Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable, where I, your host, Allie Beth Stuckey, give my Christian

00:00:06.000 conservative take on politics and culture one topic at a time. If you like this podcast,

00:00:11.220 you should definitely go over to crtv.com slash Allie, where I have weekly videos of all kinds

00:00:17.440 that give shareable commentary on relevant political, cultural, and theological issues.

00:00:22.160 If you hate this podcast, you should definitely not go over to crtv.com slash Allie because you

00:00:27.720 will probably hate all of my videos. But if you do, you can also follow me on Twitter or Instagram

00:00:34.260 if you so choose. Again, if you don't like me, you probably won't like following me on social media,

00:00:39.560 so you might just want to avoid your misery. You can usually find me on social media by typing my

00:00:45.840 name into the search bar or typing The Conservative Millennial into Facebook, and there I will be.

00:00:50.900 Okay, there is a ton that I want to talk about today. So I'm going to try to fit multiple topics

00:00:57.560 or really multiple points under one umbrella. Last week, we talked about the contradictions

00:01:03.140 between being a Bible-believing Christian and being a political progressive. I got a few really

00:01:09.360 good emails that offered some pushback and some feedback against that topic, and I really enjoyed

00:01:15.600 the dialogue that that created between me and people who disagreed with me. And I just really

00:01:20.280 appreciate people who listen to this podcast knowing going in that they're going to disagree with me

00:01:25.700 and then take the time to send me a thoughtful email asking questions and offering counterpoints

00:01:31.160 and counterarguments. Even though I always try to approach my opinions from a very well-reasoned and

00:01:36.980 well-researched standpoint, obviously, I am very aware that I am a fallible human being,

00:01:44.180 and there probably are holes in my arguments. And I always appreciate people pointing that out or

00:01:50.400 just offering me a new and different perspective. So if that's ever you, if you want to offer me,

00:01:55.700 constructive criticism, or have any questions or feel like I missed something or purposely misled

00:02:01.420 something, then please email me. It's Allie at the conservativemillennialblog.com. It sometimes

00:02:07.480 takes me a little bit to respond to all of my emails, but I always try to send a response that

00:02:13.580 is just as thoughtful as the question that I received. So feel free to do that. So last week,

00:02:20.420 I explained how progressivism advocates for more government control and where government power

00:02:25.760 expands. So does godlessness. If you are interested in a thorough explanation of that conclusion,

00:02:32.020 then you can check out last week's episode. But one of the particular and perhaps the most

00:02:38.520 evil symptoms of the consequential godlessness of government control is the eventual degradation

00:02:44.140 of human dignity. I am talking about abortion. I am talking about infanticide. I am talking about

00:02:50.200 government sanctioned murder. I am talking about assisted suicide, where the power of the central

00:02:55.940 government is allowed to grow without restraint, the value of human life decreases. At no time

00:03:02.180 throughout history has a central figure or governing body having all the power turned out well for the

00:03:08.620 people being governed. Not in ancient history, not in medieval history, not in modern history,

00:03:14.160 not in the West, not in the East. Never has it turned out peachy for us plebeians. In no communist or

00:03:21.340 socialist or fascist society have people thrived. Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, communist China,

00:03:27.740 North Korea, Venezuela today. Every place where a central government has been able to enjoy unfettered growth,

00:03:34.300 pain, suffering, and death of the people they are governing has ensued.

00:03:38.620 You've heard the quote, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. That has been and always

00:03:44.380 will be true, no matter who is in power. That is the nature of power. It doesn't matter what the people

00:03:50.220 in power promise they can do for you. The more power you give them, the closer they get to absolute

00:03:56.440 corruption. Let's think about the most obvious example, Nazi Germany. Nazi stands for National Socialist.

00:04:04.080 Think about what Hitler was able to get away with, with all of his power in the name of

00:04:09.480 common good. He swore he was doing what was best for Germany by exterminating not just Jews, but all

00:04:16.240 the people that he saw as less than black people, gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled. There were people

00:04:22.340 who at the time, I'm sure, thought Hitler was doing a service to humanity. They justified his cruelty

00:04:28.380 because it was advancing and protecting the Aryan race, which Hitler deemed a worthy cause.

00:04:34.520 They viewed the people being sent to concentration camps as subhuman, which I am positive helped

00:04:40.720 assuage any kind of guilt they would have felt about treating their fellow countrymen as chattel.

00:04:46.920 We know the horrific human suffering that that kind of thinking caused. Now, before I go any further,

00:04:55.720 we need to be honest. America, the country that I love more than, well, I don't want to say more

00:05:02.840 than anything. I was just being hyperbolic. The country that I love very, very much, the freest and

00:05:07.800 the best country in the world has also caused pain and suffering. We have also dehumanized and mistreated

00:05:14.240 people via slavery. We had Japanese internment camps after Pearl Harbor for crying out loud.

00:05:19.700 We certainly don't have a crystal clear record on human rights. So you can't say that it is always

00:05:26.240 in only totalitarian governments that treat its citizens unfairly. In the case of slavery,

00:05:31.340 we actually had to have the federal government step in and say, no, you can't do that. Injustice can

00:05:37.800 definitely happen anywhere. The point is not that republics or democracies are completely immune

00:05:44.020 to civil rights abuses. Sin happens no matter what, even systemic sin can happen no matter what.

00:05:50.020 The truth is this, not all human rights violations happen in totalitarian governments,

00:05:55.380 but all totalitarian governments violate human rights. So the principle is still true.

00:06:01.600 Greater government leads to godlessness and human suffering, but greater government is not the

00:06:06.060 only cause of godlessness and human suffering. And I will get more into that soon.

00:06:10.240 Uh, the lesson is that when we give the government more power, usually power in the form of taking

00:06:17.220 care of us, human dignity tends to die. That is certainly what is happening in the UK right now.

00:06:23.960 You have probably heard at this point about little Alfie Evans, the 23 month old who was diagnosed with

00:06:31.400 some kind of apparently incurable brain disease. He was on life support and the hospital wanted to

00:06:37.880 take him off of it. His parents didn't want this. They pushed hard against this,

00:06:42.460 but the British courts ruled in the hospital's favor. So the hospital took him off life support

00:06:48.260 against his parents' wishes. The doctor said that he would die right away. He didn't. He lived for,

00:06:54.440 I think, three days after being taken off life support while his parents were forced to watch him die.

00:06:59.860 Now, that's not even the worst part about this. The UK operates under socialized government-run

00:07:06.100 health care. So because of that, it is somewhat understandable, though definitely an evil of a

00:07:12.240 socialist health care system that the judge ruled in favor of the hospital because, hey, we pay for

00:07:18.160 your health care. We get to determine what that health care looks like, which again is an awful

00:07:22.760 consequence of having the government take over your health care. But what is worse than that is that

00:07:28.600 just like with little Charlie Gard, the courts refused to allow the parents to take their son elsewhere to

00:07:34.460 seek further treatment. The couple was Catholic, his parents. So the Pope offered to cover the cost of

00:07:40.560 getting this kid to Italy where they granted him automatic citizenship so he could receive experimental

00:07:46.640 care there. Why wouldn't the UK allow this to happen? Why should the courts or the hospital via the

00:07:53.700 courts get to make that choice? What cost is it to them? That is the scariest part of this. Not that the

00:08:00.460 courts said, no, sorry, the hospital has done what they can and we're not treating him anymore. But

00:08:04.920 that they said, not only are we not going to treat him anymore, no one else can treat him either.

00:08:11.720 There is an act called the Children Act of 1989 in the UK, a very sweet sounding name, which the UK

00:08:18.540 courts interpreted to mean that a child who is living with a severe disability and dependency doesn't have

00:08:24.200 the same right to life and preservation that you and I do. This is a quote from the act. It is no longer

00:08:29.780 in the child's best interest to continue living. In those cases where the severity of the child's

00:08:35.860 condition is such that it is difficult or impossible for them to derive benefit from continued life.

00:08:41.940 Therefore, because of this act, it is not just recommended to end all efforts to keep the child

00:08:48.480 alive. It is actually illegal. So that is where the UK stands on people, especially children with

00:08:54.380 degenerative diseases and severe special needs that lead to absolute dependence.

00:08:58.120 And if that does not boil your blood, I mean, this, I just, I can't even wrap my mind around it.

00:09:06.300 Not just because of the absolute deterioration of the family this represents by totally taking away

00:09:11.740 the parents right to their child, though that's horrible in and of itself, but because of the

00:09:17.320 demeaning of those with disabilities and dependency. I have spent a lot of time with people with severe

00:09:23.060 special needs. My brother is highly functioning, but autistic. I have spent a lot of time volunteering

00:09:31.100 with people who are much further on the spectrum, a lot more severely autistic than he is. I have spent

00:09:37.960 time with people who are basically non-responsive, who have special needs that basically disable all of their

00:09:49.000 physical and almost all of their mental capabilities. A lot of people would probably determine that

00:09:56.000 because of that, these people are a burden to society. They will never contribute the way you or I can

00:10:02.680 to science and culture. They are, in a lot of ways, vegetables. They can't talk or move on their own.

00:10:10.720 They can't do anything without the help of an able-bodied person. But I am telling you that if,

00:10:16.520 as a Christian, you can look at one of those people and say that their life is worth less than

00:10:23.460 yours or anyone else's in an effort to justify what the UK court has ruled, which there are Christians

00:10:29.300 trying to do that, then you and I worship two very different gods. Oh, and by the way, yours is not the

00:10:36.560 God of the Bible. Oh, and by the way, that means that your God doesn't exist. For the Christian,

00:10:42.220 this is an absolutely irrefutable truth. Humans, and only humans, are made in the image of God,

00:10:49.320 which means that a human being who is, for example, mentally retarded, severely autistic, paraplegic,

00:10:55.400 can't walk, can't talk, is more valuable in God's eyes than the strongest, fastest, most majestic,

00:11:01.960 winningest animal in existence. And that's scandalous to say these days.

00:11:06.300 But it doesn't make it any less true. There is no room for the Christian to agree with the UK on

00:11:12.860 this or with the general principle that the government should dictate what innocent humans

00:11:16.600 deserve to live or die. The government in the UK, made up of fallible human beings, just like all

00:11:24.040 governments and courts, is taking on the role of God by determining which people's lives are worth

00:11:30.220 protecting and which ones aren't based on how much they can contribute to society, which is a

00:11:35.580 completely made up arbitrary standard. And once you set a subjective arbitrary standard for the

00:11:41.960 worthiness of human life, you open up the door to allowing the government to determine that anyone

00:11:48.260 based on anything is not valuable. Who's to say it won't one day be dyslexic people or people with

00:11:55.920 cerebral palsy, people with red hair, Christians? You might think, okay, that sounds hyperbolic.

00:12:01.520 That sounds crazy. That sounds like a slippery slope fallacy. But I have no logical reason to

00:12:07.180 believe that we won't go in that direction. I have no reason to believe humanity has its limits

00:12:14.040 to evil based on the atrocities that we've seen in just the last century. Dehumanizing one class of

00:12:20.540 people always makes way for dehumanizing multiple classes of people depending on who is in power.

00:12:26.060 That is what happens when the government becomes God. And this is not just the UK. This is not just

00:12:33.100 an isolated instance. This is always what happens when people allow the government to take the place

00:12:39.480 of a higher supreme being. The government gets to determine who lives and who dies based on who they

00:12:46.320 think is valuable and who isn't. And this is the undeniable path of progressivism. There's no way around

00:12:54.480 it. Like I said last week, so many Christians are falling into the trap of thinking leftism,

00:13:00.760 socialism is more compassionate because it offers free health care and help for the poor.

00:13:06.200 Well, here is what that looks like. Ultimately, the poor and the needy have what they need for a

00:13:11.380 little while at the expense of everyone else while the government grows in power. And then devastation

00:13:17.020 always ensues. Because guess what, guys? The government is not a merciful God. The government

00:13:25.000 is not a merciful God. And the more power we give the government, the more we ask the government to

00:13:31.800 care for the people that we, you and I, Christ followers are supposed to be caring for, the closer

00:13:37.300 the government comes to fully eclipsing the roles of God, the church, and parents in our society.

00:13:42.520 And as the cases of Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard can attest, that does not end well.

00:13:50.760 A government that becomes the caretaker of the populace is not actually concerned with taking

00:13:55.980 care of the populace. They're concerned with staying in power. They know if they can get people

00:14:01.260 to depend on them enough, then they will always have enough power. Like I've said, it's not like we

00:14:07.380 haven't seen this before. The nature of totalitarianism, of socialism and communism

00:14:12.520 has not changed since the beginning of time. It has always dehumanized its populace as tools of the

00:14:19.400 state, just like in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Cambodia, et cetera, et cetera. But this is not

00:14:25.900 strictly a political problem. It is also a cultural one. As you've probably heard before, politics is

00:14:32.020 downstream from culture. Yes, the Alfie Evans case is a consequence of what happens when you

00:14:37.700 give the government too much power. But as I mentioned earlier and said that I would get further

00:14:42.060 into, dehumanization of citizens is not exclusive to socialist societies as we've seen in our own

00:14:48.640 history and as we see today in our country in the normalization and even glorification of abortion.

00:14:55.240 We have not yet become a socialist society and yet we too have classified an entire group of people

00:15:02.400 as subhuman and have legalized discarding them like garbage. We have not yet gotten to the point

00:15:09.360 where we routinely force parents to watch their child die at a hospital. But with enough satanic force

00:15:16.780 coupled with the growth of the government, I can bet you we will get there. But just because we are not

00:15:22.780 to that point politically doesn't mean we don't have a problem festering culturally, a problem of

00:15:29.200 devaluing human life manifesting itself right now in abortion, a problem that will grow, that will

00:15:35.560 manifest itself in other disturbing ways. Since I have talked about this publicly in detail before and

00:15:42.900 because I spent a lot of time writing a particular speech about this and so I probably couldn't reiterate

00:15:48.600 it any better than I did then. I am going to play you a few minutes of a speech that I gave at CPAC this

00:15:54.860 year where I sat on a panel discussing human dignity. I talk about where this devaluing of human life takes

00:16:02.680 us. First of all, I think it's such an honor to get to talk about this subject that, like you said, is

00:16:07.940 increasingly pressing and is always hanging in the balance in our politics, is always being threatened to be

00:16:14.300 kind of disregarded as this hushed conversation that we can only have behind this veil of euphemisms

00:16:20.440 like bodily autonomy. So the fact that we're having this open conversation right now means that there

00:16:25.480 is still hope, like you noted. So let me just kind of give some perspective about where I think we are

00:16:31.480 and why it's so important, not just for millennials like myself, but for everyone to care about this

00:16:36.620 subject. So first, track with me for a second because it's going to seem like I'm not talking about

00:16:41.500 abortion, but I am. So I just saw The Second Godfather for the first time this past week. And there's this

00:16:47.640 conversation, if you haven't seen it, you should, but there's this conversation that two main characters

00:16:52.640 are having, Kay and Michael. And Kay compares her abortion, or compares her marriage to an abortion. She

00:16:59.900 calls it evil and unholy. And that just struck me because how far have we come in 45 years, not just since

00:17:07.420 the movie was made, but since Roe v. Wade, from calling an abortion evil and unholy, to calling it reproductive

00:17:14.500 freedom, to calling it women's rights, to calling it privacy. But what you and I know, what you and I know is that

00:17:26.640 no amount of political correctness, no amount of manipulation can hide the fact that just one abortion provider

00:17:33.420 is murdering over a thousand children every single day in this country. Abortion, the principle of

00:17:42.760 abortion, is literally why we look at, or we look in disgust at Hitler's Germany, for example. It's the

00:17:51.840 same exact principle of having a subjective standard of human worthiness and exterminating anyone who doesn't

00:17:59.460 meet that standard. That has literally been the mark of every dictatorial and depraved regime and nation

00:18:06.520 since the beginning of time. And we look back at history in shame on those crimes against humanity,

00:18:15.600 but why today do we not look in shame at where we are right now in 2018 in the United States of America,

00:18:24.200 America, not just allowing it, but normalizing it, glorifying it, and calling it choice.

00:18:31.440 And if you think that our absolute apathy and disregard for human dignity stops with life inside

00:18:40.920 the womb, unfortunately you are wrong. There is an abortion advocate. He's also a bioethicist. He's a

00:18:47.820 professor at Princeton and really the leading intellectual and academic voice for abortion. His name is

00:18:53.720 Peter Singer. I also say that he is one of the only honest abortion advocates as well. So his argument

00:19:00.160 for the moral acceptance of abortion is that the baby inside the womb, he acknowledges that it is

00:19:06.960 scientifically a human being, but it does not meet the standards of personhood. And that is rationality,

00:19:13.700 autonomy, and the ability to be self-conscious. So he says because of that, because they don't meet the

00:19:20.600 standard of that personhood, then life inside the womb doesn't really have any rights. But, and here's

00:19:26.640 where the honesty comes in, because most pro-choicers would probably agree with that, but here's his

00:19:30.620 honesty. He says, if that is our standard of human worthiness to live, then logically we have to apply

00:19:36.560 that to everyone, to life inside the womb and outside the womb. So he is an open advocate for

00:19:42.760 infanticide. He is an open advocate for terminating people with severe special needs and severe mental

00:19:48.920 illness because they don't meet that subjective standard of personhood. Now, you're probably

00:19:54.840 thinking, okay, well, he's radical. That's a radical pro-choice stance, but it's actually not. It's

00:20:01.740 becoming mainstream. Last year in January, the House passed the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act,

00:20:09.240 which says a doctor who is performing abortion has to save the life of the child who survived that

00:20:14.860 abortion. So outside the womb, all, all but six Democrats, all but six Democrats in the House voted

00:20:22.980 no to saving the infant. To show you where we've come back in 2002, a very similar, if not stricter bill

00:20:31.200 passed the House in both chambers by just a voice vote. So that's, that's where we've come now. And I'm

00:20:38.600 wrapping up because I know I don't have that much time. But I want to create a segue. Now, most pro-choicers

00:20:45.300 prefer that life is terminated inside the womb because the PR strategy for Planned Parenthood to be

00:20:50.540 openly pro-infanticide is a little bit tricky. So they prefer that life be terminated inside the womb,

00:20:56.380 which is why they're completely fine with places like Iceland having a 99.9% rate of terminating babies

00:21:04.420 inside the womb with Down syndrome. That's why they're okay with it happening here at a 60% rate.

00:21:11.300 And if you don't think that that's going to eventually extend to people with autism or different

00:21:16.180 kinds of special needs, then you're absolutely blind. And here's, here's why this matters. Here's why

00:21:21.840 human dignity matters. Here's why it's important that we don't set some subjective arbitrary standard

00:21:27.400 of human worthiness that people don't meet. One, because we've already joined the ranks of North Korea

00:21:32.500 and China and being one of only seven countries to allow abortion after 20 weeks when a baby is

00:21:37.440 known to flinch from the abortion needle, but also because without life, not a single one of our

00:21:43.580 rights granted to us by God and guaranteed to us in the Constitution is secure. Every single one of them

00:21:49.000 is at stake. And the founders knew this. That is exactly why in the Declaration, life is listed before

00:21:56.420 liberty or the pursuit of happiness. Because without life, without the protection of life, the

00:22:01.840 understanding and agreement that human dignity starts in the womb, neither liberty nor the

00:22:07.480 pursuit of happiness exists. How did we get here, guys? How did we get to the point in our country,

00:22:13.800 the freest and best country in the world, a country for the people, by the people, get to the point where

00:22:19.460 dismembering a living, feeling, defenseless baby inside the womb is called women's health? How did we get

00:22:25.520 here? How did we get to the point where murdering a baby is called choice? How do we get to the point

00:22:31.820 where it's not just seen as a necessary evil like it used to be by pro-choice advocates, but something

00:22:37.560 disgusting human beings like Michelle Wolf make jokes about and people laugh at? The answer is,

00:22:45.160 at the most basic level we Christians know, is sin. It is sin. It is the trajectory of man without God.

00:22:53.640 It's nothing new, though. It is the same thing that perpetuated and glorified slavery as

00:22:59.320 states' rights. We fought a war over that, though, and we ended it. You think that's going to happen

00:23:04.800 with abortion? No, I don't. We've got a Republican Congress and White House, and we are still giving

00:23:11.400 $500 million of our tax money to the largest abortion provider in the country. Maybe I'm being

00:23:18.300 pessimistic, but I don't think the government is going to deliver us on this one, guys.

00:23:22.760 I just don't. I don't think that that means, though, that there's no hope. There is hope.

00:23:27.920 I think the real counterwork against abortion is done by the church, by clinics who don't provide

00:23:33.320 abortions, by pro-life organizations, true women's health organizations, not by the government.

00:23:39.700 Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't push for legislation. I obviously do, and I talk about it a

00:23:44.060 lot, and I will, I hope, I will gladly embrace being wrong about this. But that doesn't change the fact

00:23:51.100 that it is our job, primarily as the body of Christ, to do everything we can to end the cycle

00:23:56.360 of abortion. That means helping mothers every way we can and providing them with options other than

00:24:02.760 abortion, and giving our time, our energy, our money to clinics and centers that do so much more than

00:24:08.880 health care, that they provide women shelter, they help women get jobs, go to school, they help them

00:24:14.740 with the adoption process, help them even with the citizenship process. Hope 139 House is in

00:24:21.780 Watkinsville, Georgia. I think you can go to hope139.com. They're an amazing organization like

00:24:27.420 this. You should also check to see if one of the centers are in your area or a clinic like this is

00:24:33.820 in your area. We have a lot of pro-life clinics that offer these kinds of totally free services

00:24:38.620 to women with unwanted pregnancies. And they're really great. So you can Google it and hopefully

00:24:43.480 find it if Google doesn't censor your search. But the weird thing is the left in America doesn't

00:24:48.900 want you to think this way in this life affirming way. It hampers their narrative that abortion is

00:24:55.320 health care. It diminishes a key part of their platform. And quite frankly, if we truly take Planned

00:25:00.980 Parenthood out of business, which would just be amazing, then the Democrats lose millions of dollars

00:25:07.100 in campaign funding. Planned Parenthood Votes is a part of Planned Parenthood that has just joined

00:25:12.900 a coalition that is dishing out $30 million in campaign funding for the 2018 midterms.

00:25:20.360 Abortion itself is a huge part of the Democratic platform. Tom Perez, the head of the DNC, said,

00:25:26.220 in fact, you don't even have a place in the Democratic Party if you are anti-abortion.

00:25:31.380 Also, just parenthetically, as a side note here, I like how pro-choicers think that it's

00:25:36.940 somehow a pejorative to say anti-abortion instead of calling us pro-life. They won't call us pro-life.

00:25:42.740 So they call us anti-abortion or anti-choice. And I'm like, OK, I love it. Thank you so much. I love

00:25:48.360 being called anti-abortion or anti-choice. Put it on a freaking bumper sticker. I'll buy it. I'll put

00:25:53.400 it in my bio. Anti-choice, anti-abortion alley. I love it. If that was if we still had AOL instant

00:26:00.380 messenger, I would make that my screen name. So anyway, nice try and offending me. It doesn't.

00:26:05.720 I really like it. But anyway, isn't that funny? The left's absolute refusal to acknowledge that

00:26:12.440 killing an unborn child is evil and that maybe just maybe we should all be taking steps towards

00:26:19.440 ending it. I mean, that is something I could settle for if they could just go back to acknowledging

00:26:24.740 that it is evil and sad and gruesome and that it's something that should be avoided at all costs.

00:26:30.660 If pro-choicers just saw abortion as a last resort for women in dire situations,

00:26:36.560 then maybe we could work together. Now, I still wouldn't agree with their reasoning on that because

00:26:43.460 murder is murder. But at least we could work toward a common cause of trying to make the need

00:26:48.140 for abortion obsolete. But they are not interested in that. They're not interested. Women's marches have

00:26:55.000 signs in t-shirts that say, I heart abortion. Gosh, I mean, it's crazy. I can't even say it.

00:27:01.720 They make jokes about abortion. They call it women's health care, women's rights.

00:27:07.580 They say abortion, the killing, the taking, the life of a child inside the womb is synonymous with

00:27:15.500 privacy and liberty. That is bodily autonomy. It's reproductive freedom. What?

00:27:21.420 First of all, you have bodily autonomy over your own body, but not someone else's body.

00:27:27.760 Where's their bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom? Reproductive freedom is the freedom

00:27:33.080 to use a condom or not have sex, not to murder a baby. So instead, we are expected to pretend

00:27:41.760 like abortion has anything to do with agency or independence or empowerment. It doesn't.

00:27:48.520 This is why I say you can't be pro-choice and anti-abortion, as many of my followers have tried

00:27:55.360 to argue before. You don't believe in killing a child, but you want someone to have the choice to

00:28:03.060 do so? In what scenario do you think it's moral for you to advocate for the freedom of someone to

00:28:11.440 kill an innocent, defenseless human being? It's the same thing as saying, I would never murder someone,

00:28:17.800 but I want someone to have the freedom to murder someone. Uh, that means that you're probably not

00:28:24.220 really against murder. You are either against murder or you're not. Would you say, I'm against

00:28:31.300 rape, but I think someone should be free to rape, you know, their body, their choice. What? Then you're

00:28:37.540 probably not really against rape. Trying to be in both camps on both sides of the fence or just ride the

00:28:44.720 fence means that you're really just too afraid of making a moral stance. And quite frankly, there

00:28:50.060 isn't any logic to that wishy-washy position. And there's really not any room for it in honest

00:28:54.460 political and moral dialogue. Being pro-choice is being pro-murder. It is. I mean, there's,

00:29:01.580 there's really no way around that. And the only thing worse than being pro-murder is to pretend that

00:29:06.480 it is not murder to normalize it, to glorify it and to call it healthcare. It's really amazing.

00:29:14.200 It's amazing in a sad way how the pro-abortion side has manipulated people with their completely

00:29:19.980 deceptive rhetoric. I mean, have you ever tried arguing with a pro-abortion person? It's literally

00:29:26.420 the most maddening thing in the entire world. I've probably lost 15 years off of my life arguing with

00:29:33.380 pro-choice people because they won't actually address abortion. They only have straw men to

00:29:40.020 defend their position. Really, the only question that matters should be, are you killing a defenseless

00:29:46.520 human being or not? But they really don't like to answer that because it's really hard to justify it

00:29:53.300 if that's the case. If you admit that, yes, you're killing a baby, you have to be ready to defend that.

00:29:59.140 Most people aren't. So here are the ways that they try to avoid that question. Here are their

00:30:06.840 straw men. You're not pro-life, you're pro-birth. The world is overpopulated. There are too many kids

00:30:14.400 in foster care. What about rape or incest? An unwanted child would have a bad life. And they also do the

00:30:22.800 whole bodily autonomy, her body, her choice, freedom thing. These are all illegitimate arguments

00:30:29.900 because they don't address the only question that matters. Are you killing a human life or not?

00:30:35.740 And that is why Peter Singer is one of the only honest advocates of abortion out there. Because

00:30:41.820 the only intellectually honest start to an abortion conversation is one where both sides acknowledge

00:30:47.040 that you are killing a human being. Then the pro-choice side has to defend it. But they won't

00:30:52.780 ever go there or they will hardly ever go there because it is so evil and difficult to justify.

00:30:59.500 And I think they know deep down, just like Peter Singer has articulated, the implications of killing a

00:31:05.700 human being in the womb will soon extend to babies outside the womb. That is simply the logical next step.

00:31:11.640 And once that happens, once we deem life outside the womb disposable based on its disability or

00:31:17.640 dependence, the way that the UK has, what's stopping us from disposing of all people who are

00:31:24.240 disabled or dependent? The sick, the elderly, even the homeless. And it's that kind of thing that is

00:31:30.420 already happening. That's what this whole stupid, evil, dying with dignity movement that you've heard

00:31:36.160 about is, which is prevalent in Europe, but not quite yet in the United States. Dying with dignity

00:31:42.080 is assisted suicide, which isn't actually dignified at all. Sadly, the main reasons that people choose

00:31:49.380 assisted suicide, the reasons that have been cited, they're not because of pain or sickness like the

00:31:56.300 dying with dignity movement wants us to think, but because of loneliness and discontent. The same

00:32:02.280 reasons that commit, people commit regular suicide. But again, this is the natural trajectory of

00:32:09.300 devaluing human life. And here in America, most people aren't willing to say that they want to go

00:32:15.680 that far yet. They don't want to admit that that is where abortion takes us. So instead, when you really

00:32:23.280 press them on whether or not abortion murders an innocent human being, they go with the whole idiotic

00:32:28.320 clump of cells thing. And honestly, that one's getting pretty old. Because any even pro-choice

00:32:35.440 embryologist will tell you that that's not true. Life starts at conception. If it doesn't start at

00:32:40.160 conception, you need to ask, when does it start? Like, we should probably be able to answer that

00:32:45.760 question if we're going to suck people out of the womb and kill them, right? You get a whole bunch of

00:32:51.560 answers when you ask that question, which shows that unless you say that life starts at conception,

00:32:56.900 conception, the whole beginning of life thing is completely arbitrary and subjective. And when

00:33:01.340 you're talking about killing someone, don't you think we should probably play it safe and be pretty

00:33:06.660 exact? Don't you think just to be sure we should just start at conception? Plus, people who use the

00:33:13.020 whole clump of cells argument still advocate for abortion after the heart starts beating, which is

00:33:19.100 at eight weeks, even after the child can feel pain, they advocate for it. Even after the child is fully

00:33:25.340 formed moving around in the womb, when the unborn child has visibly taken the form of a baby, these

00:33:31.700 people are still okay with abortion when it's quite obvious that it's not a clump of cells. So the

00:33:37.160 clump of cells thing is stupid. And any honest, smart pro-choicer doesn't revert to that kind of

00:33:42.320 lunacy. Our mainstream lefts and our government is probably going to continue down this path of

00:33:49.580 extremism toward abortion, demanding it all the time without restriction for free. The government

00:33:54.920 will probably continue to support it. I hope not, but I'm not holding out too much hope. And we will

00:34:01.180 see to the normalization, legalization and popularization of assisted suicide, of infanticide

00:34:08.040 and euthanasia for the severely disabled for or or the dependent. Because as I say, once you give the

00:34:16.560 government the power to say that one class of people doesn't have rights simply because we don't want

00:34:21.280 them to have rights, then you open the door to allowing them to do so to any class of people they

00:34:26.220 arbitrarily deem less worthy of life. This is what happens when society decides that they have no use

00:34:35.180 for God. They take on a naturalist point of view in which the only thing that really exists and

00:34:40.380 therefore the only thing that matters is what we can see and feel. And in that kind of world,

00:34:45.660 when tangibility is the sole qualification for reality and importance, people stop subscribing

00:34:51.320 to rules and laws they can't see. Because without God or a higher power, there really is no good

00:34:56.820 argument for a transcendent moral law. Now, you don't have to believe in God to be pro-life. You can look

00:35:02.600 at the direction abortion leads us in and realize, hey, that's probably not great for society. You can do

00:35:08.360 that without believing in God. But the absence of a supreme law giver and therefore a supreme law makes

00:35:13.540 all morality relative and subjective, really, including the moral of defending innocent human

00:35:18.900 life. That is why, Christians, it is our job to stand up for the least of these, including the

00:35:25.900 unborn, to fight for their rights, to advocate for their sanctity. We have a responsibility to push back

00:35:32.240 darkness with the power of the gospel. That includes fighting against the culture of death that seems to

00:35:37.440 be consuming our world, knowing, though, that ultimately darkness will consume the world until

00:35:43.360 Jesus comes back. That doesn't mean, though, that we don't fight. We save lives. And more importantly,

00:35:50.200 we save souls. We don't save souls, but we introduce people to the truth of Christ and Him crucified,

00:35:57.040 and He saves their soul, which is far more important than any physical work that we do.

00:36:01.180 Now, there are a couple things that I want to mention that I didn't really find room for in

00:36:07.680 the main chunk of this, but there are two pieces of the life conversation that need to be touched on.

00:36:13.840 One is the idea that animals and humans have the same value. Believe it or not, this seems to be

00:36:20.820 a prevalent idea, even in Christian circles these days, which is just sad. The Bible, from Genesis to

00:36:28.300 Revelation, makes very clear that humans alone are made in the image of God and therefore have

00:36:32.960 supreme worth to any other creature and should be regarded as such. I can see why atheists might

00:36:38.840 disagree, I guess. If you don't believe people are made in the image of God, maybe you think that

00:36:43.600 animals and people are the same. I don't know, though. I don't know. That still doesn't make very

00:36:48.060 much sense to me. There's a reason why humans have created art, culture, science, governments,

00:36:52.940 and no animal has or ever will. An animal will never have a podcast. An animal will never contribute

00:36:59.820 to any type of cultural, technological, or political advancement except if they are used

00:37:05.840 by humans to do so. They don't have agency. They don't have morality beyond feelings of sadness

00:37:12.860 sometimes because they disappointed the people that feed them. That's true only for dogs, by the way,

00:37:18.940 not for cats. Cats are like, you are welcome for getting to feed me and clean my litter box.

00:37:24.020 But beyond that, whether you believe in God or not, there's an undeniable spark in human beings that

00:37:30.080 no other creature has. This is true of every human being, no matter their mental capacities or physical

00:37:35.980 capabilities. No animal will ever do anything of cultural and political and real meaning apart from

00:37:41.600 the existence of humans, whereas human beings as a whole are independently both valuable and influential.

00:37:47.320 That to say, animals are valuable. We should treat them with respect and love. I have three pets. I'm

00:37:54.160 obsessed with them. I cry anytime I hear a story about animal cruelty. I think people that inflict

00:38:01.080 violence on animals should be punished as severely as the law allows. I hate it. And I also think it's

00:38:07.000 typically a prequel to human violence. So it's pretty serious, but they are not. Animals are not.

00:38:13.140 Never have been. Never should be equal in worth to people. That's not how it works.

00:38:16.840 Trying to elevate animals to the level of humans will end in actually lowering humans to the level

00:38:21.520 of animals because animals don't have the capacity to operate on the same level that we do.

00:38:26.140 So they couldn't possibly enjoy and exercise the same rights that we have.

00:38:30.880 Also, people trying to say that those who are pro-life are hypocrites if they eat meat. No,

00:38:39.820 nothing against veganism, honestly. But being vegan isn't any more moral and certainly not more

00:38:45.400 biblical than eating meat. There are some animals that were literally made for eating and some animals

00:38:52.200 need to be eaten to control their population or they at least need to be hunted. That's why hunting

00:38:57.580 is actually good for the environment. No one talks about that. Now, I am against cruel treatment of

00:39:03.280 animals, like I said, including cruel treatment of animals that we eat for food. I have watched PETA

00:39:08.560 videos, okay? Probably shouldn't have, but I have and it makes me really sad. That's bad. Shining light on that

00:39:13.820 and trying to get your meat from places that treat their animals decently, I think is great. That's

00:39:19.380 a great thing to do. I also think that being a vegetarian or being a vegan is totally fine and

00:39:26.140 great. There's nothing wrong with that. But vegetarians and vegans who have no place to judge

00:39:33.900 people who do choose to eat meat, especially from a biblical perspective. And being pro-life and a

00:39:39.200 carnivore is not hypocritical because again, human life is distinct and superior in worth to animal

00:39:44.820 life, period. Another thing that I hear a lot is that pro-lifers are hypocritical because many of us

00:39:51.380 are conservatives. And so people assume that we are okay with war and the death penalty, which is

00:39:56.500 probably true of a lot of conservatives and conservative pro-lifers. Well, first on war, I don't

00:40:02.600 think any of us like war. We don't prefer it. I certainly don't, especially not libertarians. But

00:40:09.740 yes, we do believe or I believe in peace through strength. We see war as a necessary tool. It was a

00:40:16.600 necessary tool at times in the Bible. And unfortunately, it's still a necessary tool now. Not all wars are

00:40:23.420 good. Not all wars are necessary, but some war is. The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the World Wars.

00:40:29.260 While sad and while really imperfect in a lot of ways, they ended up accomplishing, for the most

00:40:35.480 part, what we set out to accomplish. And the world would not be where it is now with that war. We

00:40:41.400 wouldn't have America with that war. And I think we would all agree that we and the entire world is

00:40:47.060 better off having America as the only existing beacon of liberty and hope. I don't believe in killing

00:40:52.540 civilians. Obviously, that's horrific. I don't believe in excessive or undue or cruel force. But yes,

00:40:59.140 I do believe that military action is acceptable and not at all seen as a sin, but is rather a,

00:41:06.920 like I said, a necessary tool in our fallen and broken world. The Bible seems to agree. Also,

00:41:12.980 engaging in voluntary violence in which both sides are armed is a little bit different than a doctor

00:41:18.480 pulling a defenseless baby's head off with forceps. Okay. On the death penalty. Do I like it? No,

00:41:25.940 I really, really don't. Do I worry that there have been people on death row and there are people on

00:41:31.600 death row that have been wrongfully convicted? Yes, I do. That, I mean, it breaks my heart. I have a pit

00:41:37.120 in my stomach thinking about that. I really hate the idea of killing someone who is unable to defend

00:41:42.380 themselves. I really do. And I know that they're criminals, but it makes me sad. I hate it. But we do

00:41:48.900 see the death penalty in the Old Testament for things like murder, which goes to show just how

00:41:53.940 much God cares about the sanctity of human life, that taking someone else's life is punishable by

00:41:58.860 death. Genesis 9, 6 says, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God made man

00:42:06.520 in his own image. That just shows how much it breaks God's heart and how murder was not part of

00:42:13.540 his plan. Now, the other side of that is that Christ, as we know, fulfilled the Old Testament

00:42:19.220 law in the New Testament. We Christians are not bound to everything the ancient Israelites were

00:42:24.260 bound to. Jesus offered a new picture of grace and mercy and reconciliation in the New Testament

00:42:29.240 that is also an example of the grace and mercy we should extend to others. So some people take that

00:42:34.780 to me that Jesus' new covenant means that the death penalty is out the door, that it made obsolete the

00:42:44.980 need for bloodshed to make up for your sins. But I'm not really sure that that alone means we should

00:42:52.000 no longer have the death penalty. Because by that logic, we could also say that we should extend grace

00:42:58.460 to all criminals and punish no one. Sometimes extending grace doesn't mean that you relieve people of their

00:43:04.600 earthly consequences. I just don't think it's feasible to do that either, or good for society,

00:43:10.720 or necessarily matches our God-given desire and need for justice. In my research on this,

00:43:16.920 I came across something that I agree with, that biblical punishment should have five characteristics.

00:43:23.140 One, proportionality, which you can find in Exodus 21. Wow, I put that reference in really weird. So now I

00:43:30.780 don't know what the reference is. I'm trying to read it. I said Exodus 21, 23, 25, but I'm not really

00:43:38.360 sure what's the verse and what's the chapter on that. So I'll get back to you. Number two, it should

00:43:42.920 have certainty of guilt, which you can find in Deuteronomy 17, 6. It should have intent. You can

00:43:49.260 find that in Numbers 35, 22 through 24. We should expect and want due process, Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 17.

00:43:57.560 And also for Christians, there should be a reluctance to execute. We should not rejoice in

00:44:03.680 execution. In Ezekiel 33, 11, God says, as sure as I live, I take no pleasure in the death of the

00:44:11.340 wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. That doesn't mean execution isn't a

00:44:17.720 consequence or necessarily that it shouldn't be, but that we should mourn the death of evil people.

00:44:23.000 And I'll tell you, that is not always my attitude towards terrorists or people who murder and

00:44:28.400 torture children or murder and torture anyone who is defenseless and vulnerable. I want them to pay for

00:44:35.800 it, which is partly natural. Yes. Like I said, we all have a desire for justice, but also because I,

00:44:43.220 to God, am really no different without Jesus than these murders, I should see them with the same mercy

00:44:50.000 that God through Christ has chosen to see me. So this to say, I understand where Christians are coming

00:44:55.440 from who are against the death penalty, but I personally don't find any solid biblical evidence to

00:45:01.920 be unequivocally against it. So I don't think that people who are for it are condemned by God by any

00:45:08.660 means. And again, believing and punishing by death a murderer is not the same thing as killing a

00:45:14.460 defenseless baby. That does not somehow negate your pro-lifeness. There's also something very,

00:45:22.500 very important that I want to say. Anyone who has had an abortion, there is grace for her. There is

00:45:29.740 grace for you. There is no condemnation in Christ. There is no shame to be had in Christ. There is full

00:45:39.500 1000% forgiveness for that. If Jesus could make Paul who used to murder Christians into the greatest

00:45:50.520 missionary that has ever lived, know that there is forgiveness for all of us. And God doesn't see you

00:45:57.520 as any worse or any less than any of the rest of us because of that. Just know that his grace and his

00:46:06.180 love and his compassion is just as available to you as anyone else. And all you have to do is turn

00:46:12.680 around and he comes running. That is the God that we serve. And so even though I talk in very clear

00:46:19.740 terms about abortion, because I do have strong feelings about it, the women who have had abortion,

00:46:25.560 I have the utmost compassion and sympathy for. And I want you to know, and I want them to know,

00:46:36.180 that God loves them immeasurably, amazingly, and that there is no fear in going to him with that pain

00:46:46.760 and with that sin because he is there and ready to forgive it and to reconcile. So I just wanted to

00:46:54.320 make sure that I mentioned that. Okay, now, I am going to answer a couple questions that I have

00:47:01.140 gotten and I want to answer. So thank you to you all for sending them. One question, Allie, what is your

00:47:09.480 favorite passage of scripture? Well, Genesis is probably my favorite book of the Bible, Genesis and

00:47:15.940 Ephesians. I love Genesis because I love being introduced to the character and the nature of God

00:47:21.700 through the stories that we read in Genesis. They are genuinely entertaining. Like I have laughed reading

00:47:27.880 Genesis. You probably can't say that about much of the Bible. And they're fascinating. They tell us so

00:47:33.360 much about who God is, what he cares about. Wow. I'm just going to leave that in there. I'm not even

00:47:40.220 going to edit it out. What he cares about and how he loves us. I love, in particular, Genesis 32,

00:47:47.300 when Jacob wrestles with God and God renames him Israel. Before God makes Jacob Israel the namesake of

00:47:55.880 his chosen people, God wrestles with him and breaks his hips so that Jacob or Israel walked with a limp

00:48:01.400 for the rest of his life. Jacob calls the place pineal or pineal, meaning face of God, because he knew

00:48:08.000 he had seen God face to face yet survived. And I think that this wrestling between God and Jacob is a

00:48:15.040 really interesting metaphor for God's relationship with Israel, his willingness to be up close and personal,

00:48:19.980 even intimate, his willingness to break them, wrestle with them in order to build them into the people that

00:48:25.240 he wanted them to be. And I think that's often true of the nature of God's relationship with us,

00:48:29.920 his personal engaging with us, his breaking of us in order to restore us into something better,

00:48:35.920 something of his design, even renaming us in the way that he did Jacob. And ultimately,

00:48:41.420 everything in the Bible is a reflection of Christ. And so I think also the wrestling story is an

00:48:46.880 interesting story of the brokenness that often leads to redemption. Another question,

00:48:53.580 how do churches like Joel Osteen's keep the numbers coming in? So for those of you who don't know,

00:49:01.260 Joel Osteen is a false teacher who preaches something called the prosperity gospel,

00:49:06.300 which I have made many videos about at CRTV.com slash Allie. These are also known as word of faith

00:49:13.760 preachers, which means that they teach that if you speak something or believe something or pray

00:49:18.640 something hard enough, uh, and faithfully enough, it will happen. That God wants you to have the

00:49:27.380 promotion that God wants you to be happy and fulfilled in this life. Sorry, fam. That's not the

00:49:34.000 gospel. God wants you to be holy and happy in him. When he says, I will give you the desires of your

00:49:40.360 heart. And Psalm 37, when he says in John 14, you may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.

00:49:47.280 He is talking about things and only things that align with his will, which may or may not be a

00:49:54.180 promotion, material success or healing from sickness. Psalm 37, four, let's look at these

00:49:59.800 verses in context. Psalm 37, four says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires

00:50:05.140 of your heart. That does not mean he will give you what you want, but when you are delighted in the

00:50:11.800 Lord, the desires of your heart will align with his. And when your will aligns with his, then yes,

00:50:16.320 he will carry it out because it is his will. And then the context of John 14, 14 is whatever you

00:50:22.520 ask in my name, this I will do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything

00:50:27.800 in my name, I will do it. Asking something in Jesus's name doesn't just mean saying his name.

00:50:33.620 It means asking something consistent with his will and his character to his glory, not ours.

00:50:38.880 God does not promise to make us healthy and wealthy. He doesn't. I mean, we probably all know

00:50:44.280 Christians, wonderful Christians, Christ followers who love God, who have died from cancer or who have

00:50:50.440 had something horrible happen in their lives. I mean, think about Job, for example. And Jesus tells us

00:50:55.600 this in John 16, 33, in this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the

00:51:00.760 world. That's a promise. That's a guarantee that our hope shouldn't be in this world, but in Jesus

00:51:05.640 who has overcome the world. Luke 9, 23, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up

00:51:12.160 his cross daily and follow me. That doesn't sound too much like an easy life. This doesn't mean though

00:51:19.720 that God wants us to be melancholy or to look for ways to make our life hard. He's just saying that if

00:51:26.300 you follow him, you're not getting a guarantee of a life of ease, but of ultimate fulfillment in Christ

00:51:32.040 and eternal life, which means far more than any earthly gain to believe that God will or has to answer

00:51:38.980 all of our prayers for comfort and wealth is to reduce God to a genie. And as Galatians 6, 7 says, do not

00:51:46.560 be deceived. God will not be mocked. Yikes. The Bible has a lot to say about false teachers and why

00:51:56.300 and why people follow them. Here are a couple examples of that. Galatians 1, 8. I am astonished

00:52:03.380 that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a

00:52:07.660 different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort

00:52:12.980 the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary

00:52:18.540 to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. Second Timothy 4, 3 through 5 says, for the time

00:52:25.240 is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will

00:52:30.120 accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the

00:52:35.780 truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an

00:52:42.820 evangelist fulfill your ministry. Second Peter 2, 1 through 3. But false prophets also arose among the

00:52:50.340 people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,

00:52:57.060 even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will

00:53:03.860 follow their sensuality. And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed,

00:53:10.040 they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle,

00:53:15.560 and their destruction is not asleep. Sheesh. So I think the answer is that a lot of people have

00:53:23.740 itching ears. I think a lot of people are looking for comfort and ease. Don't get me wrong, God is our

00:53:31.580 comforter and our strength. But he's not there to make us feel better about ourselves. Joel Osteen is a

00:53:38.560 great communicator. His messages are easy to listen to. I've listened to many of them. And he's probably

00:53:43.740 a great motivational speaker. And maybe some of the things that he says, probably a lot of the things

00:53:48.060 that he says are true. But they're not the whole truth. Not for a preacher of the gospel. From what

00:53:54.340 I've heard, he doesn't preach the true gospel. And unfortunately, he is not the only one. He's far

00:54:00.600 from the only one. Okay, guys, longest podcast ever yet again. It's getting like a little bit

00:54:05.760 longer every week. I know I had a lot more questions that you guys sent me, but that's all

00:54:10.060 I have time for for today. If you like this podcast, please leave me a good review. If you have feedback,

00:54:16.100 constructive criticism, please email me at Allie at the conservative millennial blog.com.

00:54:20.900 If you want more of my content, like my weekly videos that I produce, go to CRTV.com slash Allie.

00:54:26.240 You can also find them on my Facebook page, the conservative millennial. Follow me on Instagram,

00:54:31.360 Allie B. Stuckey and Twitter, conserve millenn if you want to. Okay, bye. Have a great week.

Ep 8 ｜＂Clumps of Cells＂ to ＂Dying with Dignity：＂ The Lunacy of the Left on Life

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