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UK Bans Puberty Blockers
25 Plays2 years ago
Join Chris and guest speaker Brian on the latest episode of the Faith 168 Podcast, where they delve into the UK's decision to ban puberty blockers for teens and young people. This bold move has ignited a fierce debate, raising questions about its potential implications for other nations and its alignment with ethical and moral considerations. Chris and Brian navigate the intersection of faith and politics, offering insights on how Christians can engage with current events while staying true to their beliefs. Tune in as they explore the complexities of this issue and provide thoughtful perspectives on navigating the ever-changing landscape of politics through a lens of faith.
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Transcript
Introduction and Special Guest
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Faith 168 podcast. My name is Chris. I'm one of the hosts of the show. And today we're going to go and have a different episode than typical. And we have a guest speaker here. His name is Brian McKenzie all the way over from Georgia. And if you're wondering if there's a similarity between our last names right there, there is a Brian McKenzie is my father.
00:00:30
Speaker
and I'm glad to have him on a special episode of the Faith 168 podcast.
Brian's Faith Journey
00:00:37
Speaker
So, Brian McKenzie, go ahead and tell us a little bit about you and your walk with Christ. All right. You know, whenever I think about it, I think about it really began when I was about four or five years old.
00:00:59
Speaker
I had gone to vacation Bible school. My grandmother took me to vacation Bible school. And I remember coming out and we got back home and I just started praying. I was playing in the front yard and I was very sincere about it, but I didn't understand everything.
00:01:25
Speaker
And I was raised in church, a small, small country church, and went many years before I understood, you know, about repentance, confessing Jesus as Lord and savior and following him. And
00:01:50
Speaker
I felt like, you know, God had been leading me ever since that time. I joined the military after high school. I went astray for a while, but I realized, you know, that God's willing to forgive and we can always come back to Him like the prodigal son.
00:02:16
Speaker
And he's right there waiting on us. We can go a different route, think that we're happy, and everything's going to be unsatisfied with the things in the world. But we come back. We always have that conviction. Whenever we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior,
00:02:45
Speaker
We have the indwelling Holy Spirit to convict us. And I had to do that. You know, it's not been a perfect life. I've dealt with a lot of issues, primarily mental health, things like that. But, you know, God's not those things may not go away.
00:03:15
Speaker
But we always have Jesus there to comfort us. He's our comforter. The Holy Spirit's our comforter. Jesus is our healer. And when he saves us, things might not go the way that we expect.
Faith and Mental Health
00:03:40
Speaker
But it is going to go according to his plan for our life.
00:03:45
Speaker
And he uses he uses many different things, you know, many different. I'm trying to say, you know, all things do work together for good. All the things that happen, we can look back on and see the valleys and the mountaintops and God is with us all the way through that.
00:04:15
Speaker
But I go to just like back home, small world church. I enjoy that. I enjoy the fellowship, but most of all, I look forward to my time with God. And that's about all I've got on that.
00:04:39
Speaker
All right. Well, thank you for taking the time to join me on this episode of the Faith 168 podcast. And we're going to take a little bit of a different route with this episode than we normally do with Brother Rob and Brother Brandon.
Faith and Politics
00:04:54
Speaker
We often sit on here and we'll maybe take some questions.
00:04:58
Speaker
You and I have talked and we talk quite often about some of the political things happening in the world and some of the different ideologies that the world pushes out that they say are right, but really don't align with Scripture.
00:05:20
Speaker
I think before we get into this episode, it's good to say this. We have had an episode of the Faith 168 podcast where we talked about faith and politics and how they intertwine. And that's true. We've been told quite often in our life, you know, keep your mouth shut about political things going on. But what happens when those political things that are going on in the world can completely contradict faith?
00:05:49
Speaker
And I think we've seen a lot of that, and I think the devil has really used politics as like his safety grounds where, you know, if I work within politics, the Christians are too scared to talk about the politics that are going on in the world. But I think when we go through this from a biblical standpoint, we have an obligation to point out the things that are going wrong, not from a judgmental
00:06:19
Speaker
standpoint, but from a standpoint of love. And I think that's the important thing because when someone is given false information their whole life, they're going to grow up and think that that's right. And if you come at them and just punch them in the face with everything you've got, and you're just demeaning to them and you're like, you know what?
00:06:49
Speaker
You don't know what you're talking about. You're going to hell. Get away from me, you dirty rotten sinner. You know, we really shove them away instead of doing what I think Paul would say when he wrote to Timothy, convince, rebuke, exhort. I think that's a good order on how we need to go about witnessing the people. Convince people of the truth. Convince them that Jesus is the Messiah.
00:07:17
Speaker
He's the savior that died on the cross for their sin, the only begotten son of God who took on our penalty. He rose from the grave on the third day and he's coming back for us. And then when we convince him of the truth and that his word is infallible, it's perfect. We can rebuke the false doctrines that are in their life. Now that you believe this, now that you're a follower of Christ,
00:07:44
Speaker
you realize that the Holy Spirit is, like you were talking about, the Holy Spirit convicts us and puts us back on the right track. We're gonna call up scripture and say, look at these false things in the world that the devil has convinced you of. It's time to get rid of the garbage and accept the word of God and follow in his righteousness. And that's not to say that we're perfect, but it's to say that we serve a perfect savior
00:08:14
Speaker
no matter how fallen we are and how messed up we are, he gets us back on track. And I think we have to meet, um, I'm sorry, were you finished? Yeah, I think we have to be careful on, on how we present the message. Um, I can tell you a few circumstances in my life, you know, when I didn't understand,
00:08:41
Speaker
a lot about it when I was a young kid. Rock music was a big kiss, was a big band. I liked Peter Criss in that band. And I'd gotten a Peter Criss t-shirt and didn't think about anything about it, you know, it's just made up like a cat. I went to school in
00:09:10
Speaker
Didn't think about it. It was Wednesday, went to church. And all of a sudden, the pastor is looking directly at me and telling me, don't you know that that stands for Kings in Satan service?
00:09:28
Speaker
And, you know, just like really rebuked me at that time. And I was confused because he wasn't giving me any more information. And I went for a time, you know, when, when, when you're fourth or fifth grade, you know, somebody tells you that you feel like you've committed the unpardonable sin.
00:09:54
Speaker
So we really have to be careful on how we present the message to make it clear because one of the things we've talked about before, you know, I always questioned, we always ask people if, you know,
00:10:20
Speaker
witnessing to others, well, don't you want to go to heaven or, um, you know, if you, if you don't, if you don't repent, you know, you're going to burn in hell and all of those things are biblical, you know, but I started thinking about the opposite, the other side of that message, you know, of course, people want to go to heaven, but, uh,
00:10:50
Speaker
You know, my question is, um, do you understand God's love for you?
Understanding God's Love
00:11:00
Speaker
You know, wouldn't you like to spend eternity with God? And the opposite of that is, you know, uh, it wasn't so much the hellfire and brimstone things that made me think it was like eternal.
00:11:18
Speaker
separation from God. Do you want to spend eternity with God or do you want to be banished from God's presence for eternity? Of course, I'd always hear growing up, your loved ones are looking down and they see your sin. We ought to be more concerned about the fact that God looks down and see your sin.
00:11:49
Speaker
You know, so I think, you know, coming around to understand that we need to present a clearer message and ask the right question, you know, because John Piper has, has that, you know, wouldn't you like to go to heaven if you had all the things you've ever wanted and all, you know, all the best food, your friends are there, but
00:12:18
Speaker
Christ wasn't, you know, I kind of feel like, you know, uh, that that's what separates it is, you know, following Christ and because eternity is going to be spent with him. You know, it's not about anything else that we have there. It's being in the presence of God for eternity.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah. You know, we ought to be concerned, not about everybody else looking down on us, but what does God see? You know, is he pleased or, you know, and I was, I was worried, you know, because back the same time period,
00:13:08
Speaker
You know, my great-grandmother had just passed away and I was like, oh no, my great-grandmother just saw me do this. But I wasn't like feeling bad that, you know, I wasn't thinking about God looking down on it. I had to start seeing things for what they were, you know, that this isn't about anybody else. Our lives are not about anybody else.
00:13:37
Speaker
We don't need another person's opinion. We don't need another person's affirmation. We don't need anything. I mean, we want those things, you know, it feels good when we do, but the thing is, you know, Colossians tells us that we are complete in Christ. We don't need anything else, you know, so
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I remember when I put my faith in Christ and it was, it was completely different than how I thought things were to go. Uh, and of course you were around when I put my faith in Christ. Yeah. And I remember what, what led me to that moment. Um, we, we went to a church in Hopkinsville at that time.
00:14:35
Speaker
And I had this weird version of what I thought putting my faith in Christ was. I thought I was supposed to go out to this stump right outside the church. And I was supposed to like say some words at that stump every Sunday. And that was like the idea of salvation at that moment as a little kid. But I remember asking our pastor, Pastor Troy, several questions.
00:15:04
Speaker
and he would he would tell me the questions and I didn't quite understand a lot of the things but I always loved to read and so I started reading the Bible and he would tell me where to read and there were many disagreements I had at that time and I was able to understand further later on not that he was wrong in salvation just some small doctrinal second tier issues but
00:15:31
Speaker
What that did is it led me to read more than just that. And I remember I came home one day and you remember how money was tight when we were little and we had sodas, but you didn't touch the soda. That was a treat. That was something you had to earn. And I took a soda that I had not earned. And my mom was asking,
00:15:59
Speaker
were, were the sodas were the sodas. And, uh, then she looked at me and without hesitation, I lied to her. And I said, well, I actually lied to her about you. I said, dad took it. And, and so, uh, anyway, that led to a whole different conversation.
00:16:23
Speaker
because you were, you know, you had told her you didn't do that. And you said, well, one of the kids must have, and it led to a, uh, an argument there, but I saw that I had lied and I realized something that that lie is sin. And what made me realize it was how that sin was destructive in that moment, instead of mom being angry at the one that
00:16:52
Speaker
caused the sin that did the sin. She was angry at the wrong person. Hey, those are our sodas. Those are treats for the kids to get them to do good, things like that. But because I sinned, I caused a disruption, an argument that didn't have to be. And I realized my sin at that moment. And I realized, as I was reading scripture, that that sin is what separated me from God. Exactly.
00:17:22
Speaker
And at that moment, I wasn't afraid of hell, but I realized this one thing. I realized that even while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. And it was that love that I understood that I didn't want to just be in heaven. I didn't just want to escape hell, but I wanted to follow Jesus who delivered me from sin.
00:17:49
Speaker
And I ran in, and this was at 121, watched Drive, where we used to live when I was little. And I ran into the living room and I said, hey, I lied, but I got saved. And I put my faith in Jesus. I understand it now. And y'all were overjoyed at that. And so that was the time I put my faith in Jesus. But it wasn't the fear of hell. It wasn't the desire of heaven.
00:18:18
Speaker
It was the desire of Christ that led me to submitting to him and realizing his great love. And I think when we come from a point of truth, sometimes people get upset about that, but the truth can hurt because the truth hurt me that day. I was convicted at that moment when I realized I was a sinner. I felt like the most awful person in the world. I didn't want to recognize it, but it was right there.
00:18:48
Speaker
right in front of my face. But as I put my faith in Jesus, I felt like the most pure saint in the world. As I realized he washed my sin away, he took that burden off of me. No longer was it about how bad I am, it was about how good he is. And that's what led me to love him and follow him and forsake the world.
Christian Perspectives on Puberty Blockers
00:19:11
Speaker
And as we go into this episode today,
00:19:16
Speaker
We're going to talk about some other hard truths and we're going to talk about some political topics. And just the forewarning for anyone, it is going to be on something concerning the LGBTQ community. And I want this to be understood that we do come from a place of love and we want people to hear the truth. And we're going to talk about a topic that happened in the UK just a couple of days ago.
00:19:46
Speaker
as they banned puberty blockers for teenagers, why they did that from a political perspective and moral perspective, but more than that, we want to look at it from a Christian perspective. So you're going to see a lot of political things on this, but we want to look at it from a biblical perspective. So you can go on the news and you can see, uh,
00:20:15
Speaker
All these different headlines like CNN, England's health service to stop prescribing puberty blockers. Uh, the New York Post, Britain bans puberty blockers for transgender teens while, uh, voodoo science still rules us. It's like, you know, these very negative headlines, but what, what we're doing when we look at some of these headlines is we're ignoring the truth. So what happened?
00:20:43
Speaker
was England's National Health Service stopped prescribing puberty blockers for children and young people with gender dysphoria and gender incongruence saying there's not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty suppressing hormones. And that was something posted by CNN. That was a part of the CNN. Right. I've seen it from different sources
00:21:11
Speaker
And that had always been one of my concerns, you know, because we don't know long term effects of something. And, you know, that coming from the Tavistock Center, which I'm very familiar with, I read a lot of things,
00:21:36
Speaker
online, uh, some of their studies and, you know, we're not talking about some right wing, um, medical service or anything. I mean, you know, they, they are, they're pretty liberal. Uh, they, but you know, I, I read a lot of things that they put out. So, you know, whenever they said that I was, uh,
00:22:06
Speaker
a lot more concerned, you know, because one, um, one of the issues that I have is we are trying to change God's design for a person, you know, and when their children, you know, there's a lot of influence over, over children. And, you know, I don't mean, I don't mean that in, uh,
00:22:36
Speaker
hateful way to anyone. Because I want to make sure that people understand, you know, each time I'm talking to them about something, you know, this is speaking the truth of love. I had a grasp on that, you know, a long time ago, Francis Schaeffer Institute,
00:23:01
Speaker
Uh, they were talking to me, you know, trying to help people understand and, you know, kind of a little cartoon thing says, you know, that I disagree with you does not mean does not equal. I hate you. And, you know, really it's, um, it's just one of those things that,
00:23:33
Speaker
I don't know if a fad for some, like a lot of times I was, uh, I had heard that, you know, mothers were pushing because it was, it was almost like, I would say a status symbol. You know, I heard the story whenever I was living up in Kentucky, uh, you know, from a high school.
00:24:01
Speaker
And they were talking about teenage pregnancies, you know, in high school. And they were talking, the person told me this and said, you know, it's almost seen as a status symbol to be going to high school and have your stroller and, you know, you've been with this person. And, you know, then whenever it comes to this, there was
00:24:28
Speaker
quite a bit of news about suburban moms, really pushing this. It seemed that they were getting more enjoyment out of it as this, I've got a special child. Yeah, I think too, when we look at that, I think you're onto something right there.
00:24:57
Speaker
these worldly desires really lead us down a very slippery slope. I read a book and this isn't a book by a Christian author. This is actually a left leaning, almost liberal author named Abigail Shrier. She wrote this book called Irreversible Damage and she got so much hate for this book.
00:25:23
Speaker
but she's a journalist. She went through this from a journalist perspective and she looked at gender dysphoria and transgenderism from all across the board. And she actually found that for like every one male that professed to be female, there were like a hundred females that professed to be male.
Gender Identity and Societal Pressures
00:25:48
Speaker
And so the data was even showing like, it was very lopsided
00:25:53
Speaker
especially when you look at the psychological data we have concerning gender dysphoria, that gender dysphoria often affected young males under the age of four a lot more than it affected females. And they usually grew out of it by the time that they hit puberty. And they didn't have those questions. It was just, you know, kind of like, I don't understand my body right here, right now. And then they understood their body.
00:26:22
Speaker
But irreversible damage, I would say it's not a book to read as a biblical source, but even the secular world is starting to look at this and understand that something's not going right. And in that book, what I see, if you're reading from a Christian perspective, you can see that the secular world is starting to understand when you go against our creative design, they might not even realize
00:26:52
Speaker
that God is our designer. But when you go against his design, there's consequences to it. And I think overall, whether it's for the right reason or the wrong reason, the UK banning these puberty blockers for teenagers is a good thing because a lot of times it's touted that it's completely reversible. In fact, that's one of the things about that book, Irreversible Damage, is you read it.
00:27:22
Speaker
There's all these doctors saying go on puberty blockers for a couple of years. And if you don't like it, just try it out. If you don't like it, it's going to be all right. You can back out of it and no damage done. But if you look at some of the D transitioners and I've looked at a lot of them and most of the D transitioners D transition because of the faith that they have found as they put their faith in Jesus and follow him.
00:27:50
Speaker
But they talk about the struggle. I know this young lady, I've watched her story, but she was told she was going to be happier as a man. And she took hormones and she was taking testosterone and she started growing facial hair and she was going against the natural design of her body. And it didn't lead to happiness. It led to this one instance of euphoria as she thought she had figured out what was going to be best for her.
00:28:18
Speaker
But after that initial honeymoon phase, as you might call it, uh, when, when the honeymoon was over, she's like, man, my body is, is not right. Her, she was having more medical problems. It was harmful to her. And then when she put her faith in Jesus and realized I'm not a man, I, and it doesn't matter what I put into my body. I'll never be a man, but I'm a beautiful creation of God.
Joy vs. Happiness
00:28:43
Speaker
She did transition, but she has irreversible damage.
00:28:48
Speaker
Her voice will never be the same. She will always have facial hair. She shaves that off just about every day. But she talks about how her faith in God led her to that point to deed transition, which I think is a crazy term because I almost try not to use it, but it's hard to help people understand it because you never transitioned in the first place. Yeah, yeah.
00:29:17
Speaker
I saw a person on the news, British, they were detransitioning and, you know, talking about the damage done to the body. And, you know, they believe that the UK was making the right decision. And the hit on what you said, you know, you said that she didn't find happiness.
00:29:47
Speaker
Um, I think it's, uh, that, that, that word has thrown around a lot, you know, about being happy and I blame it on the Lion King or wasn't that the show? No, I'm joking. But, um, you know, you always hear and read, uh, like on social media, talking about following your heart.
00:30:17
Speaker
and do what makes you happy. That's not the slogan that we should be throwing out to people. Because I mean, then yes, do what makes you happy. There can be some like
00:30:38
Speaker
very destructive things that might make me happy, you know, uh, no care about anybody else. And it's just not only destructive to me, it'd be destructive to others. Uh, the thing is getting away from the concept of happiness because happiness is external.
00:31:02
Speaker
the perfect situation, you know, having everything done, you know, your bills paid and you own your home and maybe you don't owe on a car, you know, you don't have any worries. Of course, you know, you're going to have happiness because of those, all those external
00:31:24
Speaker
things, you know, that you don't have to worry about. But the thing is, instead of happiness, we need to focus on joy. Because joy is inward, regardless of the circumstances of our life, you know, whatever we're struggling with, we can we can still find joy. But you know, that joy comes from God. And that's, you know, it's part of the fruit of the Spirit.
00:31:52
Speaker
You know, to understand that I can have that inner peace. I can have joy. And instead of, you know, doing what makes me happy and following my heart, you know, if I follow my heart, you know, that's just, it's the same thing. I mean, you know, my heart will lead me astray if I lose focus of Jesus Christ, you know,
00:32:22
Speaker
What we should do is that salvation, you know, giving your heart to Christ and leaning not on your own understanding and all of those things, you know, because like I said, my heart will lead me astray.
00:32:41
Speaker
Uh, if God's in control of my heart, uh, you know, if I let him rule in my life and follow him, you know, Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me, you know, taking up your cross, you know, there's suffering involved in that. And we have to understand, you know, that's the result of living in a fallen world.
00:33:08
Speaker
There's going to be things that we don't like, but if we follow God's plan, plug into God's plan and follow Him and focus on inner joy, then we're not going to try to find ways to try to undo God's design.
00:33:38
Speaker
He made everything and he says it was good. He said he created them male and female. He gave us marriage and we have certain desires, just like hunger, all of those things. But the thing is, you can have a desire and it can
00:34:06
Speaker
be good, you know, but we can turn it into something destructive if we do it outside of God's design for everything. Right. Yeah, definitely. And I think you mentioned the good passage right there. If you look at Matthew 16, 24 through 25, it says, Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself.
00:34:35
Speaker
and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." And I heard a pastor say this, I can't remember who it is, so these aren't my words, but I heard a pastor saying this, not one time in the New Testament do you see Jesus promise happiness. And I like that you made a difference between those two words, happiness and joy, because when we seek our happiness,
00:35:05
Speaker
what we find is a momentary sense of euphoria over what we think is going to change our lives, but then it lets us down and we put our identities in these things. But I was, I was reading this book that was sent to me by the North American mission board, uh, that they send out to the pastors of churches and it's called the thrill of orthodoxy and
00:35:33
Speaker
This fellow, I can't remember the author of it, but this fellow, he describes it. He's saying people are so upset about living your life within the standards of scripture because you're missing, it's they're like the world saying you're missing out on so much. You're not going to understand so much. And there's no way you can have fun. But he says that within those boundaries that God sets for us, we find more joy.
00:36:00
Speaker
We find a more peace and freedom. We find more freedom within the boundaries that God has set. And so when we're talking about these puberty blockers, I think it's coming from a complete understanding of trying to be happy in this world. And it's the new thing.
00:36:21
Speaker
I think I think this is something that's going to blow up and then people are going to realize it. And I think we're starting to see that it's already blown up. We see it like I don't know. It's like in the high 40s and even 50 percent in some area of students in schools that profess to be a part of the LGBTQ community. And so many of them seek out ways. How can I get on these puberty blockers? How can I get more testosterone?
00:36:50
Speaker
or how can I get more estrogen? How can I look more like a male? How can I look more like a female? And they think they've been sold this lie from the world that that will make you happy. And it may make you happy for a moment. That's the seller point right there because these people are like, look at me, I'm so happy. But then they realize they're still miserable inside. And so when we look at these puberty blockers,
00:37:21
Speaker
It, I don't think the UK banned it because of Christian principles, but I think when we look at the underlying reason, they're seeing something that they might not realize yet that God created us. He gave us some boundaries to live in, to experience life and life more abundant and following him. And when we, when we destroy that purpose and we break down the boundaries, we just find more room to get hurt.
00:37:51
Speaker
Well, it's become something that, uh, you know, a lot of, uh, celebrity influencers, um, in a mainstream media, people like that, you know, it gets talked about so much and, you know, affirming someone, um, and you know, we,
00:38:19
Speaker
We talk about pride in that aspect and, you know, pride's a sin, you know, and we're applauding, you know, society is applauding all of this and, you know, telling people, you know, affirming their beliefs and
00:38:44
Speaker
telling them, you know, take pride in this, you know,
Being Born Again
00:38:49
Speaker
pride pride as a sin, you know, because, I mean, Jesus was the scripture I'm looking for Micah six, eight, we were talking about that today, you know, that
00:39:03
Speaker
It says to do what's right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God. And that's the opposite direction that the world has people going in. Because everybody wants to be accepted. Of course, everybody wants people to tell them everything's okay. And we even fall...
00:39:33
Speaker
fall into that a lot of times, uh, you know, kind of get down on things, uh, within our life. But it, you know, it's still going back to God's plan. And I think you and I discussed this before, you know, talking about, you know, I'm born this way. He, you know, I was born this way.
00:39:59
Speaker
Uh, but the thing is God created you and, uh, you know, when he created Adam and Eve, they were created perfect, but then sin entered into the world and we live in a fallen world now, you know, and the thing about saying I was born this way.
00:40:25
Speaker
and living in a fallen world. And Jesus knows that we live in a fallen world. He says, you must be born again, born of the Spirit. And being born of the Holy Spirit, we go and go throughout the New Testament and talk about the difference between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.
00:40:49
Speaker
And if you walk in the spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. That word a lot of times, lust, desire, whatever. We have certain desires as humans, like I said before. But when we begin to do something destructive,
00:41:17
Speaker
You know, seeing that separates us from God. Then, then, you know, it's time to really, you know, just focus on, do I, do I have a personal relationship with God? You know, God designed me and it's not just, you know, uh, God loves, God loves everyone.
00:41:43
Speaker
Okay. Uh, and even though Jesus died for the sins of the world, you know, if we reject that, you know, we're going to be, we're going to be separated from God for eternity. Yeah. And, uh, you know, that's, that was Jesus's message, you know, on you must be born again.
00:42:10
Speaker
You can't just be born into the world, natural birth and go through life. God loves me. And, uh, you know, uh, Jesus that for my sins, I have nothing to worry about. Uh, I can just go on, you know, no, Jesus said you must be born again. And, you know, that's coming back to making sure that we have a clear message.
00:42:36
Speaker
You know, do we want to spend eternity with God? Do we want to, uh, you know, the only other option is to be separated from God for eternity. And, you know, am I born again? Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's a strange thing to you to think about when, when someone says those words, you know, I was born this way.
00:43:04
Speaker
Of course, as you said, we're born into sin and we're in a fallen world. But one of the things I like about that passage when you look at, I think it's 1 Timothy chapter four where Paul says, convince rebuke, exhort, or it's 2 Timothy. I don't, one of the Timothy's it's in there though. But when we talk about convince, we can look at it from Paul's perspective too, because think about his journey to Athens.
00:43:34
Speaker
He took time and he walked around and he looked at all of the gods that they made statues for. And then he came to that unknown God because he said, y'all, y'all are very religious people. You know, like, look at all these gods, but I'm going to tell you about the real God, the one that y'all even have a plaque for over here because y'all don't know him yet, the unknown God. And he reasoned with them on their own logic as well. And that's, that's a tool at our disposal.
00:44:03
Speaker
For example, when you say I'm born that way, one of the first things that comes to mind is that, did you know when a child is born, they can't distinguish between themselves and their mother for like the first six months? So my son, he's a year old now, my daughter, she's three years old. When they were born, their mother was a part of them and they couldn't distinguish between them.
00:44:33
Speaker
uh, and, and mom, that was like to, to be separated from mom was to be separated from their own arm. Uh, and, and it was, that's why children at that young age get so emotional and so distraught when they don't have their mothers and brace at that time. And so when you think about that though, to, to live in a way like that, they grew up and I was born that way, say I'm born that way first and foremost.
00:45:02
Speaker
They were born thinking that their mom was a part of them. So what, at what point does that change? You got to ask that question at point. At what point do they realize that and realize that they actually weren't born that way? And then you reverse it too. You can look at it from this angle in the logical perspective. Uh, when you say, well, I was born as a homosexual person or I was born as a transgender person, uh,
00:45:32
Speaker
That's also an extremely strange thing to think about because we're talking about sexuality at that point. And sexuality doesn't begin to become a part of a child's life until they hit puberty. And I do a lesson on this quite often with teenagers talking about that understanding of being born this way.
00:46:01
Speaker
What you're saying then is that they developed a sexuality before they had any sexual feelings whatsoever that they were born and straight out of the womb when they think that they are one with their mother, even though they really aren't. That they automatically have sexual attraction to the same gender, or they automatically think
00:46:28
Speaker
that they are a boy or a girl opposite of what their actual gender is, which is crazy because they don't even know what they are at that point. And that's why I bring up the point about the mom. They think that they're a part of the mom still, that mom's a part of them and they have no idea about what's going on at that moment. So this logical understanding even that you can be born that way just doesn't fit.
00:46:58
Speaker
And, and I don't know, I think maybe we talked about this in the past, but there were people that even did a study on that, on, uh, identical twins, you know, possibly finding the homosexual gene. And so they took these identical twins. And one thing that's interesting about identical twins is that they have a hundred percent matching DNA and one twin.
00:47:27
Speaker
was a part of the LGBTQ community and another twin was a heterosexual. And they, you know, studied their DNA to see what made them different. And what they found is that if it was something you could be born with, that they would find it within the identical
Choices and Happiness
00:47:45
Speaker
twins. And what they found was there were a lot of twins, identical twins, where one was a part of the LGBTQ community and the other was heterosexual.
00:47:57
Speaker
And so they determined at that point too, that it's, it's completely a choice. And that's another thing when we're talking about happiness, we, we like to choose pick and choose what makes us happy. Some of those things aren't necessarily bad. Uh, like I like to have a Coke at the end of the day. That's not a horrible thing. It's not a great thing either because I can drink too many. Uh, but at the end of the day,
00:48:27
Speaker
I wasn't born in that sense to say, man, I was born to drink a Coke at the end of the day. I chose to drink a Coke because that made me feel happy. But here's another thing I'm having to reckon with right now. Maybe I'm drinking too many Cokes. And the reason I'm getting a little heavier day by day is because I'm in taking all this sugar that I shouldn't have. And so my happiness based on this Coke,
00:48:55
Speaker
isn't going good. And so now I'm drinking Powerade. And that's what we have to do. We have to look at our choices that we think that make us happy and say, are these destructive choices or are these choices, I think, where we should really look at it? Are these choices that give glory to God? And when we choose to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him, what we choose in that moment
00:49:26
Speaker
is to put his will before our own to pursue joy rather than external happiness and choose that internal joy instead. And so again, I appreciate what you said there when you took those two terms because that's very important. We'd like to put them in the same category, but they're not. They're so different. So now let's talk about another thing here.
00:49:54
Speaker
Uh, so we see that the UK has decided to block, uh, these puberty blockers. That's a cool UK blocks, puberty blockers. Maybe that'll be our title for this. Uh, but so the UK has this understanding that it's probably not healthy. Um, and, and they don't need to allow kids to take these
00:50:22
Speaker
hormones and these puberty blockers in the United States, people are talking about it, but it's not really getting there right now. Do you think that this decision might lead to the same decision being made in the United States?
Impact of UK's Policy on US
00:50:39
Speaker
I think it probably will. Um, but you know, politics in the United States is so divided.
00:50:52
Speaker
I understand, you know, other countries are divided over issues and everything, but it just seems like we're more divided on things, you know, from outside in, you know, outside influences owner. I can't watch the news anymore, you know, because, I mean, it's a constant argument or, you know, it's the progressive
00:51:17
Speaker
conservative debates. And, you know, you have people from all sides, and it's just not even news anymore. You know, politicians, everything's divided
00:51:39
Speaker
uh, so politically now. And, and I think, you know, until we change that situation somehow, uh, you know, I think we'll start coming around to it, but it'll be one of those, uh, political debates, you know, to keep the country separated. And one of the, uh, you know, there's the scripture
00:52:09
Speaker
I heard a pastor talking about it, you know, the way to end this, you know, the conservative progressive debates on everything is the scripture that he used is hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
Political Division and Compassion
00:52:32
Speaker
And, you know, we kind of have everything separated almost equally on on political issues. You know, on one side, there's some good ideas, things that we should do and things that are right, you know, that we should. We should show compassion
00:53:02
Speaker
and show love towards people and help them. You know, but on the other side, too, there's bad ideas, and there's some really good ideas, you know, about accountability, you know. And that that's, as believers, you know, we know that that's a biblical thing.
00:53:28
Speaker
you know, to show compassion, but all at the same time hold our brothers and sisters accountable for, you know, our actions when I mess up, you know, somebody should be willing to tell me. And that's something, you know, that I've grown a lot from understanding is
00:53:56
Speaker
You know, sometimes you don't want to be told what to do. But, you know, coming to the point where, you know, if I'm doing something wrong and I see it, if it's something that I've disagreed with for a long time, you know, and somebody on the opposite end of the spectrum tells me,
00:54:21
Speaker
Uh, I ought to be willing to change and you know, I've just come to that point. I want to be able to change it. You know, we, we can't just, we can't keep going in the wrong direction. And this country's headed in the wrong direction, but you know, like I said, I think it'll be one of those political debates that they keep going for a while.
00:54:51
Speaker
You know, especially I hate election year. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it intensifies. Election year runs for four years straight until the next one. You know, I mean, even, even the media now, you know, you'll, you'll see the commercial and the bright lights and ding, ding, ding, you know, it's like,
00:55:18
Speaker
the news has become WWE. I feel like that's what we're doing here. I know that everybody that I talk to is not going to become a believer. They're not going to accept that. We know that hell was created for the devil and those who followed him
00:55:47
Speaker
But, uh, you know, the wrath of God is being stored up right now. You know, we, we, we think, you know, Jesus just died for us. The ends were okay. You know, but the thing is, I mean, Jesus satisfied the just demands of a holy God, you know, his wrath against sin.
00:56:13
Speaker
And we're going through a time right now, you know, God's holding back his wrath, um, until that final judgment. And people think that they don't have to worry about anything right now, or that, you know, that's not going to happen. But, uh, and we'll stay separated on a lot of issues.
00:56:35
Speaker
I'm hoping, you know, if like, like I said, in the presentation of the message, you know, that we show compassion, and that we genuinely love people and speak the truth and love, you know, telling you, you don't have to have another human being affirm you.
00:57:02
Speaker
You know, Jesus accepts you. He died for your sins and you are complete in him. Yeah. But I'm hoping we come around to some sensible legislation, uh, you know, on the political side of it. Um, yeah. Well, I have a solution to that. Uh,
00:57:30
Speaker
And people don't necessarily like this because they think I take away sometimes from our process, our Republican democratic process, which I wish that was still the party that existed, the Republican Democratic party. But now they split and now it's Republicans and Democrats. But we won't change the world at the voting booth.
00:58:01
Speaker
But people are completely convinced of that. Now, I'm not telling you not to vote. I'm not telling you that it's not important to vote. I vote. I consider it a great honor as an American citizen to exercise my right to vote. And I take it with great reverence. I pray. I see the Lord's will and I vote.
00:58:30
Speaker
But if we convince ourselves that the only way the world will change is in the voting booth, then we're fighting a losing battle.
Faith as a Means of Change
00:58:40
Speaker
But if you want legislation to change, if you want politics to change, it doesn't start with who you vote for. It starts with who you witness to. Because if you witness to a lost and dying world that is divided by politics,
00:58:56
Speaker
and instead of trying to divide yourselves more on these politics, but invite them into the unity that you can only find in God by repenting of sin, putting your faith in Jesus, denying yourself and taking up your cross and following Him. What we find is a family unified under the banner of Christ and you will see legislation change. That's when we see it change truly for the better.
00:59:27
Speaker
For example, you look at UK, this choice is a political choice. It's not a faithful choice. And this choice, because it's a political choice, is subject to change the moment the politics don't fit the world at that moment. I think that's what we're seeing in the United States. You're right. It's so divided that it's hard to get to a point right now where the UK got
00:59:54
Speaker
on this subject that it might be harmful for kids. And we know from the data that it is harmful for kids to have these puberty blockers. But if we want true change, it's not in the voting booth, but it starts with the Christians, the body of Christ, the church stepping up and fulfilling the great commission and going out and making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is our goal.
01:00:23
Speaker
And if we think that we're doing our God given duty simply by voting and not witnessing, then you're wrong. You can't, you can't do it that way. But if we look at it from a different perspective, I'm doing my duty as a Christian by witnessing. And then I'm doing my duty as an American citizen by voting. That's the way to look at it. Right. Don't intermingle the two. Uh, but at the same time,
01:00:52
Speaker
God appoints leaders. God appoints leaders. And we need to understand how he appoints leaders. He doesn't always appoint leaders necessarily for the good of a nation. Sometimes it's the punishment even of a nation.
Leaders and Societal Values
01:01:10
Speaker
He'll allow bad men to lead if the nation turns away from him.
01:01:16
Speaker
I was thinking the same thing just as you thought that just as you said, it came into my mind, you know, because I was thinking, you know, there's a concept, you know, if we keep doing bad, God's going to give us bad leaders. So, you know, that'll be our judgment. I think the judgment is, you know, that
01:01:43
Speaker
We allow bad leaders, you know, we get what the consequences of that. Yeah. Consequences of our actions, but you're exactly right. I mean, you know, the thing is that everything starts with, uh, you know, my relationship with God and you know, it's not a self-improvement program.
01:02:10
Speaker
It's not, you know, I'm going to try to do better. You know, we need to have our hearts changed. Uh, you know, that that's the only, that's the only way that there's going to be real change in our nation, in our world. Uh, you know, is, is to be transformed into the image of his son.
01:02:38
Speaker
And that's what, you know, that's what Paul tells us. That's what God that's God's goal for us, you know, as believers to be transformed into the image of Jesus. And we have the account of how, you know, Jesus is life on earth.
Love as the Core of Christianity
01:02:58
Speaker
Uh, you know, we know about God and his judgment, you know, and.
01:03:06
Speaker
our message should be, we should speak the truth and love. And, uh, you know, that's, that's something, you know, I remember teaching over 20 years ago, uh, almost 25 years or more now, you know,
01:03:27
Speaker
And even in church, they didn't like that message. You know, you're always talking about God's love and, you know, they wanted to hear about other topics or, you know, but, but that was the message God has always given me that our job is to love others. And it comes from understanding that God loves us. He's poured out.
01:03:55
Speaker
his love into our hearts. And the thing is, it goes from our hearts to other people. And, you know, making this less about what I want, you know, but making about what God desires. Yeah. What I want doesn't matter anymore. You know, you just get to a point where you understand
01:04:22
Speaker
This is about our relationship with Jesus and doing what God desires and showing that to other people, speaking the truth and love. Yeah, definitely. Well, I want to thank you for your time tonight and sharing with us and having this discussed. I'm glad to be with you.
01:04:47
Speaker
Yeah. And for those that are listening, this is one of the things that we've always wanted to kind of bring up and talk about on the Faith 168 podcast where faith and politics collide and how do we traverse this muck of faith and culture and politics as Christians in this day and age. And so if this was a video that you liked, go ahead and
01:05:15
Speaker
and give it a thumbs up.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:05:18
Speaker
Let us know in the comments what you appreciated. If you didn't like it, great. Let us know what you didn't like or maybe you have a different opinion that you'd like to share with us. We'd love to hear from you no matter which way it is. But we want to also make note as we come to a conclusion in this episode that we want to speak the truth in love. If you are struggling with some of these concepts that we're talking about,
01:05:45
Speaker
and understanding them from a biblical and faith-fueled perspective. We want you to know first and foremost, God loves you, and he wants to be a part of your life. And when he is a part of your life, he completely changes you. He doesn't let you wallow around in the muck. He picks you up, he dusts you off, and he calls you his child. You're a part of his family.
01:06:14
Speaker
and that changes everything. If you want to know more about that, maybe you're having a hard time listening to this, this episode, but you want to know more about it, please send us a message, send us a message on the Faith 168 Facebook page, or leave a comment if you're watching this video on YouTube. But we love you from the Faith 168 podcast team, and we look forward to having more conversations like this. And again,
01:06:41
Speaker
Thank you, Brother Brian. You're my dad, but thank you, Brother Brian, for joining me tonight. I'm glad to spend time with you. Yeah, good deal. And if anybody has any other things that you'll see in the news where faith and politics collide, feel free to let us know if you would like us to cover those topics. But God bless you all. Have a wonderful night and we're going to end this in a time of prayer. So, Father, I thank you for just being with us every step of the way.
01:07:09
Speaker
that through all of the different things in this world that we think can bring us happiness, that you promise us something greater than happiness when we deny the world and follow you and deny ourselves and follow you, that you give us joy and life and not just any life, but life more abundant. And so we praise you and thank you for that, Jesus. And Father, as we continue to live our lives,
01:07:38
Speaker
Help us to live faithfully for you 168 hours of every week. It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.