Final Thoughts -Reparations Week and Just Thinking Podcast Review
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I uploaded a version of this video earlier I was not quite happy with. If you saw that one, start about minute 5 for the new content.
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- 00:00
- I uploaded a version of this video earlier today that I wasn't quite happy with. I was trying to get through it really fast, and so I missed some content.
- 00:08
- So if you watched that video earlier, I would start about minute four of this video because pretty much everything in the beginning
- 00:14
- I already said, but there's some new content. Plus, I also reviewed Just Thinking podcast, the episode they just did on reparations.
- 00:22
- Thanks for watching. Well, I hope you enjoyed reparations week. I had a lot of fun, and I hope you did as well.
- 00:30
- We had some good times. We had some funny videos, some serious videos, and talked a lot about reparations, which
- 00:36
- I think is a very important conversation because it touches so closely to the gospel of Jesus Christ and justice and all of these issues that we're concerned with and talking about these days.
- 00:47
- I think we did a video every day this week. Yeah, I think we did. We made it. Also, there was the
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- Just Thinking podcast on Wednesday, which was fantastic. We're going to review a quick section of that in just a moment, but if you haven't watched it, definitely—I'm sorry, listened to it.
- 01:02
- If you haven't listened to it, definitely listen to it. They have a different approach than me. They're not as rocking as I am, the two brothers,
- 01:07
- Virgil and Daryl. Not as rocking as me, but definitely very informative, probably more informative than I am.
- 01:14
- They go through scripture, and it's great, so I highly recommend that you listen to that. Again, it's the
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- Just Thinking podcast episode on reparations, but I wanted to start this final video for reparations week.
- 01:26
- I'm sure we'll talk about the topic again, but final video for the week. I wanted to take you back to September of last year.
- 01:33
- September of last year was a momentous occasion. I actually had an opportunity with two social justice advocates in the church, two people that are reformed, conservative, at least professing conservative
- 01:46
- Christians. I have no reason to deny their profession. I think they are believers, but two guys that were willing to lock horns with me and have a conversation.
- 01:55
- These guys, I give them a lot of credit because they have had backbone where so few on their side have, and so I give them mad props go out to Amin Hudson and KB from the
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- Native Speaks podcast. I remember, you might not know this, but at the time,
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- I agreed with them. I didn't sign a contract or anything, but I agreed with them to not use clips from that conversation.
- 02:17
- They wanted to make sure I didn't edit anything. They just wanted me to put the whole video out, which I did, and I've honored that even though I don't necessarily have to.
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- I gave my word, and so I'm not going to do that, but there was a lot of juicy tidbits there. I transcribed a section of that conversation because one of the topics that we talked about was reparations.
- 02:36
- In fact, that was how we started communicating in the first place. They did a whole video about reparations, and their concern was that reparations shouldn't be like a four -letter word to Christians because all it is is the concept of restitution.
- 02:48
- And so they were kind of upset with me because I used their conversation about restitution to talk about reparations, slavery reparations, as most people understand them today.
- 02:59
- They didn't think that was fair because they weren't talking about slavery reparations. They were talking about just the concept of reparation, and so I agree with them.
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- I think that the concept of restitution is thoroughly biblical. It's the foundation of biblical justice when it comes to the penology, the punishments of crime, and things like that.
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- So I agree with them there, but I said that reparations, as most people understand them, you don't want to confuse people because most people understand them as slavery reparations, and so that is clearly unbiblical.
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- And so here's a bit of a transcribed section of that conversation. I asked them,
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- I said, do you guys realize that there are people who would call themselves conservative Reform Christians who actually do want reparations as I've described them?
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- Now, I was talking to two people and they had two separate answers. Amin Hudson said that he did realize that.
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- He said, yes, I do realize that. And so I give him mad props because he knew that there were definitely Reform Christians who believe in slavery reparations.
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- KB's answer was interesting though, and I don't think this guy was lying. I think he was being truthful here.
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- KB is, Amin is a blogger, he's blogged for Gospel Coalition, The Witness, he does the podcast.
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- KB is a hip hop artist, among other things. I think he has a couple other businesses as well. Anyway, here's what
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- KB said. He said, in all honesty, I don't know many who make that argument. I just discovered one person yesterday who
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- I have respect for, a sister of mine, who's a kingdom citizen with us, who makes a nuanced argument about this, but she'd be the first one.
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- Maybe you could name some of them. Who are the conservative Reform people that do make that argument? I want to take their names down.
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- So he was asking for names. He wanted me to name names. I told him I wasn't going to do that, because at the time, most of the people who were for reparations openly weren't blue checkmark guys.
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- Most of them. There were some that were, but I told him I'd give him some names after. This wasn't about blowing people up.
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- So I believe KB. I don't think he was being dishonest. Amin clearly knew people that believed in reparations.
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- At the time, Jim Artisby believed in reparations, and so I don't know why KB didn't know that. Probably Amin did know that.
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- That's fine. But the point is, though, that let's just take KB at his word.
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- This just goes to show you the breakneck speed that things are changing in the evangelical conversation.
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- Because in September, not that long ago, a social justice advocate, someone who's in this fight on the other side, someone who's doing these things, who's saying a lot of the same stuff that all social justice advocates say, didn't even know that there was anybody, really, anyone with influence that was talking about reparations.
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- And not a few months later, everyone's talking about it. I mean, if that goes, if that doesn't show you that this is breakneck speed, this is a tsunami of change.
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- I don't know what will. I don't know what will. Now, here's the thing. I want to talk about just a couple more things before we wrap up for the week.
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- And so, look, forgiveness is a beautiful thing.
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- Forgiveness is central to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all love the concept of forgiveness, right?
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- And so the thing about forgiveness that's so beautiful that we just love is that when we get a chance to forgive someone, it just captures the essence of the gospel.
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- That's why the parable of the unforgiving servant is so compelling, because this man gets forgiven of all of this debt, this huge weight of debt.
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- And then he has the audacity not to forgive a tiny debt, a tiny debt. And so, in the gospel, we understand that we've been forgiven this huge weight of our sin against a holy
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- God. There's no greater sinner that we know for a fact than ourselves, because we know our inner lives, we know our thoughts.
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- I'm the greatest sinner that I know. That's not to say that I've killed people like Hitler has, but man,
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- I know my thoughts. I know how dirty my sin is to a holy God. And so I've been forgiven of a lot.
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- There's nothing that you could do to me that I could say, oh, I can't forgive that.
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- I can't forgive that. Nothing, because I've been forgiven of so much.
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- And here's the thing about forgiveness that, stupider religions, like false religions and stuff, they don't understand this concept.
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- Because in forgiveness, the debt doesn't just go away. It doesn't just vanish.
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- This is not just like God says, okay, I'll forgive you. No problem. And then it's just gone.
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- It's not like that, because the debt is still there. If you notice in the parable of the unforgiving servant, the master forgives him of this huge amount of money.
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- But the thing is, there's still a rift there. The money is still not back in the master's hands. But what's happening there?
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- The master is absorbing it. The master is saying, look, I'm waiving the right to hold this against you.
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- I'm going to absorb the debt. I still don't have the money, but you're released from it. So I don't have the claim anymore against you.
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- I'm going to get rid of that right here. And so in false religions, their gods, they aren't real gods.
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- They're not holy. They're not really holy. This is in Islam, for example. Allah just forgives you. And what happens to the sin?
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- What happens to the injustice? Well, it just goes away. That's not a righteous judge.
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- But in Christianity, Christ absorbs the debt. See, Christ dies on the cross for your sin.
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- So the debt is paid. Somebody pays it. God himself absorbs that debt.
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- So somebody paid for your sin debt. Christ did. So it's not like it just went away, it just magically went away.
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- And so here's why I bring this up. Because in reparations, look, you're going to hold people's feet to the fire that didn't even do anything against you.
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- But let's just say you think they did do something against you, you know? Oh, there were slavers in the past, and now they're systemically racist now.
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- Guess what? If you're a Christian, you've got an opportunity there. You've got an opportunity there to absorb that debt.
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- To forgive your white brothers and sisters in Christ. Brothers, brothers, if you're a minority, you're hearing this.
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- Don't waste that opportunity. Stop holding this against white people who didn't even have anything to do with it.
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- Forgive them, man. You've got to forgive them. How dare you not forgive them of something they didn't even do to you when you've been forgiven of all of the filth of your own sin.
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- How dare you? Brothers, if you're teaching that unless there's a payment that comes back here, then it's not squashed in the body of Christ.
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- If that's something that you're teaching, I wonder how much you understand the gospel. I wonder.
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- What did Christ pay for anyway? I want to listen. I wanted to listen to a section of the
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- Just Thinking podcast because, you know, when I heard this, this whole podcast is really good, but when I heard this,
- 10:32
- I felt something when I heard this because these two brothers are very measured in general.
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- They're very measured, and they've got a very consistent tone, and they don't let emotions get the better of themselves too much.
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- I don't think they did here either. I think that this was a righteous indignation. But I want you to hear these two brothers, and they happen to be black.
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- If you didn't know it, Darrell and Virgil, they're black guys. When I heard this, man,
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- I feel what they feel here. I feel what they feel here. I wonder if you hear this. I feel like these candidates in particular and those who advocate this position outside of evangelicalism just really believe black people are stupid.
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- I mean, they really believe that black people are stupid, and they're using language that they know elicits emotion for the purpose of gaining and obtaining power.
- 11:24
- It's the new 40 acres and a mule. It's the new 40 acres and a mule. Absolutely, absolutely. What's most confusing to me—
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- Let's stop there because I'm going to continue with this, but this is a good point because reparations, when it comes down to it, when it boils down to it, is just another in a long line of political scams for black people, political scams for you to support
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- Democrats. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. This is a scam.
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- This is a hustle. This is flim flam. This is, you know, this is bunko. This is a scam to get you to support people who hate your guts.
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- You can't tell me Democrats love black people when they support abortion that kills more black people than—I mean, it would make
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- Hitler blush. You can't tell me that. This is a scam. This is flim flam. They want power. They think you can give it to them, so they'll tell you what you want to hear.
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- Don't tell me you care about black people when more black babies are killed in New York than are born alive because of Democratic policies.
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- It's absolutely disgusting. Don't fall for it, man. Don't sell your soul for a couple thousand dollars because that's what you're going to get if reparations happens.
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- You vote for Democrats and they give you reparations. They give you a couple thousand dollars. You know what I mean? It's not worth your soul, man.
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- A couple thousand dollars or forgiving a brother in Christ. Which one are you going to choose? Which one are you going to choose?
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- Brother in Christ that didn't even do anything to you. But even if they had, you've been forgiven of everything and you're going to sell your brother out, divide up the church like a pizza for a couple thousand dollars.
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- Don't fall for that scam, man. The politicians are pulling you against your own brothers. And I'm not saying the Republicans are innocent.
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- I'm not saying that. A lot of people hear when I criticize Democrats, they think I'm a
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- Republican. I'm not a Republican. But Democratic Party is anti -Christ in almost every area of their ideology.
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- Don't sell out a bunch of kids to bail for a couple thousand dollars. Let's continue with Just Thinking. About this and you've addressed it and you mentioned this in an earlier comment.
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- I don't know if you recall it or not, but I was trying as I thought about this conversation,
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- I was trying to assess what is the motivation of so -called evangelical reparationists?
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- I mean, is this anything more than just an empty virtue signal on their part?
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- I mean, what is it there? I understand what political candidates are trying to gain and obtain.
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- I get it. But these evangelical reparationists, what benefit is it in their view?
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- I mean, is it that they've so bought into the world? I mean, I'm just at an absolute loss when
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- I think about that. Listen, let me just put it bluntly, okay? Now, I want you to hear this because Daryl Harrison, if you know anything about him, he is measured.
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- He is calm, at least on the air. I don't know him personally. And I have a tendency to run with some of my emotions and stuff like that.
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- I mean, look, I understand. I know my weaknesses and strengths, right? I want you to hear Daryl Harrison here because this resonated with me, man.
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- This did. Right? That's how you do it, bro. There are a lot of evangelical reparationists out there who are black, who are racist.
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- They're racist. They are racist in their heart. I hate to use the term racist.
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- I don't buy into that term because I don't think it's a biblical term. Right. I think it is a cultural term.
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- Right. But for the sake of conversation, let's just go ahead and use the term. There are black evangelicals who profess to be
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- Christian who are racist in their heart. Wow. They hate white people. They hate them.
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- Now, they won't come out and admit that, but they hate them. That, to answer your question,
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- Virg, is the impetus for many of them in this whole conversation and discourse around reparations.
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- They don't like white people. Right. But you know, I immediately go to First John.
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- This is something that Daryl always does. And I appreciate this, brother. If you hear this, I appreciate this so much.
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- You always go to the Bible, right? You actually have inspired me over the past few months, hopefully
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- I've done this more, to open up the word on these videos more. So you've been an inspiration to me.
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- And in the beginning of the videos, I wasn't doing as much as I am now, and I still have a ways to go, but he's right.
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- Daryl's right, man. You know, one of the reasons I do these videos is because I saw open comments from people, well -respected, credible
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- Christian leaders saying racist things, flat out racist things.
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- And Daryl Harrison here is talking about the black brothers that are racist in their heart, but there are some white brothers that are racist in their heart too, and say racist things against black people openly on big pulpits in these conferences with millions of people listening online, and no one's calling him out on it.
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- I pointed this out on Twitter, but one of the conferences that's coming up, one of the social justice conferences is something called
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- Reconcile Us, O Lord, front porch forum, right? Reconcile Us, O Lord. And I made a tweet, a funny tweet of a pretend quote from Dr.
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- Eric Mason, because he's going to be speaking at this conference, the Reconcile Us, O Lord conference, Angloid guy.
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- The guy who said that if you don't think black, you're just an Angloid on the inside. That's a racist person.
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- Dr. Eric Mason has racism in his heart. And so I said,
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- Reconcile Us, O Lord, Reconcile Us with these Angloids. You're saying you want reconciliation, and then you're saying openly racist things on big platforms while you're opening up and preaching the word of God.
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- How dare you? How dare you? He's not the only one. I pick on Dr.
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- Eric Mason because he was so open about his racism, but he's not the only one. We have to do better than this.
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- And the thing is, look, the last thing
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- I'll say is this, I'll just say this. I opened this up in my conversation with Native Speaks.
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- That was one of two conversations that I've had with willing participants. Two conversations over the last year and a half.
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- Two people have been willing to get on the air and talk about these important issues. Everyone else has shut me down in various different creative ways.
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- You need to find your big boy pants, Social Justice Warriors, because if we can't talk, there's only one option left.
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- And the pagan culture is doing this. There's violence in the pagan culture right now, and it's going to increase because we're not allowed to talk about things anymore.
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- People get deplatformed. People get banned. People get kicked off of social media just because for having the wrong opinion on things.
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- People get disinvited from speaking at colleges. People get shut down. No free speech anymore. And you know what's left when you can't talk it out?
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- Force and violence. That's how the pagan culture is going. Do you want to bring that into the church? I don't think you do.
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- I sure don't. I want to talk things out. I want to open up the book and talk about what the book says.
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- I want to talk. I want to go to God's word. We'll talk about social justice all you want. We're talking about the book.
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- Let's have a Bible study. Let's talk about this. If you guys do not do this, it's not going to end in a good place because violence can come to the church as well.
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- It's happened many times in the past and I desperately want to avoid it. And that's why
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- I want to talk about these things instead of ratcheting up tension by refusing to talk and pretending everyone's racist and everyone's out to get you and things like that.
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- All this nonsense that I see online all the time. That's going to increase the chances that violence will come to the church as well.
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- I desperately want to avoid it. So social justice warriors, it's time to man up.
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- It's seriously long past time to man up. You don't have to talk to me. You don't like me. Okay, fine. I get it.
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- I, you know, I bebop and rock and I'm making jokes and stuff like you don't like that. Fine. Don't talk to me.
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- I don't care if you talk to me or not, but you're going to have to talk to someone. You're going to have to talk to someone.
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- This is how we do this in the church. We don't do it the way the pagans do it. Anyway, hope you had a good time with reparations week.
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- I know I sure did. And this had to end on a serious note because this is a serious issue. This is a serious issue. Social justice and reparations in particular does nothing to solve an injustice.
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- All it does is create new victims. And so if you want to end, if you want to have never ending conflict and never ending strife, continue doing what you're doing because you're doing a great job.