Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey

Watch Episode 1319 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=YDoCFn…

I'm not really interested in comparing these religions. It's not a competition. I have huge fundamental disagreements with Judaism, but thank you to Judaism for not inspiring thousands and thousands of terrorists that are killing Americans and oppressing people worldwide. I don't think you want to get into a competition about which one is “worse” theologically. Islam obviously takes the cake when it comes to destruction, violence, marginalization, and oppression in every single place that it is popularized, not just in the Middle East, thanks to mass migration and Europe and now in the United States as well. It's not comparable when it comes to the effect of a particular ideology. I feel that some people on the Right have gotten this really strange brain worm that has made them think that if they're nice about Islam, then the terrorism won't come for you. It's just not true.

Watch Episode 1319 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=YDoCFn…

Not all of our Muslim neighbors are violent. Not at all. The vast majority of Muslims that we meet will not be violent. We can befriend them and love them. We can share the gospel with them and see the image of God in them, just as much in them as it is in us and our children. At the same time, we must be completely clear-eyed about the contradiction between the American way of life and the ideology of political Islam. We must do that. I think we are obligated to do that.

Watch Episode 1318 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=KVwub0…

Watch Episode 1317 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ecyM…

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub encouraged pastors and believers alike to trust the authority of Gods word and don’t apologize for that. He said, “Stand firm on the truth. Keep preaching. If God takes people out of your church, He’ll bring 3-5 new people in for every one He takes out. That’s what He does. At the end of your life, and I tell our congregation this all the time, I’m not scared of preaching the Word as far as what people are going to say about me. I’m very intimidated because I am going to give an account for every word I say. And I’m much more fearful of the Lord. I think what we’ve lost in our culture is the fear of the Lord. And as Christian’s we’ve lost the fear of the Lord. We’re like, ‘Well I’m a Christian I can sin and He will forgive me.’ Yes God will forgive you, but that’s not the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is, ‘Why would I want to sin? I want to honor Him.’ So to all pastors out there, I would say you know you’re calling. You know why God called you. Open the word of God. Preach it, teach people to pray, and watch what He does.”

Watch Episode 1317 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ecyM…

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub shared, "We're living in Sodom and Gomorrah. We're right there doing all the same things. So how do we as believers love people and stand for truth and call people out? Because if we don't, nobody else is." He shared a story about how two years ago, a group of men from BRAVE church attended a festival where there was a drag queen story hour. They simply stood up and said "We're here for children" and then turned their backs to the stage in silent protest. They didn’t shout or cause a disturbance. It made the news, and suddenly BRAVE Church was labeled radical and hateful. A couple of the guys were even arrested, though they were later cleared when the case went to trial. Schwarzentraub shared situations like that caused some people to leave the church. Some said, “If we’re going to be that kind of church, no one will want to come anymore.” But he disagreed. "If we don’t stand for what’s true in our culture, then we’re just sitting on the sidelines, patting ourselves on the back." Schwarzentraub's grandfather was Jewish and survived the Holocaust. During that time, many Christian churches in Germany were gathered together singing hymns while trains carried people to concentration camps and they said nothing. That’s wrong. When we see things in our culture that are clearly wrong and we stay silent, we become complicit with evil. We can’t allow that to happen.

Watch Episode 1317 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ecyM…

Dr. Jeff Schwarzentraub, pastor of BRAVE Church in Colorado, shared the way he was trained and raised was to keep the gospel central. Don't get involved in politics. He grew up with Democrats and Republicans, but in an era of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. He says “Our parents voted differently, we’d all play football together and eat Thanksgiving dinner and nobody cared.” He explained, "It's moved from a right and left issue to a right and wrong issue. Everything I get involved with that's quote unquote "political", they're just biblical issues. When we teach the Bible, we teach the Bible. If you really want to tick off leftists, just teach Genesis 1 because leftists are saying, 'Well, we don't know how we got here.' God says, ‘You got here because I'm God and I’ve always existed.’ There's one God who says there's two genders: male and female. He says there's one race and He created all this in six days. When you talk about racism being an issue or transgender being an issue, God is addressing those in the very first chapter of His word very authoritatively.” Jeff has found himself doing things he never thought he would do like standing on the state capitol and speaking truth. Although he has no desire to make a political run, he says, "To stay silent on biblical issues is to be complicit with evil, and I just won't do it."

Watch Episode 1315 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=v_HYj_…

James Talarico: "The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis, use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity. The second is the feminine Hebrew noun of spirit. God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary.” It's actually true that God is not male or female like we are. He doesn't have a body like we do. Yet, Talarico's statement is inaccurate because God consistently refers to Himself as Father, King, and Lord in masculine terms. In Genesis 1:27, it's very clear that God made us male and female. If Talarico really believed in Genesis 1:1, that in the beginning God created the heavens and earth, then he would know that if He’s the creator and ruler over all of it, then He's the authority over all of it. He alone has the right and responsibility to be the decider and definer of all things. He alone gets to say what's right and what's wrong. What's true and what's false. What a woman is and what she's not. To define the parameters of holy sexuality and to decide what marriage is. James Talarico doesn't submit to God as the creator and the ruler of all things. He sees God is a political pawn.

Watch Episode 1315 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=v_HYj_…

James Talarico: "I believe Christianity points to the truth. I also think other religions of love point to the same truth. I think of different religious traditions as different languages, but we are all talking about the same reality. I believe Jesus Christ reveals that reality to us, but I also think that other traditions reveal that reality in their own ways with their own symbol structures. And I've learned more about my tradition by learning more about Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Judaism. And so I see these beautiful faith traditions as circling the same truth about the universe, about the cosmos." You can believe those things, but you can't be a Christian and believe that all religions point to the same truth. In John 14:6, the Jesus that James Talarico claims to follow says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." Talarico is still a member of his childhood congregation, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, which is a very progressive church in Austin. It shouldn't be surprising at all that in the church’s About Us page it says, "We are Christ centered, yet we respect and learn from all religions of love." That's not a Christian position. If God is love and we believe in the trinity: God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which no other religion believes in, then He is actually the only source of love. There aren't other religions of love in addition to Christianity. It doesn't come as a surprise that Talarico is essentially a universalist who claims to be a Christian and uses some Christian tenets, but actually doesn't believe in the exclusivity of Christ.

Watch Episode 1315 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=v_HYj_…

James Talarico: "I say all this in context of abortion because before God comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary's consent, which is remarkable. The angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do. And she says, ‘If it is God's will, let it be done. Let it happen.’ So to me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent.” This rendering of the story is untrue. The angel Gabriel does not ask Mary for permission. Rather, he announces what God has already chosen to do. Mary responds in faithful submission to God’s will, not by granting consent to a proposal. Even if the story had unfolded the way Talarico describes, it still would not justify ending the life of a child after conception. Interpreting the Incarnation, the moment when Jesus took on human flesh, as a justification for poisoning or dismembering babies inside the womb is so absurdly evil.

James Talarico: "I say all this in context of abortion because before God comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary's consent, which is remarkable. The angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do. And she says, ‘If it is God's will, let it be done. Let it happen.’ So to me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent.” This rendering of the story is untrue. The angel Gabriel does not ask Mary for permission. Rather, he announces what God has already chosen to do. Mary responds in faithful submission to God’s will, not by granting consent to a proposal. Even if the story had unfolded the way Talarico describes, it still would not justify ending the life of a child after conception. Interpreting the Incarnation, the moment when Jesus took on human flesh, as a justification for poisoning or dismembering babies inside the womb is so absurdly evil.

Watch Episode 1313 of Relatable: m.youtube.com/watch?v=gQZq2B…

Scarlet Hope expanded its outreach from strip clubs to women involved in online pornography. As online exploitation grew with the release of the iPhone, they began praying for a way to reach victims digitally. In 2018, they discovered a Microsoft-developed technology at a “Tech Against Trafficking” event that could identify people being advertised for sexual services online. The software scans websites where illicit services are posted, gathers publicly available contact information, and allows nonprofits to send text messages offering help, prayer, and resources. Their organization became the first customer in 2019, reaching 18,000 individuals in the first year. Over time, the program expanded to nine cities across the United States. Eventually, the organization raised funds in three weeks to purchase and operate the software themselves. Today, the technology is their largest outreach program, helping them contact people potentially experiencing exploitation, trafficking, or involvement in the pornography industry. In the most recent year, they reached about 120,000 individuals. 
A woman received one of their texts asking if she needed prayer or resources. She responded asking if the message was real and revealed she had almost committed suicide the night before, praying that God would send a sign. Within two hours, she was sitting in their offices. Her story revealed severe trauma: she had been sex trafficked at 14, forced into an abortion at 16, trafficked around the country, became addicted to drugs, and was eventually abandoned by her trafficker and left homeless. Scarlet Hope helped place her in a long-term recovery program, illustrating how technology combined with outreach and compassion can save lives, sometimes through something as simple as a text message.