Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 474 | 'America Last' Is Destructive — and Unbiblical

Episode Date: August 19, 2021

Today we're continuing our coverage of the heartbreaking disaster that's occurring right now in Afghanistan, as anyone not associated with the Taliban desperately tries to flee the country. This, sadly, is a perfect demonstration of the failures of the Biden administration and Democrat policy in general. When you put America last, America isn't the only country that suffers for it. We're going to break down why this progressive worldview doesn't work and why it's neither moral nor biblical. --- Today's Sponsors: Good Ranchers delivers their American craft beef & better than organic chicken right to your door, individually wrapped, vacuum sealed, & ready to grill! Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE or use code 'ALLIE' at checkout to save $20 off & free express shipping. StartMail keeps your email private. Period. Every email can be encrypted, even if the recipient doesn't use encryption! Start securing your email privacy at StartMail.com/ALLIE & save 50% off your first year! Carly Jean Los Angeles is a Los Angeles-based capsule clothing company - they do the hunting for YOU and provide clothes that are effortless, easy, & flattering on any shape, size, age, or season. Go to CarlyJeanLosAngeles.com & use the promo code 'ALLIE' to save 20% off anything in their online store. --- Past Episodes Mentioned: Ep 472: Biden's Afghanistan Disaster & How We Can Help | Guest: Morgan Ortagus https://apple.co/3sEygUI Ep 470: BlackRock, Bill Gates & the Great Reset | Guest: Justin Haskins https://apple.co/3z2niL9 Ep 425: How to Hold Fast to Christ Through Persecution | Guest: Pastor Andrew Brunson https://apple.co/3y2kUmj Ep 416: Europe's Migration & Misogyny Problem | Guest: Ayaan Hirsi Ali https://apple.co/3j1DQND --- 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. It's Thursday. You've almost made it through the week. So if you guys think that I talk fast regularly, just get ready for this episode because we're on a time constraint today.

And I've got a lot to say. So maybe you'll have to put this on halftime or something because I'm going to have to. I'm going to have to speed talk here to get through everything I want to get to in the time constraints that we have. Okay, we are going to put everything into perspective because there's so much to learn about everything that's going on right now, particularly when it comes to Afghanistan and all that America has its hand in in the world. We're going to talk about how this pertains to our worldview, our theology, our cultural and political stances. And I probably won't even get to all the things that I wanted to get to at the end.

because I'll just have to end it. But we'll continue that next week if we have to. So you've heard the reports about what's going on. We talked about this early on Tuesday. But as a refresher, in case you didn't know, President Biden pulled the American troops from Afghanistan. We've been fighting a war in the Middle East since after 9-11. And there has been a strong desire by a large percentage of Americans to withdraw troops. You have heard people talking about endless foreign wars, how they're needlessly costing lives, most importantly. And also taxpayer dollars will not really accomplishing that much, obviously. There is another side to that. There are people that say, okay, well, it actually accomplishes not having another 9-11 on American soil and

stabilizing the region. So there's obviously a debate about that. But it's a pretty bipartisan consensus that people, that the American people no longer want to be in the Middle East. Obama pulled troops out of Iraq when he was president. That was totally. bungled by a lot of people's estimation ended with the rise of ISIS. Obama helped fund terrorism in Iran through a deal that his administration erroneously thought was going to bring, I don't know, some kind of normalcy there. He promised to pull troops from Afghanistan too, but that didn't happen. Trump also promised to pull troops from Afghanistan. And as you heard on Tuesday, had the plans in place to do so, but he just hadn't followed through yet when he left office. And of course,

all of this started while Bush was president. So this has been going on for a very long time. That to say, Biden, Biden doesn't take the blame for everything that's happening. He did something that many Americans have wanted to happen. It was the how with which people are frustrated. We withdrew without getting our citizens and our allies out of the region. We left our millions of dollars of weapons, which the Taliban quickly took for themselves. This is exactly what What are troops fought to prevent for so long? And one of the worst parts about all of this and what I want to focus on for a little bit, there are still thousands of American citizens in Afghanistan.

And we're not hearing a guarantee from this administration that the Americans will be removed. Or the Afghans who risked their lives to help us, our allies there. Both Americans and our allies in Afghanistan are being specifically targeted and slaughtered by the Taliban. They're being targeted. They're being tortured. they're being, they're being killed, as we have seen on video and through testimony of our fellow citizens still there, people with families, with babies, knowing for sure that they are going to be slaughtered and their kids may be sold into sex slavery. I mean, we're talking about Americans here.

Our fellow citizens and the Biden administration is not promising that they will be removed. Here's a clip of the press secretary basically saying this. Can you offer any guarantee to the Americans and Afghan allies that if they remain there past the end of the month, U.S. troops will help them evacuate past the end of the month. Luisa, our focus right now is undoing the work at hand and on the task at hand. And that is day by day getting as many American citizens, as many SIV applicants, as many members of a vulnerable population. who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes. So she's not guaranteeing it. She's not, they're not guarantee that they are going to get all Americans out.

I guess maybe if you want to be generous, if you want to be charitable, you could say that was her saying, basically we're going to try. There should be a guarantee. And this is what people on both sides of the aisle are very upset about. Not that he left, although like I said, there are people who don't agree with leaving at all, but because of how obviously haphazardly this was done with seemingly no plans for contingencies. We know that American intelligence saw the very real possibility of a speedy Taliban takeover, and yet we didn't make the preparations to ensure our own people and our

allies would be protected. And we are still, we're still not promising that that's going to happen. That is a huge shift from President Trump. Like whether you loved him or hated him, if there was one thing, Trump hated himself was the idea of America being humiliated. You may remember when he directed the killing of Soleimani, the lead Iranian terrorist, and just tweeted afterwards as soon as it happened, this huge American flag on Twitter. I remember when he threatened North Korea, when they threatened to use their nukes, and he said that they will be met with fire, fury, and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen. Also, don't forget that iconic tweet to the Iranian president a few years ago. He said, to Irish.

Iranian president, Ruhani, in all caps, never ever threaten the United States again, or you will suffer consequences, the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence in death. Be cautious. And we can laugh at that. I'm kind of laughing at it myself just because it's so iconically, classically Trump. And maybe you could say, oh, well, they're just tweets. They're not real strength.

They're inconsequential. But that's not true because it was actually matched with strong foreign policy that led to the dwindling of ISIS, the killing of the head terrorist of Iran, agreements for peace through the Abraham Accords like we've never seen, and a prioritization of American lives. His administration rescued Pastor Andrew Brunson, whom we've had on this podcast, who was imprisoned in Turkey for preaching the gospel while Obama and Biden were still in the White House. He also rescued the Trump administration also rescued Otto Warmbier, who was in prison and tortured in North Korea while Obama was still president. I mean, that was one of just the most gruesome, terrible, heartbreaking stories, I think, that we've read in the past few years. Trump made it his priority to get him out to put Americans first in a way that, quite frankly, and honestly, objectively, the Obama administration did not. Now, I complained about Trump while he was in office, especially toward the end when I felt that he had kind of, removed himself from reality a little bit and was causing a lot of unnecessary strife and chaos

and confusion among the American people. But there's no question, at least in my mind, of whether or not he was a better president policy-wise and this president. I'm not, honestly, I'm not even sure how anyone, by any objective measure, I'm not just talking about feelings. Objective measure could say that Biden is doing a good job for our people. I just don't, I don't see it. I mean, we've got record inflation. We've got, um, higher prices on gas in nearly every other good and service. It's significantly higher than it was last year. Still too high unemployment. Hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants that have been imported from the southern border into the interior of the United States. We don't know why.

We don't know how. We don't know where. We don't know if they're tested. We don't know if they're vaccinated. We don't know where they come from. We don't know their background. We don't know their criminal history. All of this is happening intentionally under Joe Biden's presidency. He shut down the Keystone pipeline and then had the audacity to ask OPEC to pump more oil. So that means he shut down American and Canadian production of oil, getting rid of hundreds of jobs and the ability to rely on our own energy in the name of helping the environment, supposedly, then asked foreign oil producers to make more. So it means it obviously wasn't about the environment then. It was about what?

Hurting the working class? Yet again, just as he did by damaging landlords with the eviction moratorium. I mean, what is perfectly clear is that just like Obama, Biden's philosophy is America last. That is just obvious. I don't think that Biden personally hates America. I really don't. I think he probably feels a lot of love for America in his heart. But I think that he is, A, misguided.

as he has been on all foreign policy for his 40 years as a politician. I also think, B, he's not really the one making the decisions. I think he truly is a puppet president. That much is made obvious by the other egregious part of this whole thing that he is totally absent. I mean, most presidents are in these kinds of situations and these kinds of crises, taking questions, doing press conferences, reassuring the American people that our priorities are being taken to heart that everything is going to be okay doing interviews, but he was at Camp David, said nothing about this over the weekend while all of it was going down, made a speech blaming everyone but himself, ignoring the concerns people have about how it was done in what's going to be done about it, didn't take questions,

went back to Camp David after that, then came back on Wednesday, gave another speech, but not to do with what's going on in Afghanistan, but about COVID. So NBC reported on this, Speaking at the White House, Biden said some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures into, quote, political disputes for their own political gain and warned they are, quote, setting a dangerous tone. Biden said he had directed education secretary Miguel Cardona to wield his oversight authority and take legal action if appropriate. As others have mentioned at this point, Biden has spoken more about going out. after Republican governors than he has talked about going after the Taliban and rescuing Americans

and our allies in Afghanistan. He did do one interview with George Stephanopoulos that was super, super weird. A lot of people are talking about this. George Stephanopoulos said, you know, there are people trying to get to America or get out of Afghanistan because of the chaos that your decision rot, who are falling from planes. And Biden literally responded, Yeah, but that was like five or six days ago. What? What? What are you even talking about?

Then there was this other section where Doris Stephanopoulos was talking about Americans being targeted. And Joe Biden knocked on wood and said, well, no one's dying right now. What? So this is why he's not doing interviews. Like, this is why he's behind the scenes because the man is not there. He is not there. And by the way, going back to the COVID speech that he decided it was important to make in the midst of all of this. Those Republican governors that he is talking about, just to clarify,

did not ban masks. They simply said, look, districts can't force kids to wear masks. Parents and kids should be able to decide on their own, so they are doing their jobs by defending individual choice. Any Democrats saying it's overreach on the governor's part don't have any problem with the Democratic governors forcing masks, even on school districts in private schools, a private Christian school in Illinois, announced the other day that they wouldn't be requiring masks, and the Illinois Department of Education took their accreditation away and removed their ability to compete in sports with other schools. But of course, no Democrat is complaining of that kind of overreach. That is something that I've realized recently that typically when a Democrat, typically, not always

typically when a Democrat decries overreach or authoritarianism, they're actually just talking about policy that they don't like. They're not talking about in in any sort of principled or constitutional sense. I saw someone on Twitter say that, you know, Biden extending the eviction moratorium, despite the Supreme Court saying that you can't do that is overreach, which it is, and a much more authoritarian action than anything that Trump ever did. And the replies from people on the other side were like, oh, so wanting people to be able to stay in their homes is so bad in authoritarianism?

Okay, so got it. That means that you think authoritarian just means. things that you see are bad, but it's not authoritarian when the full power of the government forces an individual or an entity or a school to do what you want them to do. But that's not actually what the word means. Democrats in power are completely unafraid to wield the power of the government to force states, local governments, and individuals to do what they want. And as long as it's for what they deem a worthy goal, it really doesn't matter to them whether or not it's constitutional or whether it has precedent. And all of this ties together with the Afghanistan stuff and what we're

talking about, by the way. But Democrats are shocked that now in response, Republicans are using the power of the government to stop them from infringing on people's freedom. That is what the ban on mask mandates is. It is a protection of individual choice. And now the federal government is coming in and say, no, these governors are not allowed to protect individual choice in their states. And the Supreme Court of Texas has already ruled, at least in Texas, that the governor has the power to do what they are doing. And yet Biden, in the midst of this catastrophe, has made it his mission to go after these governors while we've got thousands of Americans who are preparing to be slaughtered at the hands of the Taliban. This, all of this, everything that I just mentioned is what

it looks like to put America last. People, Christians in particular, blasted the idea. some Christians, obviously, not all or even most of them. But they blasted while Trump was president the idea of putting America first. They called it white nationalism or Christian nationalism, which people on the left sometimes use interchangeably with a variety of definitions. But look, putting the needs of your country first is good leadership. It is wise, prudent, god-glorifying leadership. It can be god-glorifying leadership.

It is wise. It is prudent. it is right. Countries are like families. Parents put the needs of their families first. They seek to protect and to provide for their children first. They lock the doors of their own house. They protect their own children from harm. They wake up every day ensuring their children are cared for. That doesn't mean those parents don't help their neighbors or don't serve other children in need or that they hate other children. They might even welcome people into their home. But their priority, their first priority every day is to the family that God has given them.

If parents decided, oh, you know, actually I think I'm going to focus more on meeting the needs of everyone outside my family before the needs of my own family, that would be irresponsible because that would come at the expense of the needs of the children that God has given them specifically to provide for and to protect. God created families for this kind of provision and protection. God created a family, mom, dad, kids. The Bible is very specific about that particular definition from creation to revelation to be the nucleus of society. That's where we get our values, our safety, our provision, our security. Then from there, we are called to love our fellow believers, our neighbors, our community, and yes, our country. And we'll get more into the theology, or what I believe to be the theological support for this kind of mentality in just one second. 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 T-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. All right.

So we see, for example, in Jeremiah 29, that Israel in exile was commanded to seek the welfare of the nation in which they lived. And we Christians are in exile here on earth. Our ultimate citizenship is in heaven. And so wherever we live on earth, we are in exile. We are called, though, to seek the welfare of the nations in which we live. Just because the church is global does not mean that the church doesn't care about their own country or that Christians don't care about their own country in which they reside. Acts 1726 makes clear that God created these boundaries of nations or he ordained them.

He meant for them to happen. quote, and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. We see nations referenced throughout scripture, and nowhere do we see that borders are bad. And actually, we see the Bible speak of a city without walls as a city that's vulnerable. Proverbs 2528, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Now, I'm not saying that's talking about border policy specifically. I'm saying that it's talking about the fact that a city that is unprotected is vulnerable to chaos, to lawlessness, to danger, just as a man who doesn't have any self-control is.

And God hates lawlessness, by the way. He is a God of laws. He has a God of order. He is a God of process. We see that the most, I believe, in the first few books of the Old Testament. He has not a God of chaos of disarray of anarchy. In fact, the Antichrist in 2, Thessalonians 2, is called the man of lawlessness, who will oppose God, will oppose his order and his law.

God sees lawlessness as an enemy synonymous with destruction. Human beings need order. We need boundaries. I believe that God created countries for our protection, for our good, in the same way that he created the nuclear family for our protection and our good. And in the same way that a good mom and dad first prioritized their kids and their families, so leaders of a country are to prioritize the needs, the security, the rights of their constituents first. So that means in regards to our current situation, one, I believe every single American must be rescued,

sparing absolutely no expense to ensure that happens. That means securing the southern border, having a hard life somewhere else does not give someone the right to enjoy the benefits of being an American without becoming a legal citizen. That's something that I think people need to realize. That's not lacking compassion for them. There are all kinds of ways that you can and Americans do help. And Americans do to help persecuted and impoverished people abroad. But in order to preserve order, in order to preserve law and safety, compassion for your own citizens, we should not be incentivizing and enabling illegal immigration the way this presidency is now. It's criminal, in my opinion. It means relying on prioritizing Americans' needs means relying on our own energy and manufacturing as much as possible, which has been a slow fade and decline responsible.

I mean, blamed on both parties for several decades. But if we could go back, it would mean relying on our own manufacturing as much as possible. I mean, these are just a few things that Joe Biden is currently doing the opposite. of. It also means, as we're hearing calls for accepting all Afghan refugees, I believe that must be weighed against the safety, security, and the available resources of the American people and should not actually be discussed until all Americans are brought home. That is good leadership. Being an American must mean something. It must mean, unlike in other countries, that your government has your back, that if you're stranded, threatened, in harm's way, the target of one of our

adversaries, no matter your political affiliation, no matter your background, you can rest assure that the toughest military in the world will rescue you. Now, that is not mean that we shouldn't accept Afghan refugees because I think we should. America historically, just until the last couple of years, has led the world in refugee acceptance for the past 40 years, according to Pew research. Until 2017, no other country came close. I saw some post by someone who identifies as, I guess, social justice advocating Christian saying that this whole thing, maybe it will encourage Americans to vote for more compassionate policies when it comes to allowing more asylum seekers and refugees. What are you talking about? America has accepted more refugees and more immigrants just by

raw numbers than any other country by far through the past few decades, more than all other countries combined. And it's not even close. So I'm just, I'm confused by that. accusation. And we can continue to accept refugees. I believe that we should. But we have to acknowledge that there is risk here. And we have to act accordingly with the interests of Americans' top of mind. Because we know from the footage that we've seen that these are mostly fighting age men whom we have no ability, nor does the Biden administration, have any seeming willingness to vet. Now, I don't blame these men one bit for wanting to come to the United States or just get out of, get out of Dodge. And I hope every refugee that comes here makes a wonderful, productive life.

I really do. And it's an opportunity for Christians to take these people in and take care of these people as much as we can and to share the gospel with them, the ones who do make it here. But the government has the obligation to give more way to American interest than theirs, because it's a lot. an American government. And that means looking at an inconvenient fact. And I understand that facts are often seen as bigoted, but they are reality. And reality really matters when we're making decisions, public policy decisions that affect people, especially vulnerable people, in our own country. So this is in an article in foreign policy.com. It's reported. This is from July of this year. Quote, in 2015, Germany and Sweden were the two most popular

countries for asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Although the recipient countries have since worked hard to integrate the asylum seekers, the challenge has been made more difficult by the fact that many asylum seekers arrived alone. In Sweden, more than 35,000 asylum seekers who arrived in 2015 registered as unaccompanied minors. 92% of them were men and two-thirds were Afghan. So again, the majority of these are men, and Afghan men, actually. While the majority of refugees are law abiding, sadly some of them have started to show up in crime statistics. 58% of people convicted for rape and Sweden between 2013 and 2018 were born in other countries. So that's a majority of people convicted for rape in Sweden.

We're actually born in other countries with Afghans, this article says, the second most common nationality among perpetrators after sweets. So that means there is a hugely disproportionate number of Afghans in Sweden being convicted of rape. I mean, that's something that you have to take into account. Over the past few years, various European countries have strengthened their asylum rules. The article goes on to say, making it harder for people from Afghanistan to be approved. And so there are other countries that are making these changes. They've shifted their refugee policy in accordance with these very inconvenient facts that really

no one wants to talk about. I don't even want to talk about them. But like I said, I think when we're making policy decisions that affect Americans, you have to look at this kind of stuff. France announced that they would be significantly limiting the refugees. It accepts. We talked with Ion Hersey Ali a few months ago on the show. We'll link that past episode in the description of this show, who just wrote a book about the crisis of sexual abuse of women by Islamic refugees in European countries. It's also important to note that according to Pew Research, 99% of Afghans said in a survey that they want Sharia law to be the law of the land. That is the highest in all of the Middle East. And again, we have to take that into account.

Now, I understand that all of this offends our Western sensitivities. It offends my own, which tell us that we must be unconditionally tolerant and that America is uniquely obligated to open its borders no matter what. And I do understand that in this particular case, America is responsible for this mess, and so I do think that we therefore have a responsibility to accept some refugees. But, but there's some stipulations. A, not at the expense of the Americans that are still there. We can do both, but not at the expense of the Americans that are still there. B, they must be carefully and thoroughly vetted. And C, I believe women and children should be prioritized. Unfortunately, none of those three things are going to happen. We are accepting

refugees already in the U.S., even as thousands of Americans are waiting to die in Afghanistan. We do not have the capability of vetting these people because many don't even have identification. And last, most of them will be men, because as we've seen in the photos and video, the men, because they are physically capable of doing so, escaped while many of the women and children have been left behind to face a life of murder, rape, and sex slavery. Now, there are some women and children who made it. I saw a very touching but just heartbreaking, heartbreaking video of a group. of Afghans, I guess outside of the airport, passing a baby over their heads to try to get

the baby to safety so the baby could be rescued and I guess take into some European country. I mean, I just think about the mothers who are nursing their children who are so terrified. I just, it just boggles the mind and breaks, it breaks my heart. And so I'm not trying to say that the Afghan people, that the Afghan men, that none of them have compassion or anything. the fact of the matter is the vast majority of the people who are able to escape are going to be men, which means the vast majority of the people left behind are going to be the most vulnerable to the Taliban's attacks, and that is women and children. So all of this that we're seeing, though, from America, from the Biden

administration is the harm, I think, and not, you know, weighing the cost and benefits of just accepting unconditionally refugees from Afghanistan without looking at the interest of the people of the United States. It's the harm of compassion that is just too narrow. It's only focused on one group of people and never looking at the consequences that will affect the people on the other side of the equation. This is social justice, what Thomas Sol calls cosmic justice, viewing one group, in this case Americans, as privileged and thus not worthy of consideration, and another group, in this case, Afghans, as oppressed and thus exclusively worthy of consideration. They are oppressed, by the way, but you have to consider.

both sides of the equation, especially when you are a government representing only one side of the equation. But actual justice, actual justice seeks both order and security and mercy. Actual justice is not endlessly inclusive and tolerant and empathetic. Actual justice that we see reflected in God's law giving to Israel is impartial. It is proportional. It is direct. It is truthful. It is orderly. It is fair. It gives rights to both the accused and the accuser to both the citizen and the foreigner. But the foreigner who was welcomed into Israel was required to go through a process of acceptance and was expected to assimilate. We see that in scripture. And I do want to note as well that many of the Christians that I see only calling

to accept refugees, I do want to know as well that many of the Christians I see only calling to accept refugees and ignoring the needs of Americans, both. here and abroad are relying on the Bible's call to welcome the foreigner to do so, but they are not only disregarding the biblical parameters of that welcoming. But these are also some of the same people who accuse Christian conservatives of trying to establish some kind of theocracy, because I don't know, we don't want to legalize killing unborn children or something. So they talk about separation of church and state, but they rely on scripture in God's law when they believe supports their policies, but they accuse conservatives of being theocratic tyrants when they

reference scripture to support theirs. The reality is the Bible's moral law, like the Ten commandments and other process laws that we see, like the Bible's description of due process, do serve as the inspiration for American law and the basis for ideas like equality, due process, property rights. And it is totally a worthy debate about what we should be taking from God's laws from the Bible and applying here and which ones are exclusive to ancient Israel. I think we all agree the ceremonial laws shouldn't be imposed in America. But for one side to accuse the other side of being theocrats, while they themselves referenced the Bible to support their policy positions, I believe in a way that is just erroneous and bad interpretation, is hypocritical.

Also, by the way, where were any of these progressives calling for full and total acceptance of Cuban refugees a few weeks ago. It didn't happen. Purely because Cubans were protesting communism and they didn't like that. All right. We'll speak more about how this ties into our worldview in just one second. So all of this speaks to a very important point. I believe about all of this. Biden and Progressive's current handling of this crisis speaks to a particular world view. This is not happening in a vacuum. They're apparent night. of a tay about the taliban takeover what they would do how long it would take their complete disregard for american lives their prioritization of the interests of other countries before ours this idea

these ideas come come from somewhere it they come from the progressive world view that sees america as an entity that deserves to be taken down a notch and this is the view of most of europe of the u in certainly our foreign enemies and and honestly most of the democratic party at least leadership at this point, that American strength has actually been a force for evil, not for good, and that weakening the American economy, the American military, and American patriotism will get rid of this, what they would consider a toxic myth of American exceptionalism. And then finally, America will be more like Europe and the world will just be happier and more cohesive. This all plays into what we talked about last week on the Great Reset episode that

I recommend you go listen to if you haven't already, one of my most listened to episodes ever. the reality is that there will always be a world superpower. If it's not America, it will be someone else. I know that there are a lot of people on the left who think that if we, you know, take, if we knock America down a little bit, that everyone will be equal. And we won't have a hierarchy because the left thinks all hierarchies are evil. And therefore, they think that American exceptionalism is some kind of oppressive force. But that's just not true. There's always going to be a world superpower. We are seen. alliance between Russia, China, and the Taliban. And we know what that power is going to look like

if and possibly when they become the world superpower. It looks like a power that employs and celebrates slavery to this day. It looks like a power that does not believe in the concept of rights. It looks like a power that has no concept of justice or compassion or humans being equal or human value at all, and it is bent on the destruction and domination of the West and specifically the United States. The U.S. may have been wrong to think that we could export democracy to the countries we've kept the presence in, but it was a more noble desire than the desire of our enemies who want to export oppressive dictatorships to the rest of the world. So neutrality is a myth. Either America is in charge with all of our imperfections, yet a stronger commitment to human rights

and dignity, or the countries who believe in the torture. rape, murder, exploitation, imprisonment of all dissenters and those that they dislike are in charge. That's not a false dichotomy. Those are our two options. Just watch how this alliance will be on the prowl. You will see the further subjugation of Taiwan. You will see further exploitation of South American and African resources, something China has been up to for a long time now. You will see more Islamic radicalism ripping apart Africa as more Africans are kidnapped and slaughtered, especially Christians in places like Nigeria, the poorest and most vulnerable in the world are less safe because America is weaker, in particular, under this presidency. That's why ideologies like

those posited by critical theories and specifically critical race theory, which we've talked about so much on the show before, are destructive. It's why they matter. It's not just a boogeyman. It villainizes America on the basis of a false narrative about how integral white supremacy and oppression have been to the formation of all of America's systems and institutions and implicitly and sometimes explicitly elevates all non-white countries as oppressed liberators. It views right and wrong as black and white and is therefore unable to see that the world's most brutal and pervasive oppressors of black and brown people around the globe are not white but also black and brown. And because it is unable to see that reality it is unable to react accordingly. It's unable to respond accordingly.

So instead, you get the United States government urging the Taliban to recognize the rights of women and girls. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tweeted, quote, together with our international partners, we call on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee the protection of women and girls and their rights. We will monitor closely how any future government ensures their rights and freedoms. Yeah, okay. Here's U.S. ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield saying that the U.S. sent a very strongly worded letter to the Taliban to recognize the rights of women and girls. And we have expressed in no uncertain terms here at the United Nations through a very strongly worded press statement from the Security Council that we expect

the Taliban to respect human rights, including the rights of women and girls. So I'm sure they'll respect. I'm sure they'll respect that. Also interesting to know that we have gone from birthing people to women and girls. Women and girls are being persecuted there because they are women and girls. Not because they identify as women and girls. Now, you could say so-called trans people are persecuted there too, if they even exist in that area of the world. But that's not the point.

Everyone is persecuted there. Yes. The point is that women, girls, and boys. are all persecuted in their own particular ways in accordance with their sex. Sharia subjugates women because they are women, not because they say they're women. Sex, not so-called gender identity, matters when we're talking about the rights and the safety of girls. Progressivism gets human nature wrong.

It gets theology wrong. It doesn't understand sin. It doesn't understand spiritual warfare. It doesn't understand competing worldviews. And I'm not saying conservatism is totally. in accordance with a biblical worldview either. I'm just saying that secular progressivism is completely contradictory to the Bible's descriptions of all of these things. The Taliban is not going to recognize women and girls' rights because they don't believe in rights, because Islamic law

doesn't recognize rights for women the same way that we do. So under Sharia, women cannot leave the house without being accompanied by a man. Her face has to be completely covered. She can be beaten for going outside without a man. She cannot speak unless spoken. to at all. She cannot work. She cannot be educated. If she paints her nails, she gets a finger cut off. But it goes beyond this in most of the Islamic world. Women and children of both sexes are raped. They're used as sexual objects. They are abused. They are routinely sold into sex slavery. There is no concept of men and women being equal in value in Sharia law, unlike we see, especially in Jesus' ministry. The Christian Church has been a refuge for women when it was written.

I know that there are a lot of feminists who would say otherwise. And of course, There have been people who in the name of Christianity have abused women and have abused children. That is true. But Christianity, what it actually is, what we see in Scripture. And when the church lives out, what we see about women and children in Scripture, it is a refuge for these vulnerable populations. Women in Bible times were used as property. They were used to being used as property. And Christianity came along in a very radical way and said, no, you are actually made in God's image too.

There is no hierarchy of worth among male and female. male in Christ. Your husband is to care for you and love you. Ephesians 5, which now feminists freak out about because it says wives submit to your husbands. It was actually radical in favor of women because it called the husbands to take care of their wives. That was radical for the time. Jesus's attention, especially to women, to vulnerable women, was radical at the time. So let's once and for all get rid of this nonsense that all world views are the same. All sets of beliefs are the same. They're not. Slavery and pedophilia are still the norm in most of the non-Western world. And the driving force behind eventually stigmatizing both of them and making both illegal here

was the burgeoning and mainstreaming of the Christian worldview that radically asserted that all people of all ages and skin colors are made in God's image and are worthy of life and rights and are not property. Yes, it might have taken us a while to manifest that. And did America fail at that, yes, have Christians failed at that or have people who say that they're Christians failed to death? Absolutely, but it is Christian theology that has made that possible. Not all religions assert that, as we can see. So cultural and moral relativism are silly. They're toxic. Objective truth exists. Objective morality exists. And the same people who tend to reject that are simultaneously telling the Taliban to respect the rights of women and girls. So obviously, they do believe in

objective truth and a universal morality because they're demanding an end of a foreign government who doesn't have the same values as us. How is that not imperialism, by the way? And one more note about cultural relativism, their reports from the New York Times that U.S. troops were told to ignore the abuse of little boys, the sexual abuse of little boys by Afghan troops. And of course, this was in the name of being tolerant of different cultural differences. And there were probably other motives there too. Like we need to keep these allies. That is evil. That is grotesque. Also, to the Christians who have been saying for the past year and a half that other Christians that were too concerned with our rights, that's what I hear a lot of people kind of on the left

saying to Christians on the right. That it's not the Christian way to care about rights. Look what's happening in Afghanistan. What's happened with every tyrannical, murderous regime in the world, and you can see what a world without rights looks like. It looks like the weak being trampled by the powerful, which I'm pretty sure is the literal definition of oppression. If you want to alleviate oppression, fight for people's liberty. Fight for their rights to life, to free speech, religious liberty, self-defense to live in accordance with their values and raise their families as they see fit to provide for their own families, to own property without fear of the government, advocate for the cohesion of the nuclear family, which protects the most vulnerable. All of these

protects people from oppression. These same Christians, quoting Romans 13, when it comes to Christians unconditionally nodding along with the government here, do they say the same for Christians there? Now, I'm not saying that countries are, these countries are the same at all. I'm not comparing the regulations here to what's happening in Afghanistan. I'm saying that the principle is the same and that we know that there are times when Christians are not called to obey tyrants. We can learn a little bit about the slaughter of the 20th century, and you will see that it looks, you will see what it looks like when Christians are complacent. When they use bad theology to justify their apathy of what's going on politically,

when they no longer care about rights. Read the Gulag Archipelago, and you will see what it looks like when Christians no longer care about rights. When Christians don't care about rights, America no longer cares about liberty, no longer believes in its own ideas, which leads to people around the world being tortured and murdered by tyrants. It looks like Hong Kong falling. It looks like Cubans starved. It looks like Afghans subjugated. So it matters what we care about here. It matters that we care about rights. People's lives are at stake. When we don't care about rights, both here and abroad, people's lives are at stake.

All right. All right. So a final word. I know that was like a very intense and breathless monologue and I probably sound a little sassy. Maybe I sound a little angry and maybe it's because I am. And I'm sure that some people will maybe not be pleased with my tone, but I just think that there is a sense of urgency here that we all need to feel. And yes, I can talk about politics. I can talk about culture. I can talk about theology all day. But I do think that the most important thing that I want to draw attention to, that I think that we can all unify around. And I want us to unified despite our disagreement. That doesn't mean that I'm going to not disagree with you and articulate my disagreements, but I can still unify with other Christians who disagree with me on the things that I

just talked about when we recognize that we are most united with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world more than we are, our fellow countrymen. I think countries are important. Citizenship is important, but I have more of a connection to, more of a commitment to. my fellow sister or brother in Christ from a different background, a different ethnicity of different nationality than I do, someone who doesn't share that faith with me here. And so that means that my focus in my prayer is going to be on those people who are suffering. It's going to be on the persecuted church. I am going to be thinking about the Christians who are now being targeted and slaughtered by the Taliban, and I'm going to be praying for their deliverance. I'm going to be

praying that God would preserve them through the end. I would love their lives to be preserved. I pray for that. I pray for the mercy of God on them that he would miraculously protect them, but I also pray that they would represent the gospel until the very end that their joy in seeing Christ and the expectation of seeing Christ would be able to buoy them in such a a difficult, such a difficult time. And I just pray somehow miraculously that that gospel would impact people who are not Christians in Afghanistan and that the message of Christ would go out and that it would plant seeds and the fertile soil of soft hearts there. I'm praying for the church. I'm praying that she would be a beacon of light, a beacon of hope, a beacon of joy,

wherever she goes. And there are many different organizations that are helping these people. No one left behind is one organization. I'm also, I'm looking into another organization that claims to be sending pediolite and formula and things like that. That obviously is where my heart is. Right now, thinking especially of those mothers, not that other people don't matter, but I just being a mother myself, being a nursing mother myself, I think about the women who are in that situation. And I went to church last night and I was, you know, there sitting, worshiping with my baby and just thinking about how grateful I am for the freedom to be able to do that and to be able to be pretty confident.

in our safety, that we don't have to fear government encroachment on that, that I don't have to fear being targeted in the same way that people in Afghanistan are being targeted, that I can be pretty confident. We all can be pretty confident, depending on where you live, in the safety and security of your neighborhood. I mean, that is a privilege that most of the world will never know. I think that it's loving your neighbor to try to preserve that here as much as possible, but it also should compel us to help people who don't have those privileges as much as we possibly can.

I think I know that prayer moves mountains, that the prayer of a righteous person has great power. So that means that your prayer, that my prayer really matters, the donations that we give to organizations that are reputable. I know sometimes it's hard to tell. That's why I'm going to try to create a list of resources for you guys. all of those things matter. So despite whatever, everything I said today, whether you disagree with it or agree with it, I have been in connection with Christians that I know I disagree with politically because we are united in praying for the church in Afghanistan and praying for oppressed people there and caring for them. And so we can all join hands at least through prayer and do that. And I encourage you to do

so. God is totally and completely sovereign. And one of the miracles, is that there are thousands of Afghan children, or not just children, Christians, who are about to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, who know more joy than we can even imagine in this life. So let's pray for them. Let's join them in the hope of heaven. All right, that's all I got time for today. I will be back here on Monday. Hey, this is Steve Deast. 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 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 podcasts. I hope you'll join us.