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88. Allie Beth Stuckey Claims Jesus Said Things He Definitely Did Not Say - The Tim & April Show | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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88. Allie Beth Stuckey Claims Jesus Said Things He Definitely Did Not Say

The Tim & April Show

Tue Feb 17 2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Tim & April Show, Ep. 88

Title: Allie Beth Stuckey Claims Jesus Said Things He Definitely Did Not Say
Date: February 17, 2026
Hosts: Tim Whitaker & April Ajoy (The New Evangelicals)

Episode Overview

In this episode, Tim and April dive into a critical discussion about Christian political commentator Allie Beth Stuckey and her recent online statements. Specifically, they address her claims about what Jesus did or didn’t say regarding abortion and homosexuality, her selective biblical interpretations, and her broader influence on American evangelical and MAGA culture.
The episode centers around a video clip of Stuckey responding to Texas politician James Talarico’s comments on faith, politics, and scripture. Tim and April unravel the historical, theological, and logical inconsistencies in Stuckey’s rhetoric and use this as a case study for understanding broader trends in Christian nationalism and right-wing Christian media.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Allie Beth Stuckey Facing Criticism from Her Own Base

Tim’s Observation: Allie is "crashing out" and facing pushback even from her conservative followers because of repeated missteps (e.g., misinformation about high-profile incidents, mischaracterizing public figures like Bad Bunny) ([01:04]).
Quote: “Even her own base ... are losing hope and disagreeing with her more and more.” — Tim ([01:31])
April notes: The criticism isn't from progressives, but from self-identified conservatives and Trump supporters who are frustrated at her "overplaying her hand" ([02:42]).

2. MAGA Christian Inconsistencies: Super Bowl & Cultural Outrage

Hosts discuss hypocrisy in right-wing outrage over the Super Bowl halftime performers, contrasting criticism of Bad Bunny (a Puerto Rican American) versus praise for Kid Rock, despite his history and vulgar song lyrics ([03:20]).
April: “I’m proud to say I never liked Kid Rock, even before he was MAGA.” ([04:22])
Tim: “...Kid Rock is like not the epitome of God, faith, and family at all.” ([05:19])

3. Setting Up the Main Clip: Allie Beth Stuckey Responds to James Talarico

Context: Talarico appeared on Ezra Klein’s podcast discussing the disproportionate focus in American Christianity on abortion and homosexuality—two issues he notes Christ never directly addressed ([06:29]).
Clip Setup: Tim and April prepare to react to Stuckey’s rebuttal, pointing out that progressive Christians are frequently marginalized by MAGA culture ([05:37-06:43]).

4. Dissecting the Stuckey Reaction Clip

a. Stuckey’s Argument

Stuckey asserts:
- Because Jesus is God, “the entirety of scripture is also Jesus’s words, not just the red letters.”
- Connects commandments against murder and “a man lying with another man” directly to current debates on abortion and homosexuality ([07:08], [15:56]).
- Accuses Talarico of either biblical ignorance or deliberate deceit: “He doesn't know his Bible. Or he just trusts that you don't know your Bible, so he's lying to you.” — Stuckey ([08:05], [37:47])
Tim and April Rebut:
- April: “Abortion is not murder. The definition of murder is the unlawful, unjustified killing of a human being with malice aforethought or deliberate intent. ... [Conservatives] don’t apply 'Thou shalt not kill' when it comes to, you know, American imperialism or the death penalty.” ([08:15-09:10])
- Stuckey and similar voices are “not pro-life holistically, just very anti-abortion” ([08:15]).

b. Historical Context and Manufactured Outrage

Tim explains how the evangelical fixation on abortion and homosexuality is recent—primarily post-Jerry Falwell Sr.—and not an original feature of evangelical theology ([11:28-12:56]).
Tim: “Abortion absolutely was a manufactured outrage... once they realized fighting against school integration was going out of vogue...” ([11:28])

c. Theological Problems with “Jesus Said the Bible” Argument

April (16:05): “This is such an idiotic take. ... To say that Jesus wrote it is stupid.”
Tim: “Any good scholar, even a conservative one, will tell you that we are going off of the best available evidence ... But we don’t know for certain. ... Ali’s logic falls apart if you just read the dang book.” ([18:23-22:18])
Selective Proof-texting: Stuckey uses verses conveniently, ignoring contradictory or culturally distinct commands, e.g., not stoning adulterers or handling the Bible’s multiple marriage models ([22:08], [25:16]).

d. Biblical Passages & Abortion/Homosexuality

Exegetical Nuance: Tim reads Exodus 21:22, explaining ancient Hebrew law treats fetal loss differently from the mother’s life, undermining the common “abortion is murder” prooftext ([23:58]).
Jewish Law Perspective: April highlights how Jewish interpretations, which predate Christian ones, often require abortion if the mother’s life is at risk, and do not view abortion as murder ([24:30]).

5. The Problem with Biblical Literalism and Selectivity

Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Laws: Tim and April mock the arbitrary evangelical distinctions between “moral” and “ceremonial” (e.g., shellfish, homosexuality) and how these were created post hoc to justify selectivity ([22:08-22:39]).
Flattening Texts: Tim: “Once you flatten out the text and say the Bible’s inerrant, you’re actually treating the text with ultimate disrespect.” ([28:26])

6. Hypocrisy Around Divorce and Marriage Passages

April: Points out how evangelical readings of Matthew 19 are used to condemn queer people, even though the passage’s context is divorce ([31:55-32:40]).
Comparison of Church Practice: Many evangelicals ignore strict teachings on divorce while using the same verses to exclude LGBTQ Christians.
Tim: “Again, by this standard, if you’re going to quote the Bible … Jesus is pretty clear. He ain’t talking about the gays. He’s talking about the heterosexuals who are divorcing for reasons other than adultery.” ([35:56])

7. On Stuckey’s Personality, Platform & Influence

Tim’s Analysis:
- Stuckey is prideful, stubborn, and refuses to admit when she’s wrong ([42:33-44:41]).
- Much of her persistence is driven by audience approval and the pressures of maintaining her brand ([42:33]).
- She “dirty deletes” posts after backlash rather than publicly apologizing ([44:56]).
April: Notes how evangelical culture fosters pride, narcissism, and never admitting doubt ([45:07]).

8. The Heresy Game & “No True Christian”

Conversation about ‘heresy’ labels: All sides play the “no true Christian” game, but Tim advocates for a broader view: “All of us are Christian. It just depends on what version you want to participate in.” ([47:20])

9. “Fruit” of Christian Nationalist Policies

Tim: “Regardless of what she [Stuckey] thinks about herself … look at the fruit of their positions ... it’s rotten, it’s poison.” ([49:23])
The test should be the human impact of conservative Christian policies, not just rhetorical consistency.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

[08:15] April: “Abortion is not murder. ... They don’t apply 'thou shalt not kill' when it comes to, you know, American imperialism ... wartime, or the death penalty.”
[16:05] April: “This is such an idiotic take. ... To say that Jesus wrote it is stupid.”
[18:23] Tim: “Ali’s logic goes like this: The modern Protestant English Bible, every word of it, is the word of Jesus because the Bible is written by God, God is Jesus ... This is so illogical on so many levels.”
[25:16] Tim: “To take the Bible seriously is to treat it as what it is: a very complicated collection of ancient texts ... It’s not univocal.”
[32:40] April: “They misrepresent what Jesus actually said to condemn marginalized people while completely turning a blind eye to ... people [in their churches] that've been divorced and have remarried ... actively committing adultery.”
[37:47] Allie Beth Stuckey (clip): “He [Talarico] doesn’t know his Bible or he just trusts that you don’t know your Bible, so he’s lying to you.”
[44:56] Tim: “Ally is ... incredibly prideful, arrogant, and too proud to admit that they’re wrong and say I’m sorry on the air.”
[48:42] April: “I just remember like being taught like, true Christians ... you see their joy, you see their love for people ... I gotta say, I don’t get those vibes from Ali.”
[49:23] Tim: “Look at the fruit of their positions ... The fruit is evident. It’s rotten, it’s poison.”

Timestamps of Important Segments

00:27 — Introductions & setup
01:31 — Allie Beth Stuckey’s recent controversies, conservative backlash
05:37 — Framing for Stuckey vs. Talarico clip, progressive Christians marginalized
06:43–08:05 — Playing and discussing Stuckey’s reaction video
08:15 — April refutes “abortion is murder” logic
11:28 — History of evangelical engagement with abortion and homosexuality
16:05 — April questions the “Jesus wrote the whole Bible” claim
22:08 — Tim & April critique “prescriptive vs. descriptive” and prooftexting
23:58 — Exodus 21 and abortion in the Hebrew Bible
31:55–32:40 — Matthew 19, divorce, and LGBTQ exclusion
37:47 — Stuckey accuses Talarico of lying about scripture
42:33–44:56 — Analyzing Stuckey’s on-air persona and pattern of deflecting criticism
47:20 — The heresy label and the diversity within Christianity
49:23 — “Fruit” as the real test of beliefs and policy impact

Tone and Style

Conversational, candid, occasionally irreverent
Strong mix of personal anecdote, scriptural and historical analysis, and cultural critique
Focus on honesty, clarity, and “calling out” logical fallacies and inconsistencies
Openly challenges the pride and certainty seen in right-wing Christian voices
Encourages listeners to embrace nuance, humility, and a deeper engagement with scripture and community

Takeaways

The episode offers a sharp, informed deconstruction of Allie Beth Stuckey’s arguments, exposing both their logical and historical weaknesses.
Tim and April encourage listeners to examine the human impact (“fruit”) of Christian political movements and to look beyond prooftexting, simplification, or selective literalism.
The hosts challenge listeners to embrace a faith rooted in compassion, humility, and intellectual honesty rather than culture war talking points or exclusionary dogmas.

Episode ends with encouragements to the community, an invitation for feedback, and a reiteration of the show’s commitment to honest, inclusive faith conversations.

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Transcript

A (0:00)

You're listening to a new evangelicals production, The Tim and April show, where we unravel faith, politics and culture. Hi everybody. Welcome to the Tim and April Show. I'm April Ahjoy.

B (0:27)

I am Tim Whitaker.

A (0:29)

Happy Tuesday again. Sure, every Tuesday we're here.

B (0:34)

Who knows what breaking news is currently happening on this Tuesday.

A (0:38)

Oh, I know. Let's see. This is gonna air what, Tuesday the 17th. So I don't know what's happening that day.

B (0:47)

No idea. Something ice related. We're a week before the State of the Union address which we will be live streaming on our YouTube channel, so. So you can tune in and watch it with April and I. But yeah, I mean, who knows what else is going to happen. I'm sure there's some new MAGA outrage about something that is, you know, silly and dumb.

A (1:03)

Outrageous.

B (1:04)

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, welcome in friends for sure. Make sure to give this video a like subscribe to the channel. We go live every Thursday at 12 noon on YouTube and on Substack. And of course we release an episode noon Eastern. Thank you, April. And we release an episode every Tuesday. Today we're talking about our bff. Our maga bff. Cause why not? Because I do think, April, in all seriousness, that Ali Stucky is crashing out overall.

A (1:31)

Agreed.

B (1:31)

I have a theory. My theory is that I think she has overplayed her hand and even her own base, many of them are losing hope and disagreeing with her more and more. And I have two examples of this. The first is watching her and Megan Basham and all of those right wing women's sphere influencers really try and get their audience to think that Alex Preddy wasn't just murdered in broad daylight. Right. I think that was one big misstep by them. And, and also I do think that the whole Bad Bunny thing was also a huge misstep because she's gotten quite a few comments. We've seen them on Reddit and stuff in her, in her posts of people saying, hey Ali, I'm a big supporter, but you trashing Bad Bunny or making it seem like he's not American when in reality he is an American. He, he's a, he's, he's Puerto Rican, which is an American citizen. It's a territory of America. I think a lot of people are pushing back on her against that. So I do think ultimately, while I don't know if it will really like make any dent in her follower count or in her overall viewership, I do think that she's gotten a lot of pushback for the first time in a very long time.

B (11:28)

Okay, I want to just point out a couple things here. Number one, James is completely right. The religious right after Jerry Falwell absolutely became focus on two wedge issues, abortion and homosexuality. However, evangelicals prior to that did not have a very strong opinion on being anti abortion. In fact, the Southern Baptist Convention, the sbc, the denomination that was founded over the right to own other human beings in the 70s when Roe v. Wade was overturned or when Roe v. Wade was instated, said they essentially made a statement having a very modest pro choice position, saying that that essentially they support abortion in the case of it causing damage or physical or mental to the mother or if the fetus, you know, is unviable, which is a very, again, pro choice position to have. So abortion absolutely was a manufactured outrage. After Jerry Falwell and his ilk realized that fighting against school integration was going out of vogue, once they realized that they lost that battle, they shifted to another one. And frankly, if you want to give credit to anyone or any group for being pro life, give it to the Catholics. The Catholics were the ones who came out against abortion from the beginning because of their, you know, of their stance around conception etc. So James is completely correct on those two points. I also want to mention lastly, I'll give it back over to you that the Bible does not talk about abortion in any sense as we understand it, except for maybe, except for maybe Exodus. I think it's 2122, which I can read that passage in a minute. And as far as homosexuality goes, same thing how we. How what we're talking about in the context of loving, you know, consensual same sex relationships, overwhelmingly, I would argue pretty foreign to the ancient world and definitely foreign to the Bible in the sense of when Ali quotes some scriptures and we'll get into that in a second, it's not referring to what we're talking about. It's like asking, does the Bible have a policy on social media? Like, no, because social media wasn't a thing in the ancient world. Like there's. It's a totally different way of thinking about the world that we examine. So I just want to highlight first that James, as far as I can tell, is completely right on those two statements. Lifelock, how can I help?

B (18:23)

Okay, let's just. So Ali's logic goes like this. The modern Protestant English Bible, every word of it is the word of Jesus because the Bible is written by God. God is Jesus, therefore every word inside of it is Jesus. This is so illogical on so many levels. First off, let's just start from the front, from the very foundation. So the English Protestant Bible has been translated and edited and corrected, and different translations say different things. By the way, I'm not sure if most people know this. We have none of the original documents or pages of the Bible. Like, like, like the first drafts don't exist anywhere. We have copies of copies. Some copies disagree with other copies. And men, a lot of men made a lot of decisions all the way down the line that got us to the English Protestant Bible. So it's already a ridiculous claim to make it seem like, well, this book was essentially beamed down from heaven to our ears by God. That's. That's mistake number one. Mistake number two is that we don't. Gosh, we. Any, any good scholar, even a conservative one, will tell you that we are going off of the best available evidence we have that Jesus said the words that he said. But we actually don't. Certain, we don't know for certain. We just don't because we don't have original copies. If Ali believed this, though, if Ali believed what she was saying, she would also have to con. To. To reconcile. So let's go back to Leviticus, right? She talks about Leviticus, whatever it is. 20. I have it pulled up here. 20. Oh, where is it? Leviticus 20. It's 14 or 15, something like that. If you. Leviticus 20. 13. If you read up two sentences earlier, it says this verse 10. If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. Does Ali Suckie believe that Donald Trump should be put to death for having multiple affairs with multiple women? Does she believe that now, again, her own words, Every word in the Bible is the words of Jesus, right? So if Jesus commands that, why isn't all the advocating for it? She would then appeal to the New Testament. Well, Jesus, you know, he gave us a new law of loving our enemy. But suddenly she can rewrite the verse in Leviticus about stoning adulterers, but she won't rewrite the two verses down that talk about how being or laying with another man is an abomination. So she's selectively picking and choosing which parts of the Bible she's applying to American law. Okay, that is the bottom line. And I pushed her on this when I. When I debated her in Jubilee. I said to her, ally, the Bible says that God gave David eight wives. God said that. God said, I've given you. I think it's Saul or Solomon's wives. I would have given you more if you would have asked. Doesn't that kind of blow away the notion that. That the only biblical ethic is one man and one woman for life? But then she'll jump around to. Well, no, because Jesus. Jesus reaffirms my view of marriage in Matthew 7, or Paul does it, or Christ in the church. She'll always jump around to make things fit in ways that they just don't fit. And that is what is so frustrating about her. She says it with her full chest. Well, Jesus wrote the whole Bible that. Those are the words of Jesus. Okay. But only certain parts are. Are applied, you know, literally for her. That just so happened to benefit her worldview. It's so aggravating to watch it.

B (42:33)

I don't know Allie personally, but she's been someone that I've gone back and forth with for a lot of years now and have met at least one time in person on Jubilee. And we talked a little bit behind the scenes. My best read of in particular Ali is a couple things. One, I do think that she believes what she says. I think that in her mind she thinks that she's logical and being biblical and just following God. I also think that like anyone who has a massive platform, when your whole livelihood and approval comes from a certain kind of worldview. Right. You're going to want to find the way to justify why that's right and why you should keep going. I also think that Ally is incredibly thick headed and incredibly stubborn. I think that's just one of her personality traits and that she will never, never back down, even publicly because she is too prideful. And one of the pieces of evidence I use for that is remember the horrific post that Trump shared that was incredibly racist of Michelle Obama and Barack Obama. Right. With like that image of them. Right. I'm not going to repeat it, but we all know what I'm talking about. Well, Ali at first tried to defend it and downplay it on her Instagram stories. She got such backlash. She deleted that post and put up a different one written by someone who essentially said, hey, yeah, those, those that that kind of imagery is bad, but then blamed Russell more and like conservative non maga evangelicals for virtue signaling. So even when she, I think is, is, is so under pressure to, because her take is so bad, instead of saying to her audience, hey guys, I made a mistake, I was wrong, I want to do better. She will dirty delete and then repost something that gives just enough acknowledgement of, okay, that thing wasn't ideal. But also it's still, it's still, you know, whoever else's fault. I mean, same thing with Alex Peretti. Remember she got so much flack over that and she's like, okay, multiple things can be true at the same time. You know, ICE is doing good work. I don't know exactly what happened to Alex. That was like, that was her best, right? That was her best attempt to show like good faith.