Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 457 | TPUSA Ejects Porn Star Brandi Love from Student Event

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

Today we're going over the drama surrounding TPUSA and a porn star named Brandi Love. Love was kicked out of a TPUSA event after parents complained about her presence, and that kicked off a ton of arguments on social media about whether a conservative event should tolerate an adult actress. This raises a deeper question of what really is conservatism? Remember, our founders did not establish any state religion, but they knew that a self-governing republic must have a religious and moral population to survive. So, to truly conserve our country, we need to include our understanding of morality, which stems from Christianity. --- Today's Sponsors: Patriot Mobile is America's ONLY Christian conservative wireless carrier & donates a portion of every dollar to organizations that fight for causes you and I care about. Right now, you can either get 50% off your first 2 months OR $100 off any phone. Go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE for details! Good Ranchers products are individually wrapped, vacuum sealed, & ready to grill (which helps eliminate waste!). Know where your meat comes from — go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE to get $20 off & FREE express shipping. TrueBill is the new app that helps you identify & stop paying for subscriptions you don't need, want, or simply forgot about. Start cancelling today at Truebill.com/ALLIE. --- Show Link: The Megyn Kelly Show: Allie Beth Stuckey on Protecting Women and Girls, Motherhood, and the Courage to Stand Up https://apple.co/2UD2udU --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

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

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Once again, if you are listening or if you're watching, you can tell that this is different than my normal sound. And I'm not in my studio.

We've got some crazy stuff going on at the Stucky House. Unfortunately, we've got some sick kids that makes it unable. It makes it hard for me to get to the studio. So I'm recording from here. I know you guys understand and I appreciate the grace that you guys give me when the audio and visuals aren't exactly perfect. So thank you guys for that. Also, thank you for your prayers yesterday.

I know I put out a replay episode because, you know, my kids just needed me and I didn't have. I didn't have the time to record an episode. So thank you guys for understanding that. If you're a mom, you understand how this kind of push and pull goes. And it's absolutely 1,000 percent worth it. I would give up anything and everything just to be there for my kids and to be a mom. As you guys know, that's my number one priority. Other priority, though, is you guys. And I love doing the show so much. And this week it's been especially fun because we've been able to talk about some hot topics. On Monday, we talked about that modest is hottest music video.

They got so much blowback, especially from people who identify as progressive Christians. We talked about what the Bible actually says about modesty and where so-called purity culture kind of gets it wrong. But the importance of not throwing out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to that subject. So if you haven't listened to Monday's episode on modesty, please do so. Also, I had a busy week because I went to Nashville on Monday to be on Candace Owens' show, which premiered last night. So I think that you can go on Daily Wire and watch that. That was super fun. And then also, I was on Megan Kelly's podcast this week. And if you haven't listened to that, please do. I'll link the episode in the description to this episode so you can go listen to it. That was super fun.

Megan Kelly is an absolute legend. If you guys have been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you know that I've admired that woman for a very long time. It was when I was in high school and I told my parents, oh my gosh, if I can just do something, anything close to something like what Megan Kelly does or if I can just be like that in my career, which I'm not. And I didn't go necessarily that direction. And she is far, she's a far more.

incisive interviewer and just host in general than I could ever be. But I've admired her for a very long time. So it was an honor to be able to be on her show. And a lot of you have given me such positive feedback and encouragement from that interview. So if you haven't listened, I encourage you to do that. Today, we're going to talk about a few things. I don't know how much I'm going to be able to get to because there are so many stories that I wanted to cover. But I want to talk about this Turning Point USA drama. I've done a lot of speaking events with Turning Point. Love Charlie Kirk and I always love speaking at their events. They had some, they had a situation that was debated about seemingly endlessly on Twitter about a porn star

who was invited to be a VIP at the event. And then it kind of evolved into a conversation on conservative Twitter about what is conservatism. Like, is it even possible to be a conservative porn star and why does any of this matter? I absolutely think it does matter and I'm going to talk about why today. I'm going to kind of give you my definition of what conservatism is and why I don't think it's just small government do whatever you want. I think it's much more complex and much more substantive than just that. But first, let me kind of break down what happened for you, just in case you didn't hear about this whole scenario. So there was a porn star named Brandy Love, who I guess applied to be a VIP at this event. Now, this is called Student Action Summit.

This happens, I think, twice a year for Turning Point. I did not go to the Student Action Summit this year. And I don't really know how the whole inviting VIPs thing. works. I don't know if they knew who she was and they invited her. I don't know if you can pay to be a VIP. I'm not really sure how that happened. But she was posting that she was at Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. And then there was kind of an uproar on social media from conservative saying, oh my gosh, I can't believe that this person is a VIP, not just in attendance, but is, you know, apparently a very important person for this TP USA event. And so people were wondering,

how can you be an organization that is espousing conservative values and a lot of times Christian values and seemingly endorse an adult film star? And if you go to, which I do not recommend, but this is actually pertinent to the story, if you go to Brandy Loves Twitter page, you will see that she posts totally explicit pictures of herself. So if there were anyone who met her or saw her at the event, a student who saw her, she had her kind of, I guess her porn star name on her name tag, you might go to her Twitter and you would see pornography.

And so people, I think, were rightfully confused about this and raising concerns about this. And when these concerns were publicly raised, Turning Point rescinded their invitation. Brandy Love posted on Twitter saying that she got an email from TurningPoint. saying, hey, you're no longer welcome here. While this caused controversy, further controversy on social media from people, a lot of whom would consider themselves libertarians, saying, hey, like, this is not cool. She's a conservative businesswoman in Florida. And, you know, why are we gatekeeping? Why can't we just be this big tent party? Why can't we just accept people no matter what their lifestyles are, it doesn't make sense to kick someone out just because

she's a porn star. And here are some of the coverage about it. So this is in National Review. The title of this article is porn stars in defective judgment. Conservative Twitter was split on whether porn star Brandy Love should have been banned by Turning Point USA from attending the Student Action Summit in Tampa this past weekend. Some conservatives saw it as cancel culture to kick her out and others found it prudish or small-minded to exclude her. Anthony Leonardi reported on Twitter that she was kicked out of the SAS conference as soon as the organization discovered she was a porn star and that her VIP pass was totally revoked.

T.P. USA spokesman Andrew Colvitt told Newsweek that Ms. Love purchased an adult VIP ticket. Okay, so I guess that answers my question from before. She purchased the adult VIP ticket and that she was not invited, nor was her attendance somehow requested by the organization. organization. Colvitt's explanation to Newsweek that it was that was that it is simply not appropriate for a porn star to be actively posting images at an event with 15 and 16 year olds present in conjunction with graphic pornography. TPP USA makes no apology for this, a position which should not be controversial, especially when minors are involved. Parents deserve this type of assurance in TPSA

and hands on giving them that confidence, Colvette said. I think that is, in my opinion, that is a perfectly acceptable statement. And so it was not, they wanted to make clear. Look, like Turning Point USA, in a conference for minors, especially, is not endorsing a porn star. And we don't want it to seem like we're endorsing a porn star. We don't want it to seem like we invited this porn star. And so we're going to revoke her path. I personally think that Turning Point did the right thing. The important point, one of the important points here, I don't even think it's the most important point or the most foundational point, which I'm going to make, but one of the most important points here is that this is a conference for minors. Like, you've got 15 and 16 year old boys that were sitting here

by their parents, funded by their parents, who think that they are going to go to this conference and they are going to hear conservative, in a lot of cases, Christian speakers talk about a conservative worldview. When you think of conservative values, you don't typically think about your 15 year old going to a conference where they're going to see a porn star. And I heard someone else make this point recently. I can't remember who it was. Why did a porn star want to go to a student action summit? This is called a student action summit. This is for specifically, in a lot of cases, minors, although sometimes they're college students as well, but this is for young people. So it's a little bit odd for her to feel like she needs to bring her presence there. That's the

point that a lot of people were making. I think it's a completely legitimate one. Newsweek explains the whole situation a little bit more. star Brandy Love label Turning Point USA, a religious cold after she was banned from in an event over the weekend. The adult film star whose political affiliations live with the Republican Party was welcomed as a VIP guest. And I don't think Newsweek reporting it that way is necessarily accurate. They say she was welcomed as a VIP guest. But as Turning Point said that she wasn't actually invited as a VIP guest. She bought. it. Newsweek goes on to say, Love, whose given name is Tracy Lynn Livermore, posted photos and videos at the

event before she was ejected. It's good to be around so many young conservatives, she said on Twitter, before she was asked to leave, gives me some hope. However, following her removal from the event, the 48-year-old, took to social media to condemn TEP USA, calling the group of Trojan horse for organized religion. So here is exactly what the tweet says. It's a Trojan horse, Brandy Love says. If I had known it was going to behave like and feel like a religious cult, I would have never gone. It's not a central message in their mission. I love God. Hate organized religion.

And then she replied to someone who said that Jesus hung with a very famous sex worker who is currently considered a saint by Catholics. My goodness. People's theology. Brandy Love said he would welcome me. My name is written in the book of life. I pray every day. I do what I do because of my faith.

Not in spite of it. Am I flawed? Yep. Am I a sinner? Am I faithful? Absolutely. So this is kind of an aside. I do truly pray for Brandy Love to know Christ, for her heart to be renewed by the gospel. But we know what the Lord thinks about prostitution. We know what he thinks about sexual immorality. We know what he thinks about the degradation of the body. I mean, we're talking about pornography here, which as I saw fight the new drug say the other day,

which is anti-sex trafficking and anti-pronography organization, they said pornography is the marketing arm of sex trafficking. That's absolutely true. While not everyone who is involved in pornography is actively being abused, it is an industry that is rife with exploitation and not just exploitation of adults, but exploitation of minors. It fuels sex trafficking and it fuels the degradation of sex, the dehumanization, especially of women. women and of children. So this is not like a gray area for Christian. This is not something that is really debated, at least within Orthodox Christianity. And so, you know, I'm sure that Brandy Love feels this way, but the fact of the matter is someone who is actively engaging in prostitution

and in pornography has not had their heart transformed by the gospel. That is not me saying that I am in my nature better than her because we are all dead in sin apart from Christ. Without Christ, I am just as dead in my sin as anyone else. And we all need Christ to save us. We all need Christ to make our hearts soft. But the fact of the matter is, if you are actively engaged consistently in any pattern of sin, whether it's sexual immorality or another kind of sin, there is really good reason to question whether or not you have tasted, you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. because once that happens, your heart is transformed, the old self goes away with its deceitful and corrupt desires, and you take on the new self that is created after Christ in holiness. And you are then set

apart. You realize that your body is not your own, but it's actually a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. And so you were to glorify God with your body as we talked about on Monday. And so I don't, I just simply don't agree. Well, I certainly am not the person who says this person is saved and this person is not. I can look to the truth and to the standard of scripture to say what qualifies as repentance and salvation and what doesn't. And by the way, I don't think that if she was a Christian, that she would have any problem with a turning point's explanation. So she goes on to say in another tweet, while TPUSA lost me for sure, so did Matt Walsh and a host of others. I have to tell you that this group, TPP USA, is every bit as frightening to me as Antifa. They're the furthest thing from MAGA that I've seen in five years. And Matt Walsh, who I was supposed to have on yesterday, but because I had to reschedule, unfortunately, I wasn't able to interview him.

But I really wanted to get his take on this because he was very strongly against Brandy Love being at the event and obviously supported TPP USA. rescinding her CIP status. He said over the last few weeks we have seen conservatives first embraced Caitlin Jenner and now defend a hardcore porn star

total abandonment of biological and moral truth, full scale, surrender. They have adopted positions that would have seemed radical even to liberals 30 years ago or even 10 years ago he then goes on to correct himself. And then people were responding to him.

They were also responding to me on Twitter even though I wasn't really caught up that much in this whole thing on social media. because I it was just it was too crazy and it was too convoluted and I didn't think a lot of the conversations that were happening on Twitter were actually productive but people the other perspective is that you know what conservatism is really just about small government and allowing people to do whatever they want to do it's not about gate keeping it's not about saying you know imposing morality or saying what is right and wrong for other people it's just about constitutionalism it's

just about, you know, the First and Second Amendment, whatever it is, if a porn star wants to say that she's conservative, then we should, we, we should welcome her with open arms. And that is kind of the more libertarian mentality, although there are probably some people who don't consider themselves libertarians that also maybe kind of embrace that kind of mentality. But again, we have to ask the question, what is conservatism? Is conservatism just live and let live, who cares. There's no real objective moral standard, or is it something deeper than that? I think it's the latter. And I will explain that in just one second. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Alley, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral,

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

I hope you'll join us. So John Adams said this. Most of you know this quote. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. So what does this mean? What this means, at least in my view, is that the entire idea of self-governance, the idea of a government for the people and by people of the people is impossible unless

individuals are tethered to a morality that is bigger than the government. This idea of having inherent rights comes from the idea and a belief in a creator that has endowed us with those rights because that creator is the supreme authority over the government. And the reason why the founders believed that we could self-governed, the reason why they believed the government could be small and people could be free to make the decisions that they wanted to make was because of this foundation of biblical morality. Now, people get really mad when I say that. They like to say that this is a secular nation, had nothing to do with God whatsoever, because God isn't mentioned in our founding documents, except he is. He is alluded to. The creator is God. And that is

foundational to the idea that people are able to govern themselves. They did not have a vision of a world in which everyone made up their own morality. Everyone did what was right in their own mind, but that everyone started from the same place and from there could then make their own decisions. And the government, of course, they believed had some authority and had some responsibilities, but they believed that men did a better job of governing themselves than the government did, but only because they believed that men must be constrained by a faith, by a set of principles that transcended, you know, government-imposed morality. Now, a note on this whole idea of government-imposed morality because a lot of people,

a lot of people are saying, well, that's not the government's role at all. Like, the government does not have a place, does not have the responsibility to impose morality. Any Christian who says that it does is just some theocrat that wants some religious dictatorship. That's not true. Even though I said that the founders believed that people are better at governing themselves based on a moral foundation, and it's not the government's role to impose morality, they did believe that there is a moral component of governing. Of course, they believe that there is a moral component to every law. And there is.

Every single law is imposed morality from getting a parking, ticket to speed limits to laws against murder laws against theft these are all shoulds and shouldn't and shoulds and shouldn't are all based on some kind of moral principle people who say no there's no biblical morality that has it has nothing to do with our laws laws against murder laws against theft are founded on the laws that we see given to Israel in the Bible now we don't impose every that was given to Israel in the Bible because we are not ancient Israel, but there are basic principles that we see. And for example, the Ten Commandments that did inspire not just the constitutional rights, but the laws that flow from them in the United States. Like I said, laws against that,

laws against murder go back to a biblical morality that says, one, people are made in the image of God and therefore taking the life of an innocent person is wrong. Laws against theft go back to the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not steal, thou shall not covet. You have a right to private and personal property that is not belonged to someone else. And so these are all biblical principles. That doesn't mean that you have to be a Christian to abide by them or even to believe in them. Someone could say that they're not a Christian, they're atheist, they're agnostic, but they still believe in the biblical principles that served as the foundation for our founding documents and for many of our laws. But that foundation does exist. Whether or not you want to acknowledge it,

it does exist. It's conservative in then, and seeking to conserve the Constitution and our founding principles, relies on those basic biblical truth. That doesn't mean that we believe that it's the government's job to impose every part of, for example, the Christian sexual ethic. I don't hear a lot of people saying, well, the government should outlaw having sex before a marriage. I don't hear people saying that. But we do believe that the foundation of the United States comes from what is typically called Judeo-Christian values. That's just true. And in order to conserve the Constitution, in order to conserve this idea of self-governance, you absolutely have to rely on the Christian idea that we were made in the image of God, that God is a supreme transcendent authority who gives us our

right. And therefore, the government does not have the right to arbitrarily give them or take them away because they too are in submission to a higher power, which is the government. That's how this whole thing has to work. And so for conservatism to mean anything, for it to actually conserve the Constitution, for us actually to conserve limited government, although that's even you know, debatable within conservatism today and there hasn't been really a high up conservative that has really done that in a while. But in order for all of that to work, in order for the vision of the United States to work, in order to conserve those things as conservatives, you have to go back to the idea that God is the supreme authority overall, that he is the giver of rights. Therefore,

they are ours. They are inherent. Without that, without the idea that we have a creator that has made us all equal, there really is no argument for equal rights. Like there really is no argument for rights at all. There's no argument for self-governance. What right do we have to self-governing? What right do we have to anything to private property if they're not inherent? Then the government absolutely has every authority to give them and take them away. And that is how progressivism thinks that the government is the highest authority. The government gives rights. The government takes away rights. And therefore, the government can basically do whatever. it wants. But we actually believe that there is a moral and theological reason why the government

can't just give and take away rights arbitrarily as it sees fit. So again, without that biblical foundation, there really is no argument for conservatism and everything conservatives say that they stand for. Now, like I said, does that mean that you have to be a Christian in order to be conservative. No, I don't think so, but it does take acknowledging and accepting the basis of conservatism to really understand what conservatism is. And if we are conserving everything that we think allows for self-governance, everything that allows for liberty, then that also means conserving some things that we know hold all those principles together. And one of them is the family. One of them is religion, obviously, because that is how we tether individuals. We

to something that is bigger than ourselves so that we can self-governed properly. And the other one is family that serves as an incubator of liberty, as I had a guest on my podcast to say before, that instills the next generation with those values so that, again, we can have a society that is generally moral and cohesive. And so conservatives have a vested interest in everything that holds together the family, family and everything that echoes Christian principles and biblical values. Now, I think that people can point out hypocrisy for sure. They could point out hypocrisy by saying, okay, so these same people that were fine with a president

who once had sex with a porn star are now morally outraged about someone who is a porn star attending one of their events. I think that is a legitimate criticism. Now, obviously, it's not exactly the same. Maybe you could argue that Donald Trump has repented from that and that that was part of his past and that we're not holding his past against him. Yes, that's fine. And I agree. Like, I do think conservatives, if we're going to say, okay, we're the party of at least somewhat biblical values, like we're the party that believes in the biblical foundation of this country and therefore the moral parameters and the institutions that kind of hold, those things together. If that is our line, then I think we do have to be consistent across the board and what we support that we have to be against anything that works against the nuclear family. And I'm

not sure that's actually true. I see some people say, you know, I'm not for porn stars, but I'm for all these other kind of sexually progressive things as a conservative. And I think that that's a lot of hypocrisy and that's a lot of inconsistency. If you stand for biblical principles, which I think a lot of a conservative say they do. If you stand for all of the institutions and all of the things that are supposed to create a moral nation, then we have to be consistent, again, about what we are supporting and what we condemn. And I think maybe that was a problem here for a lot of people on Twitter who are defending Brandy Love is the lack of consistency. What I don't think is a good argument is anyone saying that, you know, this is gatekeeping and we just need to allow people to do whatever

they want to do, say whatever they want to say. Or, you know, of course we do allow people to say whatever they want to say. But that doesn't mean that we have to accept and celebrate those things as conservatives. And I actually just think that it's a huge mistake for people to say, you know what, if Republicans just latched on, if they just latched on to sexual progressivism, or if they just latched on to all of the leftist social movements, like if we just kind of were soft on abortion, if we were soft when it came to transgender stuff, and we were just more, you know, we accepted the idea that a man can become a woman and vice versa. We didn't care about the cohesion of the natural family and we just stopped talking about

any of that moral stuff, then we could win more elections. But that's a huge component of what conservatism is. And I actually think it's because we've capitulated on so many of those issues that we refuse to stand for those things on their merits that we have continued to cede so much ground. And I said this on Twitter and I really mean it. That one, I think it's untrue, like I just said. I think it's untrue that if we just seeded more ground, if we just basically became liberals except for low taxes, that we would win more elections. And two, even if that were true, even if tomorrow, the GOP could take power in every way.

I knew that they would win every election or they would all of a sudden have every range of government and all the authority in this country. If I would just say that boys can become girls or say that family, the family doesn't matter or, you know, concede all of these points that I believe as a Christian and a conservative in the social and the moral realm, I wouldn't do it. Like, I just wouldn't do it. If the GOP continues to move left when it comes to these social issues, which I think that already has, then, okay, I don't need to stick with that.

I don't care. Like, I just don't care. I don't know why people would think that I would care, but I absolutely would not. If the GOP came out tomorrow and said, you know what, boys can't become girls. And that is who we are as a party. See ya. I don't care. Like, why do I care?

I mean, I do care obviously about Democrats not being empowered. because I think that their policies are destructive and we see that in every major city across the country right now. But ultimately, I don't care. I don't care where the GOP goes because this is where I stand and I have cement around my feet that prevents me from moving, at least on some issues. That doesn't mean that I can't be persuaded by facts on other issues. But when it comes to these kind of moral revolution issues that we've seen a wage over the past, you know, 10 or so years, I just can't be moved on them.

And I don't really care how fast the GOP moves to the left. And it's just hard for me to understand how people don't see that if we devolve into complete degeneracy, if no one is standing up for the things that we know to be good and right and true, like you don't get, economic conservatism from that. That's just as much of a fantasy as communism working. People who believe that we're just going to have this libertarian, small government society with no moral foundation, no religious foundation, that we're just going to be this godless, happy, free society. It's a fantasy.

It's just not going to work. People say, well, what about Japan? Like, they're not a religious society, and they have a constitutional, Republic, well, there are plenty of issues in Japan. I would say that a lot of their rights that are guaranteed to them, or at least in writing, guaranteed to them in Japan, like free speech, the right to private property, even if they don't acknowledge that those things come from God, they still do. They still are based on the same principle that we were endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. They might not acknowledge that in their founding documents. I don't know if

they do or not. They might not be a religious people, but that's still based on a biblical foundation. So like I said, you don't have to be a Christian to acknowledge and accept that the foundation of this country is built on a Judeo-Christian ethic. It just is. And when we depart from that in every way possible, it becomes harder and harder to actually be a free country. And the left understands this. The left is always making moral arguments about why you need to agree with them, not just socially, but also economically. Everything stems from a moral place when it comes to progressivism. And I think that's part of the reason why they're so effective.

Instead, the right is always on the defense or they are not wanting to argue the moral part of it. They're not wanting to make an argument on its merits. Instead, a lot of times conservatives will just retreat to, well, religious liberty or freedom. And all of these things are put in good. But that's not necessarily a moral argument that we need to be making. the left is always making moral arguments for why you are a bad person if you don't agree with them on XYZ and as manipulative and wrong as I think that that often is, it works. It works for people because people are actually looking for a morality. You're looking for something substantive.

And I want to get to another point on that answer to a question that someone asked me the other day. So someone asked me the other day why I believe that a lot of young people go to the left. And simultaneously, a lot of young people are rejecting God. And I know some people say, no, they're just rejecting organized religion. Or no, they're just rejecting some parts of religion. No, there are a lot of young people who hold on to some idea of God or some idea of Jesus that is not actually based in any reality. It's not actually based in any kind of historical text.

It's based on feelings. And therefore, they don't really exist. It's really a God of self that a lot of young people are worshipping or vague spirituality or some kind of higher power, which I would argue is a rejection of God himself. If the Bible is true and if God is who he says that he is, that he is the one and only true God and everything else is an idol, then I would still say people who are choosing idols, even if they say that they are accepting God, but they're choosing to worship something that is based. on their own imagination rather than on who God says that he is, is still rejecting God. So we've got a lot of young people rejecting God. They say that they left religion for legalism, but the reality is they are attaching themselves to another legalistic quasi-religion called progressivism, where the rules are very rigid.

They have their own self-certifying mantras. They've got their own dogmas. their own set of rules of behavior and it's extremely graceless it has its own soteriology it has its own eschatology it has its own theology in certain ways so uh the god is either self or the god is the government and there are certain kinds of speech codes that you have to follow there is a certain kind of so-called sanctification that you are supposed to embrace that's called so-called doing the work or doing the work of either anti-racism or social justice. And so it has its own religious rights. It has its own boundaries. It has its own shoulds and shouldn'ts. It's every much,

it's every bit as as much of a religion as any other kind of, you know, Christian denomination is or any other kind of religion is, except it doesn't really require you to do things that are not mainstream. And so it's very uncontroversial in that way. You don't have to have any courage. You don't have to be brave in any way. You don't have to go against the mainstream. I guess that's the appeal of it. But it still gives people a sense of belonging. It gives people a sense of purpose. It gives people a sense of hope because it says that, you know, if you just do these things, if you just do the work, if you just vote in this way, then finally we'll have this beautiful, equal utopia where everyone is sharing voluntarily with one another and will finally be able to

achieve a completely equitable society where all outcomes are equal and everyone uses the right pronouns and there's no religion and all of that. And so I think that's why godlessness leads to leftism because people are always searching for something to base their life on. People are always searching for some greater purpose. People are always searching for some kind of identity. And I think that progressivism offers that for a lot of people because like I said, it bases all of its arguments on some kind of moral foundation. I think it's a faulty moral foundation, but that's what people are searching for.

Like they're searching for something bigger than themselves. And progressivism offers that in this grand vision of how the world could be if everyone would just finally agree with them and get rid of capitalism and the patriarchy and the heterogeneity, whatever it is, and white supremacy, then we would finally live in this paradise-like world. And that makes people feel like they are a part of something big when they, you know, put their pronouns in their bio or something like that. If the right is not going to offer a counter to that. If conservative, are not offering a counter to that.

And much more important than conservatives for me, if Christianity isn't offering a counter to that, like if we're not standing up and saying, look, I know you're looking for purpose. I know you're looking for love. I know that you're looking for hope. And all of that stuff can be found in the God who created you can be found in the gospel,

in that he loved you so much that he said his own son to die for you because he wanted you to be forgiven of your sins and to live forever with him. He wanted you to be holy, and he wants you to know that future peace and future joy and eternal satisfaction that is found in him alone. And unfortunately, there is a very successful PR campaign against religion that says religion is just kind of this archaic, legalistic thing that really has no more place in society that has only wrought destruction for its entire history.

And of course, some people claiming to be the church and people claiming to be, Christians have played into that narrative absolutely by being abusive and corrupted terrible people and bad seasons and church history and all of that. But conservatives, or I shouldn't even say conservatives, but just Christians have to double down on the things that young people are searching for. I guarantee you in the same way that conservatism is not going to win more people by just being a watered down version of leftism. In the same way, that conservatism is not going to gain more power by denying the reality that male and female exist and that there's no such thing as gender identity that is actually detached from your

biology. So Christianity is not going to win more people by just being a spiritual-ish version of secularism. It's just not going to work. People are looking for something substantial. And it doesn't matter how much people gnash their teeth at Christianity. It doesn't matter how many people say that, you know, that traditional Orthodox Christianity is to blame for everything. That's to be expected. Like, we are not going to be the light of Christ and be ambassadors for Christ by being more secular. And that's, I think, what a lot of professing progressive Christians think is that if, like, Christians would just give up on all the sexual morality stuff.

If we just give up on all the holiness stuff, like if we just give up on all the things, thinks that the world says is controversial, then more people would become Christian. Again, like, I am not concerned with that. Like, I am not concerned with whether or not non-believers find the church attractive. Who God has called will come to him. They will. Now, do we have a responsibility to speak the truth in love? Do we have a responsibility to good work? Do we have a responsibility to be good ambassadors of Christ and to seek justice and to love mercy the way that God defines those things, by the way, we absolutely do. But there is still going to be people who spread lies about the church and who hate the church because they hate God. And so we have a

responsibility to obedience to Christ as the church. And we can't worry too much about what people who hate God say about the church. God is going to continue to do. draw people to himself, that he wants to draw to himself because he is absolutely sovereign over that. And his grace allows us Christians to be used to reach people to bring them to the foot of the cross. He doesn't need us, but he does, in his sovereignty, choose to use us in that way. and conservatism, which by the way is not synonymous with Christianity, obviously, and conservatism in a different but similar way can't worry so much about whether or not leftists like what we have to say.

They're not going to. Like they're not going to agree with our policy proposals. It will never be enough. Like the cancel mob is always going to come for you if you disagree with them on any tenet of progressivism. They're never going to see you as reasonable. They're never going to see you as righteous. they're never going to see you as an ally.

Can you have understanding conversations and friendships with people on the other side? 100%. Absolutely. I fully believe in that. And I fully believe that is possible to be friends with people with whom you disagree on certain things. But the activist class and the political class of the left is never going to see you a conservative as someone who is on the right side of history. And so capitulating is not going to save you from the mob. I talked about this on Megan Kelly Show.

You can try to sidestep all of the minds in the mine field that you want to. The cancel mob is going to come for you if you stand for either traditional Christian beliefs or if you stand for conservative beliefs or both, they're coming for you. And so you might as well just stay true to what you believe and to refuse as we talk about so many times on this podcast to live by lies. The capitulation, the concessions is only going to make you a weak person. It's only going to make Christianity look weak if you're thinking about it in that sense. It's only going to make conservatism look weak if you're thinking about it in the political sense.

So you might as well stand firm in what you believe. It doesn't mean that you can't change your mind when facts are presented to you that counters what you thought. But it does mean on the things that you know to be good and right and true, there's no need for concession. And I would say that there is a very strong need for us to stay firm in the values and the principles and the facts that we base our belief system on. So I know that was kind of a little bit of a rambling rant, but I hope that I kind of make sense for you a little bit where I'm coming from at all of this. People who say, oh, you just want to create some kind of theocracy. No, I don't. But I do believe that a free republic has to have some kind of moral foundation.

I do. And I know a lot of people say, well, you don't need that. You don't need that for freedom. I just completely disagree. Now, I think it's debatable, like, which principles actually make you a conservative and which ones don't. Like, can you still believe that men can become women and be conservative? I don't see how that fits into any kind of moral definition or any real definition of what

conservatism is. I mean, you are just completely giving up reality. You have given in to the most postmodern premise that there is, that even male and female or gender or social constructs with which they're not, can you be pro-abortion and be a conservative? I do think you can have, you can like the Constitution. You can like the First Amendment and the Second Amendment and then, you know, have some issues with conservatism.

Maybe you think that you should be a socialist and you're conservative in other ways. All right. but it's debatable whether or not that actually counts its conservatism. I think that's a worthy debate to have. I don't think I'm the arbiter of what is conservatism and what is not, but I do think it's good that we're having these conversations to kind of settle on, okay, what is the basic definition and what is the foundation of conservatism? Is it religious?

Is it theological or is it not? I firmly believe that it has to be whether or not everyone in conservatism is religious themselves. I hope that makes sense. All right, we have got some awesome episodes coming up. Tomorrow, I'm going to interview J.D. Vance, he is the author of Hillbilly Elegy. He is also running for Senate in Ohio. And so if you've got any questions that you would like me to ask him, please send them my way. I'm super excited about this.

I have been wanting to interview him for a while. So I'm very glad that I have this opportunity to do that. We'll be talking about some other controversial and, topics coming up as always if you guys have any suggestions for what you want me uh to talk about then please send those my way i always like to say that you guys are my executive producers and you are and i've just got a very smart informed kind audience that um i love to hear from and so thank you guys so much for always giving me that feedback if you love this podcast by the way please uh subscribe on youtube one but also please leave me a five-star review on apple

podcast. You don't have to take the time to tell me why you love this podcast, but I would love for you too. I love reading your messages and your encouragement and what this podcast has meant to you. So thank you guys who have already done that. If you haven't, please leave that five-star review. That would mean so much to us. All right, that's all I've got for today. I'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted and what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself.

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