Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 30, 2019


REPLAY： Half-Truth from Hell


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Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. My name is Allie Stuckey. Thank you so much for listening.
00:00:05.560 I hope that you guys have had a great week so far. So today we are going to talk about
00:00:11.280 half-truths. And we're going to talk about a particular half-truth that I saw by,
00:00:16.000 spoken by a very popular influencer and why it's actually wrong from a Christian perspective. I
00:00:22.980 might get to one piece of news at the end. It depends on how much time we have. If not,
00:00:27.220 I'll bump it to next week. And then I might, sorry, just lost my voice for a second. I might
00:00:33.500 have time to answer some of the questions that you guys sent me on Instagram. So the half-truth
00:00:39.740 that we are going to discuss today was something that I saw on Instagram, just like a couple of
00:00:44.560 weeks ago when we did the three myths that Christian women believe. I talked about a myth that I saw
00:00:49.700 posted by a particular celebrity about how you're enough, you're lovable, you're beautiful. And we
00:00:55.720 just kind of talked about how that whole mentality, although it is casted as biblical, is actually
00:01:01.700 very selfish and unbiblical. It doesn't ultimately help us because our focus should be on Christ.
00:01:07.120 And this is kind of a continuation of that, or at least another piece of that. So I want to read
00:01:15.320 you this quote, and then we are going to break down why it's not true. And the truth that I think is
00:01:21.280 far more rewarding, far more healing than, uh, what this offers. So the quote is focus on what
00:01:29.080 you think of you. So this is a quote by a Christian author that a lot of people love and follow. She's
00:01:35.560 got a podcast and I think a million followers on Instagram. People absolutely love her. She's got
00:01:41.900 some good self-help knowledge, some good, uh, business savvy that I think has helped a lot of
00:01:46.940 people. But when it comes to, uh, Christian faith, she's just not someone that we should be listening
00:01:53.400 to her point in focus on what you think of you is true. Um, don't compare yourself to other people.
00:02:01.200 Comparison is the thief of joy. That's absolutely. That's absolutely right. Uh, the 10th commandment
00:02:05.940 says, do not be envious of your neighbor's goods. In other words, do not covet. We should not be focusing
00:02:11.860 on what other people have that we do not have. Uh, that is incongruent with being joyful,
00:02:18.600 with being content with what God has given us and cultivating the talents and the blessings that God
00:02:25.340 has given us to use for his glory. So I completely agree with the sentiment behind that. Don't focus
00:02:31.200 on other people's opinions of you. Don't focus on what everyone is saying about you or else you're
00:02:36.660 never going to accomplish anything. You're never going to be able to move forward in life.
00:02:39.540 I agree with the sentiment in general, and I'm not demonizing this person, but I want to point out
00:02:47.580 the insufficiency of this statement of focusing on what you think of you. Here's the problem.
00:02:55.160 Here's the problem for Christians with that statement. If you're not a Christian, maybe that's
00:02:59.220 the best you can get. Maybe what you think of you, maybe, maybe that's, uh, the most that you can
00:03:04.720 get to in a healthy way of thinking. But for Christians, we have transcendent possibilities
00:03:10.280 and they're found in God's word. So the reason why this statement focus on what you think of you
00:03:16.500 is problematic is because what you think of you is irrelevant because it is untrustworthy.
00:03:23.960 So your thoughts about yourself, my thoughts about myself in my little pea brain are three things.
00:03:31.080 They are a conditional, they are B changing, and they are C conceited. So my thoughts of me
00:03:39.000 are a conditional. Uh, they are dependent on what we do, how we look, what we feel like this morning.
00:03:46.140 Like I'm pregnant, my hormones are everywhere. Sometimes I wake up at 7am feeling super rested.
00:03:53.140 Sometimes I wake up at 4am, like stressed about everything. Sometimes I wake up at 830 and I'm like,
00:03:58.380 what am I doing with my life? And I just lay there and look at my phone. If I depended on what I think
00:04:06.320 of myself for confidence, I would, I would feel really badly about myself because as a pregnant
00:04:12.460 person who has already gained about 15 pounds and who feels lazy most of the time and who oversleeps
00:04:17.560 and looks at her phone for an hour in the morning, sometimes I'm not feeling too great about myself
00:04:22.240 most days. Like if I dug into my mind as the reservoir for my confidence, I wouldn't find very
00:04:29.340 much. So the problem with focusing on what I think of me is that sometimes what I think of me
00:04:36.740 isn't correct because it's completely conditional on how I look. It is completely conditional with my
00:04:44.060 hormones that morning. Like I am too unreliable for me to focus on what I think of me. Like I will
00:04:51.460 drive myself crazy because A, what I think of me is conditional. It is conditional on a whole bunch
00:04:58.260 of factors that change every day. B, what I think of me is also changing. So this is very similar to
00:05:07.220 conditional because our thoughts about ourselves are conditional. They are also changing. We are not
00:05:12.880 very steady people. Even if you are just kind of this rock solid human being who is not swayed by
00:05:18.980 your emotions at all, who doesn't follow your feelings, doesn't follow your heart. You're a very
00:05:23.880 logical person who follows your principles. Even so, just in general, we are not steady people.
00:05:30.140 Things change. Life changes. Stuff is thrown our way that we didn't see. Because our opinion of
00:05:37.440 ourself is conditional, it also changes. Just think about this. How exhausting is it? How exhausting
00:05:46.400 would it be to constantly focus on what you think of yourself? Your mind is going in circles. Someone
00:05:55.140 compliments you. You feel like you can take on the world. Someone says something good about you and you
00:06:00.860 say, yeah, that's true. I am really awesome. My podcast is great. You know what? I am better than
00:06:09.880 all of those people. I'm feeling really, I'm feeling great about myself. I feel good about myself. I'm
00:06:15.140 going to reward myself with some Chick-fil-A. And then I get a mean message from someone that says,
00:06:20.160 you're horrible at this, at this thing. You should stop having a podcast. This is so embarrassing.
00:06:26.700 Please just end your career. And then I hate myself and I still go get Chick-fil-A, but I'm
00:06:34.740 not happy with myself. My confidence is shot. I'm like, oh my gosh, should I, should I keep going
00:06:41.040 with this? Is this the right choice of career? Am I talented at all? So we are constantly on this
00:06:47.600 pendulum between arrogance and self-loathing, which is a really dizzying ride, you guys. Like if I am
00:06:55.860 focusing on what I think of myself, then I am, my head is spinning constantly. So we're on this
00:07:03.640 pendulum. One end of it is arrogance. One end of it is self-loathing. And when someone compliments me,
00:07:10.560 I swing to arrogance. When someone criticizes me, I swing to self-loathing. But guess what? We don't
00:07:17.660 have to be on that ride as Christians. We don't have to focus on what we think of ourselves because
00:07:23.480 number three, or C, I think I'm using letters, C, what we think of ourselves is also conceited.
00:07:31.140 As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, both arrogance and self-loathing are symptoms of
00:07:35.860 thinking of ourselves too much, of thinking of ourselves too highly and too lowly means that we
00:07:42.980 are obsessing. We are obsessing over our strengths and our weaknesses, and we're not supposed to be
00:07:48.500 obsessing over these things. So thinking about what you think of you is going to exhaust you.
00:07:57.240 It is going to make you feel more insecure than you did before. It's going to confuse you. Because
00:08:03.740 guess what? Guess what? Besides being untrustworthy, besides being insecure, besides basically lying to
00:08:11.400 ourselves about ourselves all the time, whether it's good or bad, we just also, well, we're just,
00:08:20.740 we're just not, we're not perceptive enough. We're not perceptive enough to distinguish between the two.
00:08:27.560 We're not smart enough to decide when we're telling the truth about ourselves and when we're feeding us
00:08:32.520 lies. So focusing on what you think of you is completely, completely a terrible pursuit.
00:08:41.860 It's going to get you nowhere. And here's the good news. Here's the good news. Guess what gives you
00:08:47.760 energy rather than exhaust you? Like focusing on what you think of yourself. Guess what gives you
00:08:53.620 confidence rather than insecurity? Like focusing on what you think about yourself. Guess what offers
00:08:59.460 clarity rather than confusion? God, God does. Jesus and who he is, not just what he thinks of you,
00:09:07.760 but who he is, gives you the confidence and the energy and the clarity that you need when you're
00:09:13.500 thinking about who you are. And like I said, it's not just what Jesus thinks about you. Because as I've
00:09:21.020 said many times before, I think too many Christian female teachers paint Jesus as this person who's just
00:09:27.000 like sitting by you, braiding your hair, telling you how awesome your highlights are and how great
00:09:32.580 your personality is. So I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about who Jesus is and because of who
00:09:37.840 he is, who we are in him. So Jesus, savior, justifier, sanctifier, beginning in Alpha Omega,
00:09:43.880 author, perfecter of faith. He is friend, intercessor, great high priest who sympathizes with
00:09:48.180 your weaknesses, a creator and sustainer of the universe. Before time began, he was here,
00:09:53.080 is coming back to take us home. His kingdom has no end. His love does not fail. His faithfulness
00:09:58.560 does not change. He is steady and steadfast and loyal and relentless in his pursuit of us.
00:10:04.540 He is transcendent. He is above everything. He is intimately acquainted with our pain and our
00:10:10.480 suffering. He is God. And yet with all of these wonderful, transcendent, supreme, superior things
00:10:18.400 about him that our little tiny minds cannot wrap around, beyond all comprehension that our finite
00:10:25.500 brains can grasp. He loves us. He loves you. He loves you so much that he died for you.
00:10:32.820 And even beyond that, like sometimes that seems like too big picture for us to understand. And it's
00:10:38.900 really not. But sometimes we just fail to understand it. He also does like he has thoughts about you.
00:10:44.660 Like he considers you. He knows your name. He knows when you were born. He knows the circumstances
00:10:51.120 that you're in. He knows everything about you. It should really terrify us that he knows the depths
00:10:55.900 of our hearts. Like he knows all the ugliness in there, like all the bad intentions, all of the
00:11:01.880 hypocrisy, all of the things that we say, but we're not actually doing, all of the things that we think
00:11:07.860 that we are putting on display for the world and what's actually behind them. He knows the hollowness in
00:11:13.400 our hearts, our selfishness, our ambition, all of the things that we don't want people to know about
00:11:20.600 us. The God of the universe who is perfect knows them. That should scare us, but it should also fill
00:11:26.360 us with amazing gratitude that knowing all of these things about us, he chose to sacrifice himself on
00:11:33.200 our behalf that we could be reconciled to a perfect God forever and ever. That's incredible.
00:11:38.880 That is all you need for your confidence. That's it right there. That the God of the universe,
00:11:45.700 despite the fact, and even because of the fact that you and I are so amazingly messed up,
00:11:53.840 so corrupt, so depraved in the core of our being that he died for us, something he did not have to
00:11:59.760 do, by the way. He had every right as the God of the universe to destroy us. And he actually sent
00:12:04.780 a way to unite us together through Christ. That should rock your world. That is what wakes us up
00:12:14.160 in the morning with the joy that, Hey, wow, I am saved and in Christ. And I don't have to pay the
00:12:21.920 debt that I once owed. I don't have to have the faith that I once had. That is what gives us our
00:12:27.520 confidence. And the great thing is about that, um, is that while what we think about ourselves is
00:12:34.540 completely untrustworthy, completely conditional, completely changing, completely, uh, conceited
00:12:39.800 the reality that we who are in Christ are in Christ forever. And Christ does not change. Uh, that is
00:12:47.420 unconditional. That is unchanging. That is unconceited. It is steadfast. It is sure it is selfless. I love
00:12:53.340 alliterations, by the way. So how much more freeing is it for the Christian to know that you don't have
00:13:02.060 to focus on what you think about yourself and that what you think about yourself, what you see when you
00:13:09.240 look in the mirror is totally irrelevant. It's totally irrelevant. Uh, first Corinthians 5 17 says,
00:13:16.120 uh, that those of us who are in Christ are a new creation. The old has passed. The new has come. So
00:13:21.840 no matter what you look like, no matter what you've done, no matter what you accomplished,
00:13:25.900 who you are in Christ is new, cleansed, washed by the blood of the lamb. That is your new identity.
00:13:34.060 I mean, how liberating is it to know that that is what defines us? And yes, being a new creation does
00:13:41.660 have implications for our actions, how we live our lives. Uh, we should, through the power of the Holy
00:13:46.140 Spirit, be striving towards holiness, repenting of our sins, both internal and external. We should be in
00:13:51.640 his word in constant prayer, helping those around us, working hard at our job, stewarding the gifts
00:13:56.620 that we have been given. But all of those things flow from our identity in Christ. They are not our
00:14:02.360 identity themselves. And this doesn't mean that we don't acknowledge our talents. Like I'm not talking
00:14:08.520 about living in this constant state of self-deprecation. I'm not at all, but, and I couldn't find the exact
00:14:15.520 quote by C.S. Lewis, but there's some quote by C.S. Lewis, maybe in mere Christianity, maybe it's in
00:14:21.060 another book. I just don't remember about how those who are in Christ, we are not arrogant about
00:14:27.040 our strengths, but, uh, we are not also completely down on ourselves because of our weaknesses.
00:14:31.820 They're just facts to us. They're just facts of living in this physical life. Like for a Christian,
00:14:37.280 we don't need false humility. Like we are allowed to say, yeah, God gifted me with, uh, the gift of
00:14:44.460 communicating or with the gift of writing or with the gift of drawing, uh, with the gift of being a really
00:14:49.840 good friend, with the gift of being hospitable, uh, with the gift of being able to organize an event
00:14:54.820 plan really well, something that I cannot do at all, by the way. Um, we're, it's okay to say, yeah,
00:15:01.220 we have these gifts and I am using these gifts to the best of my ability for the kingdom. I am
00:15:06.780 stewarding them. Well, I am using my talents. Well, that's not arrogance. That's just acknowledging
00:15:12.920 what God has given you and that you are doing everything you can through the power of the Holy Spirit to
00:15:17.820 use those ways and use those talents in a way that brings glory to God. Like there's nothing wrong
00:15:24.660 with saying that. And there's also nothing wrong with acknowledging our weaknesses, the things that
00:15:28.940 we're bad at. And I'm not talking about sins that we are genuinely struggling with though. Of course we
00:15:34.200 can be open about that as well. Uh, but we can also say, you know, like I I'm not actually very good
00:15:40.720 at hosting people or I'm not very good at being organized or I'm not very good at singing. Uh, we can be
00:15:46.340 open about our insecurities too, because those are also just facts of being, uh, in the physical world
00:15:52.120 in living the life that we live. That's all okay. Because the freedom for us is that we know that
00:15:57.740 neither our strengths nor our weaknesses actually define us. Christ does. So we are not striving to
00:16:04.220 meet the standards of the world. We are striving, uh, to, to meet the perfection and the holiness that
00:16:11.000 God has called us to in the Bible, but is only accomplished, uh, through Christ and through
00:16:16.420 sanctification in the Holy spirit. Um, so like I said, that doesn't mean that we are self-deprecating.
00:16:24.320 It also doesn't mean that we are arrogant. We know who we are. We know the gifts that we've been given.
00:16:29.780 We know our identity in Christ and, uh, the meshing of all of those things, the intersection of all of
00:16:34.920 those things means that we are using them, uh, to bring God's kingdom here on earth. We are using
00:16:40.020 them to alleviate the pain of others, to beautify, uh, the tiny plot of earth that we have been given
00:16:45.600 our small, our relatively small sphere of influence that God has gifted us with. Uh, that is what we're
00:16:52.300 doing. And I actually got through all of that really quickly. So we are going to have time to do
00:16:57.400 everything else. Um, you guys responded really well. Like I said, to the, uh, three myths that
00:17:02.800 Christian women believe a few weeks ago. So I'm always going to kind of come back to that
00:17:06.400 because I do think it's really important for us to break down this me centered Christless gospel
00:17:12.620 that we're seeing from, uh, women in the church, particularly women. I don't see it as much on
00:17:18.840 the man's side. And the thing that bothers me, the thing that bothers me about how Christianity is
00:17:23.540 represented by influencers is that on the one hand, you have these Christian teachers, uh, Christian
00:17:29.160 female teachers who constantly coddle women. It's constantly like, girl, you are just beautiful
00:17:35.460 and perfect and awesome and amazing. And you can do no wrong. You should feel no shame for your
00:17:40.600 choices. You should feel no guilt whatsoever. Girl, if you start feeling bad about yourself,
00:17:45.160 you just tell yourself that you are Beyonce. You just look in the mirror and you say, girl,
00:17:49.260 you are looking good and perfect. And you should just be positive about yourself. And then you should
00:17:53.380 get along with your day and tell yourself that you're worthy and lovable and adorable.
00:17:56.560 That's not Christianity. Like that's not biblical. And it doesn't last because like I've said many
00:18:04.500 times before, sometimes you're not adorable. Like sometimes you're not lovable. Uh, sometimes you've
00:18:09.620 done something that you should actually feel guilty about. Like this self love movement, self care
00:18:15.900 movement, self me, me, me stuff is just another form of worldly, stupid jargon that ends in death
00:18:24.720 and sin and destruction and devastation. It's just shrouded in some decontextualized Bible verses,
00:18:31.060 but it ain't going to save you. Um, so that's one end of this coddling stuff. And then on the other
00:18:40.140 end, so that's like the Christian influencer. And then you've got the non-Christian influencer or who
00:18:46.780 is a Christian, but she's not in the Christian world. So here's where I find myself like in the middle
00:18:51.460 and why sometimes I have difficulty striking the balance of my podcast and like knowing how far to
00:18:56.440 go in either direction, because I just don't find myself connected to either side. So you've got the
00:19:02.540 majority of Christian influencers being like coddle self love girl. You're awesome. Oh. And by the way,
00:19:09.920 like for some reason, we link compassion to open borders and being pro-choice like weird. So that's
00:19:16.140 one side. And you've got the other side that you've got conservative women. And I'm talking about all
00:19:20.160 conservative women, by the way, some conservative women in the media. It's like, and this is fine.
00:19:26.860 This is fine. This is not their shtick, but it's almost like God is just kind of like a mascot for
00:19:32.320 their political views. It's like God guns and small government and faith guns and God faith family guns,
00:19:42.480 whatever it is. It's like, God is just kind of like this character that is in the play of their lives.
00:19:48.800 And he's talked about in this very like general sense, but there's not going to be a genuine sticking
00:19:53.840 up for the gospel and the exclusivity as well as the inclusivity of the gospel. And I just find myself
00:20:00.100 in this in between of like, wait, but I want, I want to talk about theological stuff. I want to stick up
00:20:06.920 for the gospel. I don't want to pretend like I don't actually believe that Jesus is the way, the truth,
00:20:11.820 the life. Uh, but I'm also not on, I'm not just like, I'm not a Christian teacher. I don't consider
00:20:20.340 myself a Bible teacher. And I don't feel like I have to tell people how wonderful and awesome and
00:20:29.860 perfect and beautiful they are in order to encourage women. Does that make sense? I'm just trying. I'm just
00:20:37.440 trying to talk about the things that I know are true. I'm trying to, whenever I have to describe
00:20:42.460 my podcast, I say, I'm trying to help people navigate faith, culture, news, and politics,
00:20:50.200 how to fit everything into the context of their Christian faith. And I am not the inerrant word of
00:20:57.280 God. We can disagree on these political opinions and even some of these biblical opinions, and we can
00:21:03.720 all be okay and be in the same Christ family. And we can push back on each other and have
00:21:09.460 discussions about that. That's great. All I'm trying to do is to reject the lies of both sides
00:21:15.440 and bring the truth of both sides in together in this conversation about the things that are
00:21:21.340 most relevant to us. So I hope to be accomplishing that. That's why sometimes it's exclusively political.
00:21:27.120 Sometimes like today, it's exclusively about the Bible and the lies that we're hearing. But really,
00:21:31.900 in either case, we're talking about lies and the truth that should replace them. Okay. Since we
00:21:37.140 have time, I am going to, I've decided against talking about the political thing. I wanted to
00:21:42.340 talk about the Virginia legislators that proposed a bill approved of by the governor that would allow
00:21:48.240 abortion up to 40 weeks. It's terrible. Thankfully, it was struck down by Republicans, but I might
00:21:55.220 save that for next week, or I think I am going to save it for next week because, yeah, I just
00:22:01.080 think that it deserves a little bit more time than the time that we have right now. So I'm going to
00:22:07.060 take some of the questions that I got on Instagram. So, oh yes, I love getting relationship questions.
00:22:12.800 Just FYI. I just, I just love it. I had a girl recently send me this whole long explanation.
00:22:20.140 Not too long. If you're listening, girl, long explanation of the fight that she had with her
00:22:24.020 boyfriend. And it was great. We went back and forth and I gave her all of this kind of advice. I'm not
00:22:27.740 necessarily a guru, but I've been in plenty of relationships myself. I probably know what you're
00:22:33.200 going through. So here is the question. I recently got rejected by my former crush. Could you give
00:22:38.980 some advice on how to cope? Girl, that sucks. I'm not going to lie to you. Like I'm not going to
00:22:44.500 sugarcoat it. Being rejected is one of the worst feelings in the world because you put yourself out
00:22:50.540 there, you're vulnerable and you're told that you're going to feel better for being honest. And then you
00:22:55.540 just basically get slapped in the face. Hopefully not literally, but at least metaphorically that
00:23:00.160 just is the worst. It's the worst feeling ever. So just know that it's okay that you feel sad. Like
00:23:06.240 you probably aren't feeling too great about yourself right now, but I want you to have big picture. I'm
00:23:10.720 just, I don't know how old you are. I'm judging by your picture that you're pretty young. Um, think
00:23:16.860 about big picture if you can, and I don't want to sound like a mom, but knowing what I know, being out
00:23:22.960 of college, being out of high school, I have been rejected. I've been broken up with. I do not think
00:23:30.460 I do not think about my ex-boyfriends from high school, like ever, ever. I never think about them.
00:23:37.240 They are literally the smallest specks on the span of my life that, uh, just like do not affect me.
00:23:43.820 So you have to, if you can, you have to realize that it's okay to be sad and then take a step back
00:23:49.940 and realize, you know what, that was just a small misstep in the grand scheme of things.
00:23:53.700 He's not going to affect you, what he thinks about you, uh, what he likes or doesn't like about you.
00:24:00.800 One, it doesn't define you. That's what we kind of just talked about in this, uh, in this,
00:24:06.820 in this podcast, but also like, it's just not going to matter. He's just this random immature guy that
00:24:13.200 doesn't know anything. And y'all's paths probably aren't going to cross that much for the rest of your
00:24:18.100 life. And so you just kind of have to take a deep breath and remember you are who God says that you
00:24:22.960 are and who he is is far more important than whoever this guy is. And in the grand scheme of
00:24:27.820 things, you're not going to remember him. He will be if, but a footnote in the autobiography that you
00:24:34.980 write of your life. Um, what are some healthy ways to relieve stress? I am so not the person to ask
00:24:42.800 about that. I shouldn't have even read this because I am stressed. I am a stressed person.
00:24:49.300 I stress out really easily. I worry about things really easily. I don't have actual anxiety. I just
00:24:55.840 am an overthinker. I inherited it from my mother. So you can imagine how many times I Googled things
00:25:02.040 when I was in my first trimester of pregnancy. Like, can I eat yogurt? Like, can I sit down with my
00:25:08.260 legs crossed? Is everything going to be okay? Not, I would not recommend my mode of thinking.
00:25:14.920 Now I typically get most stressed at night or when I wake up in the middle of the night,
00:25:18.460 I start thinking about all the conflicts that I have in my life, all the things that I need to get
00:25:22.300 resolved and praying is trite as it sounds. Well, it doesn't sound trite. Sometimes it sounds trite,
00:25:29.200 but it's obviously not trite. Praying and remembering again, the grand scheme of things,
00:25:34.180 the bigger picture, what's going to matter in eternity versus what matters tomorrow,
00:25:38.900 it really does help. It gives you that peace that passes understanding. And even if you don't know
00:25:43.680 how something is going to be resolved, how something is going to be fixed, how something is going to turn
00:25:48.220 out, how you're going to get all of this stuff done by Friday, there's just no way. Just reminding
00:25:54.460 yourself what's important and that things do get done. The amazing thing is the thing is that things do
00:25:59.140 get done. I'll give you an example. I am writing a book that is due April 1st. I'm kind of freaking
00:26:05.640 out about that. April 1st is soon. That's really soon. And I'm really excited about it. Wow. I just
00:26:12.780 stopped being able to talk for a second. That also stresses me out. I'm really excited about the book.
00:26:18.260 It should come out, I think, January of 2020, sometime next year in 2020. So I'm really excited,
00:26:23.280 but I'm so stressed about that. I just have to remember that it's going to get done. I have to
00:26:27.180 prioritize my time, something that I'm not good at. And I have to pray and I have to accept that
00:26:33.680 peace that passes all understanding and just realize that it's going to be okay. It does take
00:26:38.640 some, it does take some pep talk sometimes though. What names are y'all thinking about? Okay. So we are
00:26:45.960 not, I am not going to share the name of my child on social media ever. So I'm really sorry, but you
00:26:52.900 guys aren't going to know the name of my child. And it's not because of you guys who are listening to
00:26:56.780 this podcast is because of the creepers and the haters out there. People, I don't, I already don't
00:27:02.700 like the people on Twitter who, when I say something that they don't like, say, I feel bad for your
00:27:08.040 daughter that you're bringing into this world. You're going to be such a horrible parent. I
00:27:11.440 already don't like that. Not because it criticizes me because who cares? They're trolls living in their
00:27:16.620 mom's basement and they're criticizing me. Okay. Um, but because it brings my child into it,
00:27:22.740 like I already don't like that people using my child as a weapon. And I don't think I can
00:27:29.240 emotionally bear seeing my child's name being used in that way. So I'm not going to share my child's
00:27:36.580 name a lot. I'm not even sharing. It's not just on social media. Like I haven't even told my family
00:27:41.660 yet. I will tell them obviously, but well, I also don't want to hear people's opinions. Like
00:27:47.240 people always have opinions about names. Like I don't really care what you think of my child's
00:27:53.600 name, but I promise I won't name them something weird. So, and I'm also not going to, someone else
00:27:57.920 asked me if I'm going to post pictures of my child. No, I I'm not going to post pictures of my child's
00:28:03.820 face. That's another thing. Like people are weird with Photoshop, the things that they do.
00:28:07.820 I know I'm not, I'm not going to exploit my child in that way. Not that other people who do post
00:28:14.020 pictures of their child are exploiting their child. I just know for me that there are creepers that are
00:28:19.160 going to do bad stuff. And I just, I don't want that. I don't think I can bear that. Um,
00:28:27.080 okay. Would you ever do a meetup in Dallas? Maybe, maybe, maybe so. Um, another question.
00:28:35.920 Why do you think most celebrities are Democrats? Uh, Hollywood has always kind of leaned to the
00:28:41.340 left or at least for the better part of their history that I've been aware of Hollywood, they
00:28:45.300 have leaned to the left, um, because I think it's better to ask why they're liberal because they're
00:28:52.520 typically not moral people. And in order to justify the things that they glorify in Hollywood, like all
00:28:58.120 kinds of sexual promiscuity and basically having no morality whatsoever, it's kind of hard to admit
00:29:03.660 that there is some kind of higher transcendent truth or morality. And so it's better to just
00:29:08.560 be, it's easier for them to just be a liberal. And typically liberalism, uh, today's progressivism
00:29:14.320 is just kind of, there is no such thing as truth, except what the government says is truth. There is
00:29:20.020 no, uh, there is no right or wrong except for what social justice says is right or wrong. It kind of
00:29:26.240 gives a pass to any kind of, uh, sin that you can think of as long as you are saying that the
00:29:32.160 government should take care of people. It's a lot easier for liberals to have that. They're typically
00:29:36.680 godless or did I say liberals? I meant to say celebrities. Uh, they're typically godless. They
00:29:41.960 typically don't really have a moral compass, not all of them, but a lot of them. And, um, that's
00:29:48.400 what happens when you don't believe in truth. You almost always become a progressive. Like it's very
00:29:54.380 rare that you've got a born again, strong Christian who also really knows politics and is a
00:30:01.220 progressive. It's just rare. It's hard. It's hard. It's really hard to be that. Um, oh, here's the
00:30:08.480 question based on what I kind of just said, engage in conversation with those believers who vote for
00:30:12.460 unbiblical policies. So they probably don't know a lot about what they're voting for. Now, I don't
00:30:21.620 think that you have to be a Republican to be a Christian, but I don't see how you can be a Democrat.
00:30:26.600 Does that make sense? Like if you're a Christian and you're trying to decide what political party
00:30:30.840 you are going to be a part of, I understand if you have some contention with the Republican party,
00:30:36.260 especially the current Republican party and what they're actually doing, not just what they say,
00:30:40.500 they say they stand for, but what they're actually doing. If you're like, look, I'm just not going to
00:30:44.680 be a part of that. I think that's respectable. I think that we can have that conversation, but I
00:30:48.480 don't understand how you can be a Democrat. I mean, these are the people that are advocating for
00:30:52.560 abortion up to 40 weeks who believe in the redistribution of wealth, who believe in socialism,
00:30:56.960 which has led to all kinds of human rights travesties throughout history. Usually those
00:31:02.060 people who are voting Democrat, who are born again, Christians, I'm not questioning their salvation.
00:31:06.660 I'm questioning how much they actually know about the policies they're voting for. I mean,
00:31:10.540 if you look at a lot of the Christians, a lot of the Christian responses to the New York bill,
00:31:16.860 we did have plenty of women who I think were used to be kind of silent on the issue of abortion,
00:31:21.780 speak up and say, look, this is too far. This is not okay. But then you had other Christians that
00:31:27.600 were like, look, this is about the life of the mother and you need to just adopt. If you're going
00:31:32.980 to ever talk about being pro-life, that's just ignorant. Like that's just ignorant. They don't
00:31:36.900 know anything about the bill. The bill decriminalizes abortion up to nine months. So if a man stabs a woman
00:31:43.380 in the stomach, kills her unborn child, but she survives, the man is only charged with assault,
00:31:48.740 not with homicide. You can just look at the bill. I'm just getting this information from the bill.
00:31:52.800 An unborn child was redefined, not as a, uh, not as a person anymore. So you have to be born and
00:31:58.700 alive to be a person, which is weird. So just like dead adults aren't people anymore. I don't know
00:32:02.620 what they become, but that's just a philosophical question for Andrew Cuomo genius. Um, so I think
00:32:09.100 most people that vote that way who are Christians, it's that they either don't know their Bibles or they
00:32:16.340 don't know politics. And typically it's the latter. They just don't know what they're voting for.
00:32:21.440 They're told they're voting for compassionate policies. They're told a Medicare for all is
00:32:25.480 more compassionate. That's an, I'll do that in actual episode on that. They're told socialism
00:32:30.320 is more compassionate. They're told open borders is more compassionate and they buy it. Why? Because
00:32:34.780 it's so easy to think that way if you're not thinking very hard. So that's my take on that.
00:32:39.920 That's all that I have time for. I got tons of questions though. And so now I have them, uh,
00:32:44.580 in my back pocket, I'll be able to answer them later on. Thank you guys so much for listening.
00:32:48.720 I would love your feedback. Please leave me a review if you so desire. If you like this podcast,
00:32:53.860 please leave a five-star review. If you don't like this podcast, then of course you don't have to
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00:33:03.800 from you. Um, and I would also love your feedback. If you don't like this podcast, I take feedback really
00:33:08.820 seriously. I take questions really seriously and you guys make me better. You guys make me smarter.
00:33:13.460 You guys make me a better podcaster. So always feel free to reach out to me with what you want to
00:33:19.000 hear more of what you want to hear less of love you guys. Thank you so much for listening and have a
00:33:25.040 great weekend.