Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 278 | Is America Over?

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

Allie Beth Stuckey discusses the latest news stories: President Trump’s recent Fox News interview, public school indoctrination, and secret police in Portland. All these stories lead us to answer the question: Is America, as we know it, done?  Today's Link: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book

Hey guys, welcome to relatable. Happy Wednesday. Okay, today we are back in the saddle talking about news and all the craziness that is going on in the world. Monday, we kind of took a break from that because you guys seemed like you were getting a little bit overwhelmed with all the stuff that's going on, which is completely understandable. I feel like that often. So we talked about Jeremiah 29-11, how it is often misused, misinterpreted, misapplied, misapplied, and we looked at the context of the verse, and what we found is that the true meaning of the text is so much richer and so much better and so much more God glorifying than the superficial application of the text that we typically see in people's Instagram profiles, for example.

So if you have not listened to that episode, I encourage you to go back and do that. Today we're going to talk about a few stories. We are going to talk about the president's recent interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News, some of the things that were talked about there. We're going to talk about going back to school in the fall, if that's something that needs to happen or not if we are putting teachers and people at risk. We're going to talk about the so-called secret police that some people are saying are crowding the streets or going into the streets in places like Portland and Seattle and secretly kidnapping. people. And then we'll talk about a few other things. There was a Pew study that came out that said, do you have to believe in God to be moral in the findings? I thought were pretty interesting. And then I will end with some encouragement that I have been thinking about and that I listened to in a

sermon over the weekend. Okay, let's first talk about this interview with Chris Wallace that happened over the weekend. You might have heard about it. It was on Fox News. Chris Wallace is one of the news guys at Fox and he is really good at his job. Now, a lot of people criticize Chris Wallace for being anti-Trump, for being biased against Trump and even biased against Republicans. That might be true. There certainly have been things that he has said that I've, you know, I've kind of seen that bias come out. However, I do believe that Chris Wallace is really good at his job. He's one of those people that you want to interview the person that you are trying to figure out because he's going to keep poking holes and he doesn't get intimidated. So I thought that this interview that he did

with the president was good. Now, all the people who hate Donald Trump on the left, all the Democrats are saying that this was just the takedown of the century. I'm not so sure. I feel that way about the interview. I did, I did think that Chris Wallace did a really good job of just kind of being unrelenting and pressing the president on some things. I'm sure the full episode is, or the full interview is somewhere maybe on YouTube. But while there were some good questions and some good pushback and it was very clear that the president's feathers were a little bit ruffled at some point. I also thought that Chris Wallace brought some things up and said some things that were just demonstrably untrue. So he said some false things about COVID and the COVID reporting and

things like that. But he also mentioned, and this is going to bring us to a larger conversation. He also talked about how maybe, maybe this indoctrination that President Trump is talking about happening in public schools isn't really happening. So I'll play you that short clip. You said our children are taught in school to hate our country. Where do you see that? I just look at school. I watch. I read.

Look at the stuff. Now they want to change. If 1492 Columbus discovered America, you know, we grew up, you grew up, we all did. that's what we learned. Now they want to make it the 1619 project. Where did that come from? What does it represent? I don't even know. It's slavery. That's what they're saying, but they don't even know. They just want to make a change. Cancel culture. I hate the term, actually, but I use it. Cancel culture. People don't hate America? Oh, I think so. Yeah, I think so. So I understand that it's an interviewer's job to push back on assertions and to ask the person who made that assertion where he's getting that

from in what the evidence is. But it sounded like he was casting doubt on that. And that doubtful question that Chris Wallace asked to the president has been asked and repeated millions of times, it seems like, on social media by the left. It's usually accompanied by the same kind of question. Where is cancel culture? There's no cancel culture. After President Trump's speech in South Dakota in front of Mount Rushmore, there were people saying culture war. What is President And Trump talking about culture war. That's also when he talked about the indoctrination happening in public schools. And people were seeing indoctrination in public schools, what are you talking about?

Of course, indoctrination is happening in public schools. You can ask many wonderful Christian conservative public school teachers. And they will tell you that not only is the curriculum, just in a lot of ways, a historical, doesn't cover enough ground. It doesn't cover the right ground. A lot of the school systems and the school administrations, are encouraging teachers to teach activism, to teach leftist ideas of what gender and sexuality and the makeup of the family should be at a very young age. That indoctrination is happening.

The idea of macro evolution, that's being taught from a young age. And even anti-America propaganda, this idea that America is inherently very bad, that we were built only on racism, that we were built only on slavery and really in order to have a good country, we have to have some kind of revolution. Then you have to be a young activist. There is also a separation that happens in a lot of public school systems between the parents and their children, for example, in places like California and even in other states, there is a policy that says, okay, if six-year-old little kindergartner, Sally comes to school one day and says, you know, I'm actually, I don't feel like I'm a girl anymore. I feel like I'm a boy and I want to be called Ben.

Then the teacher has to call that child by the new pronouns. You know, he, him, call him, his, call her his new preferred name, Ben. And he, the teacher does not have to tell the parents. And so there is a separation happening between children and their parents do in large part to the public school system. And we talked about this when we were looking at the Harvard professor who was hosting a conference, was supposed to host a conference in June about the dangers of homeschooling. She wrote a whole piece about the dangers of homeschooling, how it's very authoritarian for parents to be in charge of their child's education.

And it's very dangerous because they might indoctrinate them with right-wing Christian values. So you're saying the parents shouldn't have the right to have authority over. their children or be able to teach and instruct and so-called indoctrinate their children with their family's values. But teachers who don't really have any vested interest in that child's life, they should be the ones indoctrinating them. They should be the ones to have final authority over them. They should be the ones that are teaching them values that the parents might not agree with. Either way, a child is going to have authority over them. Either way, a child is going to have influence over them. They are going to be, if you want to call it, indoctrinated or instructed or

instilled with particular values, that's going to happen no matter what, because a child is formidable, their mind is malleable, they don't have a worldview yet, they don't have principles, they don't have values, they have to be taught those things. So should those things be taught, and should that authority be recognized to the parents of the child, to the people who, would lay their life down for that child, who would do anything for that child, who brought the child into the world, has loved that child with a heartbreaking, unconditional love every second of that child's life? Or should that authority be given to teachers who might care about their children in the same way that they care about all students? But at the end of the day, they're not

thinking about them. They're not going to be the ones taking care of them when they get sick. They didn't bring them home from the hospital. They might cry a little bit if that child dies, but it's not going to wreck them for the rest of their life. So which one should it be? The parents who care about this child more than any non-parent could ever even fathom, or these teachers who just have a job to do and are getting paid a salary who, again, might care for the students, but not nearly as much, not even a fraction as much as the parents ever will. Who gets to teach values? Who gets to so-called indoctrinate?

Who should be able to instruct with the principles and the morality that this child will then carry with them for the rest of their lives? I think it should be the parents. But to even have professors and academics saying, oh, this whole idea of the parent-child relationship, it's actually, you know, it's something that was created. It was something that was inferred or conferred upon them by the state. And if the state takes that away, then there really is no grand. rounds for this parent-child relationship. Parents shouldn't have final authority over a child. That is, that idea is getting more and more mainstream on the left. And it's a communistic idea.

It's been around for a long time. We've talked about a book called, let's see, is it, dang it, I forgot the, I forgot the name of the book. But it's by a communist Sophie Lewis who basically argues that all pregnancies should be paid surrogacy. and should be they should be paid gestators. Women should be compensated for the work of gestating a child, growing a child inside of them, and it shouldn't actually belong to them. It should belong to the community. The child should belong to him or herself, she would say. And she is a communist.

This is a communistic idea to try to break apart all family units, any kind of hierarchy, anywhere where someone can get a value system besides. the state has to be broken up in this communist society. So this idea that a parent doesn't have full authority, shouldn't have full authority and care for their child shouldn't be fully responsible for indoctrinating or instilling values into their child as a communistic left-wing idea that unfortunately is getting more and more popular and is infecting public schools. So to go back, Chris Wallace saying, oh, is this really happening?

Where do you see this happening? This is happening everywhere. Again, I know that there are so many wonderful public school teachers out there. And we'll be talking more about this on Friday. I'm going to talk to an expert on school choice and public schooling and the importance of charter schools and private schools. We're going to talk about all that kind of stuff on Friday. But I just wanted to touch on it here because it's something that I'm so passionate about for people to say, oh, this isn't really happening in public schools.

I mean, that's gaslighting. It is happening. There are so many wonderful public school teachers that you are doing the best job that you possibly can. but you probably feel, unless you are in just a very, very conservative district, you probably feel like your hands are tied. There are certain things you can't say. There are certain things you can't teach about. There are certain things that you are compelled to teach that you don't actually believe, whether it's the way that you are told to teach or what you're actually told to teach. Unfortunately, the public school system is largely corrupt because of the teachers unions. I mean,

that's part of why we're seeing, for example, teachers and teachers unions saying specifically in places like LA that you cannot make me come to school this fall because it is putting myself and it's putting my family at risk. And well, they actually don't say that. They actually say it's for the children. They're putting we're putting the children at risk when in reality children have a very, very low chance of even contracting the coronavirus and that even if they do, they have a very, very low chance of dying from the coronavirus. Actually, the death rate for coronavirus among young kids is lower than the death rate from the flu. And they're susceptible to the flu every year,

and we don't close down, we don't close down the schools. And actually, if you are someone who is likely to, for example, be in the ICU because of coronavirus, you may also be susceptible to other kinds of viruses that, again, are circulating year round. I'm not saying there is no danger to the coronavirus. And certainly if you're someone who is in a high risk category, you may have more reason to be concerned.

but there are viruses that are circulating every year in these schools and we don't shut down the schools because there was a time in our lives where we weighed the pros and cons. But now because coronavirus has become so political, we have said, okay, Trump and Trumpians are the ones who want to send kids to school. Everyone else doesn't want to send kids to school. And that is how we determine what's right and what's wrong. But that's dumb. I mean, that's not what we should be doing. We should be weighing the pros and cons. The fact of the matter is is that kids are at a low risk of contracting this.

They're at a very, very, very low risk of becoming seriously ill and dying. Of course, it's possible. There's a small chance. But like I said, there's also a possibility that they could contract the flu and die every year, tragically. And so we have to look at the benefits as well. We know that kids need socialization. We know that they need instruction so that they're not falling behind. We know that they need some kind of, you know.

you know, organized recreation. And look, I am a huge fan of homeschooling. And if a child has access to good homeschooling, if their parents are able to do that, then I think that's awesome. I say, don't send your kids to public school ever again. That's my preference that everyone would be able to homeschool. But I understand that's not feasible for everyone, especially low-income families. So kids of low-income families where maybe both parents are working and it's just not possible for a parent to quit their job? What are those children supposed to do? It's very unlikely for them to be seriously, negatively and long-term impacted by the coronavirus. They're supposed to what, stay home by themselves while their parents go work, their parents who can't afford

childcare. They're supposed to fall behind in school. They're not supposed to get the socialization that they need. And a lot of these kids, unfortunately, are susceptible to child abuse. They're They're susceptible to molestation because they're at home with maybe relatives or friends for long periods of time or even siblings for long periods of time without any respite. And unfortunately, they are made more vulnerable to those kinds of abuses. And for a lot of kids, school is a safe haven. I've got a lot of complaints about public school and the public school system and how they run things. And unfortunately, the abuses that even public schools perpetuate. But I understand for a lot of kids, especially low income kids, especially kids that are in vulnerable

situations, like school is their refuge. It's their safe haven. It's their only place where they feel like they have any purpose, they have any structure, they have any discipline, they have anyone who even cares about them. And we're just taking that away because of a virus that very rarely affects them in a very negative way. So this is not about the children. I know I understand that For a lot of teachers out there, I always want to make this caveat, it might be about the children. You just, I don't know, maybe you feel like the risk is too high for your children. But for a lot of teachers, this is for themselves. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't care about your health at all.

You shouldn't care about your family's health because certainly I do and I would if I were you too. But we look at a place like L.A. where the teachers union is saying, we'll go back to school if you pass Medicare for all. what? And then a bunch of other policy prescriptions that have nothing to do with health care, nothing to do with coronavirus. Okay, so it's not about the virus at all. Because getting Medicare for all and getting all of these other leftist wish list items is not going to stop you from getting the coronavirus. So it's not the virus that you're scared of. You're using this as political leverage. You're using children's lives as political leverage. And unfortunately, this is par for the course for the teachers unions. Teachers unions are completely corrupt and they

run in many cases, the Democratic Party. I've talked to you about this before. I think I don't, I think it was little tyrants everywhere, the episode where we talked about rubber rooms, for example. This is where failed teachers or teachers who were even fired for things like sexual assault or sexual harassment. A lot of times these teachers are still protected and they go into these places called rubber rooms where they're basically given an assignment to file papers and they might be there for 20 years. So they are fired from the school. but they are still receiving a taxpayer salary. I talked to you about this guy who has had, it was in New York,

and I can look up the specific name of who he is. It was in a New York Post article. Again, I think it's in that episode, Little Tyrants everywhere, where I was just stunned reading the story. He got fired from a high school. I think it was in New York for sexual harassment. And then instead of just, you know, being let go forever from the teaching community, he was sent to one of these rubber rooms to file papers, and over 20 years, his salary didn't just

remain the same since he got fired from this school. It actually doubled to where he was pulling in six figures, doing nothing every day after getting fired from a school for sexual harassment. This is the teachers union. This is what teachers unions do. They insulate bad teachers. They have low standards of competence, low standards of intelligence for minis teachers. And they prevent them from getting fired. I understand that maybe in some cases teachers unions have good purposes, but unfortunately we see their values manifest themselves, not just in protecting bad teachers in these rubber rooms and just the ongoing corruption of public schools, but also in leveraging kids as political pawns saying, oh, we'll go back to school in the fall if you give us this

policy leftist wish list. I mean, it's insane. It's insane. So here's my thing about public school teachers that are worried about going back to school, which again, I understand. I'm not in your situation. And I would be concerned for my family too. You have every right to be concerned. But look, there have been essential workers that have never stopped working. There have been grocery store clerks that have never stopped working. They were deemed essential workers. So every day through the pandemic, they have been going to work to provide for their families at their risk of themselves. They were deemed essential so they were not just allowed to go to work but they were required to go to work. You as a public school teacher are considered, at least what I hear, an essential worker.

And so if you are an essential worker, you have the same responsibility and the same risk to take on as any other essential worker. Now, if you want to tell me that's not true, then that must mean that public schools teachers are not essential. So are they essential? Are they not? If public school teachers are essential, then they should be held to the same standard as any other essential worker and they need to go into school like everyone else because the benefit of the children, who are supposed to be your customers and your clients, outweighs the risks to them due to the coronavirus. So if you are essential, that needs to be your responsibility and the risk that you take on. Now, if you're in a high school, risk category. If a family member is in a high risk category, I agree. Like you need a substitute teacher,

you need to be able to teach from home, whatever. But if you are non-essential workers, if you're trying to say that you shouldn't be held to the same standard as other essential workers and you should be able to stay at home, if you're non-essential, okay, well, then we need to take the taxpayer money that is going to you and we need to give it to the families and need. That's what needs to happen. If they're essential, they need to go to work. If they're non-essential, we need to take the money that is typically going to these public schools who are no longer really doing the instructing. I mean, there's just really no way you can instruct a bunch of nine-year-olds via Skype. We need to take that money and we need to give it to the families who need it. So those are the two options here, in my opinion.

And look, I'm happy that there are families who are seeing the benefits of homeschool. Like I said, There is apparently this uptick in micro schools where parents are getting together with other families and they're using someone's house to do homeschool together. And I think that's great. Like I would love if that is the trend and if public school just at least the way it is, it just completely diminishes. But I understand that's unrealistic for a lot of low income people. Not everyone can afford private schools. Not everyone can do the whole micro schooling. not everyone can do homeschooling. So public schools need to get their act together. I say that we need to

abolish teachers unions. I'm sorry. I know that's a radical position nowadays. We need to abolish teachers unions. Not only would the corrupt and terrible incompetent teachers hopefully get fired, but also I think you would see a shift in the Democratic, in the Democratic Party, because a lot of the policies, a lot of the decisions that they made that they make is not based on children. It is based on the teachers unions who many times do not have the children's concerns in mind. Now, so, well, I want to circle back. So all of that to say, people who say like Chris Wallace or anyone on the left that, oh, indoctrinated in schools or corruption in public schools, this is not really a thing. It's not really something that you need to be concerned about or anyone who says, oh,

you know, this is about the children not sending them back to school in the fall. They're all gaslighting you. It was great. MSNBC had this segment where they asked a bunch of doctors, would you send your kids back to school? And I assumed that they assumed that all the doctors would say, no, no, no, no, every single doctor that they had on said, yes, I would send my kid back to school absolutely without any questions because even doctors realize that they're at a low risk. Now, you can implement policy social distance. I still think that's a dumb phrase, but we all just use it. Social distance. If you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. But you have to allow you.

these children, you have to allow these children who need to go back to school to go back to school and parents who want to homeschool their kids, homeschool their kids, parents who want to send their kids to private school, I think that now is absolutely the time. And just a side note, as I always like to encourage parents, now is the time Christian parents for you to be teaching your kids theology, for you to make sure that your kids understand the fundamentals of their faith, who made them, who made the universe, therefore, who is the authority over the universe, what he says morality is, what he says the truth is, what he says justice is, you need to make sure you know these things, you need to make sure that your children know these things, because

they are going out as sheep among wolves every day, especially if they are going to public school. And so you need to be the ones to be equipping them because there is a leftist force that is coming for your authority over your children. They are coming for the minds of your children. So make sure that you are exercising the authority that you still freely have right now well, that you are stewarding this gift of parenting well. And I have a whole list of resources for not just parents,

but Christians of all types. If you go to alliebethstucky.com slash blog, ali bethstucky.com slash blog, you will see the only post that's on there right now, and that is a list of resources. That's a list of resources for you to read. So you have a good understanding of all of these things. But I also have a few resources specifically for children and teaching children theology and the basics of their faith. So make sure that you go check that out. Okay. I also want to talk about speaking of parents, I want to talk about this group,

moms against brutality. So I'm going to, I'll put a picture up on the screen of this group, moms against brutality. So this is happening in major cities, specifically places like Portland, where a group of so-called moms, we don't know if they're actually all moms, but a group of women who are calling themselves moms against brutality, they are standing between the police and these rioters and looters. Now, if you read any leftist publication, they're saying, oh, these moms are heroes, they're standing up against police brutality.

they are using themselves as human shields between these very peaceful protesters and demonstrators and these evil police who were just trying to take them down for defending democracy. So let me just let you in on a little bit on a little secret. What I have deduced from reading multiple articles about this, this is not real. This is a PR war. So the articles that are all saying these are peaceful demonstrators, they're lying. there are peaceful demonstrators, or at least there were. I don't even know if there are any peaceful protests going on anymore about this. There might be, and there are peaceful people among them,

but these so-called demonstrators that are in these major cities are very violent. Like, people die. People lost their lives in so-called chop, the Capitol Hill. I don't even know what OPE stands for. It was Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone when it was called Chaz, but then it was chop and people literally like an African-American 16-year-old lost his life not due to police brutality not due to some outsider coming in and shooting the place up but the members of chas they're violent people they are wrecking their cities they are ruining businesses let me just play you a couple clips of these so-called peaceful demonstrators so the last clip that you saw was um in Seattle. They were looting an Amazon store. So this is, this is all very peaceful stuff, very normal stuff.

This is all justice, right? Like, this is definitely accomplishing justice. So they don't, the, the left doesn't want you to see these videos. Certainly, Antifa doesn't want you to see these videos. They want you to believe that they are peaceful freedom fighters, that they are fighting against racism. They're fighting against injustice. And they're just doing it completely peacefully. that's not what's happening. That's not what's happening. I highly encourage you to follow Andy No on that's NGO. It's his last name on Twitter. I mean, he is constantly tweeting out videos of what's happening in Portland and Seattle and New York City. I mean, these people are completely ravaging these areas with violence and vandalism. It's absolute lawlessness. And the city

officials have completely enasculated and weakened the local police departments to where they can't do anything. And so lawlessness is just running rampant. And then the city officials are all pretending like it's all perfectly fine. It's all an illusion. It's an illusion. And moms against brutality by creating this human shield, it's a PR war. So what happens as they make these human shields and what's happening behind them is violence and vandalism and burning down buildings and then the police that are in many cases in front of them. These are now federal police, which we'll talk about in just a second in front of them who are trying to stop the violence that's happening behind the moms against brutality. Say they use tear gas or

something like that. Then the picture looks like these police officers are attacking the moms against brutality and it looks really bad PR-wise for the people who are on the side of law in order. It looks like we have what Antifa would call some fascist dictatorship where the police are using violence against peaceful protesters. That's not what's happening. Violence, lawlessness is running rampant in these cities thanks to the weakness of local officials. And so what President Trump has done is he has sent federal police, federal authorities into some of these places to help clamp down on the lawlessness. And then you have city officials say, no, no, no, no, don't do that.

Don't do that. We don't need that. Okay, well, from your place of private security and privilege, Ms. Mayor of Seattle or Portland or Mr. Mayor of New York City, that's really easy for you to say, what about the people whose businesses are being ruined, whose lives are being risked? I mean, what about the good and the welfare of your city? If you aren't going to handle this, if you're not going to allow the,

police to do their jobs, then the federal government has to come in and do something about it. And look, I am completely against, I'm completely against any kind of force or any kind of hindrance or inhibition against peaceful protesters. I am. And if that's what's happening, I am also going to be the one to come out and say, that's not right because I understand if I were peacefully protesting or someone was peacefully protesting for a cause that I believed in and a Democratic president sent police officers out there to stop them from peacefully protesting, of course, I would be saying the same thing. This is a fascist dictatorship. And so wherever that is happening, wherever there are peaceful protesters and there are rubber bullets flying from the police, there's tear gas coming from

the police. And apparently there has been mixed reports of that happening across the country. I am absolutely against that. But where lawlessness and violence and vandalism is running rampant and is risking the lives and the safety and the livelihoods of the law-abiding citizens that live in that area, I do believe that as a last resort, as a last resort, it is the role of the federal government to come in and say, stop, stop. Like, we have to do something about the welfare of this community. We have to do something about lawlessness or else we do live in an anarchy. And by the way, if you look at the profiles of a lot of these Antifa members, they call themselves

anarcho-socialists. And so they are for anarchy. That is what they're trying to create. And if we believe that the government exists for anything, like you can be a libertarian, believe in the smallest government in the world and still believe that at some point, the federal government has the right and the responsibility to help the country be in order, to help the country be safe. Again, as a last resort.

Now, people like AOC and other politicians, mostly on the left, although Ram Paul has said something too, that we shouldn't be having unidentified police in unidentified cars, kidnapping people, taking them and putting them somewhere. I agree with that. However, every picture of the police that I have seen in places like Portland and Seattle have all been in uniform and have had police on the front of their uniform. So I don't know if the problem is that it's just not identifiable. enough. AOC is apparently trying to pass some legislation that says that police officers

should always have to identify themselves. I'm not totally sure. I'm not totally sure how I feel about that. I am always for more transparency. And I, of course, I don't think we should have a Gestapo, like a Gestapo. I don't think that we need to have a secret police. Of course, I don't believe that the police should be kidnapping people in unidentified cars. I don't care if the person is an anarcho-socialist. I don't care if the person is rioting and looting and doing these things that they shouldn't be doing. I don't believe secret police should be grabbing people and putting them in secret cars, but I'm not so sure that's what's actually happening. It sounds like they want the police to come up to someone to shake their hand and to say, okay, like, hey, my name is

Roger Rodriguez. Like, would you mind if I took you in my car and I put you away in jailed just like for a second, just for a little bit? Because you kind of broke the law. Like it sounds like that is the expectation coming from a lot of people on the left from these federal officers. And I just don't agree with that. I agree that it should be humane. I agree that we should never inhibit any kind of peaceful protesting. I agree that no one should be kidnapped and put it in a secret car. I agree that there should be some kind of identity.

It should say police in some way on these uniforms. but I also believe that there is a role as a last resort from the federal government to come in and to make sure that law in order is being carried out where lawlessness is existing. And unfortunately, in these major cities, lawlessness is existing. Now, the interesting thing is about these people who are saying, oh, this is, this is fascist. This is too much, which it's not fascist, by the way. They call any law in order, any use of the military whatsoever, any use of a police officer whatsoever as fascist.

Like you understand that most, the vast majority of violent protesters, violent protesters have been able to go on and on for weeks with impunity. Like you're allowed to say anything about the president of the United States, anything about any elected official that you won with total impunity. and you're talking about living in a fascist state? That's insane. That's insane. I also want to show you this video of so-called demonstrators in Chicago hurling things at the police there.

Who are you served? Who do you protect? Who do you protect? Who do you serve? So Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago, another in the running for world's worst mayor, along with Bill de Blasio. I mean, she has, she has completely failed

her city. If you look at the numbers of murder in Chicago, highest that it has been in decades, weekend after weekend, babies dying, children dying,

teenagers dying. Almost all of these victims, by the way, are black Americans. Almost all of the perpetrators, unfortunately, are black Americans in Chicago. And Mayor Lightfoot

is allowing this lawlessness, to go on by, again, impeding the police department, by not focusing on these things, by trying to redirect attention away from herself and her incompetence and towards the administration. She actually tweeted out because Kaylee McAnne, the press secretary, talked about Mayor Lightfoot's dereliction of duty, which is exactly correct. And Mayor Lightfoot had the audacity to tweet at her and say, hey, Karen, watch your mouth. Okay. Okay, Mayor Lightfoot. Let's use a racial slur at the very least a condescending slur towards the press secretary when people are being murdered at the highest rates in recent history in Chicago on your watch, on your watch. And they're also throwing a lot of these people are throwing projectiles at the police who are supposed to be empowered to protect the communities that are absolutely being decimated by violence. And they're tearing down statues, as you saw in the video and all of that. It's just an absolute mess.

So anyone who tells you that, oh, all of these demonstrations are just so peaceful. It's just about justice. They're lying. Again, and it's sad because, like I said, there are so many people who are sincerely wanting to have a conversation about transparency in the police who are sincerely wanting to talk about injustice, who are sincerely talking about reform. but they're being drowned out by the chaos. And President Trump is simply trying to say, okay, at some point, like, we've got to protect the citizens, the law-abiding citizens of these communities who are being negatively affected by this violence and this chaos. So I've got to send some federal help in. It's all just such a crazy, such a crazy situation.

Now, I've asked this before, and I'll ask it again, are we headed for some kind of civil war? I really hope not. I really hope not. Like I think there are some people who want that who are like, you know, I just want the country to split up. And I don't desire that as I've said, I love America. I love the union. I love the United States of America. I don't want to split up. I don't want violence. I don't want a war. I don't even want a country that is all ideologically aligned with me. I probably differ from a lot of liberals who would say, you know, it would just be so much better if we didn't have anyone who is conservative in our country. I don't feel that way. I actually feel, even though I so drastically disagree with leftists on pretty much everything, I think that it's important to have two different sides to a debate. Like, I think it's important for there to be tug of war when it comes to policies, when it comes to ideas. And because we have different priorities, we have different outlooks. And again, while I disagree with them, I do think competing perspectives are important in a thriving Republic. The problem is, as I've talked about, we don't even have, we don't have any shared

foundational values anymore. It was at one point that the majority of people believed that we were all made by a creator who gave us inalienable rights among them being life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and any policy that allows America to get closer to that ideal of liberty and justice for all, of treating everyone under the eyes of the law, and promoting liberty, promoting the general welfare, even if we had different ideas of what that looked like, at least at the end of the day, we could go back to the Constitution and go back to the Declaration of Independence and say, okay, we agree on these values. And we're proud of America and the progress that she has made. We are glad to be Americans and we just want what's best.

So let us have a debate. Let us have a conversation of whose ideas are better. It's just not like that anymore. You've got one side who has a radical wing. I won't say it is the entirety of the left at all, but has a radical wing in it that is not being decried by the rest of the party that is saying, no, we want the abolition of the United States. Like, we don't want a prison system at all. We don't want a justice system at all. We don't want police at all. We think that the Constitution is actually bad because it was all built on slavery and racism in white supremacy. We actually believe that the founding ideals are completely moot. We don't believe at all in the goodness or the goodness of the ideas of the founding fathers. There was a pretty troubling, a troubling Fox News poll that came

out over the weekend, I believe it was, that said that only 63% of the population sees the founding fathers as heroes. There is a large percentage of people who unfortunately see the founding fathers as villains and it gets worse as the younger you go, as it's so typical in all of these, and all of these kinds of polls. It's like the 18 to 29 year olds consistently just have the worst and the most factless ideas about what the world should look like and what the world does look like. It's one thing to say, okay, yes, the founding fathers were flawed and they were maybe hypocritical in creating these kinds of founding documents that talk about equality and justice and liberty. And they didn't live that way themselves.

because they were slaveholders. So you can make that argument and still say, but their ideas created the most prosperous and freest and the most equitable and the most tolerant society in the history of the world in such a short period of time. You can go back and listen to my episode. I think it's called Why America is Great right before Fourth of July. The details, all of that stuff. That's one thing. I agree with you that the founding fathers were not, they were not gods. They were not divine. They were very flawed human beings. They were fallible, finite human beings. human beings like you and I are. They had clear hypocrisies in their life, but hypocrisies, which were very common throughout the entirety of the world in that day and for several decades

afterwards in different parts of the world. But to say that they are villains and their ideas are villainous and that their ideas are bad and therefore the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and all of the ideals and the values upon which we were founded are bad, we can't go forward that way because you've got an entire side of the country, at least half the country, who doesn't think that way at all, who agrees that, yes, our history is flawed. Yes, we have grave sins in our past. But the progress that we've made is incredible and we should be proud of that. And we should always be striving to get closer and closer to our ideals, not obliterate our ideals. If we can't even agree on the foundations of our society and what they are and whether or not they are good, if freedom is good, if liberty and justice for all are good. If we can't even agree on what justice is, and apparently now we can't even agree on the fact that two and two objectively make four. You've got people, even Nicole Hannah Jones, the lead essayist in the 1619 project of the New York Times has said, has talked about this idea of two plus two equaling four actually being something about hegemonic power or something

crazy like that. I mean, you've got people who legitimately believe that, objectivity is a product of whiteness and white supremacy. Like, we just cannot come together as a society like that. If we keep going like this, where we are so divided on principle, we are so divided on foundational values, we cannot get along, we cannot think the best of one another at all. We are divided by race. We are so divided by socioeconomic class. We are divided by basic values and worldview, that we cannot come together on.

any fundamental commonality, then we can't be cohesive. We're going to be vulnerable and we will fall. We will fall. And I don't, if the path to peace, at least for some of us, is a separation of the country to where, okay, you know, all the people who believe in socialism can go there and all the people who believe in freedom, in capitalism, in the tenets of our, uh, of our country can come here, then maybe that's the direction. I don't see how that's feasible. I don't see how that's possible. That's certainly not ideal. But it is just hard to see how we come together. So if all of this freaks you out, freaks me out. I don't like thinking about it because I just look out the window and I just feel hopeless. And plus, we're reading 1984 and Women's Book Club with Ali Suckie right now on Facebook. And that'll just, that'll just freak you out. I'm listening to it, which might even be freakier than if I were reading. reading it. I read it in high school, but I'm listening to it now. And it's just, I mean,

it'll just send chills down your spine, just the similarities that we are seeing today. If all of that freaks you out, I encourage you to listen. So I listen to a John McArthur, a John McArthur sermon over the weekend. He is doing a sermon on final justice. So what it will look like when Christ comes back and he rules imperfect justice and righteous and righteous. and peace and how we can look forward to that. That one day there's not going to be division. There's not going to be evil. There's not going to be corruption. There's not going to be manipulation. There's not going to be mistruths or deception. There's not going to be false narratives. There's not going to be politics. There's not going to be partisanship. There's not going to be

warring superpowers. There's not going to be any of that because Jesus will rule in perfect righteousness and perfect justice and perfect peace. There's not going to be any relativism, no subjectivism. There's not going to be my truth and your truth. The truth is going to rule absolutely. And that is the day that we have to look forward to. Like that is what our hope is in. And every day until that happens, our role as a Christian is to just be obedient. It's to be obedient. Yes, I mean, I think that we should obviously care about the things that are going on. That's why I do this podcast. I think that we need to be. be aware because we need to know what to pray for. And we need to know the causes that we need to

fight for. We need to know how vigilant we need to be in protecting our children. We need to know what's going on in a local level with our school board, with our school system, what our local officials are doing. We need to know all of that stuff. We need to know which way to vote if we are going to vote. We need to know which issues are at stake. I think all of those things are important because the policies that we are talking about and debating about and the chaos that's waging in the streets, it affects predominantly the least of these. So yes, we do need to care about these things if we care about our children, if we care about our children's children, if we care about the least of these right now. We do need to care about all of those things. But our hope is not in

any politician. It's not in any policy. It's not in any party. President Trump cannot deliver us. Joe Biden cannot deliver us. There is no senator or representative or mayor or prosecutor that can deliver us now there can be evil people in all of those positions that can put us in a worse place of suffering and persecution and oppression of the least of these that is absolutely true and there are people in those positions that can make changes for the better that is absolutely true but those people can't deliver us they're not going to save us we cannot worship them we can't put all of our stock on them as Christians we don't our future ultimately is not determined by what happens in November, even though, of course, it's important. It's not determined by that. God's

plan, God's purposes are not determined by what happens in November, what happens in a second from now or tomorrow or 10 years from now. His plan of redemption is going off without a hitch because he is completely sovereign and nothing happens apart from his will. As we talk about a lot, the Bible says not even a sparrow falls out of the sky apart from the father's will. If that is true, that not even a bird, which, as Jesus says, is sold for two pennies. If not even a bird falls out of the sky apart from the Father's will, do you think any of the things that are happening right now are happening outside of the Father's sovereign will? It's not.

So even though it's confusing, even though it's chaotic, what we can trust in is that one day God is going to rule in perfect justice and perfect peace and there won't be any disagreement, there won't be any division, there won't be any sadness, there won't be any sorrow, there won't be any heartache, there won't be any fear or anxiety or depression or any of that, because Jesus will absolutely rule. And we trust right now that God's plan of eternal redemption is going exactly how he wants it to, that he is on his throne, that he knows what he's doing, he's in control, he doesn't come in later to clean up the mess, he is actively working in all of it. And I promise you, as we've talked about before, God's work does not make headlines.

So as we speak, as we are reading all these headlines and looking at all of these stories, God is drawing hearts to himself. God is making sure that the gospel is going forth, that it is planting seeds and that it is blooming where he wants it to bloom. He is building and refining his church. Yes, the church might be pushed to the margins of society, but that is where the church thrives. It is refined by fire.

It's not destroyed by fire. God is doing good things right now, and you and I, our job, much more important, even than knowing what's going on in the world, much more important, even than voting, much more important than looking into all these policies and issues and causes and rhetoric and news stories, which are important, but not nearly as important as being obedient to God and being good stewards of the tiny plot of earth that he has placed you on. So that means simply being obedient in the roles that God has called you to right now. Be a good wife.

Be a good mother. Be a good employee. Be a good boss. Be a good friend. Do all of these things to the glory of God and in everything you do share the gospel and the love of Christ. And that is enough. That's enough.

Now, God might call you to start an organization. God might call you to start a movement. God might call you into something that is really big, maybe something public, maybe something private. God might call you to a different cause that dominates most of your life. He might call you to all of those things. But he will call you. He will call you. And when he does, he will equip you. But until that call comes and as you are praying and actively seeking his will, be obedient in the things that are right in front of you. That is what we are called to do. We cannot worry about tomorrow. We can't be preoccupied with that. Today has enough trouble for itself. So I just

wanted to leave you with that. Listen to John McArthur's sermons. You might not have the same eschatology as him. I actually don't have the same eschatology as him. I am a pre-millennialist. He is a pre-millennialist, but he is a, he's pre-tribulation. I am post-tribulation. If you don't know what I mean by that, you can look it all up. Got Questions.org. It's a great resource. For all of that, I also did an episode called The End Times. And I'm actually going to have a conversation with an apologist, Jeff Durbin and a pastor, he is a post-millennialist, and we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about that and what everything means in relation to the in time soon. But regardless of where you stand in your eschatology,

I do encourage you to go listen to this John McArthur sermons. It will strengthen you. It will give you peace. It will remind you of what is important. Again, we talk about temporal things on this podcast. Temporal things are important. They are important to know about. And it's important to know the truth and not to be swept up by false narratives and false headlines. But at the end of the day, the realist reality, the most important reality, the most peace-bringing reality is that God is on his throne and that nothing, nothing, not, nothing happens apart from his will. And not even as R.C. Sprole used to always say, that there's no maverick molecules. Like there's not a single molecule in all of the

heavens and the earth, in all of the universe, even the parts of the universe that we don't know. There is not a single molecule in all of that that is outside of the Father's will. So you can know and you can rest assured and you can be at peace knowing that everything that is happening right now is still in God's control and there will be a day where he will avenge evil and truth will win and evil will be destroyed forever. Okay, that's all I have today. We will be back here on Friday again talking about public schools, what's happening in them and a lot of just like the false narratives that are surrounding them, school choice, micro schools,

all that stuff. It's going to be really fascinating conversation. I'm excited to, I'm excited to talk about it. So make sure that you tune in on Friday and I will see you then.