Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 729 | The Unmatched Generosity of Christians | Guest: Andy Schoonover

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Today we're looking at a few research studies on what Christians do and what Christians think. First, we look at a study that shows younger evangelicals care more about climate change than their elders. We discuss why this is and how the media and leftist agenda have infiltrated their thinking. We turn to scripture to see what the Bible has to say about God's sovereignty over the Earth. We also look through some statistics on opinions on gay marriage in America and explain how protestants tend to be more conservative on average than Catholics. The last study we're discussing is focused on philanthropy, in which we see that Christians are giving more than any other group worldwide. Then, we're joined by Andy Schoonover, CEO of CrowdHealth, to talk all things health care. Andy shares the mission, benefits, and challenges of CrowdHealth and how the Christian mindset fits into this model of health insurance. --- Timecodes: (01:12) Evangelical views on climate change (14:06) Views on gay marriage (23:43) Philanthropy (36:47) Interview with Andy begins --- Today's Sponsors: EdenPURE — get 3 Thunderstorm Air Purifiers for under $200 at EdenPureDeals.com, use promo code 'ALLIE'! Good Ranchers — change the way you shop for meat today by visiting GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE and use promo code 'ALLIE' for a discount! --- Links: Pew Research Center: "Younger evangelicals in the U.S. are more concerned than their elders about climate change" https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/12/07/younger-evangelicals-in-the-u-s-are-more-concerned-than-their-elders-about-climate-change/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=c18e846cb1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_12_07_04_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-c18e846cb1-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D Philanthropy Roundtable: "Less God, Less Giving?" https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazine/less-god-less-giving/ --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 580 | The REAL Reason for High Gas Prices | Guest: Jacki Daily https://apple.co/3Yn2yLb Ep 646 | Are Climate Lockdowns Coming? | Guest: Jacki Daily https://apple.co/3YpCdfk Ep 711 | The Climate Cabal Doubles Down on Depopulation | Guest: Marc Morano https://apple.co/3HGdrS5 Ep 470 | BlackRock, Bill Gates & the Great Reset | Guest: Justin Haskins https://apple.co/3W1PQQj Ep 578 | Putin vs. the Great Reset? | Guest: Justin Haskins https://apple.co/3YDMwwy --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE20' for 20% off the entire shop: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. Christians give more charity than any other group in the world. We will talk about a study that reveals the stunning statistics about how much Christians contribute in the way of generosity. Also, we will look at a few polls that show. what Christians think, especially the younger generations of Christians about climate change,

about same-sex marriage, and what this all means. We will also be talking to the head of a sponsor of this show, Crowd Health, about what his company is doing and how they're helping Christians who have health care costs, how we can come together to help each other navigate this medical world and help each other when we are going through medical crises and meeting our medical needs. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use promo code Alley at checkout.

That's Good Ranchers.com, promo code Alley. Okay, I wanted to talk about a few interesting studies that I've seen about Christians, what Christians do and what Christians think. The first study that I wanted to look at was a study about climate change. emails from Pew Research that I signed up for and sometimes they have a study that really interests me. The title of this study or the headline advertising this study is younger evangelicals in the U.S. are more concerned than their elders about climate change. And this doesn't really surprise me necessarily. If you look at the, if you look at the views of each

generation, you will see whether they're Christian or not, each generation gets more progressive, more liberal than the last. That is a result of education in this country and the ideology that characterizes most public education, even some private education. That is also the result of what people see on social media, what they're fed via Snapchat, via Instagram, via TikTok, that's the ideology that's pervasive in Hollywood. And so all of the forces, all of the secular forces, lean to the left. And that has infected, unfortunately, many pulpits. Many pulpits who think that they can outlove God by disagreeing with God

and what he says about marriage and what he says about sexuality and what he says about righteousness and sin. And so they are essentially preaching a false gospel that sounds more worldly than it does biblical. and thus you have a lot of young people who are confused. Now, I'll talk about why I think that is the case when it comes to the climate. That's not because I think that it's wrong to care about the environment, or we shouldn't care about the earth or that we shouldn't recycle or that we should just, you know, throw trash around and things like that.

That's not what I'm saying. Of course, I think that we should care about the earth because we read in Genesis that we are given dominion over the earth. We should steward it. We should work the ground. We should produce good things out of it. We should take care of animals. We can have compassion for all of those things while still realizing that there are some very serious, very fundamental questions about climate change ideology.

Because that is what it has become. It is climate change ideology. It has become a religion. No matter how many times they've been disproven. No matter how many Al Gore predictions have been wrong, they continue to double down. And they use the existential threat. of climate change, or so they say is an existential threat, to scare you into doing what they want you to do for their own political ends. And when I say they, I'm talking about those at the

World Economic Forum. I'm talking about Democrat politicians. I'm talking about the global politicians that are, for example, shutting down farms in the Netherlands that are forcing people to drive electric cars, trying to get rid of gas cars, shutting down, uh, oil production sites in the United States, only to rely on other terrible countries, committing all kinds of human rights atrocities for our oil, all in the name of helping the environment, trying to stop the production of meat, getting people to eat bugs, all because they say that this is going to help the globe. This is going to help us save the world from the deleterious effects of climate change. Of course, they don't talk about how healthy the barrier refurb.

is doing. They don't talk about all of the cycles of climate change that the universe has gone through and that we are still here. This is really just a premise for them to transform society, for them to take more control, and for them to push policies that give them more power and money. There's a lot of money, as we have talked about several times, in green energy. There's a lot of money and making these windmills and making these solar panels that are also, by the way, really bad for the environment. There's a lot of power and a lot of governments and a lot of NGOs when it comes to climate change activism and ideology. We'll link a couple past episodes, one that I did with Jackie Daley, and then another one that I did recently with an author who talks a lot about the Great Reset and climate change. And you can learn a little bit more just about how false a lot of the assertions are when it comes to climate change activism.

So it doesn't really surprise me that a lot of young people, even young Christians in the country, say that they believe it. So this is the Pew Research poll. In the U.S., young adults are more concerned than their elders, both in the overall population and within religious groups, about climate change. So all U.S. adults, apparently, 57% say that global climate change is an extreme, slash very serious problem. That actually surprises me. Also, 53% of all U.S. adults say that the earth is getting warmer mostly because of human activity. I would say that the evidence for that is shaky at best. And then they break this down by different belief systems and then also by age. And so Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to believe.

this. Only 25% of Republicans say that global climate change is an extremely serious problem versus 83% of Democrats. I mean, that's just a clash of world views, a clash of a clash of facts right there. Evangelical Protestants always holding down the fort in the base department. Evangelical Protestants always on every, on every single subject. We are the most conservative across the board. That's why we are demonized so much. It's white evangelical Protestants, more than Catholics, more than mainline Protestants, more than any other group. Evangelical Protestants are always holding down the fort on the most conservative things. Only 34% actually that's too high. 34% of evangelical Protestants say that global climate change

is an extremely serious problem. 28% say it's somewhat a problem. And 38% say it's somewhat a problem. and 38% say that it's not a serious problem at all. And then mainline Protestants, obviously more Catholics. What did I say? 57% of Catholics versus 34% of evangelical Protestants say that this is an extremely big deal. Religiously unaffiliated, 70%. Again, not surprising. Everyone is looking to worship something.

Everyone is looking for an ideology. everyone is looking to be attached to something to have a cause. And so it doesn't surprise me that they're religiously unaffiliated, who are almost always Democrats, are looking to this to kind of be their guide. 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. Let's look at the headline breakdown here. So evangelical Protestants ages 40 plus, only 31% say that it's an extremely big problem. And then 18 to 39 year olds, that's my category. 41% say that it's an extremely big problem in the world.

And 75% say that it's either somewhat or an extremely big problem in the world. And so it's really the 40 plus evangelical Protestants. let's see yeah the 40 plus evangelical Protestants the 40 plus Republicans that are the ones who are like putting their stake in the ground and say no this is not an extremely big problem maybe you could say it's a problem maybe you could say that there are better things that we can do I'm not saying that we should it again not saying we shouldn't care about the environment but like if you are looking at a list of priorities it doesn't even come close to the top of the list that's what I think Yes, I think also people say that this is a problem. Most people don't vote on it. Most people don't live

their life this way, by the way. Some of the biggest advocates of climate change policy are the ones who are flying to the World Economic Forum on a private jet several times a year and eating Wagyu beef. So it's not, and it's not hypocrisy. It's hierarchy, as the saying goes. They just believe that you shouldn't have access to these things, that you are populating too much. You're taking up too much space. You're eating too many hamburgers. You're driving your truck too much. But they can do all of these things because they matter. They're cleaner than you. They're more responsible than you. They're not part of the grade unwashed as you are. And so, of course, they have been very successful in pushing their propaganda because their power and their riches depend upon it.

And so unfortunately, young people, as young people often are, kind of taken by a lot of this rhetoric, but let me read you the Bible verse that I always read when it comes to the subject of climate change. So here's what God promises. If you're a Christian, you believe the Bible is the word of God. It's an heir. It's infallible. We believe that God is good. We believe that he created the heavens in the earth. He's in control over all of it. So this is what God says after the flood. He says, I will never again curse the ground because of man for the intention. of man's heart is evil from his youth. Never will I ever,

or neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. That is Genesis 8, 21 through 22.

Seat time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. It won't cease. There is actually nothing that we can do to quicken the end of the world. Okay? Like, this is our father's world. And he's got it in his hands.

That doesn't mean that we should be irresponsible or that we shouldn't care. But he is sovereign over all of that. He has promised that seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not see. So let's do our best to take care of the things that we can. But I do not agree with most of climate change policy, which is actually more concerned with depopulation, than it is actually helping the world.

We've talked about this many times with Justin Haskins as well. And again, we'll link some of those past episodes. So young people, and I guess I include myself in that category, because Pew said it's 18 through 39-year-olds who believe in a lot of this nonsense. Remember, the word of God, that God is totally in control and also understand much of climate change activism is a religion in itself, which stands opposed to Christianity, evangelical Protestant, keep holding down the fort when it comes to this kind of stuff.

All right. Another study that I wanted to look at in line with that to other studies. But I also thought that this was interesting and I meant to talk about it a while ago and just didn't get to it when we've been talking about the so-called respect for marriage act. That redefined something that the government doesn't have the power to redefine marriage because it's pre-America, pre-civilizational. The government did not create marriage. Marriage is based on.

the biological complementarianism of one man and one woman that you do not find in any union of any other type of person. And that's what marriage is. It is immutable. It is a part of nature and societies all over the world for all of time have recognized that special status of the only child producing and child protecting institution that exists that predates America and the government. so Congress can write all kinds of laws. They can write a law saying that a zebra is a dog. It doesn't make it so. They can write a law saying marriage is between like a tree and a bike.

It doesn't make it so. It doesn't make it so. And so a lot of people, however, have gone along with Obergefell, which was decided by the Supreme Court in 2015, saying that this is illegal right of any two adults to get married, which of course has led to a lot of infringement upon religious liberty and this respect for marriage act. So calls will only ensure that further.

However, most Americans believe that gay marriage, same-sex marriage, as it is good for society or the legalization of it is good for society. That's just where most Americans are. Actually, it was only seven years ago when a Bergerfell was decided. And before a Bergerfell was decided in 2015, still, a majority, a slight majority, but the majority of Americans did not believe that homosexuality was good for society. That shows how fast minds change about things, especially when it's shown to you in the media and when it becomes popular and when it becomes comfortable. Of course,

I mean, minds are going to change. They've been extremely effective in that. So most Americans, about 60% of Americans say that same-sex marriage is good for society. And, And only 19% say it's very bad. 18% say it's somewhat bad. 25% say it's somewhat good. And then 36% say it's very good. So you've got about 61% that say that it's good for society. I always think it's interesting how this breaks down when it comes to like male, female and things like that.

And so for men, there are 40% of men in the United States think that same-sex marriage is bad for society. only 33% of women believe that. 63 believe that it is great for society. Let's see. Asian people are actually the most likely. That surprises me. The most likely to say that homosexual marriage is good for, or unions are good for society.

And let's see, the least likely to say it, uh-oh, this is going to make the intersectionalist just so distraught. Black Americans least likely to say that same-sex unions are good for society. 57% versus 61% of whites, 60% of Hispanics, 70% of Asians. 39% of black Americans say that it's bad for society, most likely to say that it's bad for society, which is fascinating because about 90% of black Americans or more vote Democrat. And this is a key part of Democrats' platform ages. 18 to 19 or ages 18 to 29, most likely to be for at 75% say that it's good for society.

And that goes down by age group 65 plus, 50% say that it's good for society. So this really is just an issue that most Americans don't really care about. They're not really thinking about the morality of it. Now, if you break it down, though, by Republican and Democrat, 66% of conservative Republicans say that homosexual marriage is, bad for society. Only 32% say that it's good. Democrats, 80% say that it is good for society. So just like on all things, really, on all issues, Republicans are much more divided and much more heterodox across the board than Democrats are. Democrats are much more likely to just be a part of group think,

really, than Republicans are. I know they want to think that it's the opposite, but it's not. If you look at really how Democrats and Republicans think on every issue, there's a lot more disagreement within the Republican Party on these issues than there is in the Democrat Party. Now, who we got? Okay, so we've got white evangelical Protestants taking the lead. Is anyone surprised in saying that gay unions are not good for society? 71% of white evangelical Protestants say that versus only 32% of Catholics. Now, two, my lovely Catholic friends, whom I link arms with,

when it comes to abortion and when it comes to a lot of these issues, who I am very thankful for. One thing that my Catholic friends say, whenever I talk about the Reformation or whether I talk about why I believe and by grace through faith alone, why I'm a Protestant, they will say that, oh, we are mourning all of these denominations. And the reason why Protestants are so theologically incorrect and they get, you know, things wrong on a lot of these issues. Like I've even seen some Catholic say that like Protestant theology is to blame for like transgenderism and a lot of these liberal issues is because we believe in reading the Bible ourselves and because we don't look to the church or the Catholic Church or a Pope

or one particular teacher to tell us what the Bible says and to tell us what the Bible means. Yes, we believe in teachers. we believe in wisdom, we believe in sound interpretation, we believe in wisdom from the Holy Spirit, but we do believe that the individual can have those things. Traditions, church is important and all of that, but the word of God is supreme. And I hear that believing that is what leads to moral relativism, what leads to the acceptance of like cultural things. But my friends, if you look at white evangelical Protestants, versus Catholics, line us up on any issue, whether it's marriage, gender, sexuality, abortion,

Republican versus Democrat, any of it. And we are, in general, we are more conservative, far more conservative in what I would call far more in line with scripture when it comes to marriage and gender than statistically in general Catholics are. Catholics are far more liberal, far more cultural. I'm not talking about those of you who are listening to this podcast and agree with me. I'm talking about statistically than Protestants are. So I always find that interesting. I always find that argument interesting that Protestants have like led to liberalism when in general, Protestants are actually far more conservative on these issues than in general Catholics are. I personally believe that that is actually the importance of knowing the word of God

yourself and reading the Word of God yourself. And I'm very thankful that Catholics, especially in recent years, there have been amazingly popular podcasts that are walking Catholics through the Bible. I want that. Like the rise of the Bible study and the personal study of scripture, I know that a lot of Catholics don't like the Protestant Reformation, don't like Martin Luther, but that is a product of the Reformation. And I'm glad that in recent years and recent decades, Catholics have come on board, like, with a lot of that. I want that. I want that. I want everyone to be reading the Word of God. I think that reading the Word of God is what drives someone to be conservative. And so that's what I think the difference is. And I always just

think that it's a little bit of a strange argument when my Catholic friends try to throw that in my face and say that Protestantism leads to liberalism that just doesn't seem to be statistically true. So I don't think it's a surprise then that a lot of Republicans obviously are on board with something like the Respect for Marriage Act. It is surprising, though, that they are willing to do so without any religious liberty protections whatsoever, which is what they have essentially done, especially in the Senate. And they just seemingly don't care. They just don't care. They don't even care about trying to serve their constituents who simply say, hey, just respect my religious. beliefs, don't push this on me, don't force me to say something I don't want to say or do

something that I don't want to do. And some Republicans in the House and the Senate don't even care about that. It's not surprising to me that they have embraced this new redefinition of marriage. It is disappointing to me that they have decided that our religious liberty shouldn't even be protected and that sexual rights are more important than constitutional rights. All right. Last study that I wanted to talk about before we get into a short interview. was a study about the importance of philanthropy and who is actually giving. Who is giving in society today? I saw a tweet and it is, it was by Scott Sals and he tweeted this.

Christian philanthropy accounted for 70% of all American philanthropy in 2022 at $300 billion total. Christians also outgave the U.S. government in addressing global poverty. folks might say or think the church remains a seismic value add to the world. So this is actually from Philanthropy Roundtable. They are the source of this study. And they look at this stuff every year and they look at who is giving the most worldwide. And Christians worldwide are fighting poverty more effectively than the U.S. government and are giving more money than even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Christians are the ones who are carrying on their backs the needs of the

most vulnerable in society by giving not just their money. I mean, we're talking billions of, billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars of hard-earned money that Christians give every year to organizations that are fighting poverty, that are fighting sex trafficking, that are advocating for adoption, that are helping children, that are helping the poor around the world, the most vulnerable and marginalized people in the universe. Christians are helping, but also through their time and through their energy, service, hours are being given to these communities by Christians. Now, religious affiliation in the United States, as philanthropy roundtable notes, has gone

down. In 1972, 95% of Americans identified as Christians, and then in 2016, that was 71% according to Pew Research, and that's even lower than that. And yet, Pew or Philanthropy Roundtable notes that the greatest indicator of whether or not someone is going to give to charities in any given year is still religious affiliation. Now, they asked those that they pulled this question, Church's synagogues and other houses of worship contribute blink to solving important social problems. In 2001, only 21% said nothing or not much. So 21% in 2001 said that churches, synagogues in other houses of worship, contribute

nothing to solving important social problems. But by 2016, that had changed to about 40%. So 40%, and now even more, are saying, well, the church really isn't. that significant. And 51% are saying that religion is actually the problem in the society, uh, in our society rather than the solution. Fifty seven percent say that good works and charitable work, all the charitable work that we see, all the money that's given would all still happen if there were no people of faith or religious organizations to do them. Oh my gosh. You have to be completely, completely detached from reality.

know nothing about history whatsoever, know nothing about charity in the United States, know nothing about who built the hospitals, who built the adoption agencies, who built the orphanages, who built the universities. You have to literally know nothing about charitable giving at all to make a statement like that. It's really, really incredible. And yet, when we look at the numbers, they asked who did the volunteer work, who does the most volunteer work?

They say that Pew Research Center investigators examined the behavior of a large sample of the public across the typical seven-day period. They found that among Americans who attend services weekly and pray daily, 45% had done volunteer work that week versus only 27% of among the rest of the population. They also found that Americans who go to church weekly and pray daily are much more likely to gather with extended family, to have more of a community, to have more of a community, to have, more of family connections in their lives. Also, I think this is all connected together, gave to the poor in the past seven days. This was a question that was asked. 65% of Americans who attend church weekly and pray daily

gave to the poor in the past seven days versus only 41% of other Americans. They also found that two-thirds of people who worship at least twice a month give to secular causes even compared to less than half of non-attenders and the average secular gift by a church attender is 20% bigger. And this was also documented by the New York Times a couple years ago that Republican counties give far more on average in charity than blue counties do. And I think one of the reasons for that is because red counties are

mostly Christian. And it's mostly Christian conservatives who are giving the money, who are donating to charity. Religious charity dominates U.S. philanthropy. America's tradition of voluntary charitable giving is one of the clearest markers of U.S. exceptionalism. As a fraction of our income, we donate over two and a half times as much as Britain's do, more than eight times as much as Germans, and at 12 times the rate of the Japanese, American religiosity plays the central role in that distinctive pattern. That is what de Tocqueville said. Hundreds of years. You ago about America that the thing that distinguishes us from every other country is our Christianity. It is what makes us hard workers. It is what has driven the beliefs that we do about human beings

and about human rights. It is what has righted or wrongs throughout history. It is what has always helped us correct course to get closer to the ideals and ideas upon which we were founded that all men and women are created equal and are given certain inalienable rights by the God who created us, it is what has made America exceptional. And it is the reason for our chaos, the reason for our weakness today is because of the abandonment of those Christian values. That's it. The annual Giving USA tabulation show a third of our donations is going to religious causes in the U.S.

But giving USA statisticians acknowledge that this is an underestimate. Their calculations include only gifts to houses of worship and related mission organizations, but there are a lot of organizations that are excluded from that. Most U.S. charity is religious. 41% goes to congregations. 27% goes to groups with no religious ties and 32% goes to religious charity. So 73% of all American charitable giving goes to religious causes and to churches. Also, religious Americans adopt children at two.

and a half times the overall national rate. They play a particularly large role in fostering and adopting troubled and hard to place kids. Local church congregations aided by umbrella groups like Catholic charities provide most of the day-to-day help that resettles refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the U.S. Research shows that the bulk of volunteers mentoring prisoners and their families, both while they are incarcerated and after they are released, are Christians, eager to welcome offenders back into society. The educational alternative that draws most of the headlines today is charter schooling, which serves three million children. Much less acknowledges the fact that 3.8 million children are educated every year in religious schools. These religious schools

offer qualitative advantages. Their students experience less violence and bullying and feel more secure, exhibit better citizenship skills, are more engaged with their community and produce average SAT scores more than 100 points higher than public school students. Religious hospitals care for one out of every five U.S. hospital patients. Catholic institutions account for 16 percent of all hospital beds. And additional large care health care systems are run by Adventists, Baptist, Methodist, Jews, and other faith groups. Faith-based organizations are at the forefront of both care and recovery for the homeless. A 2017 study found that 58% of the emergency shelter beds and 11 surveyed cities are maintained by religious providers. Local congregations provide

130,000 alcohol recovery programs. This honestly can kind of make me cry. Local congregations provide 120,000 programs that assisted unemployed in the United States. Local church congregations provide 26,000 programs to help people living with HIV and AIDS, one ministry for every 46 people infected with the virus. Churchers recruit a large portion of the volunteers needed to operate organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, America's thousands of food pantries and feeding programs, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Red Cross, and other volunteer-dependent churches. It is really incredible, really incredible, the impact that the church still has today.

And I don't think that those who demonize the church recognize everything that is going to be missing when you get your wish of being able to tax churches out of oblivion. When the state is able to control what the church can and can't say, there's a lot of people that think that we should remove the tax-exempt status of churches because they shouldn't be given special privileges. You have no idea what you will be taking away from communities and from the most vulnerable when you do that. And honestly, I don't think that those activists care at all.

They just want more power to the state and less power to churches, less influence churches. I mean, that will lead to death. That will lead to all kinds of further atrocities and deprivation far beyond our imagination. The church, the church, the church, Christian church is the greatest force for good in the world, has been for two thousand years. That doesn't mean that people haven't done bad things in the name of Christianity.

Of course they have. It doesn't mean people haven't wrought destruction in the name of Jesus. Of course they have. But the true living church of God around the world, the Little C Catholic Church, meaning the universal church, has done more good for more people than any other institution than any other force by far. And a great example of that is my next guest. He is the owner of a company called Crowd Health. And Crowd Health is changing how we do health care coverage.

It's a community of Christians coming together to help cover each other's health care costs without getting in the winding and troubled web of health insurance. And so this is a great conversation and a good way for us to get involved and to help more people and just encouraging to see what Christians are doing for each other. So as views change and as younger generations are still trying to work out what the word of God actually says about all of these issues, let us be encouraged by the fact that God is still on the move and he is still using Christians to be ambassadors of truth and goodness. So without further ado, here is our conversation with the CEO of crowd health.

Andy, thanks so much for joining us. Could you tell us who you are and what you do? Yeah, sure. The name is Andy Schoonover. I'm the CEO and founder of Crowd Health, which is a new, innovative way of paying for health bills. I started the company because a few years back, I had health insurance, went on health care. gov and got health insurance. I thought it was my only option.

I kind of joked that it worked until I had to use it. My little one who was one at the time was having recurring ear infections. And so we wanted the ear, nose and throat doctor who told us that she needs tubes and ears. If you're a parent out there, I'm sure many of you have gotten the same message. So went to the local hospital, got tubes and her ears. It was a 15-minute procedure, and it was $8,000. Wow.

And I was just blown away by that. But not only that, a few weeks later, I got something from my health insurance plan that said that it was medically unnecessary. and so they weren't going to pay for it. Oh my goodness. So as a result of that, we started a new company because we thought that people can do better than what health insurance is currently offering us. And so we're really excited about this service and excited to tell you more and your audience

more about it. Yeah, tell us. I mean, obviously my faithful audience who listened to listen to all the episodes has probably heard me talk about crowd health before, but it's always different to hear it from the person who started it. So you told us the origin story, but just tell us what it is, what its mission is, and how it's grown. Sure. Yeah. No, so it's, it's totally different from health insurance, totally different from health shares, which I'm sure your audience is familiar with. You know, the way that we work is every month you put $175 into an account. That account is yours. And that money

accumulates over time so that when somebody in the community has a health problem, let's just say that my daughter falls off her bike and has a $5,000 health bill, I'll pay the first $500 of that. And then crowd health will go to the community and say, hey, can we get 45 of you to give $100 from that account that you set up to help Andy's family with that broken arm? And if you say yes, then $100 is transferred from your account to my account. And, you know, eventually we'll have, you know, the $4,500 to pay for my daughter's, you know, falling off of her bike or broken arm or whatever it is. You know, I think the cool thing about this is, you know, generally with health insurance companies,

you're paying into a, you know, this pot and it disappears, right? You never see that again. And this is you actually know that you're helping Andy's family in Austin, Texas, pay for his daughter's broken arm. And so, you know, you think that there's a humanity to that that you don't get with having a health plan or even some of these health shares. And so we think that's just a cool thing. We're trying to bring humanity back to health care. And one difference, too, from insurance providers is that there are no doctors network. And there's not a whole lot of restrictions that people have to worry about, right?

Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, one of the things that I know what my wife asked me when we think about health insurance is like, can we go to the same pediatrician? Can I go to the same OBGYN? Can I do those? And, you know, we allow people other than, you know, we had that famous statement back in, you know, what it was 10 years ago. You can keep your own doctor, right? Which is actually it wasn't the case. Yes.

And someone stood up and said, you lie. And he was right. We won't mention any names. But, you know, in this case, it's literally there's no doctor networks. So you can go to whoever you want. We just ask that for the big events that you come to us and lets you help you find a really high-quality doctor at a really good price. So we had a woman up in Dallas who needed a who's going through cervical cancer right now. So she needed a full hysterectomy.

She went to her local hospital in Dallas who told her that it was going to be $40,000. She called us and she said, wow. you know, like I really feel bad for the community because I don't want to burden them. You know, can you guys find me a better place to do this? And we found a doctor who was actually better at this procedure for $9,000. So that's a 75% savings versus what their local hospital could do. So yeah, we just ask people to let us help them find a really good doc at a really great price. Which is what everyone wants anyway.

So the fact that that is a service that you all provide, helping people find good doctors. And the fact that this is a community, there is a lot of benefit to that if you're trying to find a good provider because someone over here says, oh yeah, you know, I have an aunt down in Dallas. She just went through breast cancer.

She loved her surgeon. Whatever it is, there is a benefit to that that really can't be provided by your typical insurance company. Yeah. And we don't want you to have to negotiate with your doctor. Like that seems like an awkward thing. and I don't particularly like negotiating for a used car or whatever it ends up being.

It's like let us go in and ask your doctor to, you know, if we can pay them cash, if you can pay them cash ultimately on the day of that procedure, you know, will they give you a discount for that? And we're seeing anywhere from 30% to 80% discounts by actually just paying them in cash on the day of that procedure. You know, these doctors are typically not getting paid for 60, 90, 120 days from the health insurance plan. It takes them, it costs them about 30% of their revenue to actually bill a health insurance

plan. So these doctors are our biggest advocates. There are huge fans. They don't want to deal with the health insurance plan. They want to deal with the health insurance plans less than you want to deal with the health insurance plans. And so they love crowd health. And actually, I think it's the second, maybe the third largest group of crowd health members, are doctors, interestingly enough.

You know, I'm wondering if you guys have come up against any kind of political or regulatory obstacles, because I could see how insurance companies and politicians who are kind of funded by some of these lobbyists and insurance companies don't like you guys and probably don't want you to grow. So is that something that you guys have experienced? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I've kind of termed it the medical industrial complex. which is, you know, these big health insurance plans, these big hospitals are funding these government officials who are making legislation that help them, that create barriers to entry. And so, yeah, for sure, we've had some interest from, you know, primarily the politically left

to our income of this Medicare for all, you know, mentality. And we don't think that the government should be involved in our health care. I am adamantly against that. That's a hill law will die on. And so I think, you know, we need to bring health care back to to individuals. You know, just a quick, quick story is we had a member who's 19 years old who got her hand caught in the prop of a boat over the summertime. And so this was a big bill, tens of thousands of dollars, as you can imagine. We went to crowd fund.

Exactly. Yeah. Reattachment, all physical therapy, all these things. So we went to our group of people and we said, hey, well, you helped this 19 year old. Tennessee. And we actually had people come back and said, you know what, I want to give more to this person. Like, I want to get more than what you've asked for to this person. You know, and so to me, it's like, man, like that's bringing humanity back to health care. Because these big health plans, like, you don't know where your money is going. You know, if you're on Medicare or some of these

big government plans or Medicaid, like you send your money to the government and you have no idea where, you know, your money is going. And I truly believe that, you know, over a period of time, starting probably in the 70s, the government and insurance companies have wedged themselves in between us and our neighbors and have kind of alleviated us from the responsibility of like truly loving our neighbor well. And so, you know, what we're trying to do is ultimately is saying, hey, you know, like you can love your neighbor well through health care by helping somebody else and need when they need it. And like that is fundamentally the mission that we're trying to kind of reestablish here is kind of a.

sense of generosity of loving your neighbor within health care. Because we've been doing that for hundreds of years. And it wasn't until the 70s where these health plans basically said, no, we're not going to allow you to do that anymore. Yes. I think people have noticed maybe more than ever over the past, than over the past couple years that there is a war on interdependence and that there is a war on community dependence.

There is a war on the family and communities and churches relying on one another, taking away that interdependence, bringing people into isolation. which forces people then to depend on the state for a variety of needs. And the medical industrial complex, again, as we saw over the past couple of years, plays a really big role in that isolation and dependence on the government. And so this is a maybe seemingly for some people's small, but really impactful way to wage a war against that push for isolation and against the interdependence and the loving of neighbor that God calls us to.

We talk a lot like, what can we do? What can we do? The powers that be are trying to drive us into, you know, globalism and dependence on the states. And I've always said localization and community dependence is one way that you can push back against the powers that be that are trying to drive us apart. And this is one way. to do that. One last question that I have. Just real quick, I wouldn't say this is a small way. Like, this is, you know, the healthcare is $4 trillion that we spend every single year. Like, this is the largest industry on the planet, right? And the government is slowly but surely trying to take

away that component of our decision-making process. And so, you know, if the government is able to suck up, you know, four trillion dollars worth of our, our own money, you know, ultimately, then, you know, I think that's a problem. And I think we've seen it even with health care.gov, which it is, you know, these third-party insurance plans that are on these health care.govs, but it is subsidized by us, the taxpayers for, you know, everybody up to like three or four hundred percent of the poverty line. So in essence, what they've done with health care.gov over the last literally three months is they've expanded the subsidies on that, which in essence is what is doing is it's expanding Medicaid. And so I think that's a problem. And so, you know, if your members, if your listeners get come

away with nothing else, I would say, you know, you're, you may be in a decision process right now on where to get your health care. You know, you can go to your your state marketplace or health care. Go depending on what state you're in. All I'm saying is that action actually props up a, a government ownership of, of your health care. And so, So whether it be crowd health or health share or some other alternative, you know, all I would ask your audience to do is consider an alternative. Yes. And that's why I said seemingly small way because I think some people would see it as well. What difference can I make in making this choice? This is just me. This is just one family. This is just one individual that's making that choice. It's seemingly small. But of course, just like all choices collectively, they can make a huge difference. And so you're absolutely right. We just saw in the elections, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, one last question that I have before I close this out. Something that people are growing increasingly concerned about when it comes to their insurance and

certainly if they are dependent upon government insurance or government coverage is paying for through their dollars surgeries that don't align with their values like abortion or like the kind transgender surgeries that we are seeing that people are just not comfortable with. So I know it might be like a tough question. I don't want to put you on the spot that how does your company deal with that? Because I know a lot of Christians listening in this audience, they don't want any part of that. Yeah. No, it's not a tough question at all.

It's probably the easiest question yet. It's like, I'm a believer. I will not allow my company to fund anything that are against biblical principles. And so you have my word that that's not going to happen. So before crowd help, I was in a faith. ministry that I ran. And so your audience can can be assured that that will will not happen. Amen. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. And as my audience will hear me say later this week when I read the actual ad, if people go to join crowdhealth.com, you can use my code Alley.

You said it's typically $175 a month, correct? But with my code, it's $99 a month for the first six months, which is an amazing deal. You save a lot of money, plus you're going to save a lot of money with this anyway. And so thank you so much. Thanks for just obeying the Lord and going out and starting something. A lot of people talk about doing things and making a difference and it's just lip service and you're actually doing it. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. And thank you for everything you do as well. Hey, this is Steve Deist. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political.

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