Episode 96
· 52:33
To the We Are More Pod cast. My name is Alyssa. And my
Speaker 2:name is Bree. We're two sisters passionate about all things faith and feminism. We believe
Speaker 1:that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged women to teach and preach his word. And apparently, that's controversial. Get comfy.
Speaker 2:Hello, world. Today, breaking news. We're sassy again.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's breaking news. I feel like
Speaker 2:breaking something. We probably are breaking some things.
Speaker 1:In my own breaking news, I got a cat. Yay. Bree is really excited about it. It's her favorite thing.
Speaker 2:Me and creatures. I don't know that we get along.
Speaker 1:Growing up, we had a ton of dogs. Like, we I've counted them before and I always forget.
Speaker 2:I think it's around 13, but not all at the same time. It was usually, like, one at a time.
Speaker 1:Yeah. One at a time. And I was like of of me and Brie and our brother, I was the one that was always hanging out with the dogs, like, all the time. I'm such an animal person.
Speaker 2:I think you prefer animals to people. That's not a think. You had a book that was like, the dictionary of all the animals. And she'd sit there and memorize this thing. Meanwhile, me and Brandon were over being cool.
Speaker 1:I just there are some of you out there, I know, that feel this. You're just an animal person. If there's an animal in the room, that's where you are, and no one else matters.
Speaker 2:I would rather be by
Speaker 1:the wine. Well, I mean, sure. But you get the wine, and then you go hang out with the cat. No. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But we got this cat in kind of, like, the most ridiculous possible way. So my husband and I are both very impulsive people. So is Brie. So don't let her fool you over here. But our son had seen a video with a cat on it.
Speaker 1:Our son is four. Okay? But he saw a video with a cat. My husband sent me a picture because I was picking our daughter up from school. And he was like, look.
Speaker 1:Our son wants this this cat, this orange cat. And so I went on a website for a shelter that's in our area, and they just so happened to have a little orange cat. And I said, how about this one? What are your thoughts? And so we made an appointment and immediately went and got a cat.
Speaker 1:Mind you, we already have two cats and a dog.
Speaker 2:I'm all for chaos. I believe it's the new frontier.
Speaker 1:The new one, But
Speaker 2:not with creatures.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of lives in this house. Yeah. There's also a stink bug up there and a spider over there. So there's a lot of lives. We live an impulsive life, is what I'm basically trying to say.
Speaker 1:And sometimes that means getting a cat.
Speaker 2:And sometimes that means driving six hours to go to a gas station.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it does. Which we've talked about before. Yeah. You don't need A that story
Speaker 2:lot of people, when they're telling other people about us Mhmm. Reference that story.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I was actually just on the phone with my friend today, and I told her about this cat, which, by the way, we named Avocado Potato. Don't let three year olds name pets.
Speaker 2:He's four. Four. Don't let four year
Speaker 1:olds don't let children name pets. But anyway, I was on the phone with my friend today, and I was telling her this. And she goes, I just I love how you live your life. You're so chaotic. And I was like, you know what?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Am. We told you
Speaker 1:guys how we bought out an entire theater the other day. We just we like impulsive things. It's just that Brie wasn't involved in this impulsiveness.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So she's bitter. You like
Speaker 1:to go get another cat?
Speaker 2:No. We could have four. Impulsively, I could lose one of your other cats.
Speaker 1:Today, though, we're keeping it lighter.
Speaker 2:I don't know that mine is lighter.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel like at least there's the opportunity for more jokes. Maybe I'm just hopeful. Because I think I've made that comment before. Like, oh, we're keeping it lighter. And then it's like
Speaker 2:Oh, here's 50 pounds of you know what dumped on your head. Yeah. Manure. We'll call it manure.
Speaker 1:We should just start cussing. Just give it up.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna call this episode manure pile. Or the other thing. So I struggle because I do not like to watch the news. Mhmm. So I get a lot of my, like, world content on TikTok or Instagram.
Speaker 2:Because there's different accounts that just say, oh, if you don't watch the news, here's the biggest updates. Ping, ping, boom. They make that sound, But if the the more that you watch that kind of content Mhmm. The more of that content you get. Right.
Speaker 2:And sometimes it really freaking overwhelms me because there's so much going on in the world right now. Mhmm. But I also know that it's important to be informed. I'm I'm I it's heavy. The world today is heavy.
Speaker 2:More heavy than it was in the nineties.
Speaker 1:I think even because, like, we were children in the nineties, so it sometimes feels like maybe maybe the world was just as heavy then. We just didn't know it. We weren't at war. But, yeah, there was just not even even four years ago
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:It didn't feel this heavy. Twelve years ago, it didn't feel this heavy. And so we've been obviously engaging with that type of content more, which is hard on both of us, hard on everyone. We've also been posting more about that type of content. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Which has been a struggle as well because we've gotten a lot of negative feedback. But I think it's important to talk about what's going on, to interact with what's going on, and also to respond to some of the things that are being posted and said. Mhmm. So that's what we're gonna do today. And we're all surviving together.
Speaker 2:So I will go on to our Instagram and our TikTok, and I'll kinda repost a bunch of the stuff that we're talking about. But today, we're just reviewing things that we've seen on the social medias. The social media. Instagram and your whatnot. I feel like we
Speaker 1:do a podcast like this every so often, where we just sort of like, I've been saving stuff for ages.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And just responding to it. One of the things that I saved and posted was posted originally by the beautiful kingdom builders, who's a great Facebook account if you are looking for someone encouraging to follow. But she posted a protest sign, probably an older one. We're not talking about, like, the current Minneapolis protests. But it's a sign held up by a older man, and it says women should be.
Speaker 1:Dot dot dot. Number one, quiet. Number two, keepers at home, in parentheses, doing dishes, laundry, ironing, etcetera. Number three, submissive to husbands. Number four, silent in church.
Speaker 1:Number five, caretakers of children. Number six, modestly dressed. And then it says read bible for details, and it gives first Timothy two, Titus two, and first Peter three. And I don't know where I don't know where this protest was. I don't know what was going on.
Speaker 1:I don't know what the story was. But someone printed this, created it, printed it, took it outside, and held it up for the world to see. Because this is what they believe women are supposed to be. And I think it speaks to the way the world is treating women right now. If you are at all aware of American politics, the Save America Act just went through the house.
Speaker 1:And that essentially I won't go into the whole thing. You can check out our TikTok on it, and there's lots and lots of content about it. But essentially, it's going to make women who have changed their names, whether through marriage or any other reason, it's gonna make it really difficult for them to vote. And it's people like this, people that are gonna hold this sign up, that are supporting that
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And cherry picking a couple verses from the Bible instead of looking at, like, how Jesus treated women or how Paul treated women or really how most of the good biblical figures treated women.
Speaker 2:Or understanding the way that the Bible was written. Paul would often quote Roman law, and then the verse right after it would contradict what that Roman law said and said, no, this is not how you should be. This is how the world is. But in God's kingdom, we treat people with respect. So not understanding that aspect of the Bible Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Can really skew how you treat people.
Speaker 1:Yeah. If you're reading the Bible looking for a reason to treat people poorly,
Speaker 2:You're gonna find it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Just like any I could pick any book. Brie's got a lot of books on her shelf. Okay? I could pick any one of them.
Speaker 1:And if I wanted to look through that book and find a reason to hate people, I guarantee you I could. Well,
Speaker 2:we I thought, we all agreed that, like, slavery, not a good thing. Mhmm. Right? But back in the day, when slavery was common, they used the Bible to justify those actions as well. Yep.
Speaker 2:So you're right. You can can find what you're looking for. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And this the Bible shows constant love towards women, or Jesus does, I guess. Obviously, there's plenty of examples of not so much love. Mhmm. But Jesus shows it all the time. And if that's what you're looking for instead, if you are reading the bible looking for a reason to love because you know that God's character is love and that Jesus told us to love others, if you see it through that lens, you're gonna see something very different.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Something funny that I saw. Because Alyssa and I were book shopping the other day at Salvation Army. Shocking. And something you'll notice if you go to a Salvation Army or a used book sale, you'll find a lot of Christian content.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Many of the books were Joel Osteen. So many. So many. If I had a nickel for every Joel Osteen book I saw, boy, how many nickels I would have. Boy, oh boy.
Speaker 2:But this is a meme.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I can't see it.
Speaker 2:I don't know the difference between a meme and a GIF. A GIF moves?
Speaker 1:It moves?
Speaker 2:No. Joel isn't moving in this.
Speaker 1:It's just a meme.
Speaker 2:And it looks like the cover of one of his books, but it just says, How to Get Rich by Lying to Seven Steps to Duping Christians by Preaching a False Gospel. I think that's very prevalent for today. Mhmm. Because the way that Christians are viewed today are power seeking, murderous, chaos seeking, crazy people. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Crazy people. And you're right. When we are supposed to
Speaker 1:be the group of people who
Speaker 2:love outrageously and unconditionally because we are supposed to be like Jesus Mhmm. But instead, our face is known as hate Right. That's a problem.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think anybody that looks at someone like Joel Osteen if you're unfamiliar with Joel Osteen, I feel like I feel like most people probably are. But he is a megachurch pastor.
Speaker 2:Shiny white teeth, happy smile.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And he is very big on the prosperity gospel, which essentially means, like, if you give money to the church, God will reward you exponentially. Like, you will be wealthy. You will have your own private jet, whatever. Which, to be fair, has been true for Joel Osteen.
Speaker 1:He is, like, a compound. He has his own plane. He has all kinds of stuff. But that's just not biblical. Like, it's just god never says, and I will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.
Speaker 1:He's not a genie. Like, that's
Speaker 2:not how He's a genie old
Speaker 1:in a bottle.
Speaker 2:That's what Jesus is.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I forgot. I'm sorry. I forgot that verse. That was Hezekiah?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Bible jokes. We really know our audience.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. A lot of my content lately has been either about the stuff going on in Minneapolis or Epstein. Mhmm. And I know those are the, like, the two biggest things going on, at least in my world today. But there's a TikTok that I saw and I shared with the podcast Instagram.
Speaker 2:It says, if your church supports ICE, this is your legacy, and it's just a big picture of a KKK group
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:In their white hoods. Yeah. That's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I I've been saying this a lot lately because there have been people who have expressed concerns for the way that we talk on this podcast, for the way that we talk on social media. Because we are very loud and open about what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong. And so I've been saying a lot lately that I have to be proud of what I represent right now. I see all the time on social media, like, what you're doing right now is what you would have done in World War two.
Speaker 1:And I have to be able should I have grandchildren someday? I have to be able to sit in front of them and say, this is what I did, and I'm proud of what
Speaker 2:I did. I think it's normal to be scared in a time such as this because you see all around you people who are speaking up and speaking out are being hurt. They're being murdered.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're going missing. But I think that's all the more reason to stand up and be brave. Mhmm. I think God can give you that bravery. And I just look out and I say, what are they what's the worst thing they could they can do to me?
Speaker 2:Kill me? Okay. At least see you by. Don't say that.
Speaker 1:That's like getting online and saying sue me. That's a terrible idea. Fine. Cut that. I the legacy of the church is important to me.
Speaker 1:Not because I care about the individual church and what happens to, like, the church down the road necessarily, but because Jesus created his church. Right? Like, Jesus came down to create a new faith and a new religion. And it was important to Jesus that that happened. And so the legacy of the church right now is hate and evil, frankly.
Speaker 1:That's it it will take generations for the church to move past who they are supporting right now. And so it's important to me not just to fight for my own legacy, but to fight for the legacy of some whatever form of the church comes out of this. And I hope it's a better, healthier form. Because if it's not, I'm not standing by it. But it's important to fight for that, to fight for something better.
Speaker 2:Have you seen the TikTok that says, I will never financially recover from this? That's what I think about. I will never religiously.
Speaker 1:So another thing. Another post. This one's not a meme. Yeah. A post that I saved.
Speaker 1:It says, and these are gonna be very off topic. Like, these don't really run together. We just have both saved random things. Mhmm. But it says, why is the conversation always about guns and never men?
Speaker 1:Women can get guns as easily as men, but they aren't committing mass murders as often in general. Why don't we talk about men's inability to control their emotions? Have you seen
Speaker 2:I saw a TikTok the other day. It said women are the emotional ones. Right? Mhmm. And then it shows men watching football games.
Speaker 2:And they get so emotional. And it was just clip after clip after clip of these men breaking their televisions. Do you think the football people are gonna be affected by this? And I don't know what else to call them other than football people. The football people.
Speaker 2:Football people. Just so there had to be, like, 15 clips of these men breaking their TVs. You're the only one that's gonna be affected because now you have to go purchase another TV. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:You silly goose. I remember in college walking into my now husband, then boyfriend's apartment building, and they lived all the way at the other end of the building. Like, it was a long walk. And if sports were on, I think it was usually baseball for them, but if sports were on, the minute you walked in the building, you could hear them screaming. Like, his roommates would be screaming at the top of their lungs.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, are you okay? I don't care about anything this much.
Speaker 2:I would love for the sports people sometimes. The sportsmen. After a big play that you know that everybody on the TV is shouting, I wish they would turn to the camera and be like,
Speaker 1:woo hoo. Or just go, shh. You're right. You're yelling at me. Oh, I can hear you
Speaker 2:from Why don't they get up and go play?
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing. It's like, women are marketed as more emotional. That's that's the vibe. Right? Oh, women cry sometimes or or whatever.
Speaker 1:But the reality is that everyone has emotions. And men are so rarely taught how to handle their emotions because they're like, just tamp them down. Just tamp them down. That it comes out like that in an unreasonable way and oftentimes in a violent way. We talked last week about the percentage of women who will be hurt by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
Speaker 1:I think it's, like, forty percent in The United States. Mhmm. And the the flip is not the same. Like, it it's not that no men will be hurt by an intimate partner, but it's not anywhere near forty percent.
Speaker 2:There was a stand up comedian I saw on the TikToks the other day that she was taking a poll of her audience. And she said, okay, men, what are you most afraid of going on a first date? And the men said, well, she might ghost me. Mhmm. Or she might not she might catfish me.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. She might not look as good as she did in the pictures. And she's like, oh, okay. So they might not turn you on as much. Interesting.
Speaker 1:Oh, no. Oh,
Speaker 2:no. Okay. Women, what is your number one concern going on that first date? Oh, he might kill you.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:That is a legit concern. And coming from a single person who does occasionally go on dates with randos that I meet online, that is a concern. You have to be telling people where you're at. And make sure someone has your location. And that's the reality of being a woman today.
Speaker 1:Right. And as the sister of someone who goes out on dates occasionally with randos from the Internet, I have to track her and call her. And when she doesn't answer the phone, I have to repeatedly call her and then have my husband call her. It's a great time over here. Sorry.
Speaker 2:Here's one I saw a meme, which I now know is different than a GIF. It says, witchcraft doesn't always look dark and demonic. Sometimes it looks like manipulation wrapped in spirituality.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. We say that about I think we've said this on the podcast before, but the idea of using God's name in vain is kind of the same idea. Christians have marketed it as not using God's name as, like, a curse word almost. But I think the reality of it is that when you use God's name in place in front of something that God would never want.
Speaker 2:Just take a look at our White House. Right. You see that image that is all over now of Trump at his desk and everybody laying their hands on him and praying over him in the White House. Meanwhile, you know, his name is mentioned 38,000 times in the Epstein files. He's not a great Christian leader.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. He's a horrible, horrible person.
Speaker 1:Do you think any of them were, like, praying, but they were, like, trying to pray the demons out? Like, a quick exorcism? I think they were maybe praying and trying to
Speaker 2:get out as soon as I can because he pooped his pants again.
Speaker 1:Smelled real bad in that room.
Speaker 2:They're like, we gotta go. Quick picture
Speaker 1:and Done. We were done. And then
Speaker 2:they all used hand sanitizer on their way out.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Was probably wise. Frankly, anytime you're anywhere near that man And had to bathe in it.
Speaker 2:Go get tested Yeah. Immediately after. Another post that I saw from also from
Speaker 1:the beautiful kingdom warriors says calling male domination God's design is not biblical faithfulness. It is dressing up the fall and calling it holy. A big part of why men like to think that they are in charge at all times is because when sin entered the world, God told Eve, your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you, etcetera, etcetera. And I don't know if you guys know this, but that was not God's perfect design for the people. It was a curse.
Speaker 1:And I'm not entirely sure why we fight so hard to keep the curse going. You wish to
Speaker 2:have the curse reversed? You'll need a certain potion first. Where's that from? Into the woods.
Speaker 1:My gosh. Get over it.
Speaker 2:I've been listening to a lot of and it's not even that oh, I'm gonna get some hate. I don't even think it's that good of a musical. At least the movie adaptation was not that good. But I've been listening to a lot of it. And I did pull a quote from it that I really liked today.
Speaker 2:And I was like, oh, we should make this into a social media post. They talk a lot about niceness not being goodness. Mhmm. Nice is not the same as being good. And I do think that the world gets that a little bit confused.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Especially when you think in the Christian church, they're so nice. Mhmm. They're not good.
Speaker 1:They're not bad. They're just nice. Oh,
Speaker 2:wow. You've really quoted it. Should I go on to continue? Should I continue? Every time I
Speaker 1:tell you to, you don't. So it's
Speaker 2:just it's embarrassing for me. I'm like, keep going. You go, no. I'm much more concerned with being good, truly
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Than having people think I'm nice. I'm not. When you walk into a church, it's that love bombing a lot of times. And so you'll have the people opening the door, they're like, oh, it's so good to see you.
Speaker 1:We're so glad you're here. The church we had been going to the most recently, there was a woman there. And I do actually think she was very sweet, but she would hug everybody as they walked in. It was my nightmare. We would, like, dodge.
Speaker 1:Not because she wasn't nice. Just because
Speaker 2:I don't wanna be touched.
Speaker 1:It's strange. Leave me be. But that's the vibe. Right? It's this love bombing, and that is the niceness.
Speaker 1:But what is behind it? Is there good actions behind it? I was just talking with our father today about his experience growing up in the church.
Speaker 2:And the reason his parents left the church was because in a really difficult time when our grandpa was out of work because the union was striking and they were struggling financially, the members of the church came up to him and said that he needed to be tithing. And they his whole family ended up leaving the church because they felt so shamed Mhmm. And unwelcome. And I was talking to my dad and saying, like, in that time, the church should have noticed what you guys were going through. They should have seen, hey, we know that this business is on strike.
Speaker 2:They're out of, he's out of a job. They're not bringing in an income. This is a chance for the church to surround them in love Mhmm. And support them so that later on they can be supportive towards the church. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And instead, they shamed him. Probably when they walked in,
Speaker 1:they did get that love. That initial love. That initial this is a family environment. But then when crap hits the fan Mhmm. Who's there?
Speaker 1:Is the church there? Is the church still good? Are they doing good? I've been to so many churches that they will take your tithe money. And I'm I'm not saying anything against giving money to your local church.
Speaker 1:They exist on donations. But they will push so hard for this tithe money. And then you're you're like, okay. But where is it going? Is it going back out into the community?
Speaker 1:Is it going to help members of our church that need it?
Speaker 2:Is it going towards the
Speaker 1:pastor's plane, grand shoes? Right. And what you do impacts impacts people, impacts a family legacy. Like, when our grandparents left the church, that impacted the legacy of our family. That impacted their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren.
Speaker 1:And you can, as a church, if you're doing good, you can impact those generations in a good way. And if you're just doing nice and not following it up with good, not that you don't need to also sometimes be nice, but if you're not following it up with good, you can impact that family in a negative way for years and years to come.
Speaker 2:I think if you're truly being good, you don't have to worry about then being nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because your goodness shows. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And niceness is so often faked. Mhmm. And you know. Everybody knows when you've got that fake nice person.
Speaker 1:It's not
Speaker 2:a good vibe. They always wanna touch you.
Speaker 1:Do they? Brie, maybe we should have some other talks. Okay. So I have one. It's a quote from Jimmy Kimmel, and it's very funny.
Speaker 1:So if you Jimmy Kimmel is a late night host. I'm sure most of you are at least familiar with his name. And he was taken off the air because he said something against Donald Trump. And it wasn't it wasn't even the worst of the things that he'd said. But he was taken off the air because, essentially, like, we're in The United States, certainly practicing Witchcraft.
Speaker 1:Well, probably. But also, we are, you know, not really doing freedom of speech anymore, apparently, would against that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. That's not thing.
Speaker 1:And so he was taken off the air and was then subsequently put back on the air. But one of his quotes after it was for when he accepted his Critics' Choice Award for best talk show host. He said, I wanna thank our president, Donald Jennifer Trump, without whom we'd be going home empty handed tonight. So thank you, mister president, for all the many ridiculous things you do each and every day. And that's just a nice see, we are more lighthearted today.
Speaker 1:We're having a better time.
Speaker 2:Jennifer.
Speaker 1:Jennifer.
Speaker 2:We've done episodes on this before, but the idea of not all men. Mhmm. And if you wanna go back and listen to the episode, here's a quick plug. But I did see a post that says, in quotes, like, not all men. But a French man who drugged and raped his wife for nine years and involved 51 other men.
Speaker 2:Not all men, but a German man who drugged and raped and filmed his wife for fifteen years and shared the videos with group chats. Not all men, but a UK man who drugged and raped his wife for thirteen years and involved five other men. And it says, not all men, but always a man.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And those are just a few casual examples. I mean, it's like last week on our episode where we talked about pastors and other people in authority that you should be able to trust and can't. We had to we had to pare that down in such an extreme way. Like, I could have gone I didn't even have to do much of a Google search.
Speaker 1:It was just, like, pages and pages and pages of scandals. Mhmm. And it it is more often than not a man. So when we talk about this stuff, when we talk about why we need women's rights, why we need feminism, and why men are not the protectors that they wanna think that they are,
Speaker 2:it's because of this. I was talking to our mother today too, and I was like, there's such a Christian stigma for men to be the protectors of the family. That is their God given role is to protect the women in their life. Because women can you know, we're just so fragile. But what are they protecting women from?
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Men like this.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Other men themselves. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And it's not even like, it's not as though you can say, well, they're protecting you from men who don't follow God. Because just like we talked about last week, men who say they follow God commit these crimes just as often. Alright. Before we jump into the most horrific moment of all time, my very last one, just to give you a lighthearted moment, just before you wanna die, I keep getting these ads on Facebook, like, literally every single day. And it's this lovely looking man and a Canadian flag and it says, Canada is looking for you.
Speaker 1:Canada is trying to recruit me. And I wanna go. Go. Can I come too?
Speaker 2:Sure. Do do you get a good deal if you buy one, get one free? Yeah. Buy
Speaker 1:one, get one free. Buy one sister, get one sister free.
Speaker 2:I'll come too. We come as a package deal. We really do. There's a lot of stuff that I will be sharing about. We say not all men, but not all women protect either, and not all women are blameless.
Speaker 2:And that's very clear with all of the Epstein stuff coming out and with our current administration. People like, I'm pretty sure it's Ghislain Maxwell, who was the partner of Jeffrey Epstein. Caroline Leavitt, who is our press secretary and constantly, constantly deflects and avoids any questions about Epstein. She even went as far as to say recently, like, we just need to get over this Epstein stuff. We need
Speaker 1:to move on. While wearing a cross necklace that keeps getting bigger and bigger. Have you noticed that?
Speaker 2:Honestly, or she keeps getting smaller. Either which one is happening? I'm not sure. But I think it's really important. And I made a TikTok about this.
Speaker 2:I just finished up the four part Epstein documentary on Netflix. And I think it's really important to be informed of this right now because I think our current administration, is claiming to be Christian, is really trying to sweep this under the rug. And we need to be informed
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Of the kind of people that we're saying are Christians. And there are people out there who are turning a blind eye to this. People who hurt children, who hurt women, who murdered people, who like, the list goes on and on about the horrendous actions that are all documented in the Epstein files. And the four part documentary just barely scratches the surface. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But I think we have been grooming Christians, particularly Christian women, to accept this for generations. Because how many times have certainly Brie and I or you out there heard, well, the pastor did this horrible thing, assaulted someone, whatever. But people are flawed. Sin entered the world. They couldn't control themselves.
Speaker 1:She was wearing this, you know, sin nature blah blah blah. Like, we have been grooming people to accept this behavior from Christianity. That, like, because people have sin natures, that this is acceptable. And so I'm really not surprised in a way. Like, I am, just from a moral standpoint, but having grown up in the church, I'm not surprised that we're fine with this.
Speaker 2:Christianity now seems synonymous with protecting power.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And at any cost. Yeah. So if that means hiding abuse, they hide abuse because that gets them power.
Speaker 1:I saw a meme once, and it was a woman on her knees praying. And she said, God, grant me the wisdom to learn how to accept rapists in my religion or something along those lines. And that's essentially what's happening is as I mean, every day, the news comes out with something new about Trump or someone in his cabinet or, like, just all of the people in leadership. Right? Every single day you find something new and there's another excuse for it and there's another excuse for it.
Speaker 1:So what are you willing to accept? What are you willing to say Jesus would be fine with this? Because if Jesus wouldn't be fine with it, you shouldn't be fine with it. I got a comment on TikTok when I was talking about some of the ICE situation in Minneapolis, things like that. And I said, we we were called to care for the foreigner.
Speaker 1:We were called to care for others, to love others above all else. And somebody commented and they were like, well, you just don't understand. The world is so much more complicated today than it was in the Bible. And I can look up the exact one in a minute, but it's so much more complicated now. You're oversimplifying things.
Speaker 1:This isn't what the bible was talking about because the world's so much more complicated now.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you would just wanna add to the bible then.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You apparently outthought god. God didn't plan ahead. He didn't know what was gonna happen. And the world has moved beyond him.
Speaker 1:Like, that's what you're saying. Yeah. The world hasn't moved beyond god. But what are you willing to accept in your faith?
Speaker 2:Well, God's laws are really simple. We talk about this every single podcast. Love God and love others. And if you can't fulfill those two things
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Then you're not following God's direction.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I feel like God made it as simple as he possibly could for you. And you're trying to find every loophole you can to not follow that.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Yeah. It's easy, guys. It's hard in practice, but it's easy to understand. And you know if you're not loving others.
Speaker 1:You can sit there and you can lie to my face all you want. Well, this is tough love. This is what no. You know, and I know, and God knows.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And you'll have to answer for it.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:You'll have to stand before God and try to justify every one of your actions, and he can see through your crap loopholes.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And when I ask, will you be proud of yourself? Will you be proud to tell the story of what you did today? Will your grandchildren be proud to tell your story? You don't have to justify it to me.
Speaker 1:Because I know for a fact that if I sit down with very conservative leaning people who are justifying everything that our administration does, that they will tell me, I am proud. I am proud of what I do. But I don't need you to justify it to me. You have to live with it yourself. You have to live with your behavior yourself, your actions yourself.
Speaker 1:And it's not just not standing up for people. It's actively harming people at this point. Are you actively harming people with your actions?
Speaker 2:Just like the new Save America Act, men don't see it as being that big of a problem because it doesn't directly affect them. Mhmm. But it is going to be a problem for women. This is gonna take away their rights or really limit their rights or put a hurdle into their rights that's not the same as men. So one of the most
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go with hated TikToks that I've ever done was when I talked about the Save America Act. People were big mad. Like, every single comment was nasty. TikTok itself filtered out quite a few of the comments, so you know it's bad.
Speaker 2:And TikTok blurred out one of your words. Yeah. It wasn't even offensive.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But I was talking about how the Save America Act, it's being billed as, like, protect America from voter fraud, like from noncitizen voting. But the reality is noncitizen voting is already illegal, and it happens very rarely. They've done a lot of work looking at it, not just recently, but over the past decades. It very rarely happens.
Speaker 1:But what this act does is it requires that if your name has changed throughout your lifetime, that you now there's some differing reports, but you either will have to come in with a passport, which costs about a $140 in The United States and can take up to six months to get. And you have to make an appointment, do an interview. It's a whole thing. Or you may have to come in with all of your documentation for all of your name changes. So for some women, it might just be like birth certificate, marriage certificate, driver's license.
Speaker 1:But for some women who have been divorced or widowed or have changed their name back, things like that,
Speaker 2:this could be a stack of paperwork. That or people who have changed their names for other reasons,
Speaker 1:like the trans community or LGBTQ community. And it's marginalized peoples.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I also feel like it's just one big distraction. They're saying that it's to protect voter fraud Mhmm. When reality, they are trying to suppress the people who they don't wanna hear their voices. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:It's just a way to suppress women, but we're going to lie and say, no.
Speaker 1:No. No. It's about voter fraud. Yep. Almost every comment I got was from a man.
Speaker 1:Not all of them. I did get some negative comments from women as well. But I got a lot of people basically saying like, no, you're crazy. This isn't what's happening. It was just a lot of denial and a lot of, oh, well, all you have to do is show up with all your documentation.
Speaker 1:And I think it's important to point out. So a lot of men and some women were commenting and saying, all you have to do is be organized and have all this paperwork with you. Well, let's have that conversation. I have to be organized and have six pieces of paper with me when I go to vote, or however many each individual person has. A straight man who has never changed his name walks in with his driver's license.
Speaker 1:Now eventually, because someone's going to have to verify all these documents, right? Let's assume that I don't have a passport and I walk in with all this documentation. There's gonna be two separate lines. One made up of mostly women and one made up of mostly men. And the line full of mostly men is gonna get right through.
Speaker 1:Right? Two seconds I've gone in to vote when there's not a line. Like, you're in and out. Right? And then there's gonna be the other line of mostly women waiting hours to be able to vote.
Speaker 1:And because it's difficult and because women are the primary caretakers of their children more often than not And because women also have jobs, that is going to be yet another barrier to women being able to vote.
Speaker 2:I've always felt more masculine.
Speaker 1:So I feel like we have masculine energies. But we got there was a lot of heat on that one. And that's hard for me sometimes to see that. But I think emotionally, it's harder for me to see some of these TikToks, these TikTok comments, not because I think, oh, they hate me, but because I see them defending these things in the name of God and being okay with it. Oh, well, if it's one household, one vote, whatever.
Speaker 1:Who cares? You guys can just agree on who to vote on. I mean, my husband and I are often on the same page about these kinds of things, but we don't always vote the same way. And I am an individual person with an individual brain. And so it is important for me to be able to exercise that right.
Speaker 1:That is what the constitution gives me.
Speaker 2:And you also have to ask the question, okay, if they're willing to take this away from me Mhmm. What else is going to happen? Right. If I'm willing to let my ability to vote slide, what else am I willing to let slide? What other freedoms am I giving up because they think that I'm less than?
Speaker 2:They think because I'm a woman, I am less
Speaker 1:of a person. Yeah. We put out a long time ago a TikTok, and I said something along the lines of, like, women, if you're trying to please conservative men by being less, by being submissive, by being quiet, understand that they fundamentally think that you are less than they are. And women don't wanna admit that. And men don't wanna admit that either because they'll be like, no.
Speaker 1:It's not less than. It's different. Like, separate but equal is never equal. If all of your roles are leadership roles and all of my roles are submission roles, those are not just different. They are unequal.
Speaker 1:And God didn't tell us to be unequal. One of the comments when I was talking about I might have read this comment already. But when we were talking about just generally, like, immigration and things like that, we've posted quite a lot about that. One of the comments that I got said it was a very long post. But it said at the end of it, heaven has gates.
Speaker 1:And I actually didn't know that that is a common saying amongst conservative Christians right now. Did you guys know that? That horrifies me on every level.
Speaker 2:That's disgusting.
Speaker 1:Heaven has gates. And now this is me. This was not in the comment. This is me adding to the comment. But, basically, if you say to me heaven has gates, what you're also saying is, and I get to stand outside those gates and say who gets to go in and who doesn't.
Speaker 1:I am the judge, jury, and executioner. Or my religion is or whatever. Not god, but me. I get to decide. And they're using this phrase as like a rallying cry to close the borders of The United States to ship people back to not even their own countries, just whatever country is paying us money or doing us favors.
Speaker 1:And I did a response comment to that, and I that was another one that we got a lot of comments on. And one of the people says, my God. And then it gives a verse reference. It says Romans thirteen one through five instructs believers to submit to governing authorities and by extension the laws of the land. And it astounds me that people will pull verses like this.
Speaker 1:Now this is in the Bible. Romans does say this. Absolutely. But God also mentions foreigners 92 times throughout the Bible. And almost every time he says, love, welcome, treat them as your own because you were foreigners in Egypt.
Speaker 1:Almost every time of those 92 times, as opposed to this one singular verse in Romans. He also says the word love over 600 times throughout the bible. I think we talked about this last week. Mhmm. If something's mentioned 600 times, pay attention.
Speaker 2:Pay some attention. And I also would like to hear their take on the Egyptians and the Israelites in the Bible when God said, let my people go. Mhmm. Let my people go. Let my people go.
Speaker 2:What is their take on that? Mhmm.
Speaker 1:We are very bad at recognizing privilege. We refuse to admit that we have privilege. And I've had this argument with many people in my life because Brie and I are of European descent. We have white skin. And that gives us privilege.
Speaker 1:Is it right that it does? No. But it is true. Like, we have a privilege and it's important to recognize that and to say, I'm gonna use that privilege for good. Men, simply by being men, have privilege.
Speaker 1:And it is important, even though it's not fair or right, to recognize it and do something about it. We, as people who live in The United States, were born here, have citizenship here, and were raised middle class, have privilege. And it's important that we recognize it and use it for good, right or wrong. But I get comments like this all the time. She says, we aren't keeping people out of The United States.
Speaker 1:We want them to come here legally. I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand. I cannot just go to another country and start a life without following the rules of their country. Okay. You want people to come here legally.
Speaker 1:That's what you're saying. Right? Like, oh, no. I'm fine with immigrants, just legal immigrants. Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, step into someone else's shoes. Someone who's living a life in fear, in poverty, whose children are being stolen away from them and trafficked. Would you illegally cross the border? Would you run away? Would you hope that the people who say their religion is about compassion and love would give you compassion and love?
Speaker 1:Would you hope that people showed you some semblance of humanity?
Speaker 2:We've talked about this before too, but we stopped seeing people as humans. And I think that's reflected in that comment right there. Mhmm. She forgets that these immigrants are people.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And that Jesus died on the cross for these people. And just because they look different from you, and just because they speak differently from you, does not mean they deserve any less love and compassion. And Christians, specifically like this woman, are deciding which people get love and compassion from God. Right.
Speaker 1:In a smaller way, it is very much like the privilege that we're talking about with the Save America Act. Men will be able to walk in with no documentation and vote because of their privilege. Women, not all women, but most women, many women won't be able to. That's privilege, and it's important to recognize it and call it out and say it for what it is. It is privilege to have been born in a space where you are not fighting for your life at every moment, where you're not as worried about things like children being snatched.
Speaker 1:That's privilege, and it's important to recognize that privilege and say, I will fight for someone who has less. Because that's literally what Jesus did with his entire life. Are you the hands and feet of Jesus, or are
Speaker 2:you not? Where are you currently the hands and feet of Trump?
Speaker 1:Great question. Oh
Speaker 2:my gosh. I will share this on our Instagram, but there was a photo that I saw of a bunch of women who went to go see the Melania premiere, all dressed like her. All dressed in her white dress with the big black redacted I saw that.
Speaker 1:Don't think that's what she meant to do, but it for sure is what she did.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. It looks exactly like The Epstein Files. It made me laugh so hard. It's a group of how many oh, I'm looking at it now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten white women wearing the same freaking dress and white heels surrounding the Melania poster.
Speaker 1:What on earth? Did you know that the pastor of their church actually reposted that and was like, some women go out and protest, but women from our church go do this. He was super proud of it. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1:Life is weird right now, guys.
Speaker 2:Life is weird. And it shows you what people prioritize. And it also shows me, like, it's not Jesus.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:They are definitely making the Trumps into idols Mhmm. Into their versions of other gods. And we're have to answer for that.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Except for Melania and Trump. You know, just those two. I forgot.
Speaker 1:I forgot that verse. I keep forgetting verses today. In Heskaia as well.
Speaker 2:Alright. I really like Michelle Obama. And I would like to have a little bit more lighthearted content. Mhmm. And on this podcast, we talk about strong women.
Speaker 2:We do. And I do feel that Michelle Obama is incredibly strong.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And there's been some crap that came out about them that Trump posted. Oh, the video. Yeah. Trump reposted and then took down a video of Michelle and Barack's faces on some monkeys. So super
Speaker 1:racist. Very racist. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I think he's freaked out by strong, powerful, confident, educated women. Mhmm. And I would like to celebrate her.
Speaker 1:So we will be talking about that next week. So just we can have a lighter week and breathe for a minute together.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Meanwhile, go watch some documentaries on Netflix.
Speaker 1:Maybe maybe, like, watch a little bit and then watch a comedy show. We recommend Taskmaster on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. It's the best. I was just talking about that with a friend. I love British humor so much. Like that is what gets me.
Speaker 2:It's so dry and so quick and just clever, and I love it. And I don't understand people who don't love British humor.
Speaker 1:It's the best. So go you can watch a documentary, but, like, intersperse with some funny so that you don't wanna die. Mhmm. Alright. We love you guys.
Speaker 1:We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2:May the Lord bless and keep you and also with you. And goodbye. Love you. Bye.
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