The campus crusade for Christ or crew is once again showing their progressive colors. They sent out an email after the election to only their BIPOC staffers validating their feelings of sadness that Donald Trump won. We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by our friends at GoodRanchers. Go to GoodRanchers.com, code ALI. That's GoodRanchers.com, code ALI.
Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Thursday. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far. Just a reminder, we've got these awesome new mugs in this yard sign, our first ever yard sign. God's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch. On Monday, we're going to have this amazing conversation with a man who
left the gay lifestyle, repented. It's following Christ. And as we were talking about His story, I love our testimony episodes. They're so edifying to me, but edifying to you guys as well. And we were talking just about how God uses our stories, the testimonies of His people.
to then change other people's hearts and minds and how we will never really know the full effect and the impact of our courage in sharing our testimony until we get to glory and we will get to see revealed. I believe this constellation of
lives and souls and hearts that were affected, changed by God through the power of the testimonies of his people. And God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch.
because he chooses, doesn't have to, but chooses to use the often unseen and unsung simple obedience of his people. And that's also why we often say, do the next right thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God, because that's really how it works. That's how it works in the life of the Christian. We think about doing these big grand things for God, these
public displays of courage and boldness, and maybe God is calling you to that. But maybe the next right thing is something that seemingly small, something that is private, something that no one will ever see except for God. But when it's done in faith,
When it's done to the fullness of our capability, when it's done for the glory of the Lord, it matters not just in the here and now, but in eternity. There's an amazing book by Tim Keller. And I know we've got some disagreements with Tim Keller, especially his commentary about politics in the years before he died. But I learned a lot from Tim Keller, especially when I was in high school and college.
A lot of his work was very formative in my understanding of the fundamental tenets of Christianity and shaping my worldview. And every good endeavor by Tim Keller changed how I saw work. And not only work, it changed how I saw every single action that I
do that every good endeavor that is done in faith and for the glory of God means something that is the beauty of the life of the believer that nothing doesn't matter everything matters and that should change how we live that should change our
outlook, it should give us hope, it should give us joy knowing that we operate as people who are looking forward to the full culmination of Jesus' victory. And so I just wanted to start the day with that encouragement. We've talked about some difficult things this week, some sad things when we're talking about Lake and Riley's murder and the trial that we just saw. If you need a recap on that and the details, please go back and
listen to her watch the past two episodes. And in light of what we just said, I do just want to read you part of a journal entry that was read yesterday in court before the announcement of the sentencing by her stepdad. Because even though what I'm about to read you, which is a prayer or actually a letter that Lake and Riley wrote to her future husband, even though
It didn't manifest itself in an actual future husband. I do believe that God is using something like this for his glory, something that otherwise would have always remained private is now being publicized.
He may be using it to change hearts and minds as we see just the sweetness and the gentleness and the earnestness in this letter that Lake and Riley wrote to her future husband. And if you're unfamiliar with this concept, this is something that I did. I kept the journal when I wrote letters and prayers for my future husband. This is something that is, I would say, very prevalent in the church. And so her small group leader encouraged her to write this letter. And this is just so, so sweet.
Here's what her stepdad read yesterday. To my future husband, I want you to know that I'm thinking about you. I'm working every day to become the best wife I can be. I'm working through my current relationships to best prepare me for ours and our kids one day. I'm focusing on God in what he defines as a faithful Christian life so that I can best embody those characteristics. I pray that you know it is with my full faith and trust in God that I know this relationship has been handcrafted by him.
I pray that we continue to glorify the Lord, prioritizing Him in every aspect of our lives, and raise our family, our future family, to be God-fearing Christians as well. I pray God is at the center of our relationship as it is a gift from Him. I thank Him for you before I even know you and can't wait to love you in the best way I know how for the rest of our lives.
I pray you know and feel the importance of my love and hopes for our relationship. No matter what challenges we face, I pray that are trusting God and love for one another overrules the obstacle. May our relationship last forever, your future wife, Laken.
And of course, Lacon's life was ended when she was just 22 years old and our minds far too early. And of course, very unjustly by a person who should not have been here in the first place. And as I said yesterday, I just feel this burden to say, I'm sorry to Lacon because
We failed her in so many ways. The people who were tasked to protect our country to keep us safe didn't they failed and let that be a reminder of the effect of policy that the politicians you elect and the priorities they have the policies they believe in. They have a real effect on people.
They have a real effect on people's lives. But I take comfort that somehow in the midst of this mess that God is glorifying himself, that God is going to use her faith and her joy to bring others to himself because that's what he does. What Satan means for evil, God uses for good. That's just how he works. He is in the business of redemption. He is in the business of bringing beauty out of ashes.
And I pray that. I pray that he is glorified beyond what we can even comprehend. And I pray for her sweet parents, her mom. I saw the body cam footage yesterday. It's just so devastating when they found out that she had been murdered. Oh, my goodness. Just.
absolutely devastating. I mean, I can't imagine as a mom, just the pain of what that was and the sadness that she displayed in the courtroom, please pray for her family. Please pray for her friends who are understandably struggling and traumatized. Please pray that they would have the peace that passes all understanding. Pray that this would inspire courage in the American people.
that it would inspire courage in our politicians to secure our border to enact righteous policy, which is to put the well-being of your citizens first. That is their God-given responsibility. Pray that they do that. Pray for this person, Ibarah, who while he showed no remorse whatsoever that I could see,
In the courtroom, pray that God would turn his heart of stone into a heart of flesh because God can do that. I mean, if Jesus can change the heart and the life of Paul from someone who delighted in the murder of Christians to the greatest evangelist that the world has ever seen, then he can change Jose Ibarra's heart. As I've said, he should get the death penalty.
Someone should share the gospel with him, and he should have the opportunity to respond, and then he should be executed. He's not going to be, as we talked about yesterday, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, and it is unjust that he gets to live out the remainder of his days until his natural death, and Laken does not.
that is not justice, that he gets an upgrade from his life in Venezuela, funded by taxpayers, three free square meals a day for him, clothing, comforts, a place that is cool in the summer and warm in the winter, not to say that prison is easy, but it's probably easier than the streets of Venezuela. And so really he has been given a great grace.
And she has had to suffer. And her life ended prematurely while his will go on presumably for decades. That is not justice. The God who is justice in Genesis 9, 6, says the death penalty is the proportionate punishment for murder because we are made in God's image. And one day Jesus is coming back and Psalm 37 tells us that he is going to do away with evil and evil doers.
One day we will have no more injustice. One day we will have no more murder. We will have no more trials. We will have no more tribulation. We won't have any sickness or sadness or oppression or violence or injustice because we will live in the fullness of Jesus's rule and his victory. And so let us have hope in that and let Lake and Riley's family have hope in that as well.
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Okay, I want to talk about this crew email crew campus crusade for Christ. We have talked about their leftward drift for a while. We talked about their curriculum that we got access to where they were basically presenting theological liberalism, political liberalism as a viable option.
for their ministry leaders. Things like pronoun, politeness, they even presented affirmation of transgenderism, not as Cruz's own position, but as a position that some Christians might hold. And of course, they have been very supportive of the social racial justice movement over the past few years. And so there has absolutely been a progressive
trajectory of crew for a while, which is really such a shame because it's an organization that has positively changed very many lives. But after the election, they kind of played this mushy middle role that they've been playing for a while pretending that voting for Kamala Harris.
is like a viable okay option for Christians and that we should defer to the sadness of Christians and feel for the sadness of Christians who are disappointed that Kamala Harris who rapidly and enthusiastically supported abortion through all nine months of pregnancy lost. So here's the summary of what went on.
In response to the 2024 election results, Cruz oneness and diversity national team sent a letter to what is believed based on which staff members did or did not receive it to be their list of minority and BIPOC staff members titled oneness is a truth and a journey. The letter sought to help them with the spectrum of feelings following Trump's victory, but mostly focused on feelings of anger and grief. So the problem is first that they
send it out to racial minorities only and this is just something that we see in the legacy of 2020. A lot of Christian leaders doing this pretending that black and brown Christians have to get one message and it's a message of
of comfort, and I would say coddling, and then the white members have to get another message. And that is a message of you bear all of the sense and the responsibilities of everyone who has roughly the same skin color as you, not just those who live today, but also those who lived 200 years ago, whether you were related to them or not. And so on the one hand, you are giving white people all of the agency and responsibility in the world.
and then you're giving black and brown people no agency whatsoever, not only for what their ancestors did or didn't do, but even for what they do or do not do, which of course is just like not the gospel. The truth is that both sides need to hear you are responsible for your actions. You are not responsible for the sins of your ancestors. You're not responsible
even for the victories and successes of your ancestors. You are not judged by these things, but you are judged by your own heart. And are you regenerate by grace through faith in Christ or not? You don't carry the burden of the actions of your fathers and grandfathers. Like, that is the truth. But unfortunately, there were disparate messages, two different gospels that were presented to these crowds.
by Christians who claim to be building the bridge and claim to be advocates of racial reconciliation. And the idea was that racial reconciliation could only be accomplished if white people bore the sins of people who looked like them 200 years ago and black people had no responsibility to take ownership of their own sins or
their own bitterness or their own anger or their own resentment. And that was just never going to work. That was never ever going to work. I've told you the rules in the Facebook group be the bridge, which basically told white people to sit down and shut up. And I've given the specific rules in my book, Toxic Empathy, you can read. So I'm not just
making this up, and I've written about it, talked about it before, but said that, you know, black and brown people, you can cuss and wail at white people, but white people, you can't respond in kind, you can't defend yourself, you can't say that you're not racist or that you did not intend something racially insensitive in what you said, you just have to take it. And black and brown people, you can say whatever you want to. That was some people's definition.
of racial reconciliation, and it's all hogwash. It is literally of Satan. That is a doctrine of demons. And I even heard the head of Be the Bridge one time she gave an analogy. Her name is Latasha Morrison. She said, you know, if you wrecked my car, I expect you to pay for it.
Well, I direct your car. None of us did. So none of us are responsible to pay for. That's the whole idea of reparations that somehow white people, all white people of varying shades and varying backgrounds and varying ethnicities are responsible.
to pay money to people who are black or brown of all different backgrounds and nationalities and ethnicities, like by what standard? You're not going to find a biblical standard of that. So anyway, I know that was kind of like a tangent unrelated to Cruz specifically, but I just wanted to give you context for what that whole movement looked like.
because it seems like crew is still kind of playing a part in that idea. Oneness and diversity team is crew's effort to bring in staff members that represent diversity in ethnicity, gender, and generation. Their website reads, while real differences exist among Christians about how to approach questions of race, ethnicity, and culture,
We believe there is much more that unites us as followers of Jesus. Oneness in our ethnic and cultural diversity reflects God's heart. And the Bible provides the categories we need to navigate historic and contemporary challenges related to ethnicity, culture, and race at the same time. The oneness and diversity presentation of the 2022 crew all staff conference also detailed their strategy for multiplying BIPOC and female leaders.
So they're incorporating DEI racial gender quota racial and gender quotas in order to reflect more diversity. It's interesting how diversity only applies to skin color, it seems.
white people are diverse. Black people are diverse in and of themselves. We all come from different backgrounds, different nationalities, different ancestors, different people, different socioeconomic classes. Why does diversity just of Mellon and count carry so much more? Wait, obviously it has carried weight historically, unfortunately, in certain forms of institutionalized discrimination. But when it comes to biblical reconciliation and oneness,
Like we need the gospel which tears down all different kinds of walls of hostility, but this DEI quote a nonsense is not going to get us there. So here's the post-election letter to this group that crew sent.
Why? See, this is also just psychotherapy nonsense, this idea that all feelings are valid. It's not true. Some feelings are valid. All feelings exist if you have them. But they're not all valid. Valid means rooted in truth. If you are seething with rage that Kamala Harris didn't become president, I don't think that's a valid feeling. You might feel frustration or disappointment.
you might feel relieved. You might feel fear, betrayal, anger, or a number of any other emotions. These are all real emotions, and we encourage you not to minimize what you're feeling, but to process them in a healthy way. Sometimes the best way to process an emotion is to tell it to submit to Jesus. To say, okay, my emotions might not be rooted in truth. My emotions might exist, but
They shouldn't guide me, and they don't need to be stewed on. That is the problem with SEL today. It makes us think too much about our emotions to our own detriment and the detriment of others. Talk to safe people about your feelings. Safe people. Journal and pray. Unplug from social media. That's not the worst piece of advice ever.
We are one in Christ and also continually pursuing oneness with our fellow believers through the power of the Holy Spirit. The journey is not always easy and right now, and right now it's flat out difficult. The letter also points to a devotional written by their spiritual care coordinators titled, Heart Examination. The devotional begins with the Bible passage on grief. Isaiah 53, 3, grounding and deep breaths.
and then a message on grief and anger. The letter ends, we love you and are in this with all of you. So the assumption there is that a tragedy has befallen the black and brown members of campus crusade for Christ and to validate and affirm
and even deepen their anger and sadness. I would not be opposed to a letter sent to everyone saying, no matter how you feel about this election, our hope is in Christ and he rules and
That's what we are looking forward to. I mean, I even think they would say like we celebrate that someone is in office who will protect our border. We celebrate someone who is in office who will allow states to pass laws that protect the lives of unborn children.
We celebrate that the person who wanted to institutionalize men and girls bathrooms and sports and locker rooms lost. We celebrate the fact that the woman who believed in institutionalizing taxpayer funded abortion through all nine months lost. Like, I think that those would be biblical positions. I don't even think those would be primarily political. I'd be fine with that. But even if they didn't want to go there, either no email at all.
or just an email saying, Jesus is king and we celebrate him for that. And like we are moving forward with the mission of crew, I think that would be fine. But basically validating people's mourning.
that the person who enabled Lake and Riley's murder and gleefully prosecuted pro-life journalists and tried to force pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion laws, like I just don't see the Christian basis for something like that. I simply do not.
They have a history of problematic things when it comes to this oneness and diversity ethnic minority and BIPOC ministry fund. They created this ethnic ministry fund crew did where donors can specifically give money to fund the ministry of ethnic minorities and BIPOC staff.
This was contentious because it allowed minority staff members to receive supplemental funding rather than being required to raise all their own support regardless of their socioeconomic status or location. So, for example, a white staff member from a poor community with, on average, less wealthy donors might struggle more to raise support than a black staff member from a rich suburb
only because the staff member was black. So he got that supplemental funding because of this ethnic diversity fund, even if he was rich, even if it was one of Michelle and Barack Obama's daughters that decided that they were going to work for crew, like they would get this supplemental funding, whereas the poor guy from Appalachia who didn't have any rich donors to go to for money, he wouldn't get this supplemental funding. So this is what I'm talking about.
When I am describing the partiality that crew is playing a role in a partiality that got hates by the way got hates partiality The website says partners of the ethnic minority fun play crucial role in ensuring minority staff members are fully supported Help us ensure we have the right ministers in place to serve people from diverse
backgrounds. I'm not saying actually that there is not a need for someone who looks like a community to go there and to be their minister. I do think there's something to that. We can all say that there shouldn't be, but I think that's just kind of human nature that maybe a black minister would be able to effectively minister to a black community better. Let me say that again.
maybe a black minister would be able to better minister to black community. I think there's something to that, but you're basically punishing white people who want to be a part of your ministry by not giving them extra funding and
I just don't think that's good. I don't think that that is the impartiality that God calls, that God calls Christians too. All right, we've got a little bit more on this in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor for the day. And that is Magic Spoon. So if you love cereal, like chief related bro, and I do, but you don't want to be eating all the sugar and all the carbs and all of that, every time you want to bowl a cereal, then you need to check out
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We're just going to end on a little bit of a lighthearted note today. And this has to do with Taylor Swift, our girl Taylor Swift, just kidding. I don't really mean our girl. Bree is not even in the room right now. So she doesn't have to know that you and I see the problems with Taylor Swift.
and the negative influence that she has on tens of millions of young women, especially with her, like, innocent persona. We understand. It's very damaging. But she did suggest this story because she can, even though she is a Swiftie herself,
She can laugh at the ridiculous, progressive things that she does or the things that happen at her concert. So she kicked off the final leg of her long-running heiress tour at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada on Thursday before she hit the stage.
This massive sign, we'll put the picture up, appeared on the main screen, which read this. We acknowledge that we are performing today at Rogers Center, located on Treaty 13 lands, traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. What?
And the, is that really what it says of the credit and the traditional home of many other nations, including the Anishana Beg, the Harinasani, the Chippewa, and the Wendat peoples.
We acknowledge the First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples whose original and treaty territories we stand upon. And then she comes out and she says, let's get started. Like, it's just so ridiculous. It's just a giant virtue signal. This doesn't do anything. And maybe that's why they do it because they know that it's going to
Save them some, you know, some criticism by doing this kind of thing. Look, every single land on earth has been conquered at some point. The Indian tribes were warring each other long before Christopher Columbus came to America. They were stealing land from each other in very torturous and barbarous and violent ways. By the way,
this idea that the indigenous people to the United States were these like peaceful groups that just honored each other's land and their territories is just not true. America was just another conqueror and a long land or a long line of
Conquers what difference does it really make if tribes are warring against each other for their land and a foreign invader comes in and Wars for their land? I mean, it's not Christopher Columbus's fault that they were very that they were
far more equipped than the indigenous people. And so I just find this acknowledgement quite, quite silly, this idea that we've heard over and over again that we have to give land back to the indigenous people. Well, unfortunately, the reservations are some of the poorest and most crime-ridden, dangerous places in the United States.
And you know who suffers from that? Women and children because alcoholism, the drug use, the abuse, the driving wall intoxicated that happens in many of these reservations, especially in places like Oklahoma, it's tragic. I mean, the child abuse is rampant in many of these places because they are not run by the same laws. They are not given the same kind of accountability as people who live
outside of those reservations. That's something that the Supreme Court decided several years ago, and that was just a social justice move that they hoped would appease the Indigenous people, and it's actually made their lives a lot worse, and that's because social justice kills, and children are always the unconcepting, subjective, progressive social experiments. So on the altar of social justice, the lives and safety of kids and women on these reservations,
have been rescued should go back and listen to a couple years ago. I did an episode about this with Naomi Riley and we'll put the link in the description where she did a lot of research. What is really happening on these reservations and like this rhetoric that we just need to give more and more land back like is that really benefiting these indigenous people? No, I certainly don't think so and I don't think that the data bears
that out. So just more silly virtue signaling by Taylor Swift. Bree is back. Oh, we only had positive things to say about Taylor Swift. Bree, don't worry. We didn't say anything bad about her. Don't tell her. Okay. Last sponsor for the day before we had out.
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All right, guys, just a reminder, we will not be here next week. We will have a new episode on Monday, but then we might have a replay on Tuesday. I can't remember if we decided on that, but then no episode Wednesday or Thursday and then we will be back the next week, but the relatable crew is taking a little bit of a break. If you are looking for something to read,
over your holiday breaks then check out toxic empathy. It's on audible read by yours truly, but it's also on Amazon. I'm very grateful that it was a New York Times bestseller. I underestimated how relevant everything in the book would still be.
After the election, we're getting a lot of propaganda, a lot of guilt trips from your progressive or mushy middle friends about why you voted for Donald Trump. Well, if you want to be able to defend your beliefs, your conservative Christian worldview, then please get toxic empathy and also I encourage you to get your not enough and that's okay. That's a more theological.
book, but I think it lays a really good basis before you read toxic empathy. And it's also a good one, a good starter for those who maybe aren't where you are politically yet. You're trying to get them to kind of shift their thinking just about the world and themselves and morality. I would encourage my pink book first. You're not enough and that's okay.
All of them, both of them are available wherever books are sold. Okay, guys, I am thankful for you. I will be thanking God for you guys over Thanksgiving break. This has been just an incredible year. So much has happened. We've grown so much. And it's all because of the grace of God and y'all.
Thank you for always sharing the arrows with me for your encouragement, for your prayers and for your love. I've got the best audience in the world and I'm just praying that you would have a safe and wonderful, healthy and peaceful Thanksgiving. See you guys when we get back.
