Preparing Young People for Social Justice

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So the title I was given is preparing young people for social justice issues and Truth be told

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I called my parents Because it was two nights ago, and I said, you know,

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I'm giving this topic. I'm gonna speak on preparing young people I said I feel like you should talk about this. I mean, you know,

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I have two brothers I mean you had three sons. None of us are woke. So, you know, what did you do? What's the what's the secret to it?

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And And they and they said a lot of the things that I was already thinking that that I want to go over with you some of it's cultivating a family identity and you know, making sure that People, you know, your kids are thinking critically and examining things with the test of scripture and reason and and so what we'll talk about more of the specifics of what that might look like but I just want everyone to know

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I'm coming at this not as a parent who's navigating this with Children which I know there's a whole set of there's wisdom in that right, but I'm coming at this more as someone who's watched

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Friends that I grew up with kind of go down the woke hole and and I've tried to think through Okay, why did some go that direction and others didn't how come

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I wasn't attracted to that my family My brothers weren't attracted to that How come some of my friends weren't attracted to that or they could see through it and then others just I mean with different rates, but some just immediately took hold of it and and now

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I'm ashamed to say in some ways that friends that we had some that you would have thought were the godliest are

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Now the most woke of anyone. I know I mean they rejected it hard and And so I want to get into that because I have put a lot of thought into this

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I do know some of the circumstances that I think may have at least catalyzed this or led to it and and then

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I'll also The other thing I bring to this is just a little bit of a background in history and then a background in in theology

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So I'm not an expert on all these things in my mind, but I have studied them I think enough to maybe give some some pieces of wisdom on this and And these are certainly things that I'm gonna be applying with my children as they grow up.

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So What we're gonna talk about we're gonna review some biblical principles on raising children We're gonna examine the unique threat and way social justice infiltrates children's minds and Then we're going to discuss ways to immunize against social justice thinking.

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So how do we prevent? Children and then as they grow up and they become young adults

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How do we prevent them or at least give them the tools they need to navigate this topic so they won't fall right into it

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And again, this is all out of love This is not because we just want to win for the conservatives, right?

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Or we I'm actually pretty I know this sounds dismal and maybe Pessimistic I'm kind of unless God does a miracle in this country.

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I'm pretty much satisfied with saying, you know I don't think we're winning the political battle I don't know how many of you saw you have to raise your hand, but how many of you saw was it?

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I think it was night before last On Twitter. I don't have Twitter anymore

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But I have a million people on Twitter who send me things from Twitter and there was a conservative right commentator named

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Dave Rubin and he's a homosexual and he put on Twitter him and his

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I guess quote -unquote husband in his mind that they're having children and Under this tweet right is

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The blaze TV right Glenn Beck's group the blaze, right? Congratulations, David Rubin, you know way to go

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You have Prager you any of you ever watched Prager you videos on YouTube, right Prager you, you know

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Happy to hear that David Rubin, you know, it was all congratulatory you had Megan McCain and Megan Kelly and there was a number of other

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Fox News and OAN even Correspondents all just congratulating

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David Rubin and I thought these are supposed to be the conservatives These are supposed to be the people fighting for traditional values and with that it's not traditional.

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It's Christian values Christian understanding of reality and here they are Acting like the left acted about five years ago

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And at that time it was radical and now the conservatives are saying it so I'm I'm kind of to the point in my mind where I'm this isn't about a political battle

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Although yes, I'm involved in politics. I want to be a prophetic voice in that arena This is about something even much more important to me.

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It's about the gospel This is about a false religion it's just like in a Q &A when I said that this would be like if you lived in a

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Mormon saturated area trying to Prepare your children to deal with Mormonism in the same way

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We have to prepare children to deal with social justice because it's just as much of a threat if not more

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Because you're seeing it in more places It's gonna be coming through the television and through social media and through billboards and news

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Newspapers and magazines and just it's pretty much everywhere. You look there's social justice going on in 2020 when everything

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Started after the George Floyd incident. I remember I was getting emails from companies I hadn't frequented in probably a decade telling me how anti -racist they were right?

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You can't get away from it It's all out there so In order to prepare children for a false religion

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You have to teach them about that false religion and teach them where it contradicts Christianity and why we believe Christianity.

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So That's that's really my heart in this. This isn't just about a political thing

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There's real lives that are in jeopardy in my mind and I've seen it I can I can bring faces to mind as I talk about this of friends

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That have gone down this direction and it's not done anything good for their lives. In fact, it's just made them more bitter

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They're they're less satisfied than they've ever been even when they politically their side is winning.

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They're still not satisfied and There's no joy and they're there it puts them in a very bad place sin always leads to more sin

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So we want to we want to prevent that we want to shine the light of truth the light of the gospel especially the light of biblical ethics onto this movement so Let's start with the problem.

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I've already been talking about a little bit This will have an upward trajectory I just started decided to start with the depressing stuff so we can get to the more optimistic stuff.

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The problem is Something that's probably familiar to a lot of you number one. There's a fall away rate, right?

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Lifeway research a Southern Baptist Lifeway says said in 2017 that 40 percent 47 percent

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Excuse me, 47 percent of young people from Christian households Say moving to college played a role in dropping out of church so about half of Young people from Christian households.

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That's pretty startling. I Think about the youth group that I was engaged in when

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I was in my teens How many of the people in that youth group are still in church? And and this number seems about fair to me about half of them left.

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They went somewhere else They're not in church anymore. They're not for all effective purposes. They're not

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Christians We have Barna in 2019 saying that two -thirds of 18 to 29 year olds who were active in church end up dropping out in that time period so two -thirds of young people

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Who were involved in the church in Christianity active end up dropping out only a third is retained

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Now that's startling, right? We can evangelize which we should be doing right we can go make disciples of the nations

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Which we should be doing and send missionaries out there But what does it say about Christian families if if they can't even keep their own children?

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Involved in the church or I mean there's something seems wrong with that Doesn't it something seems off about that and and why is that there could be many reasons for it?

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But this is a known problem and it's been known for a while I think Ken Ham if I'm not mistaken wrote a whole book about this and and he

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I think primarily blamed Darwinist thinking but it's much wider than just Darwinist thinking.

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There's there's a lot of other threats out there and children are When they become adults when they have their freedom when they don't have to use the

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Christian ease Many of them end up showing that they were fakes or they end up Gaining experiences that they were prevented from having previously and now they want to go further down these other experiences and or maybe hang out with different groups of people and and so whatever the purpose or the cause is of this it is happening and With that happening.

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I think this is tied to it very much. So there's a shift left in 2006

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Arthur Brooks a social scientist with Syracuse University said the political right is

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Having 41 % more kids than the political left now think about this 41 % more kids

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Conservatives people who vote conservative have way more kids than people on the left and we would expect that people on the left tend to Think that overpopulation is this huge problem for the environment.

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We shouldn't have too many kids They tend to live more urban lifestyles people who are conservative tend to be in more suburban or rural areas

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Sometimes even having kids as an asset they can work on the farm I mean, there's there's all a whole host of reasons, but one of them is also religion people on the right tend to be more religious and Children are a gift from God there.

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We have a command to be fruitful multiply fill the earth Children are not the curse of the world

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Causing global warming and causing the death of the planet. They're actually a blessing So there's a completely way of viewing children and so conservatives having much many more kids

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So you would think that would translate into Political victories that Conservatives that their children would carry on their values and that you would have much more conservatives and liberals

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Eventually or progressives would just die off because they're not having as many kids, but that's not the case

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Researchers from North Carolina State, Ohio State University and the interfaith Youth Corps found that entering college 58 % had positive attitudes towards liberals.

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So of the the students entering the university a Little more than half

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Believe that liberal they see liberalism and they see people who are liberals in a positive light politically speaking

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Exiting though when they graduate 70 % have a favorable view of liberals political progressives

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Now evangelicals a similar things happening entering only 44 % have a positive view of liberals but exiting 53 % do and You can see similar numbers with other groups as well

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Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses It's the same kind of thing So this is what we're talking about this in a

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Christian context with with the truth of God's Word and the truth of the gospel This is a problem though that other

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Faith groups other false religions will just be blunt about it are also having a problem with how come our students?

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Are also leaving the faith. How come they're not retaining the political views of And the moral views

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I should say of their parents So this is a societal shift that's going on Now the question

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I have is should we be even surprised about this? Is this a shocker to anyone in this room? I Mean, I don't think so.

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I think we all kind of know we I didn't even have to give you probably the statistics You know that this is something that's actually happening out there.

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You probably have faces that you can bring to mind of People that grew up perhaps in your church or your family raised with good morals

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They knew abortion was wrong and now look at them, right? they they're actually supporting abortion and candidates that further those kinds of issues a 2020 survey from the

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National Association of Scholars found that for every dollar college professors donated to a Republican cause they donated 21 to a

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Democrat cause a $1 to Republican cause $21 to a

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Democrat cause and That's just a general survey of scholars this isn't unique to particular fields some fields are much worse

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You get into the discipline that I was involved in in history. It gets way worse you get into any of the social sciences

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It's way further to the left. So we're taking into account You know people who are experts in physics and math and these kinds of things which generally aren't quite as tilted

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I remember when I was going to undergrad now, this is

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I'm trying to remember when this was now when I first went so there I guess the mid 2006 or so,

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I guess something like that This is before there were that there was hate speech rules that applied to homosexuals

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I mean, that's that's I I know I'm young but I feel like it's a different world out there now

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Even then though I remember just going to a local community college and our professor. I think it was our

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Social science professor and it was it was a course that everyone was required to take Told the whole group of students right young college kids that what they needed to do over the weekend was to go experiment with homosexuality

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Because it's a whole lot more safer for you than heterosexuality and the way that it was justified is

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She said that if you take into account worldwide AIDS statistics Most people are heterosexual who have

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AIDS because you take into account Africa and they just count that as heterosexual I guess So therefore you're safer if you're homosexual and that this was a great thing and this is just one example

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I could bring many up to you in many different classes of the way that my mind was perverted literature classes were like that Everything was a double entendre to something dirty

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And and these are your authorities. These are people that are telling you, you know They're the experts are telling you how to read a piece of literature and interpret it

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Marxism was very much championed. I remember literally Karl Marx was My professor and social this is again in the same course told us

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Karl Marx was right his analysis was correct I'm just like I I couldn't believe what

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I was hearing. But you know, I had been raised in the church. I was homeschooled We were very involved in the community. But most of the people that I was involved with weren't weren't that far left

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And so when I got to college Seeing Marxism and evolution and just the immorality

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Was a little bit it was different for me. I Hadn't experienced that before and so When when you're not prepared for it,

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I can only imagine what that does to someone and I did see friends of mine I saw students go into that environment and they didn't fare so well

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They weren't ready for what they were about to hear and it was new thing. It was a new new concepts entering their mind new ways of thinking about reality that they had not considered before and Now all of a sudden this expert that my parents are paying thousands of dollars for me to go learn from It's saying my parents are wrong about just about everything.

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They told me growing up So is it any wonder? I remember thinking I can't believe anyone goes through this process and comes out the other side a conservative

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Politically or even as a Christian comes out the other side holding on to Christian morality I just couldn't

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I mean I did there's a few of us who did but I mean we had to kind of stick together and That was back then

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Now I'm discipling a student from the culinary right now and we were meeting a few weeks ago

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And I just asked him about his roommates Not for any particular reason other than it was a witnessing opportunity

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Have you tried to share the gospel with your roommates? and he said well two of my roommates are transgender and then one's homosexual and he only has three roommates and I Said you pull on my leg.

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He goes. No, he wasn't joking. He's that that's that's what I ended up with and He said that the homosexual roommate which is the one he shares an actual room with goes by preferred pronouns

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So and I was kind of like well, you know, that's kind of silly like you don't actually call him that it's kind of like Actually, it's hard not to because I'm hearing it all the time

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The other roommates are using they they in there to talk to this individual. I Didn't think anyone would ever go for that.

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It sounds ridiculous, right? but if you're in the habit of hearing it all the time and And it becomes normalized then even someone who's a

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Christian can very easily start doing that So he attempts and we talked about it, but he was already attempting at that point to try to use

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The first name right don't even use pronouns But these are the kind of challenges that are just normal now for students who are

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Christian who go away to to colleges and so all that to say when you have

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The the tilt that far in one direction I mean It's no wonder to me that students are going to start shifting on on the convictions that they supposedly believe before once they get to college and Christian institutions.

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I hate to say this. They're not much better in every way I went to Southern Southern Baptist School, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Part of the reason that I'm even here talking to you right now is because I decided to make a video back in 2019 about what was going on at the school and I had just graduated and I just went through about an hour and a half

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My entire experience there and I just wanted students to know who are coming into the school You're gonna be told this is about biblical fidelity and it's a mission school and what you're going to also find though when you come

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Is they're not telling you about this, but you're going to find a very strong social justice movement in In 2017 it kind of was like right after Trump's election.

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This became really popular but in 2017 the fall semester three statements either supported heavily or Actually, they originated in in the campus itself from the administration and faculty were made against Donald Trump or the alt -right

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Three in eight years of Obama. There wasn't one So in one semester right after Donald Trump is elected three statements against Donald Trump, essentially

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I remember the this new center I think it started in 2017 called the Center for Kingdom diversity was hosting all kinds of events supporting the kneelers at the football games they they

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I remember they had a guy there who was arguing against some of the historical monuments and Secular media was even picking this up.

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Look at this conservative Baptist professor Making these arguments that same arguments that they're making.

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I remember the There was an article you when you go log into your student account

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There was that their blog was right there. You'd see everything that they would you know put there and There was an article one day

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I remember my wife and I were sitting I think next to each other on the sofa and I had logged into the account and it was it was a whole article about all the ways that you are a racist but don't realize it and It was things like if you live in a neighborhood or where you go to a workplace that is predominantly white

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You know, you you probably are guilty of some racism and it's funny because I was thinking like well that applies to Southeastern Like, you know, they're mostly white and I've seen the churches they go to but but they're still importing this radical thinking into the school

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Illegal migration was another issue, right? So these were all this was all happening in like 2017 2018.

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I was watching this and I decided to come out about it. And after I did I had people from all over the country.

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I was shocked Messaging me especially Southern Baptist institutions telling me John it's the same things happening here.

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I can't say anything. I'll lose my job I really appreciate you saying something and I was shocked I thought a few people who are interested in Southeastern might see the video it might help them

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Instead what I found out was this was everywhere. This was to use one of their words systemic

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This was affecting the denomination and evangelicalism As a whole and so as I started doing more research for my podcast or for this book in particular

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I Started finding I really couldn't find a Southern Baptist school that I could recommend maybe in mid -america

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But that's not even officially Southern Baptist has a tie to the Southern Baptists, but any of their main schools

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I couldn't recommend any of them. There's the critical race theory is on every single one of their campuses somewhere

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The and since then I've seen this with a lot of colleges so I went to Liberty University I'm giving you my experience, but They're Liberty University even since I've left in different.

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It's like a city. So every departments different I had a great department in the history department, but some of the other other departments are going that way full bore right now

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Are they're attempting to? And that's the biggest Christian University, I believe this morning,

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I even got another message about Grove City College in Pennsylvania and And it's it's something

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I don't even have the time to review because I get so many of these things all the time So I'll spare you the details.

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But all that to say is that Christian institutions aren't doing a whole lot better right now

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They're they're behind right there I mean, you're not gonna hopefully go to Grove City College and then have a situation like I described for my friend

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Who's in the culinary? But they're they're they're the tail they're dragging. They're there, you know, they might be

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Per On the pendulum they're they're behind but they're progressing in the same direction.

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They're they're running in the same flow and and on the same track, so This is the problem that we have and I submit to you that this is an off -ramp from Christianity because if you are inculcated into that kind of thinking and Then you know, we have to be equal we have to make sure that all these disparities are eliminated and that means taking money from your parents and giving it to these people or that means that we need to have a reparations program or that means that the church needs to Diversify its theological library to reflect women because it's historically been against women or any of the issues that are coming up Social justice issues if you really buy into that truly then why put any brakes on it?

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Why have any barrier there why say well I'll go that far but no farther I'm still gonna be part of the church

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That's like the Ku Klux Klan saying you know what? We're a pretty bad organization But we've just reformed ourselves and we're we're getting it right now and our the generations before us.

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They got it wrong They were racist. We should all condemn them and now you should be part of our organization because we got it, right?

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Who's gonna join that? That's just a great argument for leaving the organization. Why would

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I want to be part of you guys? Democratic Party's doing a whole lot better on pursuing justice if that's what our definition of justice is

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So I think what's happening is there's a substitute going a lot of children

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Growing up. They are familiar with Christianity. They understand Christianity and social justice gives them something very similar to it

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And I'll get into some of the details as the conference unfolds, but it's it's familiar. There's justification in it

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It's not real justification, but it can feel good about themselves They're doing something to alleviate sins from the past There's some some form of charity.

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It's not really your own charity. You're stealing other people's money to do it, but There is this this compassion you sort of it's a false compassion.

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It's always inverted. It's different It's distorted, but it feels like Christianity, and it's a substitute church ultimately political activism becomes the church in fact a friend

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I'm thinking of Very strong Christian at one time we thought and She she went and got involved in some of these me to rallies and be at the

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BLM stuff as well Remember she posted on I think was Instagram that this was her church

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She had all the churches in the area that she had been part of she eventually left because they weren't down with the revolution enough they weren't eliminating disparities and forwarding equality enough, so she ended up leaving and then going to Going to political activism

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So that's the situation in colleges to some extent People ask me sometimes. What do you recommend?

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I have children that want to go to college and the fact is I don't really know I would say first teacher children right and we're gonna get to that in a minute prepare them for this

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But I do have some specifics and for this part of the country this may be far

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But I usually tell them Appalachian Bible College is pretty good from what I understand That's because I've had conversations with people high up that actually are running programs

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And they were really early on trying to prevent CRT from getting in there Another one is

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Southern Evangelical Seminary in North Carolina, and you know some depending on your denomination You may not agree with everything there

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But they are taking a very hard stance against social justice publicly And I look for that and I appreciate that a lot of other people will send me things from seminaries and say

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John This is a great seminary is a great Bible school is a great college And I'm all I always have the same question

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I'm like could you send me their anti social justice statement or have they signed the Dallas statement on social justice?

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Or can you send me anything any public stand and usually there's no public stand and I'm like well

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They may not be woke But if they're not taking a public stand on this issue Then I don't think it's gonna be too much longer before they are so I can't in good conscience necessarily get behind that But but those are two names if you're if you're looking for a college and there may be a bunch more

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That I don't know about on the high school level we have the same kind of problems of course in public school.

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That's no mystery Unfortunately in Christian private school this has become a problem ACSI the biggest

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Christian school accrediting Accreditation agency has pretty much gone woke at this point

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And they're using a professor from Southeastern Walter Strickland to give diversity training lectures to their their teachers

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And I watch them and they are CRT their liberation theology and critical race theory

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So we made a stink about it some of us, but it doesn't seem to change the minds of ACSI unfortunately So social justice thinking is pervasive we talked about it in education

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There there's a lot of other places we could talk about in the media Traditional and social media employees give 90 % of political donations to Democrat causes 90 % so that's that's your

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Facebook's your Twitter's your NBC's your Fox News's you know all that stuff That's vast majority lean left of the people who work in those particular industries

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Social media I've had a lot of shadow banning for those who don't know that means I can post something and people won't see it

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Because Facebook has switched a lever and they're nice enough to let me know when they do that They'll tell me you spread some fake news

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You said that you know the virus was it was you know? Not as dangerous or something like that as as the

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CDC says it is therefore. We're switching off your influence You also have advertisements, and these are filtered right so they can show you the things they want to show you and some of these ads can be pretty bad

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I Remember to And I won't get into big details on this

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There's three points in my life where I was Firsthand I was at an event that the media covered and then I saw the report and I realized they completely lied about it

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So one of the things that I think Children have to be have to know they have to have a healthy suspicion of some of these institutions

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And they need to know why they need to have a healthy suspicion of these institutions. They need to be able to think critically

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When when they do encounter narratives coming from these places So all that to say we're at the low point now

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There's a concerted effort to corrupt children and turn them against their churches and parents their subliminal messaging

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But there's also now a lot of overt messaging. It's a long way since the Disney times when everything was subliminal

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Society also doesn't reinforce Christian values, so that's where we are so what's the solution? That's that's

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I think what everyone's waiting to get to what's the solution of this? Do we just live in a cave somewhere do we get a bomb shelter and say all right kids

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You're gonna grow up and there's a movie about that. I can't remember the name of it There's a movie I saw years ago, or he raised a kid in a bomb shelter during the

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Cold War He comes out and he's an adult. He doesn't know how to interact in society, right? Is that what we do just raise someone in a bomb shelter?

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I mean, I want to move to like the out the Wilderness areas of Alaska like that's my dream in a way

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I probably would hate it once I get there because it's really cold But like in my mind right that would be a really cool thing

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I'm away from all that corruption and I get to work with my hands but is that really the solution is escapism the way to go on this and I would submit to you know and Unfortunately some

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Christians do take this route And it's not wrong to try to put some barriers and some sheltering there, and that's that's perfectly acceptable.

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It's good It's fine. I hope you have internet filters if you have kids in the house right that's all good But but taking it to the extent of we're going to Create a situation where our kids as they're growing up aren't going to be corrupted at all

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It's just impossible because Jesus said corruption actually comes from within You still are left with the corruption there

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You're still now they're not going to get as many ideas about how to be corrupt but there's still the problem is in in the heart ultimately and The people who have done this haven't necessarily always had good results in The study

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I did for social justice goes to church what I found was the majority Actually, I think it wasn't even the majority it was all of them every single social justice activists that promoted this thinking in the it

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Was called new left thinking at that time in the early 70s Was from a conservative Christian household every single one of them

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Ron Sider Richard Mao Jim Wallace West Granberg Michelson Sharon Gallagher these are all names some of you aren't familiar with perhaps

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But they were very influential, and they still are influential for instance Tim Keller is Gets a lot of his thinking from Richard Mao Russell Moore and David Platt love and respect

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Ron Sider right so there's these These influencers from the 70s have continued to have an influence today

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But in every single case they came from these conservative Christian households, and I got to thinking why is that?

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How come the people I know who have gone hardest woke are people from the most sheltered households? I'm just telling you.

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I don't have a study on it. I'm just telling you from my own observation The the people who rejected wholeheartedly everything that their parents told them came from the most sheltered and usually legalistic households

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Everything was a sin right and And I think there's something to this so I'll briefly tell you before we get on to the solutions here, but I'll briefly tell you the reason.

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I think that is Because they switched out one form of legalism for another

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All right, so it was very easy without the heart involved without true genuine conversion to fake it to live and to abide

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By the rules right to be a good Christian that means I follow these extra biblical rules and nope

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I don't drink alcohol and nope. I don't I won't go to a theater, or I don't know whatever the rules may be It's different for every group but that's what

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Christianity became it was just reduced to that and They never the attitude that rigid attitude never stopped once they became social justice warriors

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They're just as legalistic as if they have a new moral law now And so you must be equitable diverse inclusive, and if you're if you don't meet the standard

31:19

Then you're an outcast you know you're you're a horrible person So so they've kept on there.

31:25

They're actually not as different from their parents as they'd like to think sometimes I think that's one of the reasons for it, but Sooner or later.

31:33

They're going to be exposed even if you're in that cave They're gonna They're gonna grow up and would you rather have them growing up and knowing something about what they're about to face because they're as a

31:42

Parent you brought them through it you've engaged the material they're gonna be looking at in a critical fashion and You've shown them what

31:50

Jesus thinks about this and what the Bible teaches about this and why we believe this is wrong And this is right And what's the most loving thing or do you want them without any knowledge of what's on the other side to just go out?

32:01

And learn to swim in the deep end That does not work, and I've seen that I've seen that with friends who have gone off to college with no preparation and they just fall into All kinds of debauchery because they never were prepared in the first place for what they should have expected

32:19

So solutions. All right number one Set expectations. I think

32:24

I think this is the first thing that's important because I know parents who have a lot of guilt and And parents who've done a really good job, right they've done and I know it's perfect, but they've really raised their kids they've

32:36

Set an example. They've taught them they pray for them and In the end their kid ended up not just going woke but perhaps rejecting

32:45

Christianity and I'm reminded of a verse in Isaiah chapter 1 Verse 2 it says hero heavens and give ear o earth for the

32:52

Lord has spoken Children have I reared and brought up but they have rebelled against me now if God Can figuratively talk about children that he's reared up that have rebelled against him

33:04

That is God's perfect. That is not necessarily a reflection on the parent So I just want to say that from from the get -go that some parents, you know, you can do the best you possibly can

33:16

With what you have and it doesn't automatically mean your child is going there's no formula, right?

33:21

That is gonna prevent your child from rejecting Christianity and joining the social justice mob that can still possibly happen.

33:29

That's always a Possibility and I think this is where humility comes in as hard as it is and just to give it up to God God is in control and it just you take that to prayer with you

33:41

And hope to that, you know your child eventually is gonna realize that does happen quite a bit It's the prodigal son, right?

33:48

The child is an adult now comes home realizes. Hey mom. Hey dad You were right the whole time.

33:53

This was a dead end. I wore out my welcome everywhere that I went so Some will bring up Proverbs 22 6 here

34:02

I just want to briefly say that is not a guarantee Proverbs 22 6 train up a child in the way you should go and He shall not when he's old.

34:08

He should not depart from it and there is a proverbial truth here But it's a general truth Proverbs are general truths.

34:14

This isn't like a guarantee And there's also other ways of interpreting this verse that I think are perhaps more faithful one is that this is a warning to parents that like Your child is gonna continue in evil

34:27

If you if you train them up wrong the other another interpretation is that this is just in general about setting habits

34:35

Wise habits, but either way no matter how you take this verse It's not a blank

34:40

It's not a guaranteed promise that if you do all the right things your child's gonna turn out great and they're not gonna go down the social justice hole

34:49

That may still happen that could possibly happen and that's where Humility comes in and we just we pray to God God.

34:55

You're the one in charge You're that you're the one that knows the hearts of men and would you please? Persuade my son or my daughter to walk in your ways and to receive your gospel.

35:06

You know, I can't do that myself Number two though is we can influence children

35:12

So even though it's not always a guaranteed promise that a child is going to turn out in a certain way. You can't predict that there is a

35:20

There are general truths in the Bible about child rearing and The main one that I think most people go to is

35:26

Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9 It says hero Israel the Lord our God the

35:31

Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with All your might and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the

35:45

Way and when you lie down and when you rise you shall bind them as a sign on your hands and they shall be

35:51

As frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and your gates so context here children of Israel going into the promised land and The danger of going to the promised land is there's all these pagan religions around there

36:08

And what are the children of Israel do they kept keep getting in trouble for they kept syncretizing with them

36:14

They kept saying we're gonna worship Yahweh. Yeah, but we're also gonna do this over here We're gonna do it in a way that God hasn't authorized and it was just this merging of pagan religions with the true religion of Yahweh and and so this is the instruction that's given as they're entering this area this danger zone in some ways this area where they're going to be tempted and A few things

36:37

I want to highlight about this First thing is to love God kids see hypocrisy, right?

36:44

So loving God is really key. I think and no one's perfect. All right, no one is gonna be we're all hypocrites to some extent

36:51

But someone who's a real characterized by hypocrisy someone who Says that they're a

36:56

Christian and looks great on Sunday And I've known many parents like this where they show up and no one would know any different and then during the week

37:05

They they're not consistent They don't live as Christians kids see that and the kids who see that hypocrisy and it has happened sometimes in the most legalistic homes

37:13

Right because you can always put on a face you can act like you're keeping a rule, but then it's not here it's not a love for Jesus that's motivating this it's it's a

37:22

Reputation to keep up. It's an image you that you're trying to cultivate So kids see that and so loving

37:28

God is authentic. This is going to permeate your life If you like sports,

37:34

I don't know what let me know what team I'm not big into sports I'm trying to think what's a big team around here

37:39

Boise State all right, so if you're big into Boise State and your whole family like we're a

37:44

Boise State family, right? Do you have to like in your schedule figure out? Okay, when when are we gonna talk about Boise State?

37:52

We need to have our Boise State time every morning before breakfast right now like And if you're really into Boise State, you know, maybe you do have your

37:59

Boise State time I don't know when the games on you're gonna sit down here and watch Boise State But it's gonna just flow out of you naturally if you like Boise State, right?

38:07

It's gonna come natural to you It's gonna just bubble over so I think loving God and and all the different habits that this passage outlines

38:15

Shows that this is something that just it permeates it influences every area of your life.

38:20

It's not something that's forced You know, we did our devotions now go do you know, whatever you want that, you know, your heart wants to do

38:28

It's it's you're still Jesus is still with you So I think that's that's a very important piece of this and I'm thinking through also what my parents were like Why did so so I have another brother who's a

38:40

Christian and serving in the church then I have another brother who is not a Christian, but definitely not woke and I've thought of this quite a bit.

38:49

Why is it that none of us went down that path? It's it's surrounding us It's everywhere. We had plenty of opportunities to but especially my brother who's not a

38:57

Christian, right? My parents couldn't change his heart, but he still has a respect for the church respect for God respect for the family not a

39:03

Christian But what what is it that I think part of it is he he did see hypocrisy at the church

39:10

But he knew my parents weren't hypocrites He knew he knows there's something to it and he doesn't like talking about it. Sometimes I think because it's it's convicting

39:18

He knows deep down. There's there's truth in this and So the witness that a parent has

39:23

I think to their children in just the everyday life of living And in being real, you know pointing at saying hey,

39:29

I'm flawed I did that that was wrong daddy sins, right? But but not being fake about it not trying to keep up some kind of false facade.

39:37

I think is very important So loving

39:42

God Repetition, of course is here Family devotions, I think is important.

39:47

My parents did do that pretty consistently taught us hymns Taught us scripture.

39:53

It doesn't have to be long. It could be 10 minutes in the morning or in the evening whenever but there does come an age when that kind of ends because everyone's busy and they're

40:02

Transitioning into adulthood, but when it is possible, that's good To do that And then in this context is also a national identity

40:11

It's not doesn't jump out of the text we're reading but it's just in the in the context of Deuteronomy This is a nation coming in and God's giving instructions not just for a family.

40:19

He's giving instructions for an entire nation So everyone around them would have had the same command and the fathers would have been teaching their children this

40:29

Whether it was next door or you know, it's some other part of Israel. So I Think having a firm identity is a key component to this.

40:40

So Loving God not, you know seeing reality and not hypocrisy and also having a sense of belonging

40:48

I think are very important in the formative years and that's something I know I had that's something my brother said

40:53

We knew who we were. We were Harris's we were Americans we were We and even though Becoming a

41:01

Christian truly and my parents made sure we knew this was was something between us and God they encouraged

41:07

We knew that Jesus's rules were important for our family Okay.

41:13

So yeah, I mean I may not be a Christian yet I haven't received Christ as my Lord and Savior, but I know that we obey

41:20

God's law in this family So there is there is this family identity? That Created a sense of belonging and rootedness

41:29

So that's number two. So number one set your expectations, you know, you can't be perfect number two, though You can't influence your children.

41:36

Here are some of the ways you can and then number three, I think understand the appeal of social justice understand the appeal of social justice and this is

41:44

I think probably the the most important and Unique information

41:50

I have to share with you in this whole talk Fundamentally, what is social justice?

41:56

It is a rebellion against the Creator fundamentally All right. Now it is in this conference in some ways

42:03

I feel like I'm doing things backwards because I'm giving you more definition to social justice in sessions, which are to come especially tonight

42:11

But let me give you some brief thoughts about social justice And I know

42:16

I defined it earlier. Let me define it again social justice is a scheme by which

42:22

The goal is to create an egalitarian or an equal or a utopian vision for society

42:29

There's there's a goal right? So progressivism, right? We're progressing towards something. What's the thing we're progressing towards?

42:35

It's this social justice this everyone's equal. It's this this fantasy really but it's this this heaven we can have on earth

42:42

Okay, Christians believe we we die or Jesus comes back and there's the heavenly state.

42:48

There's eternal state social justice is humanistic It's it's actually at root. It's materialistic and we got to have it here.

42:54

We got to have the heaven here on earth So we got to constantly be working towards it. Okay. Now there's all these barriers to it though.

43:00

Your family could be a barrier I mean inheritance. I mean parents passing down money to their children who pass it down to their children

43:06

That's not fair. Some kids don't get that opportunity or how about your job geographical location? You have access to health care and to schools.

43:13

That's not fair. Other kids don't have that or perhaps White privilege, right?

43:18

That's the one that's being talked about a lot now or whatever the case may be Whatever blessing God gave you in your life is not actually a blessing from God.

43:26

It's it's flipped into a curse It's some kind of unfair advantage that you got through some

43:32

Illicit means and it may not even be you it might be your parents or grandparents or great -grandparents

43:38

But somehow you've ended up if you're in the oppressor category with stuff that isn't yours this creates guilt and a sense of shame and Fundamentally this whole scheme is against God because it targets institutions that God has ordained

43:57

How about the police government does not bear the sword in vain. We're gonna take the sword away from the police

44:04

How about the family? I mean, that's the building block of society that God instituted. We're gonna redefine the family

44:11

Say that boys aren't boys girls aren't girls. We're gonna deconstruct gender We're going to take a civilization that has advanced not just technologically but in many ways morally and and and Financially and we're gonna take that that culture that society and then we're going to try to destroy it

44:35

Simply because it has stuff that other societies don't have. That's the whole

44:40

BLM thing. It's Fundamentally what this does is it takes the providence of God and it makes it a dirty word

44:49

That's providence. It's just a justification for pillaging and evil people and and what they've done to poor helpless victims

44:58

So it's saying God, I don't like the way you design this place. I don't like the institutions that you created I don't like my place and I'm in fact,

45:05

I feel pretty guilty about it and I'm gonna rebel against that and so pride enters in pretty quick What's the motivating factor of all sin?

45:14

It's pride. I know better. I know better than God I can I like the way that I envision society

45:20

I the dream that that that I want to carry out is better than the vision.

45:25

God has for the world and the appeal Along with the pride and it's it really strokes.

45:34

The ego is counterfeit virtue this lie that you're good I'm better than my parents.

45:39

Maybe you had an axe to grind with them Maybe you always felt inferior because they were always better than you inside at something or you never lived up to the standard that you

45:47

Thought you should have lived up to well now Roles are reversed. I'm gonna create a standard that my parents can't live up to and I'm going to I'm gonna remind them of that and I'm gonna denounce them because they can't live up to this standard and I feel pretty good about Myself and I didn't have to do anything didn't have to give my shirt to a homeless person

46:05

I didn't have to financially contribute to anything All I had to do was view this position whatever it may be in the right way

46:12

I Support homosexual marriage my parents do not therefore. I am better than them.

46:18

I am morally superior I mean that really strokes the ego. There's pride involved in that some of the hooks

46:25

That social justice takes advantage of a desire for belonging The lie that you can get a better deal outside of your family outside of your country and this is artificial environment

46:35

That that that you can be part of making this new Tower of Babel that you're gonna build with everyone else

46:41

That's on the same agenda Compassion there's a hijacked compassion. The lie is that our solutions are better than God's I know socialism has never really worked but if we just try it this time in according to these standards we can make it work and It's you know don't you don't you care about this poor person?

47:00

But instead of actually going and helping that poor person Tangibly with your own finances social justice emphasizes this grand scheme that takes the money from some people and gives it to others and The middleman is always the one that makes out not the poor person

47:19

How how do these hooks come about how do children and then adults? How did they fall into this and?

47:26

The answer I think is there's a there could be a number of reasons But I identity plays a part in this you don't have a strong family identity a strong pride in your country and some of the things that make you you and Your local area those kinds of things you can shift your identity more to peer pressure your group of peers that you're in the new

47:45

Group that you found in college right and what they think and it's pretty soon You see yourself as with them and not with the familiar

47:53

Success is another one so you see your educators perhaps and your entertainers and look how successful they are

47:59

This is what they believe and you start worshiping that and thinking that's important some some parents have unwittingly

48:06

Given this value system to their kids without realizing it's gonna backfire him on later And I've seen this in the homeschool groups by the way where it's like our kid is he's 12 years old and he has a

48:17

PhD No, it's a little bit of a exaggeration But I went to I went to college a little early But I remember that competition of parents like junior has this great score on the

48:26

SATs And what does junior start doing junior starts thinking? That's the way to get my parents approval Yeah, I'm gonna just keep you know,

48:32

I'm gonna get into an Ivy League I'm gonna really try to and then where does that end it was it was the kids that ended up usually doing the best

48:39

From the earliest ages. I remember from when I was growing up that ended up becoming the most woke and I think it that might have been part of it is they were they were taught this value system

48:48

You value the person who really made it high in the academic ladder. Well, who are those people? I mean you just read you the statistics.

48:55

We know who they are. They hate God So that's not a great value system to teach kids so So one set it set your expectations number two influence your children number three understand the appeal of social justice and then number four

49:08

Cultivate a family identity and there's many ways to do this. We would go to the graves of our relatives and decorate them

49:14

Well, I don't if we decorate them we would go to them though Hear the stories from the elderly in our families.

49:20

We would sit there and listen we I remember When I was young we had a special plate right that would be given to whoever's birthday it was they were special and sometimes there would just be we're gonna celebrate this person because you know

49:33

They achieved something at their soccer game or whatever and it was I'm part of this family and this family is

49:39

Supportive of me and we go around the room and talk about what we're grateful for for that person We we studied

49:46

American history quite a bit you don't have to be a nerd but you know Go see the battlefields see the the price that it took for us to enjoy the liberties and freedoms that we have the legitimate liberties and freedoms there's many more things

49:59

I could probably add to that things that I'm not even thinking of just because it was so wired into the Way I was raised but I think that was probably one of the biggest things that kept us especially my brother

50:08

Who's not a Christian? I think it was one of the biggest things that kind of prevented him from going that direction because here's a whole movement That's attacking the family that he loves.

50:15

Here's a movement. That's attacking the church He grew up and here's a movement that's attacking the country That he knows is so important because we have relatives who died defending this country.

50:24

You think he's gonna go with that movement? No, that's a threat so cultivating that family identity created that impression a local identity a national identity

50:34

I Think getting involved maybe even in local, you know Becoming a volunteer fireman or you know, some of these things might also be the road by which bad influences can come in But here's the thing.

50:46

You're never gonna keep bad influences from come from coming in so the the wise thing I think to do is what my parents did was

50:52

Make sure that at the appropriate times when your children are able to handle different things

50:57

That's when you you give them those responsibilities and you watch them and you see can they handle this if they can't you pull them? back if you can't you coach them and and so we were very involved in soccer and Boy Scouts and in band and Not everything was through the church if my brothers were in 4 -h

51:14

My one of my brothers was a volunteer fireman. So like we were very involved in the community we had a sense of community pride in a way and just We were with real people and all different kinds of people elderly people.

51:27

We went to do elderly ministry, right? We just hand them hand them hymnals Remember giving one of my earliest messages was just my testimony for these elderly people at a convalescent home

51:36

That meant something not just to them but to us because I didn't realize it then but I realized it now you have a whole

51:43

Movement that's attacking old people These old people are the problems are the reason for all the problems in this country all the racist sexist things they did

51:51

It's harder now for someone who knows elderly people and has and can think about the people

51:57

I know that I've talked to that stories I've heard and you develop a love and a trust and you realize

52:02

This is a cartoon. This isn't this isn't they're not all like that So I'm getting to know tangible real people

52:10

Engaging in charity, that's another one engage in charity And that's just part of loving people

52:15

I know I saw my dad when I was growing up many times right at a gas station Someone would come up to him and I want money

52:21

My dad wouldn't give him money my dad would fill up his tank or buy him a sandwich or something that that meant something

52:27

Seeing that oh my parents don't hate the poor right what the social justice warriors are saying about my parents that they hate the poor

52:32

They're these white suburban horrible people because they take you know vacations and you know

52:38

Ride on boats and you know, this is so horrible. No, my parents they actually love the poor so I think that's important Cultivating discernment is big right teaching them the truth teaching them how to think

52:53

So when they hear lies, they can actually think through it. They're not just gonna be emotionally swept away, but they're gonna logically

53:00

Think through what's actually being said and questions like what are the alternatives to this? That's a big question if you just ask that question almost every leftist idea falls apart, right?

53:10

You know, we need to do this right now for the environment, right? Well, what are the consequences of that? What are there alternatives to this like those two questions if those were just asked, you know

53:20

But the left always presents this is our solution. It's the only solution You can't have any other solution and if you don't take our solution, then you just hate people

53:28

You're you're you must really want global warming or something. Well I teach kids to think be real with children about flaws

53:39

Educate them on history already talked about this a little bit and then in closing I Want to just point out some general observations that I've had about friends who have gone woke and then friends who didn't so What I've noticed about my friends who went down the social justice path in college, especially is that they lacked a family identity

53:58

Dad was you know, always interested in his hobbies and his hobbies alone Maybe the kids didn't get the attention

54:04

Kids were they just didn't have a strong family connection Normally, they also have an axe to grind.

54:11

There's some kind of resentment there that social justice can take advantage of and And so there's things are swept under the rug problems aren't dealt with in the home

54:23

Resentment builds and it's never actually addressed Well, I mentioned this earlier but legalism sometimes homes can be very legalistic and that can create an

54:32

Impossible standard and it's never really talked about sometimes and so kids can can grow up thinking that they're never worth it

54:39

They can never get the favor that they want or they have to lie to get that favor and they can be themselves

54:45

They're sinful selves when when they and and have virtue right? in social justice

54:53

There was a lack I think a basic understanding standing was lacking of human nature And history so the grass is not always greener on the other side

55:01

We're all humans if we create our utopia it may sound good But it's not because we're humans and so if you understand human nature and understand history and how it demonstrates

55:12

Humans are humans then you don't always fall for the next lie I remember when the the 2020 stuff was going on right and people were so Shocked like we had slavery in this country.

55:23

I remember thinking like Yeah Like I've known about that since I was in elementary school.

55:28

I've read about this So you know, did you hear this for the first time? Why are people shocked about this but some people genuinely were they weren't even prepared to deal with the emotional

55:38

Narrative that they were being fed because they had never thought through it Ultimately, I think what it all boils down to is there's an anger at God for their condition and the condition of the world and Instead of continuing to adopt what they see as a

55:59

As the problem as the vision of the world that's creating all the problems from their parents They want to work towards utopia by any means necessary and that justifies stealing it justifies lying but you can still be virtuous because it's for the revolution so they can they have an ideology that will justify their sin and It will allow them to still be mad at God and the way he created things friends who didn't go woke

56:23

Had strong families Engaged in service were in the community to engaged in in the community projects loving the people around them loving their neighbor

56:33

And they were proud of their identity. They didn't have everyone has some insecurity I understand but they did not have the insecurity issues that the social justice advocates pretty much all have once I once you get to know them and I could say a lot more than that, but I'm out of time, so So those are just some pieces of wisdom.

56:50

Hopefully that will help I I don't you know, I wish I had more that I could share that was maybe coming from Someone who you know, if I was 60 years old, you know

57:01

Down the line, you know 30 years later from this point. I could look back and say yep I raised my kids and this is what we did, but this movement

57:11

While it's nothing new it is the intensity of it is new This is I mean

57:16

I can't believe some of like even the children shows that friends have told me that you know They thought it was safe for their kids and then they're introducing homosexual characters or things like this

57:25

It's everywhere. And so I think a lot of parents are figuring this out, but we do have we do have a template

57:32

We do have a model. We do have Deuteronomy. We do have principles in the Word of God and The challenge may look a little differently

57:39

We can't take things for granted like we used to Society's not going to support our Christian beliefs like it used to but we certainly can still raise kids and and responsible young adults

57:50

In a pagan culture that is possible, but it does take work. So That's all