Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 280 | The Madness Ravaging America's Cities

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

As the anarchists continue to riot, Democratic mayors across America cater to them in hopes that they will make their own mark in the social justice movement. Allie Beth Stuckey is here to remind us that the Gospel is the answer to the anarchy. Today's Link: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. And I also hope you liked Friday's episode. We talked about the corruption of a large portion of the public school system and teachers' unions and the dire need for school choice, especially for poor and vulnerable communities. If you have not listened to that conversation yet, go back and listen to Friday's episode. Such an important interview. and I learned so much and I really hope that you learned a lot too.

I got a lot of good feedback. So thank you guys for that. Definitely go listen. By the way, if you love this podcast, it would mean a whole lot to me. If you left me a five-star review on Apple podcast, you can tell me why you like the show, you can give me suggestions on your review,

or you don't have to do that at all. You can just leave five stars, whatever is easiest for you. But thank you guys so much to those of you who have left me, those positive reviews. It really means a lot to me. Also, if you are, watching on YouTube, you see that I have the final copy of my new book.

You're not enough. And that's okay escaping the toxic culture of self-love, which comes out August 11th. And I am going to have it right here next to me for probably, I don't know, the next month and a half or so just to remind you guys to order the book, pre-order the book if you would like to now. You can go to Alliebethstock.com slash book. And you can see all the places you can find it. If you are international, I've gotten this question a lot, you're not going to be able to purchase

it just straight from the Amazon link that I have on my website. You're going to have to go to, like the Canadian domain or the Australian domain or the UK domain, whatever it is in order to be able to buy it. You can buy it internationally, but you just have to go through the right medium to do that. And a reminder, if you are a woman and you join my Women's Book Club with Ali Stucky on Facebook. We will be going through this book together, and I will be publishing videos that are exclusive to this book club that are going to be walking through a study on the book. So anyone can have access to the study guide that can accompany the book, but only the women

who are in this online book club on Facebook are going to have access to the videos that I'm going to be putting out leading that discussion. We're going to start the discussion a couple weeks after the book comes out. So make sure that you pre-order right now. If you haven't already, make sure that you join that book club. And if you've already done all of those things, you can invite your friends to join the book club. Also, if you pre-order, email Alliebustucky at penguin randomhouse.com with your proof of purchase. And you will be sent a free excerpt. And if you want to, they'll also send you different graphics that have quotes from the book that you can post on your social media if you so choose. So just a couple announcements to start the show today. We are going to be talking

about first, I'm going to talk about some good news. Then we're going to talk about some of the chaos that's raging, that's raging and waging, I guess, in the streets of our major cities, why these things are happening at least to, in my opinion and to my perspective. and we are going to be talking about how some of this madness is infiltrating our institutions, including the church, and how, quite frankly, the gospel is better. And as I will explain, that is not bypassing the problems that we're experiencing, that's not just slapping a band-aid on it, that is looking at the problems in the face and realizing that the antidote to all the chaos and the confusion and the division that we are

feeling as a country can only be rectified and reconciled and solved. in Jesus Christ, in our creator, in the great reconciler and Savior. So we will go through all of that. I know talking about some of the bad news, the bad things that are going on in our world can be anxiety-inducing. That's never my goal. But I do think it's important for us to be able to look out at the things that are happening in our country that might not be affecting us, you and I, tangibly. you and me tangibly is grammatically correct, but they are affecting people in these communities where, for example, violence has surged and where mobs are still running the streets. So I do think it's important to just at least temporarily take our eyes off of what's right in front of us and to remember the people who are most vulnerable to the violence that's happening across the country

and talk about, you know, what we can do about some of these things. analyze where these problems are coming from. So we are going to start with good news, as I promised. We talked about on Monday the hope that we have in Christ, and this bears repeating and explaining even further. It can't be repeated enough. The hope we have that one day he will rule in perfect peace, he will rule in justice, he will rule in righteousness, he will have defeated sin and death forever. There will be no violence. There will be no mobs. There will be no lawlessness, no deceit, no partisanship, no politics, no elections. All the evil that we see around us, all the division that we see around us will go away. All wickedness will be avenged. No evildoer will go

unpunished. All wrongs will be made right. All injustice will be paid for. No abuse, no manipulation, no exploitation. God is going to defeat all of it, including Satan, the father of lies, the accuser, the originator of all of this confusion and chaos. And he, he, will also defeat death. And all of those who have put our faith in Christ who follow him will live in total freedom, in total joy, and total peace forever and ever. We won't have any concerns. We won't have any worries. We won't have any anxieties. We won't have any jealousy. We won't have any factions. There will be people there where Jesus is ruling whom we disagreed with on earth, theologically, politically, politically, ideologically. And we will be, um,

enjoying each other's company as brothers and sisters in Christ, fully enjoying the fullness of justice and righteousness and peace under the rule of Christ. Let me read you portions of Psalm 37. Maybe my favorite Psalm, I encourage you to read this chapter as often as you need to. There is such peace that comes with the truth that this chapter discusses. Fret, not yourself because of evil doers. Be not envious of wrongdoers. for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Be still before the Lord. And wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out evil devices. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in a

abundant peace. Also part of this chapter is verse four, which says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. We actually talked about that in a most misused episode that you can go back and listen to or watch where we talk about the entirety of this chapter, if you're interested in that. But this, what I just read to you from Psalm 37 is what we as Christians have to look forward to. It's coming. It is a reality that we are going to experience. It's not just a figment of our imaginations. It's not just a mirage. It's coming.

We will experience that. Actually, really, one day, that's going to be the reality, the only reality for Christians in the future. And what a privilege that is. Like, what a blessing it is to be a Christian that as we look at the chaos all around us, we actually have something to look forward to. We have something tangible to hope in, and that is perfect peace. How amazing is it that God has given?

us that privilege, he could have done away with us forever. He could have satisfied his wrath on all of us deserving and totally depraved sinners. But instead, he made a way for us through his own son, Jesus Christ, to be reconciled to him forever and live with him in perfect peace for eternity. How awesome is it to be a Christian. We talk a lot about privilege today. That is the greatest privilege that is the greatest privilege that anyone could ever have to be co-heirs with Christ, to be children of God, and to be able to enjoy his kingdom for eternity. What a privilege. So thank God for that. And what a contrast, that future hope is, well, that current hope for that future reality is to what is going on in the world right now, to the chaos and the violence that is

raging in our streets. And I do think it's important, like I said, for us to look at the things that are going on beyond our doorstep. And that is not to weigh us down with the weight of the world. Because as I've talked about before, social media and media make us feel like we are omnipresent, like we are omniscient and omnipotent, but we're not. We're finite. We don't have the capacity or the responsibility to care about everything that is going on at all times. So what we are called to do is to fulfill the roles that God has placed us in well, to steward the gifts, the responsibilities that God has given us well, and to concern ourselves with what is right in front of us.

But I do think it's important for us to remember that while you and I might be insulated from a lot of the dangers that are unfortunately manifesting themselves across the country right now, there are people who are considered the least of these in these vulnerable communities who unfortunately are taking the brunt of this chaos and violence. And I do think it's important for us to extend our compassion to them and to do what we can to pray for them, to vote in a way that helps them. And that requires us kind of understanding some of the things that are going on. So what is going on? Seattle, Portland, other major cities in America are going on about 60 days of rioting, looting, arson every night. Reported

from about midnight to 4 a.m. They are writers that are dressed in all black. They're wearing masks. They're writing graffiti on walls. They're burning down federal buildings. They are looting stores. They're breaking windows. Here is some footage showing that. You may have seen, if you're watching this on YouTube, the phrase ACAB that's graffitied in a lot of places on a lot of walls that stands for, and I'm about to say a not so great word. So if you are listening with kids in the car, you might just want to skip forward. or pause whatever you need to do. ACAB stands for all cops are bastard.

So very often you see that graffitied on walls along with the Antifa A. That's kind of a symbol of what they say these riots are about. And that's what these riots were supposedly originally about. They started after the George Floyd incident and they have not abated in two months now. The so-called demonstrators will say that this is still about police brutality or this is about justice or this is about racism. But I think it's very legitimate at this point to ask ourselves if what's going on in these streets correlates at all

with justice or George Floyd or police brutality. Here's a leader at one of the demonstrations stating their mission. Hi, everyone. As many of you know, my name is Lilith Sinclair. I'm an Afro-Indigenous non-Biary local organizer here in Portland organizing for the abolition of not just the militarized police state but also the United States as we know. So I appreciate her candor

because that is what this is really about. And I do, I honestly commend some of them for just coming out and saying that. And we should just be real. We should take them at their word. These are mostly at this point, mostly, not all, but

mostly white rioters that are burning down buildings and looting Amazon stores and places like Portland and Seattle. And they're not doing it for George Floyd. It's not for racism. It's not for justice. At the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, a 16-year-old. Black young man was shot and killed by a member of one of the riots that allegedly existed for justice. This is not about what happened to George Floyd. It's not about police brutality.

It's not about white supremacy. If it were, do you honestly think some of these same rioters would be taking down statues of people like, Frederick Douglass in places like Rochester, New York, if this was really about just white supremacy and racism and police brutality, do you think they would be taking down statues of Grant, a union general? No, of course not. This is about a revolution, a desire to obliterate America as we know it and replace it with what they feel is a communist utopia. And they believe the way to get there is through anarchy, through destruction, until there is nothing left and they have to rebuild the utopia or what I would say is a dystopia that they desire.

And the Democratic leaders of these cities are not only allowing these things to happen, they are aiding and abetting them. Jenny Durkin, mayor of Seattle, insisted for weeks that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was peaceful, even though we saw reports every day, we saw videos every day of violence, of arson, of vandalism that were happening on a daily basis. she said that the area in this city is known for freedom of expression. It's known for these kinds of demonstrations. We don't need help from the federal government.

It's all well and good. And I support the rioters. That's what she was saying for weeks until those rioters showed up at her house one night. And then she shut it down quickly. It was like the next day she decided that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was an unlawful gathering. And she called in the police to make the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone disperse. So when it affected her, when the chaos was on her doorstep, that is when she decided, okay, these demonstrations are no longer peaceful.

That's after a 16-year-old young black man had died in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. So maybe if Jenny Durkin, the mayor of Seattle, had cared about how this chaos was affecting other people besides her, besides her earlier, that young man wouldn't have died. maybe these livelihoods, the livelihoods of the people who own the businesses in this area wouldn't have been destroyed if she had cared about people other than herself, but she didn't. Ted Wheeler, mayor of Portland, is on the liberal airwaves saying President Trump is sending in federal officers and he's sending in secret police and that is wrong. These are paramilitary forces.

It's all a lie. It's a conspiracy theory that these unmarked forces, are taking people and putting them into unmarked cars that's not happening. The federal forces that are there are there to protect federal property that is in their job description, that is absolutely lawful and all of their uniforms have a signifier on it of who they are, either border patrol or police. That is a conspiracy theory to say that these fascist secret forces are coming in and kidnapping people and putting them in their cars. But that's what the mayor of Portland Ted Wheeler has said. He's saying, you know what? They're agitating and otherwise a very peaceful

situation. We don't need federal forces in there. I love how these people talk about the rioters and the demonstrators like their fire ants. Like, oh, if someone comes in and agitates them, they're just going to get angry. Like, they're just a bunch of animals. Like, they don't have any rational capacity at all. It's so patronizing and condescending. Well, here is Ted Wheeler, trying to reason with these very peaceful protesters. So that didn't work out. Yet Ted Wheeler is still saying, no, no, no, no, this is all well and good.

I'm standing with them. Dude, they hate you. They hate you. It's amazing how weak these leaders are. Jacob Frey, Mayor of Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, assured everyone the protesters were peaceful and reasonable. Well, here's what happened when he said, well, maybe I'm not going to actually defund the police. So again, that didn't go over well.

It's almost like mobs don't want to have conversations. However, after that, the Minneapolis City Council did move to defund the police at the end of June, even while the murder rate in Minneapolis increased by almost 100% from this time last year. Of course, while they defunded the police, they used 152,000. thousand taxpayer dollars for their own personal security personnel to protect them from the mobs. So they took away the security for the poor people, but they kept taxpayer security for themselves. Great. Typical democratic nonsense. Speaking of a rising crime, let's look at the city of Chicago. Compared to last year, both shootings and homicides have shot up to rates that have

been unseen in decades. The victims are almost all black. The perpetrators are almost all black. Among the victims are multiple three-year-olds, a 13-year-old girl, and many hundreds of young black men. And because Trump is trying to send federal help to Chicago, who's experiencing a crisis resulting in a massive loss of life, Lori Lightfoot's ego is hurt. And here's what she has to say. The president has been on a campaign now for some time against Democratic mayors across the country, whether it's me, whether it's Keishelands Bottoms in Atlanta, whether it's Muriel Bowser and Washington, C.C., whether it's Jenny Durkan in Seattle. Do you see a common theme here? The president is trying to divert attention from his failed leadership on COVID-19. So while hundreds of young people, children, babies are dying on her watch at rates higher than they have seen in 30 years, Lori Lightfoot is concerned about sexism, about President Trump.

possibly being sexist in his criticism. Well, she's the only one that only named female mayors. President Trump has also gone after Bill de Blasio. President Trump has also talked about Ted Wheeler of Portland. So she's the only one making that connection. And it just shows how insulated she is from the cares and concerns. And the tragedies that are happening on her doorstep as the blood of hundreds of her constituents are coloring the streets of Chicago.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is worried about maybe implicit somewhere, mysterious misogyny from the president of the United States. It's amazing. Or maybe, maybe it's because she and the other mayors that she listed are doing their jobs. If you want to prove female empowerment, if that's really what we're talking about, trying to be in a powerful leader instead of a weak one. Under Mayor Bottoms 's watch in Atlanta, that is a female mayor of Atlanta, an eight-year-old black girl was murdered by rioters a couple weeks ago. Under Mayor Jenny Durkins watched in Seattle, a 16-year-old black boy was murdered by rioters amid protests over Memorial Day weekend. Under Mayor Lightfoot's watch, Chicago had the deadliest weekend in 30 years. 84 people shot, 24 killed, almost all of those

black Americans. And those are just a few of the examples of violence that have occurred in Atlanta, in Seattle, in Chicago recently. So if these ladies, these female mayors don't want help find the president, maybe they should do their jobs. And like I said, it's not just female mayors that are dropping the ball here. Ted Wheeler, mayor of Portland, the fellow that you saw mobbed by the mob, the mayor of Minneapolis, Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City, where crime and homicides are surging where a black one-year-old was shot in the stomach and died a couple weeks ago, has reallocated $1 billion from the NYPD, and he is spending his time painting Black Lives Matter on the road when Black people are dying because of his reallocation of funds from the police.

Again, I ask for the millionth time, which Black Lives Matter and to whom? Which Black Lives Matter and to whom? All of these Democratic mayors who use the hashtag and they say the phrase and they paint the phrase and they support the organization, black lives are being murdered at insane rates on their watch as we speak. and these are preventable deaths in large parts. They could be prevented by cracking down on the rioting and the looting and not demonizing and defunding the police.

Thousands of black lives are being lost every day in this country due to intra-community violence and they don't have any organizations rallying for them. They don't have anyone protesting for them. They don't have any angry teenagers throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers for them. No statues are being torn down for them. Yes, in Chicago, just the other night in the middle of the night, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had the statue of Christopher Columbus taken down, and she saw this as a great victory. Look, taking down the statue of Christopher Columbus is not going to bring those dead babies back

to life, Lori Lightfoot. That's not going to make you a good mayor. And that's what all of this is. So much of this is virtue signaling while ignoring the problems that are literally killing flesh in blood human beings. Just because you say that Black Lives Matter doesn't mean that you actually think they do. If your actions are not lining up with that phrase, Black Lives Matter, the organization supports the defunding of the police.

The police are the only line of defense for people, especially women and children, that don't have the resources or the ability to protect themselves. Yes, there are bad apples in the police force. And that is dangerous. That's worse than having a bad apple in a financial firm because these people are armed and they're going into these vulnerable communities. And if you've got a bad apple that is carrying a gun, of course, the effect of that bad apple is going to be the loss of life and injustice.

And we should absolutely care about that. I want to do whatever we can to minimize those cases. And I want bad cops to be brought to justice quickly. Absolutely. But police officers, if we're honest, and if we look at the data, are the least of the problems that are facing the inner cities right now. A 2015 Gallup poll after Ferguson found that only 8% of black Americans want a smaller police presence in their communities.

33% said they wanted a larger presence of police compared to only 18% of white people who said that and 27% of Hispanic. So white people are actually the least likely to say they want a larger police presence. And black people are the most likely to say that they would like a larger police presence in their communities. So who are these mobs and these activist groups really represented in their push to defund the police? Not the majority of the black community, apparently. They're representing the radical fringes at the left, the majority of whom happens to be white, who don't represent the concerns and the tragedies that are going on in these communities. And these fringes right now are destroying cities that are made up of large minority communities.

And these democratic politicians in these cities who are ordering the police to stand down, who are reallocating funds away from their police departments, who are demonizing the police, so that the police are afraid to go into these violent neighborhoods. They're afraid to do their jobs are only making matters worse. Those are just the facts. And again, it is the underprivileged, the poor, the weak, the elderly, the disabled, the babies, the women who are made most vulnerable

when crime goes up because of a lack of policing. But here is what people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have to say, about defunding the police? When people ask me, what does a world where we defund the police, where, you know, defunding police looks like, I tell them it looks like a suburb. Because in Yorktown Heights and in, and in a lot of these communities in Westchester, what is the most important thing that is like political, like politically the most important thing that the world revolves around?

It's school funding. People will uproot their entire lives. you will see people go nuts for school funding. What? Girl, what? First of all, first of all, the suburbs have police. They have a police force. Does she not realize that?

Second, criminals don't just stop committing crimes. So her logic sounds like she thinks the police are causing the crime. And if police just stopped policing, then criminals would stop committing crimes. And inner cities would start just looking like the suburbs. So I guess drive-by shootings of cookouts where a one-year-old baby is murdered or the drive-by shooting that happened the other day by a funeral that shot and killed several people, those things would just stop happening. Everything would look like the suburbs once we defunded the police. Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. Also, the most vulnerable, the poor, are left behind when the rich people, which they inevitably do, leave these cities and leave these areas because of a lack of policing.

and because of danger. They leave places also where this mob writing is happening, places like Portland and Seattle because they don't want to deal with the madness. They want to protect their families. So they're rich in the middle class. If they can afford it, they leave and they move outward and they abandon these cities. And then you have the poor and the vulnerable that are left to pick up the pieces. And just as an aside, for all the people who are leaving these liberal cities fleeing to

the mountains, fleeing to rural areas. areas fleeing to the suburbs. Please just leave your liberal policies behind. Please take notice of how the quality of life in your cities. So San Francisco, L.A., Chicago, Portland, Seattle, New York City, Baltimore, Austin has gone down while homelessness and crime have gone up. Please take notice of these things and resist bringing your liberal ideals and ideas to the red counties, the red states, the red cities, the red areas that you are fleeing to because they're more peaceful. There's a reason why they're more peaceful. There's a reason why they're cleaner and more prosperous.

And it's because they don't have the liberal values and the liberal policies and the liberal politicians that you had in the cities that you used to live in that are now run down. And democratic policies sound good and in badly. Every time always, they make their cities worse. Many cities are prosperous despite their liberal policies, because of them. Democratic governors who do do a good job leading their cities very often are moderate in economic matters, moderate in some of their policies. And that doesn't mean that no Democrat has ever had a good idea or ever had a good policy prescription or that they don't ever bring up

good points. Again, I think that it's important to have a liberal perspective. I don't want to live in a country where everyone ideologically agrees. I do want to live in a country where we have shared fundamental values and we're able to have spirited discussions and debate. And we're debates about the policies that get us closer to those values like liberty and justice for all. But the fact of the matter is the leftism that is currently being propagated by this Democratic party in these major cities is toxic. It is destructive. And I don't think Republicans, to be fair, have done nearly enough to mitigate this madness. I think a lot of Republicans are weak right now. I think a lot of Republicans, not all certainly, but a lot of Republicans are

silent that they're not doing a good job of leaving. They're not doing a good job of representing the conservative cause or conservative concerns. Instead, we have some Republicans in Congress pitching to change Columbus Day. Like, is that really what we need right now? Like, is that, is that the representation that we voted for when we voted you into Congress? President Trump and his administration are finally sitting federal officers into these cities, which is good for the law abiding citizens there. Even Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago. ago is that okay, okay, okay, yeah, we need some help to crack down on gang violence. So you know what? We should give credit where it's due and we should give grace where there should be given grace

and Mayor Lightfoot, even though she is unfortunately has been a terrible weak leader. At least she was able to lay down her ego long enough to be able to say, okay, you know, we need federal forces and we need people to come in. Might be too little too late, but I'm glad that she is accepting that help. And thank goodness that President Trump is willing to go in and help these cities. He would be able to say, you know what, we're actually not going to go protect federal property. We're actually not going to help them crack down on crime because they could say, he could say, okay, these cities are run by Democrats. They made their bed. We should just let them lie in it. But he is realizing what a lot of people are realizing, that that's not fair for the law abiding,

especially the poor citizens in those cities that are the victims of this violence and of this madness. So I don't even know if it's politically advantageous for President Trump to send help into these cities, but he's doing it because it's the right thing to do. And I'm very glad that he is. Again, I just want to reiterate that all of this madness that is happening, the riots and the mob, it's not about black lives. It's not. If it were about black lives, not just for these rioters in the mobs, but also for these democratic politicians that are pandering to the mobs and allowing violence to ravage their streets. If it were really about black lives, they would be out there supporting policies that save and help black lives. They would be, for example, I mean, you listen to this on Friday. They would be supporting school choice, something that specifically and quantifiably helps black children. They would be doing everything they can to support the cohesion of the family. We know what fatherlessness does to people of all ethnic backgrounds.

It increases the rates of depression, anxiety, dropping out of high school, teen pregnancy, teen delinquency. That's what fatherlessness causes. And so these politicians who say they care about black lives should be doing everything they can to push for and support the cohesion of the family. They would be against Planned Parenthoods that are setting up shop in minority community, specifically that are killing thousands of black babies every year disproportionately. As we know, Planned Parenthood was founded by a eugenicist who spoke to the KKK, Margaret Sanger.

But that institution, that murder mill is apparently fine. We're apparently supposed to support that while simultaneously saying the Black Lives Matter. What about the thousands of baby lives that are murdered every year in Planned Parenthood? We are all on the same page. By the way, about the evils of police brutality, 1,000. percent racialized police brutality is, I think we all agree is something that it is wicked. However, and this is so controversial to say, but the data just proves this to be true, racialized police brutality is not an epidemic.

And I agree that one racialized death, one unjust death is one too many. All of them are wrong. Any kind of unjust use of police force needs to be condemned. It needs to be investigated. The police officer needs to be. held accountable, Tatiana Jackson, Justine Damon, Daniel Schaever, Philando, Castile, Elijah McLean, or just a few of the situations that I think, it seems from what I know, were a questionable, questionable use of force. And I think that those things need to be brought to justice. However,

the justice system sees fit. Any instance should be investigated. Any instance should be brought to justice, but the numbers simply do not bear out the idea that police are disproportionately targeting minority communities. You can go back and you can listen to the episode, Does the Truth Matter, and which Black Lives Matter, to learn more about that. Those are two different episodes that talk about this issue in depth in some of the numbers. So to use that issue of racialized police brutality and then extrapolate it into a nebulous conversation about systemic racism in which all disparities that we see the ethnicities are labeled systemic racism rather than actually looking into the many factors that can play into disparities to use it as a springboard to try to revolutionize corporations,

sports, academia, the church language in a way that chastises white people as a group and elevates non-whites as a group based on nothing except for generalizations is not productive. Like if we are going to talk about prejudice, which has existed in America, and exists, I'm sure, in places today because people are sinful and unfortunately hold prejudices in their hearts. If we are going to talk about where those things exist and where discrimination exists, whether it's in legislation, in the church, I think we should talk about that. If pastors want to talk about it, I think that they should talk about it. But we have to be specific. We have to talk about what this prejudice actually looks like tangibly, where it's showing up,

how to rectify it. And in a Christian sense, how to repent. from it if it is something that we are personally responsible for. And there are some people that are doing that. And that's really good. I think that that's important. There are a crucial conversations happening. So I'm not lumping all of the conversations about discrimination and prejudice together and saying that it's all contributed to mob violence. I'm not saying that at all. But we need to be careful because this kind of undefined gospel of grievance that we see in some places that says white people are all inherently racist. All American institutions are white supremacist. The idea like the Modern Museum of African American history and culture said that the idea of

individualism is just whiteness, the idea of rational thinking is just whiteness, the idea of hardworking is just whiteness. We really have to be careful with that because that is a gospel of grievance that tears down not just individuals, but entire societies. It's not helpful. It's not biblical, assuming that your white neighbors are racist and that the principles that America was founded on or therefore racist is not the path to reconciliation, assuming that someone is racist just based on the color of their skin is not loving your neighbor. It doesn't build a path to the kind of unity that people within the church and people outside of the church say that they want. So we have to realize that America, both its individuals and its institutions, simply are much

less ethnically prejudiced than some people want us to believe. Again, that doesn't mean that prejudice doesn't exist, but because this is all a useful wedge to divide us, it's a useful springboard for a socialist revolution for these anarchists to carry out their revolution in burn cities to the ground. It's a good distraction for these democratic politicians who are failing their cities because it can be used as a way to precipitate these things and it can be used as a way to justify a revolution. We have to be careful not to buy into any exaggerated descriptions of ethnic prejudice. I'm trying to get away from using this word racist because race is a social construct that is not helpful when we're talking about these subjects. And I think we have to realize that,

that it's being highlighted and exploited as a means of division and destruction, which is really unfortunate because it makes it very difficult to have productive conversations about where prejudice really exists and where injustice and unfair inequality of opportunity really exists. Booker T. Washington spoke of race baiters who make their living off of this kind of stuff. He said, some of these people do not want the black man to lose his grievances because they do not want to lose their jobs. So just realize that some people are capitalizing off of the chaos that's happening right now.

And so we have to be discerning. We have to discern between the people who are having a productive dialogue about prejudice and people who are preaching a useless, counterproductive gospel of grievance, who are using the chaos to build a revolution that seeks to take down and tear down everything that has ever made America, the land of opportunity that it is. but also to take down things that have made humanity strong and cohesive, freedom, faith, the nuclear family. Certainly, Black Lives Matter as an organization falls into that category. Again, go back and listen to the episode, which Black Lives Matter.

They are admitted Marxist. They want to dismantle the nuclear family. They believe anti-capitalism is anti-racism. They realize that focusing on only a certain kind of death of a black person is useful for their Marxism. goals and speaking of BLM Rutgers University says that they are standing in solidarity with that organization by de-emphasizing grammar and sentence structure in their English classes to try to close inequities between white and non-white students. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations and this is part of what I'm talking about, these counterproductive goals that are happening that are driving us further apart and only are going to create more disparities in

division and resentment. This is the same kind of thing. we saw in that whiteness document in the modern museum of African American culture, associating whiteness with punctuality, with hard work, with accuracy, with the scientific method, all things that aren't white but are universally positive and lend to people's success and always have the ability to write and to speak well and accurately will always be valuable. It will always get you farther than your peers. So Rutgers, instead of providing ways to maybe help these students, reach higher standing. They're lowering the standards for these students.

And you know what that does? Like I said, that creates more disparities because the students who do know proper grammar and can speak well and write well are not going to stop using it. They're not going to dumb themselves down. And they will continue to be more successful. They are going to be more likely to get a job. They are going to be more likely to get into grad school because they can write proper emails and handle themselves in an interview because they continue to hold

themselves to high standards that the teachers refuse to hold other people's other people to. So that creates more disparities. And this is what this brand of leftism seeks to do. It aims to bring everyone to the lowest common denominator, rather than helping those at the bottom reach the high standards that are needed to succeed because actually, as critical theory would assert, the existence of objective standards is oppressive. This kind of paternalism is what hurts communities. And you can call me crazy, call me some kind of radical, but I believe the people of all ethnicities have the same capacity to succeed if they are willing to work hard and apply themselves. And I don't believe that we should be lowering the standards for anyone because I

believe that everyone is able, no matter where they started, everyone is able to accomplish the things that they want to accomplish. That's not to say there aren't obstacles in some people's way that other people don't have in their way. That's not to say that some people aren't born with certain privileges that other people aren't. But I do believe that every ethnicity has the capacity to reach high standards without us actually lowering those standards. But remember, the people who propagate this kind of leftism, they do not see making something of yourself or getting a job or starting a family or providing for them as necessarily good. They actually see these things as an oppressive American dream or an idolatrous American dream. They actually see the oppressiveness

of, for example, the family hierarchy. They are okay with everyone being dumb. They're okay with everything being subjective because socialism is much more easily put upon people who are uncritically thinking. Again, all of the stuff that's happening, the chaos, the revolutions of our institutions is not about black lives or the lives. or success of black people. For some, yes, but for those who are wielding power right now, who are allowing and exacerbating this violence and this chaos and the revolution of our institutions, no. And all of this is causing terrible division where there just wasn't before. Have there always been tensions between the ethnicities in America? Yes, of course, there have. There have been

obviously tensions between black Americans and white Americans. There have been tensions between black Americans and Korean Americans. There have been tensions between Jewish Americans and black Americans. And we have a history of evil prejudice against, I would say, predominantly black Americans, but also other groups that exacerbate those tensions today that make them worse. But I do believe that we were headed, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago or more, maybe 15 years ago, towards a post-racial America and that we have taken huge steps backward, huge steps backward, at least in part because of the tenets of critical theory affecting academia, the identity politics by Obama and others like him, the new wokeness that has infected corporations

and curriculum because of Marxist intersectionality that splits people up as the oppressed versus the oppressor based solely on their skin color and their group identity. These have created resentment. They have glorified victimhood, which is just crushing to unity. It's crushing to any idea of reconciliation. It's crushing to progress. We just can't move forward under the burden of intersectionality. It's too heavy for a unified people to bear.

I want to show you a picture that is very disturbing. So if you're watching on YouTube, consider this your trigger warning. If you want to look away, if you want to fast forward, I'm also going to describe it. So if you want to fast forward through. through this, then you can do that. This is a picture of an Ohio man by the name of Isaiah Jackson. He is putting his knee on the neck of a baby wearing only a diaper who is laying on his stomach. His face is clearly crying out in distress with another person holding the baby's hands behind his back. This is sickening. My stomach is in knots just describing this. I don't know if I will ever get

this terrible picture out of my head. caption on the picture says BLM now MFs. It's relevant to the story that the man who is kneeling on the baby is black and that the baby is white. Thankfully, the man who has a criminal past has been arrested and charged and we should pray for justice and for the welfare of that poor child. Now, this is just a random person. This is not representative of everyone who says Black Lives Matter. Certainly not. It's not even representative of the organization necessarily. So why do I I show this picture that has been making the rounds for the past few days and has made a few obscure, but not any mainstream headlines. Because it is representative of the mindset that is being

encouraged by this movement, that people of a certain skin tone have the right to be angry and to lash out at all people of another skin tone because of injustices that have historically been perpetuated by white people. I mean, that's really. what we're told. That's what this whole anti-racism movement says, both outside the church and inside the church, that all white people are complicit. The book, white fragility, says that all white people are born into racism, that white people bear a corporate responsibility for the injustices of America's past, that all white people need to repent of the sin of racism, whether or not they have ever been actively racist. And while I believe that Christian books like white awake,

the color of compromise and be the bridge, all have very good and very important components to them. And, you know, I encourage you to read them and to, you know, take what is true and to dismiss what is not true. I'll never tell you not to read something. They have important parts of them. But an argument made in all of these books is that white people today are at the very least corporately complicit in perpetuating prejudice against black people and that we all need to repent. All white people have benefited from white supremacy and therefore we all have to, quote, do the work of dismantling it because all white people are in a way guilty. But what I'm trying to point out by this picture is not that any of those authors whatever condone what is happening in this picture or that this is what their intention is at all. I'm just trying to take you to the logic of that kind of.

of thinking that is represented in this picture because if all people who just share a certain melanin count are complicit in the system of racism and are therefore guilty and are therefore it's necessary for them to repent, then why not hold babies who are whites to that standard too? Why are babies not held liable if white people today are guilty because we've benefited from white structures and are therefore racist, whether we've actively been racist or not, as white fragility asserts, doesn't that mean that white babies are also guilty? And if so, why not harbor resentment against them? Why not be angry at white babies? If the standard of guilt isn't what you have ever sad, isn't what you have ever done, but is based on the group that you're a part of,

or the color of your skin, then why not punish a white baby for what a white police officer did to George Floyd. I'm not saying that this, again, is the explicit argument that has made at any of these books. It's not. And there's no doubt, again, that these authors would all be aghast and they would all be appalled and they would all condemn what was happening in those books. I am trying to get you to see the logical conclusion to the argument that guilt and responsibility is assigned to people based on their skin color rather than on what they've actually done. This is where that gets you. Anger toward people who have done nothing to you, nothing to anyone who looks like you, and especially the ones who can't defend themselves.

Thomas Soul says this. It is self-destructive for any society to create a situation where a baby who is born into the world today automatically has pre-existing grievances against another baby born at the same time because of what their ancestors did centuries ago. That's true. It is absolutely self-destructive. Identity politics, intersectionality, Marxism, critical theory. they are all meant to divide and destroy, not build. It's not in their nature to build.

So let me ask, let me ask this in the church, do you think that all of this, this idea of corporate guilt and corporate innocence, corporate grievance, not based on what you've actually done, not based on the intent of your heart, not based on what you've said, but just by nature of the color of your skin? Do you think that that philosophy is lending itself to unity and so-called racial reconciliation. Is assuming all white people are racist, loving your neighbor. It is encouraging non-white people to harbor resentment toward people that they don't know solely based on their skin color, loving your neighbor.

A resentment that, like all resentment, hurts their own hearts and souls. It doesn't. That's not going to lead to peace. That's not going to lead to reconciliation. What will happen is, unfortunately and tragically, many white people will avoid being friends with non-white people because they're going to assume that they think that they're racist and that they hate them. And then many non-white people will avoid white people because they assume that all white people are racist or complicit in racism,

as we've been told. And that's not right. None of that is good. None of that is progress. None of that is what should be happening in the church. While the world divides itself by assigned depression points and identity groups, the church doesn't. We refuse to assume the worst about people, based on their skin color especially. We refuse to allow resentment and disdain, bitterness, fester in our hearts. We refuse to hold a group liable for the sins of other people who happen to have the same melanin count as them. We refuse to resist friendships because we presume people's motives or their hearts.

That is not what we do. That's what the world does. And that's why the world is erupting in chaos right now. That is not what Christians do. But this mindset is eating the church. And like I said, a lot of the conversations right now happening around prejudice around injustice are good and productive when they are rooted in the gospel. And a lot of the components of the books that I listed are good and interesting.

Like we should think about the history of the church and how the sin of prejudice and hate has disproportionately affected black people in the country. And as I've said so many times, these are topics that are worthy of reading about and discussing even from the pulpit. I agree that there are problems in the church that we have turned a blind eye to. I understand that there is pain that many black Americans feel that I will never understand because for many of them they heard stories from their parents and grandparents about what it was like to be hated or terrorized for their skin color and that they have likely experienced

a kind of ethnic disdain that I will never experience. I agree that we should listen to people's hearts and experiences and perspectives. We should mourn with those who mourn. we should hate hate, we should want justice, we should strive for a church that treats everyone equally as image bearers and for Christians as co-ares with Christ. But when we talk about these subjects, we have to be specific in naming the problems and we have to be biblical in naming the solutions. Because we have the solution to prejudice that the world doesn't have. We have the great equalizer. We have the great unifier. We have the gospel. We have the message, the power

that enables us to love people unconditionally and completely no matter what they look like. Galatians 327 through 29. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus and you are Christ's. Then you are if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Colossians 311 through 13. Here there is not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircised,

barbarians, scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Ephesians 4-1 through 6. I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you are called to the one hope that belongs to your

call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 431, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. Last one. First Corinthians 13, 4 through 7, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. So you're telling me, after listening to that, that the gospel isn't enough, that the gospel is

insufficient. And in some cases, as some unfortunately self-proclaimed Christian teachers have said, inappropriate, after listening to all the, all the answers that we need to the problems that we face are listed right there, that we need to borrow the critical theory, philosophies of the world that assign corporate complicity based on skin color and expect corporate guilt and repentance based on skin color. I showed you an ugly picture that represents where that logic takes us. It's not to peace. It's not to unity. It's not to love. It's not to justice. We can discuss the sin of hate and prejudice, as the epistles often do without using the divisive philosophies of a world that does not know God.

Look out your window and see what a world that's. does not know God looks like. That's not what the church is supposed to look like. That's not what the church is supposed to be engaging in right now. So we as Christians, what must we do? We have to resist the urge to be afraid of friendships and relationships because of assumptions of how a certain kind of person thinks. We resist the mistrust and the defensiveness and the resentment that are all the products of these worldly philosophies of identity politics and Marxism and so much of the so-called anti-racism movement. We assume the best in our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we realize that any grievance that we hold toward someone else, God has every right to hold that

grievance toward us. And instead of holding it against us, he sent his son so that we could be forgiven of that grievance forever. And we are told to forgive other people as God, in Christ is forgiven us, and we also shouldn't assign grievance to people who haven't done anything to us just based on the group that they belong to. That goes for people of all ethnicities who bear the name of Christ. That is not what the church is supposed to look like. We are supposed to be unified in the gospel, which says that we were all dead in sin, not different levels of dead. We were all undeserving of God's grace, of his mercy, of his forgiveness. But God, God. He made us alive together with Christ. And so now we are all equal and we should be treating our brothers and sisters in Christ as such. So we assume the best in our brothers and sisters in Christ. We see those outside the church as lost people in need of a Savior. We pray that the Holy Spirit would give us power to love people in a way that shows the world what real unity and reconciliation look like. And that is impossible without the saving grace of the gospel. It's impossible. No other tool, no other theory, no

with their mindset will get us there. None. If the gospel reconciled Jews and Gentiles through their belief in Christ, then surely it is enough to reconcile people with different melanin counts today. Remember, Paul represented a group, and he himself actually persecuted to the death many Gentile Christians and many Jewish Christians as well. And then he became a missionary to a lot of these people. There was a lot of actually direct forgiveness that was necessary in order, I'm sure, to accept Paul. But it's very clear through the epistles that we are all made equal before Christ. We are equal in our depravity. We are equal in our sin. And once we are made alive in Christ, by His grace, we are co-hears. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. And that is the

reconciliation that we need, first to God, which brings us at peace with, other. If the gospel, again, could reconcile two groups like the Jews and the Gentiles, then surely it is enough to reconcile people with different melancholy accounts today. That is what the gospel does. It takes people whose ancestors hated each other and makes them brothers and sisters. And there's no better news than that. There's no better hope than that. And so let that be what we cling to. Let that be the driving force behind our conversations about justice and prejudice and love and hate and holiness and sanctification and caring for the least of these.

That is the only way to peace. That is the only mindset that will bring unity and joy rather than grievance and resentment. Those are not only not fruit of the spirit. They're actually fruit of Satan. And so we need to resist that. People of all ethnicities with everything we can and cling to the hope of Christ, which does not only bring us gladness, but also the reconciliation that we seek. Okay, that's all I have for today.

That was a long episode. I'll be back here Wednesday. We'll be talking about another really important and heavy, but really crucial topic. But I will just leave it to your imaginations. Okay, I'll see you then.