Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1062 | Another School Shooting. What’s the Solution?

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Today, we're starting off with news of the tragic school shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia. We explain the heartbreaking details and give some thoughts on how we can find comfort in the Lord in the midst of tragedy. Then, what really goes on at the infamous Burning Man, and why does it matter? Burning Man 2024 just ended, and we break down the festival's pagan roots and why it's yet another example of man's desperate need for meaning and for God. We look at some of the gross activities allowed at Burning Man and explain the parallels to idol worship in the Bible. Get your tickets for Share the Arrows: https://www.sharethearrows.com/ Pre-order Allie's new book: https://a.co/d/4COtBxy --- Timecodes: (01:05) Georgia school shooting (17:50) Intro to Burning Man (40:12) Kids at Burning Man (45:00) Biblical parallels --- Today's Sponsors: EveryLife — The only premium baby brand that is unapologetically pro-life. EveryLife offers high-performing, supremely soft diapers and wipes that protect and celebrate every precious life. Head to EveryLife.com and use promo code ALLIE10 to get 10% of your first order today! America's Christian Credit Union - Switch to America's Christian Credit Union today for faith-aligned banking with exceptional rates and nationwide access, plus earn up to $500 in bonuses with promo code ALLIE—visit https://www.americaschristiancu.com/allie to get started! Hillsdale College— Hillsdale College is offering more than 40 free online courses on the works of C.S. Lewis, the stories in the book of Genesis, the meaning of the US Constitution, the rise and fall of the Roman Republic, or the history of the ancient Christian Church with Hillsdale College’s online courses, all available for FREE. Go to https://hillsdale.edu/relatable to enroll. 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. --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 778 | Take Heart, Nashville: Evil Will Not Win https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-778-take-heart-nashville-evil-will-not-win/id1359249098?i=1000606357373 Ep 780 | No. I Won’t Let Them Blame Christians for Nashville https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-780-no-i-wont-let-them-blame-christians-for-nashville/id1359249098?i=1000606646211 --- 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

This year's Burning Man Festival just concluded, what is this event? Why am I talking about it? And what is its theological significance? Also, what does it say about our culture in general? I think there are a lot of lessons to draw from this festival. We're going to get into that today. But first, we are going to talk about the tragic shooting that occurred yesterday at a school in Georgia. This episode is brought to by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use code alia. Check out that's good ranchers.com code alley. Hey guys, welcome to relatable. Happy Thursday.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. All right, we've got a lot to get into today a little bit different as we're shifting from politics and the election as we have been focusing on the past couple of days and talking a little bit more about the culture and how that ties in, most importantly, to theology and therefore our worldview. But first, I have to talk about a tragic event that occurred. Yesterday in Georgia, this is not too far from where I've lived in Georgia. My husband and I met in Athens, Georgia. His family is from Georgia. And so unfortunately, in a lot of ways, this is very

close to home. There was yet another school shooting at Appalachie High School. This is outside of Atlanta. Four people were killed. Nine more were hospitalized with injuries after the shooting on Wednesday morning. Two of the people who were killed were 14-year-old students, Mason and Christian, and then teachers, Richard Aspenwall and Christina Arimi. I think that's how maybe you pronounce her last name. They were both math teachers, according to the school's website. All nine of the hospitalized victims had been shot in some capacity. The suspect was identified as a 14-year-old male student at the school. He was taken into custody. When he was taken into custody, he was alive. The alleged shooter will be charged with murder. He will be processed as an adult versus as

a juvenile. So of course, that means that the sentence could be a lot harsher than it would have been if he were tried as a juvenile. The alleged shooter, according to reports, used an AR platform. form style gun, the media is not very good at accurately describing the guns that are used in these kinds of tragic situations. There was no evidence. There is no evidence so far that other shooters were involved. The suspects surrendered when he was confronted by responding law enforcement officers. Authorities say that they're still trying to clarify a lot of the timeline from the time that he got to the school, to the time the incident took place. FBI Atlanta said on social media Wednesday night that county authorities had interviewed

the suspect last year about online threats to commit a school shooting. The FBI had found that the threatening post came from Georgia and the FBI's Atlanta field office referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office for Action. The Sheriff's Office interviewed the then 13-year-old boy and his father. The boy said he was not responsible for the threats. The father said he had hunting guns in the house, but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them. FBI Atlanta said, Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject. At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local state or federal levels. So that's a really tough situation. I mean, normally we look at.

at circumstances like this and we say, gosh, law enforcement could have done more. He was already known to authorities. Why was he able to continue to roam free, to go to school, to have access to guns? But there is a First Amendment in this country. And free speech protections are meant to be extremely broad. And so if the threats that he had been making on social media, if they didn't seem like they were feasible, like they were plausible, like they were actually imminent, tangible threats, then there's not that much that law enforcement can do. And it gets a little bit tricky when you think about changing the law, when you talk about changing the law to empower law enforcement, to start taking people's rights away, say the parents' Second Amendment

rights to own guns, because of something their child said on social media. At the same time, it feels incorrect. It feels wrong to just do nothing, to say, well, their hands are tied. There's nothing that we can do about a suspect like this that's making these kinds of threats. Obviously, we don't want a child like this who seems to be mentally unwell or just plain evil. It's not always a mental health issue when someone does something wicked. sin is real and the heart is desperately sick. So we don't always have to fall back on some kind of mental health issue here.

But we don't want someone like that to have access to guns. There should be in the parents' home, I would say even in upgraded vigilance to ensure that that child has absolutely no access to firearms whatsoever. there's going to be a lot of conversation about gun control policy in the next few days. There always is. And look, to some degree, I think that's understandable. Yes, of course, there are bad actors who are going to exploit a tragedy like this just to try to disarm the populace, just to try to manipulate, emotionally manipulate people into opposing the Second Amendment. But I do think a lot of people in giving them. in these debates and conversations after school shootings about what do we do, what laws can we

pass as misguided as some of the policy proposals might be on the progressive side. I do think that most people on both sides of this issue genuinely want these things to stop. They just want to know, how can I prevent this? We don't want another child to die. Why does this happen? so frequently in the United States. No, it's not every day, but it does happen persistently. And I think there are good people on both sides of the aisle who really just want it to stop. The problem is, what's typically proposed after a tragedy like this from the progressive side, when it comes to

gun control policy, these proposals have no correlation to the event that actually occurred. So they could say we need to ban this kind of weapon or we need to put background checks and other kinds of restrictions and regulations around gun ownership. But I want to know what law is being proposed that would have prevented this kind of specific crime. I am not against those kinds of debates and discussions. I am against any suggestion or proposal that would infringe upon the right of law abiding citizens to defend themselves and to defend their families with guns. Because we see that getting rid of guns, banning guns, putting such hefty restrictions and regulations on guns, it doesn't mitigate violence.

It doesn't make violence go away. Evil violent people, criminals are going to find a way to break the law. They're going to find a way to inflict the violence that they want to inflict. Now you could say, well, we shouldn't allow them to inflict violence with something that can cause so much mass harm like an AR-15. But look, the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America. There are hundreds of thousands of them. And they're not going away. There are millions of law-abiding citizens that own an AR-15, at least hundreds of thousands of them.

And you're not going to confiscate them. So let's not only talk about policy proposals that are actually correlated to what happened, but let's talk about realistic policy proposals here. And like I'm willing to come to the table, but the other side needs to be willing to come to the table with realistic conversations too, because look, we're not banning guns in the United States. Fundamentally, it's not a gun problem. We have always had gun culture in the United States.

we've always had hundreds of thousands of guns. We've always had a very high percentage of gun ownership in the United States, but we have not always had shootings like this. So if we're serious about the conversation, about stopping these shootings, we have to be serious about conversations around culture, around morality, what has actually shifted in the past 50 plus years. It's not gun ownership. That has not increased. What has changed is our value system in the United States, what is being taught in schools, the kind of content and also drugs that young people are consuming, increased rates of pornographic use, also violent content that is being consumed on a consistent basis by these young people, the messages that are being conveyed to young men. I mean, there are so many serious conversations that need to be had about how we treat and how we talk to and how we teach young people men and women in this country. Like if we are serious on either side of the aisle about mitigating violence and saving lives, we can't only talk about banning guns or only talk about policy proposals that again have no correspondence.

to what actually happened until both sides are willing to lay it all on the table and say, okay, let's look at every potential factor, then we're not serious about stopping something like this. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to the community that was affected by this. As a mom, this is your worst nightmare, your worst nightmare to get a call to have a police officer show up on your front door and to tell you that your child, that you have loved more than anything in this world, more than you love your own life, has been murdered, has died in any way.

I mean, that's the nightmare, but to have been murdered to be brutally snuffed out. I mean, I just have so much sadness for what these parents are feeling. they will never, ever, ever be the same, never for the rest of their lives. And only Jesus can bring any kind of healing, any kind of wholeness. And I just pray that he would be near to these families. I pray that he would be near to this community, that he would do what only he can do, that he would make beauty out of ashes, that he would bring redemption somehow,

that somehow he would be glorified through all of this, that hearts would be drawn to him. Obviously, that is not my or anyone's preferred way of God showing up and glorifying himself. I mean, it's tragedy. It's part of living in this awful, I shouldn't say awful world, but awfully broken world, maybe I should say, is that there is death and there is injustice and there is evil. And when we start to question, why does God let something like this happen? And why let children die? If he is all powerful, why wouldn't he prevent something like this? And the only comfort that I have when I read Psalm 37, for example, I remember that he's not doing nothing. He is not uncaring. He doesn't not see. He doesn't not know what's going on.

But as we always say, his eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch, which means right now, His anger, his wrath is kindling, and one day it will be poured out on all evil, and he will avenge his people. And he will do away with all wickedness, with all sin, and Satan will be bound and destroyed forever. And we will one day live in perfect peace and justice. That justice, that goodness, that wholeness that you find your heart longing for, that nagging suspicion, that things. aren't supposed to be this way. Children aren't supposed to die. Children aren't supposed to murder. That is eternity that is written on your heart. That is the image of God speaking inside of you confirming what is true, that it's not supposed to be this way. And one day it won't be.

One day it won't be. Jesus is coming back and he will make all things right and new. And so let us, if nothing else, a circumstance like this, just renew our longing for heaven while not forgetting our responsibility here on earth to our community members and the neighbors by which God has providentially placed us. So pray for this community. Have serious conversations with your children. Have serious conversations with the parent of the kid and your community. that you can tell is isolated, that you can tell has been rejected, that you can tell has been

excluded, that you can tell is a loner. And now sometimes they've got a parental familial situation that's really tough. And so it's like impenetrable and you feel like you can't help? Like what can you do to reach out to those people? Can you bring them into the fold? Can you include them? Can you invite them to church? Can you make sure that that kid feels befriended? Can you make sure that that kid has a mentor? Can you make sure that that kid isn't just left alone? Because I understand wanting to protect our kids from like the bully or the kid who seems creepy and weird and you feel like is a threat. But the more we push those kids to the margins and into isolation, the more we feed into their addiction to screens and online violence and all of the stuff that is exacerbating this. So what can each of us do to bring those people into the fold and into relationship and into the light and into the light of Christ?

We can't do everything, but each of us can do one thing. So all right, let's move on to what's going on in the culture right now and what it teaches us about idolatry in this country. And then again, what we as Christians can do as vessels of His grace. ambassadors of God's order and goodness to combat that. First, let me pause and tell you about our first sponsor for the day. There's a lot of craziness, a lot of bad going on in the world, and yet there are companies that are doing good, and we can put our money where our mouth is,

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You'll save even more money that way. Go to EveryLife.com code All right. All right. So I got a message from a couple of you asking me to talk about Burning Man and not only just how crazy it is, how dumb it is, but also it's theological significance. And honestly, before I started looking into this, I didn't know much about it at all. I was just talking to Brie about what Burning Man even is. I thought previously that it was a music festival. I thought it was like Lollapalooza or something like that, which ends up turning into like a drug. Orgy Fest, so I've heard. But it's not. It is just a festival that happens the week before Labor Day. It's about 120 miles east of Reno, Nevada. And people just go and they do stuff. They drink. They do drugs. They probably listen to music. Apparently they can like take dance classes. But there's a bunch of orgies. There's a bunch of just sick, ritualistic, pagan-themed things that go on. And they're on and people, I presume, Bree, pay a lot of money to go do this, to go out in the desert

and to look up at this like burning effigy and to basically dance like tribal pagans of your. Yeah, yeah, they do. I mean, one of the concepts of it that's built, that it's built upon is like against consumerism. But tickets for this are like, I think at the lowest in like $250 and they can go up to like $2,000 and it's a ticket just to like be there. Do you know what the different levels of tickets give you access to? I think it's I think it's different like camping areas. Oh, like how close you are to maybe the Burning Man. I have to confirm that. So kind of like Woodstock without any of the music. Yeah. Just a focus on the carnal. Yes. Yeah. And they, the whole concept is like self-sufficiency. They don't use money. It's all about like if you need something,

someone has to give it to you. And that's just how they operate. And you have to bring all your own stuff. Like a huge commune. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I bet it smells awful. It probably smells so bad, so dusty. So gross. Is there even an option for bathing? What's the bathroom situation like and something like this? Well, some people bring like campers. And so I think they maybe have like showers situations. There probably are showers, but yeah, but if you're just on a bender, maybe you don't even care about that. No, I'm sure a lot of people there don't care about it. Yes, which reminds me a lot of demon possession. It reminds me of when Jesus interacts with the man in the Bible named Legion and he just desperately wanted to be among the pigs. Yeah. And he desperately

wanted to just be in like the muck and the mire, like the lowest form of human existence that you could be in. He saw that as like liberation and freedom. That's what this reminds me of. To want to be in like the dust and the dirt. Yeah. Among the unbathed, unwashed masses is almost a form of demonic oppression. It honestly does sound like hell to me. No, awful. Yes. I was saying the dust alone is like enough for me to be out. The dust alone. Have these people not heard about the dust bowl of the 1930s. That was a bad time. And actually, before you get into it, I don't know if you remember this, but last year it rained on this like reservation where in the desert where they do this. And a bunch of people got stuck there. And it was like, I think someone died. It was like a whole ordeal.

No one could leave because the mud was so thick that they couldn't drive out. So all those people got stuck there. Literally. It was even worse. Hell. Hell. So the annual gathering, it was created as a tribute to art and community culminating in the longtime tradition of the burning of the man, the man, get it? Like the big boss man, society, the patriarchy, all these unfair expectations and even self-imposed restrictions that are keeping you back from true liberation and self-discovery. So we'll show you a picture of this. This is like a 40-foot high wooden man on top of a 30-plus foot platform.

The symbols meaning is said to be as varied as the attendees themselves. And so obviously, like, that is just like a drawing of it. But we do actually have like what the fire really looks like at the festival, which again, that just looks satanic. Even if that's all it was, that alone looks demonic satanic. satanic. So the theme, of course, what they're saying that Burning Man is about, it's about self-expression, self-reliance, self-discovery, self-fulfillment, self-liberation, and even self-worship. Ultimately, that's what all paganism is, all idolatry when you are

worshiping these gods and goddesses and these various idols in idols. And icons while you are at least ostensibly paying homage to them, what you're really doing is serving yourself because you're only serving these gods to get something in return. You are serving a God that is promising you love, that is promising you passion, that is promising you success. It's the same thing with witchcraft, with tarot cards. Of course, we've had two very big conversations over the past couple of times. of weeks with people who used to be into the occult and used to be psychics and witches and how

Jesus called them out of that demonic oppression and into true freedom and liberation, which is not self-fulfillment and self-worship, but self-denial. And that, of course, is the difference between these cultish pagan practices and Christianity is that we are not worshiping God to get something in return. He is not a genie. He is preeminent. He is. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. We worship him because his Holy Spirit dwells in us and we are compelled to worship him because his very character demands our adoration. We do so out of love.

It is the love that he has given us that then compels us to love him. And it is this incredible exchange that we find in the gospel that we only see cheap imitations of in the world. and I think Burning Man is an example of that, a very gross example of that. So as we've already pointed out, there are roots in pagan practices, the effigy that's burning, pointing to self-discovery and self-worship. So it's no surprise that this event has grown in popularity over the years. It really is just a celebration of the carnal celebration of sex, drugs, perversion. When you enter the event, attendees adopt new names, lay burdens down on a wooden effigy,

and eliminate monetary transactions on the philosophy of shared resources. So you see how this is like an upside down world of Christianity, that when we come into Christianity, we also become new creations. And we take on an easy yoke and a light burden when we follow the, the way of Christ, and we cast all our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us, and we also are called to take care of one another in this body of believers. This is a cheap and pagan imitation of that because it is pretending to offer its attendees freedom while really attaching them and bounding them to the heavy burden in slavery of sin.

So here are just some examples of what goes on there, what's glorified there, the different sessions that you can participate in when someone goes to Burning Man, a rope bondage suspension. So, of course, there's different kinds of violent sex fantasies that people live out here, orgies, marriages to people that you just met. So, like, you can just get married to a rando that you've found at Burning Man, a 10-story-tall, art in the middle of nothing. Okay. crafting. That also is my nightmare. I hate crafting. Still walking. There are also babies there. There are children there, which is very disturbing to me. I think all of those babies need to be rescued. There's branding so you can get branded,

you know, like a cow. See, oh my gosh, there's a picture right there. And They look happy about this. Again, I just find something so very, so very obviously imitative of Christianity. Like these people so badly want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be marked for something more. They want something indelible on them and even in their hearts and souls. And they're looking for something, looking for all of that in the wrong place, of course, which is exactly what Satan does.

Does this not go back to the garden? How did Satan tempt Eve? Oh, God didn't really say, or did he really say? He used a bit of truth to tempt them. And then it was with power. It was with the temptation to be your own God that Satan got Eve and Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit. You will be like God.

You will know the difference between good and evil. of course presented this as this wonderful, powerful thing. And God is this jealous magistrate who just didn't want them to have fun. That's exactly what's going on here. That's exactly how people are being tempted here. You know, I had this conversation with the first time I went fly fishing a few weeks ago with my husband. We had this guide and he was great. He was a young guy. He had so many conversations about theology. I can't pat ourselves on the back at all about, you know, sharing the gospel because this guy really set it up for us. He literally just asked us about faith and about Christianity and about church and all of that. So it would have been really bad if we hadn't shared the gospel with him because

he really teed it up for us. But one thing that I said that seemed to really resonate with him, which is interesting for someone who's not a believer when we talked about sin. I said, you know, sin really messes things up. Sin makes things really difficult and complicated. And he just said, man, that is the truth. So it's interesting how unbelievers realize that disorder breeds disorder and that sin still leads to heartbreak. And yet all of us, Christian or not, are still tempted to take the easy way out and to try to ease our discomfort and inconvenience with things that feel good in the moment, but we understand are ultimately bad for us and the people around us. And this is about 70,000 people that are doing that very same thing. And of course, celebrating it. This

year, it was August 25th through September 2nd. And so those people are now, I guess, back at their jobs living their life. And I wonder if they've seen that the high that they felt there and their just adulation of self has already worn off. And they're back with all the same problems and the same burdens that they had previously. So we'll get into more of these parallels. And even more of the history of Burning Man, because I think that's really interesting in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about how you can actually renew your mind with truth and not this smut that unfortunately people are imbibing at a place like Burning Man. And that is through taking a free online course at Hillsdale College.

So Hillsdale College is an amazing university. It's founded on the Christian values that you and I believe in. and they're doing this amazing thing right now where they are offering more than 40 free online courses in the most important and enduring subjects. The one that I love, super excited about, is a course about the works of C.S. Lewis, the stories in the book of Genesis. You could also take a class on that. You could also take a class on the meaning of the Constitution or the rise and fall of the Roman Republic. All of these things are very pertinent to what's going on today. and so much incredible knowledge and information that you are getting absolutely for free through Hillsdale.

All you have to do is go to Hillsdale.edu slash relatable to enroll. There's no cost. It's easy to get started. That's Hillsdale.edu slash relatable to register Hillsdale.edu slash relatable. Okay, let's back up a little bit and talk about how this thing started. On June 21st, 1986, the summer solstice, on the summer solstice, Larry Harvey asked his friend Jerry if he was interested in building a figure, a man to burn on the beach to mark the longest day of the year. So the two built an eight foot tall wooden effigy

and gathered with a few friends on Baker Beach in San Francisco to burn the figure. It is no surprise to me that this happened in San Francisco in the 80s. That's just too on the note. knows. They continued hosting the event each year after with, each year after, with increasingly taller effigies. However, in 1990, a 40-foot-tall effigy drew police intervention and the structure was not allowed to be burned. I mean, this also just reminds me of the Tower of Babel, how long of human beings been doing this. Oh, let us build this taller and taller edifice that shows how close we can get to God and how we can defeat all of the powers that be. Consequently, the event

was moved that year to the Black Rock Desert and was changed to early September with the effigy to be burned on the Saturday before Labor Day. So who is this person? Larry Harvey. He was adopted as a child. He wrote that he felt little connection to his own family, turning instead to Freud's books, again, just no surprise there, and seeing the author and philosopher as a father figure. Harvey became friends with Jerry James in 1985, both living in San Francisco at the time and each having young sons. Jerry wrote that they were introduced by a friend who often had people over to play music, get high and get laid. Larry was reading the golden bow and anthropological work that referenced the history of burning aphagis. He had already

attended a few solstice events on Ocean Beach in San Francisco that involved burning a variety of objects. And so this was like a very lost disconnected person. Doesn't surprise me at all that there is a psychological history. Here, when you look at the history of psychology, it is fraught with error about human nature, about why we are here, how the human mind works. It disconnects, body and soul comes up with all kinds of weird theories that simply justify giving in to your most carnal desires and lusts. Weird pseudo-academic, pseudo-intellectual explanations for why humans are the way that they are. And even imposing, I think, their ideas of how humans are onto human beings, again, to justify their own perversions in many ways. Psychology really, as an industry,

certainly, but even as a practice, I would say, is inhuman. because of its misunderstanding of human beings and its denial that we are made in the image of God and have eternal souls. There's no way that you can understand the psyche, understand the mind without understanding the soul. If we look at the pagan origins of something like Burning Man, we look at that book that Larry Harvey was reading at the time, the Golden Bow was a comparative study of mythology and religion arguing that most ancient religions were fertility Colts involving a sacrifice relative to the cycle of seasons. And there was one pagan ritual that really stuck out to Larry Harvey, and that was called the Wicker Man. The Wicker Man was a Celtic

ritual in which larger wicker structures were built and then filled with live men, cattle, and animals to be lit on fire and killed. And they would burn condemned criminals. And like I said, other animals, other kinds of people. The more victims they had burning in these wicker men, the greater was believed to be the fertility of the land. Colossal images of wicker work or of wood and grass were constructed. These were filled again with all kinds of living contents in the hopes that their gods would reward them with fertility. The overwhelming majority of people that go to Burning Man, identify as non-religious, which of course is not surprising at all. When we look at secular progressives of today, they believe, too, that they are neutral,

that they have no beliefs. They would even call themselves atheists, or maybe they would call themselves agnostics lacking any clear knowledge of eternity or of the supernatural. But the truth is they are very religious. they are extremely pagan, believing in the God of self is, of course, a religion and has its own dogma. The experiences that Larry Harvey was trying to promote through the burning of his effigies, he said, addressed a primordial human need, the desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves. even in the midst of impermanence.

So again, going back to the parallels that we drew earlier, the need to understand where we came from, the need to understand who we are, the need to understand why we matter, the need for joy, the need for human connection, the need for community, all of these things he promised,

and Bernie Man still promises its worshippers, its attendees are going to be able to find there. They say that these are the 10 principles of Bernie man, radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, so giving each other what you need, radical self-reliance. And so isn't that interesting and contradictory there that on the one hand, you have to rely on other people and their generosity to survive, to get anything that you need, and yet you are called to radical self-reliance. There's always going to be those kinds of inconsistencies within paganism. Radical self-expression. It's supposed to arise from the unique gifts of the individual,

which of course it typically just means weird sex stuff. A communal effort. Our community values create cooperation and collaboration, but again, you're supposed to be radically self-reliant. Civic responsibility. We value civil society. Do you, though? Do you though? I'm not sure about that. Leaving no trace. Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. I highly doubt that you are successful in that endeavor. Despite the event's emphasis on environmental sustainability, the sheer number of participants over 70,000 generates, of course, massive amounts of waste, including trash pollution, damage to the desert ecosystem. The temporary infrastructure and

activities can leave lasting marks on the environment. Again, if you worship yourself, by the way, like if you worship yourself, you can't act like you are caring about the people around you or caring about the environment around you. Again, a part of paganism, a part of Gnosticism, where you are worshiping the created rather than the creator in order to gain self-fulfillment. and it just ends up being a cycle of selfishness and harm. Participation is another value. And immediacy is another value, which is interesting. Immediate experiences in many ways the most important touchstone of value in our culture.

We overcome barriers that stand between us in a recognition of our sinner selves. Isn't that interesting? Sinner selves. The reality of those around us participation in society in contact with the natural world exceeding human powers. That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make sense. That's literally just nonsense. They also talk about a temple, a temple that was designed and created. Part of the beauty of the temple is that it is a sanctuary for all. There is only one official ritual in the temple, and that is to burn it. On Sunday night of the event with thousands of participants as witnesses, the temple is burned in silence. And there's also a self-service cult. He said, so when they say we're a cult, we reply that it's a self-service cult. You wash your own brain. Of course, he believed, these participants believe that what they're doing is new.

What they're doing is innovative in some way that it's fresh and it's not. It goes all the way back to the beginning of time and, of course, the Garden of Eden. There are also, as I said, kids at Burning Man. Even though there are people naked. Here are some stories, like some descriptions of this, of what it's like to have kids there. when they first went, someone is talking about bringing their kids, we told them they might see naked people, but that it really wouldn't be much different than people they saw in the locker rooms and the gym. Kids are very adaptable. They don't have expectations. So what is shocking to you or me, they just take it in stride. That is just so not true. That is because a kid might be so shocked by what they see, so disturbed by what they see. And yet their young, innocent minds do not have the words to verbalize that this is shocking, disturbing. and troubling to them. Like they could internalize this for years and years to come

and never really be able to pinpoint why they themselves were so sexually confused. This is like when you read in Song of Solomon, do not awake in love before it so desires. I think this is part of what that is talking about robbing the innocence of kids by introducing them to sexual perversion, introducing them to any form of sexuality too early. I truly believe that the earlier you introduce a child inappropriately to sexuality, so the

earlier they see pornography or the earlier they see some kind of disturbing image or hear about some disturbing perverse, unnatural concept, the more likely they are to be sexually confused themselves when they get into adolescence. And also, I think the more vulnerable they are to being sexual prey, because you've introduced this to them at such an early age. They don't even know how to distinguish what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's bad. And so, I mean, this is a form of child abuse. You're forcing your children. They don't have a way to consent. You're forcing your children to behold sexuality. It's the same thing when these parents take their kids to pride parades, when these parents introduce their kids to gender changing and all kinds of

sexual perversion, think that they're thinking that they're celebrating tolerance and inclusion, when in reality they are harming their children. I mean, this is a form of child. abuse, these parents should be held accountable for something like this. Really sad and just goes to show again that this is no different than the ancient pagan times when children were sacrificed to the rich and the powerful to be sexual objects, to become prostitutes, to even just be killed and to be let out and abandoned because they were seen as weak or as not useful. Paganism is as paganism does. And it has been the same since the beginning. And in what interrupted ancient pagan Greece and Rome, of course, it was Christianity that turned all of the nasty pagan culture on

its head. And instead of pushing children into objectification and abuse, saw children as valuable because we worship a Jesus who said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs, the kingdom of heaven. That was radical and revolutionizing for the culture at the time. Okay, a few more things on this, but let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor. That's America's Christian Credit Union, another way to work with the company that shares our values. We've heard some very scary stories of debanking where people with conservative values have had to cut ties or have had their bank cut ties with them because of what they believe. You don't want to have to worry about that. So work with America's Christian Credit

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sexual assaults and violence are happening there, this place of peace and of worship and of like sticking it to the man. Of course, there's rape and there's all kinds of illegal activity happening because they're glorifying horrible practices like sadomasochism. Good is being called evil and evil is being called good. And really, I just see this as like an extreme example of everything that's going on in the culture at large. Most people, in the country are not going to Burning Man. Most people don't want to go to Burning Man. And yet, I think the values and the principles and the rules and the celebrations of Burning Man we do see on a daily basis in the mainstream in our society, the glorification of sexual perversion,

of gender confusion, of the God of Self. We even see that in seemingly innocuous ways, like the self-empowerment culture and the self-empowerment industry in the United States that especially targets women into believing that you can be your own God. That's why I wrote my book a few years ago. You're not enough. And that's okay because we are not supposed to be sufficient. We actually make terrible gods. We lack the wisdom and the mercy and the discernment and the compassion and the goodness and love to be self-rulers. We think it feels good. We think it feels good. It's liberating, but really it burdens us beyond what we can bear. The burden of the God of self is heavy and its yoke is very difficult, which is why it's really good news that we're

not enough, that we're not our own gods, because we worship a God who not only is loving, but is love and has given us a very light burden to bear. It reminds me of Romans 1. So Romans was written thousands of years ago. That means that what I'm about to read was characteristic of the times then, just as it is characteristic of the times now. And there's actually like a comfort in that. I think that just as sin is old, it's not creative, it's not innovative, it's not new. So Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, as Hebrews 138 says. So this is Romans 118. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be,

known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God

for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. I kind of got to keep going. Like, this is, sorry, but this is just such a like a perfect encapsulation of everything that we're seeing, especially when it comes to something like Burning Man. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done.

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, strife, murder, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. I always think that's such an interesting addition there. But just an example of disorder. Foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless, though they know God's right. righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them,

but give approval to those who practice them. I mean, there is an irony, a purposeful and intentional irony, and the fact that these are the very people who claim that they monopolize love and tolerance and empathy, but they are also some of the cruelest and most bloodthirsty people, especially when it comes to things like abortion, especially when it comes to objective. define children and at the very least showing them sexual objectification. But disorder breeds disorder. Sin breeds sin. It promises you liberation. It promises you freedom. And in the end, it just traps you. In the end, it enslaves you. It complicates your life. It hurts you. It hurts other people. But the good news is that God loved us so much that he gave his only son to

die for us, that we could be forgiven of all of our sin, no matter we. what we've done, no matter how far we've gone, Jesus can become our righteousness by grace through faith. We can be saved, reconciled to this perfect holy God, and live forever with him. That is really good news. And we get to live in the freedom of no longer being a slave to our most carnal desires, no longer being identified by our sexual lust, no longer being identified by our wants, no longer having to be our own gods. Like that is. the good, good news of the gospel. Some other biblical parallels that I see, the difference between the beauty of Christianity and just the ugliness, the debased nature of paganism, and really any other

belief system. Second Corinthians 417, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen. is what the pagan world does, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Our God is not made by human hands. He doesn't need anything from us. We do not supply him with the fuel necessary to live. He does not get tired.

He does not wear out. He has never taken it back or surprised. That is the difference between our God, who is real and who is. who is one and all of these pagan gods who really rely on the sacrifices and the efforts of humans to even exist. Of course, there's a parallel to the Tower of Babel, and we know again that ended in chaos and disorder. There's also a parallel to Israel wanting the golden calf to worship while Moses was trying to bring the law down to them from God. They very quickly turned to idolatry. I also think of King Josiah, King Josiah of Judah.

He initiated the religious reforms by tearing down the altars to the idols, tearing down the sacrificial places to the foreign gods. And he saw the danger of trying to divide our worship between the world, between paganism, and between the only God who really demands our worship. There's a parallel to Malak. He was the god of the Ammonite people, and God commanded his people not to give any of their children to Malek or Malak, because that would profane the name of God. Apparently, there were people who were sacrificing their children to this burning God. And of course, like I said, if we look at the New Testament, the ancient pagan world of Greece and Rome, Christianity and its gospel completely upended that, completely revolutionized it by saying, no, no, no, your value is not determined by your physical strength, as the Romans said, or your mental strength, as the Greek said. But because you are made in God's image, you are equally dead apart from Christ in your sin, you can be made alive in Christ by grace through faith.

And as Christians, there is no longer any Jew nor Greek, nor slave, nor free, nor male, nor female, we are all one in Jesus Christ. This was a revolutionary, radical message of innate equality. That is how beautiful Christianity is that it would have set up a mighty church in the place of Ephesus, which was an epicenter for not only commerce, but also the worship of pagan God's. Christianity has always interrupted and upended pagan practices from child sacrifice to sexual perversion, and we are still called to do so today. So when we are engaging with the culture, when we're talking about politics, when we are standing up against the depravity that we see every day, we are not being so-called

Christian nationalist or Christo-Fascist or all of these scary words that Christians try to place on us. We are simply taking the baton that has been passed to us by Christians who have lived for the past 2,000 years to stand against the culture of death and decay and demonic possession. That's what Christians have always done. That's what we continue to do. We don't only do that through politics. We don't only do that through the so-called culture wars that are really theological battles more than anything else. We do that personally in our own lives, how we disciple our children, the way we influence our communities. But don't ever think that you

are obligated to check your worldview at the door before you go into the public. sphere. You're being manipulated into thinking that you Christian conservative are the only one that has to do that. Everyone else gets to influence the culture with their worldview except for you. That is because those who are telling you that are an enemy of biblical order and truth. And we are to be agents of that biblical order and truth everywhere we go in the public and the private sphere. And that can feel overwhelming. But what do we say is our obligation to only do the next right thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God. And that is always enough. It might be changing a diaper with joy or maybe it is something very public that God has been

asking you to do in faith. I don't know exactly what that act of obedience is for you, but God is going to give you the grace that you need to take the next step. And every step of obedience for the Christian is an arrow against darkness. And so rest in that, trust in that, that yes, there's a lot of evil and chaos that goes on in the world. And this might seem just like, oh, who cares what those weirdos are doing in the desert? Part of that is true. But again, I think it's actually just like a more concentrated example of what is going on in the culture at large. It is a light versus darkness, good versus evil battle out there. It doesn't fall neatly along political lines. But of course, it does fall neatly along biblical lines. And we need to make sure that we are,

no matter what's going on the political world, standing on the side of goodness, according to what God's word tells us. All right, that's all we've got on that. Let me tell you about our last sponsor for the day. If you are a business owner, then you need to listen to this. If you want to make your processes more efficient, more effective, then you need to check out NetSuite by Oracle. Over 38,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR into one fluid platform. When you're closing books in days, not weeks, that means you're spending less time looking backwards and more time on what's next, which is a really big deal if you are trying to make your business

as successful as possible. With real-time insights and forecasting, you're peering into the future with actionable data. Go to NetSuite.com slash Alley and download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at NetSuite.com slash alley. All right, y'all, on Monday, we've got Matt Walsh. Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire. He is here to talk about his new documentary. Am I racist?

Guys, if you have not seen this, it is hilarious. I was cracking up. Matt Walsh always makes me laugh in our conversation on Monday. is going to be really fun and funny because he is just, he's just, it's too much. I can't even ever keep a straight face because he cracks me up so much. Amazing conversation. So a little bit more lighthearted. We kind of need that. I think after today and yesterday. Sign up for Share the arrows. If you haven't already, share the arrows.com. I know I haven't announced my new speaker yet. I promise I will do that. There's a reason for the timing. I'm not just bringing you along.

That'll be next week. I will announce the new huge speaker that I'm so excited. about. Also, pre-order toxic empathy, my book out October 15th at toxicempathy.com. Toxicempathy.com. Thank you all so much, and I will see you back here on Monday.