WEBVTT 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:07.760 Welcome to the second QA episode of the At Any Cost podcast. 00:00:07.760 --> 00:00:11.600 Tonight I have a number of questions already prepared that I took 00:00:11.600 --> 00:00:14.960 from last week, mostly, some of them from this week as well, 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:18.320 and I will try to get through at least a number of 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:21.440 them, perhaps not all of them, there are quite a few. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.160 Getting a little feedback there. 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:27.440 But I will get right into it since there are quite a 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:28.240 few questions here. 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:31.760 I will also pull up the chat just so that I have 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:32.400 that there. 00:00:32.400 --> 00:00:35.120 Of course it's spread across four different websites, so makes it a 00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:39.280 little harder, but the first question, you wrote that fascism is a 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:40.800 step towards monarchy. 00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:44.960 What are the things that successful fascist movements have in common? 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:48.720 What are the mistakes which need to be avoided? 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:53.920 I think when it comes to fascist movements, it's important first to 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:57.360 note that fascism is sort of an umbrella term. 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:01.920 I use it essentially to mean anything that is right wing and 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:07.280 authoritarian. Not totalitarian, but right wing and authoritarian. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.120 Which of course is going to make some people a little annoyed 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:16.400 because they use fascism to mean something specific historically, a specific ideology 00:01:16.880 --> 00:01:21.840 usually contrasted with national socialism and other things like that, but I 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:26.960 use it more as a general term for again right wing authoritarianism. 00:01:26.960 --> 00:01:34.000 I don't think that there's any necessary inherent aspect to it other 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.480 than the fact that it is concerned with the nation, it is 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:42.880 concerned with all of the things that we call traditional and conservative 00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:46.160 in the proper sense of both of those terms. 00:01:46.160 --> 00:01:48.320 And it is of course right wing, but of course it's going 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:51.120 to be that just by nature of the other things. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:55.360 The question about the form that it's going to take in a 00:01:55.360 --> 00:02:00.480 given time and place is going to largely be determined by the 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.120 nation that is enacting those policies. 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:07.120 Right-wing authoritarianism is going to be a product of the nation that 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:08.320 employs it. 00:02:08.320 --> 00:02:09.520 That's sort of inevitable. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.640 There's a reason that we don't see the same sort of right 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:16.800 wing authoritarianism in France that we see in Germany, and those are 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:19.280 both different from what we see in Italy or in the Slavic 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:21.360 countries. Because they're different people. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.720 They're going to do different things, different things are going to work. 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:27.760 And so that's part of the answer is that these things have 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:33.280 to be tailored to the people who are employing them, tailored to 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:36.880 the people who are going to be using this form of government. 00:02:36.880 --> 00:02:39.360 Because if you don't do that, it's never going to work. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:40.960 And it's just going to be unnatural. 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:44.400 People are going to act in a certain way according to what 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:45.200 they are. 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:49.040 Just like you're going to have differences in church worship services in 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:53.680 different nations, because different race different races are going to worship differently. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:56.960 The Italians are going to be more boisterous than the Germans, and 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:00.560 certainly Africans, Mexicans, others are going to be much more boisterous than 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:01.680 any Europeans. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:04.160 That's simply the nature of it. 00:03:04.160 --> 00:03:08.720 And so you're going to have different characteristics of the people that 00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:11.920 are going to play a part in the 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:14.400 governmental structure itself. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.360 That is simply the nature of the beast. 00:03:18.880 --> 00:03:23.520 In so far as mistakes are concerned, I guess I can get 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:27.040 this mic out of my way since I have the lavalier on. 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:33.360 Insofar as mistakes are concerned, really that's probably going to mostly be 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:38.320 excess. There are times where right wing movements can go overboard. 00:03:39.040 --> 00:03:43.200 And the issue with that is going to be alienating those who 00:03:43.200 --> 00:03:44.480 are natural allies. 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:46.880 We see this, of course on the right all the time, the 00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:49.920 constant infighting and other problems that we have. 00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:53.440 But beyond that sort of problem, I'm not sure that there really 00:03:53.440 --> 00:03:58.000 were that many mistakes made historically by these fascist movements, by these 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.160 right wing authoritarian movements. 00:04:00.160 --> 00:04:05.760 I think by and large they were just vastly outnumbered, which notably 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:09.840 is a problem that we don't have as badly in the American 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.800 context because of our geographical isolation. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:14.320 That gives us some advantages. 00:04:14.320 --> 00:04:18.000 Of course, we're dealing with a century of technological development and so 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.480 it's not as much of an advantage as it would have been 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:23.040 back then, but it's still an advantage. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:28.240 There's a difference between having a neighbor, a national neighbor who hates 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:32.880 you and is a thousand miles away across an ocean versus one 00:04:32.880 --> 00:04:35.600 who hates you and is literally ten feet away. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:40.000 The second case is a much greater problem for obvious reasons. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.280 So moving on to the second question, would you be willing to 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:46.800 share your understanding of Gedl's loophole? 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:51.680 I get asked this one a lot, actually, incidentally, perhaps unsurprisingly. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:56.160 There are a number of related loopholes one could call them in 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:59.600 the constitutional structure of the United States government. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:02.720 Some of them are not fit to be discussed in this format 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:06.080 for a number of reasons at which many of you can guess. 00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:11.520 And others deal largely with the fact that if you push things 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:16.400 in just the right way, you can basically force an amendment of 00:05:16.400 --> 00:05:19.600 the Constitution that makes it easier to amend the Constitution. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:21.840 You're building yourself a ladder basically. 00:05:21.840 --> 00:05:26.080 And then after three or four steps of that, you've basically made 00:05:26.080 --> 00:05:28.640 yourself a dictator and you can rule by fiat. 00:05:28.640 --> 00:05:32.320 That of course is the easiest one, probably incidentally not the one 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:36.240 that Gadl had in mind because it's too simple, it's too straightforward. 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:40.240 But there are a few other ones that again not necessarily fit 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:46.080 for discussing in this format for reasons that people can guess. 00:05:46.080 --> 00:05:49.920 The third question What is your theological view on the Book of 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:53.680 Common Prayer, the 1662 specifically? 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:57.520 Obviously there are going to be some theological differences because I'm Lutheran 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:00.640 and the Book of Common Prayer is indeed not Lutheran. 00:06:00.640 --> 00:06:03.440 It is reformed in nature, and so there'll be some differences there 00:06:03.440 --> 00:06:07.200 with regard to our conception of things like the real presence of 00:06:07.200 --> 00:06:11.680 Christ in the sacrament, but of course every group disagrees with every 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:14.240 other group on that one, so it's not too surprising. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:19.520 Insofar as Lutherans specifically are concerned, though, we have used the Book 00:06:19.520 --> 00:06:24.960 of Common Prayer in the English setting for Lutheranism anyway, not so 00:06:24.960 --> 00:06:27.840 much over in German speaking areas and not so much in the 00:06:27.840 --> 00:06:32.880 US when Lutherans spoke German in the US, but English speaking Lutherans 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:37.520 have used the Book of Common Prayer in order to formulate some 00:06:37.520 --> 00:06:41.840 of our collects and things like that in our context, much of 00:06:41.840 --> 00:06:45.760 our modern liturgy has roots in the Book of Common Prayer, it's 00:06:45.760 --> 00:06:48.960 not just roots back in German Lutheranism. 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:51.440 And so we did sort of the same thing that we did 00:06:51.440 --> 00:06:53.280 with the Roman Catholic Church. 00:06:53.280 --> 00:06:56.640 We took the parts that were good and we jettisoned the rest, 00:06:56.640 --> 00:07:01.680 because you don't get rid of everything simply because some part is 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:04.560 tainted. And of course I'm speaking as a Lutheran and I know 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.080 some people disagree with me, that's fine, but you're wrong, but that's 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.160 fine. When it comes down to it, you can keep many of 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:16.080 these things if you change the parts that are objectionable. 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:21.200 And across Christian traditions, we're going to hopefully at least agree on 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:25.120 the core of things, because we should all agree on the Christian 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:27.600 basics, that's the nature of the beast. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.800 And so we don't certain things we don't change. 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:35.120 You don't get to change the creeds for your particular denomination or 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:38.320 tradition, because the creeds are universal or ecumenical. 00:07:38.320 --> 00:07:41.120 If you don't agree with the creeds, you're disagreeing with the actual 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:45.120 church uppercase C, which is to say all believers down through all 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:48.960 ages up to the last unfortunate man standing on this earth. 00:07:48.960 --> 00:07:53.440 But things like the liturgy and other things like that, those are 00:07:53.440 --> 00:07:57.360 human creations, and so we can use those and we are perfectly 00:07:57.840 --> 00:08:00.960 within our rights to change those over time. 00:08:00.960 --> 00:08:04.560 This is actually one of the disagreements we had with Rome during 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:08.400 the Reformation era, although obviously Rome has changed since then since they've 00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:11.120 amended their own liturgy so many times now. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:15.520 But But it is entirely proper for a people to change the 00:08:15.520 --> 00:08:19.680 liturgy in their time, in their place for their people. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.560 Now, of course, it's within reason and there are certain restrictions. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.160 You can't do things that make the liturgy teach false doctrine. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:29.760 You can't do things that would be outside the bounds of decency. 00:08:29.760 --> 00:08:33.440 There's some general guidelines, some rules here, obviously. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:38.000 But these are not things that have to be uniform across time 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:39.280 and geography. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.160 And so the book of common prayer is something that we have 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:47.520 used as Lutherans in the English speaking context almost exclusively. 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:51.040 The next question: would you include Bell and the Dragon and other 00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:55.200 editions in a Bible in a year reading plan using the Septuagint 00:08:55.280 --> 00:08:56.800 for the Old Testament? 00:08:56.800 --> 00:08:58.400 There are really two questions there. 00:08:58.400 --> 00:09:01.440 One is would I include those as scripture, or at least as 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:02.240 useful to be read? 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:07.040 Because obviously not everything I read in the daily devotions, for instance, 00:09:07.040 --> 00:09:08.560 not all of that is scripture. 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:11.680 Because I read from the Book of Concord, which is not Scripture. 00:09:11.680 --> 00:09:14.880 Granted, it cites Scripture a lot, but it is not itself scripture, 00:09:14.880 --> 00:09:18.800 and so I do read from things that are not scripture. 00:09:18.800 --> 00:09:21.040 So would I read from those? 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:24.240 The answer is yes, I don't have an objection to them, but 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:25.920 do I consider them scripture? 00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:27.760 I think some of them probably are. 00:09:27.760 --> 00:09:30.800 Now I'm not going to give a list of well this verse 00:09:30.800 --> 00:09:32.080 to this verse and this chapter. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:34.880 I'm not doing that here because I'm not the man to do 00:09:34.880 --> 00:09:40.080 that. That's something for the men who will be translating the Septuagint 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:42.240 into a proper English translation. 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:43.520 That's their task. 00:09:43.520 --> 00:09:46.480 I'm not going to tell them exactly what they should do. 00:09:46.640 --> 00:09:49.760 The advice that I was willing to give, that Woe was willing 00:09:49.760 --> 00:09:53.520 to give, we gave that already in the Stone Choir episode on 00:09:53.520 --> 00:09:55.760 translating the Septuagint into English. 00:09:55.760 --> 00:09:57.600 We already went through and did that. 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:01.840 So but the sort of general question, the secondary question, would I 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:02.320 read from them? 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:03.440 I have no objection to that. 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:08.480 I just certainly have not created an annual lectionary from which I'm 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:11.280 going to read, that would involve a lot of time figuring out 00:10:11.280 --> 00:10:13.760 where to put things together because a lot of time and effort 00:10:13.760 --> 00:10:16.320 does go into a proper lectionary anyway. 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:19.280 Obviously, it's very easy to just sit down and start reading. 00:10:19.280 --> 00:10:22.640 And so the through the Bible in a year podcast that I've 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:26.240 been doing, I'm behind a little bit, but that one I'm just 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:27.120 reading straight through. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:31.120 So that doesn't really require prep time, but a lectionary where you're 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:34.000 reading, say, from the Psalms or the Wisdom Literature and then from 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:38.480 the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that takes more planning 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.360 because you have to figure out what you're going to read through 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.760 the course of the year, and to some degree it should probably 00:10:43.760 --> 00:10:46.240 align with the seasons of the church. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:48.000 And so I don't have an objection to it. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:51.600 I just don't have that lectionary, so I don't have the list 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:54.960 of readings to actually do that right now. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:58.800 Next question was Satan the first sinner? 00:10:58.800 --> 00:11:00.720 The answer to that one is yes. 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:02.000 Satan was the first sinner. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.360 He's called the father of lies, and those who sin are said 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:08.400 to be taking after their father, and their father is Satan, so 00:11:08.640 --> 00:11:10.160 he's the first one. 00:11:10.160 --> 00:11:13.120 He is the one who brought in evil. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:16.720 The The next one is actually three different questions, so I will 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.520 address them in turn. 00:11:19.520 --> 00:11:22.560 The first actually I will take the second one first. 00:11:22.560 --> 00:11:26.240 Do you think that marriages within the same general race, for example, 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:29.920 Germans and Slavs, make may contribute to higher divorce rates due to 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:32.000 differences in inherited personalities. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.200 I think that the data bear that out and just human experience 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:39.120 does. We all know if you cross certain lines, the greater the 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:42.560 line you cross, the more trouble you're causing for yourself. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:45.360 And for those around you, of course. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:45.680 So 00:11:46.560 --> 00:11:50.560 if you marry someone within your own nation, you're going to have 00:11:50.560 --> 00:11:52.880 the fewest problems, all else being held equal. 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:54.320 Of course, you could have a bad marriage. 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:55.040 I'm not saying that. 00:11:55.040 --> 00:11:59.360 No one's talking about outliers, exceptions, things like that. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:03.840 But if you cross that line and then marry from, say, a 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:07.440 very close nation, a neighboring nation, the example that I use a 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:10.240 lot would be the Germans and the Dutch, because the Germans and 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:12.880 the Dutch are very close, very close cousins. 00:12:12.880 --> 00:12:16.080 And so not going to have very many problems there. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:20.240 A few more problems, difficulties, differences than you would have if you 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.000 married someone who was Dutch if you're Dutch or someone who's German 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:27.200 if you're German, but not as many problems. 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:30.560 If however you're a German and you take a Russian wife, now 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:33.920 you're going to have more problems because you've crossed a larger line. 00:12:33.920 --> 00:12:38.480 There's a difference, a bigger difference, between Northwestern Europeans, which is basically 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:43.120 the Germanics and the Nordics, and the Eastern Europeans, the Slavics. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:46.400 So once you've crossed that line, you're going to have more problems. 00:12:46.400 --> 00:12:49.200 That's not to say that it's always wrong, of course. 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:52.640 But what it's saying is you have to make the wisdom call. 00:12:52.640 --> 00:12:56.960 There is a necessary recognition that you are going to have more 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:00.720 trouble if you have more differences. 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:03.040 Because of course these are things that have built up over time, 00:13:03.040 --> 00:13:07.040 and part of it is, as the question says, inherited personality differences. 00:13:07.040 --> 00:13:10.160 I already mentioned that with the way the different nations worship. 00:13:10.160 --> 00:13:11.760 We're just simply not the same. 00:13:11.760 --> 00:13:15.600 Germans do not interact the same with one another as do the 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:18.000 Russians, as do the Italians. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.760 And anyone who goes to try and hug a German knows that, 00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:24.400 because we're not going to respond the same way that an Italian 00:13:24.400 --> 00:13:28.320 would. Different cultures behave differently and so you are going to have 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.320 to overcome those hurdles if you marry across those lines. 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:36.240 And so generally the wiser call is not to do that. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:39.920 It's not to say you can never do that, because it's not 00:13:39.920 --> 00:13:44.000 per se sinful for a German to marry a Slav or vice 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.160 versa. It is simply not something that one normally does, and if 00:13:48.160 --> 00:13:51.840 things are operating as they should be, you're probably not going to 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:55.600 really have the opportunity because most people are not going to travel 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:57.520 enough to be seeing a bunch of foreign women. 00:13:57.520 --> 00:13:59.760 That's not the way the world is supposed to work. 00:13:59.760 --> 00:14:04.640 It is sort of a very negative quirk of our modern society. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:11.280 The next question is Exodus twenty-one, twenty-two through twenty-five in the Septuagint 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:16.160 seems to imply a difference in value between formed and unformed children. 00:14:16.160 --> 00:14:21.280 So for that, let me have a fight with my camera here 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:23.280 and let's see. 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.560 Where is the logos? 00:14:28.560 --> 00:14:29.840 Okay, so 00:14:31.280 --> 00:14:32.800 I will pull up 00:14:33.920 --> 00:14:36.240 that window hopefully. 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:40.480 Okay. Now if two men fight and strike a pregnant woman and 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:43.760 her child comes forth not fully formed, he shall be punished with 00:14:43.760 --> 00:14:47.680 a fine, according as the husband of the woman might impose, he 00:14:47.680 --> 00:14:49.920 shall pay with judicial assessment. 00:14:49.920 --> 00:14:52.880 But if it is fully formed, he shall pay life for life, 00:14:52.880 --> 00:14:56.000 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:58.880 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe versus stripe. 00:14:58.880 --> 00:15:01.680 The last part of course is the Lex Talionis. 00:15:01.680 --> 00:15:02.320 And so 00:15:03.280 --> 00:15:07.280 the question then, of course, this relates to abortion, this is one 00:15:07.280 --> 00:15:12.480 that comes up sometimes, not so often because gen generally speaking the 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:16.800 people who are arguing from scripture, trying to argue from scripture with 00:15:16.800 --> 00:15:20.080 regard to abortion, don't actually know anything about scripture, so they're not 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:21.520 going to bring this sort of thing up. 00:15:21.520 --> 00:15:27.120 But the question is, what is the difference between formed and unformed? 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:31.040 And I haven't really researched the question, so I'm just going off 00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:36.160 memory here, but The church fathers and others, theologians who have treated 00:15:36.160 --> 00:15:39.600 this, have come down in basically, I believe it was two different 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:43.760 ways. They either come down on the side of it being a 00:15:43.760 --> 00:15:48.480 miscarriage or the first instance being the child is not harmed, but 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.920 was simply premature, and the second instance is where the child is 00:15:51.920 --> 00:15:52.880 actually harmed. 00:15:52.880 --> 00:15:55.600 And I do think that you can get either one of those 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:57.680 with a fair reading of the text. 00:15:57.680 --> 00:16:00.800 I don't necessarily have a personal opinion as to which one of 00:16:00.800 --> 00:16:02.400 those is true. 00:16:02.400 --> 00:16:07.440 I would not look to this for my argument with regard to 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:11.040 abortion. And any time I've argued about abortion, I've never looked to 00:16:11.040 --> 00:16:12.640 these verses in order to do that. 00:16:12.880 --> 00:16:14.400 I've addressed them before. 00:16:14.400 --> 00:16:17.760 I've addressed them primarily in the context of those who try to 00:16:17.760 --> 00:16:23.280 say that abortion is permissible in certain ways, and in particular there 00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:27.040 are those who will try to argue that because of the ritual 00:16:27.040 --> 00:16:32.240 dealing with infidelity, for testing infidelity, that God says abortion is permissible, 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.680 and that's simply not the case, because you could also try to 00:16:35.680 --> 00:16:39.040 make that argument saying God says abortion is permissible because he killed 00:16:39.040 --> 00:16:42.160 David's son with Bathsheba, his first son. 00:16:42.160 --> 00:16:43.120 That's not the case. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:48.240 There's someone being harmed being killed in this case for sin. 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:49.120 That's a different thing. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:52.320 We all die because of our sin, and so dying because of 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:54.560 sin isn't per se immoral. 00:16:54.560 --> 00:16:57.520 It's not immoral at all because God's the one killing us. 00:16:57.520 --> 00:17:04.320 But with regard to abortion and this particular passage in Exodus, I 00:17:04.320 --> 00:17:08.240 think I would probably take the stance that it is the difference 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:12.640 between the child not being harmed but being premature and the child 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:13.440 being harmed. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:17.040 I believe that is consonant with the other parts of Scripture. 00:17:17.040 --> 00:17:19.440 I believe Augustine took that view. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:22.960 I would have to look that up, but I believe that's consonant 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:25.600 with the other parts of Scripture and what else is taught, because 00:17:25.600 --> 00:17:28.480 we have the places where it says very clearly that God knew 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:31.040 us before he formed us in the womb. 00:17:31.040 --> 00:17:34.880 He you know, let me look up a couple of those real 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:38.480 quick. I believe I actually have one of them open. 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:42.560 Yeah. Jeremiah one five before I formed you in the belly also 00:17:42.560 --> 00:17:45.920 womb, I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:47.760 I had consecrated you. 00:17:47.760 --> 00:17:50.800 And then I have not open in the window that's on my 00:17:50.800 --> 00:17:54.880 screen right now because it's a different Lagos window, but Psalm 139 00:17:55.440 --> 00:18:00.640 speaks of God knowing you before he forms you in the womb. 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:05.920 There are these things that are very clearly teaching that God not 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:09.360 only knows us beforehand, but he formed us. 00:18:09.360 --> 00:18:11.280 He is the one who created us. 00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:15.520 And so I think the only fair way to interpret when life 00:18:15.520 --> 00:18:18.480 begins is that it begins at conception. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:24.560 That's when you have a unique organism, a unique human being. 00:18:24.560 --> 00:18:29.680 I have some people saying the audio on YouTube has some issues. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:30.000 So 00:18:31.120 --> 00:18:34.480 let me try and figure out what is going on there. 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:36.080 Because of course 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:38.240 I 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:42.000 I will just switch my inputs for 00:18:44.080 --> 00:18:46.560 let's see. 00:18:46.560 --> 00:18:51.200 If someone could comment on the audio quality now, that would be 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:54.240 helpful. If I know whether or not it has a problem, I 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:56.480 don't know why there would be an echo there. 00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:00.720 But apparently there was. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:06.240 Okay. I would think that swapping to this mic would fix it. 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:07.120 No change. 00:19:07.120 --> 00:19:11.120 Okay. Well that's even more odd. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:17.680 I don't see anything on my end reporting hitting limits. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:21.120 Maybe it's in OBS. 00:19:21.120 --> 00:19:22.240 Let's see. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.440 I knocked down the max volume level in OBS and I don't 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:33.200 think I'm hitting any limitations there, so 00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:37.760 does the audio sound fine now or I'm still having issues coming 00:19:37.760 --> 00:19:43.920 through. Because I do not see anything on my end in so 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:47.040 far as those problems are concerned. 00:19:47.040 --> 00:19:49.840 It got clearer when I said I'd check OBS. 00:19:49.840 --> 00:19:53.280 That makes actually even less sense. 00:19:53.280 --> 00:19:54.400 Let me see if 00:19:57.840 --> 00:19:58.160 I 00:19:59.120 --> 00:20:04.240 literally see zero problems on my end. 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:08.560 Well, maybe I will just kill Twitch and hope for the best. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.720 Okay, someone says you can hear me perfectly on both. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:17.200 I assume that means that I somehow fixed it without really actually 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:20.960 changing any of my settings, which is always great. 00:20:21.120 --> 00:20:22.800 After love audio. 00:20:22.800 --> 00:20:28.720 At any rate, to continue answering the question The central issue is 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:32.960 what constitutes abortion and is abortion ever morally permissible? 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:33.120 I 00:20:34.080 --> 00:20:39.840 think that the safest answer is that abortion is never morally permissible. 00:20:39.840 --> 00:20:43.680 And I believe that human life begins at conception because that's the 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:48.960 clearest point where you have a unique life form and any harm 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.800 to that life form, deliberate harm, of course, we're never talking about 00:20:53.040 --> 00:20:56.720 miscarriage because that is out of obviously it's out of control if 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:01.120 it's accidental because of course abortion is an intentional miscarriage. 00:21:01.120 --> 00:21:06.880 But if you have this unique human being, this is a creature 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:09.920 created by God, and yes, it does have the image of God, 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:12.240 I don't want to get into that whole thing right now, but 00:21:12.800 --> 00:21:17.040 you cannot terminate or harm that life without adequate moral war. 00:21:17.040 --> 00:21:18.240 The same thing for any human being. 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:21.680 You can't harm another human being without adequate moral warrant. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:26.240 And I don't believe that there is adequate moral warrant for abortion 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:28.080 in basically any case. 00:21:28.080 --> 00:21:31.840 No, it's not in the case of rape or incest or anything 00:21:31.840 --> 00:21:32.480 like that. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:35.040 Because yes, on the one hand there is sort of the issue 00:21:35.040 --> 00:21:39.280 of are you punishing the child for the sins of the father? 00:21:39.280 --> 00:21:42.560 Yes, but is that always wrongful to punish the child for the 00:21:42.560 --> 00:21:43.360 sins of the father? 00:21:43.360 --> 00:21:44.960 The answer is no. 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:47.600 But in the case of abortion, I simply don't think that it's 00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:49.360 ever morally permissible. 00:21:49.360 --> 00:21:52.800 And even if you could construct an argument saying that it is 00:21:52.800 --> 00:21:57.760 morally permissible under certain circumstances, I think you should still err on 00:21:57.760 --> 00:21:59.760 the side of caution 00:22:00.800 --> 00:22:03.440 and never engage in that behavior. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:07.600 If there are things that lead to the point where you're trying 00:22:07.600 --> 00:22:10.640 to argue that a abortion should be permissible, it should be an 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:14.960 option to resolve a problem, step back a few steps and solve 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:16.640 the actual problem. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:20.080 So abortion is not a solution for rape. 00:22:20.080 --> 00:22:25.040 Executing rapists is a solution for rape, among other things. 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:28.800 The next question is, do I have a recommended reading list? 00:22:28.800 --> 00:22:32.480 And the answer to that is no, I don't. 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:35.680 I should probably start making one. 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:37.840 I should start formulating one. 00:22:37.840 --> 00:22:39.760 I get asked that question all the time. 00:22:40.080 --> 00:22:43.120 Perhaps I will start adding things as I think of them to 00:22:43.120 --> 00:22:48.080 a list on my site about here's my recommendation for this particular 00:22:48.080 --> 00:22:50.880 area. I just have I have too many books that I would 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:54.240 have to go through for figuring out sort of a top ten 00:22:54.320 --> 00:22:56.240 or whatever it happens to be. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:00.240 But I can generally give some recommendations, certainly in a given area. 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:02.320 Most topics. 00:23:02.320 --> 00:23:06.720 What are your thoughts on right wing political philosophers like Spangler, Schmidt, 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:09.200 and Evola, well that's rather timely. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:12.320 Pretty much an extension of that previous question there. 00:23:12.320 --> 00:23:16.960 So in order of whether or not they are worth reading, Schmidt 00:23:17.040 --> 00:23:19.280 would be first and Evola would be last. 00:23:19.280 --> 00:23:22.160 I know that some people really like Evela. 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:24.400 I just really don't. 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:28.560 I don't feel that he's necessarily worth the time to read. 00:23:28.560 --> 00:23:30.720 I'm not saying that no one can get anything out of him. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:33.120 The same sort of thing as Nietzsche sometimes. 00:23:33.120 --> 00:23:37.040 You can get something out of reading Nietzsche, but unless you are 00:23:37.040 --> 00:23:40.400 a certain type of man, you're probably going to get more out 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:43.280 of doing any of a number of other things than actually reading 00:23:43.280 --> 00:23:45.040 Nietzsche or Evola. 00:23:45.040 --> 00:23:46.720 Now Schmidt, of course, is great. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:49.600 You should read him if you have any interest in political philosophy, 00:23:49.600 --> 00:23:51.440 political theory, anything like that. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:53.440 He is definitely worth your time. 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:57.440 Spengler has some good insights. 00:23:57.440 --> 00:23:59.680 I won't say that his work is not worth reading, and I 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:03.600 won't necessarily give a blanket recommendation either. 00:24:03.600 --> 00:24:08.240 He has, again, good insights, but I don't think that all of 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:11.200 his conclusions are correct, which is not a reason to say that 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:14.480 a man shouldn't be read, because of course there are plenty of 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:19.440 great authors whose conclusions are wrong, even if their work is good. 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:22.960 But the general hierarchy there that I gave the three in order 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:29.360 would be obviously, Schmidt, yes, read him Avila probably don't. 00:24:29.360 --> 00:24:32.320 The sort of follow up question to that is how they impacted 00:24:32.320 --> 00:24:33.840 my beliefs in any way? 00:24:33.840 --> 00:24:35.840 And the answer is probably not really. 00:24:35.840 --> 00:24:39.360 Maybe Schmidt a little bit, but I already sort of agreed with 00:24:39.360 --> 00:24:41.120 his argument before I read it. 00:24:41.120 --> 00:24:44.560 So I don't know that he really impacted the things I believe. 00:24:44.560 --> 00:24:48.400 I guess perhaps I refined my own beliefs in interacting with his 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:51.920 It is The next question Do you think we are now in 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.600 the time that Satan has been released as stated in Revelation twenty 00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:56.880 verse seven? 00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:59.760 If so, when do you think that time began or is it 00:24:59.760 --> 00:25:01.360 more symbolic? 00:25:01.360 --> 00:25:04.240 I do think that there is a period at the end of 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:10.560 all things where Satan will be released or has been released depending. 00:25:10.560 --> 00:25:14.480 I know that Woe is more inclined to believe that we are 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:18.160 in that period, that end period where Satan is actually released, where 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:20.320 he's free, where he's off his leash. 00:25:20.320 --> 00:25:25.520 I am not necessarily of the opinion that we are in that 00:25:25.520 --> 00:25:26.880 end time. 00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:29.280 I think one could argue that we are, I think you could 00:25:29.280 --> 00:25:30.880 argue that we are not. 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:36.240 And so it's going to depend it's unhelpful perhaps or at least 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:38.080 not satisfying as an answer. 00:25:38.080 --> 00:25:40.800 It's going to depend on what happens in the future because then 00:25:40.800 --> 00:25:43.360 looking back we'll be able to tell whether or not we were 00:25:43.360 --> 00:25:45.200 in that time now. 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:48.960 So I don't think we can necessarily tell. 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:50.880 At least not with certainty. 00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:55.040 And so the question is, how do we deal with that? 00:25:55.040 --> 00:25:56.000 How do we address that? 00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:59.520 And it is very much the same as what I have said 00:25:59.520 --> 00:26:03.040 a number of other times in other places about something very similar. 00:26:03.040 --> 00:26:06.960 It's how we conduct ourselves, because we're conduct ourselves as if we 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:08.320 could die tomorrow. 00:26:08.320 --> 00:26:12.480 And so does it matter if Satan has been released or not? 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:16.720 Maybe. Because it's going to depend upon whether or not he's been 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:19.440 released as to how bad things get, certainly. 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:24.720 But as Christians we simply live our lives as Christians regardless of 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:29.360 whether or not Satan has been released, regardless of sort of what 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:32.400 sort of harm is out there in the world and how bad 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:33.360 things are. 00:26:33.360 --> 00:26:37.600 It's very easy for Lutherans to answer that typically because we always 00:26:37.600 --> 00:26:40.400 use the comment from Luther that if he knew the world would 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:42.800 end tomorrow today he would plant his apple tree. 00:26:42.800 --> 00:26:45.040 That's the right outlook on things. 00:26:45.040 --> 00:26:48.400 Live your life as a Christian, do what you're supposed to do, 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:53.840 do your duty, and whether or not Satan has been unbound, yes, 00:26:53.840 --> 00:26:57.040 it's going to change how your life goes and generally how society 00:26:57.040 --> 00:26:59.920 goes, but there's nothing you can do about that. 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:02.320 All you can do is do the things that God has set 00:27:02.320 --> 00:27:05.200 in front of you and given you the ability to address, which 00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:09.040 is say do your duty, live a Christian life. 00:27:09.040 --> 00:27:12.480 The next question is have you read Carol Quigley? 00:27:13.120 --> 00:27:17.600 The answer is yes, but it has been a long time. 00:27:17.600 --> 00:27:17.920 I 00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:23.040 very vaguely remember his work on 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:29.280 political theory, on democracies, weapons. 00:27:29.280 --> 00:27:32.480 It's been a long time since I read his work. 00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:39.120 Insofar as is it worth reading, my general recollection is that this 00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:42.000 is another case where he had insights. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.520 I don't know that they were necessarily worth the amount of time 00:27:45.520 --> 00:27:47.200 you would invest in reading it. 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:49.600 I know Bill Clinton really liked remember that. 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:50.560 But 00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:57.920 I believe, if I am not remembering incorrectly, that I did enjoy 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:00.880 reading some of his work, but I didn't find it I didn't 00:28:00.800 --> 00:28:04.400 find his arguments necessarily particularly compelling. 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:08.640 And I believe one of his theses was that you have to 00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:14.800 have parity and access to weaponry within a given population so that 00:28:14.800 --> 00:28:18.960 that population can sustain a democratic form of governance. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:21.040 Democratic form of governance. 00:28:21.040 --> 00:28:24.720 And I mean, maybe that's true, but I just don't find it 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:25.680 particularly compelling. 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:30.480 And I would argue about the validity or viability of democracy on 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:37.600 other grounds not necessarily on the availability of certain kinds of 00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:40.960 weapons. Now of course that's not to say it's irrelevant, because if 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:44.480 you don't have have a population that can defend itself, you're never 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:48.320 going to have any sort of representative government because you're going to 00:28:48.320 --> 00:28:51.760 clearly have a ruling class and a slave class divided along the 00:28:51.760 --> 00:28:54.320 lines of who can and cannot buy weapons. 00:28:54.320 --> 00:28:57.440 And so he's not wrong in that sense. 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:04.000 It's just not necessarily what I would personally spend my time reading. 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.240 The next question Why would you consider eugenics to be Christian? 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:13.520 I addressed this at one point in an archival episode actually, not 00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:17.600 of Stone Choir, but of this podcast what I'm using for the 00:29:17.600 --> 00:29:20.320 Q and A and maybe some other things in the future. 00:29:20.320 --> 00:29:24.560 I commented on it in light of the duty that we have 00:29:24.560 --> 00:29:26.960 as stewards of creation. 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:32.800 And we have a duty to steward creation to we're basically gardeners. 00:29:32.800 --> 00:29:34.160 That was our original job. 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:35.760 Adam was a gardener. 00:29:35.760 --> 00:29:41.600 Incidentally, there's some lovely sort of book ending there with Christ being 00:29:41.600 --> 00:29:46.720 mistaken for a gardener in the garden after the resurrection, which is 00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:49.680 appropriate because of course he is a gardener as well. 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:56.720 But the point of eugenics is to see that you maintain the 00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.360 best of a given line, whatever it happens to be, because we 00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:02.240 engage in eugenics constantly. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:05.840 That's one thing that's worth mentioning sort of at the outset. 00:30:05.840 --> 00:30:09.520 When you breed your tomatoes so that they are fit for your 00:30:09.520 --> 00:30:12.960 soil and your climate and all those other things, that's eugenics. 00:30:13.360 --> 00:30:17.680 When you pick your pet based on the family line and this 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:21.280 is particularly something that comes to mind when I am 00:30:22.320 --> 00:30:25.360 I just reading a question about the audio bitrate again. 00:30:25.360 --> 00:30:27.600 Yeah, that's it it probably is a bitrate mismatch. 00:30:27.600 --> 00:30:29.840 I'm going to have to look at that when I'm done with 00:30:29.840 --> 00:30:35.360 this. YouTube has very different settings from X, which is very weird 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:37.200 with their bitrate settings. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:41.120 But to return to the question of eugenics, you're engaging in eugenics 00:30:41.120 --> 00:30:41.520 all the time. 00:30:41.520 --> 00:30:44.240 And as I was saying, with regard to pets, this is particularly 00:30:44.240 --> 00:30:47.360 something that is important to me, something that is relevant. 00:30:47.360 --> 00:30:50.400 My family has always had golden retrievers. 00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:57.600 And due to the actions of well, bad breeders, basically puppy mills, 00:30:57.600 --> 00:31:01.600 there are some lines of golden retrievers, particularly United States, that have 00:31:01.600 --> 00:31:03.760 a lot of genetic problems. 00:31:03.760 --> 00:31:07.600 They are in fact prone to cancer in some cases, and I've 00:31:07.600 --> 00:31:08.880 lost a dog to that. 00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:11.280 So I recognize the problems there. 00:31:11.280 --> 00:31:12.960 And so you want to have this concern. 00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:17.920 And I've certainly had this concern when looking at potential new dogs, 00:31:17.760 --> 00:31:20.720 and not recently, because now my dog I guess recently, my dogs 00:31:20.800 --> 00:31:22.560 are only two years old. 00:31:22.560 --> 00:31:26.960 But you want to look at the line in order to avoid 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:28.560 some of these problems. 00:31:28.560 --> 00:31:33.760 The issue is we see everyone wanting to draw a hard line. 00:31:33.760 --> 00:31:37.520 Plants and animals are on this side, human beings are on the 00:31:37.520 --> 00:31:41.760 other. And of course, that's completely ridiculous because we are part of 00:31:41.760 --> 00:31:44.240 creation. We are not just 00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:49.360 spirit. And we are certainly not a ghost riding around in a 00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:52.080 meat suit, as some people are wont to say. 00:31:52.080 --> 00:31:54.000 You are your body. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:57.680 And it should matter to you what you pass on to your 00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:02.160 children and your grandchildren and your great grandchildren, and it should also 00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:07.120 matter to the prince, the Christian prince, the leader of the nation, 00:32:07.120 --> 00:32:09.360 whatever title he happens to have, for those who aren't familiar, prince 00:32:09.840 --> 00:32:14.080 just as a generic title for the Christian leader, but he should 00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:18.720 be concerned about the fitness of his people, absolutely, because that is 00:32:18.720 --> 00:32:23.280 going to impact every part of his nation, every part of their 00:32:23.280 --> 00:32:27.760 lives. If you have genetic problems, it is going to impact you 00:32:27.760 --> 00:32:30.080 every single day of your life. 00:32:30.080 --> 00:32:33.840 And those things can be avoided by engaging in eugenics. 00:32:33.840 --> 00:32:38.080 The issue then is not so much eugenics and this is people 00:32:38.080 --> 00:32:40.000 tend to conflate some things here. 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:42.800 So eugenics itself is not a problem. 00:32:42.800 --> 00:32:46.880 The question is not the practice, the question is the means used 00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:49.680 to implement or the means used to attempt to achieve the goal 00:32:49.600 --> 00:32:50.560 The goal. 00:32:50.560 --> 00:32:52.880 There are some things that are morally impermissible. 00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:55.280 There are some things that are morally permissible. 00:32:55.280 --> 00:32:59.840 And so I believe that sterilization is morally permissible. 00:32:59.840 --> 00:33:03.920 Our Supreme Court, now decades ago, ruled on that and said that 00:33:03.920 --> 00:33:07.760 it was morally permissible and that it was legally permissible, more notably 00:33:07.760 --> 00:33:12.000 for them, to sterilize the mentally infirm, so that they did not 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:15.760 continue to pass on those genetic problems. 00:33:15.760 --> 00:33:18.800 And so I believe that that's morally permissible. 00:33:18.800 --> 00:33:23.840 But you cannot take that next step and engage in euthanasia. 00:33:23.840 --> 00:33:26.720 Because then what you're doing is you are killing someone without a 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:30.240 sufficient moral warrant, and to kill someone without a sufficient moral warrant 00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:32.320 is murder. 00:33:32.320 --> 00:33:35.200 And so that is not permissible. 00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:38.560 This is where the question arises, where people start to have trouble 00:33:38.560 --> 00:33:39.200 understanding this. 00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:41.360 They get into sort of a gray area. 00:33:41.360 --> 00:33:46.160 Passive eugenics is sort of the distinctive term I've used, is morally 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:49.440 permissible. It is the active eugenics that is not, which is to 00:33:49.440 --> 00:33:53.680 say you cannot euthanize people because they have bad genes. 00:33:53.680 --> 00:33:58.320 And it's worth mentioning, of course, particularly in a Christian context, all 00:33:58.320 --> 00:34:00.720 of this is a problem for this life. 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:03.600 You're not going to have genetic problems in the next life because 00:34:03.600 --> 00:34:06.720 God is going to cure all of that when he raises you 00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:08.640 in an imperishable body. 00:34:08.640 --> 00:34:11.760 But that doesn't mean that the problems of this life can be 00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:14.160 ignored. It doesn't mean that they go away. 00:34:14.160 --> 00:34:18.720 Because those problems continue to exist and they get worse over time 00:34:18.720 --> 00:34:20.000 if we ignore them. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:25.280 So for instance, if you have a population that engages in breeding 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:28.560 for centuries or for millennia in some cases, we can look at 00:34:28.560 --> 00:34:31.760 certain parts of the world, that population is going to have a 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:32.800 lot of problems. 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:35.520 They're going to have a lower IQ, they're going to have lower 00:34:35.520 --> 00:34:40.000 fitness overall, they're going to have lower fertility, they're going to have 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:42.080 so many different problems. 00:34:42.080 --> 00:34:46.080 And if they had simply had someone at some point in the 00:34:46.080 --> 00:34:51.760 past and force a prohibition on inbreeding, they would have fewer problems. 00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:54.880 It does not get better if you ignore it, it just keeps 00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:55.920 getting worse. 00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:59.600 And by and and by the way, it is worth mentioning that 00:34:59.600 --> 00:35:06.240 banning inbreeding, banning incest, banning marriages to your very close relatives is 00:35:06.240 --> 00:35:08.160 in fact a form of eugenics. 00:35:08.160 --> 00:35:12.160 And so we already have eugenics policies live today. 00:35:12.160 --> 00:35:14.400 We use them all over the place. 00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:16.320 Even for human beings. 00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:21.440 The objection that people have, because it's always comes back to this, 00:35:21.440 --> 00:35:27.360 is that the eugenics policies of the past typically prohibited interracial marriage. 00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:30.960 And so really when people are saying they object to eugenics, what 00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:34.320 they're really objecting to is banned in interracial marriage. 00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:37.280 And I've addressed that a number of times in other places, and 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:39.920 so I won't get into it now because I think we're already 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:42.480 in about an hour and a half, give or take, so I 00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:46.480 don't know how much longer I will necessarily go right now, but 00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:48.320 I have a few more questions so I'll try to get through 00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:49.280 those as well 00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:54.960 I will go to this one as the next question. 00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:59.120 What are your thoughts on the tactic to not appear as an 00:35:59.120 --> 00:36:04.320 extremist? Obviously, in my case, I can answer that one pretty quickly, 00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:05.920 pretty straightforward. 00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:10.720 I think that there are fundamental problems with trying to appear to 00:36:10.720 --> 00:36:12.240 be a moderate. 00:36:12.240 --> 00:36:15.680 It's not necessarily that you're lying, although in some cases you search. 00:36:15.680 --> 00:36:18.560 Certainly are and there's something to be said about that. 00:36:18.640 --> 00:36:24.240 But I think the bigger problem is that what being a fake 00:36:24.240 --> 00:36:29.360 moderate actually does is it makes it look like being a moderate 00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:32.400 is more moderate so called, of course. 00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:34.960 It makes it look like that is more popular than it actually 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:39.200 is, and it makes it look like the correct views are less 00:36:39.200 --> 00:36:44.000 popular. And for better or worse, many people simply go along with 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:47.040 the crowd, and they're going to do that regardless, that's the way 00:36:47.040 --> 00:36:48.400 that it goes. 00:36:48.400 --> 00:36:52.240 If you have people who are speaking out truthfully, instead of trying 00:36:52.240 --> 00:36:55.760 to appear to be a moderate to be respectful Respectable or whatever 00:36:55.760 --> 00:36:58.720 it happens to be, it does actually shift things. 00:36:58.720 --> 00:37:02.560 It's one of the reasons that I have chosen as a strategy 00:37:03.200 --> 00:37:10.000 to stake out not necessarily extreme positions, but the ultimate form of 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.080 the position that is morally permissible, because then what I've done is 00:37:14.080 --> 00:37:18.000 I've anchored the Overton window at one end. 00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:24.000 And that forces people to recognize that this is the limit because 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:27.440 someone staked this out now in a way that cannot be ignored. 00:37:27.440 --> 00:37:31.760 And so it opens up this other territory where other men can 00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:35.840 maneuver. And I can say that that's a tactic, it's a strategy, 00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:39.520 because it doesn't change the reality even if people recognize what is 00:37:39.520 --> 00:37:40.320 being done. 00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:43.040 It still works even if people know it's being done. 00:37:43.040 --> 00:37:46.560 And so I don't stake out positions simply because they're the most 00:37:46.560 --> 00:37:50.640 extreme. I stake out of position because it is an ultimate form 00:37:50.640 --> 00:37:55.280 of that position, is the ultimate sort of position you can take 00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:56.880 within that spectrum. 00:37:56.880 --> 00:38:00.080 And so I pick something that is morally permissible and I pick 00:38:00.080 --> 00:38:03.360 something that I believe, but I argue it in such a way 00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:06.160 that it opens up opportunity for others. 00:38:06.160 --> 00:38:10.160 And so the basic answer to the argument is I'm not particularly 00:38:10.160 --> 00:38:13.360 fond of trying to appear like a moderate. 00:38:13.360 --> 00:38:18.000 Because I don't think that moderation is actually in this case, in 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:19.600 politics, is a virtue. 00:38:19.600 --> 00:38:22.960 Now moderation with regard to drinking and eating and things like that, 00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:24.080 of course it's a virtue. 00:38:24.080 --> 00:38:26.800 Because you shouldn't be a glutton or a drunk. 00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:31.520 But with regard to politics, you should believe that which is true, 00:38:31.520 --> 00:38:36.240 not that which is you know, comfortable in a sort of moderate 00:38:36.240 --> 00:38:39.840 sense. The The next question. 00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:44.480 Do Lutherans believe faith is merely an empty virtue as Catholics often 00:38:44.480 --> 00:38:46.240 criticize them? 00:38:46.240 --> 00:38:51.040 Why couldn't God reward faith with justification for more than it's strictly 00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:57.280 worth rather than have faith as a mere instrument for justification. 00:38:57.280 --> 00:39:02.160 This goes into fides formata and fides informus and things like that, 00:39:02.160 --> 00:39:06.960 which fides formata is just the Roman Catholic conception of faith formed 00:39:06.960 --> 00:39:09.680 by love, which is their argument. 00:39:09.680 --> 00:39:13.760 And I think the real answer to this question is taking a 00:39:13.760 --> 00:39:17.360 step backward, because the Lutheran answer is going to be that that 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:23.440 faith is a free gift of God that receives salvation. 00:39:23.440 --> 00:39:29.120 So it's all God, it's monergism, it's not synergism in this case. 00:39:29.120 --> 00:39:35.840 Now, in sanctification there's synergism because your renewed spirit, your renewed person, 00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:40.880 can indeed cooperate and should indeed cooperate with the Holy Ghost, but 00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:45.760 in justification, God alone acts because what does God say of you 00:39:45.760 --> 00:39:48.720 with regard to you before you are justified? 00:39:48.720 --> 00:39:50.800 Well he calls you a corpse. 00:39:50.800 --> 00:39:54.880 And the dead do not act outside of Hollywood movies. 00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:55.360 And so 00:39:56.640 --> 00:40:00.880 in so far as the difference between Lutherans and Roman Catholics is 00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:06.880 concerned, the Roman Catholics are trying to shoehorn the Lutheran understanding of 00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:09.920 things into their system and then saying that it doesn't fit Well 00:40:09.920 --> 00:40:12.080 of course it doesn't fit because we don't believe the same thing 00:40:12.080 --> 00:40:13.920 with regard to justification. 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:18.160 They mix works into justification, which is semi-Pelagianism, even if they don't 00:40:18.080 --> 00:40:18.640 like the term. 00:40:18.640 --> 00:40:19.520 That's what it is. 00:40:19.520 --> 00:40:21.680 That's the reality of what Rome teaches. 00:40:21.680 --> 00:40:23.520 It's what they've taught for centuries. 00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:28.160 Lutherans teach solafide by faith alone. 00:40:28.160 --> 00:40:30.960 And for those who think that will Lutherans say that you have 00:40:30.960 --> 00:40:34.240 to be baptized, of course we do, because we're talking about the 00:40:34.240 --> 00:40:37.440 means of grace at that point, and the means of grace are 00:40:37.680 --> 00:40:42.560 essentially the word spoken and the word in the water, which is 00:40:42.560 --> 00:40:43.680 to say baptism. 00:40:43.680 --> 00:40:44.880 The word's always present. 00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:47.200 You don't have a baptism without the word. 00:40:47.200 --> 00:40:50.480 And so if I just splashed water on you, that's not a 00:40:50.480 --> 00:40:55.120 baptism. The word has to be present as well. 00:40:55.120 --> 00:40:59.600 And so it's not so much that we Lutherans believe that faith 00:40:59.600 --> 00:41:04.320 is an empty virtue, as it is that the Roman Catholics just 00:41:04.320 --> 00:41:06.000 have an entirely different system. 00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:09.600 They have built up a different philosophical system with regard to these 00:41:09.600 --> 00:41:13.440 virtues, with regard to what justification is, with regard to what faith 00:41:13.440 --> 00:41:18.480 is. And the Lutheran conception doesn't fit into their system because their 00:41:18.480 --> 00:41:20.560 system is not what we believe. 00:41:20.560 --> 00:41:23.200 And so is faith an empty virtue? 00:41:23.200 --> 00:41:26.480 It's not an empty virtue, it's a free gift from God that 00:41:26.480 --> 00:41:31.440 certainly has virtue, and you could even say, if you were so 00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:35.440 inclined, it is the thing that receives justification. 00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:40.000 And so does it warrant that, does it deserve that in a 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:43.440 sense? And the answer is yes, which there's no problem in saying 00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:46.800 that, because again, faith is a free gift from God. 00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:50.720 You are not warranting or deserving salvation. 00:41:50.720 --> 00:41:54.320 God is the one doing all of it. 00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:58.720 I think that is most of the questions that I had picked 00:41:58.720 --> 00:42:03.440 out from earlier for those who want to I'm not necessarily ending 00:42:03.440 --> 00:42:06.560 right now, but for those who want to submit questions for next 00:42:06.560 --> 00:42:10.160 time when hopefully I have figured out how to get the bitrate 00:42:10.160 --> 00:42:13.920 in OBS and these various streaming platforms to cooperate a little better. 00:42:13.920 --> 00:42:16.800 If you want to do that, then there will be a link 00:42:16.800 --> 00:42:19.360 on X and other places so you can sign up and submit 00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:20.720 those questions. 00:42:20.720 --> 00:42:23.440 I will just quickly scroll through the chat see if there are 00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:26.960 any questions that stand out. 00:42:27.040 --> 00:42:29.360 And let's see. 00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:33.360 Are you going back on the backlash? 00:42:33.360 --> 00:42:34.960 I would not object to doing so. 00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:37.120 I have no objection to that. 00:42:37.120 --> 00:42:41.920 So for those who questioned where I was getting the questions, I 00:42:41.920 --> 00:42:43.440 already answered that. 00:42:43.440 --> 00:42:48.560 So So look at a couple more platforms here. 00:42:48.720 --> 00:42:52.880 Problem with having these spread around is it takes a minute to 00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:58.800 check. I do see that someone submitted a few questions in an 00:42:58.800 --> 00:43:02.800 image here and now X refreshed and I don't see the image 00:43:02.800 --> 00:43:06.560 anymore. That's helpful. 00:43:06.560 --> 00:43:09.200 If I can find that one, I think I will go through 00:43:09.200 --> 00:43:13.760 those and then And then call it four. 00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:17.840 Well, if you are listening and you submitted a question in an 00:43:17.840 --> 00:43:23.280 image format, X refreshed and your reply disappeared. 00:43:23.280 --> 00:43:25.520 I cannot find it. 00:43:25.520 --> 00:43:28.960 So if you would resubmit those, I will answer them next week 00:43:29.120 --> 00:43:32.800 because I can't answer them because they disappeared. 00:43:32.800 --> 00:43:37.680 I can answer in so far as I very briefly was able 00:43:37.680 --> 00:43:40.480 to look at it, I looked at it for a couple of 00:43:40.480 --> 00:43:44.960 seconds, but I saw that one of the questions was about baptism, 00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:48.960 so I can go over very quickly what Lutherans believe on baptism, 00:43:48.960 --> 00:43:52.000 which should answer the Answer the question, hopefully. 00:43:52.080 --> 00:43:57.120 The Lutheran belief on baptism, as I just said with regard to 00:43:57.120 --> 00:44:00.320 the means of grace, is that baptism is a means of grace. 00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:05.120 And so faith is not a requirement for baptism, because faith is 00:44:05.120 --> 00:44:07.200 given to you in baptism. 00:44:07.200 --> 00:44:10.800 However, that is the ordinary course of things, and the ordinary course 00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:14.960 of things is fathers raising up their children to be Christians, which 00:44:14.960 --> 00:44:17.280 is to say baptizing them as infants. 00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:20.560 And so if you're baptized as an infant, maybe you have faith 00:44:20.560 --> 00:44:24.080 because you heard the word in utero, maybe you receive faith in 00:44:24.080 --> 00:44:25.520 the waters of baptism. 00:44:25.520 --> 00:44:26.720 We don't know. 00:44:26.720 --> 00:44:30.000 Also doesn't matter, because it's however God wants to do it. 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.000 But if you are an adult convert, then most likely you are 00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:36.640 going to have faith when you come to the font, and there's 00:44:36.640 --> 00:44:37.920 nothing wrong with that. 00:44:37.920 --> 00:44:40.880 Because then baptism is still going to be a seal of your 00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:44.560 faith. It's It is still going to function to strengthen your faith. 00:44:44.560 --> 00:44:48.880 And yes, you are going to publicly profess your faith, but that 00:44:48.880 --> 00:44:50.400 is something separate. 00:44:50.400 --> 00:44:52.960 The baptism itself is God's work. 00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:55.600 Even if it is the hands of the pastor or if it's 00:44:55.520 --> 00:44:58.640 your father's hands, if you happen to have been baptized by your 00:44:58.640 --> 00:45:03.200 father, which in my case I was or both of my siblings, 00:45:03.200 --> 00:45:08.000 if you have this man acting in the stead of Christ, it 00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:10.240 is not actually that man acting. 00:45:10.240 --> 00:45:13.760 God is the one baptizing you, it is God's work. 00:45:13.760 --> 00:45:19.520 All good things that you receive are mediated in some way, basically. 00:45:19.520 --> 00:45:22.080 There are almost no exceptions to that. 00:45:22.080 --> 00:45:26.960 And so all good gifts ultimately come from God, but they are 00:45:26.960 --> 00:45:30.880 usually mediated by created beings or created things. 00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:35.200 A good example would be when you were growing up, your parents 00:45:35.200 --> 00:45:38.640 cooked all of your meals, fed you, took care of you. 00:45:38.640 --> 00:45:43.680 All of those goods ultimately come from God, but they are mediated 00:45:43.680 --> 00:45:49.200 by the hands of your parents Similar, baptism is mediated by the 00:45:49.200 --> 00:45:54.160 hands of the pastor, whatever Christian man happens to be baptizing you, 00:45:54.160 --> 00:45:55.920 but it is God's work. 00:45:55.920 --> 00:45:59.600 It is not your work, you are not the one doing anything, 00:45:59.600 --> 00:46:04.800 and neither is the pastor, because it is God's work and that 00:46:04.800 --> 00:46:07.360 is why it can bestow the free gift of faith. 00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:10.320 So that's sort of the short version of the Lutheran belief on 00:46:10.320 --> 00:46:16.800 baptism. Again, X disappeared your questions, so if you'd like to resubmit 00:46:16.800 --> 00:46:19.440 them, please do. 00:46:19.440 --> 00:46:22.640 Have I spoken to Arvull from Return to the Land? 00:46:22.640 --> 00:46:24.080 Yes, I have spoken to him. 00:46:24.080 --> 00:46:26.480 I have not gone on a show with him or anything like 00:46:26.480 --> 00:46:26.880 that yet. 00:46:26.880 --> 00:46:28.560 I may do that in the future. 00:46:28.560 --> 00:46:29.680 But I have spoken to him. 00:46:29.680 --> 00:46:30.560 He's a very nice man. 00:46:30.560 --> 00:46:32.640 I got along with him very well. 00:46:32.640 --> 00:46:37.040 So I think that is all of the questions for now. 00:46:37.040 --> 00:46:40.080 I see that X is not working again, which I'm going to 00:46:40.080 --> 00:46:44.720 assume that the gentleman who mentioned the bitrate probably right, since I've 00:46:44.720 --> 00:46:47.680 looked at X's settings and they are a little quirky. 00:46:47.680 --> 00:46:53.280 So hopefully next week I will not have audio issues, but I 00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:53.920 will certainly 00:46:54.800 --> 00:46:56.720 try to fix that. 00:46:56.720 --> 00:46:57.920 Let's see. 00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:03.600 Someone just mentioned something else that I will look at after this. 00:47:03.600 --> 00:47:07.360 But for those who are going to submit questions, I will certainly 00:47:08.080 --> 00:47:12.160 post that again on my X feed so that you can see 00:47:12.160 --> 00:47:13.280 where to submit those questions. 00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:15.760 I'll post it in my telegram channel as well since many of 00:47:15.760 --> 00:47:17.040 you are in there. 00:47:17.040 --> 00:47:21.280 And I will get up the audio for this as well as 00:47:22.160 --> 00:47:26.400 the questions with a transcript when that is run off. 00:47:26.400 --> 00:47:29.120 I just use the one that's run off by Apple Podcasts because 00:47:29.120 --> 00:47:31.120 their AI is very good at doing that. 00:47:31.120 --> 00:47:33.360 So I use I use that one. 00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:34.800 So thank you for your time. 00:47:34.800 --> 00:47:37.120 Thank you for those who submitted questions. 00:47:37.120 --> 00:47:38.960 And I hope that you have a nice evening. 00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:40.160 God bless you. 00:47:40.160 --> 00:47:41.440 Until next week.