Genesis Called: It Wants It's Rainbow Back

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome back to the Bully Pulpit podcast where two pastors and ethics professor and a political operative discuss news and politics from a Christian and conservative perspective.

(00:10):
The Bully Pulpit is a podcast of the Center for Renewing America whose mission is to renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.
How are we doing, Jents? Happy Pride Month?
Happy Pride Month?
Yeah.
Dean, I got to tell you, man, the, how gay are we going to be for what come on my eye last week is still legendary, I think, in the history of this podcast.

(00:38):
That can't be top.
Kaley put it in the title, which made it even funnier.
Yes.
Well, I can report we're pretty darn gay down here. So in Tallahassee.
Andrew has a cardigan on right now. So he's up there too.
He's representing. Hey, I'm getting I hit the 40 threshold. I spend my time hurting myself and being cold now.

(01:02):
And the cardigans are just a fact of life.
Dean, I need an update on any extra neighbor flags for the month.
We don't have any more flags.
I'm running story on the show.
They did they did add that I tell you all they had the president of the United States flag like a seal the president of the United States flag out there.
No, no, no, no, that's under siege to you know, basically that's compromised as well.

(01:23):
But I'm not just letting out how gay it is until Hassee.
We have two local hospitals here. We're not a big city mid-sized city.
And our city hospital did a pride like a full pride post this whole like pride or deal.
I'm like, I'm glad that we respect biology, apparently not in our local hospitals.
I was like, well, maybe the other one did it. Maybe maybe HCA didn't.

(01:44):
Well, I went to the four they don't have a local Instagram anymore. They use the state one and state HCA had one too.
And I'm like, man, our hospitals here are fully about the spirit.
I am apparently.
You know, we need to start.
Yeah, what we what we need to start doing is like scheduling our like episode content based on the latest flag in Dean's neighbors yard.

(02:07):
Dude, I think all the listeners include myself are very invested in this neighbor at this point.
We're got the puts in pictures at some point conspicuously on our our our ex count.
Um, you know, Dean, hopefully when you walk into that hospital for care, they take natural law and biology seriously.
Unlike their social media posts.
Well, I was like, how does that even work? So like, when you say like, well, I'm, I'm gay.

(02:32):
Like, do you mean like in that moment, you walk in the hospital gets your appendix taken out?
Like, does that mean like I like dudes or is it mean I'm married?
What is it? Right. It's ridiculous. The virtue signal is just out of control.
Like you're getting your appendix out. Like is it really a thing?
Well, I want to talk more about that in a minute because it is prod month.
And I want to get into some of the things and trends that we've seen.

(02:53):
Before we do that, teets, you're on the road with the fam.
Are you leaving DC because of prod month right now? Are you taking a month?
He's fully like a refugee battle.
Iscaping, escaping to the mountains, 100%. I've been driving on I 70 for six hours now, not a rainbow to be seen.
It's a beautiful thing to be in Kansas. We're also listening to Nate Bargetsy's biography, autobiography,

(03:20):
names Dumis as we drive. And I got to tell you, Eric, it just, it warms my heart because it reminds me of you so much listening to him talk about where he's from and how he talks and how.
If you're trying to tell the difference between boiled peanuts and a bowling alley, you just have to use context clues because he pronounces those two words.

(03:42):
I wonder how he says pulpit.
He's just down the street from us and we've got one degree of separation.
Some of his best friends are people that I know well. So it's his dad comes out church sometimes is pretty funny.
He's awesome. I'm going. He's coming here in Nashville and this tour, I think at the end of the year. So that'll be fun.
He started a book by talk giving his dad's testimony about how he had this terrible childhood and came to find Jesus through the witness of a cousin that took him in.

(04:12):
Wow. It's. It's cool. It is a cool story.
I one of those. You know what someone says?
You know what someone says they heard a band before it was cool.
My which by Walker claims my claim is I went and saw my Bargetsy before he was cool.
He was at Florida State. There was maybe 50 people there and I got to see him.
But wow, and one thing we noticed on the way out of sides was really funny. I looked at Chris. Yes.

(04:35):
I said, did you notice he did not cuss the entire time?
Incredible. Yeah. It's like I heard of in common.
I see the same thing. Yeah.
You know what I would say? This is an interesting thing that we're bringing up.
I would say this podcast is very much a parallel example of what neighbor gots he's doing and is making him popular.
He is he's appealing to the everyday man. He's he's he critiques with a lot of humor.

(05:01):
A lot of what goes on in the world today without what necessarily making enemies in the process.
And you know he's he's he's funny without being cheesy.
You know he's a believer and he's really good at what he does and the excellence of it comes out without having to be explicitly Christian all the time, which I think is just really interesting.
Speaking of tours, we are going on tour, if you would, we're going live in Dallas next week, gentlemen, we will be bully bully will be live at the convention Monday June the 9th and at four o'clock central time.

(05:36):
And that's going to be on the convention floor. Is that is that right? Where's all the well, it'll be it'll be in the exhibit hall exhibition hall.
Exhibit hall. That's what I was looking for. Yeah, exhibit hall where the southern seminary booth will be located.
So if you're wanting to come to the live bully pull the recording, go to the exhibit hall.
Look for the large southern seminary display and we will be there and there will be swag swag guarantee that look for the boat.

(06:03):
I think it ends that side just. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
And you will find them quickly. Look, what else would you like to say about Southern seminary while we're at it?
Trying way too hard. Big fan, a big fan of some Mary love it there.
Be on the lookout for the rainbow flag and the messaging of Genesis once its rainbow back.

(06:25):
You will find it only at the bully swag depot at the southern seminary booth there.
So yeah, we're excited to be there. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Be sure to plan on joining us. Okay, guys, it's time to talk a little bit more in depth.
It is we laugh and joke on the front end. It is June and with June comes comes all the gay all the homosexuality comes out.

(06:52):
It's true. The gay is your round, but it really comes out in June and I heard I'll launch this.
I think this is hilarious and then we'll talk about it. I saw a Rob Schneider stand up bit where he is essentially is like, hey, you know, thank you for serving our country veterans.

(07:15):
We're going to give you a day. Hey, presidents of the United States. Thank you for serving your country as the commander in chief and chief executive.
We're going to give you a day. Hey, thank you. Those who died in service to your country.
We're going to give you a day. But for those of you who like gay sex, you get a month. We're giving you a month.

(07:39):
And I thought boy, you want to talk about it, stressing the antithesis to show the silliness. He does it very well there.
Let's talk about it.
Well, I mean, I'll I'll simply start by saying that yes, June is out in full force, but I do notice a somewhat significant muted pride month paraphernalia overall.

(08:10):
And it totally, you know, target has been the greatest offender on this subject. And from what I've been able to tell from social media, I haven't visited my local target because I try not to as a general rule.
But a lot of pictures have been showing like where last year they might have had a pride display this year, they have like American patriotic displays of like American flags, all the type of Americana that you could imagine, which to me does indicate somewhat of a shift.

(08:44):
And, you know, yeah, and the other thing I noticed too is someone put up a meme of like prominent corporate logos from last June to this June. And they didn't do the prideification of all of their corporate logos.
So why do we think that's happening, right? Because it's not as if we've had a Christianization of the culture, all the sudden, right? So what could account for this in Yeltsmont?

(09:13):
I think people are sick of it, man, just being just always in just the non stop on slot of the marketing of the in your face. And I do think that trans create this, put people over the edge.
Well, I really think people are tired of it in general, just it's the past few pride months were so in your face last year, not as bad, but was so in your face that, but then the transgender, the bathrooms, the sports of just, I think people are going, this is just not.

(09:42):
And when J.K. Rowley is on your team, yeah, and she's now about to do with breaking it. I think the transgender straw is what is set that back.
I also think though we should acknowledge that I don't think that this is any new found conservatism right on the part of corporate America at all.
I think it's a bottom bottom line decision that, you know, I mean, I will say this though, this is one way in which we've seen consumer protest actually matter.

(10:11):
I was going to bring that up the Bud Light, I mean, the Bud Light boycott really made an impact like they've not covered it.
Yeah, still do we know about Subaru sales this month, yet are they up?
We won't know until July being how well they did.
Yeah, I do, I do think you're right though. It is a bottom line thing, but corporations are recognizing, you know, the whole go go broke thing was, you know, kind of a phrase that's been tossed around a lot.

(10:37):
But we have seen like Bud Light went that step, you know, too far was it Dylan, whatever his name is, that one little social media post all of a sudden has taint their brand.
It is taint their brand. They have not recovered. They had the number one spot for years and years and years and years and years. They have never recovered it.

(10:58):
And I think companies saw that and they noticed the trends of what's taken place in terms of the mood in America and some of the vocal voices are now coming out against the women in sport, men in women sports and those types of things.
And so they are stepping back and just being like, hey, this isn't our primary business. So why would we do this to ourselves?

(11:19):
Yeah, a couple other things to say here would be the fact that nationally support for same sex marriage is either stagnant or in decline. Now to be clear, it's still a very strong majority of Americans that would be supportive of same sex marriage.
But there's a decline overall and a decline particularly among Republicans, which had tragically had had swept the ranks to become very pro.

(11:51):
They could take it as well.
Yeah. And what's even I mean doubly fascinating to see what happens in the next decade out of this.
I've seen data indicating that Gen Z is particularly kind of over this and not all in on everything LGBT. I think that's because a couple things read you're exactly right. I think the trans movement over reached when target was doing its tuck friendly underwear.

(12:21):
I mean, like give me a break. Even if you're like a normie Democrat, that's probably like, all right guys, can we not do that?
Yeah, suburb Democrats even go what in the world?
Yeah, but then also guys like, you know, when you have, you know, for the longest time, let me back up and say this for the longest time, the conservative side on this issue had a difficult time messaging.

(12:50):
Yeah, because we were always defending propositions, propositions like marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
And the gay rights movement.
What was seen as defending people?
Yeah, and there's a huge marketing element to this that I think we as Christians pay attention to. You always want to be defending people.
Not just ideas.

(13:11):
Now, ideas obviously matter and we have to have people making those arguments, but as far as how people argue in our society today, they make a argue on the basis of this like kind of, you know, the.
It's a motion.
It's a motion. Emotions. Yeah.
It caps in the feeling also.
Also, I mean, this is this this even explains someone like Anthony Kennedy's jurisprudence.

(13:37):
No one likes the perceived bully. Everyone rallies to the perceived victim in our culture.
And for a couple generations, LGBT was seen as the victim on kind of the cultural ledger, so to speak.
And then I think in the last five years, the so-called victims became the oppressors so that you are.

(13:59):
Forcing Christian business owners to either do their jobs or to sacrifice their conscience.
You're seeing, you know, I will always believe that whatever the gentleman's name is, I know he goes by Leah now, the swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania.
Yeah.
I will always believe that Leah Thomas again, I don't know what his real name is, so be that as it may.

(14:25):
When he stands on the podium, when he wins the NCAA swimming championship, with these broad shoulders because he's a dude.
And you have other women who do not want to stand by him.
That's one of those moments where the natural law finds a way and you have to ask, what are you going to believe?
Ideology or your or your lying eyes, so to speak.
So I just think that there's this kind of like we're tired of it.

(14:49):
It's exhausting. It's fatigue.
Like Americans are broadly tolerant as far as kind of this live and let live.
Like do what you want to do in the privacy of your own home mentality.
But there's this this pension of, okay, we don't need that anymore here.
Leave it out, leave it at home.

(15:10):
Let's just, you know, I want to go to Target, I want to go to CVS to get my goods.
I don't need propagandized with LGBT ideology while I'm there.
Yeah.
So one thing is a pastor that is humbling and also a little infuriating, it's not a little infuriate.
It's like a combo of both humbling because all the work we still have to do in discipleship.
But also infuriating this happens is if you're just online on Instagram, you will notice Christians that you know liking pride posts, like pro pride posts.

(15:41):
I think there's still this pressure to do that.
There's a friend of yours that does the post. Also my heart is it's for those in our church families that and those believers that listen to this podcast that are working for companies that did the Instagram post, right?
Or school that did it or what advice would you guys give to Christians that they're not having to choose between their job and their conscience.

(16:08):
They're still going to work every day. They're not the social media coordinator. But what advice do you give to Christians that woke up on June 1st and saw the posts from their company?
You know, or walked in and saw a rainbow in the retail place where they work.
You know, all of a sudden, how would we tell, how would I talk about that?
Yeah, a couple things that I would say here is, you know, the, the left is always going to paint the conservative Christian as the bigot and the hater in this conversation.

(16:35):
So I would always want to lead out with like a affirming human dignity. And that's the beauty guys of being a Christian in this conversation.
We can't affirm the dignity of every human being that doesn't mean respect how they identify.
But because the person is a human being, regardless of how they identify or regardless of their sexual proclivities, there's a baseline level of decency and kindness and respect that we owe to those human beings.

(17:04):
Because of what we believe about biblical anthropology and everyone bearing God's image.
So lead out with this, you know, defuse the notion that just because you are a Christian that you're a hater, that's just simply not the case.
Secondly, I would say Christians need to do a good job of recognizing that humans are humans.

(17:25):
And we shouldn't be surprised in the types of sins and the types of identities that they create.
And, and, and, and all of the until congregations I'm speaking to, we sometimes need to like demythologize the uniqueness of being gay.
Now it is like unique at the statistical, at the statistical reality, because not many people identify as LGBT.

(17:47):
But at the same time, like, they're human beings like the rest of us.
And, you know, there, there are seeking things, respect, wholeness, there are baseline commonalities that can be found across polarized lines.
What we as Christians have to do is not violate our conscience.
That's right.
So, to be truthful in what we believe, but to be respectful in how we state it.

(18:13):
But then I would simply say this too, is you have to be willing to live with the fallout.
You know, we all on this podcast love to go after kind of the the Winsom Brigade in evangelicalism.
And there's a time for being Winsom.
But also you can't allow Winsomness to be an excuse to not say anything.

(18:34):
So, you have to be willing to let the cards fall where they do.
And accept that no matter how kind or Winsom you may be, if you hold to a biblical sexual ethic, you will always potentially be on the outs.
And the last thing I'll say and then I really will shut up is, you know, you have civil rights too in the workplace as a Christian.

(18:55):
You fall under the same protections of the Civil Rights Act that LGBT identified individuals fall under.
So, it's kind of this dueling contest of whose civil rights are going to win out.
And Christians, thankfully, have recourse.
We have laws to appeal to.
We have lawsuits to appeal to. We have Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom.

(19:18):
Who will defend people on these fronts and praise the Lord for organizations like that who are doing yeoman's work and defending our rights before courts.
And oftentimes having tremendous victories as well.
And in fact, just today, there was this Supreme Court ruling that talked about a straight woman had claimed discrimination.

(19:41):
Okay, well, good. And she won. That's making the left play by its own rules.
Yeah.
And so I think this is a healthy development we're seeing in culture.
So I tell our church regularly, like you're not crazy for believing what you believe about marriage and about sexuality.
Creation tells us very clearly that God created a male and female.

(20:02):
Christ tells us when asked about marriage and divorce in Matthew 19, he basically just quotes Genesis.
He affirms Genesis as historical. The same Jesus people love to talk about when he says help the poor and forgive others is the exact same Jesus who said God made them.
Have it to read.
He made them male and female.
And third, our conscience tells us there's a reason why my kids, my younger kids, if we're at, you know, out somewhere and they see two men kissing, there's a reason why they have a reaction.

(20:33):
It's not because they're home of phobic big-hit raised kids. It's because they know that's not how it's supposed to be.
There's a reason why when I asked everyone's done it, when you accidentally walk in the women's restroom, you know, you actually, it's like the most like a bear-seep thing.
Like you walk in and you realize there's no urinals. I just walk in the girls' restroom and what do you do? You go, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."
And you run out the door and bear is, right? There's a reason why.

(20:56):
Is that like this happens to you too often?
Yeah, is this a frequent thing for you?
Yeah, I'm getting old, you know, so I forget sometimes. But you're conscious of telling you, this is not okay.
Like you're not supposed to be in here.
So we can contend for those things. And it's not unloving to call the onslaught of Pride Month ridiculous.
And for us to stand in the gap and say, "No, we're not the ones who are crazy."

(21:18):
You know, we're in the most rational things.
Yeah, you, I mean, you asked a really good question because I think that's rubber meets the road for most people, right?
And it's not going to be an issue for them to debate on a podcast. It's going to look like I see a friend of mine who posted something, you know, do I like it, comment on it, you know, not like it.
And you know, all these little questions are not going to work.

(21:41):
Yeah, I go to work and the gay flag is hanging up in the office. You're asking right questions.
I think one of the issues that we have is a lot of Christians haven't been discipled very well into how to think about these things.
And so like I'm thinking about somebody right now like I know personally who is a believer who knows that sex is between a man and a woman and a covenant marriage forever homosexuality is outside of God's permissible,

(22:04):
a covenant structure outside of the boundaries of sexuality.
And I've seen him like comments that people in other circles and other parts of his world.
I've seen him like comments that were, you know, a homosexual man posted on a picture of him and his boyfriend, right? And it's like, dude, why are you liking that?

(22:25):
And he wouldn't equate liking it as an affirmation, right? But there's this disconnect of just realizing like, hey, we got to, we got to be thoughtful about this stuff.
You know, we don't want to be seen as affirming something that God does not affirm. And I think Christians, it's hard for them to work through some of that, but that's the, that's the, you know, feet on the street kind of thing.
So I have an observation and then I'd love to get your all's take on why you think this is the case. And I don't know if it's simply explainable by the so-called vibe shift or not.

(22:57):
But I notice social conservatives, particularly Millennial and Gen Z conservatives on social media being far more combative and pushing back on the pride and sanity.
Then I do from like Gen X or boomer voices. Yes. So my question for you all, why is it do we perceive like a newfound militancy or a newfound courage from younger generations to confront this stuff?

(23:30):
I'm particularly online. What do you, how do you explain that?
You know, I think they, I think one church is are helping like if their church is actually bold and courageous, I feel like they're not alone, they can say something.
And I think they feel a little more freedom that there's not going to be the consequences because this recently, I mean, you could lose your job, be marginalized.

(23:53):
If you didn't go right in line with everything, you could be considered written off and canceled and all the things people used to go with, canceled cultures a thing a few years ago. And that's kind of been lifted. So I think some people kind of power and they're so over it.
So they finally are going, this is ridiculous, like knock it off. Like you're not going to do this to me. You're not going to claim this.
My entire feed is not going to be a celebration of this. I really do think I'm not trying to oversimplify it, but I think it's like unofficial permission. And then I think seeing others being unafraid courage is just.

(24:23):
And then they just said, yeah.
Yeah. And to that point, where is it coming from? I think there's, there's sectors of it coming from churches, right? And theologians.
I think there's another sector. I think like comedians have changed things. Like I'll give you a, I'll give you a prime example of this. Dave Chappelle was very vocal about the hate he was receiving from transgender people.

(24:47):
And this was a guy who was very vocal to say, I'm not against you guys. But if you can't take a joke or if I can't, you know, take a joke, or I can't, you know, tell jokes and without getting attacked by you and trying to get canceled by you.
And here's what happened. Dave Chappelle kind of sent this ripple effect out where other comedians started actually taking the restrictor plates off and just calling some of the stuff what it was. And here's, and I made the rob Schneider joke just a moment ago.

(25:15):
Like that would have been unthinkable five years ago and, you know, 10 years ago. And I think what's happened is there's this whole movement where the Joe Rogans and the Theo Vans and all these comedians Dave Chappelle.
And then you couple that with another layer of these influencers, the David Gogans and the, we've talked about this, right? The manosphere that's developed where there's been this sort of like, hey, men, you've been, you know, people have been, you know, telling you to pound sand now for years, you know, you don't have to take this.

(25:45):
You don't have to be afraid of your masculinity. You don't have to bow the knee to the craziness. And I think there's a combination of all of that going on that's leaving people to say, no, no, we're not, we're not for that.
Right. So when the Major League Baseball puts out the gay logo on day one, they get hammered because most of their fan base is not pro LGBTQ. So guess what happens? They took it down after one day.

(26:09):
Yeah. I think that could, you know, courage is contagious is true. I think there's just been more of a permission structure put in place in recent years that says, you don't have to just go along.
And that, you know, Ranger, you thought that being canceled. So what, you know, be uncansable, right? That's kind of the thing that's came up.
Yeah. I mean, I remember one of the most important things I ever saw in the cancel culture movement was a mob went after Matt Walsh.

(26:38):
Yep.
And Matt Walsh went on video and said, I don't consent to your cancellation. Yeah.
Try it as hard as you may. I don't consent because cancel culture is effective when you consent to it. And he just didn't, he just didn't.
I apologize, never apologize for that. Never apologize. Okay. And the other thing I was going to say here guys and I want to, I want to express appreciation to the pastors on here.

(27:03):
I notice that the emerging generations have, I think, been taught about this with more clarity than perhaps was the case in previous generations, which is allowing conservatives and Christians to go on offense in ways that wasn't previously the case that they're understanding that there is a beauty.

(27:27):
There's a rationality. There's an intelligibility to the Christian sexual ethic that gives us what Dean just said a reason to not be embarrassed guys like I, you know, I've been involved in teats when I have been involved in this fight for like 15 years.
And he and I were always pretty bold and out on this subject. But a lot of people were not.

(27:48):
But as you guys said, courage is contagious and people are people are speaking up in ways that I don't think they previously did. And I, I think this is encouraging.
The other thing too is I think there's this sense of live and let live that may have washed over American culture with the likes of those comedians.

(28:11):
I don't think those comedians affirm probably a biblical sexual ethic at all. But there is this, there is this like ridiculousness they've identified to the LGBT movement.
And there's kind of this moment of like, all right guys, can we just like calm things down and recognize that if you're not all in on LGBT, you actually have good reasons to believe what you believe on those issues.

(28:37):
And they're not simply based in animus and hatred. They're based on this idea that actually males are males and females are females and you know what only babies come from males and females.
Right. So I don't know guys. I have lots of reasons for encouragement right now.
Yeah. So to that point, I want to raise some questions. I mean, we never thought in our lifetimes, Roby Wade would be overturned.

(29:01):
Right. And and we saw, you know, just the incredible way that that took place after 50 plus years of battling it.
I think one of the other removable objects in our own lifetimes that we've just thought, well, this is, this is a lost cause is a burger fell.
And it seemed that support for same sex marriage and support for LGBTQ was so high that this was just an, this was a losing thing, which is, you know, you brought up the conservatives even in the Republican party and kind of cave to this issue.

(29:35):
Well, with this shift, do we think, Obergothel is back on the table.
I mean, Christians were never going to stop making the argument like we would never stop making the argument. We're not going to ever stop preaching on sexual ethics in our churches.
We're not going to get camps and student camps and student conferences. We're never going to stop talking about God's design for sexuality and gender.

(29:56):
We're always going to do that. But in terms of policy and politics, do we think there's an opportunity.
Obergothel in our lifetimes could be reversed.
So I mean, I'll say something here, you know, Roe V. Wade was technically a 49 year battle.

(30:17):
And in that 49 years, you had to have a legal argument developed. You had to have a cultural argument developed. You had to have a communication strategy developed.
And I think that conservatives and Christians have gotten smarter in terms of putting together that strategy that we've learned from the success of Roe V. Wade over the last 50 years.

(30:41):
The issue that I still think leaves me in the position for why Obergothel might be around for a long period of time still is because America generally reasons on the basis of utilitarianism, what we call the harm principle.
And that people only change their convictions on something when they perceive there's a real harm involved.

(31:05):
And on the surface, same sex marriage doesn't present as overly harmful because it's too-consenting adults doing what they want to do.
Now, all of us on this podcast know that there are harms involved. They're namely their soul is the biggest harm.
But then you have to begin thinking what are the ripple effects of those harms from same sex marriage. One of those is, you know, we have a declining marriage rate overall, a declining fertility rate overall.

(31:34):
Those are not reducible to same sex marriage alone, but they participate in this stew where the norms of family life are just not as popular and persuasive as they once were.
So I think as American family culture begins to bottom out as we are marrying less having fewer babies, I think that's going to cause a cultural conversation to happen that will require us to revisit the question of same sex marriage.

(32:02):
The last thing is this where where my friends like Katie Faust are kind of on the tip of the spear is leading out for this children's rights movement.
And where same sex marriage, it was billed as too-consenting adults doing what they want to do.
Okay, well, what happens when you want to bring children in the equation? What about the kids? Well, you have to contract with a surrogate. You have to go through IVF. There are sperm donors involved.

(32:28):
And then all of a sudden we see these pictures of like mayor Pete sitting on a hospital bed with his so-called husband acting like the two children that they created through IVF and surrogacy are uniquely their children.
When in reality we all know there are female gametes involved in the creation of that child that are not there in that picture.
And every single person was, every person alive is the product of male and female gametes coming together, meaning that every single person intuitively knows because of a law written on their heart that males and females are different, mothers and fathers are different.

(33:05):
And our society is now designing laws and designing whole cultural systems where children are being intentionally deprived either a mother or a father.
And if you think about what justice is, justice is rendering what is due to individuals by nature.
And so, by nature, children are owed a mother and a father. So same-sex marriage should be construed as a social injustice.

(33:35):
Everyone wants to play the social justice card in order to raise your taxes and spread the wealth around, so to speak.
We often don't talk about same-sex marriage as being socially unjust. It is socially unjust. And I think as more and more people wake up to that reality, it could cause a massive revisiting of this issue in this institution and society.

(33:56):
Well keep in mind this generation we are talking about that's more bold and more put off in a good way by all things LGBTQRSTUV on slot is the add a letter every day.
And then the next generation is one day going to be the main adult like pace that are voters.
They're honestly they can vote now but one day they're going to have children coming to the adult.

(34:21):
And I think that's one underrated thing in the conversation is our generation of pastors and believers in general are being unafraid to let our kids talk about the absurdity of it all.
And I think that's not my kids regularly like are just appalled by it and I encourage that.
Yeah.

(34:42):
You know what I say is we're not outraged by people they're human beings we're outraged by this.
But we don't think that those two people are disgusting. We think two dudes kissing is gross.
Yeah.
But that's that's stuff we talk about in our house.
Yeah.
So we do think that.
But I don't go to cliche here for a minute.
But as one day will be overturned I'm going to go really cliche. Never say never.
Yeah.

(35:03):
Right, right, right.
There are there are legal conversations happening among social conservatives about the best path forward.
But the best thing about social conservatives is that they always play the long game.
Yeah.
And so you know that's that's the exhortation I would give to people involved in this conversation is you know a GK Chesterton once said the one true beautiful and glorious thing in life is to fight a losing battle and not lose it.

(35:30):
Yeah.
But we seem like we're on the losing side of the ledger we're on the so called wrong side of history.
Okay, well we don't we don't measure history by what what progressives measure history by we measure it by the word of God by history by sound thinking and reason.
And guys history the Bible sound reason on our are on our side.
Yeah, we just have to play the long game.

(35:52):
What is the psychologist who wrote the coddling of the American man Jonathan Hyde.
Yeah, Jonathan Hyde. He wrote a book called the happiness hypothesis and inside of that book one of the themes he talks about is a study that was done on essentially the world view of liberals and conservatives.
He was trying to get to the bottom of light.
Why do they think so differently?

(36:14):
And he boarded down to two things all the studies boarded down to two two principles that the liberal thinks through everything by autonomy.
What gives people autonomy to do what they want.
Right max autonomy for max you know for everybody and anything that would hinder autonomy is bad.
That was one of the findings liberals generally speaking hold that view as primal.

(36:40):
That's the prime that's their primal like that's that's the upper driving principle for them.
Whereas conservatives think more in terms of law and principles and ideals and and so there are things outside the boundaries that we should not do.
Regardless of whatever autonomy we may have to do it.
And he said at the end of the day he was trying to just show like hey you know here's where people are coming from and this is why you should you know respect them and you know whatever.

(37:07):
But when you think about the society divided down the line like that you begin to realize why it's so different why believers and while religious people often.
Trend towards conservatism because we have principles and axioms and laws that drive and guide our moral principles and ethics as opposed to the running ethic that is autonomy wins and that's what's the right thing to do.

(37:29):
You know so just because it's your body doesn't mean you can do anything with it right your body doesn't belong to you belongs to God.
And so anyway I thought that was really interesting last thing I'll say on this I heard an audio clip this week of president Richard Nixon.
Oh other clip talking about how homosexuality corrupts the society and brings it down and what's fascinating is he gives historical context to that he talks about how homosexuality pervading a society ultimately corrupts and brings this society down.

(38:02):
And he learned in this you know I think he was it was literally the White House tapes he warns that's that's what communists and you know social leftists want to do is they want to bring homosexuality to bear in everything in our culture this is in the 70s.
Yeah yeah no that's exactly right read I mean you think about you think about creation and Genesis and what is Genesis doing it's providing structure and order.

(38:31):
And what is homosexuality it's a dis it's a disruption of pattern of predictability and design which what it what it does over time is to weaken kind of our moral senses and our moral compass and then all of a sudden we've we it's it's something that happens.
You know gradually and then very suddenly and that's kind of what we've seen happen around this particular subject in society and so I you know I know it sounds very risky to say this but remember the the gospel coalition article from the beaty years ago where he basically said praise the Lord for the gag reflex basically here being that like homosexuality is gross and like guys like let's just say the quiet part out loud is.

(39:20):
It's gross and he says that grossness is actually a right instinct.
It's a right instinct because it's testifying to that moral order and moral design that God has has inscribed and in so far as we do not pay attention to that order and and subscribe to it as a culture it necessarily causes internal frame and internal collapse because it's pushing against and rejecting the creator's design and sexuality is so.

(39:49):
It's so interwoven into the nature of society and the nature of what it means to be male and female that there's no way that you can just have homosexuality as this self contained sexual perversion over there it's necessarily going to like embed itself in the structures of society and bring about more moral confusion because of because of how.

(40:14):
Archa tectonic sexuality is according to God's pattern for creation architectonic listeners go google that one.
And you're always offer at least two or three words that require looking up for episode that include trying to help you make do for your your Tennessee public edge.
I'll go to the psychology guys last name.

(40:38):
Even in the group text it's like what does that word mean yeah yeah what does that mean again.
Okay let me move this on to something that was good conversation we'll keep an eye on what's going on this month obviously I think the shenanigans there'll be more of a report on as as the month unfolds I want to talk about some other shenanigans which is the growing into a similar to a cynicism and terrorism that is being perpetrated against Jewish is really Americans.

(41:07):
And people around the world but particularly what we've seen here in our country recently just a quick update for those maybe not aware or haven't been keeping up.
There were two Israeli diplomats shot and killed just a few weeks ago by man who was an illegal immigrant Muslim I'm sorry I that's the other story I'm not sure if it was illegal immigrant Muslim but it basically shot in cold blood killed to Israeli diplomats and it was a targeted attack.

(41:36):
Then this past week there was an illegal immigrant Muslim who critically injures eight people after dousing them with gasoline and lighting them on fire with flamethrower and a Molotog cocktail as E. G. L.s. free Palestine.
This happened in Boulder Colorado and I think immediately the FBI director or the FBI said that this was an act of terrorism the local law enforcement countered that immediately and said too early to make such claims as if they didn't know what the intent was and what was being done.

(42:16):
What's going on with this what politically speaking what needs to happen to stop this teets can you weigh in on this and help us to think through I know you're I know you're having the technical issues but can you can you help us out with thinking through where do we go from here.
I know the president actually just has dropped an executive order preventing people from traveling in from certain countries he's trying to target terrorist rich countries from coming in getting visas give us some thoughts.

(42:51):
Yeah and not to fact check you Eric but I think the first incident you're referring to was in Washington DC it was I was talking about the second one.
That first one they weren't they weren't Israeli diplomats who were murdered it was it was young people a boy and a girl who were in their early 20s who were about to get engaged and just happened to be going to an Israel event in DC.

(43:23):
In fact I think if I'm not mistaken that the young man was actually a messianic Jew and the girl was from Kansas where I'm from the bigger picture here is that shot in cold blood by by a young man who had according to reports a history of posting violent and isemetic left his content all across the social media.

(43:52):
So what we're seeing is the fruit of a movement an anisemetic anti Zionist anti Israel anti Jewish movement across the globe playing out in front of our very eyes with admittedly deranged people who would do something like this but are nevertheless spurned on by this hateful rhetoric that is on college campuses that is in the media.

(44:21):
That is certainly all over online the even bigger picture here is that for what 6,000 years people have been trying to kill Jews and that's because and here I'm trading into water I don't know how you all feel about this.
I mean look these are gods chosen people and he tells us the story of his chosen people all throughout the pages of scripture and what you see over and over again is people trying to kill them and failing to do that and you know in our time there are no more amalakites right there's no more jabby sites.

(45:09):
None of the none of the none of the people who were trying to wipe out the Jews throughout history exist anymore but but the israelite do and I can't help but think personally that there is something miraculous about the fact that the israelite the Jewish people continue not just to exist on planet earth but to flourish and thrive on planet earth.

(45:37):
And it should not surprise us that there continues to be a push among people who who don't know God in some cases who hate God to also hate Jews.
Yeah.
It's it's fascinating to watch in real time I know there's always been a level of anti-Semitism that's existing the world in our lifetimes you know we're all we're two buffs and nerds and you think about what Nazi Germany perpetrated with the killing of six and a half million Jews and you think man that's crazy you know that people people actually hated people that bad and

(46:23):
and did stuff like that and now we're living in a time where it's not happening on the mass scale like that but in our own lifetimes already even just in recent years we had the October 7 attack killing thousands duck duckless Murray wrote a book recently talking about death cults and he said verbatim what they did to Jews in israel on that day they would happily do in any other western part of the world.

(46:52):
To any of us to any of us the the world view underneath this is one of hatred it's godless and it is an abomination and for our country and for those in our country of a particular political persuasion to tip to around being able to say it that definitively to justify

(47:20):
acts of terrorism and violence against people purely because of their ethnicity just imagine imagine if this was happening to someone who was African American imagine if they were being targeted like this by group.
It will and that's read I that is the hypocrisy of the moment that we're living yes I can really so we have rank anti-Semitism happening at our most elite institutions we had a crazy individual try to burn down a sitting governor's mansion we have had these embassy workers murdered in cold blood we now have an illegal Egyptian immigrant.

(48:05):
Setting fire to people in a United States city if this were anything on the right side of the aisle we would be having the national conversation of all national conversation a reckoning of epic proportions every single news headline would be about how the right wing is is doing X Y R Z to cut away at the very fabric of society.

(48:34):
And that's not happening you know why it's not happening because I'm not calling everyone on the left sympathetic with this death call okay I'm not saying that but that's where it exists you do not have this type of violent anti-Semitism happening on the right you have a lot of weird nutty stuff happening on the right with anti-Semitism but you don't have the violent strand that you do happening on the left so this is just hypocrisy from the left right now.

(49:03):
And the same people who are the leading catalyst for black lives matter right you know these college campuses especially yeah they're walking out of class to have BLM rallies yet they're rallying with Palestine right right which means the leadership of Palestine and and and guys thinking about this biblically to say nothing of like the awfulness of hating other human beings that's that's the top level talking point here you don't hate other human beings you don't inflict a violent attack on the right.

(49:32):
And you don't inflict a violence political violence on other human beings it's the notion of just rank impartiality that you have on the left right now that they're not willing to apply a standard to themselves that they'll apply to every single person who disagrees with them this is this is this is biblical impartiality is what this is there's no way for one to define it.

(49:54):
There's no equal weights and measures right this is this is a fundamental denial of justice and due process and it's heinous.
The USA today just the media has been outrageous as a part of this as well the USA today had a lot from Tuesday said boulders suspects daughter dreamed of studying medicine now she faces deportation that was the story for them that's the story she faces the man this is this is toxic empathy yet again right teats.

(50:25):
And if you didn't see it a federal judge just ruled that the president and his team are forbidden from deporting that family.
Wow.
That's a running story right now that that we're being run by a federal judicial branch at this point federal point is.

(50:46):
Well let's talk about another crazy developing story Biden gate continues to go deeper just on Wednesday former president Biden press secretary Korean why do I always get the names Korean Jean Jean Pierre is that it yes you you got a Korean Jean Pierre she is apparently this is crazy.

(51:15):
Writing a tell all book about about Biden and about the Biden White House and leaving the Democratic Party she's now trying to posture as an independent as more news keeps coming out about this cover up apparently Jean Pierre had an outside publicist that she was working with that was higher by her and was being copied on internal White House communications this person who is not even in the administration is being is is being.

(51:44):
LinkedIn to White House communications about different things going on this is a lady who stood up and lied to the American people every day about things that were going on who's now going to write a book.
Thoughts I think it's a spicable first of all I'm I'm in my disagree on this but to have to write this tell all book when you were in the inside every single day until like two months ago.

(52:08):
I mean I mean some people might might like to be a book that comes out.
He has a little bit excited about tell all books I just think it's so I mean gross about how can you have any self respect.
And yeah by this agreement people that you that love you they're all about the tap or book and they're all by that's not meant by that.

(52:29):
Here's going to buy it.
Here's going to buy it.
This is this is one book that met Eric and I will not buy.
No I'm not buying it. I do not care about this one. All right so he's was one to weigh in here. Yeah he's.
I just can't get over it she claims to have changed her party affiliation.
The book is literally called independent. This is a person who has spent her entire political career as a mouthpiece for democratic politics.

(52:56):
Literally.
It's to read the talking points that other people wrote for her in front of the press. You couldn't be less independent than Karee Sharp here for job is to do progressive propaganda and it has been for what 20 years.
And now she's claiming this position it's it actually boggles the mind to think that she could do in this way and you know what she'll probably be rich as a result.

(53:25):
She's going to be rich. The media is she's going to they're going to do the media to her because now it's it's okay.
It's in vogue to critique the Biden White House. There's no cost associated with it.
The other thing too is it's only going to be conservative to buy the book because it's going to essentially justify all we're going to buy it to justify all of our claims.
The liberals are going to buy it because they don't want to hear it.

(53:46):
They don't want to buy the book.
This is this is one of those moments where like vocabulary is inadequate to the task of describing the ridiculousness of this.
Yeah, no no word can adequately capture the paradox the insanity the hypocrisy like it just it leaves you speechless.

(54:10):
Let me let me add a funny one. I'm going to I'm going to raise the stakes of how funny this goes. Okay. So in light of all these different things over the last couple of weeks, President Trump just issued an executive order to investigate if President Biden was actually making decisions.
And what the implications are if he wasn't in other words, who was using the pen, right? The presidential pen.

(54:32):
And do his actions stand legally. So President Trump has this issue this executive order. Here's the New York Times headline on Wednesday. You ready for this.
Trump orders investigation of Biden and his aides. Here's the subtitle. You're not going to believe this the subtitle.
The executive orders the latest effort by President Trump to stoke out landish conspiracy theories about his predecessor and the question.

(54:59):
His actions in office. Guys, let me just say something here. Okay. Let me just say one quick thing and I want to get you all thoughts on this insanity.
The Proverbs talk about the wise man and the fool over and over and over. It's like one of the running themes of the book of Proverbs. And one of the characteristics of the fool is they keep going back to their vomit and and to their foolish ways.

(55:24):
They never learn. They never learn from their experiences. They just keep repeating the nut father called the fool. Is there another group more foolish than the American media who over and over again will try to deny things and call things conspiracy theories and continue to push out their propaganda.

(55:45):
Only for it always to keep coming back and back. Well, actually, this is here's what was true about COVID. Actually, this is what every every conspiracy theory ends up being true. And they want to pump out after weeks after weeks of the Biden cover up.
They're going to call this outlandish conspiracy theories by Trump. I just have one thought on this. That is to quote the great American Eric Tetzel. You don't hate the media enough.

(56:20):
That's all I got. You really don't. It's unbelievable. Is this a bigger scandal than watergate? Will this end up being a bigger scandal than watergate?
I don't think they'll let it be. Yeah, I think Dean has the right comment there. There's not the right. Getting getting looked at. Yeah, it's not the right side getting called out. There's a self protective apparatus that exists within the upper echelons of society to prevent these types of stories from spinning out of control.

(56:49):
So I mean, they'll only they'll only allow the story to be spun out insofar as they can work it to their benefit in the long term.
Well, we're going to keep our eye on where this goes in the weeks ahead, but my mercy. It's a reminder guys that whatever's done in the dark will eventually be brought into the line.

(57:10):
So live with integrity and every sphere of your life.
Okay, quick hits and we've got several and there's some funny ones. Let's begin with this one because I want to hear Tetzel riff on this.
This was a very real Washington Post headline this week. You ready? The mysterious drop and fentanyl seizures on the US Mexico border.

(57:32):
Tetz, what accounts for this mystery? Any any mystery accounting?
I saw this guy who tweeted, you know, my neighbor's dog used to poop in my yard all the time and it really annoyed me and I put up a fence and the poop stopped.
But nothing can explain this mysterious drop in the amount of poop in my yard.

(57:58):
I mean, I don't know what to say. Like, I don't know. We had an election. We elected a president who took border security seriously.
He did the opposite of everything that Joe Biden and his administration did in response to the like widely recognized reality that drug cartels were running the southern border and all of a sudden fentanyl went down.

(58:27):
Almost like public policy matters and makes a difference in the lives of people.
You know, I just don't know how this stuff gets published. How does that headline get published?
This is a top three newspaper in the world. This is the thing that like I have truly reading the original send book and then reading headlines like this.

(58:48):
Like, you know, a part of what you're taught to believe as an American about our elites is like how utterly competent they are and how good they are and how deserving of respect they are.
And like you see these types of stories and these types of headlines and you're realizing like these are wildly incompetent people for the most part.

(59:11):
It just it baffles my mind.
Okay, so you know what? That's a really interesting point because you know what I tend to think I tend to think it's all purposeful malicious propaganda because they think Americans are dumb.
That's where I tend to lean. But you know, you may have a point. There may actually be a large percentage of them that are actually just really incompetent people.

(59:36):
Let me add one thing I know Tetzl wants to talk. There was a season of my life where I was lobbying in a state capital and like growing up in Illinois, I was always taught that like if you're an elected official, like you're a deeply, deeply impressive person with an incredible resume highly educated and you know, just a very powerful, you know, incredible person.

(59:57):
And I would go and talk with legislators sometimes in the capital annex building and I was just and I don't mean this disrespectfully as as into like there's an Andrew disclaimer.
Yeah, it's right to be demeaning, but I was just kind of like these are deeply unimpressive individuals who have gotten into office that like really lowers the bar in terms of what you think counts for like talent in our society.

(01:00:25):
How did you get here? Like I'm amazed you graduated high school, let alone became elected to office.
Well, I think one thing you need to maybe just lower the temperature on in our culture is being so impressive education.
Yeah, that too might mean that you're just good at school.
Or you had the opportunity to go to that school because your parents can pay for it or because of your status that got you in.

(01:00:52):
Or you were indoctrinated, you know, while while you were there. So I'm not trying to say that having these degrees from these very prestigious schools is not an impressive thing.
I just think we need to not automatically declare education to be this only word they went here.
Just because you got your degree in underwater basket weaving in a minor gender studies.

(01:01:16):
Yeah, gender studies at Harvard. Okay, I'm supposed to think you're more impressive than an engineering major for a state. Right.
Like truly exactly. You guys you guys should hear what Eric Tetzel major in a Wheaton.
Oh boy, back of Paris and gay communism.

(01:01:37):
The line of the maliciousness and incompetence can often be hard to draw. And I just want to encourage people you don't have to choose it can be both in lots of circumstances.
And it's this logic is the same logic that we see all the time.
The most prolific example in my political career is the people who were claiming that no actually electing pro abortion democratic political candidates was good for the abortion rate.

(01:02:07):
And right and you all see this argument. It was like, oh, didn't you notice that under Barack Obama the abortion rate went down.
Christians should vote for Democrats if you're really pro life. They really think you're stupid.
And we just have to choose to recognize that whether it is maliciousness or competence or some wild combination of both.

(01:02:30):
We got to be better.
We'll speak in a really gay this month. Francis Colin and NT Wright released a video together playing guitar and singing together.
They sang a song called Genesis to the tune of the Beatles I believe in yesterday. Is there anything more prod month related than than that. Did any of y'all catch that?

(01:02:56):
No. I just I would say you download the MP3. I did not download the MP3. This is like we went back to 2000.
I'm not sure. I know. Maybe go read what I would say is like you know, Francis Collins is upheld as like the model of like the Christian elite practicing faithful presence in the upper echelons of society.

(01:03:23):
And NT Wright is regarded as this world historical New Testament scholar and we're going to talk more about NT Wright here right now.
But it's it's just a reminder that you know when Mark Noel writes this book, the scandal of the evangelical mind and his argument is that like there is no evangelical mind.
Like my response to that criticism of evangelicals is to say, okay, well wait, you think that like Francis Collins and NT Wright are upholding the model of what Christian faithfulness ought to look like in our society to say nothing of the clownish song they recorded on YouTube.

(01:04:02):
But to you know, Francis Collins is unethical behavior, right and silencing dissent. So I mean, this is just kind of an this is an internal box on the house of evangelical elites crowning themselves as you know here's here's what it looks like to succeed as an evangelical in society. It's just not it's not the case.
Well, let's get into the serious side of the danger of NT Wright and just this week as well, he made an argument that the mental health of a mother could justify early stage abortion.

(01:04:34):
Which is just a reminder that for all that this guy has contributed by way of New Testament scholarship, this is a massive swing of mess. Andrew responds to this.
Yeah, so let me let me say it front deeply appreciative for NT Wright's work on defending the historicity of the resurrection. It's a magisterial. No one's done better work.
I will say this before we get to the abortion comment. He was also on video this week though guys talking about how his friend Marcus Borg who's a very famous New Testament scholar who does not believe in the bodily resurrection.

(01:05:07):
He thinks that Marcus Borg is a Christian. Oh gosh. And he doesn't believe in the biblical bodily resurrection and guys like I that is so far outside.
Biblical grounds that it leaves me to question the legitimacy of NT rights like theological worldview entirely.

(01:05:30):
He can't recite what apostles creed if I honestly when he said that, you know, my friend, Danny Burke put that on Twitter and I couldn't believe what I was hearing where he was saying that not believing in the bodily resurrection and believing in this spiritual Jesus is somehow plausible.
That is completely contrary to the biblical text and contrary to Christian tradition. So putting that story aside for just a second and going back to the abortion comment, he said that in instances of derest to the mother.

(01:05:57):
And if there were a child discovered to have some type of fetal anomaly in so far as the child's life was taken on taken very early on in the pregnancy regrettable as it is it would therefore it would still be permissible NT rights.
But guys, this is terrible ethics. This is the result of someone who has long been averse to natural law theory types of types of approaches to Christian ethics.

(01:06:27):
The idea here that you would say it's okay to murder someone in the womb because of their because of their size because of the level of their development.
There's no stopgap to this. There's no logical endpoint to that position other than saying that all life can be taken at all stages potentially for any number of of maladies or deformities or health concerns.

(01:06:52):
This is to be utterly rejected. It's contemptible. And I'm incredibly grieved that someone of such stature like NT right would say this.
I would commend listeners if you want more on this. Dr. Moeller on the briefing did an episode on about this on Wednesday morning, I believe.
That was that was excellent that I would highly commend, but this is a very grievous statement that he made.

(01:07:17):
He's got a no better. He's got a no better.
Like what drives this?
Yeah, obviously doesn't. Why does NT right not know better?
Let's talk about one more thing. A couple studies. Pew study showed 50% of liberal women under 30 say they have a mental health condition.

(01:07:40):
15%.
So I don't want to joke about this.
No, it's not funny.
It's very sad. Something is going on in the cultural waters that we swim in in the air we breathe.
That's creating some type of existential crisis for women under 30, particularly liberal women.
Liberal women under 30. There's a world view issue here that's going on.

(01:08:05):
I don't claim to be able to parse all the complexities of that on a podcast.
But there is something inherently destabilizing in the progressive world view that for whatever reason finds particular affinity with young women under 30.
So this is this is tragic guys. We need to be figuring out how to minister to and care for people who are susceptible to these ideologies and who having are having their lives wrecked.

(01:08:34):
Ideologies. This is a perfect example of when the apostle Paul says to not be taken captive.
There's a captivity going on here.
This is exactly right. Read another study and this is just this affirms more of the same.
Another study showed that among voters who reported poor mental health.

(01:08:55):
Liberals outnumbered conservatives 45% to 19% in terms of mental health.
Among those who reported excellent mental health conservatives outnumbered liberals 51 to 20%.
Yeah, what do you guys think of? I mean that where I would go.

(01:09:16):
Yeah, teets wants to say something.
If you haven't read it, Abigail Shryer's new or book is about the state of mental health in America and specifically the over prescription of drugs and response to over diagonal.
Mental conditions. And so I would just say people may may think of themselves in those ways.

(01:09:38):
Largely because of a narrative that's been created that everyone has mental health problems.
When in fact they might not have mental health problems, which isn't to say some of them don't.
And that's something to be taken seriously, but another layer of this is just how we think of ourselves and our mental health has shifted in a major one.

(01:09:59):
Well, I want to add a theological lens to this.
If only because on the left side of the aisle.
It's harder to honor God's creation order.
It's harder to appreciate the role of children.
It's harder to appreciate the role of family.

(01:10:21):
It's harder to appreciate a bounded sense of moral order in the world.
And that can create a sense of imbalance and instability in someone's worldview that can create a sense of chaoticness.
And someone's outlook.
And again, like I know we love the joke and talk about why the Democrats are wrong and everything, which we think they are.

(01:10:47):
But there's a serious human compassion to this side of things where you really do want what's best for people who might even be your political opposites.
We want to see every human being flourish.
And if you're really convinced that progressive ideas are contrary to human flourishing, this is not just you want to see Democrats lose.
It's that you want to see political ideas that are damaging society decline in their influence.

(01:11:14):
That's what we're about. We're about permanent things that contribute to human flourishing.
So I shared that stat, one of the mental health and liberal women's stats in a sermon.
I was preaching on Matthew 7 on the house building your house on the rocks first of the sand.
And I was given an example of what it meant to build your house on the sand like a portrait, a visible portrait of that.

(01:11:35):
And it was probably the most controversial negative feedback things I ever got for even bringing that up.
And it conservative church, as long as you had to be in denial about it, like explain it away.
And so I think we need to realize that people are going to push back on those stats as much as they possibly can.
And one contributing factor that is so hard to talk about because it's such a triggering issue to use that word is the infallibility of psychology.

(01:12:01):
Yeah, yeah.
So the one person you cannot question is a therapist. You can question a pastor, you can question a parent, you can question a teacher, you can question the principal, you can question fill in the blank.
You can't question a therapist. And in our therapeutic culture, he's a common on this, but you hear people say from time to time,
or post every single person should go to therapy. That's not true. Right.

(01:12:25):
Yeah, I hope people that go to therapy that need therapy, but also what is that therapist saying just because you're licensed in something does not mean that you're great at something are all plumbers the same or all dentists the same or all teachers the same.
They all have a license they have to have to practice, but we know we get an opinion, right.
And so I'm really worried about that. And I think we have a discipleship real dilemma in front of us of the infallibility of the therapeutic.

(01:12:53):
But if he even if I say that someone jumps the conclusion, he doesn't take mental health seriously. He's anti counseling. No, not my entire thing.
But I think it's a real problem right now is what has become of the institution of counseling and therapy.
And where that person is anything from a best friend to a serigate spouse to the Lord to scripture.

(01:13:17):
You know, he has on the therapist for a lot of people and I don't think that therapy is a respect or a political parties in terms of need.
But oftentimes who are the people that pledge allegiance the most to therapy are usually those that are more of a liberal world.
You can't hear it. I'm not saying you're liberal if you go to therapy.
I either is a clergy specialist counselor that I've seen several times and I'm not ashamed of that. It's been very helpful for me. I'm not anti therapy at all.

(01:13:46):
I'm concerned about the status and the infallibility of it in our culture. And I do think it contributes to some of this.
Yeah. You're putting your finger on something that is a real issue. I do think that's it's worth a bigger conversation at some point because I'm seeing it too.
Yeah. Where do you have that conversation? Do we think we're finding our culture?

(01:14:09):
Here's the last thing I'll say to this. It's why our churches need to be with open arms prepared to embrace people who have been broken by the laws of the ideologies that have been fed to them.
We need to be there with compassion with truth. They will be attracted to the aroma of Christ in the church to joy to joyful people.

(01:14:35):
People with ballast in their boats and conviction in their lives, but joyful and fun and people are going to be drawn to that because the laws and the captivity that they've been under with some of these ideologies have let them broken and empty and honestly mentally depressed and anxious.
This is a bigger, bigger, bigger conversation, but our churches need to be ready for this. I think the data is showing these, the ideas have consequences.

(01:15:08):
Yeah, too often when I hear someone's going to therapy, I want to be like, oh, wow, that's great. Sometimes I go, oh, no.
Oh, no. Where are you going? Yeah. What's going to happen to their faith, to their, like, truly, when I should be, hopefully we have, that's why I do believe the integrated model of having someone who really does believe the Bible.
Yeah. Who yes is a license, yes is a professional, but like actually believes the Bible, but not just believes the Bible, like councils with it in their hand.

(01:15:32):
I do think we need to, again, I believe that I'll, I believe in, you know, common grace. And I do think that mental health studies and psychology is part of that.
So I'm not a, I'm not anti-integration, you know, integrative and integration, integrative theology or psychology at all, but I think we just kind of be really careful, man.
Yeah, we're really careful. Well, let's wrap up the show like we always do with a round of what caught my eye. Let's begin with teats.

(01:15:59):
People may have seen that Elon broke Washington broke Elon it took about six months and he is now kind of just voicing his frustration with the process in the system.
So a little sad to see it's a little too bad. People are speculating why he's doing this. Some say it's because the electric vehicle tax credits are on the chopping block.

(01:16:21):
Other people say it's because his friend was supposed to be NASA administrator and that's not happening. I don't know the reason for it.
I just think it's something to watch kind of the end of an era in many ways of Trump being a vital part of the administration.
Imagine he will continue to be in some capacity, but by time will tell.

(01:16:43):
Yeah, apparently there's some breaking news even right now where Musk has tweeted some things and President Trump has responded.
He's, quote, disappointed in Elon.
Oh boy. Self-operate. Here we go. Yeah. So, you know, the liberal media is loving this. They'll be Elon's best friend if he's critical of Trump.
That sounds like, sounds like conservative X or conservative pastor X. What guys mad at what guy and who's not the one on whose podcast and who says something wrong one time. Yeah, all the things.

(01:17:13):
Dino. What culture?
So I'm big football guy. Carl Nassib, who was the defensive end of the NFL player Penn State third round draft. I think he was a openly gay football player that came out a few years in.
And his jersey right now for pride month is being displayed at the Smithsonian.

(01:17:34):
Not because he was legendary player, but because he was gay.
So there's your vibe shift for you there. Then it's the Sonia right now. The NFL is being celebrated for a gay player's jersey for the whole month of June.
So rainbow that one baby. It sounds like Michael San are a shirt of me.
Wasn't he the first? Yeah, but he wasn't very good. He he was a college player, but he I don't know if you actually made the NFL roster.

(01:18:03):
I think he got cut during preseason. Nassib actually played play and was actually going to do some player. Yeah.
I think was the first one to like again, what does that mean? Like if you're a gay player, are you like what is that you have feelings for a guy that you are dating someone?
You're like doing sexual things like what does that even mean? That's what that's always makes me this role. My eyes like he makes it makes you run the 40 yard dash faster. Yeah, that's maybe it does.

(01:18:28):
You know, so yeah, I don't know. I want to hold my job read read. What caught your eye? Yeah. What come I follow this guy? I have followed him now for a couple years. His name is Dan Salinger.
And he is a gentleman that's probably I think in his 60s and he cares for his father who has Alzheimer's and he videos is interactions with his father and it's the father is in his head.

(01:18:53):
Salinger. He's so lovable and likable and he's witty and quick, but the kind of running theme of the of the channel is that you know, Ed wakes up every day and it's like a brand new day.
He doesn't know that Dan is a son. He doesn't know, you know, and it's just it's fascinating to watch, but here's the thing. Dan the son just cares for him so well and is like so gentle with him and patient with him.

(01:19:17):
He's become, you know, he's got gained a large following and he's now an advocate and a spokesman for, you know, dimension, Alzheimer's and things like that.
The thing that this call my eye this week is they did a video where he was talking to his dad and he's like, Dad, you live with me. You know, I'm your son. It's kind of the typical stuff. And then his dad says, I don't I don't want you to have to do that.

(01:19:41):
And he says, Dad, it's my duty. It's my duty to do it and it's a joy to do it. And so as long as you live, you're going to live with me.
And I was just it hit me in the heart. It also reminded me like that's that is the biblical Christian ethic on displayed.
Yeah, caring for and honoring your parents. I want to write on this because I don't know if this man's a Christian, but there's something that's so beautiful about it and it's so godly about it, whether he's a Christian or not, it's right.

(01:20:14):
And if you don't follow him, go check him out. His name is Dan Salinger. It's a great follow. It's really entertaining. Super heartfelt and warm and all the all the fills.
I'm talking about gay football players and you come with that story. Thanks.
I had to try to bring some stability back. Thanks for looking out.

(01:20:35):
Andrew, what about you? What call drive this week? All right, two quick things. First of which is the trailer for Happy Gilmore to drop.
Oh, yeah. July 25th. I I cannot tell you how excited I am for Happy Gilmore to one of my favorite movies is a child. So I'm greatly anticipating that second thing that caught my eye is that my colleague at the ethics and public policy center Claire Morrell has a brand new book out this week called The Tech Exit.

(01:21:04):
Helping parents walk through the technology question with their children in really, really good ways. Claire is really intelligent and this book is going to do.
I think you're going to hear a lot about it in the media as far as helping move kids away from reliance upon devices.

(01:21:25):
So everybody, we want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of the bully pulpit to if you would give us a rating and a review and share an episode with a friend wherever you might get your podcast and always remember if men were angels, no podcast would be necessary.
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