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I'm John Galantis. Happy weekend to everybody who is joining us here at the Clear View Today show. Thank you for sticking around the entire week. We've got a great, great discussion lined up for you guys today.
But before we do anything else, we want to introduce our host with the most, Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, happy Friday, my friend. Happy Friday. Good to see you guys. Same here.
Same here. Looking forward to today's discussion. Amen.
Amen. Always love. Looking forward to sharing with you guys. I got to tell you, I had something happen earlier today and I don't know if the, you know what? I'm just going to go ahead and give us the thing. I needed, I need to lay this out for somebody because I feel like I'm going crazy on its surface. Nothing bad happened. In fact, everything was good.
I just, I just feel like I need some, I need some advice here. So Dr. Shah's sister said, Hey Libna, very, very big help. She's volunteering here at the church. And she said, I want to help you with the birthday project. So the birthday project is everyone who's on the worship team on the AV team gets a personalized birthday card on their birthday. We're getting that automated, getting volunteers to start helping out with that. Libna said, I want to help you kickstart that. I said, Hey, that's awesome.
Love it. Great. So she said, give me a list of everybody who's on the worship team and the AV team. I said, planning center already does that.
I'll just print it out for you. She said, Oh my goodness. 75 people. I said, wow. Yeah, I guess it is. I went through. I was like, yeah, yeah.
The 75 people. She said, okay, I'll be back. She disappears for like a couple of days.
So then she comes back. She says, okay, the cards are done. I said, what cards? I said, Oh, the birthday cards, all of them. She was like, they are done.
And I said, okay, let let's, let's look at them. She brings me a card and here's where I feel kind of bad because she did a lot of work, a lot of work, right? She says, tell me what you think. And it says, dear friend on this most special day, I would like to take the opportunity to remind you of the beautiful words in Isaiah 46. I shall be your God. I can't remember what the verse is, but it's like, I shall be your God and you, my people. And she said, she said, I hope that this special day serves you well.
Love John. Oh, and I said, Ooh, so sweet. I said, so, so far. I said, how many, you only did this. You only did this one.
She said all of them. They are done. I said, wow. I said, okay.
First off, let me say this. You helped me a great deal. Your intention was good. I love how you jumped on it.
That was really great. It's a little formal. Now living the, she takes criticism well, but today she was like, uh, these are your friends. I said, yeah, they're, they're my friends, but it's a little, it's a little formal. It's like something granny would write a card like to, to all her, to our people. And she says, no, this is how you write to your friends. I said, I promise you, I don't like, I would say, she said, how would you say it?
And then I felt stupid. Cause I was like, I typically start my emails like, Hey, Gucci gang, what's going on? Fellas, stuff like that. And she looked, she doesn't, she doesn't even yo, yo, yo, what up y'all? Yeah.
Yeah. Like I started them out kind of silly. Hey everybody, who was the four, you know, with some outdated slang or whatever, but she doesn't even respond. She just looks at me and I was like, I was like, yeah, I know it's kind of silly. Or it was like, if I'm like doing Nicole, I would tell Nicole, like, Hey, you get on my nerves, but happy birthday.
She's she just does answer. She's like, she's like this, she holds up her car. She's like, this is how we speak to our friends.
I said, it's a little, it's a little formal. So then she was like, all right, here's what we're going to do. You and I are going to sit down and we're going to go through each and every single person. And you tell me if you would speak to them formally or informally. And I go, Oh, Libna, we got a radio show. I don't have time for that.
Yeah. She said, that's what we're going to. So we sat down in the cafe and she went through every person alphabetically and was like, now is this person a good friend? Would you speak to them formally or would you say, Hey, Gucci gang, would you call them a tiny time?
Tiny time. And so she made me, I will say that she is extremely thorough volunteer. She made me go through every single person and list out my relationship to them.
I'm not going to say him here on the radio show, but just know when you get your card, know that that was a labor of law. You have been classified. You have been classified yet that show when you read a birthday card, is that how you speak to your friends?
Dear friend. I haven't written a birthday card in a long time. I do instruct people on how to address the birthday cards. They write it.
And then I sign it. Yeah. She said, she also said when I was in India, my brother always sent me a birthday card and it was, it was phrased just like that.
Oh yeah. Did you ever tell Libna on this most precious day, your birthday? I would like to remind you of that. I don't remember that. It's just celebration. I do not remember.
Do people in India, do people in India address their friends like that or is she just a formal writer? I mean, it was formal. That, that may be how typically it's said. Okay. Yeah.
So like if, so in that, in that context, if I were writing a birthday card to Ryan, I would say my dear friend Ryan on this most precious day, your birthday, I would like to remind you of this Bible verse. Yeah. You know, we had letter writing classes back in school. Really? Oh yeah. I don't, I don't know. Did y'all have letter writing?
Yeah. So I learned how to write a letter, but it was, I feel like it was like maybe half a lesson in English class glossed over. We had a letter writing class on how to, how to address somebody based on their age, based on what they do for you, all those kinds of things. And you have to like, it was a class. I mean, it was, it was part of our, probably English class.
That's probably where she, that's probably where she's pulling that knowledge from. Dear sir. Honorable sir.
Respected madam. I mean, this is what you have to do. Wow. Yeah. Wow.
And you learn how to do that. Again, this is coming from the British culture. Yeah. Because British were in India. So a lot of the educational system was taken from the British. And when people fuss about that, I'm like, what did you have? What did the Indians have prior to that?
Not that they were uneducated, they had other things, but the system of education that we espouse in India came from the British educational system from Britain. Yeah. So they would not start a formal email with, Hey, Gucci gang, hope everybody's doing good. Yeah. Formal email.
Probably not. I mean, this is, it's kind of funny, but yeah, that's, you had to learn how to address people even to this day. I have to think twice like, okay, so I am writing this letter of reference for somebody to get a job.
How should I do that? I'm not going to say honorable dear. Am I, should I even say dear? Or should I just say their name?
Should I just say their position or Mr. So-and-so in those kinds of contexts, you have to address it correctly. Love of a formality there. Yeah.
Kind of a structure, I guess that, but not to your, not to your worship team. No, no. Yo, yo, yo, everybody. Well, it's June. In fact, we're almost done with June. Yeah.
Over halfway. And that's crazy. Something has felt very different this year.
Yeah. I don't know if you guys have, have been, have been privy to this, but for years now, it seems like we've seen rainbow logos, pride campaigns, mostly from corporations who I didn't even know were gay. But this year, a noticeable shift. There have been almost no pride ads that I've seen at all. Hardly any. Hardly.
Genuinely none. So I came across this article and there are several articles like this, but I picked one just for time sake. It was in the Western Journal and let's see, where does the Western Journal, where does it publish? I'm trying to figure that out here. They had an article. Oh, it's owned by Liftable Media Incorporated. Okay. Again, I don't know who that is.
Yeah, I'm the same. Yeah. But there are several articles like this that I came across recently in the news and they said, look how many corporations backed out of pride month this year.
And then there's a subtitle with it. Is the movement over? This article came out on June the 8th. Wow. Is the movement over? I hope so. Yeah. I would say, again, I don't know for sure, but just looking at the evidence whether locally, statewide, national level, many, many companies are withdrawing their support because of budget shortfalls, whatever, whatever they're saying, this needs to stop.
Yeah. I don't know that there's any budget shortfalls. I don't know if it's in, if there's no budget shortfalls in Walmart, Target, like Amazon, all of these pride giants. I think they're just seeing that it's no longer culturally. There's been some cultural pushback.
There's been some economic pressure when people say we're not going to shop here anymore. Well, this newspaper Western Journal coming out of Phoenix, Arizona, I believe it is. They said it could be, and they're quoting from maybe the Associated Press, which is not the bastion of conservative news. True. And they said something about generalized fatigue from the broader public toward pride month. I can see that.
I think that's indicative of a larger issue that we talked about on the show where this, this media control represents a very minority voice, a very small number of people who hold this opinion, but the people that do control the airwaves control the content that we are kind of shoved at us. So this is what's been drilled in like, everybody's doing this. This is acceptable. Every everything is you need to do it. If you don't do it, you will be targeted. You will be black cast.
You're the weird one. If you don't do this, but in reality, that's not the case. You especially like don't realize how little ground you hold when it's corporations who are your, who are your championing voice. Like I don't want, like you think, okay, I've got a huge corporation on my side, like Walmart or Target or Amazon.
I got lots of corporations on my side, but you don't understand like they're not ever your allies. They're not, they're not championing for pride because they're, they're woke or they believe in this ideology. It's just good for business.
And the moment it stops being good for business, they will abandon you. And we're seeing them quietly backing away from pride month. Yeah. They weren't champions of this cause. They're champions of their business.
Right? Exactly. They're going to do what's lucrative for their business.
If it's no longer lucrative to support this, they're going to back out. In fact, this article says that San Francisco pride now has a $200,000 budget deficit because sponsors have pulled out. Oh my goodness. That's insane.
$200,000 they've lost. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's going to be more and more, you're going to see a lot of this happening. And I think I would say overall people everywhere were tired of this afraid to speak out because they would be called a bigot or, or you are a hateful person and whatever. And so now these corporations are realizing maybe the average public are not that crazy about any of this.
Well, you said it yourself. It's fatigue where, you know, never were we ever on board with it, but it was like, okay, this just, it looks like this is just the world we live in. We're going to have to get used to it. And we realized once you get tired of enough of something, no, you don't. Like I remember people talking about like, okay, I was all for pride month, but now I can't even watch star Wars without people like being gay or they're being like sexual agendas in my like dopey sci-fi shows.
Now we've started, we're, we're really starting to get a problem. And with the whole thing with Disney to putting it in front of our children, once you started doing that, I think parents really had a big voice in it. Conservatives already had a big voice in it. And they started getting bolstered by the people on the left who were starting to come over to this side.
And then I think with the election happening the way that it did, everybody just was like, you know what? I feel emboldened now to speak up and say something. Imbolden is a good word. You said this before, Dr. Shah, but I think it was, and now I'm trying to remember who that quote is. Is it Billy Graham who says when, when, when good people stand up, the backs, the spines of others are stiffened. Yes.
Yeah. I feel like this happened as a result of the election is that people, we realized that we're not alone. You know, we've had, we've held these values and we haven't been shy about saying that, but there are other people who hold these same values, maybe aren't as, you know, aren't as bold to stand out and make that, make that known. But now as, as the election results have shown, there's many others who share these same, the same values. And numbers don't lie. Like this is not just a business discussion.
I understand that. But normally this time of year, when you see all these companies working on their campaigns for pride month, and now all of a sudden everything's a ghost town, they're understanding that there's no money in it and there's no money in it because the majority of people don't want it. Don't care. Don't want it. And, and even if they don't, like are not against it or anything, they're just like, why do I have to see this constantly?
If somebody wants to be gay in America, okay, let's just talk facts. Yeah. Do you have the right to do that? Right. You have the right to do that.
But what has happened over the past decade or so is that this has been sort of almost like an advocacy group, okay. Trying to tell us that you need to get with it. You are wrong and your beliefs need to change. And if you don't believe this way, then you are a risk to society.
You are a bad person. We don't need you in the, that kind of a rhetoric was exhausting. And many of us spoke out. I mean, this is not the first time we're talking about it. I know right now it's in some circles, it's almost trendy to be cool to be conservative, but we've been talking about this way, way before that. Ever since before we even had this show.
That's right. We've been talking about this and standing up with courage and conviction. Having said that, people are tired and they express that, especially with last election. One of the things that President Trump represents is end of all this DEI stuff. It's time to stop. And anytime somebody tells me like, well, there are some good parts to it.
Please tell me which one. Oh, I mean, women, giving them an opportunity. Well, that was always there. I know that has not been implemented like it should. Putting DEI in place did not help anybody. It actually caused more division and problems.
And if there's a good old boy culture, wherever you are, it's going to stay. That's right. Okay.
It doesn't go away. So you can do all the DEI you want to. It's going to be, it's going to not going to work anyways.
That's right. So there are other ways to do that. And, and I hope people are now finally, like, we're done with that movement. We're done with this pride movement. You can, you can have your lifestyle. We don't agree with it. We think it is a sin because the Bible calls it sin.
It's an abomination before God, but you have the right to live. That's right. That's right. But you don't have the right to shove it in my face.
I don't need to see that every time I am out in June or when I'm watching TV with my children, or when I am going into stores where I just want to buy some stuff or restaurants and all of a sudden I have to see this and my kids, I don't need that. That's right. You don't, you're not subject to our heterosexuality. We don't shove that in your face.
We don't throw parades for our heterosexuality. Right. People may argue. If you want to argue, we can argue for anything for goodness sake. But people will say that, well, you're doing that. You're forcing your heterosexuality on me every time, like whatever. Sure.
Yeah. We're not going to sit here and try to justify everything. All we're going to say is what has happened. People are tired of it. And that's why these companies are pulling all that support.
That's exactly why you can't argue with numbers. And if you're listening to the show right now, and you agree with everything Dr. Shah said, but you've never spoken out, just know that you're in the vast, vast majority. The people who would have you think otherwise, they're seeing right now with their pocketbooks and with their, with their budget deficits, that this is not the case that the majority of Americans do not think this way. They don't want this. We've been bullied into accepting it. And now that things are finally turning around, I wonder what's going to happen. I wonder if there's going to be a coming back for a lot of these liberals who are, who are starting to turn to conservatism, or I wonder if they're just going to play out the clock, waiting for the president of another color.
No, I don't, I don't think that's going to be the case. There is a, there is a real genuine, tangible shift that is happening in, in our, in our nation. It's happening in the world too.
I mean, look at some of the other countries that are, that are finally waking up and going, enough of this, enough of this social Marxist agenda that supports and flaunts this way of life and which we don't want. You can have that lifestyle. You can have a homosexual lifestyle. You just cannot force me or my children to, to be subjected to that. I mean, some of the things we had to deal with, with, with the, with the transgender movement, having these, these you know, library time, having little children sitting there with someone in drag, dancing and flaunting. And what is, what is, what is wrong? It's, it's disgusting. Yeah.
This flaunting in your face. I mean, it is very much an attack on God's design for a marriage. God's designed for men and women. God created men to be men. God created women to be women. And there's a reason for that because it goes back to the image of God. It goes back to the Trinity. So if you're attacking that by praying on the minds of children, which is what's happening, that's not needed.
No, you're attacking the image of God. And we, as believers ought to stand up against that. I sort of like their, their response. Cause there was someone in this article who said it like pretty defiantly, like the festival is still going to go on. The vendors are still going to be there. The people are still going to show up, but it puts huge constraints on what we can do throughout the year and how we can support the community. And to that, I say like, I'm actually kind of glad they're still going to do the festival because I want people to see how poorly it's being attended, how poorly it's being funded.
And I think when you see with your own eyes, like we can sit here and talk about it all day, but when you see with your own eyes, like, Oh, that's nothing. People are not showing up to support this. I think it really changes the public perception of how this is going. How amazing.
I mean, where we were last year about this time and where we are today. I mean, God is indeed working. That's right. God is indeed working and we're seeing a major shift. And the reason we are happy about this, this lack of interest by corporations like BMW, you know, last year about this time, they had all their colors changed to the pride colors, but this year they're still in their blue, white and black, the typical BMW emblem.
I'm happy because as Ryan was saying, this is not just a fling. This is not just someone's personal fulfillment to have this lifestyle. Children's destinies are hanging in the balance.
That's right. Because when this kind of an agenda is thrown in their face, then if they're going through some crisis in their life and some wrong person comes around and says, you know, you would make a great drag queen or you would look great as this or whatever as a nine, 10 year old or even younger, my goodness, how tragic that they have to now question whether or not they are male or female or whether they should be heterosexual or homosexual when they grow up. Those are not the things that little kids to be subjected to. Yeah, I agree. And of course abuse follows and a lot of things go on.
I mean, it's just horrible. This may be a discussion for another day because it sort of zooms out, but I wonder if there's any credibility or any merit to the fact that the left typically finds their allies in celebrities and corporations. If they're going to get support or funding, it's going to be from celebrities, corporations, or the government. Well, here's the funny thing. Celebrities are eerily silent lately, right?
So that's what I was going to say. So Hollywood has lost its voice, lost their convictions. Yeah, it could be when you find people on the right, typically not always, but typically their support or their values comes from the church. Something that's unmoving, not every single conservative, but typically across the board, we try to stand on biblical convictions because these are convictions that are not going to change no matter what corporations say or how business does. But with the left, it's almost like it's constantly changing. And when things are going good, they take that as a positive, like, oh, we're not stuck in our ways. We're willing to change. We're willing to adapt. But then when stuff like this, it's like, what happened? But it's like all your allies abandoned you. Right, right. And so I would say there's something good happening in America right now.
There's something very positive. And those who were opportunistic, I think those corporations, some of them were very opportunistic. I would even tell people in the gay lesbian community, I would tell people in the transgender community, I would tell people who are, may not be in that lifestyle, but they're allies. I would tell them, you were looking to these people, whether they were Hollywood stars or corporations or politicians who are very silent now, this should be an eye-opener for you. That these people used you. They used you for their agenda. They used you to get some votes and popularity. They were not for you. You thought you were using them. You thought you were using these people. They were using you. Right. And guess what? Today they're quiet.
If they were really so diehard, convictionally so diehard in supporting a homosexual lifestyle or transgender lifestyle, they should still be. But now they're like, they may still do it if you one-on-one talk to them, but they're afraid to say anything. It's like, look, I gotta go. I gotta go. I'm busy. No comments.
What's going on? This corporation, this celebrity does not care about you. Right. Who cares about you is Jesus. That's right. I was just thinking that.
I was like, why don't you come to the one who we've been saying does care about you and made you in his image and loves you. That's a great way to end out the show, Dr. Shah. If we wanted to just boil this down to its simplest fact, because we're sort of talking about cultural things and what's going on with corporations and with celebrities and with leaders. But if we just boil this down to the absolute core, if someone's listening to this today and they're saying, I just don't understand what is your problem with homosexuals? Why do you, why do you hate them so much?
Because that's how people are going to. Right. And I would say absolutely. We don't hate, we don't hate anybody. God doesn't hate anyone. God loves everyone. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So no, we don't hate anyone.
That's right. We want everyone to come to know Christ. Christ died for your soul.
Christ died for your eternity. You can come to know Christ. All you have to do is look to him.
All you have to do is welcome him in your life. There is a hole in your heart and that hole can only be filled with God. And Christ came to make that connection, to make that available to you. And by faith, by faith, just accept that he is God's son, that he died as was promised and prophesied in ancient times that he was coming and he came and he fulfilled all the prophecies and he gave his life for you. He was buried, but he rose again on the third day and he is giving life to anyone who will come to him, no matter where you are, no matter what you've done, no matter your lifestyle, he will give it to you. But something else he does, he transforms your life. So whether you are homosexual or whether you are transgender or whether you are a murderer, a rapist, a liar, a cheat, you name it, he will transform your life and come to him and he will do that for you.
Of course, those things are sins and homosexuality is some of the worst sins if you read Romans chapter one. That's right. But no one is so far gone that they cannot come to know Christ.
That's right. Amen. There are so many, so many wonderful testimonies out there of people. That's a great word of hope, especially from a movement that identity was kind of the resounding call. Like this is my identity, this is who I am, this is how I identify. Your identity should be in Christ.
It should be as his son or his daughter that he's created, that he's molded, that he has a plan for, that he came to die for. And I think it's such a perfect way to end the show because we know, like now that we're seeing pray.com, we're seeing these demographics, we're up to almost like 14,000 followers now. And a lot of them I can, I think when you start dealing with numbers like that, you have to confront the fact that there are people who are in that lifestyle who are listening to you there.
I mean, we can see their profile pictures when they follow you. We know for a fact there are people who are listening to this who are either struggling or outright support it. And so I'm glad that Dr. Shah, you ended the episode that way because there is an inclusive nature. In fact, it's the most inclusive thing you can do is invite someone to part of the gospel. You know, we never want it to be like, oh, we're really glad this is, you know, like we've scored a point on you. We want to see people come to Christ.
That's why this show exists. God has a great, great plan for your life. God has so many blessings for you. God is able to heal your heart from all the hurts and the pains that you have suffered or whatever you've been through. God is there to help you.
If only you would take his hand. That's right. You don't have to work for this.
You don't have to get all educated or get some training. All you have to do is say, Christ, I need you. That's right. He will do the rest. Amen. Amen.
So good. So hopeful for us as we end, not just the show, but as we go into the weekend. Hope this was a blessing for somebody listening in the audience to share this episode with somebody, you know, who needs to hear it. The truth of the gospel is that Jesus saves us.
That's right. He meets us where we are and brings us out of darkness. Guys, if you enjoyed today's episode, write in and let us know, 252-58-25028. We love hearing from you, love listening, love hearing your responses of what you're taking away from the episodes. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes, or like John said, you can become a subscriber on Pray. Follow along with Dr. Shaw and all the exclusive content that's available on pray.com. Some great stuff out there for you. And you can always support us financially at clearviewtodayshow.com. John, we're headed into the weekend.
What are you leaving the listeners with? Definitely want to just let you know that there are churches around you who are engaging in worship of our God this weekend. Make sure you're at one of them. If you have to genuinely just know where to go, you can always join us online at clearviewbc.org. We stream every single service at 8 30 a.m. on Sunday morning, then again at 11 a.m. You can also watch all of Dr. Shaw's past messages on Pray. There's exclusive content on there, like Ryan said.
All of his books are available on amazon.com. Links are going to be in the description below, but we really just want to invite you guys to worship our God with us together this weekend. That's right. So good. We love you guys. Have a wonderful weekend, and we'll see you Monday on Clearview Today. This episode of Clear View Today is brought to you by Mighty Muscadine. If you're looking for a natural way to boost your health, Mighty Muscadine has you covered. From 100% Muscadine grape juice to premium healthy supplements, every single product is handcrafted to bring you the best of this extraordinary super fruit. It's backed by science, and best of all, every Muscadine grape is grown right here in the heart of North Carolina.
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