Josh McDowell is Racist - Resigns from Cru: An AD Reaction

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00:05

Hey, check out this cute little bass that I caught. This is a small popper, it's not a very big popper at all, the lure, and it's like half the length of the bass that got hooked on it.

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So you know, I thought that was funny, I mean, even if it was a real fish, how is this bass gonna eat it?

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It's just, it's huge! I don't know, but he's a very ambitious little guy, luckily we got a good release on him so he'll have a chance to grow up and maybe one day he'll be big enough to eat a lure like this.

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But this video is about Josh McDowell. Now Josh McDowell is a name that I recognize, but I never read any of his books or I don't even know what he sounds like,

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I've never listened to a presentation, but from what I understand, he's an apologist and a very popular one at that.

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A lot of people have been very influenced by his books, I've definitely heard of his books, Evidence That Demands a

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Verdict, More Than a Carpenter, I've seen those books before but I've never read them. But apparently he had to step down,

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I went to this Christianity Today article about it, he made some racial comments, some racist remarks, so it must have been really bad if he had to resign.

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I mean, he must have said the n -word, that's like the ultimate, the n -word is like the most sacred word, if you utter it, you have to resign instantly.

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So whatever he said, it must have been really bad, let's go to the article to see what he said.

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This is a quote, McDowell told Christian counselors that critical race theory negates all the biblical teaching about racism because it focuses on systems rather than the sins of the human heart.

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And he said that today's definition of social justice is not biblical. Now, you know,

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I don't really talk about critical race theory all that much, I don't care whether it's critical race theory or some other error, all

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I care about is that it's in odds with the Bible. And the thing is, the objectionable part about critical race theory isn't really the focus on systems, it's just that it focuses on systems in an inappropriate way while showing partiality against whites, showing partiality towards blacks, like critical race theory itself is a practice of partiality, so it's sinful.

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It's a sinful analysis of systems, it's a sinful analysis of racism, it's not so much the systems themselves, like yeah, systems can be unjust,

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I think everybody agrees with that, systems can be unjust, we have systemic injustice in our land, we allow babies to be killed just because people want to kill them, like that's a systemic injustice.

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So it's not that it focuses on systems, it's the way it focuses on systems, but that's not a direct quote from McDowell, so maybe he didn't even say that,

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I don't really trust Christianity today to get this one right, so let's go back to the article. Josh McDowell said, quote, there is no comparison to what is known today as social justice with what the

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Bible speaks of as justice. I agree. With critical race theory, they speak structurally, the

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Bible speaks individually. Make sure you get that, that's a big difference. I don't really agree with that necessarily, the

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Bible does focus on individual sins, you're only guilty of the sins that you yourself commit, but the

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Bible does talk about unjust systems and how we have to have a law that is just,

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I mean we should have a just law, that makes perfect sense, but just because we don't have a just law in the

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United States doesn't make me guilty of those injustices, do you see what I'm saying? That's a difference that I think is important.

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So again, I don't really trust Christianity today to be quoting him right here, but if that's what he said,

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I don't quite agree with that, let's continue. He went on to say that not all Americans have equal opportunities to succeed.

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Huh. Not all Americans have equal opportunities to succeed. That sounds like something that these woke social justice

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Christians would like. I don't agree with that. I think Americans have equal opportunities to succeed.

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Let's see what he has to say. They don't, folks, he said in a speech, I do not believe blacks,

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African -Americans and many other minorities have equal opportunity. Why? Most of them grew up in families where there is not a big emphasis on education, security, you can do anything you want.

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You can change the world. If you work hard, you will make it. So many African -Americans don't have those privileges like I was brought up.

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I see. Okay. So what he did, he tried to flip the script there. That was really stupid. So what he tried to do was he tried to say, okay, well,

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I do agree that that people don't have equal opportunities. So the critical race theorist is like, oh, that's sounds good,

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Josh. He sounds like you're orthodox. And then he flipped the script on him by saying they don't have the same opportunities because they don't care about hard work or education or security.

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The way I grew up was grown up. I see the problem, man.

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Is that really it? Is that what he had to resign over? Yeah, that's really it.

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I mean, Religious News obtained a copy of the recording and verified McDowell's remarks. After being contacted by the

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Religious News Service, McDowell issued a statement on social media apologizing for his remarks, saying that they do not reflect his own beliefs.

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Why did he say it then? They don't reflect his own beliefs. So why did he say it? He said his comment about minority families does not reflect reality.

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You know, so, okay. So let me, let me. As a minority myself, I'm allowed to talk about these things.

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So the reality is that, that this is not, this is not necessarily all wrong.

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Now, I think the big quibble that I would have is when he says most of them, most blacks, most minorities grow up in families where there's not a big influence on education or security.

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So he would have to have evidence that it was like more than 50 % of families. They don't really care so much about education or hard work or whatever it is.

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I don't think he has that evidence and maybe he does. And if he does, then great, I doubt it.

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But as a minority myself, I can tell you that many, many black families and minority families simply do not have these same emphases on education and security and all this kind of stuff.

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That's a fact. That's true. In fact, in my own family, one side of my family had a much higher emphasis on that.

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And one side of my family had a much less emphasis on that. And the relative success levels of those sides of the family, it's what you would expect essentially.

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But the thing is, it goes beyond hard work too, because I disagree that minority families don't value hard work.

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I think most minority families do work very, very hard, but it's actually not enough to work hard because hard work isn't really what leads to success.

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Productive work is what leads to success, right? A perfect example would be this. Right now in my backyard,

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I hired a landscaper to redo a retaining wall that was falling down. It's a stone retaining wall.

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They're all over New England and we're redoing it, right? And so he's taking his time to do it right and all this kind of stuff.

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If I were to have done that on my own, I would have been working really hard because it's a very difficult job.

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I would have been working my tail off trying to build this retaining wall. But since I don't know what I'm doing, it wouldn't be productive work.

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I wouldn't get much benefit from it. I could work really, really hard. In fact, I'd probably work harder than the professional who knows how to do it since I don't know how to do it.

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But his work, even though he's working less hard than me, would be more productive than my work.

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See, what matters is how productive your work is. And I think that sometimes can be the issue. And the other thing too is even if you have productive work and you believe in education and stuff like that, you also have to have the mentality of saving and not going into debt and spending less than you make and stuff like that.

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All that factors into success. And the reality is that many, many minority families don't teach those kinds of things as much as they should.

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And that's a fact. And that's a fact that we need to face because if you don't face that fact, nothing will change.

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Now, I have to disagree with him though here that I don't necessarily think it's most families.

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But this is really not all that bad. I mean, for a minority, just being honest with my own family and my own observations of other minorities, you know, okay, maybe it's not most, but it's something that is a problem in, at least in Puerto Rican families,

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I'll say. And I think with some black families that I know, it is a problem. There's even a lot of whites, especially the poor amongst whites that have a lot of these problems as well.

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And we need to be honest with that. Otherwise, we're actually not going to fix it. So if we're not allowed to talk about this, then, you know, really who's actually caring about the people that actually need to adjust the way they think in this kind of thing?

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I don't know. I just, this really seems like a big nothing. Why did he have to resign over this? But in retrospect though,

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I'm glad he resigned because nobody needs a leader or a teacher who's just a groveling little like,

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I don't know, beta, I guess is a good way to say it. I mean, the minute somebody calls him out on this, he's like, I don't really believe it.

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I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't really believe it. Like, why'd you say it then? If you don't believe it, why'd you say it?

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I think he actually does believe it, but he's trying to have an opportunity to get his ministry back because that's very important to him.

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So he felt like he had to step down in order to maintain the ministry, which

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I don't think he should have stepped down. But now that I see the kind of guy he is where he just kind of grovels instantly, I'm kind of glad he stepped down, to be honest.

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I mean, that's, that's my, that's my take on it, I guess. This really isn't that bad. I mean, take away the word most, and this is a very helpful statement, at least in my opinion.

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I don't agree with his analysis on critical race theory. I mean, again, the systemic part isn't really the offensive part, it's how you get to that systemic stuff.

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Like, if there really was systemic racism, I would be all over it, and that would be fine because the Bible talks about justice, and part of justice is the systems, right?

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But the thing is, the way it comes up with systemic injustice is shenanigans. It's like, well, you know,

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I don't have as much money as you, therefore it's a systemic — that's socialism, though, that's not the Bible, obviously.

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But yeah, those are my comments. I did come across this one. This is

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Ed Stetzer. Man, this guy is just insufferable. This guy is insufferable.

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He's writing about, you know, how smart he is. This is interesting because this shows you how stupid —

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I do think that God has made these people stupid. I think God has made Ed Stetzer stupid.

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Listen to this for a second, because you can see that this is all political.

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This is all a scam. Listen to what he says here, Ed Stetzer. He's talking about this whole situation.

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He says, The murder of George Floyd last year by a Minneapolis police officer did more to ignite the conversation around systemic racism in America and the evangelical movement than anything else in my lifetime.

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Suddenly, many evangelicals who had avoided issues of race were asking questions and looking for leaders to speak out.

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While many voices rose to the occasion, too often white evangelicals were often more eager to speak about race issues than to listen to those on the receiving end of racism.

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Like why did the George Floyd — doesn't he stop to ask the question, like, why did the

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George Floyd situation ignite a race conversation? We had no indication whatsoever that there was racism involved in this altercation at all.

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None. It was a black guy and a white cop. That was it. And we had no indication that the white cop had any racist beliefs, racist motivations, racist anything.

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So take a step. Why is it that that's the thing that ignited the conversation about race?

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Well, what happened was people were applying a phony baloney narrative created by the media to say, well, this is racism.

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This is racist. And it's like, well, that's not really biblical to do that, though, to assume that something is the case without any evidence whatsoever.

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It's not biblical at all. It's like — but then he says, too often white people were eager to speak about race rather than just listen to those who receive on the receiving end of racism.

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That's not true, though, Ed, because you're talking here and so many of your colleagues were talking here and they don't want to hear me.

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I've been on the receiving end of racism, Ed. How come you can't hear me? Well, no, I don't count because I don't agree with you already.

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You see, that's the trick. If you agree with Ed on racism, that white people are systemically oppressive and black people be systemically oppressed, like unless you agree with Ed already, you don't count.

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That's the thing. That's the thing. These people are scamming you guys. And they're also gaslighting you because what they say is that that the conservatives only listen to those who already agree with them.

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No, no. That's you, bro. You don't listen to minorities like me because I don't agree with your liberal politics.

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That's the issue here. It's pretty unbelievable when you think about the gaslighting here is just so strong.

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The other the other thing I wanted to mention here that I thought was hilarious was he I don't talk a lot.

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Again, I don't talk a lot about critical race theory, but he he uses the play from CNN and MSNBC.

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I mean, he's a this guy is a state operative, Ed Stetzer. If I had to put my money on whether or not Ed Stetzer was was an operative of some kind,

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I would put my money on. Yes, I think he's probably on the payroll, if you know what I mean. I'm not saying he is.

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I'm saying he probably could be. He could be. If I had to bet on it, I'd say yes. Listen to this one.

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This is this one's hilarious, right? This is the same play that CNN uses. Few events capture this truth as much as the debate around critical race theory.

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As with broader American society, recent evangelical discussions of race have been dominated by the specter of CRT.

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Efforts by some evangelicals to weaponize the words like CRT and social justice as buzzwords for dangerous ideology only fortify the barricades and cripple fruitful discussion amongst

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Orthodox believers about the existence of systemic injustice and injustice. Indeed, McDowell's comments stem from his participation in this criticism.

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So what he says is basically anyone who talks about negatively about critical race theory. Well, that's they're just using it as a scare tactic.

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It's like a spook. It's a specter. It's a ghost. They're using it as a scare tactic to shut down conversation.

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And then the next paragraph says this. When cheat church leaders reduce complex ideas to simplistic buzzwords, the end result is always a rational fear and suspicion rather than honest dialogue.

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There are legitimate concerns about critical race theory, and I and many others have been discussing critical race theory's challenges and shortcomings.

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So he's like, the other side has a problem with critical race theory. That's a specter.

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That's a fear tactic. That's a spook. But but but there are problems with critical race theory.

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And you can trust me because I believe some of it, but not all of it. You can see this.

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It's a scam, bro. This is a scam. Ed, why are you doing this? Look at this guy. Just look at this guy.

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That's a little cream puff, man. My goodness gracious. Honestly, this guy, this guy might be on the payroll, allegedly, allegedly.

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What do you think? Let me know in the comments section if you think this guy is on the payroll. And if you don't know what

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I mean, then don't even worry about it. The whole thing is a scam. Like, like, like, that's so stupid.

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So it's like you have a problem with critical race theory. So you're a fear. That's fear mongering.

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But I and many others have written about the problems with critical race theory. You can trust us like in the next paragraph, he takes away what he took.

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He gave you in the first paragraph. It's just like it's just this guy. This guy's brains have fallen out. And that's why

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I say God has made this man stupid and many others. But yeah, that's pretty much my comments of the

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Josh McDowell situation. I think Josh McDowell shouldn't have resigned for what he said, but I'm glad he resigned because he's just a groveling, you know, little, you can't respect a guy like that.