Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - November 13, 2023


Ep 906 ｜ Time to Boycott Scholastic Books ｜ Guest： Kirk Cameron


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

169.00005

Word Count

8,140

Sentence Count

532

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

19


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.180 Kirk Cameron is here with us today, and we are going to talk about all kinds of things. Yes,
00:00:05.000 the darkness and the craziness that's going on in the world, specifically in our schools,
00:00:09.240 and also very disturbingly at Scholastic Books. They are promoting books that encourage gender
00:00:14.760 transition and show pornography to kids in schools. He's going to talk about the alternative
00:00:19.180 that he is building and has built to that. But really, more than anything, Kirk Cameron is here
00:00:24.540 to encourage us today, encourage us as parents, encourage us as Christians. I mean, it's a whole
00:00:29.840 sermon, everything that he says. You are going to leave this episode, and rather than feeling like,
00:00:34.120 oh my gosh, I'm just down about the state of the world, you are going to feel completely on fire.
00:00:40.480 The hope and the optimism that he gives through the power of the gospel and just biblical truths
00:00:45.640 is going to be such a comfort to you. It certainly was for me. You're going to love this conversation
00:00:50.500 so much with Kirk Cameron. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to
00:00:55.100 goodranchers.com. Use code ALI at checkout. That's goodranchers.com, code ALI.
00:00:59.840 Kirk, thanks so much for joining us in person. I'm excited to be here. Yes, I'm so glad that
00:01:13.560 you're here. Last time you were here, we were just talking about this. You kind of made headlines
00:01:17.780 for saying something about public school. Do you remember? Yeah, it was something along the lines
00:01:24.540 of public education is public enemy number one when it comes to parents and what their kids are
00:01:32.740 being taught. Do you still think that? Do you stand by it? Unfortunately, I do. And I say that as
00:01:41.300 somebody who is so grateful for public school teachers. My dad's a public school teacher. My
00:01:45.680 grandmother and my grandpa are public school teachers. And I know so many good ones who are
00:01:50.480 trying to reach these kids, but they're working within the context of a system that is so stacked
00:01:57.760 against them. And the good public schools that remain out there and the little towns out there
00:02:02.020 in the sticks somewhere that haven't been totally hijacked and infiltrated by Marxism, socialism,
00:02:08.200 all of that. I'm afraid it won't last that long because of the funding, because of the source of
00:02:14.620 the materials, the curriculums that come in there. And eventually, I think it's going to come down to
00:02:22.520 parents have to take back that sacred duty of educating their children and not just farming them
00:02:30.160 out for seven hours a day to a place where they don't know what's being taught to their kids.
00:02:33.880 Right. My mom, also public school teacher, my grandmother, public school teacher. I have a lot
00:02:38.540 of respect for them too. And I get a lot of messages from Christian public school teachers
00:02:42.880 asking me, what should I do? You know, part of me wants to stay here because I love these kids and
00:02:47.260 I want to be light in the darkness. And they're thinking, I might be the only Christian that these
00:02:52.120 kids know. Or they're also thinking, I don't want to be a part of this because I'm in a system,
00:02:57.920 like you were saying, where I really can't not go along with some of this curriculum and things like
00:03:03.360 that. So in your personal opinion, what should these Christians teachers do? I know it's
00:03:08.480 individual, maybe case by case, but like, what's your encouragement and advice for them?
00:03:13.760 Yeah. Well, sometimes, here's what I want to help people, individuals and institutions as much as I
00:03:26.300 can help them. However, if, if, uh, if a certain way of doing things is fundamentally flawed, I think
00:03:33.720 we're going to be sort of hobbling around trying to fix something when we would be much better off,
00:03:38.440 like, like taking it on the chin right now and getting back to the way things are supposed to be.
00:03:45.460 So when I, I say that thinking about those public school teachers who are saying, look, I'm not going
00:03:52.780 to do some of the things that they tell me to do. I'm not going to teach this stuff, but then I'm going
00:03:56.300 to get fired. So I got to go along with it. And then, you know, but I'm, at least I'm, I'm a little
00:04:00.440 light in, in this giant darkness, but you know, what I found is that when parents have pulled their
00:04:05.360 children out of school and said, we want something better, the home education market is now
00:04:13.740 looking for great teachers to come out of the public school system and join them and start new
00:04:22.440 schools at churches or community co-ops and other things. And what I'm finding is that, um, those
00:04:28.200 teachers are now finding very fertile ground to teach all the stuff that they want to teach within
00:04:33.440 these networks and home co-ops, because the parents and the kids are on board with the same ideas.
00:04:39.640 So it's scary to leave things, you know, and you're familiar with, and maybe there's the sure paycheck.
00:04:46.460 But I think at the end of the day, like if we keep going down that road, where will it lead?
00:04:52.260 Our children. Um, I, I think we know where it ends. Um, public education, Horace Mann style
00:04:59.720 from the very beginning is, uh, all fueled by the humanist manifesto and a design of removing
00:05:07.280 biblical Christianity from the hearts and minds of children. That is the goal. And, uh, you begin to
00:05:13.420 sexualize children in schools with materials like I've been talking about here coming from Scholastic
00:05:18.840 that further separates children from their parents and gets them going down roads that are, um, not
00:05:25.600 just about liberty to choose what gender I am, but it's actually leading to the destruction of these
00:05:32.560 children in body, mind, and spirit and, and the institution of the family. I believe. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:37.680 Let's talk about that a little bit because obviously I've talked quite a bit on this show about the
00:05:42.200 importance of Christian education, whether it's a Christian school, traditional Christian school,
00:05:46.520 or it's home education and the importance of discipling our kids in that way. It's really
00:05:51.480 a choice of whether you want your kids to get 40 plus hours a week of anti-biblical education or 40
00:05:56.900 plus hours a week of biblical education. I mean, that's the choice really that we have. There's not
00:06:01.460 really a middle ground, especially today, but some people say it's not that bad or my district isn't
00:06:08.520 doing that. My district, I know all the teachers and all the administrators in my district,
00:06:12.920 and they're all on the same page and they would never introduce some of this, you know, gender
00:06:17.240 stuff or anti-biblical ideas. I know what I would say to those parents, but what would you say to
00:06:22.500 that? So I don't want to tell anybody what you should do with your children. Just, I wouldn't
00:06:28.820 want anyone telling me what to do with my kids. Um, but the government will tell you what to do with
00:06:33.740 your children. That that's the inevitable, inescapable reality. If your kids are going to a school
00:06:39.500 that's being funded by the government and the, what's what I, what, if you've got a great district
00:06:47.260 and a great, and you know, your administrators that that's good. But here's what I've found.
00:06:52.680 I'm looking at all the videos of the moms and the dads at the school board meetings,
00:06:56.420 yelling at the leadership on the board of education there at their school going this material. And they
00:07:02.720 got the big, you know, the big cardboard cutout of the pages that are obscene and sexual in nature.
00:07:07.400 And the cop comes over, shuts them down and says, you can't show this stuff. Right. Right. Or you're
00:07:12.460 a domestic terrorist for even, even saying these things. I'm thinking to myself, well, where's this
00:07:18.140 material coming from? I mean, who's publishing this stuff? Is, is, are these just bad district,
00:07:23.700 you know, superintendents? Are these just bad librarians who are slip, sneaking this stuff in?
00:07:28.420 It turns out many of them don't even know that it's in their own libraries and schools because
00:07:33.160 there's a wolf in sheep's clothing that is the world's largest publisher and distributor of
00:07:40.340 children's books and curriculum. And it's called Scholastic. That's that company we've all grown
00:07:46.000 up with and loved their book fairs. You buy your favorite books for summer reading. Schools love
00:07:51.620 them because they're easy, they're inexpensive, and they get a kickback from the sales of the books
00:07:56.640 to help with their school budgets. So this is all a win-win for Scholastic and the school and the
00:08:01.400 library, except these benign looking book covers are, are actually laced with obscene, sexually
00:08:12.340 explicit, pornographic material. And I'm not exaggerating. That's why I bought the books.
00:08:17.400 I've read them. I saw it with my own eyes. We're talking about nudity, sex acts, young minors
00:08:24.340 books, showing off, you know, uh, top surgery scars and in the middle of the act, uh, asking to please
00:08:35.280 treat me like a boy, not like a girl this time. In these books that are in libraries and schools,
00:08:41.280 accessible to children. They're marketed to children, eight to 12 years old. That's second to sixth grade.
00:08:46.360 12 years old. And younger. They're, they're encouraging littles to explore the world of drag
00:08:53.880 in movies like Julian is a mermaid. Um, this one is called welcome to St. Hell, my trans teen
00:08:59.780 misadventure, uh, written by a girl named Lois, who now goes as Louis, uh, Alex Gino. This is Rick.
00:09:06.520 You wrote another one, Melissa stars in their eyes. These are all books that are morally dangerous.
00:09:14.540 They're gender confusing. And, um, some of them are sexually explicit to the point where
00:09:20.680 when we put an, uh, an ad for the alternative we're offering to these types of books that
00:09:27.960 contain these pictures, Meta shut down the post because it violated their obscenity guidelines.
00:09:35.140 Wow. Now the conservative Christian company Meta, uh, no, they're not. And they shut it down
00:09:43.720 because it violated their adult standards of inappropriate obscenities. And this stuff is
00:09:48.620 being marketed to children.
00:09:49.860 Yes. And just for people who are only listening, you can't see the covers. It's very obvious that
00:09:54.420 this is trying to target children because they're cartoons. They've got the bright colors. I guess
00:09:59.400 they're supposed to look innocent. And if you're a kid who doesn't know what the rainbow stands for
00:10:04.360 or what these things are, maybe you would grab it. Or maybe, you know, it's a little bit
00:10:08.400 different than what your parents would allow you to read. And so you'll grab it and read it. And then
00:10:12.740 those images, those words are stuck in your mind. That's what porn does.
00:10:17.640 That's right. And, and if there's any question, uh, you can read the reviews of these books and
00:10:23.440 you'll find that children say, I didn't even know what trans was. Now I am trans because of this book.
00:10:31.280 It's grooming. It's a hundred percent grooming.
00:10:38.400 What we've done is we've created a PDF that you can go to on the website, download it for free,
00:10:51.240 and it documents all of the book covers, the pages and the images and descriptions of, uh, you know,
00:11:00.380 how to use hormones as your own personal manual to grow your own male sex organs. If you're a girl,
00:11:07.660 uh, all of this stuff is in the PDF so that you can see it with your own eyes,
00:11:11.280 then show your, your, your, your mom, friends, your dad, friends, what's going on inside of your
00:11:17.060 school. And I guarantee you that it's there. Why? Because scholastic is not just the thousand pound
00:11:22.240 gorilla in the book space for kids. They are the space they're they've monopolized it. Hardly anyone
00:11:29.000 can compete, uh, until now we've, we've got an alternative that, uh, over 700 schools are already
00:11:36.420 participating in. Yeah. Tell me about that. So what's the website and, um, how can they access
00:11:40.780 the PDF? The website is sky tree bookfares.org. So sky tree is a brand new nonprofit that was really,
00:11:50.500 uh, inspired out of this, uh, library reading tour that I did this last year where I was reading books
00:11:57.000 in public schools, uh, contra the drag queen story hours. And, and one concerned mom said,
00:12:02.320 Hey, let's create an alternative to this, these harmful scholastic book fairs. And it's called
00:12:08.160 sky tree book fairs. So if you go there, there's the PDF that you can download and instructions on
00:12:14.740 how to replace harmful scholastic book fairs in your library or school with wholesome sky tree book
00:12:22.600 fairs. And, uh, our first one is next month. It's in Spotsylvania, Virginia. The superintendent of
00:12:30.240 the district is thrilled out of his mind that we're finally able to do this. And this is a public
00:12:35.520 school. Wow. We have 700 of them already in the process, filled out the application and they are
00:12:43.760 going to be turning things around in their district, in their school. And you can too.
00:12:49.720 Wow. Okay. So this is the competitor to scholastic who has never really had a competitor,
00:12:54.660 right? Not really. There's a few here and there, but the books are expensive. Scholastic is cheap,
00:12:58.560 right? Everything's printed in China for pennies. And then the schools get kickbacks from them when
00:13:03.260 they sell them. So it's a no brainer to go with scholastic. Right. So scholastic, just so I
00:13:08.820 understand, is publishing the books. They're publishing the books and distributing the books.
00:13:12.800 Right. And do we know how scholastic, maybe this is something that someone can investigate,
00:13:18.480 how scholastic got to this point? I mean, I'm sure just like everything else in the past 20 years,
00:13:23.860 it's changed a lot. I mean, to go from, you know, just something that I guess was innocuous.
00:13:29.420 James and the giant peach. Right. Stuart Little, all of it, all these great books.
00:13:34.440 Yeah. To this, to pornography for kids, to encouraging girls to chop off their healthy
00:13:38.420 breasts when they're between eight to 12 years old. I mean, that's evil.
00:13:41.840 It really, it really truly is. And, um, they've been around for over a hundred years. They're a
00:13:47.680 billion dollar company. They're publicly traded. And guess who their two biggest stakeholders are
00:13:51.820 for scholastic. I can guess, but why don't you tell me?
00:13:56.140 Vanguard and BlackRock. Oh, wow. Really? Those little guys? Shocking.
00:14:00.680 So for those who aren't familiar with them, these are massive, uh, you know, they have massive amounts
00:14:07.620 of money and can put massive amounts of pressure on companies like Target, like Bud Light, like whoever,
00:14:13.720 including scholastic, to go down this road of wokeness that includes SEG, DEI, all this stuff.
00:14:23.460 And ultimately, what does this end up doing? It's billions of dollars behind separating children from
00:14:28.980 their parents by sexualizing them when they're young. We have federal laws against the distribution
00:14:34.040 of pornographic and obscene material to minors that's punishable by fines and imprisonment.
00:14:38.960 And just because you put that material and label it educational with, with colors and rainbows and
00:14:46.460 cartoons doesn't make it any less obscene or any less harmful. I'm very concerned about child
00:14:53.600 trafficking. I'm very concerned about, uh, males in, in, in girls' bathroom showers and locker rooms.
00:15:01.000 All of that is being normalized by books like this. Yeah. You know, something that really just
00:15:07.380 disappoints me and discourages me while there are so many parents and so many Christians that are
00:15:12.380 speaking up about this stuff and I'm very thankful for it. It's very often the Christians that I get
00:15:18.000 pushback from saying, it's not that big of a deal. We don't need to, you know, we don't need to raise a
00:15:24.260 ruckus about this. We just need to be a kind of quiet presence in the public school system, or they just
00:15:29.620 deny that it's happening and they're afraid that it's unloving to talk about these issues. I mean,
00:15:34.800 that makes me really sad. Yeah, that, that, that gets, that, that lights my fire when I hear things
00:15:41.260 like that. And when you say that, because I know the hard work that you're doing, I mean, let me,
00:15:44.800 here, here you are, Allie Beth Stuckey, you're, you're a mom, you have your priorities straight and
00:15:51.240 you're taking your time to have these kinds of conversations about things that you'd rather not even
00:15:54.620 be talking about. And why? It's because all that it takes for evil to advance is for good people
00:16:01.620 to do nothing. And I think that I know that eventually people wake up from their fogginess,
00:16:13.540 their stupor, that's often driven by apathy or complacency, or they don't want to ruffle any
00:16:20.500 feathers with their family members or their peers. They don't want to lose their job. And I get it. I
00:16:25.620 don't want to, I don't like any of that stuff either, but you know what I'm more afraid of than losing my
00:16:29.700 job or a friendship. Uh, I'm more concerned about my children being in grandchildren being taken away
00:16:40.960 from their parents by the government and injected with things that they say they need to have and
00:16:46.500 educated in worldviews that make them hate God, hate the family and hate this country. That's a
00:16:52.480 reality. Just look at China, just look at North Korea, just look at countries that are getting away
00:16:57.440 from a biblical worldview and moving toward, um, is honestly what, what scholastic is leading us
00:17:04.200 toward. And that's nothing more than following the public school trail as it started from the
00:17:10.800 beginning with Horace Mann and the humanist manifesto and John Dewey and all of these. Um,
00:17:17.300 the whole plan was to get, get your kids for seven hours a day under the discipleship of
00:17:24.400 trained professional teachers because you mom and dad are not equipped to educate your children.
00:17:31.440 And that's just not only wrong and, and, and it's, it's evil.
00:17:36.880 And that's exactly what it is. It's discipleship. I think sometimes we forget that, that all education
00:17:42.980 is discipleship. So it just comes down to who do you want discipling your kids and what do you want
00:17:49.240 them discipling them toward, um, or, or, or with, and all education is also indoctrination. You are
00:17:56.960 putting doctrines in someone's mind when you are teaching them. So good. And so true. And so it just,
00:18:03.680 it depends what, what doctrines do you want placed inside your child's mind that will lead you to the
00:18:10.300 right choice about what education they should have. Yeah. Allie, I'm so glad you're, you're,
00:18:14.940 you're helping us to, to see that because we've been duped by letting people, um, have control over
00:18:23.440 words. So you're right. Every, all education is, is putting doctrines inside of somebody's mind.
00:18:30.760 And that sacred task of nourishing and protecting our children's hearts and minds was given to
00:18:37.760 parents, parents. So why are we outsourcing the most important part of parenting to a government
00:18:47.600 institution that we know is often not telling us the truth and are fundamentally trying to usurp our
00:18:55.900 position as the authority in their life? They're not here to help you. They're really not. Now that,
00:19:03.420 that doesn't mean that government is bad. I think that government is critical and we need men and
00:19:08.040 women of character and faith in those positions because evil is real. We need to restrain and hold
00:19:13.200 back evil so that the good can flourish. Um, and that's why we need to be involved in all these
00:19:17.840 things. But the family is the fundamental building block of a good society. Your public school can't
00:19:25.480 create virtue in your children. It's about more than data and information. Siri has lots of knowledge
00:19:32.420 knowledge, but she has no wisdom. Moms have wisdom. Dads have wisdom. Your kids need the fear of the
00:19:40.220 Lord. Without that, they're toast in this world. But with it, and a mom and dad who lead by example
00:19:48.200 in a family, man, there is so much hope for your kids.
00:20:02.420 Going back to something that you said about me having these conversations, even though I would
00:20:08.840 rather not be talking about this crazy stuff like what's in those books, but I think that's even
00:20:13.960 truer about you. You've had a very successful acting career and yet here you are talking about
00:20:19.980 these things. Your kids are, your kids are grown. You said, I think your youngest is, is 19 and yet
00:20:25.200 you are dedicating your time and your energy and your wisdom into an issue that affects,
00:20:29.820 you know, kids, uh, my kids age. And so why, why are you traveling the country fighting against
00:20:37.100 things like Scholastic and drag queen story hour when, you know what, you didn't have to do that.
00:20:45.780 Cause it's important. I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to be the, the out of shape couch
00:20:55.160 potatoes sitting around just watching Fox news with my head in my hands, crying in my Chick-fil-A soup
00:21:02.160 while the world crumbles waiting for the rapture. That's just not going to be me. I don't want to
00:21:07.000 rust out in these years that I have on this earth. I want to burn out. I want to, I want to go,
00:21:13.880 go out as a ball of fire. And, um, and, and I just recognize more and more that, that our hope
00:21:24.280 is, is not in who governs us or the laws that we make as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God
00:21:29.220 working in the hearts of moms, moms and dads and grandparents. And that that's, that's what I want
00:21:36.360 to do. Uh, there's a quote that I, I love. Um, there's a couple that I've committed to memory.
00:21:42.220 One is, uh, from, uh, middle earth. May I quote Gandalf, the gray from Lord of the Rings. He says
00:21:49.180 this after great evil has come upon them. He said, other evils there are that shall come for even
00:21:59.180 Sauron himself is a servant or an emissary. Yet it is not our task to master all the tides
00:22:07.600 of the world, but to do what is in us for the help of those years, wherein we have been set
00:22:15.660 uprooting the evil in the fields. We know so that those who live after us will have clean earth to
00:22:22.760 till and what, whether they shall have is not ours to rule that puts into perspective and frames for
00:22:31.700 me, my task. I can't stop the world economic forum from doing what they're doing. I can't stop big
00:22:36.860 food, big pharma, big books like scholastic. I can't, I'm a guy. I'm one, I'm one man, but I can do
00:22:44.460 everything in my power while I have breath on this earth for the help of this generation and uproot
00:22:53.540 some evil in the field. I know through the media and I can plant some seeds of goodness and truth
00:22:58.760 and beauty. That's what we're doing right now. That's what you're doing every single day on this
00:23:02.720 podcast so that those who live after us, that's our kids and grandkids will have cleaner earth to
00:23:09.540 till and build on. They can build worlds that may only be possible because of us pulling up some
00:23:16.540 rocks of, of, of, of garbage and evil. And they'll be prepared for the weather that God sends their
00:23:23.360 way politically, economically, morally, and spiritually. Why? Because they grew up with moms like you
00:23:28.580 and dads like your husband and they're reading good books and they're benefiting from the faithfulness
00:23:36.900 of people who didn't sit on the couch and rushed out.
00:23:39.540 But kicked it into gear and said, let's do everything we can.
00:23:45.820 That's so good. I'm going to remember that. I'm going to have to print out that quote.
00:23:49.360 It's a good, it's a good quote.
00:23:51.020 It's a great quote. It reminds me.
00:23:52.220 Whenever you see a guy with a long gray beard and a wizard hat.
00:23:55.700 Listen, and that happens a lot. I run into those wizards a lot. Um, it reminds me though of Jeremiah 29.
00:24:03.520 And a lot of people know Jeremiah 29 11, for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and
00:24:08.960 not to harm you. But really the whole chapter I think is encouraging. Talking to Israel who was in
00:24:14.980 exile in Babylon at the time. And while they're in exile, God is telling them, seek the welfare of the
00:24:21.120 city that I have placed you in. Have, have children, build things, do good, seek the good of your
00:24:28.940 neighbor. Well, we and Chris, we who are Christians are in exile in this life while we are here on earth.
00:24:35.680 And we are to seek the welfare of the city that we are placed in. We can't control everything is
00:24:41.220 exactly what you said. I love that. Can't control everything that happens in the world.
00:24:44.580 And something about social media and the 24 minute news cycle that we're in makes us feel like
00:24:50.560 we have to. So there's some burnout. There's some overwhelm because we are constantly bombarded with
00:24:56.560 every horrific thing that's happening in the world all at once. And the only person, the only one that
00:25:02.460 has the capacity to handle all that is God. The omnipotent one, the omniscient one. He is the only
00:25:07.560 one that can handle knowing everything that's happening and caring about everything that's happening at
00:25:11.660 once. We can't. And so I think remembering our finiteness, remembering that we have a limited
00:25:17.060 capacity, that we were placed on this tiny speck of eternity for a purpose, for a reason that our
00:25:23.720 birthday was not arbitrary, and that we can only do the next right thing in any given moment and maximize
00:25:33.540 and beautify the tiny space that we've been placed in. Like that is really encouraging. And then that the
00:25:40.120 victory is God's. It's already been won. We know that the victory is Christ. So there's a lot of
00:25:45.320 confidence that comes from that reality. Yeah. We're having church y'all. Yeah. Pass the offering
00:25:52.500 plate. I'm ready to get out my... Yes. Yes. Isn't that so good boy? That's like, that's like that kind of hope,
00:26:01.680 that kind of optimism about the future because of the faithfulness and goodness of God is air in our
00:26:12.020 lungs. We need it in order to breathe. And I'm so glad that you said that.
00:26:17.660 I meet a lot of people, especially in the conservative space. You know, there's all
00:26:34.400 the progressives who think that we're just progressing wonderfully as a culture right now,
00:26:37.660 moving down these paths, which are really not progressing us. They're actually very regressive
00:26:43.400 back to pagan ways before the world was blessed with something called Western civilization and the
00:26:50.620 Bible. Yes. But I know I'm preaching to the choir here with this. But many of the conservatives say,
00:26:58.260 oh man, it's getting so bad. This is just the worst thing ever. I can't believe how,
00:27:01.320 how do we get here? And I'm thinking, hold on, take a pause and step back and say, okay, look,
00:27:08.820 let's just look through the wide angle lens of history for a second. If you were a Christian
00:27:13.180 conservative person in the Roman empire, it was a thousand times worse. They're not feeding us to
00:27:21.180 lions yet or burning us on a stake to illuminate gladiatorial games. This is not being exiled in
00:27:28.480 Babylon. This, this is not that it gets far, far worse than that. So what I say is that, and then
00:27:36.700 you have a tiny band of people 2000 years ago who believed in somebody who was a crucified criminal
00:27:42.260 and they end up preaching a message that overthrows the most powerful empire in the world, the Roman
00:27:50.300 empire. And that ends up spreading a message that leads to unbelievable opportunities and liberties
00:27:58.460 educationally, economically, spiritually, morally, the Bible, Western civilization, all of this out of
00:28:04.320 what appeared to be what appeared to be no hope at all. And we've had great awakenings and great
00:28:09.800 revivals throughout the world and even here in America. So what I say is that the only reason this
00:28:17.220 stuff looks so bad, this pornography, obscenity, uh, children being aborted and all that is because we
00:28:24.360 have, we, we're not as pagan as we used to be. We're much more heavenized, civilized, Christianized,
00:28:36.820 Westernized because of the scriptures that we consider things like what scholastic is doing
00:28:42.700 to be offensive and obscene. But go back to the Roman empire. This is like, this is normalcy. This is,
00:28:49.960 this is the way everything was. And how blessed are we to be here right now? And what we're
00:28:56.520 experiencing is the result of our apathy, complacency, unfaithfulness, uh, turning away from
00:29:02.300 God. But I see it not as the perfect storm that's going to destroy us. I see this as a little tiny
00:29:09.740 turbulent white cap on the edge of a giant tidal wave tsunami of the victory of God and his
00:29:19.840 faithfulness that has been washing over the land for 2000 years. And it's unstoppable because he
00:29:28.920 doesn't lose. He wins and the kingdom is growing. And we went from a tiny little band of, of scared
00:29:37.620 people 2000 years ago to 3 billion people on the earth who named the name of Christ. And we have more
00:29:45.860 opportunity, resources, and manpower than ever before. Could it be that we've simply lost our way
00:29:53.540 and our vision and we have, we just need to get back to first principles and say, Oh God, open the
00:30:01.120 heavens, revive my heart, bring me back to what really matters and show me how to do my part where
00:30:08.780 you've placed me. Yes. And amen. That's so good. I was thinking as you were talking about the
00:30:14.440 Christians who were burned at the stake, the Christians who were fed, fed to lions, God used
00:30:20.300 that for the very thing that you're talking about. God uses the persecution and the difficulties and the
00:30:25.760 trials and the martyrdom of Christians to glorify himself and to advance his kingdom. So I think when we
00:30:32.040 see persecution of Christians, which it's not the same as it was 2000 years ago, but Christians
00:30:36.740 certainly face adversity here today, I think we see that as losing. We see that as us losing our
00:30:43.980 influence and Christianity dying out. But when has that ever been the case? When Christians were
00:30:48.600 burned at the stake, it wasn't that Christianity then died out. It was actually that people saw the
00:30:53.720 faithfulness of the martyrs and were spurred on to then share the gospel. And when you were speaking,
00:31:00.240 I thought of this quote by Hugh Latimer, I believe it was, and he was a, he was a martyr. I believe it
00:31:07.040 was in the 16th century. And I always think of this quote as he was being burned at the stake with
00:31:12.280 another person who was, who was also a Christian. He said, be of good cheer, Master Ridley and play the
00:31:18.280 man. We shall this day light such a candle in England as I hope by God's grace shall never be put
00:31:24.420 out. So even as he is being burned at the stake, he realizes, yes, that the flames of his martyrdom,
00:31:32.800 that God is going to fan those flames with the power of his Holy Spirit to then spread the gospel.
00:31:37.160 Same was true of many of the reformers during the Protestant Reformation, that God used their
00:31:42.480 adversity and their persecution to spread the gospel. And he'll still do that today.
00:31:46.800 Yeah, absolutely. 100%. This is our faith. This is, this is what we know to be true.
00:31:51.980 Um, here's a really encouraging truth. Uh, in history, great awakenings and revivals have always
00:32:04.000 come during times of moral decline, spiritual apathy, economic collapse, and political corruption.
00:32:13.580 I think we're due for another one. Yeah. And they seem to happen about every 50 years.
00:32:19.460 Um, we live in a really exciting time right now. Um, I think that we could be on the cusp
00:32:26.940 of a turning point. What if, Allie, what, what if instead of having weak knees and lamenting this
00:32:41.640 world that our children have to inherit, assuming that Jesus must be returning by Tuesday because things
00:32:49.080 are so bad, what if this national setback is really a divine setup for a spiritual comeback led by the
00:33:00.700 family of faith? What if, what if this is like it has been in the past where a couple faithful people
00:33:14.080 start a prayer meeting that catches fire on a college campus and spreads to become a revival
00:33:23.200 that starts the entire missionary movement and the gospel now gets spread to more places in the world.
00:33:31.240 And not only that, do you know that in Africa and in Asia, in South Korea, they're sending
00:33:38.100 missionaries now back to the United States because they recognize that we're in trouble. We've strayed.
00:33:47.540 So now you have the daughter coming back to save the mother. This is a beautiful thing.
00:33:53.440 Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And you're right. That's so like the Lord. If you, I mean, if you look at
00:33:59.560 really any story throughout scripture, that it seems like God purposely stacks the odds against himself
00:34:06.940 before he comes through. He doesn't have to, for example, tell Israel and Joshua to round the city
00:34:15.180 seven times before they blow the trumpet and the walls fall down. I mean, he didn't have to take
00:34:21.280 Israel through the Red Sea. He didn't have to lead them through the wilderness for, you know, 40 years.
00:34:27.540 But it seems like he purposely stacks the odds against himself so that when he shows up and does
00:34:33.920 what he has always been providentially planning to do, that people can look to that and say,
00:34:40.360 that can only be God. That can only be God. It's not because we're so good. It's not because we built
00:34:45.720 this wonderful tower that actually reached the heavens. It was only the Lord. He is the only one
00:34:50.920 that could have done this. And so maybe that's what he's doing. Maybe he is stacking the odds against
00:34:56.200 himself so he can come through the way that he always has. And giving us a Red Sea moment,
00:35:02.000 backed up against the wall, armies in front of us, no way out so he can part the sea again.
00:35:09.580 And it's so good. I'm so glad God does that because you're right.
00:35:13.060 Mary didn't have to be a virgin and conceive the Messiah, humanly speaking, right? But that's the
00:35:26.440 way God chose to do it, which forces us to say, God is in this. This is a miracle. This can't happen
00:35:33.580 apart from him doing it this way. And I think that's so important because our tendency, and I know this
00:35:39.460 is my tendency, is to think, man, I got this. I can do this. I'm smart enough. I'm talented enough.
00:35:47.860 I've got enough connections. I can make this happen. And pride is the very thing that cuts us off
00:35:54.380 from knowing God, enjoying God, valuing God, and living the life that he created us to live. And so
00:36:02.960 he creates scenarios that, um, like you say, you, you, you, you phrased it, he stacks the odds against
00:36:08.360 himself. Um, and what I think, what I see him doing is he actually lets our prideful preferences
00:36:15.500 play themselves out against ourselves. He lets our desires, uh, like Romans one, uh, you know,
00:36:23.780 we become so consumed and intoxicated with our own wisdom that we make stupid decisions. And he just
00:36:30.520 hands us over to them and says, okay, if you want that, go ahead, take that. Then your heart becomes
00:36:34.200 darkened, your mind, you're, you become a fool. You exchange the truth for the lie. And then he lets
00:36:39.560 you go down that road. And then all the odds are stacked against us. They're stacked against him.
00:36:44.660 Everything looks like it's not going to work. And boom, that's where he shows up in mercy and kindness
00:36:49.600 and says, okay, now let me show you the way.
00:37:04.240 I love what you said about making good soil for our children. And as a mom of a four, two and zero
00:37:13.020 year old, it's really easy for me to be anxious. Like as much as I talk about the importance of
00:37:19.520 courage and remembering Christ's victory. Yes. I try to remind myself of that. But in the day to
00:37:24.840 day, when I see some of the stories that I do, I see some of these books, I see just the predatory
00:37:29.620 nature of these institutions coming after the minds and the bodies and the souls of our children.
00:37:34.720 I mean, it scares me. It really scares me and it makes me anxious, but I try to remember,
00:37:40.700 I try to remember that really like I have a choice. I can either try to create children who
00:37:47.220 will hide from dragons or create children or raise children that will slay dragons.
00:37:52.420 And if I want to raise children that will slay dragons, then I have to show them what it means
00:37:58.460 to do that. And I have to be courageous. I can't just protect them from everything. Of course,
00:38:03.260 I want it to be us, my husband and I, who are teaching them about these things and not public
00:38:07.620 education. But like, we have to show our kids how to fight battles, not just protect them from all
00:38:13.200 the scary stuff. And I'm still learning how to do that and knowing exactly what that looks like. But
00:38:17.660 I want my kids to go out there and slay dragons too. And I think Christians have done that throughout
00:38:22.700 history.
00:38:23.760 Ellie, I have a question for you. I've got six kids. And one of my children says, Dad,
00:38:30.020 I get concerned about you sometimes because you're so focused on what's happening in Washington DC or
00:38:36.260 what's happening, you know, in Europe or in the Middle East. And you're, you're, you're talking
00:38:40.760 about the constitution, you're talking about the Bible and you've got, you've got these big,
00:38:44.880 you know, macro, you know, things going on inside of your head. Um, are you taking time to like
00:38:53.800 savor the sunshine and just be present with your kids and with mom? Right. And I go,
00:39:02.940 Oh, I know you're right. You're right. Cause I mean, that that's why I'm fighting. Cause I want
00:39:07.540 to protect this. But then sometimes I lose sight of the micro, the right here, the right now.
00:39:12.700 How do you do that as a mom? Because you are a warrior. You're, you're one of the ones who are
00:39:17.940 out there doing this. We, but I know what your heart is really like you, you, you, you struggle,
00:39:24.260 I think between wanting to save the world and savor the world. And that can make planning the day
00:39:32.540 very difficult. Yeah. How do you balance those things? How do you frame those two different
00:39:37.380 things? Yeah. I think the answer that I give when people ask me, how are you not just like
00:39:43.480 depressed and anxious all the time because of the things that we talk about, the things that we have
00:39:47.920 to look at, to talk about the things that we talk about. And it can be very tempting to kind of
00:39:52.060 just wade in the sadness and hopelessness as we, as we discussed. And I think it is my family and just
00:39:59.960 the very, uh, normalness, if I can say that of our life, of our church life, of our friends,
00:40:07.180 of our day to day that keeps me sane. Now, obviously I don't do that perfectly. It's really
00:40:11.980 easy to kind of doom scroll and to get sucked into whatever story that you're reading about and
00:40:16.460 completely ignore what's happening around you. So I have to try really hard with the help of
00:40:20.880 my husband, with the help of my parents, as we talked about, they live close by to savor just
00:40:25.780 the normal, the every day, as you know, with six kids, you were talking about how your kids are
00:40:29.960 grown. It goes by so fast, just like that. And I, I don't want to look back in 10 years and say,
00:40:37.860 wow, I didn't savor those moments enough because I was so worried about things outside of my control.
00:40:43.680 At the same time, I do have to care about those things because those things affect
00:40:48.300 people. I do have to care somewhat about, you know, or I have to care about what's going on
00:40:53.320 in some places in the world, like Israel and things like that. But I think it's doing exactly
00:40:57.900 what you said, focusing on doing the next right thing with what God has given you. I'm not going
00:41:05.360 to save the world. You're not going to save the world. That's not our job. Therefore, I don't have
00:41:09.660 to know everything that's going on in the world at once. And it helps that my skill set is very,
00:41:15.240 very limited. My talent is very limited. So really the only thing I can do is talk.
00:41:20.440 So I, I really, that's the only skill, the only talent that I have. So thankfully I can just do
00:41:25.240 that in the morning and the podcast, and then I can just go home and do all of the other things that
00:41:30.520 I'm called to do. So I think it's that, but I hope it doesn't sound like I think that I do that
00:41:35.740 perfectly. There are seasons that I, that we do that better than others. Yeah. I, I, I, I've never
00:41:42.720 heard anyone accuse you of, of being arrogant or overstating your talents. If anything, you're
00:41:48.960 understating all of it and we all, we all know it. I think, I think you're right. Another metaphor
00:41:54.040 that the Bible even gives us, Paul talks about, we're all members of one body. And some of us think
00:42:00.960 like, Oh, I wish I could talk like Ali Bestucki or I wish I could, um, you know, um, play football
00:42:07.040 like Tim Tebow, or I wish I could make movies like whatever. Uh, but you know what? You know,
00:42:12.620 it's like, well, wait a minute. What if the hand said, uh, you know, uh, I wish I could be
00:42:15.660 the foot or what are the foots? Like I wish I could be the ear. No, no, no. We need all the
00:42:19.800 different parts. And the mind is what controls them all and coordinates them. I have, if you
00:42:25.200 asked me, let me ask you, whoever's listening to this.
00:42:30.960 Do you know how to convert your carbohydrates into glucose? Do you know how to make sure
00:42:38.540 that when you have a baby that the spleen is working properly and that oxygen is properly
00:42:44.960 getting into the blood through the lungs? You don't have a clue, but there is a God who designed
00:42:51.280 all of these things. And you have a mind that's able to make all the different members of your
00:42:56.800 body work together miraculously. Um, I think that same God can take someone who has the gift
00:43:05.200 of speaking, someone who has the gift of tackling people and someone who has a gift of making movies
00:43:11.960 and having us all work together as his body to accomplish what he wants to accomplish.
00:43:18.820 And I think that is the, among other things, the amplification and reproduction of truth and
00:43:25.240 goodness and beauty. I think we are his conduits from heaven to earth and he knows what he's doing.
00:43:33.980 It's just, we have to submit to the mind. You know, the, the, the, the pancreas can't go,
00:43:41.580 I got this. No, no, no, no, no. You just, just do what the mind's telling you to do. And God in
00:43:46.880 his word has given us really straightforward and clear instructions on love God with all of your
00:43:52.260 heart. Love your, love others as yourself. Start with your family, double down on loving your enemies
00:43:58.900 and those who hate you. And God works through those things in miraculous ways.
00:44:04.240 Yeah. I think it's especially difficult for creative people, for entrepreneurial people,
00:44:11.620 people with an entrepreneurial spirit. And there are different kinds of leaders, but one kind of
00:44:15.320 leader is like a visionary leader who likes to cast the vision and everyone execute it. I don't know
00:44:19.800 exactly, um, you know, what you are and all the different aspects of your character. I know that
00:44:24.980 you're the Enneagram, figure all these things out. I know that you're creative and I know that you're
00:44:28.920 entrepreneurial. I think it's even more difficult for people like that, which I fell into that category too,
00:44:33.100 to stop sometimes and to take a step back. Um, and to make sure that we're not just going,
00:44:38.780 going, going. I know a lot of people can relate to that too. You have just created something else.
00:44:43.840 You have not stopped creating. You just created a new book, right? Yeah. Yeah. This is about it.
00:44:49.020 So, um, I, I connected with this great company called brave books and I just sort of, um, was really
00:44:55.140 impressed with what they do. Um, they create these books about important issues with beautiful pictures
00:45:01.720 and stories for kids, uh, with pro God, pro America values. And they've got all these different
00:45:07.260 authors. Uh, so I'm one of their authors and this is a book. It's actually the third one that I've done
00:45:12.620 with them. It's called the Fox, the fair and the invention scare. And it's all about loving your
00:45:17.920 enemies. So, um, Ali, the first one I did was called as you grow and it was all about, uh, growing the fruit
00:45:25.700 of the spirit. We talked about that one. And then the second one was called, uh, pride comes before
00:45:32.060 the fall about humility. And we released that on June 1st pride month, uh, in Seattle, Washington,
00:45:38.680 uh, public library that, that was, that was perfect. And then this one is about loving your enemies.
00:45:44.840 So I'm, I'm hoping to do, to do just what you said. Um, I want to take the opportunities God's
00:45:53.420 given me with, with whatever abilities that he's given me to make a difference. And, uh, what I'm
00:46:01.360 hoping is that this will just be like a spark that lights a fire in the hearts of other people
00:46:05.380 who can then spread, spread that like a grass fire in their communities, 0% contained, moving all
00:46:13.440 across the nation through the family, through the church, through civil government. And we get to see
00:46:18.400 something beautiful happen in our lifetime. Well, Kirk, I'm very grateful for you. And I know
00:46:24.140 that you give all the credit to the Lord and as you should, as we all should, but I mean, I know
00:46:28.960 marriages that are still being helped from fireproof. I mean, you have done so much by the grace of God,
00:46:35.160 through the power of the Lord and creating things that help Christians be courageous and obedient.
00:46:40.660 So thank you for that. I, I really appreciate all of the effort that you've put in and how much of
00:46:46.400 your time and energy you've dedicated to the church. So thank you so much.
00:46:51.200 Thank you for the kind words and the encouragement. Thank you for encouraging, uh, all of us with all
00:46:55.960 the good work that you're doing, uh, you know, as, as, as a mom and, uh, with this podcast. And, uh,
00:47:03.640 again, I think we just need to stay blown away that God is kind enough to use people like us to do good
00:47:09.700 things. Yes. And amen. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, guys, I told you that you are going to
00:47:20.180 love that conversation. If you want more encouragement, then you need to go out and see
00:47:25.840 the blind. So the blind is the true story of the Robertson family. If you don't already know the
00:47:31.400 testimony of Phil Robertson, it's so amazing how he went from what he was and living the life that he was
00:47:37.480 living to who he is today, a man who shares the gospel daily and unapologetically, who loves
00:47:44.020 scripture and shares that love of scripture with so many people on a daily basis. You've got to go
00:47:49.460 watch the blind. You will just be so encouraged. You can buy it today by going to blazetv.com slash
00:47:55.020 the blind. You can buy it for $19.99. Really good deal. blazetv.com slash the blind. blazetv.com slash the
00:48:02.920 blind. Okay, that's all we've got for today. Thank you guys so much for listening and watching and we
00:48:08.800 will be back here tomorrow.