The Matt Walsh Show - July 25, 2018


Ep. 69 - The Church Is Plagued By Cowardice

Topics
cowardice cowardice cowardice
Hosted by
Matt Walsh
Mentioned
Jesus Christ Herod Godspeed Chris
Ep. 68 - Child Abuse In The Guise Of 'Gender Neutral Parenting' Ep 70 - Inventing Another Fake Environmental Crisis

Episode Stats


Length

21 minutes

Words per minute

149.37

Word count

3,168

Sentence count

254

Harmful content

Toxicity

8

sentences flagged

Hate speech

10

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

John the Baptist was a man of intolerance. He called out sin by its name, and called people to repentance. He was not afraid to call sin out, and to call people to repent. That's why he was executed for speaking the plain truth.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I think the real, the scourge, the disease, the infection in the modern church today is 0.99
00:00:08.020 moral cowardice. This is our great problem. Moral cowardice. We are a church of cowards.
00:00:14.400 And we can think of all the excuses that we want to explain away the problems that we're seeing. 0.95
00:00:19.360 But when it comes down to it, I think if we look around us, we can see plain as day
00:00:22.900 that it is cowardice. Not only cowardice, but that is one of the main problems that we face
00:00:30.560 is our own cowardice. Now, in my piece yesterday, I wrote about this and I used by way of contrast
00:00:37.380 the story of John the Baptist, a story that I hope is still well-known and famous among
00:00:43.120 Christians and non-Christians. But John the Baptist, as you probably are aware,
00:00:48.360 was not afraid to call sin by its name. He wasn't afraid to call sin out, to call people to
00:00:54.080 repentance. That was what he did. That was his mission. So when Herod invited him to the palace
00:01:02.340 and confided in him and spoke with him, John told Herod the truth. He just told him the simple truth.
00:01:09.560 That's all. He told Herod that divorcing his wife and taking his brother's wife was a sin.
00:01:15.900 And for speaking the plain truth and nothing but the truth, he was thrown in jail. And then of
00:01:22.680 course, eventually executed. And that's how his head ended up on a platter. He died because he 0.97
00:01:28.680 denounced immorality. He called it out. And not just any immorality, but it was sexual immorality.
00:01:38.220 And so I think most American Christians, they would look at that and they would probably say,
00:01:43.120 if they were consulting with John the Baptist, or if they were around back then with the attitude
00:01:49.740 they have now, they would say to John the Baptist, well, it's none of your business.
00:01:54.880 I mean, don't get involved in that. It's none of your business. Don't be so judgmental.
00:02:00.440 Love is love after all. Don't you realize, John? If Herod wants to get rid of his wife and commit
00:02:07.280 adultery with his brother's wife, then so what? What do you care? Live and let live. Take it easy,
00:02:13.500 John. I think that's what the modern Christian would say, but that's not the view that John the
00:02:21.060 Baptist took. He didn't see it that way. He looked at sin and he saw sin as something
00:02:26.900 disgusting and toxic and lethal. He saw it as something that harms not only the person who's
00:02:35.840 committing the sin, but it also harms everybody else. Everybody who comes in contact with it is
00:02:40.880 harmed by it. There really is no such thing as a sin that's only, that's kind of, especially a sin
00:02:50.560 that other people can see, other people can witness. Those kinds of sin are never just harmful
00:02:59.040 to the person doing them. They're harmful to everyone who sees it because of the effect and
00:03:03.720 the scandal and the way that it might normalize the sin in a person's mind or make it seem not quite as
00:03:10.720 bad. So from John's perspective, any sin had to be called out, had to be identified, had to be
00:03:19.340 condemned, had to be pulled up from the roots and destroyed. And so John the Baptist was
00:03:25.840 extremely, extremely intolerant. He was a man of extreme intolerance. And so it's interesting then
00:03:33.720 to note that Jesus Christ said that of all the men, of all the mortal men on earth, none have been
00:03:42.480 greater than John the Baptist. Jesus Christ identified John the Baptist as the greatest man.
00:03:49.340 And yet, John the Baptist was very intolerant. And he was even what today we would call a doomsday
00:03:58.080 preacher, preaching hellfire, right? And yet Jesus Christ says this was the greatest man.
00:04:07.620 Which really seems like, I mean, it seems like a ringing endorsement of John's whole approach.
00:04:13.780 It seems like a ringing endorsement of John's intolerant approach that Jesus Christ said,
00:04:19.720 this is the greatest man. So let's look at our case then. While John the Baptist died for his
00:04:30.520 defense of sexual morality, for his defense of moral truth, Christians today in America and throughout
00:04:39.240 the West have given up. We've given up our defense on both fronts. And for really no reason. There's,
00:04:48.620 we're not, we're not facing any kind of real violent persecution. But if you look at the polls,
00:04:56.300 you'll see that a majority of Christians endorse same-sex marriage, divorce, fornication, 1.00
00:05:03.400 and on and on. In fact, all of our, all of, all of the most popular sins in our society, 0.87
00:05:10.840 Christians are fine with them. Even, even abortion has the approval of wide swaths of, 0.95
00:05:18.140 of American Christians. And I'm not, look, I'm not complaining that, that because Christians
00:05:24.080 struggle with these things, that's not the point. Something like sexual immorality, that's always going
00:05:29.440 to be a struggle. People have always struggled with that since the beginning of time. But that's,
00:05:34.780 that's not our problem. Our problem is actually the opposite of that. Our problem is that we aren't
00:05:39.960 struggling. We don't struggle. We've decided, we've simply declared that these things are okay.
00:05:45.740 We've stopped struggling. There is no struggle. We've decided that the most popular sins, our favorite
00:05:54.300 sins aren't sins anymore. So there's no struggle. There's no repentance. There's no, it's one thing
00:06:01.840 for us to sin and then to say, oh my God, what have I done? Forgive me, help me. That's one thing.
00:06:09.040 It's another thing to sin and say, it's fine. I'm fine. Doesn't matter. It's just, you know, whatever.
00:06:16.460 This is how I want to live my life. And I'm in a personal relationship with Jesus. And in my
00:06:23.360 relationship, Jesus doesn't care about this. Okay. Because I've, I've made up my own rules in
00:06:28.500 my personal relationship. It's my personal relationship. Have you noticed that many
00:06:34.400 times when somebody, I don't want to get, this is kind of a separate topic, but when somebody
00:06:38.620 cites their personal relationship with Jesus, they'll often do it in a defensive way because
00:06:43.480 their kind of lackadaisical approach to religion has been called into question. And then what they'll
00:06:47.960 say, notice the emphasis, because there's nothing wrong with the concept of a personal relationship
00:06:52.120 with Jesus. In fact, of course, we should all have a personal relationship with Jesus.
00:06:57.180 In that our relationship, we should, we should, it should be a, an affectionate, intimate relationship
00:07:03.840 that we have with, with, with Jesus. It should be marked by love and by a deep knowledge and
00:07:13.740 understanding, right? So there should be a personal relationship. But if you notice when, many times
00:07:21.980 when people use this phrase, notice the emphasis, a lot of the time what they'll say is, well, this is
00:07:29.960 my personal relationship with Jesus. This is my personal relationship with Jesus. The emphasis on my,
00:07:36.860 like, this is something that I own. It's mine. It's on my terms. I make the rules. I set the terms.
00:07:44.740 Um, and also notice that, you know, you go back to the middle ages, go back to medieval times. Um,
00:07:54.020 this idea of a personal relationship with Jesus, that phrase didn't exist. Nobody said that. Yet
00:08:01.220 Christians back then had a very intimate, almost mystical connection to God. I mean, look at, go, go,
00:08:10.140 go read St. Augustine's confessions. Read how just intimate that is. Christians today can't even 1.00
00:08:17.020 conceive of God on those kinds of terms. Yet that's how, that's how St. Augustine was connected
00:08:25.540 with God. And not through this idea of a personal relationship. That didn't, there wasn't any of that.
00:08:30.580 And I think, and I think that this phrase, although it speaks to a certain truth, it has led some people
00:08:36.800 astray because it gives them in the impression of this is a relationship that they have ownership
00:08:42.220 over. Um, anyway, so how do we account for this? Is it, um, is it ignorance? Is that all it is?
00:08:56.400 Like people don't understand. If you talk to the average Christian and they say, yeah, whatever,
00:09:01.760 gay marriage, divorce, abortion, I mean, do what you want. It's all fine.
00:09:05.760 Are they really ignorant? Are they really not, they really have no understanding? Or do they 0.99
00:09:12.880 really think that, uh, the, the biblical commands have some kind somehow expired? Do they really
00:09:20.440 think that, yeah, I mean, a thousand years ago or 2000 years ago, this stuff was immoral. It's not
00:09:25.840 anymore because times have changed somehow and moral truths have, uh, just evolved somehow. Is that
00:09:33.340 really what Christians think? Maybe some of them do, but I think, I think most of them, if they're fooled, 0.84
00:09:40.540 it's because they fooled themselves. And so I think in most cases, it's simply a case of cowardice.
00:09:48.880 And I really have to wonder, has there ever been a society plagued with so many Christians who are so 1.00
00:10:02.760 unwilling to defend even the most basic teachings of their faith? Has there ever been a Christian 1.00
00:10:13.500 society that just cowered so completely under a threat that really is not severe at all?
00:10:23.460 I mean, what are we, what are we actually worried about? What's, what's the, what's the punishment
00:10:28.140 that awaits us if we stand up and declare the truth, if we stand up and speak out forcefully
00:10:34.600 for moral truth? If we draw the line and say, no, that's wrong. This is wrong. This is right. Okay.
00:10:44.080 And here's the line. If we do that, what's going to happen to us? What are we worried about?
00:10:49.160 All the people who are so meek and mild and quiet and refuse to say anything, what are they worried
00:10:56.320 is going to happen to them? Are we worried that, uh, that maybe we'll, we'll, we'll lose some
00:11:03.400 friendships that were meaningless anyway. Friends, if, if, if it's a friendship that you're going to
00:11:08.340 lose, if you actually speak your mind, then that's not a real friendship. Who cares about
00:11:12.220 that friendship? It's worthless. Let it go. So is that what we're worried about? We're going to
00:11:15.860 lose some friends. Maybe we're going to, it's going to, things are going to be awkward in the family
00:11:18.940 because we got, there's some people in the family who don't agree with us. We don't want to upset
00:11:22.220 them. Who cares? So what? So what are we worried about? Worst case scenario, we might say, well,
00:11:30.420 we'll lose our jobs. We'll lose our jobs. If we're, if we're serious Christians and if we speak out,
00:11:37.180 then we'll lose our jobs. Well, okay. That's, um, that's a more severe penalty, I suppose. But in
00:11:44.800 the grand scheme of things, what does that even matter? In 50 years, most of the people watching
00:11:53.260 this or listening to this right now, myself included, most of us will probably be dead in 50 or 60 years.
00:12:00.420 And what's that going to matter then? You were able to hold on to a job. Who cares?
00:12:05.220 You can't bring it with us into the next stage.
00:12:09.580 All this, um, financial security that we were able to attain for ourselves and hold on to by
00:12:16.700 remaining silent in the face of cultural decay. Well, what good is that going to be? Is that,
00:12:23.020 is your financial security going to mean anything when you're standing before judgment day?
00:12:29.260 There's something else to, to keep in mind here. When I, when I, you know, when I highlight the fact
00:12:35.640 that so many Christians are terrified of denouncing sin against the sins against marriage, sins, sins of
00:12:42.760 sexual immorality and so forth. I'm not saying that our primary job as Christians is to oppose gay 0.59
00:12:50.860 marriage or whatever. That's, that's not my point. My point is that our culture has selected certain sins
00:12:58.180 and put them up on a pedestal and then literally thrown them a parade and said, this is wonderful.
00:13:06.180 Everybody applaud it. This is the greatest thing. Let's celebrate.
00:13:12.040 And when our culture is doing that, when it's literally throwing parades for sins and demanding
00:13:17.420 that we celebrate and applaud certain sins, then I think we as Christians have a choice to make.
00:13:23.500 We can, we can, we have two options. We can either, number one, go along with it and applaud politely
00:13:31.240 and say, oh yes, isn't this wonderful? Yes. Oh yes. Yes. Yes. Love is love. I can't judge. You mustn't
00:13:38.660 judge. You mustn't judge. No, no judgment. Yes. Yes. Wonderful. So we can do that.
00:13:43.440 Or the second option is that we can, uh, refuse to applaud and say, no, this isn't right.
00:13:56.360 There's, there are, there are things that are morally true and morally untrue. This is,
00:14:01.500 and I'm going to stand with the moral truth. This isn't right. I'm not going to applaud it. This is sin.
00:14:07.940 Um, and I think choosing that latter option, which is the correct option, it's as much about opposing the 0.77
00:14:20.300 particular sin itself as it is about the basic principle, the basic principle that we're going
00:14:27.020 to be honest and we're going to speak the truth no matter the topic. So John the Baptist died, um,
00:14:35.340 essentially because he denounced this, uh, this sin of Herod's, but it's not like, it's not like
00:14:43.280 denouncing Herod's, uh, the, the, the sin of Herod's marriage and divorce and adultery. It's not
00:14:50.260 like that was John the Baptist's greatest mission on earth. It's not like that was the primary thing
00:14:54.320 he was concerned about. And it's not as though he wanted to die over that, but it was just the truth.
00:15:01.460 That's all. And so he died for the truth. It's not like he wanted to die over that particular issue,
00:15:10.740 but he was willing to die over the truth, plain and simple.
00:15:16.800 And when the truth is attacked, I think we have to stand up in defense of truth.
00:15:23.580 It's not even really specifically defense of this issue, although it is that, but even more
00:15:30.500 important, it's just a defense in principle of truth. And that is worth whatever the, the penalty
00:15:40.040 may be for it. One other point here, I think that, um,
00:15:45.020 our refusal to denounce sin, to call out sin, that's one symptom of our cowardice, but I don't
00:15:55.300 think it's the, the, the primary symptom. It's not the worst symptom. The greatest symptom I think
00:16:01.440 is that, um, Chris, it's just the general fact that Christianity, that faith in America has been
00:16:09.500 kind of pushed out onto the fringes of existence with our permission. And many times with our help,
00:16:18.320 faith has just been pushed to the side. We've allowed our faith to be, to be severed almost
00:16:26.140 completely from what we consider to be normal life. And we've allowed it to be relegated to these
00:16:32.000 just sort of corners of society. We have, as I put in my piece yesterday, we are a population of
00:16:42.800 Christians, yet we have built for ourselves an atheist society. And now we use the secularism of
00:16:55.180 society as an excuse to be secular ourselves. And so if you want proof of our cowardice, I would say
00:17:04.360 that is the number one proof right there. It's not any one particular issue. It's not any one particular
00:17:10.200 sin. It's just look around you in your everyday life. And there is almost no evidence of Christianity
00:17:18.760 in our culture as you go about your life. We're all just walking around and living as if there is no
00:17:26.980 God. And that is, that's many things, but it is also cowardice. So we can talk all we want about,
00:17:38.800 um, the, you know, the, the reclaiming faith in America, the resurgence of faith in America,
00:17:45.080 America, but there's not going to be any resurgence unless there's a resurgence of courage in the
00:17:52.780 church. I don't think we can, it's, it's good for us to pray. It's good for us to ask for God's
00:17:59.140 assistance. But I think if we're expecting a miracle, if we're expecting God to come in and kind of like
00:18:05.760 bail us out and to come in by divine miraculous intervention and to, to save our culture from the,
00:18:16.460 from final self-destruction, if we're, if we're waiting for that, if we're hoping for that,
00:18:21.600 I think we're hoping in vain. I don't think God's going to do that because even if, and I could be
00:18:28.340 wrong, I can't speak to what God will do and won't do. Um, but I do know historically speaking,
00:18:34.600 when, when, when a society gets to the point where it's just rejected God and it's careening over the
00:18:41.740 edge, usually that's when God says, all right, have it your way. You've, you've made your point.
00:18:48.660 You don't want me. Okay. And now your whole society is going to be destroyed because you destroyed it.
00:18:55.320 Now you're going to reap what you sow. And I think the reason why God at a certain point has to say that
00:19:02.440 is because even if he did come in by divine intervention and rescue us from the cliff and 0.92
00:19:09.560 set us on the right path again, even if he did that, because most of us are a bunch of cowards,
00:19:16.980 we would just lose, we would quickly lose whatever, whatever was gained by divine intervention anyway.
00:19:23.360 So we would have to keep on doing it over and over and over again, rescuing us from the cliff as we,
00:19:28.060 he rescues us. And then we just run right back to it and over and over and over again.
00:19:33.700 So there's almost no point in a miracle until we have courage.
00:19:41.460 Only courageous Christians can maintain and defend a Christian culture. 1.00
00:19:50.560 And only courageous Christians deserve to have a Christian culture. 0.80
00:19:58.060 So we right now have the culture that we deserve, and it is a really terrible, awful, ugly culture.
00:20:06.880 If we want to change it, we just, we got to have some guts. We got to stop being wimps. 0.83
00:20:11.600 Put it more simply.
00:20:16.280 That's our hope is in having just a little bit of courage.
00:20:20.340 And the good, you know, the good thing is, considering we're not under violent persecution
00:20:26.200 and nobody is out there threatening to kill us or whatever, if we, if we stand for our faith,
00:20:32.220 the worst possible thing we could lose is our jobs, which is, I'm not downplaying that,
00:20:37.480 but that's nothing compared to losing your life.
00:20:40.340 Considering that, it does.
00:20:41.500 Because we don't really need to have a lot of courage.
00:20:46.040 We don't need to have the same amount of courage that you need to have if you,
00:20:49.860 if you want to be a Christian in Afghanistan or Syria.
00:20:52.660 That requires a lot of courage.
00:20:54.800 That requires like this much courage.
00:20:56.860 We need to have only like this much.
00:20:58.680 This is, this is how much courage we all need to have.
00:21:00.820 If we all had this much courage,
00:21:02.880 I think everything could change.
00:21:06.100 So that's all.
00:21:08.300 Just that much.
00:21:10.540 Thanks for watching, everybody.
00:21:11.600 Thanks for listening.
00:21:12.220 Godspeed.