Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 982 ｜ The Biblical Meaning of the Eclipse

00:00:00.000 Trump declares his support for IVF as well as abortion exceptions as the Pope puts out

00:00:07.980 an amazing statement about surrogacy and transgender ideology.

00:00:13.000 But before we get into any of that, I want to share with you some biblical truths that

00:00:18.840 I was reminded of as I watched the total solar eclipse yesterday.

00:00:25.860 And so we've got all of that and much more on today's episode of Relatable.

00:00:30.580 It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:32.660 Go to GoodRanchers.com.

00:00:33.980 Use code Allie at checkout. 1.00

00:00:35.180 That's GoodRanchers.com.

00:00:36.460 Code Allie. 1.00

00:00:46.820 Hey, guys.

00:00:47.720 Welcome to Relatable.

00:00:48.780 Happy Tuesday.

00:00:50.400 Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.

00:00:53.760 All right.

00:00:54.680 If you haven't listened to yesterday's episode, you've got to do it.

00:00:58.280 I got so many messages from you guys saying that you were so encouraged.

00:01:02.320 Now, I know my dearly beloved Catholic friends, there was a segment in there towards the end

00:01:09.540 that you guys do not agree with and many of you did not appreciate.

00:01:14.660 But he certainly said it in gentleness and in love.

00:01:18.000 And I understand that it may not have been persuasive to all of you Catholic listeners out

00:01:24.380 there, but I do appreciate those who did listen and then offered up your respectful disagreement

00:01:29.940 and your perspective on that.

00:01:31.920 But that wasn't most of the episode.

00:01:34.100 Most of the episode was talking about the importance of battling our doubts.

00:01:38.120 I love when he said, doubt your doubts rather than doubting God and his word.

00:01:42.440 Gosh, that was so good and talked a lot about suffering.

00:01:45.060 And so go listen to yesterday's episode.

00:01:48.780 So amazing.

00:01:49.620 I personally felt very ministered to in the entire conversation.

00:01:52.620 And we need more of that.

00:01:54.220 And I'm going to give you a lot of encouragement today, or at least what I hope to be encouraging

00:02:01.200 to you, and it comes on the heels of the eclipse that happened yesterday.

00:02:06.980 I did not think it was going to be as meaningful as it was to me.

00:02:11.260 I didn't think it was going to inspire as much worship and awe as it ended up inspiring.

00:02:17.260 I honestly was not paying attention at all to the eclipse or what it was or why it was important

00:02:24.880 before, I don't know, maybe Friday is when I probably started looking into it.

00:02:30.060 And it was only over the weekend that I realized that people were traveling from all over the

00:02:35.460 country and even all over the world to visit places that were in the path of totality so

00:02:43.520 that they could witness this total eclipse.

00:02:46.100 And I was a little confused about it because I was like, didn't we see an eclipse in 2017

00:02:52.080 and 2021?

00:02:53.820 We've got that famous picture of Trump looking straight up at the sun.

00:02:59.100 I love that picture so much.

00:03:00.920 We should put it up on YouTube if we have it.

00:03:04.080 You're not supposed to do that.

00:03:05.660 You're supposed to get the glasses until it's actually in totality.

00:03:10.320 So when the moon is directly over the sun, then you can remove your glasses and you can

00:03:15.180 look straight up at it.

00:03:16.180 But when it's partial and you still see the sun shining around the moon, you're not supposed

00:03:21.620 to look directly up at it because, of course, it can hurt your eyes.

00:03:25.020 If you're like me and you just didn't really understand what is the importance of this,

00:03:29.600 let me read you a little bit.

00:03:31.220 This is from UT Austin Stardate Magazine.

00:03:34.740 It's a publication of the McDonald Observatory.

00:03:38.380 And listen for some of the language that is being used to present what happened.

00:03:44.100 Talking about this eclipse, why it's special, these awe-inspiring spectacles are a result

00:03:50.200 of a pleasant celestial coincidence.

00:03:52.940 The sun and moon appear almost exactly the same size in Earth's sky.

00:03:56.660 The sun is actually about 400 times wider than the moon, but it's also about 400 times farther.

00:04:01.740 So when the new moon passes directly between Earth and the sun in alignment known as syzygy,

00:04:08.260 wow, new word for me, it can cover the sun's disk, blocking it from view.

00:04:13.800 Total solar eclipses occur every one to three years.

00:04:16.980 And so, OK, I was correct in my memory of that somewhere around the globe, but are often

00:04:22.060 only visible from Earth's poles or from the middle of the ocean.

00:04:26.300 In addition, total eclipses are visible only along narrow paths.

00:04:30.220 According to Belgian astronomer Jean Moose, who specializes in calculating such things,

00:04:35.380 any given place on Earth will see a total solar eclipse on average once every 375 years.

00:04:42.720 The next total eclipse visible from anywhere in the United States will take place on March 30th,

00:04:49.140 2033 in Alaska.

00:04:51.120 And then in 2044, it will be in Montana.

00:04:55.780 You'll be able to see it in Canada, but also Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota.

00:04:59.100 And then the next eclipse across the entire United States.

00:05:03.160 So like from California to Florida will happen on August 12th, 2045.

00:05:10.940 And you know what's so funny is that I was thinking about these dates as I was looking

00:05:14.260 at this yesterday and I was like, oh, wow, I'll be in my 40s.

00:05:17.660 No, I will not.

00:05:19.080 I am 32.

00:05:20.680 I am not 20 something.

00:05:22.520 I will be in my 50s.

00:05:24.700 Oh, my goodness.

00:05:25.820 Oh, my goodness.

00:05:26.720 So that's crazy.

00:05:27.300 And all my kids will be growing up.

00:05:28.540 It's just wild to think about.

00:05:29.800 But it's also awesome that these things can be predicted, which I'll get to more of that

00:05:34.500 in just a second.

00:05:35.340 So let me show you my amazing photo.

00:05:39.380 We've got a full screen.

00:05:40.660 Yes, photography is my passion.

00:05:42.800 Thank you for asking.

00:05:44.400 So it's kind of difficult to take a picture of it, obviously.

00:05:48.220 And I didn't do anything special.

00:05:49.540 I literally just took a picture of the sky.

00:05:51.840 But you can see the I can't actually really see it right now on my screen in front of me.

00:05:57.260 But you can see that it's an eclipse.

00:05:59.280 It doesn't look like a normal sun.

00:06:00.640 The moon is in front of it.

00:06:01.860 And actually, I guess my phone kind of adjusted for the adjusted for the light because it looks

00:06:09.740 like the middle of the day in this picture that you're looking at on YouTube.

00:06:12.660 But that's not what it really looked like.

00:06:15.100 It looked like it was like 8 p.m.

00:06:17.260 And so we have this high definition resolution photo of an eclipse that Andrew McCarthy posted,

00:06:22.420 I think, on X.

00:06:24.360 And this is an HDR high def resolution composite image of yesterday's eclipse.

00:06:29.740 So this photo that you're looking at used five cameras to capture thousands of photos

00:06:34.020 during a four minute period.

00:06:37.120 So that's really what it looked like.

00:06:38.880 Of course, it's much more beautiful than the picture that I took.

00:06:43.400 And it was very, because I was in the path of totality, it was very eerie feeling during

00:06:51.180 the partial eclipse because it wasn't just that it looked cloudy.

00:06:55.320 It didn't just look like dusk.

00:06:57.900 It looked something unworldly.

00:07:01.200 I felt like it was very apocalyptic feeling.

00:07:05.520 It almost felt like there was, I don't know, there was a sense of like impending doom there

00:07:10.280 for a minute.

00:07:11.260 Not that I actually believed that, OK, it's going to be the end of the world and the

00:07:14.940 rapture is going to happen, mostly because I don't believe in a rapture.

00:07:17.600 But we'll have to talk about that another day.

00:07:21.520 But it was it was very strange feeling.

00:07:23.680 And then when the total eclipse happened, it was beautiful.

00:07:28.020 I mean, it was sorry, Taylor Swift, but it was like a lavender haze.

00:07:31.940 It really was.

00:07:32.780 It was very it was it was dusty and purpley and unlike a normal evening, unlike a normal

00:07:43.620 sunset, it was somewhere in between all all of it.

00:07:47.780 It was like this very liminal space, I felt.

00:07:50.560 And so I just didn't realize how I don't know how profound of an experience it would be.

00:08:00.560 Um, and I didn't realize really how like special that it would be.

00:08:06.100 It was much more special and profound and meaningful than I anticipated.

00:08:10.840 And it really stirred a lot of wonder in me.

00:08:13.740 It really spurred worship in me that I just didn't expect.

00:08:17.340 Um, I hadn't put much thought into it.

00:08:20.400 And then as I sat there beholding this phenomenon, I just felt the weight of the sovereignty and

00:08:30.100 the power of God.

00:08:31.140 So I wrote this monologue and that I'm about to tell you.

00:08:36.540 And if it sounds like something that was written rather than just like natural words that I would

00:08:41.260 speak, it's because I, I did write it.

00:08:44.440 And writing for me is like a form of, of worship.

00:08:48.740 I can't sing.

00:08:49.820 I can't draw.

00:08:50.960 And so it's, it's what I got.

00:08:52.620 So I want to read you this monologue that I wrote about this and all the thoughts that

00:08:58.580 so unexpectedly came to my mind as I was beholding this total eclipse yesterday that I hope is

00:09:05.720 edifying for you.

00:09:06.820 The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

00:09:25.420 That's Psalm 19.1, the verse that kept coming to mind yesterday.

00:09:29.000 Um, in 2017, Time Magazine published an article mapping out the solar eclipses for the next 50

00:09:36.600 years, according to NASA.

00:09:38.200 Of course, they predicted correctly that a solar eclipse could be seen across the U.S.

00:09:44.380 yesterday on April 8th, 2024.

00:09:47.240 And this prediction was actually published many years ago, decades before I was born.

00:09:52.440 There's a picture of a 1973 textbook floating around social media that includes a page which

00:09:59.060 describes the total solar eclipse of 2024, the path of totality.

00:10:03.660 So experts know every exact path of totality for decades and decades to come.

00:10:11.940 These paths are predictable because the universe is ordered.

00:10:17.120 It's not a celestial coincidence.

00:10:19.840 We are not here by random chance.

00:10:22.000 The Earth, moon, and stars are not cosmic accidents.

00:10:26.340 We are not the outcome of a Big Bang.

00:10:28.620 We are not the consequence of the nonsensical notion that something arrived from nothing.

00:10:34.900 We are not a compilation of stardust or a random conglomeration of cells.

00:10:42.320 We are not the result of happenstance.

00:10:45.600 You and I did not evolve from bacteria.

00:10:48.180 We have not been naturally or incidentally selected.

00:10:52.540 Our presence here is neither arbitrary nor accidental.

00:10:56.220 You and I and all of the plants and planets, seas and stars, animals and astronomy, land and lights,

00:11:03.960 were carefully crafted and providentially placed by a creator who is not limited by time or space,

00:11:11.100 but who is infinite, who is transcendent.

00:11:13.500 And if we break down the word transcendent, I love etymology.

00:11:18.960 The Latin verb scandere, and I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that correctly, means to climb.

00:11:24.920 So the prefix trans, while it has an unfortunate meaning in everyday language today,

00:11:30.520 actually means across, over, beyond.

00:11:33.500 So God being transcendent means that he exists beyond where our minds or bodies can traverse.

00:11:42.420 We cannot climb to him physically or mentally.

00:11:46.020 He exists outside of linear time.

00:11:48.780 He is beyond the material or the comprehensible because he is the source of all that is material

00:11:56.560 or comprehensible.

00:11:58.220 As an artisan is outside of and beyond his craft, so the creator is outside of his creation.

00:12:06.580 And just as what's crafted can tell us a good deal about who crafted it,

00:12:10.680 so can God's creation tell us a good deal about him, about who he is.

00:12:17.480 God has revealed himself to us both through his word and through his world.

00:12:23.060 Romans 1.20 tells us,

00:12:24.740 We see from the beginning that God is a God of order.

00:12:41.000 In the creation account in Genesis, we see that God has particular processes by which he does his work.

00:12:48.940 He could have thought the world into existence.

00:12:52.220 He could have put it together all at once, but he didn't.

00:12:55.860 He spoke the world into motion.

00:12:58.400 Let there be light.

00:13:00.300 And he did so in six distinct days.

00:13:03.120 He created Adam first from the dust, then Eve from Adam's rib.

00:13:07.640 He delegated the task of naming the animals to Adam.

00:13:10.800 He left populating the earth up to the multiplying force of Adam and Eve.

00:13:15.860 The creation of the world in the first chapters of Genesis tell us so much about the authority,

00:13:22.400 the creativity, the orderliness of God.

00:13:25.240 And we continue to see these characteristics displayed throughout Scripture.

00:13:29.460 He is a God of processes.

00:13:31.340 He had a process for Noah to follow in building the ark.

00:13:34.660 He had a process by which he freed his people from Egyptian slavery and through the desert and

00:13:40.000 into the promised land.

00:13:41.160 He had a process by which he led his people to claim victory over their enemies through

00:13:45.840 various battles.

00:13:47.220 He ordained the process of Jesus's conception, life, death, burial, resurrection.

00:13:53.300 He commands the process of prayer for believers to have communion with him and for him to work

00:13:58.980 on our behalf.

00:14:00.940 He demands the process of evangelism to advance his kingdom.

00:14:06.360 There is a process that will precede his return.

00:14:09.840 God's eternal plan of redemption from the garden to the marriage supper is a carefully crafted

00:14:16.500 process with an order in both the spiritual and the physical, in both the eternal and

00:14:23.480 the temporal.

00:14:24.600 God is a God of orderly processes.

00:14:27.780 That's why we who are made in his image inherently need order.

00:14:31.300 We need laws, rules, parameters, boundaries, borders, countries, cultures, languages, time,

00:14:37.900 routine, seasons, lunar patterns, solar eclipses, maps, milestones, marriage, families.

00:14:43.620 It's why we as Christians, wherever we go, become agents of order.

00:14:47.720 We bring peace to anarchy, organization, to chaos, civilization to tribalism, a beauty to

00:14:54.180 rubble, light to darkness, salt to decay, and hope to those who are despairing.

00:14:59.020 And that is what Jesus' followers, filled with his spirit, have always done and must

00:15:03.940 continue to do.

00:15:05.200 No matter our circumstance, no matter the political peril our country faces, no matter

00:15:10.340 what the future holds, no matter what life stage we're in or the tragedies that we face

00:15:15.180 today, that is our calling to do the next thing well and for God's glory.

00:15:20.000 Because in the midst of this great, big, predictable, yet wild universe, you and I matter.

00:15:28.360 What we do matters.

00:15:30.320 How we spend each moment matters.

00:15:32.720 What we say, what we pray, how we act all matters.

00:15:37.500 God uses these things as the preordained means to accomplish his will.

00:15:41.880 That eternal plan of redemption, which, like the paths of the planets, was set in motion

00:15:49.500 in the beginning and has been moving forward flawlessly without a hitch and will continue

00:15:55.580 to until Jesus returns.

00:15:59.520 Job 42.2 says, no purpose of God's can be thwarted.

00:16:03.740 No purpose of God's can be thwarted.

00:16:06.260 And so as we were all looking up at the sky yesterday and wonder, and I heard cheers in

00:16:14.220 the distance, as we all for a few moments stopped what we were doing to behold the beauty of

00:16:20.200 something so big, so far outside of our control and even really our understanding, I caught a

00:16:27.880 glimpse of what it will be like when Jesus comes back, riding in on the clouds and fury

00:16:34.760 and triumph to defeat evil once and for all and to rescue his purchased people.

00:16:41.420 Revelation 1.7-8 describes that for us.

00:16:44.040 It says, behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who

00:16:50.380 pierced him.

00:16:51.920 And all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so, amen.

00:16:57.060 I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the

00:17:04.900 Almighty.

00:17:06.340 So I thought of all of this yesterday and what was, like I said, just a much more awe-inspiring

00:17:16.320 and much deeper experience than I'd anticipated.

00:17:21.040 And I shared on Instagram some of it, as well as just the comfort I felt in considering not

00:17:27.980 just what is to come and what lies beyond us, but also what the saints in heaven, including

00:17:34.020 those I loved in this life, are taking in right now.

00:17:38.420 And I want to share this with you as well, as I know many of you have also lost people that

00:17:45.520 you love, and if you're like me, that sadness just hits you out of nowhere.

00:17:50.620 And that's what happened to me yesterday, is I thought about my grandmother, whom I was

00:17:56.340 very close to.

00:17:57.440 She died in 2019.

00:18:00.620 She loved events.

00:18:02.220 She loved celebrations.

00:18:03.420 She loved all things special and fun.

00:18:07.180 And I thought about, like, if she were still alive, what it would have been like.

00:18:11.780 I'd have gone and picked her up, as well as her best friend named Clovey. 1.00

00:18:16.780 They were, like, thick as thieves.

00:18:18.460 And I would have driven them to my parents' house, where we would have all watched together

00:18:23.180 as the premature dusk painted the afternoon purple.

00:18:27.980 My girls would have run to her, given her a big hug, and I would have taken their picture 1.00

00:18:32.700 and their matching glasses.

00:18:34.840 I thought about all that.

00:18:36.500 But this was yet another moment in the past five years, of many moments in the past five

00:18:44.320 years, that we didn't get to share together.

00:18:46.860 And I know grandparents die.

00:18:49.220 They die in their 80s.

00:18:50.500 It's not some, like, rare tragedy that I've been through.

00:18:53.540 It's expected.

00:18:54.460 But it's still death.

00:18:56.540 And death is sad for many reasons, of course.

00:18:59.300 But one of them is that it's not supposed to be this way.

00:19:05.160 It's the reminder that it was never supposed to be this way.

00:19:09.300 We weren't meant to die.

00:19:10.900 We were meant to live forever, walking with God in the garden in the cool of the day.

00:19:17.180 But thanks to Jesus, the bad news of death is contrasted with the good news of the gospel,

00:19:23.720 which contains this amazing message that through Christ, his death, his resurrection,

00:19:29.220 we too, by grace through faith, are freed from sin and its consequence, death.

00:19:34.300 We get to live forever with God.

00:19:36.600 And one day, there will be a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more death,

00:19:41.720 decay, sickness, sin, or sorrow.

00:19:43.840 But everything will be finally, once and for all, made right.

00:19:47.880 And I posted some of that, like I said, on Instagram.

00:19:52.980 And then many of you reached out to me who have also lost loved ones.

00:19:57.900 And many of you started sharing their names with me as you were thinking these thoughts,

00:20:02.680 too, about how God is once and for all going to be rid of all of this injustice and sadness

00:20:12.940 and death and tragedy.

00:20:16.640 And we were all together encouraged by this reminder that our Christian friends and family

00:20:24.140 who have gone before us to the other side of eternity are beholding far greater wonders

00:20:29.820 than what we get to see here when we look at a solar eclipse.

00:20:34.160 So let me keep going on that for a second so that those of you who didn't read that on

00:20:40.840 Instagram can be encouraged.

00:20:43.260 Your believing parents, grandparents, husband or wife, brothers or sisters, your children,

00:20:51.140 your miscarried babies, they are right now amongst a great cloud of witnesses testifying

00:20:57.540 to the holiness of Jesus.

00:20:59.440 So I want you to listen to me.

00:21:01.120 Your stillborn baby, your Christ-following mom who died too soon of cancer, your Christ-following

00:21:08.620 husband who passed in the prime of his life, they are among the apostles, the martyrs, the

00:21:14.240 evangelists, the apologists, the missionaries, the everyday unseen and unsung heroes of the

00:21:20.040 faith singing praises to the creator of the universe.

00:21:25.020 We miss them, but they are missing out on nothing here.

00:21:28.600 For the glory that they now behold eclipses any earthly wonders.

00:21:34.880 1 Corinthians 13.12 was another verse I was considering yesterday.

00:21:38.920 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

00:21:43.560 Now I know in part.

00:21:45.540 Then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

00:21:50.980 The eclipse that we saw yesterday was just a foretaste of the glory that is to come.

00:21:59.100 So no matter what we lose here, whether it's a person, whether it's a job opportunity, whether

00:22:06.760 it's an election, no matter what happens with the state of our culture wars, no matter what

00:22:14.440 happens at all, that is the hope that we get to hang on to.

00:22:18.700 And sometimes things happen in this natural material world that just remind us of the bigger

00:22:25.180 picture.

00:22:25.880 And praise God for that.

00:22:27.100 Praise God for the gift of an eclipse that reminds us of his faithfulness and power.

00:22:44.440 All right, so I had to set us up.

00:22:47.760 I had to give us some perspective and some encouragement before we get into this conversation

00:22:53.060 about Donald Trump and what he said about abortion.

00:22:56.320 And I know that there will be people who are upset that I am criticizing Donald Trump.

00:23:02.880 So let me just say again, not that I feel like I have to caveat or apologize every time

00:23:07.540 I criticize Donald Trump, but some people seem to forget this, that I voted for them.

00:23:12.880 I not only voted for the man twice, but I also did my darndest with any capacity or capability

00:23:20.500 that I have to convince the people in my audience and Christian women to vote for Donald Trump.

00:23:27.200 Not because, certainly not because I think he's perfect, as you will hear me say in just

00:23:31.600 a few minutes, but because I think that he was the better alternative, obviously, to Joe

00:23:39.480 Biden.

00:23:40.120 And that was true then.

00:23:41.720 It is still true now.

00:23:43.420 He is still better than Joe Biden.

00:23:46.080 When it comes to the laws that he will sign when they come across his desk, when it comes

00:23:51.660 to his picks for judges and justices, even if he says things that I do not like, which 0.81

00:23:59.440 he does quite often, whether it's just silly, selfish, narcissistic, prideful stuff on Truth

00:24:06.020 Social, or whether it's things that I actually morally fundamentally disagree with, like his

00:24:12.460 statements on IVF and abortion that he put out yesterday, he is still the better alternative,

00:24:20.420 not just when it comes to abortion policy, not just when it comes to the different laws that

00:24:27.320 will come across his desk in regards to, say, gender and all those other things that we

00:24:33.720 really care about, the Second Amendment, but also foreign policy, also the economy in every

00:24:39.380 way, by every measure, he is better than Joe Biden.

00:24:44.380 And so when it comes to who I'm deciding to vote for, that can be how I think of it.

00:24:50.400 Now, some people don't think of it like that at all.

00:24:52.460 Like some of you are just not willing to vote for the man because you just don't think he's

00:24:56.580 pro-life enough.

00:24:57.260 I think that's I think that's fair.

00:24:59.600 But if I'm looking at the two candidates and knowing that Joe Biden is 100 percent pro-abortion

00:25:06.400 taxpayer funded without apology through nine months and Donald Trump, who says some things

00:25:11.060 that I really disagree with, then to me, the choice is obvious.

00:25:15.000 But that doesn't mean that I will not argue with Trump.

00:25:20.400 That doesn't mean that I'm not going to disagree with him.

00:25:23.040 And some of you get like really upset about that when I critique something that Trump

00:25:27.840 says.

00:25:28.660 I know this is like no surprise.

00:25:31.300 A lot of like diehard Trump fans have been like this for a really long time.

00:25:35.080 And that says I would say this is a lot about like your posture.

00:25:39.500 I would just think about that.

00:25:41.220 But just because I am disagreeing with him and arguing with him doesn't mean that I am trying

00:25:48.640 to tell people not to vote for him.

00:25:53.220 That's not my goal.

00:25:54.900 That's not what I'm trying to accomplish.

00:25:58.100 I am just holding him to the same standards that I hold other politicians.

00:26:03.280 And as a Christian who cares about unborn life, that's important for us to do.

00:26:10.820 Like that is how Roe v. Wade got overturned, by the way, because there were activists and

00:26:18.180 advocates and commentators who pushed politicians further and further into the pro-life camp so

00:26:25.780 that a law could be passed in Mississippi that would make its way to the Supreme Court that

00:26:30.900 eventually decided Dobbs and overturned Roe v. Wade.

00:26:34.600 And so there have to be some of us over here who are saying, nope, I don't want to compromise

00:26:40.780 like that.

00:26:42.260 Like, I don't want to make those exceptions.

00:26:44.720 OK, because without us, it's we're just going to keep losing in the long term.

00:26:51.080 OK, I understand the pragmatic perspective.

00:26:55.360 And I know I haven't even gotten into what he said, but I understand the pragmatic perspective

00:27:00.380 of, oh, well, we have to compromise in order to win elections.

00:27:03.640 I really do get that.

00:27:04.800 I'm going to take the wins as they come.

00:27:06.740 That doesn't mean that I have to compromise or that I have to just praise Trump whenever 1.00

00:27:11.380 he says things that are stupid. 0.99

00:27:14.040 So let's get into what he actually said. 1.00

00:27:17.480 He warned everyone that he was going to be putting out a statement about this.

00:27:23.140 He said, I will be putting out my statement on abortion and abortion rights.

00:27:26.660 Abortion rights as left coded.

00:27:28.300 That's left wing, left wing language.

00:27:32.220 Abortion rights. 0.76

00:27:34.220 You do not have rights are given to us by God.

00:27:36.980 God does not give us a right to kill our children.

00:27:40.260 OK, so just a reminder that like Donald Trump is very unfamiliar with Christian thought, with

00:27:46.720 Christian politics and with Christian language.

00:27:49.020 Like we already knew that he is probably especially personally like a center left guy.

00:27:55.220 I'm not negating the accomplishments that were achieved under his presidency when it comes

00:28:02.140 to abortion. 0.52

00:28:02.800 But just personally, like we've known that for a while.

00:28:05.320 He's been pretty upfront about that.

00:28:07.320 So abortion rights tomorrow morning. 1.00

00:28:08.760 Republicans and all others must follow their hearts and minds.

00:28:11.520 But remember that like Ronald Reagan before me, I don't care what Ronald Reagan thought.

00:28:17.740 But yeah, Ronald Reagan was a little bit different and that he personally was very, very pro-life

00:28:24.720 unlike Trump.

00:28:25.780 But he publicly didn't do enough on behalf of the pro-life cause.

00:28:32.220 So I guess if I had to choose, I would choose Donald Trump's combination in that he advocated

00:28:37.200 publicly against abortion and the justices that he chose and things like that.

00:28:42.560 But he's personally not as against it as I would like.

00:28:44.760 Anyway, he said, and most other Republicans believe in exceptions for rape, incest and

00:28:49.160 the life of the mother.

00:28:50.000 Great love and compassion must be shown when even thinking about the subject of life.

00:28:53.680 But at the same time, we must use common sense in realizing that we have an obligation

00:28:57.220 to the salvation of our nation, which is currently in series, declined to win elections, without

00:29:02.380 which we will have nothing other than failure, death and destruction.

00:29:05.940 So just a little baby murder, little baby murder, some baby murder, and then that will 0.70

00:29:11.740 somehow lead to the salvation of our country.

00:29:16.120 Okay, there are some things that I'm willing to compromise on.

00:29:19.080 There are.

00:29:20.300 I'm not going to list them all right now because I don't have time to like completely explain

00:29:25.260 my position on all of them.

00:29:26.720 But there are things I'm willing to compromise on.

00:29:28.420 But when we are literally talking about the life and death of powerless, vulnerable babies,

00:29:36.440 that's just not something that I am willing to say, oh, yeah, okay, I'll just give you

00:29:40.320 a little bit of that so we can get the salvation of our country.

00:29:44.580 Now, I get it.

00:29:45.900 I get it.

00:29:46.560 After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, when the issue went back to the States, unfortunately,

00:29:51.440 you saw abortion radicalism take a new form.

00:29:54.960 That is true.

00:29:55.880 And it is tough to be against the abortion lobby because they've got all of Hollywood.

00:30:00.940 They've got all of big tech.

00:30:02.520 They've got all of the federal government, basically.

00:30:07.160 And then they have a bunch of squishes in the Republican Party. 0.73

00:30:10.440 And so those of us who are really pro-life, like we just don't have as much power as the

00:30:16.860 other side.

00:30:17.300 So it's difficult.

00:30:18.300 And like the propaganda machine on the left when it comes to abortion is just so powerful

00:30:24.020 and it's so difficult to combat.

00:30:25.940 But I mean, we do our darndest.

00:30:28.280 But it's difficult when we have the people who are supposed to represent us who are so

00:30:32.200 much squishier than we are on the issue.

00:30:36.420 So let me play you.

00:30:38.740 Let me play you part of Trump's statement.

00:30:41.720 The first part is about IVF.

00:30:43.520 And this, of course, as we've talked about many times, it's in response to the Alabama

00:30:46.600 decision that embryos are indeed people because, duh, they scientifically are.

00:30:50.680 And that made some changes in the IVF industry in Alabama because inherently IVF involves the

00:31:01.260 destruction of embryos.

00:31:03.300 That tells us a lot about the ethics of the IVF industry.

00:31:06.380 Um, and so he's responding to that because that was obviously, uh, an issue that Democrats

00:31:13.500 immediately held on to and said, oh, Republicans, see, they're not really pro-life.

00:31:18.500 They're anti-choice for women. 1.00

00:31:20.640 But if they're also anti-IVF, that means they're not really pro-life. 1.00

00:31:24.080 Just stupid. 1.00

00:31:24.640 And we've combated that mentality a lot. 1.00

00:31:27.360 But here's what Trump had to say in response to that in the, um, statement that he ended up

00:31:33.640 releasing yesterday.

00:31:34.980 Here's thought one.

00:31:36.620 Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, including the vast majority of Republicans,

00:31:41.620 conservatives, Christians, and pro-life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for

00:31:47.940 couples who are trying to have a precious baby.

00:31:51.480 What could be more beautiful or better than that?

00:31:54.280 Today, I'm pleased that the Alabama legislature has acted very quickly and passed legislation

00:32:01.280 that preserves the availability of IVF in Alabama.

00:32:04.920 They really did a great and fast job.

00:32:09.060 Okay.

00:32:09.640 Well, I mean, to be fair, Trump does think like the majority of professing pro-lifers think,

00:32:16.820 because the more that I've talked about this subject, the more that I've realized that most

00:32:21.360 people are like I was.

00:32:23.100 Okay.

00:32:23.380 So I understand like I was several years ago, probably six years ago.

00:32:28.500 I had never thought about it.

00:32:30.780 I had never thought about the ethics of IVF and surrogacy and reproductive technology.

00:32:35.120 I had no idea that there are millions of embryos indefinitely frozen on ice right now.

00:32:40.500 I had no idea the eugenics process that goes into IVF, the creation and then eugenic selection

00:32:50.240 of multiple embryos, the discarding of embryos that aren't strong enough, that aren't healthy

00:32:56.340 enough, the discarding of either boys and girls based on the gender preferences of the parents.

00:33:02.480 I didn't know the horrific practice of egg selling and sperm selling and what is actually

00:33:09.360 involved in that, not just for women's bodies, but also the detachment of the bond between 1.00

00:33:17.060 the biological mother or father and the children that they're creating.

00:33:22.260 I just didn't know all of this.

00:33:24.080 I didn't know how we were mishandling and misusing and manipulating this innocent embryonic

00:33:30.720 life.

00:33:31.360 And of course, as a pro-lifer, I say life starts at conception, all babies matter, all

00:33:38.120 people matter, no matter how small, like these are all rallying cries of pro-lifers when it

00:33:42.560 comes to abortion.

00:33:43.520 But then when it comes to IVF, when it comes to discarding and freezing multiple embryos,

00:33:51.980 just based on the will and the whims of the parent, we say, well, yeah, sure, life starts

00:33:57.900 at conception, but this life is different.

00:34:00.720 Yeah, babies in the womb have rights, but these babies are different because they're 0.99

00:34:06.460 in a lab.

00:34:07.980 Again, you get into these kind of arbitrary standards of who matters and who doesn't based

00:34:12.980 on their size and development and location.

00:34:14.820 So at that point, you are functionally pro-choice because you have adopted their mentality that

00:34:22.160 people at certain stages of their life matter less and have fewer rights, just depending

00:34:28.820 upon what their parents want.

00:34:31.720 And so, yeah, it's just the more it is, I can say objectively, it's the more thoughtful

00:34:38.200 position.

00:34:39.520 If you are pro-life and anti-abortion because you believe life in the earliest stages matters,

00:34:45.300 then you would also be against IVF.

00:34:49.620 And we have talked about it many, many times, and I don't need to get into all of it too,

00:34:54.800 or right now, but you can go back and listen to the episodes where I've talked to many people

00:35:00.180 about this.

00:35:00.960 We have looked at it from all angles.

00:35:03.220 I saw a tweet at me earlier today that was like, you hate my IVF grandson.

00:35:08.660 Of course, I've never said anything close to that at all.

00:35:12.300 All people are made in the image of God, no matter how they're conceived.

00:35:15.040 I don't have to approve of someone's conception to see their value and worth and to love them

00:35:18.700 as people.

00:35:19.680 But Trump, he represents here, yes, what the majority of professing Christians and pro-lifers

00:35:25.540 think because most people just haven't thought about it and our ignorance, and at this point,

00:35:32.020 our chosen ignorance is actually leading to the death of a bunch of tiny image bearers to

00:35:38.300 our shame. 0.76

00:35:40.000 But I get this.

00:35:40.640 This is the popular position, and so he's saying this because he thinks it's going to

00:35:46.080 help him in some way.

00:35:47.460 All right, then he moves on to what he thinks about abortion.

00:35:50.680 Here's thought two.

00:35:52.320 My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,

00:35:57.940 the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide

00:36:03.720 must be the law of the land.

00:36:05.860 Like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the

00:36:11.800 mother.

00:36:12.540 You must follow your heart of this issue.

00:36:14.240 But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save

00:36:19.560 our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.

00:36:24.760 Okay, so I believe that rapists should get the death penalty, not the babies who are conceived 0.99

00:36:32.740 through rape. 0.88

00:36:34.080 That's his position. 0.82

00:36:35.360 He believes that babies who are conceived through rape should get the death penalty, but not the 0.77

00:36:41.220 rapists.

00:36:41.680 Now, maybe he also believes that the rapists should get the death penalty. 0.99

00:36:46.200 But yeah, this is what all pro-choicers think.

00:36:49.000 Pro-choicers are typically anti-death penalty for murderers and rapists and the most violent

00:36:57.600 criminals, but for the death penalty for babies inside the womb. 0.75

00:37:02.240 And so that is actually the radical position. 0.60

00:37:04.700 That is the morally repugnant position.

00:37:07.220 And if Republicans and conservatives would just be strong on that, would just be unwavering

00:37:13.680 on that, would put it back on them rather than allowing the left to constantly set the

00:37:20.720 moral standards and then trying to appease them in some way, then maybe we would actually

00:37:27.820 win.

00:37:28.200 But we allow them to define the terms on their turf.

00:37:32.520 And then we spend our time acquiescing as much as possible to see if they'll just give

00:37:37.800 us some morsels of what we want.

00:37:41.760 And it just doesn't work like that, especially in the long term.

00:37:46.180 The abolition of slavery was also very politically unpopular at the time.

00:37:52.600 But abolitionists knew it was right because people are not bargaining chips.

00:37:57.220 They are people.

00:37:58.020 They are made in the image of God.

00:37:59.840 Now, I do believe, as I said, to take the wins as they come when it comes to abortion. 0.93

00:38:06.640 I want every possible life to be saved.

00:38:09.940 And so I understand that sometimes it is just the more pragmatic position that politics is

00:38:17.260 about tradeoffs, unfortunately, and we live in a political system.

00:38:22.240 But that doesn't mean that I have to agree, again, with what Trump said.

00:38:26.500 That doesn't mean that I can't critique it or that I can't disagree with it.

00:38:29.840 And when I do, I always get people saying, what you're saying right now is convincing

00:38:34.500 Christians not to vote for him.

00:38:36.100 No, he's doing that on his own.

00:38:37.980 It's not me by playing what he said, by responding to what he said.

00:38:42.860 It's not me that is doing any convincing to Christians to not vote for him.

00:38:48.540 He's doing that all by himself.

00:38:50.240 Because as I've said many times, it is just less appealing to vote for someone who is basically

00:39:00.180 pro-choice when you have someone like RFK who is also pro-choice, but who stands for some

00:39:07.000 things that a lot of Christian women in particular like that Trump doesn't. 1.00

00:39:12.140 He is much stronger for medical freedom and for battling against the swamp and the medical

00:39:21.340 establishment than Trump is.

00:39:23.560 Now, I've also said very clearly that I think that Trump is going to be more conservative,

00:39:30.160 certainly, in who he surrounds himself with and the policies that he promotes than RFK Jr.

00:39:34.800 I'm just trying to let you in on what the decision making really kind of looks like for a lot

00:39:41.400 of Christian women.

00:39:42.740 I think the RFK will be more radical on abortion than Trump, for sure.

00:39:46.520 But a lot of people are looking at this and they're like, OK, great.

00:39:49.300 We've got three pro-choice candidates, which, by the way, we do.

00:39:53.120 And we Christian conservatives, the chumps over here, whose vote no one really cares about,

00:39:59.020 are left to look at the field and just say, all right, I guess this is what we got, but you're

00:40:06.340 not going to force me to be passionate about voting for you.

00:40:12.060 I'll vote for you, but I'm not going to be an evangelist about it.

00:40:16.400 I'm not going to be excited about it.

00:40:20.000 And that's going to be a real problem.

00:40:22.360 That's going to be a real problem for Donald Trump, is that you are chipping away at people's

00:40:27.040 enthusiasm.

00:40:27.520 Yes, you've got Christian conservatives who will begrudgingly vote for you as the better 0.67

00:40:33.480 option versus Biden, but you are going to lose some of your biggest evangelists and

00:40:42.120 apologists, defenders, the people who you need to go out and to be your advocates for

00:40:49.120 the suburban mom.

00:40:51.180 They are right now thinking, OK, I'm going to vote for him because it's the lesser of two

00:40:56.320 evils, but I'm probably going to shut up about it because at this point you're just

00:41:00.500 voting for a bunch of pro-choice people.

00:41:03.040 And that's really unfortunate.

00:41:04.840 Again, I mean, a huge voting block of Christian conservative pro-lifers who may be they're not

00:41:10.940 against IVF, but most of them understand that there's no difference in a baby that's conceived

00:41:16.460 via rape and a baby that's not.

00:41:19.700 And so to say that it's OK to abort one and not the other really doesn't make any sense.

00:41:25.600 They are right now much less excited about talking about voting for Donald Trump.

00:41:32.000 In fact, they're probably just like, you know what?

00:41:34.760 Jesus is coming back.

00:41:36.100 I'm going to fulfill my civic duty, but I'm not happy about it.

00:41:39.540 That's not really what you want.

00:41:41.440 It's not really what you want.

00:41:43.680 You want those Christian conservatives to be as mobilized, as galvanized as possible.

00:41:50.500 And those of us in the commentary space, like we're doing our darndest.

00:41:54.820 We're doing our darndest.

00:41:56.380 And I can say by the grace of God, of course, I don't take credit for this, that there have

00:42:01.020 been many, many people who have changed their minds on abortion through this show, either

00:42:06.500 something that I've said or my guest is said or something that I've written or someone

00:42:10.020 else has written. And I'm certainly not alone.

00:42:12.280 There are many, many others in the commentary space, in the activist space who can say the

00:42:17.880 same thing. But when our politicians are weak, when they hang us out to dry, they throw us

00:42:24.140 under the bus because that's basically what's going on.

00:42:26.380 It makes it really tough.

00:42:27.980 It makes it really tough because what he's basically saying is like, I'm not like those

00:42:34.160 guys over there.

00:42:35.220 I'm not radical like that.

00:42:38.240 I'm more sane.

00:42:39.600 I'm more sophisticated.

00:42:40.900 I'm more nuanced when it comes to this culture war of abortion. 0.94

00:42:44.860 I'm not like those crazy evangelicals to the right of me.

00:42:50.800 But let me let you in on a little secret, Donald Trump.

00:42:55.140 You are not going to get those center left independent votes that you are vying for.

00:43:01.440 You're not because they think that you're a threat to democracy and Hitler.

00:43:06.520 And so you saying that you think that there should be some rare exceptions for abortion

00:43:11.100 is not going to ingratiate you to them.

00:43:17.840 It's just not going to work.

00:43:20.300 It's just not.

00:43:21.540 They see you as too radical in every other way.

00:43:24.000 And at this point, a lot of those people want abortion through all nine months without

00:43:30.260 apology.

00:43:31.660 And so I just don't think that this strategy is going to be effective.

00:43:37.080 Again, saying that as someone who understands the need to vote for him.

00:43:43.240 I do.

00:43:43.860 I do.

00:43:44.520 Better than Joe Biden, for sure.

00:43:46.440 I just thought that this was a weak sauce statement, a morally egregious statement.

00:43:51.620 Um, and I'm surprised by some of some of the pro-life support of it.

00:43:56.460 But most pro-lifers that I've seen have been really, really disheartened, uh, uh, by his

00:44:03.700 statements.

00:44:04.140 So it is what it is.

00:44:07.160 It is what it is.

00:44:08.380 Thankfully, uh, politics don't save us.

00:44:11.040 Politics matter because policy matters because people matter.

00:44:13.880 We say so much voting matters.

00:44:17.240 All of that is important.

00:44:18.300 Um, and I'm going to encourage you to vote.

00:44:21.400 I'm going to encourage you to vote in alignment as best we can with the values that are biblical

00:44:28.920 when it comes to policy.

00:44:30.500 But I got to say, I don't feel super pumped about this election.

00:44:38.240 Um, yeah, but just a reminder, Jesus is coming back and he will rule in perfect peace.

00:44:47.280 And all we can do is the next right thing for his glory.

00:44:53.100 All right.

00:44:53.860 I'm sure that you will let me know what you think about that in the comments of YouTube.

00:44:56.980 And I look forward to reading, reading those comments.

00:44:59.920 Hey, I got something for the Catholics that I lost after yesterday's episode. 1.00

00:45:05.240 I got something for you.

00:45:06.380 I got some praise for Mr. Pope.

00:45:17.280 All right.

00:45:22.660 The Pope, uh, Pope Francis condemned surrogacy, gender theory, and transgender sex change in

00:45:31.760 a statement from the Vatican this week.

00:45:34.380 And I am excited to see this now.

00:45:36.700 Obviously you guys know I am a reformed Protestant.

00:45:39.200 So there are many things that I do not agree, uh, with when it comes to the Pope, when it

00:45:43.900 comes to Catholic theology in general, particularly this Pope.

00:45:46.560 And I would say a lot of my Catholic friends also disagree with this Pope about a variety

00:45:50.560 of things because he's not quite as biblical or conservative, um, as Popes in the past.

00:45:57.420 Uh, but he has been very strong against surrogacy, against gender ideology.

00:46:01.800 Um, now there have been some things where it seems like he has been like warmer towards

00:46:07.720 people who claim gender ideology than I would like, but when it comes to the actual ideology

00:46:14.180 itself and the idea and what's happening with the mutilation of people's bodies, he's been

00:46:18.320 very strong and just Catholic theology in general is very consistent when it comes to the theology

00:46:23.700 of the body and when it comes to IVF, reproductive technology, surrogacy, birth control.

00:46:29.660 And for that, I am very, very thankful.

00:46:32.880 Um, so here is part of his statement.

00:46:34.600 So, um, dignitas infinita, is that how you pronounce it?

00:46:40.560 Do we know none of my Catholic friends in the room right now?

00:46:43.800 No, but we're going to go with that.

00:46:45.600 Dignitas infinita on human dignity.

00:46:48.440 Um, it's largely a reiteration of long held Catholic teaching.

00:46:51.860 So this isn't new, uh, but this is just emphasizing these, uh, uh, emphasizing Catholic

00:46:59.140 teaching on this, which I do think is really important in a time when this is being so heavily

00:47:03.840 debated and so glamorized.

00:47:06.060 So on gender theory, he said, um, the, the church recalls that human life in all its dimensions,

00:47:12.820 both physical and spiritual is a gift from God.

00:47:15.360 Desiring a personal self-determination as gender theory, uh, prescribes apart from this fundamental 0.99

00:47:20.840 truth that human life is a gift amounts to a concession to the age old temptation to make

00:47:25.360 oneself God.

00:47:26.080 That is so true.

00:47:27.700 That is so true.

00:47:29.020 Um, that is the God of self, as we've talked about many times, um, entering into competition

00:47:34.320 with the true God of love revealed to us in the gospel.

00:47:37.380 Okay.

00:47:37.560 Can I tell you something that I've been thinking?

00:47:39.320 Because we've talked about this many times and how, like, um, when you worship the God

00:47:43.660 of self, autonomy and, um, authenticity become idols.

00:47:49.940 Um, autonomy when in submission to God can be good and authenticity when in submission

00:47:57.680 to God can be good.

00:47:58.820 But when the God is self and these things are held supreme, then autonomy justifies, uh,

00:48:05.520 whatever you want to do in the name of controlling your life.

00:48:09.720 So abortion and then authenticity becomes supreme, uh, in determining what you want to do with your

00:48:17.360 body, like changing your sex. 0.97

00:48:19.440 You're just being who you really are.

00:48:21.440 Authenticity and autonomy, again, can be good virtues when they are in submission to God's

00:48:25.520 law.

00:48:25.780 But when you worship the God of self, uh, they actually become vices.

00:48:30.880 They become excuses to sin in very egregious ways.

00:48:34.200 But I was also thinking that transgenderism is self-idolatry in the sense that only God can 1.00

00:48:43.300 create something through declaration of his word.

00:48:48.420 So as we have already said in this episode, when God said in the beginning, let there be

00:48:53.680 light and there it was, and he spoke the world into motion, that was a declaration, a sign,

00:49:00.940 a signifier of his power.

00:49:02.560 Well, transgenderism says the same thing, that you can declare something and become that thing. 0.72

00:49:08.300 You can just say that you are a man.

00:49:10.480 If you are a woman, you can say that you are a woman, if you are a man, and you think that that

00:49:15.240 declaration becomes reality and it doesn't, it doesn't.

00:49:18.740 That's why through all of the sex changes and the hormones and everything that you still remain

00:49:23.660 the sex that you were conceived as.

00:49:27.820 So just another layer of all of that.

00:49:30.280 So, uh, the statement goes on to say another prominent aspect of gender theory is that it

00:49:34.200 intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings,

00:49:38.080 sexual difference.

00:49:39.540 This foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference, but it is also

00:49:42.520 the most beautiful, most powerful of them.

00:49:44.280 So true.

00:49:45.180 And the male female couple, the difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities.

00:49:48.840 It thus becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us, the arrival

00:49:53.300 of new human beings in the world.

00:49:56.660 Um, yes and amen.

00:49:58.020 Then of course it is also rooted in creation, reiterated throughout scripture, repeated by Jesus

00:50:02.460 in Matthew 19, representative of Christ in the church, Ephesians 5, and then reflective

00:50:07.260 of the gospel, Revelation 22, Christ and his bride, the church.

00:50:12.380 Um, he goes on to say, we cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God's work

00:50:17.520 of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences.

00:50:20.640 So true.

00:50:21.660 And where biological elements exist, which are impossible to ignore.

00:50:26.000 Only by acknowledging and accepting this difference and reciprocity can each person fully discover

00:50:30.340 themselves, their dignity and their identity.

00:50:32.320 It's so true. 0.84

00:50:33.880 You cannot be, you know, Elizabeth Elliott has been, or has been, she's obviously dead

00:50:37.660 now, but she had been talking about this since, uh, the 1970s and the feminist movement where 0.99

00:50:43.240 she describes a woman that came up to her after one of her talks and said, I don't want to

00:50:47.460 see myself as a woman.

00:50:48.260 I just want to see myself as a person, but that's impossible.

00:50:52.360 We are embodied beings.

00:50:54.020 We are embodied as either male or female.

00:50:56.200 And that precedes any decision that we make.

00:50:59.000 That is from the earliest point of our development.

00:51:01.940 That is what we are.

00:51:03.360 He talks about the problem of sex change surgeries.

00:51:07.200 Humans are inseparably composed of both body and soul.

00:51:11.060 The body serves, I love this.

00:51:12.660 The body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests

00:51:18.100 itself as it does also through the network of human relationships.

00:51:21.380 That is so true.

00:51:22.820 It reminds me of what Nancy Piercy wrote in Love Thy Body.

00:51:25.120 Constituting the person's being, the soul and the body both participate in the dignity

00:51:29.620 that characterizes every human.

00:51:33.360 He says, we are called to protect our humanity.

00:51:36.200 And this means in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.

00:51:42.000 Any sex change intervention risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from 0.70

00:51:46.800 the moment of conception.

00:51:47.980 This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already

00:51:52.380 evident at birth, you know, goes on and on.

00:51:55.600 But he, it's obvious what he's really talking about here.

00:51:58.740 Such a medical procedure in that case would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended

00:52:03.260 here.

00:52:03.660 So he just wanted to give that caveat, but he is talking about someone who's intentionally

00:52:07.060 trying to change their sex. 0.74

00:52:09.300 Then he talks about surrogacy.

00:52:10.840 He says, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood.

00:52:15.440 Me too, Pope Francis, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the

00:52:21.660 child based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs.

00:52:25.340 A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.

00:52:29.180 Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this

00:52:32.620 practice universally.

00:52:33.960 Me too.

00:52:34.360 The legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a right to a child that

00:52:41.660 fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life.

00:52:45.900 That is true.

00:52:47.120 You don't have a right to conceive. 1.00

00:52:50.000 You don't have a right to a child.

00:52:52.000 A child is not an object that you have a right to obtain.

00:52:56.460 It is a gift.

00:52:58.460 Conclusion, he says, the church with the present declaration ardently urges that respect the

00:53:04.340 dignity of the human person beyond all circumstances be placed at the center of the commitment

00:53:09.760 to the common good and at the center of every legal system.

00:53:14.220 Indeed, respect for the dignity of each person is the indispensable basis for the existence

00:53:19.080 of any society that claims to be founded on just law and not on the force of power.

00:53:24.880 I honestly don't know how as a Christian anyone could argue with that.

00:53:28.960 I didn't read the whole statement.

00:53:30.000 It's beautifully worded, and I think just an airtight theological and natural law argument.

00:53:39.160 And so go read it in its entirety.

00:53:40.800 It's very good, and it is absolutely correct.

00:53:44.340 Now, our very devout Catholic president, his White House obviously had a response to the

00:53:52.100 poll.

00:54:04.260 OK, so let's see what the White House had to say.

00:54:08.520 Karina Jean-Pierre, she faced questions about Pope Francis's declaration condemning gender

00:54:13.040 theory on Monday, and she affirmed President Biden's support for the transgender community.

00:54:18.360 We are pleased to see that the document furthered the Vatican's call to ensure that LGBTQ plus

00:54:24.780 are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world.

00:54:27.340 However, the president will continue to be an advocate for the rights, safety, and dignity

00:54:30.820 of the LGBTQ plus community, including transgender people here in the West.

00:54:35.300 So part of that is responding to things that I didn't read.

00:54:38.200 I'm going to, when a reporter pressed for more specific comments about gender theory and

00:54:41.660 transgender individuals, Jean-Pierre said, I'm going to be really careful.

00:54:44.660 The president's role to litigate internal church policy, that's not his role, so I'm

00:54:50.360 going to be super careful there.

00:54:51.960 But I can speak to the president's stance, and he's always been very clear on the importance

00:54:56.020 of protecting or having protection to the transgender community and the broader LGBTQ

00:54:59.960 plus community, and that's been very clear since day one of his administration.

00:55:06.920 OK, so they're not really saying.

00:55:08.660 But the pope was not talking about internal church policy there.

00:55:14.280 He was saying, no, there need to be laws banning surrogacy, and we should not be having sex

00:55:20.560 change surgeries.

00:55:22.280 So, of course, I don't think that Biden is probably going to speak to this directly or

00:55:29.020 very explicitly puts him in kind of in an awkward position.

00:55:33.080 Of course, we know that he is not actually a devout Catholic because everything he stands

00:55:36.820 for is opposed to what Catholic theology teaches about the body, about human sexuality, and

00:55:42.480 about abortion, which is really, really unfortunate.

00:55:47.880 But no matter what the politicians say or do, no matter what the pope says or does, Christians 0.87

00:55:53.060 are called to stand on the abiding truth and clarity of God's word because his ways are

00:55:59.760 always better.

00:56:00.960 And as we see from something as amazing as the eclipse, God's creation has meaning, it

00:56:08.900 has order, it has purpose, it has beauty.

00:56:12.520 And no matter what is happening in this material world, remember, his eternal plan of redemption

00:56:17.380 is always going off without a hitch.

00:56:20.000 And Jesus Christ, Hebrews 13, 8 says, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

00:56:25.120 Praise God for that.

00:56:25.980 All right, before we get out of here on this Tuesday, I just want to remind you that my

00:56:30.800 friend Jason Whitlock, he's got this amazing event happening in Nashville on June 1st.

00:56:37.660 This is a men's event.

00:56:39.360 You can come for the great food, the music, the fellowship.

00:56:43.520 You can be transformed by the biblically inspired messages that'll be delivered by lots of speakers

00:56:49.560 there, including Jason, Mark Robinson.

00:56:52.780 He is the lieutenant governor of North Carolina that's really just been advocating for good,

00:56:58.880 right, and true policies there.

00:57:00.700 Go to fearlessarmyrollcall.com.

00:57:03.620 Get your tickets today.

00:57:04.940 All you Related Bros out there, check it out. 1.00

00:57:07.380 Saturday, June 1st in Nashville, fearlessarmyrollcall.com.

00:57:12.320 All right.

00:57:13.160 Okay.

00:57:13.600 That's all I got for you today on today's episode of Relatable.

00:57:17.380 We will see you back here tomorrow.

00:57:19.560 We'll see you back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 09, 2024

Ep 982 ｜ The Biblical Meaning of the Eclipse

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