How Should We View the Major SCOTUS Rulings?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. So, how should we view these major Supreme Court decisions as followers of Jesus? The Supreme Court ruling against ongoing affirmative action in our colleges and universities, the Supreme Court ruling in favor of a Christian graphic artist and web designer saying that she did not have to create content that violated her convictions and beliefs, and then the Supreme Court siding with a Christian postal worker who said that he shouldn t be forced to work on Sundays. Are these great decisions? Are these decisions that are good for the American people? Are these decisions that are in keeping with our constitutional rights and the intent and goals of our country?

Are they mixed? Is this a day of celebration, a day of mourning, all the decisions coming last week as tomorrow is July 4th? Do we go into the holiday scene wonderful? The Supreme Court really got things right or terrible. The Supreme Court really got things wrong. Welcome to the broadcast.

This is Michael Brown. I am so glad that you tuned in today. It s always our goal to look at what s happening in the world around us and then to bring a biblical perspective to it, not a politically partisan perspective, not a Republican versus Democrat, right versus left perspective, but a biblical-based perspective to think things through logically, to not react emotionally or just based on our own upbringing, tradition, environment, but to step back and to get some wisdom from God and to really think these issues through in a non-emotional way because there are hot-button issues and there s tremendous division in our country over this, even in the first two decisions in particular, the majority opinion versus the dissenting opinion. I mean, oh, there is some fireworks between the two. In one case, Justice Gorsuch said that the second case that we re talking about with the Christian graphic artist said it looked like Justice Sotomayor s dissenting opinion was a completely different case.

He said she re-imagined the facts from beginning to end. And then you have the two African-American Supreme Court justices, so Justice Thomas and Justice Jackson, massive clash over the affirmative action issue. So, a lot to talk about and unpack, and I really welcome you to weigh in with your own viewpoint, 866-342-866-348-7884. There s a lot happening in the world today. The ongoing riots and upheaval in France say it could be a civil war there. There is major conflict in Israel after a terrorist attack killed Israelis and settlers, Jewish settlers fighting back with violence against Palestinians.

Now, a major government operation in Jenin in the West Bank, so-called West Bank, Judea Samaria, a lot going on around the world. But we re going to focus on these. These are big, big decisions. I m first going to look at the question of freedom of speech, compelled speech, and the Christian graphic designer and graphic artist and web designer, Lori Smith. And again, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3, saying that she could not be compelled to create content that was contrary to her own beliefs. Now, let s just say someone approaches her, graphic artist, web designer, and she gets to know the person. It turns out it s a gay couple.

And they say, We ve got a florist shop and we d love for you to create a website for us for our florist shop. She says, No, I won t do it because you re gay. No, the case did not give her the right to do that. That would be discrimination.

Just like if a black couple or a Jewish couple or an Asian American couple or whoever the couple is, if they came to the same person and said, We d like you to do a website for us. And she said, No, I won t because you re black or because you re Jewish or because you re Asian. That would be discrimination.

That s not what this case was about. This case was about creating content that violated her convictions of beliefs. The way it s being portrayed is that this is now giving Christians the right to discriminate. Let s listen to what the representative from GLAD, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which I renamed years ago, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Disagreement, because that s what it came down to in many cases.

Let s listen to what she had to say. She is the president of GLAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. What s your reaction and what do you have to say to Major s point just now about that concern that this is going to lead to further eradication of rights? I mean, I think what this is is the beginnings of a license to discriminate against LGBTQ folks in America. This has been something that the court has wanted to do. They signaled last year in the Dobbs decision that they were coming after our marriages.

Clarence Thomas specifically spoke about the Obergefell decision. And I think this is a step in the direction of doing that, of continuing to push us as second-class citizens, as continuing to make us discriminated against. This is legalizing discrimination for this particular company in this particular instance. 100% wrong.

100% wrong. Whether the Supreme Court wants to at some point address the egregious decision to redefine marriage eight years ago in the Obergefell decision, that s a totally separate issue. But look at the way this is being presented. Here, I ve got a new article up, Questions for Those Who Differ with the SCOTUS Decision in Favor of a Christian Graphic Artist.

You can read it on our website, askdrbrown.org. Let s listen to what Clara Jeffrey said. She s the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, quote, Perhaps gay stylists, designers, caterers, and planners should start withholding services from Christian conservatives and see where that goes. That s not what this is about at all, as I m going to illustrate for you with a series of questions in a moment. How about actor Michael Imperioli, who posted on Instagram, quote, I ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching The Sopranos, The White Lotus, Good Fellows, or any movie or TV show I ve been in. Thank you, Supreme Court, for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those I don t agree with and I m opposed to.

USA, USA. The court did no such thing. And it s a little frustrating to see how easy it is to push people s buttons and to get them to respond to something that is not the case whatsoever. So, allow me to ask this series of questions.

I mean, it s just very, very basic. Should a gay web designer be compelled by the state to design a website for a counseling service that helps people overcome same-sex attraction? You re a gay web designer?

Counseling services, we d like you to design this site for you? For us, should the state compel that person to do it? Should an Orthodox Jewish web designer be compelled to design a website for Jews for Jesus? Should an atheist web designer be compelled by the state to design a website called Answering Atheists? Should a trans-identified web designer be compelled by the state to design a website on the dangers of hormone therapy and sex change therapy? Should a Muslim web designer be compelled by the state to design a website for a meat service specializing in pork products? Should an African-American web designer be compelled by the state to design a website selling Confederate flags? Should a Christian web designer be compelled by the state to design an adultery hookup website? Should any web designer be compelled by the state to design a pornography website? If Jeffrey or Imperiali were website designers, should the state be able to compel them to create pro-Trump content for a Republican lobbyist or content stating that he won the 2020 elections?

The answer to all these questions is obvious. None of these people should be compelled to create content that violates their beliefs or convictions. The state has no right to compel them to do so. What about a gay-owned t-shirt company? Should they be compelled by the state to design a t-shirt with the words, God does not recognize same-sex marriage? Should a Christian-owned printing company be compelled by the state to design flyers for a Satan conference?

The list goes on and on. The answer in every case is no. Here, it has nothing to do with refusing with refusing someone's services because of their ethnicity, because of their skin color, because of their religious beliefs, because of their sexual orientation. It has nothing to do with any of that. Even the question of putting the sexual orientation in that same category, that's not even under debate here. Rather, the question is, should the state have the right to compel someone to create content, to create artistic content contrary to the beliefs? I mean, who would even question this? The ruling should have been nine-zero.

Should have been a slam dunk, of course. Let me share with you a text that my friend, attorney Joe and Franco, he was the lead attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom for many years. He shot me this text in response to my article.

He said, people do not know the record, speaking specifically of Colorado, from the Jack Phillips Baker case, also out of Colorado. So, this was someone who declined to bake a cake for a same-sex couple. In other words, I'm going to design a cake for your same-sex wedding ceremony.

Sorry, I can't do that. Buy any cake you want here in the store. Do business here all you want. Serve you for years. That's not the issue.

But no, I can't create artistic content that violates my beliefs. And so, this has been going on for years. And then after that case, then another case was provoked against him. Joe and Franco said the court well remembered that case and mentioned it in passing from the likelihood that there was a real threat of prosecution in current case. In Jack's case, we asked the Colorado Human Rights Commissioners in depositions the same type inquiries, the Jewish Baker making a cake with a neo-Nazi message, a gay baker for a Westboro Baptist message, quote, God hates fags.

That's what they used to proclaim, and so on. In Jack's case, no one would ever be compelled to create a cake with that offensive message. The only exception was the Christian Baker for an SS wedding. Yeah, same-sex wedding.

Yeah, you have to be compelled to do that. We stressed that point for Justice Kennedy. He was furious over it and consequently wrote a strong decision in our favor. In any other context, this wouldn't even be a question. An environmental activist website designer creating a site for a group claiming climate change is a fraud?

A Democrat designer for a Republican attack piece on Biden? It's a common sense in any other context. Gorsuch made an interesting observation that someone reading the majority in dissent opinions would think the authors were addressing two different cases. This is a worldview collision between people who recognize that rights come from a higher source than government and others who elevate relativism and collectivism and insist there cannot be dissent from government orthodoxy. Each side has trouble understanding how the opposing side sees the world so differently.

Just one example, Colorado would include mandatory re-education of offenders. Gorsuch mentioned that point, clearly disturbed by it. It sounds like a page from Mao's playbook. Our side hears that detail with horror to the left. It is simply a good way to remove dissent. This is the world we are living in today, friends. Thank God the court made a sane decision. What a shame that the rest of society doesn't see it like that. May God help us to bring truth and awakening to those whose hearts and minds are blinded by their wrong ideologies. We'll be right back. Hey friends, Michael Brown here. Many of you know about the radical health transformation my own life starting August of 2014 went from 275 pounds to 180 pounds less than eight months not by dieting but by radical lifestyle transformation getting rid of the bad unhealthy things eating only healthy foods I've kept it up by God's grace now for nine years going from three headaches a week to no headaches in nine years blood pressure as high as 149 over 103 now maybe 105 over 70 on average I mean radical transformation and I encourage you to look at your life look at your diet ask are you going in the right direction or do you need to make some changes I also want to help you with on a very practical level I have added into my life as well some great supplements from our co-sponsor Triveda in fact that's why we work with them because I have personally benefited from these as well I want to commend to you three in particular nitric oxide which helps with blood flow oxygen energy level myo health which helps with skeletal 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that help us on the air every single day help us get into new cities help us reach more people friends we're here to help we're here to infuse you with faith truth and courage pastors leaders that listen you know that that we're doing what we can to help serve you because you're on the front lines with a million and one responsibilities already so we'll do the heavy lifting here and the digging here and the working hard here and then do our best to to bring that material to you you say hey great here it is concisely clearly and hopefully over the decades of serving the Lord and serving you we've earned your trust to know that it's not a political agenda we're pushing it's not a human agenda we're pushing we're really seeking to exalt Jesus preach truth bring liberty bring freedom bring healing restoration repentance to our land it's six six three four truth you can weigh in on the affirmative action decision by the supreme court good decision or bad decision move forward or move backwards i'm going to get into that momentarily i i just want to share this with everybody think for a minute how many times in these last two plus years of the biden presidency how many times have you heard me bashing joe biden or let's let's this have you ever heard me make fun of his errors his speech errors or his cognitive errors have you ever heard me do that once a single time have you ever seen a single post where i've done no doesn't exist do you hear me constantly going after biden harris biden harris biden harris and all the bad things and bad this is do you hear me doing that day and night do you hear me railing on aoc day and night on this one day you don't hear me doing it why because that's not my focus oh there are issues where i have profound differences with the president and and i'll address those but that's not my focus this is not a conservative radio show this is certainly not a republican radio show for the record i'm a registered independent it's none of those things it is a bible-based kingdom-based show which addresses what's happening in the culture and and look there are plenty of people just evangelists they're preaching to the lost to win the loss there are plenty of those they're just bible teachers building up the body and the word etc there are plenty others with with ministries of compassion just feeding the poor caring for the sick etc and they're each doing critically important things in the body this is also something that must be done we must understand what's happening in the world around us and we must be able to address it all right so here's the deal i'm not a legal scholar like anyone else i can read i can think i can analyze but i am not a legal scholar and i'm not coming at this as a legal scholar nor am i an expert in the educational system in terms of just how things are run in america yes i'm an educator i've been teaching at or leading ministry schools bible schools for over 40 years now actively involved in the formation of a new one that'll be in jerusalem which by god's grace is going to be very exciting so i'm an educator but i'm not an expert on our school systems here in america the strengths and weaknesses i know tons of homeschoolers and and folks who work in christian schools but i'm not coming at this as an expert as much as an observer all right so the supreme court again six to three decision said it's time to move on from affirmative action so here's what president biden had to say about this and this is this is an area where when he already had to say and then express some differences and and then i want to share some perspectives from leading african american university professors because i think it's important to hear things from perspective of of those who are absolutely not unaware of our history but who have a real difference with affirmative action and then i want to present what i think needs to be done in the interest of all americans okay listen to what the president had to say first for 45 years the united states supreme court has recognized the college's freedom to decide how how to build diverse student bodies and to meet the responsibility of opening doors of doors of opportunity for every single american in case after case including recently just as a few years ago in 2016 the court has affirmed and reaffirmed this view that colleges could use race not as a determinant factor for admission but as one of the factors among many in deciding who to admit from a quality from a qualified already qualified pool of applicants today the court once again walked away from decades of precedent and make as the dissent has made clear the dissent states and today's decision quote rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress end of quote i agree with that statement from the dissents from the dissent all right so here here are some of the issues and the problems all right there's no question that we still have a disparity in america in terms of educational levels salaries job opportunities for african-americans compared to white americans and then even more compared to asian americans there's no question the disparity exists there's no question that some of the reason for the disparity has to do with our history that's that's self-evident and obvious the question is was affirmative action in an ongoing way the right solution to the problem and did it do good for one group without doing harm to another group there were asian americans who brought this case saying hey wait a second we worked hard we wanted to get into these elite schools but there was a quota or there was an affirmative action issue in which case we got to clock we got discriminated against to to pave the way for an african-american student to come in and that's not american and that's not fair and that's not right so that's how this case came about so on the one hand and anyone weigh in is it right to discriminate against one group to treat another group unfairly in the interest of trying to treat a former group fairly so you do you treat group a unfairly in order to treat group b fairly is that right and i think most of us would say no okay well then what's the solution second question is was affirmative action producing the desired results and it's here there's a very fascinating observation from professor walter williams well-known african-american university professor economist passed away a few years ago he's got some really interesting things to say that it's actually it has hurt black students and then african-american professor glenn lowrey in fact let me let me read what he had to say first this was in oh autumn 2022 article in city journal he says the united states has a problem with persisting racial equality that's his perspective it is in part a legacy of our ignoble past the institution of chattel slavery and a century of unfreedom and unequal citizenship for african-americans after emancipation americans have a moral imperative to redress the consequences of that past allow we're saying there's some in our past and we need to address it but affirmative action isn't the remedy for this problem it's a distraction he said that doesn't mean that affirmative action should never be practiced that it's morally wrong and that it can never be a suitable policy those are separate questions racial inequality is deep and abiding showing no sign of going away and we are a lesson nation for it yet while affirmative action helps to obtain an adequate representation of diverse ethnic groups at elite institutions of higher education it imposes serious costs one interesting factor is that many of the students who are getting into these institutions because of affirmative action are actually children of recent african immigrants who've come in many cases in better situations than those that have been here for generations and it's their kids getting into these schools simply based on their skin color even though they don't have the historic disadvantages that other african-americans do obviously that was not the intent of this but i want to come back to what walter williams had to say it's a very interesting observation in terms of how this is actually hurting many black students and then talk about where solutions might lie how we can address this ongoing disparity what some of the solutions are we'll talk about that when we come back hey friends this is dr michael brown i want to invite you to join our support team make an investment of one dollar a day that will absolutely last forever you know the lord has given us a holy mandate to blanket america with the line of fire broadcast and on a regular basis we hear from folks writing in dr brown i used to be a practicing homosexual i listened to i heard grace and truth together i was changed we hear from pastors who say thank you for speaking with compassion but giving us backbone and courage and we know across america so many believers are getting 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the late professor williams july it was actually july 4th of 2018 so almost exactly five years ago the article was titled college destruction of black students college destruction of black students he mentioned amy wax university of pennsylvania law professor that she had come under attack and scathing criticism because she dared criticize the school's racial preferences program she was speaking with brown university economist glenn lauer himself a black american discussing affirmative action and she mentioned how racial preferences hinder the ability of blacks to succeed academically by admitting them into schools in which they are in over their heads at at university of pennsylvania seventh rank law school wax said she doesn't think that she's ever seen a black law student graduate in the top quarter of his class and rarely is a black is a black student in the top half now is that because of a inherent lack of mental acuity mental sharpness in a black student versus a white student god forbid that'd be an absolute racist concept god forbid blacks aren't as smart as white no nonce utter nonsense absolute rubbish that's not the issue at all the issue is is is because of affirmative action these students were getting getting into schools that they weren't fully capable of being in other words they could have gotten into another college but they were able to get into a better college because of a racial quota or something like that or making sure the student body looked more diverse and therefore that they got into a school and they finished lowering the school did more poorly and it ultimately hurts their future their career more than helps um williams said this got her into deep trouble and she was stripped of her duty of teaching mandatory first class first year class etc etc um but what williams said this one study suggests that wax is absolutely right about academic mismatch in the early 1990s the law school admission council collected 27,000 law student records representing nearly 90 percent of accredited law schools the study found that after the first year 51 percent of black law students ranked in the bottom 10th of their class compared with five percent of white students two-thirds of black students were in the bottom fifth of their class only 10 percent of blacks were in the top half of their class 22 percent of black students in this database hadn't passed the bar exam after five attempts compared with three percent of white test takers the university of pennsylvania controversy highlights something very important to black people in the nation the k through 12 education that most blacks receive is grossly fraudulent most predominantly black schools are costly at grossly inferior to predominantly white schools and are in cities where blacks hold considerable political power such as baltimore detroit chicago and philadelphia and these are the cities it's not uncommon for there to be high schools were less than 17 percent of the students test proficient in reading and often not a single student in such schools test proficient in math nonetheless many receive high school diplomas so he goes on with this saying look this this is like getting someone okay they're they're going to fight getting the boxing ring for their first fight fight against a champion or you you don't do that they're going to get knocked out it's not going to help them help them at all and he says you might have the potential to be a good boxer but you're going to get your brains beaten up before you learn how to bob and weave williams says the fact that black students have low class rankings at such high-powered law schools as the university of pennsylvania doesn't mean that they're stupid or uneducable it means that they've been admitted to schools where they're in over their heads to admit these students makes white liberals feel better about themselves it also helps support the jobs of black and white university personnel in charge of diversity and inclusion the question for black people is whether we can afford to have the best of our youngsters demeaned degrade it and possibly destroyed to make white liberals feel better about themselves thus rights thus wrote professor walt williams again respected economist and himself an african-american so i was chatting with nancy about this in the car we were on our way to a store we could get all of our organic foods that we eat and enjoy our plant-based diet that is so life transforming that we encourage you to do for yourself because i'm i'm not selling you anything with a plant-based diet just encourage you but anyway we were driving in the car together talking about this and and nancy brought up something very obvious the the place to address this is not affirmative action in a university but to work together as americans to say what can we do about the educational disparity in terms of the education of black americans from from k through 12 what can we do together to address that and to level that out because that's a big big big part of the problem in other words you're not you're not gonna you're not gonna here let's let's go back to diet okay if you eat unhealthily your whole life all right and and now we're gonna get you in a program to exercise more we're gonna get you exercising more and and try to get you ready to play sports and you're still eating unhealthily you've already got two and a half strikes against you and and the harder you push it might be detrimental because with a bad diet you you might really do something to yourself all right so in the case of kids through no fault of their own who've been raised in settings be it inner city be at other settings where the educational system is subpar and i'm not blaming educators some of your work in day and night you think we're underpaid we're overworked i'm not criticizing i'm asking questions saying how can we as a society try to address this together and and and and work at this from one of the roots up rather than trying to fix this when we've got the the tree completely grown those those are the questions that make more sense to me let's let's go even deeper let's go even deeper if you look at the massive educational and economic achievements of asian americans so higher than white americans and therefore higher than hispanic americans black americans so in terms of achievement black americans have achieved less than hispanic americans hispanic americans less than white americans white americans less than asian americans all right that's the the the way things are in our society because those are just the realities right so what is it that you can look at in terms of asian americans well maybe more recent immigrants coming over having to work harder i remember i remember teaching korean students 1982 and and one of them was talking about their work ethic and he said look we've come in as immigrants you know english is our second language and and we feel like we're at the back of the train so we have to work even harder to get to the front of the train so our kids can have the best opportunities okay i understand that that ethic and that mindset but if you look at the percentage of intact homes where mother and father together raising their kids it's higher among asian americans than among white americans it's massively higher in some cases when you when you look at all the stats and it's massively massively higher than in african-american homes now please hear me i'm not saying this to throw stones i'm not saying this from a position of superiority looking down my big nose at people and say well you just have to do something about no quite the opposite i'm saying as followers of jesus when we look at these realities i understand there's no simple political solution i know that there's no political savior i understand that i know we can't just snap our fingers and address this but shouldn't our greater concern those of us who love the lord and love our neighbor shouldn't our greater concern be what steps can we take constructively and i i don't have a lot of answers here i have more questions than answers but the questions that need to be asked what constructive steps can we help to to address this terrible problem of falllessness falllessness in the african-american community you say well it's the prison system and it's the okay let's look at let's look at that let's does it need to be more prison reform actually president trump took some major steps there is is that is that part of the solution are there other things you know when someone's born with two strikes against them in the society what what can we do to try to level that out we can't guarantee equality of outcome but we're trying to guarantee equality of opportunity so so what what can be done what steps can be taken to address the educational disparities what policies are unhelpful be they democratic policies or republican policies for the school systems what were those who are educators and those who i've got some colleagues that are educators on the front lines i'm talking about children's education i'm talking about in inner cities and and so these are the questions we're asking what what would you recommend how can we as a body together care how can we as a body together pursue what does jesus say blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you the kingdom of god paul says it's not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness peace and joy and the holy spirit what can we do as a matter of righteousness so this has nothing to do zero to do with quote white guilt the thought doesn't occur to me does not exist in my brain whatsoever nothing with that whatsoever nor is it feeling a sense of responsibility for what was done centuries ago or generations ago by people completely unrelated to me as my mother came over from england as a little girl and and my father's parents came over from from russia and he was born in america speaking yiddish before he ever spoke english this is not a matter of laying guilt trips on people it's saying affirmative action was playing a role doesn't look like it it really accomplished the goals in certain ways might have done more harm than good and as a result discriminated against other people as well but the disparities remain as glenn larry says things need to be done but in his view affirmative action was a distraction so as best as i understand it the supreme court got this right and was understood that affirmative action was not going to be here forever but let's not stop the conversation there especially if you're an american said great decision we love the decision we love the decision we applaud the decision let's not stop there that's saying major disparities remain in our culture still the legacy of the past so how can we together address them say it's overwhelming true but maybe where we live maybe being mentors maybe being involved in different ways in schools maybe coming alongside families what can we do something to bring to the lord listen to our friends that are in the midst of these situations to say hey here's what we recommend here's what we think would be helpful rather than us imposing our solution on someone let's work with folks to say hey what do you think would be helpful how can we come alongside of you throwing this out for discussion not trying to score political points to get you to like me or hate me just doing my best to be your voice from all sanity and spiritual clarity we'll be right i'm paul brunette a board-certified doctor of holistic health and i want to take this opportunity to talk to you about the importance of healthy blood flow and how it's enhanced by a miracle molecule known as nitric oxide you see blood vessels release nitric oxide which increases blood flow known as something called vasodilatation at trivita we take blood 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your wellness goals call 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com as a trivita introductory offer use promo code brown 25 and receive a 25 discount on the products of your choice call 1-800-771-5584 800-771-5584 may you live with grief it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown get on the line of fire by calling 866 34 truth here again is dr michael brown hey let me uh let me encourage you to do this pick up the phone call 800-771-5584 tell them dr brown center 800-771-5584 check out nitric oxide that's the first trivita product that i used and use it daily with with great benefit you may see a reduction in your blood pressure you may see increased energy oxygen flow you may see it within a matter of days weeks certainly within a month you see results there's money-back guarantee but it's a great way for you to invest in your own health and wellness and a great way to support the line of fire remember 100 of your first order will be donated to the line of fire more than a tithe of all subsequent orders so it's 800-771-5584 check out nitric oxide or go to trivita.com be sure to use the code brown 25 t-r-i-v-i-t-a trivita.com use the code brown 25. all right the last supreme court case the christian postal worker it wasn't a matter of taking a job and the job requires you to work say sunday through thursday that's your work week and you get friday saturday off and he said no i want you to structure the job for me i i don't want to work on sunday so i want you to structure the job for me and because of my religious beliefs and wanting to be in church on sunday or believe that sunday is the christian sabbath whatever i i want to be off on sunday so that was not the case this was not for example a muslim going to the court and saying well the job requires me to work monday through friday but friday is the muslim sabbath and therefore i asked the company to change the job structure for me and they wouldn't so i'm taking them to court this wasn't an orthodox jew saying my job requires me to work six days a week including saturday's that's the normal work week here for everyone and i asked them to restructure the job for me so that i would uh be free on saturday's because i'm an orthodox jew we can't work on the sabbath it was not about any of those it was about the u.s postal service requiring a worker to do overtime on sundays and him saying i can't do it because my religious convictions sunday's the day i don't work so that would be the same with an employer you've got a monday through friday job and they tell the religious jew no we we everybody's working overtime we've got this big project coming so everybody's working overtime you'll be penalized if you don't sorry i can't it's the sabbath right so that's what the case was and and of course the right decision is you we're not we're not talking about restructuring a company based on your work habits for example you you might be a mom with a few kids a single mom and you've got to get your kids into daycare at a certain time and pick them up at a certain time and you go to work at a company they say oh no no we need you here in the office at eight and you do not get to leave until five i can't take that job or we often require our workers to be here on the weekends this is just a given and it's going to be a few times every year you're going to have to work both saturday and sunday all right i can't take that job understood when when when i was going to grad school and needed to to be free to get to a class so i i could i could work four and a half days a week and then i had to be free after lunch to go into new york city for my classes in grad school one or two classes in the afternoon and evening so i when i do job interviews i tell them these are the hours i can work and they were all sales jobs and they would say that works fine for us they'd say nope they'd say nope that doesn't work okay well that's going on we understand that it's very different when the case is we're we're asking to work overtime sorry i can't be because of my religious beliefs and the court rightly ruled you can't force someone to do that i mean it's it's not like rocket science difficult case here and and it should be self-evident to me the the first case with graphic artist web designer lori smith self-evident should have been nine zero in in terms in terms of you cannot force someone to create artistic content contrary to their beliefs and convictions uh the christian postal worker also should have been nine zero crystal clear no real debate about that the affirmative action i could understand why that's more heated why that's more complex how that could be understood and taken in different ways but the reaction to the other cases uh by by many in the world the the and and i'm reading headline after headline after headline in terms of how terrible this is and here let me respond another headline where is this um of the guardian in in the uk oh let me just see their headline there u.s supreme court strikes blow against lgbtq plus rights with colorado ruling totally false completely false but that's the kind of stuff that's going to be put forward and that's what we're going to hear day and night so that brings me now to an entirely different point i love truth i love study i love to learn i love to analyze things as honestly as i can of course i pray of course i ask god for insight but as i'm asking god for for insight i don't i don't need to pray about whether one plus one is two or two plus two is four i don't need to ask god open my eyes to this reality because it is it is simple in front of our eyes there are many complex difficult situations where we need god's wisdom and god's insight and there are there are situations that only have spiritual solutions all right but there are other things that are just facts truth you study you learn for example if i say two plus two equals four that's math that's not the abcs if i say if i say cat spells cat that's spelling that's not math right if i say that the earth derives its heat from the sun rather than from pluto that's that's not a philosophical argument these are just scientific facts so it is frustrating if you love people and you love truth to see blatant deception i mean outright deception falsehood fraud perpetuate it through people perpetrate it on people and when you come with truth to them they completely write you off that they they don't even have an ear to hear it because of their religious presuppositions or their spiritual presuppositions or their their political presuppositions or their racial presuppositions whatever it is there's not even the possibility of them hearing what you say it's it's as if you're speaking gibberish to them i'm not talking about having a debate about a passage in the bible that could be interpreted one way or another we're debating that or having a debate over a doctrinal dispute that the church has been disputing for two thousand years i'm not talking about that i'm talking about things that are blatantly false for for example adolf hitler was not chinese right and and he was not trying to exterminate mandarin chinese people that that's simply fact okay just just simple fact donald trump is not an african american that is simple fact right and if i go on endlessly right so it's it's frustrating when you present truth to people but because of the degree of their biases and the degree of their blindness that you're incapable of even hearing it even seeing it and and this this frustrates me not on a personal level because i want to be right but because i want to help people you know it would it would be like the ambulance arrives to rush you to the hospital after you've had a heart attack but you're convinced that it's someone trying to kidnap you and kill you so you don't get in the ambulance like but we just want to help you because you're going to die so that's what motivates me that's what burdens me and as i'll look at comments to different videos of ours on youtube or comments to different posts it's one thing to have differences of opinion have at it it's one thing to to differ over complex debatable issues it's another thing to embrace to believe to follow complete utter falsehoods that's burdensome to me because i care about people and i want them to know the truth but here's what i've been reminded of and and i really feel that the need to to pray into this even even more it's paul's words in second timothy chapter two and i want to read this to second timothy chapter two and he says this and the lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil correcting his opponents with gentleness god may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will in other words the issue is to pray for that person to have a heart change because you can show them two plus two is four till you're blue in the face and they won't hear you because they've already prejudged you or because they are that blinded but what does what does paul write in second corinthians 4 4 the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe all of us at one time outside of jesus we're spiritually blind all of us outside of jesus at one time we're spiritually deaf we're spiritually dead and it's the grace and mercy of god that open our hearts and open our minds so if you feel that same holy frustration because you want to help people and they just don't have ears to hear or eyes to see no matter how clear and factual and real your presentation is remember it's ultimately a spiritual battle remember if the same god that had mercy on you and me can have mercy on others and can deliver them from the snare of satan and when they're delivered when their eyes are opened it will be the great awakening for them and they'll come hugging you and thanking you right now we've got a battle for them in prayer oh another program powered by the truth network