← Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Ep 1319 | Teen Fiction’s Dark Turn, Islamification Update & Reaction to Netflix’s Dino Doc
01:04:09
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That's fellowship homeloans.com ally terms apply c site for details Fellowship Home Loans Mortgage Lending by the Book Nationwide mortgage bankers DBA Fellowship home loans equal housing lender NMLS number 819382 Islamic terrorists are turning up the heat in America. And finally, some of our leaders in Washington, D.C. are waking up and are trying to do something about it. Also, there is a young adult fiction novel that has been endorsed by Good Morning America that depicts a very, very disturbing sexual theme that needs to be spoken out against. We've got a guest here today, an expert to talk about what that book is and how we fight back in our libraries and in our bookstore. Then I will be reacting to the Netflix documentary on dinosaurs. We've got all of that and more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by our very good friends at Good Ranchers. It's American meat delivered right to your front door. Go to good ranchers.com use code ally for a discount. That's good ranchers.com code ally. Hey guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Well, you guys had some opinions about my new setup, y'. All. Change is hard. Change is tough. Every single change that we have made on the set of Relatable has been met with people saying, no, go back to the way it was. Which is understandable. I understand your opinions and I do take them seriously. We are not finished with revamping our setup and revamping the set, but you will get used to some of the changes that we are making, and I think you will enjoy them over time. One thing I do hear you about is that the couch was a little bit homier, a little bit more welcoming. And that it felt different than other podcasts. And I understand that. And so we are thinking about ways that we can remedy that to make sure that it is still relatable, that it doesn't look like some kind of stern newscast. Because this really is me coming alongside you, especially you moms out there trying to navigate the craziness and the chaos of the world with as much clarity and courage as possible. And some of these things I'm learning and figuring out right along with you. And so I want it to feel that we really are like talking in a living room discussing these things. But one thing that is so, so important in that is connection with my audience. And actually you being able to see my expressions and see my eyes helps with that. And I think that you will be able to kind of get used to that and enjoy that over time. And if you are a listener, as we have many, many listeners who don't watch on YouTube or Spotify, you should go check it out on YouTube or Spotify and you can tell us, tell us what you think and we will take it under advisement. All right, couple things. If you haven't signed up for share the eras, now is the time, y'. All. I don't want you to miss out. I don't want you to accidentally wait too long and then you know, the plane ticket prices are too high. Just figure it all out now if you can get your tickets, bring your small group, bring your mother in law, bring your mom, bring your sisters, bring your friends. It's only a women's conference. Although I will say just a sneak peek, there will be be male representation on the stage this year. Okay, still, a women's conference will always only be a women's conference, but there will be some male teaching and maybe some male singing from the stage this year. It's going to be so good. I cannot wait. Go to share the arrows.com we need this more than ever. Go to sharethe arrows.com for your tickets. If you love this show, if you appreciate this show, if this show has helped you out at all, please subscribe on all platforms. Make sure that you leave us a five star review on Apple, Podcasts and anywhere else. Share it with your friends if you feel like it would start a good conversation with them or if they would be encouraged by it. All right, let's get into all of the things that we've got to discuss today. We've got the most serious stuff up front. We've got a good conversation, important conversation in the middle and then we'll end on a light hearted note, but also some serious points to be made as we discuss dinosaurs. Let us start with a very unfortunate trend that has been happening for, in one sense, several centuries, but it certainly ramped up in the past several years and then even more in the past several weeks. And that is that in the last few weeks there have been four terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. And it seems that all of these terrorist attacks, these four attacks that have been lodged in the past three weeks alone have been inspired by Islam. All of them have associated themselves with Islam or isis, Islamic terrorist groups, or they come from Islamic majority countries. Earlier this month we mentioned this last week or a couple weeks ago, there was a bar shooting in Austin, Texas where the perpetrator wore a property of a law hoodie. You can see that right there. He carried out the shooting. Absolutely tragic. Americans lost their lives there. If you saw the videos going around of bartenders trying to resuscitate their customers after this, I almost said maniac, but, you know, I don't even want to dismiss evil by calling it a mental health problem. Just this evil person, this evil perpetrator decided to take their lives, I guess, in the name of. Of defending Iran, defending the Islamic Republic, defending his version of God. And then in New York City last week, two men attempted to use homemade explosive devices inspired by ISIS during a protest outside Mayor Mamdani's residence. Now, they were not protesting Mayor Mamdani, who is a Muslim and I believe a terrorist sympathizer himself. They were protesting, counter protesting, I guess, or opposing a protest that was happening in York City that was organized by those who are anti Islam. And critics would call it a white nationalist rally. And they would say, no, they are just opposing the Islamic takeover of their city. And so these two young men, they came from their nice cushy suburb, they came over to New York City and they tried to detonate a bomb. And nypd, I mean, filled with heroes that day, saving the lives of people, ensuring that those guys were arrested and that people remained safe and that that bomb did not kill people. And then later that same week, Islamists carried out attacks on Old Dominion University in Virginia and the Temple Israel Synagogue in Michigan. Now, the interesting thing, the disturbing thing here is that all of these attackers were in the United States legally. Okay? So these were not people who traveled in from Afghanistan and AF ganny national that came here to the United States to carry out these attacks. Of course, that would be devastating and disturbing. They're also not illegal immigrants who came in through Biden's open border policies. These are people who are naturalized citizens, or the two guys in New York City, I think they are the sons of immigrants. So these are all legal citizens in the United States, which actually highlights a big, bigger and more troubling problem in the rise of Islam that it goes beyond illegal immigration, it goes beyond border policy. Like, we've got a much bigger, more insidious cultural moral issue going on here. And so how we address that problem is a lot more difficult and is going to cause, I think, a lot more pain and a lot more passionate reactions than we see over illegal immigration. The Michigan synagogue attacker was a Lebanese national who is natural naturalized into a U.S. citizen in 2016. The Old Dominion shooter, Mohammed Baylor Jalo, was a citizen who had already served time in prison for attempting to assist ISIS. And so that was in 2016. He was actually let out of prison under the Biden administration in December of 2024. Why was he let out of prison after he attempted to assist isis? It is completely unclear. So that is actually a problem of our justice system. So we've got justice system problems, and we've got legal immigration problems in the United States. And that legal immigration problem has resulted in a huge rise in the Muslim population over the past several years. Specifically, if we look at Pew Research, from 2007 to 2017, the Muslim population in America rose from 2.3% 5 million to 3.45 million. That is a 50% increase in just 10 years. Of course, 2017 was nine years ago, and so it's increased a lot more since then. It's projected to reach 8.1 million by 2050. A lot of this goes all the way back to a 1965 law called the Hart Seller act, which got rid of the mechanisms that we had in place to prioritize European migration and created a quota system that has resulted in. In allowing lots of people with terrible ideologies from third World countries to immigrate to the United States at higher rates than people from other countries who share our same civilizational and moral values. Some of it is that. Some of it is the fact that I think to combat this fear of Islamophobia after 9 11, America has felt the need to apologize or to prove themselves by saying, no, we're not scared of Muslims just because Al Qaeda killed over 2,000 people in the United States. Let's welcome as many in as possible to prove that we're not bigoted. Of course, that's civilizational suicide. That is the most deadly form of toxic empathy. And we are guilty of it. And when I say we, I don't mean you and I, because we're probably not, but our legislators certainly are and they've sold us out. And now those chickens are coming home to roost. The chickens of toxic empathy will always come home to roost and they will always hurt and harm the most vulnerable first. So we've got more on this because some Republicans are waking up and they're trying to do something about it. Let me pause though, tell you about our first sponsor for the day and that is Fellowship Home Loans. So as we head into the spring, a lot of people are thinking about refreshing your homes or refreshing your finances. Right now there's something really important happening. Mortgage rates have recently dropped. So when rates drop, monthly payments can drop. That can create a lot of breathing room for you and your family. It can help you pay bills, build margin, or simply steward your resources more wisely. Fellowship Home Loans is helping many families refinance into those lower rates and reduce their mortgage payments. And if you're thinking about buying a home this spring, lower rates increase your buying power. You may qualify for more home than you did just a short time ago. So get pre qualified right now. It is a super smart step before the market gets competitive. Call my friends at Fellowship Home Loans. They work so hard. They've got so much integrity. They do things not only by the book, but by the book by the word of God. They are trying to glorify God in everything they do and they can help you. Go to fellowship homeloans.com Alli if you close with them, you'll get a $500 credit at closing when you use my link Terms Apply C site for details Fellowship Home Loans Mortgage Lending by the Book Nationwide mortgage bankers DBA Fellowship home loans equal housing lender NMLS number 819382 foreign. Some Republicans have tried to take action to combat the rise of Islam in America. Back In November of 2025, Senator Ted Bud, he's from North Carolina, he led colleagues in introducing legislation to ban terrorist sympathizers from entering the U.S. it's sad that that takes any level of gumption or courage. He stated that freedom of speech does not protect calls to terrorism. Duh. In December 2025, US Representatives Keith Self, he's from Texas, and Chip Roy, who is now running for Attorney General, officially launched Attorney General in the State of Texas, officially launched the Sharia Free America Caucus in the House of Representatives in effort to counter the rise of Sharia in the United States. After last week's Attacks. You had Congressman Riley Moore, he's from West Virginia. He said he will introduce a bill to quote, denaturalize and deport any naturalized citizen commits or plots to commit an act of terrorism, joins a terrorist organization or otherwise aids and abets terrorism against the American people. Again, the fact that that would be controversial for anyone is insane. Republicans took to X to call out these Islamic terror attacks. And I know a lot of people are like, oh, we don't want these congressmen just to say something. They need to do something. Well, I will say some of these congressmen are trying to do something. They're trying to put legislation forward. But also what our leaders say really does matter because it can shape culture and it does something called moving the overton window toward what is more acceptable. And the fact that we have Congress people who are now willing to say something like what Chip Roy said, Muslim immigrant violence, naturalized or not, is preventable. Until Democrats and Republicans find the courage to say no to the mass migration of Islamists, our country will be plagued with more tragedies. It's stunning. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't require courage. It shouldn't only be a handful of Republican Congress people who are willing to say this, but it does, it does, it does take courage. It does take someone standing up and saying, you know what, I'm going to represent the concerns of my constituents, which these Republicans are, and say that we not only have an illegal immigration problem, but we have a legal migration problem. Okay? And we got to do something about it. Andy Ogles, he is from the state of Tennessee, a congressman, he wrote this is, I mean this is very pointed. He said Muslims don't belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie. Now you might agree with that or you might disagree with that. You might think that is too harsh. But the fact that we have a sitting congressman who is willing to say, look, you know what Charlie Kirk did, that Islam and Western civilization, they don't go together, they don't coincide. And someone who has been taught death to Christians, death to Jews, death to America, which I'm not saying every individual Muslim has, but cultures certainly in the Middle east do teach that pervasively that it's going to be really hard to mesh that in with American culture, that is a legitimate sentiment. Again, whether you agree with his wording or not, Andy Ogles is leading a new bill that would shift the American immigration system from a family based focus, largely ending chain migration and prioritizing immigrants who serve the national interest of the U. S. That goes back to that heart seller act that I told you about in 1965 that created that chain migration that if you have one family member over in the United States, no matter where you're from, no matter what you could add to American society, no matter how much productivity you offer, you can come to the United States over and above someone who may not have any family members here, but who would be a wonderful contributing, patriotic member of society. And so it just prioritized all the wrong kinds of immigration. And that's why we have the problems that we do. His legislation would also eliminate the diversity visa lottery. Again going back to that hart cellar act in 1965. That's that annual quota allowing for 55000 immigrant visas for people from countries with otherwise low migration rates to the US So if ogles bill passes, which let's just be honest, it's going to be very, very difficult for it to pass, but it would require new immigrants to pass a good character requirement, disbarring anyone who has a gang affiliation, prior arrest records for domestic violence or driving under the influence even without convictions, confirmed misuse of public benefits. And the bill would also require applicants to undergo enhanced background checks, including social media review and in person interviews. Like to me that sounds like common sense. It, I don't, I don't see how anyone could say no, we don't want more scrutiny when it comes to who we allow in our country. I, I would need to hear the moral and logical justification for opposing something like that. Then you've got Tommy Tuberville. He's a congressman from Alabama. He posted a picture of 911 and Zoran Mamdani side by side with the caption the enemy is within the gates and he is getting called out for this. But it actually is very stunning that how many years are we. We're almost 25 years. Can't believe it's been 25 years this year in September that we will have endured the deadliest attack on u. S. Soil by radical Muslims by al qaeda. And now we not only have a muslim mayor but one who I believe has sympathized with muslim terrorists, at least Muslim terrorists, sympathizers, and is really an apologist for islamism and of course has a public facing wife who has liked posts that are glorifying what happened on October 7th in Israel when men, women and children were raped and tortured and kidnapped and held hostage and murdered on mass. And so that's who we have in the mayoral office in New York City just 25 years after we suffered that attack. Under Al Qaeda? Am I saying we should judge every single Muslim by What happened on 9 11? No, I, I don't believe that. I don't believe in collective burden of guilt of every single person that looks the same, that thinks the same, whatever, or that has the same name or background. But I do believe that we can look at the ideology of Islam and what it has produced around the world and ask ourselves, is this an advancement of the principles of Western civilization, of the foundation of what America is, or is it an impediment in general? Are they an impediment to peace or do they precipitate peace? And I think the answer to that is very clear considering that around 65,000 terrorist attacks of the last several years have come from Muslims camps, and about 50 have come from people or groups that claim to be Christian. It might even be 25. And I believe it's around 50 to 100 from individuals and groups that claim to be Jewish. That's all around the world for several years, 65,000 from those who profess to be Muslims. Now Speaker Mike Johnson has a response to Congressman's comments on Islam. Saw one.
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I've spoken to those members and all members, as I always do, about our tone and our message and what we say. Look, there's a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia law on America is a serious problem. That's what animates this. And that's the, you know, the language that people use. It's different language than I would use, but I think that that's a serious issue. Sharia law in the imposition of Sharia law is contrary to the U.S. constitution. When you seek to come to a country and not assimilate, but to impose Sharia law, Sharia laws in conflict with the US Constitution. That is the conflict that people are talking about. It is not about people as Muslims. It's about those who seek to impose a different belief system that is, that is not. That is in direct conflict with the Constitution. That's where I think that comes from.
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Okay, I actually like that response by Mike Johnson. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it because a lot of times you get Republicans in these positions and they start finger wagging other Republicans and saying, oh, we shouldn't say that. We love, you know, we want everyone of every single background to come here and start talking about how awesome immigration is and how we're a melting pot, mosaic, whatever. And he didn't do that. He actually was defending his people, he was defending Republicans. I don't think he gets fits the problem exactly right there because it's not really about Sharia only. I don't even know if it's about Sharia primarily. It's about what the ideology teaches as far as conquest and violence and the treatment of women and children and all of those things and how incongruent that is with the American way of life and with the Declaration of Independence, with what the founders believed and what we should still believe. Just to put a, a fine point on this. According to the Global Terrorism Index, Islamist groups consistently account for the largest share of religiously motivated terrorism. Over 95% of tracked religious incidents globally are Islamist. Over 95% deaths are disproportionately higher. Islamist groups caused over 80% of attributed terrorist deaths in 2024, per GTI analysis. Islamist terrorism unfortunately is on the rise. Worldwide. There were only 6,817 deaths from Islamic terrorism from 1979 to 2000. That number rose to almost 40,000 from 2001 to 2012, then to 204, almost 205,000 from 2013 to 2024. And so unfortunately, this is an increasing trend. This is something that is not only continuing to happen, but is getting worse and worse. And for people to say, I've saw, you know, I've seen a lot of people commenting on this, oh, it's because of what we did in Iran. It's because America and how they're treating these Muslim majority countries, and that's just not correct. Far before America even existed, these kinds of conflicts were happening. And so to say that it's because of recent American foreign policy is again, just to misunderstand the Quran is to be misunderstand the ideology and the history of Islam since its inception. I've got more to say about this in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor for the day. It's Seven Weeks Coffee. So thankful for this Christian coffee company, this Pro Life coffee company. They allow their coffee to serve a higher purpose. At seven weeks. That baby inside the womb is the size of a little coffee bean, yet he or she is fully made in God's image. And so they matter. And that's why seven weeks donates 10% of every sale to pregnancy centers across the country. They have donated well over a million dollars to these pregnancy centers. This is translated into saving thousands of lives. And we love seven Weeks in our home. We love how it tastes, we love the super high quality, how clean the coffee is. We just got a new shipment in that I'm super excited about. So it's just a win all around. Plus, when you subscribe, you save 15% on your coffee. Plus with my code ALI, you save an extra 10. So go to 7weekscoffee.com code ALI. But if you point all of this out, all of these statistics, this reality that is just obviously flying in our faces, you could get called Islamophobic. There's even this just weird trend on the right that I've seen of sympathizing with Islam. And it's not just about, like, loving your individual Muslim neighbors, which, by the way, we should all be doing. They are people made in the image of God, just as valuable as you or I. The gospel is available to them. We should want that for them. We should want good things for them. We have to be able to hold those two things as I'll talk about a little bit more in a second, at the same time. But this weird trend of trying to say that, well, Islam is better than Judaism because Islam regards Jesus as a prophet, and according to the Talmud, Jesus is boiling and excrement. I've seen things like that. Well, first of all, neither Islam nor Judaism get Jesus right, okay? So that both leads to the same place. Neither of them see Jesus as who he is, who is God. So I really don't care whether someone sees Jesus as a political activist, whether someone sees Jesus as this rebellious guy who's now in hell, or whether someone sees Jesus as a prophet. If you don't see Jesus as who he is, who is God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, then you get it wrong. You get it equally wrong. And so I don't really care whether or not a religion honors Jesus if they are still teaching something that is untrue and damning about who Jesus is. And I'm not really interested in comparing these, comparing these religions. And it's really not a competition. It's not a competition. I have all of these huge fundamental disagreements with Judaism. But thank you to Judaism for not inspiring thousands and thousands of terrorists that are killing Americans and that are oppressing people worldwide. So I don't think that you want to get into a competition about, like, which one is worse theologically and which is producing a worse thing. Islam obviously takes the cake when it comes to sowing destruction and violence and marginalization and oppression. Every single place that it is popularized, not just in the Middle east, but thanks to mass migration in Europe and now in the United States as well. It's just not comparable when it comes to the effect of a particular ideology and I think feel that some people on the right have gotten this really strange brain worm that has made them think that if they're nice about Islam, then the terrorism won't come for you, and it's just not true. We have a short period of time, I think, in the United States to be able to say what is true and to address this head on. Here's. Here's the truth, and we should just all say it. This is something that Charlie used to say, and I think we need to repeat it because it's true. It's as true as two plus two equals four. Islam as an ideology is incompatible with Western civilization because it is a political ideology that is carried out through conquest. If you read Raymond Ibrahim's the Sword in the Scimitar, we've had him on before. Go listen to that interview to learn about the long history of conflict between Muslims and Christians. You will see that the entire history of Islam has been one of war, violence, oppression, conquests. Islam as an ideology, okay, not even talking about every single individual person that you know, but as an ideology, rejects the idea of the imago day, the belief that both Jews and Christians share that all people are made in God's image and are therefore of equal worth. This belief is the basis of the human rights afforded to us in Western civilization and specifically in the United States, the founding document of which state primarily that we were made by a creator who has given us rights that are unalienable simply because we were created by him. It is this belief partnered with a Christian belief of the gospel, which preaches a radically equalizing message of everyone is equally dead in sin and can be equally made alive in Jesus by grace through faith. That radically changed how the world saw and treated people that over time elevated children, women, the poor, the sick, the slaves, the elderly as fully human and entitled to dignity. It is this worldview that abolished slavery that set up the best system of justice and liberty the world has ever seen. And we are giving it up to an ideology that inherently disbelieves and resents that there is a reason still today that slavery and the oppression of women and the sexualization of children thrives in most of the Islamic world. It's not because of poverty. It's not because of a lack of technology. I mean, their natural resources abound. It is because of identity ideology. It is because what we believe informs who we are and what we do. And it is because of this ideology that everywhere there is a high volume of Muslim migrants, there is increased violence, sexual violence, religious persecution. That's not arguable. Again, this does not mean that all of our Muslim neighbors are violent. Not at all. The vast majority of Muslims that we meet will not be violent. Many of them will be kind and we can befriend them, we can love them. We, and we've talked about that several times on this show. We can't share the gospel with them, see the image of God in them, that is just as much in them as it is in us and our children. And be at the same time completely clear eyed about the contradiction between the American way of life and the ideology of political Islam. In fact, we must do that. I think we are obligated to do that. Many forget that one of the first wars engaged by the United States was the first Barbary war against the Islamic Tripoli over piracy against American merchant ships. And we act like this conflict is just because again, of modern American geopolitics, it's not true. There's a long history there. And right now Islam is dominating the west through migration and eventual domination. And our leaders, many of them, are facilitating it. Raymond Ibrahim argues that it was based on agape love, unconditional love that our Christian forefathers fought against Islamic conquest in ages past, literally laying down their lives for the safety of their women, their children and the civilization that God had given them. Remember, we've talked about this a lot. Jeremiah 29:7. It urges the Hebrews in exile to seek the welfare of the city in which they'd been placed. We Christians in exile are called to do the same. And I think part of that is speaking courageously about the ideas about the people, about the ideologies that is going to lead to a more peaceful and stable nation for our children and our children's children. Holding the reality of the imago de in every person, the need for the gospel in every single person and also the collective good of the country in which God has placed us. Like Christians, I think, have to be clear and courageous and loving and merciful and just and orderly all at the same time. That is a tension that most people can't walk. But I think God in his walk word as both love and justice, equips us to do that. I think both the Old and the New Testament give us principles that we can look to, to walk in that tension. And so that's what I strive to do. We all do it imperfectly, Pray for our leaders, for them to have that courage and that gumption and that clarity and that wisdom and that strength to show the agape love, to protect the people that God has entrusted to them while also being merciful and loving and gracious where they are called to do so. The future of our country literally depends on it. All right. Now we're going to move into a domestic issue because as we're dealing with the, the green part of this alliance, we've got the red part of the red green alliance. We've got the Islamist over here and we've got the Marxists over here. And their efforts are different than the Islamists. But the result is still the destruction of Western civilization in the United States. And one way that is done is through the sexualization and the degradation of children. And unfortunately, this time that is being promoted through a book that is being endorsed by Good Morning America. So we've got my good friend Ann Se. She is coming on the show and she is going to be talking about this. This is an issue that she cares about a lot because she runs an account that shows you the good and edifying books that you and your children should be reading. So she's got the lowdown on all of that in just a second. Let me pause, tell you about our next sponsor first, and that is Range Leather. So you've probably noticed that most products that you buy, even expensive products, are just not made well. They scuff up, they break, they don't last. Even though you might have paid of a pair a pretty penny for it or maybe it has a really nice brand on it, but you find out it's just made in the same factory in China that the cheap Amazon version was made. And you don't want that. If you're going to invest in a product, you want to make sure that it lasts. And that's what you're going to get with Range Leather. All of their leather products, their bags, their jewelry, their belts, their hats are made in America by hand in Laramie, Wyoming. That's where Kyle and Bailey live. I have a ton of Range Leather. I love their bag. I take it with me everywhere. The big tote bag, I've got a couple of them, but this is my new favorite. I travel with it. It's so easy to clean. It's so durable. I get compliments on it all the time. So very fashionable and cute but really, really high quality. Good stuff. And so if you want leather goods that last, go to rangeleather.com ally and when you use my link, you will save 10% off all range leather products Go to rangeleather.com ally. And thanks so much for joining the show again. Okay, just as a refresher for some people, tell us who you are and what you do.
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C
Yeah. So I'm the founder of Library for Kiddos. I. My background is in public libraries and what I do is I read, review and recommend books that align with more conservative and Christian values for middle grade and teens. And I help parents navigate their local libraries.
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A
Yeah. And it's not only explicitly Christian books that you're recommending, but you're going through these books and making sure there aren't any like simple subversive themes glorifying things that are like wicked and evil. So if someone's following you, it's not only that you're going to be recommending C.S. lewis, you're just going to make sure that what kids are reading aren't anti biblical. Yes. Yeah, I love that. And you were really shocked that Good Morning America recommended this book by an author named Melissa De La Cruz. She's a number one New York Times best selling author. So that goes to show her young adult fiction is very popular. She wrote a book called Sibylline. Risk it all for Magic, Ruin it all for love, and it was recommended by Good Morning America. Here sought six now with number one New York Times best selling author, Melissa
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C
De La Cruz, who's got her readers
- [36:56]
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spellbound thanks to her latest novel and our GMA Young Adult Book Club pick for February, Sibylline. Okay, tell me about sibling. Why is this troubling?
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C
Well, on a lot of fronts it's described as a dark academia, which is a very popular kind of genre right now. It's marketed to, initially it was marketed to 12 to 17 year olds and it's very problematic because not only does it have magic that dives into the occult, like there's seances, there's like possession of people, necromancy, like the stuff Deuteronomy 18 warns against.
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A
Yeah.
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C
Which is in and of itself not great, especially for that age group. But Also on page 284 there is a very graphic scene of a threesome and it's done on the friend who they think is dead. So not only a threesome, but necrophilia. Like, yeah, I just in and I did. I read it for you so you don't have to. It is horrendous. It's, it's very, very troubling.
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A
Yeah. So this is a character in the book named Atticus and they believe he's dead. You can see that on page 281 it says he's not breathing. He's not moving. He's dead. Atticus is dead. And I'm just warning the people who are listening to this and watching this, like if you've got kids in the car and you don't want them to hear depictions of this. But I just want to be clear about what is actually being depicted. It's not some closed door thing that's happening. Not that that would be okay. But this author depicts this dead person as being anally raped, orally raped, and there's also like vaginal sex. I don't even know what they're called. Sex or rape and ejaculation. Okay, so that is the kind of necrophilia, sexual assault that is being depicted. Not only depicted, but glorified to 11 to 17 year olds. That is the kind of age, age bracket that this book is targeting, right?
- [39:18]
C
Yes. What a lot of people don't understand about young adult is that over half of the people reading young adult are actual adults. We're talking 18 and on. Mainly, I think the, the major age range that that reads young adult is like 28 and over. So publishers know this. Right. There is a study done in 2024 by Harper Collins in the UK, 74% of young adult is being consumed by actual adults and not young adults. Right. Not the, the teen audience.
- [40:02]
A
Right.
- [40:02]
C
That the protagonists are usually the age of. Right. And so to them it's kind of like it's a progression that makes sense. Right. The issue is, of course, that Melissa de La Cruz is known for her middle grade novels as well. So my fear is that parents who are not aware and who have said, well, we've read her Descendants series or her Alex and Eliza series, which is about Alexander Hamilton and his wife. You know, we're, we're just gonna, it's, it's okay to read this book. And it's not, it's just not. And I, and I really warn, I warn parents against young adults. It's why I read so much and, and make lists for teens, because I want them to, I want parents to be able to give to their kids books that are fun to read and appropriate.
- [41:02]
A
Right. You know, there's this whole other trend that we could talk about. Not another trend, the trend that you're talking about, but it extends to other areas too, of adultifying content that is supposed to be for children, but also kind of like infantilizing adults. I think about the phenomenon of the Disney adult and how Disney parks have started to cater to the adults without children that are not just, oh, I'm Just gonna go because I'm in Orlando, but are really obsessive with Disney, that Disney in a lot of ways has become more mature. You see this we talk about from time to time the like, adult doll community that has these conferences with dolls. And so it's this weird thing going on where industries that are supposed to be for children are catering to adults. And so kids have access to more mature and sometimes sexually explicit content or items or whatever it is. But at the same time, adults are becoming more like children and the interest that they have in the activities and the books that they engage in. There's a very disturbing convergence there because the idea of an adult reading a book about teenagers, I assume this is probably about teenagers engaging in rape. I mean, you just, you have to be a very disturbed and I think dangerous person to find that interesting. And the fact that the book industry, the publishing industry is just catering to that is very troubling to me.
- [42:41]
C
Yeah, yeah, it is, it is. And it's not anything new. I, I mean, I've been reading ya like, YA is considered a genre in and of itself. And so I've been reading ya really since like 2013 when I started in libraries. And I've seen this progression. So. And honestly, like, I wasn't surprised when I heard about this story. I was just like, well, yeah, of course they're gonna do that. Everyone should be outraged and everyone should be disturbed. Yeah, but, but it's the natural progression that's been going on since, I mean, honestly since 2010. So 2010 is really when this kind of crossover happened. Like, I'm sure you probably can guess, like the Hunger Games, the Twilight series, all of that was ya. And although it's not like great, it's still pretty appropriate for the core audience, like 13 to 17. Although I don't recommend it for 13 year olds. Don't, Don't. That's not what I'm saying. But the point is, adults found that really appealing. And so in the 2010s is when it really, really started to explode as a genre. And then that progression has just gradually gotten worse.
- [44:03]
A
Do you think Twilight had something to do with that?
- [44:06]
C
Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. Because it was written for teens, but adults loved it. They thought it was great. Like it had its own fan club, right? Its own fan fiction. It just exploded.
- [44:20]
A
Yeah.
- [44:20]
C
So Twilight and Hunger Games is where it really started to. Publishers were like, there's something here, right? There's. This is a moneymaker. This age group is a moneymaker. If we make it appeal to adults. And so that's really, really when it started to get bad.
- [44:38]
A
Yeah. Quick pause to tell you about my very good friends at alliance defending freedom. They are protecting our First Amendment rights. They are protecting our religious freedoms, our freedom of speech. They are protecting the rights of girls and women to compete fairly against other girls and women. They are fighting for clients like our share of the Arrows Award recipient from last year, J. Jessica Bates, a Christian mom who wanted to foster and adopt and was stopped by the state of Oregon because she wouldn't affirm the potential gender identity of an orphan that she was taking into her home. She fought for her or they fought for her. They continue to fight for moms and dads and Christians like this across the country, standing up for our rights to be Christian and to live that out. They've made it all the way to the Supreme Court defending those freedoms and they need your son support to keep fighting on the front lines. Every dollar you donate will be matched by March 31st or actually will be doubled by a special matching grant only while matching funds last. So go to joinadf.com ally make your donation today. Join ADF.com ally. Okay, tell us about the blowback to this because you obviously have been talking about it, but I've seen this talked about in other circles as well. Other outlets have covered this. It's just the people are aghast not only that this exists, but also that Good Morning America put their stamp of approval on it. That is one of the most shocking parts of this story. So what has been the reaction to that?
- [46:20]
C
Yeah, it's, it's not been good. There are publishers always send out arcs, so advanced reader copies to people who have, who are influencers on Instagram who have a large following on goodreaders Reads. And there, there was a ton of blowback before this was even published. People who read the ARCS said, contacted the publishers and said this is not going to fly. This is going to have huge backlash. You need to do something at least at the very least up the age like 17 or older. Right. And the publishers just didn't listen and you didn't see it in that clip. But one of the hosts said I have a 13 year old and I can't wait for her to read this. I don't know if she has read it herself, but the comments were scathing. They're like, don't give this to your 13 year old.
- [47:12]
A
Of course.
- [47:12]
C
I mean people, people who are not even believers that I read. I read a ton of reviews on Goodreads which it's tanking on Goodreads.
- [47:21]
A
Good.
- [47:22]
C
Which is. I'm sorry, Goodreads is like the Amazon database, so you can keep track of what you. You read. And people go in and read reviews on Goodreads. You know, keep track of things kind of like a database. And the average five. Like is five stars. The average review. Star review is one or a two.
- [47:43]
A
Yeah.
- [47:44]
C
And so. And, and this. And when I checked. I didn't check it right before I came on, but I checked it the other day. You can write a review on Goodreads for a while. You couldn't. It was.
- [47:55]
A
It.
- [47:55]
C
There was so much blowback and so many people wanted to write a review that they, like, kind of shut it down. And also Melissa De la Cruz has made her Instagram private. Wow. The publishers have now on their. On their age range, they said 17 and up, but that was before. That was after it was published. That was after all these libraries had their copy with the stamp of approval from Good. Good Morning America. So the, the, the pushback has been extensive. It's been very extensive.
- [48:35]
A
You know, these accidents when it comes to the mainstream media in a variety of ways, but certainly when it comes to the endorsement of particular books and content for children only seems to ever skew one direction. Like, I, I've never seen a controversy where it's like, like, whoops, Good Morning America accidentally endorsed this book that shares the gospel in it. Like, oh, they didn't know that it had biblical themes. It's always like, oh, my gosh, we endorse this book that has necrophilia in it. The rape of a dead teenager. Whoops. It's just. It's like. It reminds me of that Balenciaga scandal that I talked about a few years ago, where it was really weird. They had these bears. This is the convergence that we were just talking about. Like, it had these toys, but that were dressed up in sexual BDSM gear. And the papers that were askew on the desk happened to be the Supreme Court case text of a case about sexual abuse of children material. Okay. And so they were like, oh, whoops, we didn't even see. I'm like, oh, that's so weird that it just happened to be that and it wasn't accidentally the pages of a Bible. It just seems like the mistakes always go one direction, which just feels like less of a mistake and more deliberate. But I am encouraged that there's been so much blowback.
- [50:03]
C
I am, too. It's an. And it's not just Christians. It's not just conservatives. It's, it's really the. If you go and you read some of the reviews on Goodreads Reads, you know, there's this mom who says, I'm not a prude. I'm not a prude. My 14 year old and I talk about sex all the time. I don't mind this, that, whatever it's like, but this does not belong in young adult literature.
- [50:27]
A
Yeah.
- [50:28]
C
And, and review of, and review after review of, of people who are just like, I, you know, I don't have a problem if this was in an adult book, but this is not for young adults. This is not for teens.
- [50:40]
A
Right.
- [50:40]
C
So I, I was encouraged by that as well.
- [50:43]
A
Okay, two questions for you. Parents are like, okay, what do I do? Number one, if they found a book like this in their local library that's in the teen section or is being targeted particularly towards kids, is there anything that you can do as a member of a library?
- [51:00]
C
Yes, yes, yes, yes. But let me first say, don't hide that book. I know it's really tempting to hide that book, but it actually works against you when you do that in a, in a library. If you want to do it in a bookstore or in the general store, fine, go ahead. That's, that's not. Libraries work differently. So what you do is you find out how your library reviews the source, like their collection. I haven't been able to do this yet with this book. The one that I have is from my local library. But what you do is you go in and you show them the title and you say, I want. Would like this to be put under review. What's, what's the process? Usually it's paperwork. You can, you know, some, some libraries, they have it online. Some they have it on a piece of paper that you fill out and you hand back to the librarian. Do it like, graciously. You know how you always say, raise a respectful ruckus? Like, respectful is really key here because most of the people who work in libraries are liberal and they have a view of people with conservative values that they are, they're fighters that they're just going to come in and disrupt. They're people who don't even use the library and they just want to, they just want to mess everything up. So when you go in and you respectfully say, listen, I read this book, on page 284, there is a graphic depiction of necrophilia, of rape and a threesome, and I ask that it be removed from the teen section and put in the adult section. If it can't be removed from the library at all. Most of the time, items are not removed from the library unless they are not checked out for, you know, like a year. And so I would encourage anyone who sees this book at their library to go through that process because that will gain the respect of the librarians. They're like, oh, wow. They, you know, they, they had a problem with this book and they didn't come in with pitchforks. They were very kind and respectful and went through the process that the library has in place for moments like this.
- [53:20]
A
Okay, that's super helpful advice. Thank you for that. And if people want to know the positive recommendations that you give, how can they do that? Sure.
- [53:31]
C
You can find me on instagram @library_4. Like the number four_kiddos. And then you can also see what I have available@libraryforkiddos.com awesome.
- [53:45]
A
Thank you so much, Ann. I really appreciate it. Sure. All right, before we get to our dinosaurs, let me tell you about our next sponsor. And that is every Life. I love every Life. In our home, we use their diapers, their pull ups, their wipes. We've been using them for a couple years. We love that everything is made from super clean materials. Also they really work. You don't have to worry about the blowouts and things like that. Really effective products. And I just love that they're pro life that they support moms, they support pregnancy centers. You can go to their website, everylife.com and buy their buy for a cause bundle. And you're buying baby items and mom items for moms in need. Pregnant moms in need that are served through pregnancy centers. So they are partnering with these life saving pregnancy centers across the country to make sure that moms have what they need. They support all of their pregnant and adopting employees. They are encouraging and praying for new babies from their customers every day. So thankful to get to partner with them. If you go to everylife.com and use code ALI10, you'll get 10% off your first order. That's everylife.com code ALI10. Okay, y', all, we have a new documentary, a documentary miniseries on dinosaur dinosaurs, which I think is so funny to call it a documentary as if we are documenting the dinosaurs that lived so many millennia ago. Now, the reason I'm talking about this, if you're new here and I realize in my new setup we don't have our dino mascots, but maybe you've noticed that I've got little dinosaur ceramic little guys around my set the reason. Reason for that is because many moons ago, Bri and I did an episode about conspiracy theories that we find interesting or parts of the conspiracy theories that we find compelling. And mine was that I don't know about dinosaurs, y'. All. I have literally gotten handwritten letters from people across the country shipped to me somehow or someone who knows me to tell me how disgusting and dangerous and wrong it is that I would dare question paleontology. It I wouldn't be surprised if it was Ross from Friends who sent me this letter. That's how passionate it was. And honestly, it has made me more resolved in my skepticism. It is not that I don't think that giant animals existed a long time ago. It is just that I don't think we know what they looked like and that we don't know what they sounded like. I know we've got fossils and different things like that. We actually don't have any complete fossil of a T. Rex, for example. We're just kind of going a little bit on deductive reasoning and vibes. We definitely don't know that they had scales. We definitely don't know what a pterodactyl sounded like. And we're all just supposed to believe it because the science. All right, so I just want to go through some of these clips. Give us a reaction. Let's put on our critical thinking caps and decide if we think These creatures existed 170 million years ago.
- [57:09]
D
Earth, 66 million years ago, during the great reign of the dinosaurs. Majestic creatures, giants and monsters that can often seem more imagined than real.
- [57:38]
A
That was an Easter egg right there from Morgan Freeman that they seem more imagined than real, because they are. I don't think we have this in the document. And so we'll have to find these and put these up. We put these up before. I want to show you these skeletons of these different animals. Okay. I want to show you a skeleton of an owl, the skeleton of a hippopotamus, the skeleton of a baboon, the skeleton of a chicken. Now, I could have lied to you, and I could have told you this is Triceratops, or I could have told you this is any kind of tops in any kind of sore. I could have told you this is Liposaurus Rex. And you probably would have believed me. You said, wow, if I just put scales on that thing and I put some scary nostrils and some tiny little arms, you probably would have been like, ally, wow, you're such an incredible paleontologist. How did you. You know. But then I would reveal to you now that's just a chicken. That's just a hippo dog. That is not a dinosaur. But we're all just supposed to believe, based on the bones, that this is what a daddy long neck. That's the official name looked like? Here's thought three.
- [59:07]
D
Anky Onus. Yes, he looks a bit like a chicken and he is about the size of one, but he's nevertheless a dinosaur.
- [59:27]
A
Looks like a chicken, huh? Maybe because it is a chicken. Maybe so. There is no way that we knew that this guy had blue fuzz on him.
- [59:41]
C
No way.
- [59:43]
A
Okay, let's go with Ankylosaurus. Never heard of this one before. The Ankylosaurus, they know from the bones, had a passion for singing. SOT 4.
- [59:56]
D
This is the one place where he can truly be himself. His passion is singing. He even has special hollows in his snout that amplify his song.
- [60:28]
A
He is.
- [60:33]
D
So it can be heard far and wide.
- [60:46]
A
We don't know, y'. All. We don't know. This is a hobby for some people, okay? This is a fantasy they have. This is the paleontologist version of Lord of the Rings, okay? This is like these people, they wanted to. They. They just. They. I don't know, they enjoyed Jurassic Park a little bit too much, they Darwin a little too hard, and they came up with this world. And we're all supposed to trust these people. I saw someone on Instagram say, you'll believe in the Ankylosaurus, but you won't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You all believe that the God of all the universe has the power to defeat death and rise from the grave three days after being crucified. But you're like, that's what a pterodactyl looked like. Come on now. You have faith, atheist. You do. You might have more faith in me because you watch this documentary and you're like, this for sure happened. I don't know. Okay? The documentary implies that all species of birds derive their origins from dinosaurs. All birds are dinosaurs.
- [62:00]
D
Not all dinosaurs died. Some were small enough to find shelter from the apocalypse and survive even to this day. The flying dinosaurs we now call the birds. And the clues to their past are hiding in plain sight.
- [62:47]
A
Oh, my gosh, that's so funny. So an owl is one of the examples of a living dinosaur. What did I tell you? If you look at owl bones, it looks like what a dinosaur look like. They're saying, well, yeah, because owls evolved from dinosaurs. What if it was an owl all along? That's all I'm saying. I don't care. Send me your letters. Do your angry videos. I've seen so many people, people who identify as Christians make angry videos. Oh, I agreed with Ali, but this is just too far. Okay, okay, Morgan Freeman. Got it. I don't know, just something about this just makes me a little bit skeptical. Could God do it? Of course he could do it. He can do anything. But first of all, I don't buy this age of the earth. I don't. And I don't believe in macro evolution. And I think that a lot of these people just really like the fantastical idea of these creatures existing. And I think that they were maybe just bigger versions of the animals that we have today. That's my conclusion. You heard it here. Maybe not first, but perhaps most prominently, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. All right, that's all we've got time for today. We will be back here on Friday.
- [64:07]
D
It.