Point of View May 13, 2025 – Hour 2 : The Millennial Round Table

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View. And now your host for the Millennial Round Table, Chelsea Yolen.

[00:00:22] Well, welcome back to our second hour of the Millennial Round Table. Our first hour was really a strong hour, an exciting one. We had a new guest with us. His name is Will Barclay. So don't forget to go to pointofview.net or like us on Point of View Radio on Facebook and watch the last hour. We're continuing on now with Liberty McCarter. You know her well as the Point of View writer and the president of the Know Why podcast.

[00:00:46] But joining us this second hour, we have Ethan Watson, who is no stranger to the show anymore. He's been an excellent addition over the last year. We're so grateful to have you with us today, Ethan. Thank you so much for having me, Chelsea. Always a pleasure. I'm excited to really cover some topics today. We're going to turn to a diverse array of topics. We went from an international discussion. We're going very domestic now.

[00:01:10] We want to talk about the new director of the DOJ. Her name you probably know by now, but if you don't, her name is Pam Bondi. And she has made yet another claim on the Epstein files. And I want to talk about the Epstein files. I don't actually think it's a topic we've discussed much on this show. And I think it's significant. It's a significant topic, not because it's conspiratorial or giant mystery.

[00:01:37] I think it's an important topic because there is mounting evidence that not only is the deep state involved. And by that, I mean the FBI, CIA and intelligence agencies. I also mean the elite, both economic elite and political elite. And we all have heard the ties between all of those elite and Epstein.

[00:01:58] It's not something we've talked about a lot, but, you know, Ethan, I want to raise the significance of this issue because the longer it takes for the DOJ to perform on the promises made by President Trump and his administration that they were going to release more files, we were going to get names of the elite. What has ended up happening is Ghislaine Maxwell, who was President Epstein, sorry, not President Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein's right hand woman.

[00:02:25] She's become the scapegoat since he was killed in his cell or committed suicide, depending on how you view that topic. You know, we really have his aiding and abetting partner, his conspiratorial partner with him in prison, and none of those who were actually also committing the crimes and utilized them. And so because of that, it's significant to me.

[00:02:51] Ethan, I just love your high-level thoughts on whether or not you think this is a significant issue. Do you think it's getting overplayed? Is it something we, you know, should spend our time on? Well, Chelsea, I don't think you can overplay the idea of a, you know, a pedophile ring of billionaires and elitists. I think that is, you know, it's impossible to overstate how horrific that might be. But I think there's a couple problems with this. First of all, when the Trump administration makes a promise, I expect them to stick to it.

[00:03:21] I'm backing this administration behind a lot of their policy initiatives, but this is very typical Trump administration. They like to make these big promises and throw in these household names to these positions, and then they just chase a bunch of boondoggles and publicity stunts that don't really accomplish the objectives. I'm sure we all remember when all the Trump influencers were at the White House with the binders full of nothing. And I really just, I found that to be insulting. I thought that was like a red herring.

[00:03:46] And as someone who's interested in finding out which of our elites were engaging in these actions, I was insulted by that one. And really what's going on here is they're just breeding more conspiracy theories. Because when you act like you have a secret to keep, people are going to naturally raise their eyebrows and say, what are you hiding from us? So, of course, they're asking questions. No one can be shocked by that. And I just want to get to the bottom of this one for sure. I love what you're alluding to.

[00:04:12] I always say light is the best disinfectant, and that's because I spent much of my career suing the government. And every single time we went to sue the government, if we did a public display, whether that was through a PR firm or the news, or we just shed light onto what the government was doing, all of a sudden the government starts acting. And so I think transparency is a core pillar of conservatism. Transparency in government is the only way we truly know we are free.

[00:04:40] We need to know what our government is doing, let alone, of course, all the important things you mentioned. Liberty, I don't know if you and I have ever really discussed the Epstein issue. I tend to agree with Ethan that the kind of red herring, the release, we were going to release all these documents in these white binders to independent journalists who took days to even upload what was ultimately in those binders, which was nothing. I would call that a debacle. And they, you know, I think thought that they were going to get away with that.

[00:05:08] And now it's been 70 days since we were promised a secondary release. And there's a question, Liberty, on whether they have anything to release at all. And she is now claiming that the precipice for this article is that Pam Bondi is now saying, well, there's tens of thousands of videos and child pornography and all these horrific things that the FBI is now investigating. And, you know, the real question is we just want really some defendants.

[00:05:34] We want to know who besides Ghislaine Maxwell should be in prison right now. And the longer they take to do that, in my estimation, Liberty, the more it looks like they are, in fact, interested parties. Right. If you're a neutral arbiter of this and you're the DOJ charged with investigating even your own deep state, the longer you take to give that transparency, the more it looks like you have something to hide. Right. I totally agree.

[00:06:02] I agree with Ethan as well. You know, I think there are a few potential realities here. One, we know that, as Ethan said as well, President Trump tends to overpromise. He, you know, he's going to end a war in two days. He's going to release all these files. Everybody's going to be richer than they've ever been. And he makes a lot of big promises that just realistically can't always be followed through on.

[00:06:31] So it could be that he overpromised and that it truly is taking time to go through all of that. And then you have, you know, others trying to catch up to keep up with his promise. But it's taking more time. However, I would say a caveat to that is it might take a long time to do a full investigation. But would it really take that much time to identify and release some of the big names, the big defendants, like you said, Chelsea? I don't think so. But, again, I don't know.

[00:07:01] I think the other option is that there are government interests here. Some are saying that, you know, the deep state or the CIA or the FBI was actually working with Epstein. So he was potentially working for them. So maybe there are, you know, secrets, classified information, security interests that certain parties don't want to be revealed. Maybe there are government figures themselves who they don't want to be revealed.

[00:07:29] Maybe there's conflict inside the Trump administration, which the transition has been a little bit chaotic, even in the intelligence community itself. So I think that there are multiple potential realities here. But President Trump has told the American people that he wants to drain the swamp. And so if he doesn't, you know, deliver on that promise and if his administration is not transparent, then it seems like he's actually just defending the swamp and a part of it. And honestly, that wouldn't surprise me.

[00:07:58] Yeah, to me, the most significant part of this Miami Herald article was at the very end, Alexander Acosta, who is the former U.S. attorney in Florida, he oversaw Epstein's controversial 2008 plea deal. He stated during his vetting with the Trump administration for a position that he was told, and I quote, that Epstein belonged to intelligence. And so for me, if we're wondering why, why the delay, why all these things?

[00:08:24] The difficulty is that our oversight administration is in charge of overseeing itself, if that is the case, that the DOJ is supposed to be prosecuting crimes. You know, if they're tied to the crimes, it's going to look like a different investigation. Don't go anywhere after this short break.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. During the pandemic, we unfortunately learned how much of our medicine was manufactured in China. As a recent article reminds us, the current trade war with China is yet another reminder of China's chokehold on U.S. medicine. Five years later, not much has changed. It is time to plan for a future that isn't so dependent upon China. Rosemary Gibson explains that this is a man-made problem, but a fix is possible.

[00:09:25] She is co-author of China Rx, exposing the risk of America's dependence on China for medicine. She warns we have a system that is perfectly designed for catastrophic failure and significant loss of human life, and that has to change. She laments, we can't make antibiotics anymore in this country from beginning to end. We can't make penicillin. We can't make those antibiotics needed to treat septus, which can kill you. We can't make the antibiotics to treat pneumonia or sexually transmitted diseases.

[00:09:54] The reason is simple. After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China flooded the market with cheap penicillin raw materials. The goal was to drive producers and other countries out of the market. Once China was able to dominate the market, they raised prices. The U.S. relies on China for 95 percent of the key ingredients that are necessary for generic drugs, and even if we are no longer reliant on China, we would still need to purchase drugs from countries that rely on China for critical materials.

[00:10:22] That is why President Trump complained last month, we don't make our own drugs anymore. That is why his administration wants to reshore critical industries. Bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the U.S. won't be quick or simple, but we cannot continue to put our health in the hands of these Chinese leaders. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet, A Biblical View on Inflation, go to viewpoints.info slash inflation. That's viewpoints.info slash inflation. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable, where I am joined by Ethan Watson and Liberty McCarter.

[00:11:11] We are turning from our hot take on the Epstein files, or failure to release them, I should say, by the DOJ, to another topic which I want to talk about, which is a brand new, I don't think we can call it study, but data that came out about the abortion drugs. Very telling. Before we turn there, though, I want to really talk about something that has been such a great resource, not just to me, not just to Liberty, but to our Point of View family broadly,

[00:11:40] and that is Kirby Anderson's viewpoint commentaries. He does five a week, and Penna Dexter, who you know well on this show, she does one as well. And even if you aren't familiar with them, you can go sign up for them on the website, pointofview.net, and he really talks about, in concise ways, daily, current events. And he does that from a biblical worldview. One comes out each day. It's somewhere between one and a few paragraphs.

[00:12:07] The commentary is sent to your inbox, but Kirby really does it best. He's seen a lot in his decades of experience, and I know we all have a lot to benefit from his wisdom and intelligence. He's a brainiac. He'll never tell you, but he's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. So go to pointofview.net and download and sign up for Kirby and Penna's viewpoint commentaries. We are turning now our discussion towards a study that came out, I think it was a week and a half, maybe two weeks ago.

[00:12:36] It was very timely for me personally in my career because I am working in state legislatures as we speak to combat mail-order abortion drugs. We've talked a lot on this show about how women now, now over 63% of all abortions are done through a pill that comes in the mail in states like Texas or Oklahoma or Louisiana where life is protected and children are protected. Women now just go online and order these drugs, which even the FDA on their main website says not to do because they're fraught with danger.

[00:13:06] These drugs are one of 65 that includes what they call black box with REMS guidance. It's a major warning for side effects and complications, one of 65 drugs. So when you hear they're as safe as taking an Advil, I always say Advil doesn't cause hemorrhage, fallopian tube rupture if you're ectopic, sepsis, or even death. So we're not talking about the same ballgame that the abortion industry is alluding to.

[00:13:31] What was important is a study came out a couple years ago by APLOG that did an analysis on ER visits and how many women are actually going to the ER. And why this independent group had to do that study is because the FDA does not require any reporting of adverse events on the abortion drugs. No complications have to be reported. They actually have no idea what's going on on the ground

[00:13:59] because they don't require any reporting of physicians or ER doctors outside of death, of course. So what happened is that study was debunked because the abortion industry came hard for everybody in that study. And in the meantime, this is quite the background, but I promise it's worth it. We've had some groups, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, EPPC, say, all right, if the left is going to do data wars and science wars, we're not going to bother in a longitudinal study and peer review.

[00:14:28] What we're going to do is just look at the data itself. We're going to look at raw data from Medicaid reporting, hospital reporting, and insurance claims. That's just raw data. And what they found is, guys, these drugs are 22% more dangerous than the FDA has originally said. It's astounding what has come out about this. And so I wanted to ask you, we'll start with you, Ethan. You know, were you surprised when you saw this study?

[00:14:57] What were some of the mainstream points that stuck out to you? No, I absolutely was not surprised by the information you just talked about at all because, I mean, the abortion industry doesn't exist to protect women. We've known that for a while, right? I mean, we know that 97% of pregnant women go to Planned Parenthood or sold abortion. It's not really about helping the women. It's about giving them abortions and perpetuating this pretty nefarious act.

[00:15:23] So I'm not surprised at all that actually women's best interests aren't at heart behind the makers of these abortion drugs. I'm not shocked by that in the slightest. And really, I think that's just another nail in the coffin of abortion is health care narrative because you could already really argue against it and say that, you know, how could it be health care if it's ending a potential human life? But now it's also ending another life in addition to the child that's being killed by the drug.

[00:15:49] And so I really don't see how you could argue that it's health care, and I think it's intellectually dishonest to say so. One more point I wanted to call out, though, is when you said that Republicans and pro-life activists looked at the data that came out and said, you know, we're not going to bother with our own longitudinal study. I actually respect that take a lot because I think for too long we've gotten into the weeds with data and statistics,

[00:16:13] and you can make data and statistics show you whatever point of view, whatever conclusion that you want. Let's engage on this issue on a moral level, which is where it belongs, just one of the most fundamental moral issues of our time. So let's meet them on the moral battlefield where I think right and wrong becomes a lot more clear. Right. I love that you're saying that because I think a lot of the discussion around not just this data that has come out is centered around do the abortion drugs harm women or not?

[00:16:42] And really what the Supreme Court justice is, when I saw the ADF challenge to the FDA over Mifepristone, this first drug in the regiment last March, I was at those oral arguments. You know, really the chief justice hit it home. He said, how much harm is enough for you guys? I mean, how many women have to die, have to go septic, have to go have surgical intervention at the ER? You know, at what point does it rise to the level of mattering to the abortion industry?

[00:17:06] And I think it's as simple for me, Liberty, as saying the abortion industry is going to discard women as easily as they discard their human children. And, you know, a lot of this conversation is around the woman, because I think culturally and politically, it's almost all people care about is the woman in this discussion.

[00:17:27] But, you know, as a pro-life advocate, I want to say these drugs cannot inherently be considered safe when they result in the death of a human child every time they're taken. When they're taken, we have a human body at the end of it. And that is something that doesn't get said a lot in these conversations. I think the pro-life movement is fighting that battle. But culturally, Liberty, why did that not resonate enough with people? You know, this is a deep question.

[00:17:51] But culturally, people want to talk about women being harmed by these drugs, which is important. But I hate how much we always have to separate the woman from the child. And I want to reject that and say there's no child apart from woman and there's no mother apart from child. So they are one, particularly in this instance. So take it away, Liberty.

[00:18:10] Yeah, that is such a good point, Chelsea, because for so long, the pro-life movement has had to fight to not necessarily prove because pro-lifers prove it every day in the work that they do to care for women. But to really justify that we actually are the ones who care about the woman and her baby. But why does the baby not seem to matter in culture? And I think it comes down to the question of personhood.

[00:18:36] And it is, you know, a lot easier for somebody to deny the personhood of somebody that's not walking around in front of them, that's not, you know, physically visible to everybody else. And then there starts to be this, you know, comparison where people say, OK, hey, actually, I do care about unborn life. But are you saying that the unborn life matters more than the mother's life?

[00:19:01] Because, you know, the mother is this old and the unborn baby, you know, they haven't really started life yet. But and I think all of that is just but this is the point, which all comes back to the biblical worldview, that human beings are made in the image of God.

[00:19:18] And it is not up to us to make these determinations about how big or how old or how capable a human person has to or human being has to be in order to meet the qualification of person. Human beings matter because we're made in the image of God. And as far as we can, we should try to protect life of adults, of the young, of the elderly. And so that that is the argument that we need to be articulating.

[00:19:47] But it's hard whenever we're talking to people who don't have that same biblical foundation. Agreed. Agreed. I mean, I wish that we as a culture could get past this idea of, you know, someone's intellect or development phase. Or I mean, really, if you start to parse out any one characteristic and say that a person is defined by that characteristic, their size, their development, their age, their intellect, their race, their sex. I mean, you extrapolate that. And that's why we have the 14th Amendment that says we're all equal persons of dignity.

[00:20:17] Because once you start to define who has dignity and who does not, who is valued as a human or who is not, we've gotten into a whole host of historical just tragedies with that. You name it, whether that's slavery or the Holocaust or genocides or, you know, any any people group that can be designated as subhuman and not worthy of protection by society. That's a minority faction.

[00:20:46] Getting back to our Federalist Papers, you know, they're they're a vulnerable people group and they're vulnerable of eradication because they don't, after all, have a voice or a vote or a way mechanism to defend themselves, particularly in the case of the unborn. So I always want to talk about this when we get back after our break here in just a minute. We're going to talk about the Planned Parenthood report that came out this week. It surprised even me. And so I want to make sure that we talk about some staggering statistics that came out of it.

[00:21:14] And then after that, we're going to be turning to a little bit of a cultural discussion on the role of compassion and the Christian church from, of course, our millennial perspective. Don't go anywhere after this break. Have you subscribed to the Viewpoints commentary? No. Well, you're missing out on an essential free resource straight from Point of Views, Kirby Anderson.

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[00:23:10] And now, here again, Chelsea Yeoman. Well, welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable. I am joined on our second hour by Ethan Watson and Liberty McCarter. Don't forget to go to pointofview.net where you can watch our last hour and our conversation related to President Trump's really inaugural trip to the Middle East for major discussions there, as well as news on the Epstein files.

[00:23:35] And then we're going to continue our discussion now, ending our hour with Planned Parenthood news and really just an idea of the Christian church and how we process compassion in today's culture. So don't forget to like us on Point of View Radio. If you have not already on Facebook, that's Point of View Radio. You can leave us comments, follow us. Kirby's show is every day and I get to come about twice a month to come to the Millennial Roundtable.

[00:23:58] So if you've not tuned in to Kirby's normal Point of View Radio show, it is an absolute treat from one to three every single day. We're turning now to news that I don't look forward to. I have to be honest, every single year Planned Parenthood releases its annual report and talks about everything from where its funding comes from, how much funding it's getting to how many kids they've killed. And this year's report is no different. They have an astronomically large abortion rate.

[00:24:28] If you did not know, after Roe was overturned, the abortion rate went up to over a million children a year killed by abortion. It's the highest, by the way, abortion is the number one cause of death worldwide. And that includes if you combine the other top causes of death, things like heart disease, heart attack, like that. You know, abortion just takes the toll on everybody worldwide. But certainly that is true of America.

[00:24:56] Planned Parenthood specifically had over 402,000 deaths by abortion, 402,000 deaths. So almost half of the abortion count is Planned Parenthood. But the truth is this report mentioned, if you did not know after Roe, that they're getting more money than ever. So Planned Parenthood received 800 million in taxpayer funding. That's your taxpayer dollars that you just shipped off in April to the federal government.

[00:25:22] 800 million of those dollars are going to Planned Parenthood with over 2 million. That's 2 million daily. And their donations are also up. And so that's really I don't know if that surprises you. It was even a lot for me to take in and say, wow, in a doge world where Elon Musk has now had five months to cut federal spending, Planned Parenthood is still receiving federal dollars. So I'm going to start there.

[00:25:49] I know I'm starting heavy, guys, but I feel obviously passionate about this. So, Ethan, when you read this Planned Parenthood report, anything stand out to you in particular? Definitely, definitely. Well, obviously, that 97 percent number is ludicrous. It's almost beyond parity, right? You can't get 97 percent of people to do anything. So we're supposed to believe that 97 percent of women with unexpected pregnancies just happen to want an abortion. I think it's pretty obvious to be talked into this money-making procedure by the abortions.

[00:26:17] The other thing that I found disturbing was the House Republicans that are pushing back against defunding. So, guys, the Hyde Amendment already prohibits federal funding for abortion services. And I don't know if we need to say it louder for the people in the back, but money is fungible. It's like if I was paying for a drug addict's house, their car, their food, I've just freed up disposable money for them to use on drugs. Like, of course they're going to go do that, right? And so money is fungible. We're just covering Planned Parenthood's expenses with your money and my money so they can continue to do this very controversial procedure, if you can even call it that.

[00:26:47] That's very sanitized language. And for those Republicans that are worried about losing their purple district seats, I think that defunding is the moderate position because it moves the issue from a you-want-it-I-pay-for-it model to at least a you-want-it-you-pay-for-it model. Now, I think there's a lot of ground left to be made up there, but I would argue that that that is the middle ground position on this right now. So that's a good point. You're raising a lot here. So I like where you're headed with this. And one of these I think is going to be a deeper point,

[00:27:17] which might be if we remember during the election there were Republican Party platforms being drafted last year and the GOP reneged on pro-life platforms. You know, they were like, it's not culturally acceptable. We don't know if the people are with us, which is not the case. I think a lot of evangelicals, you know, 8 out of 10 vote Republican. This is their top issue. It's a top three issue for Republicans consistently, according to Pew Research Center, for 25 years.

[00:27:45] And so when evangelicals show up to vote, they vote on this issue. But elections have consequences, as do us reneging on party platforms. And what we're seeing is because, you know, we were not strong on that. I say we as a pro-lifer, but I should say politically Republicans were not strong on their platforms on the abortion issue. Now, downstream, what we're seeing is an administration and other Republicans and state legislatures everywhere who aren't having their feet held to the fire on this issue.

[00:28:12] And Liberty, the result of that is this Planned Parenthood is not only continuing to expand abortion more than ever, thanks to male-order abortion. They now have abortion doulas where women are getting abortions and advice, not even from medical practitioners, according to this report. And then a final thing that stood out to me was that they've turned now to what they're calling gender-affirming care, transitioning care and hormonal care, because there's a lot of money to be had in that. And they are, after all, making bank on those procedures as well.

[00:28:42] And all of this is bankrolled by our current federal government. And, you know, I know that there are a lot of groups, SBA lists, Students for Life, calling on President Trump and his administration to make a change and defund Planned Parenthood. But this report should add fuel to that fire, should it not, Liberty? I hope so, Chelsea. And I think, Ethan, it makes such a great point. When you look at Planned Parenthood's own report and how many, a record number of abortions that they are performing,

[00:29:10] even though, you know, federal dollars aren't technically funding the abortion procedures themselves, if they're still getting federal dollars, of course, it's obvious, just because of how many abortions they're still performing, that that is allowing them to continue doing this. And they are bragging that they are doing more abortions than ever, even with nearly 20 states having severely restricted abortion or even banned it.

[00:29:36] And so really, you know, it was disappointing, very disappointing to see during the election, the GOP take a weaker stance on the abortion issue. But one of the things that Trump has said is that it's a states' rights issue because Roe was overturned. And every, the states get to decide. But even what is happening currently is not consistent with his own moderate approach to abortion

[00:30:03] because you have the abortion pill being mailed to states where those states, those states have banned abortion or have severely restricted it. So abortion is illegal in those states, but women in those states are still receiving the abortion pill because it's being mailed to them. And Planned Parenthood is helping to facilitate this as well. And so if it really should be a state's issue, then Planned Parenthood, which performs almost half of the abortions that are happening in America, shouldn't receive federal dollars.

[00:30:32] That is consistent with Trump's own stated position on this issue. So I think that maybe if Republicans take that approach or lobbyists take that approach and say, hey, even if you want to be consistent with your moderate approach to abortion, the federal funding for Planned Parenthood has to go, maybe that would be the road to take there in terms of messaging. But there's no reason that we should be funding Planned Parenthood at all.

[00:30:56] From the very beginning, they have been a dark organization founded on the premise of eugenics to begin with. And so it's one bad thing after another that is harming America. There's no reason they should receive federal dollars. Yes, you don't get to say it's a state's right issue and then bankroll the issue. So hopefully you will call your elected official, call everybody who you have on your state legislator representative senate list and your federal list as well,

[00:31:26] because I think the more pressure applied, the more we'll hopefully start to see some traction there. We're going to turn now to our next topic, which is, I think, related. So that's why I wanted to talk about it here. And this is a World Magazine article that really discusses the role of compassion, not just in politics, but among Christians. And I think abortion would be a prime example where the left has gotten to maybe own that from a PR standpoint.

[00:31:54] They do, after all, have media and major platforms helping them that the right does not. But, you know, abortion is an issue, for instance, that has been coded as a compassionate issue for women. But when you really get under the hood, as we've just discussed, abortion, you know, ends the life of a child. It's actually compassionate to mom and child to let the child live.

[00:32:15] And then the right actually is the one who could, you would say, have the market on serving these women outside of abortion and helping her circumstances be improved, helping resources her, help her get a job, help her out of abusive domestic violence situations, because pro-life pregnancy centers outnumber abortion clinics four to one. And this article really starts to discuss things beyond abortion.

[00:32:40] But this kind of idea I'm giving an example of, of how what is true compassion in our society? And I think we as believers are called to be compassionate. We're called to be loving. We're called to be kind and good neighbors. But what happens when society sort of paints Christians as uncompassionate, you know, and the left virtue signals and says, you know, we are actually the party of love. If you really love your neighbor, you're going to accept all types of things. On their terms that are maybe unbiblical.

[00:33:08] And how do we navigate that as believers who do want to be compassionate and do love our neighbor and do want the gospel to spread in a world that's increasingly divisive to do so. So we're going to talk about this article when we get back after our break. Don't forget to go to pointofview.net and look up Kirby Anderson's viewpoints. These are daily commentaries that come out five days a week where he discusses politics, culture, society, you name it. He's got great insight. Don't go anywhere after this break.

[00:33:55] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth. Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable where we are turning our discussion now to discuss an article that was entitled When Compassion is Left Coded. Christians need to show true compassion and discern the word when the word is misused. Liberty, I'm going to start with you.

[00:34:18] I mean, I just introduced this topic, this idea that the left has tried to own that they are the party of compassion and that the right in general is the party of, you know, they would say legalism or harshness. Or, you know, we've all seen hashtags and the names that Christians are called. And I say Christian and conservative. I shouldn't convolute the two. But I think we as believers, our interest in this issue beyond politics is really a biblical one, isn't it, Liberty? I'd love for your take on this article.

[00:34:47] Yes, I really loved this article. I'm so glad that you highlighted it, Chelsea, because one, I can't stand it when we allow a term that is a legitimate word or principle to be co-opted by one particular ideology. I know I've talked with you about this, but I don't even like the fact that the word feminism has been co-opted by, you know, extreme left progressivism because the principle of feminism is a good thing. So I won't get into that issue.

[00:35:16] But the same thing is starting to happen with compassion. And if we aren't careful, we can be reactionary and even avoid using certain terms because we don't want to be associated with what they have now culturally become associated with. But words matter. And compassion is a biblical principle. And so I love this article, just kind of the sense of reclaiming that and say, what is biblical compassion look like?

[00:35:41] Because when Jesus was walking the earth, you had the Pharisees who really kind of had co-opted, you know, ideas like holiness or righteousness, as the article talks about. But then Jesus came and he showed what true holiness and righteousness looks like. And so and I think it's interestingly kind of ties back to what we were talking about in the first hour, even with the younger generation. I think they are drawn to compassion.

[00:36:06] But one of the reasons you see more young people who are seeking religion attracted to more conservative, theologically conservative churches or traditions is because they're starting to see, I think, that the compassion that is often talked about on the left is more of a permissiveness. And it's not really answering the hard questions.

[00:36:28] And they there is more of a richness there in biblical compassion because it doesn't just it's not permissive to just say everybody can do whatever they want. But there actually is right and wrong. And it's not just right and wrong, but it affects people's lives. And so true compassion is pointing people to the truth. It is. And that's a hard thing, because I think a lot of Christians, it's hard to be.

[00:36:54] You know, the Bible says that the gospel is divisive, right, that it will pit, you know, father against son and there will be wars over Christ. And we've seen all of that to be true. And part of it is because Christians know that God has structured things. If we trust God and we know he is good and we know he is faithful, then we know that the bounds he's drawn in the sand, the boundaries for us, that they are ultimately for the are good and the good of humanity.

[00:37:22] Just like he's drawn the boundary of the sea and the ocean, you know, boundaries are good things. And admitting, you know, with humility that we are not, in fact, perfect creatures, that whatever we feel, you know, the heart is deceitful above all things, that there is a real truth. And that in order to accept Christ as our Savior, it means that we have to admit that we are not perfect and that we have sin and that we repent and that we ask for forgiveness.

[00:37:50] And that's a humbling process and one that I don't know is intuitively loving until you understand that life is to be had on the other side of that repentance. Eternity is to be had goodness, fulfillment, regardless of your circumstances, contentment, peace, joy, love. All of that comes with that surrender. But the world just looks at the surrender piece. And I think that's where, you know, Ethan, I think that's maybe where the disconnect is.

[00:38:18] And although I'd love your input on on any of that, you know, a compassionate thing is to say maybe we don't have it all together in this sinful world. And that's countercultural. A hundred percent. I mean, Lord knows I've said that plenty of times. And I think you guys both beautifully put how the word compassion has meaning and especially it has biblical implications. I think you guys did an excellent job describing that. I want to give your viewers something very actionable.

[00:38:44] How can we as Christians and conservatives reclaim compassion from these antisocial leftists that have co-opted the word? The first thing you have to understand to do that is this is not a new trick. The leftists always like to take the side of the people on the societal fringes, the people that feel like they haven't been as successful as they should be. If you're trying to fundamentally change a place, you start with the people on the outside. Whether that's perceived or real, that's up for debate. A good example of this is the Haitian slave revolt.

[00:39:12] They went to the enslaved people and said, look, you know, we are going to overturn these social hierarchies. We're the compassionate ones. We're advocating for you. As soon as that revolt happened, the Haitians found themselves enslaved by the other blacks after the Haitian revolution. The people who are at the bottom of the totem pole are always the ones who suffer from this leftism. So it's not compassionate in the slightest. Now, you might be asking yourself, what can we do about this, right? If we find ourselves in a conversation with one of these, you know, blue-haired revolutionaries, how do we defend ourselves?

[00:39:40] And you know they're going to start slinging isms like they're going out of style. I'm going to take the George Kennan approach. He said we should contain the Soviet Union. I say we contain these performative empaths. Don't engage them on their premises. Because the minute you utter the words, I'm not racist or I'm not homophobic and here's why, you've already lost the argument. You're backfitted and you've accepted that the real problem is the ism of the day instead of something deeper like economics, like family values, like religion, like culture. So don't engage with those intellectually dishonest people.

[00:40:10] Don't let them into your circles. Don't give them the time of day. Laugh at them when they come to destroy you. Because really what leftism does under the guise of compassion, it doesn't steal from the rich and give to the poor. It steals from the rich and gives to themselves. You gave so much there. Ethan, we've got to slow down. OK, I'm taking notes as fast as I can. But this is this is really good. I like your idea of actionable. You know, first, I would say there's two categories. There's people who do we care.

[00:40:38] Do we care what the left has to say, whether they call us compassionate or not? And if if you do care, then that's where we're engaging, Ethan, in what you're saying, which is I think we have our own stories to lead with. You know, I think the Republicans can often lean on facts, lean on data, lean on, you know, maybe more academic conversations. But when we're talking about this warm and fuzzy feeling of what's compassionate and what's not, we have our own stories.

[00:41:06] And we should be telling those stories. And I don't know that the GOP or Republicans do quite as good of a job of bringing stories to the forefront to focus. One of the areas they have done this, I would say, would be the immigration crisis, because, you know, the left would say it's it's uncompassionate to deport people. And the right would say, well, allowing human trafficking to flourish is probably the most heinous thing you can do outside of straight murder and that the most compassionate thing you can do is protect these children.

[00:41:35] But we haven't led with the children. And I would say, you know, that's an example of what you're describing. I hope, Ethan, which is for us to say, how do we have these conversations culturally? Because it's not enough just to win. We want to win hearts and minds. And we want to we want culture to come along with us. And I would say that it's swinging that way. Do you have anything to add on that front, Ethan? Yes, absolutely. I think I think a great example of this would be the president of Trump's State of the Union address recently.

[00:42:05] Generally, it's a lot of pageantry and sort of gimmicks. But I think he did a really good job of showing the human side of people that benefit from Republican policies. And, of course, it wrong footed Democrats for not clapping for the childhood cancer patient, for example. But it also showed that, hey, there's a lot of compassion on this side of the aisle as well. And I think the proof is in the pudding. It's taboo to say it. But the leftist policies that we've seen in this country haven't even helped the people that they purported to help.

[00:42:32] It hasn't been exactly compassionate for the supposed beneficiaries of the civil rights movement. I don't think those communities have been improved. And so I think I think it's time for these people who want to help people who are disenfranchised or had a bad run of it. I think it's time for them to maybe maybe try something new and see maybe a little bit of order, a little bit of authority and a little bit of faith, family and freedoms. Exactly what the doctor ordered here. Well said. Well, thank you, Ethan. Thank you, Liberty, for joining us on the Millennial Roundtable today.

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