Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1010 | Haiti Missionaries Murdered—For What?

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Today, we discuss the tragic deaths of Davy and Natalie Lloyd and Jude Montis — missionaries who were fatally shot in a gang killing — as well as the controversy sparked by their deaths. Why were they in Haiti? Should they have been there? Why do some people think they shouldn't have? Plus, Russell Brand shares an update one month after his conversion to Christianity. Get your tickets for Share the Arrows: https://www.sharethearrows.com/ --- Timecodes: (00:45) Intro (01:34) Missionaries in Haiti killed (22:00) Criticism of the Lloyds & goodness of Christianity (29:55) Stats on Christianity in Haiti (33:08) History of faith in Haiti  (42:43) Missionaries are "politically incorrect" (51:45) Story of John G. Paton (01:02:01) Russell Brand Update --- Today's Sponsors: A’del — try A'del's hand-crafted, artisan, small-batch cosmetics and use promo code ALLIE 25% off your first time purchase at AdelNaturalCosmetics.com Covenant Eyes — protect you and your family from the things you shouldn't be looking at online. Go to coveyes.com/ALLIE to try it FREE for 30 days! Jase Medical — get up to a year’s worth of many of your prescription medications delivered in advance. Go to JaseMedical.com today and use promo code “ALLIE". NetSuite — gain visibility and control of your financials, planning, budgeting, and inventory so you can manage risk, get reliable forecasts, and improve margins. Go to NetSuite.com/ALLIE to get your one-of-a-kind flexible financing program. --- Links: AID FOR HAITI: "History of Christianity and Missions in Haiti" https://www.aidforhaiti.org/stories/history-of-christianity-and-missions-in-haiti --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 968 | Olivia Rodrigo Goes Full Moloch https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000649238685 Ep 994 | Russell Brand: Christian or New Ager? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-994-russell-brand-christian-or-new-ager/id1359249098?i=1000654094188 Ep 939 | Russell Brand's Jesus Journey & the State of the Race https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000642825933 Ep 1009 | Willie Robertson on Sharing the Gospel | Guest: Willie Robertson https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000642825933 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

A young American missionary couple was just killed by gangs in Haiti. Their tragic death has sparked a debate online about Christian mission work, whether it is good, whether it is bad, man. We have so much to say about this subject and about this sweet couple on today's episode of Relatable. We've also got a very positive and encouraging update on Russell Brand and his developing testimony. this episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Goodtreechers.com.

Use code Allie at checkout. That's good ranchers.com. Code Alley. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Hope you guys loved yesterday's episode. I found it really encouraging the things that he was saying about what scripture tells us to do

when it comes to the methods we use to share the gospel. It's really enlightening. to me, really edifying to me. So if you haven't listened to or watched yesterday's episode with Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame, then make sure that you go check that out. Really, really good. All right, we've got a variety of Christianity-centric stories to discuss today, some of them happy, lighthearted, and others tragic. And we're going to start with that tragic story. And it involves an American couple named Davy and Natalie Lloyd. They were missionaries in Haiti and they were tragically killed a few days ago by gangs in Haiti.

This has sparked a conversation, a debate online that has actually been going on for a long time about mission work and specifically Christian mission work in countries that have traditionally rejected Christian values. And the accusation that mission work is someone, form of evil imperialism, colonialism, white supremacy that needs to be put to an end. And so we're going to talk about specifically what happened to this young couple and then also just the subject of missions in general, what they have accomplished and why Christians do this kind of self-sacrificial mission work and why the critics of this work are so entirely misguided. So this is according to the Christian Post, three missionaries, including an American couple, were killed by a gang in Haiti.

Last week, gang members in Haiti ambushed and killed a young American missionary couple, Davy and Natalie Lloyd, along with the Haitian director of the mission, Jude Montes. Davy Lloyd was 23, Natalie Lloyd was 21. They worked full-time with missions in Haiti. It's an Oklahoma-based group founded in 2000 by Davy Lloyd's parents, David and Alicia Lloyd. Natalie Lloyd is the daughter, of Missouri State Representative Ben Baker. So that's where I first heard this news. Ben Baker posted on Facebook, the post is then shared to acts where he announced to the tragic death of his daughter and her husband. Davia and Natalie moved to Haiti shortly after their marriage in June of 2022. The mission's orphanage is located in Luzon, north of Porta Prince, an area plagued by

violent gang. So they were really going into the heart of danger because they were. They were, cared about the vulnerable populations in Haiti, wanted to not only reach them with the gospel, but also to help them with material resources that they lacked. According to missions in Haiti, the couple was attacked by three truckloads of armed men. They were reportedly ambushed as they left church in Porte Prince on Thursday evening May 23rd. The mission and church across the street have two security guards, but when Davy came out of the church at 6 p.m., three pickup trucks full of guys with guns overwhelmed them immediately, according to David Lloyd. That is the father of Davy. The incident escalated into a chaotic scene as Davy Lloyd was tied up and beaten by gang members

who stole trucks and other belongings from the mission. Children were in the compound at the time. After the gang left with it tall, Davy Lloyd called his father. David Lloyd said he was injured and he was hurt. He was nervous. He was very scared. He was begging me to find someone to get in there and help him. And I did all I could, but I could. But I could. locate anybody to help. And then the call ended when more armed men arrived, leading to a violent backlash after one of the newly arrived gang members was shot. According to David Lloyd, Davy went in and barricaded himself in my personal home with his wife and mission director, Jude Montes. The gang shot that place up until they got the door busted down and shot them

and set Davy and Jude on fire. So disturbing. The three missionaries were shot and killed by the gang at about 9 p.m. according to a post by missions in Haiti. The missionary group has faced numerous challenges, including the kidnapping of Davy Lloyd and his siblings in 2005, from which they were rescued after 21 hours, Lloyd's father said. So even after being kidnapped, as a child, in 2005, Davy Lloyd and his wife have gone back to Haiti to share the gospel and to advance God's kingdom through hospitality and love and generosity and truth. The violence against the missionaries is part of a broader pattern of worsening gang activity in Haiti.

Gangs armed with weapons primarily trafficked from the United States have been spreading across the capital and other cities attacking police stations and hospitals and freeing inmates from prisons. Nearly half of Haiti's population faces food shortages and gang violence deaths and injuries increased by 53 percent and the first quarter of this. year compared to the previous quarter. In an interview with BBC, Kenya President William Ruto said the peacekeeping police force is expected to arrive in Haiti in about three weeks. And so they are calling on other countries like Kenya to come to the aid of Haiti to help bring law

in order to help bring peace. Unfortunately, Haiti has been an absolute chaos and disarray for many, many, many years. It is a corrupt and disorderly disheveled place, the stories from missionaries and workers of different nonprofit organizations that have gone there to try to bring aid, bring order, bring help, even just long-lasting help to Haiti, to try to create places of employment and jobs and some kind of sustainable society and civilization and safety and safety measures for the people of Haiti. They've come back and they've said, like, it is so completely, of course, it's like a third, it is a third world. It's a third world country, but it's like going to a different time in history, that even basic things like filing systems or are putting

things in some kind of numerical or alphabetical order when it comes to their health care or their hospital systems. Like, it's completely foreign to them. These are basic organizational concepts that we take for granted that in many of these third world countries like Haiti just aren't being employed. They're not even known about in many cases. And so it just continues to cascade. It continues to worsen there even with the efforts of so many generous Americans and organizations that have tried to come there and to get the country on its feet. And we talk a lot about the dangers of revolutions, of progressive revolutions that claim to be for liberation.

And when we look at the Haitian revolution against the French colonizers, you'll see that kind of revolution praised, even today among progressives. We saw that in the BLM revolution here. And you can say whatever you want about how the French colonizers, you know, treated the Haitians. And of course, there's a lot to be said there. There's a lot of bad to be said there for how the colonizers treated the local indigenous people. Absolutely. You can condemn that and also realize that the result of that revolution has not been liberation and peace and order. And that is, of course, what leftists believe here. If you have some kind of revolution against the American European colonizers of the United States,

if you topple over what they would call the white supremacist regime, then finally you'll have peace and order and we'll live in this beautiful John Lennon's imagined type society. And it just doesn't ever result in that. And that is the same thing that has been true in every left-wing revolution, whether you're looking at China or Cambodia or. or you're looking at in Zimbabwe, it always ends in this kind of chaos and this disarray. And that, of course, is what has happened with Haiti. And Christian missionaries have been the greatest and the bravest bringers of light in order and peace to Haiti. And they have suffered greatly for it. And this couple is another example of that.

here's what Ben Baker, the representative, state representative from Missouri, posted on Facebook after Natalie died. This is one of the posts that he posted. He said, I just got off the phone with Donald Trump a bit ago, who was just calling to offer condolences for Davy and Natalie to Naomi and I. He spoke so kind and down to earth. He mentioned how sorry he was if this evil happened to our kids and how beautiful their devotion was to their calling and to the people of Haiti. He wanted to know if we knew who did this because he wants the criminals brought to justice. He also mentioned how he couldn't believe how beautiful they were, that they looked like models. We talked for over six minutes, and it meant a lot to us to know he took time out to recognize Davy and Natalie.

That is really, really sweet. That is really kind and really considerate of Donald Trump. But just as an aside, this is not about Donald Trump, but you hear this from a lot of people, that he does a lot of hidden acts of kindness and consideration that are not always publicized. And I don't know. I think that that's just important to know. And like I do wonder, again, I'm not trying to make this about right and left and political, but I do wonder if our current president of the United States had anything to say about this because these are Americans. And I'm sure that they were conservative Christians, but it should matter, right?

Like the president should be making a statement about this. should be calling them. Maybe he did. Maybe he did have something to say about it and we just don't know. But I personally haven't seen that. I am happy to be corrected. And honestly, I still hope that he does say something about it because their lives deserve to be honored. And so absolutely tragic. We just need to pray for their families. Pray for his parents. Pray for her parents. They will never ever get over the loss of their child. And even though, think the Lord, they have faith and they understand the joy and the peace of the knowledge that their children are in heaven, their children would, they would rather be nowhere else. They are in the presence of the Savior that

they have worshipped for so long, whose gospel they gave their lives for, and their reward is great. They are beholding a far greater glory that so incredibly outweighs any trial that they experienced here in this life. And they are worshiping Jesus face to face. They have the transcendent joy, the transcendent peace that we all long for here in this life and cannot attain until we get to the other side of glory. They've got it. They've got it. they have arrived home. And so I'm thankful for that. There is mourning, of course, I think that's natural. Even Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, knowing that he was about to raise Lazarus back to life. So I think it's okay for us to mourn, for us to cry, because death is unnatural. It reminds us that it's not supposed to be this way. It reminds us of our longing for redemption, that death is the result of the fall. It's the result of sin that we are supposed to be walking in the garden and the

cool of the day with our Lord. And that one day it will be like that again for his flock, for his children, that one day there will be no more sadness, no more sickness, no more gangs, no more violence, no more corruption, no more politics, that we will have perfect peace and satisfaction forever and ever. Stories like this remind us that something is missing. something is not right. Something has been broken. So it's okay to be sad. It's okay to mourn, but we do not mourn as those who have no hope. We mourn as those with the hope and the knowledge that Jesus is coming back and he is going to win and that there will be victory forever and more. And so that's how we look at any story of death, but especially something like this. The best people in the world

killed by some of the worst people in the world. And I just mean best and worst in terms of what they are offering for those around them. These people cultivated goodness and life and hope, whereas their murders cultivate only death and chaos. One side, worshiping the prince of the power of the air, the other side being made alive in Christ and being agents of order and light. And so tragic in that sense, thankful, though, for the hope that we have in Christ and the hope that their parents also have, even as they are mourning this tragedy. So a little more background on this mission group. They've done such amazing work, and I think it's important to highlight that. So this is from their website, Missions in Haiti.

We started missions in Haiti again. This is David and Alicia Lloyd, the parents of Davey. in Haiti in 2000, with the purpose of setting Haiti on a different course, we aim to accomplish this by targeting the country's biggest need, its children. Although the entire nation is steeped in poverty, the children suffer the worst. Thousands are malnourished, uneducated, and headed for hopeless lives apart from Christ. In 2002, about 100 kids attended missions in Haiti's summer Bible school program. And that fall, there were 10 children at the orphanage and another 30 enrolled in. in the school. So Missions in Haiti has several ministries. They've got the House of Compassion,

for example, and they now care for 36 children, 18 girls, and 18 boys. These are children that don't have parents, so they're orphans. They stay at the house until they have finished school. They're ready to be out on their own. Missions in Haiti also has the good Hope Boys Home. And this was started in 2008 when Haiti was hit by four back-to-back hurricanes in a period of about four weeks. They decided to open this boys home to bring in boys who had lost everything as a result of those storms. They have Good Hope Church. So this is a church there in Haiti that they have built. You can see the pictures online. It's beautiful. Of course, the Christian Haitians go there to worship. There are also several ministries with

within that church. That's helping the poorest and the most vulnerable in that area. They have Bon Espar school. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly. This is a school providing free education for the children there in Haiti. They have a children's church specifically. Oh my goodness. This is making me cry. The sweet children there just worshiping in the church that was created by this mission's group. They have a bakery where they are employing the poorest Haitians there and also offering food to the hungry Haitians there. They've got a child sponsorship program that they created. And so you can sponsor a child in Haiti, sponsor one of the children at the House of Compassion for $25 a month. You can help a child attend to the school that they

started and Port-A-Prince for $15 a month. And so they have lots of ways for people around the world to help the poorest children there in Haiti. So that's what this ministry has been up to. That's what this missions organization has been doing since 2000, helping the children there. And they are doing their best to not only offer them resources and offer them the gospel of Christ and hope for their souls, but also to protect them from the gang violence that exploits these children,

that harms these children, that traffics these children. Here is Davy last year describing the threat of gang violence that these children in Haiti have to suffer from every day. This is Sot 1. The uprising of gang violence and gangs taking over, it's a whole different kind of problem. And to see the fear that it's created in a lot of people, because it is, it is dangerous, you know, even though we might have peace right here on our little block of the street, a couple of months. miles north of us, a mile north of us, you know, if you try to get through there and don't abide by the way the game wants you to to do, they will probably kill you. Hey, you wanted the international community to step in. They wanted the government to step in, but nobody has been able to or nobody

has. And a lot of them are turning to God and saying, God, we need you to help us because we realize this is beyond what we can do. And we need someone to step in and help us. Okay, so you can just hear and see his heart and knowing full well the danger that they are facing and counting the cost and saying this is worth it, most of us don't have that courage. Not everyone is called to do the same kind of mission work, but just speaking for myself, I see that. And I am convicted that I need more courage. I need more self-sacrifice.

I need to emulate this kind of selflessness more. And again, we're all called to different places. Not everyone is called to Haiti. Not everyone is called to a third world country. Evangelism might look different in different phases of your life and the different talents and resources that God has given you and how he has directly led you. But I think that we can all see the bravery and the love of Christ that was exemplified by these young people and be moved more.

towards the heart of God and convicted of our complacency and our addiction to comfort. That's what comes to mind for me. I, like so many of us, even those who are Christians who say that we've counted the cost, we are addicted to convenience and comfort. I know that can be true for me. So just hearing him and seeing him talk about this and running into the danger for the sake of the most vulnerable for the sake of children. It just convicts me.

Not everyone, though, has had that. kind of reaction or even mourning for the loss of life of fellow Americans, even if you're not a Christian, we can see something like this and say, okay, they're doing a lot of humanitarian good that the government there is not doing in Haiti. And so we can be sad about this young couple dying and the prime of their life, it would seem. But unfortunately, there is a tweet that has gone viral that has sparked the debate about the ethics of mission work. And that comes from Karim Wafa al-Husani, who is, you might have guessed it, a Muslim on Twitter. This tweet has 110,000 likes and 8,300, 8,300 retweets.

So the original tweet says, these Oklahoma-based missionaries were both slaughtered by gangs in Haiti yesterday, prayers for both of their families. Simple tweet, a picture of the couple. And then the quote tweet says, random question, But what's the point of Christian missionaries going to Haiti when the country is already 93% Christians? Here are some responses to that. White supremacy. Next question.

They are the wrong kind of Christian, someone said, meaning that Christian missioners think that the Haitian. think that the Haitians who say that they're Christians, they are the wrong kind of Christians. So they're still going. Someone else responded, human trafficking. Someone else responded for the gram. So for Instagram, someone responded, make it hate, but why go? Did they not learn from the dude who went to the island and was eaten? Like it seems so many Christians want to go and spread this and that.

Can we as a people just mind our own business? There's just a time to say, nah, that's a bad idea. I mean, that's kind of the whole, like, premise of Christianity is that it is an evangelistic, inherently, an evangelistic faith that the last command we are given is to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, as we talked about yesterday, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. That is the great commission. This is an inherently telling religion. We worship the word made flesh who dwelt among us. That is one distinguishing feature of Christianity versus, say, Buddhism that attaches holiness to silence and to solitude. No, we are a commissioned and communal religion that believes in liberation from sin and that the only way to accomplish that, the joy and the purpose and the satisfaction for which we all long is through Christ. We believe that that is good news.

We are to be ministers of that good news. So these people, of course, don't understand Christianity. And even if they do understand Christianity, they believe that it's not something that needs to be told because, of course, they don't believe that it's good news. Someone also responded, so they feel good about themselves. Someone else responded, this person has a blue check mark, quite a few likes on this tweet. they were probably there on a child snatching mission. Now, there are other people defending them. There are other people saying, look, they're offering humanitarian aid.

They're giving resources. But many more comments saying performative white saviors. Another guy says money. A hem trafficking. All of these comments saying trafficking, the comment that I saw with the most likes is one that I've already said. White supremacy is the reason. Next question. It's a white savior thing. It's how churches launder money. All right. So that is the

thought, apparently by a lot of people, particularly on the left, about why Christians do mission work. And there are several Instagram accounts, actually, that I have seen professing Christians that I know following and liking. They're both about the performative and dangerous and exploitative nature of Christian mission work. Now, I am not saying that every mission has been executed well. I am not defending every missionary. I am not defending every method. I am not saying that there has never been harm done by those who profess Christianity, who claim the name of Christ and claimed to be ministers of the gospel. I am sure that that has happened. But overwhelmingly, Christians have been the greatest force for good in all of history. The greatest force for humanitarianism in all of history,

it doesn't even come close. It does not even come close from the inception of Christianity and the creation of hospitals, of orphanages, of organizations to feed and to clothe and to help the poor, to the creation of and the spreading of the ideas. of human rights to the work that we see throughout history and up until today. The greatest force for humanitarian good has been Christianity, has been Christians who are willing without any profit incentive to go into the most dangerous and the poorest communities and to bring life and hope and resources. Again, nothing else comes close.

no other religion, no other faith, no other kind of organization, no other motivation has been greater than the motivation of the gospel in Jesus' followers to bring goodness and help to those who need it most. And this is yet another example of that. Now, this claim that Haiti is already 93% Christian. So why are there Christians, why are there are Christians even there? Shouldn't they already, shouldn't they go somewhere else where there are no Christians? Haiti is already Christian. Well, we're going to look a little bit more closely at that statistic. All right. So according to the Joshua Project, a research initiative seeking to identify the ethnic people, people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Jesus,

these are the stats. So the country of Haiti. So there have been zero people groups unreached, which is good. That means all people groups, not on. all individuals have had some kind of interaction with a Christian or with a Christian organization. So while people groups in Haiti have heard the gospel, there are, according to them, according to surveys where people are professing whatever their faith is, there's no theological test here. 94.84% of Haitians adhere to Christians. Adher to Christianity, they say 17.53% are evangelical. That means the rest of them are some form of Catholic, evangelical annual growth rate 2.2%. However, here's the issue with this. Obviously, Haiti is not

operating like a Christian country. They are not operating in general, according to Christian values. So Christian adherence, according to the Joshua Project, are merely those who claim to be Christians nominally, not necessarily Bible believing true faith Christians. The Joshua Project also notably does not include demographics for those who adhere to or practice voodoo, of which, according to CIA data, there's a large crossover with nominal Christianity in Haiti. And so, of course, the Joshua Project is not accounting for that. And as we've talked about before, voodoo is extremely popular in Haiti.

the vast majority of the Haitian population also practices Houdou. There is this strange mystic mix of Catholicism and voodoo and witchcraft there in Haiti. That is the prominent form of so-called Christianity. And so when an organization like the Joshua Project says, yeah, the majority of the country is Christian, of course, they are not looking at all of the doctrines that are believed or being practiced there in Haiti. The fact of the matter is is that Haiti is that Haiti is absolutely. absolutely overrun with satanic practices. And actually, we see this very strange mix of witchcraft, mysticism, and Catholicism, not only in Haiti, but in several parts of Africa, also in South America, in Mexico. This is a very strange and popular partnership that we see in a lot of these

third world countries, poorer countries. And so that is actually the dominant belief system in in Haiti. And even that 17% of evangelicals, that number that we see, we just don't know how accurate that is. That number is still probably high, again, because it's just hard to say whether these people are really believing in and practicing Christianity. The Haiti is 70% Catholic. This is kind of like the saying that you see, 70% Catholic, 20% Protestant and 100% voodoo. And so even the professing evangelicals there may also be practicing a form of voodooism and witchcraft. And we can learn a lot about how Haiti got to where it is by looking a little bit at the history that we've talked about, that we talked about before. During Haiti's early

history, the Spanish and French both imported slaves from Africa to maximize productivity on the sugar plantations in the colony of St. Dominique, modern-day Haiti. obviously evil there, not just in the buying of the slaves and the transporting them, but also in the selling of the slaves by the African leaders. That seems to be overlooked very often in conversations about the tragedy of slavery. As slaves arrived in the new world, they were exposed to new Catholic doctrine and belief. Many adopted aspects of the new Catholic practice and combined it with their traditional African spiritual beliefs voodoo.

As time went on, the slaves' African spiritualist beliefs became more of a point of pride as Catholicism was increasingly viewed as the religion of brutal slaveholders. So that kind of goes back to what we were talking about. And the revolution in Haiti seeing Christianity or seeing Catholicism as the religion of the colonizer and allowing it to kind of be eclipsed by this voodooism. Soon after the revolution in Haiti, all foreign priests in the Haitian Catholic Church fled and Rome cut off all relations. This allowed the early Haitian Catholic Church to form and change without oversight from the outside church. This, in addition to the ritualistic aspect, of Catholicism has helped voodoo become pervasive throughout Haitian Catholicism and is why the two

often appear to coexist so easily in a system of religious pluralism. This is, according to Aid for Haiti, the history of Christianity and missions in Haiti. Aid for Haiti is a Christian mission's organization. So this is kind of their summary of much of the history of religion in Haiti. Protestants failed to gain a lot of ground in the urban areas in Haiti and thus focus their energies and attention. on poor rural areas with remarkable success. We've talked about how also the voodoo practices and the rituals there in Haiti have led to cannibalistic practices throughout history, child sacrifice practices. Of course, that's what we see in many of these poor countries, including in places in Africa. The African spiritualism that the left likes to tell us is

this peaceful, peaceful religion, of course, has. justified the awful pagan practices of child and human sacrifice for centuries. This article goes on to say it is clear spiritualism in the form of voodoo remains the dominant worldview and lends through which Haitians view all aspects of life. And unfortunately, this also makes it very difficult for Americans, for Christians in particular to bring aid to Haiti because many of the healing mechanisms or many of the healing mechanisms or many of the solutions that are brought forth by Christian doctors there, by nonprofit organizations are seen as some sort of witchcraft and voodoo.

And actually, we've talked about this before. Missionaries that I've known that have gone to Haiti, like they're trying to encourage, for example, the mothers there to breastfeed their children rather than feed them this like corn paste that they are feeding their children, which can be extremely dangerous for the babies there. It's not nutritionally good. The mothers very often will reject breastfeeding their children because they believe that it's voodoo. They believe that it's witchcraft.

And so there are so many problems ideologically there. And so to answer the question of why Christian missionaries are still going to Haiti because Haiti needs it, because Haiti is being dominated in many cases by demonic possession. We don't believe that witches exist. We don't believe in the superstitions of witchcraft, but we believe that Satan is real. Satan operates through those witchcraft practices. That is why the Bible calls those practices any kind of necromancy talking to the dead, any kind of mediums where someone is saying that they can communicate. A human is saying that they can communicate to the dead or through the dead to you.

that is prohibited in the Old Testament. Any kind of psychic is prohibited in the Old Testament. And yes, we today do not abide by all of Israel's laws, but we can look at Israel's laws to see the principles that still should be applied today. And I see no reason why it should change. God calls voodoo and witchcraft in every form of that kind of paganism that I think even some Christians dabble in today, it's all dangerous. It's all wrong. And it leads to this kind of chaos and human rights atrocities and places like Haiti. So if you want to know why Christians are there, it's because Haiti needs Christianity. It needs the order that it brings. It needs the light that it brings. It needs the hope that it brings. And some people are so anti-God that they

actually believe that leaving Haiti and poor Haitian children to its own, to their own devices and allowing children to continue to be the victims of violence and trafficking and rape and corruption and just crushing poverty is actually better than white American Christian ministries going there. And they think that they are being progressive by being quote unquote anti-colonialism when really they're being anti-cholonyal. child by taking that stance. And that is, of course, what progressivism does. It gives you a heart of stone and a brain of mush to the point to where you are willing to sacrifice the very vulnerable people that progressivism claims it advocates for. It is so entirely backwards and is so

destructive everywhere it goes. And that is yet another reason why no, it's not possible to be a Christian progressive because you are becoming an agent of chaos and violence and exploitation and pro-paganism and pro-child sacrifice, even if you don't mean to become that, its ideology always leads to that. And so thankfully, there are Christians who have battled against the anti-missions, anti-gospel mentality of so much of the West, and they have continued. to brave the dangers there. This is according to World Magazine, Haiti's population ranks as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, according to the Public Reference Bureau. A 2010 earthquake that

killed an estimated 300,000 people, widespread corruption, civil unrest, and ongoing gang violence have further exacerbated problems. But thankfully, there are still Christian missionaries there who are doing amazing work. In 2017, Haitian government survey found roughly 30,000. children living in roughly 750 orphanages throughout the country. Those orphanages are run by Christians. That's up 150% from the roughly 300 orphanages in place before the 2010 earthquake. The parents are living in poverty and drop the child off at the orphanage in hopes that he or she will receive free food and the Christians are there to bring them in. The orphanage are also concerned about spiritual development with staff seeking to show the children how to be godly and responsible

citizens. Now, unfortunately, over the years, less than reputable groups have opened sham orphanages in an effort to cash in on billions of dollars of international aid. And that is absolutely evil. And those people should be punished. They will be punished by God if they do not repent. That is the worst form of exploitation. And so that, of course, does exist. But we should be thankful for the Christians who are continuing to have. of Christ like courage. The brand millennial Katie, she made a good post on Twitter about this. She said to all the ignorant people saying those missionaries should have never gone to Haiti. Who are you to question God's plan? Is he not sovereign? I promise that Christ gathered some of his sheep through that beautiful young couple. Who knows how many more after their death?

If it weren't for John Patton, we're going to talk about him in a second, who went to the cannibal islands of New Hebrides, then that the indigenous. entire island wouldn't have repented and become Christians. Fiji was also a cannibalistic savage land until John Hunt brought the gospel and totally Christianized that land. What about Jim Elliott, who died and paved the way for his wife to spread the gospel far and wide with the Akas? God has used many missionaries' lives and martyrdoms to Christianize entire nations many times over. Think before you speak, and she encourages us to read about Christian. history. She says several Puritans came to America to spread the gospel to savage nation,

Native American tribes, and in turn, many Indians were saved. So glad all of those missionaries were brave enough to go where God called them to go. If I perish, I perish. How beautiful are the feet of those who spread the good news. Yes, and amen. And the fact of the matter is, is that, yes, this is politically incorrect to think this way today. To think that those who live lives of true savagery, who live lives of paganism, that they need to be changed in any way. Because in that is the implication that there's such thing is right and wrong, that there's such thing as good and evil, that there is a better way to live. In that is the implication that some cultures are worse than others.

And we're not allowed to believe that today in our morally relativistic society. We are supposed to believe that however someone wants to live their life is fine. And we can't intervene, we can't interfere. However, someone wants to conduct themselves, even if it means exploiting children, even if it means gang violence, well, who are we to say, anything about it. Now, it's interesting, those same people who claim that, those same people who say, we should not intervene in a place like Haiti. Christians should not be there because that's colonialism, that's imperialism. There's something wrong about that. And, you know, that couple just learned their lesson.

Those are the same people that would support efforts by the United States government to punish a country like Kenya for passing a law that is anti-gay or anti-LGBQ. So they're okay with that. kind of imperialism, as long as it's spreading the pride flag, they're not okay with so-called imperialism if it means spreading the gospel. They're actually completely fine with taking over institutions and countries in the name of progressive ideology. They are not okay with Christian missionaries going there and spreading the work and the message of Christ. So it's not actually that they are against changing countries and changing cultures and changing institutions. They just want to make sure that all of those entities are changed into their image, match their ideas,

are forced to believe the things and practice the things that they do. They just don't want the gospel spread. That's what it is. It's not an anti-colonial message. It's an anti-Christian message. That's what's going on here. Because as we've seen, progressivism is extremely imperialistic. It will take over every school, every organization, every business, every church, every country. It will seek to trample on any opposition and ensure that every individual and every entity conforms to its will. That is what progressivism does. And so again, they're not against influence and change and conquest. They just want it to be theirs. That's what's going on here. So just keep that, keep that in mind. I promise you if they found a country that was, if they were the

ones with their ideology leading the conquest of the new world, and they found out, and they found out, that the Cherokees and the Choctaws were homophobic, they would have killed them too. They would have done everything possible to make sure that all of those barbarians believed in practice what they wanted them to. Of course, we see that through their lawfare here in the United States, making sure that the bakers bake the cake, that they want them to bake, that the florists make the florist make the florals make the floral arrangements, that the web designer makes the website, that they want them to make, and they will absolutely ruin your life and take your money until you conform to their will. Progressives are the most imperialistic in conquest, domination, minded power, hungry ideologues in the world. That's why they've taken over the UN, the WHO, the WEF, our intelligence agencies, most of the federal government, public education, academia. They have all the institutional power and they have the audacity to tell individual charity-motivated,

Christ-empowered Christians that they are wrong, money-hungry, greedy, power-hungry, exploitative because they go into poor countries and offer hope and help to the most vulnerable. It's so ugly. It's so absolutely backwards and demonic. I mean, some of these posts, again, 4,000 likes. I'm sorry to say this, but they brought it upon themselves. Their naivete, another post says, doesn't downplay the tragedy. So I guess she's trying to kind of be nuanced there.

Someone, this is 2,000 likes, two less colonizers. Amen. May this keep all the colonizers away. Yay, it's better for children to be trafficked and victims of gang violence than to receive an education. and to be placed in an orphanage and be given help and food and to be rescued. Keep all colonizers away. These people are so evil and stupid. I'm sorry.

I'm sure I'm going to get some message that it was mean to say that. But I think we can just use plain language here. Should have minded their own business. But Christians seem to be allergic to this concept. Actually, yes, yes, we are. mind your own business. No, Christians are not very good at that because we have been given the right and the responsibility by the creator of the universe to make disciples of all nations. And you owe your human rights and your freedom and any flourishing that you have experienced and benefited from in the United States of America to Christians who refused to mind their own business. To Christians who refused to mind their own business. to Christians who decided to, for the sake of liberty, to worship God how they wanted to worship him, to forge a new country where people could thrive in the name of all image bears being created equal

by a God who has endowed us with certain inalienable rights that is a Christian idea. We all benefit from Christians refusing to just mind their own business. And praise God, this couple did not just mind their own business. Who knows how many children they loved, how many people they introduced the gospel of Christ to, how many people they fed. And we'll end to this segment with this. We've talked about this story before, but this is just a reminder of how Christianity so drastically changed the world. Like, pair yesterday's conversation with this one. You never know.

you just don't know the rippling effect that you sharing the gospel with one individual can have on their lives, on their communities, on nations. What God does through the simple obedience of the believer is absolutely, absolutely incredible. So this is an article by John Piper called You Will Be Eated by Cannibals, the story of John G. Patton. We have read this story before, but it's just a good reminder. It's a good reminder for me, just so much encouragement. 19th century missionary John G. Patton left a successful urban ministry in Glasgow. Is it Glasgow or Glasgow? I should know.

Glasgow. I lived in Edinburgh for a little bit, so I should really remember that. In Glasgow to bring the gospel to the tribe to the Southern Pacific Islands, many of whom practiced cannibalism, despite much criticism for his decision to go. So even back in the 19th century, they were saying, saying, why would you do this? This is not worth it. It's too dangerous. We had Christians saying, nope, I don't care what you say. This is what I've been commissioned to do. Patton said this, do that criticism. I realized that I was immortal till my master's work was done. I was immortal till my master's work was done. That reminds me of the first question and answer to the Heidelberg

Catechism. I was immortal till my master's work was done. The assurance came to me as if a voice out of heaven had spoken that not a musket would be fired to wound us, not a club prevailed to strike us, nor a spear leave the hand in which it was held vibrating to be thrown, not an arrow leave the bow or a killing stone the fingers without the permission of Jesus Christ, who is all, who is all the power in heaven and on earth? That is so good. We are immortal until God calls us home. So we have nothing to fear because God has written every single one of our days before any of them came to be. That's Psalm 139. He and his wife arrived at a small island called Aniwa. I think that's how you pronounce it in 1866 to share the gospel. The natives there were

cannibals. They occasionally ate the flesh of their defeated foes. They practiced infanticide and widow sacrifice, killing the widows of deceased men so that they could serve their husbands in the next world. So again, witchcraft has consequences. It has horrible consequences, murderous consequences. In the next 15 years, John and Margaret Patton saw the entire island of Anewa turned to Christ. Years later, he wrote, I claimed Aniwa for Jesus. And by the grace of God, Eniwa now worships at the Savior's feet. At the moment when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well-nighed,

broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself. Years later in 1877, when people argued that the Aborigines of Australia were subhuman and capable of conversion or civilization, unfortunately, that is an idea that has persisted about a lot of people groups, whether you're talking about Jews in the Holocaust, whether you're talking about babies in the womb today. People in power always insist that one group, or often have insisted that one group of people is subhuman. Of course, this is true of black Americans during the time of slavery and Christians have been the ones to stand up and say, no, that that's not true. And it's actually because of the mission work that Christians have done in these third world countries

that has affirmed throughout history our conviction that that is a lie that no human being is less than or less made in the image of God than another. He said this. He fought back against that awful eugenics-minded idea. Recall, he said, what the gospel has done for the near kindred of those same Aborigines. On our own, Natium, 3,500 cannibals have been led to renounce their heathenism. In Fiji, 79,000 cannibals have been brought under the influence of the gospel, and 13,000 members of the churches are professing to live and work for Jesus. In Samoa, 34,000 cannibals have professed Christianity, and in 19 years, its college has sent

forth 206 native teachers and evangelists. On our new Hibbredes, more than 12,000 cannibals have been brought to sit at the feet of Christ, though I mean not to say that they are all model Christians, and 133 of the natives have been trained and sent forth as teachers and preachers of the gospel. Yes, praise God for that. That is also the story of many African countries that reeked with the stench of human sacrifice to their gods in the name of voodoo and witchcraft and their paganism. Christians came in, who many today and throughout history would call evil colonizers, and they said, no more, no more. And the name of Christ, no more. No more child sacrifice. No more child slavery. No more of this voodoo. No more of this witchcraft, which is killing your people and also preventing you from making any sort of civilization. Thank God for Christians who refuse to mind their own business and brought Christianity to the nations. Again, do I justify and defend everything that has ever been done in the name of Christ? No, evil things unfortunately have been done. in the name of Christ, but not reflective of Christ. They're not reflective of the gospel,

but true Christians who have brought the Word of God in the gospel in order and civilization to countries. Yes and amen. Praise God for that. Praise God for that, that everywhere Christian boots have landed. There has been an end to the most grotesque and murderous practices. Yes, praise God for that. And so I pray that the Lord would continue to advance his kingdom and the poorest and the most vulnerable countries. And eventually, I am sure that those countries will be sending missionaries here in the United States as we have people who love chaos and love death and love murder. Neo-pagans take over and take more and more power here. I pray that doesn't happen. I pray for God's mercy. We have to be the city on the hill. We as Christians here.

we have to be the lamps in the darkness and the darker things are the brighter we shine. And so there is some hope in that. There's some excitement in that that we have an opportunity to be different in a way that our parents and grandparents didn't when they were growing up just because Christianity was more mainstream then. As the church gets pushed on the margins, that's really where we thrive. As scary as it might be, that's really where God seems to do incredible, miraculous work. as we look throughout history, we see, or not just throughout history, but specifically throughout

scripture, we see that God seems to purposely stack the odds against himself before coming through and showing his power. He doesn't have to do that, but it seems that that is his pattern. We see when he parts the Red Sea, when the Israelites take the promised land, we see even in the life of Jesus himself that the odds seem to be stacked against God from the earthly viewers' perspective. And then he comes through doing what only God can do, bringing salvation to his people, and most importantly for us, bringing salvation through a baby. Through the word made flesh, Jesus Christ, that miracle is what spurs us on still today to tell people of the good news. So praise God for this couple. I pray that there are many more like them. May we

be inspired by their courage? I am so sad that this happened. They would have been wonderful parents and I'm sure would have done wonderful work for many years to come. But I pray that God would continue to use their life, to use their testimony and even to use their death to spread the gospel to more people both there and here. So just a, just a reminder that God's eternal plan of redemption is so obviously still going off without a hitch. One amazing example of the gospel getting out to new and unexpected people and through new and unexpected people is the continued I don't want to say unraveling, I guess, progression of the testimony of Russell Brand. We've talked about his journey and his testimony several times before.

As he has converted to Christianity, he recently got baptized and he is sharing videos of what he is learning about Christianity. I just continue to be so encouraged by that. He released a video just the other day, marking his one month as a Christian, and we'll get into that in just a second. Okay, here is SOT 2. Rependance to repent means that you have to continually change and acknowledge that I am in a battle against myself, that I need to surrender myself to an ever-present, internal and accessible Jesus,

that mercy is something that's given to me, being granted to me, that I live with through love, not something that I can sort of win or achieve by doing good deeds. I love the simplicity of the idea of God, come to me. earth as a man to experience what it is to be human and to sacrifice himself because that's the only sacrifice that could bring us home that could give us the opportunity for redemption. I love that. He has such a way of clear communication and he clearly communicated the gospel and that last thing that he said that he loves the simplicity of the idea that God has come to earth as a man. He came to earth as a man to experience what it is to be human and to sacrifice

himself. That's the only sacrifice that could give us the opportunity for redemption. I mean, honestly, that is a better summation of the gospel than I get from a lot of Christian influencers online. And even that you'll hear from a lot of pastors in the pulpit. And I'm not necessarily saying that it's because they lack the courage or even the knowledge. I think sometimes all of us who have been Christians for a significant portion of our lives, we get so far. And so far, filled with knowledge and so many different theological ideas that it can be hard for us to condense and simplify what the gospel is. We feel like we have to include all of these different parts to make sure that we paint a whole and full picture. And there's nothing wrong with that

motivation. But all of us really need to practice, I think, being able to give like a 30-second gospel presentation or even a one-sentence gospel. presentation. And so I love what he does here. And, you know, I get pushed back every time I talk about Russell Brand or every time I post about Russell Brand, every time I say, this is awesome. I love that he said this. This is so encouraging to me. I get people saying, you really lack discernment. Oh, you're being fooled by him. He's a new age mystic. I had someone say, oh, he believes a false gospel, the false gospel of Roman Catholicism. He converted to Catholicism. I can't can't believe you're praying this or you're praising this. Well, first off, he hasn't converted

to Catholicism. He has not said that. I saw a Christian Post article that said that he has converted to Catholicism. He's never said that he converted to Catholicism. He got baptized by submersion in the River Thames that doesn't seem like a Catholic baptism. And he's never said that. In fact, he has said, what denomination are you to his audience? And I want to hear more about this. Now, I understand maybe why some people would think that because he has used a crucifix in some of his videos. I think he's talked about praying the rosary. He's definitely used rosary beads in some of his videos. What I take from that, as someone who has watched every video about this that he has put out,

who has actually read his thoughts and tried to listen to his thoughts on this, I think that he is still figuring it out. Now, his wife, I think, is Catholic. And so I would not be surprised if he went that direction. But there's no evidence right now that that is what he has embraced or that he is converted to Catholicism. But even so, even so, can I not celebrate what he says that is true? When he shares the true and simple gospel, can we not just extract that at the very least and say, that is awesome, that millions of people who follow him who maybe have never heard the gospel for? are hearing it from this unexpected but trusted source? Wow, amazing. And the word of God does not

return void. So when he shares the truth, we can just pray and hope that God uses that truth to win a heart to himself. We can say that and also acknowledge, okay, we don't know this person. This is a celebrity that's espousing Christianity. We don't know how this is going to go. We don't know if we agree with everything that he says. We've talked about on here his use of tarot cards and how he how that's dangerous and he asked his audience like what do you think about tarot cards like do you think that it's okay for a Christian to use them or to like seek signs and things like that we have rebutted that or refuted that or responded to that rather with biblical truth about the evil of those things on this podcast so we can acknowledge all that without just

being yeah yeah yeah that's that's my imitation of some of y'all ne yeah yeah like it's okay to say, I don't really know where he is. I'm not sure if we're like doctrinally aligned with everything. But gosh, I hope and pray for him. And I hope and pray for how God's using him. As I've said before, I do not regret being excited about what Kanye was saying and doing back when he said, yep, I'm becoming a Christian and here's my album, Jesus is king. I don't regret that. I never said, and I don't know very many people who said this. If any people who said this, yes, he is our pastor now. Yes, he is our hero. Yes, he can do no wrong. Yes, he's 100. percent right. We should support him unconditionally. And this is 1,000 percent genuine and I know it for a fact.

I didn't say that. I don't know if a lot of people said that. I think it's fine to say this is a great song. These are great things that he's saying. I'm hopeful. I'm excited about this. I mean, maybe God did use that album and use Kanye West testimony at the time to bring people to Christ, to bring people into reading the gospel, to bring people into a Bible-believing church. maybe God did use that time to bring genuine believers to himself, to gather part of his flock. And maybe God is going to do that through Russell Brand. I don't know the outcome of this. I don't know what the progression's going to be.

I don't know what tomorrow holds with these people. But I pray that God would keep him. I pray that God would sanctify him and truth. I pray that he would continue to read and study his Bible. Russell Brand, get an ESP study Bible. I hope that you do and study it every day. And I don't have to say, but make sure you see this or make sure you think about things this way. I don't have to say that because truth is like a lion and I trust God's word

and I trust God and His Holy Spirit. So anyway, I just, I love that. I love his presentation of the simple gospel and I just don't, I think that we can be discerning and wise without being so negative about celebrities who seem to be turning to Christ and turning in the right direction. So I know all of you have been asking, can you please get Russell Brand on the show? I'm working on it. We are working on it. I mean, I'm trying. I'm trying.

But, you know, someone like that, he's got a huge platform and he's busy. And I take no offense when it's difficult to get guests on the show. There are guests that we've had on the show that we have had to ask and work on for months and even years. And so I take no offense to that at all. We're working on it. And let's just pray. related family, can you pray, pray that it happens. Hopefully it will. I mean, I'm hopeful for it. All right. That's all we got time for today. We didn't even get into everything I wanted to talk

about, but this is my first monologue episode in a while, so we just had a lot to cover. But we'll cover a bunch more stuff on tomorrow's episode of Related Ball. All right. I will see you guys back here then.