Ep 847 | Are Aliens Just Demons?
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 5 minutes
Words per Minute
171.97423
Summary
A former intelligence official testified last week in Congress that they have found UFOs and non-human remains with these UFOs. What? Is this true? Does it matter? Does anyone care? Is it biblically possible for there to be aliens? We ll get into all of that. Also, I ll give you a little personal update about how things are going, how the pregnancy is going, and what I m looking forward to in the coming weeks.
Transcript
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A former intelligence official testified last week in Congress that they have found UFOs and
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non-human remains with these UFOs. What? Is this true? Does it matter? Does anyone care?
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Is it biblically possible for there to be aliens? We'll get into all of that. Also,
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I'll give you a little personal update how things are going, how the pregnancy is gone,
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what I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks. And then to round us out, we are going to talk a
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little bit more about this Florida curriculum that people are so up in arms about on the right and the
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left. And again, to show you what is true and to give you the facts about it, because it's so
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important to get this right. All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends at
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Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com. Use code Allie at checkout. That's goodranchers.com, code Allie.
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, that you're
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ready for a great week. It is going to be, it's going to feel like, I think like 1.12 where I am
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this week. I'm pretty sure that it's actually physically going to get up to like 1.10 at some
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point this week. I'm a big whiner in the wintertime, big time whiner. And in the fall, as soon as it gets
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like a little bit chilly, I'm like, nope, I want to go outside and sweat. I want it to feel like a
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suffocating blanket of heat as soon as I step out my door. And then as soon as it happens to me,
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as soon as it happens to me every year, I'm like, why? Why? Why do I tolerate this? Why don't I live
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in, I don't know, some kind of beautiful mountain in Utah? And so, but I really, I really try not to
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complain about the weather because I heard Elizabeth Elliott say like a few years ago,
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shouldn't say it a few years ago, but I heard her say it a few years ago, that like complaining about
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the weather is basically grumbling at God because who else is in charge of the weather except for him?
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So I really try not to do that. All I will say is that I don't think I, as a human being and built
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for these kinds of extremes. I think that I am built for very mild 75 weather and also being as
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pregnant as I am right now, I have just like an incubator in me at all times. I am like perpetually
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warm. So anyway, for all of you in these Southern states, in the desert states that are suffering as
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I am under such suppressive heat, I just wanted to express some empathy with you that I, I'm right
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there with you. And I know we think we're like, it's going to break. It's going to break at some
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point. You know what? Let's just, just acknowledge and just accept the fact, just be content with the
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fact that we have about three, three, four more months of this. You think it's going to break in
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September. It's not going to break in September. You think it's going to break in October. It's
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probably not going to break in October. It's probably going to be Thanksgiving before it gets
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down into the seventies. So just accept that. And I'm just going to learn how to be grateful in all
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circumstances, content in all circumstances. So you guys asked me for a personal update. That's part of
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my personal update. I'm sweating all of the time. Um, but you guys, when I asked on Instagram, what
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do you want me to talk about? A lot of people said aliens. And so we're going to talk about aliens,
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but you also asked me to just give a personal update because as you well know, I am 36 weeks
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pregnant. Um, or maybe you didn't know how far along I was, but most of you know that I am
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pregnant with our third child. We're so excited. We are keeping the gender a surprise. We don't know.
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We found out with our first two, um, don't know with this one, which has been really,
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really fun. So for my personal update, I don't really have that much to, uh, to say, except for
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thank the Lord. It's been a healthy pregnancy. All three of my pregnancies have been, um, thus far,
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thank God, very uneventful pregnancies. I've never, um, had any, any, you know, any kind of incident
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or any scares or anything like that. And I don't take that for granted. I am so incredibly grateful.
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I've actually felt better in a lot of ways in this pregnancy than I have in previous pregnancies.
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I did have a coffee aversion this pregnancy and my first trimester, actually for like the first half
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of my pregnancy that I did not have my last two pregnancies. And I know some people, they don't
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drink coffee at all. You don't have to message me about that, about like being careful about your
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caffeine intake and things like that. I am, I don't drink very much caffeine. I probably drink
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like half a cup to, I don't know, two thirds of a cup of coffee a day. And that's my caffeine intake.
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And so you don't have to worry about that, but I could not drink black coffee at all. I could only
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drink because you know, when you have morning sickness, if you don't have caffeine that can
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make your nausea worse. And so I still tried to get some form of caffeine, but like the only kind
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coffee that I liked was ice with heavy cream with a little vanilla in there, which I'm not saying is
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good for you, but just to give me something to help me feel like a functioning human. Actually,
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if you go back and you look at some of the episodes that I did in February, uh, that like the episodes
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with Ginger Volo, I had one episode with Justin Haskins where internally I thought that I was going
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to die. I was so nauseous, felt so tired. My like head hurt so much. And I really didn't have those
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symptoms in my first two. So that part was definitely harder, but the aches and pains in
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this pregnancy and the last half of this pregnancy have not been as difficult. So I'm praising God for
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that. First half was harder. Second half has been easier. I don't know if that's an indication of the
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gender one way or another, but, um, yeah, so it has been a little bit different than my first two
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and I have also, I've worked out, I've taken, well, I've walked, but also I've done my, um, like my,
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my bar classes that I take during this pregnancy. And I really didn't work out at all in my first two
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pregnancies, maybe a little bit here and there, but not consistently. Um, I don't work out every day,
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but I work out two to three times a week while pregnant. Um, and then I walk as well. And so
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maybe that's helped with my aches and pains. I also see a chiropractor and I see a physical
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therapist. And so that stuff has helped. I've learned every pregnancy that I need. I think that
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women in general, but you just need more support when you're pregnant than you think. And there are
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so many things that you can do exercises. You can do people you can go to, to help mitigate some of
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the discomfort. Not everyone can, you know, go to a chiropractor and physical therapist,
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but if you can, or there are a lot of things that you can do online, a lot of resources online
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that you can, that you can do spinning babies is one of them to show you how to stretch the
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different movements that you can do to make sure that your body is nice and loose. And I do think
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that the exercise aspect that that has really helped. So I encourage you, if you are wanting to
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get pregnant, if you are pregnant, um, to exercise in some form, I don't think that now is the time to
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start CrossFit if you were not doing that before, but something low impact. I do. I've also heard that
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this whole idea that you shouldn't start working out while pregnant, if you weren't working out before
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that, that's really a myth that of course you can start being healthy and you can start exercising
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again, probably not like the most intense form of exercise ever, but low impact stuff that is getting
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your body moving and getting your heart rate up. As long as you can tolerate it, especially after
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that first trimester, I'm just speaking from my own personal experience. It's probably good. It's
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helped me feel a lot more energized, like both pregnancies. Y'all asked for the pregnancy update
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for the personal update. So if it seems like I'm rambling, it's because I am, but this is what a
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personal update is like for me in my head. Um, like first two pregnancies, I needed like the big
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pregnancy pillow at night. It's, you know, like the giant C pillow that is like the whole body pillow
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just to keep myself comfortable, probably starting at like 30 weeks. My hips and back hurt so much.
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I was in so much pain, like so early on, it felt like both pregnancies that sleeping was just terrible.
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Like my hips would hurt so much. They get so tired. I would flip over. But as you know,
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once your belly gets big, it's so hard to flip over at night. It's like an entire event.
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And, but this time I haven't had that at all. Thankfully, I still do have some aches and pains
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that I'm working through. I have some like tight muscles that are like a little painful, but for the
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most part, I think the exercise and all the other stuff that I've been doing has really helped.
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I've also been taking ladies, you should be taking a magnesium supplement while you're pregnant in
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addition to all the other stuff too. So anyway, I'm getting super close. Um, I'm 36 weeks. Both my
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previous pregnancies went long or like what people would call long. I was induced with my first, not
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something that I would do again. It did not go well. My body was not ready at all. There was no medical
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reason for me to induce besides just being 40 weeks pregnant. Baby was fine. I was fine, but I did not
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know better. I did not know better. And so I got induced and when you're like zero, zero, and if you
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don't know what that means, I don't need to get into the anatomical like specifics of that. But when
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you're zero, zero and your baby is high and there's no medical reason to be induced personally, just
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not from a doctor's perspective personally, like that's not something I would recommend to one of my
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friends. If I could go back and change that, I would, but that was like 40 weeks, six days. She
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probably would have gone to like 42 weeks or so. And then my second one, I did have, you know,
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spontaneous labor and that was 41 and one. So babies like to cook. My womb is very hospitable. And so I
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fully anticipate going to past 40 weeks, which is difficult. It's is if any of you have been pregnant at 40
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weeks pregnant every day after that is really tough, not just because you're physically uncomfortable,
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but just the mental stamina that you have to have, not knowing if you're going to have your baby in
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two weeks or two hours. It's just tough. And so I'm, but I am anticipating that that's just what I
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have in my head. And then if I go into labor sooner, then that's great. But I'm also trying not to,
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speaking of contentment with the weather, also be content with the length of pregnancy because I
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don't take for granted that I have, if this is true, that I will have gone to and through all
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due dates for my children. And I know that not everyone gets to do that. People who have suffered
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from loss, people who have gone through very difficult preterm labors and had NICU stays. I know
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that there are women who are in the hospital as we speak right now at 30 weeks pregnant or sooner than
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that. Like, and they would give anything to not be in labor at the moment. They would give anything
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to give birth at the due date rather than being in the hospital now and going through the complications
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of having an early delivery and all of that. So I don't want to complain about going to 40 weeks or
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41 weeks because not everyone gets to do that. And so I'm trying to have that like grateful
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mentality that, wow, Lord, thank you so much for allowing me to have this much time with babies in
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the womb. Now I say that at 36 weeks, you can ask me again at 41 weeks if I am that cheery and that
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grateful about it. But I'm taking off maternity leave starting 38 weeks. So a couple of weeks. And as
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I've said before, we have many, many episodes that we have been saving up for you that we have been
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working on for the past several months. And they are all going to come out while I'm on maternity
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leave. We have so many fascinating conversations. It's been really hard for me to keep those not
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published, unpublished and not tell you about them because so many of them I know are going to be
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not just good, hopefully, but also controversial in some ways. Some of the conversations that we've had
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are on very controversial topics. And you're also going to be really encouraged by a lot of them,
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I think, really educated on things that I hadn't thought about, maybe you hadn't thought about
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before on a lot of them. And then we've got some fun Q&A, some serious, some lighthearted,
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all that good stuff. And so for 12 weeks, you will be getting new content. And so as much as you can
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listen to those, watch those, share those, that helps the show since we won't be talking about all of
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the relevant new stuff. But I'm super excited to have that break, have that three-month break.
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It's going to be really great. I'm in the midst of nesting, which is a terrible thing to do when
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you're 36 weeks because my house is chaos right now. Instead of actually organizing, I'm into like
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taking everything out stage before I figure out where it's all going to go, which is the most chaotic
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stage to be in. Again, not a great stage to engage in when you have two young children and you're 36
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weeks pregnant. But alas, it's just, it's some kind of biological inclination that we all have.
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And I haven't satiated it at all the entire pregnancy. And now I'm into it and it's just chaos.
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So we're going through a transition period in a lot of different ways in our family, all good stuff,
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but kind of overwhelming. And a lot of you guys asked me like, how can we pray for you? Which is so
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sweet. Thank you so much to those of you who message me and ask me, how are you doing? How can
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I pray for you? I've just been asking friends to pray for peace and order, not just in our lives,
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because there's going to be a level of chaos going from two children to three children and all of that,
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everything that that entails. But peace and order in our hearts, in our minds, in how we act and how
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we speak to each other, you know, in times of high stress, you and your spouse should remember that
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you're on the same team, not adversaries. And so just prayers for that, for peace and for order in
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our lives, obviously for a safe and a smooth birth and all of that. And so anyway, thank you guys so
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much. That's my personal update. I'm sure that there's a lot more that I could share about life and
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all that good stuff. But honestly, this pregnancy has gone by so quickly. It's gone by so quickly.
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And being the third pregnancy, I'm not asking for, like, I'm not having some big baby shower or
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anything like that. People at this point, I'm like, really, the only thing that you need is diapers.
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And that's just a recommendation I'll give to you. New moms, you don't really need everything that
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you think that you need before the baby comes. Do not stress yourself out. If you don't have the
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nursery ready, if you don't have all the matching clothes, if the drawers aren't all organized by the time
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the baby comes, I understand that feels good. That's totally great if you got that. If you don't,
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that's okay too. Because all that baby needs for the first few weeks is you, get you some gray and
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white onesies, some cheap stuff from Walmart, because you're probably going to throw them away
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anyway because they're going to get stained. Diapers, wipes, you're good to go, girl. You are good to go.
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I'll give you more updates if you guys want it. If you have any specific questions or maybe I know a lot
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of you guys have asked tips for new moms, tips for pregnancy, things like that. I'm feeling almost
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too pro level on pregnancy since this is number three. Now, I know those of you who have 10 kids
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are laughing at me, but I feel like I almost know what I'm doing now. So I'll try to give you some
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tips at some point if that's something that you guys are interested in. Okay. So if you've seen
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the discourse on Twitter, people are talking about aliens and UFOs. So now I guess we don't call them
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UFOs. We call them UAPs. The language is always changing. Kind of like how it went from Indian
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to Native American to indigenous people. I'm sure it's going to change again at some point. We're
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all trying to keep up with the language changes. It's not UFO anymore. We've heard from extraterrestrials
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that that is extremely offensive. And so we have changed this UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
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Um, it's an issue of, they say, bipartisan concern, according to NBC, raise national security
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questions. Some also accused the federal government of endeavoring to conceal key UFO related information
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from the public, though they did not provide evidence to support those allegations. So right
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now their congressional hearings or there were congressional hearings last week, um, asking members of
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the intelligence community, U.S. intelligence community, what they know about these UFOs or UAPs,
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a David Grush, who is a former U.S. intelligence official, told the panel that he is absolutely
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certain that the federal government is in possession of UAPs. So this would be like flying objects. We do not
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know where they come from. The federal government, I guess he says, has found these and is in possession
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of them. He led Defense Department efforts to analyze reported UAP sightings and was informed of a
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multi-decade Pentagon program that endeavored to collect and reconstruct crashed UAPs. Now that I
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don't necessarily have a hard time believing. I think that there's a lot that our government does that we
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do not know, that we will never know, that there could be flying objects or flying things that
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we're not completely sure what they are. Sure. I can see that being a possibility.
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Grush, who underscored that he is not personally, he has not personally spotted a UAP, told the panel
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that he knows of multiple colleagues who are injured by UAPs. He also said he has interviewed
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individuals who have recovered non-human biologics from crashed UAPs. So that's the headliner right
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there. Okay. We've got video of him in this congressional hearing saying that they have
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found non-human remains at these crash sites. If you believe we have crashed craft stated earlier,
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do we have the bodies of the pilots who piloted this craft? As I've stated publicly already in my
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News Nation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries. Yeah.
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Were they, I guess, human or non-human biologics? Non-human, and that was the assessment of people
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with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.
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And was this documentary evidence, this video, photos, eyewitness? Like, how would that be determined?
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The specific documentation I would have to talk to you in a skiff about.
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Oh, okay. Non-human remains. He can't fully talk about it. He doesn't, can't say what the
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documentation is. It is nice to see Nancy Mace showing up to the job and talking about what's
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actually on the table rather than what happened with her fiance that morning in bed, like she did
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at the prayer breakfast last week, as I talked about on Instagram. Anyway, so non-human remains.
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He has not seen these, I guess, but there's some maybe documentation that he won't even talk about.
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He was asked by Representative Eric Burleson, a Republican from Missouri, to substantiate the
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crashed UAP's claim. The former intelligence official said he could not divulge specific
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details, once again, claiming the information was too sensitive to share with the public.
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He did describe the nature of what he saw. I have to be very careful here, but what I personally
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witnessed, myself and my wife, was very disturbing. So non-human remains of the pilots of these UAPs,
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he says, were discovered. Then there was Ryan Graves at this congressional hearing. He's a former
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Navy pilot. He told the panel that military pilots do not feel adequately briefed on UAPs,
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which he said leaves them unprepared to respond to UAP encounters. All right, I could see that.
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He claimed that commercial airline pilots have spotted UAPs too.
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It just seems like if it were this mainstream that we would hear about it more. I'm not sure.
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David Fravor, a former Navy commander, said he and three fellow military pilots spotted a white
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tic-tac-shaped object in 2004. Okay, so tic-tac-shaped object. I'm guessing not tic-tac-sized object,
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because that would have probably just been a tic-tac. In 2004, hovering below their jets in
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just above the Pacific Ocean. As he descended to inspect the sighting, he claimed the unidentified
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aircraft, which he said bore no visible rotors, wings or exhaust, began to ascend and approach his
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fighter jet. He claimed that the UAP then vanished, only to reappear a few seconds later, but this time
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it was spotted 60 miles away. Fravor told the committee that the technology he and his team
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encountered defies logical explanation. The technology that we face is far superior to
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anything that we had Fravor claimed, and there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing. Well, how do
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we know, I guess, I mean, how do we know that there's nothing that we can do about it? It's very
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strange. This is a very strange phenomenon. I'm not saying that I don't believe these people. I do
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think that they are strange anecdotes. Why haven't we heard about this more? I mean, and if it's so
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mainstream, if like commercial pilots and military members, former intelligence officers have all
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seen this, why is it seen as this grand conspiracy theory? Why isn't it just something that's accepted
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as fact? And why isn't there more documentation of it? That would be my question. According to the
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Daily Wire, Susan Gao, not sure how to pronounce her last name, spokesperson for the Department of
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Defense, insisted that its all-domain anomaly resolution office, which has been tasked with
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investigating UFOs, has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims
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that any programs regarding the possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials
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have existed in the past or exist currently. Okay, so that really didn't have to do necessarily
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with the aliens, except for the comment by the guy that there were non-human remains found
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with these UAPs. Now, non-human, that could mean a lot of things, I guess. That could mean animal.
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I mean, maybe not a lot of things. I guess that's the only thing that it could mean,
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but it doesn't necessarily mean that it was some sort of alien. So I believe that there could be
00:23:14.860
unidentified flying objects. I think that they're from other countries and that there's some kind of
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spying devices. I wouldn't be surprised at all if China, Russia has this kind of capability and has
00:23:26.780
for a long time. Now, it would be really embarrassing if we weren't able to understand that technology
00:23:32.560
and match that technology ourselves, but that would be, I think, the logical explanation. Unless there
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are people in the United States flying very sophisticated drones that somehow the U.S. intelligence
00:23:43.900
community doesn't know about. The question is, like, does this really matter? Does the existence
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of these UFOs, UAPs, does the existence even of aliens, extraterrestrial life, like, do people
00:23:55.760
really care about that? Not really. According to NBC, people don't really seem to care. The news that
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the government may be in possession of non-human biological matter and UFOs was met with surprising
00:24:11.840
apathy online. Surprising to whom? Who is that surprising to? So they give some examples of this,
00:24:20.540
some tweets saying, basically, I don't care. I don't know if any of these people are notable,
00:24:26.500
but they're just saying, look, I don't care. This is just a distraction. People posting memes of this
00:24:33.560
kind of stuff. It's just not really that big of a deal. And look, I tend to agree with that.
00:24:39.200
My question is, what am I supposed to do with this information? If there were aliens,
00:24:45.400
which I'll get into whether or not I even think that's a theological possibility,
00:24:50.200
if there are UAPs, what do I need to know about that? I don't need to know anything.
00:24:57.380
They're not going to call on me to give them intelligence on this or tell them what to do.
00:25:02.660
There are so many threats to our lives every day. Turbulence now is normal. Tumult is normal.
00:25:12.420
Unpredictability is now very predictable. We already have the threat of nuclear war. We're
00:25:18.720
already being run by a cakeistocracy. We already have a million things to deal with from just the
00:25:26.660
the stresses of our everyday lives, to rising crime, to war, to corruption, all this stuff.
00:25:35.540
They're already plaguing our lives and disturbing our peace. This is just one more thing. It's just
00:25:42.140
one more thing that could kill us, that could disturb us, that could conquer us. I just don't know what
00:25:49.960
I'm supposed to do with that information. Am I supposed to be more worried than I was before
00:25:55.700
because I'm already not very happy about the state of the world? Would it be the worst thing
00:26:01.740
if aliens came down and said, honestly, I didn't know that this could be messed up as badly as it is,
00:26:09.960
and I think we're just going to have to take over. That's not the worst outcome,
00:26:14.420
except for I don't believe in aliens. I'll get to that in a second.
00:26:19.000
And other people online seem to agree. I saw that Michael Knowles said,
00:26:25.260
how come China and Russia aren't holding urgent hearings on UFOs? And I thought that was an
00:26:29.980
interesting question. And so I was looking into it and I saw this tweet that has a lot of engagement
00:26:36.200
from Dr. Simon Goddick. I don't know who that is. He said, look at this map showing where UFOs have
00:26:42.540
been spotted all over the world. Why is the US lighting up like a Christmas tree? So basically what this
00:26:48.040
map shows and we can put it up on YouTube is that it's only the US and like England that has ever
00:26:54.720
spotted a UFO. I mean, as far as we know, maybe it's because the documentation, the reporting
00:26:59.720
mechanisms aren't as good in these other countries. But even looking at like Australia
00:27:05.660
and some of these other like European countries, like it's most people in the world don't say that
00:27:13.620
they have ever seen a UFO. I think it's a mostly American phenomenon because of Hollywood,
00:27:20.280
because of folklore, because of our distrusting government, because our government is so freaking
00:27:24.680
weird. Like I think that this is mostly an American thing. If this were really a phenomenon
00:27:30.040
everywhere, then I think that we would probably see more reports than we currently do. But it's always
00:27:36.020
like, no, we definitely saw Bigfoot outside of Branson. Like it's always something like that
00:27:42.140
with the conspiracy theories. Now, again, I'm not saying that it's impossible for there to be
00:27:46.900
UAPs. But this whole idea of extraterrestrial life, I think we're just like obsessed with that
00:27:53.240
possibility here. I think I personally think it's silly. I don't believe in the whole non-human
00:27:59.820
remain story. I simply don't. And again, I don't even think whether someone has a worldview or not,
00:28:08.420
or whether or not someone knows their worldview and what they think about human beings and other
00:28:12.900
creatures. I just don't think that most people care about aliens. I don't think that most people
00:28:17.040
think it's that big a video. So let me get into like, is it possible for aliens to be real from a
00:28:22.920
biblical perspective? Okay, so is it possible for there to be aliens? Well, it depends on what you
00:28:45.440
mean by aliens. Like, what do you mean? What do you mean by that? Is it just extraterrestrial life?
00:28:53.780
Well, of course, we believe in angels and demons. But do you believe in some like, non-human,
00:28:59.400
non-animal form somewhere out there that could live on another planet that has the ability to
00:29:07.640
rationalize that has a moral compass? If that's what you mean by alien, then the answer is no,
00:29:14.380
I don't believe in aliens because I don't see any room in scripture for some kind of creature
00:29:22.680
that is not described in the first couple chapters of Genesis that is made in the image of God,
00:29:29.720
but is not human. Because if you have the capacity to rationalize in reason and to have a moral will,
00:29:38.040
to have some kind of moral compass that can distinguish between right and wrong, that is
00:29:42.680
that is us being made in the image of God. And yet you are somehow not human. I do not see a
00:29:50.400
biblical category for that. I also just think it's extremely unlikely that in all of these many
00:29:57.240
years, I mean, most of the people who believe in aliens also believe that the earth has been around
00:30:01.440
for billions and billions of years. I have a hard time believing there hasn't been some more concrete
00:30:07.340
documentation of interactions between those creatures and us. And as much as we have explored
00:30:13.720
space, we haven't interacted with those beings, those creatures, we haven't seen more about them,
00:30:21.360
that they're just isolated to these very obscure and coincidentally non-documented cases of
00:30:27.480
interactions. I just find it very unlikely. But really, I think that if you just go to the creation
00:30:34.420
account and you think about the arc of redemption that God has laid out for us from Genesis to
00:30:42.320
Revelation and that still is ongoing today, you would have to fit these non-human but apparently
00:30:49.520
rational and civilization-building beings into that plan of redemption. And I just don't think we see
00:30:56.320
that. I think we see that man and man alone is made in God's image, that there is a distinction
00:31:02.500
between human beings and between animals and that there isn't some kind of in-between category.
00:31:08.980
Now, demons exist, angels exist. Obviously, throughout the Bible, there is documented interaction
00:31:15.060
between those groups of beings. And so is it possible that interactions that people have had have been
00:31:23.060
like an interaction with some kind of demon, an interaction with some kind of angel? Possibly.
00:31:29.600
I'm not sure about that or if they're just entirely made up. Here's what GotQuestions says. I love
00:31:37.580
GotQuestions.org. I think that they do a really good and thorough biblical job of answering these
00:31:42.400
kind of questions. And so they basically say that same thing. And so they talk about the creation
00:31:51.640
account, but then they also talk about the curse and redemption. And it says this,
00:31:56.220
If all of creation now suffers under the curse, any life apart from the earth would also suffer.
00:32:01.760
If, for the sake of argument, moral beings do exist on other planets, then they also suffer. And if not
00:32:07.160
now, then someday they will surely suffer when everything passes away with a great noise and
00:32:11.320
elements melt with fervent heat. If they had never sinned, then God would be unjust in punishing them.
00:32:16.400
But if they had sinned, then Christ could only die once. Then they are left in their sin, which would
00:32:25.920
also be contrary to the character of God. This leaves us with an unsolvable paradox, unless,
00:32:31.520
of course, there are no moral beings outside of the earth. And then what about non-moral or
00:32:39.820
non-sentient life forms on other planets? Could algae or even dogs and cats be present on an unknown
00:32:45.000
planet? Presumably so. Scientifically, I'm not sure about cats and dogs and other planets. Theologically,
00:32:51.680
probably so, because Jesus didn't die for the souls of animals, because animals don't have souls.
00:32:58.160
That's right. Animals, your pets, don't go to heaven or hell. That's another story.
00:33:04.240
In conclusion, the Bible gives us no reason to believe that there is life elsewhere in the
00:33:07.980
universe. In fact, the Bible gives us several key reasons why there cannot be. Yes, there are many
00:33:12.220
strange and unexplainable things that take place. There is no reason, though, to attribute these
00:33:15.620
phenomena to aliens. If there is a discernible cause to these supposed events, it is likely to be
00:33:20.760
spiritual and, more specifically, demonic in origin. And yes, I would agree with that, that it's more
00:33:28.840
likely to be demonic than angelic in origin. Yeah. So, anyway. So, that's basically what I think
00:33:38.720
about it. I don't think that aliens, like, gray people, green people are real. Like, in the age of
00:33:44.460
the iPhone, if interactions really happened, then someone would take a TikTok of it. Like, it wouldn't
00:33:52.440
be that it's so mysterious and so, you know, and so obscure and so hidden at this point. I just don't
00:34:02.580
believe that. And obviously, I just don't believe that they're real. I don't think that there's a
00:34:06.880
biblical category for them, or a scientific category, but I don't think there's a biblical
00:34:10.960
category for any kind of sentient, moral, reasoning, rational being that is not human.
00:34:18.000
And that's how I feel about a lot of these conspiracy theories, by the way, that deal with
00:34:21.720
some kind of non-human, non-animal creature. Okay, you're going to have to come up with another
00:34:26.480
category, and I need to know how that fits into the redemption arc. Okay, Brie, what do you think
00:34:32.480
about, what do you think about aliens? Do you think that they are legit? You know, here's
00:34:39.180
the thing. I so wish that I did, because I feel like it would be, I feel like the conspiracies
00:34:46.520
are so much fun, but I just genuinely don't. I don't think that they're real. Would you care
00:34:52.360
if someone like, yeah, if someone showed you a picture and was like, we found out that they
00:34:58.600
do live on Mars? Theological qualms aside. Probably, I wouldn't care unless they were
00:35:05.920
trying to, like, unless they were trying to come here, I guess, or trying to, I don't,
00:35:10.560
yeah, yeah, I just, I don't know. I also, I really think a lot of these, like, encounters
00:35:16.780
that people have are demonic and spiritual in nature, and there's even something called
00:35:23.460
the alien abduction theory, where in the end times, like, the explanation for why people,
00:35:30.600
like, disappear or why terrible things are happening or the Antichrist himself is, like,
00:35:38.360
in the form of an alien, and that's what they tell us. Interesting. So, I don't know the specifics
00:35:43.580
of that, but I thought that was interesting. That is interesting. Like, the rapture or just?
00:35:49.400
I think that's one theory. Another is that, like, there are extraterrestrial beings. That's what
00:35:57.480
they're going to be called, but they're really, like, just spiritual beings. Yeah. That, you know,
00:36:01.940
come and wreak havoc here. So. Yeah. I'm just, like, not really interested. I think, I'm not really
00:36:08.600
interested in, in the conversation, just because I know for a fact that they're not real, but also,
00:36:15.980
I don't know. If, I don't know. Again, like, what do I, what am I supposed to do? What does it mean
00:36:21.980
to me? Yeah. What, what am I supposed to do with that information? I do agree with that. I do agree
00:36:25.940
with that. And you kind of just, there's so many questions before I am made to care, you know? Yeah.
00:36:32.060
Are they hostile? Do they want to kill me? Or does it matter? Yeah. I mean, there are already,
00:36:38.180
like, I'm much more scared of robots. Yeah. Which are real. Yeah. And powerful. I agree. The videos
00:36:44.240
that I've seen. And so, like, and the fact, okay, so here's the thing, is that in order to believe
00:36:52.220
in aliens and that the aliens are responsible for the UAPs and UFOs, you do have to believe that
00:36:58.260
they're rational creatures because they've created this insane technology that is far beyond anything
00:37:03.820
that we've created. And apparently, their, like, intellect, their ability, because animals can't
00:37:10.500
create. They can't create like that. There's no creature that can create. You have to be a rational,
00:37:15.300
sentient being in order to create something like a flying saucer or whatever it is. And so, again,
00:37:21.540
for the Christian, you have to ask, okay, well, what category of creature is that then? If it's
00:37:25.820
rational, it's sentient, it can create. If it's created that, it's probably created civilization
00:37:30.600
and some kind of hierarchy and order and all of that. Where does that fall in to the fall? Where
00:37:37.800
does that fall into redemption? And I don't think we see even at all the biblical possibility that
00:37:42.720
there is like a parallel universe with a parallel savior and all that. Then you're just getting into
00:37:48.480
craziness. Right. And also, just the practicality of it. You're so right. Why has no one just filmed
00:37:55.700
something on an iPhone? Yeah. There's a family that saw aliens in their backyard, non-humans in their
00:38:02.880
backyard in a UFO. And they've just gone silent. No one took a video. No one took a photo. They just
00:38:09.240
said it happened. And now they've just like, kind of, they're not talking about it anymore. Yeah.
00:38:14.260
You know, sometimes I see aircrafts in the sky that I'm like, that looks weird. Yeah. You know?
00:38:19.820
Yeah, sure. But then I just don't really think about it anymore. Yeah. So, I don't know,
00:38:24.960
but I remember seeing signs in sixth grade. Did you see signs? Oh, it was so scary. Just the one
00:38:31.100
shot of the alien. Oh, yeah. I know. I wasn't allowed to see it, but I went to one of my friend's
00:38:36.280
house, houses. I'm still friends with her today. It was the house that you would go to if you wanted
00:38:40.680
to watch movies that your parents wouldn't let you watch because her parents would. We all had one.
00:38:45.680
And yeah, we watched signs and I regretted it. And I felt so bad. I told my parents that I watched it
00:38:52.020
because I was having nightmares. I was so scared. Yeah. I know that gave me nightmares too.
00:38:59.080
Yeah. But it's okay, little Allie. They're not real. But that's probably why we have America has
00:39:05.420
all these UFO sightings. Totally. It's because of that. Yeah. Because we have Hollywood.
00:39:11.740
Yeah, for sure. And we're on, everyone's on a spiritual journey. They want something that's
00:39:16.240
like higher than them, but something that's not going to tell them what to do, you know?
00:39:21.140
Well, and people put things in terms that they know. And I think in our media, we talk about this
00:39:27.000
a lot more than certain other, well, I guess non-Western countries do. Yeah. And so I'm like,
00:39:33.580
of course, there are more people who like report UFO sightings because that's what they would call
00:39:38.060
something like weird that they might categorize as that. Whereas in another country, they wouldn't
00:39:45.140
call it that. So. We have a lot of drugs in our country too. Yeah. Also that. We have a lot of
00:39:50.600
drugs. So that can't be discounted. So anyway. Yeah. So I was reading some of your theory though.
00:39:59.540
Some people do believe that the aliens are part of the end times. But again, I would say that that is
00:40:03.480
demonic. It's funny how many people believe in aliens who probably think the idea of God is like
00:40:08.800
so stupid. You know, who those people on Twitter who like respond to Christians being like, oh,
00:40:15.260
you're sky daddy. How could you believe that? Who would never believe in angels and demons,
00:40:20.860
but are like, I don't know. Maybe aliens are, maybe there is a parallel universe. Maybe the world
00:40:28.020
did start from nothing billions of years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And your disbelief.
00:40:33.480
Okay. I cannot let this story go. I can't let it go. So I just, I want to quickly go through it
00:40:50.040
because I don't want this to be a mega long episode, but I just want to not rehash, but put
00:40:56.620
a fine point on this Florida curriculum story. Last week we talked about Kamala Harris and a bunch
00:41:03.400
of other progressives in the media hating on Florida for their new set of social studies
00:41:08.600
standards, which is going to be available to lots of students, but including middle school students.
00:41:14.620
And part of that social studies curriculum includes curriculum about slavery, also the Holocaust,
00:41:20.140
a bunch of different things, but in particular about slavery. And there are all kinds of subjects,
00:41:26.320
all kinds of lessons that the students are required to learn with these new social studies
00:41:31.080
requirements when it comes to slavery, uh, how slavery started its history, not just in America,
00:41:37.460
but throughout the world, how these African slaves were sold by Africans, uh, to America and to
00:41:45.120
Westerners. Um, and how they're all different kinds of people have been enslaved throughout history,
00:41:51.420
the horrors specifically of American slavery and the impact of black Americans on American history,
00:41:58.580
particularly, uh, particularly, uh, Florida history. So all kinds of, I think really important
00:42:04.080
information. And if anyone reads the 216 page document, which is available online, summarizing
00:42:10.160
the social studies curriculum, you will see that this appears to be at least from the summary that we
00:42:16.840
have extremely objective and extremely thorough looking at all different parts of slavery and black
00:42:22.960
history, the reconstruction era, Jim Crow, and doesn't mince words about the injustice that this
00:42:29.200
was the importance of abolition, civil rights and all of that. And so there is one line though,
00:42:34.460
that has become very controversial. One line in this 216 page document, which has been like a lightning
00:42:41.760
rod. It has taken over headlines. Kamala Harris did an emergency speech on it, which we played last week
00:42:48.180
on the episode. And this one line says this examined the various duties and trades performed by slaves,
00:42:54.500
e.g. agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing,
00:42:58.680
transportation. Clarification one on this particular lesson, instruction includes how slaves develop
00:43:04.220
skills, which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit. So what are people saying?
00:43:10.940
Everyone is saying, not everyone, but most people on the left, including Kamala Harris are saying
00:43:16.360
that, oh, this is saying slavery was beneficial. Oh, this is trying to justify slavery. This is
00:43:21.480
talking about how we should be grateful for slavery. This is saying, uh, that actually white supremacy is
00:43:26.980
okay. And people should be thankful for slavery and slavery was actually great. Like that's how people
00:43:32.840
are running with this, with this one single line saying that some slaves developed skills, which
00:43:38.760
benefited them, which they used for their personal benefit. From that, people are deducing that this
00:43:46.160
curriculum, uh, encourages people to think of chattel slavery in a positive light. And as I said last
00:43:52.840
week, that is completely ridiculous. That is not at all what the line said. That is not at all what
00:43:57.800
the line implies. And again, if you look at it in context, there is no way that you could deduce that.
00:44:02.820
I have to say, I would have to conclude, like, if you're trying to say that, if you're trying to say
00:44:07.440
that this line justifies or puts a silver lining in slavery, that either you are a bad actor with bad
00:44:13.600
intentions or you're ignorant, you really just don't know. Now that's not to say you can't have
00:44:20.280
a differing legitimate opinion, but I have not yet heard a differing legitimate opinion that explains
00:44:26.880
why logically this, this line is wrong and bad and justifies slavery. Every single person that opposes
00:44:34.880
this curriculum based on this line has something in common. And that is that they're adding things that
00:44:40.460
are not there. They say things that are simply not in the curriculum. And let me give you some
00:44:46.560
examples for that. So there are several prominent black Republicans who have come out against this
00:44:52.400
curriculum, who have felt the need for some reason to issue a statement about it. Now, let me tell you
00:44:57.860
something that these black Republicans have in common. Um, it's not that they're black Republicans.
00:45:02.700
That's not, I think the most important part is that they've all endorsed Donald Trump. All of these people
00:45:08.200
that I'm about to list who have come out attacking Ron DeSantis specifically for this curriculum,
00:45:13.140
calling it racist have also all endorsed Donald Trump. Make of that what you will. So this is
00:45:20.220
Wesley Hunt, a Republican from Texas. He says, as the direct descendant of a slave, I have a hard time
00:45:24.900
understanding Governor DeSantis' position that transferable skills learned in bondage are somehow
00:45:30.560
a net benefit. That's what he says. Um, and now John James says this. I really liked John James, man.
00:45:41.720
He says, um, Ron DeSantis, nothing about that 400 years of evil was a net benefit. He puts in quotes,
00:45:51.440
net benefit to my ancestors, my brother in Christ. If you find yourself in a deep hole, put the shovel down.
00:45:58.320
You are now so far from the party of Lincoln that your ed board is rewriting history and you're
00:46:03.280
personally attacking conservatives like Tim Scott and Byron Donalds, uh, on the topic of slavery.
00:46:09.040
You've gone too far. Stop. No, you stop. You're lying. You are lying. Are you intentionally lying
00:46:16.160
because you're just a sketchy politician like the rest of them? And you convinced us that you're this
00:46:20.280
strong, honest, a man of integrity, this man of Christ that so many of us conservatives really
00:46:26.620
supported or is it because you don't know either way, this is an unacceptable tweet. You should
00:46:31.180
absolutely delete it. And then you should apologize, but you won't because you endorsed
00:46:35.900
Donald Trump. So it's not a coincidence to me that both John James and Wesley Hunt who have endorsed
00:46:41.260
Donald Trump use the same phrase net benefit, net benefit. Oh, these skills were not, did not make
00:46:48.080
slave, uh, slavery a net benefit. No one said net benefit. No one said it. If DeSantis didn't say it,
00:46:55.560
the curriculum doesn't say it like that would be, that would be one thing. If this curriculum said
00:47:01.000
that slavery was a net benefit because of the skills learned, that would be a problem. That's
00:47:06.960
saying there is more good than bad when it came to slavery because of these skills that were, uh,
00:47:11.620
learned by these slaves. That's not what anyone said, but apparently the talking points went out
00:47:16.960
to some of these black Republicans and who endorsed Donald Trump and they decided to all use the same
00:47:23.760
language or at least two of them decided to use the same language. And John James had the audacity
00:47:29.060
to put net benefit in quotes when that is not a quotation. So where did that come from?
00:47:35.340
What email did you get? What text did you get? What phone call did you get? Who gave that talking
00:47:40.860
point, that phrase net benefit, which just happens to appear in both of these tweets of people who are
00:47:46.800
for, uh, Donald Trump and I guess against Ron DeSantis. There is nothing in this curriculum
00:47:54.760
whatsoever that implies that slavery was a net benefit or a blessing or that there was a silver
00:48:01.360
lining to it. Instead, what it clearly implies, if you read the entire context is that slaves through
00:48:07.860
their own resilience and industriousness used some of the skills that they learned while slaves to then
00:48:14.900
benefit themselves and their families, especially once freed. And I'm going to give you some examples
00:48:19.640
of that in just a second, but it's not just them. Uh, it's also, uh, Byron Donalds, who is another
00:48:26.780
Republican representative. He said, uh, what's crazy to me is I express support for the vast majority of
00:48:32.540
the, oh, he's from Florida, uh, the new African-American history standards and happened to oppose one
00:48:36.920
sentence that seemed to dignify the skills gained by slaves as a result of their enslavement. Anyone who
00:48:42.880
can't accurately interpret what I said is disingenuous and is desperately attempting to
00:48:46.600
score political points. No, I think that you are doing that. Just another reason why I'm proud to
00:48:53.100
have been endorsed or to have endorsed president Donald J. Trump. Okay. Well, you just kind of
00:48:58.420
give it away. Um, you just kind of give it away. And so, because he criticized, uh, oh, he said this,
00:49:07.900
I, I, I, I missed this, what he actually said. The new African-American standards in Florida are good,
00:49:12.800
robust, and accurate. That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong.
00:49:18.080
It needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn't the goal. And I have faith that Florida DOE will correct
00:49:22.660
this, which is not a disrespectful critique. He is totally allowed to have that critique. He can totally
00:49:27.200
put it out there, but again, that's not what the curriculum says. He has a right to have that opinion.
00:49:31.740
That's probably like the most respectable opposition that I've seen to it, but I still think that it is
00:49:36.960
wrong. And then I went back and forth, uh, with someone named Javon Price, who used to work for
00:49:44.680
Byron Donalds and who was saying the same thing. Oh, the personal benefit thing. That's so bad. That's
00:49:49.820
so wrong. We absolutely shouldn't have that. And I, uh, he responded to something that I said,
00:49:56.860
I think about, uh, the first guy that I talked about. And he said, so I guess Byron Donalds,
00:50:03.040
Jack Brewer, Tim Scott, John James, Wesley Hunt, myself, and others are all wrong because
00:50:06.960
you know our history better than we do. Got it. Just to make, just had to make sure
00:50:11.400
conserve Malin. That's me. That's the hill you're willing to die on. And I said, yes,
00:50:16.020
you're all wrong. I don't care the color of your skin. You're wrong to say that the curriculum
00:50:22.260
implies personal benefit. It doesn't, it doesn't. That's not what it says. I know what you guys are
00:50:29.200
doing. You guys are trying to go after Ron DeSantis, which, okay, you can, but don't lie.
00:50:34.540
Don't lie. Don't lie. You know that this is the exact language, by the way, almost the exact
00:50:40.220
language from the, uh, AP advanced placement, African history requirements that says this,
00:50:47.920
in addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked
00:50:52.060
as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free,
00:50:57.280
uh, it actually says American Americans, which is a typo. African Americans use these skills to
00:51:02.860
provide for themselves and others. It's the same thing. It's the same exact thing. And these are
00:51:10.280
the exact standards that, by the way, just a few months ago, back in February, the liberal media,
00:51:15.000
they were all saying, oh my gosh, why won't Florida just adopt the AP standards? Because Florida
00:51:19.580
rejected the AP standards for their own standards, which they've now come up with. And outlets like
00:51:24.560
Politico said, what's really in the AP African American studies class that DeSantis rejected?
00:51:30.740
A close look at the course reveals just the sort of interdisciplinary rigor students need
00:51:37.040
to succeed. So Politico, New York Times, all of these other liberal outlets were so sad that
00:51:44.200
Florida wasn't adopting the AP standards, which say the exact same thing. So yes, I think that the
00:51:51.060
people are either that are opposing this are either being manipulative or they just don't know.
00:51:57.480
Because I haven't heard a good argument about why this line is wrong, why this line is bad.
00:52:05.100
And a lot of people have presented, uh, what Dr. Allen, who Dr. William Allen, he is one of the
00:52:11.060
members who served on Florida's African American history standards work group. A lot of people have
00:52:15.880
quoted him and what he said, because he's done several interviews saying, look, we never said that
00:52:21.820
slavery was good. We never said that it's something that we should be grateful for. Obviously it was
00:52:26.240
abject evil. Obviously it was wickedness. Obviously it was oppression. Obviously it is beyond even our
00:52:32.540
comprehension, how human beings could do that to another human being, how these people were subjugated
00:52:37.920
and stolen and trampled on. Of course, no one ever said that it wasn't awful. Here's, here's what he
00:52:45.680
said. According to Fox News, he said, it was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans. What was
00:52:51.820
said? And anyone who reads this will see this with clarity is the case that Africans proved
00:52:57.080
resourceful, resilient, and adaptive, and were able to develop skills and aptitudes, which served to
00:53:02.420
their benefit, both while enslaved and after enslavement. He says he's black himself. He says,
00:53:07.980
my great grandfather is someone who came from the islands and who was enslaved here and whose own
00:53:12.700
resourcefulness, resilience, and adaptiveness was certainly instrumental in producing for his family,
00:53:17.600
his descendants, the ability to prosper here in this country. Frances Presley Rice, who co-founded a
00:53:24.760
nonprofit organization to raise awareness about the roles African-Americans have played in America's
00:53:29.420
history. She was also a part of this work group. She said this, the intent of this particular benchmark
00:53:33.960
clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefited.
00:53:39.580
This is factual and well-documented. Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of
00:53:44.980
whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves in the community of African descendants.
00:53:50.340
This should be so non-controversial. And in a world where we actually cared about the truth,
00:53:55.100
and we weren't so hypersensitive slash political and partisan, and turned everything into a partisan
00:54:03.620
debate, everything about left versus right, everything about Donald Trump versus DeSantis,
00:54:08.400
we would all be able to see this. That in context, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this line,
00:54:13.600
that it is factually true. And that's the only question. And I've seen people say this.
00:54:18.280
Sure, it might be true, but why should we say it? Because it's true. Because it's true. What are you
00:54:26.200
talking about? Yes, we should look at slaves who developed skills and then despite the oppression
00:54:33.400
that they suffered, the injustice that they suffered, used those skills to benefit themselves and their
00:54:37.840
family? Wow, that is all to the glory of God. As evil as slavery was, how amazing is it that these
00:54:44.420
individuals were so industrious and so hardworking, overcame obstacles that none of us, black or white,
00:54:51.120
today can ever imagine? Like, yes, of course students should learn that.
00:54:56.220
Like, surely you're not falling into, on the right, this idea of perpetual victimhood, right?
00:55:02.360
Like, you're not falling into this CRT-shaped world in which everything is split in these nice,
00:55:08.240
easy, black and white categories of oppressor versus oppressed and oppressor versus victim, right?
00:55:13.840
I saw this professing Christian say to me, you can't bring up the story of Joseph and being enslaved and
00:55:21.820
how God actually used that horrible evil to then benefit Israel. You can't use that because
00:55:29.640
Joseph spoke to his own experience of enslavers and the oppressors didn't get to write that for him.
00:55:36.000
There's no one today who oppressed slaves, okay? There was no oppressor that wrote this curriculum,
00:55:43.860
all right? And so again, if you're falling into that mentality, whether you know it or not,
00:55:47.640
that is a progressive left-wing race-baiting mentality, okay? I have not heard yet the good
00:55:53.280
case, the logical case, the factual case for why this line should be changed. And in fact,
00:55:57.920
just to close this out, I'm going to tell you three very quick stories about slaves who did exactly
00:56:06.440
what this curriculum is talking about to exemplify why this curriculum is so important or why this part
00:56:12.140
of the curriculum I think is so important. It's absolutely factual and why people are absolutely
00:56:16.320
wrong to condemn it as racist or white supremacist or gaslighting about slavery or anything absolutely
00:56:22.220
ridiculous like that. Okay, so let me just give you, let me give you three examples of, I think,
00:56:40.700
people that would probably be included in this part of the curriculum. And you tell me if you think that we
00:56:45.660
should be learning about this, if students should be learning about these people. The first was
00:56:50.360
William Ellison, who has a very unique story. I'm not saying that this is the majority of slaves. It's
00:56:55.540
a very unique story. He was a slave who was apprenticed at age 10 to a cotton gin maker. He was hired out by
00:57:02.140
his master to this cotton gin maker. And his master, of course, being his master, required Ellison to send
00:57:10.760
him a portion, but not all of his earnings. So with his leftover earnings, what he had saved up,
00:57:16.180
he bought his freedom from his master. He then became very, very successful cotton gin maker. He
00:57:21.660
also learned how to blacksmith. He became a successful blacksmither. He owned land in South Carolina. At the
00:57:27.380
time of his death, William Ellison owned 63 slaves. He was also able to pass down property, possessions,
00:57:34.340
wealth to his posterity, to his children. He was able to buy the freedom of his children using the
00:57:43.800
money that he earned by being a cotton gin maker, which is a skill that he earned while enslaved.
00:57:50.760
So tell me whether or not it is accurate to say that he benefited from skills that he learned as a
00:57:57.660
slave. Does that mean his slavery was okay or justified or a blessing in any way? No.
00:58:04.520
That's not to say that it was good. That is to say, wow, this was an industrious, smart,
00:58:09.380
entrepreneurial, hardworking person that overcame outstanding odds to provide for himself and his
00:58:15.880
family. Wow. That's not controversial, but that's exactly what they're talking about in this curriculum.
00:58:21.600
And then we have, of course, Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass, born into slavery,
00:58:25.180
separated from his mother as an infant, which was an atrocious practice that was very common during
00:58:29.820
slavery, separated from his grandparents later. If you read his autobiography or if you read his
00:58:37.900
descriptions of his upbringing, they're gut-wrenching, like poverty, suffering, torture, like beyond what
00:58:45.980
any of us can even understand. But he was taught the alphabet by his master's wife in Baltimore at the
00:58:53.120
age of 12, Sophia Auld. Now she eventually realized, oh, shouldn't have done that. This is incompatible
00:58:58.640
with keeping him basically a dumb slave, trying to prevent him from reading. But at that point,
00:59:03.440
like she had already lit the fire. He already knew the alphabet. So he was able to teach himself how to
00:59:08.440
read and write. He obviously became a prolific speaker, a prolific writer, and was a dominant leader
00:59:16.160
of previously enslaved Black people in America. Had tremendous influence and still does today.
00:59:24.560
I mean, loved the Constitution, loved education, advocated for education and for honoring the
00:59:32.100
Constitution among African Americans. Just an amazing person. But even though his master decided later to not
00:59:41.360
allow him to learn how to read, he learned a skill during slavery, which later went to benefit him,
00:59:49.340
even though his slavery was oppressive and wrong. And then you have Phyllis Wheatley. She's extremely
00:59:54.780
controversial if you read what she wrote. I mean, even including this poem, I would guess is not allowed
01:00:03.160
by a lot of these people criticizing this curriculum. She was kidnapped from Africa. She was sold to a wealthy
01:00:08.480
family in Boston. The children of her master taught her to read and write. She quickly proved herself to
01:00:13.940
be an incredible poet. It was rare because the Wheatley family that owned her strongly encouraged her
01:00:20.340
education, helped her seek opportunities to become a published poet. And here is one of her poems. This
01:00:26.740
is Phyllis Wheatley, not me. Okay, this is On Being Brought from Africa to America. She says this,
01:00:32.980
"'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land, taught my benighted soul to understand that there is a God
01:00:43.180
and there's a Savior too. Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with
01:00:51.400
scornful eye. Their color is a diabolic dye. Remember Christians, Negroes, black as cane, may be refined,
01:00:59.040
and joined the angelic train.'" So there is something there for those that were rightly
01:01:05.580
considered white supremacists who hated her race saying, hey, we're also made in the image of God
01:01:10.740
and God can save our souls too. And then she also says that she's actually like, it was a merciful
01:01:16.440
thing for her to be taken, she says, from her pagan land to America and learning the gospel. Whoa,
01:01:23.140
are you even allowed to read a poem like that nowadays? I think a lot of these critics would say no.
01:01:29.160
But did she gain a skill while enslaved that later went on to benefit her? Yes or no?
01:01:35.120
Yes or no? Despite the oppression and the wrongness of her enslavement. And then of course,
01:01:40.720
I guess very controversial to all of these people is Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington,
01:01:45.600
his autobiography. He was born in slavery, slaves emancipated when he was a child. He worked in the
01:01:50.960
mines, taught himself to read, became a dominant leader among black Americans and emancipated slaves.
01:01:55.260
In his book, he talks about the harsh, oppressive realities of slavery. Slaves were treated like
01:02:00.640
dogs, if that. But he gives a roadmap and inspiration for resilience and self-sufficiency
01:02:06.500
through education and letting go of bitterness. He says this,
01:02:09.880
When we rid ourselves of prejudice and racial feeling and look facts in the face, we must
01:02:16.460
acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the 10 million Negroes
01:02:22.220
inhabiting this country who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American
01:02:27.400
slavery are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally,
01:02:33.060
and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe.
01:02:41.500
Whoa. That almost sounds like he's saying there was a benefit.
01:02:47.480
I have begun everything, he says, this is a different quote, with the idea that I could succeed.
01:02:54.200
And I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one
01:03:00.100
cannot succeed. I mean, that is just as relevant today as it was back then. There are a lot of
01:03:07.480
people in power, a lot of politicians who make a lot of money and get a lot of votes by explaining why
01:03:12.800
certain classes of people absolutely cannot succeed, no matter how hard they try. And so you can't tell
01:03:18.360
heroic stories of industriousness, overcoming odds, overcoming obstacles of people who were literally
01:03:24.420
slaves at one point, because that kind of discounts the argument that today there are too many
01:03:28.980
obstacles and too much oppression for black people to overcome and become successful. I mean, that's
01:03:34.220
part of what this is. I don't think the people on the right criticizing this curriculum think that
01:03:39.720
they have that motivation. But of course, it has the same end result. So you can take it up,
01:03:45.620
not with me, who I know all of these people are just going to say, oh, you're racist, whatever. I don't
01:03:50.460
care. You can take it up with Booker T. Washington. You can take it up with Phyllis Wheatley. You can take it up
01:03:55.040
with Frederick Douglass. You can take it up with Dr. Allen. You can take it up with the black scholars
01:04:00.420
that helped write this curriculum. You can take it up with them. You can take it up with history. You
01:04:03.860
can take it up with facts. You can take it up with logic. You can take it up from God's Word,
01:04:07.780
with God's Word, that clearly says that even through wickedness, which chattel slavery is,
01:04:16.100
even through oppression, which chattel slavery is, even through evil, abject evil, suffering beyond
01:04:21.760
compare. In so many cases, just like beyond what we can even imagine, even in that, God can work
01:04:31.480
things together for good. It doesn't justify it. It doesn't make it right. It doesn't add a silver
01:04:39.200
lining. It is what it is. So you can take it up with all those people. You can take it up with the
01:04:44.960
Bible. If you have a problem with this line in the curriculum, you're going to have to build a
01:04:48.800
better case than any that I've seen online thus far. Oh, that's been bothering me. It's been
01:04:54.680
bothering me so much. So many, like, I think, well-meaning and otherwise, like, very smart,
01:04:58.840
conservative Christians falling for this, this, I don't even know, stupidity, propaganda,
01:05:05.580
whatever you want to call it. All right. That was a long episode, but I had to. There's going to be a
01:05:09.220
lot that I have to say because I'm, like, cramming everything I want to say into, like, two weeks of
01:05:13.420
episodes now at this point. So these are probably going to be some longer episodes. We've got an
01:05:18.380
amazing interview coming up tomorrow, so don't miss out on that. And then a lot of other things
01:05:22.860
that we have to say for the next two weeks. Send me ideas for what you want us to talk about. If
01:05:27.200
you've got an idea that you want me to comment on. All right. That's all we have time for today.