Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1037 | The Government Doesn’t Want Christians to Adopt | Guest: Josh Weigel

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Sound of Hope is an incredible movie about a church in Possum Trot, Texas, who took on 77 foster kids adopting them into their home simply because the Holy Spirit compelled them to do so. And now their story is reaching so many people who need to see what it looks like to live out the Christian command to take care of the orphan. We have got the producer, director of the movie with us today, Josh Weigel. It's just an incredible story. This is a compelling interview, too, that really educated and encouraged me. Before we get to the conversation, let me show you this really moving clip from the movie. Here's not one. When people say that they want to adopt, they don't usually mean kids like Terry.

Starting point is 00:00:59 They're just afraid. That's all. Get your eyes on other things. See, we got the eyes on this right now. And this is all that we see. We got over 20, 20 families that want kids just like Terry and any other child that need a home.

Starting point is 00:01:21 And that's just an eye little neck of the woods. You think about that. that we got churches on every corner. Have a single one. And each never one of them people's, they don't know the same thing. It shouldn't be a child without a home. We can turn this whole thing around.

Starting point is 00:01:45 So amazing. This episode is brought to by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use Go to Alley at checkout. That's good ranchers.com. Code Alley. Josh, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. Can you tell everyone who you are?

Starting point is 00:02:08 What you do? Yes. I'm Josh Weigel. I was a director, producer, and writer with my wife. She and I produced and wrote the film. It's out of Hope, the story of Passen Trots. So glad to be here. Really glad. I appreciate you. Tell us how you got into producing this movie. Well, you know, we've been in the business for a long time. I think we're in L.A. for 23 years, starting in 1998. And, you know, we're working on a feature film called the Butterfly Circus based on a short film we did. back in 2010 and making really exciting progress, but we just couldn't quite get the right deal to work out.

Starting point is 00:02:46 And then we came across the story, partly because my wife and I adopted two of our kids, and so we were kind of already in that world and living it. And Rebecca works extensively in Los Angeles, connecting churches to this issue and trying to get more people involved. And so along the way, she needed a speaker, found Bishop Martin. We kind of remembered the story had happened about this community somewhere that adopted all these kids.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And long story short, she called them up. And within days, you know, we had decided this could be, you know, an important movie. And my thinking was we just got to figure out how to make it a movie because it's a big story. Yeah. And it's a lot. So it took a little while, but we immediately felt like compelled to do this. And we left everything that we were working on just to focus singularly on this at that time. And obviously people are going to watch the movie, which came out on July 4th to get all of the details about the story.

Starting point is 00:03:53 But give us a summary. Why was this such a powerful testimony that you guys wanted to bring to the screen? Love to. Yeah. So very briefly, First Lady Donna Martin. went through some tough times losing her mom. And through that process, she kind of came to a place with God where she felt like he was telling her to give back.

Starting point is 00:04:17 And basically- This is the wife of the pastor. Yes. She's the wife of Reverend Martin, who was Bishop Martin nowadays, but back then it was Reverend Martin. So she felt like she was supposed to start adopting. She knew nothing about this and looked into it. And before long, they had convinced,

Starting point is 00:04:36 and 22 other families to join them and adopting kids out of the foster system and they ended up adopting 77 kids. In this little tiny rural town, East Texas, I mean, it's not even an actual town. It's just a region with a few hundred people in it. But they took on this monumental task with just courage and, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:00 they dove right in. So it was powerful because they were such an example. and I wanted to understand how that worked and how that could do more to the broader issue of the foster crisis. And it wasn't just that they adopted 77 kids out of foster care. They adopted some of the hardest kids to place. They purposely chose the kids that were having the toughest time finding a home, right? Yes, then that, I think that was one of the things that hooked me personally.

Starting point is 00:05:35 was, I think everybody. I mean, you hear that. It's one thing if you want a baby, which is fine, but it's a different thing. And so they purposely asked for the kids that were difficult to place, that nobody wanted, which is usually kids who've experienced severe trauma, which some had. And sibling sets is another one. You know, it's really best to keep siblings together. And so they don't like to split them up, which is amazing, but it's hard to find homes for three, four,

Starting point is 00:06:05 kids. Oh, yeah. You know, and then teenagers, this is another one. It's, it's really tough. There's a lot of fear associated with that. And so they just, they took on the toughest things and, um, just tough through it as a community. And as you were researching this movie, because you weren't just looking into this particular story, you learned about the foster care system in general, the adoption process in general, working with social workers. And I know that you've adopted two of your own kids, but is there anything that you learned in this research process that you didn't already know. Yeah, this is, I'm so glad you asked because this is, so two things going on. We wanted to make a movie that would really stand on its own and entertain and do all the things that movies should do.

Starting point is 00:06:48 But movies, no matter what you want them to do, they're going to impact you. They're going to change you somehow. I love that about them. So this one addresses the whole issue of the foster care crisis, which is what we began to learn more and more about as we got into this. And some of the shocking things are how connected some of the main issues we all see and are brokenhearted about in society in our cities, homelessness, the overpopulated prisons, child trafficking, all of these things stem from kids who've experienced the foster system. I mean, to, Like, you just take child trafficking for one. And the film, Sound of Freedom, amazing.

Starting point is 00:07:37 It revealed this and brought it back to the forefront last year. And we, there's a connection. It's up to like 90% of the kids in America who are trafficked, have spent time in the foster system. Wow. It's a, it's a tragedy. And so, but what excited me is that if we can go after this, then we're hitting all of these other things.

Starting point is 00:07:58 And it encouraged me because I think we all want these things to change that are just difficult to deal with. You know, in and of themselves, it's hard to know. What do you do about child trafficking? Right. Really tough as an average person. Right.

Starting point is 00:08:10 So this is the way. You deal with the foster system. You are going to cut off this river of children into the hands of evil people. All right, quick pause. Tell you about our first sponsor for the day. That is, of course, Carly Jean Los Angeles. Y'all, they've got some really cute stuff

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Starting point is 00:09:05 only jeans I will wear because they're so comfortable, so flattering. And to top it all off, this is a company run by a family who loves the Lord, who shares our values. They're a big supporter of this show, too, related gals out there. And so if you go to Carlyjean, Los Angeles.com, use code alley 50. You'll get $50 off in order of $100 or more, which is an awesome deal. Carly jean, Los Angeles.com, code alley 50. You know, we've had a mom on before, and we've talked about this a couple times that Christians, at least in some states, are having a hard time getting approved for adoption because they are told if you don't align with the progressive ideological position on LGBTQ issues, if you do not affirm that this child thinks that they're the opposite

Starting point is 00:09:55 sex, then you cannot adopt. So it's almost like the state in some cases would rather these kids languish and foster care, then be adopted by loving Christian parents. And even if that's not in every state, that may be enough to intimidate some Christian parents away from, you know, I don't even want to, I don't even want to get involved. So how do Christians navigate that? That's a tough issue because, you know, we all have friends probably on both sides of this. And so for me personally, it's it's difficult to get into this because I know what this can sound like and mean. But the reality is there is a massive crisis going on right now. And just in America, you have 400,000 kids in the system and you have 100,000 kids that need homes.

Starting point is 00:10:49 And at least two-thirds of the people who are willing to care for these kids, take them in and become family over two-thirds. are Christians. And I speak to this because I am a Christian and because the story is about a church. It's about Bennett Chapel, this community that that's the core of it. And because of that, and the fact that the American church, there's all kinds of things that can help kids that are in these kinds of situations and we should all care. But when you think about the American church, It's the most connected network of support that there is for all kinds of things. You know, and when you think about the care of the children themselves and then even trying to prevent kids from going into systems, you need a resource like that.

Starting point is 00:11:45 You cannot hope to address a crisis like this, reverse a crisis like this, end a crisis like this if you don't utilize that kind of a resource. So yes, it's a real problem if, you know, if you're going to cut off that amount of people because of the disagreement on this issue, then you are going to create an ocean of problems. And it will happen very quickly. You're going to say to many, many people, you're no longer going to be able to help. You can't foster, you can't adopt. We know of one case in Vermont. And, you know, it's a couple. There's two pastor couples that we, we read about, and they're facing this right now.

Starting point is 00:12:31 And, you know, this, the Gantz was one couple that adopted a baby that was addicted to drugs, which is common in their area. They wanted to do this again, from what I understand. And there were some new regulations passed in Vermont that basically suddenly cut them out of the deal. And they said, you can no longer do this. if you can't sign this paper that says you will abide by Vermont's view on this issue. And so we're starting to see this come up around the country. And the reason why we have to do with it is, like I said, you know, we, when the grownups argue about this, then all the kids suffer.

Starting point is 00:13:15 So while we're all trying to figure this out, kids are being abused. they're going from home to home to home. I mean, in Los Angeles, we fostered a 13-year-old girl, and she explained her experience at this group home. And every night her roommate would go outside, be picked up by a trafficker to go party and be dropped off afterwards every night.

Starting point is 00:13:38 And this girl's so wounded. She did this willingly. And California, in effect, emancipates children at 13. certain things can happen and you can basically say, I don't want to be with my family anymore if you're brought into the system. And so the caregiver's hands are tied because they've made decisions that prevent them

Starting point is 00:14:01 from touching children or preventing them from going into vehicles or situations like that. Physically, they can't stop these kids. So you can know that's a trafficker. They're getting in a car. As their protector, their guardian, I can't stop them from doing this. So these laws are insane.

Starting point is 00:14:19 And we're just feeding this darkness. So yeah, we've got to speak up. It's kind of like there's a real problem here. And as difficult as it is because we love so many different kinds of people, we just can't, we can't stand by and not do anything about that, especially when we're making a movie that is intended to inspire thousands and thousands of other Bennett chapels. Right. To step up and do the same thing.

Starting point is 00:14:47 And I just want to clarify, too, that in places at least like Washington in Oregon, the law is not even that if you have a child who identifies a certain way that you have to do XYZ, it is that even before you are even matched with a child, you have to agree that in some hypothetical scenario, you would affirm that that child is the opposite sex, wants to take cross-sex hormones, whatever it is. And so just the simple fact of what you're saying, without even getting into that conversation, you're talking about potentially cutting out over two thirds of the people who are adopting kids out of foster care right now. And we already have too many kids in foster care. I mean, the number could be bigger. Those are the numbers that I've read. But that's a really important point because it's not as if we're talking about a child who's telling you, I'm LGBTQ. I have these feelings, whatever it is. But when you're saying to people, here's a baby. and you just need to affirm our view on this over here. And this baby has, you know, no sense of that right now, right? So, and some of these things get more concerning when it's well-intentioned to to be put under the umbrella of safety, right? You want all kids to be safe.

Starting point is 00:16:06 We want them to be placed in safe families and with safe caregivers and parents. but if that disagreement causes you to be considered unsafe, then what does that say about you as a parent of your own biological kids? Because when you're not safe with your own biological kids, what can they do? So this, you know, this is something to look at right now again.

Starting point is 00:16:35 We don't want kids to suffer while we're all trying to figure this stuff out. But that's a problem. when you're talking to about a problem like this as extensive as it is, it's not a small thing. Yeah. And that could be devastating. But you believe that Christian parents should step up regardless. Yeah. I think we're at a point where it's being forced upon us.

Starting point is 00:17:00 And it's not just Christians. And this is something that affects anyone who just disagrees with this issue. But it does infringe on a religious. just freedom and those kinds of things. But it's really anyone who just doesn't agree with, you know, what these different states are saying has been figured out and they've decided is going to become law. And that's, yes, I think rather than trying to deal with this way down the line

Starting point is 00:17:29 when it's too late like we often do with things, we need to look at it right now and say, listen, let's agree to disagree and not like kids suffer and move this conversation. to the side because it's only going to get worse when you think about the prevalence of trafficking today and the suffering around us and families breaking down. This is just not appropriate. It's not okay. Right. Another inhibition that I think a lot of people have to adopting is the cost of it, but the people that you interacted with at this church in Possum Trot, we're not rich, were they?

Starting point is 00:18:08 Right. Now, this is another favorite feature of mine is it's an everyday average community of people. Nobody's wealthy. Many are struggling financially and they just took this on regardless. They didn't. So many of us look at this issue and think I will consider getting involved once A, B, and C happen. And money is obviously one of the most concerning things because of the cost it takes to, to raise a child. But what I first want people to understand is the cost actually isn't there if it's from the foster system. There's stipends available usually for families who want to foster and adopt out of the

Starting point is 00:18:53 foster system. If you're talking about international adoption, then that's where it gets more costly. And it can be significant. But it's not an issue in the foster system. So that can be taken off your list if you're wondering. But this community, yeah, they led the way. they aren't specially trained. They weren't, you know, child welfare workers.

Starting point is 00:19:14 These are just average folks. And they made this work as a community. I think that's the main reason why it worked is that they just, they knew how to be community and family already. Yeah. That's the environment that they brought these kids into. Next sponsor for the day is WeHeart Nutrition. This is the supplement company that I rely on for all of my supplements.

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Starting point is 00:21:06 giving each other everything we have, making sure that no one has a need. And yet it sounds like this church was exactly like the church in Acts too. So what did you learn about how they interacted with one another? True. And this brings up one of the issues we talked a lot about when developing this, my wife and I and Joe Kinnedig, who was executive producer on this and brought the funding was authenticity. How do we bring this story to the screen authentically and let it become the tool that can reverse, the foster crisis in America. So we were really committed, like I said earlier,

Starting point is 00:21:47 we just felt compelled and overcome by this. So we ended up, after a few years of developing it, the screenplay, we just kind of felt like we hadn't hit Bauda, like in a good way, we hadn't hit the deep parts of this story and gotten what we needed. So we ended up moving, Rebecca and I moved our family to East Texas and we don't live in PassenTrop, but we moved near it so that we could go to church with them

Starting point is 00:22:11 and just spend a lot more time. with them rather than the typical, you know, research meetings and things like that. So we, we live close there. I've actually preached a couple times there. He's had me preach, Bishop Martin has. But it gave us such a different perspective. And we were able to see the things you're talking about, you know, with that, that bond that goes back generations, especially in a lot of these southern, you know, communities that are back in the, in the, uh, small town areas. There's such community. Um, the family bond is strong. The church is often that core gathering place. And, uh, so it was critical to their success and we were really inspired by it. And the few times I think we've experienced it, you know, in our own,

Starting point is 00:23:05 history, Rebecca and I, those are the best church experiences that we have, you know, when you actually feel like you know people and they're sharing burdens and it probably was the hardest thing about our adoptions is that we didn't have that strong community. You know, it was, you often feel alone and sometimes all you need is a break and it's tough to find that. So these, this community had that part figured out. And this is a predominantly black church correct? Yeah. Yeah. And I haven't seen that. I just haven't seen that story. You see a lot of stories of white evangelicals adopting statistically. That's often how it is. I think this is a remarkable story that I just haven't seen told before. Yeah, I know. It's so started in 1997 and within, I'm just going to say five years or so,

Starting point is 00:23:55 it had hit the news because of this. It was so unique and it hit the local news. And then before long, it was on Oprah. Good Morning America. All of these news outlets picked it up. And I think everyone's seeing the same thing. You know, it's one thing for a pastor and a wife or in his wife or a handful of couples to get excited about this, which you see all over the country. But when a whole community says, we're going to do something about this. I mean, it's remarkable. So 77, that's not the biggest number in the world, but when you think about where that was in a community of a few hundred, it's unbelievable. Yeah. And that had to have unsettled so much of the normal state of affairs for them.

Starting point is 00:24:37 Right. Just with families in every way. So yeah, it was, it's powerful. It's, I think what will make this change possible. Mm-hmm. And like you said, it was covered. I saw that People Magazine covered it like back in 2012, but I, I hadn't heard the story. At least I don't remember hearing the story.

Starting point is 00:24:57 So I think a lot of people are probably like me. They were, you know, young when this was happening and just maybe not paying attention. and now they're going to be hearing this for the first time. And what do you hope comes out of this? I hope we have, overall, I hope the foster crisis ends in America. I mean, that's the most practical, measurable thing is that we see the foster crisis and we see every one of those children find a home. And beyond that, I hope we see,

Starting point is 00:25:34 at least the church Christians who claim to follow Jesus, who have read the scriptures that say, care for the orphans and the widows, and keep yourself undefiled from the world. You have this responsibility to be like Jesus and to do the things that Jesus did. So I want and pray and hope that we as followers of Jesus step into this in a way that we have never seen so that this never comes back.

Starting point is 00:26:06 I mean, we should have homes for every child in this country. And when that was kind of left to the government to do, we backed off and we forgot about it. We don't think about it anymore. We don't think about these children that are right in our cities, right down the street from us. So I hope that they come back to our minds and that we remember who we are,

Starting point is 00:26:32 we realize and embrace that we are meant to actually go into the darkest places in this earth. And if it costs us our comfort and our stability and all of the things that we hold so tightly to as Americans and just humans, I mean, nobody wants to be uncomfortable. But Jesus, he showed us the way to do these kinds of things. It's not just a spiritual change that he was after. it's affect the world around you. And I think that's possible. I think when people see this movie, you're going to feel it because it's,

Starting point is 00:27:09 it's beyond me, it's beyond anyone involved, like something's happening that is so exciting and powerful. I hear the reports and how people are moved. These are all things we've been praying for, that there would just be a move way beyond a movie that would just compel people. And so I just want people to know that,

Starting point is 00:27:30 that it's not, it's not like, here, take some medicine and suffer through this and, you know, come on, do the right thing. It's like, no, we know what we ought to do. We need the encouragement. God's with us. And I think this film in and of itself, you're going to have a really powerful experience. All right, bringing you another unapologetically Christian and pro-life business that you have got to support. And that is seven weeks coffee. We love our coffee. from seven weeks coffee. Seven weeks is called seven weeks because at the, at seven weeks gestation, that baby inside the womb is the size of a little coffee bean. And so they donate 10% of every sale of their amazing super high quality, super clean coffee to pregnancy centers and pro life organizations

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Starting point is 00:29:40 children that was taken in that was previously unwanted? How did that life change? So we focus on a girl named Terry. She's one of the Martin's daughters, adopted daughters. And she kind of represents many, you know, many around the world really, but in this nation we kind of made her that avatar. And she went through real hell as a little girl, was sexually abused, was abused. Her mother ended up killing her sister and just really, really terrible situation and tragic. And so she came to the Martins so wounded that she acted like a cat. for a while, which you'll see in the movie. And it was her way of just coping with this reality

Starting point is 00:30:35 and new people and new situations. Uncomfortable, right. So when we've gotten to know her, she was actually one of the first that we got to me and, you know, the story we wanted to tell for the kids' perspective was hers. And we were really hoping that she would be okay with it. So we did get to know her.

Starting point is 00:30:52 And she's a remarkable woman. I mean, she has come through all of what I just said. And, you know, because, you know, coming a part of that community and weathering all the changes and the healing, the things that are so difficult and come to a point where she's totally different. You know, she's a mom. She's amazing and she's talented. She's got an incredible management, managerial gift. So she manages restaurants and she's managed convenience stores too. So she's, really responsible. So it's a great success story. And they're not all like that. I mean,

Starting point is 00:31:34 there's kids that are struggling within it as you'd expect. But, you know, it's so powerful that they have this community with arms open for them and they know it. And they're always there. And so for those who are struggling, it's, we've seen some go to some deep, terrible places in their recovery and then come out. And, you know, and another one is, you know, who's, who went through a lot. That was the first child adopted. And he's doing amazing. Beautiful family.

Starting point is 00:32:07 I mean, it's just incredible. Love that guy. And he's thriving. So, yeah, it's really nice to see those things. Yeah. The ending sequence right before the credits is really incredible. As you are seeing the parallel between the actors and then the real people that they were, that they were portraying.

Starting point is 00:32:32 And it's such a powerful testimony, such a powerful testimony to what the Lord has done. How have you seen the lives of those who adopted these kids change? Yeah, everybody who adopts is going to change. And that is one of the unexpected things. You know, you kind of think,

Starting point is 00:32:53 I'm just going to help this poor kid, which is partly true. but you go through so much. I mean, you're going to become a much better person. You're refined in this process. The difficulty of parenting traumatized kids is real. And we wanted to make sure we were honest about that in this movie. So you'll see it.

Starting point is 00:33:19 But it's not something that has to overwhelm you. And none of these kids were returned. to the foster system. They powered through this and became even more resilient and just what you learn from caring for kids that aren't your own. And it's like a different kind of love in the sense of the way in, you know, you're strangers. And then you become family.

Starting point is 00:33:51 You're not just born into it. So there's this interesting dynamics, painful dynamics that happen. And so you're definitely stretched. Whether you want to or know it or not, you are going to be stretched. And I think in the end you just become hopefully more like Jesus. You know, I mean, some days I don't know. You feel like you're the opposite, but it's, you know,

Starting point is 00:34:10 it's part of it. There's something in this for us, which is what I think the kind of like the broader goal of benefit that God has for this issue is as we care for these kids, we change. the church changes. We become more like him. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:29 I think of that verses you're talking in Ephesians that like we were once strangers and aliens. Those of us who are far off have now been brought near by the blood of Christ. We have been as Gentiles adopted into God's family by the blood of Christ only by His grace. And earthly adoption is such a beautiful example of that or such a beautiful earthly metaphor for that. and we get to see through that earthly relationship what God does for us and how much he loves us. And it's such a beautiful thing for Christians to be able to participate in. Just like any kind of parenthood sanctifies you and teaches you about God, about how much God loves us, that he would have sent his only son to die for us. I would not do that.

Starting point is 00:35:18 I wouldn't sacrifice one of my children for that. Wow, God must have loved us so much that he would have sacrificed. sacrifice that. But then adoption, you get to see a whole other layer of the gospel and God's love. And I think that's, like, even if you don't have someone in the movie saying that exact thing, that is depicted very artfully in this movie. And whether someone watches this and they're a Christian and it affirms, you know, their beliefs about adoption and the Bible already, or whether they are coming at this as someone who's not a Christian, they're going to see the gospel of God. You know, when I think about how much we as Christians critique the world around us, which I'm not saying is wrong, we need to do that. But what you're saying is something we forget all the time, and we forget that reality, that we are fallen, broken, messed up people and hopefully becoming less and less that as we go on.

Starting point is 00:36:18 But we need to be really careful. We have to hold on to that. reality. We have to understand where we've come from, that we have come from death. We have come, as followers of Jesus, we have been renewed. It's his mercy that we're even alive and breathing. And so we have a responsibility to really look carefully at our lives and what we say is important that we actually live that. We say we believe things. And when there's not, when it's in congruent with how we live, then the world looks on and goes, why should we take you seriously? And certainly, why should we take your criticism seriously? If you, you know, take abortion, for example,

Starting point is 00:37:09 it's like you, you want children to not be aborted. And I see these are separate things, but the world looks at it and goes, well, then why are these children over here that are alive suffering? So you must not care about life, really. You just care about this one thing. And it's an example of how we have got to look at all the different things that we are meant to go and be a part of and really be a part of them if we're going to really, I think, be living out our faith appropriately and expect for anyone to take us seriously when we're talking about these really difficult issues that, you know, people who don't believe like us don't see the same way. So I'm urging us as as followers of Jesus to lose our lives for him. I mean, this is, those are the scary verses we don't talk about,

Starting point is 00:38:06 you know. If you want to have life, then lose your life and follow me. If you don't, you're going to lose your life. If you don't follow Jesus, you don't gain life, you know. So that's that's important right now it's the spirit of this movie it's get up and do what you believe you ought to do what you were made to do and as we address all the different things in our nation and it's coming from that when we've lived and embraced pain and suffering then maybe people take a little more seriously and that's real love I think that's the love that people want to actually see. So it's there in this movie. Last sponsor for the day is Jace Medical. So we've unfortunately been suffering from as a country supply shortages, drug supply shortages,

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Starting point is 00:39:44 Medical.com. Use code Allie, a checkout for a discount on your order. Jacemedical.com, code Alley. I definitely think that the movie will compel people in that way. Of course, there will always be people because they don't know the gospel and they don't know Christ who will malign Christianity no matter what. That's right. And I think about just the history of Christianity, and I've talked about it so many times on this show, but there's a book called When Children.

Starting point is 00:40:18 became people by Owen Bakke that he wrote, I think, 20 years ago now, but it's about pagan Greece in Rome and how children were subjugated. They were treated as sex slaves. They were, the infant mortality rate was so high that they didn't want to get too attached to their kids. And so they would treat them in all sorts of horrible ways. At best, they were seen as maybe inheritors of wealth, if you had wealth. And then at worst, they were seen as basically animals. And in Rome, they didn't have the physical power that gave them value. In Greece, they didn't have the intellectual power that gave them value. And so they were seen as less than. And this historian, Owen Bakke, the reason it's titled when children became people is because when Christians came on the

Starting point is 00:41:03 scene, they changed how the world saw children. When Christians introduced this message of Imago Day, and we are all equally, as you said, dead and sin apart from Christ, we all need by grace through faith to be made alive in him. That means the widow, the poor person, the sick, the disabled, the child. That person all has value. Those people all have value. And they actually need more help than less.

Starting point is 00:41:31 And that revolutionized how the world over time saw people. That's why Christians invented orphanages. That's why we have been at the forefront of adoption and helping these vulnerable children and vulnerable populations. And we need to see our task as the common task of the Christian. What Christians have been doing for 2,000 years, that baton is still being passed to Christians today.

Starting point is 00:42:00 And in an increasingly secular world where we see the prevalence of abortion, where we see the sexualization of children, the objectification of children, like Christians still have the responsibility, just like we did in ancient Greece and Rome to say, no. Those people are made in the image of children. God and we are going to, as you said, through our actions show that they have dignity and worth. Yeah, I love it. That's exactly right. And I, and I don't, I don't mean that we can't have the life that America allows for. I mean, what America has done historically in this world is incomprehensible, the good that has been done to the world because of freedom and the ability

Starting point is 00:42:46 to be involved as an individual and to create companies and organizations that can go out and do the things that we often just leave to nations to do and leaders, political leaders, you know, when you decentralize that, it has caused immeasurable benefit. And so I don't suggest we live like ascetics

Starting point is 00:43:05 and throw ashes on ourselves every morning. You know, it's like, but there's the mentality we, I want us to have, I hope that we will gain where it's been lost or it's become dormant where, yes, we have those things, but our mind, our heart, our thoughts are occupied by the pain of others, enough to do something about it, where we're consistently engaged in the things around us.

Starting point is 00:43:32 We need to raise healthy, good families. We need to have fun doing that. That's all a part of it. But where we miss it is when that swallows us up, and we're too busy and we're too tired and we're too bored we're too we're just disinterested and then all of these problems around us spin out of control and we step back and go what happened well we're not engaged when we're not engaged then that's what will continue to happen and so that's the that's the that's the challenge we have as people who are living in a fluent nation we have that

Starting point is 00:44:09 challenge. We've got to remember those who are around us that are in need and really do something about it. So it's intense spiritual life with intense practical work that I would love to see result from this film. Yep. And that's what this story is about. Amazing things happen when Christians refuse to mind their own business. And this community could have said, we've got our own problems. We've got our own problems. The last thing we need is to take on more burdens. That's how the world sees it. And yet they said to these kids, no, your problems are my problems now. And that's so powerful. So where can people find how to see this movie? So you can actually see it today. And when you see the movie, you're going to be able to get involved as well. It's not just raise awareness

Starting point is 00:44:56 and walk away. It's raise awareness. Go see the movie. Tell people about it. You're going to laugh. You are going to cry. You're going to have an experience. And then there's going to be a chance to connect to a website that can get you involved. You can actually help your church get involved like Bennett Chapel did. You can learn about fostering and adopting and get involved in that. And then you can learn and get involved

Starting point is 00:45:19 with prevention through an organization called Care Portal that connects communities, people, churches, schools, other things to the needs in their areas. So that's available after the movie. If you stick around for the end, you'll be able to be connected immediately to getting involved. Awesome. Well, thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:45:40 And we'll provide the link for everything in the description of this episode so people can easily check it out. Josh, I appreciate you. I appreciate the work that you all have done on this. Thank you. It really is amazing. It's inspiring. It really is.

Starting point is 00:45:54 This is such a good movie. Great acting, well-made, amazing storytelling. And it should be the M.O. of Christians to take upon the burdens of their community. So thank you so much. Love it. Thank you so much for having us, having me here. It's been great.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1037 | The Government Doesn’t Want Christians to Adopt | Guest: Josh Weigel

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