Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 255 | Hypocrisy Unmasked: Killing Grandma and Blaming Christians

Episode Date: May 27, 2020

Outrage sparks over Bethany Mandel’s “Grandma Killer” tweet, but who should really get the "Killing the Elderly" award, if anyone? New York Governor Andrew Cuomo not only endangered the elderly with his nursing home policy, but now he is asking for excessive funds from the federal government, blaming it entirely on COVID-19. Also, who’s getting blamed for being careless in the pandemic? Evangelical Christians.  Today's Sponsors: Laurel Springs: an accredited, online private school for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Go to https://laurelsprings.com/allie/ and receive a waived registration fee. Hydrant: Get 25% off your first order - go to https://www.drinkhydrant.com/ & use promo code 'ALLIE'

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. I hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far.

So if you are watching this on YouTube, you can see that I am in a new different set and I am so excited about it. This is the set that I am going to be in. from now on for the past few weeks because of quarantine, all of that stuff. I have been filming from home, which has been fine, but not ideal. I didn't have the mic that I wanted to set up, and you've seen pretty much every different wall in my house. But now we have a new permanent set for Relatable, and it looks so good. We're still working on some artwork in different places. If you guys have recommendations for me, what you think would look good, feel free to send those suggestions my way. But I'm just so excited about it.

are now in our new relatable home. If you are not watching on YouTube, make sure that you subscribe to my Allie Beth Stucky YouTube channel. We also have a lot of fun, new exclusive YouTube Blaz TV content coming up for you guys. So that is something to look forward to if you subscribe. Okay, today we are going to be talking about the news since it is Wednesday, but we haven't talked about the news in a while. We've been talking about for the past two episodes, pretty evergreen topics that you guys were asking me about, but I have been dying to talk about what's going on in New York and why all of the praise of Governor Cuomo is completely misplaced. So we're going to talk about some of the scandal there. We've talked about it a little bit in the past. We're going to

talk about it a little bit more today. We are going to also talk about the blame on evangelical Christians for the coronavirus and for people resisting these lockdowns. Again, we talked about that a little bit when we discussed if Christians should resist tyranny. If you haven't listened to that episode, I do recommend you go back and listen to that. I think it was last Monday. But we'll talk about it a little bit more today and why the media and particularly people of the more of the leftist persuasion have it out for Christians and what that reveals about them. And then of course, how we as Christians should be thinking about that. Hey, this is Steve Deast. 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. Now, let's get into what's going on in the state of New York

when it comes to coronavirus. So my friend, Bethany Mandel, she is a great follow by the way on Instagram. If you're someone who is looking into homeschooling, she homeschools her children. She's a mom of four. She had a baby like two weeks before I did or something like that last summer and we've just become friends over the past year and a half or something like that. And she has a lot of good motherhood advice and a lot of good homeschooling advice as well. So she had a Twitter thread a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago. I don't know. Time is still warped for me during all of this crazy coronavirus stuff.

But she made a comment about, you know what? I feel like we really as a society, as a community or even just as a family, we need to start going out and or at least looking at. for ways to help all of the restaurants, all of the business and services that we love that are really hurt by this, that are having to lay people off, aren't getting any business or anything like that. She's thinking about the museums that she takes her family to, all of these places that are really suffering. And she made a comment, and this is very Bethany Mandel of her, to say something like this. She said, you know, call me a grandma killer, but I want to, I need to go

out and to patronize these places, not just for the sake of my family, but also for the sake of these people who own these businesses. Well, the term grandma killer went viral on Twitter. It was a trending hashtag and everyone was calling her, you know, this terrible person. People were giving these tributes to their grandparents saying my grandparents are so important to me and the right just wants to sacrifice grandparents for their 401k or whatever, completely disregarding her. disagreement disregarding the fact that she was obviously it was a hyperbole she was making a joke but this became an entire thing this virtue signaling by a lot of people on the left saying that people on the right just don't care about old people we don't care about the elderly well here's my

question that I am going to pose to you today who is the real grandma killer like if we're really going to point fingers at who has sacrificed the elderly I don't think it's the people who care about those who have lost their jobs or lost their business days or who are really suffering economically and financially right now. And by the way, this is a false argument by a lot of people on the left who are very pro-draconian lockdown that say, oh, conservatives only want to open up the economy because, oh, they need to get their nails done and they need to get their hair cut and they only care about their 401K. As if the economy doesn't affect real families who are trying to put food on the table for their kids. I mean, when we talk about

economic calamity. When we talk about economic hardship, we're not talking about people's 401k. I mean, not that that doesn't matter, but that's not all we're talking about. Primarily, we're talking about the people who need to provide for themselves in order to survive, who need to provide for their families and who, by the way, go to work to have some sense of purpose in their life. I mean, there's a reason why suicides have increased so much, why child abuse has increased so much. These lockdowns are to blame for at least a lot of that. I can't say all of it. but at least a lot of that. So there is also a compassionate conversation to be had about the financial hardship that people are going through. It's not one or the other, but in this dumb Twitter world

that a lot of people live in, it becomes this false binary and this stupid conversation based on a ton of false premises. And you see that these are false binaries and false premises and just strawman arguments all around. When you look at who, who they, a lot of people on the left are hailing as a hero and what he has actually done when it comes to taking care of the elderly. And I am talking about Governor Andrew Cuomo. You know he is the governor of New York. We talked about him on the podcast titled Little Tyrants Everywhere. Highly recommend you go listen to that episode if you haven't already. He's obviously a Democrat. He is a far left Democrat. You probably remember a couple years ago when the state passed the horrific reproductive health. Act, which legalized aborting a child for any reason up until the moment of birth.

He lit the buildings in New York City and pink. It was such a celebratory time. And he was applauded. It's this great progressive hero. And he is still being applauded as that. In fact, he is being applauded as a hero for his handling of the coronavirus. Let's read some of the headlines about Governor Andrew Cuomo. Washington Post.

Andrew Cuomo gets it right. governed by science, not your gut. Washington Post. As Washington stumbled, governors stepped up to the forefront. And it is a picture of Andrew Cuomo. And this is a quote from that article in the Washington Post. His daily news conferences became must-watch television with the governor never known for his likeability, projecting empathy and realism while repeatedly challenging Washington to do more.

The briefings provided a contrast with Trump's often content. just daily sessions in the White House. One of Mayor Bill de Blasio's former advisors said on Twitter that Cuomo should be the Democratic nominee. A lot of people were saying the same thing. CNN headline. Andrew Cuomo said he'll never run for president. That's a mistake. Of course, we know that CNN's Chris Cuomo has his brother, Andrew Cuomo, on pretty much every

week without asking him any kind of pressing question about his leadership whatsoever. MSNBC recently has. had an interview with Cuomo, asked him zero hard-hitting questions about why his state is suffering so much more drastically than any other state by far. Let me repeat that. New York is suffering more drastically than any other state by far. As of right now, there has been tragically, 360,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York and over 23,000 deaths by the time I am recording this. That is in a state of 19 million people. Now, let's do some compare and contrast. In Florida, a state of over 21 million people and a large elderly population, there have been only

about 50,000 confirmed cases and only about 2,200 deaths. So 2,200 deaths in Florida versus over 23,000 deaths in the state of New York, and Florida is more populous. In Texas, a state with 29 million people has had about 54,000 cases with only about 1,500 deaths. Again, 1,500 deaths versus 23,000 deaths in New York. And these states have also had much less restrictive lockdowns. Now, there is no doubt that New York is different. It is more densely populated, a lot more public transportation that's much more used than in places like Florida and New York or places like Florida and Texas. and that's especially true, of course, in New York City where most of its cases are. But it cannot really be the only reason. It couldn't possibly be that maybe leadership has fumbled, that maybe they haven't done as good of a job as the media has said that they are doing.

So let's review some facts about Cuomo State and examine why possibly they have run into so much trouble. We have talked about this in the past, but it bears repeating. So the state of New York was facing a budget crisis before all of this happened back in November. The New York Post reported that New York faced a 6.1 billion hole in their budget for this year. And Cuomo was planning on making cuts to Medicaid rates for hospitals and nursing homes. They failed to present a real plan criticized Dave Friedel of the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group. They've known about this for a long time, but the plan they did present is really one-part gimmick. at it. His analysis shows the state was already in trouble after pushing off a $1.7 billion

Medicaid bill in March 2019 into 2020, which grew into the $4 billion. According to an article in the nation, a left-wing commentary magazine, obviously I don't agree with a lot of what they write, but they can be pretty good at holding Democrats accountable. This is an article by Ross Barkin titled, Cuomo helped get New York into this mess. Governor Cuomo has long mismanaged the budget and the Medicaid program in the state and has reduced the size of hospitals. Here are some excerpts from the article in which he argues that. Some of the budgetary abyss has been the Cuomo administration's own making, postponing Medicaid payments and failing in the past to iron out inefficiencies like the state's paying Medicaid costs for relatively wealthy, private hospitals that don't need the aid. in the first place. What's more, the state has lost more than 20,000 hospital beds over the last 20 years.

Cuomo, who has governed for almost half that period, Cuomo has governed since 2011, never advocated for any kind of expansion of hospital beds until last month. He now says New York needs 110,000 beds. This was a couple months ago, more than double the current capacity. He has never been a forceful advocate for keeping hospitals open. In fact, he has empowered bureaucrats who have argued aggressively to shudder them. In 2013, the Cuomo administration approved the closure of the 500-bed Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn over loud community protest. Cuomo has justified his cuts to Medicaid by saying, look, we have no money. He is quoted by a representative of him in this article as saying, look, the state has no money. And that was before this entire coronavirus crisis. So the state was in

huge financial trouble before this whole thing hit and now Cuomo is blaming the federal government, Trump specifically for this catastrophe. Forbes headline says Cuomo says this. If you want states to reopen, we need funding. Axios. Cuomo warns of budget cuts to schools in hospitals if they don't get federal help. So I think that's some type of threat for publicity. CNBC, Cuomo said, we need financial help because of the coronavirus situation. No, no, no, no, no. It's not because of the coronavirus situation. It might have exacerbated the preexisting problems,

but the reason that New York has no money is because they didn't have any money to begin with. There was a $6 billion hole in the budget, and now they're hoping that Trump is going to bail them out. And it's politically expedient, both for him and for the world's worst mayor, Bill de Blasio, who is also incompetent and corrupt and has mismanaged their budget, it's politically expedient for them to blame Donald Trump for the problems that they were already facing before the coronavirus hit, and the coronavirus has just made them worse. They can abdicate responsibility, and Cuomo's approval rating can stay high if they do that, but it is getting harder and harder

for Cuomo to do that to keep its approval rating high and to pretend like he is some hero. when it comes to all of this is people are beginning to notice his failure of leadership, particularly when it comes to the elderly. And this is where we get into the conversation of who the real, quote, grandma killers are. So Cuomo, he issued an executive order on March 25th, and we didn't know about this until recently that all coronavirus patients in the hospital who were in nursing homes before they went to the hospital must be sent back to the nursing home, not after they recover, but while they were recovering. So still contagious.

Apparently, this was to open up hospital beds, but probably it probably had more to do with Medicare reimbursements. Hospitals at times, especially now, are pressured or feel pressure to have quick turnover to make more money, especially in a state like New York. Under the CARES Act that passed, hospitals can add 20% to their fee for treating a COVID-19 patient on Medicare. We may not know the real reason, but we do know that this ended up being a total tragedy and disaster, according to Business Insider.

By sending elderly New Yorkers recovering from COVID-19 to nursing homes, the virus spread among the most vulnerable and has since resulted in 5,800 deaths at New York nursing homes and adult care facilities. So again, that's about five times more than the total deaths in Texas, a more popular estate just in nursing homes alone in New York, 5,800 deaths. That's tragic. Okay, ProPublica. They also came out with a long article talking about this scandal, why New York has suffered nearly 10 times the number of deaths as California, another hugely populous state. And Pro Puebulica says this. New York's pandemic preparedness and response plan first created in 2006 and running to hundreds of

pages predicted the state's health care system would be overwhelmed in such a situation. It's obviously talking about the pandemic. And it highlighted two vital necessities, a robust and up-to-date state stockpile of emergency equipment and protective gear and a mechanism for quickly expanding the number of hospital beds available. Despite repeated requests, New York State health officials would not say what was in the state's stockpile at the start of 2020, but it clearly was not adequate. It took another two weeks before Cuomo announced he had created a command center that would get a handle on emergency supplies and available beds at hospitals across the state so that such resources could be directed at places of need. It had been a month since the state's first case.

As for the state pandemic plan that laid out how hospital expansion should happen, Michael Dowling, the chief executive officer of Northwell Health and also an advisor to Cuomo, that's the largest hospital organization in the state. He said that he had never seen any kind of document and did not know of its existence. So the plan of how they were going to be able to expand hospital capacity. Meanwhile, the New York State Nurses Association has sued the state health department in New York and its commissioner for failing to adequately equip frontline medical workers with protective wear and get this. allowing hospitals to order nurses sickened by the virus back to work. Let me repeat that.

The New York State's Nurses Association has sued the State Health Department and its commissioner for not only not equipping frontline workers with the protective gear that they need, but also allowing hospitals to order nurses sickened by the coronavirus back to work. When Cuomo has been asked about his nursing home policy, he insists that he is not responsible and said that the journalist who asked him the question should go ask President Trump. Okay. Much of the outbreak also has to do, like I said, with the incompetence of de Blasio. He is corrupt.

He is not good at managing the budget. There is a miscommunication and also a dislike between Cuomo and de Blasio. that likely exacerbated all of this. Of course, we've seen de Blasio out in public after he told everyone else to stay inside. He has been seen working out, walking without a mask, and all of that, of course, because it's socialism for thee and not for me. What's insane is that Cuomo still has an 81% approval rating for how he has handled the virus in New York.

This shows you the power of the media, the power of a narrative. and also the power of good PR. I will give Cuomo credit that he is very good at these press conferences. Sure, he's abdicating responsibility in the same way that the press accuses Trump of doing, which Trump has done the same thing and he gets blasted for it. And maybe rightly so. But Cuomo gets no such criticism from the press when he abdicates responsibility of the things that he is clearly to blame for.

But he is good at making people feel comforted. He is good at least seeming. in his rhetoric weighing both sides of the problem. And I think he comes across as very comforting, like he's taking control of this situation. But the media is very lazy in all of this, and that they assume that if you are implementing draconian lockdowns, if you are telling everyone to stay inside,

that you're telling people that they can't worship, that they can't go to church, that they can't gather together, they can't go see their family, all of this stuff that New York has tried very hard to implement, the media assumes that you are doing everything you possibly can and that you're a good leader. But Cuomo himself has said that I think it was about 60% of the recent coronavirus cases have been from people who have been sheltering in place, people who have been quarantining, people who haven't

left their house. And so who's to say that these lockdowns are as effective as the media is just assuming that they are? There have obviously been other policies that Cuomo has enacted. that have led to the needless deaths of thousands of people, particularly elderly people. And yes, a lot of people or some people in the media have reported on that. But all the people calling Bethany Mandel, a grandma killer, haven't come back and said, you know what, that was probably unfair for me to accuse her of being that when the real,

if you want to, I wouldn't call him a grandma killer, but if you want to use that terminology, the real people who are actually responsible, directly responsible for the deaths of thousands in thousands of elderly people. They're not some conservative journalist or commentator on Twitter. They are these leaders who are making the decisions to put people with coronavirus back into nursing homes. Thankfully, after a lot of people made a fuss about this, mostly conservatives, they reversed the policy.

But it actually, it took people saying something about it and making a fuss about it for them to reverse it. If no one had noticed, I highly doubt they would have changed course. But this shows you not only the power of the media and a power of the narrative, but also the purpose of media. Many of media have treated Cuomo. Like all of this just happened to him. But Trump has been given the responsibility for even problems that aren't his responsibility, like what states decide to do. Whereas Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, according to May 15th, May 15th article in the Sun Sentinel,

DeSantis' handling of coronavirus was approved by 49%. and disapproved by 36%. So Governor Cuomo, responsible for the deaths of thousands and thousands of old people, has hundreds of thousands of cases in a state, tens of thousands of deaths. He has an 81% approval rating. People are talking about him being the Democratic nominee, Ron DeSantis, with much fewer deaths and fewer cases, has a 49% approval rating. Rich Lowry at New York Post says this.

An irony of the national coverage of the coronavirus, crisis is that at the same time Desantis was being made into a villain, New York Governor Cuomo was being elevated as a hero, even though the DeSantis approach to nursing homes was obviously superior to that of Cuomo. Florida went out of its way to get COVID-19 positive people out of nursing homes, while New York went out of its way to get them in. A policy now widely acknowledged to have been a debacle. So Florida fortified the hospitals with PPE. But DeSantis realized, oh, this is still part of the article, but DeSantis realized that it wouldn't do the hospitals any good if infection in the nursing homes ran out of control. If I can send PPE to the nursing homes and they can prevent an outbreak there, that's going to do more to lower the burden on hospitals than me just sending them another 500,000 in 95 masks.

Of course, that's true. When the state was seeing infections at nursing homes presumably caused by staff, DeSantis deployed what he calls an expeditionary testing force, 50 national guard teams of four guardsmen together with the Department of Health personnel that tested staff and residents. The state has just deployed a mobile testing lab in an RV that has a rapid test with results in an hour or two. It has also started a Sentinel surveillance program for long-term care facilities routinely taking representative samples to monitor for flare-ups. Finally, it has established several COVID-19-only nursing homes with a couple more in the pipeline. The idea, again, is to get COVID-19 positive residents.

out of the regular nursing homes to the maximum extent possible. Obviously, that seems like common sense. That would be what you do. But of course, New York didn't implement those policies. Florida did. And DeSantis has been dragged through the mud by the media. Whereas Cuomo has been hailed as a hero, Cuomo 81% approval rating, even though hundreds of thousands of deaths, thousands in nursing homes alone because of his policies. DeSantis, 49% approval rating when his state of over 21 million people, more than New York, by the way, in a large elderly population, there have been only, again, 50,000 confirmed cases and only 2200 deaths. Of course, every case is bad and every death is tragic. But if you're just looking

at the numbers here and the policies, it seems like DeSantis has done a much better job and he's not getting the same kind of treatment in the media. Okay, now I want to go into how Christians have been treated in all of this and some of the ridiculous shaming and blaming that's going on in the media toward us by them. Let's talk about some of this ridiculousness that's going on in the media towards evangelicals. And look, I'm not playing the victim here. Whatever. They're going to say this stuff about Christians. This is the new way to signal that you are very advanced, that you have been to a very prestigious college and you are very sophisticated and academic and you think harder than all of those religious bumpkins out there.

The way that you signal that you are very smart and posh and even that you run in all of the elitist circles in Manhattan and D.C. is by talking badly about evangelicals. And the Washington Post, of course, is signaling that they are all of those things and more with this headline. What's really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals. Yes.

But of course. So this is this guy's argument. Polls say Democrats care more about Republicans. or sorry, care more about the virus than Republicans. They, Democrats, I don't think, care very much about Republicans at all. So the polls say, he says, the Democrats care more about the virus than Republicans. Republicans care more about our rights. He notes evangelicals are the keystone of the Republican Party.

Evangelicals believe in eternal life through Jesus. Therefore, they don't care whether or not people live or die due to the coronavirus. That's his argument. He doesn't present statistics saying that evangelicals want people to die. or don't care if they die or that we're completely fatalistic or that we don't care about the coronavirus at all. He is making these connections that, okay, Republicans, the polls say that we care or we want to open up more than the Democrats do. Evangelicals are part of the Republican Party. Evangelicals believe in eternal life so they don't care what happens here. And here's,

so here's how he makes this argument. It's, you know, you have to give them, you have to give them at least a pat on the back for trying because that's what they really want. They want some kind golf clap and applause, not from us evangelicals, but we'll give them the affirmation that they need. This is a creative argument. So he says, what was somewhat surprising, I guess, in the study that he's looking at is how the beliefs of evangelicals compare to Catholics, another group that might be considered biblical literists, literalists. According to Pew, he says, 84% of evangelicals believe the Bible is the word of God compared with only 62% of Catholics. 55% of evangelicals, agree that the Bible should be interpreted literally twice the percentage of Catholics.

And here's what he deduces from that data. Among those who hold literal biblical interpretations is the certainty that waiting at the end of this terrestrial journey is eternal life in heaven. The coronavirus, he says, Christian fundamentalism is often fatalistic. By the way, fundamentalist is the new Puritan. So it used to be that if you actually believed in the Bible, and actually wanted to live out the Bible. And you believed in the biblical virtues like chastity and temperance and things like that. People just called you a Puritan. You don't want to be a Puritan

because that's no fun. Now it's fundamentalist. You don't want to be a fundamentalist. Those people that actually read and believe in the Bible, you need to be a fun, tolerant Christian. He's basically an agnostic who sometimes talks about Jesus. So this is the pejorative that he is using. Christian fundamentalism, he says, is often fatalistic. As far as many evangelicals are concerned, life passes quickly. suffering is temporary and worrying solves nothing. True. That's not a view that comports well with long stretches of earthly time spent waiting out business closures or stay-at-home orders. Okay, so part of that is true. We obviously don't believe that we should be worked up into a tizzy or that we should be worked into over-waring about something. The Bible is very clear about that because we believe in a

sovereign God that's in control of everything and works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And so he's right. We don't believe in over-worrying about things. He says that we believe that suffering is temporary. That is absolutely true. We do believe that suffering is temporary that all of the things that we suffer and we go through are creating for us a far greater glory that outweighs all of the trials and tribulations that people are suffering here today and that life passes quickly. And that is absolutely true. We know that we are just blips on the span of eternity. But his idea that we are fatalistic in our thinking and we think, you know what, just open up whatever happens, happens. That is not, I don't believe, how Christians think at all.

Sure, we believe that life is temporary. We believe that we shouldn't over worry about things. We believe that God is sovereign and in control and good and that all things are working together for his glory. But there is a reason why Christians are on the front line for humanitarian aid everywhere. Like there is, if you're going to say that we, as evangelicals, believe in biblical literalism, and that is causing us to, that is, you know, encouraging us to focus more on eternal life in heaven rather than life here on earth, then you have to also give credit to the fact that we also take the biblical mandates literally and seriously to love our neighbor as ourselves, to care for the poor, to give what we have, to give our time, energy, and resources. to those who need it. I mean, that's why you have organizations like Samaritans Purse,

who has probably done more good in New York helping those with coronavirus than a lot of the hospitals have. And how were they treated in New York? They were protested as being homophobic, as being bigots. People were saying on Twitter, even local officials in New York City were saying, we got to kick them out. We don't need any part in their bigotry and homophobia because they're are, of course, a Christian organization, and so they believe in the biblical definition of marriage between man and a woman. But did they ever turn anyone away? Did they ever, did they ever act in a bigoted way? Did they ever not care for someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity or anything like that? Of course not. They were indiscriminate in their care for people,

very compassionate and saved people's lives, probably thousands of people's lives. And yet they were shunned by a lot of people, not everyone, but a lot of people in New York. York because they happen to hold a biblical value. Now, if it were true that evangelicals, biblical literalism are believed that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, if it were true that that produces this kind of cavalier attitude about the coronavirus, would the Samaritans purse in the thousands of organizations like Samaritans purse? All the organizations that fight sex trafficking, that help mothers and families in need, that help the homeless, what all of these organizations that are primarily owned by Christian people, would they exist?

Would they fight as hard as they do if we just believed that this life didn't matter if we were just fatalistic in the sense that, you know, whatever happens happens and we're all just going to die as long as we believe in Jesus. It's fine. No, we believe that life on earth matters. Of course we do. And we believe that we are supposed to follow literally the biblical mandate to love our as ourselves. He doesn't include that in the article. He makes some aside at the end saying,

oh, yeah, you know, they do some good in their communities just like everyone else. They do some that in their communities just like everyone else. But again, he can't have his argument both ways. Either we take it literally that we, that we believe in eternal life and that God is sovereign. So that means that we are not going to be worked up in a tizzy here. If we take that literally, then we also take the mandate to do good literally as well. And he doesn't mention that. But here was a tweet that was attached to that article by Stephen Pinker. He is a Harvard professor, and he is a bioethicist, and he also has argued for many atrocious things because he's an atheist, and so he doesn't believe that human life is inherently valuable because we are made in the image of God.

Here's what he says in a commentary to that article. Believe in an afterlife is a malignant delusion since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A, what's really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals. Again, the article that he's citing doesn't cite any data to prove that that's true, that it's evangelicals that have this kind of a glib attitude doubt the coronavirus, but it supports his preconceived notion that Christians have this malignant, belief in eternal life. But here's what Stephen Pinker doesn't understand. Can't possibly understand because, remember, the eyes of his heart are darkened because he is not a believer. If we believe

in an afterlife, if we believe in eternity, that means that we believe that human beings are eternal, that we are unique and that we are made in the image of God, which means that we each have a soul, which means that we're all equally valuable from the womb to the tomb, which means our desire as Christians to care for people is a lot more intense, is a lot higher because we see them not just as flesh and bones, not just as material objects, not just as a product of evolution that we're all just here by chance, but we believe that every individual has inherent value and is here for a purpose. Therefore, that is why we care for the people that need our health. That is why we care for the least of these. That and the fact that, as the Bible says, the love of Christ

compels us to do that, we believe in emulating the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and how he helped the least of these, how he helped the poor, how he helped the sick, how he loved his neighbor as himself, and of course loved us so much that he sacrificed himself on a cross for our sins. That's what we believe in emulating. What I would like Stephen Pinker to defend is how his materialistic worldview lends him to lends him to any sort of compassion whatsoever. How does his idea that after we die, we're all just done, that none of us have any souls. And so we don't really have any inherent values or any God-given rights. We're not made in the image of God. We really are. Just flesh and bone and matter and just overgrown clumps of cells. How does his worldview

create any basis whatsoever for compassion and caring for the least of these? And again, I would like Stephen Pinker to take a look at the history of Christianity that not only have we been on the front lines against every civil rights travesty, whether it's slavery or Jim Crow or the Holocaust, not only have Christians fought against all of those things throughout our history, but we have also started hospitals, the thousands of nonprofit organizations that help the sick, that help the poor, that help those who are still enslaved to this day. We have also headed up all of the major Ivy League universities in this country. So don't act like Mr. Hoity 20 sophisticated Harvard professor Christians. And our belief in eternal life has somehow driven us away from

helping people. That is the opposite of the truth. But again, these people are thinking backwards. These people don't see the truth. And unfortunately, they are unable to see the truth. And this is just a trend, it seems like, of people outside of a group telling the people inside of the group what they are and what they actually believe in. And this is certainly true of the people who are pro-choice. So they're pro-abortion telling everyone who is pro-life, who doesn't want to wear a mask, that they can't really be pro-life. I don't know if you've seen those things going around, those posts going around saying, if you don't wear a mask, then you're not really pro-life. Well, first of all, wear a mask if you want to. We've worn masks in certain situations.

and I don't at all judge people wearing masks. And if a company wants you to wear a mask or a store wants you to wear a mask and they enforce that policy, then you should wear a mask and comply. Like it's not hurting you. You should do that. Or you don't have to go to that store. I think that's all fine. But we don't know if masks work, first of all.

They told us very confidently, very adamantly, very persistently, consistently, just a couple months ago that masks don't work at all, that we shouldn't get masks, that we shouldn't be wearing masks. Coronavirus is microscopic. We know that's true. So a bandana is not going to help. But now they're telling us you have to wear a mask. Mask save lives.

If you're not wearing a mask, you might actually get like kicked out of the grocery store. So I want you to watch this clip of this woman who is in a grocery store, not wearing a mask, being shouted down by people who are angry that she is not wearing one. That's out. Get out. Yeah. Go ahead.

That is crazy. That is crazy. What do you think? That is crazy. I don't know if you guys have seen Black Mirror. It's a series on Netflix. It's interesting. It's also really weird.

It's like looking at the future and dystopia. and how technology could evolve and all of this stuff. But it reminds me of one of those episodes because there's an episode of Black Mirror where it's hard to explain and I won't get into all of it. But people are programmed and they are programmed to react a certain way or they're actually like playing a role in this like real life play. It's confusing. But anyway, these people remind me of people who have been programmed in a show like Black Mirror.

I mean, literally a couple months ago, we heard that NASCAR didn't even wear. And we know that masks for healthy people are unnecessary. Masks are to protect other people if they work at all. To protect other people from your sickness if you're sick. I want to read you a text message that I said that I was going to possibly read from my doctor friend. He is an ER doctor. And this is what he sent me. Let's see.

He said, as far as the whole mask thing goes, cloth masks make people feel better, but it's like using a chain link fence to stop mosquito. So that's the analogy that he is, that he is giving us, that it's really not effective, I guess, unless you have a certain kind of PPE, a certain kind of mask for you to wear any kind of mask. Obviously, if you are sick, don't go out in public. You should cover your mouth, wash your hands, all of that good stuff. But to say that someone isn't pro-life because they are not wearing a mask that we do not know

works, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And especially for the people who actually advocate for the poisoning, for the dismembering of unborn children to tell the people who fight against that, who are spending their lives, their energy, their resources, helping these moms save their babies and also helping these moms after the baby is born, providing them with resources, classes, and all of that good stuff, telling those people that they're not pro-life because they're not wearing a mask that we have no idea, works or not. And actually, we're pretty sure doesn't actually work, that doesn't make any sense. But again, these people, some of their minds are warped and they are believing things that are untrue. And we,

we simply know that that is going to be the case. And we can try to reason with people. We can try to, we can try to engage these people in, in conversation. And that's fine. But ultimately, we have to remember, I have to remember that we cannot rectify all ignorance. We can't rectify. We can't rectify the mischaracterization of Christians completely because that's just going to continue happen. We can't, we can't rectify all of the group think that's happening, the belief in some of the lies. And you guys know, I am someone who is not like a coronavirus denier in any way. I think obviously it's very real and it's deadly and it's tragic for the people who have been affected by it. And I all think that we should take precautions. My family and I have taken a lot of precautions.

I'm a germapope anyway, so my life hasn't changed that much. But I encourage people to be cautious about this without living in fear and living in paranoia. Well, also keeping an eye on our rights, keeping an eye on our leaders, remember that we are a constitutional Republican, what that actually means and what the Bill of Rights actually stands for. I think that this is awoken people to just how precarious, apparently, according to some of our leaders, our God-given rights actually are to them. and I think that it's allowed people to be aware of just how greedy some people in charge are to take away our liberty. But at the same time, I think that we should be taking this seriously in the best way that we can.

And we just have to understand, though, that even with that kind of rational and logical and balanced thinking, that people are still going to call you names, they're still going to call you a grandma killer. they're still going to say that it's your fault because you're a Christian and you want to go back to church or that it's your fault that you're not wearing some bandana over your face to make yourself and other people feel better. But I just want to remind you. I love reading this passage of scripture and then we're done. We don't have time to get into anything else. I think I'm way over time anyway. But I want to read you this passage of scripture because it always, it gives me peace and assurance when I look at the world and I'm like, everything is crazy.

Everything is backwards. How are we ever going to survive this as Christians? And what do we do? And I get all worried and everything. But I love this passage, 1 Corinthians 1,18 through 31. It's a little lengthy, but I think it's worth reading the whole thing. So, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning, I will thwart. where is the one who is wise where is the scribe where is the debater of this age has not god made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of god the world did not know god through wisdom it pleased god through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe for jews demand signs and greeks seek wisdom but we preach christ crucified a stumbling block to the jews and folly to gentiles but to those who are called both jews and greeks christ power of god in the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And it goes on to say that you who are called, those of us who were called, we were not wise according to worldly standards. God didn't choose us because of our power or for the wisdom that we brought to the table or for the fact that we were of noble birth. But God chooses who is weak. God chooses who is foolish. God chooses who the world considers not noble in order to bring himself glory. and to bring the gospel to the world so that we can't boast in anything that we do, but we can boast in God in everything that he does. We have to trust in that. Okay, that's all that I have for today.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this. I'll be back here on Friday, and I'm so excited because I have an interview. We haven't done interviews in so long, but now that we're in the studio, we get the capability to do that with Kosti Hinn, who wrote God, Greed and the Prosperity Gospel. He is so awesome. I'm so excited for this interview. I know that you guys are going to love it.

And I will see you on Friday. 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.