Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 586 | The Mental Health Experts Are Making Us Feel Worse

Starting point is 00:00:00 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.

Starting point is 00:00:19 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, happy Tuesday and welcome to Relatable. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers American Meat delivered right to your front door. Go to Good Ranchers.com slash Alley for a discount. That's good ranchers.com slash alley.

Starting point is 00:01:02 Okay. I don't know if it's like this where you are, but Spring House. sprung for the most part where I am. And it is like just beautiful weather. And I, my mood is improved so much by the sunshine and it's staying lighter, longer. I was just talking before this about we had like the perfect day on Sunday. And last night there was a tornado warning. Sorry, I don't know why that made me laugh. I guess I was just thinking about the fact that we were stuck in our closet at bedtime with two babies and it was really difficult. But my husband. And husband and I were like, you know what, if yesterday, if Sunday were our last day on Earth, that would be okay because it was a perfect day.

Starting point is 00:01:43 We had a picnic. And then our kids slept for like two and a half hours in the afternoon. It was just amazing. So I hope that the start to your spring is great. And congratulations. So congratulations are in order for all of my fellow survivors of the dark winter of severe illness and death. So congrats to all of us. we made it. It was the first day of spring on Sunday. And if you'll remember, Biden's administration

Starting point is 00:02:12 said that this was going to be a dark winter. And then at another point, they said it's going to be a winter of severe illness and death. So just kind of speaking that over their political enemies, pretty pretty depraved stuff. But thankfully, many of us survived. Good job on that. Praise the Lord for that. And now it is spring and it's almost Easter and that it's summer. And you guys know how much. I love summer. And so I am just, I'm happy. I'm happy. And speaking of happiness, that actually brings me to what we will be talking about on the first part of today's episode before we get to the rest of this stuff. The first part that I want to talk about is the happiness or lack thereof of teenage girls today. I saw this really interesting article and I want to talk about it inside the

Starting point is 00:02:59 mental health epidemic among teenage girls. This is on newstatesman.com. And we talk, you know, a lot about mental health. And I think the, the deficit of good mental health practices in the United States, it's really the mental health practices that we often see represented on social media and even in therapist's office is kind of this new age superficial stuff. And so we're going to talk about where I think that's coming up short based on this. And the reason that we're talking about that first, before we get into what I said we would talk about today, which is this whole Disney protest and Disney speaking out about the Florida legislation that solidifies parents' rights and education is because I just kind of want to take a little bit of a break, take a step back.

Starting point is 00:03:42 We talked about Leah Thomas and the transgender movement infiltrating women sports yesterday. And there's been a lot of talk about that. A lot of commentators have talked about that. So I just kind of wanted to break it up a little bit, break up this culture war stuff just a bit and talk about something that we have been talking about for a long time on Relatable that I wrote my book about, you're not enough, and that's okay. And that is the failure of understanding and properly treating and addressing this mental health pandemic, if you will, maybe epidemic is a more appropriate word among young people today. So we're going to start with that. And let me read you

Starting point is 00:04:29 some excerpts from this article and then I'll get into some of my commentary about this. So this author first starts out with anecdotal evidence talking about the girls that she spoke with for this article, suffering from low self-esteem, feeling like things are out of control, worry about their body image or concerned about passing exams. They told this author that they haven't been able to talk about any of the issues openly. And then she cites, This study of 15,000 secondary school pupils that was published in February. The mental health focus company steer education and the social enterprise mind ahead found that girls were more than twice as likely as boys to suffer from mental health problems by the time they were 18.

Starting point is 00:05:17 80% of girls were hiding their distress compared to 60% before the pandemic. The study said the NHS found last year that one in six in England. So this is talking about in the UK, aged five, five years old to 16 years old, identified as having a probable mental health disorder in 2020 up from one in nine in 2017. And then in a study of 40,000 teenagers conducted by Manchester University published this week, 22% of girls reported emotional difficulties compared to 7% of boys. Social media and lack of sleep were reported as possible contributing factors. And then she goes on to talk about some other data that we have that this is a severe uptick in girls not just dealing with insecurity, but even dealing with thoughts of suicide. And this is also backed up by data that we see in the United States and that we've really

Starting point is 00:06:14 had to take a hard look at over the past couple years, especially with COVID. And, you know, it's really easy for people, especially people outside of the church, to attribute these mental health problems in girls. to the pandemic or only to social media or to society. That's the big one. It's society. It's too high expectations on women. It's because women aren't taught to love themselves enough.

Starting point is 00:06:38 But you know what? I don't fully believe that. I do think that social media is a huge contributing factor, but I actually think that it's a little deeper than that. And I think that what we see from a large portion, not all, of course, but a large portion of the therapy world, it seems, is focused on simply doubling down on the efforts to combat mental health issues that have not been working now for probably over a decade.

Starting point is 00:07:08 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.

Starting point is 00:07:32 This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. So here are some factors that I think, just from my outside. amateur perspective. I'm not pretending to be a professional counselor or be a professional psychologist, but I think anyone with just a little common sense and from a little observation can tell you why these mental health numbers have increased so much over the past couple of years.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Now, people have always struggled with forms of mental health. And this phrase mental health is fairly new, at least within the mainstream. Sure, it's been around for a long time. I was actually reading a book that was published in the 1960s the other day that had the phrase mental health in it. And I was kind of surprised. But I think it's become more mainstream in the past decade or so. And so people have always struggled with whatever it is, with different kinds of mental instability, whether it's actually some kind of chronic disorder, like chronic depression or chronic anxiety or, you know, far more severe disabilities and mental disorders or lack of mental health. And then, of course, there has always been some form of insecurity, some form of

Starting point is 00:09:01 joylessness, lack of ability to feel like you're in control. I think that is largely part of the human experience. And there are a variety of factors that play into that. For some people, it truly is some kind of chemical imbalance in their brain that is often helped by a medication and professional services. I think that that's great. I think those things are a gift of common grace when they are needed and when they are helpful. So I am certainly not against that. But I also think just natural life kind of plays into a lot of the mental health issues that we have. One of them, of course, is original sin. One of them is that we live in a fallen world. And so we are never going to have full feelings of joy and satisfaction and fulfillment. So if,

Starting point is 00:09:46 of course, that plays into everyone's feelings of sadness, whether they are seasonal or whether they are just acute for periods of time, the things that we experience in life, loss, rejection, disappointment, discouragement, all of that is normal. However, I don't think it's normal, the level of anxiety and the level of depression that we are seeing from young people today. And in my estimation, there are a few reasons for that. One, absolutely COVID. Now, not COVID itself, not the actual sickness, although, of course, that can cause some sadness and anxiety if you see people that get seriously sick, or maybe you had a parent or grandparent as a young person who went in the hospital because they had a severe bout of

Starting point is 00:10:30 illness with COVID. Of course, that can cause anxiety. But certainly more than that, and there's data to back this up. There, thankfully, have been several studies, well, not thankfully, but thankfully, the studies exist, but not thankful for the finding. Several studies recently, have come out talking about how the lockdown policies and the shutting down of schools and the virtual learning has negatively impacted young people. Of course, when you're talking about children, as we've talked about many times, you're looking at developmental delays, you're looking at speech delays because of mask wearing and because of missing school and just less in-person interaction that young people typically have. But also, when you're looking at preteens,

Starting point is 00:11:10 when you're looking at teenagers, they need normalcy, they need social interaction. They also need to be able to see people's faces in order to read emotions in order to form the connections. I mean, God made our entire face for a reason. I think that a lot of these girls and kids in general are the victims of American politics, and in this case, maybe British politics, and also adults paranoia. I mean, we've known from the beginning that COVID, that COVID, was not seriously affecting 99.999% of young people. And yet they still were subject to the demands of politicians who weren't actually basing their policies on science like lockdowns and forcing virtual learning, but we're just trying to do something. They were just trying to be a good

Starting point is 00:12:04 leader. And unfortunately, the standard of good leadership in the time of COVID was just, it was just trying to push as many draconian policies as you possibly could, whether or not there was any kind of science or data to back them up. And I think kids were victims of this. Of course, if you take kids out of their routine, if you take away from them all of the things that really matter, even if it was just for a short period of time. But in some states and in some countries, it's been for a very long period of time. You take away athletics, you take away their routine. You take away their friends. You take away homecoming, prom, all of the things that they were looking forward to. And you just say, well, kids are adaptable. That's so cruel. Again,

Starting point is 00:12:46 for a disease, for a sickness that wasn't negatively impacting them, for most of them would have just amounted to a cold. For most of them, the flu would have been far more severe than that. Mono would have been far more severe than that. And we have taken the risk of kids getting those sicknesses every year for all of history. But for this one, we pulled kids out of school. That is what was detrimental to the mental health of young people over the past couple years. It wasn't COVID. It was the policies pushed by the teachers unions and mostly Democratic and some Republican politicians that pulled them out of their routine. And now a lot of parents fought against that, thank the Lord, Republican and Democrat. But unfortunately, there are a lot of

Starting point is 00:13:28 parents, especially in blue areas who thought that they were being, you know, a good little citizen and, you know, a virtuous fighter against COVID by restricting their child as much as possible and just relying again on this just cruel idea that kids can just adapt no matter what. You don't get your childhood back. These kids understand that you don't get your childhood back. You don't get your, you don't get your adolescence back. You don't get high school back. We don't get to make up for this COVID time on the back end.

Starting point is 00:14:03 We did an episode now, I think it was a few months ago, saying we are still, now at this point, we were two years closer to death than we were in March of 2020, two years closer to death, no matter what. And so there's nothing that we did over the past two years. The data shows is not lockdowns, not virtual learning, not most of the restrictions that were put in place because of COVID, that have actually extended people's lives. Instead, people have wasted their lives sitting inside and just hoping that one day we're going to be able to make it all up. We're never going to make it up.

Starting point is 00:14:41 So I think that's one factor contributing to why there is such a serious and heightened mental health epidemic in young people. And then particularly in young girls, one, I think that they're a little bit more social than boys are. And so they might need even more of that kind of relationship building and interaction that comes with normalcy and school. and things like that. But also I do think girls are more negatively impacted by social media. Look, you go on Instagram. I'm not on TikTok, but I read something the other day. I think I meant to cover it on the show and then I didn't. Or maybe I was I was listening to it on a podcast, someone that used to work at TikTok. Anyway, so there is a filter. So there are filters on Instagram. Like if you do Instagram stories, like you can pick a filter. And it's kind of amazing. to see what it does. When you go from looking at your actual face to swiping the filters, and look, I think the filters are fun, especially when you're like, oh, I'm tired, I don't have any makeup on,

Starting point is 00:15:43 I don't look great in this lighting. You put the filters on, and like, for me, it's fine. I don't struggle with how I look in general. But you can definitely see how a young woman who might be insecure in other ways, finding herself, comparing herself to her friends or to celebrities online, And you swipe and you look at this filtered picture of yourself and your nose is smaller. Like they make you have like a button nose. Your skin is smoother. Your eyes are a little bit more like fox eyes. You look a little bit tanner.

Starting point is 00:16:17 Your lips look a little bit bigger. And it depends on what filter you use. Some are very dramatic and you look very different. Some are less dramatic. But you can imagine if you're a young person in your formative years, especially when your frontal lobe isn't even developed, how this could negatively impact your self-esteem. And then on TikTok is what I hear is that the TikTok camera or the what you look like on TikTok, there is a filter. But unlike on Instagram, Instagram actually tells you that you have a filter and it tells the person that's looking at your story that there is a filter on this.

Starting point is 00:16:52 And I think that that's actually beneficial. So we know, okay, this person really looks like this or maybe, you know, it's a little different in real life. but on TikTok, it doesn't actually tell you there is a filter. But if you're looking at yourself on TikTok or if you're looking at someone on TikTok, there is kind of a manipulation of the reflection. And so the nose again is smaller. The cheeks are a little bit more chiseled. The eyes are a little bit more upturned.

Starting point is 00:17:15 The lips are a little bit plumber. So this is all addictive for young people. And then guess what happens? You love what you look like on TikTok. And then you look in the mirror and it's not the same. Or you take a picture of yourself without a filter and it doesn't look. how you do online. And so what does that do? That addicts you, attaches you to social media so you prefer your virtual life and your virtual self over real life. That cannot be good for someone's

Starting point is 00:17:41 self-esteem. That cannot be good for someone's mental health. And I know a lot of people talk about this. Thank the Lord. There are so many, there are a lot of organizations and activists and advocates online that I follow that I see talking about this. I think we should have one on soon. certainly talking about the detriment of social media to kids, but it seems like a lot of the people who talk most about mental health and young people and the importance of mental health aren't pointing back to the dangers that we are seeing on Instagram and TikTok for these young people, not to mention the widespread predation that we see on these apps for young women.

Starting point is 00:18:20 And then I think that there is also a factor here that has been true throughout all human history, but is exacerbated and enabled through social media of narcissism, of focusing on ourselves too much. And look, that is the tendency of all of us. The tendency of all of us is to think about ourselves first and not just to think about ourselves first, but to really think about ourselves exclusively. And when we think about ourselves too much, we actually become, we actually become burdened with ourselves. We actually become overwhelmed with our thoughts of selfishness. We start obsessing over things like our appearance, our wants, our needs. It creates bitterness in us because if we are thinking about ourselves

Starting point is 00:19:11 first and foremost, and then other people are treating us the way that we perceive that we need to be treated or deserve to be treated, we are constantly thinking that no one is really measuring up. And you also start to think, well, no one really understands me. I am misunderstood. I'm special. People don't treat me how I want to be treated. That not only creates narcissism and bitterness and resentment that can damage your relationships, but it also, I think, creates almost an obsessive, compulsive nature in you that prevents you from being happy and being content and being satisfied and being a generous and selfless friend to other people. That, of course, is going to negatively impact you. And yet, like, here's my beef with all of this. Here's my big beef,

Starting point is 00:20:00 I think, with today's mental health world. Not that it's all bad. Again, I am not demonizing all professional mental health help. You guys know that. I've talked about that. I wrote about that in my book. Number one, and this is kind of an aside, I just want to pose a question. Why is it that so many of the therapists that you see on Instagram that you see on social media are literally insane? Like, why is that? Like, why did they seem like some of the most narcissistic and self-serving and unstable and, like, mean people out there? And, you know, a lot of them live, A lot of them are liberal. First of all, a lot of them are left-wing.

Starting point is 00:20:47 And so plenty of them don't like my book. And they tell me so when they send me, there was some therapist, left-wing therapist, you sent me this mean message the other day calling me a POS. I'll just use that. And I'm like, oh, like, this is the mental health professional that is helping other people relate to others in a healthy way and is trying to help other people be stable.

Starting point is 00:21:12 and she's not stable because I don't have a single friend who would ever send a message like that to anyone that they disagree with, or especially anyone that they seriously or even anyone that they seriously disagree with. I would never send a message like that. And yet these people, of course, they think they're so loving. They think they're so tolerant. They think they're so knowledgeable about mental health. And some of them are literally like the meanest and most unstable and most insecure people that you'll ever meet in your life. I think that's one problem. is that actually in the industry, you have a lot of people who become therapists who are really just political activists and are very insecure and unstable themselves. And so maybe a lot of young people aren't getting the help that they need. But another part of this is that it seems like we are simply doubling down on what has not worked. We are continually telling young people that the reason that you're sad, the reason that you're unfulfilled, the reason that you have all of these problems is because you don't love yourself enough. And if you just loved yourself more, if you had more self-confidence, if you had more self-esteem and you just told yourself every

Starting point is 00:22:22 morning how awesome you are, then you'll be able to improve. You'll be able to get out of this rut. If you see yourself as kind of the perfect goddess that you are and you realize that your family's unfair expectations of you or society's unfair expectations of you are all the cause of your problems. It's, you know, it's capitalism. It's the patriarchy. It's whatever system is out there that is suppressing you and hurting you, those are all the problems. And if you just be yourself and if you just love yourself more, then you will be mentally healthy. Well, we have heard that for at least 20 to 30 years, but especially over the past 10 years. Like that has been the prevailing message to young women that your biggest problem is that you don't love yourself enough. And so my question is,

Starting point is 00:23:14 how's that working out? How's that working out for us? If that is the message that we have been preaching to young people and to women of all ages, at least for the past decade, if that is the solution that we have been prescribing to the problems of mental health for several years, and we are only seeing the suicide rates and the negative mental health, numbers rise and especially over the past two years, why are we continuing to double down on that solution? It's not working. Maybe one problem is that we are thinking about ourselves too much. Maybe we're telling young people to think about themselves too much. Maybe we are telling them something that makes no logical sense whatsoever is that the self can be your problem and your

Starting point is 00:24:07 solution. And that's the whole premise of my book is that the self cannot be the problem and the solution. Look, if inside yourself you are finding all of these problems, which we all do, you know, feelings of depression and anxiety for some people more severe than others. I understand that. You're feeling like you're not enough. You're feeling like you are unsatisfied that you can never, you know, be fully fulfilled or sufficient. If inside yourself, you're feeling all these feelings of inadequacy, you are not going to be able to find a solution to those things also inside yourself. If inside you're finding the problem, you're not going to find the solution in the same place where you are finding your problems. And thankfully, the gospel offers something bigger and

Starting point is 00:24:56 better than superficial self-help. The gospel offers you something that is completely counterintuitive and countercultural today, which is self-denial. So rather than self-obsession and self-attention and constantly focusing on how can I love myself more, which is honestly exhausting because you are depending on the very person that you have already realized has serious issues and is fallible to also fix the problems that you have. Well, look, just let go of that. Let go of that.

Starting point is 00:25:25 Realize you're not enough. You're not sufficient. You're not enough for yourself. You're not going to be able to find your own solution inside yourself. you're not going to be able to fix this on your own. So just like COVID and Basque, revel in the relieving reality that you are never going to be enough and that that is okay. I promise this is not just a push for my book. It's just something that I'm passionate about that I thought about when I was reading this article. It is okay for you to have these feelings, for you to be insufficient,

Starting point is 00:25:57 but you've got to let go of this struggle to be your best self and to convince yourself that you're perfect the way you are, to convince yourself that you're enough. That's a hamster wheel that you're never going to be able to get off of because you're telling yourself that you're enough how you are, that you're perfect how you are. And yet you are running from one program to the next, it's telling you if you read this book, if you do this, you know, 10-step program, if you talk to this person, if you listen to this podcast, if you do whatever it is, then you will finally feel like you're perfect the way you are. Don't you see that that's a paradox? You're simultaneously being told by these people that you're

Starting point is 00:26:35 perfect the way you are, but they're also telling you to buy their products so you really feel perfect the way you are. If you were enough, you wouldn't need those things. They know you're not enough. They're just trying to sell you their product. So I'm telling you that you are actually not enough and that's okay. And you're only going to find your enoughness, your sufficiency, see the peace that your restless heart and mind are looking for in the God who created you. Now, I am not saying that, oh, if you just have, that I'm not saying that all of your mental health issues are because you're not praying enough. I'm not saying that all of a sudden, when you become a Christian, that you're not going to have any mental health problems and that

Starting point is 00:27:13 you're never going to feel depressed again or that you're never going to feel anxious or that you won't need to see a therapist or that you won't need medication. I'm not saying that at all. I'm not saying that. All I'm saying, all I'm asking is how is the endless and unconditional focus on yourself and loving yourself more working out for you? I'm not telling you to hate yourself. That's self-hatred is another form of self-obsession actually. And I am not calling for another form of self-obsession. I'm not calling for self-hatred, which is just as unbiblical as self-adoration and self-worship. I am calling for a self-forgiftfulness. that is only found in Christ.

Starting point is 00:27:54 He calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow him. And in that, it's such a wonderful exchange. Christ died for us. He takes on our sin. He takes on our punishment. So we have a relationship with God. But it doesn't in there. I mean, that's amazing.

Starting point is 00:28:10 And it could be enough that we're forgiven of our sins and that we get to spend forever in heaven. That could be enough. But not only that is that he becomes your shepherd. He becomes your brusiness. burden bearer. He becomes the person that you get to go to with your problems and with your anxieties and with your issues. And he tells us that he actually cares about those things and that he will bear your burdens for you. Wow, what an amazing exchange. And that's not something that you can work toward.

Starting point is 00:28:38 That's not something that you can earn. That's not something that you can be good enough to get. That's something that he gives you by grace through faith. Wow, that's amazing. And again, I'm not saying that that's a quick fix, but hey, it seems to be a far better and a far longer lasting and a far deeper solution to the deep internal problems that we have than this nonsensical idea that if you just think about yourself more and you like your body more and you like, you know, your reflection and your personality more, then maybe you'll finally be fulfilled. Again, how is that working out for us? Not well. And this whole idea also is so toxic within this that you can't love other people until you love yourself.

Starting point is 00:29:27 Well, look, that's a very privileged way to think. There are people who are hungry, who are lonely, who are needy, who need our love right now, and they can't wait until we are okay with the cellulite we see on our thighs and the reflection. Like, I don't think we need to wait until we are fully confident and love every aspect of ourselves before we go out and love our neighbor. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, he is not saying that that's not a command to love yourself. Okay? That's not a command to love yourself. He is saying it's a given.

Starting point is 00:30:01 We all love ourselves in the sense that. Not that we like ourselves all the time. There are plenty of times where we don't like ourselves or there are things about us that we don't like and that's okay. The kind of love he is talking about is not like. It's not admiration. It's not affection. it is the love that seeks someone's best interest. When Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself,

Starting point is 00:30:24 he is saying in the same way that you were born with this inherent drive to take care of yourself, this inherent drive to meet your own needs, to seek your own protection, to satisfy your own thirst and your own hunger, so love other people. C.S. Lewis talks about this in mere Christianity, that the love that Jesus calls us to is not a love of feelings or emotions or affection. It's not about your self-confidence. It is a natural love.

Starting point is 00:30:56 It's an innate love that is in all of us. And I know people say, no, not everyone loves themselves like that. Well, yes, everyone does seek their own best interest. It actually takes effort not to. Even people who tragically, they die by suicide. Yes, they might struggle with feelings of self-loathing and self-hatred, but they are still seeking to relieve themselves of pain. They are doing what they erroneously think is in their best interest.

Starting point is 00:31:22 We all have an innate drive to meet our own needs. And Jesus is saying in the same way that you have that innate drive to meet your own needs, meet the needs of other people. And guess what? Meeting the needs of other people, going outside of ourselves and thinking about other people first, thinking about ourselves less, will actually lead us to the joy that we are trying and failing to find inside of ourselves. Self-denial rather than self-obsession is going to give us the joy and the fulfillment that we are trying and failing to find inside of ourselves.

Starting point is 00:31:55 So it breaks my heart that so many young women are dealing with all of this today. I think that they are given the wrong solutions. Of course, the solution to all of our problems, no matter who we are, no matter our age group, is always going to be Jesus. Of course. but especially when it comes to these young women who I just think are fed so much so much narcissism and so much self-focused for their problems. I think that they're struggling because of that. And then also, I just thought of this.

Starting point is 00:32:28 I think they're also burdened with like the way to the world and the news and politics and the way that we weren't. Like I didn't think about politics at all when I was in high school. And just for the young people listening, it hasn't always been this way. Like the world hasn't always been. I mean, it's been dark in different ways, but it hasn't always been this burdensome for young people. And I'm sorry. Like, I'm sorry that you've been failed by so many adults in your life, so many people that have

Starting point is 00:32:53 called themselves professionals. And we can't even, we don't even have time to get into all of the young women who have decided suddenly in their teenage years that because they're insecure in their body and because their friends are doing it and because this community online understands that they're the opposite gender. And then you've got psychologists pushing them into therapy and doctors cutting off their healthy breasts. Like, we don't even have time to get into all of that. But unfortunately, like, our girls and their health in so many ways are on the chopping block. This also speaks to

Starting point is 00:33:22 the fact that there is an inherent difference between boys and girls. And when we cover that up, when we say that it's just fluid, that those differences don't exist, we actually fail to provide the proper and unique solutions to the girls and boys, men, and women in our lives. So it's all messed up. It's all confusing. It's all cases. and I think our young people are bearing the brunt of that chaos and confusion. So it's the goal and the role not just of adults in general and professionals especially, but the church in particular to once again, as I often say, be a refuge, be a refuge for these young people giving them the friendships, the relationships, the mentorship,

Starting point is 00:34:08 but more importantly, like the truth that they need to wade through the chaos and confusion. I think a lot of probably, you know, youth ministries and Christian organizations for young people, they really waffle when it comes to controversial issues like gender and marriage and abortion and all of that because they're afraid of turning young people away. Look, they're just people as have existed for all of human history. And for the past 2,000 years, every single person, no matter what stage or culture, are in have needed the gospel of Jesus Christ and have needed truth. So allow the church, let the church be work toward the church being a refuge from the chaos and confusion by speaking truth,

Starting point is 00:34:49 especially to these young people. All right, I'll just update you on what's going on in Disney real quickly. All right. So those of you who are fans of Disney, which I know is a lot of you, whether you are like an adult fan or whether you are a fan because your kids love it. There's a lot going on here right now and it's disappointing. It's disappointing especially for conservative Christians. You'll remember the parental rights and education bill, HB1557, that was the bill out of the Florida legislature, which essentially did two things. And you can read the bill.

Starting point is 00:35:33 I encourage you to look it up online, B-1557. It's only seven pages long. It's very easy to understand. Go past the first page, which is really just the summary and actually read the legislation itself. And you'll see that the purpose of the bill is twofold. One, schools are not allowed to keep secrets about a child from a parent information about that child's well-being and health. So that includes like any questionnaires. We've seen this at public schools across the country. There have been questionnaires given to elementary school students asking for their pronouns, asking what their sexual orientation is, asking what their gender identity is. I mean, the power of

Starting point is 00:36:16 suggestion is so strong. It's a manipulation and indoctrination and propaganda tactic that if someone is not thinking about something and you then suggest that thing to them, well, then they are thinking about it. Then they are considering it. There is absolutely no reason beyond cruelty and predation that you would suggest that kind of confusion and dysphoria to a child. Very, very sad. In a time, again, that we are focusing so much on self-love and accepting yourself, the very same people who seem to be focused most on that are telling kids that they need to hate their bodies. I mean, talk about like yesterday, at the end of yesterday's episode, talking about tucking, the horrifying aspect of that. I mean, talk about true self-hatred. Read,

Starting point is 00:36:59 love thy body by Nancy Piracy. The Bible tells us, to love our bodies, that our body is a part of us. So anyone that is telling kids suggesting that kids should hate their bodies and hate how God made them, it's just cruel. Again, and so predatory. So this bill says that teachers, that schools cannot keep secrets about children from their parents. And the bill focuses on kindergartners through third graders.

Starting point is 00:37:24 Okay. So that's five-year-olds through nine-year-olds. And then the second part of the bill says that there cannot be formal classroom instruction to just this age group, kindergarten through third graders, five to nine year olds, about so-called sexual orientation and so-called gender identity. It's really hard for me to think of an innocuous reason why someone would be against this bill. Truly, it's really hard for me to understand. I mean, that's all the bill does.

Starting point is 00:37:54 Again, please read the bill. You can fact-check me if you find something nefarious in there that says you also can't say the word gay, then please let me know, but in my reading of the bill, I didn't see anything like that. It is just saying, look, parents have a right to educate their child, especially when it comes to this stuff. And it also, I think, highlights the importance of truly informed consent when it comes to these sensitive topics. Now, informal discussions between a teacher and a student. If the student comes to them and says, hey, like, I've got a question about this, the teacher is not prohibited in this bill from having that kind of conversation. It is formal classroom instruction.

Starting point is 00:38:34 Also, some people saying, well, you know, what if a child, five to nine year old, a child, you know, thinks that they're the opposite gender or, you know, thinks that they might be gay. Again, this is so ridiculous. We're talking about five to nine year olds. And they need to go to the teacher because their parents might throw them out. One, I think that that is probably extremely rare, that entire scenario that I just described. But if the teacher thinks that a child might be in danger at home, that they might be neglected or that they might be abused or mistreated in any way, the teacher is actually required by Florida law.

Starting point is 00:39:12 She's a mandatory reporter. She has to report that suspicion of abuse to the state. So there really is no argument against this bill beyond just thinking that teachers should be talking about gender switching and LGBTQ issues with five to nine year olds. I mean, what other reason is there? And I know there are people who are like, well, it's totally pedophilic and predatory. Now, I don't think everyone who opposes this bill is a pedophile, but you just have to understand that it is predatory behavior to talk to kids of this age group about these

Starting point is 00:39:49 kinds of very sensitive. And yes, whether you like it or not sexual issues, that is the job of the parents, the parents at the very least should have fully informed consent. They should be invited to be in the classroom during these discussions. They should be allowed to opt out. I'm not saying, I mean, in some cases, they probably are allowed to opt out. But unfortunately, a lot is happening at these public schools under their radar. That's exactly why you saw the parent reckoning that you did in a state like Virginia. And yet, the employees at Disney, Florida-based company, obviously Disney World is in Orlando, Florida, are very very.

Starting point is 00:40:24 They're very angry about this. They want Disney as a company to take a stand against this legislation. They wrote an open letter, the, quote, LGBTQIA plus community at Disney, not all of them, but several employees. They have conducted walkouts over the past several days every 15 minutes apparently in the different corporate offices across the country, protesting the lack of action and the lack of forceful public statements from Walt Disney about this particular legislation. The open letter by this group says that this legislation is not only having a negative impact on cast members in the state of Florida, but are all members of the LGBTQIA.

Starting point is 00:41:17 I mean, I'm just out of breath after saying that community in the company and beyond. it is. It is. Can you explain how? But no, of course, they don't explain how they then say that they're coordinating a work break, a protest, a walkout, a sickout. And then they list all of the politicians that the company must, this is their demand, must no longer donate to because, you know, Disney makes political donations to politicians on both sides. of the aisle. So they make a long list of politicians that were apparently part of this parental rights in education bill, what they called the don't say gay bill. And they say you can't donate to them anymore. And then they make this long list of demands. There are six demands that they

Starting point is 00:42:09 absolutely must do. They must make substantial contributions to the Trevor Project to trans life and other human rights advocacy groups in an effort to regain our trust in the company's inclusion and equality efforts. So the reason that they're mad is because Bob Chapak, who is the, who is the CEO in a private email to the company, said, yeah, you know, we're against this legislation. We're for our LGBT community. We support you. We understand that this is hurting you. But these employees said that that wasn't enough. You have to make a public statement about this. And you have to be forceful against this and do all. of these things. And so they are really pushing Disney to make a public statement about this. And today,

Starting point is 00:42:56 apparently, March 22nd, it's going to all culminate in like a massive protest of several employees, probably thousands of employees at Disney who, you know, they're protesting the legislation and they're protesting Disney's lack of involvement in the protest. And then you had another open. And then you had another open letter that was actually written by conservative Christians in Disney that said, look, we work in an extremely hostile work environment that is extremely hostile to our beliefs. The letter says that they don't believe or they feel like they cannot speak up about their beliefs. They can't organize.

Starting point is 00:43:44 They can't voice their opinion to leadership without being called a bigot, without being called names by their fellow employees, whereas any left-wing employees and their identity groups can organize on company time using company resources, but Christian, conservative, moderate, heterodox employees at Disney feel like they can't do so. And so the open letter, which I can link both of these open letters in the description of this episode, they're calling for a politically neutral Disney. They're saying, look, we want to be a place of family fun. Can we not just focus on that?

Starting point is 00:44:20 We don't want our company to be hyperpartisan. We don't want them to be representing values that are so opposed and absolutely hostile to the things that we believe. Can we just not talk about bills? Can we just not be talking about these different, very divisive issues? Because we don't feel welcome here. We don't even feel comfortable enough to do our work. And so you'll see the difference in tone. You'll see the difference.

Starting point is 00:44:48 in clarity and just persuasiveness in both of these letters. You'll see just the whiny tone in the left-wing letter and the entitled tone making all of these demands, just like the mean-spirited nature in it. And then you'll see this letter from the Christian Conservatives, which I think, of course, it's my bias, but really objectively, it's hard not to see the difference in just like tone and clarity in these. It's kind. It's convincing. And it's not calling for the Christian conservatives aren't calling for their views to be pushed to the forefront or to dominate Disney or for Disney to support the Florida legislation. Although I think it would be fine if they were pushing for

Starting point is 00:45:37 that. I kind of think we need to pull the Overton window back over. But they're really pushing for neutrality. I wrote an article about all of this in World Magazine that is out today. It's titled The Happiest Place on Earth unless you're a Christian. And I talk about this trend that's been happening at several corporations and in universities across the country where if you are not left wing, you feel that you have to self-censor. You are shamed by this culture of fear that you can't speak up. And we want to push for neutrality. And I understand that.

Starting point is 00:46:10 And I would love for us to go back there. I'm not sure that's going to happen because you have to understand the progressive ideology, which is so insidious and is so imperialistic in that it tries to, it tries to break down and then remake every single entity that it occupies. Progressivism views neutrality as hostility. It doesn't actually make any distinction between neutrality and hostility. And so that's why, like we see just the ugliness that we do. That's why progressivism, as I said in the episode last week, it destroys.

Starting point is 00:46:45 Like when progressive policy takes over a corporation, when it takes over, when progressive theology takes over a church, when it starts to, in fact, city councils and lawmaking bodies and any institution, it ends up destroying. There's no actual end point or limiting principle of progressivism. It's just continue to break down, break down, break down, we break down norms, we break down what's there. It's the metaphor that you've probably heard if there is a fence in the middle of a field and you don't see why it's there. A conservative perspective would say, well, I don't really know exactly why this fence is here. We probably need to figure that out before we take it down. Progressivism doesn't ask that question. They just tear down the fence because they don't like it's there.

Starting point is 00:47:32 And little do they know they've released a tiger that they didn't see. I mean, that's what happens. And that's what happens in every institution. That's what's happening at Disney right now. they are trying to bend Walt Disney company to its ideological will. And the leadership apparently, because as I'll say in a second, they're starting to acquiesce to this and they are going to probably meet the demands of these disgruntled progressive employees, they don't care that a large percentage, I believe it's a majority of Floridians,

Starting point is 00:48:02 actually support this bill, that this bill is actually very popular nationwide. and that even a large percentage of Disney employees support this bill. They actually don't care about that. Some of it probably has to do with the ESG stuff that we've talked about in the past. But they also know that leftists are the bullies. Like they're the ones who are going to organize and try to take you down and threaten your livelihood and your position and your reputation if you do not bend to their will. And these are the same authoritarian.

Starting point is 00:48:33 These are the same Maoist cultural revolution struggles. session type people that say that they are on the side of democracy. And this is how they do it. They say that their position is not political, that their position is about human rights. It's always that. And therefore, if you oppose them, you not only oppose human rights, but you oppose their human existence. And so that's why you always see, like, if you oppose any kind of progressive policy, they'll say it's because you want them to die. It's because you don't want them to exist. So if you don't think the teacher should be, you know, that they should be formally instructing five-year-old about gender switching, it's because you want trans people to die. It's because you want

Starting point is 00:49:16 to murder them. If you don't agree with the lockdowns, it's because you want to kill grandma. You know, this is the pattern. This is what they do. If you oppose them, you oppose human rights and you oppose their existence. And that is why so many people feel shamed into silence. I'm very thankful for the Disney employees that are speaking up. It's anonymous. And they've put this petition out there, this open letter out there. I'm thankful for that. It's going to take what we have talked about so often, people standing up. And unfortunately, and I don't like to say this because I know people have families to feed. They have reputations and they have practical things to think about. And look, you've got to pray and you've got to use

Starting point is 00:49:52 wisdom and discernment when you're picking your battles. But if we want to make any impact at all, people are going to have to stand up and risk their jobs. Unfortunately, I wish that that was not the case, but people are going to have to make those kinds of sacrifices or potential sacrifices to stand up, to take the heat, to take the arrows, allow other people to stand up next to them, to share those arrows, and then to advance for it and push back and just to believe that courage begets courage. And even if that doesn't change cultures, even if that doesn't change companies, even if we can't stop the evil that seems to be coming from every direction by standing up for what's right in and sharing the arrows and pushing back, even if things don't

Starting point is 00:50:30 change, I still think it's the right thing to do because I believe it's obedience to God. I believe it's obedience to God to stand for that which he says is good and right and true and to be courageous and to be bold and to be loving in that. So obedience is always worth it, even if it doesn't have the outcome that we want here on earth. And again, just to reiterate the things that we often say is that the outcome of something or someone's response to something that you say is not the indicator of whether or not that thing was the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do.

Starting point is 00:51:07 It's the right thing to say if it's the biblical thing to do and say. And so we judge our actions and our courage and the things that we say and do by God's standard. God who is love, 1 John 4,8, not by the world's standards because the world is going to treat Christian action with hostility. and again, it sees neutrality as hostility too. So you might as well. Just push for the values that you believe in, build the things that you believe in. So let me, we're almost done. But let me read you a statement that was put out today by Disney.

Starting point is 00:51:41 It's always so stunning to me. So they put this picture and we'll put it up on YouTube. They put this picture up with like the Mickey Mouse. It's so demonic, guys. It's so evil. And it's got whatever the flag is now, which is so. ugly. It's just objectively ugly. It's got the like black brown. Is that a sexuality or is that just a race? I don't understand. So black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and then lilac. Has that always been

Starting point is 00:52:09 there? Is that something new? I don't know. And then it's just amazing to me, continually amazing to me, that we are including the trans flag into this, which is white and then blue at the bottom. I thought that it also had pink on there. So I'm a little confused. But I, I've also always said that I think it's so weird, so weird that the so-called trans flag is baby colors. Like, come on, guys. So weird. And then you've got kids companies that are just taking this on and that they're like, oh, yeah, it's fine.

Starting point is 00:52:40 Like, let's talk about little kids ginger switching and tucking and maybe permanently sterilizing themselves through chemical castration and through hormone therapy and through mastectomy. and then real castration when their teenager is, sure, let's get on board with that. Let's get on board with an industry that is really just politically driven, ideologically driven, money driven, corruption driven, and has no care whatsoever for the actual health of young people. The Walt Disney Company is on board with that. So they post this picture and then they say this. To all who come to this happy place welcome, Disney parks, experiences and products is committed to creating experiences that support family values for every family and will not save for discrimination in any form.

Starting point is 00:53:22 any legislation that infringes on basic human rights. Did you know it's a basic human right for a teacher to talk to five-year-olds formally about gender switching? Wow, it's a basic human right. Incredible. And stand in solidarity and support our LGBTQIA plus cast crew guests and fans who make their voices heard today and every day. It's just all so absurd. And so now, like, there's so many things that our kids aren't going to be able to experience innocently. We have to make some like big moral, biblical decision about whether or not we're going to go to Disney World. Like, it's just sad. We didn't have to think about that stuff growing up.

Starting point is 00:54:02 So young people, again, I just want to reiterate what I said in the beginning, it wasn't always like this. Not everything was anxiety-inducing. Not everything was so political. Not everything was so divisive. I mean, maybe it's good. Like, maybe God is robbing us, you know, as American Christians of our comfort and of our ability to so seamlessly be of this world. I mean, I'm not saying it's really sad. It's not really sad

Starting point is 00:54:27 because it is, but like maybe God is purposely making us uncomfortable. Maybe he's purposely pushing us to the margins and causing us to really think about things biblically and thoroughly in a way that we just didn't have to think about before. So maybe it's a blessing in that way. Like maybe this is a part of sanctification. Maybe he's using this to make us holier, to make us thoughtful and to make us wiser and to make us long for heaven more. That's what I'm hoping. It's just ridiculous that Disney is doing this. I mean, you'll probably remember in 2018, the then CEO Bob Eiger said that Disney was going to have a tough time doing business in Georgia because of the heartbeat bill, the anti-abortion bill in Georgia at the time. Meanwhile, they were filming and producing a, the movie Mulan in the province in China,

Starting point is 00:55:18 where the concentration camps of Uyghur Muslims are. So this is not a moral company. This is not a company that has higher ground. Like this is not a company that cares about human rights. This is a company that actively profits off the slavery and the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party. And they are saying because teachers aren't allowed in this legislation to talk to five to nine year olds about gender switching that that's against human rights.

Starting point is 00:55:46 I mean, it's all a joke. all this woke corporate social justice, virtue signaling by all these corporations, it's a huge joke. It is fake. They don't actually care about human rights. They're not compassionate at all. So you remember what is good and right and true and got to make some hard decisions about the companies that we support. All right, let me tell you about our last sponsor for the day. And then we will close this thing out. All right. Just want to say thank you to all of the newbies here. I know a lot of you are new here, especially on you. Maybe you saw me on the Unashamed podcast with Phil and Al Robertson the other day.

Starting point is 00:56:24 I think there is another YouTube channel. The name is eluding me right now. So sorry about that. That recommended this podcast. And so I'm just, I'm very thankful that you're here, that you're listening, that you're watching. I really appreciate you. If you love this podcast, please leave a five-star review wherever you listen. If you haven't subscribed on YouTube, please do so.

Starting point is 00:56:42 And I will see you guys back here tomorrow. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already have. 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

Starting point is 00:57:11 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.

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