's hard for me to get through emotionally,
00:14:36.620 just reading these names and thinking about what happened.
00:14:39.220 The parents of these kids, but I'm going to try my best, a shooter attacked the Covenant
00:14:44.840 School in Nashville, Tennessee.
00:14:46.520 From my understanding, this school is just an elementary school.
00:14:50.460 So I believe it's kindergarten or maybe pre-K through sixth grade.
00:14:53.200 So these are all little kids.
00:14:54.920 This school was specifically targeted.
00:14:57.440 So just consider that for a second.
00:14:58.720 Consider the evil, the depravity, the callousness, the wickedness that someone has to have in their
00:15:04.360 mind in order to specifically target an elementary school.
00:15:08.600 Unfortunately, this is not the first time that we've seen something like this, even recently.
00:15:13.880 And so they specifically targeted this small Christian school, knowing that it contained
00:15:19.560 young, vulnerable children.
00:15:21.560 Three children, three teachers were killed.
00:15:24.100 Evelyn Dykhaus, she's nine years old.
00:15:26.360 William Kenney, nine years old.
00:15:29.280 Cynthia Peake, substitute teacher, 61 years old.
00:15:33.160 Catherine Kuntz, head of school, 60 years old.
00:15:36.200 Mike Hill, a custodian, 61 years old.
00:15:39.100 And also there's Hallie Scrux.
00:15:41.920 She was nine years old.
00:15:45.420 And what is unique about Hallie is that she is the daughter of the pastor, the senior pastor
00:15:54.080 of the church at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville.
00:15:58.100 She's the youngest of four.
00:16:00.320 And she's got three older brothers who will never see their sister again.
00:16:07.340 And it's just tough.
00:16:10.240 If you're not watching on YouTube, we have a picture pulled up of the pastor.
00:16:19.240 And his daughter and, oh, man.
00:16:28.360 Okay, we had to do some editing there.
00:16:31.780 I just, I don't think that I can get through everything that I wanted to say about the victims.
00:16:38.640 I just, I just physically don't think that I can do it.
00:16:42.540 Let me just say as quickly as I can to relate to what you're feeling.
00:16:49.600 I mean, just as a human, but in particular as a mom of two toddlers and one baby on the
00:16:57.520 way, I just think about these parents.
00:17:01.000 And I think about them waking up in the morning and doing what I do every morning, getting their
00:17:07.660 kids dressed, feeding them breakfast, saying a prayer for them, maybe reading the Bible,
00:17:12.720 whatever it is, just going through their daily routine and never thinking, this is going
00:17:18.300 to be the last time.
00:17:19.640 This is going to be the last time that I drop them off.
00:17:22.080 This is going to be the last time that they say I, that I, they hear me say, I love you.
00:17:27.240 This is going to be the last time we go through this.
00:17:30.020 I just, I mean, it's hard to understand unless like you, unless you have children just to
00:17:39.700 know the absolute pain that it would be to lose a child.
00:17:49.080 Like I would rather die a thousand gruesome deaths.
00:17:54.840 They go through something like that.
00:17:58.280 And these parents woke up this morning without their babies and their lives will never be
00:18:03.280 the same.
00:18:05.800 Their siblings' lives will never be the same.
00:18:09.720 This community's lives will never be the same.
00:18:12.640 And I just, I'm just so sorry.
00:18:15.660 I'm just so sorry for all of the parents who are going through this.
00:18:21.540 I cannot imagine.
00:18:22.880 I just, I just can't imagine.
00:18:26.420 And I know like this pastor, I actually heard a comment that he made and he was actually
00:18:34.560 also, he pastored or helped pastor.
00:18:37.060 He was on the staff at a church in Dallas, Park City Presbyterian Church, which is a very
00:18:43.840 large Presbyterian church in Dallas.
00:18:46.380 And so he has a, he has a lot of people who love and respect him, um, across the country.
00:18:53.500 He said, uh, to a friend, apparently he said, you know, his daughter, Hallie is in the arms
00:19:02.360 of, of Jesus now.
00:19:04.400 And he loves her more than, than we ever could.
00:19:08.740 And I mean, I just, the kind of faith that it takes to say something like that in the
00:19:14.580 midst of tragedy, I'm very thankful for it.
00:19:16.540 It's a gift of grace.
00:19:18.680 And I'm so thankful for the Holy Spirit that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and can
00:19:23.540 give leaders like this the words to speak.
00:19:25.820 And here's the thing about all of this too, as much as I like cannot comprehend the pain
00:19:31.440 is that God is in the business of redemption.
00:19:34.360 And he always uses what Satan means for evil, for good.
00:19:40.320 Like if you think of Romans 8, 28, that he is working all things, working actively right
00:19:45.760 now, all things together for the good of those who love him.
00:19:50.780 How is that possible in the midst of a shooting of little kids?
00:19:54.100 I don't know, but I'm not God.
00:19:56.640 Thank goodness.
00:19:57.740 So God right now is working together, even this thing for the good of those who love him.
00:20:04.480 And so somehow, too much to Satan's frustration, God is going to use this to bring in the gospel
00:20:11.840 and the love of Christ to people who otherwise would have never heard it.
00:20:17.200 Somehow God is going to use this for redemption.
00:20:20.180 God is going to use this for beauty.
00:20:21.920 God is going to use this for his purposes.
00:20:26.200 And Satan hates that so much.
00:20:27.760 He's constantly frustrated.
00:20:29.860 He just wants something to be wasted.
00:20:34.980 He wants something to be exclusively evil.
00:20:37.380 And yet God relentlessly redeems.
00:20:41.200 And one day, as we said, he will redeem eternally.
00:20:44.060 We won't have to talk about any of this anymore.
00:20:47.400 But I trust that that is also a piece of comfort that the faith of Hallie's family is somehow
00:20:53.380 going to accomplish God's purposes.
00:20:57.300 I don't have many answers, but that's just one thing I know.
00:21:01.240 So, OK, let's get through these details.
00:21:04.040 Police first got calls about the shooter at 1013 a.m.
00:21:07.300 And by 1027 a.m., the shooter was dead.
00:21:11.460 I mean, thank God for law enforcement.
00:21:13.960 Thank God for law enforcement.
00:21:16.560 I mean, defund the police, abolish the police.
00:21:21.460 Do you know how many children today?
00:21:23.540 Every single child would be dead.
00:21:26.180 Every single child at the school would be dead if it weren't for the police.
00:21:29.720 Thank God for the police.
00:21:31.340 Remember, Romans 13, law enforcement, even to the point of killing the evildoer, is biblically justified.
00:21:45.060 So, thank God for the police.
00:21:47.640 There's a picture, actually, of the police who actually shot her at Covenant School.
00:21:54.860 Officer Rex Engelbert and Officer Michael Calazo, I think, or Calazo.
00:22:00.920 Officer Engelbert is a four-year veteran.
00:22:03.840 Officer Calazo is a nine-year veteran.
00:22:06.700 And I'm just, again, so thankful for their courage.
00:22:10.060 We actually have a little bit of footage I saw circulating on Twitter.
00:22:13.680 I'm not going to show the part where they actually gun her down.
00:22:18.820 But let me just show you the bravery of these men.
00:22:22.240 God, thank you so much for strong, courageous men.
00:22:26.400 Like, this is men.
00:22:28.700 This is courage, like, at their best.
00:22:31.540 And so, here's just a little bit of them bravely entering the school and doing what needed to be done.
00:22:37.560 Move! Move!
00:22:40.640 I'm with you.
00:22:42.080 Go away.
00:22:44.060 Right here. Right here. Right here.
00:22:45.420 It's locked.
00:22:48.080 Go.
00:22:52.240 Hit that stair.
00:22:55.900 Hit the stairs.
00:22:57.320 Go. Go stairs. Go stairs. Go.
00:22:59.580 I actually maybe encourage you to go watch that whole thing.
00:23:03.500 We didn't want to play the full, like, minute or so of that clip on here.
00:23:07.780 But disturbing one.
00:23:09.640 I think I saw, like, a body lying on the ground at some point in the hallway.
00:23:15.120 So just so disturbing.
00:23:16.440 But it also brings tears to my eyes in maybe a different way, just the bravery of these men.
00:23:24.500 And by the way, like, I hate to even go back to this, but we see here what's possible with courage and with determination and with decisiveness.
00:23:33.660 And what apparently was not possible in Uvalde a year ago when the police officers stood by and said, well, I don't know.
00:23:43.180 I don't want to.
00:23:44.000 I'm not really sure if we should go in.
00:23:46.680 Not all the officers, but the people in charge.
00:23:48.800 They were indecisive and more lives were lost because of that.
00:23:52.160 These officers acted as quickly as they could.
00:23:54.260 And they gunned this girl down and they killed her.
00:23:58.420 And because of that, even though it is so tragic that these six lives were lost, only six lives were lost, rather than 60, rather than all 200 students.
00:24:07.860 So thank you, officers.
00:24:09.780 Thank you, law enforcement.
00:24:11.300 Just in general, I know you don't get enough credit.
00:24:14.540 I understand.
00:24:15.480 It's not just that.
00:24:16.400 You get a lot of condemnation.
00:24:17.920 You get a lot of scrutiny.
00:24:19.800 And, yes, there are some police officers out there that deserve that scrutiny.
00:24:23.180 I'm not saying that all police officers are perfect.
00:24:25.860 They wield a lot of power.
00:24:27.300 That power has to be very carefully and honestly wielded.
00:24:32.500 So I understand that.
00:24:34.660 But, look, we've got these courageous men willing to sacrifice themselves and sacrifice their own safety in a way that the vast majority of us are not willing to do.
00:24:44.420 So the proper response to courageous police officers or even the proper response to incidents where police officers do bad things is not to condemn the police force, but to say, thank you, brave officers.
00:24:59.820 You save our lives.
00:25:00.980 You protect our communities.
00:25:02.380 Thank you.
00:25:02.840 So I just want to thank these officers, and I want to thank their wives and families for also making that sacrifice along with them.
00:25:10.980 I'm so thankful.
00:25:12.380 I'm so thankful for strong men.
00:25:14.520 Also, like, let's just give it up for masculinity here.
00:25:18.960 I'm not saying that there are no brave women, but God has specifically, specially equipped men to run into the line of fire in this way, and they did.
00:25:28.160 So thank God for that.
00:25:30.820 They are heroes.
00:25:32.220 And obviously, the villain in this story is the person who is now, unless there was some kind of moment of repentance and coming to faith before her death, is in hell.
00:25:44.540 And her name is Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
00:25:48.500 And I don't say that in a celebratory way, that this person is in hell.
00:25:52.480 That's just a fact that—and it's not even because she is a murderer.
00:25:58.460 It's because she is apart from Christ, but she is murderous, and now she is paying the due and just penalty for that rebellion for all of eternity.
00:26:10.920 So again, don't think God is doing nothing about this.
00:26:14.440 Justice is paid.
00:26:15.820 Justice will be paid once and for all in the end.
00:26:20.040 And I promise you, what this girl thought was worth it was not worth it.
00:26:26.200 And she only realizes it now, and it is far too late.
00:26:31.140 So let's talk a little bit about her, because if you didn't already know that she's a female shooter, you might be surprised by that.
00:26:38.000 Because the vast majority of homicides, of assaults, of certainly of school shooters, mass shooters, are male.
00:26:46.160 So when I heard that this was a female, I thought, that's weird.
00:26:48.860 But I will also say, the first thing I said, well, who even knows what female means at this point?
00:26:54.600 And that actually ended up being a true part of the story.
00:26:58.880 I didn't know that.
00:26:59.740 I didn't assume that this person was transgender.
00:27:04.060 I just was so surprised when I heard that it was female, that it was a female, that I said, honestly, I'm just not even sure about that.
00:27:13.740 And it is so rare for there to be female mass shooters.
00:27:16.700 The New York Times reported on this, that since 1966, there have been 168 mass shootings perpetrated by men and four perpetrated by women.
00:27:26.520 Two of the shootings with women in part were in partnership with a male shooter.
00:27:30.220 So a lone female shooter, that is very rare.
00:27:34.060 But this person actually did identify as transgender.
00:27:38.620 The confusion was that, was this a man identifying as a woman, or was this a woman identifying as a man?
00:27:48.400 Everyone was calling her she.
00:27:50.280 All of the news outlets were calling her she.
00:27:53.260 And here's what the chief of the Nashville police had to say about all of this confusion.
00:28:01.140 Our investigations tell us that she was a former student at the school.
00:28:05.880 I don't know what grade she's attended or grades, but we do firmly believe she was a student there.
00:28:12.860 Does she identify as transgender?
00:28:15.440 She does identify as transgender, yes.
00:28:20.260 We have a manifesto.
00:28:21.640 We have some writings that we're going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident.
00:28:28.060 We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.
00:28:31.920 There's right now a theory that we may be able to talk about later, but it's not confirmed.
00:28:39.400 And so we'll put that out as soon as we can.
00:28:42.680 All right.
00:28:43.360 So there's a little bit of confusion there.
00:28:45.620 And I don't know if he just didn't know or if he is like the average person.
00:28:51.260 The average person who doesn't talk about these issues a lot really doesn't.
00:28:55.300 Like when they say transgender woman, what they mean is like a woman who identifies as a man.
00:29:01.180 And when people say transgender man, most people think of an actual man, male biologically, who identifies as a woman.
00:29:08.620 The reality is this is a girl.
00:29:10.480 Okay.
00:29:10.660 This is a woman, a 28-year-old woman who apparently recently started identifying as a man named Aiden who attended the school.
00:29:19.300 There's a manifesto right now as I am recording this.
00:29:23.060 We don't have the information about the manifesto and what it said, but he makes very clear that he believes that she targeted this school.
00:29:30.700 And some of it had to do with her believing that she is transgender.
00:29:34.520 My guess, my assessment is that this is a school, I looked at their belief system, and they believe that God's word is inerrant.
00:29:45.920 And so they're going to believe Genesis 127, as all churches do, as all legitimate churches do, which is that God made us male and female.
00:29:54.800 There are no categories beyond the biological categories of male and female.
00:29:58.280 And God created us in that way, in his image, and that's how he created marriage as well.
00:30:04.420 We see it in the first chapter of the Bible.
00:30:06.680 We won't go through all of the theological reasons and reasoning behind that as we have so often.
00:30:12.500 But my guess is that that is the tenet that they hold to as an institution that believes that God's word is infallible, authoritative, and inerrant.
00:30:22.360 My guess is that Audrey, as a student there, believes that there was some kind of trauma, there was some kind of rejection at that school because of how she identifies and what that school believes.
00:30:33.220 And so she decided to take out her grievances or her imagined grievances, real or not, I don't know, and decided to punish people that actually had nothing to do with any experience that she had there that weren't even born when she would have been a student there.
00:30:50.680 Because she apparently, and we'll get confirmation soon, had some kind of anger or malice towards this school, probably because of her stated identity, she decided, I'm going to murder a bunch of nine-year-olds.
00:31:06.260 That's what sin does to you, man.
00:31:08.160 That's what sin does to you.
00:31:09.300 That's what depravity does to you.
00:31:10.720 I mean, it takes you beyond even rational or irrational anger into the realm of just total and complete delusion, which we already know because she thought that she was the opposite sex than how God made her.
00:31:27.780 And she actually had some final Instagram messages that are very chilling with someone.
00:31:34.640 Her social media handle or her Instagram handle said that her name was Aiden, and she messaged a friend or a former friend and said,
00:31:42.940 so basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note.
00:31:46.500 I'm planning to die today.
00:31:47.580 This is not a joke.
00:31:48.680 You'll probably hear about me on the news after I die.
00:31:51.740 So obviously this is planned out.
00:31:53.840 As the police chief said, there was a map.
00:31:55.780 There was a manifesto.
00:31:56.600 She very carefully planned this out.
00:31:58.680 So she wasn't just planning to hurt herself.
00:32:00.740 She said, this is my last goodbye.
00:32:02.120 I love you.
00:32:02.700 See you again in another life.
00:32:05.520 And she actually signed it, Audrey, but then put in parentheses Aiden, which is interesting.
00:32:10.560 And then the person says, Audrey, you have so much more life to live.
00:32:14.100 I pray God keeps and covers you.
00:32:16.380 I know, but I don't want to live.
00:32:18.100 I'm so sorry.
00:32:19.100 I'm not trying to upset you or get attention.
00:32:20.980 I just need to die.
00:32:22.140 I wanted to tell you first because you are the most beautiful person I've ever seen and known all my life.
00:32:26.600 My family doesn't know what I'm about to do.
00:32:28.860 One day this will make more sense.
00:32:31.020 I've left more than enough evidence behind, but something bad is about to happen.
00:32:34.680 So you see how Satan has deceived her so much.
00:32:37.020 It's actually so similar to what happened in the garden when Satan said,
00:32:40.760 if you eat this apple, you will be like God.
00:32:43.960 Like he actually had convinced her, you are going to have power over all of these people
00:32:48.960 and you are going to have power over how you die.
00:32:52.060 She was killed.
00:32:53.260 She didn't even get to kill herself.
00:32:54.820 The one thing that she thought that she had control over,
00:32:57.700 the one thing that Satan promised her that she would be able to do,
00:33:01.680 that you're going to be able to choose how you die.
00:33:04.300 You're going to be able to kill yourself.
00:33:05.540 You're going to be able to make a name for yourself because of this.
00:33:07.640 She didn't even get to do that.
00:33:10.060 She was killed by the police after she murdered some people.
00:33:13.000 Now she's in hell.
00:33:14.300 Now she realizes that all the temptation that she dealt with,
00:33:17.580 that promise of power, it was a lie.
00:33:19.900 It was always a mirage.
00:33:21.700 Just like it was for Eve.
00:33:23.740 He deceived this woman into believing, one, that you're a man.
00:33:27.480 And two, you can be like God.
00:33:28.920 You can have power over life and death.
00:33:32.580 It's a shame.
00:33:33.820 It's a shame.
00:33:34.400 Um, so this girl, this person who tried to talk to her, tried to comfort her,
00:33:41.060 tried to stop her from committing suicide, obviously didn't know what was going to happen.
00:33:44.940 I commend this person that she talked to trying to comfort her and reason with her.
00:33:50.300 Unfortunately, it wasn't effective.
00:33:53.700 Um, so there's a lot of conversation, obviously, about this person being transgender.
00:33:58.560 And as I said, every news outlet at first, I guess going off of what the police was saying,
00:34:04.180 was calling her a female, calling her a woman, which is rare when you have someone who identifies
00:34:10.280 as the opposite sex.
00:34:12.280 Obviously, our liberal media is very sensitive towards what's called misgendering.
00:34:16.300 You're supposed to use the pronouns that someone prefers rather than the ones that actually
00:34:19.860 correspond with reality or their, um, biology.
00:34:23.360 And that's, you know, I guess because they actually believe that this person was female.
00:34:28.220 But, uh, don't worry.
00:34:30.080 They apologize for that.
00:34:31.280 So in the midst of this mass shooting, in the midst of the targeted, and like, let's just
00:34:35.280 call it what it is for a second, the targeted terrorism of Christians.
00:34:40.120 And let me just pause.
00:34:41.300 I know that was going to be an aside, but let me just pause.
00:34:43.100 It's a targeted terrorism toward Christians that is made permissible by what we're about
00:34:50.980 to talk about, actually.
00:34:52.000 The, just the dismissal of that aspect of the story, the open and unabashed anti-Christian
00:34:58.560 sentiment that is like one of the only acceptable forms of bigotry in Hollywood and the mainstream
00:35:05.980 and politics.
00:35:06.840 Like if this happened at a synagogue, if this happened at a mosque, if this happened at Pulse
00:35:11.300 nightclub, like no one would question whether or not the type of people in that particular
00:35:17.140 building, um, were being targeted because of their belief system, because of who they
00:35:23.960 are.
00:35:24.120 Like no one questions that.
00:35:25.680 But if, when it happens at a Christian school, when it happened at a, uh, church in, um, in
00:35:31.900 Texas a few years ago, apparently the Christian aspect of it should just be overlooked.
00:35:37.480 And then if Christians bring this up, oh, it's a victim complex.
00:35:41.380 You're thinking about this too hard.
00:35:43.240 This has nothing to do with that.
00:35:44.920 Why does it have nothing to do with that?
00:35:46.640 When in every other scenario, with every other kind of group, it's immediately assumed that
00:35:51.560 it had to do with that building and the, or it's immediately assumed that had to do
00:35:56.980 with the identity or the religion or the skin color of the people inside the building.
00:36:01.400 And that was targeted.
00:36:02.380 So just a question, uh, just a question about that.
00:36:06.640 But when it comes to this story, we don't focus on that.
00:36:11.460 Really the real problem is that transgender people are the oppressed group.
00:36:18.600 And really the problem is that we are misgendering this person.
00:36:22.220 So here's, um, so this is a, this is a clip from ABC.
00:36:27.120 This is an anchor, Terry Morin talking about this.
00:36:29.940 And this is when I guess they still are calling her a female and didn't realize that she identifies
00:36:36.180 as the opposite sex.
00:36:38.220 Um, and here's, here's how he kind of explains why this murder happened.
00:36:43.940 The state of Tennessee earlier this month passed and the governor signed a bill that banned transgender
00:36:50.320 medical care for minors, as well as a law that prohibited adult entertainment, including
00:36:56.280 male and female impersonators after a series of drag show controversies in that state.
00:37:01.220 So that is the, that's the narrative.
00:37:05.320 Joy Reid said the same thing on MSNBC.
00:37:07.840 An NBC correspondent actually seemingly blamed the Daily Wire.
00:37:11.700 His name is Benjamin Ryan.
00:37:13.220 He posted a tweet saying, um, that the Daily Wire basically is to blame for the transgender
00:37:19.280 person shooting at this school.
00:37:21.760 He actually deleted the tweet.
00:37:23.340 But, uh, we have screenshots.
00:37:25.080 Screenshots live forever.
00:37:26.620 So we will not let Benjamin Ryan forget that this is how he reacted to, um, the innocent
00:37:32.820 blood of little children, uh, being shed.
00:37:36.400 Uh, he said NBC has ID'd the Nashville school shooter as Audrey Hale, 28, who identifies as
00:37:41.480 transgender and had no previous criminal record.
00:37:43.440 Nashville is home to the Daily Wire, a hub of anti-trans activity by Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro,
00:37:49.080 and Michael Knowles.
00:37:49.660 Okay, let's like square the circle for me, Ben.
00:37:55.460 How, what is that relevant?
00:37:57.840 Like, are you saying that because they disagree, as everyone has for all of human history, as
00:38:03.660 everyone still knows today, that men cannot be women and women cannot be men, that this
00:38:08.780 person was then motivated by her proximity to people who accept and preach reality to then
00:38:15.080 go murder these children?
00:38:17.240 Wow.
00:38:18.020 How'd you get there?
00:38:19.160 It's not because of the person who actually picked up these guns and went into this school,
00:38:24.980 targeted them, and murdered them.
00:38:26.380 It's because of people who are maybe a few miles away from her who happen to say things
00:38:31.200 that are true.
00:38:32.800 That, that's incredible.
00:38:35.300 What incredible reporting, Ben.
00:38:37.360 Really good job.
00:38:39.600 You're doing great, buddy.
00:38:41.480 Keep going.
00:38:43.040 David Pakman, he has a show on YouTube.
00:38:46.420 Very surprising that there would be a mass shooting at a Christian school.
00:38:50.240 Given that lack of prayer is often blamed for these horrible events, is it possible they
00:38:54.160 weren't praying enough or correctly despite being a Christian school?
00:38:58.280 Wow, these atheists are so compassionate, incredible, mocking the faith of nine-year-olds who just
00:39:08.460 got murdered.
00:39:11.280 Awesome.
00:39:13.240 Again, really good job.
00:39:16.320 Really good job.
00:39:17.460 People are really concerned also that this person is being quote-unquote deadnamed.
00:39:24.680 Tommy Sunshine is a professor at NYU.
00:39:29.560 Let's focus on the head of school, Catherine Koontz, who was specifically targeted by 28-year-old
00:39:33.440 former student Aiden Hale, who has been deadnamed in the press as Audrey.
00:39:37.440 Can you imagine what the early 2000s Christian curriculum contained about gender, sexuality
00:39:41.940 and being openly queer?
00:39:44.420 So again, it's their fault.
00:39:46.960 Victim blaming.
00:39:49.220 Fantastic work.
00:39:51.060 Like y'all are just, I mean, y'all over on the left.
00:39:55.080 Mm.
00:39:55.580 Party of empathy.
00:39:57.460 Love it.
00:39:59.540 Okay.
00:40:00.700 Kat Amarco.
00:40:01.920 Uh, random Twitter user, but this was retweeted by Andy Ngo.
00:40:08.420 I don't condone Audrey Hale's actions, though I understand their outrage against an intolerant
00:40:13.360 state that brainwashes children through religious doctrination.
00:40:15.980 Ooh, brainwashes them into accepting the body that God gave them?
00:40:21.300 Okay.
00:40:21.860 The reality is this human still identified as that child attending that school and carried
00:40:26.840 that pain into adulthood.
00:40:28.180 First of all, you don't freaking know that.
00:40:32.480 Secondly, I don't care.
00:40:34.640 I don't care.
00:40:36.000 I don't care that that person carried pain.
00:40:38.440 Guess what?
00:40:39.140 Newsflash.
00:40:39.620 We all carry pain.
00:40:41.180 We all had hard childhoods in some way.
00:40:43.500 We were all made fun of.
00:40:44.740 We were all bullied.
00:40:45.860 We were all rejected.
00:40:47.080 We all have felt different.
00:40:48.440 We were all pushed to the side.
00:40:49.720 We've all been confused.
00:40:51.100 We've all had a hard time.
00:40:52.620 Okay?
00:40:52.880 No, I do not relate to this person shooting up a school.
00:40:59.440 Okay?
00:41:00.140 Maybe let's toughen up a little bit and deal with normal human difficulty and trials without
00:41:07.960 murdering nine-year-olds.
00:41:09.320 Like, maybe that's a line of reason.
00:41:11.000 Maybe that's a take.
00:41:12.360 Like, maybe that's the narrative that you should go with.
00:41:15.080 That life is tough.
00:41:16.180 Get a helmet.
00:41:16.880 Deal with it yourself.
00:41:17.820 Maybe don't go with a gun into an elementary school and kill kids that have nothing to
00:41:24.360 do with your delusion.
00:41:26.080 And let me just say, because I think this is the most loving thing that I can say, because
00:41:29.920 obviously, like, this delusion about your identity and about people's gender is, like,
00:41:33.960 really harming people and really hurting people, really confusing people, really driving
00:41:38.880 people to think that they should do things that they shouldn't do.
00:41:41.240 And this is not me saying that all or most transgender people are violent or are going to do
00:41:45.360 something like this.
00:41:46.040 I really, I don't believe that.
00:41:48.860 I really don't.
00:41:49.960 But because I care about the truth and because this delusion, like I said, like, is dangerous
00:41:54.800 and is harmful in so many ways.
00:41:56.860 Look, this person was born a girl and died a girl.
00:42:00.920 Period.
00:42:02.740 She's in hell as a girl.
00:42:05.180 That will never change.
00:42:07.080 She will be female, not just for her entire life, but for all of eternity.
00:42:11.020 There's nothing that you can do to change that.
00:42:13.420 Nothing.
00:42:13.860 Nothing.
00:42:16.040 And we just need, we just need to embrace that.
00:42:19.040 That is the most loving and the most compassionate thing that you can do.
00:42:22.120 Like, in the midst of all this, like, we see that this person was tortured.
00:42:25.500 Don't you see, Christian, that our role is to speak the truth relentlessly in love?
00:42:30.440 That we cannot allow these people to be trapped in this kind of torturous delusion?
00:42:36.460 And like, you see that the tripping over themselves in the media actually prevents them from being able to even report the truth with clarity.
00:42:46.920 It's so sad that we had to deal with all of this confusion while we're just trying to talk about these little kids who died tragically and unjustly.
00:42:54.840 Like, we can't even, we don't even, like, know what words to use because of this confusion that has completely taken over our culture.
00:43:03.480 So we don't need to mess with that, Christians.
00:43:05.180 We need to be as clear as possible.
00:43:06.580 That is the most loving, the most sympathetic thing that we can do.
00:43:09.480 This shooter, just like everyone else, is made in the image of God.
00:43:13.240 Okay?
00:43:13.920 Had innate worth.
00:43:14.960 Had innate value.
00:43:16.640 Like, she was important because of that.
00:43:19.300 That is true of absolutely everyone.
00:43:21.940 All right?
00:43:22.260 No matter how you identify, like, what your sexual proclivities are, what you think your identity is, like, that is true of everyone.
00:43:29.600 That's the most loving thing that I can tell you.
00:43:32.120 That you were born male, you were born female, whatever that is, that is what you are meant to be.
00:43:39.420 Let's stop allowing this confusion to just compound the tragedies and the difficulties that we are already dealing with.
00:43:45.440 And, like, did this girl, did she commit this crime because she knows that this is what men have done?
00:43:51.000 Like, is this part of her fulfilling that identity?
00:43:54.860 That this has traditionally been men and she thought that she was a man, so she was then, you know, trying to, like, play into that character?
00:44:04.580 I don't know.
00:44:06.300 But I also think it's interesting, left, whenever a male actually does this, it's all the talk about toxic masculinity.
00:44:13.440 White, the problem with white, violent men.
00:44:17.440 The problem with the patriarchy.
00:44:20.120 If you really think this person was a man, why aren't you talking about that?
00:44:23.420 I haven't seen any talk from the left about toxic masculinity and the patriarchy and the evil, white, male, racist.
00:44:30.580 Why not?
00:44:31.760 Surely Aiden falls into that category, don't you think?
00:44:34.300 And yet they have more compassion for this person, more, not everyone on the left, not saying that.
00:44:39.920 Some of the people that we're talking about, some of the people in the media have more compassion and sympathy and understanding for this person because they actually know that she is really a woman.
00:44:48.800 And that's why the media is reporting on it the way that they are.
00:44:54.360 Christians can never be the victims.
00:44:57.420 It's always the so-called oppressed group, even the ones that are perpetuating violence.
00:45:01.500 Like, this is also social justice.
00:45:03.540 It's not justice.
00:45:04.620 It's social justice.
00:45:05.580 You can't ever put the blame on someone who is in a quote-unquote oppressed class, even when they are carrying a gun and murdering a bunch of kids.
00:45:15.140 So Tucker Carlson was mocked by a pro-LGBTQ outlet, LGBTQ Nation, for saying on his show that he believes that there are certain transgender activist groups that are going to be perpetrating violence.
00:45:40.160 They said this,
00:45:43.100 So literally, if you just believe that a man can't be a woman and vice versa, if you don't believe that men should be dressed up as caricatures of women in thongs and fishnet tights and fake boobs dancing for children, then you are causing violence.
00:46:09.440 This is a little fun game that the left plays, that if you just say something that's true, that they disagree with or criticize them, then you're perpetrating violence.
00:46:17.080 And yet, when someone who identifies as transgender actually perpetrates violence, it's still not actually their fault.
00:46:22.060 Really interesting.
00:46:23.400 That's because Tucker Carlson was talking about on his show this organization called Rainbow Reload in New Hampshire.
00:46:29.440 It's a gun club in New Hampshire where they produce firearms instruction videos, news, gaming streams, living by the amended state motto, live free or effing die.
00:46:41.540 And the owner of it or the person who started it said, if the world is dangerous, then you have to be dangerous back.
00:46:52.120 If you go far enough left, then you get your guns back, said a Rainbow Reload member, which I mean is true of communists.
00:47:00.760 And they say that there's been an uptick in hate crimes and things like that.
00:47:05.100 And so they need to start fighting back because of those things.
00:47:12.620 And so, I mean, I believe in the Second Amendment.
00:47:15.160 Obviously, these people are talking about glorifying violence in the face of this absolutely delusional claim that there is some genocide against people who claim to be transgender.
00:47:27.820 Again, this is a fun trick that the left plays, that if you say the true things about biology, if you care about women's rights and protection, then you are committing genocide.
00:47:39.240 If you tell enough already mentally unstable young people that Christians, that conservatives are committing genocide against them, you cannot be surprised when they target an elementary school.
00:47:52.640 Right? Like lies actually have these kinds of consequences, especially when you're explicitly calling for violence.
00:48:01.340 And also remember, there is a day of vengeance that many trans activists online are calling for, March 31st, April 1st, fighting for their so-called rights.
00:48:14.960 So this is the right, I guess, for young, you know, 10-year-old boys to be chemically castrated, for 16-year-old girls to get a double mastectomy, to commit themselves to permanent infertility men to be able to go into girls' bathrooms and things like that.
00:48:29.520 These are the rights, I guess, that this so-called trans day of vengeance is fighting for.
00:48:34.860 One of the advertisements says, stop transgenocide.
00:48:36.960 So again, this is the kind of language, the trans day of vengeance against genocide, this is a call to arms.
00:48:44.800 Like this is a call to the kinds of things that we just saw in Nashville yesterday.
00:48:49.880 There's a popular sign that is circulating right now.
00:48:55.880 And it is a trans rights or else.
00:49:00.860 And it is the trans flag, which I'll remind you is baby colors, baby blue and baby pink.
00:49:07.240 And it's guns, though.
00:49:09.260 So rather than the rather than just the trans flag, the colors, the flag itself are long guns to make up the trans flag, trans rights or else.
00:49:21.060 It's been seen on stickers, T-shirts, hoodies, other items.
00:49:24.160 It's being sold on Amazon right now.
00:49:27.460 And so where is the violence really coming from?
00:49:31.060 Where's the violence really coming from?
00:49:32.440 Where's the terrorism really coming from?
00:49:35.700 And again, I'm not saying that all people who are confused about their gender or who think that they're the opposite sex, who call themselves transgender, fall into this category.
00:49:44.680 But look, we saw the manifestation of this kind of call to violence yesterday.
00:49:49.020 Little kids were murdered.
00:49:51.380 Little kids were murdered.
00:49:52.180 And, like, let's just make a note on guns, all right?
00:49:55.540 Because we haven't even gotten into that portion of all of this.
00:49:57.980 We'll probably be talking about a lot of this for the rest of the week.
00:50:00.660 But we've always had millions of guns in this country.
00:50:07.400 We've always been a gun-toting country.
00:50:09.020 We've had the Second Amendment that is at the top of the list of amendments for a reason.
00:50:16.100 And we have always had tens of millions of guns.
00:50:21.420 We have had, I would say, an even stronger, more pervasive gun culture, if you will, in the United States than we have today.
00:50:28.820 Nothing has really changed about the guns on the street.
00:50:32.900 Nothing has really changed about their nature or about their capacity.
00:50:36.260 But the values in America have changed.
00:50:41.420 The people have changed.
00:50:43.560 Young people have changed.
00:50:44.900 What we care about has changed.
00:50:46.920 There was this horrifying pull.
00:50:48.780 And I was going to talk about it later in the week.
00:50:50.480 I don't have it pulled up, so I don't remember the source.
00:50:52.460 But it was comparing the values that we held in 1998 versus today.
00:50:58.900 Patriotism.
00:50:59.980 Caring about patriotism has gone down.
00:51:02.000 Getting married.
00:51:03.140 Caring about that has gone down.
00:51:04.600 Caring about having kids.
00:51:05.580 That's gone down drastically.
00:51:06.860 The only thing that has gone up, like the value that has changed towards an upward trend, is caring about money.
00:51:16.420 Money.
00:51:16.900 All right.
00:51:18.760 So we've exchanged the God of scripture for the God of self, as we talk about often.
00:51:24.540 We glorify mental illness.
00:51:27.920 We celebrate people's delusions and instability.
00:51:32.440 We mock the idea of God.
00:51:35.140 We belittle the idea of prayer.
00:51:37.740 However, we patronize and even demonize, in some ways, selflessness and sacrifice and hard work.
00:51:47.600 Instead, we celebrate and glorify and encourage entitlement and selfishness and narcissism.
00:51:56.180 And pursuing fleeting passions.
00:51:58.880 All of our institutions have been captured by this postmodern progressivism, which is innately destructive and anti-God.
00:52:06.960 We've demolished the family.
00:52:10.160 We continue to ostracize any sense of normalcy.
00:52:13.660 We continue to degrade any idea of objective morality.
00:52:19.640 And we are surprised when things like this happen.
00:52:22.460 We've always had guns.
00:52:24.800 We have not always had this value system.
00:52:27.900 We have not always had these depraved set of principles that we have today that is all about me, me, me.
00:52:34.920 Our young people are crying out for what every human since the beginning of time have cried out for, which is purpose, which is meaning, which is a call to something higher.
00:52:44.740 So when the progressive left says you can join our revolution, you can latch on to social justice, you can identify in this way, you can join this oppressed group, then you will have meaning, then you will have identity, then you will have something deeper, then you will have some kind of pseudo-spirituality, some kind of militant religion.
00:53:03.740 Of course, these lost, agnostic, atheistic young people are going to cling to that.
00:53:10.220 So, gosh, there's so much more I want to talk about in all this.
00:53:15.460 We don't have time.
00:53:16.500 I have to close out.
00:53:17.460 But, like, I just, I'm not, and I'm not saying, let me just say, I'm not saying that there should be no gun laws.
00:53:24.120 I'm not saying that there is, like, no legal restriction or regulation that should surround the ownership and the use of guns.
00:53:31.000 I am not saying that.
00:53:32.040 I actually don't know any Second Amendment advocate or gun owner who does believe that.
00:53:35.940 So I'm not saying, like, whoa, we cannot have conversations ever about any kind of legislation or any kind of, I'm not saying that.
00:53:42.960 I'm not one of those people.
00:53:43.880 I'm just saying if we continue to ignore the heart of the issue, what underlies all of this, the raging culture war that is actually downstream from a theological war, a spiritual battle that's going on, we will continue to see these things happen.
00:54:00.320 We will.
00:54:00.700 And, I mean, outside of an awakening that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, I don't know how things change.
00:54:07.020 The only thing that we can do is the next right thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God.
00:54:13.040 That's the only thing that you and I can do.
00:54:16.220 Let this tragedy not scare you or intimidate you, but inspire you to double down in speaking that and representing that and doing that which is good and right and true.
00:54:28.340 Do not be a part of the delusion that's tearing this country apart.
00:54:33.060 Do not be a part of the lie.
00:54:36.120 Agree with God publicly, privately, in every area of your life, whether it comes to gender, sexuality, the family, true biblical justice, what is right, what is wrong.
00:54:46.780 Teach it to your kids relentlessly.
00:54:49.260 Preach it at your church pastors relentlessly.
00:54:51.840 Tell it to your friends.
00:54:52.940 Post it on social media.
00:54:54.180 Live it in your daily life.
00:54:56.080 Represent the gospel in all that you think, say, and do.
00:55:00.480 Be a refuge of clarity and courage for the cowards in your life and in your community.
00:55:05.500 That is what Christians are called to do today.
00:55:07.520 That is what we have been called to do for thousands and thousands of years and trust that God is doing something about all of this.
00:55:16.460 Let's continue to pray for everyone involved.
00:55:19.100 Let's continue to pray for our children.
00:55:20.600 Continue to pray for our country.
00:55:22.360 Remember James 5.16, the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
00:55:27.700 How good is God that he has actually set up this apparatus for change through prayer?
00:55:33.320 He didn't have to do that.
00:55:34.660 And yet he has preordained prayer to be a powerful tool that can be wielded at any moment by his saints.
00:55:43.540 So let us come together and let us do that, especially when we don't know what else to do.
00:55:47.460 And that is me a lot of the time.
00:55:48.820 I don't know what else to do except for that.
00:55:50.340 All right, guys.
00:56:03.620 So much more I wanted to say on that.
00:56:05.820 Thank you for your prayers.
00:56:08.000 Whenever I go to events and I talk to you guys and you tell me that you're praying for me and praying for my family, I really, really appreciate it.
00:56:17.540 And I covet your prayers.
00:56:20.240 I ask for them.
00:56:21.920 I mean, there are so many people in your life who need prayer.
00:56:24.240 I hate to ask for prayers and so many things in this world.
00:56:27.240 But thankfully, like we serve an infinite God and we can do that.
00:56:31.160 And so I just appreciate and request your prayers because they buoy me and they help me and I feel them.
00:56:39.940 And even though there were some really emotional and difficult parts of this episode to get through, I was able to.
00:56:45.480 And I really do believe I was sustained by the Lord because of the prayers that you petitioned this morning.
00:56:51.760 So thank you so much.
00:56:53.400 And thanks so much for listening.
00:56:54.660 Let's see.
00:56:56.740 Do I have any announcements?
00:56:58.200 A lot of you guys have been asking me to talk about this book ban in Florida.
00:57:00.740 I actually wanted to talk about it today.
00:57:02.260 But I knew as the story was developing, we would be spending all of our time on this.
00:57:06.080 And so we will hopefully be talking about it some tomorrow.
00:57:09.260 We'll also be talking about the TikTok ban or potential TikTok ban that is being debated right now in Congress tomorrow.
00:57:16.160 That is if we don't have more to talk about on this story.
00:57:20.160 So we will see.
00:57:22.500 We'll see.
00:57:23.320 Sometimes weeks are just harder to plan because there's this kind of breaking news.
00:57:27.540 But thank you guys so much.
00:57:28.820 I'm very thankful for y'all.
00:57:30.460 And we will see you back here tomorrow.