Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 199 | Hallmark, Netflix, LGBT & Jesus

Episode Date: December 18, 2019

Today I discuss the incorrect narrative the nativity scene of Mary and Jesus being held in a cage spreads about the southern border. I also touch on the Hallmark commercial scandal and the new Netflix... "comedy" depicting Jesus as a gay man.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Next week is Christmas, which is really exciting just to let you know the schedule that's coming up. We will have a new episode on Friday. I am interviewing representative from Kentucky, Thomas Massey, which I'm really excited about. He is awesome. And if you've got any questions in particular that you would like me to ask him, please let me know. We haven't recorded that conversation yet. So feel free to send that. We will have a new episode on Monday, which I'm really looking for to. I always look forward to our Monday episodes. And then Wednesday, I will not be having an episode. And then Friday, next Friday, I will either be having a replay or not an episode. And then the next week is New Year's.
Starting point is 00:00:49 And that week, we will be having a new episode on Monday, which is December 30th, I believe. And then we will not be having an episode on New Year's Day and then I don't know if I figured out what we're doing for the Friday after New Year's. I think that's January 3rd. Not totally sure, but we will figure that out. And then we'll be in the new year and we will be back to your regularly scheduled programming and just, just not FYI, I guess just a question or just a PSA. if you guys would like to see any changes in the new year too relatable, like if you guys have suggestions, not just for content, but also for formatting, if you watch on YouTube, tell me what would make this better for you. What would you like to see if you listen to this on RSS, on, you know,
Starting point is 00:01:48 Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to this? Tell me what would make it more listenable. tell me not just the stories that you would like to hear, but if there is a particular format that you would like, if you want a kind of introduction, if you want opening music, if you want the closing music to change, whatever, just let me know. You can send me an Instagram message, you can email me, tell me your suggestions. If you like theology more than you like politics, let me know. If you like politics more than you like theology, let me know. If there are people that you'd like me to interview, if there are kinds of interviews that you would like me to do. If there are debates that you would like me to have, please let me know, I take your
Starting point is 00:02:29 suggestions very seriously, and you guys also have really good ideas, and I use your ideas to make my show better. This show is for you guys. The goal of relatable is obviously to come alongside you guys and relate to you and the concerns that you have and try to analyze the craziness that's going on around us from a biblical perspective. It's also to learn with you as we go. Obviously, I don't have everything figured out, but I try my best to think through issues and at least lead you down the path of thinking critically about something. And it's also, it is also to change people's mind. That is a big purpose of this show. And it's something that I'm very proud of, the emails and messages I get from people who have changed their mind or changed their perspective on something.
Starting point is 00:03:18 That is a big goal. I want to reach people who haven't yet decided where they land on a certain topic and maybe just allow them to think about it differently, even if they don't totally change their perspective or change their opinion. My goal is to change how someone approaches a particular subjects that maybe they haven't thought about. I want people to start thinking about why they believe what they believe, what is the substance of what they believe. And in that, be a more critical and analytical thinker in general, even on subjects that we do not tackle on Relatable. That's my goal. If you have a suggestion for a way that we can do that better on this show, I would absolutely love to hear it. Thank you for listening. This has been a wonderful year for
Starting point is 00:04:04 relatable past couple of months. Amazing growth, amazing growth on this show for the past couple of months. Like it kind of seems like out of nowhere, all of the sudden the numbers just doubled and more than doubled in some cases a couple months ago. And that is thanks to you guys for sharing with your friends, for sharing on social media, for talking about relatable, you know, around the dinner table or wherever you talk about it, texting the show to your friends, friends who do disagree or agree. And so I appreciate it. I've always said I have the best and the smartest and just the most quality listeners ever. There are definitely podcasts that have a greater quantity of listeners than Relatable does, but not only do we have a good quantity, but we have extremely quality listeners
Starting point is 00:04:51 and I just appreciate that. You guys sharpen me and help me be better, not just as a podcast host, but as a person, as a Christian, as someone who is trying to make sense of everything that's going on. So thank you guys. Thank you guys for listening to Relatable, not just in 2019, but all of you OGs who have been here since the beginning of 2018 as well started out as once a week, then twice a week, now three times a week, sky's the limit. Just kidding. There is obviously a limit because there's only seven days in the week and I'm not going to give you a seven day a week podcast. I can guarantee you that. Just not, would not be able to do it. So anyway, thank you guys. You make this show what it is and hopefully this show gets better and better and you feel like this is a place
Starting point is 00:05:35 where, okay, I can listen to this podcast and I feel smarter every time I listen to it. That is my goal. That's not going to be true for everyone. Of course, there are going to be. lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of people who will always hate this podcast because they disagree with the content. They don't like my voice. They don't like the format. They hate my arguments. And maybe there are people out there who are like, you know what? I am worse off because of this podcast. Sure, I feel that way about a lot of podcasts that some people like and that's why I don't listen to them. That's totally fine. But for those of you who I'm trying to reach, I hope that this podcast becomes more and more a podcast that you listen to and you're like, wow, this is sharpening
Starting point is 00:06:16 me. And if it doesn't in some way, just let me know. Like I said, I am very sensitive to what you guys want and what you guys need because relatable would not exist. It would not exist without you guys. And quite frankly, so many of you are smarter than me and you know more than me. And so who would I be if I didn't listen to you and allow iron to sharpen iron? That's what I hope this podcast says. Anyway, a long introduction, but sometimes I just get carried away with gratitude to you guys because you allow me to do something that I love and I hope to be able to do it better and better, and especially in 2020. I hope that this show grows and that it just gets to be an even more awesome show because of you guys.
Starting point is 00:07:02 Okay, today we are going to be talking about a few things that you guys have asked me about, nativity scene cages happening across America. where churches are putting the nativity scene, you know, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in cages to try to make a point about what's going on at the southern border. We're also going to talk about this Netflix controversy where a comedy troupe, I don't even know if troop is the right word, a comedy group, decided that they were going to make a film or maybe it was a series. I don't actually know about Jesus being gay.
Starting point is 00:07:36 And Brazil getting very upset about that, understandably. and trying to get Netflix to take this down. We are also going to be talking possibly. It depends on how much time we have. We're going to be talking about Hallmark and the controversy there with them pulling ads with the same-sex wedding and then putting the ads back up and what all happened there. We might talk about this drag queen. One, there's drag queen story hour going on, which is absolutely crazy. And then there's this drag queen, drag queen show that happened at a conference in Seattle.
Starting point is 00:08:11 of trying the conference that was focusing on trying to end homelessness for some reason there was not just a drag queen but a drag queen okay you should maybe turn this off censor this word that I'm about to say if you have kids in the car uh that's probably a little bit too late for that warning you probably didn't want your kids to learn about drag queens either but drag queen stripper that apparently was at this homeless conference so we might talk about that if we have time and then we're a little late on this new story but it was the earliest that we could talk about it the okay that is being talked about because at this football game, I think it was cadets in the Navy. They showed an okay sign on television and people are saying it was white nationalism, white
Starting point is 00:08:54 supremacy. What's the deal with the okay sign? Is it a game? Is it a circle game? Is it really a symbol of white nationalism? We're going to talk about that if we have time. Okay. I want to get into, I want to get into this. I want to get into the nativity scene thing first. And it kind of, is going to flow into other subjects that I want to talk about. So we might spend a good amount of time on this particular topic. So according to USA Today, churches across the country are using Christmas nativity scenes to make political statements and protests from putting the Holy Family in cages in a nod to the southern border crisis to depicting animals in the manger underwater and a creeping tied about to overtake Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a nod to climate change. My goodness, this just
Starting point is 00:09:43 makes me want to cry. Makes me want to cry for so many reasons. The politicization of Jesus grinds my gears because it is blasphemous. It makes Jesus much smaller than he actually is. He is the word made flesh. He is the son of God. He is our mighty counselor, prince of peace. He is Emmanuel. God with us. He is the Messiah. he is our sacrifice he is king of kings lord of lords and to make him a symbol of your immigration stance or gosh your climate change stance is not only blasphemous but it is a fundamental it is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the bible has to say about these political topics and we're going to get into that but let me just make a note on climate change since we're not so much going to focus on that
Starting point is 00:10:32 point, I've talked about this before that, yes, we should as image bears, as human beings to whom God has given authority to steward the earth and to take care of animals. We should care about the environment. We should treat the earth well. We should treat animals well. I don't think that that excludes eating animals. Of course, I've talked about that a couple weeks ago. I talked about veganism from a biblical perspective. I think the title of the episode was, we're too obsessed with our pets, talked about veganism and all of that from a biblical perspective. But this idea that climate change is going to end the world, that climate change is going to be the thing that dooms humanity is not biblical. We know how the world is going to end. We know how time is going to end.
Starting point is 00:11:30 You should read Revelation. That's how it's going to end. We don't have to worry about whether or not climate change is going to be the end of the universe. And if it is, if that is how, which it's not, but if that was how God intended to bring about the end of time as we know it, there would be nothing that we could do to stop it. So it is not a Christian perspective to say that climate change is going to be the end of the world. Read the Bible. We know what the end, the so-called end of the world is going to look like. Now, there are some eschatological disagreements about that, but we can read the Bible to know what that's going to look like. It ain't climate change. So again, and I've said this before, I know this is a little bit controversial. I'm just going to guess.
Starting point is 00:12:21 I'm going to assert that these people that are making a mockery of the nativity scene by minimizing Jesus to their symbol for climate change or their symbol for their immigration stance, I would be shocked. I'd be shocked. Maybe so. I would love to be proved wrong on this. I'd be shocked if these people also believe that Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life. I'd be shocked if these people could tell me what the gospel of Salis. is. What actually qualifies as salvation according to the Bible? I would be shocked if these people believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. I would be shocked because these kind of views typically go hand in hand, the liberalization of theology to the point to where you're basically
Starting point is 00:13:11 an agnostic with the Christian name on it, that there are many ways to God. And also liberal politics. they don't always go hand in hand, but they very often go hand in hand. And using Jesus as this figure of leftist politics typically aligned with leftist theology to where you really believe that Jesus is only a symbol of your politics rather than the way the truth in life. So that's just going to be my very educated guess. So this idea that Jesus represents the, Jesus represents the illegal immigrants. that are at the border or they would probably say the left would probably say the asylum seekers.
Starting point is 00:13:53 Is there any truth to this? Is there anything that maybe we as conservatives should stand back and say, okay, that's making a legitimate point. Yes, okay, that evokes compassion or whatever. Is there a message that we should be receiving from this? AOC and other leftists have used the story of Jesus in the past to make this political point. There are some, problems with this. AOC has said that Jesus and his family were refugees. Therefore, because of that, I guess the argument is that we should be accepting refugees because Jesus represents this subset of the least of these. Well, there is a problem with this assertion, which no doubt we are going to see this year that Jesus was a refugee. What they're really trying to say, what the left is
Starting point is 00:14:42 really trying to say is that you would, if Jesus were alive today, and if you, if you, you were alive today, He were at the southern border conservatives would be putting him in a cage. And of course, Jesus does say whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done unto me. Let's talk about what the problem is, though, with this assertion that AOC and other Democrats have made. Number one, Jesus was not a refugee in the same way that refugees at our southern border a refugee. So yes, he was obviously fleeing violence. So in that way, I do think that we should concede that in some way he was a refugee in that he was seeking refuge. But Bethlehem is not a
Starting point is 00:15:29 different country. It's not outside of Egypt in the same way that Mexico is outside of the United States. It's somewhat, not exactly, but somewhat of the equivalent of going from one state to another in the United States. Not exactly, but close. Yes, he was fleeing violence, but it wasn't that he was trying to seek refuge in an entirely different country. He was not a refuge in the same way that refugees at our border are refugees. And also, not everyone at our southern border is a refugee. Not everyone at the southern border is claiming asylum. The left wants us to believe that because these people are coming from worse places than the United States, that they are all refugees, that they are all asylum seekers. Well, no, everyone who comes to America,
Starting point is 00:16:24 no matter where you are coming from, is coming for a better life than the one that they have at home. America does not and cannot have the obligation to take every single person who is coming to America for a better life. And coming to America for a better life does not give someone the rights to come here, especially illegally, the people who are crossing the southern border, many of them, most of them are doing so, or trying to do so illegally, or they're claiming, they're trying to claim asylum that they actually don't have a claim to, if that makes sense. So that is point number two. Not everyone showing up at the southern border right now is a refugee.
Starting point is 00:17:05 Number three, the cages that are being represented at these churches are, or were an Obama-era invention. And the funny thing is, as far as I know, these cages that are popping up at churches to make a point about what's going on at the southern border, these are new. They have popped up only in the Trump administration, although these cages have existed long before Trump took office. And so is this really about caring for the people at the border? Or is it making a political statement against Republicans and against Donald Trump? In which case, this is not about empathy at all. This is, again, just making your political point. Number four. even if Jesus were a refugee in the same way the people at the border are refugees, and even if
Starting point is 00:17:48 everyone at the border were a refugee, the United States already accepts millions of refugees and immigrants every year. This is from wephorum.org. Until 2017, the U.S. resettled more refugees each year than the rest of the world's countries combined. Since 1980, the U.S. has resettled millions more refugees than other countries, a total of about three million. The next two countries, Canada and Australia, have resettled fewer than a million each over the same period. So the United States accepts more immigrants than any other country in the world every year by far. By far, according to Pew Research, one fifth of all international migrants live in the United States. One fifth of all international migrants, the millions of them live in the United States. The millions of them
Starting point is 00:18:37 live in the United States. Why do they come here? Why aren't they flocking to other countries? Because the United States is still the land of opportunity, the land of liberty, the land of justice, the land of compassion, even with all of our flaws, despite what the left would have us believe. And so the point the AOC and these churches are making is that America is such an unjust country. They're such a bad country that we are running concentration camps at the border. Do you think it makes sense that we would have one fifth of the book? all of the world's migrants, we would have millions of people flock into our countries, both legally and illegally every day if we were really the country of injustice, if we were really
Starting point is 00:19:17 the country of racism, if we were really the country of concentration camps, absolutely not. America is still the land of opportunity. It is the land of privilege. It is the land of liberty and justice. This anti-Westernism, anti-Americanism has become vogue, especially among the squad in the House of Representatives. But if their characterization of America as this deeply racist, unjust, economically, disparate place were true, if that were true, surely people would be fleeing elsewhere.
Starting point is 00:19:49 But they're not, at least not as much as they are fleeing here. Have the people who are saying, have the people at these churches, have AOC and other people who claim that America is this horribly unjust place. And again, that doesn't mean that we don't have flaws because we do. But these people who believe that America is bad to its core, have they maybe considered that people are fleeing here because of our capitalism, because of our health care, because of our justice system, because of the compassion and inclusivity and welcoming nature of our people. Maybe that's why
Starting point is 00:20:24 millions of people a year are showing up on our shores. Have they considered that? That maybe it's because America, in its essence, is actually good, not that we don't do bad things or have. haven't done bad things. I surely believe that we do. We are murdering a million, I think it's about a million babies every year in this country. Of course, America does bad things. But the reason why I'm not anti-American and why I don't think America is in its foundation bad, despite all of the bad things that I would agree we have done, is because of the goodness, of the soundness of our founding documents and the founding ideals. That is still what makes America good. is still why people flee here every day.
Starting point is 00:21:09 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just to speak to how exceptionally well America is doing right now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men is 3.2%. Adult women, 3.2%, teenagers, 12%, whites, 3.2%, blacks, 5.5%, Asians, 2.6%. That's the Asian privilege no one talks about.
Starting point is 00:21:33 and Hispanics 4.2%. That's amazing. That's amazing. We are at pretty much full employment right now, among every group. Now, one more thing on the refugee stuff, the number of refugees, and this is where I'm going to kind of go away from, I would say, the traditional conservative thoughts on this. The number of refugees under the Trump administration has allowed, or that under the Trump administration has dropped dramatically in the past two years. according to Christianity today in June 2019, the global refugee crisis hit a record high, while American acceptance of refugees hit a record low.
Starting point is 00:22:13 So in, I guess, somewhat of an agreement, or to give some kind of credence to these people who are creating these nativity scene cage things. The refugees that we have accepted, including the Christian refugees that we have accepted in the United States under the Trump administration has been cut drastically. There has been an 82% drop and the total number of refugees resettled in the United States from 2016 to 2019 and in particular 70% drop in persecuted Christians resettling here, despite the fact that the global refugee crisis and religious persecution is at an all-time high.
Starting point is 00:22:56 As a Christian, whose allegiance is to the body of Christ first and foremost, whose citizenship is in heaven, as Philippians 320 says, who cares about the persecuted church, this, of course, concerns me. It should concern all of us. I am totally in favor of a wall. I didn't used to be in favor of a wall, but I am in favor of a wall. I am in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration. Those who say that Christians shouldn't be against illegal immigration do not have a biblical understanding of what countries are for and what governments are for. A theologian Wayne Grudem says this. Another important consideration from the Bible concerns the general responsibilities of governments to seek the good of the nations they rule and thereby truly serve as God's servant for your good, as Romans 134 says.
Starting point is 00:23:42 This means that the immigration policies of a nation should be designed to bring benefit to that specific nation. He has also written on the biblical morality of building a border wall. So I am obviously against illegal immigration at the same time. At the same time, I am in favor of legally welcoming refugees, especially refugees that are fleeing religious persecution. To be honest, I don't know if someone were to ask me, okay, well, what's the perfect number of refugees that America should be accepting every year in order for Christians like me to say, all right, that's good enough? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not pretending to know that particular number, but I am concerned. I am concerned that there seems to be
Starting point is 00:24:27 a priority of drastically cutting the number of refugees that we allow to illegally seek protection in the United States. Remember, Christians, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom are the most persecuted religious group in the world. Today, in China, Christians along with Muslims, are being imprisoned, they are being tortured, they are being killed for their faith. House churches in China are getting shut down. This Christmas, there will be Christians in China, North Korea, Syria, throughout Africa, who will be celebrating the birth of their Savior in secret. Yes, they actually will be celebrating. Christmas is not just an American holiday. They will celebrate knowing their own lives, the lives of their families, the lives of their children,
Starting point is 00:25:16 the lives of their babies are at risk as they worship. If there is one thing, we pray for, this Christmas, no matter where you stand on accepting a certain number of refugees, no matter where you stand on immigration, I think we can agree that one thing we should be praying for as Christians this Christmas is for our brothers and our sisters in Christ who are silently worshiping, who are quietly praying, who are secretly sharing the good news of Jesus with their neighbors, who are finding places of solitude in the woods where they can praise God for the gift of his son, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. If you want to help these persecuted Christians, you can go to Open DoorsusA.org.
Starting point is 00:26:00 You can see the list of countries where people are most persecuted for their faiths, mostly by Islamic and communistic regimes. Let us thank God. Let us thank God here in America that we have the freedom to believe what we want to believe, to say what we want to say for now. We still have the freedom to share the gospel, to gather in church without fear for our lives, that we live in a country where a church can display the nativity scene
Starting point is 00:26:33 with a cage around it to make a political point that is supposed to be an indictment on the current people in charge, on the current administration. How amazing. I hope this is not lost on those churches who are making this kind of political display that they are so privileged to live in a country where they can do that without fear of punishment. And look, I'm glad, I'm glad too. I might not like their protest. I might disagree with it wholeheartedly. I might think it's stupid, quite frankly, and blasphemous. But I am so thankful that we live in a country where they are free to do that.
Starting point is 00:27:08 They're not going to get arrested for it. They're not going to get in trouble for it. They're not going to get censored in some way. That is free speech. That is the freest of speech. am glad that they are free to do that. I think God that we live in a country where they can have that kind of protest. I can talk about that kind of protest and we can disagree without fearing that we are going to get thrown in prison. So while we pray, I want us to pray obviously for the persecuted Christians. I want us to thank God for the liberties that we have that we should not take for granted that we are able to criticize our government, that some people are even allowed, able to be blasphemous against Jesus Christ, that we don't have to fear punishment in doing that, and that we can
Starting point is 00:27:58 talk about all of these things without worrying about whether or not we are going to not just be thrown into prison, but tortured and killed the way that they are in places like China. Speaking of free speech, I want to note also that one of the reasons why we should be so thankful that we still have free speech is because this is something that is slipping away. I just wanted to note something that German Chancellor Angela or Angela Merkel said recently. She said, But freedom of expression has its limits. Those limits begin where hatred is spread. They begin where the dignity of other people is vital. The House will and must oppose extreme speech. Otherwise, our society will no longer be the free society that it was. Now, that is called Doublethink. If you haven't read 1984, you should. So here we have Germany, once again in history, saying we need to limit certain speech because that is how we create a good
Starting point is 00:29:02 society. That is how we make sure that people are truly free and truly safe. So when we hear things like that. We've already heard that kind of idea reflected here in the United States. I mean, we have people trying to shut down speech every day on college campuses because they don't like to hear what conservatives have to say. So we need to ask ourselves, who was already considered by the leftist cultural powers that be in this country to be hateful, to be extreme, to be radical, to be bigoted? Who does the left consider to be violating people's dignity? Christians. Of course, we are the ones that are targeted by this kind of idea because we hold to a biblical ethic, which means that we believe in biblical morality, biblical marriage, biblical sexuality, biblical
Starting point is 00:29:46 gender, which, by the way, all happen to lead to human flourishing. But that is beside the point for now, Christians' speech is the speech that will be targeted as extreme, that will be targeted as the speech that needs to be silenced for the good of the country, for the true freedom and the true well-being of everyone. So as we think about persecuted Christians, this Christmas, we also need to consider the fact that our own rights and our own freedoms are at risk. So we pray and we also do everything we can to protect the speech that we have and to take advantage of the time that we have to have this speech to be able to speak the truth in love as loudly, as boldly and as, um, as, um, as.
Starting point is 00:30:34 as consistently as possible while we still have the freedom to do so. We already see in California and in other states that they are trying to limit speech in particular ways by banning what they consider, quote, conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is, by the way, by the way, despite what people on the left want to tell you, conversion therapy is not like electroshocking someone to make them straight. Obviously, we would all oppose that conversion therapy is a theory. therapist counseling someone against a same-sex attraction or against acting out on same-sex attraction or transgenderism, which by the way, by the way, contrary to what a lot of people on
Starting point is 00:31:18 the left think, there are people, there are a lot of people who may have feelings that they don't want or feelings that they don't want to act on. Why? Because maybe they are Christians. And maybe they realize that even though they have a feeling or they have a temptation toward a certain lifestyle. It's not one that they want to pursue because they know that God's word compels them not to. You should listen to it. It might have been the second episode that I ever did. It was one of the first episodes that I ever did. It was a conversation with Christopher Yuan. I think it was titled Holy Sexuality, where he talks about this in his own life. There are people who don't want to pursue a homosexual lifestyle or don't want to pursue transgenderism, but they
Starting point is 00:31:59 are having these thoughts. They're having these temptations. They want to go to a professional counselor to help them, to equip them, to give them the tools that they need to be able to combat, combat this kind of thinking or combat the temptations that lead to a lifestyle that they know isn't pleasing to God. But in places like California, they are saying, no, no, no, this is not legal. You are not allowed to counsel someone in this way. You can also listen to my interview that I did more recently with Walt Hire called Sex Change Regret. He gives a lot of insight into this. The left doesn't believe. believe that people like this exist. And if they do, the left would say that they're self-hating people
Starting point is 00:32:38 and they just need to give in to their same sex attraction or their desire to be the opposite sex. Why? Because the left demands that people worship the God of self, which includes bowing down to all of our base feelings and inclinations no matter what. They cannot fathom. And they will not allow someone to do any differently. It is an affront to the religion of progressivism for someone to ascribe to an idea or subscribe to an idea and an ideal higher than it. Because many on the left generally do not see people as made in the image of God. They generally do not believe that God created the heavens and the earth and sexuality and marriage and therefore that he has the authority to define these things.
Starting point is 00:33:22 They assert that we are self-defining and the only indication for our self-definitions are our feelings. And therefore, in the leftist mentality, any kind of counseling that says you are not your feelings, you are not your temptations, you are not your dysphoria. These things aren't your identity. Therefore, you are not obligated to affirm these things as the world tells you you must affirm them. Any kind of counseling that says that they would not be against. That would be blasphemous to the God of self. So how we got on that subject was by talking about free speech and the free speech that we should be thankful for, the free speech that
Starting point is 00:34:01 other people do not enjoy the persecuted Christians, do not enjoy that true refugees do not enjoy. We got on the refugee conversation because we were talking about the negativity thing in the beginning and clarifying what that really means, especially in relation to the story of Jesus's birth. And now we are on free speech, something that is being assaulted in this country that we need to be fighting for and using and praying for protection of. And then we got on to the subject of conversion therapy as an example of an affront to free speech in this country. And why the left doesn't see free speech is absolute because they see feelings is more important than that. And as part of your identity and Christians need to make sure that we can distinguish
Starting point is 00:34:46 between our feelings and reality. Okay. Speaking of all of that, we are going to, I think this is all we're going to have time to talk about. I do want to touch on this Hallmark thing. So craziness that happened. Craziness, craziness, the outreach culture is just crazy. It's just crazy. So Hallmark, I don't watch Hallmark movies. I'm sure a lot of you watch Hallmark movies, but I just don't. I don't know why I just really never have.
Starting point is 00:35:13 I think my mom does. I know a lot of people that do. But I don't really like cute movies, romantic, whatever, especially Christmas time. So they were airing ads by. I think it was a company called Zola. I'm pretty sure that they plan weddings. And in the commercial, it was a lesbian couple at their ceremony, and they were kissing. And one million moms is a conservative group, and they got a petition.
Starting point is 00:35:45 I don't know how many people actually signed the petition that they sent to the head of Hallmark, and they said, look, we don't want to see this ad. Please pull the ads. Hallmark said, okay, we'll pull the ads, which kind of surprises me. But at the same time, it doesn't. Because who are the majority of people watching Hallmark? It's not, it's not leftist people. I guarantee you that their target demographic, their main demographic are conservative moms, older conservative moms, probably baby boomer conservative moms that I would guess that the majority, those are the majority of people that are watching Hallmark. So I'm sure Hallmark looked at that demographic and said, look, this is a huge part of our audience. And maybe Hallmark said,
Starting point is 00:36:28 whether we like it or not, these are the values that these people have. And so, okay, we'll pull the ads, no big deal. I think it's totally within the rights of one million moms in any group to say, we don't want to see that, take the ad down. And it's totally within their rights. And it makes sense for Hallmark to say, you know what, we're going to pull that. Well, the New York Times ran an article about this, which is just so funny. They obviously wanted to make a big deal of it and gin up outrage on the left to get the intended result of putting the ads back up because the left does this all the time. The left targets advertisers, they target networks all the time to make sure that their message is being communicated and that their message wins
Starting point is 00:37:18 and that anyone who is not communicating their message is punished. Anyone who disagrees with them needs to be punished by the left taking their advertisers away. That is a tactic that the left employs all the time. And that, of course, is their right to do so. I don't agree with the reasons. Typically, I don't think ever of why they're doing it. But of course, yes, it is their right to do it. That's pretty much like the market at work.
Starting point is 00:37:43 So then the left hears about it through the New York Times. They freak out, of course, glad freaks out. And they say, how dare this group do this? and then pressures Hallmark on the other side. Ellen DeGeneres, he's been tweeted about it. Like, why would you pull this ad, homophobic, all this stuff? So Hallmark responds and says, okay, the ads are going back up and we're so sorry for making that mistake. So Hallmark is just caught in the middle of this outrage cycle, which is just so indicative of our times.
Starting point is 00:38:15 I had a writer from the Washington Post ask, was it right for the conservative moms group to do this? Well, that's irrelevant. Was it right? Sure, it was right in the sense that they had the right to do it in the same way that a leftist group does. I'm not saying that anyone did anything wrong here in the sense that everyone had the right to do what they did. That the conservative mom's group absolutely had the right to protest. Hallmark had their right to say yes or no. And then the left had their right to protest and make a fuss of it.
Starting point is 00:38:52 And Hallmark, again, had the right to respond however they wanted to see fit. No one necessarily did anything wrong. Everyone did something well within their rights. Now, what the left cannot fathom is that there are people that have a legitimate moral stance on homosexuality that opposes theirs. Yes, there are millions of people who have a traditional definition of marriage, who have a traditional view on marriage, who have a biblical view of marriage. And by the way, that was the view of marriage for thousands of years. That was the only view of marriage for thousands of years. It was until like 15 minutes ago that people said, oh, there's this other definition of marriage too that's not between a man and a woman. It can be between two men or between
Starting point is 00:39:40 two women. And it's just so funny to me that there are people on the left who just, oh my gosh, I can't believe. I cannot believe that these people over here still believe in an order. The Orthodox definition of marriage, which has been around for millennia, and they don't hop on my progressive train, which just started going about 10 minutes ago. It's funny that people are still shocked by that. Yes, there are millions of people who hold a traditional biblical view definition of marriage. And yes, they are going to have a problem with a gay ad. Now, they can change the channel.
Starting point is 00:40:18 They don't have to watch Hallmark. they don't have to support Hallmark and Hallmark can have these ads. And people on the left who support gay marriage can be mad that Hallmark would pull an ad. Whatever. Like, don't, I think it's dumb for someone to focus on, well, who was right in this situation? Who was correct? Well, it depends on your perspective of it. But everyone was within their right to be outraged and respond to outrage.
Starting point is 00:40:46 That's the point. Okay. I think that's all I have time for today. I was going to talk about the gay Jesus Netflix thing. But I mean, what is it to talk about? Yes, people have been blaspheming Jesus forever. And yes, it's absolutely gross and it's blasphemous and it's stupid. But I did hear some activists in Brazil say that no one has the right to disrespect their religion of millions of people. I disagree with that. Yes, people do have the right. Well, people should have the right to disrespect someone else's religion. Yes, they should have the right to do that. That doesn't mean it's right. But do these people have a right to make a Netflix special or a Netflix movie, whatever it is that depicts Jesus as gay? And the United States, yeah, they have a right to do that. And I don't believe in taking away their right to do that. Again, I don't agree with it. I think it's absolutely terrible. And I think that it's well within everyone's rights to petition Netflix to take it down and,
Starting point is 00:41:46 Again, Netflix has the freedom to do what they want with that pressure and with those petitions. Whatever, that's fine. That's according to Netflix's values and whatever they want to do. But yes, I would, I think that it's better for people to have the right to be blasphemous. People should have the right to be disrespectful. Again, that doesn't mean it is right, but they should have the right to do that because if people don't have the rights to be blasphemous and people don't have the right to create blasphemous material
Starting point is 00:42:22 and post it somewhere and send it out to the people they want to send it to, Christians are going to get the wrong end of that deal pretty quickly. So I would rather people have the freedom to do it and we have the freedom to be outraged and to push back and to boycott to do whatever we want to do to protest, petition. That's part of living in a free country. So that's all I have to say about that. And I know we kind of meandered around a lot of different subjects today, but hopefully it made you think about something.
Starting point is 00:42:52 And we will be back here on Friday, and I'll see you then.

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