Christian -- Practice What You Preach

Christians, practice what you preach. That is a topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in the person and the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf.

The website is thechristianworldview.org. Thanks for joining us this weekend as we talk about Christian practice, what you preach. You know, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23 the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them.

In other words, they say one thing, but then don't do it. So during the earthly life of Christ, the Pharisees who just referred to in that passage were a strict religious sect known for their public displays of religious acts such as wearing showy garments, fastiduously washing their hands before meals, giving alms and praying in front of people. But today the term Pharisee is actually synonymous with the term hypocrite because Jesus said the Pharisees didn't actually practice what they preached. They focused on the very minute aspects of God's law, selectively the ones that they felt that were important, but they neglected the larger matters of, quote, justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

That's from Matthew 23 verse 23. So in a similar vein today, have you noticed that those who scream the loudest about, quote, injustice are very selective in their outrage? They are quick to criticize all the perceived injustices in America, but when confronted with far greater injustices, let's say the right of an unborn child to life or the great injustice that take place abroad all over the world, like in China, let's say, they remain silent to those things. Pro basketball star LeBron James recently exemplified that, and we're going to get into that today here on the program.

So today we're going to discuss the importance for Christians to be consistent with what we preach and practice. Also, if we have Tom Byrne to get to an interview with Greg Kochel, the president of Stand to Reason, about how to have meaningful discussions, tactical discussions, as he calls them, with non-believers. Now, in case you haven't been paying attention to the news, there is just a huge furor going on in a geopolitical furor, actually, after a tweet made by the general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team. His name is Daryl Morey. He wrote a tweet, sent it out with an image that simply read, fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.

That's it. Remember the context of Hong Kong, what's going on there right now? The protests have been taking place for months over there. Hong Kong used to be a colony of Great Britain, and I think it lasted for a hundred years. There was a hundred year lease on Great Britain and on Hong Kong, and Hong Kong started to enjoy Western freedoms and democracy and so forth. But the deal was there was going to be a handover back to China in 1997, communist China.

And so that handoff took place in 1997. There was another 50 year arrangement where Hong Kong would be able to continue to enjoy the freedoms they had had during that 100 years as a British colony. Well, way before the 50 years have expired in 2047, already China is changing the rules. They want to be able to take people from Hong Kong and extradite them and try them in communist China. And of course, the people in Hong Kong are starting to realize we are losing our freedoms. China is not keeping their end of the deal. They're infringing on our rights and they're out in the streets protesting and violent protests week after week.

These people are literally fighting for their way of life, their freedoms that they were guaranteed in this changeover between Great Britain and China. And so Daryl Morey steps into this, this Houston Rockets general manager. I mean, you think, what's the connection there? Well, there's really maybe I don't know what the connection between him is. Maybe he just follows world events for whatever reason.

He just decided that we outstand with Hong Kong. Well, the response to that little, what was it, a seven word tweet from someone who I'd never heard of the man. He's relatively even unknown, I think, in sports circles.

If you ask most people to say who is the general manager of the Houston Rockets, people probably wouldn't even know it. But this tweet set off an international firestorm. According to ESPN, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said it will no longer air the two preseason games that they did when the NBA would come over to China to play games and promote the league. Apparently, there's a pretty strong fan following and in China, lots of merchandise sales, shoes, these kinds of things being sold over there.

There's a lot at stake. And then CCTV also reported that it's reviewing all of its cooperation in the NBA. So in other words, if one of your general managers in America is going to make a tweet saying stand with Hong Kong, fight for freedom, we're going to we're going to basically disassociate ourselves and pull back any relationship we have with the NBA.

The broadcaster from Chinese television in this state run television indicated the decision to cancel everything was prompted by earlier remarks that Adam Silver, the president of the NBA, made while he was in Japan. Quote, We're strongly dissatisfied and oppose Adam Silver's claim to support Daryl Morey's right to freedom of expression. We oppose that. This is China saying this. We believe that any remarks that challenge national sovereignty and social stability are not within the scope of freedom of speech.

Isn't interesting how, you know, one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. Isn't that amazing how if you make a comment here in America saying stand with the people of Hong Kong and their protests against China for their rights to be free from communist China. Then you are challenging the national sovereignty and social stability of China.

And that's not within your your freedom of speech. Well, the remarks that Adam Silver made, according to The New York Times, the Chinese government asked the NBA apparently to fire Daryl Morey. So the China asked the NBA to fire an American businessman, so to speak, who runs this team in in in Houston to fire a team executive who posted on social media in support of pro democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The league's commissioner, Adam Silver, said on Thursday in his first public appearance in the U.S. since returning from a contentious trip to Asia. Silver, by the way, to his credit, said, well, we said there's no chance that we're going to be firing him.

There's no chance we're even going to discipline him. And I can say Adam Silver is a very kind of social justice left type of person, but I at least applaud him for saying we're not going to fire the man here in America for exercising his First Amendment right. Now, back in China, CNBC is reporting Chinese President Xi Jinping, look what he says, how much he believes in free speech, warned on Sunday that any attempt to divide China will be crushed as Beijing faces political challenges in month long protests in Hong Kong and U.S. criticism over its treatment of Muslim minority groups. And by the way, I'll add to that, Christian groups in China. Just this past week, I heard in the news that China again came to a church that wasn't in compliance with what they wanted, came in with bulldozers, knocked the church down and completely destroyed the whole area and re-sodded it over and planted trees as if it never existed. This is the country we're dealing with with China, that kind of a repressive regime. And so Xi, the president of China, said anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones, unquote.

That's what you're dealing with. So getting back to this situation in the NBA, now come back here to America. Meanwhile, the L.A. Lakers with LeBron James, who plays for the L.A. Lakers now, just happened to be traveling over to China to make some appearances and some exhibition games, I believe, in China, one of their outlets where they try to promote the game and make money and that kind of thing. They were over in Shanghai. Now that's in mainland China, part of communist China. They were there to make some appearances and play an exhibition game.

Everything got canceled while they were there. And so meanwhile, LeBron James comes back to or during the time he was there or when he comes back, this is the most popular player in the NBA, the greatest player right now in the NBA. And he questions why Daryl Morey had to open his mouth in the first place. And there's an incredibly good article on our website right now linked over to USA Today with an article by Dan Wolken. He said, LeBron James undermines values he's espoused in most graceful moment of career. I'm just going to read a couple paragraphs of the article because I think it's just really going to really encourage you to read the article on your own, because it really sums up the hypocrisy taking place here.

Be some big social justice advocate. But when it came to a real injustice over in China and Hong Kong, oh, well, it's not worth talking about. I'm going to stay out of that. The guy who tweeted shouldn't have opened his mouth.

He could have waited a week to do so when we weren't over in China. As a matter of fact, LeBron James tweeted a couple years ago, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. I believe that's a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Now, just remember that keep that little quote in your mind and maybe keep this quote in your mind as well. When he was interviewed by Rachel Nichols of ESPN, listen to LeBron. He sees himself as this this leader of social injustice. Well, for me, I have a voice.

I have a platform. And I have so many kids and not only kids, but also adults and everybody to kind of look for guidance and look for someone to kind of lead them in a time where they feel like their voice isn't powerful. And when you see something that's unjust or you see something that's wrong or you see something that's trying to divide us as a race or as a country, then I feel like my voice can be heard and can speak volumes. OK, so LeBron James thinks he has a very big voice, and he does to a certain extent, and he sees himself as a as a as the tip of the spear. When he sees injustice, he can be a voice for children and adults. Well, apparently, when it came to Hong Kong, the people who are actually really being having unjust things done to them, he couldn't find his voice on that particular issue. In fact, he said on Monday night, he said, My team and this league is we tweeted went just went through a difficult week after this tweet by Daryl Murray.

I think people need to be referring to Maury need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others. And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it. In other words, he was over in Hong Kong or Shanghai. Everything got canceled over there.

It put him out and so forth. You could have waited the week until we got home before you sent that tweet. Bad timing, Daryl Maury. Well, I thought this was the purveyor of social justice that we speak up when we see something, say something. This is a man, LeBron James, who called the president, our president, a bum, OK, who's who's very quick to speak out and all the injustices, perceived injustices he sees in America. But when it comes to a real injustice taking place in front of the world right now in in China, Hong Kong area.

Well, that could have waited a week. That wasn't very he called it misinformed. I don't think the Daryl Maury is very informed about the issue.

There's really not much to be informed about, to be honest. This particular issue is very clear. Hong Kong was turned over to China in 1997. They had 50 years under the same laws. China's already infringed on their rights. They want to extradite Hong Kongers over to China and people don't want that. So they're protesting. It's very, very simple. China's trying to impose their communism on Hong Kong. Very simple.

Not hard to understand. No one's misinformed. In fact, Daryl Maury seems very informed about the issue. We'll come back talking more about the importance of Christians practicing what we preach. There's an abundance of resources available in Christian bookstores and online.

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You can support the ministry through our website, thechristianworldview.org. Today in the program we're talking about practicing what we preach and how this situation going on with the NBA, the basketball association in China with regard to Lebron James. The general manager of Houston Rockets made a tweet saying fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong. That's all he said. That's it. An American in America tweeted that, set off an international firestorm because China doesn't like to be criticized.

They don't believe in freedom of speech. They just said so. And Lebron James was over in China or went over there shortly afterwards and all these things were canceled. And he was upset because Daryl Morey tweeted this out and thinks it wasn't the right thing to say at the right time. Of course, he's supposed to be this Lebron James, this great social justice warrior leader in this country as we heard in those sound bites before the break.

So getting back to this article in USA Today by Dan Wolken, he said on behalf of the 327 million Americans who generally believe that freedom is good and authoritarian regimes are less good. I'll just say bad. Let me apologize to Lebron James or the L.A. Lakers. It must have been a real inconvenience. He's writing sarcastically here to take that 13 hour flight chartered to China last week and hang around a luxury hotel in Shanghai for five days while promotional appearances got canceled. Surely it was awful to be in the middle of an international firestorm where the stakes were so high. Would NBA preseason games be played or not?

Whoa, the end of the world. And to think Lebron and his teammates were so disrupted all because Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey had the temerity to send a relatively anodyne tweet supporting a protest that pretty much every one of his countrymen, whether in the left or the right of the political spectrum, would agree with over the rights Hong Kongers were promised when the U.K. handed control of the territory over to China in 1997. Because, as James tweeted on Monday night trying to clarify comments he made to the media earlier in the evening, quote, James said, my team in this league just went through a difficult week. I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others.

And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it. The tweet right on Lebron, Dan Wilkin says millions in Hong Kong are fearful that their entire way of life is about to change in thousands upon thousands of protesters are risking their lives to make a stand for their freedom and their future. Why would Morey think about them when your preseason vacation and your bank account is at stake? How selfish of Daryl Morey.

If only Morey had done what you did Monday Lebron and tacitly admit that the only thing that really matters is your ability to sell shoes and market your new movie Space Jam 2 in a country of 1.4 billion. We could have had an intellectually honest discussion about doing business in China and the cost of free speech in a country where only propaganda is tolerated. That is just so well said. And by the way, this isn't some right wing writer. I don't think this guy's kind of an anti Trump.

He gets into that later in the article. But at least he can see with clarity what is at issue here in the real injustice of what's taking place in Hong Kong versus the disruption to the NBA's pocketbook over in China. The problem Lebron, he goes on, is that you've helped construct a world in which NBA players have been incentivized to criticize our leaders and our government here at home.

Think Colin Kaepernick as well, the one who kneels when the national anthem is played before the NFL games. OK, you have a right to do that, but teams don't have the right to not employ you when you do that. You can do that on your own time.

If you want to do it on the company time, then you're subject to the company's policies on that particular issue. And then the writer says there's nothing wrong with protesting, by the way, or criticizing leaders. It's part of who we are. And there's a large segment of people who agree with you. When you call President Trump, you bum on Twitter and say that going to the White House as an NBA champion used to be a great honor until you showed up President Trump, as you did in 2017. You could have waited a week to send that tweet, Lebron, because it's what you believed.

And whatever backlash or consequence were going to come from sending that tweet for either you or the NBA, you're willing to deal with it because you presumably believe that expressing your opinion on that matter contributed to a greater good. All social justice people believe that. They're willing to trample on the rights of people because of the greater good.

The outcome is going to be good. Don't worry about the people's rights we're trampling on to get there because the greater good is the important thing. Let's skip forward here.

Let's see here. But when you go that hard at your own elected officials, Lebron, it is difficult to reconcile that with the idea that China, of all countries, should be above reproach for anyone who works in the NBA. In other words, don't criticize China and criticize Trump and everyone else here in America and how terrible our country is, but don't criticize China. Make no mistake, Lebron, that's exactly what you were suggesting on Monday when you criticized Maury for not giving any consideration to, quote, the consequences and ramifications of the tweet while making it clear that you didn't want to discuss the substance of what he was saying. And so Lebron was asked about the issue of free speech.

Very interesting what he had to say here. He wasn't positive about free speech at all. He was like, you know, we've got to be careful about free speech because it can hurt people and so forth.

Listen to Lebron James after this whole thing's taken place. We all talk about this freedom of speech. Yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others.

You know, you only think about yourself. So I don't believe I want to get into a word, a word or sentence feud with Darryl, with Darryl Maury. But I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand and he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we what we tweet and we say and what we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with it. Just a shocking statement. Really, really shocking.

Hope you could hear that. We do. We do have freedom of speech. But no, there's no but on freedom of speech, except if you're inciting violence or causing a riot to occur. That's that's what the courts have decided is the limitation of free speech when people are literally going their physical lives are going to be in danger. You know, by starting a fire, you know, screaming fire in a movie theater is kind of the classic example of this. We create a stampede and people get you don't you don't have the free speech to do that. But LeBron James there is creating so many qualifications on free speech.

And this man isn't in for LeBron. You're really informed about the situation in China. Apparently not.

If you can't basically see what's taking place there for the rights of these people who are fighting, as this columnist wrote, for their very way of life. And then so he kept them backpedaling and backpedaling. And finally, he said one more thing about it. LeBron did feel like I talked about it yesterday. I tweeted out a couple of responses to people not understanding, you know, my knowledge of what it came from, from my brain and for me learning from the situation I'm talking about it now.

And I won't talk about it again because I'll be cheating my teammates by continuing to work on something that won't benefit us. You know, trying to win a championship because that's what we're here for. We're not politicians. I think it's a huge political thing. But we are we are leaders and we can step up at times, but there's times where I'm not saying in this particular instance, but, you know, if you don't feel like you should speak on things, you shouldn't have to.

It was a challenging trip for all of us that was in China. And if you were not there, then you just can't relate. OK, so we're not politicians. Let me just tell you what's going on here. As a former professional athlete, let me just translate what he's saying. Whenever a professional athlete says something like, well, I'm just I'm just here to win championships.

I'm here to play basketball. I'm not a politician. That's trying to absolve that person of all responsibility. You know, this isn't my world.

Just kind of leave me alone. That that's what they're trying to say. I'm just here to play basketball, here to play football, here to play baseball.

Leave me out of those discussions. But that's not what he did. Of course, he wants to have the platform into all these different political realms and everything else. He wants to have a voice for injustice and beyond the basketball court, like he said in that earlier interview. But when there's pushback against what he is saying, like his terrible response to Daryl Morey's tweet, then, you know, like, hey, I'm just a basketball player.

We want to focus on winning a championship here in Los Angeles. That's that's what's going on here. So the lesson is this is an object lesson for Christians to practice what we preach. OK, so if we preach one thing about injustice, if we preach about living a moral life, if we preach about helping the poor, then practice it. Don't be inauthentic. Don't be the hypocrite.

Don't be the Pharisee. And it's important as we look at the issue of social justice to so many people run around talking about all these these injustices. The first thing we need to do is discern the difference between real injustice and the politically correct, concocted social justice, non-justice issues that we see all the time. Hong Kong and abortion are real social injustice issues.

Those are real issues. You know, people don't have a right. Babies coming in the road don't have a right to life. There's no greater injustice issue in this world than that. The issue in Hong Kong, that's an injustice issue.

Teenage girls being taken and trafficked for sex, that's an injustice issue. And Christians should be consistent across the spectrum on real injustices. But unless someone has actually been wronged rather than just received a different outcome than we would prefer in life, that's not injustice. So keep injustice to the very big issues, the right to life, the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom to believe and think and say what you believe, think and say. Make sure the injustice is actually true before you actually cry injustice. Otherwise, everything turns into an injustice.

My son's school is not as good as that one. We need educational justice. The top 1% have 90% of the wealth. We need economic justice. Life is never going to be just, perfectly just in your view and fair, okay? Focus on the real injustices, the ones that God sees are injustice in His own eyes. We'll come back more on the Christian Real View after this. Before God opened Costi's eyes to understand sound doctrine and believe in the true gospel. Now a pastor, Costi has written an important book entitled God, Greed and the Prosperity Gospel, which chronicles his own experience and gracefully points the reader to the truth of scripture. For a limited time, you can order this 224-page softcover book for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View.

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Your email and mailing address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. Probably should have titled the show today, The Hypocrisy of the Woke Scolds. I like that term. I didn't invent it, the woke scolds. You know, those who consider themselves woke to all these injustices, you know, going on all around us today. The people who are woke, they're scolds. They're always scolding people for not, you know, understanding all the great injustices that take place. They're woke scolds.

So this is such a good example of the cracks in these woke scolds world views. They point out the injustices that they like, and they're always sort of these leftist politically correct causes, climate injustice, marriage injustice, racial injustice. And I'm not saying there's no injustices in anything else, but they way overblow them. And oftentimes they call things that are unjust, that really aren't unjust. It's just they're not the outcomes they would like to have in a free market society. So they scold everyone else, these woke scolds, and they're hypocritical. There are cracks in their worldview. There's an inconsistency there, as you see with LeBron James, very woke as to all the injustices in America. He knows that President Trump is unjust and blah, blah, blah. But when it comes to a true injustice over in Hong Kong, we better not talk about that one.

You know, that really hurts our bottom line here with shoe sales, movie sales. And, you know, we don't want to get into an international situation like that. Well, the biggest bullies in the world, the people who who purvey the biggest injustices are actually the ones that need to be exposed, like China.

And that's why I get very this is just a personal opinion here. I understand the financial incentives of doing business with China, understand it for the farmers and so forth. But I wish we had never got into relationship with communist China in the first place, because now we're so tied in together with them. You know, if they don't buy our grain, then it hurts our farmers here in America. But by being engaged with them, we really prop up their communist way of life, which in turn, they just commit real injustices against religious minorities in their country, against Christians, against people in Hong Kong. They are just a communist repressive regime.

That's all there is to it. And it would be a better world if we could be separated from them. Now, some people would say, well, it wouldn't be better because if you're separated from them, they're more isolated. And our engagement with with them softens them because they have to be dependent on us for our money to prop up their economy.

I get that, too. It's a very complicated, big issue. But maybe in a more perfect world, which we're never going to have, we wouldn't be so engaged with such a repressive country like China. Now, Senator Tom Cotton made a, I think, what is a very, very accurate comment on this situation with the NBA and sort of summarizing what we're talking about today with these woke scolds and how we should be consistent. We should practice what we preach. If we're going to point out real injustices here, point them out abroad as well.

Here's Tom Cotton, Senator. So instead of acting as a bullhorn for communist propaganda in America, the NBA could be a beacon of freedom in China. It could dare China to shut them out. So let me urge all of these NBA executives and players who say they only who say they care about social justice. Don't just speak out when the stakes are low for you personally or when the cause is popular among your friends. Speak out now when the stakes are deadly high for millions of Hong Kongers and more than a billion Chinese, including so many of your fans.

And what a great comment. You know, if you're so focused on social justice, speak out. Speak out now about this.

Don't worry about, you know, a couple of NBA games being canceled and losing your broadcast rights. I know it's lucrative. I know it's a big deal, but you don't need China. You're making enough money here in America that you need to prop up and kowtow is what you're doing to a repressive regime. You're keeping quiet on behalf of them. And by the way, I have to say for President Trump to I think he's keeping a little quiet on this issue of Hong Kong. I haven't heard him say too much about Hong Kong. I think it has to do with this deal that was made with recent trade deal with China. You know, they China's going to buy 40 or 50 billion dollars with a grain from American farmers and American farmers been hurting because prices are low. And so we did this deal with them.

And I think in exchange, they said, look, we don't want any criticism of what we're going to crack down in Hong Kong. I don't like that. Again, I don't like the marriage there.

I don't like the relationship. You get in with bad people and you get sullied. So now it's changing over to the column by David Limbaugh. This is really in the same vein of what we've been talking about today, about the importance of practicing what we preach. And there was no one in scripture that Christ criticized more. Read Matthew 23. The whole chapter is a literally a literal dressing down of the Pharisees, of the hypocrites, of people who were known for preaching one thing but not doing it.

Then Christ did in Matthew 23 of the on the Pharisees. In fact, I have it here somewhere. I was going to read. Where is that paragraph? It's it's it's incredibly strong. He goes through.

Here it is right here. I'm just going to read the first seven verses. He said, Then Jesus, Matthew 23, spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees, remember who they are, have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe. In other words, some of the things they say about keeping the law are good and do that.

Keep the law, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders. They're woke scolds. They see all these things.

They try to scold you for not for not taking up, keeping every little minute detail of the law. But they themselves, they're unwilling to move them so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. These are things that they wore back then to show, like if you have bigger phylacteries and tassels in your garments, that really show that you really must be holy.

You're really a holy person if you you did these things. It's kind of like today, people who are so into the social justice warriors, the social justicians, as Daryl Harrison calls them, they're so woke about all these things, they're so holy and righteous about all the moral wrong that's going on in our society. But when it comes to being consistent with their seeing injustices, not just here, but also abroad, all of a sudden things start to crack open. You see if there's not a consistency there. Let's not be like that, Christians. Discern the difference between real injustice and the kind of leftist, politically correct social injustice.

In other words, think of it this way. If it's an injustice to God, it should be an injustice to us, based on what God says in his word. That's what we should perceive as a real injustice, because the left and the woke scolds are really professional at making something seem like an injustice, but it really isn't.

It's just not an outcome they would like in our society. It's like a $15 minimum wage. Oh, people aren't paid enough minimum wage. That's an injustice.

Well, really? Do we really deserve to get paid a certain amount? What does that do to the business owner? You mean we're going to determine what they have to pay their employees? You see, they make it sound like an injustice, but it's not really an injustice. There should be a free and open relationship between employee and employer, but that's not what the woke scolds want.

They want to force an outcome because people aren't making enough, therefore make those business owners pay them more. So the totalitarian American left was an article, this column was written by David Limbaugh, and I think it's instructive on a number of levels here for what is going on in this country with regard to this social justice woke scold movement. It said the left is becoming more unapologetically totalitarian every day. That's a pretty big statement. Unapologetically totalitarian? That's a strong word.

That means that it's their way or else for you. Every freedom loving American should be alarmed, Limbaugh writes. From hounding conservatives out of restaurants to spitting on Trump supporters at rallies, from firing employees for politically incorrect statements to fining people for misgendering a person, the left is on a path toward absolutism. Even some former and current leftists have recognized this intolerant trend and broken from their colleagues, lamenting their intolerance of opposing ideas and disturbing mission to suppress dissenting opinion.

And this is where the inconsistency comes in, the Pharisaical. In other words, we're for freedom if we want to be able to say what we want to say with no consequence. But you, if you oppose us, we're going to shut you down.

You should not be able to say what you want to say. That's what David Limbaugh is going to get into in this particular article. So just the other day, three incidents typifying the left's authoritarianism popped up at me as I was surveying the morning news. The Federalist reported that venues in three American cities, Toronto, North American cities, Toronto, Brooklyn and Portland, canceled screenings of a movie about Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson because of leftist criticism. Now, you remember we did a program, a couple of programs, I think last year on Jordan Peterson, who he is.

David Limbaugh will get into that, who he is right now. Peterson, you say, won't kowtow to the leftist demand that we embrace the tenets of gender ideology, which teaches that gender is less about biology and more about personal identification. He refuses to support laws that criminalize one's failure to use a person's preferred pronouns such as they instead of she. So Jordan Peterson in Canada, which is far more left than America, has some law or was proposing some law that if you didn't call someone by their preferred pronoun, let's say I'm a man and now I think I'm a woman, you better call me she or her or else you're going to be thrown or be punished or criminalized, put in jail. Jordan Peterson said, no way. That is against any tenant of freedom of speech.

I shouldn't be compelled to speak language that I don't believe in. So Peterson had the temerity to say that men and women are biologically different and that gender is not a fluid human construct. And this example is so rich because according to the LGBTQ movement, if you're a homosexual, you can't change. You were born that way. But if you're transgender, you can change back and forth. You can choose your gender any given day.

You can be what you want to be. It is so inconsistent, so hypocritical, so pharisaical, and this is what Christians should not be. Let's not be that way where there's inconsistencies in our own worldview. Look at what scripture says.

Find out. Dig into scripture. Accurately handle the word of truth. Be for the things that God is for. Be against the things that God is against. Let your yes be yes. Let your no be no. Have integrity. Have wholeness. Welcome back after this last break of the day here on the Christian Real View.

I'm David Wheaton. Today we're going to talk about the favored tactic of the left to gain massive government control. After all, if you can convince people that we are imperiling our very existence by human-caused climate change, there is no tax, law, or reordering of society that goes too far. Christians need to be fully informed of this nefarious climate change scheme. That is why we are offering two resources by Cal Beisner, founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, to give a full biblical worldview to this issue. Climate Change in the Christian is an 80-minute DVD message, and The Cosmic Consequences of Christ's Crosswork is a 15-page booklet. One or both are available for a donation of any amount to The Christian Worldview.

To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. The mission of The Christian Worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. For when Christians have a stronger faith and when unbelievers come to saving faith, lives and families and churches, even communities, are changed for the glory of God. The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported ministry. You can help us in our mission to impact hearts and minds by making a donation of any amount or becoming a monthly partner.

All donations are tax-deductible. You can give online at thechristianworldview.org or by calling us toll-free, 1-888-646-2233. When you give, we'd like to thank you by sending you a current resource.

Monthly partners can choose to receive resources throughout the year. Call 1-888-646-2233 or go to thechristianworldview.org. Thank you for your support. We are talking today here on The Christian Worldview about Christians, the importance of Christians practicing what we preach. If we're going to preach one thing, if we're going to be for injustice, if we're going to be for real injustices and be consistent, don't be like this selective outrage, selective injustice, woke-skulled world of the social justice warriors nowadays who are very outraged about the climate and economics and poverty and race and so forth, but they just seem to not really care too much about the life of the unborn or the poor people in Hong Kong who are being intimidated over by tyrannical communist China.

When it comes to that, well, that wasn't a smart time to make a tweet criticizing standing with the protesters in China. And so I was reading this article by David Limbaugh on the totalitarian American left, and it gives you insight into the worldview. And that's part of what we try to do in this program is understand the worldview of both, we want to understand the Christian worldview first and foremost, understand how God thinks and how we can live to honor and glorify Him.

That's the most important thing, but it's also helpful to understand the cracks in the non-believer's worldview as well, that they're not consistent, they're hypocritical. There's not a consistency in what they espouse. We were reading this article by David Limbaugh when he was talking about Jordan Peterson. Jordan Peterson has the temerity to say that men and women are biologically different and that gender is not a fluid human construct. You don't get to choose your gender. I mean, that doesn't change anything. You can say you're a woman if you're a man, but that doesn't change. You're still a man. And so don't be trying to force other people to call you something that you aren't actually. But this doesn't sit well with the left, Limbaugh writes, who not only insist that we accept its cockeyed ideas as normal, but also advocates imposing them on us by force of law.

That is so true. If you don't agree with us, you're going to be punished. Can you get your mind around, Limbaugh writes, the irony of the left banning a movie about Peterson because he's dangerous? Who is more dangerous, he asks, a person who peaceably expresses an opinion that happens to be supported by thousands of years of human experience and common cause, or those who try to ban his voice or even a movie about it.

This is 1984 George Orwell level scary, and it's getting worse by the hour. On what possible grounds is the left arguing that Pearson's views are dangerous? He doesn't advocate violence against transgender people. He isn't a rabble rouser or revolutionary. He simply states his opinion instead of genuflecting to the despotic left. But they claim that if Peterson's views are openly expressed, here's the justification, it sounds just like China.

If you say what you did, Daryl Morey, it's going to destabilize our country and divide us, and that's where free speech ends. Now look at the similarity between what is said by the left in this country about someone like Jordan Peterson expressing his views. They claim if Peterson's views are openly expressed, he might convince other people that he's right, and that could lead to the proliferation of conservative thought. Peterson's, quote, conservative perspectives on feminism and gender according to an opinion piece in the New York Times are, quote, are very popular among young men and often are a path to more extreme content and ideologies, unquote.

Did you get that? Think about this, Limbaugh writes, conservative speech is dangerous because it is a slippery-eyed Christian speech, too, because conservative space ultimately is based on the Christian worldview, not everything of conservatism in the Republican Party, but ultimately conservative political ideologies are grounded in what the Bible says about life and fairness and justice and those kinds of things. Conservative speech is dangerous because it is a slippery slope to the adoption of conservative ideas. This must be satire, Limbaugh writes. Do these clueless cranks know how ridiculous they sound? Anyone who, again, who is more extreme or dangerous, Jordan Peterson, who advocates the silencing of no one and expresses mainstream opinions or leftists who are actively trying to censor Peterson. Get to the final example that Limbaugh gives as the totalitarian nature of these social justice warriors. If you don't agree with him, you're done. The third incident that he read about was the former Republican Congressman, sorry, not Republican, Democrat Congressman, Representative Beto O'Rourke, who said in a CNN forum on LGBT issues that churches and religious organizations should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage.

Now just think about that. If your church doesn't support same-sex marriage, it should lose its tax-exempt status. It should be punished. It's the same thing over and over again, whether it's in Communist China or whether it's in America with these leftist woke scolds. Christians need to be able to identify this, and we need to speak up very clearly and boldly with the truth of God's word. The answer here is not to quiet down.

The answer is to more clearly and accurately espouse views and beliefs based directly on the word of God. That is the antidote to the speech-suppressing motives of what's taking place in our country. Just listen to what Beto O'Rourke said with regards to gun control in this country.

Just think about this world view and where this is coming from. Just to follow up, your expectations aside, your website says you will find people who don't give up their weapons. That doesn't take those weapons off the street. So to be clear, exactly how are you going to take away weapons from people who do not want to give them up and you don't know where they are?

If someone does not turn in an AR-15 or an AK-47, one of these weapons of war, or brings it out in public and brandishes it in an attempt to intimidate, as we saw when we were at Kent State recently, then that weapon will be taken from them. If they persist, there will be other consequences from law enforcement. But the expectation is that Americans will follow the law. I believe in this country. I believe in my fellow Americans. I believe that they will do the right thing. If you don't turn it in, it's or else. This is the world view of the non-believing left, the social justice warrior.

It's comply or else. And they prop themselves up as these champions of injustice, but there are so many inconsistencies. The only injustices are the ones that they perceive. And most of them actually aren't even true injustices.

They're just not the intended outcomes that they want to see for their utopian society. Thanks for joining us today here on the Christian worldview. Christians, we're going to need to be strong going forward here.

You're going to have to be in the word and know the word and speak the word truly, with clarity, with grace and truth, as was the description of Christ, because things are changing. And if these people get power, like real political power, like presidential power and majority status in this country, they've already taken over the institutions. We talked about that last week, the long march to the institutions. They already have lots of power, but if they get all power, your freedom of speech, your freedom of religion here in America is going to be very, very suspect. They don't care about the Constitution. They don't care about any issues that aren't important to them, like Christians having freedom of speech, being able to freedom of religion in their churches. They don't care about that.

They don't care about any of their leftist issues as they march toward their utopian, globalistic ends. Sounds negative, and it is, but this is the world we live in. We have to deal with where we are at this particular moment in history, and God created us, each one of us, to take part in some way in our moment, maybe just within our family, maybe in a bigger platform, who knows? But we need to stand clearly on the truth of the word of God and express it publicly and clearly. Thanks for joining us again. Until next weekend, everyone, think biblically and live accordingly. We'll see you next time. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian Worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.