← Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
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5:00am I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change and head to work. Meetings, workshops One more Celsius. No slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius Live Fit. Go grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now@celsius.com
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Alyssa Liu is an incredible Olympic figure skating champion, but there's something interesting about her origin story, which includes surrogacy. There are some details here that Christians really need to understand and learn something from. Also a discussion about healthy patriotism. What does it look like to be proud of your country in a way that is actually Christlike? We'll be exploring all of this and much more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by our friends at Good ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com use code ALI at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code Ally Foreign. Hey guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far. We've got so much to get into today. Did you see the State of the Union? Well, if you want to know what I thought about it and you want to know my coverage and other Blaze host coverage, then you need to go watch that on Blaze tv. You can look on my Instagram, you can look on my ex. I had all kinds of things to say about it, but we don't have time for that today. We've got other things to get to before I get into all of that. Like this video. Share this video Leave a review for us on YouTube can you leave a review on YouTube? I don't know, but you can leave a review on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify. Make sure you're subscribed on all of these platforms. It really helps us a lot. Leave us a five star review wherever you listen and make sure that your friends are listening to Relatable so they can be in the know and and so that they don't fall prey to the propaganda that is targeting Christian women on a daily basis. And we even have a conference making sure that women are fully equipped with theology, biblical truth. It's actually not a political conference. You'll hear some cultural issues brought up, certainly because the Bible covers those topics. But this is really a theologically equipping conference for women who want to be clear, who want to be confident, who want to be courageous by the power of the Holy Spirit and because of the truth of God's Word. This is a completely unfiltered, no fluff, gospel centered Christian Women's Conference. It's called Share the Arrows and the theme is always courage and clarity. It's incredible. We had 7,000 women in Dallas, Texas last year. Just an amazing day. And by the grace of God, it will be another amazing Holy Spirit filled year. This year it's in Dallas, Texas, October 10th. Make sure you go to Share the Arrows. We will be dropping our speaker lineup soon. Share the arrows.com for your tickets today. All right, let's get into the United States of America at the Olympics. So I know that most of you have probably been plugged into everything that's going on. I'm not going to do a whole recap of all of the gold medals that we won, although it was a lot, and how the US Dominated. We'll get into that a little bit when we talk about hockey. But I want to dig a little bit deeper and look at some of these athletes and some of the lessons that we can learn from their lives, from their origin stories and even their representation of America on the world stage. We'll be talking a little bit about patriotism, how we should think of that from a Christian perspective. But I wanted to highlight one particular athlete that I absolutely loved watching and dig into her origin story and talk about why it is relevant that this figure skater, Alyssa Liu, who was incredible, an absolute champion, such a joy to watch that she was born via surrogate and she and all of her siblings were born via ivf. They were gestated with a surrogate and they were raised by a single father. And I think all of that, it, it highlights something that we really need to look at. Now, before I get into all of that, I know that a lot of you are probably thinking, why does it matter? Can't we just celebrate her? And we should celebrate her. I want to talk about the amazing things she accomplish at the Olympics. But we talk about surrogacy and IVF a lot and the ethics of kind of designing children and picking out mothers and gestators from catalogs and the commercialization of children that really can't be glossed over. And I just want to take every opportunity for Christian women to be able to look at this issue in the face and kind of grapple with this difficulty of seeing this person made in the image of God, who is obviously incredible, but also realizing that the ethics of surrogacy and, and ivf, they give us pause as Christians. And we have to be able to hold those two things at the same time. So, okay, first, let's look at this iconic picture. This is full screen four of Alyssa Lou. In case you have been living under a rock and you don't know who she is, look how adorable that is. This is after she won gold, jumping up into the air, which is that even that move alone is more than I could do without breaking my neck. How do you jump into the air on ice skates? I don't know. That's my perpetual question. And then we'll show this video. It doesn't have any sound of her performing. She's such a different kind of performer. I mean, the way that she moves, the way that she dances. A lot of people just talk about the joy, joy, joy. And there is a lot of joy, obviously, that's emanating from her when she's dancing. But it's just fun and it's a little sassy, and it's very youthful without losing the elegance. It's also extremely athletic, the way that she moves. And I think that she. Not that my opinion when it comes to figure skating really counts because I have zero expertise in this area. But I, of course, believe that she completely deserved that gold medal, and I'm just so thankful for that. I'm thankful for these incredible athletes representing the country that I love on the world stage. So let's talk a little bit about the goods and the questionable about how Alyssa was raised, who her father was, and how she became this amazing athlete that she is. So we'll talk about Arthur Lou and him fleeing from China as a political refugee, but then also why and how he chose to procure so many children via surrogacy and why that matters. But let me go ahead and pause first, tell you about our first sponsor for the day that is Holy Pals. I love this sponsor because I love this company so much. They make these amazing biblical pajamas. And if you're wondering, like, what's a biblical pajama, well, they depict, through these really cute patterns, Bible stories. And so at Christmas time, they've got the nativity scenes, they've got David and Goliath. At Easter time, they've got the stone rolling away. And it's just really sweet to be able to share the truth of scripture with our kids by showing what they're wearing. You'll. You'll see if you're watching this on YouTube, just how adorable that is with the he has Risen sunrise. Very classy, very cute. Love it so much. And unfortunately, a lot of the really cute and chic baby and kid Pajamas companies, they're woke and you see it every June. They're supporting all kinds of progressive causes. Well, you obviously don't have to worry about that. With Holy Pals you can wear the word of God. Just another tool to teach your kids the truth of scripture. Go to holy pals.com and shop while their stuff is in stock. Use code ALI26 for 10% off. Go to holy pals.com code ALLY26FOREIGN. Let's talk about Arthur Lou, because he's been in the media a lot. This is Alyssa's father. He fled China as a political refugee. He settled in the California Bay area. He attended law school there. And that is also where he started a family. Now, he is the only biological parent that Alyssa knows. Because Alyssa was born by surrogacy. He used IVF with anonymous egg donors. This has all been reported publicly and surrogates to have Alyssa and her four younger siblings. And let me just pause just for a second and explain this to those of you who don't know what is going on here. So when you purchase a child, and that really is the most accurate way to say that, purchase a child via surrogacy, what you are typically doing, especially if you are a man who is not using the eggs of his wife, you are purchasing the eggs of one woman and then you are renting the womb of another woman. And these were reportedly strangers. That's typically how it is. It's actually encouraged that you don't have a kind of pre existing personal relationship many times with these egg donors and these surrogates because it gets very emotionally messy. You don't really want the so called egg donor, it's really an egg style seller to feel any claim over her biological child. And you don't want the surrogate if you are the IP, which is the intended parent. What Mr. Lou was, you don't want the surrogate to be able to act upon the physiological and emotional physical bond that she has created with this child that she's been helping grow for nine months. So that is why you separate the two women. They're not supposed to be the same woman. And that is very often why this is done contractually like a business deal, why this is done with two strangers. Now, unfortunately, who is not considered in these purchases, in these transactions are the children. What is considered is the desire of the adult. I want to be a father. I want to be a mother. Sometimes there are fertility issues going on there. That doesn't justify it. But sometimes as it seems in this case, like he just wanted to become a dad, which is a great desire. But we as Christians don't believe that that any means necessary are justified in satisfying even a good desire. The science that is required to make a child indicates the two people that are required to raise a child. So the two people needed to make a child are also needed to raise a child. And when we intentionally create children to rob them of a mother or a father, we are stealing from them something that is necessary for their healthy development, and it's wrong. That's different than adoption. An adopted child was not purposely created to take them away from their biological mother. That is the next best option in a broken situation. Adoption redeems a broken situation. Surrogacy creates that broken situation. So sperm selling creates the broken situation. Egg selling creates the broken situation. And in this case, you have commodified two women, and then you have also created a transaction over a child, so you've also commercialized that child. So in every single case, no matter what the reason is surrogacy, egg and sperm selling are wrong. And then there's also something interesting about how Arthur chose the women who were going to be the egg sellers for all of his children. So he specifically chose white women as these egg sellers. I don't say egg donors, because these women are making money from selling their eggs for all of his children, believing that it would give them, quote, a diverse gene pool and reflect his own blend of Chinese and American cultures. Like that should just kind of make your skin crawl a little bit that you're creating these designer babies as if out of a catalog. I mean, that's really objectifying these little people. When the kids were young, Arthur was married to a Chinese woman. And this is now his ex wife, but also she remains their legal guardian and the person the children call Mom. Around the age of 8, Alyssa realized she looked different from her dad and his ex wife. So I will just stop there and say that there is some conflicting wording and reporting around this. On the one hand, it seems like, yes, she is the legal guardian, but she's not interviewed, she is not visible. And also she's referred to as his ex wife and not as their mother. So there's something strange going on there, which, again, makes sense. There's a lot of brokenness here. Arthur has said he doesn't know the identities of the the egg donors or the egg sellers. There are no records available to reveal them, which just again, points to something that we need to understand when it comes to excelling is that we are Purposely cutting children off from half of their, half of their biological reality. And you don't get to know the fullness of your medical history. You don't get to know the fullness of your ethnicity. You don't get to know the fullness of your origin or your family's origin. And I think it's just an innate longing in all of us to know whom we are and from where we come. And we are robbing kids of that when we purposely make them for whatever designer purposes we want. If we look at how she was raised at 16, Alyssa performed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics where she finished in 6th. This is according to People magazine. He saw her talent when she was at a young age and then wanted her to shine. And so she really probably didn't have, as a lot of these Olympians didn't really have, like a typical childhood. She worked really, really hard her entire life to get to where she is today. And he even talks about how much he dedicated into her athleticism and excelling at figure skating on 60 Minutes. Here's salt one. A single dad, he had five kids with the help of surrogates. Alyssa was his oldest child. And her figure skating career became his second full time job. I took her everywhere. I took her to Japan to learn from the top coaches there. I took her to Canada. How much do you think you spen to help her become the figure skater that she is? I would say half a million to a million dollars. And that could probably be said by a lot of these Olympic parents. They invest a lot of time and energy and money and to their kids. And I'm not condemning him, I'm not condemning him for that. I do think that the background there and her origin story is interesting. And it's just another opportunity for us to be reminded that, yes, while everyone, no matter the circumstances surrounding their conception or surrounding their gestation or birth or birth, are made in God's image, we are glad Alyssa is here. We are glad her siblings are here. It looks like they had a decent upbringing. I hope so. I think that's a good thing. And we can all celebrate her completely unapologetically, while also saying, hey, like there we have compassion for her to be robbed of her biological mom, just as we do all kids. Like, we have to be able to hold those two things because if we don't, like, if we get trapped in the emotional argument surrounding IVF that. Are you saying you don't want all these people to be here or surrounding surrogacy? Are you saying that this person who had cancer shouldn't have the right to have a child. Well, the truth is, is that none of us has a right to have a child. Children are people. They're image bearers of God. They're not something that we are entitled to be able to create by any means necessary. We are glad that they are here. We honor them as dignified image bearers while still pointing out that there are some serious issues with surrogacy, specifically when it comes to these particular circumstances, but also as a whole with industry that it has created, which is basically indistinguishable from worldwide trafficking. And this is especially an issue with China, who has used surrogacy to create these dual citizens who are born in America via surrogate. They get citizenship because they're born here. They go back to China later, after they've been sometimes educated in America or they're educated in China, then they come back to work in America, and they're able to do that with dual citizenship. This is a. This is a huge problem. Like, this is a part of why. I don't even know what you would call it, birth warfare that is happening from the CCP at the United States. I'm not saying that Alyssa was a part of that, but against the backdrop of what is going on globally, like, it's really important for us to be able to see this with clear eyes. So that leads us to the actual trend that's going on specifically in China and why we need to care about it. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor for the day, and that is Voice of the Martyrs. They have an incredible book out, and it's called Hearts of Fire 2. It shares the real stories of women around the world who are following Jesus in places where doing that can cost them their freedom, their families, even their lives. These are not distant, abstract situations. These are sisters in Christ. And their faith in the middle of all of this chaos and serious persecution, not just getting rejected, but facing imprisonment, facing torture, facing execution, is really humbling. And it's also just such an edification for our own faith. The reminder that the gospel is worth every risk. And these women need our prayers. They need our support. They need our boldness. And Voice of the Martyrs exists for them. It exists for those who are being persecuted, who are facing death because of their faith in Christ around the world. So I really encourage you to go to vom.org ally get your free copy of Hearts of Fire too. Just be inspired by these fellow Christian stories. That's vom.org Ali. So we've talked about surrogacy a lot on the show and we talked about it specifically in episode 1,296 with Peter Schweitzer. And he has written a lot and researched a lot about China over the years. And we talked about this trend in China of using surrogates to accomplish what we just explained earlier. And actually recently a Chinese couple, this is according to the New Yorker, I can't really pronounce their names. Guojun Juan and Sylvia Zhang were accused of hoarding and mistreating at least 26 children in their mansion in California. So this 65 year old man reportedly wanted to build a large family so that one of his children could become President of the United States one day. And this couple allegedly set up their own surrogacy agency called Mark Surrogacy to make this happen. Using his sperm and eggs from an anonymous egg seller to create multiple pregnancies through multiple surrogates across the country. And then a former employee described this man as a wealthy man obsessed with having as many kids as possible, like Genghis Khan or something. Unlike others who pursue vices, I guess is how he wanted to glamorize it, romanticize it. He simply wanted more children by any means. Well, the by any means is the problem there, right? Because then it doesn't really matter the welfare of the kids. What matters is what you want. And prioritizing adult desires over child welfare is disorder. It's not how it's supposed to be. The couple was arrested in May 2025 on suspicion of child abuse and neglect after a two month old baby in their care was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury. So I would say that looks like abuse. It is suspected that this baby was shaken or dropped by a nanny. So not only outsourcing conception to a lab through anonymous egg sellers, but also outsourcing the gestation to non mothers of the children and then outsourcing the care for the children to other women. And so I mean, how many steps do you have to take to avoid the God ordained function of husband and wife creating and protecting children? I mean, how many women do you have to pay to make up for the role that one mom, that one mom fulfills? Authorities raided their home in July 2025, removing 21 children, mostly toddlers and infants, all born via surrogates. They took them into protective custody while the couple was released on bond pending an ongoing state. Um, there. Since their release, at least five more babies were born to their surrogates in states like Virginia. Pennsylvania, Georgia. So that's a really disturbing thing going on here, is that these women are actually giving birth in states all over the country. And then these babies are somehow being transferred back to these surrogacy homes in, in places like California. America is absolutely the wild, wild west best when it comes to fertility treatments, so called fertility treatments and surrogacy and IVF embryos have no rights basically in the United States. And these are human beings. They might not look like a full grown baby, they might not look like you or me, but the appearance of people is not how we decide on their dignity or their worth or their value. These are human beings that we are discarding like trash that we are killing via eugenics, saying, oh, we don't want a boy, we do want to, we want a girl. And discarding embryos that might be diagnosed with something like down syndrome. It is like a hidden massacre that is going on under this sunny guise of just helping people have children. And China plays a huge part in this. There is this article that I found really interesting. It's called a surrogacy Silk Road. Chinese parents head west for babies. Silk Road is a reference to the ancient network of trade routes that connected East Asia and the Middle East, Europe, parts of Africa, South Asia, named mostly after the highly valuable Chinese silk that flowed west along these paths. But it also, it didn't just trade textiles and things like that, but also slaves. This was a slave route that treated people, especially young slave girls. So sex slaves throughout Europe, throughout the Middle east, throughout Asia on this so called Silk Road. And right now China is grappling with low fertility rates. That's threatening economic stability. Yeah, when you have a one child policy for decades, as they did in the 20th century when babies and the third trimester were birthed and then slaughtered and then thrown into piles, especially if they were little girls, like, that might cause some unforeseen consequences. By the way, population control always causes unforeseen consequences. Population having too much or overpopulation rather, that we hear about from people like Bill Gates. That's a myth, by the way. It's a Malthusian conspiracy theory. We don't have an overpopulation problem, but China bought into that, of course, in the 20th century. Now they're dealing with the repercussions. And so they're trying to get as many kids as possible. And so they have this demand for international surrogacy. And it's not only that they want more children and so they're trying to create as many as possible. But it also makes them a lot of money. Especially when Chinese surrogates are paid to have these children, they're given money. International surrogacy is giving rise to alternative family structures in China. There is a professor, a researcher at the University of Freiburg with a PhD in social anthropology. He points out that the general preference for surrogacy as opposed to adoption in China is partially explained by the everlasting notion of bloodline. What's interesting is that Chinese aspiring parents hoping to start a family via surrogacy, according to this article, have no legal local options. Surrogacy is strictly prohibited under, under a law that was passed in China in 2001. Now, notice that it says legal. And earlier I said that China is making money from this, and they are making money from this, as well as benefiting from having more children, as well as benefiting from American Chinese dual citizenship that can grant them power and access into America. But there are illegal and very discreet services that exist in China that kind of work as travel agencies. They're named something different kind of euphemistic like, like a medical assistance facility. And you can use them to find you an egg seller and find you a surrogate from different countries that you can then use. And they're raking in tens of thousands of dollars. And the CCP is really turning a blind eye that they don't agree with this, or they say that surrogacy is illegal, but there's no specific structure actually to put sanctions on a surrogate mom. They're turning a blind eye to this, probably because it's helping them in a lot of ways. And so we just need to understand that in the midst of all of this, that there are real children who are being bought and sold and trafficked, and they don't get a say in this. It's much like our Monday episode. Kids are the unconsenting subjects of progressive social experiments. And I want us to be able to celebrate someone like Alyssa Liu, and we absolutely should. Her accomplishments stand on their own. But I, I don't want people to read this origin story and say, ah, well, maybe it's okay. It's not okay. That's. That's my point in saying all of this. Like, I don't want us to be blinded by the glitz and the glamour and this story by saying, well, she turned out fine. That's not the point. It's still wrong. No matter how someone turns out to rob a child purposely, purposely to create them, only to rob them of their biological parents and Every surrogacy circumstance actually fuels this worldwide, extremely lucrative scheme that is going on here. And actually Reddit had something to say about this which I found interesting. The then before us Executive director, that's Katie Faust organization Josh Wood. He pointed out this Reddit thread talking about what it's like to be a designer baby. We'll get into that in just a second. Let me pause, tell you about our next sponsor for the day and that is everylife. This is a truly pro life company that you want to support. Plus they make awesome products. We love their diapers and wipes. We use them exclusively. We also love all of their baby products, the baby soap and the lotion. It's also good, made from really clean materials and ingredients. They also have a women's line, so a feminine care line. And when it comes to women and when it comes to babies, you want to make sure that you are supporting a company that can define what a woman is and that cares about babies inside the womb and every life does. They support their employees, they support pregnant women by donating to donating supplies to pregnancy centers across the country. So they're just a great company to support all around. Go to everylife.com use code promo code ALI10 get 10% off your first order. That's everylife.com code ALI10. Okay, so Josh Wood posted a screenshot of a Reddit thread on X. He said this the title of this Reddit post in true unpopular opinion. I guess that's the subreddit. Olympian Alyssa Lou shows us the power of designer babies. Her wealthy and intelligent single dad decided he wanted to have children. I'm guessing selected. This Redditor says this is not Josh Wood saying this. This is this Redditor. Some really good egg donors, usually wealthy people recruit from Stanford and the like. That is absolutely true. That has been documented. These wealthy people purchasing eggs. They will look at catalogs that only have Ivy league students. This is eugenics. This is crazy. What a surprise. She's one of the most natural and talented Olympic skaters ever. This Redditor says this is a brilliant idea that almost any woman in wealthy men can emulate. Instead of settling for a less than remarkable partner, select a donor with a very best genes and have remarkable children. That's just a horrible way to think. Again, this is just objectifying children as if children exist to grow up and to fulfill your dreams. There is another example of a person on this thread. This person on Reddit said in 2013 I had a fertility clinic reach out to me asking if I was willing to be an egg donor for a VIP couple for a large sum of money. I was a Division 1 athlete at Berkeley, tall, blonde. The family wanted all of these traits for their donors, so can confirm this does happen. Another Redditor claimed herself to be a designer baby. She said as a designer baby myself via sperm selling. Genes aren't everything. Or rather they are. And that's the problem. Not really sure what that means. The intense pressure my mother put on me to live up to my potential pretty well killed whatever potential I might have had to be a star. She treated me like an investment, not a child, and it sucked. Sure, there are plenty of parents of natural born kids who do the same thing, but I think it's more common among parents, this Redditor says, who use sperm and ag donation because they know exactly what they paid for and want to feel like they got their money's worth. That is just really disturbing. Do we know that that's what's going on in every single one of these situations? No, but the thought of designer babies is very brave new world world. It's very dystopian. And it's what happens when we don't see people as God sees them as independently valuable. I mean, all throughout history, all throughout the pagan societies of old, have we measured people's worth by their productivity, by their wealth, by their ability to reason and to rationalize what they can bring to the table. I've told this story many times of this book that I read called When Children Became People by Owen Backy. He talks about pagan Roman Empire, how the logos was the indicator of someone's worth as a person and only the adult free male could have the Logos, which was the ability to rationalize or reason. And that's why children were were objectified under moral justifications, that they were basically on the level of barbarians because they couldn't reason like adult men. So they aborted, they were killed as infants, they were used as child labor, they were sold into sex trafficking, they were used as objects of sexual pleasure, all because they weren't seen as as valuable as adults, because they didn't have the fullness of the Logos. And it was Christianity that burst onto the scene and said, no, no, that's not how we're valuing people's worth. We're valuing people's worth by this previously Hebrew concept called or exclusively Hebrew concept called the Imago Day. All people are made in God's image. I don't care how old you are, I don't care where you come From I don't care about your background or your bloodline or any of those things. You are all made in God's image and therefore you all matter. And actually we're going to pay more attention to the vulnerable ones, to the poor, to the women, to the sick, to the children, because that is what our Jesus, the one that we worship, calls us to do. And so that was a major disruption in civilization 2000 years ago and it shaped Western civilization. It changed how the world saw people. It changed how the west treated children. And it should continue to be our rallying cry today that these children matter. And they matter because they are made in God's image, not because of what they bring to the table. And that there is no cost that we can put on a human life. It's the same argument that we made against slavery. It's a similar argument to the one that we make against abortion. The people are made in God's image and they all have the same innate worth. How we create the matter human, how we gestate them matters, how we raise them matters, how we view them matters, how we talk about them matters. And I just don't want all of that to get lost as we look to the incredible accomplishment of being a gold medal Olympian. Yes, that is incredible. Applaud that 100%. But just remember what is going on when it comes to surrogacy in general around the world is something that is very dark and that Christians should not let get up on. All right, let us shift gears just a little bit in talking about patriotism. But since we're shifting gears, let me just go ahead and pause. Tell you about our second to last sponsor for the day. It's Alliance Defending Freedom. I love Alliance Defending Freedom. Everything they stand for, they are fighting for Americans First Amendment rights, especially our freedom of religion and our freedom to not be discriminated against because of our sincere Christian beliefs. They stand up for those who are standing up for their faith and are being unconstitutionally maligned for that faith. There is a high school junior in North Carolina named Gabby Stout. She was inspired by Charlie Kirk. She wanted to honor his legacy by painting a message on her school spirit rock. She got permission from the administrators. But then when she wanted to put the message on there, which was the message that represented bravery and her faith, they reversed the policy and they accused her of vandalism. Got her in trouble. The accusation even aired in the local news. She was punished for standing up for the biblical values that Charlie spent his life defending. And now Alliance Defending Freedom is Representing her and her First Amendment rights. If you want to support Gabby, support ADF, go to joinadf.com ally see how you can get in the fight and Support her. Join ADF.com ally. Okay, let's talk about something just a little bit lighter, but also has a serious note to it. Let us just talk for a second about how amazing that hockey game was between Canada and between the United States. So I will just be honest. Like I am not really someone who follows hockey and I won't pretend to know everything about hockey. However, I was just excited to see America win because I love this country. No matter who is president, I love America. I am so beyond grateful to live here. I love seeing us represented in a strong, powerful way on the world stage. And so I'm always going to cheer on people. I also don't know that much about figure skating or in the Summer Olympics, the gymnastics or anything, but I'm still excited when our athletes do well and especially, especially when we beat smug Canada at their own game. Now, Justin Trudeau, just a few months ago, actually about a year ago in 2025, he tweeted, you can't take our country and you can't take our game. And then the White House responded with this about a year later. And that would be a bald eagle trampling on a goose, which is, I even said goose, kind of like a goose would talk. And that is representative of Canada. So the U.S. won its first gold medal against Canada since 1980. That's a long time. No offense to those of you who were born in 1980. It's a long time ago. A historic breakthrough for Team USA and heartbreaking loss for Canada. Hockey is the national pastime that is the only sport that it has and it is like the sixth most popular sport here in America. Hockey player Jack Hughes made the game winning goal in overtime after having his teeth knocked out during the third period of the game. Which is so incredibly iconic and hockey ish and American. Here's thought three.
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C
This is all about our country right now. I love the usa. I love my teammates. That's unbelievable. The USA hockey brotherhood is so strong and we had so much support from ex players. I'm so proud to be American today.
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B
So sweet. The story of him and his brother and how they were raised to just be excellent and to love hockey is really, really cute. And then we have this, we have this incredibly iconic picture. Knocked out teeth draped in the American flag with his fist in the air. Just amazing. I mean this needs to be on the COVID of Time, Magaz. I saw someone say, forget the loo. Put this in every Buffalo Wild Wings in America. Completely agree. As should be on a Wheaties box. Unfortunately, something like this has become political. Like, there is one side of the aisle that believes patriotism is something that should be tempered and nuanced. And yes, of course, we shouldn't idolize any president. We shouldn't idolize our country. Our citizenship in America shouldn't supervise supersede our value of our citizenship in heaven. But as I'll explain, it's good to be proud of your country. And it really doesn't matter who's in the White House, like you are celebrating the values that has made america in its 250 years, the freest and the greatest and the most entrepreneurial country in the world. How amazing is that? That has championed the cause of human rights in so many ways for the past two and a half centuries. Here's the men's hockey team just singing the national anthem with all their hearts. Love it. Soft. Okay. They're not going to win any Olympic choir contests anytime soon, but that's okay. That was beautiful. I also loved this moment. After their win, Trump called them on someone's phone just to congratulate them and to invite them to attend the State of the Union, which was last night. Here's top five. Say hi. How are you? Say hi to him. How you doing, Dad?
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C
I have seen hockey goalies have slightly worse games. Unbelievable. And you are all unbelievable.
- [39:26]
B
And.
- [39:27]
C
And that team is pretty good.
- [39:28]
B
You played.
- [39:28]
C
I don't know, anytime soon, right? You know, I tell you what I just told my people two minutes ago. I didn't know they'd be calling. I said, we're giving the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. I could send a military plan or something, but if you would like to. It's the. It's the coolest night. It's the biggest we're in speech.
- [39:53]
B
That was really sweet. They were all excited. And you know what? I don't know the politics of all of them. In fact, I've seen some things about Jack Hughes maybe being pro LGBTQ or liberal. That's really not what it's about. I think Alyssa, you probably has given some progressive opinions, but, you know, she draped herself in the American flag and said that she was grateful to be there to be competing. These men just seem grateful to be there to be competing. And of course, grateful to win. Like, as a conservative who loves America, that's all I want to see. I don't have expect these athletes to agree with me on everything. I'm sure like 1% of them probably agree with me on everything. A lot of them might have voted for Kamala Harris for, like, we're just different than the left. That, yes, of course I'm going to disagree with them. I might even publicly disagree with them if they're public about that. But I just want you to be grateful to live in an amazing country and I want you to be unapologetic about that when you are on the world stage. What I really take issue with is people like this saying, oh, you know, I just representing the United States, it's just, it's just tough. 7.
- [41:01]
D
It brings up mixed emotions to represent the US right now. I think it's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of. I think for me it's more I'm representing my, like, friends and family back home, the people that represent it before me. I just think if, if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it.
- [41:24]
B
Blah, blah. That's so weak. Like, weak in either direction. Like, if you are a progressive activist and you're trying to say what ICE is doing is completely unjust and you think America is like, I don't know, Nazi or whatever, say with your chest, like, if you're talking about injustice, being like, I'm not really like a fan of like, everything that's going on that is not persuasive to me. Either say it or don't say it. But that is just wishy washy and weak. You don't have to agree with all the policies in America. Like, you would not see a conservative standing up there and being like, yeah, I don't know about representing America when abortion is going on. It's not that we don't think abortion is a grave evil, the greatest evil that's going on in the world. We do. It is understood that you are representing what you love and are grateful for about your country, the foundational principles, the country that has given you the opportunity to become an incredible athlete and to be unapologetic about that. I just, that's what we want to see. Like, I don't care really about your political opinions or who you voted for. I just want to see you represent America proudly. But we've got the Huffington Post saying, if waving the American flag or chanting USA turns you off right now, now you're not alone. The article goes on to say the cognitive dissonance of rooting for the US Sports while hating the US Government is so common that it continues to be one of the main topics I hold space for in therapy. So many, so many things are wrong with that sentence. If you are in therapy and your biggest problem is that you don't like who's in office and you don't know how you feel about rooting for the United States in the Olympics. Wow, we have like, we need, we might need to go back to an agrarian society for a little bit just so people don't have so much time on their hands. Like if you have, if you are working with a backhoe all day and you are like tilling the soil to I, this shows you how much I know about farming to like to make your crops grow. Okay, then you don't have time to go to a therapist and talk about the cognitive dissonance between chanting USA when the hockey team wins and not liking Donald Trump. We've just gotten too luxurious and too free here. They go on to say, you can hold more than one truth at the same time. That is true. That's true. You can admire the discipline and sacrifice of the athletes. You can strongly disagree with government policy. You can feel both pride and disgust without needing to collapse that into one correct feeling. Well, you shouldn't feel disgusted. Disgust. You shouldn't, you just shouldn't feel disgust. And you can actually say, it's totally possible to say, I love America so much. I want what's best for America. I agree with the foundational principles. We're an incredible country. I don't agree with all of the policies, but when it comes to progressives, there is like a deep seated resentment that goes on there. And I think a lot of progressives think that patriotism is MAGA coded and so it makes them cringe. They don't like it. I'm not saying all progressives, but typically when you see an American flag waving in front of someone's house, like, you know that that person is conservative. Should not be that way. I wish it weren't that way. In fact, I can really respect someone who is progressive but is like, yeah, I think we should put the interests of our country first. And so of course I believe in like getting crime down. Of course I believe in closing our border. You can't love our country and not believe that we have a right to sovereignty. Like, of course I believe in ensuring that our country is economically prosperous. Of course I believe in the Constitution and the founding documents. But I, we just disagree on some of the policies of how to protect those things. I can respect that. That's not where we are. We have very fundamental differences, moral differences, when it comes to how we see the world and how we see truth and morality in the Constitution. And that makes it really difficult. We should be able to completely unite over. Yeah, America is awesome and we love to see her win. Unfortunately, I don't know that we can really agree with that across the aisle right now or agree on that across the aisle now. I just wanted to end on a note about patriotism in general, because I get this question a lot like, how do we balance this? How do we balance loving our country, being patriotic, pledging allegiance to the flag, and then also making sure that our citizenship is truly in heaven and honoring that first. So we'll just end on some quick thoughts on that in just a second. Let me tell you about our last sponsor for the day, and that is Legacy Box. Legacy Box is incredible because it takes all of your old Polaroids rights or your pictures from the 90s, 2000s. But as far back as your pictures go, you can take all of those. You can put them in a cardboard box that they send you. You can send it to the people at Legacy Box and they will digitize everything. They'll put it on a file, send back the hard copies to you, send you the file. And so you have all of this on your computer, on all of your devices forever, so you can truly pass down these items and not worry about them getting destroyed or not not having them taken care of. And this is true of VHS tapes. I know in our house or in my mom's house, she's got a lot of home videos of us going back to the 80s. And it can be hard to keep up with that, especially if you're moving. And so you just want to make sure that you have all of these in one place so you can truly pass them on in an efficient way to your kids and your grandkids. They've got an awesome deal. For my viewers and listeners, go to legacybox.com ally. You'll get 50% off with that link. That's incredible. Legacybox.com ally. Okay, where I go When I think about patriotism, which you could define in a variety of ways, for me, I see it as gratitude. I see it as pride. Not in the unhealthy and sinful sense of, oh, Americans are innately better than other people, we have a higher innate value than others, or we have the right to do whatever we want to. It's not any pride in that I can own personally any good part of America, but just grateful and just acknowledging what an incredible blessing and privilege it is to have been born here and to have access to human rights and to have access to due process and all of these amazing opportunities that are so unique to America. And as we're raising children and we're talking to them about how the world works and even watching the Olympics, actually, our oldest has a lot of questions. What is that country? What is that flag? She even asks, is that a good government? Is that a bad government? What's the worst government? Why are they a good or bad government? It really makes us think. And when you're teaching your children this, you're like. Like you just want them to know how incredibly blessed and grateful they should be to be born in America, because so many people don't get that gift. And so we want to steward it. Well, it's not just so that we can consume. It's not just so we can be proud and patriotic. It's so that we can glorify God so we can help other people, so we can share the gospel. You know, Charlie Kirk, and I don't know if he originated this same, but he always used to say, like, the most important thing is to share the gospel. And the second most important thing is to ensure that we have the freedom to share the gospel. And the gospel can flourish no matter where it is, whether you have the First Amendment right to free speech or not, because that's just the power of the Holy Spirit. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. But how incredible that for centuries we have been able to send out missionaries to foreign lands because of the theological training that flourishes here, because of freedom, because of constitutional rights. That's amazing. Jeremiah 29. Most people know Jeremiah 29:11, for I know the plans I have for you. But a few verses earlier, it says, but see the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. This is God speaking to his people who are in exile in Babylon and pray to the Lord on its behalf. Or this is God through the prophet Jeremiah, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. So I love that verse that God has providentially placed us specifically as Christians because we are also exiles in this world. So there's a parallel here to seek the welfare of the city that we are placed in. So when people say, politics don't matter, I don't want to involve my myself, I don't care what's going on in our country. That is an incredible privilege that you have to not care. And that your life is still pretty great without you even knowing what's going on in your government. That is because of the sacrifice and the blood and sweat and toil that has gone into creating a constitutional republic where you can feel safe and you can make money and you can have rights even if you have no clue what's going on. I'm saying don't take that for granted. Granted, because it's not a given. I think people think that human rights are a given, that freedom is just a given. No, that is specifically a Christian politic that has been interwoven in America for 250 years. Not perfectly, but better than any other country that exists on earth today. And it is because of the courage and the clarity and the persistence and the involvement of Christians in the political world that has had. Uh. No, we're going to go by God's standards. We're going to honor what God says about human rights and human dignity. It's been Christians pushing for that in every way possible in America and abroad. That has changed. The culture changed in a good way. How the world has seen people. Psalm 33:12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. That's not to say that God has chosen America as his heritage. America is not God's chosen nation. We are his heritage as Christians. We are his chosen people. And we want our nation to be blessed. We want good things for our neighbors. And if God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, then he is the authority over all of it. He 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 woman is, what she's not, what a marriage is and when life begins. And if we believe all of that, none of those beliefs can be compartmentalized in our private lives. They have implications in the public and the professional and the political as well. Well. 1 Timothy 2:1:2. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. When kings, when rulers are godly, we get to lead a peaceful and a quiet life, dignified in every way. Now, that is a dictate for all Christians, no matter where they live, no matter what the government looks like. Like. But that is what we hope for as Christians. That is the kind of environment that we want. So that is one form of patriotism that Christians want to represent, is praying for our leaders, no matter if it's a Republican or a Democrat. And yes, I believe being grateful for, and in a healthy sense, proud of the country in which God has providentially placed you. You're not placed here arbitrarily or by accident because we know God doesn't do that, that St. Thomas Aquinas. Are you happy? To all of my wonderful Catholic listeners out there, this is a 13th century theologian and he said this. The reverence given to our country includes homage to all our fellow citizens and to all the friends of our country. I think some people forget that your fellow citizens are also your neighbors. Okay? It's not just the poor illegal migrant from Guatemala. That is your neighbor. Neighbor. Lake and Riley was also your neighbor. The unborn child is also your neighbor. And how we treat them matters. And the policy that references them and that acknowledges their rights, that matters. And in fact, nations are like families. You don't hate the people outside of your family, but you lock your door at night to protect the people inside your home to protect your family. You don't hate other children. You don't hate other families, but you don't love them in the same way that you love your own children. Children, you don't open your door to the neighborhood because you know that while not all of your neighbors are criminals, it could be possible that one would be. And it wouldn't be loving to invite strangers into your home and say, take our food, take our children's bed. Sorry, kids, you're gonna have to figure out, figure it out. That wouldn't make you a good Christian. That wouldn't make you a loving neighbor. That would make you a bad parent. And God, being a God of order, has created these spheres for our loves, for our attention. It remember, nations were God's idea. He established the idea of a nation. He established the idea of laws. This is his idea. Government is his idea. That is an establishment of order for our good. And it is okay for us to have an order and a priority of loves that focuses on those in our lives, those in our nation, and they'll and their wealth and fair. Augustine in City of God talks about this concept as well. He I won't read the entire quote, it's long. But he teaches that Christians, as pilgrims, exiles, sojourners in this world, in our earthly dwelling, our earthly city, should actively desire, maintain and work for peace and order, because peace and order protects us. It protects our neighbors, our most vulnerable neighbors, the poor, especially the child. Maintaining the order of the family, of marriage, even civic authority, the maintenance of law that honors the dignity and the right of the human being. That is one way we can love our neighbor. So that's why I talk about things like surrogacy, ivf, very controversial. If I just cared about followers and clicks and views, I would not talk about any of that because that probably cause gives me the most heat of anything that I talk about. The reason why I talk about it is because I believe Christians have a responsibility to know what is going on in the world when it comes to children, when it comes to the most vulnerable people in the world, both in and outside of the womb. And I will take every single opportunity that I have, anything going on in the news, in the news, even the Olympics, to make sure that Christians are perfectly clear on why kids matter and how we treat them really matters. And that that is one big reason why we love our country, we're grateful for our country, and we fight to keep our country peaceful and orderly and safe for those vulnerable kids. All right, that's all we've got time for today. We will be back here on Friday.