News Roundup: Food Shortages, Border, Disney, TGC, Grove City College

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Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. I'm your host, John Harris. This episode is sponsored by Gold River Trading Company.

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Now I want to talk today about a number of things and it's going to be a short episode but it's going to be a news roundup.

01:06

So I want to start here. Let's talk about some big things and we'll go to more specific things going on in social justice.

01:13

We are going to talk about Gospel Coalition, we are going to talk about Grove City College and a bunch of things.

01:19

But here's some big stuff. So Union Pacific curtails fertilizer shipments, delaying deliveries and preventing new rail orders from being taken.

01:27

This has been picked up in a number of different outlets. A leading global manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, today informed customers it serves by Union Pacific rail lines that railroad mandated shipping reductions would result in nitrogen fertilizer shipment delays during the spring application season and that it would be unable to accept new rail sales involving

01:47

Union Pacific for the foreseeable future. All right, let me cut to the chase here. Fertilizer isn't going to be available for many farmers.

01:56

That's and I don't know how many, I don't know to what extent this is going to be bad, but it's regulations, regulations on shipping,

02:03

I guess, fertilizer and that's the issue. The company was told to reduce its shipments by nearly 20%.

02:09

Well, that's just great. During planting season, farmers can't get fertilizer. If farmers are unable to secure all the nitrogen fertilizer that they require in the current season because of supply chain disruptions such as rail shipping restrictions, the company expects yield will be lower.

02:25

You won't have food. That's and here's the thing. You hear over and over, oh, Putin is causing a global famine.

02:33

Putin's causing a famine. Putin's causing a famine and meanwhile, they're doing this. Our own government's doing this.

02:40

Well, we're going to limit the fertilizer farmers can get. Oh, Putin's causing a famine. I'm not going to be blaming

02:46

Putin when there's a shortage in America of food. I'm going to be and the same goes for fuel when our hands are tied by these environmentalist types.

02:57

Anyway, make sure that you only bring it to your attention. Make sure you have food. Make sure you have emergency food.

03:02

It's always good to have. In fact, I asked my wife this morning, I said, I know I bought some years ago. Have you seen it? Because I know we've moved around.

03:08

Pretty sure we have it. We got to find it and maybe I need more and that's something that I would just let you know about.

03:15

Plant food right now. Be self -sufficient. We've got to be self -sufficient. We got to be as off grid as we possibly can.

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And it makes sense whether there's a catastrophe or not, but especially if there is, we need to try to be self -sufficient.

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We can't rely on the things that have been stable for us our entire lives. And that's just wisdom.

03:36

Here's another headline. The White House is not planning to delay lifting Title 42. Title 42 was a public health policy that limited immigration for health reasons.

03:47

March 2020 under President Donald Trump, it was used to minimize the spread of the

03:52

Chinese Communist Party virus. So that is being lifted, which means that we have 600 ,000 illegal immigrants to deal with the projected surge in migration with the end of Title 42.

04:04

600 ,000 are just going to surge. We have major issues at the border. Major issues.

04:09

Worse than I think it's probably ever been. And this is because of policy getting us here.

04:15

Again, this is policy. Public policy is what is causing these issues. So we're going to have an influx of illegal migrants coming in at a time when we're going to have potential food shortages.

04:27

Not a good recipe there. This is something else. And I was debating whether to share this, but it affected me a little when

04:35

I saw it. I haven't watched a lot of this guy's videos, but I was sort of aware of him, Gonzalo Lira.

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And I haven't been able to confirm this completely, 100%. It seems like it's true, though.

04:49

I knew this about him. I listened to like part, I never listened to a full video of his,

04:55

I think. But I listened to like parts of probably like maybe two or three of his videos.

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And I know he was paranoid. Like that's what it seemed like, at least. Like they're going to kill him. I've been up for nights.

05:05

If you don't hear from me, it's because I was doxed by, I think there was some British newspaper that doxed him.

05:12

I, you know, he was, he was waiting for the moment. Well, he would say things like, if I don't post in the next like 48 hours or 24 hours or whatever, like it's because, you know,

05:22

I'm either trying to get to a safe place or I'm dead or anyways, he hasn't posted for like, I think it's like six days now.

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And the last person he had a podcast with said this. Gonzo Lira, a

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Chilean, a social media influencer who resided in Kharkov, Ukraine and who published online content critical of the

05:42

Ukrainian government was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the Kraken unit, part of the Azov battalion affiliated with Ukrainian security services.

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Now, for those who don't know, who haven't been following this, the Azov battalion, there are pictures of the Azov battalion that look like this.

05:57

Yeah, there's neo -Nazi connections here. That's not a myth. That's actually, that's actually true.

06:04

And so apparently, according to, and the thing is, I don't know for 100%. I don't know.

06:10

Maybe there's an, I'm hoping this isn't true, but it, it seems to be possible, very possible.

06:18

And I just thought I would take this as an opportunity, more broadly speaking, to just mention that I have been following the stuff with Ukraine and Russia.

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I know I made a series of podcasts in a row and then I stopped. I didn't talk about it anymore. And I feel like I've said my piece for the most part.

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And I still feel that way. I've said my piece. What else am I going to say to add to the discussion? People have filtered into the groups of who they want to listen to, and I will not listen.

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At this point, I've just, I've listened already and I've just found them not to be trustworthy, but I won't even listen to most talk radio hosts on this.

06:50

I won't certainly listen to the Fox News coverage on this. I'm still doing the same things

06:56

I was doing before, pretty much. And I want to look at what's, what are the primary sources saying that we can get a hold of?

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Let's compare them with one another. And by the way, that does mean you might have to read some, some Russian stuff and, oh man, it's biased.

07:11

Yeah, it is. So read the biased Russian stuff, read the biased Ukrainian stuff, read the, you're already getting the biased

07:16

Western media stuff. So try to figure out the truth by, and if all you have are biased sources, then you filter through all of them and you try to get from all sides as much as you possibly can.

07:31

If, and here's the thing, I don't want to be long on this, but the thing is,

07:39

I, some, there are certain levels of bias, like CNN and MSNBC, there's such a level of bias there.

07:46

I'm like, I just wouldn't even, I wouldn't listen to them for anything. There's just nothing worthwhile there.

07:52

I don't view that, I don't view Fox that way. I don't think that like, there's nothing valuable there. I just know on like this particular issue, they have a narrative that they're trying to weave here.

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And, and, and, and I know that if you, if you're reading like what the Kremlin's putting out there, they obviously have a bias.

08:08

They obviously have a narrative that they're trying to put out there and the Ukrainian government and our government. There's also observers on the ground and I followed a few of them.

08:18

I still follow one of them in particular. And I've, I've, comparing all of these things to each other, thinking through what human nature and what seems plausible and what, uh, and knowing a little bit of the history of this,

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I have nothing to backtrack on in my analysis of this situation. I don't trust the narrative. I just don't trust it.

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I've been more solidified in my mind for my mistrust of the, of the prevailing narrative. And again, it doesn't mean

08:44

I think Putin's this really great, awesome guy. And I agree with everything Putin thinks. And he's this paleo conservative from Russia.

08:51

And no, I don't think that about him. Uh, I just know that Ukraine is not this pure as the driven snow, uh, government that's just fighting for democracy and freedom.

09:02

Uh, that's, that's not the case. One bit. Uh, there, I feel sorry for the people on the ground.

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I do on both sides, really. Um, even the people in the, in the, um, portion of Ukraine that identifies with Russia more,

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I feel sorry for both. Uh, they're, they're caught between governments who couldn't seem to negotiate here and that's the big tragedy.

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But, um, when I see when, when stuff like this happens, it pokes an eye, uh, pokes a needle in the eye of the prevailing narrative.

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You know, if this, if this is the kind of behavior that gets it's sanctioned, then how can you, can you call it a democracy or a freedom loving democracy?

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It gets hard. It's a YouTuber, you know, that's who it is. Uh, so anyway, um,

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I just, I thought I would mention it. I was just like, oh man, you're kidding. Uh, and I didn't necessarily even agree with everything.

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Gonzalo Lira said, I don't even know everything. He said the few things I did hear from him seemed at least semi -reasonable.

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He was, he was on the, he was one of these guys that was on the ground saying, here's what it looks like in my neck of the woods and Ukraine's a big place, and there's a lot of things going on and a lot of moving parts.

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And he was one of those guys. And, uh, if, if this truly happened, then that's a, that's a tragedy.

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Um, it's a reminder though, going along with the theme here of the food shortage of, uh, the illegal migration in our country, and then seeing, and this is in another country, but seeing, oh,

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I think where things are going in the West in general and are, and are going to come here where there's, there's not going to be free speech.

10:32

There is going to be consequences for political dissent. Just prepare yourself, prepare yourself as much as you can with whatever resources you have, whatever skills you need to get, you need to gain.

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Um, maybe you might need to learn another language. Maybe you, you might need to, um, think through an escape plan. Maybe you might need to think through, uh, and I'm not, this isn't like skies falling paranoia.

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This is just common sense things you want in place anyway. But I think this moment is just impressed upon me more how important those things are.

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So make sure that you have a plan. Now, uh, let's talk about this Florida Senate passes bill to strip

11:07

Disney of special district after companies opposition to, um, the parental rights law, and, uh, there are some people,

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I just want to say this on, on Twitter, even conservatives apparently saying this is wrong, uh, you know, what if like the governor of California, I think

11:22

Jenna Ellis said, what if the governor of California did this to a Chick -fil -A, um, yeah, I don't know that Chick -fil -A is getting any benefits from the governor of California that I'm aware of.

11:30

But the issue, I just wanted to point this out to everyone. The issue is not Florida is punishing Disney.

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The issue is Disney's gotten a big break from Florida taxpayers.

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That it was a perk that helped them, uh, that helped them do business and, and make a bigger profit.

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And all that's happening here is like, we need a better level playing field here. It's not, it, this isn't against the free market.

11:56

This is for the free market. We don't like corporations and the government in bed together. That's not a conservative thing.

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And, and so I just wanted to clarify that because I think there was some confusion over that. Uh, now, uh, let's move on to this next one.

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I want to give you some good news. Cause you hear a lot of bad news. How's some good news? How does that sound? Professor who wouldn't use trans students, pronouns wins $400 ,000 in a settlement.

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A small public university in Ohio agreed last week to pay one of its professors 400 ,000 after it rebuked him for refusing to use transgender students, preferred pronouns,

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Shawnee state university in Portsmouth, um, roughly 85 miles south of Columbus warned Nicholas Meriwether, a philosophy professor about not using pronouns.

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Meriwether, who is an evangelical Christian filed a federal lawsuit against the university contending that the officials violated his constitutional rights by compelling him to speak in a way that contradicts his religious beliefs.

12:45

The settlement of the case followed a three -year legal battle that ended last year, praise God, Dr. Meriwether won this case.

12:52

That is a good, good thing. So, um, anyway, that's, uh, that, that, that I thought was a really good silver lining here.

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Now I want to talk about some things that people have asked me to talk about. One is this introducing the good faith debates at the gospel coalition.

13:08

The gospel coalition has a really high quality video here. They've done a bunch of debates and they're, um, they're broadcasting these debates.

13:16

They, they, they put some resources into this and 80 Robles, I think did a really good video about this. Um, what, cause he, he, a lot of the things that I thought,

13:24

I think he thought with what is this about? People have asked me to comment. Well, here, here's one of the things I have to say first off the top.

13:30

The debates haven't been released, so I don't know fully what to say to you other than I'll tell you my suspicion.

13:38

My suspicion here is that they were forced to do this. They had to do this because people like AD and myself and others have made the case so many times that the gospel coalition is moving with the

13:51

Overton window. They are moving away from the conservative

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Christianity that, um, not just politically, but even Orthodox theology that would have characterized, uh, reformed evangelicalism before them.

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And they're, they're moving things in a politically progressive direction and that they're, they're one sided.

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They, they're always, um, trying to critique one's tone. And, uh, and that becomes this big thing that, and you can't, you can't be mean to other people.

14:21

You can't, uh, you know, telling them they're wrong and too harsh away is just, that's wrong.

14:26

And, uh, and so this kind of would handle that in a way. I mean, you think about it, they did this right.

14:32

Well, look, we're demonstrating what tone to have. We're showing that we have a big tent here that you're included if you're a conservative

14:39

Christian, because look, you can be on either end of the firearms debate, or you can be on either end of woke church or pro -life or any of these things and still be in, you can still be part of, uh, these are, these are worthwhile debates and they're, they're kind of like in -house debates.

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These are the acceptable positions within gospel coalition to have, to which I say, wait a minute, uh, woke church, that would be an acceptable position, right?

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And that's just proof in my mind. Like the fact that that's even a debate that, I mean, I'm not saying that it's not a debate that needs to be had, but the idea that this is prem, this is a good faith debate.

15:10

These are both good brothers coming together or sisters or whatever, coming together to debate this. Uh, here's the question.

15:16

One of the debates is woke church, a stepping stone to theological compromise. Well, that's not even, it's not whether or not it's a stepping stone, woke church is a theological compromise.

15:24

That's the whole issue. That's the whole issue. It's not whether it's a stepping stone. Um, it is a theological compromise.

15:31

That would be a better debate to have. And, um, and, and to even ask to frame it that way shows like, well, there's room for disagreement here.

15:39

I'd say, no, there's no room for disagreement here. That's the problem. Um, if you're going to be an

15:44

Orthodox consistent Bible believing Christian, you got to reject woke church. Uh, so, so that's, that's the kind of thing that we're critiquing.

15:52

And, um, I noticed on my own Facebook and I wasn't quite clear. I'm going to do my best to address this.

15:57

Um, I, I, what I think the objection is, but I, I noticed Scott clues and dwarf who I respect a lot, uh, really value his pro -life stuff.

16:04

I've read his book, listened to many of his debates. Um, he's part of this one with Karen Saul prior. And, and the way that Colin Hanson sets this up is the debate is should the pro -life movement be holistically womb to tomb or narrowly womb focused?

16:17

Which I, I, I haven't seen the debate, so it's, I can't weigh in on the debate, but I can, I can certainly say that the way that this is framed is, is not good.

16:26

Um, being pro -life, it shouldn't be, it's not just about the womb. It never was just, well, we're just pro -life, which means we just care about babies in the womb.

16:34

That's, that's the smear that's used against, uh, pro -lifers. It's, it's actually more that we are against murder.

16:41

That's the issue. And the attempt by people like Karen Saul prior to be holistically womb to tomb pro -life, uh, is to broaden it, uh, the pro -life movement.

16:52

Um, by inserting issues that aren't just about murder. And so that should be the issue. And maybe that is what they debated.

16:58

That's just not how it's set up here. And so I think Scott Klusendorf might've thought 80s video, cause I posted it and he, he left a comment that I wasn't,

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I wasn't a hundred percent sure what it meant, but I think there was a perception that like everyone in this series was if they like, like if they, um, like they, they were just being the conservatives were like the dumb conservatives or the conservatives who are, uh, guild approved and were set up for failure or weren't going to represent conservatives.

17:23

Right. And I have no doubt cause Scott Klusendorf represented conservatives well on this issue. Um, so that was never the issue in my mind.

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I think Scott Klusendorf probably likely won. I think the issue is more, what is, by having these debates, what is the gospel coalition trying to signal?

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What are they trying to communicate about themselves and about, about debating in general and about, uh, about, um, it really,

17:47

I guess just about themselves, what is the purpose of doing something like this? And, uh,

17:53

I think, um, I, I suspect at least that what we're going to find when we watch these debates is, uh, there's going to be some level of disagreement, um, and there's going to be, uh, but, but it's going to be in such a way that, um, and the pro -life one might not be the best one for this, but like something like the woke church, perhaps it's going to be in a way that affirms like, well, yeah, like you can be totally like Orthodox Christian and also believe woke church.

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And like sort of accepting people who believe these things as well. Like that, that's a normal thing.

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And evangelicalism to be like Karen swallow prior womb to tomb pro -life instead of focused on the murder issue, uh, alone, which is what the pro -life movement was about initially.

18:34

So, so that's the issue in my mind is the normalization of those things. And then, you know, trying to perhaps engage in a, a pretending that, well, like we, we are, we're open.

18:46

We're, we're certainly open to these other views when, when in reality it's, you have to look at gospel coalition as kind of like a, it's an organization that shifts with that Overton window.

18:56

It's, it's in motion. We're not looking at a, um, an organization that's like rooted in like, this is our, um, this is our belief and, and we're just here to advocate this belief and we don't ever move away from this belief and no, like they write on all kinds of things that are outside the scope of their broad doctrinal statement.

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And, and they're, they're with the intention of shifting things towards the left. That's the issue here.

19:22

So that's, I think it's with that experience it's with go listen to 80 Robles podcast, um, on the rise and fall of the gospel coalition, and you'll see what

19:30

I'm talking about. Like there's a whole, the gospel coalition has like a whole strategy in my mind over time, watching this pattern of shifting evangelicals to the left gradually.

19:40

All right. Uh, hopefully that satisfies those who asked me to comment on that. I want to talk about this

19:45

Grove City college just released yesterday, a, or no, it wasn't yesterday, I guess. Oh, I guess it was released yesterday, but it's from April 13th, a report by the special committee investigating the wokeness at Grove City college.

19:57

Let me go through some of it. They say Grove City college has not changed its core convictions. They, um, that critical race theory does conflict with Grove City city's college reputation.

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And so they get into some specifics. Um, they said are striving after justice and its object. The common good should be rooted in divine revelation and natural law, not in critical theory.

20:15

Couldn't agree more. Uh, so they're against critical theory says we do not recommend imposing a speech code, banning books or canceling speakers because they want to have academic freedom, but they do have some recommendations.

20:25

Um, they said that the, uh, course education to 90, which was this woke course was ideologically one -sided and effectively promoted popular

20:34

CRT. Uh, they said that they were aware of, um, what is this DM DMEI, the director of multicultural education initiatives, uh, was, uh, let's see, they're aware of the

20:46

DMI's, uh, EI's work on racial issues and viewed his activities as an attempt to carry on a conversation about a challenging subject of interest to some students they did not understand.

20:54

And they're talking about, um, the supervisors of the director of multicultural education.

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They did not understand that he was parroting CRT concepts that these supervisors uniformly say they would not have approved that.

21:07

So here's the thing. Uh, and this is showing what is wrong with a lot of Christian institutions.

21:12

They didn't realize that that was CRT. They didn't, they had no clue that, uh, CRT was being promoted.

21:18

So there's, there's ignorance among a lot of the people that are in charge of, you know, woke stuff was happening because the people in charge of it didn't know it was woke.

21:26

And that, so there's a big lack of discernment, uh, at the higher levels in some cases. At least that's what the report says.

21:32

President McNulty informed the committee that the advisory council has served its limited purpose and is defunct.

21:38

That's the president of the school. So that was one thing that they've already gotten rid of. Um, it was an advisory council on diversity and that was defunct.

21:47

They got rid of that. Um, the DMEI supervisors did not preview or pre -approve the content of his co -curricular presentations and materials because they trusted his judgment.

21:56

So again, not being naive. Um, let's see. They, they think that the office, let's see, what is this?

22:05

The OMEI, what was that? Uh, I think that's all office of multi -ethnic initiative or something.

22:12

I don't, anyway, it's an office that was accused of promoting woke stuff. They, they said that office should be basically reconstrued.

22:19

They, that, that needs to be, uh, there needs to be a cleaning of house there. Uh, we, we reconstituted and renamed to focus on the important, uh, work of student assistance.

22:29

Uh, they talk about Jamar Tisby coming and that, uh, basically the defense is that like, well, Jamar Tisby wasn't like he was in 2019 as he is now.

22:37

And that, of course, it's not really true. Jamar Tisby might, he's more radical perhaps, but he was pretty radical in 2019.

22:43

So I just don't buy this, but they're saying most of those in GCC leadership with whom we spoke, observe that the

22:49

Jamar Tisby that we thought we invited is not the Jamar Tisby that we heard in 2020. Yeah, I'm not buying that one.

22:55

Uh, they allow that in hindsight, inviting Mr. Tisby to speak in chapel was a mistake. They say, when asked about his vision for chapel speakers who talk about racial reconciliation, the chapel said that reconciliation is an important biblical theme.

23:06

So they defended the other ones, which I made a montage and I put it on this program and you can see that there was a lot of woke stuff apart from Jamar Tisby.

23:14

I did a whole thing yesterday on, um, one of the, uh, the, uh, speakers actually, and, and the woke stuff that was set on campus by deleting the word conservative from the vision statement.

23:23

The board did not intend to redirect, let alone betray the college's historic identity. Um, so here's president

23:29

McNulty advises that he will execute the following actions. They're going to replace the education to 90 course with an elective.

23:36

So they're going to get rid of the woke course. Uh, they are going to go through approval process for special studies courses.

23:41

They're going to require any faculty members submitting a request for a new course to, uh, to explain how the proposed course is consistent with their mission and values.

23:49

Uh, let's see what else subject to resident assistant training manuals, uh, are going to be reviewed.

23:55

They're going to require the director of residence life to provide clear direction. Uh, the office of multicultural education and initiatives will be reconstituted and renamed to better fit their mission.

24:05

They're going to re they're going to have increased oversight over chapel programming and have scrutiny over that.

24:12

Uh, and they're going to the, uh, recommend that the board consider restoring the college's self -description as a conservative institution.

24:18

That's, uh, that's what the board that investigated is recommending. And then they praise McNulty saying his faithful, steady, and tireless leadership and the state of the college is in many ways healthier because of him.

24:29

And that they're still one of the most conservative colleges. Well, that's not a statement about Grove city. That's a statement about how dismal things are out there.

24:35

They're the, if they're one of the most conservative colleges, uh, and I'm sure they are in many ways, but, uh, yeah, compared to what, so president

24:43

McNulty is faithful, steady, and tireless leadership. It I'm, I'm just, I'll be honest.

24:48

I still have this suspicion here. Like no, one's been fired according to this, at least they're not recommending any of that.

24:55

It's just like, we'll do better. That's all this is. We're going to do better and time will tell. That's the only thing

25:00

I can say. Time will tell. And speaking of time telling, um, Joshua Abattoy the next day, earlier today, or actually yesterday, the earlier today, the

25:08

GCC board released a clear and fulsome report about what needs to be done at Grove city college. I just learned last night that they, it goes to the college displayed some of the clearest evidence of its mission drift though, this is happening at the same time, interesting timing to say the least last night, the

25:22

Grove city college, college Democrats hosted an event on LGBT allyship. Therefore they distributed a flyer below, which calls on people to always ask and never assume what pronouns someone uses into where your allyship with pride, the

25:36

GCC college Democrats live stream, the event it's on Facebook. Watch the video for yourself, but suffice it to say the viewpoints platformed are significantly clashing with the college's stated allegiance to historic

25:46

Christian teaching and human sexuality. Uh, and he says this event was hosted on campus by the fun and funded by, uh, the student group is funded and they advertise with posters approved by student life yet.

25:58

We know that some posters weren't approved. For instance, a poster by, uh, a student there,

26:05

I guess. Uh, I, I mean, I think you, wouldn't you have to be a student to try to get something approved on the campus?

26:12

That's my guess. Grove city college wouldn't print this poster. And it's,

26:18

I guess it's a poster to go to CRT at gcc .wordpress .com. So, um, they wouldn't approve that, but they will approve this.

26:27

Yeah. Uh, and anyways, he goes back in time and shows that they've had a problem with this.

26:33

And, um, yeah, it's follow Josh Alba toys. You want to know more about this kind of stuff, but, um, to me, pretty bad.

26:44

Uh, I, we're going to have to watch for city college to see if, uh, if that is, it is, um, going to change.