Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 551 | My Take on Pastor Mike Todd’s Spit Take

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

Today we're mainly focusing on theology, starting with a reaction to Oklahoma pastor Mike Todd's strange sermon, in which he spat on his hand and rubbed it on a churchgoer to make a point about vision or something. Gross. However, Todd has realized since then that he took things a little too far and made an apology video. In the video, he encourages people to watch the rest of the sermon and not just the clip going around on social media ... so we did. And, unfortunately, his sermon turned out to be the kind of exegetical teaching that is a hallmark of prosperity gospel. Then, we discuss the recent rush by the mainstream media to condemn Justice Neil Gorsuch for not wearing a mask to hear arguments at the Supreme Court, which is apparently putting Justice Sotomayor in danger. Even though they're both triple-vaccinated and tested regularly for infection. --- Timecodes: (0:00) Intro (0:59) Mike Todd's viral sermon illustration, reaction, & his apology (17:53) The difference between eisegetical & exegetical preaching (31:26) Justice Neil Gorsuch refuses to wear a mask on the bench during oral arguments --- Today's Sponsors: Marley Spoon & Martha Stewart are the Meal Kit That Tastes Like No Other & it's packed with 40 offerings each week! If you're tired of grocery shopping & meal planning, sign up today at MarleySpoon.com & use promo code 'ALLIE' for $120 off your first 5 boxes! CBDistillery has over 2 million customers & if you haven't discovered the power of CBD, you're missing out! Go to CBDistillery.com & order online with no prescription required. Enter promo code 'ALLIE' for 20% off! Annie's Kit Clubs has the new 'Genius Box' - an excellent way to encourage your kids' curiosity while providing fun, hands-on activities to explore an exciting STEM theme like geology, chemistry, aerodynamics & more. Go to AnniesKitClubs.com/ALLIE & save 50% on your first box! --- Previous Episode Mentioned: Ep 512: Responding to Steven Furtick's Problematic Post https://apple.co/3AbBz9D --- 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. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. This episode, like our other episodes, is brought to you by our good friends at Good Ranchers. I absolutely love this company. I love the people that run this company and they are revitalizing the American farming, ranching industry by shipping better than organic chicken and craft beef right to your front door, all American made at a really, really good price, especially if you use my link, good ranchers.com slash alley. So make sure you check that out. All right, we're talking about a few things today.

Depending on how much time I spend on this first subject, you guys probably anticipated that I would talk about this at some point. And that is that viral Mike Todd clip that has been circulating. Mike Todd is a pastor out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He pastors a church called Transformation Church there. He has a very well-known pastor in evangelical circles. I'm pretty sure that his church is a pretty big church. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's a mega church. I'm not sure, but it's a pretty popular church. He's written a few books. He's been very influential on the subject of dating and relationships especially, and I've seen some interviews that he has done on that subject. And it's very good. He's got a lot of good things to stay there. In my humble opinion, I would say that that is his biggest

strength, is talking about relationships and how to date and to be married in a way that glorifies God. So like with anyone, there is a lot of good to what he says and what he preaches and how he influences people to try to live like Christ through their dating and marriage relationships. So that is great. I don't know if I agree with everything he said on those subjects because I haven't read or listened to everything that he has said on them. But what I have seen and heard has been pretty good. He's had a lot of good insight. Now, where I think that maybe our friend Mike Todd could improve, and I say our friend, not literally because I don't know him,

I've never communicated with him. And I don't know anyone that has ever communicated with him. But where I think Mike Todd could probably improve is in the preaching arena, as we saw in this viral clip. This viral clip is from a sermon that he preached last Monday, where he spit into his hand and he rubbed his saliva on a church member in order to make a point. We will talk about the point that he was trying to make after I show it. And I apologize.

I apologize for showing you this clip, but I had to see it. So you have to see it. I'm going to be reacting in real time. I've only seen it all the way through once. So this will be my second time. And I am bearing this for you. If you're watching this on YouTube, enjoy. Here we go.

But you hit. Oh, it's the sound. It's the sound. I'm, yeah. Yeah, because the vision I'm about to give you. Oh my gosh. And I get nasty. Guys, that's his spit that he's rubbing together in his hands.

So he just hawked a lugie, rubbed it in his hands. And is putting it on this guy's eyes. It's dripping off his face. Do you hear and see the responses of the people? Oh, my. Goodness. guys. Oh my goodness. If you're asking yourself, why in the world was that necessary? I think that's a really good question. So social media lit up with responses. There were a lot of really funny tweets.

Like if you just type in Mike Todd on Twitter, you'll see a lot of funny tweets. Some of them were rude. And I don't think that that is necessary, like trying to personally attack him. I don't think that's right. But there were a lot of really funny responses to what he did. So just check that out. If you've got an extra 10 minutes and you want to laugh. Some people had some humorous things to say about that and a lot of people were grossed out. I mean, there were articles written about this. People on Instagram were reposting it and talking about it. Twitter. Every social media outlet was like, what the heck is going on? This is so gross. And obviously people pointed out that we are in the midst of COVID. And even if you are someone who is not worried about COVID and you're kind of thinking,

okay, we're over the worst of this pandemic. Spreading Omicron is not that big of a deal. Even if that is your position, this is disgusting. This is disgusting. As someone who considers myself a germaphobe and a little bit of a hypochondriac, this might be on the list of my top 10 biggest fears. So Mike Todd realized that he was getting backlash. I guess he just opened up his phone.

He probably got some text from some friends saying, you know what? What she did on Sunday? It wasn't just the audience there that was grossed out. Everyone on planet Earth that saw it is grossed out. Maybe you should respond. So he decided to release an apology clip and we'll play just 30 seconds of it right here. Hey, what's going on, everybody? I hope you're having an amazing Monday.

I just want to acknowledge what happened yesterday when the spit hit the fan. I watched it back and it was disgusting. Like, that was gross. I want to validate everybody's feelings. That was a distraction to what I was really trying to do. I was really trying to make the word come alive and for people to see the story. But yesterday it got too live and I own that. Okay, so he goes on to basically just expound upon that.

And at the end, he said, a funny comment about how he spit on his friend and his friend is still bald. So I thought that was funny. He has a good sense of humor. You can see why people like following him and listening to him because he's very dynamic and he comes across as a very kind, very charitable, and he kind of just draws you in. And like I said, he has a really good sense of humor and everyone likes that in a communicator, even a communicator of the word. I think it's really important to have good dynamic communication skills. And he, of course, has that. He also goes on in this apology clip to say, you know, we should really listen to the whole sermon because things kind of got out of hand. He was trying to make the word come alive, but he still believed that the message that he preached was really important. And so I did that. I listened to the sermon because I did want to give him the benefit of the doubt. And you know what? I appreciated that he made a video apologizing and that he acknowledged it. We did an episode a couple months ago, a few months ago, I think it was in October about a particular comment that was made in a sermon and posted on Facebook by Stephen Ferdick.

And we will link that episode in the description to this episode. And I got some pushback on that. A lot of people, however, appreciated it. I tried to be as charitable as possible while still explaining what he said was not just a little bit wrong, but actually anti-biblical, not just unbiblical, but anti-biblical and anti-gospital. He basically said that Jesus doesn't make you into a new person. person, he just turns you into, or he shows you who you always were. I'm paraphrasing that. And we talked about how scripture says that we are actually new people. We go from death to life.

We are made into new creations. The old has passed. The new has come. And it's actually a very important distinction between what the gospel says, what scripture says, and what Stephen Ferdick said there. And so this reminded me, this whole situation reminded me of that, but Stephen Ferdick never apologized. He never explained or clarified as far as I know. Maybe he did and I just didn't see it or hear it, but I looked for that and I didn't see that. The post was deleted after some backlash and that was it. So I do appreciate in the spirit of transparency, Mike Todd coming out acknowledging, hey, yeah, that was gross. That was a problem. But he does say in this apology video, please go and listen to the whole sermon. So

because I liked, you know, the apology and I wanted to kind of take him at his word. And plus, I just think this is important in general. I went back and I listened to the sermon. And just to be honest, I only listened to the first 45 minutes or so of it. I wanted to make sure that I got the context around this incident. But I also wanted the lead up to it to really know what he was talking about. I'm like, you know what? Maybe he had some amazing expository preaching leading up to this. And it did just kind of, he was just trying to give a demonstration and it did just get out of hand. He didn't realize how disgusting it would be. All right.

That would be one thing. That was not the case. That was not the case. I listened to the first 45 minutes of it and I felt so tense the entire time I was listening because of the blatantling of the Word of God. Because this was, and I can't speak to all of his sermons and I'm not talking about him in general. you guys know I don't throw around the labels like false teacher false profit and things like that. I'm not saying that. I, because I just don't know. Maybe there are some of you who you wish that I

throw around those labels more about certain pastors and teachers. I just don't because I don't have all of the information and the knowledge to throw around those labels. And I just, I just don't think it's the most helpful and productive thing. So that's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about this particular sermon that I heard was not a sound sermon. It was not preaching the word of God. And it seems like, because I listened to the first 45 minutes and because I listened to the context around this incident, it doesn't seem like it was, you know, something where he was just preaching from the word and he wanted the word to come alive. It actually seems like he worked himself up so much because he was getting so much positive feedback from the audience every time he said some kind of sound bite that he

wanted a bigger reaction. I don't know. Maybe that's not true, but that is certainly how it came across. And speaking of Stephen Ferdick, this sermon reminded me so much of what Stephen Ferdick does. And it is called, as we talked about in that Stephen Ferdick episode, isogetical preaching, where you take a verse, or really you take an idea. And then you find a verse. to kind of support the idea or the theme that you want to preach on. So you take a verse. In this case, the verse that he used was Proverbs 2918. He used the message version, I think.

But this is the English standard version that says, where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. And basically, the sermon or at least the first 45 minutes, maybe the last hour or so of it was way better than the first 45 minutes that I listened to. But he basically just uses this as a springboard to talk about the idea of vision and how you might be in a situation that you thought you were supposed

to be in, but you didn't wait on God's vision. You might be in a situation where your vision is foggy, metaphorically speaking, but you don't know what the future holds and you got to wait for God's vision. You've got to ask for God's vision. Okay. Is that what this verse is talking about? I don't think so. Actually, we don't even know based on his sermon what this verse is talking about. He doesn't talk about the context. He doesn't talk about the author. He doesn't talk about who this verse is speaking to, what this verse is actually talking about, what this verse tells us about God. Instead, he spent almost the entirety of the first 45 minutes talking about different hypothetical scenarios in which someone might be seeking vision. And that's the problem with

a sermon that is almost exclusively focused on practical application. So there is a place for practical application, but that's not why the Bible was written. The Bible is about God. It's not about you or your situation. Now, what the Bible says about God and what a verse actually means may very well apply to your situation. It probably does in a particular way. But the sermon that I heard, the first 45 minutes of a sermon that I heard makes it seem like the Bible in this particular verse, Proverbs 29, 18 is about you. It's talking about your relationship with your boyfriend. It's talking about the job promotion that you want. It's talking about that confusing situation that you're in. Again, it might apply to those things in a particular way, but we don't even know how a verse applies

to our particular situation. And last, we first know what a verse is. means. And that is part of a preacher's job is to tell us what a verse means, not just what a verse means to you, but what is the verse mean? And in order to know what a verse means, you have to know the context. You have to know who is saying it, why they're saying it, what the historical context was, what the cultural context was, what the original language is telling us. You have to know what the verse actually means, not just what the verse means to you. I honestly don't really, even know what the point was of the first 45 minutes of the sermon. I really did go in with an open mind thinking, okay, you know what? Like I said, maybe this is an amazing sermon and this just

kind of went off rails. There certainly is grace for that. But the first 45 minutes, I wish you guys could have seen my face. It was, I almost felt like I was in pain because it was such a mishandling of the Word of God. Because there was so little preaching of the Word of God in it. there is so much in the gospel guys there is so much in scripture to be dissected to be analyzed to be preached it is actually sufficient for our encouragement it is sufficient for reproof it is sufficient for what we need to live a godly life that we don't have to travel outside of it and what i think happened in this whole spit take if you will is like i said i think that it was okay how far can I go to kind of continue to get a reaction, how far can I travel in order to really make my

point? But that's unnecessary. We don't need those kinds of illustrations. We don't need those kinds of spectacles. We don't need those kind of viral clips. You know why? Because the gospel is scandalous. The gospel in itself is scandalous. The Bible in itself is controversial. We don't don't need you to spit on a church member to see what the reaction is in order to try to make a completely convoluted point about what this passage means. And he also, he didn't just use Proverbs 29, 18. He also used John 9, the story of Jesus using his saliva to make mud and to put the mud on the eyes of someone who was born blind in order to heal him. And he completely bungles that as well. 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 T-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. So in the portion of the sermon where he actually does the hawking of the lugie and the spinning and putting it on one of his congregants' eyes, he is talking about Jesus giving a man vision. And this is something that I also see Stephen Ferdick do a lot.

they will use a passage from the Bible. For example, Jesus in John 9, it says in verse 6, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva, then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said, go wash in the pool of Seloam, which means scent. So he went and washed and came back seen. So what isogetical pastors will often do is they will use a passage and then they will use it as a metaphor. So again, rather than saying, okay, here's what this verse means.

Here's why what Jesus did is so stunning. What does this tell us about Jesus? What does this tell us about the God that we serve? What is the historical cultural context here? What does this text actually means? They will use it as a springboard and a metaphor to make the point that they want to make. So because I don't think I totally clarified this earlier, although we've talked about this before, isogetical means that you.

you are putting meaning into the text. Exegetical, which is the proper way to preach the word of God. And this is something that I've learned from listening to many exogetical preachers over the past, you know, while I've been a Christian, this is not something. I'm not a preacher. So I'm not saying it from that perspective. I've learned from very wise people what exegetical expository preaching looks like. And that is drawing the meaning out of the text. So you go to the text and you say, what does it say and what does it mean? What does it tell us about God? What does it tell us about sin?

It is not, what do I want the text to say? Or what do I want to say? And how can I get the text to then support what I want to say? Now, you can preach isogetically and not necessarily say something unbiblical or unbiblical. You could say, I want to talk about the glory of God. what verses can I can I use to support that? That's not necessarily bad. That's not necessarily going to lead you to some kind of unbiblical conclusion. But even so, when you go to the text, you are looking for what the text actually means, not what you want it to mean, and not what it means to you.

So isogetical preaching gets us into all kinds of dangerous zones because we are fallible. And so we want to say something. We want scripture to support what we say. And so we want, We are going to bend over backwards and use all kinds of crazy tricks to try to get the Bible to support what we want to say and the point that we want to make when really the Bible makes the point. And we draw out what the point is using careful study and understanding of scripture. So he uses John 9 and he uses this miracle of Jesus using his saliva to heal this man who was. born blind. And rather than telling us, again, what this passage means, why did Jesus use his saliva? Like I would want to know. I mean, that's kind of an open question. No one knows for sure. I've seen some people make some guesses. Now, Mike Todd does talk about he was putting his DNA

on this person to say that you are like a part of my family. I don't know if that's true or not. I haven't seen any evidence of that. There are some cultural context here that I think could probably give us some clues, but we don't hear about that. I don't remember hearing about that from Mike Todd. Instead of learning more about Jesus and what it meant that he was able to perform these kinds of miracles, what this chapter of the Bible actually means, why it was included, what this says about God, what this means when it comes to the power of God and the power of Christ, what does this tell us about the gospel and about the God? And about the God. that we worship. Instead, it is used at least in the first 45 minutes that I heard as a metaphor,

that God gives us vision, not just literally heals people from blindness, but he, this is supposed to be a passage, I guess, about giving us some kind of, you know, grand vision, prophetic vision of our life, to give us clarity for what may come. And he, says that, you know, the audience had this reaction, as you heard in the video, grossed out by this, obviously. And he was basically trying to say that sometimes God's vision is going to get nasty and we need to understand that. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding? That's not what the passage says. That's not what it means. And As I say, this passage, scripture in general, has so much in it.

We don't have to go outside of it. We don't have to put our meaning into it. We don't constantly have to find modern day applications to every person's situation. Tell me what the Bible says. Tell me the context. Tell me what the verse means. Tell me what it says about God. Tell me what it says about Christ.

That and that alone is what is what is. going to transform hearts and minds. And the transformation of the heart and mind through the power of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Word of God is what is what permeates in someone's life and then applies to the different circumstances that they're in. I'm not saying again, that application is always wrong or always bad, that we can't speak to how a verse specifically applies to someone's situation. Because even though the Bible wasn't written to us, it is written for our learning, our knowledge, our education, our encouragement. And so of course, we can't apply it to our lives, but again, not until we know what the passage says. Mike Todd

never tells us that. Mike Todd never tells us that, at least in the first 45 minutes. Maybe in the second half, it's this amazing exegetical sermon. Somehow, I don't think so. This very much reminds me of Stephen Ferdick. It reminded me very much. much of prosperity gospel preaching that has really no substance. I hate to say it, has no substance, no biblical substance, really. I mean, I didn't leave that knowing anything more about the word of God or who God is. It was just a bunch of repetitive sound bites and a bunch of different hypothetical scenarios in which someone may or may not need vision from God, but it doesn't tell me anything about how to ask for wisdom, how to ask for discernment from God, how to obey God

when things aren't clear. I mean, there was just so much scripture that wasn't preached. There was so much gospel that was missed. And that's what happens when you have isogetical prosperity gospel preaching. You miss the gospel. You miss the true gospel. And I think people who listening are worse off for it, it might pump you up and make you feel good. I mean, there was certainly a lot of that in the sermon. There was a lot of pumping up and a lot of excitement. And maybe that excites some people. And honestly, I think, like, I'm not judging here because I imagine myself in college when I really first started ingesting a lot of Christian teaching and preaching. I was very indiscriminate in the things that I was reading and listening to. I just didn't

know. I mean, I had been raised in a Christian. and home, but actually studying the Word of God was something that was fairly new to me. That's something that I didn't start doing until the latter part of high school. And so I was listening, watching Joel Osteen, I was listening to Stephen Ferdick. I was reading his books. I was listening to or reading, what's that book, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I was reading The Shack. but I was also listening to John Piper, Francis Chan, David Platt, you know, John McArthur, Matt Chandler.

And so I had a wide array of people that I was listening to and learning from at that point. And so I don't judge people who are listening to Mike Todd or listening to Stephen Ferdick because I don't know where they are in their faith. And I'm so glad that someone didn't come along when I was, you know, listening to this kind of stuff in 2011 or 2012 and say, you're not really a Christian because you're not listening to that. The reality was, is that I just needed to learn more. I had a friend, my sophomore year of college, get me an ESV study Bible. And I don't even think she knows this. Maybe I should text her today.

I don't even think she realizes how pivotal that was for me in my faith. The ESV study Bible is still, by the way, my favorite study Bible. I've tried multiple since then. The ESV study Bible is still my favorite. And I think the commentary in the ESV study Bible really is what pushed me towards reformed theology and realizing the dangers of isogetical preaching and the prosperity gospel that I really did not see the problems in. It took years of studying the Bible. It took time. It took the grace of the Lord. It took the kindness and a friendship and people

gently pointing me towards the truth. I don't remember receiving, you know, condemnation from people for listening to the wrong teachers. But I do remember there are people, God placing people in my life along the way when I was in college to point me towards sound teachers. And so if you are someone who maybe you listen to Mike Todd or you listen to Stephen Ferdick and you're thinking, hey, you know, this all sounds great.

This makes me feel good about myself. I didn't realize there were problems in it. that's okay. I certainly am not the arbiter. I'm not the arbiter of sound preaching and teaching or what counts as a sound sermon and does not. I have simply listened to people who are much farther along in their faith, who are much smarter and much wiser, much more knowledgeable than I am when it comes to studying and preaching the word. And that's the only reason that I do by the grace of God have any discernment when it comes to this kind of thing. Unfortunately, and I truly mean that, unfortunately, the sermon that I heard from Mike Todd

was not based on any kind of clear understanding from what I saw of the Word of God. And so I'm glad he apologized and I'm glad that he was transparent about it. But man, the problems were so much bigger than this particular clip, so much bigger. So let's all just pray for wisdom and pray for discernment. We're all fallible people. We're finite people as are all pastors and preachers. So let's just ensure that everything that we are listening to, everything that we are digesting when it comes to Christian teaching is based very strictly, very closely,

on God's word. And when we have disagreements about what the word of God means, because again, we will. We're fallible, finite people. Let us let the word. have the final word and not our own opinions and feelings. Okay, totally shifting gears. I just wanted to talk about this story that I saw circulating on Twitter yesterday quickly, and that is about Justice Neil Gorsuch refusing to wear a mask while they're hearing oral

arguments on certain cases. And the reason why this is a problem is because another Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, whom we talked about a couple weeks ago when we were talking about, well, we talked about her during the Dobbs case because of her claim that a child in the womb who moves or even resist the prick of an abortion needle isn't necessarily alive just because that child can feel pain. And we also talked about her a couple weeks ago when we were discussing the vaccine mandate case when she said that a human being is basically a machine that sparks and or that

spews sparks. So just like a machine spews sparks and I guess you have to fix it or take control of it so that it stops spewing sparks. You should be able to do the same thing with a human being. Of course, there is a big problem with that logic, but also, So human beings are not machines, but I think her comments in both cases show us the progressive view of human beings that really are, just blobs of cells from the time that they are conceived until the time of death that can simply be controlled and manipulated by the government. So I appreciate her giving such a clear picture of the left-wing view of human beings and the value of humans. But now she is showing us that even while,

she may not value other human beings that much. She very much values herself and is very, very scared of COVID, which I think probably also is the motivator behind a lot of what she said in regards to the misinformation that she spoke about the vaccine and about COVID. When she was hearing those vaccine mandate cases, she said that there were 100,000 COVID hospital. hospitalizations for kids, many of whom are on ventilators that is absolutely untrue. Even the director of the CDC, who I would say is a factless fearmonger usually when it comes to COVID, said that it's only about 3,000 pediatric hospitalizations total. And the vast majority of those cases are with COVID, not because of COVID, which means that a kid might be admitted

to the hospital for whatever reason. And he just happens to test positive for COVID. And so she was very off base. No one really cared to correct her, I guess, in the moment. Or even there were very few people that wanted to correct her after either. So that's Sotomayor. I think she has a lot of irrational fear surrounding this, which is probably why she is listening to the oral arguments from home because Justice Gorsuch won't wear a mask. Now, to be fair, Sotomayor, apparently, you know, apparently. has type 2 diabetes. That is an underlying condition. She's also obese. And so these are underlying conditions and could certainly exacerbate a COVID condition. So I don't blame her for being somewhat afraid, but here's the kicker. Here's what CNN says. Under Supreme Court rules,

media covering the court proceedings and lawyers arguing before the court have to wear masks, but there are no specific rules regarding masks for justices. All of the justices have been fully vaccinated and received booster shots. They are also frequently tested. So if the vaccines work as well as she says that they do, what is she afraid of? I mean, we know at this point that the vaccines don't stop infection or transmission, which is why vaccine mandates are just ridiculous. They are unscientific nonsense.

They don't make any sense. And more than that, there are threats to personal. liberty. And so, but if she trusts them the way that she says that she does, then why does it matter if Gorsuch isn't wearing a mask? But the bigger thing, I think, is not the fact that they're all triple vaccinated at this point, but also that they're tested frequently. He is not going to infect her. First of all, he's probably not going to infect her. I'm sure he's not, I'm sure that even though they are apparently sitting by each other, it would be. probably be difficult for that to happen, especially if he is asymptomatic. He's not going to be hearing

these oral arguments if he has COVID symptoms, but they're also tested frequently. So he knows that he doesn't have COVID. It'd be one thing. Now, I would agree that it is selfish. If he knew that he had COVID and he's coughing and, you know, pulling a mic, Todd and rubbing his lugi all over Sonia Sotomayor's face, I, yes, I would say that that is disgusting. And I would say just to Scorsuch, you are a very selfish man and that is gross. But that's not what's happening. He's sitting in his own seat, testing negative for COVID with three vaccines. Apparently, you know, that means something to Sotomayor. And yet she is still making a big deal of this. She is still listening remotely. That's fine if she wants to listen remotely. But the fact that this is

becoming a big thing where the liberal media is calling Justice Scorsuch selfish for this, that just doesn't make any sense. Like in what way? Explain to me scientifically how someone who test negative and then refuses to wear a pointless mask is selfish. That just doesn't make any sense. Is the virus going to secretly somehow? Is the virus saying, okay, I'm going to avoid testing positive on this test,

but I am going to secretly like secrete out of Justice Gorsuch's mouth and infect Sotomayor. Is that the scientific way this works? It's just another example of, COVID really becoming a religion. Like I said, I don't care. The Sotomayor is doing this remotely. If that's what makes her feel comfortable, that doesn't make a difference to me. But the media backlash about this and just condemning Justice Gorsuch, it's really,

it's not because he won't wear a mask. It's because he's conservative. That's why. But by the way, he's not even as conservative as conservatives would like his decision in Bostock absolutely abysmal and has set the stage for, uh, just terrible policy when it comes to gender and the protection of women's sports and spaces. But, of course, because he is not to the left of Bernie Sanders, he is going to be the target of condemnation for the media. And people who don't wear masks are apparently selfish. Even if you

don't have COVID, it doesn't make any sense. It's superstitious nonsense. And it's just a virtue signal at this point. It always has been. And the media is kind of actually admitting this now. They're saying that, no, you really need a KN95 mask. The cloth masks don't do anything. The surgical masks don't do anything. Yeah, I've been talking about that for almost a year or now. There have been many studies that have proven that the surgical masks that the cloth masks don't do anything. Sure, the KN95 mask, the N95 mask, sure, they can be effective. If you have symptoms or like if you are infected, they might protect if it's perfectly fitted and you don't wear it for too long. That's possible. But if you're not sick, you're not protecting anyone from anything.

I don't even think we have good data or good science to prove the asymptomatic spread is a thing. And if it is a thing, is it a significant thing? I don't think we have any data to back that up whatsoever. So what is the point of a healthy person wearing a mask? I don't think that it makes any sense. And we've been saying for a very long time that there are very few masks that actually work and we were a gaslit and told, no, your little cloth mask that you got in target that was also made in Wuhan, China. It definitely works. It's definitely what's keeping people safe. I mean, this is another reason why mask mandates in schools doesn't have, they have no significance in mitigating the spread of COVID at all. It's always been stupid. It's always been silly. It's always. been unscientific and we've been saying that for over a year now for almost two years now. Geez, it's been such a long time. And we've been told that we're the conspiracy theorists. Of course, there are a lot of things that are now coming out about COVID that journalists are reporting that we were told was a conspiracy theory. CNN recently reported that women are seeing

a change in their menstrual cycles after they get the COVID vaccine and that some women are having longer periods. Some women are having more frequent periods. Some women who are in menopause are bleeding. Some women are skipping periods for several months. But CNN still assures us it's okay. It's not that significance. And I'm like, yeah, you know, it's just your reproductive system. It's just your ovaries. It's just ovulation. It's just your ability to be able to have children one day. Don't worry about that. It's fine. It's fine. Of course, it's just going to keep coming out more and more that, okay, it is significant or it might have an impact on fertility, but we don't really know. They're just going to keep edging towards the truth. That's what we've seen since the very

beginning that so many of the people who were accused of spouting conspiracy theories have been vindicated. But there have been no apologies from the people that tried to take away their livelihood, de-platformed them, and called them conspiracy theorists. I think before the midterms were just going to be incredibly gasslet. I think that Democrats realize, that all of this hysteria and the policies that just don't make any scientific sense are losing popularity even among Democratic voters. I think they really need the economy to get back in shape. I think that they need to have a sense of normalcy before the midterm elections to try to say, look, Democrats and Joe Biden are doing such a good job with the economy. Look how great life is.

And by the way, I think that things are going to go that way because Omicron just isn't very virulent. And I think that shows that while the virus may be transmissible, it's not as deadly as it once was. And so it's just going to get harder and harder to justify some of the very cumbersome restrictions that exclusively Democrats are putting into place, especially when it comes to remote learning parents on both sides of the aisle are so weary of the politics that are being played at the expense of their children when it comes to unscientific mask mandates, when it comes to remote learning and school closures. And so I think Democrats are going to pretend that they have been the ones pushing for normalcy all along. And you can't let them get away with that.

You can't let them get away with the gaslight. I saw another CNN headline that they posted on Instagram and I was like, oh my gosh, wow, this is brand new information. I would have never ever thought of this. And the headline said new research shows kids experienced both mental and physical health problems. New research. New research. Anxiety, depression, lower physical activity, food and security and school disengagement, link to school closures and social lockdowns. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, CNN for your honest journalism. I know that I'm just dripping in sarcasm in the segment of the podcast.

I'm sorry, I'm over it. I am so over it and I'm so tired of the gaslighting. These people ruined people's lives and pushed kids to the brink of suicide or into suicide because of these unscientific school closures and lockdowns and force isolation. And a lot of kids were pushed into the arms of their domestic abusers, were pushed into food insecurity, have fallen far behind academically. I mean, talk about income gaps and success gaps between the rich and the poor. Those are going to be wider than ever. And I don't know if they're ever going to close because these These kids won't get their childhood back. They won't get their elementary education back.

Yes, I would love all parents to be able to opt out of public school and just homeschool or send their child to a Christian school. I think that would be great. But that's not the case. It's not a possibility for a lot of people. And so for the kids that have to go to public school, they have no other option. They're really going to fall behind. The most vulnerable kids have had it really bad over the past couple of years.

And the conservatives who have brought that up, again, have been told that we lack compassion, that we lack empathy somehow, that they're going to die of COVID. If they're sent to school without a mask, it was all a lie. It was a lie. Don't you forget that these people lied to you over the past two years. Don't you forget who put these policies in place over the past two years, especially when it comes to the midterms. Do not let them lie to you. They did this and they're trying to act now. Like they want to, they want things to go back to normal. Don't let them lie to you. I'm not going to let them. I'm not going to let them off the hook for this. So if you have to rely on me to remind you how much they lied to us, how much they deceived us,

how much they manipulated the data, how much they pushed for these cumbersome restrictions in the name of public health and then ended up vindicating the so-called conspiracy theories that they be platformed people for if you have to rely on me to remind you of that, I'll be here. Trust me. All right. All right. That's all we've got for today. Tomorrow we've got a great interview. We're going to be talking about the Olympics happening in China. Can we even believe that that is still going forth? When we look at the havoc that has been reeked, that has been wreaked on the world because of China's corruption and incompetence, it's really incredible that that's happening. So we're going to be talking about that tomorrow.

Once again, if you love this podcast, please leave us a five-star review. That would mean so much. I will see you guys back here tomorrow. 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.