News Roundup: Canada, Grove City, Collins, PCA, and SBC

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Jon updates everyone on situations he's been following.

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Conversations That Matter podcast. My name is John Harris. We're gonna do a news roundup today. We're gonna talk about some of the stories that I started talking about last week that we've been following,
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PCA, SBC. We're gonna talk about Canada, what's going on there, Grove City College, and then
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I wanna share an article with you about Francis Collins that I thought was really interesting because it makes a point that I've seen others make about the situation in Canada, which
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I think is a very interesting point, and that is, why is it that Christian elites tend to, and what
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I mean by that is Christians with a platform, those who are running big churches and publishing houses and have influence, head of a seminary, that kind of thing, on the speaking circuit, why is it that they seem to have less discernment, maybe would be the word, or just common sense, really, than some working -class people on some issues?
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Francis Collins is, in a way, one of those issues. I'm not gonna say Christopher Hitchens is a working -class guy, but he kind of saw through Francis Collins.
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The truckers in Canada are standing up to tyranny better than most of the pastors in Canada seem to have been able to stand up against tyranny, and there's a religion in which the government is replacing
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God. It's manifesting itself in the social justice movement and the COVID stuff. It's a state that is becoming more and more powerful, and this is a big problem, and the people who seem to see it, this audience,
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I'm sure, is included in this. This is the audience. I just can't tell you enough how grateful
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I am for you and how, not just your support and your prayers, but I'm just grateful for what you're doing on the ground, what you're doing in asking your pastors good questions and getting on search committees and trying to vet the pastors who come into your churches and starting new churches, and it's not just within churches.
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It's within ministries. It's not even just within ministries. It's within your local community.
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You are an audience that I'm very, very, you give me a lot of hope and encouragement, but this audience, other audiences in a similar way that are understanding what's going on, and then even outside of Christianity, this is the interesting thing to me, truckers, truckers seem to sense, yeah, something's way wrong with this picture.
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We are gonna sacrifice for our freedom. Why is it that Christian elites can't seem to get to that point of sacrifice and bravery and not saying all
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Christian elites, but man, it seems like all of them sometimes, seems like the majority. It's very interesting to me, so we're gonna talk about that dynamic a little bit today, and let's see, what else?
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I'm gonna be in Muncie, Pennsylvania this Wednesday. If anyone can come out, would love to see you. Information is on worldviewconversation .com.
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Go to the Speaking Engagements tab, and you can see where I'll be. Would love to catch you out there. We're gonna do some
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Q &A and talking about social justice, so let's start here.
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I wanted to briefly mention this. I was so on the fence about whether I wanted to even talk about this, because to me, it's a sideshow.
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It's not really all that important, but that really became why I wanted to talk about it, because a lot of people think this is really important.
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Here's the headline from Breitbart. Parliament scolds Justin Trudeau for saying conservative Jewish lawmakers stands with Nazis.
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Now, I saw the original clip. I'm not gonna play it. I'll just summarize it for you. Justin Trudeau says on the floor of Parliament, the conservatives stand with, he says, the people who wave the swastika and the
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Confederate flag. That's what he says. In Canada, right? I just was thinking, really? I mean,
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Canada, not so much really. I mean, it could be that there's a neo -Nazi movement, and most countries probably have at least one or two people who would believe that, but I just wasn't aware that the truckers were somehow really cool with the
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Nazis, and with the Confederate flag. Canada, really? They were, I don't think they have much of a dog in that whole issue, but that's what
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Justin Trudeau said. And, of course, this offended the conservatives in Parliament, and they went berserk.
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And here's the thing I wanted to focus on a little bit. Was that the point of it?
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Was Justin Trudeau just trolling them? Was the whole goal of this to make this the headline, to get conservatives worked up about something that's such a sideshow, it's stupid, in a way?
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It's an inane accusation to make. Obviously, they're not siding with Nazis.
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Obviously, this has no connection. That's what critical theorists often do, is they can create these connections to oppression that are so stretching things that it just insults your intelligence, but they're taken seriously.
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That's the thing. And maybe, in a sense, it should be. It's the prime minister. I mean, when he says something,
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I guess he should take it seriously, but this statement is so dumb, and that is an appropriate word, perhaps, or stupid.
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I mean, my parents, when I was young, told me not to say those words, and that was good advice, right? In normal playground kind of dynamics, you don't say those words, but this would qualify.
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This would qualify for just a really stupid comment to make. It's ignorant, it's just,
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I don't even know, what other adjectives to use here, but it was taken seriously. People were very offended, and I can see why they would be, but my question is, is this the way, and this is something just to think about.
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I don't have a fully thought -out way of dealing with this, or thinking through what should be done.
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I just think this isn't the way. I heard on the Christian radio station earlier today, they were focusing on this as well, and I'm just seeing it everywhere, that this is such a headline, and it's like, yeah, obviously, that's not true.
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It's a waste of time to talk about something that is so fantastic that it's just, it's imaginary, and at the same time, you have a tyrannical prime minister, in an unconstitutional way, declaring a state of emergency.
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And I had several people from Canada actually reach out to me on this after I did the show last week, and I said, look,
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I don't know the full story. I'm just suspicious here that there's a lot of, well, propaganda's not even really the word.
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There's a lot of fake news. There's a lot of just lying going on about these truckers, like they're blocking people from getting to work, and maybe that did happen to some extent, but I just think it's being overblown, and I had people from Canada reach out to me and said, yeah, it totally is.
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They're not blocking people from getting to work. They've been compliant with the police directives.
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They've moved when they've needed to, but they're not, what they're doing is they're continuing to try to make their voice heard.
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They want to garner sympathy. They want their elected officials to listen to them for once, right?
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To listen to them and to take them seriously, to take their livelihood seriously, and they're willing to sacrifice for that because it's about their family, and it's about being able to support their family.
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That's what's going on. It's not, you know, they're not rebels trying to overturn the government.
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It's not an insurrection. I'm sure it's gonna be compared to that. It probably already has been. It's just petitioning their government with grievances.
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Should be something championed by, you would think, peacefully doing this, this was, it would be the height of democracy.
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Democracy at work. These people don't actually want democracy when it doesn't suit them. They just want power.
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So, that's the story here, and so I just wanted to make the point that this seems like a sideshow, but it steals the headlines for whatever reason, and I don't know how we, you know, what is, how do you answer that?
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Put yourself in their position on parliament. Maybe this does deserve a rebuke, but you don't want to get pulled into the weeds on this kind of stuff.
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It should be taken seriously. Justin Trudeau should be laughed out of the room to get so offended by it.
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That's the weird thing to me. It's like, you know, treat him as the immature person that he is, and I don't know, maybe a remark that puts him in his place would be good, and then you move on.
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So, I just wanted to focus on that because I think this is where conservatives, we often do this, political conservatives and theological conservatives, we often take the bait.
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We go down that road, we get caught up in the sideshow, we miss the big picture, and we're not talking about what we should be, and I don't,
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I mean, we let the left kind of dictate the talking point sometimes, and I'm not saying we shouldn't react.
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I do react, and you know that on this. We do react to things that the left says. More than often, though,
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I'm bringing up things that aren't necessarily getting a lot of attention because they should be, but anyway, that's just a tactical error in my mind, and I don't know the answer.
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I don't know what the best thing to do would be in these situations, but it just doesn't seem like it's this.
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All right, let's keep talking about Canada because there is a petition, or I guess an open letter more so, that is being promoted by the
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Liberty Coalition in Canada. LibertyCoalitionCanada .com, LibertyCoalitionCanada .com
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if you wanna check this out, and several prominent people that, well, I mean, in our circles, you might know.
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I don't recognize all of these folks, but James Coates posted or signed his name, undersigned it, and you have,
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I think I recognize Joseph Boot. If I, I know the name rings a bell. Anyway, Canadian pastors have signed this, and this is what it says.
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I'm gonna read it to you in its entirety. It's not long. Says, to the prime minister and federal government, we are writing to you as representatives, pastors,
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Christian congregations from across the country as law -abiding citizens who respect the God -defined role of civil government and uphold the
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Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, highest law of our land, which recognizes the supremacy of God over all human legislation.
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For the past two years, we have sought to respectfully and peaceably make known to all levels of government our profound concern about the indefinite suspension of civil liberties, coercive mandates, and perpetual state interference in the life, freedom, and worship of the church.
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Freedom is guaranteed by both our inherited common law tradition and charter. We have also prayed earnestly for our governing authorities, met with them, written letters and petitions, peacefully gathered for protests with other concerned citizens, and in some cases, filed lawsuits.
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We have used every lawful means at our disposal to be heard and taken seriously, yet at every turn, we have been largely ignored, brushed aside, insulted, and even told we in no way represent
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Canadians. In recent weeks, the hugely popular truckers convoy, containing many
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Christians, including pastors, has captured the imagination not only of this nation, but other nations around the world, laying bare that what we have expressed and argued for months is indeed representative of the concerns of millions of ordinary
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Canadians who value peace, personal liberty, that personal responsibility, and liberty.
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The Ottawa protest has presented your government with a wonderful opportunity to meet with and speak to ordinary
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Canadians, lawfully and peaceably, requiring the restoration of their constitutional rights. However, in response to their singing, praying, dancing, candy floss, bouncy castles, speeches about the
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Constitution, and outpourings of patriotic love for the country, your government has not only refused to meet with these citizens to hear their concerns, you have insulted, denigrated, and lied about them, further dividing a hurting and broken nation.
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As ambassadors of Christ, whilst we respect your office as a public servant and honor the limited role of civil authority as a ministry of public justice, we do not hesitate to fulfill our responsibility as servants of the living
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God by unapologetically reminding you that Jesus Christ is Lord and King and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
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He sets up kings and pulls down the mighty from their thrones, and none can stay his hand. In the words of the same scriptures engraved on the
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Peace Tower in Ottawa and written into our very national coat of arms. Now, therefore, be wise,
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O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.
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When his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are those who put their trust in him. Psalm 2, 10 through 12.
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Mr. Trudeau, with great respect, you are neither the king nor the ruler of Canada. Both you and your colleagues are public servants sent for a short time to parliament at our behest as citizens to govern under God in the terms of the
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Canadian Charter and to seek a harmony of public legal interest. You do not grant people rights and responsibilities that are theirs as God's image bearers and a free people.
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Since you do not grant them, you have no authority to remove them. Your government does not grant people the right to their bodily integrity, the right to work or earn a living, the right to decide for their children or to be with their families or dying loved ones, the right to gather to worship and obey
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God, the right to travel in their own land or enter and leave civil government exists to protect these pre -political and fundamental freedoms, not bestow and remove them as if it can function in the place of God.
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As such, we as Christian pastors condemned in the strongest possible terms your unprecedented invoking of the
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Emergency Powers Act with the intent of bringing unaccountable state power to bear on peaceful citizens, men, women, and children who have been stripped of their fundamental freedoms for two years and who have in many cases lost everything as a result of your government's mandates.
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There is no national emergency and to evoke one is to crush peaceful political dissent is a totalitarian act of repression displaying weakness, not strength.
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These tyrannical actions are exposing this government and people to the judgment of God. And we are deeply concerned that you do not appreciate the significance of God's wrath upon a rebellious and lawless nation.
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We implore you to step back from the brink, restore the constitutional freedoms of the people, respect the God -given rights of our citizenry, and above all, to humble yourself, take an e before Christ the
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King, lest you perish in the way. We urge you to repent of the sins of pride, rebellion against God, and bearing false witness.
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You have not displayed a brotherly care and love for these honest, hardworking people who have tried to peacefully bring their serious concerns to your attention.
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Our hope and prayer for you and your government is that you will lift the emergency measures and these lawless mandates and enact justice for a people who elected you to that purpose.
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For he shall have dominion from sea to sea, Psalm 72, 8. This is excellent.
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I mean, this reminds me of the Black Robe Regiment in the Revolutionary War. This is calling to account being a real prophetic voice, unlike Russell Moore, who goes to the page of the
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Washington Post to blast fellow Christians. This is an actual prophetic voice. And it's from Christians in Canada.
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Now, this doesn't represent all who call themselves Christian or evangelical, but it certainly represents many
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Orthodox voices up there who have already made many sacrifices in some cases.
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And this is just a phenomenal letter, in my opinion, just phenomenal. So if you want to, let's see if there's a way,
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I don't know if you can sign it. Yeah, it looks like you can. You can sign it.
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And that's at Liberty Coalition Canada, libertycoalitioncanada .com. And this is the right, it is actually,
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I didn't even know about this when I was doing the podcast last week and some of those same, these same concepts
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I was bringing up from Pierre Bray and Samuel Rutherford and Martin Luther, Christian resistance theory.
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So let's switch gears, we're talking about Canada now, let's talk about the United States a little bit.
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This is interesting. The Biden -Harris administration celebrates first anniversary of the reestablishment of the
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White House Office of Faith -Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Now, I'm not gonna read all this, but I'm gonna read for you a little bit.
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The Biden -Harris administration is also working tirelessly to advance policies, promoting religious equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
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Hmm, wonder what that means. And protecting the fundamental right to practice faith without fear, especially in light of the troubling rise of anti -Semitic, xenophobic, and bigoted attacks against people of faith, targeting synagogues, predominantly black churches, and Muslim and Sikh communities, among other communities.
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Yeah, we don't have to read any more of this. Talks about the COVID -19 pandemic.
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Yeah, a lot of it's, wow, COVID -19. Increasing opportunity and mobility for historically disadvantaged communities and combating systemic racism.
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Yeah. Strengthening pluralism and protecting the right to practice faith without fear. Advancing global development and humanitarian work.
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Working with faith and community groups to protect our environment. It's all the left -wing stuff. That's all gonna be snuck into all of this.
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It's creating the utopia, really.
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We're gonna end all bigotry and create this equal society, and the government's gonna make sure everyone abides by the rules.
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It's that agenda. And the environmentalism gets into this, and the critical race theory, and just the pluralism, and the
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Fauciism, all of that stuff. But they're doing it. It's just fascinating to me.
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This is something that was controversial during the Bush years. These faith -based initiatives, really, is what they called them.
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And now, is the ACLU even the least bit concerned that the federal government is gonna partner with religious organizations and churches to advance their agenda?
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This was never a good idea, to open this door. And it's not even a constitutional thing.
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Where in the Constitution do you even have any precedent for any language that would imply that you can do something like this?
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It's fascinating to me. So, this is the community organizing thing.
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This is advancing the federal government's interests at the local level, and using religious groups as the front groups to get it done.
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And so, the left is more than happy to use religion for their own purposes. They're more than happy to do it.
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They don't like biblical Christianity. But to think that they're secular, anti -religious,
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I mean, I quibble with that. I think that they're totally fine using religion.
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And they're also, as long as the religion bows to the government, pinches the incense to Caesar, when
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Caesar comes around, does the bidding of the true God, the government, that's what they're fine with.
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Let's talk about Grove City. Moving from that, just wanted people to be aware of that, that that's happening, that the notion that the federal government's all about secularism, yeah, to a point, but they're totally willing to use religion.
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And if you don't think that there's a tie between the interests, and I think refugee resettlement is the perfect example of this, the interests of the federal government, and then the interests of elite evangelical and Christian organizations, then
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I'm sure there's a lot of money, a lot of funding that you can get to be on board, and in charge of some of that money, perhaps, on the local level from the federal government, if you sign up to be part of these religious faith initiatives.
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So I expect more. I expect more left -leaning social justice rhetoric from certain sectors of evangelicalism, and perhaps a willingness to work with the federal government on this agenda.
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Now, let's talk about Grove City College. So there's a really positive thing going on. We're gonna do the positive and the negative here.
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Here's the positive. A statement from the Grove City College Board of Trustees. Okay, this isn't the administration, this is a board of trustees.
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Now, before I even go into this, I wanna say that there have been those who have tried or wanted to try to get the board of trustees in Southern Baptist schools to stand up to the administrations, and it doesn't really work.
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And part of it is because of the way that the trustees are appointed by,
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I believe it's the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. I'm probably oversimplifying that somewhat, but there's a rotating door thing going on, and you're expected to play ball.
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It's very hard. There's people here or there at some of the schools that buck the trend.
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But in general, these guys are, they're not gonna buck the trend. So Grove City College, I do not know how these trustees get approved, but I am thinking that there's more accountability there.
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And this is a really good development. The statement from February 16th says this.
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The board of trustees is aware of recent commentary questioning whether Grove City College may be changing its mission, vision, or values.
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Our duty of care and loyalty includes stewardship of the college's mission and honor and responsibility that we take most seriously.
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We unqualifiedly reaffirm Grove City College's Christ -centered mission and commitment to a free society, traditional values, and the common good.
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It goes on and says that the board rejects critical race theory.
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It says that President McNulty attempting to balance confidential personal matters with assurances that remedial steps would be taken and more may be appropriate.
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To that end, and with the encouragement of President McNulty, the board has established a special committee to review alleged instances of mission drifts, summarize facts, identify remedial actions already implemented by President McNulty and recommend any additional measures that may be appropriate.
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And the special committee will complete its work by the end of March. That's great, because that means they're not giving them a lot of time.
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They're gonna do this quick. And so my hope is that, and I don't know the people on this committee, my hope is that this isn't just a shield they're putting up, but this is an actual real investigation.
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That is a really good development. Now, here's the negative. Here's a Twitter thread from a
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Grove City College insider. And so you're gonna have to trust me a little bit on this.
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Because normally, right, I wouldn't put up like an anonymous Twitter account or something, but I have a little more knowledge that lets me do this, but I can't share quite.
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But here's the insider. As reported below, pro -CRT
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Grove City College faculty created a counter petition last week to shield President McNulty from criticism and distract from instances of mission drift described by the faculty letter written to Grove City College board and trustees.
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So if you remember correctly, there was a petition by Grove City College faculty that they're concerned about Grove City College's mission drift, critical race theory, all of that.
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Well, there was a counter petition is what this Twitter account is saying. Supporters of the counter petition, including department chairs who evaluate faculty performance went door to door asking for signatures, an intimidation tactic and likely violating of the accreditation standards that they have there.
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Counter petition effort failed this week when the Grove City College trustees intervened on Wednesday. So he's talking about what
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I just read to you. McNulty announced the special committee at the start of the faculty meeting.
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In spite of this, the assistant dean, Colin Messer, announced counter petition to faculty at close of meeting, invited people to sign on the spot.
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The day before, another dean released email. See, I don't know the name of this dean.
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He doesn't really come up. I'm not sure who that is, but released an email saying that he had speculated about identity of cowardly and un -Christian people behind the faculty letter.
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So I guess that would be the conservatives. He also oversees faculty evaluation and promotion. So how likely are you if there's an effort, just think about it this way.
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There's this effort to do a counter petition, an effort that with the support of the school, right?
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There's this big effort and you have a dean who's accusing the people who are the more conservatives who are concerned that they're the problem.
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They're cowardly. They're calling them names and stuff. This is what is going on.
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And so how likely would you be to share your concerns in that case?
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Not too likely. You'd probably feel somewhat intimidated. So that's,
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I think, the point they're making. And apparently the Grove City College's newspaper signed, let's see, published the signed counter petition as a letter to the editor.
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So it's getting out there. The faculty letter, he says, has substance, is intentionally confidential to keep the focus on the issues.
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The counter petition, very broad and publicly signed. Why? Because the goal of the counter petition is to deflect criticism and cast suspicion on those who did not sign.
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So there's pressure. If you don't sign the counter petition, he could identify you as one of the people who might've been favorable to the initial petition against critical race theory at Grove City College.
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I mean, this is disgusting tactics. Events of the past week revealed deteriorating situation. Current academic administration at Grove City College not fit to lead.
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Board of trustees has pledged to investigate possible mission drift. Will it also review the dysfunctional institutional culture that incubates this unacceptable behavior?
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I'll be honest, guys and gals, I don't know what to say about Grove City College at this point.
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I'm tempted to roll the tape again. You can go look at it. You can go find, I did an episode where I talked about it.
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More importantly, though, you can go to Gab, my Gab page, and I just go to, you can probably even Google Grove City College critical race theory,
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John Harris Gab. You know, it'll come right up. And man, I mean, to see what was being said in chapel, there's been no retractions, really.
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There's been no admission of guilt. I mean, the closest you have is
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Carl Truman, like, well, maybe it wasn't the best. You know, that's the kind of stuff you get. And it's gotten, it's getting ugly.
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I mean, these people, you know, they are just, the arrogance and the unwillingness to ever admit that you're wrong is just incredible to me.
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Incredible pride at Grove City College, unfortunately. Let's talk about Francis Collins, and then we'll get into the
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SPC and PCA stuff. Francis Collins, gone wild. Francis Collins and the Big Eva scandal.
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Published on February 18th at the Larry Alex Taunton blog.
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Larryalextaunton .com. I'm not gonna read for you the whole thing here. It talks about Megan Basham's piece called
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How the Federal Government Used Evangelical Leaders to Spread COVID Propaganda. Many of you have probably heard about this. It's a great piece.
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Essentially, what she does is she shows how
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Fauci and Collins and the federal government's narrative was so easily picked up.
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And like the lab leak theory was opposed. And I mean, she really just gets Ed Stetzer and Tim Keller and Rick Warren and so many others.
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David French, et cetera. And she shows how the unwillingness to retract, the total willingness to go along with the government's narrative to the exclusion of others.
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And now that it's proved that the lab leak theory, it's just common knowledge at this point. People just accept that.
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It kind of makes them look somewhat foolish, but there haven't been any retractions to my mind. Anyway, so he references this.
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But then he says something really interesting. And I wanna get to the heart of it here.
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So apparently Larry Taunton has debated, and he's friends with Christopher Hitchens.
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And this is what, and Hitchens, I guess, had debated Francis Collins.
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And Hitchens privately told him that he considered Collins an eminent scientist who didn't really believe the
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Bible. And he kind of came to that conclusion. This guy's wishy -washy.
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This guy's not to be taken seriously as far as his faith is concerned.
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And he said that Christopher Hitchens, who only had a superficial acquaintance with the Bible, could see that Collins was at best theologically muddled.
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And so why is it that Christopher Hitchens could see this, but such luminaries of the Christian faith as the aforementioned pastors, and he mentions a bunch of them here,
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French, Keller, Moore, Stetzer, Warren, Wright, and others. Why couldn't they see this? And he gets into something even more interesting.
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He asked this question, let's see here, if I can get past this. She quotes the article, but he tightens up the relationship between Keller, Tim Keller, and Francis Collins, that Keller fully embraced biologos,
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Collins's foundation. And he just really shows that they had a close relationship.
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So the question though he asks is, see, maybe I skipped over it.
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I thought I, it was earlier in the article, I guess. He asked whether or not they were hoodwinked.
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Were the evangelicals who embraced Francis Collins just taken for a ride?
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You know, they just, they're well -meaning and they just kind of believe Francis Collins, even though,
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I mean, he's been involved in some horrible things, horrible things that are totally incompatible with an evangelical, or let alone,
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I mean, a Christian, let alone evangelical ethic. So he leverages his celebrity.
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He was, he fit an image, is what Larry Taunton is saying. He was a guitar -toting high priest.
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The theological authority, the guy who had platforming in the secular arena in science, in place where Christians really weren't typically known to, at this point, have a lot of influence, and there's
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Francis Collins. And that's what they aspire to. So there's another motive going on here.
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And so, anyway, he asked if they're hoodwinked. And he, and because of that tight relationship with Keller, he's like, it can't be that.
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It can't, that's the insinuation. You know, how could it be that? How could it be that they were just naive about this?
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They knew him. So what's the conclusion?
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What's the conclusion? It's not a good one.
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That's the point. These people that are leading evangelical institutions that have, let's just say, partnered in some way with Francis Collins, there's something suspicious about them.
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It's not just that they're ignorant, and oh man, this guy didn't realize how evil this guy really was, how controlling, how he didn't really have
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Christian ethics. You know, fine with some horrible human rights abuses and corruption.
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Yet, you know, Christians thought this is the guy.
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This is the guy. This is the one we wanna hold up as an example. That should frighten us.
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That should expose something to us. And there's been no retractions of endorsements and that kind of thing.
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There's been no statements. Tim Keller's not going out there saying, wow, I'm really shocked that Francis Collins, I had no idea.
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Man, I distanced myself. Or, you know, I'm just, you know, pray for him because clearly there's a real big problem.
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None of that. None of that. So I thought that was an interesting observation.
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And it's similar to, you know, the Canadian trucker situation. Why is it that Gospel Coalition Canada is so weak and can't stand up to the tyranny that's right in front of them and yet the truckers can?
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You know, what's up with that? All right, let's talk about, let's move on now.
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We're gonna talk about the Presbyterians, the PCA. This is a longer article. Mid the
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Pines is the, by Ryan Beese. Ryan Beese is a pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.
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And this is interesting. He talks a lot about progressives in what's a national partnership,
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I think is what it's called, who have this, it's like an email chain, but it's progressive political maneuvering, a lot of it.
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So he has a lot of stuff on that. And for those who are in the PCA, it might do you some good to read this.
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But I wanna get to the conclusion here. He thinks what's happening in the PCA, because there's some discouraging news.
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The overtures that the conservatives wanted don't look like they're gonna be passed. But he says he thinks their trajectory is going in a good direction.
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And the reason is because the denominational elites are losing their grip in some ways.
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And it's, what he predicts in this article is that you're gonna have, he said it may take a couple more years of wrangling, but you're gonna have pastors primarily, elders from congregations showing up in mass at the next
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General Assembly. And that this is the trajectory. This is where things are going. The pastors are taking back their denomination.
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So it's a call not to leave the PCA. Now, I've told people before, I don't have much of a dog in this because I'm more unfamiliar with the
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PCA and it's outside of my world to some extent. But many friends who are in the
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PCA and appreciate them, talk to them for hours about these kinds of things.
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And it's split, frankly, it's split. Part of me,
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I think because of what's happening in the SBC, I'm just like, well, if it's the same thing, then you should probably just leave.
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It's not worth it. I don't know if that's the case though in the PCA. I mean, that's my natural go -to because I hear things that seem just so similar to what's happening in the
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SBC. And it could well be that that is the right direction to go. And it could well be that that's not the right direction right now, but it will be very soon.
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And it could well be that it would be better to stay in for now and to just see if this trajectory continues.
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You do have to, I think, I've said this with the SBC, I think it's with the PCA, you do have to have kind of a line in the sand though.
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You do have to have like a, okay, by this time, it could be five years from now, it could be one year from now.
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If we don't get certain things passed or there's some threshold that needs to be met, then we're leaving.
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There needs to be a time in which that you leave. And it can't just be open -ended because there are gonna be people who are always saying, oh, you can't leave yet.
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Because the PCA is not the issue, it's the kingdom of God. It is the church, right?
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So the PCA, if it's not serving that purpose, then it's irrelevant. But if it's still salvageable, then stay in.
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And that's what Ryan Beas thinks. So I just thought it was a thought -provoking piece and gave a lot of good information from someone who is encouraging people to stay in.
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Now, let's go to the SBC. There's a lot on the SBC, man.
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Ooh, let's start here. A statement from the Conservative Baptist Network on February 21st, 2022, calls for racial unity ring empty when
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Baptists exclude only African -American elected by 2021 SBC messengers. This is so true.
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Lee Brand, the only African -American elected as an officer of the convention of the Southern Baptist Messengers in 2021 is a conservative.
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And he was not extended an invitation to participate on the February 23rd panel or included any.
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And so there's a panel, an online event, pursuing unity, a discussion of racial reconciliation efforts in the
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SBC and the own VP, the vice president of the denomination who happens to be
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African -American is not even invited. Think about that. Guess who was there?
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Ed Lidden, Fred Luter, Missy Branch. Oh, Missy Branch, my goodness.
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They're John Kelly of a Chicago. Who's John Kelly? Chicago West Bible Church. Brent Leatherwood of the
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ERLC. Who's Brent Leatherwood? I mean, they're all invited, but not Lee Brand. The only
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African, the vice president of the denomination wasn't even there. Does something ring hollow to you about this whole, let's pursue unity?
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Let's pursue racial reconciliation when you're not going to allow the only African -American elected last year who is the vice president of the denomination.
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But because of his conservative views, he's excluded. John, you can't say that.
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You don't know that that's the reason. None of them said that that's because of his conservative views. Okay, why do you think he was excluded?
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Why, wouldn't this be a no -brainer that he should be leading the charge, right? We should platform him, right?
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They all want to platform African -Americans more. Shouldn't he be platformed? He's being ignored. You have to make sense of it somehow.
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How do you make sense of it? It's part of the conservative Baptist network. Now, if that's not true, if there's something else going on, oh,
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LeBron's a heretic, LeBron, then you better say it, but they're not. I haven't even read most of this.
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I'm making probably, oh, goodness. It talks about the vision the conservative
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Baptist network has, and it's just, the heart of it is this, this hypocrisy, and I'm glad they're calling it out, good.
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And then you have on February 16th, so this is last week, there's an individual, man,
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I don't know if I can, I hate to say this, I'm not sure if I can pronounce his name. Victor is his first name. We'll call him
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Pastor Victor. His last name, I think, is Chaya Siri Sobon.
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I think that's how you say it, but he is the lead pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Anaheim, California, and he's a nominee for SBC First Vice President.
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And this is Baptist Press, or Baptist Standard. Baptist Standard put this out, baptiststandard .com,
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okay. And it gets confusing. You have the Baptist Standard, you have the Baptist Press, you have Baptist Global News, which used to be called
41:33
Baptist something Press. It's just, keeping them all straight can be difficult, but this is the
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Baptist Standard. And so he's been nominated to take
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LeBron's place next year. They wanna oust LeBron, and they wanna put this guy in. And so there is, and the reason
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I say they, I don't know how big of a group, but I mean, obviously it's making a headline here. And the,
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I got a message earlier today about this. I'm actually pulling it up right here, if I can.
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Yeah, Bart Barber tweeted this out. This particular article.
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And he was, he's very in favor of this particular candidate. I think, now normally, wouldn't you say something like,
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Bart Barber says, we now have an officer announcement for SBC 2022. Bart Barber, by the way, is the chairman of the resolutions committee, as I understand it, for this year.
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It's worth reading the entire article. Okay, so why is Bart Barber, the chairman of the SBC resolutions committee, excited about this individual who could replace
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LeBron? I mean, wouldn't that be shameful in the past? Wouldn't that be, oh my goodness, you're gonna replace the only elected black officer of the
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SBC that was elected last year, racism, right? I assume that probably, if he was, if LeBron was a progressive and there was an opportunity from the conservative
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Baptist network to replace him with someone, I bet that would be the charge, but it's not. And again, just goes to show you the hypocrisy.
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And this is something a lot of people have asked me to focus on. For some reason, I wasn't, I don't know.
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To me, I was just like, yeah, I mean, there's SBC pastors who do this kind of thing. But I'm not gonna play the clip.
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I've seen the clip. It says, there's a pastor in First Baptist Orlando, a mega church led by senior pastor
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David Ute. And he said, we have transgender, LGBTQ, straight, single, married, divorced, and cohabitating people.
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These same people attend, listen, serve, grow, and give. Yeah, yeah, he said that.
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Now, I know there's gonna be some of you out there who are gonna think, well, maybe he's just saying like we're open to everyone to come.
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No, no, listen to him read his words. That's not what he's saying. These are people who attend, listen, serve, grow, and give.
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These are, in other words, these are members. These are Christians. These are people in good standing. LGBTQ people, cohabitating people, transgender people.
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He's bragging about it. He's saying that, or at least saying this is who we are. Yeah, big, big
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Southern Baptist Church in Orlando. If you don't see the problem with this, and this article rightly points out, Paul said in 1
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Corinthians 5, one through two, that it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of the kind that even pagans do not tolerate.
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A man is sleeping with his father's wife, and you are proud. Shouldn't you rather have gone into mourning and put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?
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Yeah, such were some of you, right? But you've been washed, you've been redeemed. This is the problem, when pastors decide that they're gonna be kinder than God.
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They're gonna be nicer and more tolerant than God. They're gonna be accepting and inclusive, diverse, all of that, this is where that gets you.
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And how do you have any way to correct sin at that point? How do you confront this kind of thing if these are just great brothers and sisters who are growing and giving and serving at our church?
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Next, I wanted to just point this out. Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was speaking,
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I guess he must've been speaking at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship seminary, and there's a quote that's gotten some traction.
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He said that, let's see here.
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All right, here, I think this is what it is. This is the section that got the, he says,
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Southern Baptist must hold fast to their confessional statement, the Baptist faith and message, so that those who consider affiliating with the denomination or joining its churches will know precisely where the
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SBC stands on critical doctrinal issues. Doctrine first, mission second, and that ought, no, that must not,
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I don't think that's it. Hold on. SBC, this must be it, okay.
46:27
He said, all right, so the SBC, her leaders and churches must not be ambiguous on major ethical issues of the day, even if it means, if it may seem the denomination is overreacting or comes off as alarmist to the watching world.
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And he says, so he talks about critical race theory is a challenge, things related to sexuality, marriage, gender, personhood, and biblical complementarity.
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And he says, we serve a denomination that lives fearful of doctrinal decline, and I believe that is a good thing.
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Yes, it can lead to suspicion and accusations at times, but I would rather live in a convention of churches that is fearful of doctrinal decline so much that at times they are overly alarmist than to serve in one that assumes the best and hopes for the best and isn't willing to sort things out.
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So, all right, so let's stop there for a minute. Let's just stop there for a minute.
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That's the big quote that I've seen online. He wants a denomination, he'd rather be air on the side of being overly alarmist.
47:37
Jason Allen, President of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Now, Jason Allen signed the
47:43
George Floyd statement. I mean, he's saying critical race theory is a challenge, but he signed a statement that would have been compatible with critical race theory, linking
47:53
Floyd's death to historic police injustice and racially motivated.
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I'm not gonna, I don't wanna check Jason Allen's heart. I don't wanna go through, here's the history with Jason Allen or any of that.
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I just wanna say one thing. If Jason Allen and anyone in the SBC, and it's published on the
48:17
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's website, if they're truly serious about doctrinal decline, this is a concern they actually have.
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And they wanna air on the side of being more overly alarmist. That's better than to be very concerned than to not be concerned.
48:38
Then why aren't they calling out the false teachers in their own denomination? Why? Why aren't they actually taking measures?
48:50
Yeah, critical race theory is a real problem. Where, Jason Allen? Where, who? What are you talking about?
49:01
This is the problem. This is the problem. Where were you,
49:07
Jason Allen, during the last four years now? All the opportunities that came up to battle this stuff, where were you?
49:21
This is a frustration I know many Southern Baptists have. Leadership that, too late really in some ways, but after the major battles have taken place, then they get up enough courage to, in the abstract, in general terms, say, well, you know, it's better to be overly alarmist.
49:46
But what are you actually doing? What kind of, why aren't you publicly coming out against the actual problems and identifying where they're actually located so people know it's a problem?
50:08
I don't know what else to say about it. It's, see, statements like this, I don't wanna be too discouraging on this because look,
50:15
I'm glad he said it in a way, but it's like, you know, if that's how you feel, then if that's all you knew about Jason Allen, you'd probably get the sense of like, okay, this guy's a watchman on the wall.
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Like he is, he's out there. He's looking, he's seeing, he knows, and he's gonna tell us.
50:30
He's gonna be, you know, sound the alarm, right? That's the purpose of an alarm, to let people know that there's a fire, there's a danger, there's something out there threatening you.
50:40
He's the guy that's gonna do that, and yet where has he been? Where has he done it ever on any of the issues that he identifies?
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What names has he ever dropped and said, these are the people that are bringing these things in?
50:52
They're in apparently, he knows they're in, and he identifies them as threats to the SBC. So where is he?
50:59
Yeah, I don't know what to say. I just don't know what to say about this kind of stuff. It's very, it's truly amazing to me.
51:07
All right, let's go to the last. Oh no, that's it. That was it, actually. So that was the last website
51:14
I wanted to show you. Tying it all together. So the same kinds of battles are raging in every institution, it seems like, whether it's denominations,
51:29
I mean, even national borders, Canada, United States. We have the same kinds of questions being asked right now.
51:36
If you look at the big picture, questions like who is responsible?
51:42
Well, first, let's even back up. What is a desirable function of society?
51:50
Society, what's the purpose of society? And what, is it, are we supposed to be striving to accomplish something?
52:00
And if so, what is that thing? There's a sense in which we ought to have inclusion, diversity, equity, and this is a goal, and it's, that's the end goal.
52:18
And the means to the end are all these measures that are being taken. The interfaith initiatives, you know, the
52:25
COVID stuff, the critical race theory stuff, it's happening on a local level, it's happening on the national level, it's happening all over the place.
52:35
And it's, there's an, sometimes it's unsaid, but there's this goal.
52:41
And it's, I think, easiest to see it when someone doesn't see society as, just the existence of society as an end in and of itself, that just, we're here, we wanna get along, and where the purpose is to maintain peace so that, you know, families and individuals can, and this is the whole idea between the pursuit of happiness, actually, is the pursuit of property and life and liberty would be, you know, are part of this, this, you know, carrying out your responsibilities before God, living in peace with your family, that decent and quiet life, being ready for external and internal threats.
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It's the survival of the culture. That's the, you know, the purpose is you're setting things up for that end, but that's not the end anymore.
53:36
It's not, society isn't an end in and of itself, it's the means to something else, to creating a utopia of some kind.
53:45
Education gets pulled into this, religion gets pulled into this, everything gets pulled into this, that it must be attached.
53:52
It's like a stagecoach, and each one of these things are the horses, and they're going somewhere, and they're, that great land out west, that utopia we're gonna find.
54:02
And so, in reaction to this, there's resistance in some places, because, you know, in order to do that, you have to have someone on the stagecoach.
54:12
You have someone that's whipping the horses when they get out of line, making sure they are in unison, they're on the same page.
54:20
And so you have some people, like the truckers, who they're saying, no, we're not gonna obey, we're not gonna give you that power, we're not gonna treat you like you're
54:28
God. That's not the purpose. As the, I think, charter, or the statement from the coalition there, the
54:40
Liberty Coalition of Canada, as the statement so eloquently states, that it's the purpose of government is to really maintain order, and to secure the rights of the people that live within the boundaries of that particular country.
55:00
It's not to get everyone organized to accomplish some other goal.
55:08
But that's where we are now. And it's an assumption that's just kind of hidden, people don't always state it, but that's what's driving all of this.
55:18
And so you have that in Canada, you have that in the United States with the interfaith initiatives, and then it trickles down to things like seminaries and denominations.
55:31
And so that's one of the things that I've been thinking about a little bit here and there. And you can see this in things like education.
55:37
What's the purpose of education? Isn't it to understand the world, to be a functioning citizen, to be able to take care of yourself, self -sufficiency, to think for yourself primarily?
55:48
Isn't that what education's about? But it's become about other things. It's become about socialization and learning to be accepting of others.
56:01
And some of these things aren't bad necessarily in and of themselves, but those aren't the ends for which education exists.
56:10
They could be products, they could be things that also happen along the way.
56:15
But when they become the chief aims of education, to make every classroom this microcosm for what equity, diversity, inclusion can look like, and make every church a microcosm of that, and every college a microcosm of that, so that we can have a country that's like that, then you fundamentally change the purpose of church, interfacing initiatives, that's what it's doing.
56:38
You fundamentally change the purpose of education. You fundamentally change every single industry, including healthcare.
56:44
Healthcare's going that same direction. So that's what
56:50
I have to say to wrap all this up. I hope that was helpful for you in some way, this update and also just some of my analysis of it.
56:58
More is coming, like I said, later this week. And I hope you can join me in Muncie, Pennsylvania on Wednesday if you live in the area.