Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - July 31, 2023


Ep 847 | Are Aliens Just Demons?


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 5 minutes

Words per Minute

171.97423

Word Count

11,274

Sentence Count

731

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

22


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

00:00:00.000 A former intelligence official testified last week in Congress that they have found UFOs and
00:00:06.520 non-human remains with these UFOs. What? Is this true? Does it matter? Does anyone care?
00:00:16.060 Is it biblically possible for there to be aliens? We'll get into all of that. Also,
00:00:21.580 I'll give you a little personal update how things are going, how the pregnancy is gone,
00:00:26.320 what I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks. And then to round us out, we are going to talk a
00:00:32.500 little bit more about this Florida curriculum that people are so up in arms about on the right and the
00:00:38.680 left. And again, to show you what is true and to give you the facts about it, because it's so
00:00:44.020 important to get this right. All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends at
00:00:48.060 Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com. Use code Allie at checkout. That's goodranchers.com, code Allie.
00:00:56.320 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, that you're
00:01:04.320 ready for a great week. It is going to be, it's going to feel like, I think like 1.12 where I am
00:01:11.420 this week. I'm pretty sure that it's actually physically going to get up to like 1.10 at some
00:01:18.280 point this week. I'm a big whiner in the wintertime, big time whiner. And in the fall, as soon as it gets
00:01:25.280 like a little bit chilly, I'm like, nope, I want to go outside and sweat. I want it to feel like a
00:01:31.700 suffocating blanket of heat as soon as I step out my door. And then as soon as it happens to me,
00:01:37.200 as soon as it happens to me every year, I'm like, why? Why? Why do I tolerate this? Why don't I live
00:01:45.300 in, I don't know, some kind of beautiful mountain in Utah? And so, but I really, I really try not to
00:01:55.220 complain about the weather because I heard Elizabeth Elliott say like a few years ago,
00:02:00.640 shouldn't say it a few years ago, but I heard her say it a few years ago, that like complaining about
00:02:05.880 the weather is basically grumbling at God because who else is in charge of the weather except for him?
00:02:10.820 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
00:02:17.720 for these kinds of extremes. I think that I am built for very mild 75 weather and also being as
00:02:28.960 pregnant as I am right now, I have just like an incubator in me at all times. I am like perpetually
00:02:35.520 warm. So anyway, for all of you in these Southern states, in the desert states that are suffering as
00:02:44.660 I am under such suppressive heat, I just wanted to express some empathy with you that I, I'm right
00:02:51.220 there with you. And I know we think we're like, it's going to break. It's going to break at some
00:02:55.480 point. You know what? Let's just, just acknowledge and just accept the fact, just be content with the
00:03:01.800 fact that we have about three, three, four more months of this. You think it's going to break in
00:03:07.600 September. It's not going to break in September. You think it's going to break in October. It's
00:03:12.020 probably not going to break in October. It's probably going to be Thanksgiving before it gets
00:03:16.440 down into the seventies. So just accept that. And I'm just going to learn how to be grateful in all
00:03:22.900 circumstances, content in all circumstances. So you guys asked me for a personal update. That's part of
00:03:27.960 my personal update. I'm sweating all of the time. Um, but you guys, when I asked on Instagram, what
00:03:34.280 do you want me to talk about? A lot of people said aliens. And so we're going to talk about aliens,
00:03:38.200 but you also asked me to just give a personal update because as you well know, I am 36 weeks
00:03:43.980 pregnant. Um, or maybe you didn't know how far along I was, but most of you know that I am
00:03:49.200 pregnant with our third child. We're so excited. We are keeping the gender a surprise. We don't know.
00:03:53.980 We found out with our first two, um, don't know with this one, which has been really,
00:03:58.740 really fun. So for my personal update, I don't really have that much to, uh, to say, except for
00:04:03.920 thank the Lord. It's been a healthy pregnancy. All three of my pregnancies have been, um, thus far,
00:04:10.360 thank God, very uneventful pregnancies. I've never, um, had any, any, you know, any kind of incident
00:04:20.380 or any scares or anything like that. And I don't take that for granted. I am so incredibly grateful.
00:04:26.380 I've actually felt better in a lot of ways in this pregnancy than I have in previous pregnancies.
00:04:32.340 I did have a coffee aversion this pregnancy and my first trimester, actually for like the first half
00:04:37.940 of my pregnancy that I did not have my last two pregnancies. And I know some people, they don't
00:04:43.760 drink coffee at all. You don't have to message me about that, about like being careful about your
00:04:48.360 caffeine intake and things like that. I am, I don't drink very much caffeine. I probably drink
00:04:53.240 like half a cup to, I don't know, two thirds of a cup of coffee a day. And that's my caffeine intake.
00:04:58.460 And so you don't have to worry about that, but I could not drink black coffee at all. I could only
00:05:05.220 drink because you know, when you have morning sickness, if you don't have caffeine that can
00:05:09.660 make your nausea worse. And so I still tried to get some form of caffeine, but like the only kind
00:05:16.620 coffee that I liked was ice with heavy cream with a little vanilla in there, which I'm not saying is
00:05:22.100 good for you, but just to give me something to help me feel like a functioning human. Actually,
00:05:29.000 if you go back and you look at some of the episodes that I did in February, uh, that like the episodes
00:05:36.320 with Ginger Volo, I had one episode with Justin Haskins where internally I thought that I was going
00:05:43.200 to die. I was so nauseous, felt so tired. My like head hurt so much. And I really didn't have those
00:05:50.400 symptoms in my first two. So that part was definitely harder, but the aches and pains in
00:05:56.360 this pregnancy and the last half of this pregnancy have not been as difficult. So I'm praising God for
00:06:03.320 that. First half was harder. Second half has been easier. I don't know if that's an indication of the
00:06:09.260 gender one way or another, but, um, yeah, so it has been a little bit different than my first two
00:06:16.100 and I have also, I've worked out, I've taken, well, I've walked, but also I've done my, um, like my,
00:06:24.240 my bar classes that I take during this pregnancy. And I really didn't work out at all in my first two
00:06:30.720 pregnancies, maybe a little bit here and there, but not consistently. Um, I don't work out every day,
00:06:36.660 but I work out two to three times a week while pregnant. Um, and then I walk as well. And so
00:06:43.060 maybe that's helped with my aches and pains. I also see a chiropractor and I see a physical
00:06:49.320 therapist. And so that stuff has helped. I've learned every pregnancy that I need. I think that
00:06:56.260 women in general, but you just need more support when you're pregnant than you think. And there are
00:07:01.160 so many things that you can do exercises. You can do people you can go to, to help mitigate some of
00:07:05.820 the discomfort. Not everyone can, you know, go to a chiropractor and physical therapist,
00:07:10.820 but if you can, or there are a lot of things that you can do online, a lot of resources online
00:07:15.860 that you can, that you can do spinning babies is one of them to show you how to stretch the
00:07:21.060 different movements that you can do to make sure that your body is nice and loose. And I do think
00:07:25.500 that the exercise aspect that that has really helped. So I encourage you, if you are wanting to
00:07:32.400 get pregnant, if you are pregnant, um, to exercise in some form, I don't think that now is the time to
00:07:39.320 start CrossFit if you were not doing that before, but something low impact. I do. I've also heard that
00:07:46.600 this whole idea that you shouldn't start working out while pregnant, if you weren't working out before
00:07:50.980 that, that's really a myth that of course you can start being healthy and you can start exercising
00:07:55.840 again, probably not like the most intense form of exercise ever, but low impact stuff that is getting
00:08:02.000 your body moving and getting your heart rate up. As long as you can tolerate it, especially after
00:08:06.860 that first trimester, I'm just speaking from my own personal experience. It's probably good. It's
00:08:11.180 helped me feel a lot more energized, like both pregnancies. Y'all asked for the pregnancy update
00:08:16.900 for the personal update. So if it seems like I'm rambling, it's because I am, but this is what a
00:08:20.880 personal update is like for me in my head. Um, like first two pregnancies, I needed like the big
00:08:27.960 pregnancy pillow at night. It's, you know, like the giant C pillow that is like the whole body pillow
00:08:33.580 just to keep myself comfortable, probably starting at like 30 weeks. My hips and back hurt so much.
00:08:40.300 I was in so much pain, like so early on, it felt like both pregnancies that sleeping was just terrible.
00:08:45.900 Like my hips would hurt so much. They get so tired. I would flip over. But as you know,
00:08:50.860 once your belly gets big, it's so hard to flip over at night. It's like an entire event.
00:08:55.760 And, but this time I haven't had that at all. Thankfully, I still do have some aches and pains
00:09:00.620 that I'm working through. I have some like tight muscles that are like a little painful, but for the
00:09:06.380 most part, I think the exercise and all the other stuff that I've been doing has really helped.
00:09:11.280 I've also been taking ladies, you should be taking a magnesium supplement while you're pregnant in
00:09:17.000 addition to all the other stuff too. So anyway, I'm getting super close. Um, I'm 36 weeks. Both my
00:09:24.420 previous pregnancies went long or like what people would call long. I was induced with my first, not
00:09:31.460 something that I would do again. It did not go well. My body was not ready at all. There was no medical
00:09:37.420 reason for me to induce besides just being 40 weeks pregnant. Baby was fine. I was fine, but I did not
00:09:42.360 know better. I did not know better. And so I got induced and when you're like zero, zero, and if you
00:09:49.320 don't know what that means, I don't need to get into the anatomical like specifics of that. But when
00:09:53.820 you're zero, zero and your baby is high and there's no medical reason to be induced personally, just
00:10:00.420 not from a doctor's perspective personally, like that's not something I would recommend to one of my
00:10:04.560 friends. If I could go back and change that, I would, but that was like 40 weeks, six days. She
00:10:09.460 probably would have gone to like 42 weeks or so. And then my second one, I did have, you know,
00:10:15.120 spontaneous labor and that was 41 and one. So babies like to cook. My womb is very hospitable. And so I
00:10:24.700 fully anticipate going to past 40 weeks, which is difficult. It's is if any of you have been pregnant at 40
00:10:33.020 weeks pregnant every day after that is really tough, not just because you're physically uncomfortable,
00:10:39.040 but just the mental stamina that you have to have, not knowing if you're going to have your baby in
00:10:44.500 two weeks or two hours. It's just tough. And so I'm, but I am anticipating that that's just what I
00:10:52.480 have in my head. And then if I go into labor sooner, then that's great. But I'm also trying not to,
00:10:57.740 speaking of contentment with the weather, also be content with the length of pregnancy because I
00:11:03.100 don't take for granted that I have, if this is true, that I will have gone to and through all
00:11:12.320 due dates for my children. And I know that not everyone gets to do that. People who have suffered
00:11:18.160 from loss, people who have gone through very difficult preterm labors and had NICU stays. I know
00:11:23.800 that there are women who are in the hospital as we speak right now at 30 weeks pregnant or sooner than
00:11:29.820 that. Like, and they would give anything to not be in labor at the moment. They would give anything
00:11:35.700 to give birth at the due date rather than being in the hospital now and going through the complications
00:11:42.820 of having an early delivery and all of that. So I don't want to complain about going to 40 weeks or
00:11:48.620 41 weeks because not everyone gets to do that. And so I'm trying to have that like grateful
00:11:54.080 mentality that, wow, Lord, thank you so much for allowing me to have this much time with babies in
00:12:01.400 the womb. Now I say that at 36 weeks, you can ask me again at 41 weeks if I am that cheery and that
00:12:08.140 grateful about it. But I'm taking off maternity leave starting 38 weeks. So a couple of weeks. And as
00:12:15.600 I've said before, we have many, many episodes that we have been saving up for you that we have been
00:12:20.660 working on for the past several months. And they are all going to come out while I'm on maternity
00:12:26.060 leave. We have so many fascinating conversations. It's been really hard for me to keep those not
00:12:32.460 published, unpublished and not tell you about them because so many of them I know are going to be
00:12:37.660 not just good, hopefully, but also controversial in some ways. Some of the conversations that we've had
00:12:44.320 are on very controversial topics. And you're also going to be really encouraged by a lot of them,
00:12:49.940 I think, really educated on things that I hadn't thought about, maybe you hadn't thought about
00:12:54.880 before on a lot of them. And then we've got some fun Q&A, some serious, some lighthearted,
00:12:59.880 all that good stuff. And so for 12 weeks, you will be getting new content. And so as much as you can
00:13:05.340 listen to those, watch those, share those, that helps the show since we won't be talking about all of
00:13:10.140 the relevant new stuff. But I'm super excited to have that break, have that three-month break.
00:13:17.360 It's going to be really great. I'm in the midst of nesting, which is a terrible thing to do when
00:13:24.380 you're 36 weeks because my house is chaos right now. Instead of actually organizing, I'm into like
00:13:30.180 taking everything out stage before I figure out where it's all going to go, which is the most chaotic
00:13:35.380 stage to be in. Again, not a great stage to engage in when you have two young children and you're 36
00:13:42.940 weeks pregnant. But alas, it's just, it's some kind of biological inclination that we all have.
00:13:47.400 And I haven't satiated it at all the entire pregnancy. And now I'm into it and it's just chaos.
00:13:53.720 So we're going through a transition period in a lot of different ways in our family, all good stuff,
00:13:59.600 but kind of overwhelming. And a lot of you guys asked me like, how can we pray for you? Which is so
00:14:04.100 sweet. Thank you so much to those of you who message me and ask me, how are you doing? How can
00:14:09.120 I pray for you? I've just been asking friends to pray for peace and order, not just in our lives,
00:14:15.760 because there's going to be a level of chaos going from two children to three children and all of that,
00:14:21.500 everything that that entails. But peace and order in our hearts, in our minds, in how we act and how
00:14:29.120 we speak to each other, you know, in times of high stress, you and your spouse should remember that
00:14:35.180 you're on the same team, not adversaries. And so just prayers for that, for peace and for order in
00:14:40.300 our lives, obviously for a safe and a smooth birth and all of that. And so anyway, thank you guys so
00:14:48.560 much. That's my personal update. I'm sure that there's a lot more that I could share about life and
00:14:54.600 all that good stuff. But honestly, this pregnancy has gone by so quickly. It's gone by so quickly.
00:15:00.760 And being the third pregnancy, I'm not asking for, like, I'm not having some big baby shower or
00:15:05.860 anything like that. People at this point, I'm like, really, the only thing that you need is diapers.
00:15:10.200 And that's just a recommendation I'll give to you. New moms, you don't really need everything that
00:15:14.840 you think that you need before the baby comes. Do not stress yourself out. If you don't have the
00:15:19.040 nursery ready, if you don't have all the matching clothes, if the drawers aren't all organized by the time
00:15:23.600 the baby comes, I understand that feels good. That's totally great if you got that. If you don't,
00:15:29.060 that's okay too. Because all that baby needs for the first few weeks is you, get you some gray and
00:15:34.380 white onesies, some cheap stuff from Walmart, because you're probably going to throw them away
00:15:39.320 anyway because they're going to get stained. Diapers, wipes, you're good to go, girl. You are good to go.
00:15:45.480 I'll give you more updates if you guys want it. If you have any specific questions or maybe I know a lot
00:15:50.100 of you guys have asked tips for new moms, tips for pregnancy, things like that. I'm feeling almost
00:15:55.640 too pro level on pregnancy since this is number three. Now, I know those of you who have 10 kids
00:16:01.880 are laughing at me, but I feel like I almost know what I'm doing now. So I'll try to give you some
00:16:07.660 tips at some point if that's something that you guys are interested in. Okay. So if you've seen
00:16:23.180 the discourse on Twitter, people are talking about aliens and UFOs. So now I guess we don't call them
00:16:31.680 UFOs. We call them UAPs. The language is always changing. Kind of like how it went from Indian
00:16:38.060 to Native American to indigenous people. I'm sure it's going to change again at some point. We're
00:16:42.260 all trying to keep up with the language changes. It's not UFO anymore. We've heard from extraterrestrials
00:16:49.060 that that is extremely offensive. And so we have changed this UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
00:16:57.700 Um, it's an issue of, they say, bipartisan concern, according to NBC, raise national security
00:17:05.260 questions. Some also accused the federal government of endeavoring to conceal key UFO related information
00:17:11.680 from the public, though they did not provide evidence to support those allegations. So right
00:17:17.580 now their congressional hearings or there were congressional hearings last week, um, asking members of
00:17:24.440 the intelligence community, U.S. intelligence community, what they know about these UFOs or UAPs,
00:17:32.300 a David Grush, who is a former U.S. intelligence official, told the panel that he is absolutely
00:17:37.580 certain that the federal government is in possession of UAPs. So this would be like flying objects. We do not
00:17:47.400 know where they come from. The federal government, I guess he says, has found these and is in possession
00:17:53.940 of them. He led Defense Department efforts to analyze reported UAP sightings and was informed of a
00:18:00.260 multi-decade Pentagon program that endeavored to collect and reconstruct crashed UAPs. Now that I
00:18:08.080 don't necessarily have a hard time believing. I think that there's a lot that our government does that we
00:18:12.960 do not know, that we will never know, that there could be flying objects or flying things that
00:18:18.640 we're not completely sure what they are. Sure. I can see that being a possibility.
00:18:25.840 Grush, who underscored that he is not personally, he has not personally spotted a UAP, told the panel
00:18:32.220 that he knows of multiple colleagues who are injured by UAPs. He also said he has interviewed
00:18:37.560 individuals who have recovered non-human biologics from crashed UAPs. So that's the headliner right
00:18:45.160 there. Okay. We've got video of him in this congressional hearing saying that they have
00:18:49.780 found non-human remains at these crash sites. If you believe we have crashed craft stated earlier,
00:18:57.040 do we have the bodies of the pilots who piloted this craft? As I've stated publicly already in my
00:19:02.820 News Nation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries. Yeah.
00:19:06.720 Were they, I guess, human or non-human biologics? Non-human, and that was the assessment of people
00:19:15.360 with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.
00:19:19.200 And was this documentary evidence, this video, photos, eyewitness? Like, how would that be determined?
00:19:26.540 The specific documentation I would have to talk to you in a skiff about.
00:19:29.840 Oh, okay. Non-human remains. He can't fully talk about it. He doesn't, can't say what the
00:19:37.280 documentation is. It is nice to see Nancy Mace showing up to the job and talking about what's
00:19:43.200 actually on the table rather than what happened with her fiance that morning in bed, like she did
00:19:49.340 at the prayer breakfast last week, as I talked about on Instagram. Anyway, so non-human remains.
00:19:56.300 He has not seen these, I guess, but there's some maybe documentation that he won't even talk about.
00:20:04.300 He was asked by Representative Eric Burleson, a Republican from Missouri, to substantiate the
00:20:09.860 crashed UAP's claim. The former intelligence official said he could not divulge specific
00:20:14.280 details, once again, claiming the information was too sensitive to share with the public.
00:20:18.040 He did describe the nature of what he saw. I have to be very careful here, but what I personally
00:20:22.640 witnessed, myself and my wife, was very disturbing. So non-human remains of the pilots of these UAPs,
00:20:30.260 he says, were discovered. Then there was Ryan Graves at this congressional hearing. He's a former
00:20:35.080 Navy pilot. He told the panel that military pilots do not feel adequately briefed on UAPs,
00:20:41.000 which he said leaves them unprepared to respond to UAP encounters. All right, I could see that.
00:20:45.820 He claimed that commercial airline pilots have spotted UAPs too.
00:20:49.280 It just seems like if it were this mainstream that we would hear about it more. I'm not sure.
00:20:55.840 David Fravor, a former Navy commander, said he and three fellow military pilots spotted a white
00:21:01.960 tic-tac-shaped object in 2004. Okay, so tic-tac-shaped object. I'm guessing not tic-tac-sized object,
00:21:12.920 because that would have probably just been a tic-tac. In 2004, hovering below their jets in
00:21:19.720 just above the Pacific Ocean. As he descended to inspect the sighting, he claimed the unidentified
00:21:23.960 aircraft, which he said bore no visible rotors, wings or exhaust, began to ascend and approach his
00:21:29.680 fighter jet. He claimed that the UAP then vanished, only to reappear a few seconds later, but this time
00:21:35.480 it was spotted 60 miles away. Fravor told the committee that the technology he and his team
00:21:40.400 encountered defies logical explanation. The technology that we face is far superior to
00:21:45.060 anything that we had Fravor claimed, and there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing. Well, how do
00:21:51.160 we know, I guess, I mean, how do we know that there's nothing that we can do about it? It's very
00:21:55.500 strange. This is a very strange phenomenon. I'm not saying that I don't believe these people. I do
00:21:59.980 think that they are strange anecdotes. Why haven't we heard about this more? I mean, and if it's so
00:22:05.960 mainstream, if like commercial pilots and military members, former intelligence officers have all
00:22:10.480 seen this, why is it seen as this grand conspiracy theory? Why isn't it just something that's accepted
00:22:15.940 as fact? And why isn't there more documentation of it? That would be my question. According to the
00:22:21.180 Daily Wire, Susan Gao, not sure how to pronounce her last name, spokesperson for the Department of
00:22:26.220 Defense, insisted that its all-domain anomaly resolution office, which has been tasked with
00:22:32.080 investigating UFOs, has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims
00:22:37.640 that any programs regarding the possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials
00:22:42.160 have existed in the past or exist currently. Okay, so that really didn't have to do necessarily
00:22:51.880 with the aliens, except for the comment by the guy that there were non-human remains found
00:22:56.460 with these UAPs. Now, non-human, that could mean a lot of things, I guess. That could mean animal.
00:23:03.520 I mean, maybe not a lot of things. I guess that's the only thing that it could mean,
00:23:07.760 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
00:23:21.220 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
00:23:38.040 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
00:23:49.120 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
00:24:07.320 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.
01:05:32.300 We will see you back here tomorrow.