Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 30, 2024


Ep 994 ｜ Russell Brand： Christian or New Ager？


Episode Stats

Length

55 minutes

Words per Minute

161.42175

Word Count

8,980

Sentence Count

609

Misogynist Sentences

28

Hate Speech Sentences

14


Summary

Russell Brand got baptized and Kristi Noem shot her dog? We ve got the analysis on these things today, and much more, on this episode of Relatable. It s brought to you by GoodRanchers.


Transcript

00:00:00.940 Russell Brand got baptized and Kristi Noem shot her dog.
00:00:05.440 We've got the analysis on these things today and much more on this episode of Relatable.
00:00:10.700 It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
00:00:12.220 Go to GoodRanchers.com.
00:00:13.520 Use code Allie at checkout.
00:00:14.700 That's GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.
00:00:25.820 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.
00:00:27.900 Happy Tuesday.
00:00:28.860 Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.
00:00:31.800 If you haven't listened to or watched yesterday's episode with Tara Lee Cobble,
00:00:36.020 I hope that you're able to catch that.
00:00:37.980 It was such a profound and encouraging conversation for me.
00:00:41.300 And I just love anything that is going to encourage Christians to get in the Word and to study the Bible
00:00:48.820 and to view Scripture through the lens of what does this say about God.
00:00:55.580 It makes such a big difference.
00:00:56.780 And I love the point that she made about that.
00:01:00.160 And I love the feedback and the comments and the messages that you guys have sent me about that.
00:01:04.940 All right.
00:01:05.240 Before we get into today's episode, a couple announcements.
00:01:08.680 Number one, our Q&A that's only for Blaze TV subscribers.
00:01:13.100 That is out now.
00:01:14.460 BlazeTV.com slash Allie.
00:01:16.240 Use promo code Allie.
00:01:17.460 You'll get $20 off your subscription.
00:01:19.500 When you subscribe to Blaze TV, you get access to all kinds of subscriber-exclusive content.
00:01:26.500 Not just my stuff, but everyone else's stuff.
00:01:28.460 This particular installment for my audience, though, is relationship questions.
00:01:33.140 Juicy relationship questions that I didn't want to answer to the general audience.
00:01:37.320 And I could only trust my beloved Releda fam with.
00:01:41.680 So go check that out.
00:01:43.080 We've got lots of stuff coming out for you soon.
00:01:46.600 It really helps us kind of protect ourselves from the censors on all of the mainstream platforms
00:01:52.520 when we have a good-sized subscriber base on BlazeTV.com.
00:01:57.340 The next thing, Releda fam, Releda moms out there, we've got In My Mom Era.
00:02:05.140 That's a song that I just made up.
00:02:07.720 Did you like it?
00:02:08.840 In My Mom Era.
00:02:10.240 We've got our T-shirts.
00:02:11.980 Cute.
00:02:12.540 I loved the blue.
00:02:13.360 I wore that last week.
00:02:14.280 A lot of you guys like that.
00:02:15.160 We've got our hats.
00:02:16.840 And we've got our cute onesies.
00:02:20.020 And In My Mom Era, let me remind you that whole era speak predated Taylor Swift.
00:02:26.320 So if you are one of the anti-Swifties out there, you don't need to worry about that.
00:02:33.460 Era predated her.
00:02:34.720 The Gen Zers on TikTok saying,
00:02:37.400 In My Blink Era predated T-Swift.
00:02:40.960 So you don't have to worry about accidentally, incidentally intersecting with Taylor Swift's witchcraft when you are buying our merch in My Mom Era.
00:02:53.080 All right, let's get into some things today.
00:02:55.160 And thank the Lord we have some good things to talk about.
00:02:58.100 Some happy things to talk about.
00:02:59.700 Because as you know, especially if you are following my Instagram stories over the past 24 hours, there is plenty to be sad about.
00:03:08.000 There is plenty to be icked out about, if you will.
00:03:11.620 And plenty to just beseech the Lord to take care of and to avenge His people and to just do away with the evildoers as Psalm 37 promises that He will do.
00:03:27.380 We've got plenty of that.
00:03:28.720 That's on social media.
00:03:30.040 That's in our timelines.
00:03:31.300 That's on our Explore page.
00:03:32.820 That's on X every single day.
00:03:35.300 The depravity that is just taking over the world.
00:03:38.880 However, what do we always say is that God's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch.
00:03:46.900 Maybe we need to put that on a mug or something because it's a good reminder.
00:03:50.260 It's something that I have to remind myself.
00:03:52.980 And as I was traveling last week, Chief Related Bro and I and youngest Related Gal,
00:03:59.860 we were traveling last week speaking at various Christian conferences,
00:04:06.120 and I'm always just so encouraged by the number of engaged Christians out there who care about what's going on in the world,
00:04:14.140 who care about the advancement of God's kingdom, who care about speaking the truth in love.
00:04:19.120 And the internet and the mainstream media would have us believe that we're really few and far between,
00:04:24.520 and that we're totally alone, we're completely isolated.
00:04:26.940 And we see from Scripture that when we feel isolated, when we are isolated, when we are alone,
00:04:33.540 when we are outside of community, we are more vulnerable to temptation.
00:04:38.680 Even Jesus, when he was led out into the wilderness and he was tempted by Satan, he was isolated, he was hungry,
00:04:46.220 he was vulnerable in that way.
00:04:47.620 What did he rely upon when he was hungry, when he was thirsty, when he was alone?
00:04:52.860 The Word of God.
00:04:54.000 And we have to do the same thing.
00:04:55.740 And it is so powerful when we rely on the Word of God together.
00:05:00.580 And so I was just encouraged last week, as I was speaking to many of you out there,
00:05:06.260 many of you Christians who are just as concerned as I am about the direction that we're going,
00:05:11.560 just as resolved as I am to stand firm against the evil that we're seeing,
00:05:17.220 that God is still working as he has always worked through his church.
00:05:21.100 As he has been working for the past 2,000 years, he is still seeking and saving the lost.
00:05:27.740 He is still turning hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
00:05:31.980 He is still spreading his gospel.
00:05:35.100 He is still using believers to make disciples of all nations.
00:05:39.140 He is still working through the unseen and unsung, quiet but persistent obedience and boldness of his people.
00:05:50.020 He is still working through our evangelism.
00:05:52.920 He is still working his power through our prayers.
00:05:57.060 And his eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch.
00:06:01.000 Job 42, 2, no plan of the Lord's can ever be thwarted.
00:06:07.300 And Psalm 37, as we've already referenced, he will one day do away with evil and wickedness forevermore.
00:06:14.020 So as we are tempted to say, why God?
00:06:17.440 Why are you letting this wickedness prevail?
00:06:19.700 Why are you letting the evildoers seemingly win?
00:06:23.580 David was asking the same question, by the way, in the Psalms.
00:06:27.360 We can trust that God is sovereign, that he is in control, that he has a plan for all of it,
00:06:33.140 and that he will do something.
00:06:35.180 He will do something about the sin, about the iniquity, about the evil and corruption and
00:06:42.400 depravity, that his wrath is being stored up to then be poured out on the evildoer.
00:06:48.000 So we can trust that.
00:06:49.220 And in the meantime, we have to be looking for the wonderful blessings of his will being made
00:06:56.700 manifest.
00:06:57.200 And one of those blessings is seeing people who used to be pagans, who used to be atheists
00:07:04.280 or agnostics or witches, however they identified, whatever they said that they believed, turning
00:07:12.220 to Christ.
00:07:13.640 And someone whose journey I have been so excited to witness has been Russell Brands.
00:07:19.640 Russell Brand is an actor.
00:07:21.840 He is a comedian.
00:07:22.780 He has been talking for the past several months about what seems to be kind of a spiritual
00:07:28.940 awakening in his life.
00:07:31.020 He is probably someone I would have described as a spiritual person or who has felt like
00:07:37.000 he is spiritual.
00:07:37.960 He's certainly a critical thinker.
00:07:40.020 Over the past couple of years, we've seen him question a lot of progressive propaganda,
00:07:44.580 and I would say just mainstream propaganda.
00:07:46.840 He probably doesn't identify as being on the right or the left.
00:07:50.220 But certainly during the time of COVID, questioning government policies, questioning the official
00:07:55.500 quote unquote science, and he has kind of gone on a similar trajectory as I've seen a lot
00:08:00.860 of people do in the past few years, is they started questioning everything that they've been
00:08:05.900 told by the media, by Hollywood, by academia, by places like the UN and the WHO.
00:08:13.920 And once they started realizing that maybe these institutions, maybe these media outlets don't
00:08:20.660 have their best interest at heart, for whatever reason, that critical thinking and that skepticism
00:08:28.260 has led them down a path towards Christianity, has led them down the path of recognizing that
00:08:36.500 these powerful institutions are not worth placing our hope and our trust in.
00:08:43.280 And when you start to realize that, when you start to realize that all of these man-made
00:08:49.080 entities are filled with sinful and deceitful people, and still we find ourselves longing for someone to be in
00:08:58.880 charge of us, longing for someone to give us order, longing for someone to tell us the truth,
00:09:06.600 that can really only be fulfilled not through the government, not through the state, not through
00:09:13.240 health entities, not through scientists, but through the God who created all things, who transcends
00:09:20.880 all earthly power.
00:09:23.040 I've seen this in a lot of lives over the past few years, and it's been really interesting to
00:09:29.040 see this with Russell Brand.
00:09:30.700 Now, we will get into some of the skepticism, some of the criticism of Russell Brand, but
00:09:38.560 I will just let you know up front what my attitude is before we talk about some of the most recent
00:09:44.240 developments in his spiritual life, which is baptism.
00:09:47.020 And that is that I am hopeful.
00:09:50.600 I am optimistic in the same way that I was with Kanye West.
00:09:54.440 And as I said last week with Jason Whitlock, I do not regret being hopeful about Kanye West.
00:09:59.920 I don't regret being excited about it.
00:10:01.920 I don't regret being excited about his album.
00:10:05.200 Jesus is King is a really good album.
00:10:07.840 Like, I would probably go listen to that right now.
00:10:10.080 It's got some solid songs on there with some solid theology.
00:10:13.720 There were things at the time that I was skeptical about that I didn't like, that I did talk
00:10:18.780 about, his elevation of some teachers, some things that he was saying that I was like,
00:10:22.360 that's not biblical, but you know, he's early on in his faith.
00:10:26.060 It would be better.
00:10:26.860 And I've said this for a lot of people, when you're early on in your faith, when you're
00:10:29.560 a public person, when you're a celebrity, I think that it's probably better to take a
00:10:33.540 step back for a period of time and to just make sure that you are getting poured into
00:10:38.320 by really solid leaders.
00:10:39.500 You're plugged into the local church, you're growing in humility, you're growing in self-sacrifice
00:10:44.280 and self-denial.
00:10:45.460 I'm not saying that I can set some kind of time limit on that.
00:10:48.640 It just seems to me like that would be a wise practice to do for celebrities rather than
00:10:52.940 immediately turning into like a public teacher and immediately turning your platform into a
00:10:58.560 platform for like teaching theology.
00:11:01.180 Most of us just were not there yet when we first became a Christian.
00:11:04.920 I think that was true of Kanye.
00:11:06.040 But I was still excited about what seemed like a transformation.
00:11:10.520 And now, of course, he is saying that he is going to have a porn studio.
00:11:17.120 And so we're not seeing fruit there.
00:11:19.240 We're not seeing fruit.
00:11:20.360 We're seeing a lot of ugliness.
00:11:21.640 We're seeing a lot of sexual depravity come out of his life, come out of his public persona,
00:11:25.520 his platform now.
00:11:26.920 And of course, that's saddening.
00:11:29.000 But again, I don't regret being excited about it in the first place.
00:11:32.340 And I will not regret being excited about Russell Brand.
00:11:36.440 I will pray for him as I pray for all of us.
00:11:40.600 And I will pray especially, though, for someone like him who does have a public platform and
00:11:45.800 will be receiving a lot of pushback and a lot of temptation, maybe even more than most,
00:11:51.960 just that he would stay grounded and rooted in Christ.
00:11:56.220 So anyway, I just don't—you can be curious and you can be cautiously optimistic.
00:12:02.900 I'm not sure if the right approach is to be a cynical critic about this, though.
00:12:08.640 I think that we can rejoice in what seems like a genuine transformation.
00:12:12.900 All right, we'll get into the details of his baptism in just a second in the video that he
00:12:18.000 made about that over the weekend that I thought was really sweet.
00:12:20.440 But first, let me pause.
00:12:21.300 Okay, so over the weekend, Russell Brand described his baptism.
00:12:37.660 Here is thought one.
00:12:39.280 The truth is this.
00:12:40.160 As a person that has in the past taken many, many substances and always been disappointed
00:12:45.080 with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and even transcendence
00:12:49.960 that I always felt I've been looking for, something occurred in the process of baptism
00:12:54.840 that was incredible, overwhelming, literally overwhelming, because I was obviously underwater
00:13:00.580 and it was the River Thames at some points.
00:13:03.700 So I felt changed, transitioned.
00:13:07.700 I feel as if some new resource within me has switched on.
00:13:11.260 I love you so much.
00:13:12.840 I'm so grateful to be surrendered in Christ.
00:13:16.120 Um, I love that.
00:13:19.040 So got baptized in the River Thames.
00:13:20.960 It's unclear if he is a part of like a particular denomination.
00:13:24.520 It doesn't seem like he is saying that he is Catholic right now.
00:13:27.980 I don't think he said, I'm Baptist or I'm Presbyterian.
00:13:32.400 I don't know if he identifies with a particular subsection of Christianity, but I love that he was baptized.
00:13:41.300 Of course, as a Baptist, I see baptism as an outward symbol of inward regeneration.
00:13:51.460 Salvation isn't predicated upon your baptism.
00:13:57.180 Salvation doesn't come through baptism.
00:14:00.200 If you think, for example, of the thief on the cross, when Jesus said,
00:14:04.740 today you will be with me in paradise, he was not baptized there.
00:14:10.060 And so it's not a prerequisite for your entrance into heaven.
00:14:14.320 However, it's also not just a suggestion.
00:14:17.000 It is a command.
00:14:18.060 When Jesus says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
00:14:22.540 he says, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
00:14:27.660 So baptism as an outward symbol of inward regeneration is very important.
00:14:33.280 And, you know, I've had a debate on this before where the other person was saying, you know,
00:14:39.800 if salvation doesn't actually or if baptism doesn't actually save you, then what's the point if it's just a symbol?
00:14:46.780 Well, of course, there are there's an importance in symbols.
00:14:51.760 For example, this wedding ring, if I take it off, I am still married.
00:14:56.620 But I think it's an important signifier of something much deeper and more profound and even with a legal reality, too.
00:15:07.700 And so baptism is important as a symbol, and it's important as a signifier of what Christ has done in the believer's life.
00:15:16.260 And so I love how he talks about this.
00:15:18.500 I love how he talks about a surrender to Christ.
00:15:23.580 And then the part where he says, as a person that has in the past taken many, many substances and always been disappointed in their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and transcendence that I've always felt that I've been looking for.
00:15:34.780 I love when he said that because he is talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit, which, of course, I don't believe baptism then transfers the Holy Spirit into a person.
00:15:45.880 The Holy Spirit indwells someone when they have been purchased by Christ's blood, when they have been justified by grace through faith in Christ.
00:15:52.940 But I love how he talks about that kind of exchange, that exchanging the temporary pleasure of substances with the eternal and the profound pleasure and satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from the Holy Spirit.
00:16:09.280 And Ephesians 5, 17 through 19 came to mind.
00:16:12.600 Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
00:16:16.360 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with this Spirit.
00:16:21.660 So see that juxtaposition there.
00:16:24.020 Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.
00:16:28.400 Whatever fills you, controls you.
00:16:30.720 Whatever fills you, compels you.
00:16:33.440 Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
00:16:42.320 So he's being filled with the Spirit and he realizes the detriment.
00:16:47.780 Of course, he's been sober for a long time, but realizes the detriment and the fleeting nature of other substances that promise forever fulfillment and happiness and liberation, freedom.
00:17:00.440 Of course, they're lies.
00:17:02.860 They lead to a dead end.
00:17:04.760 He also addresses the cynical responses to his baptism, saying that he understands their perspective.
00:17:10.720 I feel like he's like a very gracious, humble guy because it would be easy to be frustrated by people's cynicism.
00:17:16.280 But he said, so many of your comments have been so beautiful and encouraging.
00:17:19.600 I really appreciate it.
00:17:20.640 And also, even the cynicism, I understand, because some people see me as a celebrity.
00:17:25.060 I don't see me as a celebrity.
00:17:26.460 I recognize that anything in this terrain, this sort of social world, could be exploited and utilized.
00:17:31.120 For me, I've made the decision and I know what the decision is.
00:17:34.000 And I pray that it will be relevant to my family, in particular, my children.
00:17:37.920 He has that he will continue discussing his baptism.
00:17:40.140 This is new to me.
00:17:40.860 It's a joy to me.
00:17:41.540 I know I'm not expected to be perfect, and I know that's not something I'll be able to deliver.
00:17:46.020 I'm so grateful to be a surrender to Christ.
00:17:47.900 You heard that part.
00:17:50.080 So we'll talk a little bit about his journey to Christianity and maybe why some people may be cynical just because of his background.
00:18:01.540 And even some things that he has said more recently about tarot cards, for example.
00:18:08.140 So I think some people pronounce it tarot cards.
00:18:11.540 But I've always said tarot cards.
00:18:13.140 So, okay, let's back up a little bit and talk about who Russell Brand is.
00:18:17.980 So in 2013, he had a Messiah Complex tour.
00:18:23.680 This was a comedy tour.
00:18:25.180 It was meant to kind of have this blasphemous shock factor.
00:18:29.840 The Guardian review of the tour at the time also described it as more thought-provoking than was typical for Brand.
00:18:35.820 Again, at the time, this was more than 10 years ago.
00:18:38.200 He was already kind of beginning at this point to ask questions about life's purpose.
00:18:43.560 And this, of course, I also want to say, like, this, of course, is a few years, several years, I believe, after he became sober.
00:18:49.440 That goes back to that Ephesians 5 verse, that sobriety, that's another thing that I think leads people so often down the trajectory of Christianity or down the path of questioning our purpose and really starting to think about things.
00:19:06.400 Because your mind actually has the ability, has the ability, the sharpness to start thinking about these existential and spiritual issues.
00:19:17.560 Whereas when you are numbed by different substances, you just can't get there, which, of course, is why Satan loves addiction and loves drunkenness and loves drug addiction.
00:19:28.780 Because it can, of course, kill someone's body, but it can also stave off any kind of spiritual renewal or any kind of questioning about spiritual life.
00:19:41.220 So in 2013, Russell Brand created this comedy tour called Messiah Complex.
00:19:49.400 He discussed heroes' values, the vapidity of how we live, while also throwing in his own stories of narcotic and sexual excess.
00:19:59.640 He said at the time that Jesus was the most fascinating of all of the different teachers, Gandhi, Malcolm X, and labeled him an ultra-liberal, possibly communist, anti-wealth, and pro-revolution.
00:20:14.560 At the time, Brand was also enthusiastic about communism.
00:20:18.880 He said the discrediting communism because the Russians used it wrongly was like blaming Steve Jobs because Brand uses his iPad mainly for porn.
00:20:27.540 Talking to Jimmy Fallon on his show in 2012, Brand said that he believed the Bible was more of a symbolic text than the divine word of God.
00:20:35.560 Have you considered that the Bible, like all religious doctrine, may be allegorical and symbolic to direct us towards the only entity of love as opposed to a specific text to direct the behavior of human beings?
00:20:45.540 The Bible wasn't specifically written by a cosmic entity.
00:20:48.820 It was written by people.
00:20:49.840 The Holy Spirit ain't got a pen.
00:20:51.900 So that was the kind of humor that Brand was known for.
00:20:56.660 And he kind of made the agnostic belief system sound lighthearted and interesting, intriguing, and also academic and sophisticated.
00:21:08.360 This is kind of what he was known to do as well as kind of shock people with sexual humor and really just, I think, kind of like degrading humor.
00:21:18.020 That's who he was.
00:21:19.360 And that's kind of the brand that he built.
00:21:22.640 Also, Russell Brand has been pretty upfront about past allegations that he has had about sexual misconduct.
00:21:30.260 Now, he says that all of these allegations of sexual misconduct and even sexual harassment and assault, he claims that they were all consensual.
00:21:38.180 But he does concede that his behavior was inappropriate, that he's ashamed of some of the choices that he made, the things that he did.
00:21:48.040 He says that the allegations are very serious.
00:21:50.640 He's concerned that what he described as coordinated media attacks closely resembled, for example, the media backlash to podcaster Joe Rogan's comments.
00:21:57.360 And the reason that he said that is because of the timing of these stories coming out.
00:22:02.000 These were old stories, but they weren't published and they didn't start circulating again until Russell Brand was very public about his skepticism about the official science on COVID and the COVID lockdowns and the regulations.
00:22:19.520 And so he felt like it was really just a coordinated attack.
00:22:23.260 I don't know.
00:22:24.680 But he has answered these allegations.
00:22:27.720 He has addressed them.
00:22:28.960 He hasn't simply suppressed them.
00:22:31.720 And, of course, I believe that all victims and accusers deserve to be heard and taken seriously.
00:22:37.780 I don't want it to seem like I'm just being dismissive of that.
00:22:40.740 I don't know.
00:22:41.460 I don't know the validity of these claims.
00:22:43.580 I don't I don't know the veracity of all of the allegations.
00:22:46.600 I think they're worth listening to and worth assessing and looking at the facts surrounding them.
00:22:53.780 And I do appreciate that he has addressed them.
00:22:57.600 And I hope that he has made everything right as far as he can when it when it comes to that.
00:23:03.240 That might not mitigate the pain of some of these people who felt like they were victims of his behavior.
00:23:09.680 But it would be right for him to be honest and accountable about that.
00:23:14.860 And no matter what someone has done in their past, repentance in Christ through the grace of God is possible for absolutely everyone.
00:23:27.120 And so over the past couple of years, as he's been talking about his spiritual journey, he's made some, I think, really interesting theological points and discoveries.
00:23:36.000 So in 2015, Brand posted a video to YouTube where he described the pointlessness of porn and said it was corrupting boys, citing research studies to back up his claim.
00:23:58.740 And see, this is already a departure from the things that he was joking about in 2013.
00:24:02.860 He says, 50 shades has porn ruined my chance of a happy marriage.
00:24:10.340 And it's a little weird, like it's a little bit of weird video.
00:24:14.600 I'm not saying I necessarily recommend the whole video.
00:24:17.500 I'm just using it as an example of how his mind clearly started changing.
00:24:22.740 And then in a 2018 interview with Relevant Magazine, he believes he said he believes the teachings of Christ are more relevant now than they've ever been, which is interesting.
00:24:32.160 Again, already kind of a departure from what he was saying in 2012, that this is all maybe just kind of a metaphor, which, by the way, is, and I'm not criticizing him.
00:24:42.500 I'm criticizing this particular view, which a lot of people hold.
00:24:45.520 It's a completely incoherent, incongruent view to hold, that the Bible is just some grand metaphor, that it's just a story, that it points us to some like vague destination of love.
00:24:57.580 That's not even close to what the Bible says or how it is written.
00:25:01.240 Like you could believe that it's a complete and total lie.
00:25:04.280 I mean, that would be very difficult to believe.
00:25:06.620 Again, just the historical details, the cultural details, the geographical details in the Bible.
00:25:12.020 It doesn't read like fiction.
00:25:13.980 It doesn't read like a lie.
00:25:15.540 That would be very difficult for writers all through centuries to be able to do.
00:25:21.620 But it doesn't read like some giant allegory for something else.
00:25:27.600 And so knowing anything about literary devices, knowing anything about history at all, it would be very difficult for someone to logically, coherently walk away with the position that this is just some big work of fiction.
00:25:42.100 So just to address that view that he had back in 2012.
00:25:46.400 And then in an interview with Tucker Carlson last year, Russell Brand said, like many desperate people, I need spirituality.
00:25:53.440 I need God or I cannot cope in this world.
00:25:55.980 I need to believe in the best in people, which I understand that.
00:26:00.140 I think that's also something that's happening right now is just this desire to get away from despair and feeling like, oh, my gosh, I am so powerless against the WEF.
00:26:13.800 I'm so powerless against the WHO.
00:26:16.020 I'm so powerless against our own government that seems to hate us.
00:26:19.440 I'm so powerless against all these forces that are seeking to destroy us and create disorder and chaos.
00:26:26.080 You've got to believe that there is going to be victory in the end.
00:26:30.760 You've got to believe that there is some purpose in all of this and that there is a transcendent being who actually cares, who actually sees, who is actually working on behalf of his people, that there is a good shepherd that is leading us.
00:26:44.120 And that is what Christianity specifically offers.
00:26:47.400 And then in December, he posted a video talking about his engagement with Christian literature, including C.S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain and Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life.
00:26:58.520 I don't recommend Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life.
00:27:01.720 These readings have led him to prioritize a personal relationship with God, he said, particularly as he navigates the complexities of suffering, purpose and identity.
00:27:09.540 He said, and we talked about this at the time, the reason I wear a cross is because Christianity, in particular the figure of Christ, are, it seems to me, inevitably becoming more important as I become more familiar with suffering, purpose, self and not self, he said at the time.
00:27:25.040 And then in March, he posted a video discussing his visits to churches of various denominations and solicited opinions on baptism from his followers.
00:27:32.720 Oh my goodness, that is a very brave thing to do, to ask your millions of followers to give their opinions on anything.
00:27:40.100 And so that was a really beautiful development.
00:27:42.920 A lot of these videos and interviews that were coming out that we've kind of talked about a few times over the past few months.
00:27:49.220 And then the day after his baptism, okay, so this was, I believe, on Sunday,
00:27:55.360 Russell Brand posted a video where he used a tarot card to explain how its meaning could tie to a spiritual journey with God.
00:28:04.080 Brand asks viewers what they think about dabbling in different modalities or hybrid models from different spiritual backgrounds.
00:28:10.740 Here's thought too.
00:28:11.680 A lot of Christians would say that tarot and even yoga is a kind of heresy.
00:28:17.540 What's your personal view on that?
00:28:19.060 Do you still use stuff like this and the I Ching?
00:28:21.740 Do you still look out for symbols and signs as you move further down a particular pathway?
00:28:28.140 One thing's for sure that when you get something like that, it does serve as a tool for reflection and personal analysis.
00:28:37.240 All right.
00:28:38.580 So I do not think that that is where he will stay forever.
00:28:46.040 If the Holy Spirit is really in his life and he is being sanctified, he will very soon learn through the study of Scripture and hopefully being plugged into a good local church.
00:28:58.900 I pray that for him.
00:29:00.480 He will realize that promoting tarot cards, using tarot cards or any kind of divination is wrong.
00:29:07.700 It's messing with satanic powers.
00:29:10.040 I think that there is a belief among a lot of professing Christians that there's God and heavenly beings, there's Satan and demons, and then there's all this magic in between that is neither of God necessarily, and it's not of Satan.
00:29:24.480 But that's not true.
00:29:25.600 The spiritual world is made up of God and his powers and his angels, his power working through believers, his Holy Spirit indwelling the lives of believers, and then there's Satan and his minions.
00:29:40.980 And all magic we can see throughout Scripture and God's commands against it, they're actually just tools of Satan.
00:29:49.300 So do I believe in ghosts?
00:29:51.120 Do I believe in the power of witchcraft?
00:29:53.080 I believe in Satan.
00:29:54.000 Ephesians 2 says that he is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once walked, according to the passions of our flesh.
00:30:06.120 And so Satan is working right now in the lives of unbelievers, the prince of the power of the air.
00:30:13.080 That's a kind of like diffusive and pervasive power.
00:30:15.680 Not all powerful, but he is absolutely present, and he works through things like witchcraft and tarot cards.
00:30:22.440 And it's real.
00:30:23.960 The power that they have through Satan is real, and that's why God warns against it.
00:30:29.440 For example, we look at the Old Testament, and while we are not ancient Israel, and we don't apply all the ceremonial and cleansing laws to us today, because Jesus has become our sacrificial lamb.
00:30:40.440 He has become our cleansing.
00:30:41.780 We can still see in the law giving to Israel the principles of who God is, what he loves, and what he hates, and analyze why.
00:30:50.860 Why did he give these commands?
00:30:52.540 What is the moral law underneath it that we still need to apply?
00:30:56.580 Is that still applicable today?
00:30:59.240 So we look at, for example, Deuteronomy 18, 9 through 12.
00:31:03.780 When you come into the land that the Lord your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
00:31:11.160 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead.
00:31:28.960 For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.
00:31:33.780 Remember, Jesus Christ, who is one person of the Trinity, so he's present all throughout the Old Testament.
00:31:40.860 He is just as much the God of the Old Testament as the God of the New Testament.
00:31:44.740 Hebrews 13, 8, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
00:31:47.800 So this is still an abomination to God.
00:31:50.900 This is still working with the devil, working with the powers of darkness that Christians should have no part in whatsoever.
00:31:58.020 And I just want to note also that God specifically had to warn against associating with anyone who sacrifices their children.
00:32:08.560 And we think of that as some barbaric, archaic practice that still happens today.
00:32:12.440 We've just sterilized it, and we've called it reproductive rights.
00:32:16.440 Child sacrifice is a tale as old as time, almost.
00:32:19.820 And wherever Christians have gone, the practice of child sacrifice has come to an end.
00:32:26.720 And so all of this talk of the evils of colonialism, well, part of colonialism worked out pretty well for the children who were no longer sacrificed by their pagan parents.
00:32:36.720 And then if you look at, for example, in Acts 16, where Paul is a fortune teller, a slave who earned her master's lot of money by fortune telling,
00:32:55.140 the Bible actually says that her fortune telling abilities were from a demonic spirit.
00:33:01.220 Paul was then able to cast out that demonic spirit by the name of Jesus Christ.
00:33:07.480 That's Acts 16, 18.
00:33:10.960 And so we can see very clearly, that's a New Testament example.
00:33:14.560 We can see very clearly that tarot cards and fortune telling, any sort of witchcraft trying to talk to the dead, claiming to be a medium.
00:33:25.940 I saw the other day that the Long Island medium lady, I remember she was on TLC a long time ago.
00:33:31.220 She still has like a popular podcast.
00:33:33.040 That's satanic.
00:33:34.200 That's demonic.
00:33:35.220 That's not something that's funny.
00:33:36.640 That's not something that we mess around with.
00:33:38.620 And it's very popular today.
00:33:41.340 Witch Talk is a very popular subset of TikTok that we talked about, I think, for the first time maybe in 2019 to 2020.
00:33:51.620 It's not cute.
00:33:52.760 It's not trendy.
00:33:53.620 The fact that we're seeing it collide with a lot of kids' toys today is very disturbing and dark and troubling.
00:34:01.100 And so to answer Russell Brand's questions, no, this is not something that people, people can't have different opinions on it, of course, but only one opinion is right.
00:34:11.400 And that is the opinion, that is the fact of, that is the truth of the Word of God, which says that is dancing with the devil.
00:34:18.620 And trust me when I say, trust the Lord when he says that is not something that you want to do.
00:34:24.200 However, I don't think that, I mean, there are some people who are talking about this and saying, see, this is why I'm skeptical.
00:34:31.440 Okay, you can be cautiously optimistic.
00:34:33.580 You can be skeptical.
00:34:34.840 I think that's fine.
00:34:36.680 However, to use this and to discount his transformation altogether, I don't think that's fair.
00:34:42.420 But again, what I would say, and this is certainly not coming from someone who thinks that I have it all figured out by any means,
00:34:49.900 but when you're a new believer, I think that you should hesitate to be sharing too much on the Internet when it comes to theology.
00:34:59.880 Like, on the one hand, I think it's super helpful and hopeful and exciting to see his transformation journey publicly.
00:35:07.220 And obviously, I'm talking about it, so I think that's great.
00:35:09.720 But then on the other hand, I worry about the kind of public curiosity that he explains now as like a public Christian that may seem to communicate to someone,
00:35:26.240 maybe even a weak believer, moral relativism.
00:35:29.720 Or while if Russell Brand, the super smart, critically thinking person, is kind of messing around with this, maybe it's okay for me to as well.
00:35:41.000 I would suggest, and no, I mean, there's no reason for him to listen to me.
00:35:46.580 I'm sure he will never hear this episode.
00:35:48.740 But I would suggest taking questions like that, about tarot cards or about just theological, about denominations, about baptism.
00:35:59.340 I know the online dialogue is great, and he's all about free thinking and free inquiry.
00:36:04.440 Take that to a trusted Christian.
00:36:06.680 Take that to a Christian who knows and understands the Bible, who loves God, a humble Christian.
00:36:11.820 Take it to your local church.
00:36:14.540 You need to find a good local church.
00:36:16.300 How do you know that it's a good local church?
00:36:17.960 You've got your pastor every Sunday preaching the Bible verse by verse.
00:36:24.080 There are plenty of other characteristics that I could give you.
00:36:27.180 You could go to founders.org slash church dash search.
00:36:30.920 A lot will come up.
00:36:31.780 Master Seminary has a church search option.
00:36:35.160 Nine Marks.
00:36:36.760 I know there's some disagreements about the health of that organization,
00:36:40.960 but those are all church search tools, engines, that you could use to find a local church.
00:36:48.540 Get plugged into your local church.
00:36:49.740 You can't let Instagram be your church.
00:36:52.020 You just can't.
00:36:52.600 You can't let social media be your church.
00:36:54.140 You can love your audience, but they're not going to be, probably, the source of wisdom,
00:37:00.660 the source of wisdom that you need to be looking toward.
00:37:03.740 And just be reading, be reading the Word of God every day.
00:37:07.640 And questions are good.
00:37:09.300 Not having everything figured out right away is totally fine.
00:37:12.880 But ensuring that you're going to the Word of God and Christians who have been Christians
00:37:17.920 longer than you have in order to really understand what's, you know,
00:37:26.080 the answers to some of the inquiries that you have.
00:37:29.160 All right.
00:37:29.660 So let's pray for Russell Brand, excited for this journey.
00:37:33.940 Pray that the Lord would just keep him steadfast and steady and rooted and grounded in love.
00:37:40.800 I'll go ahead and read that verse because that's a good one.
00:37:44.400 It's from, let's see, Ephesians.
00:37:47.440 Some of you probably know Ephesians 3, 17.
00:37:50.520 So let's just, let's just read it.
00:37:52.520 Oh gosh.
00:37:53.300 Paul in Ephesians.
00:37:54.620 And so my friend and I, when we were in college, we decided to memorize the book of Ephesians,
00:37:59.660 which is an amazing, it's amazing.
00:38:02.000 I still, like you heard me recite Ephesians 2 earlier.
00:38:05.540 And so I still have it in my head.
00:38:07.140 So I highly recommend doing that.
00:38:08.560 However, I do not remember any of the actual like number verses.
00:38:14.700 And so sometimes I get confused about where things are.
00:38:17.260 But it was also really difficult because Paul in Ephesians uses, well, I guess just through
00:38:22.140 the translation, it's like the longest sentences.
00:38:25.140 So let me read, where should I start?
00:38:27.480 I think this is all one sentence.
00:38:29.200 Okay.
00:38:29.380 Let me read you all one sentence in Ephesians 3, 14 through 19, before we move on to our
00:38:35.920 next topic.
00:38:36.940 That's one sentence.
00:39:06.940 Let me just finish the rest of this chapter.
00:39:08.600 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to
00:39:13.440 the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
00:39:17.780 all generations forever and ever.
00:39:19.940 Amen.
00:39:20.840 So that's my prayer, not just for Russell Brand, but for all believers, for us in these
00:39:25.780 very scary times that we are in, that we would be rooted and grounded in love and grow up
00:39:30.940 into Christ, who is the head of the church.
00:39:34.060 All right.
00:39:34.380 We're going to talk about a couple more things just quickly.
00:39:36.780 Okay.
00:39:49.700 Now I want to talk about Kristi Noem shooting her dog.
00:39:53.780 You heard that, right?
00:39:55.820 Kristi Noem not only shot her poor dog, but decided to write about it in a book.
00:40:01.900 Kristi Noem is, in fact, the South Dakota governor, and she just wrote a book, No Going Back,
00:40:10.980 the truth on what's wrong with politics and how we move America forward.
00:40:17.720 I don't like that title at all.
00:40:19.640 I don't.
00:40:20.060 It's way too long.
00:40:20.880 The truth on what's wrong with politics, the truth of, the truth about, the truth, I don't
00:40:27.400 know.
00:40:27.880 On just seems wrong to me, but it's also like super, it's just, it's too wordy.
00:40:34.340 Anyway, Kristi Noem, she's, you know, she's done some interesting things recently.
00:40:41.000 She's like basically trying to be a governor influencer.
00:40:46.360 Like she's got sponsored posts on X, like, like a teeth whitener company or something
00:40:54.500 like that.
00:40:54.960 Like she has been advertising a few products.
00:40:57.780 It seems to me like she is really trying to convey a particular image and I just don't
00:41:03.880 love it.
00:41:04.440 Now, it is difficult to be a woman in politics, a woman in the public sphere.
00:41:09.900 It really is.
00:41:10.820 If you're too feminine, people see you as weak.
00:41:12.920 If you're too masculine, people see you as butch or another word with another vowel instead
00:41:20.880 of you.
00:41:21.880 And so it can be really, it can be difficult.
00:41:25.160 You don't want to be seen as a diva.
00:41:26.880 You also don't want to be seen as callous.
00:41:29.940 Like you have to have the right combination of softness and assertiveness.
00:41:36.740 And in some ways, this is true, I think, for male politicians, too.
00:41:40.300 But it's more difficult, I think, for women.
00:41:43.040 Two people that I think do this well.
00:41:45.880 I think that Nikki Haley does this well.
00:41:48.980 I don't agree with her on her political, on many of her political positions on things
00:41:54.320 like abortion and maybe some foreign policy.
00:41:56.680 I don't know if I see eye to eye with her on.
00:42:00.920 But she does a good job.
00:42:03.200 I think she does a good job of striking that balance.
00:42:06.480 And she's always very well-dressed.
00:42:09.240 I made that note like a few months ago that she did a good job of like dressing herself
00:42:14.480 and presenting herself, which is more important when you're a woman.
00:42:17.400 It just is.
00:42:18.600 And Sarah Huckabee Sanders does that amazingly, too.
00:42:21.120 She brings the relatability and the softness and the femininity of being a woman and a mom
00:42:27.860 who seems to really care about her family and then also the strength and the fortitude of
00:42:34.240 being a courageous leader who's not afraid to push forward policy that is conservative
00:42:39.940 and just beneficial to her state of Arkansas.
00:42:43.840 So those are two female politicians that I think do it well.
00:42:47.940 And then there are politicians that I think just really struggle with that.
00:42:51.280 I would have said that Kristi Noem is someone who did that well.
00:42:55.520 And then things have gotten weird over the past couple of years.
00:42:59.120 I think it got to her head when she started, when she was one of the first governors,
00:43:03.120 if not the first governor, to open up her state and to push back against COVID restrictions,
00:43:08.140 which I'm very thankful for, you had all of these online right-wing male commentators
00:43:13.560 talking about how hot she is.
00:43:15.860 Yuck.
00:43:16.660 Yuck.
00:43:17.520 It makes, it grosses me out.
00:43:19.100 I'm sorry.
00:43:19.660 It grosses me out when I see some people, some men that I respect, married men,
00:43:25.160 talking about how hot she is and how hot Carrie Lake is.
00:43:28.540 I, they're beautiful.
00:43:29.680 Okay, that is great.
00:43:31.180 But y'all are giving me the ick.
00:43:32.700 Y'all are grossing me out.
00:43:33.940 I don't want to think about y'all thinking about that.
00:43:36.900 Yuck.
00:43:37.180 And so I think that kind of got to her head.
00:43:39.500 And I think she was like, I'm going to get extensions and I'm going to get some Botox
00:43:43.420 and I'm going to start really playing into this like hot girl vibe that people have placed
00:43:49.140 on me.
00:43:49.540 You know, she used to just have your typical female politician haircut and now things have
00:43:54.720 changed.
00:43:55.140 And now she's gotten like so arrogant that she thinks that she can write about shooting
00:44:00.460 a dog and no one's going to care.
00:44:02.060 But people did care.
00:44:03.600 People really did care.
00:44:04.640 So the Guardian posted, published part of her book where she says, I hated that dog.
00:44:10.880 She's talking about a dog who was a puppy, 14 months old, dog named Cricket.
00:44:14.500 I hated that dog.
00:44:16.320 Adding that Cricket was untrainable, dangerous and worthless as a hunting dog.
00:44:19.920 At that moment, I realized I had to put her down.
00:44:22.820 So then she led Cricket.
00:44:24.140 I'm sorry.
00:44:24.620 I'm sorry if this is disturbing to you.
00:44:26.680 She then led Cricket to a gravel pit on her property and shot it.
00:44:30.500 Writing, it was writing.
00:44:32.020 It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done.
00:44:36.300 Then she also killed a nasty and mean male goat that smelled and that smelled.
00:44:40.820 Yeah.
00:44:41.420 Most goats do.
00:44:42.400 And like to chase her children because it jumped.
00:44:45.000 When she first shot at the goat, she needed two shots to put him down.
00:44:49.520 The Guardian wrote that the story was told as an anecdote to show that no one believes
00:44:53.300 sometimes difficult tasks must be carried out and that she is not afraid to do so.
00:44:58.320 So I don't know.
00:44:59.220 I felt like maybe she thought this was going to land like old yeller.
00:45:03.040 But old yeller, he was sad to have to kill his rabid dog.
00:45:07.800 Chrissy Noam seems to kind of be gleeful about this.
00:45:11.960 And so that's part of the issue here.
00:45:14.660 And Noam said this.
00:45:16.060 She said this in the book.
00:45:18.000 I guess if I were a better, I don't know.
00:45:20.520 I just imagine that she's got an accent.
00:45:23.100 I know she's from South Dakota and they don't talk like that.
00:45:25.500 But I feel like she's trying to be like, I'm in Lonesome Dove.
00:45:28.860 I guess if I were a better politician, I wouldn't tell the story here.
00:45:33.080 Noam wrote.
00:45:34.120 I don't know, like 1883 or something like that.
00:45:37.380 That's what I imagine her thinking that she is like the narrating girlfriend.
00:45:41.340 From 1883, who also had a terrible accent.
00:45:43.960 Anyway, so she wrote this.
00:45:47.100 I don't know what she thought people were going to think.
00:45:51.340 I don't know if she thought that people would be like, heck yeah, girl.
00:45:55.920 Yes, we love that.
00:45:58.300 Kill that dog.
00:45:59.360 But that is not what people thought.
00:46:01.580 I mean, people left, right, center are absolutely freaking out about this.
00:46:09.240 We've got so my girl, Megyn Kelly, whom I love.
00:46:14.260 She is not happy about this at all.
00:46:17.760 That's someone that I consider on the right criticizing her.
00:46:21.620 I think it was.
00:46:22.880 I think I saw Meghan McCain, some other people saying, oh, my gosh, this is absolutely, absolutely
00:46:27.280 atrocious, awful.
00:46:28.820 A lot of right wing or conservative commentators were saying the same thing.
00:46:33.120 The Rolling Stone, obviously coming from the left, says PETA has weighed in on
00:46:37.900 Kristi Noem killing her dog, calling the governor a psychotic loony for letting this rambunctious
00:46:42.260 puppy loose on chickens and then punishing her by deciding to personally blow her brains
00:46:47.240 out.
00:46:48.300 Ann Coulter says good news story of the day.
00:46:51.420 Kristi Noem manages to unify the left and the right, the woke and QAnon, the trans and
00:46:56.400 the homophobes unanimously around the proposition that she is a monster.
00:47:03.200 Jesse Kelly's commentary, the GOP could not be the party party of murdering dogs.
00:47:07.660 If you want to be GOP, you have to stand for life unless it's a 12 week old baby growing
00:47:11.720 in its mother's womb.
00:47:12.960 In that case, screw that kid.
00:47:14.360 We got an election to win.
00:47:16.360 He is showing that there is hypocrisy here.
00:47:19.760 We've got people on the right who are and I'm not talking about the necessarily the people
00:47:25.040 that I listed.
00:47:25.860 He's just talking about in general, like you've got some people on the right being like, oh,
00:47:30.680 my gosh, this is absolutely awful.
00:47:32.660 How dare she kill her?
00:47:34.420 How dare she kill her dog?
00:47:35.880 Who are also saying, well, maybe Trump is right to compromise on abortion.
00:47:40.120 Maybe just a 16 week ban is fine.
00:47:42.600 Maybe we should have exceptions for abortion.
00:47:44.660 But we're absolutely freaking out about Kristi Noem killing her dog.
00:47:49.340 Matt Walsh also said, consider that prominent politicians have publicly confessed to killing
00:47:53.480 their own children and none of them provoked even a tenth of the outrage that Kristi Noem is
00:47:57.880 experiencing right now for killing a dog.
00:48:01.260 And that's basically where my commentary goes.
00:48:05.280 That's immediately where my mind went when I saw not only what she said, but also everyone's
00:48:10.760 reaction to it.
00:48:12.640 I do think it's a weird story to tell.
00:48:15.720 I don't want to hear that story.
00:48:17.520 I love animals.
00:48:18.300 I think animals are awesome.
00:48:20.380 And I love dogs.
00:48:22.120 And I have a lot of compassion and sympathy for animals.
00:48:26.640 But I also see that they are animals.
00:48:30.340 They are animals.
00:48:31.180 Their lives are not as important as human life.
00:48:34.480 Now, I don't know her whole story, but if she felt like this dog was constant, I think
00:48:38.360 she said that the dog bit her children and was basically like a violent dog and was hurting
00:48:44.780 her children.
00:48:45.860 Look, I do think that when animals hurt people, they need to be put down.
00:48:50.380 I do believe that.
00:48:52.460 Was this a weird story to tell?
00:48:54.780 Yeah, this was a weird story to tell.
00:48:56.880 This is not really going to ingratiate anyone to her, probably, except for I think Michael
00:49:02.240 Knowles said that he now respects her more, which is a funny take.
00:49:06.500 But anyway, I think that really the reaction to the story says more and says many more disturbing
00:49:16.080 things about our culture than it says disturbing things about Christy Nolan, that she put down
00:49:22.640 a dog that apparently was a danger to her family, if I remember correctly, the full description
00:49:30.900 of poor cricket, because it shows that we are much more shocked by and disturbed by, sickened
00:49:43.520 by the killing of an animal who is not made in the image of God and does not have a soul
00:49:50.700 than we are disturbed by the dismemberment, the poisoning of, the brutal slaughter of living,
00:49:59.760 breathing, breathing, wiggling babies inside the womb.
00:50:04.720 And that is a problem.
00:50:07.100 That's a problem.
00:50:07.720 That means our moral compass is off.
00:50:10.840 That means that there is a sickness, actually a monstrosity in our own hearts if that is where
00:50:18.420 our priorities lie.
00:50:19.780 If abortion doesn't sicken you at all, if it doesn't make your stomach flip, if it doesn't
00:50:25.880 make you cringe, and if it doesn't hurt your heart at all, and if you can think about what
00:50:32.760 abortion is, the process of abortion, or the fact that abortion happens hundreds of thousands
00:50:38.840 of times a year in our country, and that does nothing inside you, but you read this story
00:50:45.620 and you were in a tizzy about it, and you were sad about it, and you were calling Christy
00:50:51.080 Noem all kinds of names, that says something really, really dark and disturbed about your
00:50:57.400 own soul and your own heart.
00:51:00.180 Again, way more than it speaks to any character flaws that Christy Noem might have.
00:51:06.320 G.K.
00:51:06.720 Chesterton, the Catholic thinker, said,
00:51:10.400 Wherever there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice.
00:51:14.920 Wherever there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice.
00:51:18.780 When you worship and revere animals, you start treating humans as less than human.
00:51:25.140 You start treating them as objects, as commodities, and that is, of course, where we are as a culture.
00:51:32.800 So that is basically, I mean, those are my thoughts on it.
00:51:36.460 Now, does that mean that we should be cruel to animals?
00:51:40.860 No, I don't think that we should be cruel to animals.
00:51:43.540 I think that we should be kind to animals.
00:51:45.800 God gave us creation, including animals to steward and to care for.
00:51:54.140 And I think of Proverbs 12.10,
00:51:56.200 Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
00:52:03.260 So we are to have regard for the life and the well-being of animals.
00:52:08.260 And people who are callously cruel to animals typically are sociopaths or psychopaths that end up harming human beings.
00:52:21.280 I don't think that's the case here with Christy Noem.
00:52:23.640 Do I like how she described the story?
00:52:25.200 Do I even agree with her decision to kill this puppy?
00:52:28.200 No.
00:52:28.720 I think there could have been redemption for the puppy.
00:52:30.740 I think that he could have been given to a different family.
00:52:33.920 I'm not sure that in this case it was right for her to make this decision.
00:52:40.280 But people always take precedence.
00:52:43.560 People always take precedence.
00:52:45.540 People always matter more.
00:52:47.760 We should be more outraged, more disgusted and disturbed by what happens to human beings in the womb than we are about a politician killing a dog.
00:52:56.940 Even if I don't like the treatment of the dog, it's not going to spark my outrage because I have a limited capacity for outrage and anger.
00:53:10.500 And there's too many injustices happening against people for me to be as upset about this as so many other people are.
00:53:23.660 So that's my take on that's my take on that.
00:53:27.140 All right.
00:53:28.900 Let's see.
00:53:30.480 Anything else that we have time to discuss today?
00:53:33.380 She did respond, by the way.
00:53:35.100 I'll just say that before we close out.
00:53:36.880 She did respond.
00:53:37.720 She said some people are upset about this.
00:53:40.820 And she said the fact is South Dakota law states the dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down.
00:53:46.000 Given that cricket has shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.
00:53:51.540 Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle.
00:53:56.420 Weird.
00:53:57.100 I'm sorry.
00:53:57.740 I still think that this whole thing is weird.
00:54:00.000 However, I do understand the decision to get rid of a dog that bites any people.
00:54:06.020 It's just an odd choice.
00:54:08.540 An odd choice here.
00:54:21.540 All right.
00:54:23.500 Let's see.
00:54:24.240 Anything else?
00:54:24.880 I wanted to get into RFK Jr.'s recent comments to Ben Shapiro about abortion.
00:54:31.960 We just don't have time for that today.
00:54:33.780 Long story short, he said, yeah, you know, I believe it's between a woman and her pastor and the doctor.
00:54:39.840 And late-term abortions, they don't happen for no good reason.
00:54:42.880 There's always a good reason that a woman aborts her child in the third trimester, which, of course, is not true.
00:54:48.500 At that point, the baby is viable.
00:54:50.740 You deliver the baby.
00:54:51.740 You don't have to kill the baby first.
00:54:53.120 There's no good reason for that.
00:54:54.860 RFK probably knows that but understands that he's not going to get the liberal support that he needs if he says that there should be any limits on abortion at all.
00:55:03.900 But just remember, because I know that there may be some conservative women out there still thinking about that, if you're choosing between Trump and RFK and you're looking for the more pro-life candidate or the candidate more likely to sign pro-life legislation, you're going to go with Trump.
00:55:21.880 I don't like his position.
00:55:23.120 I still think it's too liberal.
00:55:24.280 But when it comes to who he's going to surround himself with, the kind of legislation he's going to sign, Trump absolutely wins against RFK when it comes to abortion.
00:55:34.300 All right.
00:55:35.080 That's all we've got time for today.
00:55:36.800 We will be back here tomorrow.