Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1108 | UK’s Assisted Suicide Bill, Booming Bible Sales & John Piper Scorches Pronouns | Guest: Dr. Calum Miller

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Starting point is 00:00:46 That's fellowship homelones.com slash alley, term supply, see site for details, fellowship home loans, mortgage lending by the book, nationwide mortgage bankers, DBA Fellowship Home Loans, equal housing lender, NMLS, number 819-382. The UK is debating a bill that would legalize assisted suicide. We've got a UK doctor here today, Dr. Callum Miller, to tell us the true moral implications of a bill like this. We will also be talking about some good news, the significant rise in Bible sales. And we've got a word from John Piper, who has something to say about so-called pronoun politeness. All of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by our friends of Good Ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com. Use code alley at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code alley. Hey guys, welcome to relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far. First, we are going to talk about this assisted suicide bill that is now being discussed, debated in the UK. Of course, the debate has made it over here in the United States,

Starting point is 00:02:00 where it is legal in some places to die by euthanasia. Of course, this is also legal in Canada. already seen, as we will discuss with Dr. Callan Miller, the slippery slope of assisted suicide. This is not about dying with dignity. This is allowing people to murder themselves. And of course, we as Christians understand, because people are made in the image of God, they have infinite value and therefore inducing their death, communicating to them that they are too much of a burden, either to themselves, to their communities, to their family, to their friends by saying, yes, your pain is too much. This is too hard. Here is a way that you can in your life. We know that that is immoral. We know that that is actually undignified, that that is

Starting point is 00:02:52 wrong. And this is the consequence of this consent-based morality model that many conservatives and progressives have adopted, this idea that as long as you choose, you choose to do something, as long as you consent to something, it is therefore moral. Well, that is not true. You can consent to something that is still immoral. You can consent to being objectified. You can consent to being exploited. You can consent to being sexualized and that is still immoral. It is still wrong to objectify a human being. It is still wrong to treat a human being less than the image bearer of God that they are. And so we can't have just a consent-based model that is also the justification for

Starting point is 00:03:40 things like abortion. It's the justification for things like pornography, all kinds of unethical, immoral things. We have to have a standard of objective truth and universal morality. We at least have to debate our way to get to as close to that as we possibly can, to get to a place where we agree. at least that there is an objective morality that every law, that every policy decision that we make should be aiming toward. Yes, we live in a pluralistic society. Not everyone believes in the God of the Bible. Not everyone believes in the supremacy and the authority of scripture that we as

Starting point is 00:04:18 Christians should, with our whole chest, be advocating for that worldview in the public sphere, because lives are on the line. I hear from so many pastors that Christians shouldn't engage in the culture war, that we shouldn't care about politics because, well, that's just divisive and you're going to hurt someone's feelings. And maybe you might even inhibit someone from knowing the gospel because of your diehard position on politics. That is such a weak and cowardly and ignorant position. We care about politics because it affects people, because politics matter, because policy matters, because people matter. Politics affects policy. Policy affects people. People matter. They matter to God. and therefore as Christians we understand better than anyone else that they must matter to us.

Starting point is 00:05:03 Politics are not just an abstract thing. The culture wars are not just some far-off intangible idea. When we are talking about things like abortion, when we are talking about dying by suicide, the legalized killing of vulnerable mentally and physically vulnerable people, we are talking about image bearers of God. And if Christians are not willing to advocate with the fullness of, of our worldview, which says that we believe in a God who created us in love and with purpose, and therefore how we treat people matters and the law should protect people because they matter,

Starting point is 00:05:39 then no one else is going to advocate for these people. Politics is not the only or even primary way to love your neighbor, but it is a way to love your neighbor. We advocate for the legal right to life for unborn children because those children cannot speak up for themselves, and yet their value is the same as ours, and they should be protected. And we know that if God hates anything, he hates the murder of the innocent. He hates the exploitation and the abuse of the vulnerable. That is his character. That's what he shows himself to be throughout scripture and throughout history. And it is true also in the end of life. Now, you guys know that I am in favor of the death penalty for certain crimes,

Starting point is 00:06:23 like capital murder for the same reason that I am against abortion because I believe in the protection of innocent life and that is the only just and proportionate punishment for purposely ending the life of an innocent person but not all killing is murder some killing is murder like the purposeful killing of an innocent person but not all killing is prohibited in scripture war self-defense these are not the same things as murder Dying by suicide is. It is self-murder and it is also dependent upon the help of professionals like doctors, like lawmakers who are not only making self-murder accessible but palatable and attractive are even encouraging self-murder for people who just feel despair, like they just can't take it anymore.

Starting point is 00:07:18 And so the UK is debating this bill. It is Bill 012, 012, and it was introduced in the UK's House of Commons on November 11th that hasn't made it all the way yet. It's 38 pages long. It allows for adults, excuse me, over the age of 18, who are terminally ill and expected to deny naturally within six months to request and be provided medical assistance in order to end their life. But there are groups behind this bill. who are very nefarious, who want to control population growth, and there are really no guardrails in this bill at all. It will lead to the killing of so many vulnerable people. And so today I've got Dr. Callum Miller, who has been very vehemently and publicly opposing this bill. He graduated from the University of Oxford Medical School in 2015. He holds a master's with distinction in biblical studies. He works as a medical doctor in the UK. We've had him on before because he is one of the few outspoken pro-life advocates and doctors in the UK. And so we've had him on the White Couching his perspective on that.

Starting point is 00:08:31 But now he has something to say about not only the Christian, but the doctor's responsibility to preserve the lives of their patients rather than encouraging them to die early. So we're about to get into our conversation with him. Let me pause. Tell you about our first sponsor for the day. first, and that is we heart nutrition. So we want to do everything that we can to steward our bodies well because we are made in the image of God. And our body, as Christians, it is a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. So how we treat it matters. And I have seen such a positive change in my own health

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Starting point is 00:10:05 Yes, in the UK, we've just passed in second reading. So it's not fully passed, but we've nearly passed a bill basically for euthanasia through assisted suicide. So it would allow people within the last six months of their life or who are predicted to have less than six months left to live. It would allow doctors to give. them lethal drugs so that they can kill themselves, which would be very unprecedented in the UK. We don't have anything like that at the moment. Only a small handful of countries in the world do. And so it would be a really radical shift not only to our approach towards suicide, not only our approach towards vulnerable people, but also our approach towards medicine and doctors and the role that they have in making them people who kill rather than people who save lives. And so it's caused a lot of debate over here, which I've been part of over the last week. So those who defend this bill say that this is allowing people who are going to die anyway

Starting point is 00:10:56 to choose how they die, how quickly they die, and in that way is giving them dignity. This bill would only allow those, it says, that have some kind of terminal illness. Say they have, you know, I don't know, stage four pancreatic cancer. They've only been given a few months left to live. And instead of languishing in a hospital, they want to be able to, die at home with their loved ones in a way that they see fit. And so they're almost saying that this is actually a human rights, human dignity bill, but that's not how you see it. No, I think, I mean, one of the concerns is that almost no one believes that it would remain at, you know, just this

Starting point is 00:11:41 small group of people. You know, when we see how this works in other countries, it almost always expands to a larger group of people. It might be done through parliament, through legislation, or it be done through the courts. If the courts say this is discriminatory because you're only allowing autonomy to a certain group of people, you know, it's discriminatory and it needs to be struck down and it needs to be applied to everyone. And in fact, even if you look at the people pushing the bill, the patrons of the charity pushing the bill and a lot of the supporters are basically already saying it doesn't go far enough because it's only limited to a small number of people. And also when you look at the logic of the argument, it almost inevitably leads to being expanded

Starting point is 00:12:20 because the argument is basically these people are suffering. The only humane option to prevent that suffering is to kill them. And, you know, if that's the case, then what about people who are suffering tremendously but have decades left to live? They have even more suffering ahead of them, and it seems even more inhumane to allow them to keep living their lives. And so I think just the inherent logic of this, plus the momentum and what we've seen in other countries, is that it's pretty much guaranteed to go beyond this initial scope. And this would just be the first sort of step towards that. So, you know, of course, there's a doctor and someone who's familiar with medicine

Starting point is 00:13:00 and familiar with the statistics. We don't think that killing is the solution to suffering. It's very rare that palliative care is unable to control symptoms. And actually, when you look at the statistics, most of the people that choose this have ultimately existential problems. They feel like they're being degraded or humiliated. actual pain itself is not really a big part of this, which says that ultimately the solution isn't killing, which is never dignified. It's actually giving people a better understanding of

Starting point is 00:13:32 their self-worth and their dignity, even in their vulnerability and dependence. And so I think ultimately it's a existential and spiritual problem that we have. And that will never be fixed, either by symptom management or by killing. It will be fixed by reaffirming human dignity for those people. And for those who don't know, palliative care is just comfort care. So if someone is going to die, there's nothing left to do that could actually save their life. You comfort them in the last moments in a way to alleviate the pain. And as you said, some of the other symptoms that might come along with the diagnosis they have, correct? That's right. Yeah. And there's a lot of confusion about this because they've been calling it an assisted dying bill. And they do this in many countries. They use terminology in a fairly misleading way. We already have assisted dying. People die. We assist them in controlling their symptoms, keeping them comfortable, looking after them. That's perfectly legal. We do it every time someone passes away when we can. What they're actually trying to legalize is assisted suicide, where we're actually giving the patient the tools to end their own life, which is very different. Right. And you have criticized the lack of guardrails that exist in this bill. The defenders of the bill say, oh, there are already so many stipulations, so many safety measures that are put in place to make sure that this is not the slippery slope that people are afraid that it will be. But you say that this two doctor guardrail that is in this bill that basically says

Starting point is 00:14:57 two doctors have to sign off on it. That already is not enough, correct? Yeah. So they say, you know, the proponents of the bill say, look, you have to have two independent doctors signing off. The reality is that doctors do not have time to understand patients full history, they don't have time to understand or even the ability to understand if a patient is being coerced. We know that in Oregon where this is legal and the bill is modeled after Oregon, 40% of patients having assisted suicides say that they're having it because they feel like they're a burden to their friends or family. So this is already going on in the US on the West Coast as well. And nearly half of those people who are victims of it are doing it in part because they feel like a

Starting point is 00:15:41 burden. And so those safeguards are clearly not working. Some of them even say in Oregon that they're doing it because they're worried about their finances. And so, you know, coming back to the two doctor thing, they say, look, it's these two independent doctors, even if, you know, the doctors could legitimately and reliably detect coercion and that sort of thing. What the bill actually says is that the first doctor chooses the second doctor. So they're not independent at all. You can just get a doctor who's fine with euthanasia for any reason, refers to another. doctor who's fine with euthanasia for any reason. And then it even says if the second doctor by chance says no, then they can choose another doctor to be the second doctor. So it really is, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:22 the most farcical kind of safeguard. And that's why a lot of disability groups and many other groups that work with vulnerable people are so frightened about this piece of legislation. It sounds so similar to the euphemisms that are used surrounding abortion and the definitions that are you surrounding abortion. Abortion in several states in the U.S. is legal through all nine months as long as it is to save the quote-unquote life and preserve the health of the mother. But health is defined in the Supreme Court case, Doe v. Bolton, as not only physical health, but it could be her mental emotional health. It could also be her familial state. So if she has an unstable family situation, it could also mean her financial circumstances. So virtually for any

Starting point is 00:17:09 reason, as long as it falls under this loose category of health, and it sounds like this is the direction that euthanasia has already gone, not only in some places in the United States, but certainly in Canada. We don't really have to look very far to see where this goes. Several instances in Canada have shown that this is used for people who are simply unhappy, not just unwell, but unhappy. As you said, they feel like a social burden. Or maybe they just don't feel like they can carry the weight of their own circumstances or their own diagnosis. And so, as you said, it's not actually just assisting people who are already dying. It is inducing death.

Starting point is 00:17:51 It is allowing someone to kill themselves because we can't be bothered either as a community or a country or whatever to help alleviate the actual burdens that would encourage someone and strengthen someone to go on. And that's a really sad moral state of things, I would say. Absolutely. And, you know, we had our former Prime Minister, David Cameron, write an opinion piece that said, this bill isn't about ending life. It's about shortening death, whatever that means. I mean, the reality of is that everyone is on a pathway to death. And any killing could be seen as shortening death in that sense. And you're absolutely right that the way these are interpreted go way beyond what the people initially propose in Canada. They're now trying to introduce it for mental illness. In Oregon, they're already doing it in part for mental illness. We know that. that some people have committed suicide through the state because of anorexia in Oregon. My goodness. And, you know, they say that you have to have six months left to live or less. The reality is this is very unreliable. I think there was a study that showed this is only about 30% reliable.

Starting point is 00:18:55 So it's worse than flipping a coin. But moreover, when they say, you know, you're expected to have less than six months, there's evidence that in Oregon they interpret this as, you know, with or without treatment, as in, you know, you could say that someone with appendicitis has less than six months to live because if they don't get treatments, they will die because the appendix will burst and they'll get an infection and so on. But impendocitis is obviously completely treatable in almost every case. But the way the law is being interpreted in Oregon suggests that even a simple condition could count as giving you a six-month prognosis or less because they say, well, if we don't treat you,

Starting point is 00:19:36 then you're going to pass away soon and therefore your entire. to this. And so all of these things are, you know, these loopholes are always exploited. That's part of the intention of them. And we see that in every country in the world, really. Yes. And I just wanted to verify what you're saying, because there will be some out there who are thinking, this doesn't happen in Oregon. There is no way that they are allowing people who suffer from things like anorexia and bulimia to kill themselves. But I just looked it up. People can look it up. I typed in Oregon, euthanasia, and several articles came up. This is a lot of. This is a lot of is absolutely something that is happening and people who claim to be scholars are the ones that

Starting point is 00:20:14 are providing the arguments to justify this. So as you said, we already see exactly where this is going. Y'all know how much I love Adele Natural Cosmetics. I use their skincare every single day. I love their essential line. Their oil-based cleanser has been such a game changer for my skin. I love that they are all natural, never any fake fragrances, no fake chemicals. that are endocrine disruptors or harsh or bad for your skin at all. This is another family run pro-life unapologetically Christian company. Arlene started this company several years ago because of her own health concerns. She wanted to make sure that everything she was putting in and on her body was truly good for her.

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Starting point is 00:21:24 You mentioned the people behind this. Do you know what organizations are behind this? There's a lot of dark money, which often gets kind of, you know, labeled with conservatives. But actually, in this case, there is a lot of really shady kind of stuff. We don't really know where the money can. comes from. We know that a lot of it comes from large donors who are not named. We know that some of the groups pushing this. There's a group called More In Common, which is in the US and the UK and a couple of other countries. This is very closely connected to the sponsor of the bill. It was actually

Starting point is 00:22:00 set up, you know, after the death of the sponsor's sister a few years ago, very closely related to it. They have been pushing opinion polls, pushing for this bill. They're funded by various groups, including George Soros' Open Society Foundations. They're also funded by the Hewlett Foundation, which has a huge population program. They've spent about $500 million over the last few decades, pushing for population control and depopulation of the world. I tried not to be a conspiracy theorist.

Starting point is 00:22:35 I chastised a lot of my friends for kind of going in that direction. But it's absolutely true to say, and there's very, very clear evidence to any observer. that there is a depopulation agenda, the idea that the world is overpopulated, that people are a burden. And of course, this is getting worse because of aging populations,

Starting point is 00:22:53 because we don't have enough kids. We're having a lot more elderly people who need a lot more time and care, and it's much, much more convenient to kill someone for a few dollars than to spend thousands of dollars and a lot of time and energy actually looking after them.

Starting point is 00:23:06 And so, you know, I don't know the intention of everyone who's pushing for this, and I'm sure that there are a lot of people who support this, really out of good intentions because they want to alleviate suffering. I know many people who support it because of that, but at the same time we have to be aware

Starting point is 00:23:21 that there will always be much more powerful and sinister entities that want this for much more sinister reasons. They will hijack whatever goes through, and they're even very likely pushing what's going through as part of a depopulation agenda, really just for economic reasons. And so it's something that we need to look more into, and we haven't fully got to the bottom of it yet. Yes, and really the Hewlett Foundation, I mean, if people want to say that that's conspiratorial, all they have to do is look that up. The population program at the Hewlett Foundation is pretty clear about what their goals are, although they, of course, use the euphemisms because they understand that saying something like baby killing instead of abortion or reproductive health or even assisted suicide just isn't palatable. And so they'll say things like this. The Hewlett Foundation's population program focuses its grantmaking in three broad areas.

Starting point is 00:24:13 international access to family planning and reproductive health, which is probably mostly abortion, research training and advocacy to create sound policy. I would say that that probably is what this assisted suicide bill falls under. They're, you know, one of their other initiatives, family planning and reproductive health in the United States specifically. So access to abortion, open society foundation, George Soros organization is, is the same way. And so you're right. It sounds like a conspiracy, but unfortunately, really all the way since Malthus, there has been this Malthusian fear of overpopulation that people like Bill Gates and like Margaret Sanger and like the Hewlett Foundation and George Soros and many, many other very rich and powerful people, specifically in

Starting point is 00:25:05 the United States, they have really acted on that fear of overpopulation and have pushed things like abortion and assisted suicide. That just happens to be true. It sounds conspiratorial, but it's frighteningly true. Absolutely. And, you know, one of their documents on the population program says explicitly, we have two complementary goals. And I'll paraphrase a little bit. But they basically say, you know, to empower women's reproductive rights, to have the freedom and the number of kids they want. And then the second goal is to reduce population growth to, you know, what they call a sustainable level. And it just so happens in their perspective that these two are complementary, that women don't want a lot of kids. And that just happens to line up with their desire to have a lot

Starting point is 00:25:49 fewer people in the world. So it would be very inconvenient if it turned out that women actually do want kids. They just don't feel empowered to have them or in a position or in a circumstance to have them. It would be very inconvenient if there were lots of old people who had nothing to do with reproductive rights, but who still, you know, emit carbon or, you know, eat food or take up resources or, you know, use our time and money. And so ultimately, when you look at their stuff, it's not just, they make it very clear. This is not just about human rights, even, you know, even under their definition of human rights. They've made it clear that a separate sort of criterion and goal for them is the reduction of population, even aside from that. And they try to say that

Starting point is 00:26:31 these are just two sides of the same coin. But that obviously depends on some dubious empirical claims and on some wishful thinking on their part. Yeah. You are a Christian pro-life doctor in the UK. Do you feel alone in your fight not only for the dignity of the unborn, but the dignity of people who are dying imminently? Or do you feel like there are more doctors than we see who align with you? We're pretty lonely on the abortion fight. I'll be honest, there are not many of us in that one. On this one, we've actually been pleasantly surprised. There's huge, huge opposition to this among doctors. So our population has always been largely in favor of euthanasia because they just haven't looked into it. It's quite an appealing, intuitive thought that we just look after people by

Starting point is 00:27:21 ending their suffering. But those who are actually familiar, the politicians who've read about it, the doctors and so on, are much, much more opposed to it. So if you look at the opinion polls for the palliative care doctors, the ones who know most about end-of-life care, about suffering in the final few days and weeks, about coercion, about social dynamics, about 90% of palliative care doctors in this country are opposed to legalizing euthanasia,

Starting point is 00:27:48 which is really, really striking. So they've been very forcefully against it. The Muslim groups have been very against it. the communists and socialists have been very against it. So about 40% of our socialist party in government voted against it, including most of the far left people, most of the people with the sort of, you know, impressive lefty credentials.

Starting point is 00:28:11 Yeah. A lot of the, you know, a lot of people who are totally not conservative, not religious at all, J.K. Rowling's another example. You know, she's conservative on the trans issue, but she's otherwise just a standard kind of liberal feminist person. she was retweeting me this week. She retweeted me twice, and that does not normally happen. I don't normally get JK Rowling retweeting me on abortion.

Starting point is 00:28:32 And so we've seen that there's actually a lot of opposition, particularly among, really among anyone who's just looked into it. I think most people instinctively feel some sympathy for euthanasia because they just want to help ease suffering. That's where compassion can lead you initially. And then almost everyone who actually looks into it and knows the reality ends up turning against it. And so we're fortunate that in this country,

Starting point is 00:28:56 we have a lot of politicians on the left and the right, a lot of doctors, a lot of disability rights groups, all of whom have been really, really passionately against this. And we hope that they continue and hopefully are successful. Yes, I saw someone who identifies as a Marxist on X this week, saying that she has come to realize over time that euthanasia is a crime against humanity. And I appreciated that.

Starting point is 00:29:21 And I'm trying to understand that from her ideological perspective. Obviously, you and I share the belief that we are made in the Amago Day. And we have innate worth and therefore assisted suicide is always wrong. But I'm guessing it has something to do with understanding the imbalanced power dynamics at play, that even if someone isn't explicitly coerced, someone who is socially isolated in a vulnerable position being told by someone in a white coat that this would make their life better, that is a form of coercion and manipulation. And there are simply no possible safeguards against something like that. And that is too serious for us to allow.

Starting point is 00:30:03 What is your thought about how this will end up? Do you think that all of the different kinds of people who are coming out in opposition to this bill will be able to put a stop to it? I really hope so when we have a chance. So our parliament is 80% left wing. so it's overwhelmingly left wing. They should be able to pass anything. And yet, it was only about 50% to 40% in this vote on Friday. And so it was actually relatively close.

Starting point is 00:30:32 It was about 50 votes because we have a huge parliament. And we've calculated that if we add up all the parliamentarians who voted just to continue further debates, but were not necessarily committed to supporting it fully, then we can actually win this in the final vote. It's an uphill battle, but it is possible. As I say, we've got a lot of people on our side from across the political spectrum. We also have challenges that some of the conservatives have not been great. So our conservative party leader, Kemmy Badenock, used to be a patron of conservatives for choice.

Starting point is 00:31:07 You know, she was a patron of a pro-euthanasia charity. She came out in this case against it, but only very late, with a few weeks to go after most of the leftist politicians had already come out against it. And so even people who might be thought to be more robust, you know, solid leaders, there's been a lot of excitement about her being anti-woke. But the reality is that even people like her just do not have a robust conservative vision of society or robust values that can really help. And so as well as sort of winning over a few more of the socialists and left-wing people, we also have to do a better job, I think, convincing the conservative party and their leaders that this is something that is really, really. important, that it's non-negotiable, and that, you know, this actually matters to conservatives and that they're not really authoritative, credible conservatives if they even consider the idea of something like this.

Starting point is 00:32:02 Yeah. Okay. Quickly, how can people over here in the U.S. support you guys? I think, you know, making a fuss about it, you know, we've seen that there's been a lot of times where conversations in the U.K. pick up from the U.S., often from celebrities or politicians sometimes that's negatively. There are some politicians that most British people are not huge fans of who tend to sort of react in a sort of backlash fashion to.

Starting point is 00:32:29 But I think anything that raises awareness, I think if we had key conservative or any, to be honest, any leaders in the US speaking about this, I think if people like Elon Musk started speaking about this and raising concerns, then I think it would at least wake people up in the UK. So we have to be careful. We can't just make any old arguments,

Starting point is 00:32:48 but I think we need to have more knowledge from Oregon, what's going on there, more stories from Oregon. We need to have people just raising awareness because the reality is most of this is getting through because the large majority of people in this country just don't know the reality of euthanasia. They don't know what's going on in Canada. They don't know what's going on in Oregon. And really it's a matter of raising awareness and actually building a public conscientiousness about this. And so anything that contributes to that, whether it's speaking, to your UK friends or getting high-profile people in the US to start speaking about this,

Starting point is 00:33:23 or just getting more stories from the US or Canada. All of that's really helpful. So we'd love to partner with anyone in the US on that. And hopefully we can beat this together because it's going to come for the US soon as well. Oh, absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Miller. I really appreciate your voice. Thank you. Thank you. Quick pause to tell you about our next sponsor for the day and that is covenant eyes. Y'all know that I am passionate about standing strong in a culture that often feels upside down. It's hard enough trying to raise a family, live out your faith, stand firm in your values,

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Starting point is 00:35:23 in a little bit of pain. Maybe it's from Lyme disease or maybe it's from allergies or because they are anorexic or bulimic or because they are poor and they can't afford housing because they need some kind of medical treatment that they don't have access to. These are the people that are dying by suicide. And if you don't think this is eventually coming for your kids, I promise you that it is. What do we always say? Children are always the unconsenting subjects of progressive social experiments. In fact, we already see this at the beginning of life. That's what abortion is. It's euthanasia for babies. It's the death penalty for babies. And so this is already happening at the beginning of life when children certainly have no say, I promise you,

Starting point is 00:36:10 that will inch its way towards toddlers, towards preteens, towards teens, maybe even preteens and teens who have transitioned, detransitioned, but they've ruined their bodies, they've ruined their fertility, they can't stand it anymore, they feel trapped in the body that adults allow them to brutalize in the name of being transgender and they will seek to kill themselves. And I would say that's probably mission accomplished for the nefarious organizations that are behind this movement. All right. I do want to transition to a little bit of a happier story, all right? Because I think we need a little bit of uplifting after all of that. Because in the tumult of all of the evil that is occurring in the world, we know that Satan, according to Ephesians 2, is the prince of the power of the air. So he does have some power. He does have some authority. He knows he's going to lose. But he's trying to take as many lives, as many souls, as much joy and as much victory as possible until he gets to that point of, ultimate defeat and yet what god's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch

Starting point is 00:37:16 even in something as evil as this he is using the boldness and the courage and the voice of the church the voice of people like dr miller to advocate for the beauty of the biblical worldview the beauty of the existence of the amago day and i think because of that because of the darkness that exists a lot of people are craving light more than ever. A lot of people are saying, okay, I'm tired of waiting around in the darkness. Can someone just tell me that there's light? Can someone just turn the light on for me? Can someone just tell me what is true? Can someone make sense, make order out of this chaos? And that is why I think, according to the Wall Street Journal, Bible sales are up 22% in the United States through the end of October compared with the

Starting point is 00:38:06 same period last year. In comparison, overall U.S. book sale trends rose by less than one percent in the same time frame. Jeff Crosby is the president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. He says this. People are experiencing anxiety themselves or they're worried for their children and grandchildren. It's related to artificial intelligence, election cycles, and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we are going to be okay. Amy Simpson, publisher of Tindale House Publishers Bible Division says there seems to be a surge in engagement, particularly among members of Gen Z. And college students, you have a generation that wants to find things that feel more solid. I think that is absolutely true.

Starting point is 00:38:49 And I know that we see a lot of progressivism, a lot of lostness among Generation Z. We've got unprecedented rates of Gen Z that identifies as LGBTQ. But I think those that fall outside of that or even more solid than those that identify as Christians and the millennial and boomer generation because they have been raised in the craziness and the chaos of progressivism. And so they have been able to see in a very concentrated way that that does not have the answer. They've been able to see up close and personal people who try to find love and satisfaction and sexual promiscuity and self-identity and worshiping the God of self and filling themselves with the pleasure of the world. I mean, everything that has

Starting point is 00:39:35 been at their fingertips since they were toddlers through the devices that their parents have given them. And they are realizing what all Christians have realized for all of time that there's something more than this. There's got to be something bigger than this. There's got to be something deeper than this, more solid than this. I also think as the country awakens to the the craziness of progressivism and everything that the ideology entails. And as they realize some of the lies about things like abortion or transgenderism or whatever it is, and they start just becoming more conservative, not even more Christian. They start becoming more conservative.

Starting point is 00:40:22 And then they start picking apart their own belief system, the lies that they've believed, why they have believed them so often, that does lead someone towards Christianity. And I've seen it time and time again. I saw that Candace Cameron Bure made headlines for saying that President Trump's election kind of demonstrates that people are having an awakening of faith. And of course, the people that you would expect to trash that take,

Starting point is 00:40:49 trashed it, the progressives online. But I think that's absolutely true. That's not to say, and she's not saying, and I've never said, that being a Republican and being a conservative is the same thing as being a Christian or that voting for Donald Trump means that you're automatically a Christian. But I do think it means that a lot of people are repudiating at least aspects of the secular progressive ideology. And of course I believe that conservative politics most naturally flow from a biblical worldview. And so no matter how you

Starting point is 00:41:23 get there, whether it's, you know, my preferred route, which is start with the Bible and then work friend there or whether someone just realizes, okay, like conservative politics kind of seem more right or some of the conservative ideas seem more right. I wonder where they come from. And then that brings them to the Constitution, which brings them to the Declaration of Independence, brings them to the founders, which believed that we have rights that were given to us by a creator whose power and authority transcends that of the government. We're still all realizing that. We're still all realizing seeing the same thing, which is that we were made by God. And his rules are better and his ways are better. And so I'm very thankful. I'm very thankful for that. According to the New York Times,

Starting point is 00:42:09 for the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious. And of course, I hope that young women catch up to that as well. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor for the day. And that is Jace Madical. In a last minute effort before leaving office, President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use missiles supplied by the U.S. for strikes against Russia in their ongoing war. This comes as a response to North Korean troops being positioned along Ukraine's border. And that could possibly have an effect on our supply chain and our economy as well. And so you just want to make sure that you and your family are taking care of, especially when it

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Starting point is 00:43:40 Publishers attributed 22% jump in Bible sales this year to rising anxiety, a search for hope, or highly focused marketing and designs. I love that. I love that. I mean, a lot of people have. concerns about, you know, different versions of Bibles and things like that. And of course, when it comes to translations, I think that we should use the most accurate possible. But I have no problem with the more beautiful Bibles, the better designed Bibles, the Bibles that are marketed, maybe

Starting point is 00:44:12 specifically to teens or specifically to women. As long as it is the unfiltered, unadulterated word of God and it's getting into people's hands, I think that's beautiful. Or like the wide margin Bible so people can journal. I love my ESV study Bible. If you want to start the Bible for the first time, maybe that's your New Year's resolution. There's no reason to wait until the new year, though. I would just go ahead and do it. Get you an ESV study Bible. You can get it on Amazon. You can get the you know, fancier versions that are a little more expensive, but you can just get the standard. It's red, white, and black ESV study Bible. That was the version of the Bible that totally changed the game for me. I had a friend who gave that to me when I was, I think it was the summer between my freshman and

Starting point is 00:44:58 sophomore year of college. And I had grown up in a Christian home and I went to a Christian school, went to church, loved the Bible, loved theology. But that was really the first time I started reading the ESV. I grew up reading the NIV as a lot of, you know, Baptist in the South did. And that was fine. It's just a less exact translation. So the ESV, it really just clicked with my brain. And I was able to memorize scripture a lot better than I ever had. And the notes and the resources in the ESV study Bible gave me so much knowledge and understanding of what I was reading. So I really encourage you to get an ESV study Bible. Get a copy of systematic theology by Wayne Grudom. Maybe ask for that for Christmas. I also love a keyword study Bible that comes with the original Greek and

Starting point is 00:45:47 Hebrew. And so it doesn't tell you the exact original Greek in Hebrew of every word of every chapter, but just key words that really helps me in my study as well. Another supplement that I would encourage you to get is ethics for a brave new world. Ethics for a brave new world. That also has helped shape a lot of my conclusions when it comes to things like the death penalty, when it comes to IVF and surrogacy just really challenged my thinking and clarified my thinking on a lot of those issues. And so I would say, like, if you want a great starter pack for the Christian worldview and seeing the world from a Christian perspective, that would be a great way to go. I'm always going to recommend C.S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis, Mir Christianity, and screw tape letters. Those are the first

Starting point is 00:46:39 two that I would recommend as well. I mean, there are just, there are so many others that could really be helpful for you. But for me, when I look back, still, those resources help me a lot. But when I look back to really digging into my faith at the beginning part of college, those were the resources that helped me the most. All right, let's talk about, speaking of Christianity and speaking of biblical truth, I want to talk about one other story. And it has to do with John Piper. I'm trying to decide, do I want to do the last ad now or do I want to wait. Okay, let's just knock the last ad out of the way because I do have one more ad, and then we'll get to this John Piper's story. And the last ad of the day, I know it's kind of

Starting point is 00:47:23 close together, but we've got five today. And so that's just how it works. Our last ad is from Patriot Mobile. And that is America's Christian conservative wireless provider. They are on the front lines fighting for things like the First and Second Amendment, the sanctity of life, our military and first responder heroes. You can take a stand for these causes and put America first by switching to Patriot Mobile, you get the same nationwide coverage as big providers because Patriot Mobile operates all three major networks. Plus, they back their service with a coverage guarantee. Their 100% U.S.-based customer service team will find the best plan for your needs. Keep your number, keep your phone, or upgrade. Go to patriotmobile.com slash alley.

Starting point is 00:48:01 Get a free month when you use my offer code Ali. Go to patriotmobile.com slash alley code Allie. Okay, I am so thankful for John Piper's take on something called pronoun politeness. I recently did a segment where I was disagreeing with John Piper about his take on Biden versus Trump, Kamala versus Trump, his take on the election. But I've also said how much I am grateful for John Piper and his positive influence on my theology and understanding so many things. I've listened to several episodes of Ask Pastor John. And in a recent episode, he was asked about so-called pronoun politeness. And that is the idea that has been propagated by people like Preston Sprinkle and others, that even if you disagree with transgenderism, that to be polite or maybe even,

Starting point is 00:48:58 some would say to win someone over for the gospel, you can still call a woman who identifies as a man he or a man who identifies as a woman, she. This is the same. thing that progressive say, except they would say you do it because they really are what this person, you know, what they claim that they are. And so it's a matter of respect. It's a matter of dignity. Whereas I would say, no, that's lying to them. And God made them male or female and God loves them more than I do. And I don't think I can love them well by disagreeing with God. Who is love? And John Piper, in his very eloquent way, he speaks out against pronoun politeness. The question originally was during a recent training session, a ministry that this question asker is a part of

Starting point is 00:49:44 asked us to consider using gender pronoun hospitality on our local campus. I wonder what ministry that was. I actually don't know. I actually really do wonder, but I kind of have an idea. A suggestion that has now come before the elders of the church to see if we will allow our members and those we support locally who work on the campus to do so. The argument is that there are times when, And for the sake of evangelism, one may decide to call a person by their chosen gender if such an actor removes a possible barrier in sharing the gospel. Pastor John, what should I do? Piper stated that the entire idea of quote unquote gender pronoun hospitality is a misleading slogan and that connecting the beautiful biblical word hospitality with the unbiblical concept of gender pronoun is unhelpful and that we ought to be hospitable. but we ought not to be affirming of pronouns that designate a destructive choice and a false view of reality.

Starting point is 00:50:41 It is possible to be hospitable and honest. He said the very use of the word gender is a compromise with sinful views of reality. I think that we should use the word sex everywhere. I have always disagreed with that. I'm open to hearing his argument. I don't think that's true. When you look at the etymology of gender, gender and sex seem to be. need to be interchangeable. But he says, I think using the word gender, where the right word is sex,

Starting point is 00:51:08 is like using the word marriage for a relationship between two men or two women. It is not marriage. It is so-called marriage. In our present context, maleness and femalness are sexes, not genders. Again, I disagree with that. I think they're one and the same. And actually, I think separating the two are saying that they are two different things is where we get into this mess. But I'm sure he has. thought through his position thoroughly. He says that a better way to evangelize to someone who's claiming to be the opposite gender would be like this. He says, I know you intend to change your sex, but you are my friend, and I think there's a better way. Jesus has a better way forward for you. He's full of grace. He's full of forgiveness. May I share that with you? That's a legitimate

Starting point is 00:51:56 legitimate evangelism, Piper says, from the get-go, and it might be a good way. So he goes through why you shouldn't use pronoun politeness. I won't articulate all of these reasons in full. I encourage you to go listen to this episode. But one, he says that it defies God. Self-conception as male or female should be defined by God's holy purposes in creation. Number two, it involves living a lie. A man cannot become a woman cannot become a woman cannot become a man, nor a man, a woman. Number three, being a man or a woman is not like being left-handed or right-handed. It goes far deeper and touches the depths of our created nature. Number four, it regularly leads to destructive and irreversible surgeries and treatments. Number five, when that happens,

Starting point is 00:52:41 it destroys the God-designed potential of procreation and will bring sooner or later profound and suicidal regret. It expresses the deeply anti-God, this number six, commitment to human autonomy over against the will of God. I will decide the essence of my being, not God, is essentially what this would be saying. It contributes to the cultural disorder of sexuality that tends to undermine God's pattern from male and female and confuses and destabilizes our young people. It overlooks alternative ways forward that takes seriously a person's sexual confusion or rebellion. Nine, it is the prelude to future perversions. 10. Therefore, the greatest possible care should be taken before one gives any impression of approving or even being mildly disagreeable

Starting point is 00:53:34 toward so-called transgenderism. I think that is a perfect response and I am so grateful for his clarity. Pastors, remember, and take this as an example, clarity is kindness. You are not kinder than God. You are not nicer than God. You are not more loving or more compassionate than God. and therefore the kindest and most loving thing that we can always do is agree with God. And he tells us what we are right there in Genesis 1-27. It is our obligation as we love God and love others to echo his clear words there. All right, that's all we've got time for today. We will be back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1108 | UK’s Assisted Suicide Bill, Booming Bible Sales & John Piper Scorches Pronouns | Guest: Dr. Calum Miller

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