The Ben Shapiro Show - Does Trump Have An Empathy Problem? | Ep. 373

00:00:00.000 We will talk high heels and empathy in Texas.

00:00:03.000 We'll also be talking about the Nashville statement.

00:00:05.000 Are Christians really just sort of saying what they've always believed? 0.88

00:00:08.000 Plus, Nancy Pelosi does something good. 1.00

00:00:10.000 I'll explain.

00:00:11.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:11.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:18.000 So yesterday, President Trump traveled to Texas with Melania.

00:00:22.000 They landed in, I think it was Corpus Christi, where they met with the governor of Texas as well, Greg Abbott.

00:00:28.000 We'll talk about everything that sprang therefrom and what the media's narrative has been.

00:00:32.000 Of course, it's been a garbage narrative and we'll talk about what that is.

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00:02:14.000 Okay, so yesterday, President Trump goes to Texas.

00:02:17.000 And the reason that we have politicians go to these places is because if we don't, then the media suggests that they're bad people.

00:02:23.000 That's how this game works.

00:02:24.000 When George W. Bush did a flyover of Hurricane Katrina back in 2006, 2007, then the media went nuts.

00:02:31.000 How dare George W. Bush do such a thing?

00:02:34.000 How could George W. Bush not actually land in New Orleans and take care of business on the ground? 0.99

00:02:41.000 Like, I always thought this was stupid because I'm not sure exactly 0.87

00:02:45.000 Why it is, sorry it's 2005, I'm not sure why it is that George W. Bush, like what was he going to do on the ground? 0.95

00:02:50.000 Was he going to like get out and start bailing?

00:02:52.000 Was he going to go to a homeless shelter and start handing out food in a way that no other two human hands on the planet could do?

00:02:58.000 It seems like a massive distraction to me.

00:03:00.000 Whenever a president does this it seems like a distraction.

00:03:02.000 When Obama wanted to do this during Hurricane Sandy and then Chris Christie hosted him in New Jersey, I'm not a big fan of this whole the president has to go there like he's the king.

00:03:10.000 Like he's the emperor and he must land and now he will bring order to a chaotic situation.

00:03:13.000 Like did anyone feel more secure that Trump went?

00:03:16.000 That's not a rip on Trump.

00:03:17.000 That's a rip on the system.

00:03:18.000 Trump did what he had to do.

00:03:19.000 He went there because if he hadn't then the media would have ripped him up and down.

00:03:22.000 So naturally the media focused on a couple of aspects of this that are completely irrelevant.

00:03:26.000 The federal response to Hurricane Harvey has been quite good so far.

00:03:30.000 There's been no evidence that the feds have

00:03:33.000 I don't know.

00:03:53.000 I think it's now six individuals dead in this flooding, seven individuals dead.

00:03:57.000 By the time it's over, I'm sure there will be a couple of dozen people who died.

00:04:00.000 But that is a testament to the emergency services and the capacity of the government to help out in situations like this.

00:04:07.000 But is that what the media are focused on?

00:04:09.000 No.

00:04:09.000 They're focused on all the optics.

00:04:11.000 Because whenever Trump visits any place, it's all about the optics.

00:04:14.000 So Trump arrives,

00:04:15.000 And he's wearing his USA hat because that's what he does.

00:04:17.000 And Melania, all the focus is on Melania in terms of a lot of the optics.

00:04:21.000 So the first focus was on the fact that when she was leaving the White House she was wearing heels.

00:04:26.000 Okay, so, she then changed on the plane, and she was wearing sneakers when she got there, which makes some sense, but why do we care about her shoes again?

00:04:34.000 Just confused as to that.

00:04:35.000 Ooh, no, she was wearing heels. 0.99

00:04:36.000 Zach Braff, of Scrubs fame, said that he wanted to dress in Melania's heels for Halloween.

00:04:40.000 You want to do Melania going to a disaster zone for Halloween.

00:04:43.000 And then Melania shows up, and she looks beautiful because she's a beautiful woman, and she's wearing a hat that says on it, FLOTUS.

00:04:49.000 This is the first lady of the United States.

00:04:50.000 So you've got Trump wearing his USA hat, and she's wearing a hat that says who she is.

00:04:55.000 Which, I gotta admit, I'm never a huge fan of this particular look.

00:04:59.000 It would be the equivalent of me wearing a Ben Shapiro thug life hat around.

00:05:04.000 If you don't know who Melania is, she's the wife of the president. 1.00

00:05:07.000 Did you pick up on that?

00:05:08.000 So, not my favorite thing, but is it a big deal?

00:05:10.000 Of course it's not a big deal.

00:05:11.000 Seriously, that's the big deal?

00:05:13.000 So Trump arrives, and Trump talks about the cleanup in Texas.

00:05:18.000 And I can tell you that my focus is telling me how great your representatives have been in working together.

00:05:25.000 It's a real team.

00:05:27.000 And we want to do it better than ever before.

00:05:29.000 We want to be looked at in five years and ten years from now as this is the way to do it.

00:05:34.000 Okay, so, there's nothing wrong with that.

00:05:36.000 People were saying this is all self-aggrandizing.

00:05:38.000 Okay, have you never met Trump?

00:05:40.000 Have you never seen the guy?

00:05:41.000 Like, so the hell what?

00:05:42.000 Is the job getting done or is the job not getting done?

00:05:45.000 And then, what they really jumped on is he shows up at, basically, it looks like a truck yard in Corpus Christi, and he starts sort of pitching himself as a public figure.

00:05:56.000 He talks about the crowd, right?

00:05:58.000 He talks about crowd size, because this is Trump's schtick, okay?

00:06:00.000 If you don't get it by now, then you're never going to get it.

00:06:02.000 This is what Trump does.

00:06:04.000 I want to say we love you.

00:06:07.000 You are special.

00:06:08.000 We're here to take care.

00:06:10.000 It's going well.

00:06:12.000 And I want to thank you for coming out.

00:06:14.000 We're going to get you back and operating immediately.

00:06:18.000 Thank you, everybody.

00:06:19.000 What a crowd, what a turnout.

00:06:21.000 I want to thank our governor.

00:06:22.000 Your governor has done a fantastic job.

00:06:26.000 Governor Abbott, thank you very much.

00:06:28.000 Who's right here someplace.

00:06:29.000 He's right here.

00:06:31.000 So we just want to thank your governor, Senator Cruz, Senator Cornyn, everybody.

00:06:36.000 Dan, we want to thank the whole group.

00:06:38.000 Okay, so everybody in the media goes nuts over this.

00:06:41.000 How could he say, what a crowd?

00:06:42.000 How could he say, what a turnout?

00:06:43.000 Why is his focus on the crowd and the turnout?

00:06:46.000 Okay, I admit, it's uncouth.

00:06:48.000 Does anyone really care?

00:06:49.000 Is this the biggest deal?

00:06:51.000 Oh, what a crowd.

00:06:52.000 Like, that's what we're gonna nitpick over now?

00:06:54.000 He's doing a good job with the response, but that's what we're gonna nitpick over?

00:06:57.000 And then, they double down because Trump also said that this is all about, you know, how it's gonna be, that he wants people to be able to congratulate each other when this is over on their response.

00:07:07.000 Again, is this a big deal?

00:07:09.000 We won't say congratulations.

00:07:11.000 We don't want to do that.

00:07:12.000 We don't want to congratulate.

00:07:14.000 We'll congratulate each other when it's all finished, but you have been terrific.

00:07:19.000 Greg Abbott looking real awkward there.

00:07:20.000 And so the media, of course, decide that this is just insane.

00:07:25.000 Because really the story here is not Trump's capacity and his administration's capacity to handle a disaster.

00:07:31.000 Let's be real about this for one second.

00:07:33.000 A month ago, if you would have said there's a major disaster on American soil, do you think the Trump administration can handle it?

00:07:38.000 The media would universally have said no. 0.99

00:07:40.000 They would have said he's understaffed, he doesn't know what he's doing, he's a buffoon. 0.95

00:07:44.000 And the handling of this has been pretty good. 0.96

00:07:46.000 And the handling of this has been pretty smooth.

00:07:48.000 So instead, what the media choose to focus on is empathy.

00:07:51.000 They choose to focus on feelings.

00:07:53.000 Trump, you see, wasn't empathetic enough.

00:07:54.000 Here's a little montage cut by our own Robert Krejcik over at Daily Wire of all the members of the media focusing in on just the horrific nature of Trump's statements.

00:08:03.000 How could he not be more empathetic?

00:08:05.000 Where is the man's empathy?

00:08:06.000 Where are his feelings?

00:08:07.000 Where is his heart?

00:08:09.000 And briefly, did Donald Trump have his empathy moment today?

00:08:39.000 But has he ever been exposed to a situation?

00:08:42.000 And Jim, those words there show that the president is still very much learning on the job in terms of empathy, learning on the job in terms of how to react and relate to the individuals here who are, you know, responding.

00:08:56.000 The human element seemed to be absent outside of the self-congratulatory gestures of the press conference.

00:09:04.000 It seems to me it's just concerned about optics.

00:09:07.000 Just concerned about optics.

00:09:08.000 And I wish they would be concerned about people.

00:09:12.000 They were saying that it's going to be key to see the way he has real feelings and real empathy.

00:09:18.000 How does he respond in this first big situation like this?

00:09:22.000 What will you be looking for?

00:09:23.000 There's the empathy factor, there's the response, there's making people feel like he's engaged and he's going to be a leader.

00:09:28.000 That's what President Trump is trying to convey today in his visit and appropriately so.

00:09:34.000 He is going to have to show

00:09:35.000 Some real feeling, some real empathy to the people in Texas that have been hit in this devastating manner.

00:09:43.000 In that way.

00:09:44.000 It remains to be seen what the empathy factor is going to be.

00:09:48.000 You think they're on message, gang?

00:09:49.000 I think he understands.

00:09:49.000 You think they're on message?

00:09:51.000 I'm gonna stop it there because it just goes on and on.

00:09:52.000 You think they're on message about the empathy thing?

00:09:55.000 Okay, so a couple of things are worth noting here.

00:09:57.000 One, President Trump does not have to be an actor, okay?

00:10:00.000 We're not sitting here evaluating whether he should be cast in the role of Iago or whether he should be cast as Desdemona, okay?

00:10:06.000 It's not important.

00:10:08.000 This whole presidents-have-to-show-empathy routine?

00:10:10.000 I'm a big fan of Calvin Coolidge because Calvin Coolidge didn't truck with this BS.

00:10:14.000 Calvin Coolidge was basically like, look, here's my job.

00:10:15.000 I'm gonna do my job and then I'm gonna go play golf.

00:10:17.000 Like, this is what I'm gonna do.

00:10:19.000 I'm gonna do it.

00:10:19.000 I'm gonna go back in my room.

00:10:20.000 I'm not gonna bother you.

00:10:21.000 It's not important for me to get on the radio.

00:10:23.000 It's not important for me to be a public figure.

00:10:25.000 But now, we have to do this whole... Well, he didn't shed a tear.

00:10:28.000 I remember during the Obama administration, after there was some... There was an act of... There was some gun violence massacre.

00:10:34.000 There was a massacre using a gun.

00:10:36.000 And Obama went out and did a press conference and he shed a tear.

00:10:38.000 Oh my God, look at the feelings of him.

00:10:40.000 Look how much he feels.

00:10:42.000 He feels for you.

00:10:43.000 He feels for me.

00:10:45.000 He's just Jesus-like in his feeling for everyone.

00:10:48.000 This routine where if Trump would just show a little more empathy, the media would be on his side?

00:10:52.000 Are you kidding?

00:10:52.000 They'd find something else to nitpick.

00:10:54.000 I mean, Melania released a statement yesterday, and here's what it said.

00:10:57.000 It said,

00:11:10.000 I want to be able to offer my help and support in the most productive way possible, not through just words, but also action.

00:11:15.000 What I found to be the most profound during the visit was not only the strength and resilience of the people of Texas, but the compassion and sense of community that has taken over the state.

00:11:22.000 My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the people of Texas and Louisiana.

00:11:25.000 That seems rather empathetic to me, but the overall drive for empathy I think is actually a serious political problem for a couple of reasons, and I'll explain those in just one second.

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00:12:41.000 Okay, so here is... I have two specific problems with this whole empathy routine from the media.

00:12:46.000 Well, three. 0.92

00:12:47.000 One is that it's obviously hypocritical. 0.55

00:12:48.000 The media doesn't care about Trump's level of empathy. 0.89

00:12:51.000 They have a goal, which is to paint him as uncaring and mean, right?

00:12:55.000 The Democrats constantly, Democrats in the media, they have a three-pronged attack on people in Republican halls of power. 1.00

00:13:02.000 They are stupid, 1.00

00:13:04.000 They are corrupt, or they are evil. 1.00

00:13:06.000 So, they've already tried stupid with Trump, and it's only gotten them so far. 1.00

00:13:10.000 Corrupt, they're still trying, and it's only gotten them so far. 1.00

00:13:13.000 So now, in this situation where he's demonstrated neither stupidity nor corruption, they have to go to their third prong, which is he's evil. 0.99

00:13:18.000 He actually doesn't empathize with the people who are in harm's way. 0.99

00:13:22.000 Like, really?

00:13:22.000 Do you really think that Trump at night, he just goes, screw those people in Texas.

00:13:25.000 Screw them. 0.99

00:13:27.000 I'm so glad there's a flood. 0.98

00:13:28.000 Do you really think that's who Trump is?

00:13:30.000 Because that would really be evil.

00:13:31.000 I don't think that's who Trump is.

00:13:32.000 He may be oblivious. 0.97

00:13:34.000 He may be a buffoon sometimes, but is that what you're seeing here? 0.92

00:13:36.000 Because that's not what I'm seeing here. 0.62

00:13:37.000 And the media are obviously attempting to exaggerate the case and make the case that he's a meanie, a big meanie, even though he's doing the job, and specifically because he's doing the job.

00:13:45.000 Okay, second point here.

00:13:46.000 Empathy in politics actually makes for bad policy.

00:13:49.000 It makes for bad policy.

00:13:51.000 As I've referenced before, empathy in politics leads you to have empathy for the person who's directly in front of you, without looking at the broader cause.

00:13:58.000 So empathy leads you to a situation like Hurricane Sandy, where after Hurricane Sandy, Democrats in Congress decided they wanted to load up the Hurricane Sandy funding with a bunch of pork.

00:14:07.000 Like, load it up with pork.

00:14:08.000 I was there, I remember, okay?

00:14:09.000 We all remember this.

00:14:10.000 Chris Christie is now denying this, that's because Chris Christie is totally full of it.

00:14:13.000 The fact is, they did load up the Hurricane Sandy bill with pork.

00:14:15.000 Why?

00:14:16.000 Because they were using empathy as an excuse to be corrupt.

00:14:19.000 So, we empathize with the people who are harmed by Hurricane Sandy, and therefore, it is very, very important that we load up as much pork into this bill as possible and pass something.

00:14:28.000 And if you don't do it, then you lack empathy.

00:14:31.000 Then you are a bad person.

00:14:33.000 Empathy leads you to focus on the specific beneficiary of a policy as opposed to the disparate and diffuse group of individuals who are hurt by a given policy.

00:14:42.000 So, in this particular case, listen, we have FEMA, we have a state government, we have local governments, and they're all doing their job, but the idea here from the Democrats is that empathy really has to come down to how much money is Trump going to spend.

00:14:54.000 Not does the job get done, but we can measure empathy in dollars.

00:14:57.000 We can measure empathy in dollars, which is sort of an amazing thing for Democrats to say, considering the people who give charity in this country happen to be mostly Republican.

00:15:05.000 The average amount of charity coming out of Republican households is much higher than it is coming out of Democratic households, but then we're called selfish.

00:15:12.000 If you're going to measure empathy in money, I would suggest you start with charity.

00:15:15.000 But for Democrats, what they really mean is that if you're truly empathetic, you're ready to sign a check to the government because the government can cure all your problems if you just give your cash to the government.

00:15:24.000 So, for instance, I saw a headline today that was talking about school lunches in Houston.

00:15:28.000 Apparently, the local government is now saying that they want to provide free school lunches to all the kids in Houston for 2017-2018.

00:15:35.000 Okay, that's their prerogative.

00:15:36.000 But then I saw a tweet from a Democrat saying, this is what Republicans have been fighting against all over the country.

00:15:42.000 Number one, the entire country was not just hit by 51 inches of rain.

00:15:46.000 And people didn't lose, you know, millions of homes, presumably.

00:15:49.000 Number two, you know, those school lunches, let's, I want to be clear about something.

00:15:54.000 Private charity fills a lot of the gap for this sort of stuff.

00:15:57.000 You know how much money the Red Cross has taken in since the beginning of this hurricane?

00:16:00.000 I mean, it's an enormous sum of money.

00:16:02.000 It truly is.

00:16:03.000 You can tell where a lot of the left's priorities lie.

00:16:07.000 Linda Sarsour has now put out a tweet calling for people to donate to what she's calling the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.

00:16:12.000 The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund is apparently and reportedly a political organizing committee that is designed toward lobbying the government.

00:16:19.000 It's not actually

00:16:20.000 charity that goes directly to victims.

00:16:22.000 It is instead a social organizing force to get people to lobby the government to give more money to the victims of Hurricane Harvey and to, in particular, minority groups who are harmed by Hurricane Harvey.

00:16:31.000 It just demonstrates where the left's head is at in all of this.

00:16:34.000 So, second reason why I don't like the empathy argument is that the empathy argument suggests that you are somehow a better person if you spend more money.

00:16:43.000 Empathy is really a stand-in for cash.

00:16:45.000 Empathy is just a politically savvy maneuver by Democrats in order for them to claim that you're not empathetic enough if you don't want to give them what they want.

00:16:52.000 They're like this all the time, right?

00:16:53.000 This is what I said to Piers Morgan about gun control.

00:16:55.000 His implication was, if I didn't want gun control, it's because I wasn't empathetic enough.

00:16:59.000 For Democrats, you can measure the level of your effectiveness by the level of your empathy.

00:17:03.000 I don't measure effectiveness by empathy.

00:17:06.000 I measure effectiveness by effectiveness.

00:17:07.000 I measure empathy by empathy.

00:17:09.000 And I honestly don't care that much what's in your heart.

00:17:11.000 I care much more about what you do.

00:17:13.000 So those are the first two reasons why this empathy spiel is wrong. 0.90

00:17:15.000 One is the Democrats and the media are being hypocritical about it. 0.65

00:17:18.000 This is all a ruse. 0.79

00:17:19.000 Second, when they say empathy, what they really mean is spending lots and lots of government money.

00:17:24.000 That's the second reason that this empathy nonsense is wrong.

00:17:28.000 And the third reason is because obviously it's a misdirection away from what's going on with Trump.

00:17:33.000 They won't give Trump credit, and so instead they decide to focus on the empathy question.

00:17:37.000 Oh, if only he'd shown his heart.

00:17:38.000 Oh, if only he'd gone and he'd wept.

00:17:41.000 Oh, if only he'd sh— There is something to the idea that if you go into a chaotic situation, and rather than demonstrating that you care, you demonstrate that you're in control, that's actually more useful.

00:17:53.000 If I were a victim of some sort of natural disaster, what I wouldn't care very much about is a politician coming in and giving me a hug or my wife a hug.

00:17:59.000 I don't need a hug.

00:18:00.000 I have a wife for that. 1.00

00:18:02.000 What I would care about is the politician coming in and saying, here's what I'm going to do to take care of this.

00:18:07.000 If I were a victim on the ground, what I'd want from Greg Abbott and Donald Trump is not, oh, I care so much about you.

00:18:12.000 Oh, I care so much.

00:18:13.000 What I'd want is action that was effective, and that's actually what we're seeing in this circumstance.

00:18:17.000 So again, the empathy thing is a ruse.

00:18:18.000 It's used by the media in order to promote a particular policy agenda.

00:18:22.000 Don't buy into it.

00:18:23.000 Don't buy into what the left is doing here.

00:18:25.000 Because the fact is, Trump is doing a good job here, and I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary.

00:18:29.000 And Trump is always going to be Trump.

00:18:31.000 He's never going to say the thing you want him to say.

00:18:33.000 But is that a huge deal?

00:18:35.000 Ask the people of Texas, the ones who are actually being harmed.

00:18:37.000 Did they look up in arms?

00:18:39.000 One of my favorite things about that clip of the people shouting about Trump, about the Jeff Zeleny at CNN talking about Trump being non-empathetic, one of my favorite things is the guy in the background shouting CNN fake news as this happens.

00:18:49.000 Pretty amazing.

00:18:51.000 But I think indicative of the difference between the political viewpoints.

00:18:54.000 Okay, so.

00:18:56.000 I also want to talk about what disaster shows us about the roles of different kinds of human beings.

00:19:02.000 I want to talk about Nancy Pelosi making a statement that actually was really necessary.

00:19:06.000 I want to give you an update on Berkeley.

00:19:07.000 The Berkeley administration is still throwing up roadblocks to this event.

00:19:11.000 It's amazing.

00:19:11.000 We'll talk about that and what they can do to facilitate

00:19:14.000 And also, I want to talk about this Nashville statement that the media are going nuts over.

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00:20:23.000 Alrighty, so, let's talk a little bit about what Hurricane Katrina does in terms of reinforcing reality.

00:20:30.000 One of the reasons I think people like disaster fiction, one of the reasons I think people like to watch movies like The Hunger Games, is because we have an innate sense that when we are in crisis, our true identity shines forth.

00:20:41.000 That when crisis strikes, people go back to the basics.

00:20:44.000 And that's what you're seeing in Hurricane Katrina.

00:20:46.000 I talked about that in Hurricane Harvey.

00:20:49.000 As I talked about a couple of days ago, I think that what you're seeing in terms of people helping each other out, that is the innate sense of Americans.

00:20:55.000 I think that people all over the world want to help each other out in times of disaster.

00:20:58.000 But there is something else that I think is worth noting.

00:21:00.000 And that is that there have been a couple of pictures that I think people find really moving and I think they're moving for a reason.

00:21:06.000 There's one picture in particular that I thought was very moving.

00:21:08.000 It's a picture of a man holding a woman holding a child.

00:21:11.000 He's trying to bring her out of the flood and he's holding the woman and she's holding the child.

00:21:15.000 The fact is that gender roles are relatively well defined in biology and the reason for that is because the diversity of the gender role is a great thing.

00:21:24.000 It's so funny, the left is very into diversity, except when it comes to actual gender roles, then all of a sudden they suggest that these are all arbitrary and meaningless.

00:21:31.000 But the fact is that when disaster strikes, it is largely men who are charging into situations to try and save women and children and other people.

00:21:39.000 A society that is not built on men trying to help each other will be built on men trying to destroy each other.

00:21:45.000 Male gender roles that are all about men protecting, that's a good thing. 1.00

00:21:49.000 That's something we ought to be cheering.

00:21:51.000 And you see some people who are very upset when you say this.

00:21:53.000 Oh, how dare you?

00:21:54.000 There are women out there to help. 1.00

00:21:55.000 That's true.

00:21:56.000 There are women who are out there helping, for sure. 1.00

00:21:58.000 And no one's denying that.

00:21:59.000 And no one is deriding them helping.

00:22:01.000 But, if a man is not protective, if we have a society of men who are not protective, they will instead be destructive.

00:22:07.000 This is just how, from the time boys are little boys, they are either building with blocks or they are destroying the blocks that they just built.

00:22:13.000 These are the two things that they do.

00:22:15.000 Men are built for protection or they are built for destruction. 0.95

00:22:18.000 And when you see disaster strike, what you see is a lot of heroic men charging into the line of fire, and that's a good thing.

00:22:22.000 And what you see is a lot of heroic women protecting their children. 1.00

00:22:25.000 You see a lot of heroic women whose first priority is to protect their kids. 1.00

00:22:28.000 And you see that kids are treated as kids.

00:22:30.000 Innocents to be protected.

00:22:32.000 Not children to be manipulated for political purposes.

00:22:35.000 Not children free and capable of making their own decisions about life.

00:22:38.000 But small human beings who must be protected because they're innocent and aren't capable of taking care of themselves.

00:22:43.000 That is a good thing.

00:22:45.000 These are all good things.

00:22:47.000 The male role as protector is a good thing and something worth celebrating.

00:22:50.000 The female role. 0.98

00:22:52.000 The female role as guardian of the family, as guardian of the children. 0.99

00:22:55.000 That is a good thing.

00:22:56.000 It's not a bad thing and I don't know why women would want to give that up. 0.97

00:22:59.000 Honest to God, I don't.

00:23:00.000 And this is not coming from someone who says that all women have to stay in the home.

00:23:04.000 Lately, I've been spending more time at home than my wife has.

00:23:05.000 I mean, she's a medical resident.

00:23:08.000 But when push comes to shove, my job is to protect my wife, and my wife's job is to protect my children.

00:23:13.000 And she knows that, and I know that.

00:23:15.000 And a society that's not built on this innate biological drive is destined to fail.

00:23:19.000 The left strived to destroy all three parts of that.

00:23:22.000 It's really horrifying.

00:23:23.000 To say that men, they're not really protectors.

00:23:25.000 They're just, they're dispensable.

00:23:27.000 Men are dispensable. 0.68

00:23:29.000 And women suggesting, well, you know, it's not really our job to take care of children. 0.95

00:23:32.000 Children can take care of themselves.

00:23:33.000 It's our job to work.

00:23:34.000 And leftists suggesting that children are capable of making their own decisions about sexual orientation and gender identity.

00:23:41.000 All of this is an overriding of the innate biological good diversity between men, women, and children that truly does exist.

00:23:51.000 Speaking of all of that, I want to talk a little bit about the Nashville Statement.

00:23:55.000 For people who don't know what the Nashville Statement is, the evangelical community has brought out something called the Nashville Statement on Friday, August 25th.

00:24:04.000 The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission jointly hosted a gathering of Christian leaders in Nashville.

00:24:10.000 They wanted to finalize and approve the Nashville Statement in the hope of providing a biblically faithful standard.

00:24:15.000 This is according to DesiringGod.org.

00:24:18.000 And the Nashville Statement has made a lot of fuss.

00:24:20.000 There are a lot of people on the left who are very deeply upset with the Nashville Statement because the Nashville Statement does something terrible.

00:24:26.000 It reinforces all of biblical Christianity's views about sexuality.

00:24:30.000 Ooh! 0.96

00:24:32.000 It's always really weird and curious to me that so many folks on the left are confused whenever Christians believe in the gospel, whenever Jews believe in the Bible.

00:24:41.000 Like, that's the definition, guys.

00:24:44.000 Lauren Zuka, who's just adult, she writes for Teen Vogue, which means that she is one of our nation's preeminent public intellectuals.

00:24:52.000 She tweeted out that if Jesus were alive today, he'd be turning water into wine at gay weddings. 0.92

00:24:57.000 No, he most assuredly would not. 0.61

00:24:59.000 No, he most assuredly would not.

00:25:01.000 Read a book.

00:25:03.000 A book.

00:25:04.000 Not like many books.

00:25:05.000 Like, read Grover Goes to School and you'll be more informed about the Bible than you currently are, clearly, because this is insanity.

00:25:10.000 Okay, so, here's what the National Statement says.

00:25:13.000 This is not to suggest that public policy has to reflect the National Statement, but public policy does have to reflect protection for people who are religious and believe in the National Statement.

00:25:22.000 That is something public policy does have to do. 0.94

00:25:25.000 You don't have to agree with the National Statement, but for you to try and hijack somebody else's religion is ridiculous. 0.98

00:25:29.000 It's like every time the Pope comes out and says abortion's bad, and the left goes, oh darn it, we thought this time he was really gonna come around on this. 0.96

00:25:36.000 Or when the Pope says same-sex marriage is not something the Catholic Church believes in, and the left goes, we were this close.

00:25:41.000 No, you weren't that close.

00:25:42.000 That's been Catholic doctrine since the very beginning.

00:25:44.000 So the National Statement affirms that God has designed marriage to be covenantal, sexual, procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman and his husband and wife. 1.00

00:25:52.000 If this comes as a shock to you, it's because you're stupid. 0.99

00:25:55.000 And they deny that God has designed marriage to be homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous, and they deny marriage is a mere human contract rather than covenant made with God. 1.00

00:26:03.000 I agree with all of this, by the way, on a personal level.

00:26:05.000 Again, this doesn't reflect public policy.

00:26:07.000 I think the government should get completely out of the business of marriage. 1.00

00:26:10.000 I agree, it is a covenant made before God.

00:26:12.000 I don't know what government has to do with a covenant made before God.

00:26:15.000 Article 2 says, we affirm that God's revealed will for all people is chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage.

00:26:21.000 Okay, again, agreed.

00:26:23.000 I was a virgin until marriage, so was my wife.

00:26:25.000 Okay, again, this is a basic Christian worldview.

00:26:27.000 A basic Judeo-Christian worldview, actually.

00:26:28.000 The idea that just because you want to do something doesn't mean you get to do something, or that it's justified.

00:26:42.000 They say we affirm that God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings in his own image, equal before God as persons, and distinct as male and female, and deny that the divinely ordained differences between male and female rendered them unequal in dignity or worth.

00:26:54.000 Again, this is all just rote stuff.

00:26:57.000 There's no big deal here.

00:26:59.000 They say we affirm the differences between male and female reproductive structures are integral to God's design for self-conception as male or female.

00:27:05.000 So in other words, gender is not independent of sex.

00:27:07.000 Again,

00:27:08.000 This is right.

00:27:09.000 They say,

00:27:24.000 And they say they deny that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God's holy purposes in creation and redemption. 0.52

00:27:32.000 Okay, again, this is traditional Christian worldview.

00:27:34.000 This is not suggesting that you're... Here's where I have a slight difference.

00:27:39.000 You know, if you conceive of yourself as homosexual or transgender, in my view, that's your business. 1.00

00:27:44.000 Your orientation is your business. 0.95

00:27:45.000 Your action is God's business.

00:27:47.000 And the religious communities business.

00:27:48.000 How you orient is up to you because desires are desires.

00:27:51.000 This is, I think, a significant difference actually between Christian thought and Jewish thought.

00:27:55.000 Jewish thought is very little about what you think and very much about what you do. 0.59

00:27:58.000 And Christian thought is very much about what you feel as well as what you do.

00:28:01.000 So, this is a difference. 0.99

00:28:02.000 But, to suggest that this isn't in line with Christian thinking for the last couple thousand years is just asinine. 0.96

00:28:10.000 Everything they say here, in other words, is totally within bounds of Christianity, and yet the left is super mad, because the left is super mad that there are people who disagree with them. 0.93

00:28:18.000 Tolerance and diversity for the left end at my religious observance.

00:28:23.000 That's when tolerance and diversity end, which is why government has a job protecting religious diversity.

00:28:28.000 It's why government has a job saying, you don't get to encroach on me, and I don't get to encroach on you.

00:28:33.000 But this idea that you get to encroach on me because you don't like what I'm doing, okay, that's fascism.

00:28:36.000 And the left's hatred for the national statement demonstrates, like, I don't understand why they even care.

00:28:42.000 As I've said this a thousand times, whether I consider your behavior sinful or not is completely irrelevant to you.

00:28:48.000 Why do you care what I think?

00:28:49.000 It's a free country.

00:28:50.000 Feel free not to care.

00:28:52.000 But the left does care because deep down what the left wants when it comes to social issues is legitimacy, moral legitimacy for their viewpoint.

00:29:00.000 They can't get it from the church so they look to government to quash the church and then look to government as the sort of absolver of all of their sexual feelings.

00:29:08.000 Okay, so...

00:29:09.000 In other news, I want to talk a little bit about the latest on the Antifa-Berkeley situation because it continues to unfold.

00:29:16.000 So Nancy Pelosi did something I thought was actually quite good, shockingly.

00:29:22.000 She has now released a statement.

00:29:23.000 It says, Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts.

00:29:30.000 The violent actions of people calling themselves Antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation and the perpetrator should be arrested and prosecuted.

00:29:39.000 In California, as across all of our great nation, we have deep reverence for the constitutional right to peaceful dissent and free speech.

00:29:46.000 Nonviolence is fundamental to that right.

00:29:48.000 Let us use this sad event to reaffirm that we must never fight hate with hate, and to remember the values of peace, openness, and justice that represent the best of America.

00:29:55.000 Wow!

00:29:56.000 Nancy Pelosi! 0.99

00:29:58.000 The Botox receded long enough for her to issue that statement.

00:30:00.000 That's a very good statement by Nancy Pelosi.

00:30:02.000 Good for you, Representative Pelosi.

00:30:04.000 Really, that is good stuff.

00:30:06.000 I hope that this is the beginning of the Democratic establishment beginning to disassociate from Antifa.

00:30:10.000 Because what we're seeing instead in Berkeley is some politicians who are willing to make way for Antifa.

00:30:15.000 They're throwing another roadblock up, believe it or not, with regard to my event September 14th in Berkeley.

00:30:20.000 I want to make a quick distinction between my event and the free speech week that comes, I believe, a week and a half later in Berkeley.

00:30:27.000 That's the one featuring Ann Coulter and maybe Steve Bannon and maybe Milo.

00:30:31.000 I believe Milo is definitely going to speak there.

00:30:32.000 He's one of the organizers.

00:30:34.000 That's happening after my event.

00:30:35.000 My event is September 14th.

00:30:36.000 Both of them have been approved by Berkeley, but just the news coverage has been conflating the two.

00:30:39.000 They're not the same event, and not all the people hold the same views, obviously.

00:30:44.000 Regardless, everybody there has the right to free speech, just as I have a right to free speech.

00:30:47.000 So what is Berkeley doing now?

00:30:49.000 So Berkeley still has not released tickets, okay?

00:30:51.000 It is now August 30th.

00:30:53.000 The event is on September 14th.

00:30:54.000 I don't know about you, but virtually all concerts release tickets months in advance.

00:31:00.000 Okay, the idea that you're going to release tickets, I guess maybe two weeks in, they're now talking about next week releasing tickets, giving people like a week and a half to sign up.

00:31:07.000 We already have nearly 2,000 people who have signed up through yaf.org for the event itself, and we're going to try and translate those over to tickets at Berkeley.

00:31:17.000 What is Berkeley doing?

00:31:18.000 Apparently, they're now trying to require that YAF and the college Republicans tell everybody that if you want to pick up your ticket, you have to come the day before, before 5 p.m.

00:31:28.000 to pick it up.

00:31:29.000 That they won't mail them out, that they won't print them out, that instead you have to physically come there the day before, before 5 p.m.

00:31:35.000 Does that sound like they're trying to throw up a roadblock to filling out the auditorium?

00:31:39.000 It certainly does to me.

00:31:40.000 I've never heard of a public event where you have to arrive the day before in person to pick up your tickets.

00:31:45.000 Have you ever heard of something like this, Mathis?

00:31:46.000 I've never heard of something like this.

00:31:48.000 I mean, if every ticketing system in America and around the world allows you to print out your ticket at home, allows you to pick up your ticket at the box office the day of,

00:31:56.000 This is total madness and it's obvious that they're trying to throw up obstacles at this point.

00:32:00.000 Please, if you have a chance, go over to yaf.org and register for the event and they have the information for Berkeley's administration.

00:32:07.000 They should be let know by you that this is unacceptable.

00:32:10.000 All we want to do is go and have an event talking about free speech and Antifa and the alt-right and Black Lives Matter and social justice warriors and hit on all these hot-button issues in a

00:32:20.000 In a, I think, well-thought-out way.

00:32:22.000 That's all we want to do.

00:32:24.000 And exercising those free speech rights is made difficult even by the people who pledged to uphold them over at Berkeley, which is really quite astounding.

00:32:31.000 So, I would hope that Berkeley does its job and releases the tickets ASAP and forthwith because I know that there are literally thousands of people who want to show up.

00:32:39.000 Okay, time for things I like, and then we'll do some things I hate, and then we'll do a little bit of Bible talk.

00:32:42.000 So, things I like.

00:32:43.000 We've been doing a little bit of philosophy this week.

00:32:46.000 Another book on philosophy that was held near and dear by a lot of the early conservatives in the country was Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France.

00:32:55.000 One of the great differences between some of the founders was how they felt about the French Revolution.

00:32:58.000 Some people, like John Adams, saw the French Revolution as dangerous, which it was.

00:33:03.000 Some people, like Thomas Jefferson, initially loved the French Revolution and thought that this was the overthrow of the old order,

00:33:08.000 And something new would be built in its place.

00:33:10.000 Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France.

00:33:12.000 Burke was a supporter of the American Revolution.

00:33:15.000 And Burke was a believer in representative democracy, not direct democracy.

00:33:20.000 His book, Reflections on the Revolution of France, basically predicts what is going to happen in the revolution and why it's going to fall apart.

00:33:28.000 Right he was, because it did fall apart.

00:33:30.000 It turns out when the community

00:33:33.000 The difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution is that the American Revolution was based on the idea that human beings are endowed by their creators with certain inalienable rights, and that government is enshrined and empowered in order to protect those individual rights.

00:33:50.000 The French Revolution was based on the idea 1.00

00:33:52.000 That all rights spring from government and the community, and therefore the community has the ability to overrule individual rights in any situation where it sees fit to do so.

00:34:01.000 Pretty different revolution.

00:34:02.000 Brook points that out, and he points out the value of respecting tradition, particularly, if you don't know what it is, there's a... I think it's Robert Frost who says this, but I'm not sure, who says that the... No, I'm sorry, it's Chesterton, who makes the argument out of fences.

00:34:17.000 He says that

00:34:18.000 You know, the difference between a conservative and a leftist is that a conservative sees a fence in the middle of a field and says to himself, I don't know why that fence is there.

00:34:26.000 Maybe I should find out why that fence is there before removing it.

00:34:28.000 A leftist sees a fence in the middle of the field and says, there's no reason for this fence to be here.

00:34:32.000 I'm removing it.

00:34:33.000 I think that's a pretty good summation of the main thrust of Edmund Burke's reflections on the revolution in France.

00:34:40.000 Okay, other things that I like.

00:34:41.000 So, there's been a lot of talk about Colin Kaepernick, a crappy quarterback for the 49ers, kneeling for the National Anthem, and now there are a bunch of people on the horrifyingly bad Cleveland Browns who kneel for the National Anthem.

00:34:51.000 Good for a Cowboys QB, Dak Prescott, who was asked specifically about kneeling for the National Anthem.

00:34:55.000 Here's what he had to say.

00:34:57.000 Has the thought crossed your mind about participating?

00:34:59.000 Do you feel the need to do so?

00:35:02.000 No, not at all.

00:35:03.000 Why not?

00:35:04.000 Why do you feel the need to not participate in that?

00:35:07.000 I mean, it's bigger than I think some of us think.

00:35:11.000 I mean, it's just important for me to go out there, hand over my heart, represent our country, just be thankful and not take anything I've been given, and then it's my freedom for granted.

00:35:23.000 Good for him.

00:35:24.000 I don't understand why this is so tough for people to say.

00:35:26.000 If you have problems with the system,

00:35:28.000 Fight the system.

00:35:29.000 But if you're going to fight the national anthem, all the unifying features of the country themselves, then you're undermining those unifying features.

00:35:36.000 Good for Dak Prescott.

00:35:37.000 I'm now rooting for Dak Prescott.

00:35:38.000 Seems like a good guy.

00:35:40.000 This stuff does make a difference, folks.

00:35:41.000 If that seems shallow, that I don't root for Colin Kaepernick because I think that his views on America are negative and destructive, but I do root for Dak Prescott because I think that his views on politics are good, maybe your solution ought to be removing politics from sports altogether.

00:35:55.000 Maybe that ought to be your solution.

00:35:57.000 But as long as politics is going to be infused into sports, then I'm going to root for guys like Dak Prescott, who seems like a much better human being than Colin Kaepernick, at least so far, as his views on the country are concerned.

00:36:05.000 Okay, time for some things that I hate.

00:36:12.000 So, Kathy Griffin has been out of the news for a few months, ever since she did a photo shoot at which she held up the mock-up of a bloody head, bloody decapitated head of President Trump. 0.99

00:36:22.000 She hasn't been in the news, so she's decided it's time to get back in the news, this time by reneging on her apology, which just demonstrates why fake apologies are stupid in the first place. 0.98

00:36:30.000 Here she is. 0.96

00:36:32.000 Are you no longer sorry for it?

00:36:35.000 Correct.

00:36:35.000 I'm no longer sorry.

00:36:36.000 The whole outrage was BS.

00:36:38.000 The whole thing got so blown out of proportion.

00:36:40.000 And I lost everybody.

00:36:42.000 Like, I had Chelsea Clinton tweeting against me. 1.00

00:36:45.000 I had friends.

00:36:47.000 Deborah Messing from Will & Grace tweeting against me.

00:36:49.000 I mean, I lost everybody.

00:36:51.000 And so I have been through the mill.

00:36:53.000 And, um, I also, you know, I didn't just lose, like, one night on CNN.

00:36:58.000 My entire tour was cancelled within 24 hours because every single theatre got all these death threats.

00:37:03.000 I mean, these Trump fans, they're hardcore.

00:37:05.000 They have, like, robocalls, and they're a minority, but they know how to act like they're a majority.

00:37:10.000 Debra Messing and Chelsea Clinton aren't Trump fans.

00:37:13.000 Like, even Democrats.

00:37:15.000 That said, it was out of line.

00:37:17.000 I get that comedy is about pushing the boundaries and being politically incorrect, and that's fine.

00:37:22.000 But do you not agree that that picture, holding up a severed head, I know it's a mask covered in tomato sauce, but do you not accept that was a little bit over the line? 1.00

00:37:34.000 No, you're full of crap. 1.00

00:37:35.000 Stop this. 1.00

00:37:35.000 You know this. 1.00

00:37:36.000 Stop acting like my little picture is more important than talking about the actual atrocities that the President of the United States is committing.

00:37:45.000 Okay, what atrocities involve the President of the United States holding up the bloodied, severed head of his political enemies?

00:37:50.000 I'm missing that part.

00:37:52.000 It is amazing.

00:37:53.000 Look, she just wants attention. 1.00

00:37:54.000 She wasn't able to get it with her original shtick in a way that she liked.

00:37:57.000 So now she's walking it back, and she's willing— Here's the thing.

00:38:00.000 She knows that a lot of the people on the left are going to quietly accept her back.

00:38:04.000 Thank you.

00:38:19.000 That's the direction in which they are going to move pretty quickly here.

00:38:23.000 That's the part that I hate.

00:38:25.000 Kathy Griffin, I think, is completely irrelevant, but it does demonstrate that when people on the left decide that it is imperative to make headlines by ripping Trump and then apologize for it later, the apology is completely false.

00:38:35.000 Don Lemon on CNN.

00:38:38.000 There are lots of people on this network and others who don't look like me who are harder on this president and who say disparaging things about this president but he doesn't get as upset with them as he does with me.

00:38:46.000 Why is that?

00:39:05.000 I think he's upset with Obama. 0.98

00:39:07.000 That's just ridiculous. 0.99

00:39:08.000 It's a ridiculous question. 1.00

00:39:09.000 The idea that Trump is only upset with Don Lemon because Don Lemon is black is just ridiculous. 1.00

00:39:12.000 Trump is one of the most petty human beings on the planet. 1.00

00:39:15.000 The idea that he's not upset with white people who are mad at him or women who are mad at him. 0.99

00:39:20.000 I mean, Don Lemon hasn't gotten half of what Megyn Kelly got just during the election cycle. 0.94

00:39:23.000 And if you're going to talk about people who have been targeted because they didn't like Trump, there are a number of people who have been very critical of Trump.

00:39:31.000 I mean, he's going after sitting senators in his own party.

00:39:34.000 He's going after Jeff Flake, who's a senator of his own party.

00:39:37.000 The hell is Don Lemon talking about?

00:39:39.000 But again, everything for the left has to be infused with this extra degree of voracious nastiness. 0.92

00:39:45.000 And when you do that, all you're doing is playing right into Trump's hands because everybody can see that this is nonsense.

00:39:50.000 Okay, final thing that I hate.

00:39:52.000 A lot of people are all over the CNN... I just said something about a CNN host that was negative.

00:39:55.000 Now I'm gonna say something about a CNN reporter that is actually not.

00:39:58.000 So a lot of people are all over the CNN reporter.

00:40:01.000 She's on the ground during Hurricane Harvey.

00:40:03.000 And she's being asked about, and she asks a hurricane victim about the situation on the ground, and the hurricane victim really goes after her on camera.

00:40:11.000 A lot of the right was overjoyed with this.

00:40:14.000 Let me introduce you to Danielle here. 1.00

00:40:16.000 Danielle, you just arrived.

00:40:19.000 Share with us how you were rescued.

00:40:21.000 Some guys had called our phone and asked us where we were.

00:40:25.000 We was waiting for the police for like

00:40:28.000 36 hours and they never came.

00:40:29.000 And we was waiting at the home.

00:40:30.000 We did the white flags and everything and nobody came.

00:40:33.000 But then somebody had called the phone after we decided to leave the house and we had walked to the gas station with the kids and then they had called and came and picked us up.

00:40:41.000 But we had been there like five days with no food and no lights and nobody came.

00:40:47.000 Like nobody came.

00:40:49.000 No, you're with your children.

00:40:50.000 We've heard of stories of mothers trying to save their children from the rushing waters.

00:40:55.000 Can you tell us how that was for you?

00:40:59.000 Four feet of water to go get them food on the first day.

00:41:01.000 Yeah, that's a lot.

00:41:04.000 But y'all sitting here, y'all trying to interview people during their worst times.

00:41:07.000 Like, that's not the smartest thing to do.

00:41:09.000 Like, people are really breaking down, and y'all sitting here with cameras and microphones trying to ask us what the f*** is wrong with us.

00:41:15.000 I'm so sorry, ma'am.

00:41:16.000 And you're really trying to understand with the microphone still in my face, with me shivering cold, with my kids wet, and you still putting a microphone in my face.

00:41:24.000 Sorry, ma'am.

00:41:25.000 Sorry.

00:41:25.000 Okay, so everybody's all over the reporter.

00:41:27.000 Oh, look at this woman. 1.00

00:41:28.000 This woman's really speaking truth to power. 1.00

00:41:29.000 Okay, I have a couple problems with this.

00:41:31.000 One, the woman clearly agreed to be on camera before this happened.

00:41:35.000 Reporters don't just run up to people and thrust a microphone in their face.

00:41:37.000 They ask them for their permission before they interview them.

00:41:40.000 Okay, I've done it myself.

00:41:41.000 This notion that the reporter did something wrong here is absurd.

00:41:44.000 I understand why this woman would be emotional and upset.

00:41:46.000 I understand even why she'd be upset with the media who may feel like they're hawks here.

00:41:49.000 But let's be real about one thing.

00:41:51.000 The fact is that if the media were not covering Hurricane Harvey, the amount of charity flowing into funds to help people with Hurricane Harvey would be much lower.

00:41:59.000 It is media coverage that drives people's empathy.

00:42:01.000 Okay, you want to talk about empathy as cash?

00:42:04.000 This is what it is.

00:42:05.000 People empathize with that mother because they saw her on TV, and then they want to send cash.

00:42:09.000 And that's good in the realm of private charity.

00:42:11.000 I don't think amethyst is a great thing when it comes to public policy, but in the realm of private charity, it actually is good.

00:42:15.000 So for all the people who are all over CNN for this, that's not fair.

00:42:18.000 I think that's unfair to this reporter.

00:42:20.000 I think it's unfair to CNN.

00:42:21.000 I think it's unfair to CNN's coverage.

00:42:23.000 Okay, a little bit of Bible talk before we part ways.

00:42:25.000 So every Wednesday, we do a little bit of Bible talk here on The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:42:30.000 And we talk specifically about the sections from the prophets this year, because last year we went through the entirety of the Old Testament, first five books of Moses, so now we are doing some of the prophets.

00:42:40.000 So this is from this week's Haftorah, which is the section of the prophets corresponding to the section of the Bible that we read every week.

00:42:49.000 This is from the book of Isaiah, and this is from Isaiah 54,

00:42:52.000 7-8.

00:42:52.000 It says, For this is to me as the waters of Noah, as I swore that the waters of Noah shall never again pass over the earth, so have I sworn neither to be wroth with you nor to rebuke you.

00:43:12.000 Okay, so I thought that this was a good biblical reading for a time when so many people have been evacuated from their homes in what, I mean, frankly, looks like biblical scale flooding.

00:43:21.000 I mean, this is just incredible stuff.

00:43:23.000 51 inches in Texas, in the US record.

00:43:27.000 I think this speaks to

00:43:29.000 What is God doing here?

00:43:31.000 You can never talk about why God allows tragedy to happen because we just don't know.

00:43:35.000 There are certain limits to human understanding.

00:43:37.000 But what God is assuring us here through Isaiah is the idea that the status quo for nature, the status quo for a world without God, is a world of chaos and a world of disaster and a world of badness.

00:43:50.000 I think there's this bizarre notion

00:43:52.000 I don't know.

00:44:12.000 That without God's protection, nature would overtake us is true.

00:44:15.000 That's what it means when... It doesn't say God is actively punishing you with storms here.

00:44:18.000 What it says is that God has withdrawn his face.

00:44:21.000 And I'm not speaking to this particular storm because I can't get inside God's head.

00:44:24.000 What I am saying is that with all the storms, physical, material, spiritual, that we undergo in this life,

00:44:31.000 Sometimes that is God just shading his countenance.

00:44:34.000 And that's why it's important for us to recognize and seek him out.

00:44:37.000 The closer we draw to God doesn't mean that we're going to be protected from disaster.

00:44:41.000 I'm not a preacher of prosperity gospel.

00:44:43.000 I don't believe that belief in God and faith in God is going to protect you from bad things that happen.

00:44:47.000 But it is going to allow you to have more faith that God's countenance is hidden and will reveal itself again.

00:44:53.000 And that's what this is talking about.

00:44:54.000 Not that God is never going to hide his countenance.

00:44:56.000 Not that there aren't going to be times when you don't understand what God is doing because I don't understand what God is doing in Texas right now and neither does anybody else.

00:45:02.000 But understand that God's face will emerge once again and that God is there even when he's hiding himself.

00:45:10.000 Even when we don't know what he's doing, he's still there, and that eventually God's light will shine again, and I think it will shine again on the people of Texas, and I think they're showing tremendous fortitude and tremendous strength in the face of a brutal period.

00:45:24.000 All of our thoughts and prayers, and yes, our charity goes out to the people in Texas right now.

00:45:28.000 Okay, we'll be back here tomorrow with all the latest updates.

00:45:30.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:45:30.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

The Ben Shapiro Show - August 30, 2017

Does Trump Have An Empathy Problem? | Ep. 373

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