QUESTIONS - What Are Your Thoughts On Organ Donation？
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the concept of the resurrection of the dead, whether or not we should donate our organs after we die, and how we should deal with our dead loved ones when they die. We also discuss the case of Jezebel, and why we should give them proper funerals.
Transcript
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what are your thoughts on organ donation knowing god sustains life and death has numbered our days
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and predestined our life should or should we not donate our organs after we die that's that's really
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a thoughtful question i don't know i haven't given this a lot of thought but i have immediate
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thoughts i have my hot take if if you will um you're right because i what i think what tiffany
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is getting at for our listeners is she's recognizing that just practically, in most
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cases that I'm aware of, the timeline of when the organs are harvested, the person is still alive.
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So it could be an instance where the person is brain dead, for instance, but their heart is
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still beating, their lungs are still breathing. And so it gets into the question of when do we
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actually declare that a person is dead. And certainly we have modern ways of doing that
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within medicine, but it gets into the question of when does the soul leave the body? And when
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is a person dead? Not by modern medical criteria, but by God's criteria. When does God recognize
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someone as being dead? And so it gets into that. And are we counting someone out too soon? Because
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we have a miracle working God. Somebody could be brain dead and they could come back to life.
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And so harvesting organs and those kinds of things. So one, I would say you probably need
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to be careful with that and have some very clear stipulations of if you're going to be an organ
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donor, when your organs should be donated, that you should be truly dead, not just brain dead,
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but like you are dead, dead. So that's one thing that I would say. Two, in addition to that,
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and you guys, some of you are probably going to feel like this is almost even
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superstitious, but I do believe this is a Christian thought. Historically, the Christian
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church has been against cremation. Are you aware of that? Cremation, meaning that when someone dies
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that they would be cremated, burned, incinerated, and then their ashes placed in an urn or something
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like that. Traditionally, historically, the church has been against that practice.
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We believe as a Christian, it's not just, oh, it's our vanity. And, you know, so we embalm someone
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so that they still look like they're alive. And we put on makeup, you know, and we basically have
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a beauty dresser come in, you know, when someone's dead and make their body look aesthetically and
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physically pleasing. Yeah, there may be some vanity from our culture in that, in the way that
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we do, open caskets and funerals. But there are actually also some theological underpinnings
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of even embalming and trying to preserve the body. We know the body's going to decay.
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The Bible talks about that. But trying to make the body intact as long as possible,
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and even as it decays, that it would decay in one place, namely in a casket buried underground.
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Why do we bury bodies? Because we don't want coyotes and beasts and birds of the air to come
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and eat the carcass. That was another, that's what David says to Goliath, right? And that was
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a judgment. That's a judgment of God that David says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that
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taunts the armies of the living God? I tell you, I will feed your carcass to the birds, right? And
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that was a judgment. That's not a, I'm going to kill you and then give you a really respectable
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funeral. No, feeding your carcass to the birds is a bad thing, just in case somebody missed that.
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that's a bad thing. Same thing with Jezebel. When Jezebel is cast down out of her window by the
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eunuchs and she splits open on the ground and dies, one of the judgments, and this was prophesied of
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her that this would happen, but one of the judgments is that the wild dogs come and tear
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apart her body and eat it and devour it. And again, that's a bad thing. That's a judgment.
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And it's bad in one sense, because it's not respectable of the person, right?
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That person who we loved and cherished, not in the case of Jezebel, but for us, when a
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And one of the ways that we show our respects is the way that we deal respectfully with
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their body, even though they're no longer alive.
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But from Christian doctrine, it's also the sense that we actually believe.
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I know that this is crazy to some people, but this is Christianity. We believe in a bodily
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resurrection, that we're not just going to be given new bodies, but that we will have new bodies,
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but our new bodies will be this actual body made new. This body, not another one, but this body
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made new. Not another new body, but this old body glorified. This old body resurrected. And that is
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going to be our eternal existence. What I'm saying is this, a million years from now, this is not
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hyperbole. This is Christian doctrine 101. A million years from now, I will be in fellowship
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with all you who are saints and born again by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone,
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and in fellowship with you and in communion with the triune God, living a physical existence in
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this body. Now this body will have undergone some serious renovation, but it will be this body.
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And you guys will recognize me in heaven. You will. You'll be able to say that body's different
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than it was then. His skin is a little bit better and clear. He looks a little bit more fit and in
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better health and this and that. But you'll be able to say, that's Joel. Oh, that's the right
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response guy. I know him because it'll be this body. Made new, changed, renovated. Yeah. Praise
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God. But not a completely separate body, this body. Even some of the creeds and confessions
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and even old Christian hymns talk about the sea, those who were lost at sea, but who were in the
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lord who are christians that the sea will give up its dead at the last trumpet with the final return
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of christ and think about that i mean bodies that were lost at sea and that were eaten by sharks and
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all this kind of stuff and and it's been thousands of years and particles all over the seven oceans
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you know and um and but but that's actually going to happen jesus is going to return and all these
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bits and pieces of people's bodies over thousands of years have been spread out in the ocean with
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people who are sailors who were christian sailors lost at sea and that were eaten by by by fish and
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sharks and all like, and it happened 20,000 years ago or whatever, like this is going to happen.
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I'm not saying the world is 20,000 years old, but if Jesus tarries, just for the record,
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but it happened 5,000 years ago, Jesus is going to return and every little particle of their body
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is going to be somehow zapped up together by Christ and his power and, and then glorified
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and resurrected and made new. It'll be their body. So Christ is going to do that. And Christ,
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can do that and will do that. The question is though, just because Christ can take every little
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particle of a human body scattered abroad in every ocean over thousands of years with a Christian
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sailor who was lost at sea, can Christ do that? Will Christ do that? Yes. But should we make Christ
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do that? That's kind of the question. Should we make him do that by cremation, right? Should we
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burn our loved ones and, and then scatter their ashes over the ocean, which is a fairly common
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practice. Um, my, my, uh, my uncle, uh, did that with, with my grandmother. Um, and I believe my
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grandmother was a Christian. Um, and I believe that Jesus will make short work of finding every
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single one of my grandmother's particles in the ocean whenever he returns and, and, and resurrecting
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her body and glorifying it. I think Jesus will be able to handle that with ease. But should we
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have done that? I think there's Gnosticism is what I'm getting at. I think that Gnosticism
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has pervaded every element of our lives and the way we think as Christians today in this modern
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era. We are not just spiritual beings, and we're not just going to be floating on the clouds as
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bodiless souls for all of eternity. We are physical beings. The body matters. The physical
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world matters. Physical nations matter. And that's why we don't care about politics. We're
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like, well, that's a physical kingdom. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. Yeah, it's not
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of this world, but Jesus' kingdom is in this world. It is in this world. It's not of this
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world, meaning it's not carnal. Jesus' kingdom doesn't operate by worldly principles. It's not
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of the world. But Jesus' kingdom is in the world because God loves the world. Same thing, our
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bodies. It's not another body. It'll be this body made new. Same thing with the earth. The earth is
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not going to be disintegrated, annihilated and dissolve like snow. That's not what Peter's
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talking about in his epistle. That this is, this is a symbology and it's talking about the old
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covenant. And it's not literally saying that God is going to disintegrate the entire planet. We're
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going to have a whole nother earth. No, it'll be this earth. It'll be the new heavens and the new
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earth. But what will be new about this earth is that it will be the old earth made new. Same as
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our bodies. So we should care. We should care about our bodies and we should care about the
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earth. And we should care about when a Christian dies, how we treat their body, not just for the
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sake of showing respect, but also for the sake of recognizing this body in real terms. It's not,
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we don't just believe a hocus pocus. It's not a fairy tale, right guys? Do we believe this stuff
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or not. Like I actually believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And that one day he is
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going to physically return. And he is going to say, instead of Lazarus come forth, this time he's
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going to say, redeemed church come forth. And every single Christian is going to burst out of the
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grave or out of the sea will give up its dead or out of wherever they are. And Jesus is going to
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resurrect them and glorify their bodies for an eternal physical existence with him in the new
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heavens, which will be on this earth made new. That's Christian doctrine. That's what we believe.
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So all that being said, some people need a kidney. Some people need a liver. Some people need a heart.
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And Christians, Christians, we are generous people. We are sacrificial people. We are
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helping people. We are. We are. But we're also not Gnostics. So I guess what I'm saying is I'm
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not saying no Christian should be an organ donor. But what I am saying, what I am saying is that no
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Christian should be a Gnostic. And we should somehow try to strike the balance and hold the
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tension between being sacrificial, even at the cost of our own lives and our organs, but also
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recognizing that the physical body matters. The physical body matters. It's not nothing. I think
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some Christians in an overly idealistic and even Gnostic sense are willing to be organ donors
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because the body is of no account to them. I mean, Paul even says physical training is of no value.
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No. Physical training is of some value. Godliness supersedes it. Godliness is more important,
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but the physical body and exercise and all these kinds of things has some value because the body
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has meaning. And the body is actually eternal. It will be. Yes, you will die. And yes, your body
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will decay. But just because these things are true doesn't mean that your body won't be resurrected
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and glorified and eternal, having an eternal bodily existence with the Lord and not with
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another body, but this body. And so we should care. We should care. And so with that,
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yeah, first, make sure you're really dead. And I don't know how I feel about the brain dead thing.
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I really don't. I really don't. That your heart is still beating, but you're brain dead.
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But you're an organ donor and you've got that bracelet on and they're already slicing up your
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body and taking out your heart or your liver, your lungs. That's, I don't know. I don't feel
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comfortable with that. So one, make sure you're actually dead. And two, I think there's a difference
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in like, for instance, like my dad has one kidney. If, if, you know, and he's fine. He's had one
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kidney for years. But if that kidney got injured and he needed a kidney transplant, I think there's
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a massive difference in me giving my dad a kidney, which it might have to be one of my brothers
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because I'm adopted and they might for the biological purposes and those kinds of things
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and the genes, but whatever, giving, giving as a Christian, giving a kidney or giving, you know,
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i i think there's a difference in that versus laying in the hospital your heart's still beating
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it's being cut out of your chest and and it's like the doctor said um you know that it's over
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this guy's dead but did god say it's over did god declare you dead what was it over and and then
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even with that you know um multiple organs now being harvested and and now it's like there's
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you've got a part of your body buried underground, and then you've got your liver in this person,
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Ted, who lives in Kansas, and your heart is over there, and Susie in England. And again,
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when Jesus returns, he can figure it out. He's the supernatural God, but I don't know.
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So I'm not saying no, but I'm just saying we should make those decisions
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They make those decisions that are hard decisions
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but they make those decisions too quickly and too easily
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because they don't have a Christian view of the body
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Our next Right Response Conference is in the works.
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We've got a number of things already lined up and organized.
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The whole conference, three days long on post-millennialism and theonomy.
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And the speakers, Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Gary DeMar, and of course, yours truly,
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If you want to find out dates and location and registration and anything else, go and
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rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com.