How Do I Identify Emotional Crybabies?

They're gonna throw out some kind of platitude or some kind of insult, you know, you're a legalist. You're a hypocrite. You're a Pharisee. You're taking that out of context and then if you if your brains on the whole time.

What you'll notice is they didn't actually tell me what it meant, right? Right? Yeah, they didn't tell me what it meant. They didn't give me a better explanation for why it's there. They didn't do anything like that because they have actually no respect for this book whatsoever.

Their God is their feelings at that point and they want to do what they want to do and they don't really care.

The following message may be offensive to some audiences. These audiences may include but are not limited to professing Christians who never read their Bible, sissies, sodomites, men with man buns, those who approve of men with man buns, man bun enablers, white knights for men with man buns, homemakers who have finished Netflix but don't know how to meal plan, and people who refer to their pets as fur babies.

For your discretion, this is advised.

People are tired of hearing nothing but doom and despair on the radio.

The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone and any who reject Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin and the wrath of almighty God is hanging over our heads. They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed and they will perish.

God wrapped himself in flesh, condescended and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the Father where he sits now to make intercession for us.

Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words, they will act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment come in that final day, their house will stand.

The Wise and Foolish Builders

Welcome to Bible Bash, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask. We're your host, Harrison Kerrig, and Pastor Tim Mullett, and today we'll answer the age-old question, How do I identify emotional crybabies?

Now Tim, what verse do you have to kick us off with today? 2 Corinthians 4 .2 says, You know, that's one of those verses that I think people read and they just kind of automatically assume, well, that's not talking about me, right?

I mean, I guess we're kind of, you know, if you think about it, probably the people we think of most when we read verses like this, you know, we've renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth.

A lot of the people that come to mind, you know, when I'm reading a verse like that, they're the kind of people who would claim, hey, we need to unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament. That stuff's not important.

You know, hey, Paul, he's not Jesus. We only need to follow the teachings of Jesus. We don't need to worry about anyone else. So, they're probably not even reading these verses to begin with, but, you know, if you were to share these verses with someone, they're probably reading that kind of thing and immediately assuming this is obviously talking about someone else.

This is not talking about me, right? Is that a fair assumption to make?

Jared. Yeah, I mean, what's characteristic of people in general is that we're blind to the areas that we need to grow and change, and so, I mean, particularly unbelievers are sentenced by God with a judicial kind of blindness where they really can't apply the Bible appropriately like they should, particularly as it relates to them.

But then this is, I mean, this is obviously something that all Christians struggle with to some degree. Because of our pride in that we read verses that are directly contradicting certain things that we do, attitudes that we have, and, you know, we don't see it.

Part of that's just due to the placement of our eyes, meaning that our eyes are placed in such a way that you can't really see yourself. You see the world around you, but not yourself, and that's why we need other people in our life to be able to point out things in general.

But then when you talk about a verse like this, yeah, I mean, there are definitely people who in the extreme are certainly tampering with God's word, and the people that come to mind most readily and quickly as individuals who are practicing these disgraceful underhanded ways and the cunning and the, you know, tampering with God's word, certainly that's the Andy Stanley type, certainly that's the liberal progressive Christian types who are, with their very words, calling into question the authority, the clarity, the sufficiency of scripture in those ways for sure.

Emotional Manipulation Versus Open Statement of Truth

Peter. Right. Yeah, and you know, part of why we wanted to do this episode was I had actually watched a video, a really helpful video actually from James White on, what does he call his show? Is it The Dividing Line?

Is that what he calls it? The Dividing Line where he essentially, and this is what I appreciate about James White a lot, is he will take the time if he thinks something is worth covering, he will take the time to cover the entire, you know, sermon or article or, you know, whatever it is he's interacting with.

And so, I watched this video where he, I guess, found a sermon from a guy out in Texas named Zach Lambert who, he's a progressive, you know, pastor out in Jared. Quote-unquote pastor. Pete. Yeah, quote-unquote pastor.

I think out in Dallas maybe? He's in one of those bigger cities, Houston or Dallas, something like that. And, you know, he's doing this whole series on like the inclusivity of God.

Jared. It took him two months to prepare for it, man.

Pete. Yeah, yeah. So, he's doing this series and, you know, I guess it's all led up to this sermon that he's delivering that took him two months to prepare for where, you know, he gives the strongest argument he knows how the strongest argument he knows how to explain to everyone why, you know, why God is all for, you know, gay relationships, all for male-male relationships, female-female relationships, transgenderism, intersex, all of that stuff.

God is for all of it and Zach Lambert, you know, he lays down the best argument he can muster to explain why that is. And so, James White, he sees this and he starts covering it and, I mean, he I've listened to, you know, four it's two episodes that James White does and it spans four hours where he covers every single word that Lambert says and, I mean, frankly, it's embarrassing.

The sermon, if you can even call it a sermon, is embarrassing and maybe I'll leave a link down to James White's stuff in the description just so you can go and watch some of it because it really is

James White does a very good job of explaining why these things, why the arguments from Zach Lambert are so bad. I mean, and they are. They're terrible. They're embarrassingly bad, honestly, and I think probably insultingly bad.

Like, I mean, he's just expecting you to be a stupid person, you know, if he expects you to believe his arguments. And so, James White does this thing and as I'm listening to the episode, one of the things that I'm, you know, I'm hearing over and over again is and I'm recognizing, too, and I'm rolling my eyes at is you kind of get this as you're listening to Lambert give his sermon, you kind of recognize the cadence that he's using as he's speaking and James White points it out.

So, even if it's like in the back of your head, but you're not necessarily maybe realizing exactly what's going on, essentially, Zach is using this very emotionally manipulative way of speaking the entire time where, you know, he is crying at certain points, you know, he's giving these dramatic pauses, he's presenting you with information that is not meant to, you know, to you're not meant to interact with it logically with your brain, you're meant to interact with it with your emotions primarily, and he's trying to manipulate your emotions.

Now, that's not to say that, you know, he's faking all of his emotions in the sermon. That's just to say he is primarily relying on emotional arguments to convince his audience. And so, James White is calling that out over and over again, and so, you know, Tim, as I was hearing James White point that out, I began thinking, you know, this is really the only thing that I've ever seen anyone the only tactic I've ever seen anyone use if they're trying to defend, like, homosexuality, the transgender stuff, you know, abortion is another one that I think people just try they just try and pull at your heartstrings over and over again instead of just giving you actual, you know, facts and logical arguments to follow.

And James White even mentioned, like, hey, I've offered to, you know, I've offered to debate Zach Lambert on this topic pro bono, you know, like, it will cost you nothing. I will pay for all of my expenses, no honorarium, nothing.

I will come to your church, and we will debate this in front of, you know, in front of your congregation, and we can talk about it. And apparently, you know, that's been shot down by, I assume, by Zach Lambert or, you know, someone at his church is shooting that down because at the end of the day, it seems like they probably know, hey, we've just got emotional arguments.

We can't fight with James White on this logically. So, all of that to say, Tim, in your experience, when it comes to these kinds of especially these kinds of topics, do you feel like you've seen more people rely on these emotional type of arguments, or is it, like, hey, Zach Lambert's the exception, and there are a lot of people out there who have these differing views from us, who have these views that we would call, you know, anti-biblical, but they are at least using some form of logic primarily for all of their arguments?

Jared. Yeah, I mean, logic right now is at an all-time low in our culture and society. I mean, just imagine just, you know, it's presidential election season coming up and all that, and there will be debates, and you can just think about the kinds of debates that actually happen at this point in history, and the kind of debates that actually happen are where you have these individuals who are asked to give complicated answers to policy questions, and they're given, like, 30 seconds in order to get it all out before everyone's attention span goes, and, you know, their eyes start to bleed, and their ears, you know, basically start to explode or something because they can't handle information anymore.

But yeah, I mean, certainly critical thinking skills are probably at an all-time low for us. A lot of that has to do with just the influence of technology in general to where we're just trained to have the attention span of a goldfish, basically.

So, at this point in history, I mean, most people aren't able to sit down for extended periods of time and process information like they used to be.

Yeah, I think it's like 8 seconds. You know, if you're a music person, like if you're creating music, you have 8 seconds to hook someone with your song. That's all you get is 8 seconds. Songs are only 2 to 3 minutes long nowadays, and people can't, you know, they can't sit through that.

They've decided in 8 seconds if they're ever going to listen to that song ever again already. And so, that's just obviously like TikTok and, you know, YouTube is pushing out their shorts because they realize that now that's where the money is, that's where all the viewership is.

And those are, you know, like I think on YouTube, maybe the max is 60 seconds or 59 seconds is the longest you can make one of those videos. So, that's just to tell you a little bit about the attention span of our current society.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. I mean, I think there's a lot of things like that that are conspiring to create the kind of situation where people, they're just bone ignorant in almost every way imaginable. And, you know, ignorance about the scripture is at an all-time high.

I mean, most people, they don't even know the basic verses anymore. You know, we're living in a Christian culture where they don't even know what John 3 .16 is. We're living in a nominal kind of Christian culture, post-Christian culture.

We're transitioning slowly into that where they don't even know what the main verses that most people used to know are at this point. So, I mean, basically, biblical literacy is at an all-time high. Our critical thinking skills are at an all-time low.

You know, in general, we're the kind of people who think…. I saw a picture of Mel Gibson with the 80s hair or whatever, and the cigarette in his hand, and it was a meme or whatever. But then I thought to myself, like, he looks so stupid and ridiculous with his 80s, poofy 80s hair and his cigarette in his hand and all that.

But we're the kind of people who have been looking to celebrities for advice on politics and our worldview for years and years and years. And then if you look at pictures of them back in the 80s or something like that, you see how stupid they look and how dumb it is.

Most celebrities aren't going to be holding a cigarette anymore because they eat cancer risk and everything else. But, I mean, we're the kind of people who have just eaten it up at that point. And so, we've turned off our brains a long time ago.

We don't even have the capacity to use them. We haven't put anything useful in them at all. And so, all that's left really in that kind of framework is the emotional appeals. And certainly, I mean, the progressives, guys like Zack Lambert, I mean, he's a moron.

He's just an idiot, man. He's a total fool. Yeah. And a wolf at that. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing helpful that he has to say about anything. And, you know, he's a guy out there, you know, doing his progressive, you know, deconstructing kind of stick.

And, you know, the truth, Bible, like all he has is these underhanded, disgraceful ways, you know, practicing cunning, tampering with God's Word. I mean, his whole thing is just try to tell you, you know, what you should do apart from appealing to scripture at all because, you know, it is what it is.

And so, guys like him, guys like Andy Stanley, I mean, they're the extremes where they're making these kind of appeals in these kind of way. But, I mean, this is just the state of current American Christianity, even with people who should know better and people who, you know, go to conservative churches.

They still, like, they eat this stuff up, man. And they'll use these emotional kind of arguments. And so, these things come in many different forms. So, I mean, you can have them coming in the, like, in a very direct kind of attack on the, you know, priority, authority, sufficiency, clarity of scripture kind of thing that you would see with guys like Lambert and, you know, Andy Stanley and all that.

So, that can happen at that level. But what I'm trying to say is that this is just your standard, you know, nominal Christian kind of response to the Bible in general is that it functionally is like Plato in their hands.

When they encounter a verse they don't like, all they're going to do is make emotional arguments. And they're not going to have any interest whatsoever in understanding what's actually happening there to the extent to which, like, in the verse that they're appealing, like someone else might be appealing to.

And so, I mean, this, you can just see this happening in Twitter or social media all the time. I mean, you ask about an interpretation of a particular Bible verse. You make a claim from the Bible. You ask a moral question related to the Bible.

And all you're going to get is just a bunch of people who are obfuscating the verse, essentially, trying to make it unclear. And, you know, their standard go-to move is just to say, hey, you're a Pharisee or something like that.

You're a legalist. And all those are, they're just emotional appeals that are being made that have nothing to do with, like, the content of the discussion. And for many people, that's sufficient. Like, just to throw out a pejorative, like, we're doing nothing different than the left has been doing for years.

To where you ask, like, a basic question, you know, about crime statistics or something along those lines, and then you're going to get called a racist. You know, that's the way it works. So, you're going to, and all that is, is that's an emotional argument that's designed to manipulate you and trying to cloud the issue and not deal with the question that's actually being asked at that point.

So, you know, we have these words that we use, like racist, sexist, homophobe, bigot, you know. Those are just, that's the currency that we deal in right now, and these are ways that keep us from engaging actual real-world questions that we should be able to provide answers to.

And so, we're living in a society right now that has lost the ability to reason, and all we have left is just a bunch of, you know, silly name-calling and that kind of stuff.

How to Recognize Emotional Arguments

So, what is the difference, then, between an emotional argument and a logical argument?

Well, I mean, 2 Corinthians 4 -2 is a good passage which deals with that. So, you know, we've announced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's Word, but by the open statement of truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

So, you should be learning to identify and listen to the kind of person who's going to take the Bible and try to explain what it means, give you a positive interpretation. Like, thus says the Lord, here's what God has to say, right?

So, and the issue there is, you know, Paul is advocating this open statement of truth. We're not trying to manipulate you, we're not trying to make, we're not trying to tug at your emotions, we're trying to plainly give you what you need.

You know, and so, I mean, when you think about this, I mean, like the Holy Spirit, God has sent the Holy Spirit into the world to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And He convicts people according to God's Word, and you don't really have to, you know, package it up into a neat bow or something like that.

It's a lion, man, just unleash it, it'll do its work. I mean, so, like, the issue is, like, there's any number of ways in which people can manipulate with the truth, but what we're called to do is just give it to people.

Like, just say what it says, not water down, don't water down it, don't apologize for it. Just give an open statement of truth, meaning, like, the issue is you're trying to give people the Word of God in a clear way.

Like, your goal is to make it clear, your goal is not to make it persuasive, your goal is not to manipulate them, your goal is not to strategize how you can get them to agree with you, it's just give them the truth, right?

And certainly, I mean, you can do so in a graceless way, in an unliving way, but then, like, the issue is giving them this content that they need. So, you know, you listen to the James White thing with Lambert or whatever, what you're going to find is there's no Bible anywhere in there.

The only time the Bible is made appeal to at all is just…. By Zach Lambert, you mean, right? Yeah, there's no Bible at all. And the only time it's going to be, like, there's going to be any kind of appeal to it whatsoever is just to say it doesn't mean what it obviously seems to mean without giving even remotely compelling reasons why, like, what it does mean then, right?

And so, you know, that's just typical of that kind of movement. I mean, we, but I mean, obviously, like, you know, it's easy to pick on the progressives and stuff like that, but I mean, this just happens in every single area imaginable.

I mean, we were at the SPC pastor's conference or whatever. I don't know if you were there with me on this one or not, but I was there and, you know, it's funny. It was one of those things where the Athenianites and the Southern Baptists have been playing this game in different ways for years to where, you know, they're screaming, hollering, yelling their sermons at the right time with the right, you know, intensity of their voice in order to try to persuade people because they think it's, like, all up to them to persuade people.

So they have to get people worked up into an emotional frenzy so that they turn their emotions off. And I mean, there's a whole generation of preachers who did this in the revival meetings where you play the same music over and over and over again.

And, you know, you play the just as I am chorus, you know, in a former generation, you know, 50 times until you get someone to finally raise their hand, you know, and then you, you know, all the tricks that people practice where, you know, close your eyes.

And if you, if you feel convicted right now, raise, you know, open one of your eyes, you know, kind of thing, wiggle your left toe, you know, I saw that toe, you know, that kind of thing. And then, and then, okay, you know, and then maybe get a little more courage this time.

And if you've wiggled your left toe, raise your hand, you know, I see that hand, you know, yes, yes, hand, you know, kind of thing.

And then half the time you look around and there's no, there's no. So, I mean, there's that kind of thing happening.

We were at the pastor's conference. So before I got sidetracked, we were at the pastor's conference. And I mean, you had the, the, you know, the old Southern Baptist preacher guys who they would just get worked up at the right time, but it was all a performance.

And you knew it was all a performance because what they were saying was nonsense. You get what I'm saying? Like, it wasn't the get worked up moment naturally in terms of like, it wasn't authentic. It was just, it was the same kind of cadence that you can notice that all of a sudden, this is the time to get worked up.

You know what I mean? And one of the guys at that point, he was like, you know, he's like, I was five years old, you know, I couldn't tie my shoes anymore. You know, that kind of thing to where he's yelling and screaming about like something stupid.

Like he couldn't tie his shoes yet. You know, but like, this wasn't the time for the emotion, but this is just where you're putting it in the script because this is where you get worked up and this is where you start yelling or whatever.

And I mean, it's all, these are just, you know, disgraceful underhanded ways where you're trying to manipulate people with emotions for sure.

Identifying Emotional Manipulation in Practice

So you gave a few examples of, you know, like trying to be emotionally manipulative, but then how in general do we identify someone like a Zack Lambert who, you know, like how do we identify someone who is being emotionally manipulative, making emotional arguments?

Because my suspicion is that, you know, there are going to be a lot of people out there who already believe the same as we, you know, we would believe on these same issues. And they're hearing someone like Zack Lambert and they're saying, yeah, that's really dumb.

I don't know why anyone even believes anything he's saying. But then there might be other, I think there are probably a lot of other Christians who are, you know, probably maybe don't think about these things as much as maybe they should or aren't as aware as they should be that there are actually false teachers out there who are trying to deceive them.

And they might not always recognize that these sorts of arguments are being made. Because I can see a kind of person coming along who believes the same thing we believe, but maybe isn't quite as mature in their faith yet or as mature as they probably should be up to this point.

And they hear something like what Zack Lambert's saying and thinking, huh, I don't know what to say in response to this. You know, like, hey, I thought those verses just meant what, you know, what I thought they meant.

But now you're saying they mean something else. You know, what am I supposed to think about all this? So, how does someone like that identify, you know, train themselves to be able to identify these kinds of arguments?

Yeah, I think a lot of people are approaching this kind of topic, particularly the kind of people that you have in mind. They're approaching this kind of topic based on the conclusions that are being drawn in the first instance.

Like, meaning, like, okay, you know, if this is a pro-LGBTQ thing, well, I don't believe in that, so then this guy's a wolf, right? And it's like, well, that's true. And, you know, that's a helpful thing to realize.

But then, like, the way to identify whether or not you're being emotionally manipulated isn't necessarily related to the conclusions that are being drawn, okay? Right. It's like, so, like, the issue is just to say that there's more to trying to learn to identify what's actually happening.

So, I mean, you listen to someone like Lambert and you realize that there's no Bible in that whatsoever.

Hey, and that's not an exaggeration. I mean, I don't, I think it's like, I think he goes up until, like, the 35-minute mark before actually, out of a 50, I think, 50-minute sermon, maybe a 60-minute.

I'm pretty sure it was 50. You know, so, halfway through the thing, and I think maybe he referenced one Bible verse up to that point. So, it's like, you're not exaggerating. Oh, no, I'm not.

No, but the thing is, it's like, it's not just, what you need to learn to identify when you're discussing things online or you're talking to people in person or whatever else. Like, what you need to learn to identify is, like, the posture of the person.

Like, what are they trying to do? So, you have to think about what they're trying, like, what their goal is, okay? So, we asked a lot of controversial polls online, and, you know, I'll ask them, and I'll even, like, link to a verse or something like that.

And what you'll get is person after person after person who is emoting in response to this verse. And so, they'll emote. They'll get mad. They'll say, oh, yeah, well, you know, if it's like you're talking about mental illness or something like that, they'll say, oh, my kids have that, or my wife has that, or, you know, my neighbor has that.

And you're kind of a jerk. You know, you're a Pharisee for saying that there's something wrong with them. And so, what you'll notice there is there was a biblical claim that was made, and the dismissal is just to point to people to try to manipulate you by saying, hey, yeah, well, you know, certainly you're not going to call me a bad parent, are you?

Because I disagree with you, and this is how I'm parenting my kid. But then what's happening is these individuals, they have no interest whatsoever in the truth claim that was just made. Okay? Like, there's no interest whatsoever in trying to argue their case from the Bible to give you biblical reasons for why they're saying what they're saying.

You know, it just kind of reduces to, hey, you're a Pharisee. You're a hypocrite. You're really mean, right? That's not loving. And we need to love the LGBTQ community, quote-unquote, whatever. So, the issue is there's no substantial engagement.

There's no responsibility this person feels to actually explain what this verse means and how it applies and how it's relevant. So, when you see that, that should be a cue to say, I don't want to listen to the kind of person who is going to pull a Satan on me.

Okay? So, I mean, Satan's whole strategy is, has God said? And when you're talking about issues like that, you know, there's people who say, hey, here's what the Bible says. I'm going to give you biblical reason.

And I would say that on the vast majority of the polls that we do, I'm asking biblical questions about the polls we're doing and that kind of stuff. And there's very few people with any topic that is brought up who will actually make a biblical case about it at all.

Yeah. Either way, regardless of whether they're answering rightly or wrongly.

Right. I mean, so what typically happens is they get triggered because they don't like the implications of the way the thing is phrased or whatever, and they're not making any biblical case whatsoever.

And so, the issue is, yeah, I think it's important to identify when guys like Lambert are doing it, but professing Christians, we do the same thing. It's not just the extreme liberals who are doing this.

This is pretty much the vast majority of people, when you ask them a question about biblical application on a topic they haven't thought about yet, they default to emotional arguments. They default to manipulative arguments.

And instead of just saying, hey, I need to think about that. I don't know. You know, what typically happens is and this is why people respond the way they respond on such a regular basis is, hey, you're a Pharisee.

You're a legalist. You're a hypocrite. That was an emotional case that they made, right? They're just saying, hey, you're a racist. You're a bad person because you just said something that I don't like.

It's like, well, you didn't actually engage with it with your brain. You didn't actually give me any reason why I should believe you. You basically just emoted, right? You just emoted. You had a fit, and then you brought in your emotional appeals, and then we're all supposed to pretend like something significant happened, and nothing significant happened at that point.

Yeah, and I feel like you see this a lot. You definitely see this in the Zach Lambert case where he mentions almost no scripture whatsoever. And all of the argument I thought this was a helpful point that James White made during his videos.

But it's essentially like you hear these things that Zach Lambert's saying. And when he talks about he used to be a person who believed the Bible, clearly taught that God was against any sort of same-sex relationship.

Because if you just read it, it says that, right? Romantic relationship. Right, right. So, he did believe those things, and then that belief changed over time. And what's really interesting is whenever he talked about that during his sermon, every single time he mentioned what changed his mind about those things.

And it wasn't reading the Bible. He never said in his sermon, the reason I changed my mind is because the Bible says that God is okay with this. He never says that. Instead, what he brings up is, hey, what changed my mind is I began to get to know these people and their same-sex relationships.

And I could see Christ in them. And this is where he'd start to do his little pausing. I just got to know these people. And I could just see Christ in them. And after all these times that everyone would turn them away and tell them they're in sin and you're not a Christian and God hates you, and they were still coming after Christ.

You know, it's like, I probably don't do it as well as he does. He's had a lot more time to practice it. But I'm not typically trying to emotionally manipulate people like him, so I'd expect him to be better at it.

But that's what he's doing the whole time. And he's telling you plainly, and this is the point James White makes is, hey, he's telling you plainly what convinced him was the anecdotal experience that he was having.

And then by the time he is going to the Bible to try and figure this out, he's already been convinced of something, and he's just trying to figure out, how do I make that fit? Or how do I make Scripture fit with my experience?

Yeah, I mean, they don't even have that goal of trying to make Scripture fit with their experience. I mean, I almost wish they did. Meaning, their goal is just to tell their experience. Right, yeah.

You know what I'm saying? It's all about the anecdotal experience, and it's that way with everything.

What I mean is, if he were actually trying to make Scripture fit with his experience, he would spend more time explaining what it means. But then when you think about what's actually happening, it's like a very shallow, oh yeah, I can't possibly mean that because these people are nice and all that.

So here's maybe a few things it could possibly mean, but whatever else, I don't know. But it's just Paul, whatever. And what ends up happening is it's all just these dismissals, these superficial kind of dismissals that are designed to make it unclear, basically.

Because they don't care. I mean, at the end of the day, yeah, they want to show some sort of engagement with the verse. Because they have to. Because they have to. I often, in our interactions with people, there's a thing I've it's a little meme I made about the context dodge or whatever.

But this is just an example of the kind of things that people will do to where if you were to make a biblical claim, they'll look at you and they'll say, hey, you're taking that out of context, right?

Right. They'll say something like that. But then one of the things you'll notice if your brain's actually working in those moments when they say that, they didn't actually explain anything when they say that.

They're just saying, hey, you're taking that out of context. They're just making a claim. Yeah, they're just it's a dismissal. So it's like, hey, I don't permit a woman to teach or have authority over men.

You take that out of context. So what they think they've done is they think that they've done the work of successfully defending their view at that point. But all they did was they just threw out a little distraction, right?

So it's like throwing a smoke bomb out or something like that and then running away in order before people notice that, hey, you didn't actually tell me you didn't say anything substantive at that point.

All you said was just this magical little phrase that you think gets you out of having to have a responsibility to explain what this verse means. So for that to actually make sense, you have to show why the context informs that particular reading, right?

So if I were to say the Bible says that we shouldn't let women teach or have authority over men, you can't just say, hey, you're taking that out of context. You have to explain from the passage why the context itself is using those words in a way that is different from what I'm saying they mean and what they actually mean in that kind of context.

So you have to do a little more work than just that. You didn't do anything with that. And so what's actually happening with these progressive guys in general and Christians in general is that they encounter a verse they don't like, and all they're going to do is they're going to throw out some kind of platitude or some kind of insult.

You're a legalist. You're a hypocrite. You're a Pharisee. You're taking that out of context. And then if your brain's on the whole time, what you'll notice is they didn't actually tell me what it meant, right?