← Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
Ep 1354 | 'Pride Month' Is Here — but Christians Are Gaining Ground
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Happy Noah. Covenant Month, as some people like to call it. Pride Month. We've got an update on the sexual revolution. Unfortunately, wokeness has not gone away, but the tide is turning. So called Pride Month this year looks different than it has in years past. We're going to talk about where we are in this LGBTQ culture war and what Christians are doing about it. Also, we we've got voicemails with some very good questions. We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by our friends at Good ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com American meat delivered right to your front door. Use code Ali at checkout for a discount. Good ranchers.com code ally. Hey guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful and peaceful weekend. I you hope. I promise. We will be talking about Paxton v. Talarico on Wednesday. I really care about how that Texas election turns out and so we will be discussing it. Is it possible for Talarico to take Texas? We'll get into all of that. Also, if you're not signed up for share the arrows, what are you doing? If you're a woman in this audience, if you're just stopping by for the first time, if you're here for the millionth time, come on, join us. You will not regret it. You will leave edified. You will leave taught. You will leave challenged. You will leave so refreshed and refilled. We've got Costi Hin, Shane, and Shane, we've got Rosario Butterfield, Elisa Childers. So many more go to sharethe arrows.com it's brought to you by our friends at Range Leather, October 10th, Dallas, Texas. Can't wait to see you there. All right, well, I've got some news to start off this Monday episode. Maybe some of you have already heard this, maybe you haven't, but God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch. Now, today marks the beginning of what some may refer to as Pride Month. And this is a month where those who call themselves LGBTQ celebrate their sexuality. And that sexuality is conflated with identity. And so today, we will look at where the movement is for America. For worse in some ways, but also for better in other ways. So that we Christians can know how to pray, how to minister, how to speak, how to shine light in the darkness. Now, for Christians, we celebrate today like we do every day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And when we think of pride, we don't think of Pride month. We don't think pride and sexual so called identity. We think of the vice that comes before failure. When we look to the rainbow, we think of God's promise to Noah and to the whole world the that never will he flood the earth again and that he's faithful to keep his promises. When we think of love, we don't follow it up with some kind of circular meaningless mantra is love. We think of that which is never prideful and never boast, never rejoice in wrong and is always patient, it's always kind. We think of God who tells us that he is love first, John 4:8 and therefore he alone has the authority to define it. And when we see this acronym lgbtq, we don't see sexual identities to celebrate. We see image bearers of God who are pursuing what is right in their own eyes to the detriment of their bodies and souls. We see people who are lost as we were all once lost, deceived, as we were all once deceived, and who need the kind of love that points toward Jesus and his truth. We think of Jesus's words in Matthew 19:4 5 which say that God made us male and female in the beginning so that a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two will become one flesh. We remember that we're not nicer than God. So if God says something is good, he says it out of love. If he says something is sin, he says so out of love. If he is love, we can't out love him, we can't out mercy him, we can't out wisdom him, we can't out compassion him. In fact, the most loving thing we can always do is agree with God. And God calls homosexuality and the denial of our God given sex sin and deception. And he calls the creation of male and female in his image. Very good. And he exclusively designates his holy marriage between one man and one woman. Now if you've been listening since maybe all the way back in 2000, I believe it was 18 or 19 that we first talked about this acronym. This will be familiar, but if you it bears repeating. Marriage between one man and one woman is rooted in creation. That's Genesis 1:27. It's reiterated throughout Scripture. Honor your father and mother. That's one example repeated by Jesus. Matthew 19:4 5, representative of Christ and the church. That's incredible. Ephesians 5 and is therefore reflective of the Gospel. So rooted, reiterated, repeated, representative and reflective. So when People say that the Bible doesn't really mean homosexuality. It's not really talking about that. Jesus doesn't really talk about that. There are all kinds of ways that we can try to finagle ourselves into justifying sin by making an argument from absence. First, it's not true. The Bible does talk about these things in the negative sense. But we also read the Bible asking, but what does God define positively? Not just what does God call sin, but what does he call good? And if we love God, we're not just trying to get away with things, we wanna glorify him, then we are trying to align ourselves in our lives as closely to what he calls holy as we possibly can. The Bible starts with a marriage between Adam and Eve, ends with a marriage between the bridegroom and the bride. These are gender specific designations that have eternal significance that's reflected here on earth only between a man and a woman. That's why it's so incredibly sacred. And that is why we don't celebrate Pride Month, because we cannot, we can't by definition love others by affirming sin. And we push back against the darkness of the movement, not because of hate, but because we love God and because it's bad for people, it's bad for children. We love people, we love the family, we love children. And we want what God calls good. We want what he calls good, right and true, not only for ourselves, but for our neighbors. Now remember this, because saying all of this living, all of this will bring with it its fair share of criticism. I know that very, very well, as anyone in the public space who has been talking about this knows. And I just Remember this. Luke 6:26. Jesus says, Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Okay, so it's not just, hey, it's an option if you're a Christian, that everyone's gonna like you. Or maybe like some people aren't gonna like, just, you know, that's just life. No, Jesus actually says, no, it's bad. Woe to you when everyone has something nice to say about you, for so they did to the false prophets. People love when you lie to them. People love when you say things just to make them feel good. People love affirmation of sin. We've probably all been there at one time or another. We don't want to be around the friends, the pastors, the mentors who will tell us what's true, because we want to do what we want to do. And we don't like Conviction. And so we might speak badly of them or think badly of them. Well, Jesus says, woe to you when all people speak well of you. And that's why I just remind myself, and remind you too, not to grade yourself or grade your obedience or grade the word of God by people's reaction to you. Now, we should do everything we can to strive to be gentle and peaceable and kind and loving. But listen, if you speak what is biblically true, there will always be people who accuse you of being hateful and being bigoted and being holier than thou and being self righteous. It really doesn't matter how sweetly you say it. It's not about how you say it for a lot of people. It's really about what you are saying. And if they crucified Jesus, who was full of grace and truth, and they stoned Satan, Stephen, who is full of grace and power, then why do you believe that you have the winsomeness and you have the niceness and charisma to somehow escape the hatred of the world? It's just not going to happen. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Will be persecuted. God loves us. He loves his image bearers. So he created marriage, he created holy sexuality. He created our bodies, he created gender. And he knows better. That's what it comes down to. God knows better. So now that we have our base for all of this, let's dive into the culture war. Because we're not called as Christians just to put our head in the sand. God has placed us in this physical world, in this temporal space for a reason. We know that his eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch. He's gonna gather his church. The gates of hell will not prevail against his church. And yet we have a purpose here, to do the next right thing in faith, with excellence, and for the glory of God, to make this small plot of the earth, this tiny spot of eternity, more like the kingdom of heaven, better, a better place for our neighbors, for the glory of God. Okay, there's lots of ways to do that. Obviously we share the gospel, but we also, for the sake of our neighbors, for the sake of the truth, push back against the darkness. So let's dive into that darkness, but also see what are Christians up to and pushing back against this. So we'll get into that in just a second. Let me pause, tell you about our first sponsor for the day. It's fellowship home loans. 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Back at closing, go to Fellowship Home Loans.com ally Fellowship Home Loans Mortgage Lending by the Book Nationwide Mortgage bankers DBA Fellowship Home Loans equal housing lender NMLS number 81932. Okay, so we as a team decided to dig into. Is all of this stuff just kind of dead? Is it gone? We felt for a while that woke had been defeated. I think a lot of people felt like it was impossible for Donald Trump to win. Then he won. After the craziness of 2020, it felt like for a while that progressivism absolutely was going to dominate. But then we had some really big wins and pushing back against all of it as Christian conservatives. And it was like, okay, these companies seem to be backing up. Well, I have some bad news before I get to the good news. A lot of these places are not backing down at all. In fact, they're doubling down on this. If we look to the city of Boston, this is where we found some of just the most atrocious and ridiculous things. I mean, some of these things are just absurd and we had to include them just so you know that like sin induces insanity too. If we look at the Boston Public Library, it's hosting 19 Drag Queen Story time events. I had to double check that. 19 Drag Queen Story time events for children during Pride month. So we've got a picture right here. This is the advertisement Boston Public Library specifically for kids Drag Queen story hour time with Miss Patty suitable for children 18 months to 5 years old. Now, when you think about what a drag queen is, it is a man with prosthetic breasts, with fake nails, with huge hair, with lots of makeup performing in this Case for children. Now, what good reason do we have to present a cross dressing man that uses a character version of femininity to perform to children? Like, what good reason do we have for that? There is something inherently sexual and about drag. Don't let anyone tell you different, that it's just about inclusion. It's just about something different. Showing kids that it's okay to be different. No, it's sowing confusion and it is sowing seeds of weird sexuality from a very early age. There's no good reason for it. If we look at Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, she is so far left. So she has an office of LGBTQ advancement. She is holding a Trans Period Pride event. Now, I again, had to just do a double take there. Yeah. Okay. You see it. You see the advertisement, and I'm like, trans period. Surely we're talking about, like, the trans era, like the tr. The trans, like, period of time. No, we're talking about menstruation. No, we need to put back up the picture so everyone can see what this is. This is an event to discuss menstrual equity and the experiences of transgender menstruators. Now, that might have just put your brain in a pretzel, because we're like, who are we talking about? We're talking about women who identify as men still have their uterus and their eggs, and so they're having periods, I suppose. Okay. I don't know why they need to be spoken to about tampons and things like that. Or are we talking about the men that I've seen on social media who claim because of the synthetic hormones that they're taking to try to look more like women, that they have some kind of menstrual cycle, even though you don't have a uterus or eggs or any ability to menstruate. I don't know. I bet you're probably going to get a mixed bag. So it says, join Mass now in the MA Trans political coalition for a consciousness raising discussion of menstrual equity and the experiences of trans menstruator. So I guess it's men who. No, no. Women who identify as men. And don't worry, you get free period underwear provided to all attendees. It's funny, but it's sad. It's actually really sad. Like what these women go through to try to change their bodies and not be a woman. I think that most women who identify as men, they went through some sort of trauma, some sort of sexual trauma. They're trying to run away from that with their bodies, and it's very sad. Last month, Mayor Wu unveiled a program that provides vouchers for self care mental health services to LGBTQ migrants. Specifically, the priority is for low income, trans and isolated LGBTQ plus migrants in Boston. Now, how many transgender people are headed here from Nigeria? I don't know. I assume that the number is going to increase, though, once you realize that you can get free stuff if you start identifying as a low income, isolated, queer and trans migrant, asylum seeker and refugee. Okay. This is all funded by the taxpayers in Boston. I just want to remind you of that. As of this month, the city faces a budget deficit of nearly $50 million. But, sorry, the transgender people need their period underwear. The queer asylum seekers need their yoga classes. Okay? So fork over your money, truck driver. This June, we also see that stores are still offering Pride. So there was that huge backlash against Target. You'll remember that, because they went absolutely wild. They were like. They also felt. I think the left also felt, we have won forever and ever. Okay? And they decided to sell things. Like, I don't even want to explain it, but this is what they were selling and even marketing some of this stuff to children packing underwear. Okay? So if you're a woman who identifies as a man. Compression tops. If you're a woman who identifies as a man, talking like swimsuits. If you're a man who identifies is. It's so ridiculous. We're talking about Target, who sells, like, Chip and Joanna Gaines stuff. We're talking about mostly suburban Christian women who are frequenting these stores selling the craziest stuff you can imagine. Well, I went to Target for, like, the first time in three years last year, and I went to two targets in Southern California in June. There were zero Pride items, lots of Fourth of July items, zero Pride items. So these companies. We'll get into Target in a second. Have dialed things back, but not completely. Not 100%. In fact, if we look at a store like Michael's, they are offering an entire Pride collection of LGBTQ merchandise. Okay? They've got lots of stickers that they're selling at Michael's. In case you're doing a project where you need these things. You can see them protect trans kids. That's the. One of the most subversive to me when we're talking about children going through chemical castration and being told that they're the opposite sex. I mean, how evil. There's another one. It's a raccoon. How do people come up with this? It's a raccoon holding a banner that says Be gay, do crime. I don't know, I don't understand. Okay, here's one, Michaels. Okay. Where you're getting your paint and your stuff for school projects. Here's an AR15 in front of a pride flag and it says defend equality. So Michaels, I guess is in favor of murder if you do not align with the idea that a man can become a woman and can enter girls bathrooms. Okay, Michaels. Shout out Hobby Lobby. Shout out Hobby Lobby. Because Hobby Lobby is, you know, selling Christian items. Sells my book, thank you, Hobby Lobby, both of my books. And actually sells things that you would want to buy if you're a crafty person. Michaels. I don't know. I don't know who they're catering to here. Also, there's an elementary school in New Jersey that's hosting Pride on the Playground, an event for children on school grounds and promoting it on the website. Also very strange, very weird. Celebrate diversity, inclusion and community together. I think that these pride events that are targeting kids, it's just strange. Back in September, you might remember there was a boycott movement against Netflix. There have been a few over the years when X users started posting clips from multiple children's shows on Netflix that were platforming gay and trans characters without telling you that, by the way, they're G rated and you don't know, but they're calling people, they them calling women, he, him, things like that. Here's an example. This is from a supposedly a children's show called Dead end Paranormal Parks at 1.
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It's not the park, it's. It's me. I'm trans Norma. And everyone at school, school knows and everyone at home knows. And being here, it's like a whole new place. I can just be Barney and I can choose if and when I tell people. I've never been happier. And that's saying something. When I spent today chased by terrifying zombie mascots, Pugsley reminded me how important it is to live your life without apology. So I think I gotta give living here a shot, don't you?
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You don't need my permission. So sad. It's so sad. Fostering that kind of confusion for kids. There's also Ada Twist, scientist and friends. It's got a gay wedding in there. Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous features that. And then you have Coco Melon Lane has gay dad singing to their son who is dancing in a dress. Very subversive. And again, I just think sad. Now Elon Musk called his 230plus million followers on X to cancel their subscriptions. Now I do believe that Elon Musk actually believes that he also has beef with the guy who runs Netflix or started Netflix. So that's probably a part of what's going on there. But we definitely have to be extremely vigilant and what we are allowing our kids to consume. You can't just assume that because it's rated G or because it's Coco Melon or because it's Paw Patrol or because it's any of these things that it's going to be fine, that it's going to be innocuous. Like if you're going to allow your child to watch something, you should at least say, look, you're not going to watch that one unless I watch it. That's the most important thing. But also you could be like, we're not going to watch things after 2017. Things got really, really weird after that and we just can't trust it. So how did this really start? I mean, how did we go from, okay, we just want these partners to be able to visit each other at the hospital to now pushing drag queens and transgenderism on little kids, on toddlers? We'll get into that in just a second. Let me pause, tell you about our next sponsor for the day. It's seven Weeks Coffee. Now this is a way you can actually spend your dollars to align with your values. Unfortunately, a lot of these major coffee companies, they're paying for abortions. They are definitely donating to the so called trans kids cause. And if you don't want to be a part of that, you want your caffeine to serve a higher purpose, then you should switch to seven Weeks Coffee. It's really good, we drink it, it's pesticide free, mold free. Really great flavor, really high quality. But the best part is they donate 10 of every sale to pregnancy centers across the country donated well over a million dollars to these pregnancy centers who are saving lives every single day. I love them. They're the real deal. If you subscribe to 7 weeks coffee, you'll save 15 on your orders. Plus when you use my code ally, you save an extra 10%. So lots of savings. Plus they're donating those dollars to those pregnancy centers. Go to seven weeks coffee.com use promo code ALI seven weeks coffee.com code ALI. So all of this has really happened in a matter of 10 to 11 years. Isn't that crazy? Like when we think back to 2014, doesn't seem like that long ago. Graduated from college in 2014 and yet I remember distinctly conversation that I had with some friends at school about whether gay marriage, so called, would ever be legalized. And I remember us talking about the implications of that and the consequences of that. And, you know, a few years later, people would have thought that our conversation sounded like a bunch of cavemen of talking about ancient Rome and how Rome fell and all of that, and that would never happen. Well, the slippery slope was way more slippery than any of us could have ever thought. I mean, that conversation that we were having in college was actually true. But there no way we could have foreseen in 2014 the consequences of redefining marriage. But of course, it makes sense when you say a husband can become a wife or a wife can become a husband, essentially what you're saying is that men and women are interchangeable, that they're essentially the same. And so if you're saying a husband can become a wife and vice versa, then why can't a man become a woman? And there are some people who will say, okay, I'm okay. The LGBT or the LGB all makes sense, but it's without the T. It's the same math. If a husband can become a wife, a man can become a woman, and vice versa. But if there is a distinction between man and woman, there's a distinction between husband and wife, and there's distinction between mother and father. But when we redefined marriage, we redefined gender, we redefined parenting, and that has implications not only on our perception of reality, has implications for women's rights, women's spaces, women's scholarships, has implications for children. It has implications for how we create children, how we parent children. And I don't think the Supreme Court understood that at the time, but that slope, I mean, we slid down it really quickly. It was a 5, 4 decision, so pretty close, that ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees same sex couples the fundamental right to marry and required all states to both license and recognize those marriages. Now, if you are perceptive, you might think, gosh, the 14th Amendment has been used to create a lot of rights out of thin air, like abortion. It was the same thing with Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade was overturned. And so some people were afraid when Roe v. Wade was overturned that that might also mean that Obergefell is overturned. And I don't know that is something that could possibly happen. Now. The Supreme Court would never rule on whether or not it is moral for two men to marry each other. That's not their job. Their job is to rule whether or not something is constitutional. And many people would argue, as Clarence Thomas would argue and did argue, this is not constitutional. Under Trump's first term, the progressive message escalated with activism, like the 2017 Women's March. Many companies and organizations were bullied into accepting the progressive rhetoric around gender, race, equity. But even in 2017, when we were talking about socialism and feminism, like, those were the two big things, we weren't really talking about transgenderism very much. It just seemed so far out. We weren't as concerned with all of this LGBTQ indoctrination of children. I. We talked about it some, but it just wasn't, like, the center of our concern. But then we entered what we will call the peak woke era. So wokeness seemed to peak around 2020 to 2022. Like, that's. I. I think back to those times, and I'm like, I've seen things. Like, I've been through some stuff. Like, I feel a little traumatized by that era, but also a lot stronger, because if you were someone, someone during that time, which, you know, we've all learned and changed. So I'm not judging if, like, your journey has been, you saw the light sometime after that, but if you went through 2020 already with eyes wide open, you really saw some things. If you didn't post the black Square and you didn't fall for the narrative, the complete narrative surrounding George Floyd, you didn't assent to the BLM rhetoric, specifically within the evangelical church. You rejected the white guilt and the narrative of systemic racism in America. You also said, at the same time in the same month, I'm also not celebrating Pride Month. And then at the same time in the same month, you're like, no, you're not making me wear masks. Like, you had to stand really strong on so many things. So I just want to give a fist bump to all of you who are there with me, because that was a tough time and things got really crazy. So let's just. I know it's traumatizing. Let's just hearken back to that. Let's remember some of the insane insanity that was going on. And honestly, a lot of these things that I just discussed are seen in this one video. And I'll just tell you, I'm not loving it. Sought to. I'm Amara Jones, founder of Translash Media. In this Black Lives Matter moment, black trans women have a very simple message. Stop killing us. We can't expect others to care about us more than we care about ourselves. We're all free or none of us is. Okay? So that was McDonald's. McDonald's decided that instead of fixing their ice cream machine, they are going to Put this video out. I mean, I won't even go through just, like, everything that's wrong with it, though. So this was a black person who identifies as trans. All we needed there was, like, a mask or something just to typify everything that was going on in this moment. Under the Biden administration, schools were pressured to push LGBTQ curricula, let transgender individuals into women's spaces. In sports. You'll remember it. I'll never stop talking about this. They use the Department of Agriculture, the usda, to take away SNAP funds. So that is what funds free lunches and breakfast for poor students in public schools and even in private schools. And they took that funding away from schools who said, yeah, we're not going to let boys into girls bathrooms. Or those schools kowtowed to them and said, okay, we will, because we need these poor kids to get breakfast and lunch. So it was more important to the Biden administration that boys can go into girls bathrooms than poor kids get fed. Okay, don't tell me about how progressivism and Democrats care about the poor and care about the marginalized. I'm so tired of that. That. Oh, yeah, well, Republicans get this right, but Democrats care about all these. But no, they don't. No, they don't. It's just about LGBTQ for the most part, and climate change and anything that can be used as a vector for more power. So in this environment, corporations pushed woke LGBTQ messaging into every corner of life. And this is when, like, Target, for example, became so audacious during peak woke. And then there was the children's show Blues Clues. They featured a Pride parade in 2021 that included trans animals and drag queens. Got three. Hey, Blue. Look at all these families. Hi, families. It's time for a pride parade. Families marching one by one hurrah, hurrah Families marching one by one hurrah, hurrah this family has two mummies they love each other so proudly and they all go marching in the big parade. Notice the Communists, like a black power fist on the drag queen's microphone with the lesbian crocodiles for Blue's Clues. You just got a letter. Blue's Clues. It's from me. Shut yourself down also, Bud Light, because most of their consumer base is loving things like this. Had Dylan Mulvaney. This is a man who thinks that he's not only a woman, but calls himself a girl. Remember, he had the whole series Days of Girlhood and very often would dress like a child. Okay. And we were all just supposed to accept that and think that's okay. And then Bud Light was like this. This is it. This is our spokesperson. Now, Dylan, we need you to dress up like Audrey Hepburn with a really heavy smokey eye, and we need you to talk about our beer. Okay? So that's what was going on. And that was just a couple years ago. And the reason why there was so much backlash is because that was like the end of the peak woke era. And Bud Light of all. Of all companies did not. Did not realize that. So after all of that, okay, just so much we could have. I mean, we could go on and on and on, and we did. We had so many episodes about this, just how hard they were pushing. We had all of these hospitals that they were admitting that they were doing surgeries on children to or on minors, rather, double mastectomies, all kinds of genital mutilation, chemical castration on these kids who thought they were the opposite gender, even illegally. There were a lot of people, especially people like Matt Walsh, who blew the whistle on those things. We have Vanessa Savage, Dr. Ethan Heim, who did the same thing down in Houston, who blew the whistle on all of this happening. And that really is what marked the shift back saying, okay, you know what? We were sympathetic. A lot of people were sympathetic to the argument that you've got two people who love each other. We don't agree with their relationship, but they want to visit each other in the hospital. They want some of the same rights. Okay. I'm not saying Christians should have been sympathetic to the redefinition of marriage, but that was. A lot of people were able to comprehend that, but it went too far, too fast. So over the last several years, conservatives have pushed back, Christians have pushed back and really have had success in pushing back against LGBTQ activism and the broader culture wars. You can actually see that shift showing up in public opinion, in state laws, in corporate behavior, and even major institutions. So we'll get into that in just a second. Let me take a quick pause and tell you about our next sponsor, and that is Shopify. So if you've ever had an idea. Idea for a business, or you're a creator, you're an artist, and you want to sell your stuff, but you're like, you're not a tech person. You don't know how to set up an E commerce site, or maybe you don't have the time or the capacity, and so it just kind of paralyzes you. Let Shopify help. They know how to build a store. They know how to take payments. They know how to find customers. They know how to handle shipping and all of that. And that is why Shopify has become the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world. Shopify gives you hundreds of ready to use templates so you can build a beautiful online store that fits your brand. They've got powerful AI tools that help write product descriptions, create page headlines, even improve product photos. Plus you can run email and social campaigns to reach customers wherever they're scrolling. They really do make it so easy. That's how we sell relatable merch as well. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify. Sign up for your one per month trial today@shopify.com Alli that's shopify.com Ally. So before 2015, the majority of people were actually against homosexuality. They were against what is called gay marriage. And the reason why I say so called gay marriage, or quote unquote, gay marriage is because marriage is defined and instituted by God. You can't redefine it as something other than what God calls it. And so that's why I just have a hard time with that language, because it seems like validating something that God doesn't actually call marriage. But it's crazy to think that only 11 to 12 years ago that people, most people in the country were like, yeah, not on board with that. But after 2015, things changed. So actually the law and Supreme Court decisions, they're not necessarily downstream from culture. Like what the culture thinks about things can sometimes be downstream from the law and Supreme Court decisions. But Gallup polling recently showed for the first time in decades that the support for gay marriage peaked in 2022, 71%. And now it's dipped slightly to around 68%. So not a huge dip. I'm not saying, oh my gosh, the support is absolutely crumbling. But the fact that it's dipped at all for the first time in decades, I do think is notable. Republican support for same sex marriage is now at its lowest point since Gallup started tracking the issue nearly three decades ago. So as low as it was 30 years ago, when it comes to trans issues, the movement in public opinion has been much more pronounced. So this is the one that has made people just turn around and say, wait, how did we get here? Pew Research found that a majority of Americans, about 56%, now support banning gender transition, so called procedures for minors, which is a 10 point increase since 2022. That's great. We need it to be way higher. Those are rookie numbers, 56%. It's got, it's got to be 106%, obviously. But I'm surprised that it's not like 90%. Honestly, I think that if most of the public knew what this entails and really thought about it, most of these issues a lot of people just don't know about, they don't think about. I think if they really knew what was going on. But 10% jumps in 2022 since peak woke. That's great. Let's keep going. What's especially significant is that support for these restrictions has also risen among Democrats. Even among Democrats, support for limiting these procedures for minors has increased noticeably in just a few years. Same thing with so called trans athletes. Pew found that 66% of Americans favor requiring trans athletes to compete based on birth certificates sex, with similar majorities on bathrooms and facilities. It's interesting that even more Americans want that fairness and sports than they want to ban these procedures. And this is not just limited to conservatives. Support for these positions has grown across party lines and then we see Republicans really taking a stand. Whereas I don't know that a few years ago Republicans would have been brave enough to say this, to come right out and say, look, we're not celebrating Pride Month. We are celebrating the family. So Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has signed a resolution declaring June Nuclear Family Month as an alternative to the usual Pride Month. So the resolution reads like this. The nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife and any biological, adopted or foster children, is God's design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world. I love that. That's from Tennessee House of Representatives. Whereas the nuclear family is under attack in our beloved state and nation. And it is our responsibility to uplift, protect and support values that help Tennessee prosper. That's amazing. So if you're in Tennessee, celebrate Nuclear Family Month. Celebrate the family that God created that he calls good. Nearly half the states in the country have now passed laws banning health care providers from giving minors puberty blockers, cross sex hormones or gender mutilating surgeries. In 2025 alone, several states expanded or strengthened those laws, some even imposing penalties on medical providers who perform the procedures. On top of this, The Trump administration's January 2025 executive orders explicitly have barred federal funding, promotion or support for child so called transitions. Nearly 30 states now require school sports participation to be based on your sex. Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reached a groundbreaking settlement with Texas Children's Hospital that requires the facility to establish the nation's first dedicated D transition clinic. You'll remember Vanessa Savage, our Share of the Arrows Award winner at share the arrows 2024. Also she's been on the show. She was part of the whistle blowing that happened there. The Texas Children's Even after those procedures were banned, they were still giving cross sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors who were confused about their gender. And so Attorney General Ken Paxton went after them and and said as a part of the settlement, okay, now you have to have a clinic that helps those who are de transitioning. I mean praise God. That's amazing. It also orders the hospital to pay $10 million for improperly billing Texas Medicaid for prohibited and illegal gender transition procedures, including the use of false diagnosis codes. So you'll remember. Good job Vanessa. That is something that she blew the whistle on and talked about on this show. And gosh, I just think about all of this and I think about our phrase, another alliteration that we have used so much for so many years. Polit matter because policy matters. Because people matter. Politics affects policy. Policy affects people and people matter. Why should Christians engage in the culture war? Because it does something. Because we are to pursue justice. I I hear Micah 6, 8 used so much by so called progressive Christians. Seek justice, love, mercy. This is seeking justice and loving mercy. Okay, like progressives don't have a monopoly on that verse. We define justice and mercy as God defines it, not as the world defines it. This is seeking justice and mercy on behalf of these kids who are being victimized by profit hungry doctors and therapists and in some cases well meaning or lunatic evil parents who are pushing them into these irreversible procedures and causing all kinds of confusion. This is why Christians speak up. This is why you're brave in the workplace. This is why it is worth sometimes being the only person or the first person to say no. This is wrong one because it obeys God and it glorifies God. But also you don't know what God can do through the mostly unseen and unsung acts of obedience by Christians. This is how he works. Praise God for that. And sometimes it takes a long time. Like with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It took 50 years of Christians pushing back against that. The corporate world, we see similar stuff. The Bud Light partnership with Dylan Mulvaney triggered a sustained boycott. They completely reversed. They really tried to get those blue collar southern people back. A Target scaled back visible pride displays and DEI initiatives after the 2023 backlash. Like I told you Southern California June last year. I saw no pride stuff in Target. If you go online you still see Pride stuff, but it's way toned down. No packing underwear and all of that crazy stuff. If you type in Pride, like kids clothes on Target, nothing comes up. They're being extremely careful. They're dialing it down a lot. They're not nearly as extreme as Michael's. It's going to be Michelle's before we know it. So Target at least understands the economics at play here. They understand who their consumers are. They're not completely going back on it, but they are. They have dialed it back because of you. Because of me? I'm not saying me in particular, but because of people like us saying, no, no, I can. I can get stuff elsewhere. No, I still wish. I still wish that Chip and JoJo had been like, yeah, you're. You're promoting the genital mutilation of children to people, and we don't want to be a part of that. Now, that would have made a really major statement. Unfortunately, that has not happened yet. Tractor supply, cracker barrel, all kinds of crazy stuff. They've kind of dialed it back and done an about face. A lot more cautious. According to Gravity Research, as of last June, about two in five corporations were decreasing recognition of Pride Month due to reputational risks. Wow. Wow. That's crazy. Now we also see that there's a big push among conservatives, the renewed push that I would say to overturn Obergefell, namely by Katie Faust, founder of Them Before Us. She was a speaker at Share the Arrows last year, and she has been on the show several times. She's just so clear and so courageous. For decades, it seemed like we would never overturn Roe v. Wade. That happened because of lawmakers and activists and pregnancy centers and podcasters and all kinds of people working together to push for what is good legally for children inside the womb. And now we have Katie Faust, who has been outspoken about wanting to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. She has argued that the decision has hurt children by separating them from their right to have both a mother and a father. She was on a pro LGBTQ podcast recently, making her case Top four. We actually enshrined a version of the family that excludes a child's mother or father. And we said it is now unconstitutional to elevate the one family form where they do not have to lose their mother or father to be in it. There's a difference between permitting and promoting. And Obergefelt promoted a form of family that excludes one or both natural parents of a child. Katie is amazing, and you should follow her. You should follow them before us she talked a lot about this in her talk last year for Share the Arrows. And she's just so good. And she is leading this coalition now, this project called Greater Than. And it's based on the idea that children's needs and rights are greater than adult wants, feelings or political goals. She talks a lot about IVF and surrogacy and sperm and egg selling. And this all centers for her on the rights and the well being of a child. Her campaign originally had the support of 47 conservative and Christian organizations working together to challenge same sex marriage legally and culturally. This is according to the Seattle Times. It now has a hundred. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, same sex marriage support among young Americans 18 through 29 has seen a gradual decline since 2018. 79% of young Americans supported this right to 71% today. So we'll see. It's not really about public opinion as much as what is constitutional and of course for the Christian, what is right. Kids do have a rights to a mom and dad. And it's different in an adoption situation versus a surrogacy situation. The ideal for any child is to be with their biological mom and dad. But surrogacy, and I'm not only talking about when it comes to gay surrogacy, but surrogacy in general creates that broken situation of separating that child from their parent, from the gestator. And then adoption redeems an already broken situation. But whether it's adoption or surrogacy or whatever, all of those children have a right to a mom and dad, if not their own mom and dad. Men and women are interchangeable husbands and wives. Moms and dads are not interchangeable. God made us and said that is very good and God knows best. All right, I want to get to some voicemails that you guys sent me. One of them actually, about IVF and something that came up during your Bible study. And then another one about having a child with autism and being scared to have more kids. So stick around for that. Let me go ahead and pause and tell you about our next sponsor for the day, and that is Preborn. What a fitting sponsor. This is yet another way that we can honor life, that we can serve mothers, that we can try to save as many lives and share the gospel as much as possible. Preborn clinics provide free ultrasounds, all kinds of free resources to pregnant moms in need. They offer free sonograms. The cost of a free sonogram is $28. And they use our donations to be able to give those free sonograms. So if you can donate $28, you cover the cost of a life saving ultrasound so that woman can see that that baby inside her womb is a true life. And if you can donate more than that, then you can cover the cost of even more. Maybe you could only donate $2, but every little bit counts. This audience loves life and loves protecting these baby lives. So be a part of this. Go to preborn.comallie make your donation today. That's preborn.comalli. All right, let's play Voicemail one.
- [46:41]
C
Hi. So my church small group this past week brought up ivf and is it okay? Most of the people in the group had no idea what IVF was. If they did, it was very positive. I was the only one that was probably the most equipped to talk about ivf because I listened to the podcast. I kind of gave my spiel of beliefs and that we should not agree with ivf. But I think some of the other ladies general consensus came down to, well, we're going to pass these eggs anyway through periods and whatnot, so what does it matter if we take some of them and give them a chance at life? And then another lady figured, you know, in the end it's God who makes the call anyway, whether the embryo grows or not. So it's really, we can do what we want with embryos, but it's God who gives life. And I really didn't know what to say after that. So I would just like some more clarification on your take on ivf.
- [47:53]
A
Well, thank you so much. That's such a great question that so many people have curiosities about. And I did too, a few years ago before I started researching it. And good for you for saying something because it can be really hard to be the only one in a room, especially about a sensitive topic like that and say, actually I've got a different perspective. So this is what I would say is that God does give life, but that does not justify all means by which we create life. God gives the life that is conceived outside of marriage too, and he also gives the life that is conceived through rape. But that does not mean that he condoned sexual promiscuity or rape. So it's not a good argument to say, well, if the life comes about, the means of conception must have been God's will. God brings good things out of bad choices all the time, but that doesn't make those bad choices good. There is also, I think, in this, in what some of these ladies were saying just A huge misunderstanding about biology. And an unfertilized egg which dies during your menstrual cycle is not life. That egg only becomes life when it is fertilized by sperm. And at the moment of fertilization, that is a unique human life. After that moment, everything we do with that unique human life matters because he or she is an image bearer of God. Trying to say that that human life, as some people do, is not really life yet, or that they're not an image bearer of God, or they don't have a soul yet, that just gets into really murky territory that really makes us sound like the pro abort. While not all human life is a person, not all human life really matters. The safest and most biblical perspective is at the moment that human life is created at fertilization, that little human being matters, and how we treat them matters. And that's why I'm against ivf, because it is an ends justify the means approach to having kids. And it risks mistreating image bearers of God. The typical, now hear me, typical IVF process. If this was not, if not everything I say here was your IVF process, you don't have to, you don't have to tell me, because I know that there are some exceptions to this, but let me just tell you. The vast, vast majority of in vitro fertilization processes go like this. They involve pumping a woman's body with synthetic hormones which have the potential, by the way, to cause breast and ovarian cancer. This induces ovulation. Then several eggs are harvested, usually. Then thereafter, there is porn induced masturbation from the father that is then used to fertilize the eggs in a lab, creating six or more embryos, many of which are discarded without even consulting the parents. Because some embryos will have genetic anomalies like down syndrome. Then you freeze the remaining embryos. Then you transfer the gender of the embryo that is chosen by the parents. They can say, I want a girl first, I want a boy first, and so on and so on until the parents have decided that they're done. And then often, often you have remaining embryos because they're almost always remaining embryos. They're frozen indefinitely because the parents can't bear to do anything else. Or they're thawed until they die. Or in better circumstances, they might be adopted, maybe sometimes by friends, in very rare circumstances, often by strangers. There are well over a million frozen embryos in freezers right now across the country. And these fertility clinics are raking in the dollars from these storage fees. Because the parents maybe didn't want more than two, or the parents wanted a different gender than the ones left over. Paris Hilton had created a dozen boys. She wanted a girl. So she needed to create more and use a surrogate to carry that baby. There's so many different layers to this. Or maybe those babies are in a freezer because the parents died or they got divorced, or maybe the mother had to have a hysterectomy and she can't have anymore. And in a lot of these cases, these were Christian parents who went in not wanting to do away with any life and wanting to just have babies. And they did not realize and were not told from the beginning all of the consequences that can come with ivf. And these little embryos inside the womb, they're people. And even when parents with the best intentions start ivf, they can unintentionally put these little people, these embryos, at risk, inducing the creation of life. Knowing these moral risks exist is very different than the natural but tragic process of a miscarriage. Because your intention there, your knowledge there, is obviously to create life and to carry the life, and obviously natural death happens. But IVF creates a lot more risk. Anytime you take sex, outsider, procreation outside of sex, you are going to have some moral and ethical risk there. So I would never encourage ivf, no matter what. I know that there are some rare cases where you're working with a Christian doctor and they promise never to do away with any embryos. I'm just telling you, in every circumstance of ivf, things happen that you didn't foresee, that you didn't intend, and you're left in this impossible situation that I have talked many of you through that. Oh, my gosh, I'm a Christian. I see that what I did was really difficult. But I have these two beautiful kids and I have six embryos left. I can't have any more kids than. I don't know what to do. It's tough, and I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. Your children through IVF are made in God's image, just as valuable as anyone else. However, I would never, ever, ever encourage a couple to go through IVF because of the risk to them, because of the risk, first and foremost, to the child. All right, let me get to this, to this second great question in just a second. Let me pause. Tell you about our last sponsor first, and that is NetSuite. So every business right now is asking the same question. What do you do about AI? Is this going to be bad? Is this going to Be good. Is there a way that we can use AI to make things work for us, to make things better? Honestly, the possibilities are endless and guessing is just too risky. And that's why you need a need net suite by Oracle. NetSuite is the number one AI cloud ERP trusted by over 43,000 businesses. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, your inventory, commerce, HR and CRM into a single source of truth. That connected data is what makes your AI smarter. So it doesn't just guess. It knows it can automate routine tasks. It could deliver actionable insights. It helps you cut costs and make fast AI powered decisions with confidence. You've got total flexibility. I think this is a really good use of AI. So you can do what only you can do as a human and be creative and grow your business. And this automates the tasks to make all of that easier. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get their free business guide demystifying AI at netsuite.com ally that guide is free to you at netsuite.com alli. All right, let's listen to our final voicemail.
- [54:46]
C
Voicemail 2 hi Allie, I just had a question, or maybe I'm just looking for encouragement. I feel like I kind of already know the answer just from like reading my Bible and everything, but I don't know. So I have an old, my oldest son, he has special needs, he has autism. He's only three, so I don't really know what direction he's going to. He's not necessarily severe, but it's just hard to say. And then I have a second son who, typical, he's only 16 months, but that seems to be the direction he's going. And I really, really want another baby, but I'm just scared and I'm trying not to live in fear. Like I said, I feel like I already know the answer, like I should just do it. But maybe I'm just looking for that encouragement. I'm. I'm scared to take the attention away from my oldest because we work with him a lot, we take him to therapy a lot and I'm already struggling to balance my typical son and my special needs son. But I want to grow my family and I'm scared I'm going to be 60 one day and wish I had that third baby, but third, fourth, so on. But I don't know. I just wanted to call and ask you because I love when you're talking about family and how we should keep having babies, but this always is my like exception to the role in my mind, but I feel like it's not biblical. So thank you. Bye.
- [56:26]
A
Well, I know this was probably a hard question to ask because there's just a lot of different vulnerable layers there. I'm not going to be the person that's going to say you should always keep having children no matter what. I think the rule is, yes, that God wants us, when we can, to have children. I think adoption is beautiful. I think fostering is beautiful. I think having biological kids, biological kids is beautiful. We are told to be fruitful and multiply. And yes, I do think that there are situations in which we employ wisdom and say, not right now. And I think that there are moral ways to try to stop pregnancy or to prevent pregnancy from happening. I against all hormonal contraception because it can eliminate the life of a child who has already been fertilized but hasn't been implanted yet. So I would never recommend that. But they are much more natural and moral means to actually prevent fertilization. I know that's not what you're asking. I just wanted to say that there, in case anyone is concerned, that I would be promoting hormonal birth control. But I don't think that Christians are bound to get pregnant every single year. I don't think that Christians have the obligation to have a dozen kids no matter what. I just want to encourage you that you are basically postpartum right now. Okay, 16 months maybe it seems like a long time ago to you. I've got three kids. It's not a long time ago. You don't have to make this decision right now. You have a lot that is in front of you that is on your plate. You are taking care of a son who right now requires probably a lot of your mental and physical energy. I mean, a three year old boy anyway requires a lot of physical and mental energy. Then you got a toddler. Those are two very energy requiring ages, especially when it comes to boys. Don't put so much pressure on yourself right now to make the decision in this moment. You know, there were times definitely when I was in the midst of postpartum, when I was recovering from C sections, when I was recovering from my V back, that I was like, you know, I've talked about this before, I just can't do it. I'm just scared of birth, I'm scared of what it'll, what I'll have to go through and all of that. I think that those were legitimate fears. I think it was okay for me to think that and to worry about that. And. But as time goes on, your perspective changes, your season changes, what your kids need changes. You might feel differently in a year. So that's what I'll say. I. I will say that you don't have to make that decision right now. And I would be talking to godly mentors in your life. I'd obviously be praying, I'd obviously be talking with your husband about this. And I wouldn't make the decision based on, oh, my goodness, is God going to take care of my family? Oh, my goodness, is God going to take care of my son? You know that he's going to take care of you no matter what. But I would simply assess where you are and what is required of you in the moment. And I know that's not a hard and fast answer, but I just can't tell you, not knowing every single facet of your situation and exactly what it looks like with your son. Yes, you should try to have a child right now. No, you should wait two years. I would say give yourself. Give yourself a little bit of grace and a little bit of time. I mean, two kids in two years, That's. That's a lot. That's a lot. You're going through a lot right now, and I think you might feel differently in a few months or a few years. And I think God will be faithful to give you the conviction and give you the peace that you need. So just don't let this rob your contentment with the moment that you're in right now. Do the next right thing in faith, with excellence, and for the glory of God. That's really all you can do. That's all you can do. All right. I hope that was helpful. And it's encouraging to me that you're thinking through it this way. You just want to glorify God and love your kids, and that's what all of us. That's what all of us want to do. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what that looks like, but it sounds to me like you're doing a really good job. So thank you so much for sending in your voicemail. Don't forget to send in your voicemails. I don't have the number in front of me, but we will post it on Instagram and we can put it in the description of this episode, too, so that you can call and you can ask your questions. You can ask for advice or ask for clarity on something. I'll do my best to answer it. All right, we will be back here on Wednesday. We'll be talking about Talarico. We'll be talking about Ken Paxton. And you'll also get to meet another member of my family that you haven't met yet. All right, we'll see you guys then. It.