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0:00
so hello
0:19
friends Greg
0:21
Coeckel here
0:24
and the show
0:31
is stand a reason I am your host and thank
0:34
you for being part of what we're doing
0:36
today I just want to give
0:38
out some numbers which I almost never do
0:42
but we still get callers because most
0:45
of you who called know
0:47
the number but maybe you'd like to call but don't know
0:49
the number so let me give it to you 855-243-9975 that's
0:57
855-243-9975 that's the number to
1:03
call into the studio miss
1:06
Amy Hall is the
1:10
person answering the phone and you can talk with her
1:12
and if you're nice to her which most of you
1:15
are then have you ever declined a call
1:18
Amy you have occasion and
1:20
not too much not too much so so and
1:23
she'll take the call if you're outside
1:25
the US you can dial 562-424-8229 that's
1:33
562-424-8229 and we're glad to take
1:39
your call I
1:41
have nothing profound
1:45
to say to start my program
1:47
with and so I'm just going to
1:49
go to our callers who
1:51
probably have more profound things to ask
1:54
about than what I'm thinking right now
1:57
so let's to go to Columbus imagine
2:00
that's Columbus Ohio. Oh, wait
2:03
a minute. I made a mistake there. Scott's
2:08
next in Oxnard. So Scott's been waiting.
2:10
Okay, Scott. Glad
2:12
to have you on board. Yeah, hi.
2:14
And thanks for waiting. I almost messed
2:17
up there. Yeah.
2:19
Okay. Well, good. Well, hopefully you'll
2:21
have something profound to say here as
2:23
we unpack this a little bit. By
2:25
the way, I'm a strategic partner. I
2:27
really appreciated all the STRs
2:29
meant for me over a couple decades
2:32
now. Wow. In our, my church is
2:34
actually not far too up in Camarillo.
2:36
Right. Right. We, I started a series
2:39
that's kind of a month, every month
2:41
or two, we do a special workshop.
2:43
It's after church, we have lunch, we
2:46
go into a topic that usually
2:49
cannot unpack in a 30
2:52
minute sermon. And the series
2:54
is called Christ in Culture. And we kind
2:56
of react to some sort of
2:58
cultural thing that's out there. And we kind of
3:01
train how we can communicate back
3:03
to that and live as believers in
3:05
the crazy culture that we're in right
3:07
now. And we've done a
3:10
lot of interesting topics. We're coming up in
3:12
March, I'm doing one on moral relativism. Wow.
3:15
And I'm excited for that. You
3:17
know, I first read your moral
3:19
relativism feet planted firmly
3:21
in midair, you know, quite
3:23
a few years ago, I guess that was
3:25
actually like a DVD or CD series, I
3:28
think it was a CD at that time.
3:30
And then just a few
3:32
months ago completed the FTRU course
3:34
on moral relativism. Oh, good. And
3:37
those are great foundations for some of the things I'm
3:39
going to be doing. And
3:41
my question is, I'm preparing for this,
3:43
I was wondering about
3:46
whether or not to
3:48
mention briefly about critical
3:50
theory, just because it seems like
3:52
it, it kind of flows along
3:54
with moral relativism. But I'm not
3:56
quite sure. In some ways,
3:59
it doesn't seem like to have an objective
4:01
right or wrong but just seems to
4:03
concern itself with power. You
4:05
know, who's the oppressors and
4:07
who are the oppressed. And
4:11
you know, so it's a kind
4:13
of a different moral project. But I
4:16
know that you have talked about how,
4:18
you know, once there's no objective
4:20
right and wrong, basically there's only
4:23
the dispensing of power left. Who's
4:25
ever in control gets to decide
4:27
what's right or wrong and then
4:30
press it down onto the rest of us. And
4:35
so my question then is, is
4:38
critical theory kind of an
4:40
offshoot or kind of flows
4:42
parallel alongside more
4:44
relativism? Well,
4:48
I think it's confused. And
4:51
the reason it's confused is because
4:54
on the one hand it
4:57
is, well, keep in
4:59
mind moral relativism
5:01
is a subset of
5:04
a broader
5:06
relativistic view of reality.
5:10
If you do not have
5:12
truth about reality, so
5:14
if you're a postmodern, for example,
5:16
and denies that we can know
5:18
truth about reality, that all there
5:20
are different narratives, okay, and
5:23
there is no metanarrative, there is no
5:26
big story over everything, well,
5:28
then there is no big story regarding
5:31
any subset and that would be
5:34
truth regarding morality. So moral
5:36
relativism is a subset of
5:38
a broader view of relativism,
5:41
of postmodernism. So
5:43
a kind of non-realism when it comes
5:45
to knowledge, we don't know the world
5:48
the way it really is in itself,
5:50
okay? And
5:54
it seems like critical theorists, and I'm just
5:56
reading now a book by Neil Shenvy, which
5:58
is probably If you just
6:00
want one book to read on this, maybe
6:02
this is the best book to read because
6:04
it breaks down critical theory in a very
6:06
fair way. I'm
6:08
trying to remember the title. Amy can
6:10
tell me it's called Critical Dilemma, the
6:13
Critical Dilemma. Is that right? Shenvi's
6:15
book, S-H-E-N-V-I. He has a co-author. I
6:18
can't remember the name, but I
6:20
think it's Pat Sawyer with
6:22
Neil Shenvi and the book is
6:24
Critical Dilemma. Now, it's
6:27
not an easy book, but for you, I
6:29
don't think it'll be hard, but it will
6:31
give you a broader base so you have
6:33
a better understanding. If you're talking about issues
6:35
of Christ and culture, it's good that
6:37
you have a more basic
6:40
understanding of
6:42
critical theory. Now, Neil Shenvi also
6:44
has about a one-hour video
6:48
on YouTube that you can get
6:50
that breaks down in
6:53
a quicker way what
6:55
he considers the five main elements of
6:58
critical theory, which is the social
7:00
binary and lived experience, also known
7:02
as standpoint epistemology and social
7:07
justice, which is the solution. If
7:11
you can get a basic understanding, one
7:13
of the things that he teaches there is
7:15
that this is, in a sense, a truth
7:17
is relative. There is no
7:20
truth kind of thing. It's foundational. However,
7:23
and this happens all the time with
7:25
these kinds
7:27
of characterizations, however,
7:31
they present their material as
7:34
if it is an accurate
7:36
characterization of the way society
7:38
works. The first thing
7:40
is social binary, and you mentioned that, that there
7:42
is the oppressed and the oppressor. Everything
7:46
is always organized that way. You
7:49
can't get away from it. Racism is built
7:51
in to every
7:53
social structure and
7:55
every society. This
7:57
is why in order to
7:59
defeat racism. you have to
8:01
destroy the structures in which.
8:04
Racism. Is embedded virtuosic.
8:06
He did so with you
8:09
have this curious circumstance. Which.
8:11
Is really the contradiction of
8:13
all post modernism? It's there
8:15
are no accurate metre narratives,
8:17
big stories. everybody's got their
8:19
own individual one. I wonder
8:21
if yes, there it is.
8:24
It here is the better
8:26
narrative that explains that. So
8:28
the postmodern characterization of truth
8:30
is itself a met narrative.
8:32
And so it's contradictory. A
8:34
and ah A And this
8:36
is what the always run
8:38
into. And if they're going
8:40
to say there. Is no
8:42
truth in their characterizing the
8:44
the the dynamic between the
8:47
oppressor and the oppressed. Also.
8:49
In moral terms. So not only is
8:52
the dynamic an accurate characterization and their
8:54
mind of the way the world actually
8:56
as. So. It's a
8:58
It's an objective truth but it
9:00
also has more component. The oppressors
9:03
are bad and the press r
9:05
r r r. Why would
9:07
say they're necessarily good, But they are, But
9:10
there's a breath favored group. You.
9:12
Favor them. Because. Of
9:14
their oppressed. Status.
9:17
Okay, I'm I actually
9:19
think that's critical Series a
9:21
little bit complex as has
9:23
complexity this very easy to
9:26
oversimplify and kind of migrate.
9:29
Ah, Like the to
9:31
to have. To the
9:34
side of cake, total opposition. Everything
9:36
that critical theory says bad and
9:38
this is one thing that Nielsen
9:40
Be warns against. Because. They
9:42
were observations that are embedded in
9:44
so a critical theory that have
9:46
an element of truth to them.
9:48
and so what we don't want
9:50
to do is, you know, throw
9:52
the baby out with the bathwater.
9:55
And and deny. Obvious.
9:57
Truth because we don't like the whole system.
10:00
The. Whole system is kind of corrupted
10:02
so we just reject every detail.
10:04
Send Me does a very good
10:06
job in my view of being
10:08
balanced and so he assesses. He
10:10
gives a clear picture of what
10:13
critical theory is, study, examines it's
10:15
strengths. And then he
10:17
examines it's weaknesses which includes
10:19
an examination. Of. It's
10:21
weaknesses. In light of a biblical
10:24
worldview, he thinks it's a false
10:26
worldview. And. Of course, the
10:28
biblical worldview is true. So
10:31
I'm but it in specific.
10:34
In specific, regarding your question,
10:36
you have this crazy circumstance
10:38
once again where people are
10:40
on the one hand denying
10:42
truth. Objective truth
10:44
than the other hand, providing a
10:47
way of understanding the world Critical
10:49
theory would say sick as accurate.
10:52
It is true and they are
10:54
compounded. a problem to have to
10:57
obey. Well, are you know it's
10:59
gotten moral imperative. Css.
11:01
The that compounds it because it's not
11:03
just true, but there are moral elements
11:06
to it And so you have a
11:08
moral obligation to oppose the racism. That's.
11:11
Part of the evil of
11:13
the oppressing class and you
11:15
restore and repair by instituting
11:17
social justice. And of course
11:19
a justice is moral term.
11:22
And. You can't really be. A
11:25
critical theorist, it seems
11:28
to me consistently without
11:30
acknowledging I'm objective truth.
11:34
He. And. Moral. Truth as
11:36
a subset of objective truth because all
11:38
both seem to be in place. I
11:40
should actually that are talk to the
11:42
Ocean v One Son of A when
11:44
I'm with it would get an opportunity
11:46
to have this discussion but I I
11:48
would like to ask him this very
11:50
question because it just seems so obvious.
11:52
I know in his book he says
11:54
that these are these are This is
11:56
a group that denies objective truth. But.
11:59
Then what does he make? They're characterization in
12:01
light of this denial. What does
12:03
he make a Their characterization of
12:05
the social binary and standpoint epistemology,
12:07
lived experience or social justice for
12:10
example or says ah, oppression by
12:12
it he allergy. These are all.
12:15
Pieces. That are pieces that
12:17
make up kind of the.
12:20
Critical. Theory. Ah, Structure
12:22
as it were so odd.
12:25
I'd. I'd be very interested to have this
12:27
chat with him. Just. To find
12:29
out because it just strikes me such
12:31
an obvious self refutation. Yeah.
12:35
That that answers my question and I would
12:37
love to add. We'll. Soon be
12:40
on and. Off.
12:42
To check that one out That yes it's
12:44
start first with going online and watch video
12:46
cassette as it's who that. I I watched
12:49
a video and took notes, did an outline.
12:51
So I have a kind of conceptual framework
12:53
to work with. He
12:55
changes his language a little bit. In
12:58
the book. So. When he
13:00
talks about lived experience in
13:02
the video which means basically
13:04
the oppressed group is in
13:06
an pissed has it an
13:08
epidemic advantage say know what?
13:11
Oppression feels like they've lived it,
13:13
so they have a preferential position
13:15
to talk about what reality is
13:17
like. And the oppressor doesn't cause
13:20
he's the oppressor, he's just going
13:22
to justify his oppression. And so
13:24
he needs to be silent. And
13:26
a lot of these discussions that
13:28
you see in in these cultural
13:30
circumstances like a when critical Theory
13:32
is part of or they call
13:34
it the D I'd Diversity, equity
13:36
and inclusion as part of the
13:38
As educational enterprise or part of
13:41
the corporate enterprise. The white
13:43
folk have to shut up. They don't
13:45
get to talk because they don't have
13:47
anything to to say. They are not.
13:49
Allowed. To speak because of
13:51
the standpoint. Pissed about what? because of
13:54
lived experience if now. I think he
13:56
calls that standpoint epistemology and the book
13:58
or it's just changed terms. But
14:00
the the basic components are are all
14:02
in place there again I'm that will
14:04
help you sir, watch the video then
14:06
get the book he and it's a
14:08
hard bound book and but it's it's
14:10
I think it's structured great Elected the
14:12
Table of contents and I've already done
14:14
my my preview of the Book of
14:16
Read as been four hours kind of
14:18
going through most of it in a
14:20
overview to look and and I really
14:22
like it In a talks about the
14:24
Franklin School and he talks about where
14:26
this came from philosophically and then how
14:28
it's played out in our culture gives
14:30
you the main elements of it's he
14:32
tells her hey the here are some
14:34
things that they are they made They
14:36
have a good point here regarding these
14:38
particular issues so our and then he
14:40
talks about where they he thinks they
14:42
go wrong and again the biblical analysis
14:44
so it's all their saw it suggests
14:46
out and I are One tip my
14:48
hat to you as a you know
14:50
faithful stand to reason guy you're paying
14:52
it forward so to speak with a
14:54
group that you're working with and helping
14:56
them to our the to be more
14:58
alert or aware of. The kinds of things that
15:00
are going in a culture that. Are relevant
15:03
to. The. Gospel. So.
15:05
Good for you. But. Like you
15:07
got great training some you guys
15:09
and was the leadership of the
15:11
church comes to these real real
15:13
state police thoughts are that good.
15:15
Training on that side.scott Can I
15:18
ask you what churches it in
15:20
Oxnard? It's Good Shepherd The Lutheran
15:22
Church in Jail. Maria. Oh
15:24
kissing him Rio Ah is that what
15:26
street as as internal up Las Palmas
15:28
are are are neo are. Laid
15:32
off the freeway up a Louis road, there
15:34
are you? are you from my dad thought
15:36
well I know we're Lewis Says right on
15:38
the freeway. Arbs can I mean the main
15:40
thoroughfare there? I didn't know there were such
15:43
as a Mexican restaurant right there but I
15:45
had another surface. And as a as a
15:47
Lutheran church there to your jeopardize Lutheran church,
15:49
what What side are you on the Yom
15:51
Kippur? There's a kind of Camry, a village.
15:54
Thing on unlike I think it's the western
15:56
side or this of the freeway and then
15:58
there's in a lot about was I. Yeah.
16:01
We're all your on the. We. Would
16:03
be on not be. The.
16:05
Eastern side of the freeway not the ocean
16:07
by the other side. okay the other say
16:09
yes hard to tell he soon or western
16:11
mountains us cause everything's at an angle they
16:14
are hidden of the close as I go
16:16
the other man so all right well as
16:18
great talking to you and dumb and I
16:20
hope those suggestions to help you out and
16:22
I'm gonna watch that video tonight. Though.
16:26
Some. Be used as a H E
16:28
M D I. S
16:30
H E N The I correct yeah
16:32
Neil and okay. hold on. just one
16:35
hundred and aim. Oh. Okay,
16:42
so Amy says if you go
16:44
to Nielsen Movies website. For.
16:46
Just google the ocean be go to his
16:48
website he has links to all of the
16:50
worked at he's done including the videos and
16:52
he's done in that will take it a
16:55
you tube where where he does his presentation
16:57
that i sorry but does he He's really
16:59
excellent and I have a this his name
17:01
in his field his field as i chemistry
17:03
or something like that you know he might
17:05
have i can pc and chemistry but for
17:08
some how he got involved in this and
17:10
he's very good in his book and is
17:12
very very well done. The under I think
17:14
you'd trust him as a source. Okay,
17:18
Thanks. For the tip okay appreciate
17:20
your car, your call Scott and
17:22
Ah a good to hear from
17:24
of. Strategic. Partner here who's
17:26
paying it forward and by the way,
17:28
just so you guys know, I always
17:30
appreciate when people say thank you for
17:33
the role you played in my life
17:35
for stand to reason especially as great
17:37
but the best. The biggest compliment
17:39
for all of us here is
17:41
when people pay it forward because
17:43
we're we're dissolved, his disciple ship
17:46
oriented it is our gold to
17:48
build you to go out. And
17:51
then to build others and from
17:53
the very early on in my
17:55
Christian life, one of the operative
17:57
Vs for me and partly because
17:59
it. so wonderfully
18:03
modeled for me in the life of
18:05
Craig Giggler, my first
18:07
and most intensive
18:09
discipleship relationship, two and
18:11
a half years actually. That
18:16
verse is 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2. And
18:19
it says, Paul was talking to Timothy, he
18:21
says, the things that you have learned
18:24
from me in the
18:26
presence of many witnesses. In other words,
18:28
this isn't like secret information, this is
18:30
the basic public stuff. These
18:33
entrust to
18:35
faithful men who will
18:38
be able to teach others also. So
18:40
you actually have four generations, so you
18:42
got Paul, you have Timothy, you
18:45
have faithful people who
18:47
then entrusted to others
18:50
for generations. And
18:53
so Craig entrusted to me, pass the
18:55
baton of me, I pass it to
18:58
you, and then you pass it
19:00
to others, and then they pass it to
19:03
others still. And this is what we're
19:05
all about, so this is so great about this
19:08
prior caller, I think Scott is his name, paying
19:12
it forward, passing that baton. Good
19:15
for you. Let's take a break and we'll come back with more
19:17
of your calls here on Stand to Reason. Would
19:20
you like a Stand to Reason speaker to speak
19:22
at your church or event? Greg,
19:25
Alan, Tim, John, and I, Robbie
19:27
Lashua, are available both in person
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email booking at str.org
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to schedule us today. We
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to schedule Greg, Alan,
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Tim, John, or me,
20:13
Robby today. As
20:15
a high school teacher, I always had a red
20:18
pen close at hand. When I wasn't in front
20:20
of my students teaching a lesson, you
20:22
could find me assessing assignments, grading essays,
20:24
and evaluating exams. The red pen
20:26
played a crucial role in the
20:28
educational development of my students. With
20:30
it, I questioned their assumptions, exposed
20:32
their errors, and challenged them to
20:34
think critically. You see, a good
20:36
teacher doesn't merely tell his students
20:38
that they're wrong. A good teacher
20:40
shows his students why they're wrong
20:42
so they don't make the same
20:44
mistakes twice. He corrects because he
20:46
cares. Last year, I
20:48
was scrolling through social media, and frankly, I
20:50
was discouraged at all the bad thinking that
20:53
undergirded much of what I was reading. Then it
20:55
hit me. What if someone applied
20:57
the red pen to this flawed thinking?
20:59
And red pen logic with Mr. B
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was born. In the last
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few months, red pen logic has grown
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in popularity. Through our engaging
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and shareable educational graphics and videos,
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we are helping people, especially young
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people, assess bad thinking by using
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So here's your homework assignment. Like
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subscribe at the red pen logic YouTube
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channel so you don't miss a single
21:30
video. Class dismissed.
21:44
All right. I was just thinking of a critical
21:47
theory here, and I just want
21:49
to offer a thought to help
21:51
organize this with you. Just like
21:53
relativism is a broad concept, and
21:55
there is a subset called moral
21:58
relativism, there is also critical Social
22:00
theory is a broad concept, characterizing
22:03
the way we were just talking
22:05
about it, social binary lived
22:08
experience, also called
22:10
standpoint epistemology, social justice.
22:14
But hegemonic power, that
22:17
was the fourth one, hegemonic power, okay.
22:24
Critical race theory is a subset of critical
22:26
theory. It's taking the concepts of critical theory
22:28
and applying it to race. But
22:30
then there's also queer theory, that
22:33
is critical theory applied to sexuality,
22:35
particularly homosexuality. And then
22:37
there's critical theory applied to feminism,
22:39
and there's critical theory applied to
22:43
ableism, which is, you
22:47
know, this are people with handicap. They
22:50
call it ableism instead of disableism because
22:52
that's a pejorative way of characterizing it.
22:56
It's all kind of collected underneath
22:58
this broader area of critical theory.
23:00
And one of the things that
23:02
really surprised me and actually helped
23:04
me to understand something that I
23:06
just didn't get as I'm watching
23:08
the news, I'm watching people respond
23:10
and react, and I'm
23:12
looking at like Antifa, which by
23:14
the way, they've kind of settled down a little
23:16
bit, I think. We haven't heard
23:18
much about Antifa lately in the news, it seems,
23:20
but certainly in 2020 2021
23:25
it was huge because it was in
23:27
the aftermath of
23:29
the George Floyd death. But
23:33
the thing that surprised
23:35
me is this oppression
23:38
by ideology. This is part of
23:40
the package, oppression by
23:43
ideology. Now it used to be oppression,
23:47
and oppression
23:49
was something that was physical. So
23:52
you kept people from doing things that
23:54
they should have been allowed to do
23:57
so blacks couldn't use
23:59
certain walls. water fountains or going to
24:01
certain stores or riding buses in certain seats,
24:04
for example, here in
24:06
the 60s and before that. That
24:09
was largely resolved by the Civil
24:12
Rights Movement of that time.
24:14
But nevertheless, you had
24:17
this physical restraint of
24:19
sorts. They
24:21
weren't allowed to purchase property or
24:24
whatever. So
24:26
that's the way oppression
24:28
has characteristically been understood.
24:33
But with critical theory, the
24:36
concept has been expanded. Now
24:38
the oppression can just come
24:41
from ideas. If
24:44
you hold an idea contrary
24:48
to the left, this
24:51
is characterized as
24:53
oppressive. Of
24:55
course, we experience that now. We
24:59
experience people saying,
25:01
if you think
25:03
that homosexuality is
25:05
immoral, then you
25:07
are an oppressor. Even
25:10
if you're not doing
25:12
anything, acting in any
25:14
way that's untoward with regards
25:16
to homosexuals or limiting
25:19
their liberties in any way, just
25:21
the fact that you believe this
25:24
is considered to be oppressive
25:26
and an act of aggression,
25:29
which is why on the one hand there
25:33
is a legitimacy in people's mind
25:36
for silencing hate
25:40
because the expression of hate – and this is
25:42
their characterization of it, of course – the expression
25:44
of hate is an act
25:47
of violence against
25:50
the person. So
25:53
if you say you believe
25:55
homosexuality is wrong, that
25:58
is an expression of hate. and
26:01
it's hateful towards gays and
26:03
therefore it's an act of
26:05
violence towards gays. Of
26:07
course there's no physical action involved at all
26:09
but see how things are being
26:13
turned around, redefined.
26:16
And if there is an
26:19
act of violence towards a group in
26:23
the sense that there is
26:25
an ideology that the group
26:27
itself feels oppressed by, and by the
26:29
way that's also important, the
26:32
determining factor of whether
26:35
the ideology is oppressive is the
26:38
way a person
26:40
feels subjectively about it. You
26:43
may not have any
26:45
hostility at all that's
26:48
motivating your behavior but if a
26:51
person feels it's oppressive then it
26:53
is oppressive and you're guilty of
26:55
oppressing. Now if you're
26:57
guilty of oppression in
26:59
virtue of the views you hold
27:02
and that oppression is understood
27:05
as violence to a
27:07
person then that person
27:10
or the group defending that
27:12
person can respond with
27:15
physical violence as an act
27:17
of self-defense. And
27:21
this when when the
27:23
change fell in the meter for me
27:25
regarding this, this is when I began
27:27
to understand why
27:30
Antifa which is anti-fascist,
27:34
kind of where the word came from, can
27:37
act in a fascistic violent
27:39
way. This is violence against
27:41
hate. Stand
27:44
up against hate. How?
27:46
By hating. It's what it
27:48
amounts to but
27:50
it's justified in their minds because it's self-defense
27:53
in virtue of
27:55
the ideological oppression
27:58
and violence against others.
28:01
It's just the
28:03
idea. That's violent physically,
28:08
violently respond. We can burn things down. We
28:10
can take over property. We can block bridges,
28:12
that kind of thing. Just trying
28:14
to help you understand how these ideas work. Okay,
28:17
let's go now to Kevin in Columbus, Ohio.
28:19
Kevin, thanks for your
28:21
patience. No problem. Great.
28:23
I'll post to our strategic partner.
28:25
Oh, great. Thank you. Do you
28:27
think it's proper? Is there a
28:30
biblically proper way for a private
28:32
Christian citizen to own a gun?
28:34
And then so, what would
28:36
be a proper reason to use it?
28:39
Well, I think
28:41
I'm getting some feedback here and I'm not sure. Do
28:43
you have something else on in the background that's allowing
28:46
me to hear my voice and echo? No,
28:48
but I'll put myself on mute. Okay.
28:53
Okay, okay. So you
28:55
can still hear me, right? Oh,
28:58
I can't hear you. Yes. When you put a few.
29:00
Okay, I see what you're doing. Thank you. I
29:03
don't think you need a biblical reason to own
29:05
a gun any more than you need a biblical
29:08
reason to ride a bicycle. It
29:11
doesn't fall into a moral category that
29:13
needs to be justified biblically, in
29:16
my view. You can own a
29:18
gun because you like guns. You
29:20
can own a gun because you... So
29:23
like collectors have all kinds of guns they
29:25
never even use. They never fire them, but
29:27
they like owning them, just like people who
29:29
buy cars and they never
29:31
drive them, but they like the
29:33
car to possess it. And this is
29:36
true of lots of collections. You can
29:38
own a gun because you like shooting it. And so,
29:41
you know, I have close friends that
29:43
go out every week. One,
29:46
for example, every year on his birthday,
29:48
he purchases another weapon. And
29:51
so he's got handguns and he's got
29:53
a concealed carry and he's got AR-15 and
29:55
he's got all... I think he goes out,
29:58
he's got shotguns and he's very good. with
30:00
skeet and all that other stuff, but he has fun
30:02
with it. And you
30:04
can also own a gun for self-protection, because
30:07
there's nothing wrong with defending yourself, especially
30:10
defending yourself with lethal force
30:13
when there's a lethal threat.
30:16
And I don't know of
30:19
any reason biblically why
30:22
that wouldn't be appropriate. So
30:24
I don't have a biblical, I
30:27
don't require a biblical verse
30:29
that tells me it's okay
30:31
to have a gun. I mean
30:35
if you want to think of a parallel, Jesus
30:38
at one time when he sends out
30:40
his disciples, he says don't take a
30:42
sword, but another time he says take
30:44
a sword. Well a sword is a
30:46
weapon that you wear
30:49
on your body for doing
30:52
violence with if necessary. So that
30:54
seems to me to be a
30:56
parallel to say a handgun
30:58
or something like that or any other weapon
31:01
that you might use to protect
31:03
yourself with. So I don't know if that
31:05
answers your question Kevin or not, but
31:10
it strikes me that no justification
31:12
biblically is required. I
31:14
see, because I you know you
31:16
see Jesus said you live by the sword,
31:19
you die by the sword. And
31:21
you know people fled persecution when it was
31:24
coming against them rather than standing there and
31:26
fighting against it. Okay,
31:28
right okay well let
31:31
me take each in its on its own. Jesus
31:33
is just offering when he says if you live
31:35
by the sword you die by the sword. He's
31:38
not saying yes or no to swords.
31:41
He's just saying here's what
31:44
you're risking if you go
31:46
into battle with a sword. That's all he's
31:48
saying. It's like a proverb that
31:50
says here's the deal, this is the
31:52
risk okay. But
31:56
he's not in that particular situation
32:00
Peter was using, I think this was on
32:02
the Passion Night when he was betrayed, Peter
32:04
was using a sword to rescue Jesus when
32:06
Jesus didn't want to be rescued and
32:09
that he's identifying the problem with it. You know, you
32:11
live by the sword, you die by the sword. But
32:14
there was another opportunity where he said, okay, bring
32:16
a sword. Now it's time to pack a
32:18
sword. They said, here's one. He said, that'll be adequate. Okay,
32:21
that was another occasion. So
32:23
in neither case is
32:25
he prohibiting the use of a sword, okay?
32:33
He's just talking about in the one there's
32:36
liabilities. In other cases, it seems appropriate. Paul
32:39
talks, well, he talks about government not bearing the
32:41
sword for nothing. So there are
32:43
legal authorities that can use force and that's
32:45
legitimate. And that's actually, I think,
32:47
an implicit affirmation of
32:49
the legitimacy of capital punishment
32:52
by authorities that are properly
32:55
tasked to carry
32:57
that responsibility. So but
33:00
again, the Christians did not
33:03
protect themselves when they were
33:05
being persecuted for their faith,
33:08
okay? That is, they
33:10
didn't use violence to protect themselves. But there
33:12
was a number of occasions where
33:15
Christians did flee circumstances
33:17
where persecution was imminent.
33:20
So they weren't looking for a fight and
33:23
they didn't use lethal means to oppose the
33:25
fight, but they sure tried to escape. In
33:27
fact, Paul did over the wall in
33:30
Damascus. They let him down in a basket, you
33:32
know, to get and also in other
33:34
places in Macedonia or where Greece or
33:37
Corinth, maybe Philippi,
33:39
I can't remember, you know, where his
33:42
disciples got him out of town and got
33:45
him somewhere else because it was dangerous for
33:47
him. So there's
33:49
nothing wrong with fleeing
33:51
persecution, avoiding it. And
33:54
there's also nothing wrong with self-defense that I
33:56
can see. The circumstances you
33:59
were describing is... when people were
34:01
not defending themselves as
34:03
far as we can tell under
34:06
persecution. Now for
34:08
their faith, now that
34:11
does raise the question, maybe
34:14
they had no ability to defend themselves. You
34:17
know when the Romans and Syrians come
34:19
to arrest you and you're taken away,
34:21
you're not having any opportunity to defend
34:24
yourself. You're just taken
34:26
away and thrown to the lions or wherever, you
34:28
know, tarred and feathered and crucified or whatever,
34:31
set on fire, you know, the way Nero did. He
34:33
didn't feather anybody but he tarred them and lit them
34:35
up. So I
34:38
don't know if that's the best place to
34:40
go to get our advice about this. But
34:44
I see no, even
34:46
if Christians chose not to fight back,
34:49
I don't see any
34:51
prohibition from
34:54
fighting back. And
34:56
by the way, Dietrich Bonhoeffer lost his life
34:58
because he was part of a plot to
35:00
take the life of Adolf Hitler. So
35:05
of course he's not a biblical person, but
35:08
he's a good Christian man and
35:11
that might suggest that, certainly it suggests
35:14
in Bonhoeffer's mind that there was a
35:17
propriety to fighting back against
35:20
a despot who was costing the
35:22
life of many Christians and others. That
35:25
should be stopped. What do you think? Yeah,
35:29
because all these things that are going on
35:31
with these illegal aliens and I don't know
35:34
if I'm letting my imagination
35:36
run away with me, but I live in
35:38
a pretty safe city now. Columbus is pretty good.
35:42
But you know what I mean? I
35:45
mean, when something happens, I want to
35:47
be prepared. Yeah, well, I
35:49
own a gun. I
35:52
have two of them. I have two Glocks. If
35:54
I lived in Los Angeles, I would too. Yeah,
35:56
well, I mean, it's not against the law to
35:58
own the gun and I've obviously had to
36:00
pull it out, but I'm teaching my daughter. I
36:02
have only one daughter who's interested in learning how
36:05
to use it, and we're already,
36:07
I've already been doing some work with her,
36:09
and we're gonna do more. I think it's
36:11
a good idea. It's practical,
36:13
and there's nothing wrong with it as a
36:16
Christian, and you want
36:18
to get training. So my wife and I
36:20
have already had tactical training with a handgun,
36:24
and we want to get more and get
36:26
more capable in case we need to
36:28
use it, or maybe we just, you know, it's fun to go
36:30
out shooting, and that also when you
36:32
do it properly, it also helps you to learn
36:35
how to use your weapon properly and not hurt
36:37
somebody else. So well
36:39
thanks a lot for your input. I
36:42
appreciate it. Yeah, okay Kevin. I appreciate
36:44
your call as well. All right, take
36:46
care. All right, let's
36:48
see what do I want to
36:50
do. Okay, let's go to Austin
36:52
in Fullerton, and Austin thanks for
36:54
waiting. Good to have you. Hey,
36:57
thank you Greg. Sure. So I
36:59
have a marriage question. Okay.
37:02
So I always wanted to marry a girl
37:04
that was smarter than myself. I
37:06
believe that, you know, you try to upgrade
37:08
your life, try to
37:11
find a girl that's very intelligent, and
37:13
I did. She's really smart. She's
37:15
really sweet, and she
37:17
works really hard. Lately,
37:25
you know, I mean for a while she
37:27
kind of had that manager personality. And I
37:29
told her, I've told her
37:31
in the past, you have a mean
37:33
manager personality with me sometimes, and
37:36
recently, you know, I've been
37:38
working. I have been trying to grow
37:41
my side business as wedding photography. I
37:43
do wedding photography on the side, and
37:46
I've been running around every single day looking
37:49
at property because we want to buy our first
37:51
home. Okay. I want to provide a good life
37:53
for my kid, my wife. Anyway, I
37:55
brought it up to her again, and I said, you're
37:58
always kind of talking down to me. and
38:00
you're very harsh with me, you're very strict, and she
38:02
told me, it's because I think
38:04
you're dumb, and I
38:06
don't think you're that intelligent. So,
38:10
and it was kind of deflating to me,
38:12
because I mean, I'm going to look at a
38:14
home after this call. Yeah,
38:16
I've been working really hard lately, and
38:19
I don't want you to think she's a bad person, but
38:21
she's pretty blunt with me, and
38:24
I've never been told that. You know,
38:26
my mom, your mom always strokes her ego when
38:28
you're a little kid. I was in gifted and
38:30
talented education. She's like, oh, you're so intelligent. You
38:33
tested into gays, you're a high IQ, and
38:35
then my wife tells me I'm kind of
38:37
dumb. Anyway, I'm wondering, Greg, we
38:40
don't have marital problems for some, but I
38:42
don't know how to navigate that. How would
38:44
you navigate that? How would you navigate that?
38:46
Yeah, well, okay, let me offer a few
38:48
thoughts on this, and I'm
38:51
a little bit surprised by the comment, and
38:53
I'm not sure. Sometimes
38:55
when wives are angry, they
38:58
say things they shouldn't say, just like
39:00
when husbands are angry, they say things
39:02
they shouldn't say, all right? I
39:06
don't get the sense that you guys were having an argument, and
39:08
she just went over the top. I'm
39:11
not even sure what motivated the
39:13
comment, but here's an observation. This
39:15
is a takeaway for
39:18
everyone listening, all
39:20
right? Let's just say you're dumb.
39:25
I'm just for the sake of discussion.
39:28
I don't believe that's true. It's obvious
39:30
you're expressing yourself very well and clearly,
39:32
and you've listened to the show, so
39:35
that speaks well of you in
39:37
that regard, but let's just say
39:39
you were dumb. Some people are
39:41
under average with intelligence. What
39:43
are they gonna do about it? They're
39:46
not gonna do anything about it because
39:48
nothing can be done. That's them. You
39:51
could have people who are physically unattractive,
39:53
or they've got other
39:56
physical anomalies. They have a big nose
39:58
or big ears or no head. hair
40:00
or these are things that are just part
40:02
of the package is what I'm saying. Here's
40:06
the rule, you never
40:08
criticize people for
40:10
something they cannot change.
40:14
You never criticize people for
40:17
something they cannot change and this
40:19
is especially true in
40:22
intimate relationships. So
40:24
even if you are a dumb person,
40:26
which I don't agree with from what
40:29
I've been able to tell from just a few
40:31
moments with you talking on the air, if
40:34
that were the case, that's
40:36
part of your package. And
40:39
so what's the point
40:41
of criticizing you for
40:43
something that you have no capability
40:45
of doing anything about, your IQ
40:47
or whatever? It
40:50
might, it's like saying, and honey, you have
40:52
a big nose. There
40:55
you go, look in the mirror, it's big. Well
40:57
maybe she does have a big nose, but why complain about
40:59
that? What can she do about
41:01
that? She can't do anything about it, it's part of
41:04
her package too. And everybody
41:06
comes with those kinds of things. Now there are
41:08
liabilities that we come with too that can be
41:10
changed. And the
41:12
best way to change those, and I don't think IQ is
41:14
one of them, but the
41:16
best way to change those is
41:18
through a gracious kind
41:21
of interaction and respectful
41:23
where one is helping the other because a
41:25
husband and wife are supposed to be teammates.
41:29
They're to be working together and
41:31
seeking ways to build each other up, not
41:34
cut each other down. Maybe
41:37
your wife has twice the IQ
41:39
that you have. It isn't going
41:41
to change the fact that you're the head of the household,
41:44
you're the leader of the family, and if she's
41:46
smart, she's going to find a way to work
41:48
with you. And if you're
41:50
smart, you'll find a way to take advantage
41:52
in a good way of whatever insights that
41:54
she has that she excels in that you
41:56
may not be as strong in. And that's
41:58
the way partnerships are supported. supposed to work.
42:02
Not, well you're dumb and I'm
42:04
not. I'm smarter than
42:06
you. So why would anybody, this
42:09
is what is a little bit mysterious to
42:11
me, why would your wife be motivated to
42:13
say that even if she believed it's true,
42:16
she's putting herself above you at
42:18
your expense. This is not
42:20
good for relationships. Yeah,
42:26
I think she was
42:28
just answering my question. You
42:30
know, why do you talk down to me? Why do
42:32
you talk so firmly sometime as if
42:34
you're my manager? Yeah,
42:38
so maybe, I'm
42:41
just wondering, maybe asking the question is not the best
42:44
way to go about it. I mean it's strange coming
42:46
from me because I'm the question guy right? I always
42:48
say that. Maybe it'd be better
42:50
for you to make a request. Honey,
42:53
please don't talk down to me like that. It
42:55
really hurts my heart when you do that. If you
42:59
have a contribution to make, that's
43:02
fine. Tell me what
43:04
you're thinking about the issue. Give me your
43:06
feedback. If you have
43:08
some ideas about the house or about mortgaging
43:10
or whatever this decision, I'm open to hear
43:12
what you have to say. But when
43:15
you talk down to me,
43:17
it hurts. I'm trying to think of the
43:20
right way to say
43:26
this. I'm
43:29
the president of Stand the Reason. That doesn't mean
43:31
I'm the brightest person in
43:33
our organization. I could have an
43:35
absolute genius that works for me. But
43:37
that doesn't mean because that person is way over
43:39
the top intellectually
43:43
compared to me, doesn't mean that person
43:45
can talk down to me. They work
43:47
for me. I'm the boss. I'm the president. You
43:49
don't act that way. You shall
43:52
respect even if you could
43:54
best be in other areas in certain areas.
43:57
And by the same token, wives are
43:59
supposed to to respect their husbands. This is a different
44:21
ethos and culture. But what submit
44:27
behavior, respect relates
44:29
to an attitude. Okay,
44:32
let me say it again. Submit relates
44:35
to the behavior. The
44:37
wives are to submit to their husbands as
44:40
to Christ. Okay,
44:42
so that's a pretty
44:44
big deal. Husbands
44:46
are the leaders
44:48
of the family. Now
44:51
that doesn't give us as
44:53
husbands leave to abuse our
44:55
responsibility to lord
44:57
it over in an
44:59
inappropriate way. But the word lord
45:01
is the word that Peter uses
45:04
to describe Sarah's
45:08
perspective towards her husband. This is 1
45:10
Peter chapter 3, the first six or
45:12
seven or eight verses. He's instructing women
45:15
to be like Sarah,
45:17
for example, who called her husband lord?
45:21
That's a way of showing respect.
45:23
Okay, so there is a submit
45:25
and then there's not just submitting,
45:27
doing, you know, ultimately when push comes
45:30
to shove, following the leadership of the
45:32
husband, but to do
45:34
it in a respectful manner. It's
45:36
the way you do it. And so when
45:39
a wife is speaking
45:41
the way you just described to her
45:43
husband, even if she's going along with
45:45
what the husband ends up deciding, by
45:51
calling your name, saying what your wife said
45:53
is diminishing
45:55
you and it lacks respect.
45:59
And this is something that she's obliged to do is
46:01
to I'm
46:05
all for a partnership. But
46:08
I'm dad. I'm the husband here.
46:12
I'm the head of our
46:14
family. I am responsible
46:34
before God for you and
46:36
for our kids and
46:40
for our home. That's
46:42
my job. I'm happy to do it. I'm happy to
46:45
have you as a partner and to help out. But
46:48
I don't want you to talk down to me like that. It's
46:52
not right and it's not good for
46:54
our marriage. Sometimes it's just very straightforward.
46:56
Not angry, not vicious, not
46:59
crabbing it, but just straightforward. As a
47:01
matter of fact, this hurts
47:03
me and the behavior is not right. I
47:06
don't want you to do that anymore. See
47:10
what happens. Hopefully,
47:12
a Christian wife, is
47:14
she a Christian? Yeah,
47:18
she is. Okay. So there's going to be
47:20
virtue that you'll
47:23
have access to. But
47:25
look, I know marriages
47:29
are not easy and
47:31
some are harder than others. Some
47:33
are easier than others, obviously. But
47:36
sometimes this dynamic between a husband
47:38
and wife is strained by lots
47:41
of different factors. And
47:43
it may not be just that I,
47:46
again, I don't want to try to
47:50
draw conclusions about what's motivating your wife. I
47:52
have no idea to say this kind of
47:54
thing. But there
47:56
are other dynamics that are in play.
47:58
But a reason... That's
48:00
the dynamics, is not an excuse. A
48:04
reason is not an excuse in this situation. There
48:06
may be other things going on, but that doesn't
48:09
excuse disrespectful behavior.
48:13
And I think it's fair to ask for respect,
48:16
and even in a sense, ask very
48:18
strongly on virtually demand. Say, this is
48:21
not right. This is
48:23
not good, honey. I don't want to have that kind
48:25
of relationship with you. I want to be
48:27
built up by you. I want to build you up. I
48:29
want to find the positives. And by the
48:31
way, something, whatever my IQ is, it isn't
48:36
relevant to my leadership of the family.
48:38
I'm still the head according
48:40
to God. And if whatever it
48:42
is, I can't change that. So
48:44
why demean something I can't change? And now we're back
48:46
to the first point that I was making. Okay.
48:52
Yeah. You know, it's funny. I don't want to admit to
48:54
her that it hurt me. Kind of a
48:56
guy thing. You know, kind of
48:58
a manly thing. Yes. I know. Maybe I should. Maybe
49:00
I should try that. Well,
49:04
this may resonate with her. Okay.
49:08
And I understand like the kind of the
49:10
mantra thing I can withstand it, but the
49:12
fact is it, I know it hurts. And
49:16
to be candid with her on that
49:19
regard, this may touch the
49:23
something in her that motivates her to be more careful.
49:27
Okay. And so if you lead
49:29
with that, that's hard. That hurt.
49:31
That hurt. That's, you know, then
49:34
you don't have to lecture and say a
49:36
lot about it. You don't seem like a
49:38
man of many words, you know, inappropriately.
49:40
Anyway, you explain yourself clearly. And
49:42
like you've done here, I I'm
49:46
a guy of too many words. Oftentimes I say too
49:48
much. And I just have to
49:50
discipline myself when I face my complex in my
49:52
family of just getting to the point quickly, saying
49:54
it and done. And
49:58
then deal with whatever comes up. But not
50:01
over talk it. And maybe that
50:03
kind of situation would be helpful here and then just
50:05
see how it goes. Okay,
50:08
I appreciate it. Okay Austin, I
50:11
appreciate your call and and
50:14
you know be prayed up on this too. Thanks
50:18
Greg. Alright, bye bye now. Marriages
50:23
are hard. I
50:27
don't know how else to say it. I
50:29
remember meeting
50:33
with some
50:35
friends in Hawaii. It actually was we
50:38
reunited with a couple that were instrumental in
50:40
bringing my wife and I together. And
50:44
I had been a bachelor for almost
50:47
48 years. In fact, I
50:49
had my 48th birthday on
50:51
my honeymoon and my wife also
50:54
had not been married before and
50:56
she was eight years my junior. So she was 39 almost
51:00
40. So
51:03
here we were two eligible bachelor
51:05
bachelorette kind of brought together a
51:08
lot of people cheering us on. You know, well
51:10
it's great and it was cool. It was people
51:12
were very happy. We had 200 people at our wedding which
51:15
is a lot. And
51:17
we didn't even partake of any
51:20
of the food because we were greeting people
51:22
the whole time. We ended up
51:24
having a private dinner that night which was great. But
51:29
a number of years well let
51:32
me just think it was probably 18 or 19 years
51:34
later. We were able to
51:36
have dinner with the couple that was instrumental
51:38
in us meeting in the first place. And
51:40
the question then to me
51:42
was so looking back
51:45
now how
51:47
is married life? How are you doing
51:50
as a married person or something like that?
51:52
Now they weren't really probing about what is
51:54
the status of your relationship at the moment.
51:57
But there was a question that was asked
51:59
of me in particular that
52:04
was meant to give some reflection.
52:07
And here's what I said. It took me a long time
52:10
to know how to answer. But
52:12
here's what I said. I said, nobody
52:14
who is not
52:18
married can know
52:21
what it's like to be married. I know
52:25
you're thinking, no duh. Yeah, but I think it's
52:28
beyond that. Nobody understands.
52:30
If you've never been
52:32
married, you have expectations,
52:35
you have hopes, you have dreams, you
52:37
have desires, you might have concerns, whatever.
52:39
All of these things are in
52:42
the abstract. And
52:44
you have a relationship up to the time you're
52:46
married, and this has
52:48
its dynamic. But
52:51
when you get married, you enter into a different world.
52:55
Now, I'm not saying it's
52:57
bad. I'm just saying it's very
52:59
different. And you
53:01
end up facing certain
53:04
kinds of challenges and issues and
53:06
a life that
53:08
you never even thought
53:12
about before. I have
53:14
a friend who said, after he
53:17
finally got married, he realized
53:19
every morning that he woke up, his
53:21
wife was in bed with him. And
53:23
it was unsettling. It's like
53:25
there she was every day. What do you expect
53:27
when you get married? Of course you're sleeping in
53:29
the same bed. But for him, it was a
53:32
huge adjustment, because he'd always been sleeping alone. And
53:34
now he's sleeping with his wife. Now, this sounds
53:36
so crazy, because that's like, wow,
53:39
of course. I
53:41
got married to sleep with my wife, I just
53:43
mean to be sharing the bed with her. There's
53:45
a closest that you're just
53:47
spending the night together, you're right next to each
53:49
other. That's part
53:52
of the deal. I'm not talking anything
53:54
about sensuality here. I'm just talking about
53:56
companionship and closeness. To me, that was
53:58
a huge plus for him. it was
54:00
a negative. But he never thought
54:02
about it and he never realized it would
54:04
be a concern until he actually experienced it.
54:08
And so this is just something to keep in mind
54:10
and it's a reason that you make promises
54:12
and I've talked about this
54:15
before. How do you repair the past?
54:17
How do you secure the future? Who
54:20
can do anything about either? Because we're
54:22
always in the moment and the answer is
54:24
you repair the past with
54:26
forgiveness and
54:29
you secure the future with a
54:31
promise. And
54:33
C.S. Lewis has pointed out that the promise
54:35
is there for when
54:37
things get tough. You
54:41
don't promise to hang together as long
54:43
as it works out. It's easy,
54:46
it's fun, it feels
54:48
good because you're going to hang
54:50
together without the promise if those
54:52
conditions persist. The
54:54
promise is when those conditions do
54:56
not persist. When it's
54:59
difficult, when it's hard, this is why you
55:01
promise to say to have and to hold,
55:04
to love and to cherish. Those
55:06
are activities that you do in
55:11
sickness and in health for
55:14
better or for worse. So
55:16
in sickness and in worse
55:19
you still have, hold, love,
55:21
cherish. That's part of the
55:23
promise. It's not just until
55:25
death do us part. Okay,
55:28
we're in this, we can't get out.
55:32
You have to do the things that
55:35
you promised in addition to until
55:37
death do us part. And
55:39
that's what's going to make the difference in
55:41
the long run, that
55:43
we are committed to live virtuously
55:47
regardless of the circumstances. And sometimes
55:49
it turns out very one-sided. Maybe
55:52
it's all the wife or maybe it's
55:54
all the husband and the other person
55:57
is just confused and whatever and one's
55:59
got to stay. in
56:02
the saddle, as it were. Stay
56:04
in play doing those things persistently,
56:08
consistently, loving,
56:11
cherishing, having, and
56:14
holding. Those are
56:16
all behaviors. Well,
56:18
I don't feel like it. So
56:20
what? That's
56:23
not relevant to the promise. You
56:28
do the behaviors, and
56:30
here's the biblical and the
56:32
psychological point of view. The
56:34
feelings follow the behaviors. You
56:38
do the behaviors, and
56:40
that's what brings the feelings. Sometimes
56:43
and sometimes not, but that's the right order.
56:47
You don't let the feelings drive your
56:49
behavior. You let the virtue and desire
56:53
to keep the vow drive the
56:55
behavior, and the other things take care of themselves.
57:00
This is why, you know, it says in Revelations,
57:02
you know, do the things that you did
57:04
at first. You've lost your first love.
57:06
Well, there's a sense in which that kind of applies here
57:08
in marriage as well. Okay?
57:14
The vows are the solution. I should
57:17
say keeping the vows, all of them.
57:21
That's the solution.
57:23
I've read a great book. It's
57:25
called Sacred Love, Sacred Marriage.
57:29
Can't tell you about it now. There's my music, Sacred
57:31
Marriage. Read it if you're struggling.
57:33
Greg Cope will never stand a reason.
57:35
Give them heaven, then. Bye-bye.
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