Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 998 | Methodists Change Their Pronouns to Was/Were

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Today, we discuss the United Methodist Church's recent decision to allow the ordination of self-proclaimed homosexuals as well as same-sex "marriage." The United Methodist Church has struggled with this issue for the past few years and even strengthened its position on traditional marriage in 2019. So, what changed? Plus, the Met Gala was last night, and it featured some stunning and ... interesting fashion choices for us to review. --- Timecodes: (02:16) 1000th episode news! (08:16) United Methodist Church (26:26) History of the UMC (31:29) Compromising on LGBTQ issue (41:39) Pushback (52:20) Met Gala --- Today's Sponsors: Seven Weeks Coffee — try Seven Weeks Coffee today at SevenWeeksCoffee.com and use the promo code: ALLIE to save 10% off your order. Good Ranchers — If you want to secure your best price on meat until 2026, go to GoodRanchers.com and use code ALLIE for 10% off your subscription, free express shipping and a price-lock guarantee until 2026!  CrowdHealth — get your first 6 months for just $99/month. Use promo code 'ALLIE' when you sign up at JoinCrowdHealth.com. Pre-Born — will you help rescue babies' lives? Donate by calling #250 & say keyword 'BABY' or go to Preborn.com/ALLIE. --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 83 | United Methodist Church https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000431279652 Ep 488 | Vaccine Mandates & Met Galas: Welcome to Our Brave New World | Guest: Justin Haskins https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000535329529 Ep 429 | Speaking - & Living - the Truth in Love | Guest: Dr. Albert Mohler https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000523639859 Ep 259 | Why Cultural Christians Are Going Extinct | Guest: Dr. Albert Mohler https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000476889625 --- 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

The United Methodist Church has now fully officially embraced LGBTQ ideology. We've got the breakdown and analysis and biblical response to that on today's episode of Relatable, as well as a little ranking and rating of some MetGala outfits from last night. This episode of Relatable is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use Code Alley at checkout. That's Good Ranchers.com. Code Allie. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Wow, y'all have given me a big response and reaction to yesterday's episode. The vast majority of you, Catholic and Protestant, we're super excited about it. Your comments, we're really respectful. And I appreciate that so much. Of course, you're going to have people who are just angry that I did not agree with Trent, maybe some people, although I don't know. if I saw this, but angry that Trent didn't agree with me, but it really was a good faith discussion.

I really like Trent Horn and appreciate him so much, obviously extremely thoughtful and articulate. And I loved having that conversation with him. And I hope to have more. And I hope that it was edifying for all of you. I hope that you learned more about what I believe as a reformed Protestant and what he believes as a Catholic. Go check that out on YouTube. If you haven't already. Also, speaking of YouTube, if you haven't subscribed, like if you're just a casual viewer, please subscribe and then also click the little bell that's under this video so you'll get notifications every time we upload something. We're not just uploading these long form videos, episodes. We also upload some shorter content as well. And so don't miss it.

Click the notification button and you'll always know when Allie B. Stucky is up to something on YouTube. All right. A couple other things. This Thursday, we've got our thousandth episode of Relatable. What? Thousandth episode. I won't get all nostalgic on you right now. I'll do that on Thursday. But we're doing a few things to celebrate and just to thank you guys for being here for one thousand episodes. We wouldn't even have one episode if it weren't for y'all. And so we want to hear from y'all. We want to hear a few things. If you call 682-503-1369, you can leave us a voicemail. I think how long is it, Bree?

How long do they have? Like two minutes? Yeah, but it would be great if they could stick to like 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Okay, we should have said that probably on the Instagram post because I got some messages from y'all. Be like, it cut me off. I'm sorry. You can leave more than one if you want to, but it's best if you keep it within like the 30 to 60

second range because we can't listen to super long voicemails on the air. It's just not as fun to listen to. So try to keep it as short and sweet as possible. It would be better for you to leave multiple short voicemails than one long voicemail. So here's what we want to hear from you. Has your mind been a mind been changed on any topic from listening to the show, either something that I've said or something one of my guests said? What has been your favorite episode, guest, or segment. How long have you been listening? What does the show mean to you? Give us your best. Would you rather? That doesn't have anything to do with the show. I just like hearing it. Literally, my husband and I played Would You Rather last night? I get more enjoyment personally of

thinking of them. I can't even get through my question because I'm wheezing, laughing, can't catch my breath crying as I'm imagining the scenario that I'm coming up within my head. So that's really just for my enjoyment. The other questions, really aren't as much for me, although, of course, it's going to offer us encouragement in the relatable crew, but it's also for all the listeners and viewers out there to hear from people who share the same concerns, who have the same values as you do, who are raising a respectful ruckus for their children, for their communities, for the next generation, who are sharing the arrows, who have all the same fears but hopes and

dreams in a lot of ways as you do. And just remember that you're not alone. There are tens and tens of thousands and thousands of people just in this community, not to mention all of the other people out there who don't listen to Relatable, who are a part of the same battle and on the same front line. So it's also meant to be just encouraging to you as you remember the community that we have among our Related Bros and Related Bells. I'm still changing it. haven't decided related bells or related gals. Also, just to tease this out, I've got one really big announcement headed your way. I think by next week, I can't say the exact date yet because I don't know. It's going to be a really big announcement, something that we have never done before.

It's not like anything that I've ever presented to you before, and I'm so excited about it. And I will talk about it here first before I even talk about it on social media just for you guys. I'm so pumped. Biggest announcement that I have ever done. And some of you guys have given me some guesses as to what that is. Some of them very funny. Like a relatable cruise. That's a great idea.

That's a great idea. I cannot confirm nor deny. I'm just saying it's a great idea. One of you said that I'm going to cut my own bangs on YouTube live, which I love. Not going to happen. I'll just go ahead and let you know a spoiler. It's not that. It's much bigger and better.

So we've got lots of fun stuff coming up. Remember that voicemail number 682-503-1369, answer some of the questions that I gave you. All right. Now we've got to talk about all this craziness that is going on in the United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church is not united. It's actually the divided Methodist Church. And we're going to talk exactly about what is going on there. and what it means.

All right, we briefly alluded to what's happening in the UMC, the United Methodist Church denomination yesterday when I was talking to Trent Horn, but we just didn't have time to get into all of it. And so I want to let you know what is going on. Now, you might remember several years ago, there was a split in the United Methodist Church, and it was over this issue, the LGBTQ issue, the issue of whether the church should be so-called gay affirming, but really it also had to do

with gay clergy. And I'm talking openly gay, affirming homosexuality, homosexual relationships as what they would call holy, normal, fine on the same plane as a heterosexual, actual marriage. So this has been a long time in the making. controversy has been for several years, even before a few years ago, when they split over this issue. I actually remember that was one of the first times that we really delved into the gay marriage, quote unquote, issue and really looked at what the Bible says about this, not the first time, but I think one of the first episodes where we really talked about this in depth from a biblical perspective. And interestingly, the episode, this is the only time this has ever happened,

the episode wouldn't upload to Spotify or actually it went up on Spotify and then it was taken down. It's interesting that's actually on my Wikipedia page. I didn't even, I don't remember thinking it was that big of a deal or that scandalous at the time. It was just like big tech doing its thing. but I guess it was enough of a thing that it made it to my Wikipedia page. But that did happen. Thankfully, it is back up there. So we'll link in the description if you want to go listen to that. But the controversy continues.

Last Wednesday, delegates at the United Methodist Church General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, voted to overturn the church's historic discipline and doctrine on homosexuality and so-called same-sex marriage. Now, let me just note, why do I say so-called? Why do I say, quote, unquote? why can't I just say same-sex marriage? Now, I might, you might hear me say same-sex marriage or gay marriage just because that is the colloquial term. And you know what I'm saying.

You know that I'm talking about in the eyes of the law. It is a marriage. But the reason I typically caveat it in that way or describe it in that way is because it's not actually a marriage. God created marriage. He created the world. He defined marriage in the very first chapter of the first book of the Bible as between one man and one woman that is, of course, reflective of the marriage between the bride of Christ,

which is the church and the bridegroom, which is Christ himself. We see that painted throughout the Bible. And of course, the Bible ends with that marriage, the marriage supper of Christ and his church. And so the Bible starts with the marriage. It ends with the marriage. God alone created it. God alone defines it. The law can't redefine it. You can change the legal implications. and the consequences of two men or two women coming together in what is referred to legally as a marriage, but you cannot fundamentally change the definition of marriage because the state did not create it. So that's why you hear me say so-called quote-unquote. You sometimes will hear gay mirage as kind of a play on words because it is not, in fact, by definition, a marriage.

Moving on. By the way, this summary that we are giving you, it comes from a few places. It comes from the Christian Post. It also comes from World Magazine by Dr. Al Muller. So it was approved by a 692 to 51 vote without a word of formal debate. The measure approved removing the language that prohibited the ordination of self-avowed practicing homosexuals from the Book of Discipline. Since 1984, the UMC Book of Discipline has prohibited the ordination of homosexuals with many progressives and mainline Protestant denomination openly refusing to enforce or follow the restriction. So mainline Protestant is always going to be left-leaning, is always going to be more progressive as opposed to

what is typically referred to as evangelical Protestant. So even though I, the word evangelical, it can mean so many different things. I would be categorized as evangelical, even though within Christian circles, we would make a distinction between evangelical and reformed. But for the purpose of statistics, for the purpose of differentiating between mainline Protestant and evangelical Protestant, I am an evangelical. Evangelicals are always more biblical and conservative than mainline Protestants. So mainline Protestants within this UMC denomination have been openly refusing to enforce or follow this restriction that has been in the book of discipline. Over the past several years, the UMC has experienced intense debate over whether to change various rules in its book of discipline

regarding LGBT individuals. In 2019, the Methodists voted to strengthen their denomination's statement on marriage. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore, self-vowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, were appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church. That's the controversy that we covered a few years ago that got us, it seems, kicked off Spotify for a period of time. According to Dr. Mueller, the conservatives believed they could force a division of the church and the liberals would leave to start their own LGBTQ affirming denomination. In reality, the conservatives became outnumbered. Throughout 2022 and 2023, no less than 7,000 churches left the United Methodist Church in some conferences,

regions, like the one centered in Dallas, Texas, close to 70% of the churches left. So really interesting that the conservatives were outnumbered in 2019 when they made the vote. And since then, so many churches have left the UMC after they established themselves as a liberal mainline Protestant denomination. What was left of the UMC rushed into abandoning historic Christianity and joined the LGBTQ revolution, which was clearly seen at the general conference in Sharpe. Charlotte this year. Even before the historic vote was taken, speakers introduced themselves by name, gender identity, preferred pronouns. So basically, what has happened is that progressives, after they basically took over the UMC in 2019, they have hollowed out the Methodist Church, the Methodist

denomination, and have decided we are going to abandon Christianity, or going to abandon church history. are going to abandon our creeds. We are going to abandon the Bible altogether. And we are going to then, in essence, abandon Christianity. And we are going to remake this denomination into our image. So really at this point, it's like the Episcopalian Church. It is like a Unitarianism, which can't even be, it doesn't even qualify as a, Christian denomination. And they've said, you know what? We want to continue the pretense of religion. We want to continue to call ourselves Christians. We want to continue to go to church. I want to continue to say that we are, that we are in some kind of position of leadership, a part of clergy within the

United Methodist Church. But we don't actually want to follow any semblance of Christianity. So that's what the United Methodist Church has done. And of course, this is all we what happens when you abandon scripture. When you decide that the Bible is not authoritative, when you decide that your opinion or cultural changes or social whims have more authority than the Word of God, then you will always end up conforming to the spirit of the age. And sexual depravity and the feelings that you have, the lust that you have, of course, will take precedence over what God's word says. You will change the definitions of holiness.

You will change the definitions of sin and repentance. You will change the very definitions of right and wrong. Because essentially people who do this, not just within the United Methodist Church, but whatever flavor of Christianity someone is, when they decide that the word of God is not good enough, that it doesn't give us everything that we need for life and godliness, that it is not a sufficient standard, then what happens is you replace worshiping the God of Scripture

with the God of self. And when you worship the God of self, as I wrote about in my book, and as we've talked about several times, you elevate two main values. And that's authenticity and autonomy. These two main values can be good values, but only when they are submissive to God's standards. But when you worship the God of self and you elevate autonomy and authenticity to these supreme positions, everything else must fall in line to these two things. So an example of what I mean by that. If you worship the God of self and you supremely value autonomy, then you will literally sacrifice your unborn child in the name of having autonomy over your own body. to mean that you have authority over your body, you have authority over your choices.

And while again, that can be a good value and that we believe that we should have autonomy separate from the government, autonomy taken all the way to its logical end means that you are going to do whatever you want to do within your control, no matter who and what that sacrifices. And when you are worshiping the God of self, that means you will literally sacrifice a child on the altar of your own autonomy. Authenticity is the same way. Authenticity can be a good thing and that you don't want to be fake. You don't want to pretend to be something that you're not or to know things that you don't know. Authenticity can be a good thing. But when you elevate it too high, when you start to worship yourself, then authenticity becomes an excuse to sin.

for example, I want to be authentic to how I feel. So I want to identify as the opposite sex because I must affirm my feelings because I worship myself. There's no higher standard than what I feel. There's no higher standard than my own autonomy and authenticity. And so authenticity and autonomy become excuses to sin when we exchange the God of Scripture for the God of self. That's what's happened here. That's what happens when. all people decide that God's standard is not good enough anymore. That it's not God who is love,

but it's we who get to define love. That's what's happened to the UMC. That's why they're losing so many members. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not conforming to the world that wins unbelievers. That's what we hear a lot. That's the secret sensitive strategy that if we look and sound more like the world, then we will attract more of the world. What you win people with, though, is what you win people to. If you win people with worldliness, you are winning them to worldliness. We are to win people with the cross, with the aroma of Christ. Romans 2, God's kindness leads us to repentance, right?

So it is not worldliness. It is not compromise. It is not conformity with the world that is going to win people to Christ. And unfortunately, it seems like many people at the UMC just don't understand that. They don't care because they have entered into the wide gate rather than the narrow one. And I'll show you this compilation of what it sounds like to be at one of these conferences, one of these gatherings with the United Methodist Church. Again, this is before they actually took the vote.

These are the kinds of people that now comprise United Methodist Church and are making these kinds of decisions. Okay, so here is this general conference in Charlotte. But here's what these leaders of the United Methodist Church sound like, Sotland. Becca Gorell, clergy, New England annual conference. She, her, hers, queer white adult. I'm very sorry to do this. Bishop, Thomas Lang, Deacon, Greater New Jersey, adult white male. Thank you, Bishop.

Good morning, friends. I am Scott Brewer, a cisgendered white lay male delegate from the Great Plains Conference. Go ahead. My name is Carol Zagsma, clergy delegate from Minnesota, white, female, gay adult with pronouns she and her. Oh, my goodness. These people, they just want so badly to be special. That's what it comes across like to me. They just really want to be special.

They want to be unique. They want to be different. I always think about, like, what started this. desire to be identified in like the most niche categories. And I know some people are like, no, this is just who they really are. This is their authentic selves. And they're just showing up and taking space and sharing their truth. I know yada, yada, yada.

All that is nonsense, by the way. It's vapid, harmful nonsense. But I always think it kind of goes back. Well, it probably goes back a lot farther than this. You could argue it goes all the way back to the garden, worshiping the god of self. But I think about those like Disney princess quizzes or this person. test quizzes that were on social media and on Facebook and probably on like disney.com at the turn of the millennium.

And I think that we got so obsessed with like these personality tasks and finding like what our color is, the mood rings, the power bracelets, like all of these things that were just feeding our narcissism and telling us you are unique, you are special, you are so different. No one else is exactly like this. That's what I think of when these people are announcing all of their little intersection identities is that we just want so badly to be a part of something that is like special and different and not a part of the mainstream. And that's exacerbated when you have this meta narrative, this erroneous meta narrative that says like if you are just a white cisgendered so

called, of course, that's a nonsense turn that was created by like a weird groomer guy. But if you are just a white, normal, heterosexual, Christian conservative guy, then you are an oppressor. And of course, if you are a white woman who is also conservative, then you are a part of the Handmaid's Tale Enablers, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so in order to be a part of like either championing the marginalized or on the side of the marginalized,

you have to take on all of these various identities. And again, these identities usurp or they, supersede God's authority and who God says that we are. And it really is a matter of like going all the way back to Genesis 1. As we've talked about before, like transgenderism is a direct affront to God's authority because only God can declare something to be can only create through declaration. Let there be light and there was light. Transgenderism says that you can say let there be female. I am female and become female and that is a lie from the pit of hell. And that's why I also don't declare pronouns because you are assenting to this ridiculous idea,

this false idea that you can become something by declaration or that your gender is a matter of declaration or announcement. And it's not. It's innate. Anyway, let's get some background on the United Methodist Church that I think is. important, and a lot of this comes from Dr. Al Muller and World Magazine. So if you look at John Wesley, who established the United Methodist Church, it was not his intention to establish his own church. It was his goal to lead a holiness movement, a kind of revival within the Church of England, which he really did, along with his brother, Charles, they wrote hymns that were really beautiful. They did a lot of good. They were eventually dubbed Methodist as a term of derision, actually,

due to the methodical approach taken by Wesley's devotional societies. Methodism quickly made its way to the colonies. Wesley himself came to Savannah, Georgia in 1735. He was loyal to Britain and the Church of England. So as the War of Independence began, Americans were left to establish their own church. So kind of taking his teachings, but they weren't under his direct guidance. The Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1784 and Baltimore and spread like wildfire. before long the Methodist would be the largest single denominational movement in America

and remained strong well into the 20th century. But they were divided by the Civil War and then the church reunited in 1938. And then they added the evangelical United Brethren in 1968 forming the United Methodist Church. They did appear united for decades, but then as we have discussed, there were liberal conservative tensions within the United Methodist Church at the end of the 20th century. The same thing happened in the Southern Baptist Church, by the way, in the 1980s. The Conservatives won, though. It was the LGBTQ movement that eventually blew up the church, as we've already discussed. And here's a quote from Dr. Mueller on this. John Wesley's Holiness

movement, once America's largest denomination, now reduced to a shadow of its former self, abandoned the Christian faith and established a new religion with the celebration of LGBTQ sexuality at the center, a mighty movement that Wesley had founded to bring holiness and piety to the Church of England, surrender to the revolution, pushing the new sexuality and radical gender ideologies. And it did so with gusto. And of course, so this is the end of the United Methodist Church, because again, this goes all the way back, not just to the passages about sexuality, not just to Romans 1, not just 1st Corinthians 6, not just the verses in Leviticus that say a man line with another man is an abomination. It goes all the way back to

Genesis 1 that God created the heavens in the earth. Because if he created the heavens in the earth, that changes everything. What do we always say? He alone says, what is and what isn't, what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad, what's true, and what's false, what a marriage is, what a woman is, when life begins and why it matters. If he created all of this, then he has the authority to define all things. And if the God who created all of this and has the authority to define all things and tells us that marriage is between a man and a woman as we read in Genesis 1-27, and gender is male and females we read in in Genesis 1.27. And he is also the God who is love, 1 John 4th, and everything he says and does how he defines things.

The boundaries he puts in place are all also done in love. And this is the belief, the UMC departing from biblical sexuality is the belief that they can actually outlove God by disagreeing with him. But you can't. Because you are not love. I am not love. God is love. Therefore, everything that he does and says is done and said in love. And just a reminder, the alliteration that we always use. Fivocal marriage between man and a woman is rooted in creation. Genesis 1.27, it's reiterated throughout scripture. For example, honor your father and mother.

It's repeated by Jesus himself, Matthew 19, 4 through 5. Have you not read that he, that in the beginning, he made the male and female as he is answering a question about divorce? He goes all the way back to creation and defines marriage. It is a representative of Christ in the church as we read in Ephesians 5 that the husband represents Christ, that the wife represents the church, and therefore it is reflective of the gospel. The Bible starts with that marriage. It ends with a marriage. Marriage between men and a woman is an earthly representation of an eternal and spiritual, heavenly reality. The marriage between Christ and a church, two men can't represent that, to women can't represent that. That is why it's so fundamental. That is why always, when you see someone abandon

what God says about sexuality and about gender, they eventually abandon all of it. You just don't know very many people who can live in that incongruence for very long, who say, yes, God's word is authoritative on John 146 that says that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Christ, but it's not authoritative when it comes to sexuality. It's not authoritative when it comes to creation. It's not authoritative when it comes to Ephesians 5 in the definition of marriage. Like there are some people that try to live in that tension for a certain period of time.

It never lasts long. It never lasts long. Either God graciously sanctifies them into repentance and into cohesiveness and congruence, or they are tempted away from the faith. And again, they enter that wide gate. So they did try to have some kind of biblical support. of their decision at this general conference for the UMC James Howell. I think that's how maybe how you pronounce his last name.

He's a clergyman from Western North Carolina. He gave a little bit of a speech saying, you know, this is why we must compromise on this issue. That would be my phrasing, but why we must vote for full inclusion of the LGBTQ people. Here's SOT3. Scripture enables us to keep our arms. around all people who dream, who were broken, who are seeking the grace and the mercy of God. We've talked a lot about regions here. In the region where I work, what we know is that

cynics and young adults will not listen to us, talk about Jesus if we say that we do not condone people that they love and care about. They just shut us out if we do this. I always suspect that the important Bible verse for the day might be Romans chapter 8, verse 1. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Okay, I just want to know quite a few things there. First, on that last thing that he said, he misquoted it. And this is actually really important. He said there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

That's not what the verse says. Romans 8.1 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For those who are in Christ Jesus. for those who have been saved, as Ephesians 2 says, by grace through faith in Christ. So for those of us who are Christians, who have been purchased, who by grace through faith have been made alive in him, who have been saved, who are new creations by the grace and the mercy and the power of God. For those of us, there is no condemnation because he who knew no sin became sin, that we might become the

righteousness of God. We are the righteousness of God, not because we have merited that on our own, not because we have earned that, but because God's work on the cross was sufficient for our holiness and our righteousness for our justification. So because we are justified by faith in Christ, we are justified by His bloodshed on the cross, there is no condemnation for us. There is condemnation for those outside of Christ, not just here, but in eternity. And so that is wrong. There's no condemnation for anyone out there. So you're saying that Christianity just offers moral relativism to people, that the Bible has no standards, that there's no definition of holiness or sin. There's just no condemnation. Then why would anyone become a Christian? You can get that

from the world. Why go to church on Sunday when you can go to brunch? You can hear from any You can hear from the most staunch Satanist that there's no condemnation. What's different about the gospel? What exactly is the good news if there is no condemnation for anyone ever? And another thing that I want to address is something that I alluded to earlier when he says that we know that if we don't condone gay people, people who identify as the opposite sex, people who identify as quote unquote queer, then the skeptics, the unbelievers will not listen to us. Look, that is a lie almost as old as time. That we have to compromise

in order to win, that we have to lie to people, that we have to affirm the sin that God says is killing them in order to win them to the cross of Christ. And I love this verse from 2 Corinthians 2.14. But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. The aroma of Christ, the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one, a fragrance of death to death, to the other, a fragrance from life to life? Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many peddlers of God's word,

but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Wow, that's a really big privilege. That's a really big deal. That is our role. That is our privilege, that we are the aroma of Christ, that we spread the knowledge of Him, the knowledge of the gospel. And I'll also, rather, read you Romans 2-4. Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and for and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. And of course, this is following Romans 1, which very explicitly says that relations between two

men or relations between two women are abominable, are dishonorable, are dishonorable, are sinful. So we could start, for example, in verse 24, although I think the whole chapter is relevant. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due

penalty for their error. And since God did not see fit to, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind doing to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, they are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventers of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. All right, I want to play you one more thing on the approval side.

Then I want to give you an example of those who actually said, no, I'm opposing this, and this is not what we are going to stand for. Don Higgins' hair getting tongue-tied this morning. General Secretary of the UMC General Commission on the status and role of women said following the LGBTQ affirming vote this.

Stop for. You did good work. Very good work yesterday in our journey towards full inclusion. You indeed set the table wider and pulled up some extra chairs at God's table, not ours, for persons and voices that have been silenced too long. Okay, so she is very emotional about that. I really pray for her repentance. She will be much more emotional before the throne of God one day when she realizes this grievous error and encouraging and enabling people to sin. And this is really encouraging people away from Christ, away from the liberty that is given to us in Christ when he no longer makes us a slave or allows us to be a slave of sin.

We can be free from the oppression of our lust in Christ. That is the gospel. That is the good news. But as I said, not everyone is for this. All right. Let's go ahead and play Sot 2. In my country Sierra Leone, we see graves of people who had given their lives to maintaining the tradition of the church. If we want to be Christ-like, we should be following the traditions of the church rather than the traditions,

our local traditions and our cultures in our local areas. Yeah, so he is representative of many Africans in the United Method. Methodist Church there who are saying no. Not only have they seen how difficult it is to be a Christian in a Muslim majority country, a Christian in a place that doesn't accept Christianity that truly persecutes, maligns, even kills Christians, but they have also seen the physical effects of male and male sex. and they understand its physical consequences as well as the spiritual consequences of sin. And so I appreciate this guy standing up there and saying, look, we see the graves of people who have given their lives to maintaining the tradition of the church.

Now, one thing I will say, and I don't know if this is just because there's a language issue or if this is truly, what he meant, but it's more than a tradition because a tradition is manmade. A tradition is arbitrary because it's dependent upon what you want to do in a particular era or cultural moment. A tradition is passed down from ancestors from generation to generation and there are great benefits to traditions. But that's not what is, that's not what's being torn apart and destroyed here. What's being torn apart is the very, or attempted to be torn apart is the very authority in the word of God. And that's a much bigger deal than tearing down a tradition. Daryl Harrison pointed out that Sierra Leone is nearly 80% Muslim. Yet this brother comes to America

and is in the minority at the convention of his own denomination. That is, that's a problem. That's a problem. So that's what's happening. at the United Methodist Church, they are, of course, not only progressive in that way. They are progressive in every way when it comes to social and so-called racial justice. They discussed at this general conference how their commissions were monitoring the event to keep proper decorum respect for the rules of the gathering and respect for diversity. Dr. Reverend Arroyo, he is a gay man married to another. Reverend, who is an ordained deacon in the Methodist Church, and he asked delegates who addressed the event to state not only their name, annual conference, and if they were laity or clergy,

but also their gender identity and racial or ethnic identity. And also said it was important to avoid exclusively male language for God. Monitoring is not policing, he said, be respectful of the choice of language that is used, including avoiding that exclusively male language. And then he also presented their report card and the diversity of officers elected to the conferences legislative committees, then scolded attendees to work a little bit harder on inclusion with language and interpretation. And, you know, this so often happens that this racial nonsense, this DEI nonsense, goes hand in hand with compromise on LGBTQ issues. They're not the same thing, but the race is so often

conflated or placed in the same category as so-called gender identity and sexuality. And obviously there's a difference because it's not a sin to have any skin color or to have any ethnicity and you're all equally made in the image of God and you have equal access to the Father through Christ as a Christian. And so it's not the same, of course, as someone sitting against God through their sexuality or denying their biological reality. But both of these kinds of,

both like non-white people and people who identify its LGBTQ are placed in the same category of oppression. And so they are placed under the same marginalized and oppressed umbrella and therefore the same mechanisms are employed. to purport to defend them. And so very often through what I think is the vehicle of what I typically refer to as toxic empathy, people are convinced that to be loving, you have to employ these kinds of DEI programs that say that they protect gay people, trans people, black people, brown people, immigrants.

They're all kind of placed in the same bucket. And too many people kind of fall into that trap of thinking that to be empathetic, we have to believe in this victim mentality and treat people as if they are oppressed when they are in fact not. And that we can't differentiate between what is a sin and what is simply an ethnicity and also convinces us to buy into the lie that all non-white people are oppressed and all white people are privileged. That's not true. This nonsense seems to all go together. We have to be super discerning about that. Okay, so UMC is super happy.

This is how we're going to end this. But they're super excited about this. And they decided, of course, not to end their conference with a worship song, praising God, but with this number, it's top five. Okay, so that is that. That's that. So that's what happened in the United Methodist Church. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

There's always been compromised. There's always been temptation. There's always been sin. Remember, the gate is wide that leads to hell. And the gate is narrow that leads to eternal life in Christ. And again, that's not earned by our own works, by our own perfection, but it is won by Christ on the cross. Praise God for that. And those who are truly saved will be sanctified and will gain the knowledge and the wisdom of his word that is necessary to live a life of godliness.

And so it's very discouraging. But we already see that the UMC is a shadow of its former self and that denominations like this end up dying and that God will protect his people. He is still a good shepherd. The sheep know his voice and we follow him. And that doesn't mean there will never be theological disagreements because, of course, there will be. But he is going to preserve his people. And we can trust that. And going back to Romans 8 and what Romans 8 actually says,

nothing can separate us, God's people who have been purchased by him from the love of Christ. and read that end of chapter of chapter eight it defines who god's people are really really well and explicitly all right before we move into just a short lighthearted segment about the met gala which i know some of you like that when we talk about people's outfits some of you don't so you can just you can just end the episode here if you don't want to hear this but if you're watching on youtube and you love us rating people's clothes celebrities clothes not just anyone that would be weird just celebrities' clothes, then you can stick around for that. Also, speaking of clothes, I forgot to do this at the beginning.

Look, how cute. In my baby era. In my baby era, cute little onesies, 100% cotton. How adorable. And you can get your matching in my mom era t-shirt. The In My Mom era has the relatable on the sleeve, which is just adorable. You can go to Alleymerch.com, Related Bros out there. Get this for the Related gal in your life.

get the matching onesie. It's really adorable. Get it for Mother's Day. Related Brose, you know Mother's Day this weekend, right? So go ahead. Get it. I think you can get it by then. You'll get it quickly.

Didn't want you to forget. I got you. All right. We're going to talk about this MetGala stuff. Okay, Bree. The Met Gala was last night, right? Right. Last night.

And tell me what the theme was. The Garden of First. time. Can you explain that to me? It was the Garden of Time. You know, these themes are like so, I feel like they're so convoluted. And to be fair, the goal is it's open to interpretation. Yeah. So the celebrities interpret it. But it is a book. The Garden of Time is a story written by J.G. Ballard. And it's, I don't think it even matters what it's about because people just took the theme and said it's garden themed. That's what I guess. That's what I guess. It's a short story by J.G. Ballard. I'm sure it's weird.

That concerns a couple living in a beautiful home. A mob is slowly making its way toward them, bringing destruction. So it's always very dramatic. What happens at the Met Gala? Do you know? What are they doing? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, it's a fundraiser. So I think it's a dinner. And they're raising funds for the Met. Yeah, for the Met, the Costume Institute at the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yeah. Okay. So Sleeping Beauty's reawakening fashion. The Garden of Time. Okay, got it. So there were some goods. There were some bads. And by the way, you know what? It's okay if we're a little bit judgmental about these outfits because they wear them to be judged. That is like a whole part of this before they go in. They're very dramatic. And they wear purposely weird stuff. A lot of them do. Not all of them. So it's okay for us. to say, oh, that's weird. All right. Okay, Cole Escola. I don't know who this is. Okay, is this a man, Bree? It is. He looks like a, like someone getting eloped in the 1940s, a bride getting eloped in the

1940s. But also kind of like a child. Also a child, which, a child bride, which is very concerning a lot of ways he's wearing, for those of you who are listening, like a T-length straight skirt with a white blazer. It's all white. Yeah. This is the Garden of Time. This is the Garden of Time. Ugly. Okay. 1 through 10, 1 being the best this time. Didn't be the worst. This is 10. This is awful. Yeah, this is really bad. 10. Okay. 10 be the worst. Okay. Dan Levy. I know who this is. Let's see him. Is he also wearing a skirt? No. have such a hard time seeing on this monitor. Are those pantaloons?

They're pantaloons. It's just a suit, but it's like it kind of ambrays from black to like flower pattern. Okay. Oh, it's all together? Like what? It's a jumpsuit? Like the bottom of, no, no, no. It's a jacket and pants, but the bottom of the jacket is like the flower pattern also.

Okay. So it looks like it's one. Got it. Thanks, George. Okay. It's not as bad as the last one, but I obviously don't like men wearing floral curtains. So I'm going to go with like an eight, though, to be the worst. Okay.

I actually really like this one. I agree. I don't like men wearing floral patterns. But I think for what it is, it's kind of nice. It's fine. Okay. So what's your number? I'd say four.

Okay. One being the best. One being the best. Okay. Gwendolyn Christie. Okay. I can't imagine that the purpose was to look good. So I'm trying to like read it based on that.

I don't know. I don't know who this is. She's an actor. Actress. Actress. I don't know. She kind of looks like the queen of hearts. Is that what she's?

going for she definitely looks like a character out of alice in wonderland i was thinking hunger the hunger games also that okay sure why not six point eight gwendolen wow okay i'll i'll give it a seven okay um bad bunny what bad bunny's a man i feel like i said this last year too i thought bad bunny was a woman this is bad bunny can confirm what is is he a singer rapper he's a singer-writer he's a singer I don't think he wraps. Yeah, he's a singer. Okay. I'm probably wrong.

Sorry to assume that funny. Okay. I mean, this is the best masculine look that we've seen. It looks like he's wearing Mary Jane Taps shoes a little bit. Yeah. Uh, uh, I don't know. I guess. A six.

It's supposed to be bizarre. I don't know what the hat is. The hat's like a poofy. I don't even know what the right term is. I think this look is totally goofy. Okay. Which I guess is what he's going for. Yeah.

Okay. Dan Levy did look better than him. Yeah. I don't know. Okay. What's your number? I'm going to say eight. Okay.

Ten being the worst. Okay. Okay. Lana Del Rey. I know who that is. Okay. Okay. What do you think she's trying to do?

She's caught She's caught in a net I don't know I mean those are like branches I think that are Coming up Okay maybe it looks like a tree

With cobwebs in it Yeah Yeah yeah I kind of think it's cool Yeah I'm glad to say that The veil is trying to be something It's not like she thinks it's like flattering But the dress itself is pretty

Yeah Okay one being the best probably my favorite so far. So I'll go with like a three and a half. Okay. I'm going to do three. I like it. Okay. Okay. Cool. Uh, wisdom Kai. A model. What? That's Lil Nas X. It's not. I thought the same thing. It's not. Okay. That's so funny because I saw someone on Twitter be like, I have no idea who this is, but he slayed. I was like, I'm so in the know. It's Lil Nas X. Wow. Okay. Not wisdom, Kai. Yep. Is that a dress?

Is that pants? What's going on? It's pants, but he's got like a huge coat over it. So it kind of gives it a dress effect. But I don't know. You probably can't see it, but they're a little like burn holes in all over. Oh, I thought they were just poloads. Okay.

I kind of like the like the burn holes for the passage of time. It's like the, like this outfit has, it's like moth balls. have eaten away at the outfit because it's been, you know, put in storage for a long time. Yeah. So I kind of get that. I kind of like that. Now he is kind of just like a woman. Yes.

So I don't like that. So I have to deduct some points. So I'm going to have to go with like a 6.2 probably. Okay. I don't like this one. I say 8. Okay. I think he looks kind of evil.

He does. Definitely the red and black. But I like your assessment. I didn't think of that. Yeah. I think they're going with something there. Yeah. Okay, Mindy Kaling.

I saw this one on Twitter. Okay. I have just like so many comments about her how different she looks. I know. She looks so different, which kind of makes me sad. She's put in a lot of effort to look completely different than her natural self. But I actually like this dress. I think it looks beautiful on her.

I don't know how it fits the theme at all. but well I wish we don't have like a profile shot right because like the little thing behind her is huge um yeah no we don't have a profile shot um okay I'm gonna go with one being the best I'm probably gonna give this a 3.8 I like it a little less than Lana Del Rey wow okay I feel like it looks like she got caught up in a pair of panty hose I could see that yeah and maybe she did she she may have So I actually am going to give it a date. Whoa.

I'm a hater. Whoa. Sorry. Okay. I thought that it was flattering on her. Wow. Okay. Ellie Fanning.

Is this Dakota Fanning sister? Yes. Elifanning. Oh, Elifanning. What is she in? Yeah, this one is kind of hard to see, but it's not to look. Sorry.

Like shows and stuff. Oh. Oh. Well, she was in Sleeping Beauty, the movies. Oh. Something probably on HBO or something that I haven't watched. So she was in Sleeping Beauty. She should have.

and she did it. You don't think so? No. I love this. It's supposed to look like she's wearing glass. And I think it's really cool. I guess I'm kind of judging people based on the theme too. Yeah.

I mean, she looks beautiful, obviously. This is extremely flattering on her. She looks gorgeous. Yeah. But I would have maybe thought of something a little bit more themey for the Sleeping Beauty herself. That's fair. It should have been her night. You're right about that.

But she does look really pretty, so I have to... Okay, I'll go with a three just because she looks so good, but I can't give her a two or a one. Wow. Sad. I'm going to give her a one. Okay. I think she looks great. Fair.

Okay, Tyler. Okay, this is my favorite. This gets a one from me because she is, this is on theme and it looks beautiful. So the passage of time, she's got a little hourglass with sanding. it that is literally passing the time. And then her um, her dress is like very form fitting.

And like basically it's, I think made for her like exact form, but, uh, it has like sand on it. It looks like sand. It looks like she's dripping in sand. Yeah. And so it not only looks amazing on her, but it also signifies passage of time. Yeah. I think it's great. One for me.

If we're looking at these, like, costumes, obviously. Yeah. I think it's great. But you didn't like you. Well, you didn't like it. I thought. Well, I mean, it's like, it's, to me, aesthetically ugly as a dress. But, like, for what it is for the event, I think it's great.

Okay. So I would say, like, for me, probably four. Whoa. Okay. Okay. Tension on set. All right. That's all we've got for y'all.

you can let us know what you think about these, about these designs. Now, obviously, I, I know if, just in case I get anyone saying this, I know that these aren't for the women, the most modest dresses in the world. I understand that. And I'm not condoning the immodesty. That's just kind of a given when we're looking at some of these celebrities. But we never post like the most scandalous, we never talk about the most scandalous ones because there's just too much. But yeah, that's our assessment. There are a lot of looks out there. You can, let us know what you think. All right, that's all we got time for today. See you back here tomorrow.