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What Keeps Gen-Z Away From Christ? ft. Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle | Charlie Kirk | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: What Keeps Gen-Z Away From Christ? ft. Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle
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This content features a discussion between Cliff and Stuart, who are associate pastors and apologists, about their work engaging with university students on faith and worldview. They discuss the challenges of communicating Christian truth in a secularizing society, the rise of nihilism and moral relativism among young people, and the importance of a Christ-centered worldview as the foundation for understanding truth, morality, and life's purpose.
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cliff and Stuart connal welcome guys
thank you Char Charlie so uh for some
audience members that might not be aware introduce
introduce
yourselves go ahead all right so I'm
Stuart Conley I am associate pastor at
Grace Community Church in new Kanan
Connecticut I get the pleasure of
working with this guy he's nice enough
to have me on his team and then we also
do apologetics Outreach evangelism
together on University
campuses across the country and
sometimes I notice we overlap like UT I
think where you got the water bottle
thrown at you like the West Mall steps
right there he's been there for like 55 years
years
so and then we combine those together so
I I've got a master in Psychology and
Divinity so I try and use those to
really do Outreach at our church and
Beyond so that's kind of come from and
you've been doing this for 42 years yeah easy
easy
Charlie got the number yeah brother
you're right I'm I'm getting up there
I'm Cliff kle I'm an obnoxious twit who
the holy spirit is changing and I try
and combine the grace and love and truth
of Christ and communicate on University
campuses and at the church where steuart
and I get to pastor and I get to be this
guy's dad so I'm an awful proud dad
that's that's amazing so you've been
doing this on campuses for a while kind
of similar to what I do somewhat from a
political standpoint but we're unafraid
to to talk about the deeper things more
important things talk talk about that I
mean that's yeah sure I will you know
why I like
him because he hasn't made the mistake
of elevating politics over faith in Christ
okay obviously we can slip into a type
of nationalism that is raw raw raw
country and leave God out of the
equation that is lethal and what Charlie
does in a way that I've come to respect
is because I've
been uh confronted by more and more of
this type of issue is he puts Christ at
the center God is the basis of your
world view and then because of that you
respect your country you're very
grateful for what our foremothers and
forefathers have done in putting this
country together and you want to return
it to the judeo-christian ethic that was
the foundation of this family this
country even though we're well aware of
the fact that many of the founding
mothers and fathers were Das and no
we're not deas we believe in a personal
God Who's involved in our lives today
not in a distant God who remains aloof
so we disagree with thas Jefferson with
a Jeffersonian Bible but we're very
grateful for the judeo-christian ethic
ethics that our forefathers and
foremothers held to so tightly well
thank you for that and
so I I have you seen let's just talk in
the last couple of years both of you
visiting campuses be interesting to hear
you say what are you hearing what are
you seeing have things changed in recent
years talk about Trends I think our
audience would be interested in that so
30 years ago I was a little young but
from what I hear it was is there truth
and then 20 years ago it was okay
there's truth maybe lowercase maybe
uppercase but what is this truth let's
have a dialogue today it's all right I'm
in a lot of pain I think you may have
mentioned it and your one of your talks
divorce rates death from despair
depression anxiety
skyrocketing and so that's the trend
I've seen some of the very similar
questions is God a moral monster slavery
why does God allow suffering all of
those are are pretty much the same and
similar but I think I think the growth
again in pain whether that's
psychological relational oftentimes
that's connected to nihilism because
somebody who doesn't believe in God it's
I have no objective meaning and purpose
I came on was an accident accidental
birth and I'm going nowhere and my
favorite is when I actually see happy
nius because it's the biggest
contradiction probably out there that we
see on college campuses but literally we
will have students come up to us and say
I'm anilist I have no meaning and
purpose in my life but hey I'm here you
know YOLO I'm here for a good time not a
long time and so that's that's the new
narrative I think we see so can you want
to comment on that Cliff as far as
Trends things you've seen sure and and
talk about the process of how you do
this on campuses I I'd just be
personally interested to hear that you
bet um I am not here to butter him up
okay in fact I don't like talking about
people all right but but guys for 44
years I've been staying standing up on
University campuses dialoguing with
students now I am committed to pointing
people to God's
existence therefore morality is not
subjective there are few moral absolutes
therefore The Logical conclusion is not
despair There's Hope because there's a
God who has eternal life in heaven for
all who trust in his son Jesus all right
now I don't feel comfortable going into
the political
Arena that's why I respect what he's
doing it's very hard to communicate
Christ and then also to challenge people
to think okay what are the ramifications
of your belief in Christ especially
politically especially culturally that
gets real hard and one of the reasons
it's hard is because we don't all agree
right you go around in this room and I
don't think we're all going to agree on
everything that's where tolerance comes
in tolerance is not an atheist and I
agree no we don't agree tolerance is
although you are an atheist I respect
you and we're going to have an
intelligent dialogue now that's what he
does and that's what we try and do
intelligent dialogue guys that's what a
liberal arts education is all about a
free exchange of ideas where we don't
necessarily agree but we communicate
respectfully and we explain why we
believe what we believe what's the
evidence of whatever it is you believe
is true so that's the kind of thing that
we want the most important thing is
always Jesus the second most important
thing is making sure that we could talk
about Jesus and worship Jesus which is
increasingly more difficult so so talk
about the process you guys set up a
table on campus people come up and talk
to you um for the audience that might
not be aware yes so we've never set up a
table we get invited by different
student organizations and we go back in
the day he would have to start which is
that's that's the Bold part right you
have to speak and somehow find a way to
get people to stop and actually engage
but now thankfully God has used social
media in a big way so when we go there's
already a very big crowd even at very
secular schools like Yukon very hostile
crowd so that that's how we start we get
invited by different organizations we
show up they often times will start the
crowd but then it'll gather and grow
very quickly then we go about debate and
then we go about connecting with as many
students as possible but the important
part I think you were kind of getting to
there in your second part is
discipleship we don't want to go sadly
Billy Graham we're huge Billy Graham
fans but if you look statistically when
he would do his Crusades a very high
percentage of people after three weeks
would turn away from the faith the alter
calls fruit so what we try and do is we
make sure these organizations on their
Outreach nights where we speak at and
that'll have a lot of students show up
but we don't want there just to be an
event that we speak at at at the end of
the week we say guys we are here not
just to evangelize we need discipleship
so these students will stay in the faith
and understand what real scripture is
when you went to Genesis 22 for example
last night like specific scripture this
is what we need it can't just be this
type of higher power oh yeah I'm a
Christian now now but I just never read
the Bible so that that's part of the
process so um the it's very important
you went on Logan Paul's podcast which
I'm sure you you got a couple emails and
things from that talk about that
experience what an amazing way that God
used you to reach a population that has
not heard the
gospel all right so here are some of the
challenges I really respect Logan Paul
he began our time together by saying I
am not a Christian but maybe by the to
this podcast I will be no pressure yeah
yeah I mean that kind of honesty and
vulnerability goodness gracious that's
cool I found him to be a very nice guy
and it was fascinating his sticking
point his sticking point was you got to
be kidding me good Jews and good Muslims
and good Hindus they need to accept
Christ I mean that just is too narrow
that's just too bigoted it's too
intolerant and so what I was trying to
help him see was if I say that every
path leads to God that's a truth claim
I'm saying majority of Muslims the
majority of humanity which is Muslims
Christians and Jews they're wrong every
path leads to Heaven that's a truth
claim if I say you half the religions
and philosophies of the world lead to
Heaven that's a truth claim I'm saying
half are right and half are wrong that
is a truth claim and when Jesus says I
am the way the truth and the life no one
comes to the father except through me
that's also a truth claim he's saying
you've got to put your faith in me I am
the way to heaven so let's be real
honest we all make truth claims let's
not sit back sit back and act like Oh
I'm a really open-minded really tolerant
person because I say all paths lead to
Heaven All paths lead to God no you're
making a truth claim and I can promise
you if I say that 1 plus 1 equals 2 I'm
not necessarily being arrogant now I
might be arrogant but just to make a
truth claim does not mean you're being
arrogant and intolerant it means this is
my take on reality you better ask me
what's the evidence that your take on
reality is true and I'm going to ask you
the same question and what is your take
on reality what's the evidence that your
take on reality is true so so kind of
tell us about the discussion you had
with him and either one of you the
response that you
received I thought he was really genuine
he gets pegged for trying to just to
poke holes and then walk away but I
thought he was genuine I mean he did ask
questions like will animals be in heaven
and you know the lion will lie down with
the Sheep so I believe that animals will
be in heaven literally he would ask
questions like why Jesus amongst other
religions he would he said he got burned
a few times by Christians who were so
judgmental about other faiths and so we
dug into that a little bit but you know
his mom was sitting there the whole time
and I guess his mom typically doesn't
show up but she showed up for us and she
held her cross out the entire time kind
of pointing it to pointing it to us and
I I think that shows her obvious desire
to get her sons him and Jake really
thinking about the faith and moving
towards the faith so that was a very
very interesting part of it because he
would he would really come after mainly
really went after you I tried to more of
the emotional connection and and yet at
the same time I think at at the end of
the time he was a genuine he was
genuinely wrestling and and yet he would
turn to his mom and try and again push
back on her faith so it's fascinating
Dynamics but offset yet again there was
still an hour of time where he wanted to
connect so but the his his objection was
that Christianity is too true or
something or that too narrow too narrow
yeah I'm I'm being fous I just that's
good I mean like to too narrow I I
don't understand the the objection
there like what what what would that
that apparently he's just saying that
God no way that God would allow this to
happen that God would not send a son or
what what would his CU I didn't watch
the entire either interview all right
who here has a problem with the idea of
God being
angry all right well Logan has a problem
with God being angry and guess what so
do a lot of Americans you know God is
love God doesn't get angry the wrath of
God I mean how primitive you really
believe that yeah I sure do believe that
you know why
because I promise you that if one of you
kidnaps one of my little
granddaughters I'm going to be real
angry and guess what if I'm not angry my
granddaughter doesn't matter to me not
with a selfish anger but with a
righteous indignation is God angry yes
he is not with a selfish anger oh you've
offended me oh you reigned on my party
no none of that with a righteous
indignation of how we dehumanize each
other that's sin racism is dehumanizing
sexism is
dehumanizing sexually exploiting someone
is dehumanizing she's not a Barbie doll
she's a human being created in the image
of God don't use her
sexually greed
dehumanizing your money is more
important than you are I want your money
coveting dehumanizing and so God is
angry because we dehumanize each other
and God has created us not to dehumanize
each other but to respect each other to
love each other so when you visit
campuses is that the most common
sticking point that the path is too
narrow if you had to really bring it
down what is the limiting current belief
of gen Z when confronted with the truth
that prevents them from accepting Jesus
what would that be yeah moral relativism
for sure and this white Western adopted
philosophy which is all religions are
true and how dare you say that you have
the right religion so they will say look
at the elephant look at all paths lead
up to the Mountaintop so all religions
are are just grabbing one's grabbing the
ear one's grabbing the foot of the
elephant one's grabbing the trunk and
see you guys are all just grabbing part
of God and yet what they don't get is
well those people are blind so they
don't realize they're grabbing parts of
the elephant well okay then someone has
tremendous vigilance and spiritual
superiority to say I'm the one who's not
blind and I see Charlie grabbing the
trunk so he's Buddhist I see Cliff
grabbing the foot so he's Hindu so you
guys are all idiot
all gods are the same what you don't
realize is you are not only spiritually
elitist but you are also rejecting the
exclusive truth claims of 95% of the
world so that's one of the biggest
challenges would you agree with that is
that the the core objection you got you
receive yeah and now let's be real
honest I think it really comes down to I
want to sleep with whoever I want to
sleep with well that's a separate issue
though but the meaning that they don't
meaning that they won't believe it if
it's true that's turx line would you
believe Christianity if it was true
right and most people would not because
it would change their life correct and
so therefore the reason I reject Christ
is for a moral reason and then I hide
behind the intellectual reason but if
you push comes to shove I mean my
younger brother went to Princeton
University and at Princeton he used to
share Christ with his roommates late
into the night around about midnight he
turned to his Princeton classmates and
say guys if you're just going to ask
these questions we'll pull on all
nighter if if this is honest but if the
real issue is I want to sleep around and
I want to Che she on my next exam
because the pressure to get into mid
school is intense let's be honest and
every single time his Prince and
classmates would say Stuart you're
correct this is not an intellectual
problem it's a moral issue course and he
would say guys wait we don't have to
pull an all nighter good night have a
good night's sleep so then how then do
you overcome that if at
all I think it's for me it's it's
getting rather simple the older the
older I
get you know morality is relative which
means the guy who took a whack at
president Trump and killed another guy
it's all relative that's his definition
of truth and the trade traffic well you
know it's all relative so if you don't
if you're upset about it fine but I kind
of enjoy it and Truth is
relative you know something you can't
live that out because even when you were
a little kid if your sibling got more
ice cream in their ice cream bowl than
you did in your ice cream bowl what
would you say oh that's cool no You' say
that's not fair and if you're married
and your spouse takes a whack at you you
don't say oh that felt good honey why
don't you do that again no you say you
should not do that you ought not to do
that it is impossible to live out moral
relativism doesn't work is do you find
that to be persuasive to the students
you talk to I take a different route
that's probably the better route I take
the roote though of look statistically
two guys from Yale wrote this book
premarital sex in America and
promiscuity is is directly correlated
with serious mental health problems
especially for women men for some reason
are able to cut off their emotion
sexually from the physical side and just
live out their their physical well-being
of of shagging any woman they possibly
can but there's clear breakdown as well
these Yale authors are writing showing
that there's a drastic increase in
divorce if you're sleeping around as
well but again you can go there yeah but
the best answer is making Christ more
attractive than just I'm going to Shag
the next thing or person with a pulse
that I possibly can and if Jesus is more
attractive in the way where he says I
love you unconditionally no matter your
failings I offer you Grace you know it's
the whole idea of your job can't die for
you your job if you find your identity
in it you're going to be ultimately
crushed if you find your identity in
your wife you're going to be ultimately
crushed it's St Augustine's ordered
loves if you put God at the top you will
live a life of incredible flourishing so
that's that's kind of where I going yeah
and I I want to get some questions here
in a second I visit college campuses as
you guys do and I get the spicier
encounters at times I'm sure you you
guys get them as well but but what's so
fascinating is that I'll come and talk
primarily about politics but as you well
know I always share the gospel whenever
it comes up but inevitably almost always
if I go and I have a a table and that
what I want to talk about for the day
never remains and whe it could be about
immigration it could be about about that
there are no genders and two Sexes and
unlimited personalities you know
whatever it is within minutes they are
asking me well are you
religious because they have been so
trained and conditioned because they
want to get down into where is this
coming from because if if you're saying
something that's true and they think
about it they say
well is is there do you think there's a
God that's telling you this because they
they want a moral license to live as
they want to live um but what I found is
that almost all of these conversations
yield back to some moral standard at
some point and they'll many college
students and even College professors
will deny the fact that there is a moral
standard but they're living up to some
standard at some point so someone tells
them that murder is wrong or murder is
evil or theft is wrong they say oh
that's just common sense I we just know
that I I I I I know that murder is wrong
I I I I understand that why we have so
many murderers then if everyone knows
that it's wrong so do you guys encounter
that as well that it gets down to the
deeper issues rather
quickly yes it definitely gets down to
the deeper issues rather quickly when
you have the privilege of talking with thinking
thinking
people and people have to think I mean I
very grateful that over 290 times in the
gospels Jesus asks questions and this
whole idea that faith is
anti-intellectual faith is anti-rational
Faith is antil
logical that's a naive Blind Faith and
Christ does not call us to a naive Blind
Faith does he call us to a something you
can prove no to prove means to show it
cannot be another way I can't prove
Charlie that I'm not just a bad dream
you're having right now maybe your
eyesight is flipping out on you and
you're having this weird dream of Cliff
so I can't prove it but the overwhelming
evidence is you're having and I are
having this conversation now that's why
we behave the way we do so we've got to
use our minds and ask ourselves what
does the evidence point to as being true
I do not think the universe is religiously
religiously
ambiguous I think God has left more than
enough evidence for any thinking person
to believe in him that's why
anthropology shows us that around the
world every culture has some type of
religion yeah atheism is is the vast
minority of a new age belief oh yeah so
Daisy let's start doing some questions
here um how can people uh who who has
questions by the way Daisy will find you
um how can first just plug how guys
people can support you on the podcast oh
yeah okay so Instagram uh it's just
Stuart connly so Stuart unor connly s to
u a t and then KN and
ctle and then Tik Tok is Stuart connly
and then um YouTube our main channel is
give me an answer with Stuart and Cliff
connly so those are our main three um so
thank you for the support we haven't
started a podcast yet but we got to do
ma'am hi my name is Jordan huge fan um
so my question is that first I am not a
cessationist and I do think that it is
important to study to show yourself
approved and I'm curious to know how do
we test the spirit and allow God to
minister through the apostolic and the
prophetic while also studying and
ensuring that we do not become super
like religious and
legalistic so um can you repeat the
question sorry the audio is kind of
funny so no worries I'm basically trying
to understand how we test the spirit
allow God to move in the apostolic and
the prophetic while also studying our
word and not becoming overly religious and
and
legalistic so how do we test the spirit
did you get did you get that yeah yeah
so in order to test the spirit you
always have to remain tied to scripture
as well as prayer and it has to be done
humbly because to your point you're kind
of going there we immediately so so I've
had I I lead our small groups at our
church and one time this person stepped
into our small group she came from
another church and she said oh you guys
don't speak in tongues here you guys are
barely Believers you're B you know baby
Believers I speak in tongues and I got a
clear pathway and direct call to God the
father so obviously the testing of the
spirit has to start with the greatest
Christian virtue which I believe is
humility and you are asking of scripture
you're asking of God but then you have
to be in a healthy Christian Community
and I believe a small group as well to
hold you accountable to say yes you're
walking in line with the spirit or
you're walking in line with the Flesh
and I love that you went here in terms
of the pride issue too because I
personally believe that when neber for
example the great Theologian said that
you will grow quickest in going against
the spirit and quickest in Pride if you
become religious more so than any
atheist but because there's something
about religion that if it's in a Petri
dish it will make you a person who's
fundamentalist and always looking down
on others and we see this with the
Pharisees right as opposed to the god of
the universe sending his one and only
son becoming a slave dying on a cross
for us then we respond in such a way
we're walking in line of the
yes well it's awesome to have hello it's
awesome to have so you know so many
goats in the same room so thank you for
being here um so I was articulated
Yesterday by a couple of my friends that
our country was not founded on Christian
principles um so I I want to see how
like an argument that you guys can give
me to combat that so essentially they
articulated to me that our country was
found on common law uh because the
Declaration only refers to God four
times and the Constitution doesn't refer
to God at all and it only articulates
the structure of government um and does
is common law chrisan in nature or is it
not I I can take it first
so I this guy does whoever said that
doesn't really know what they're talking
about so first of all um remember that
we were a collection of states and
colonies and you need to read the state
constitutions before anything else N Out
of 13 of the original states required
you to be a Bible believing Christian to
serve in
government at the time the founding you
could even in P actually 13 out of 13
required a declaration of Faith 9 out of
13 required you to be a Protestant
except Maryland which was Catholic which
still required a declaration of faith in
almost every single one of the original
state constitutions Pennsylvania
included they had I profess Lord and
Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in
the original state constitutions so you
remember we're collection of States
before that secondly 55 out of 56 of the
original signers of the Declaration were
Bible believing Church attending
Christians you ask about common law so
common law is inherited from Blackstone
who was Christian a common law is an
outgrowth of the scriptures so let's go
to three principles of common law
presumption of innocence due process and
jury of your peers all three are
biblical principles so and all wrapped
into the ultimate biblical principle
that you shall not favor Justice if you
are rich or or poor which is in
Leviticus 19 right before most famous
part of Leviticus 19 which is that you
should love your neighbor as yourself
but before that is that in the administ
ation of Justice you shall not favor the
rich or the poor which is the idea of
Blind Justice we get that in the west
which is incorporated also in the New
Testament ideal neither slave nor Greek
nor Jew you are all one in Jesus Christ
which we got the idea of human equality
these are all biblical ideas they're not
Enlightenment ideas which is they kind
of get conflated at the time but more
importantly than that they say that God
was only mentioned four times in the
Declaration of Independence well that's
a big deal okay laws of nature and
Nature's God the last paragraph of the
Declaration reads as a prayer it says we
appeal to the Supreme judge of the
universe who's the judge of the universe
Jesus Christ as it says in Revelation
that Jesus Will judge the Earth on his
throne this so in the Declaration they
were praying to Christ Our Lord as a
prayer very specifically thirdly as I
set on stage yesterday Deuteronomy was
by far the most quoted book religious or
non-religious in the time of the
founding when they were putting together
Constitution more than John Lock more
than montue more than Blackstone so the
book of Deuteronomy which talked about
laws Customs Traditions it was Moses
Fair address as he's you know about to
say goodbye say hey good luck in Canaan
guys here's how you should set up your
form of government but finally and most
importantly let's look at actually what
the founders said John Adams seemlessly
said the Constitution was only written
for a moral and religious people it was
wholly inadequate for the people of any
other the body politic of America was so
Christian and was so Protestant that our
form and structure of government was
built for the people that believed in
Christ Our Lord one of the reasons we're
living through a constitutional crisis
is that we no longer have a Christian
Nation but we have a Christian form of
government and they're incompatible so
you cannot have Liberty if you do not
have a Christian population so that
that's just that's just a surface level
belief so then they'll go to the First
Amendment which is has two two parts of
the First Amendment which get conflated
first of all separation church and state
is not in the US Constitution that is a
single letter that Thomas Jefferson
wrote in 1807 to the danur Baptist
convention in Massachusetts assuring
them that the government would not come
after the church okay which is the
opposite of what they would say however
That Was Then resurrected by the Warren
courtt and the burger Court in the 60s
where they said hey you know all of a
sudden we're now going to make this as
if it's the Constitution it does say in
the Constitution two things which is The
Establishment Clause and the free free
expression Clause The Establishment
Clause is that Congress shall make no
law prohibiting the free exercise
thereof what they were most worried
about was a presbyterian or a Anglican
or a Quaker type religion taking over
the federal government instead it was
that there is not going to be a
state-run religion or a state-run
government did you know that one of the
first acts of Congress was taxpayer
funded Bible Printing and
distribution did you know that there
were church services held in the Supreme
Court building as late as the Jackson
presidency in the 1820s but going back
to this idea of separation church and
state and again I could Riff on this at
at nauseum because it's just so
ridiculous right is that it's not
biblical because first it's not biblical
it's not constitutional because you go a
layer deeper people that even say that
do you believe in separation of moral
Morality In State nobody does so all
laws are reflection of morality and all
morality comes from somewhere there is
no such thing as neutral morality and we
believe what the founders believed
because they put it in the halls of
Congress they put it in the Supreme
Court and they put it all throughout the
country which is that the decalogue The
Ten Commandments is the core morality of
how a society and a civilization should
exist right the the Ten Commandments of
every person and finally and this is the
kicker if the founding fathers were not
Bible believing Church churchend
Christians why did they put Leviticus on
the Liberty Bell not John not Psalms not
Proverbs not Genesis Leviticus most
Americans can't spell Leviticus
Leviticus 2519 Proclaim Liberty
throughout the land of which you are in
it is one of the most Sinister most
unsubstantiated lies that does not come
up against any sort of academic scrutiny
this idea that founding fathers were a
bunch of Enlightenment common law deists
the reason they hate it is because if
they the reason they must say this is
that if we actually go back to our
Christian Roots and we go back to where
we once were it's America's best hope
for Revival and for a great [Applause]
[Applause]
future you want to add to that anything
that sorry that covered it that was
pretty impressive I can't touch that
okay is it working yeah okay hey guys
big fan I know I ran into my name is
Ridge I'm here with my wife and my
younger brother and some of my our best
friends I know I ran into you too last
night but just want to elaborate on that
a little bit about that tragedy and ask
a question um and Charlie I haven't had
the pleasure of meeting you yet but I we
lost our uh 18-year-old brother back in
October to an accident in our front yard
and we're constantly told like oh you
guys might be might have to move on you
guys might need to kind of like put it
in the past it happened get over it and
we do have really good days where we get
to share his story share the gospel but
with those good days there's also some
really really bad days where anger comes
out and I mean I might get mad at my
wife I might get mad at the family at the
the
kids what's your advice and what do you
have to say about how to cope with those
really bad days that we have all of us
collectively being really close to him
after his
loss all right I'm really sorry for your
lost brother it stinks and that's one of
the reasons I'm so glad that in 1
Corinthians 15 Paul writes death is The
Last Enemy I am sick and tired of
hearing people say oh death is just part
of nature so just accept it no I don't
accept death that's why we fund
hospitals that's why we do medicine
because we are against death and we're
for life and that's what Jesus said I've
come that you might have life and have
it to the
full second Point all right wife and
brother and family you've heard the man say
say
I'm hurting and at time I'm okay but at
other times I get really angry okay he's
been honest right he's been honest with
all of us he's been
vulnerable so now we got to be patient
with each other right we got to love
each other through the hard times and
it's a hard time you're passing through
the most difficult day of my life was
when my 7-year-old niece was knocked
into a early grave in a horrible car
accident and I had to go out to Madison
Wisconsin where my brother who's a
transplant surgeon at W Madison was
transplanting kidneys and livers and I
had to walk with him around a field
behind his home in Madison
Wisconsin and he's pouring out his heart
to me about the death of his seven-year-old
seven-year-old
daughter and if anybody thinks they got
an easy answer for that question they're
nuts the answer the honest answer first
is I do not know why the babysitter
didn't see the stop sign why she went
right through the stop sign in a TR
pickup truck at 55 miles an hour came
careening down the road smashing into
the car sending my seven-year-old niece
into an early grave I don't know why God
allowed that to
happen and so therefore we got to be
patient with each other we got to love
each other we got to be committed to
each other as we go through these
painful difficult times the third point
is what's Comfort Comfort is
presence so you being together as a
family with your presence is crucial and
even more important is God God's
presence with you the presence of Jesus
Christ and that's where all of this talk
and all of these answers to all these
difficult questions gets real
practical it's not an issue of a good
answer to a difficult question now it's
an issue of presence I need you to be
with me because I'm hurting my loved one
died and it
stinks and now all of a sudden Faith
becomes real personal because now it's
an issue of do I know the presence of
God and brother I'm 70 years old so
you're a lot younger than me and I'm
still working on that I want to know the
presence of God because it's hard and I
was really ticked when Time Magazine
came out with Mother Teresa on the cover
saying oh the woman struggle with doubt
see she didn't really have real Faith
all baloney give me a break there is
such a thing as depression there is such
a thing as loneliness as the snut gets
kicked out of You by life so now we got
to know Christ and I find great comfort
that infl Philippians 3:10 Paul writes I
want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of
sharing in his suffering remember you
worship a suffering God who got the snot
kicked out of him and he was nailed to
wen cross so you can connect with this
God this God can connect with you he's a
suffering God and then ultimately
brother we have the solution to
suffering we're going to go through good
times we're going to go through hard
times in this life and you're going
through them now both of them and yet we
have the ultimate solution for suffering
and death and that solution is eternal
life in a heaven where there will be no
more still birth no more cancer no more
heart failure no more little kids
getting knocked into early Graves by
ridiculous car accidents but eternal
life in the presence of God so come on
my atheist agnostic friend let's go into
the hospital come on my atheist agnostic
friend let's go into the room where the
baby lies whose body's being shredded by
termina cancer what are you going to do
you're going to wave your fist in God's
face and blame God that's a copout
that's misplaced
blame I as a follow of Christ walk to
the other side of that bed and I too
will held that child's hand and seek to
comfort that child but in Jesus Christ
I've got a suffering God who gives a rip
about death about grieving people who
wants to comfort us and wrap his arms
around us that my friend is the solution
to the very real problem of suffering
more thank you uh my name is Darlene saw
for beautiful explanation earlier about
the foundation of our country uh under
the Trump Administration the 1776
commission was really focused on
instilling patriotism for students
um and I wanted to know your thoughts on
a new agenda I think it's called project
2025 where many conservative
organizations were focusing on the
solution of uh helping Americans
understand uh the true goal of how our
country is supposed to serve us what are
your thoughts on that agenda or that
project yeah I I we're one of the listed
organizations on Project 2025 I don't
know all the details the the Democrats
are losing their minds over this thing I
mean it's unbelievable uh it's it's
actually like her core message right now
um it's not officially part of the
campaign that's important to note it's a
900 page document I haven't read it I
don't think anyone's going to read it um
but yes if the essence is to bring back
patriotic education I was on the 1776
commission and the First Act Biden gets
sworn into office he walks 100 feet into
a side room in the halls of Congress
does he even wait to get to the White
House and signs an executive order
nullifying the 1776 commission it was
within seconds of getting sworn in which
was a commission all about American
patriotism our American founding it was
literally the first thing he did as
president was to make sure that our kids
uh wouldn't learn to love
America all right one more question yes
let's go to the back Daisy let's give uh
some love back there and we have by the
way we have interviews all day guys so
so thank you Charlie so good to meet
these other s that are here um I had
dinner with George Bara not too long ago
and I said some of the biggest concerns
I pedor just outside of Detroit and uh I
realized that it's hard to keep college
kids engaged it's a hard demographic to
reach and it seems like my pastor
friends are all asking the same question
so I asked George Bara I said what is
the solution he said you think you're
losing them in the college year years
but you're losing them much
earlier the world view is developed by
time they're 11 so knowing god designed three
three
institutions but he gave the
responsibility to parents to rear their
children how do these three institutions
come alongside parents in God's design
to help them establish a Biblical
worldview in their children before
yes
75% of Christian high schoolers turn
away from the faith when they go to
college fortunately 40% come back after
college but that 75% is astronomical in
my mind and the reason why we go after
college students is because they weren't
prepared like you put beautifully they
weren't prepared by their parents in
high school and that's not just because
they weren't given the intellectual
tools to defend their faith that is one
of the biggest but it's also often
because their parents didn't just they
didn't Mentor them especially the father
of the household they didn't Mentor
their child and they didn't show their
child what objective right and wrong is
the reason why 80% of Pastor kids turn
away from the faith and never come back
to the faith is because their fathers
who are the pastors usually spend more
time with the congregants then they do
their kids and they also don't practice
what they preach I'm fortunately one of
the 20% who has retained my faith
because my dad has done a fantastic job
practicing what he preaches and spending
a ton of time with us he actually was
invited by endless amounts of
organizations to speak all over the
country and internationally but he chose
because of his love for me and my
brothers to actually become a pastor and
to spend time with us and not just leave
us and travel all over the country and
and internationally so I think it starts
with the father absolutely the mother
and it starts with that mentoring
process loving them and giving them a
firm foundation of what is true right
and wrong like the founders of our
country clearly did with liberalism now
you clearly see that there's no
objective right and wrong so what do
they do they come out screaming and they
don't even know what they're screaming
about they don't know what's right or
wrong they're just screaming and oh yeah
drug use is is healthy for you and they
just go on and on down the line and it
just becomes a total excuse my language
poop show and so that that that's one
way I I I I won't speak to the
government side and some of these other
institutions because this is our kind of
Lane but but really loving mentoring and
then giving the intellectual tools to
defend their faith which is not that
hard because in the philosophical realm
about 50% now and it's growing of
philosophers at the top schools are
saying there is a God 20 years ago is
10% now we have to go up to the
religious departments because you would
think the religious departments are
pretty high in their belief of God and
teaching it no they're not they're the
opposite even in the Bible Belt schools
like we were just at Mississippi State
some of the nicest professors I talked
to and yet they were secular liberals in
the Bible Belt and they were in the
religious departments saying oh no maybe
there's a higher power but but let's be
agnostic so pushing back against them is
important uh I would just say this that
um we we need and it's very fixable we
need a Renaissance of homeschooling and
not just sending your kids to private
school but homeschooling itself um the
excuses people give to not homeschool uh
is the following is that I don't know
how to do it that's a really bad answer
uh that's like that's unbelievably bad
you taught your kid how to talk and you
taught your kid the fundamental stuff uh
there's so many organizations that can
supplement or and this is understandable
is that it's too expensive because I
have to go back in the workforce so and
here's the contradiction if you're
willing for for you or your kid to go
into debt to send them to college why
would you not be willing to go into debt
to homeschool your
kid and no one has a good answer to that
because they're willing to send their
kid to go study study North African
lesbian poetry at Arizona State
University but they're not willing to
make Financial sacrifices so that they
could educate their kid the third thing
is that um and I know this doesn't fall
into anyone at this conference but gen
the general population parents are lazy
today they just are they just aren't
doing their job they're just they want
someone else to do it for them uh it's
the I'm more important than my kid a
parent is like a part-time job I want my own
own
career and uh we're seeing the
ramification that can I just add how
would you respond to because I I'm
pretty strong believer in this
1929 what happens when the obvious
biblical homeschool movement occurred
and we left the halls of power at the
big universities because we were
terrified all of a sudden Christian
parents especially more the
fundamentalists of Daris yes
evolutionism I mean how do you balance
because I was homeschooled through the
sixth grade but how do you take this
balance of let's congregate together
grow our faith but then make sure we
don't do what we did in 19 29 and get
terrified of the culture and lose power
in the halls of power yeah I I'm a big
believer that up to a certain age the
child should be protected and nurtured
and I don't know what that age is sixth
grade might be the right time but I I
wouldn't put an eight-year-old in a
government school and so in the current
in the current
configuration I I think that it's okay
for us to domicile our children away
from the current um
uh culture and then but prepare them
that they're going to be going to war
and then you send them out and so I
think both can be equally true and once
they get sent out they must be really
deep in their faith and understand
what's coming to them because it's not a
matter of cloistering them for the rest
of their life but protecting the
innocence of a child is biblical it's
necessary and you know we have we've
seen the ramifications of throwing these
kids to the Lions as you say by 11 their
worldview is is formed sixth grade is 13
years old 12 13 years old right so it's
that's probably you know good uh good
CAU off there we're out of time
everybody give it up for The Connect
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