Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 121 | Praying for Trump

Episode Date: June 5, 2019

First, we look at Taylor Swift's latest moral argument for the Equality Act. Then, we discuss David Platt's prayer for the president and why some Christians are upset. Copyright Blaze Media All Rights Reserved.

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day Show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. If you are watching this, you see that I'm in a little bit of a different setting than I usually am.

We've been having Wi-Fi problems at my house. And I'm very frustrated. I can put this company on blast. I'm not going to. We've had power outages in Texas because there's been storm. and for some reason, every time the power goes out and comes back on, our Wi-Fi dies. And so I had to go somewhere else to make sure that I add Wi-Fi so I could look at my computer during all of this. So if you see, I have a very plain background that is not my lovely place of doing podcasts. Typically,

that is why. So today we're going to talk about two things. And we're going to spend a good amount of time on each. And if I have something else that comes to my head at the end of it, and we'll talk about that too, but we're going to talk about Taylor Swift and her voicing her opinions on the Equality Act. Not because we care really what celebrities think, but because it says something interesting about our culture and cultural influences that someone like Taylor Swift would come out in favor of something like this. And then we're also going to talk about Pastor David Platt praying for President Trump and some of the backlash, crazily enough, that he has seen from that. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary, grounded, in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed. You can watch this T-Day Show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts.

I hope you'll join us. Okay. So let's talk about Taylor Swift and the Equality Act. Now, you probably remember for a couple years, it seems like on social media, there was kind of this meme or this funny thing that people would say that like, why has it Taylor Swift weighed in on this political topic or this cultural issue or this social scandal? we need to hear Taylor Swift on this. Her silence is definitely. And it was a joke because Taylor Swift, for the most part, has always stayed out of politics, which I think is something that has made her

extremely charming. I never think whenever a celebrity decides not to say something about politics, I never see that one way or another as, oh, wow, they're just weak or they're just ignorant, or they're not strong or brave or whatever that is. I always think of that as a very conscious decision to say, you know what? I've got people from both sides of the aisle that either buy my product or tune into my show or listen to my music. So I'm just not going to say anything. I actually think that that is more brave nowadays to stay politically neutral in your public persona that it is to say something, especially when you come out as a celebrity saying something that is leftist. It's like really like all of these like clappy hand emojis on your political

pro abortion Instagram post. I'm like, is this really brave? Like is this really courageous? In fact, if you said the opposite of this, like if you came out as pro-life as some kind of mainstream celebrity, like you're going to be totally lambasted and you're going to have a hard time finding work. So it just cracks me up when celebrities, even someone like Taylor Swift, is lauded as courageous by her feminist friends on the left for coming out in favor of something that is liberal. Of course she's going to because that's what celebrities do. That's not brave at all. That's the most mainstream and with the grain thing that you can possibly do.

And that's what she has done. Now, the other week, we did a whole episode dedicated to the Equality Act. It is titled The Equality Act. And I'm going to remind you a little bit about some of what it is today. But if you want a more thorough analysis of what is actually in this act that is not, by the way, actually going to go to the desk of President Trump because it's not going to pass the Republican-held Senate. If you want to know more about that, I encourage you to go back and listen to my episode on the Equality Act. Basically, what it does, if you're talking to a Democrat, they will say that

it extends, extends protections for the LGBTQ plus whatever community. So they cannot be discriminated against, and it sounds all well and good. But of course, what we know that it does is that it threatens doctors' rights, it threatens religious people's rights, it threatens counselors rights. It threatens psychiatrists rights, which of course, I guess, falls under a doctor. It threatens parents rights. It really threatens individual rights to live according to their conscience, which I believe is not the role of the government. And actually the founders believe that too. It's a constitutional belief that that should not be the role of the government, whether you're coming at it from a freedom of association standpoint or a freedom of religion

or freedom of conscience standpoint. It is unconstitutional. It is. It is, the left saying we are going to impose all of our ideological views on you to where the point to the point where if you do not comply, you will be punished professionally and probably personally as well. Now, Taylor Swift doesn't know this. And, you know, we shouldn't really expect her to. She's got a lot going on. She's making music videos. She's writing music. She's going back from Nashville to L.A. to New York. She's got cats to take care of. So we cannot expect poor Taylor Swift to do a whole lot of research on the Equality Act. All we can expect from her is to post a very passionate letter about the Equality Act

and how everyone who doesn't support it is really just a bigot. So she posted her letter on Instagram. Don't you just love open letters to another sign of real bravery to Senator Lamar Alexander? He's a Republican about protecting LGBTQ right by voting to support the Equality Act. so this is her plea for him to do that. So Taylor Swift wrote in the caption of her letter, while we have so much to celebrate, we also, so this is, I guess,

she's doing this at the beginning of gay pride month. And so she's saying, so while we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally. In excellent recent news, the House passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination

in their places of work, homes, schools, and other public accommodations. She states, I've decided to kick off Pride Month by writing a letter to one of my senators to explain how strongly I feel that the Equality Act should be passed. I urge you to write to your senators too. I'll be looking for your letters by searching the hashtag hashtag letter to my senator. And in the letter, she said this, for American citizens to be denied jobs or housing based on who they love or how they identify, in my opinion, is un-American and cruel. Now, you might be listening to that. And if you haven't listened to my episode, out in the Equality Act yet, you might be thinking, well, yeah, that's so true. People shouldn't

be discriminated against. But remember, this Equality Act wants to regulate religious nonprofits, and it wants to impose its secular beliefs, its leftist beliefs on even private Christian schools. A private Christian school who believes in traditional marriage, because the Bible teaches traditional marriage under this act, would probably no longer be able to deny to not hire someone based on their gender identity or based on their sexual orientation. To someone on the left, they think, well, yeah, duh, of course, you shouldn't be able to discriminate on that. So you are saying that a religious school is not able to actually act out or manifest its

religious views. You are saying that the government has a right to dictate who you can hire and not hire no matter what your religious views are. And so, but it's never seen that way from the left. It's never seen as religious people have a legitimate beef with the government stepping in and saying, hey, you cannot follow your conscience. Instead, we see something like this, that they won't be discriminated against for who they love or how they identify. I mean, just the wording of that, if you don't see the influence of the God of self and the elevation and the

glorification, the idolatry of self and everything that we see in, I won't even say just on the left, but in secularism today, it's, it's, I don't know, let's tell you, it's there. It's crazy. She then talks about how protecting the LGBTQ community would bring more jobs to Tennessee, referencing the fact that businesses like Amazon and Apple have spoken out against the anti-LGB slate of hate in recent months. Now, the slate of hate she's talking about, it's a term that advocacy groups have coined after Tennessee introduced a series of bills that from their perspective, that's important, from their perspective, would be against the gay community, for example, and the transgender

community. One of the bills, the Tennessee Natural Marriage Act, it would ban gay marriage in the state. Now, you could be against that. You could be against banning gay marriage, but it's the prerogative of these legislators to be able to propose legislation like this. So she talks about, okay, because of the slate of hate, we're going to lose jobs. Apple and Amazon said that they're not going to, they're not going to be doing business with these states. And in her letter, she talks about President Trump's opposition to the legislation that the House just passed. She says, I personally reject the president stands that his administration supports equal treatment of all, but that the Equality Act in its current form is filled with poison pills that threatened to undermine parental and conscience rights, swiftroats. So she rejects that.

She said, no, one cannot take the position that one supports a community while condemning it in the next breath as going against conscience or parental rights. That statement applies that there is something morally wrong with. anything other than heterosexual and cisgender, which is an incredibly harmful message to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex non-binary or transgender parents, sons, or daughters. Well, there are plenty of people who do believe that it's immoral, Taylor Swift. There are a lot of people in this country who believe that homosexuality is something that doesn't align with their religious views. So if they run a religious nonprofit or if they run a Christian school, for example, they should have the prerogative and the ability to say, hey,

we're only going to hire people that fall into our worldview, that fall into our value system. And it's the same thing with parental rights, by the way. I mean, she's saying, no, parents shouldn't have rights to say that their child shouldn't get, for example, hormone therapy to change their gender when they're 10 years old. Taylor Swift, are you really saying that a parent shouldn't have a right to do that? parents do not care Taylor Swift whether or not you think it's immoral for their child to transition. And doctors don't care about what you think Taylor Swift about whether or not they should perform an abortion or whether or not they should, which this is something, that's something

that the act covers, or whether or not they should do sex change surgery if they are morally opposed to that. So because Taylor Swift, and this is a problem that all celebrities have, it's this crazy hubris. She thinks that she is the moral arbiter, that she thinks that it's wrong to imply in any way that someone might think that homosexuality or transgenderism is immoral, and they are not allowed to operate according to that belief system. Why? Because Taylor Swift doesn't think it's immoral. It's so close-minded and completely delegitimizes the views of millions of Christians and Jewish people and probably people of other faiths, too, that are more conservative leaning, it completely discredits their views on traditional marriage and on gender roles

that exist. And this is exactly why so many people, conservatives, especially don't listen to celebrities. It's like Taylor Swift tried to advocate for a candidate in the Senate race last year. It completely failed. I mean, she came out and said, you know, this person's against the LGBTQ community and I'm for them, blah, blah, so please vote for this Democrat. While the Democrat, well, the Democratic, ended up losing. And so even though she probably does have a lot of cultural sway, especially I would say more so outside of Tennessee than she does inside Tennessee, it's still an interesting thing to talk about. But I just don't know how much manifest impact she is having when it comes to how people vote in what people actually do. All she's doing

is stirring up a bunch of resentment and anger among people who just don't know better. There is no thought anymore, particularly among the left to religious liberty. There is no thought anymore to freedom of association. There is no thought anymore to being able to operate according to your conscience, a conscience that might contradict leftist politicians. No, they have said that they are the arbiters of truth. They are the arbiters of morality. And they will say, oh, no, we just want love. We just want inclusion. We just want tolerance. We just want everyone to be included and not discriminated against. But again, that's not the role of the government to be able to say that you as a person who wants to operate your business or your organization or your family according to your

content, it should not be the role of the government to say, you can't do that. So Taylor Swift, of course, very narrow-minded and very short-sighted, as most people are when they hear this emotional language of protecting a particular vulnerable, vulnerable community. She said the reason why she's getting involved in this when she supported the Democrat for the Senate race, I think his name was Phil Bredesen. She posted saying, you know, a lot of people have seen I've been reluctant to publicly engage or to voice my opinions, but that's changed. A lot of things have happened in my life that make me want to speak out about this. I think she just kind of got embarrassed that she became a meme and she kind of got embarrassed that people were making fun of her,

I guess, for being silent. I just wish she understood the joke. The joke was not that we actually wanted to hear her opinions. The joke was that we were glad that. We were glad that. she doesn't voice her opinions. I think that she took that as thinking, okay, well, I've got this platform. I've really got to speak up about democratic values. Ooh, you're so different. So she has put her money where her mouth is. Maybe, maybe that's something to speak of. She gave $113,000 in 2018 to the Tennessee Equality Project, which of course is a pro-LGB advocacy group. I don't know much about them. I would say that they're probably behind something like the Equality Act. And they might even be the

advocacy group that said, hey, Taylor Swift, it's time for you to say something about this. She performed I Heart Radio's Wingo Tango. I think it was this past weekend. And during her performance, she got political by talking about the LGBTQ community and their rights and what we need to be standing for. And she said, you know, a lot of my songs are about love. And I just feel like who you love, how you identify, you should be able to live your life the way that you want to live your life, you should have the same exact rights as everybody else. Well, they do. Well, they do. They do have the same. Gay people do have the same exact rights as everyone,

as everyone else. But also, it just tells us what Taylor Swift thinks is the guidepost of morality or is the moral compass. And it is, this is such a perfect encapsulation of the so-called morality of this age, which is exchanging the God of the Bible for the God of self. And it is exchanging the truth with my truth. It is exchanging any kind of principle or objective reality for my principles and my subjective reality. All that matters, the only values to the secular world, particularly the secular left today in America, are there are two things.

The two values that they have are autonomy and all. authenticity. Those are the only principles that you need to abide by in order to be seen by them as a moral person. And the only way to be an immoral person is if you try to step on someone's autonomy or step on someone's authenticity. And so all laws that they want implemented, all value systems, all schools, all doctor's offices are supposed to affirm everyone's autonomy and authenticity. So autonomy, you have full control over what you do, no matter. or what. That means that if you want to get an abortion, well, autonomy speaks to that and you get to. Now, of course, where's the autonomy for the baby? We don't talk about that. That's too confusing.

Authenticity, however you identify, whoever you want to love, whatever you want to be. That is your prerogative. That's what you get to do. And no one is allowed to tell you that your autonomous choices and your authentic choices are wrong. The only wrong is saying that there's wrong. is saying that they're sin. The only bad way to be is a bigoted way to be by telling someone that who they are or what they've decided to do is not right. Apparently, no one has the job anymore of being able to say that there is any kind of objective standard of right and wrong. Now, you already see the paradox in that. And that by saying that there is no right and wrong for everyone, they're saying that there is a right and wrong because while they're saying that everyone gets to be

who they want to be and do what they want to do, they're saying anyone who says that they're is an objective standard, that there is, say, a God who is a moral authority, that there is a right way to live, that they're wrong. So there is no absolute truth, and they know that absolutely. And anyone who says that there is is wrong. So you just see the confusion there. It's not a sustainable worldview. Any worldview, really, any worldview without God is not a sustainable worldview because we are naturally made in the image of God. We are naturally moral people. We have this kind of sense of right and wrong, this sense of injustice. We are mad when someone steals from us or steals from someone else.

We are angry when someone's rights are violated. There's a reason why we are angry about something like theft or rape or murder or something like that. Now, of course, there's disagreements with an abortion and things like that. But in general, there is a desire for justice, for rectification, for vengeance when wrong it's done. We are naturally moral people. There are not very many people.

sane people who would look at, for example, Hitler's Germany and say, oh, that's just relative. I mean, it's just, you know, cultural relativism. That was just a different time. That was a different place. You know, it's probably fine. There's not very many people who would say that. No sane people would. We would say, no, that was immoral. That was wrong. It was wrong to think that way. But that doesn't make any sense from a secular leftist perspective where the only God is self and where the only values are autonomy and authenticity, it doesn't really make any sense to say anything is ever wrong. It doesn't make any sense to say that any kind of totalitarian regime that killed millions of people were wrong. Well, maybe they were just living their truth.

Maybe they were just doing them. Maybe they were just living their best lives and doing what they thought was best. Maybe they were just being autonomous and authentic. And so you see the confusion there when you claim that the God is self, therefore, all truth and all morality is relative. Therefore, all you have to do is be yourself and be authentic. And then that takes away any right of judgment that you have to say that one action is wrong and one action is right. But they're not willing to do that. So you see the inherent contradiction there. That's why it's so much easier to believe if you believe in a moral law, if you believe in a right and wrong, to thus logically say, well, there has to be a moral lawgiver. If you haven't read mere Christianity

and read the argument of C.S. Lewis for the moral lawgiver in that book, I highly, highly recommend that you do it. It will give you a lot of clarity on why it doesn't make any sense to say that there's a right and a wrong and not say that there's a God. That's why it is okay for Christians to cite God for the reason why they believe something is right and wrong, because there is no right and wrong if there is no God. There is no moral law if there's not a moral lawgiver. And so in Taylor Swift's letter where she says discrimination is wrong, this bigotry is wrong, but you should be able to be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do unless your Christianity or your religion runs up against how other people want to be

and what other people want to do. You just see this contradiction of our age, how it's not sustainable for us to be our own gods. And that is the freedom and the beauty and the purpose and the liberty that we have as Christians to be able to bow down to the God of the universe, the creator of all things, the ultimate supreme, transcendent moral law giver and say, I don't have to be confused by this. I know right and wrong. God told me in his word. He said the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom. And he tells us things are not going to get better from here, but we stand strong and we persevere. And we know what the truth is. That is the joy and the clarity that we have when we're reading something like Taylor Swift and we're reading this backwards logic from people in the world

who think they have it figured out, we don't have to be confused. We don't have to be confused about this. We get to go to the Word of God and seek clarity for that. So Taylor Swift has also said that she's going to be more political in the future so we can get really excited about that. Again, if you want to know more about the Equality Act and what exactly it is and why it's so dangerous, particularly for Christians, you can go back and listen to that episode from a couple weeks ago. Okay, we are going to talk about now, David Platt and Donald Trump. And so there was a day of prayer for Donald Trump. And this was in Virginia. And it was, so there was an unannounced visit by Donald Trump to McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia. It's one of the largest churches there. This is the church of former I.M.B president, Pastor David Platt. You've probably heard. of David Platt. I think he wrote the book. It was called Radical. It was really big when I was in high school. He has been an extremely popular teacher and author for a long time. You maybe have heard some of his sermons. He's

extremely passionate, extremely passionate about overseas missions, for example. And while I don't agree with everything that he said, he certainly takes a different approach to racial issues than I think is biblical or has sometimes in the past. I do think that he is a solid past. He is a solid pastor who is solid theologically and who is grounded in scripture and has a genuine love for the gospel and seeing the gospel spread. So apparently he was surprised by the president visiting the president visiting the church.

And so he was told backstage, apparently he's going to have an opportunity to pray over Donald Trump. And he had no idea this was going to happen. And so he took this opportunity and here's what that sounded like. And so we stand right now. on behalf of our president and we pray for your grace and your mercy and your wisdom upon him. God we pray that he would know how much you love him so much that you sent Jesus to die for his sins our sins.

so we pray that he would look to you that he would trust in you that he would lean on you that he would govern and make decisions in ways that are good for justice and good for righteousness so a lot of people were really excited about about this i was really excited about it i listened to it and or i watched the video and i thought that it was amazing i thought that he did a great job of not in any way endorsing him. Like this sounded exactly like a prayer that you would pray for Barack Obama or that you would pray for any president. There was no, and correct me if I'm wrong, if you listen to it and disagree with me,

but there was no, there was no partisanship in it. There was no endorsing in it. There was no praise of Donald Trump in it. It was just like, hey, I want this guy to know the gospel and I want other people to know the gospel and I pray that he would enact laws that are just. but a lot of people apparently were upset about this. Now I saw on social media this long thread of someone saying that President Trump has like literally ruined their lives and taken away everything from their families and how could David Platt do this. So I'm guessing David Platt.

So David Platt writes this response to his church because of some complaints. I'm guessing that the thread that I saw on Twitter is an example of some of the complaints that David Platt had inside his church. mean, that's crazy to me. So this is a part of what he said. As I said in the sermon today, Christ alone unites us. I love that we have over 100 nations represented in our church, in our church family, including all kinds of people with varied personal histories and political opinions from varied socioeconomic situations. It's clear in our church that the only reason we're together is because we have the same king. We adore, worship, fear, and follow with supreme love and absolute loyalty. And his name is Jesus. He said that he was very upset by the fact that

there were people in his church that were angry about this, that had beef about this, that how dare he pray for President Trump when President Trump is such, you know, an awful person, this person's in these people's minds. But he reminded them, and I think this is a great thing to remind people of 1st Timothy 2.1 through 6 that says this. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be it made for all people, for kings, and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there's one mediator

between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. I thought that David Platt's prayer was a perfect reflection of that, no matter what side of the aisle that you're on. I can't, imagine if I were someone who didn't like Donald Trump, who weren't a Republican, I would still be listening to that and applauding and being like, yes, he just shared the gospel with him. Thank God. Thank God for this opportunity. If you were a Christian, if this were Barack Obama, and I mean this genuinely, if this were Barack Obama and David Platt did the same prayer, said the same prayer for Barack Obama, I would be on my knees praising God, saying thank you, God, for this opportunity.

Thank you for speaking through David Platt. Thank you for the opportunity and the reminder to pray for people in high places. The reminder to pray for people who lead us. Thank you, Lord. But because so many people, unfortunately, are completely corrupted and deranged with Trump hatred. And I'm not saying, I shouldn't say completely corrupted and not saying that these people aren't Christians, but their mind right now is so warped by a resentment against Donald Trump. They have demonized him. They truly think that he is some kind of spawn of Satan that they can't even obey the scriptures. They can't even defer to God's word and say, okay, you know what? I don't like this guy, but God's word is clear to pray for all people, that God wants

all people to be saved, that we're supposed to pray for all people who are in high positions because this is pleasing to the Lord. And we are supposed to share the gospel, the mediator between God and men, which is the man, Jesus Christ. We're supposed to share the story about him. David Platt did that. Amen. End of story.

There is no biblical beef that you can have with this. No biblical beef whatsoever. I saw some people on Twitter saying, oh, you know, this is just another white pastor condoning and supporting a white supremacist president. Are you crazy? If he is a white supremacist, if he is a white supremacist who you think is truly evil to the core who has enacted all this evil legislation and whatever, of course he doesn't necessarily enact legislation, but you know what I mean, that he has advocated for all these evil policies. wouldn't you be praising God all the more that maybe Jesus is going to change his heart? That maybe David Platt planted a seed here. That maybe this was an opportunity for Donald Trump to know Jesus.

If you really think that he's the spawn of Satan, like, aren't you just rejoicing and hoping that Jesus changes his heart? Of course, if you like Donald Trump, you also think that this is a great prayer. There's nothing wrong with this at all. You think that we should be praying for that he, He has wisdom to lead this country. But I don't see if you are a Christian who believes in the Bible how you could have any beef with this whatsoever.

And the fact of the matter is, there is no biblical reason to have any problem with it. If you have a problem with this prayer and you call yourself a Christian, you have a problem with David Platt. You don't have a problem with David Platt. You don't have a problem with Donald Trump. You have a problem with Second Timothy or with First Timothy 2-1 through 6. That is your beef. I would take that up with God if I were you.

I would say, God, forgive me, forgive me for not believing your word. Forgive me for not believing you. Forgive me for not prioritizing the supremacy of scripture and change my heart. I am a sinner. I am sinful for being angry over this. If you are angry over this, you need to repent of that sin because you are living and you are pushing in opposition against what the word of God says. And I would be saying this.

I promise you guys, I would be saying this if this were Barack Obama. if he were praying over Kamala Harris, if you were praying over Bernie Sanders, if he were praying over Pete Buttigieg, I would be saying the same thing. Any Republican, any conservative who called themselves a Christian who had beef about that kind of prayer being prayed over a Democrat, I would be saying the same thing to you that your problem is with the word of God. It has nothing to do with President Trump. Unfortunately, politics has so infected, I would say particularly the minds of the Christian left that they really don't, I think that they really don't want Trump to be saved if he's not already. They really don't want his salvation. They really don't want him to be

influenced. They really don't want him to lead in a way that's just. They really don't want to have to say, God has changed his heart. They really don't want that for him. And that, again, is sinful. That is hate. And that is evil. And as we know from 1 John, you cannot hate your brother and love God at the same time. If you as a Christian hate someone so much to where you do not want them to be saved, that is wrong because God loved you. You know that President Trump, apart from Christ, is no worse than you are, right? Like, you know that all of us apart from Christ are dead in our sin? That's what Ephesians 2 says we are dead in our sin. They're not different levels of dead. We are all dead. And when we are saved by grace through faith, we are not saved because

of merit. We're not saved because we were better people than Donald Trump and because we're more usable than Donald Trump is. No, we were saved in the midst of our depravity, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You know that you are not any better of a person than Donald Trump is apart from Christ. All of us are in the same depraved, lost, broken, destined for hell place apart from Jesus Christ. And if you don't want Donald Trump because you hate his politics to be reconcile to God through Jesus and you call yourself a Christian. Again, your problem is with the God of the universe, not with Donald Trump. So I would just take stock of that. Good job to David Platt. Good job. And I don't think that he even needed to, I don't think that he even needed to issue this

explanation. Quite frankly, I think it should have been because it wasn't an apology, but it came across as giving validity to the people who were angry in his church about this. prayer. Dude, if you got people angry in your church about you obeying the Bible and sharing the gospel and praying for people in high places, then you've got some work to do. You've got some theological work to do in your church. This should have been more of a rebuke than it should have been any kind of concession. You didn't need any explanation of whether or not this was a surprise, why you did it. All you had to do was post this First Timothy passage. That's it. You didn't have to say anything else about that. Now, I understand that he's empathetic.

that he loves his church. And I get that. And I think that this probably came from a good place and far be it from me to say that I know more about the Bible than David Pot does. Of course, I don't. But it saddens me. It saddens me that anyone in his church would compel him to the point of feeling like he needs to explain himself.

You don't need to explain yourself. God explains you in his work. And again, I will say, you've got some work to do in your church. If people have a hard time with you following the word of the word. God. That's what you are called to do. And so in all things, in all things, we have to examine ourselves. If we are angry, if we find ourselves being angry to the point of not wanting someone on the other side of the aisle to be saved by the grace of Christ and changed by him, if we don't want the gospel to be preached because we're angry politically, if we don't want someone to be prayed for,

because we're angry politically, then we have an issue. We have an issue. It's on us. It's not on the politician that makes us mad, it is on us. And even if you see a politician as your enemy, the Bible also takes care of that. The Bible also says to pray for your enemies. So again, I will say there is no biblical reason to be upset about what David Platt did. I hope that he stays strong. I hope he doesn't explain one more thing. I don't think he already explained too much. I don't think he needs to explain anything else. And anyone who has a problem with it, take it up with God. Okay, that's all I've got for today. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I will be back here on Friday. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political.

They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.