Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 964 | Be a Godly Woman, Not Just a 'Trad Wife'

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

Today, we discuss Alabama's new bill designed to protect IVF providers from facing legal consequences over the destruction of human embryos. How does this square with a pro-life Republican stance? Plus, we briefly dive back into the "trad wife" debate and highlight the pros of the trad life aesthetic, as well as the dangers of taking it too far. We explain why biblical womanhood does not require being a part of the "trad" aesthetic and why portraying biblical womanhood as an aesthetic is so twisted. We also cover a crazy story arguing that cannibalism should be ... destigmatized? We explain why this is so backward and why Christianity has the answers to barbaric practices like this. --- Timecodes: (00:40) Introduction & SEL recap (09:40) New Alabama IVF bill (19:48) The ‘trad’ trend (34:22) Examples of trad trend (43:00) Being a Biblical wife (46:00) Cannibalism’s comeback? --- Today's Sponsors: Magic Spoon — get your next delicious bowl of high-protein cereal at magicspoon.com/RELATABLE! Be sure to use promo code RELATABLE at checkout to save five dollars off your order! Pre-Born — Will you help rescue babies' lives? Donate by calling #250 & say keyword 'BABY' or go to Preborn.com/ALLIE. Help us reach Blaze's goal of 70,000 ultrasounds in 2023! Focus on the Family — the new podcast, "Practice Makes Parent" brings you real, practical, and biblical advice. Tune in every Wednesday on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcasting platform. Find the podcast here: https://podcasts.focusonthefamily.com/show/practice-makes-parent/?refcd=1674101&utm_source=blaze&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=relatable --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 963 | The Dangers of Gentle Parenting, Self, & Empathy | Guest: Abigail Shrier https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-963-the-dangers-of-gentle-parenting-sel-empathy/id1359249098?i=1000648254377 Ep 931 | Out: Trad Trend, In: Biblical Womanhood https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000641222336 --- Links: NY Post: "TikTok ruined my husband of 12 years — now he wants a ‘tradwife’ and we’re getting divorced" https://nypost.com/2023/12/20/lifestyle/tiktok-ruined-my-husband-now-he-wants-a-tradwife/ New Scientist: "Is it time for a more subtle view on the ultimate taboo: cannibalism?" https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134783-600-is-it-time-for-a-more-subtle-view-on-the-ultimate-taboo-cannibalism/ Desiring God: "You Will Be Eaten by Cannibals! Lessons From the Life of John G. Paton" https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/you-will-be-eaten-by-cannibals-lessons-from-the-life-of-john-g-paton --- 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 'ALLIE10' for a discount: 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. Is cannibalism making a comeback? Well, not if Christianity has anything to say about it. Also, I am finally weighing in on that trad life, trad wife drama that apparently I started a couple weeks ago on X. And Alabama has just passed a law as of This morning protecting IVF. What does that mean for all of the helpless embryos in the state? We'll tell you all about it on today's episode of Relatable. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Thursday. Hope everyone has a wonderful week. Has a wonderful week. Has had a wonderful week. But I hope that you're still having a wonderful week tomorrow is Friday. And so that is always good news. Okay. I got so many differing opinions on yesterday's episode. We've got a lot of feelings in this crowd about things like SEL. A lot of you are teachers and bless you.

I am so, so thankful for Christian teachers who take their job so seriously. A lot of you, especially those of you in public education who are Christian teachers, you are the only example of a Christian that many of these kids have ever seen. And so your job is so important and I'm so thankful for you. and many of you think that SEL, social, emotional learning has been helpful for you. But it's interesting. Some others are saying that it is like the worst thing that has ever happened to your school and is causing your students to believe that their feelings are the boss rather than them being the boss of their feelings,

which of course is the Christian biblical perspective, that we are actually able through the power of the Holy Spirit to reign in our emotions, that our emotions don't rule us, that our heart is actually desperately sick, that it cannot be followed, it can't even fully properly be understood. Only the Holy Spirit can perfectly and fully search out our hearts. And so it's just interesting. The differing opinions that I have, and I respect those different opinions, my guess is it's probably dependent upon where you are your students, the specific SEL curriculum that you are using, who you are as a teacher, what you're actually learning. Now, some of you who defended SEL and how you described SEL curriculum in your

school, it doesn't really sound like SEL. It just sounds like the biblical principle of teaching self-control and of having compassion for other people and putting other people before yourself. And if that is the case, I wouldn't call it SEL. I would just say you are teaching. teaching biblical principles. Maybe it's been placed under, I think, erroneously, the umbrella of SEL, but really you're probably just teaching biblical values. And then others of you, again, have said that it's just absolutely disastrous and that it's created a lot of children who are constantly in their fields and who are unable to get out of their heads. And also, kids who don't understand the immediate consequences of their actions and really don't

care about authority at all. So it was really interesting seeing the wide range of responses that I got in my Instagram DMs, in my comments, and the YouTube comments, and I appreciate that. So thank you for giving your perspective. I do encourage you to read her book. We weren't able to get into everything. There were some things that I wish I had asked that I wasn't able to ask, but go listen to the book. And even if you don't agree with everything or in your experience, things have been different. than how she describes. I still think that there is so much that you can get out of what she said. Here's something, and this is just kind of an aside, but this is something that you can take with you because maybe it applies to outside of social media and the internet and podcasting.

Maybe this is just true when you're communicating to any group. What I've noticed is that a lot of people have a very hard time understanding on social media qualifiers and generalities and statistics or just personal observation. So what I mean by that is no matter how many times I or a guest or someone on social media says something like many times or often or sometimes or at times or in general or statistically speaking, you will still get so many people coming out of the woodwork saying, yeah, but what about this exception? Or what about this caveat? Or my personal experience was different than that. Or you're wrong because I don't feel that way or I don't see it like that. Or that's not what happened to me or I have a friend's aunt's cousin

who went through something different than what you're talking about. Okay, just remember that if how that person is describing things does not describe you or what you've experienced, then it's not about you. I think it's important for all of us to see those qualifiers. Like, I'm very purposeful. When I say things like many times or oftentimes or most or statistically or generally, I'm very careful in using those qualifiers. And if I say that, then that is what I mean. And we don't have to. And I'm speaking to myself and speaking to all of us, like we don't have to get worked up in getting angry at someone for not covering all of the possible exceptions to the rule that they have observed and that they're talking about or their opinion. It doesn't mean

they're hating your perspective or attacking you, which actually leads into the next subject that I want to talk about or really the first subject that I want to talk about, this continuation of the conversation online about trad life, trad wife, and the comments that I've made, I guess, getting me into hot water for some reason. But before we get into that first subject, I just want to remind you guys. We've got our first installment of our behind the paywall, our subscriber-only series, Debatable with Ali Beth Stucky. We've got Trent Horn, Catholic Apologist.

We've got Dr. James White, Protestant apologist going at it for about two hours on debatable. It's a great conversation. I personally learned a lot from them. I could have sat with them for hours and hours, asking them both different questions about Protestantism and Catholicism. So I really do hope it edifies you. We've got many more debates coming down the pipeline. We've also just got other really fun, not debate content coming for just subscribers so we can protect ourselves from those sensors on the main free platform.

So go to blazTV.com slash alley. If you use code Allie, you'll get $30 off your subscription. You'll get access to all of the different, all of the different kinds of content that we've got. We've got Glenn. we've got the Robertsons, we've got Steve Dase, they've all got content just for Blaze subscribers that you will access when you subscribe at BlazeTV.com slash Allie. I think it is well worth your money.

All right. We can get into, actually, okay, before we get into the Trad stuff, I do have one more update. I've got another update to talk about, and that has to do with what was just passed in Alabama with IVF. the hypocrisy that I see among pro-life Republicans, just absurd. 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. lately, even when it's unpopular.

This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this T-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. All right. So Alabama has just passed SB 159. It's introduced on February 27th, 2024.

It passed last night, 8112, was signed into law by Republican Governor K.I.V. This morning, it was sponsored all by Republicans. Several Republicans wrote this legislation. They pushed it through. And this, of course, is in response to the story that we've already talked about this week, that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, that the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos count as chival. children and therefore you are liable under the law if you destroy them. And remember, even though the media is trying to make it seem like this is an anti-IV, anti-abortion group of people that have been trying to tear down reproductive technology, that's not what happened. This case made its way to the Supreme Court because of parents who were going through IVF, the embryos at their fertility clinic were destroyed. They wanted justice for their embryos. So these are pro-IVF parents seeking justice for their embryos. And they got it in the sense that the Supreme Court said, yeah, those embryos, those human beings, because they scientifically are, and they're made in the

image of God. People are really mad that they cited the Bible. They count because they're human beings, they count as minors and therefore they have a fundamental right to life. Therefore, destroying them has legal consequences. Well, everyone is freaking out about this. Everyone is like, oh my gosh, what's going to happen with IVF? And again, it should make you pause to think, well, why would a, why would a ruling that says that embryos count as human beings and therefore cannot be legally destroyed? Why would that have an effect on IVF? Well, that is because IVF and the destruction of embryos goes hand in hand. Now, I know there. There are some couples out there who have used every embryo that they created that was on ice.

That is very rare, though. Most IVF processes include eugenics, where you're testing for different abnormalities. You're testing for different genders. Weak, so-called embryos are destroyed. Embryos are thrown out all the time because you're encouraged to make as many embryos as you possibly can. to raise your chances of having a successful transfer and implantation. And so many ethical issues, but you really can't have the IVF industry, the way that it is right now in the United States, which is so unregulated, without having the destruction of embryos. So when there is any kind of restriction on destroying embryos, that is going to halt IVF.

So that should make all of us pro-lifers really stop and think about that, right? Because we've been saying when it comes to abortion that life in the womb matters, that life starts at conception, that embryos are made in the image of God, that it doesn't matter your location, doesn't matter your size, doesn't matter your sentience, doesn't matter your stage of development, that all those babies are made in God's image and therefore they have the fundamental right to life. We get that when it comes to abortion. we don't get that when it comes to these embryos in a lab that are regularly, regularly discarded. And so that is the hypocrisy that I think is going on here. And it's highlighted in this bill that has now become law in the state of Alabama. I understand why Republicans did it. It is a very popular, no matter how incongruent it is,

it's a very popular position to save the two are pro-life, but also not care about the destruction of embryos when it comes to in vitro fertilization. So here's the summary. The bill provides civil and criminal immunity to providers and patients of IVF services and is aimed at restarting IVF programs that had paused in the state due to the Alabama Supreme Court's recent decision that embryos using IVF are human persons. It will shield IVF providers from lawsuits or criminal charges over the death or damage to an embryo during the IVF process. So you see what just happened here. So now if you are apparent, Like this should, it should, but unfortunately it doesn't because we don't think logically.

But this should enrage parents of those embryos in a lab too. Because now if your embryos are destroyed, the way that the parents who originally filed this lawsuit, the way that their embryos were destroyed, you cannot sue the fertility clinic. So if they just, whoops, sorry, we killed your sons and daughters. or, you know, they accidentally thought out, not really sure what happened. Oh, you said that you wanted a girl instead of these boys. Well, we accidentally made the switch and we discarded the girls instead of the boys. I mean, there are so many things that happened during these processes that we don't even talk about.

But now you are unable, according to this law, to bring a lawsuit. There can be no criminal charges over the death or damage to an embryo. So the fact that these so-called pro-life Republicans are putting forth this bill, that this pro-life Republican governor has signed this bill, that these pro-life conservatives in the state of Alabama have supported this bill, what you're saying is that you don't actually believe that all human life matters. You don't actually believe that embryos have a right to life. You are pro-choice. You are. You're pro-choice because you have now decided that some babies do not deserve the right not to be murdered. That's what you've decided. That really they can be discarded, they can be destroyed, according to the whims of adults. And that's okay because some magical category of IVF makes it different.

It's so much hypocrisy. But again, I understand the point. politics of it, and that's why I don't like politics. That's why I don't like politics. So it provides civil and criminal immunity to persons providing goods and services related to in vitro fertilization, except acts or omission that are intentional and not arising from or related to IVF services. The bill would provide for retroactive effect and would automatically repeal on April 1st, 2025. Okay. Interesting. notwithstanding any provision of law, including any cause or of action provided in Chapter 5, Title VI, Code of Alabama, 1975, no action, suit, or criminal prosecution shall be brought or maintained against any individual or entity, providing goods or services related to future fertilization except for an actor of omission that is both intentional and not arising from or related to IVF services. So just to clarify what I said earlier, it can't be that they intentionally destroyed the embryos. I guess they're.

could still be a legal consequence for that. But if within the course of the IVF process, embryos are destroyed, either accidentally or because the parents decided that they want the rest of their embryos destroyed, or you're destroying the embryos that say have Down syndrome, all of that is fine. So that might be a slight correction from the examples that I gave earlier, and I just want to clarify that. But it's still saying that there is a double standard that these embryos don't deserve the same protection as the rest of us, even though we have been saying ad nauseum that they are made in the image of God when it comes to the abortion conversation. Here's part of what I said on Twitter about this. And it kind of echoes what I've said earlier. On the one hand, pro-life

Republicans say they believe babies have the right to life. They'll even say that life starts at conception. They know the pro-life talking points. They talk as if they believe babies in the womb matter from the earliest stages of development. 125 House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, just signed on to the Life at Conception Act, which states that the definition of human being includes humans at the point of fertilization. On the other hand, many of these same pro-life Republicans adamantly support unrestricted access to IVF, which has resulted in the destruction and abandonment. an indefinite freezing of millions of embryos over the past several decades. And most people just don't know about this subject at all,

but we've talked in detail about what a lot of these unethical practices and consequences are. Mike Johnson, as we talked about just the other day, he said not only does he support IVF, it should be something every American supports. Nikki Haley, Donald Trump, Carrie Lake. They've all said, we want to get rid of these restrictions. the government shouldn't even be involved. So these are the very same embryos.

These are the very same embryos that some of these same Republicans would say have dignity and rights when it comes to abortion, but not when it comes to the much less popular conversation about reproductive technology. Republicans are hypocrites. They just are. Are they better than Democrats still? Yes. I mean, Democrats are completely unabashed and their consistent celebration of destroying babies inside the will. but at least they're consistent. They're consistently horrible, but at least they're consistent.

In some ways, doesn't it seem like the hypocrisy is a little bit worse? I mean, I'm thankful that they're Republicans who stand up against abortion. But like, let's have some logical and moral consistency here. But I think that's just too much to ask. It's just too much to ask when it comes to politics. But I just wanted to give you a bit of an update, a bit of an update there. All right. Let's move on to this conversation.

Now, there is part of me who doesn't want to step in this again. I don't want to talk about this subject because every time I talk about it, there is just like a cacophony of whining and complaining from the peanut gallery about what I'm saying. It's purposely misconstrued and misrepresented. And yet the reason why I am stepping into this and talking about it again is because over the past couple weeks, as I've dealt with a lot of just craziness on social media, because of these things, I've gotten some very earnest and meaningful encouragement from both men and women that this actually is an important subject to talk about and that it is an important. distinction to make between trad social media trends and true biblical womanhood. And because of that encouragement, I don't want to allow trolls to stop me from talking about something that is significant, talking about something that is important, and talking about something that

not quite enough people I think are talking about. So a couple weeks ago, a certain subset of the internet was very mad. They were very mad at me because of what I said in an interview at a conference in January. I was asked in this interview my thoughts on the so-called trad trend. Tradd stands for traditional. Trad wife, trad mom, trad life, trad life, whatever it is. I've shared these thoughts before a few times and here here's the clip of what I said that ended up just, I mean, starting the silliest, silliest, silliest most chaotic dialogue between professing Christians on X. So here are my scandalous comments.

The trend of being a trad wife or having a trad life on social media, which is really less about traditional or biblical values and a lot more about aesthetics. And obviously there's nothing wrong with living on a farm. and making your own sourdough and homesteading and all of those wonderful things. But because this has become a trend on TikTok and a trend on social media, unfortunately some people have made the mistake of conflating that so-called trad life and being a trad wife with being a biblical wife or a biblical mom or having a biblical life. There are biblical standards, of course, that women are called to.

but it is, they're not standards that are set by social media. They're not standards that are set by a TikTok trend. They're not standards set by whatever social media influencer you follow that says, in order to be a good mom, you have to make your own sourdough. That's a wonderful thing, but you can be a great and biblical wife and mom without doing some of those things, which is good news for me because I like to buy my sourdough. All right. So obviously a little repetitive there.

it's that extemporaneous and answering questions in an interview, but you probably heard me say quite a few times that I believe that making sourdough and being a truly traditional wife and mom is wonderful. Like I think homesetting and gardening and doing all of the things that it takes to be self-reliant as a family is wonderful and awesome. And I admire that. And we do some of those things in our family. I love it. But that was not my, that was, that's not my point. My point is not to criticize any of that. So let me explain a little bit. And I think that this is important for people who haven't heard this perspective before. Now, I'm not going to get into all the drama that that caused. I certainly will not be given a shout out to any of my haters because I understand

that more than anything, these particular terminally online critics really, really want recognition and attention. So instead, suffice it to say that after that clip went around, they have so purposely and perpetually misconstrued and misrepresented what I said, accusing me because of that clip and other things of being off feminist, claiming that I am in that clip attacking traditional moms, attacking traditional lives and wives, attacking sourdough when clearly that's not even close to what I said, not here or not anywhere. Now, I have my guesses as to the motives behind why they are purposely misconstruing the things that I'm saying and none of them are good motives, but I don't have the time or the energy to share my

speculations right now. Those of you who know me, who have followed my content and who have discernment at all, know what I'm about, know what I've encouraged my audience to do, to read your Bibles to discern truth from a lie to seek to glorify God and every big and small thing that you do. And as far as it depends on you, do not put off getting married or having children. I've dedicated hours and hours of this show to refuting as best as I can, the lies of progressivism, of feminist-centric self-love, self-help, self-empowerment culture. That's what my whole first book is about, the lies of you are enough, you're perfect the way you are, trust your heart, follow your dreams.

In that book, we're birthed many concepts and phrases that you still hear me use today, like the cult of self-affirmation or toxic mommy culture or trendy narcissism, all of which I think are trends that disproportionately affect women and encourage us to idolize our feelings and do only that which makes us happy in the moment. We have continually unraveled the deceptions of the new age and of witchcraft, again, things that I think disproportionately target women at every turn. We have tried together imperfectly but earnestly to combat what the world tells us is good and right and true, especially when it comes to womanhood and instead to look at scripture. So I very much think

that I have my finger on the pulse of what Christian women are age, in general, say the age range of 25 to 45, are worried about and thinking about and are wondering about, confused about, and I do my best to speak to that. And one thing that I have noticed in addition to all of the many, many other trends that we have talked about over the years is the recent pressure to reach a certain standard of homemaker that resembles something close to a 19th century homesteader, to homeschool, bake bread, throughout all the toxic things, replace them with their crunchy alternatives. And listen, are you listening? Are you listening? Are you listening? I'm going to say this again. None of these things is bad.

In fact, they're really good in a lot of ways. I mean, how many times have I pled with you to please ensure that your children have a Christian education, homeschool or private school? I am so adamant about that. We've talked about that so much. There are so many goods to all of this. But my point is that if you live in the suburbs, if you live in the suburbs, if you, you, don't have all the non-toxic alternatives, if you buy your bread from a bakery like I do, or oh my goodness, you might buy your bread from a grocery store, if you send your kids to

in-person school, that does not mean that you are not a biblical wife and mom. You can still be a present, loving, disciplining, wonderful, amazing wife and mother, biblical wife and mother, even if it doesn't look exactly like the trad trend looks on social media. Those can be great things to aspire to. But for the Christian, motherhood is a calling that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is not just an aesthetic that we have to match. And look, that's good news. There are so many different kinds of trends will continue to be so many different kinds of trends that tempt us to conform to them, tempt us to compare ourselves to them, can tempt us to discontment, can make us think that what we're doing is insufficient, that how our house

looks, that how our kids act, that what we are doing and how things look in our home, that they're just not good enough. That's been, I mean, the story really forever, I think that we've always been tempted to comparison in one way or another. Like even our parents' generation, there was a temptation to comparison and feeling like you weren't good enough or doing all the right things or up with the trends or reading all the right parenting books. And then I think social media has just taken that to another level. Now, do I think that this is a better direction than the direction of feminism that you should or the really just narcissism that you should put off marriage and kids to just make yourself happy and do what you want to do and make

as much money as possible. Yeah, I do. Like I think that there are some redeeming parts to this trend. I think that there are some redeeming good things to having a home aesthetic to kind of admire and aspire to. But. it can also be easily conflated with being a biblical wife and mom. And that's what I want to make sure that we are free from. That the Bible sets a standard for us, as we have talked about several times, that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, that social media is not our judge and jury. And social media is not our standard.

And wow, that is such good news. So even if your house doesn't look like the 1850s, like even if you don't, have this same aesthetic as you're seeing on social media, you can still be a wonderful and godly keeper of your home. And you can still be working along with your husband to lay a great and Christian foundation for your kids. And so, like, I just praise God for that, that social media doesn't set the standard. And somehow that was construed as me attacking traditionalism or attacking an aesthetic. In fact, I have defended the likes of bowels. Valerina Farms from her critics because this is this is another part of all of this that I will say

because I think that it is wrong to center all content on ourselves. If something, if you're consuming any kind of content that always is making you feel bad about yourself, at the end of the day, that is a you problem. That is an us problem. If you are constantly tempted to covetousness, constantly tempted to discontentment, to dissatisfaction about the things that the Lord has given you, then it is up to you to make the effort and to employ the discipline required to no longer look at that content. That's not the fault of someone like Ballerina Farms or any of these influencers. So I want to make that clear. I'm not

hating on any of these influencers, many of whom I follow and I can follow and be grateful for what they do without feeling like I have to copy everything that they do because people are in different stages of life and live in different regions and things like that. But if you are following someone, there's no shame in this. And you're like, wow, I cannot be on social media. I cannot look at this person's content without feeling insecure, without feeling ungrateful for what I've been given, then I would just encourage you to unfollow them. And so I'm not putting the hate on the trad influencers out there. I am simply saying that for what however we can, however much it depends on us, that we should ensure that we are not trying to live up to a

social media trend that is not explicitly spelled out for us in scripture. And I just want to give you some examples of this trad trend that is not actually biblical. Like, it's not actually in God's word. And like these things are really important. There is a distinction between what is called a trad life on social media and what the Bible actually prescribes for Christians. Okay, so you've probably seen some of these people online who are influencers. And now some, I've talked about like this 19th century aesthetic, which would be closer to the kinds of people that I follow. because like I've told you, I'm kind of like a crunchy, crispy mom, but not 100%.

So if you don't know, like, they're silky over here. And silky is like you don't care about any of the non-toxic stuff. You're not into the holistic stuff. You're just going to do, you know, you're totally fine with all of the processed things. And I don't want you to hear condemnation and judgment in my voice when I say that. That's just what Silky mom means. The crunchy mom is like anti-traditional medicine and like fully crunchy. Like you are making all your own food from scratch.

You have no polyester in your home. You only use essential oils for, you know, like washing your hands. I mean, there's kind of even a spectrum within that. And then there's somewhere in between. And I would put myself somewhere in between all of that. So I like following kind of the crunchy world. And there's a big crossover between like conservative Christian women and the crunchy scene, especially since COVID.

And I think for good reason, we've started to question a lot of the things that we've been told about modern medicine from the, you know, medical industrial complex. We started to question the reliability of institutions like the CDC. We've started to think more about what we're feeding our family, what the girls. grocery store is selling, what labels mean like organic versus natural and all of that. Also, we've started to see the craziness and the public school system even more. And so understandably, and I am on this train too, I have started to take these things a lot more seriously. So I am more like following that camp. And so I see all the good and the bad and the ugly and all of that.

And the redeeming parts and the pressure to conform, all of it. That all comes with such a media trend. But then there's also this part of the trad trend that I guess is more on TikTok. Now, I am old. I am 32. So I, like a good millennial, only see TikTok trends on Instagram like two months later. I am not on TikTok. I have never opened to the TikTok app in my life. And so I don't know as much about all of this, but there is a form of tradness that is like 1950s, okay? And it is much less about like homesteading and certainly nothing to do with Christianity and more about cosplaying. Okay. I think it's more about fetishes. Like that's really, that's really what it is. And so there is this young woman. She's a beautiful young woman.

I've actually met this person before. And her name is Estée Williams. She became famous for advocating for the trad wife movement on TikTok. And she explains how to be a trad wife. One, implement ultra-traditional gender roles into your marriage. I don't know what ultra-traditional means. Two, marry the right man, masculine face-centered, who appreciates the divided gender roles. Three, learn to cook, clean, and host. Four, have something just for you.

Five, upkeep your beauty maintenance. She prefers house dresses. Now, in and of themselves, I don't see anything wrong with this. Here is an example of Estay, like the reigning trad wife of TikTok. Okay, so we had to censor that a little bit for YouTube because she is dressed, like, I think so scandalously. So this is a person who is considered a trad wife and a trad life, and she calls herself a Christian, and she and her husband are Christians. Now, they are very open also about living together before a marriage. And she is dressed in a way that most Christian women who

wouldn't even call themselves trad wives would not dress because it is so insane. immodest. Like it is so obviously about trying to attract the male gaze and male lust. And there is absolutely nothing biblical about that. There was this other daily mail article that I saw the other day. And the headline is, I live to please my husband, Tradwife 37, reveals she lets her spouse have sexual relations with other women while she caters to his every whim. Admitting 98% of her day revolves around him. So this is a form of trad life, trad wife, that is obviously not biblical because it is encouraging adultery. And these are just two examples. There was also this story that I saw. And I wouldn't typically read a story like this because

I don't want it to seem like I am purposely misrepresenting like a greater movie. movement, but I've actually gotten a number of messages saying something similar to this. So I think it's important to talk about. This is for the New York Post. This headline is TikTok ruined my husband of 12 years. Now he wants a quote unquote trad wife and we are getting and we are getting a divorce. She said that prior to her husband watching trad wife videos, they were both working, contributing to chores, sharing child care responsibilities without complaint.

But around March this year, she said he started acting weird. He complained about how I looked. He complained about the food. he complained about me working long hours. I worked the same hours that he does. Throughout our marriage, he never had any complaints about the food. I cook. I dress up in a more comfortable attire when I'm in my house. He never had a problem with that ever. The devastated wife learned that her spouse and started becoming obsessed with one particular tradwife TikToker whom she did not name. Shockingly, she claimed her husband became very verbally abusive for the first time in their marriage and

insisted that she be a, quote, submissive wife. Her husband had been talking to another woman online telling his wife that he deserves better. So look, I mean, this is the problem with being perpetually online, period. And this is like a form, I think, of cheating. It's certainly a form of lust. It's certainly a form of discontentment. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong for a husband to realize, you know what? I don't really like my wife working.

Like, I don't really like how our home is ordered. So I think that we should change things. some, like I don't think that that's wrong. I don't think it's wrong for a husband to lead in a way and say, you know what? I think they go in a different direction is best for our family and here's why. But that's not what went on here. And it's not just this. It is also the red pill phenomenon online that is so insanely objectifying to women and so insanely incredibly hateful that I have gotten several messages from women who say that after their husband has started following content like this. It's not that he's become more manly or more masculine or a better leader or just that he wants

his wife to stay home. I mean, that's all fine. It's that he has become entitled. He has become obsessed with certain forms of domestic life that previously, he wasn't fixated on or wasn't, didn't have such high, unreachable standards for. And I worry about this. I mean, this is the problem, right? This is the problem with any social media trend is that it sets this superficial arbitrary standard and unrealistic expectations. Like, these people who are giving you this facade of having this perfectly traditional

all 1950s or 1850s home, very often they don't live that way. Like, have you ever noticed how many of these trad accounts talk about the importance of just staying home? And yet they are making bank off of being social media influencers. How many of them sell merchandise, are writing books, are writing articles, are going on shows, giving interviews, and speaking and selling their courses, are selling sponsorships, they're spending a ton of money, or a ton of time, rather. They're spending a ton of time and energy online telling you the importance of staying home and homesteading. But they're not really

focusing their time and their energy on that. That's what I'm talking about when I say that motherhood for the Christian, that being a godly wife and mom for the Christian is more and bigger and better and deeper than all of that. Like this is the danger of any social media trend. This is not an attack on traditionalism. This is not an attack on homemaking in any regard. Those are all things that I love and admire very much. But this is not it. Like this stuff is not synonymous with being a biblical wife and mom. And husbands have to realize that and wives have to realize that. That even as the wife, according to Ephesians 5, is called to submit to her husband as she submits to the Lord. So the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave

himself up for her. That is a sacrificial form of love that is so demanding. is such a high standard for love and respect and gentleness that I would rather see that trending on social media than the kind of cosplay fantasy that we're seeing in some of these subsets online. And it's good news, right? Like it's good news that we can be freed from worldly standards that God's ways are actually so much better and so much deeper, so much more substantive and so much more life-giving than what we see. on social media. All right.

Let's see if there's anything else that we want to discuss in that before we close out. I did have a segment on cannibalism that I wanted to quickly discuss. Maybe I will close out with that. Okay, I know that sounds weird, but I actually think it'll be encouraging. And I think I can synthesize this whole big subject that we were going to talk to you about and just encourage you again that God's, ways are better. Okay, so I had sent this article to my team a few weeks ago and we're just now getting to it. And I know it sounds totally random and dark. Why would we talk about cannibalism?

But the reason I sent it to them, because it got my wheels turning about just how much Christianity has done for the world that we just absolutely take for granted. So this article and the new scientist is titled, Is it Time for a More Subtle View on the Ultimate Taboo, Cannibalism? Okay, can I just give my own commentary for a second before I get into the Christianity part of this? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why does everything have to be destigmatized? Can't we just like, okay, so we look in the stigma camp and we look at all the things that are stigmatized? Can't we just say, you know what? Most of those things deserve to stay there? Like most of those things deserve to say stigmatized. Men wearing a dress. Yes, there was a stigma around that. That deserves stigma. A lot of things deserve stigma.

Like even things that aren't even necessarily morally bad, when there is a stigma around them, they are less likely to be glorified and therefore less likely to become popularized. Like some people complain, for example, about the stigma of being on government assistance or the stigma of being on welfare. We need to destigmatize that. Okay, on the one hand, I understand that sometimes you just need help. and that is the only place that you can get it. Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world, and that's just the way that it is.

But at the same time, that stigma is what can motivate a family to say, you know what, I'm going to work as hard as possible so that I'm no longer on the government dole, and I am providing for my own family. And that is a good thing. Stigmas aren't all bad. So this push to destigmatize everything is just a result of moral relativism, in which the only bad is saying that something is. bad. And that's where this is coming from. It's coming from post-modern moral relativism,

which is just a bunch of godless rot and has real consequences, like normalizing eating people. So let's get into this. So new archaeological evidence shows that ancient humans ate each other surprisingly often. Now, again, this is like kind of my question about dinosaurs. How do we, how? How do you know? Archaeological evidence showed you that? Okay, it's one thing if you were able to read the old papyrus, and it said, we are eating each other surprisingly often. And then I could see how you could deduce that. Like, you would take that conclusion. But how is archaeology showing you that?

I mean, maybe there's an easy answer for that. I don't know. So, but archaeologists today, just like paleontologists, a bunch of them are just, they're just a bunch of nerds in a room saying this is what we want to say. And they don't really know. But anyways, they're saying that people ate each other surprisingly often. And so they're asking the question. ethically, cannibalism, or they're saying ethically cannibalism poses fewer issues than you might

imagine. If a body can be bequeathed with consent to medical science, why can't it be left to feed the hungry? Perhaps it is down to the fact that in Western religious traditions, a.k. Christianity, bodies are seen as the seat of the soul and have a whiff of the sacred. A whiff of the sacred. Now, Bree or my researcher decided to highlight that portion of my document because they wanted me to say that because these people are weird. A whiff of the sacred. Researchers have unearthed evidence suggesting that our hominin ancestors ate each other surprisingly often, but often as funerary rituals to honor their dead. Cannibalism is an important part of our story as human beings. Okay. Above all, these discoveries invite us to reconsider our

revulsion to cannibalism and the context of our evolutionary past. So, okay, say you believe in evolution. Say you believe in evolution. I don't believe in evolution, of course, because I think it's a very silly position. But say you believe in evolution that we all came from, you know, the same place, the big bang, and we've evolved over time and we've passed down these characteristics that have made possible for us to survive, survival of the fittest, natural selection, all that stuff. that would mean that stigmas and revulsions have been passed down to us by our ancestors to help us stay alive. Okay? So that's the atheist perspective.

Now, the Christian perspective is that we are made in God's image and God has given us particular revulsions because he has written his law on our heart and we know some things are just wrong. And that would be including cannibalism. And they are right that we do believe that the. body is sacred. Like we are not like the Gnostics. We are not like the people who believe that the material world is bad or the material world is just trapping the soul. We actually believe that God made the world, every part of the world with purpose, with intentionality, and that it all matters and that it actually plays a story in this grand scheme, eternal plan of redemption, that there will be a resurrection of the bodies, that God became flesh to do

well among us. And so we believe so much in the importance of the body. And so, yes, they're right about that, that because of how the West has been forged by Christianity, cannibalism has a stigma as it should. So they say understanding cannibalism's deep roots might shift our perspective on the few cultures that still practice cannibalism today, albeit only occasionally, such as the agoria Hindu sect in India that does it in the pursuit of transcendence. Above all these discoveries invite us to reconsider our revileged Bobble-Wired. He said, that, no, thank you. No, thank you.

Another reason why I will never be visiting India. Okay, so here's what the Bible has to say a little bit about cannibalism. So after the flood in Genesis 9, God gives Noah permission to eat meat. He says, everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I have given you the green plants, I now give you everything. But he specifies that that food does not include us because in Genesis 9, 6, whoever sheds human blood by humans shall their blood be shed. So he is there commanding the death penalty for our capital murder there. And every time we see cannibalism throughout scripture, it is depicted in a negative way, in a cursed way.

Lividicus 26, 29, this is a curse. You shall eat the flesh of your sons. You shall eat the flesh of your daughters. Deuteronomy 2853 through 57. He is describing curses for disobedience, which is eating like the flesh of your womb, eating the flesh of other humans. Jeremiah 19.9, I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. Lamentations 220 and 410 describing judgment the hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children. They become their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. Therefore, Father, shall eat their sons in your midst.

Cannibalism has always been a pagan practice. It has always been a non-Christian practice. Whenever throughout scripture, cannibalism is mentioned, whether it's symbolism or a metaphor or whether it's talking literally, it is seen as evil. So not only is the act itself wrong,

but also the reason behind the act is wrong because it has been a part of pagan. rituals. So this is why Christianity has so stigmatized something as grotesque as cannibalism and why we are now seen in our godless culture, this sudden desire to bring it back. This was not the only article I saw. I think I saw another article in the New Yorker saying that we need to destigmatize these kinds of these kinds of things. There was also this article, and it was by John Piper, and it was about John Patton. He was a 19th century missionary.

He left a successful urban ministry in Glasgow to bring the gospel to the tribes of the Southern Pacific Islands, many of whom practiced cannibalism. He also said this amazing quote that I think about a lot. I realized I was immortal till my master's work was done. So we cannot die until God wills it. And so he got to this small island in 1866. The natives were cannibals and occasionally ate the flesh of their defeated foes. They practiced infanticide and widow sacrifice, killing the widows of deceased men so that they could serve their husbands in the next world.

This is true throughout Africa too. By the way, this has been true in many parts of the barbaric world. In the next 15 years, however, John and Margaret Patton saw the world. the entire island of Aniwa turn to Christ. At the moment when I put the bread and wine into these dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself. Years later, when people argued that the Aborigines of Australia

were subhuman and incapable of conversion or civilization. This was very popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century, this kind of terrible idea. Patton fought back with mission facts as well as biblical truth. He said this to those kinds of arguments. Recall what the gospel has done for the near kindred of these same Aborigines. He talks about his own experience. Cannibals have been led to renounce their heathenism in Fiji.

79,000 cannibals have been brought under the influence of the gospel, and 13,000 members of the churches are professing to live and work for Jesus. And Samoa, 34,000 cannibals have professed Christianity. And in 19 years, its college has sent forth 206 native teachers and evangelists. On our new Hippardis, more than 12,000 cannibals have been brought to sit at the feet of Christ. And so that's what Christianity has done. again throughout Africa, throughout much of the Eastern world, wherever Christianity places its flag, proverbially, wherever Christianity comes, wherever the gospel is spread, cannibalism and child sacrifice, and that kind of barbarism is put to an end because that's what the gospel of Jesus does.

And so it makes a lot of sense that as we are moving into an era of godlessness, as we are moving further into the bleak future of postmodernism, that we would abandon the things that for so long we just assumed we're a product of liberalism, a product of civilization, that of course we don't do barbaric things like cannibalism anymore because gross. When in fact, this is not something that we have inherited from our ancestors, it is something that is distinctly biblical. It is something that is distinctly Christian. You do not understand the darkness that is headed our way if we abandon the Christian

ideals that have placed the foundation for human rights, the foundation for loving your neighbor, the foundation for decency and respect and civilization. When Christianity goes, all these things go to. We can see it in normalizing something like the barbaric and trite. tribal pagan practice of cannibalism. But look, Christ still reigns. If the gospel was able to do that hundreds of years ago change cannibalisms, the cannibals to Christians, then it can still do the same today. That same power, that same Holy Spirit, that same gospel is at work within Christians today. And actually we're seeing so much of what the ancient church saw in the way of gender bending

and sexual immorality and depravity and child sacrifice and objectifying people. We see so much of that today in different forms. And we have the same spirit, the same Jesus Christ working through us. Hebrews 13A. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. We have the same ability to push back against darkness as our Christian predecessors always have had. So that's my encouraging note to end this week on Relatable. We went a lot of places today. But I think the theme is that God and His Word are better. They're a better standard.

Gives us better power than the world could ever give. So, okay, that's all we got for today. We will see you back here on Monday with an amazing, amazing interview that you've got to tune in for. All right. See you guys then. 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.