 From posting herself getting baptized in the Jordan River to becoming open about her struggles with addictions, Demi Lovato's journey in recent years has been anything but straightforward. Today she opens up about her newfound understanding of spirituality and where she stands today on Jesus, Christianity, and the church. In today's video we're going to talk about new age beliefs, we're also going to talk about mega churches, and we're going to touch on biblical sexuality. It's going to be good. We're going to learn a whole lot and have some fun along the way, so stay tuned. This ministry is supported by my patrons on Patreon. To support my work in equipping people to follow Jesus daily, become a supporter today. Here you are sitting here. We've met, and then you nearly died. We've met again, and then you've gone back to rehab. We're meeting again. I'm grateful for it. Thank you. I'm grateful for it too. And I think about that dynamic of life and death and how such a fine line, and yet you continue to defy it. And I wonder where that faith sits now, because religion plays a pretty important role in this album. I mean, it's called holy fuck. My faith is, my spirituality is based in energy. Her faith is based on energy? This actually reminds me of something that Anthony Padilla said in his conversation with Ryan Trehan about his beliefs. It's kind of like the way that I view the world, which is I was able to find that I always had the strength and energy within me to express that. Since this belief seems to be relatively common, let's do some further digging on it. So according to Pew Research Center, most American adults self-identify as Christians. This is actually kind of a crazy realization, but it's true. I think it's like 70 or something percent of American people call themselves Christians, which is kind of wild. But many Christians also hold to what sometimes characterized as new age beliefs. So what do these things look like? Reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of this spiritual energy that Demi and Anthony were referring to. Okay, so according to Pew, overall roughly six in 10 Americans accept at least one of these new age beliefs into their belief system. I feel like this should be surprising, but it's kind of not. Like these days, people just use the term Christian, but meanwhile their beliefs is just a hodgepodge of whatever else they want to incorporate. So when Demi refers to this idea of energy, most likely she's referring to this belief of chakras. The belief goes something like this. And I should note that there are differences in how people understand these things because there is no new age orthodoxy. So the body apparently has these seven spinning disks of energy, I guess. And as long as they're not blocked, then you are great. And you're living your best life, body, mind and spirit. But when they get blocked, that becomes a real issue, which is why chakra therapy and crystals and Reiki healing is so popular nowadays. Hey Darryl, how have you been doing? Not too good, Stu. Oh, what's going on? You see, it's my chakras. They're not aligned. Oh no, that's terrible. What can I do? Oh, wait a minute. I can help you. I watch all sorts of chiropractic videos on YouTube. I can help you out. Please, it's not that kind of alignment. Please, let's leave it to the professionals. Hello? Hello, is this Chadwick's Reiki healing spa and bar? Ah yes, perfect. Can I book an appointment? I was raised Christian and I went to this big fancy mega church and saw a lot of things that I didn't like, felt outcasted. When I moved to California, kept going to church, but then kept hearing things that were not okay, because I was figuring myself out and I'm like, how are you going to tell me who I should and should not love and be attracted to? Notice here how the conversation has been twisted. It's not as if God put restrictions on whom you can love. The scripture actually makes it very clear in the second greatest commandment that we are called to love others as we love ourselves. The crux of the issue is what she truly means by love. For her, it's to follow whatever sexual impulses feel most natural or innate. The next question we should be asking is, does God have the right to tell us what we should do with our sexuality and sexual desires? The answer is pretty simple. Yes, because here's the thing. God didn't just create us on a whim. He had a specific purpose for us in how we're supposed to live. God didn't just set the universe into motion and dip out as the deists would have you believe. And God's certainly not just a conglomeration of combined substances, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe. As pantheism would have you believe, God is personal and he's revealed himself through the Bible. Eyewitness accounts, internal consistency, and more testify to the fact that the Bible can be relied on. So let's take a look at what the Bible has to say. Oh, not again. Okay, let me get it. Okay, I got it. Colossians 3.5 here brings some relevant wisdom. Put to death there for what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So what is sexual immorality? It is basically anything that distorts God's good and beautiful design for sexuality within the context of marriage between a man and a woman. But the reality is we all have sexual desires that kind of take us outside of this context, whether that's desires to watch pornography or sleep with your girlfriend or same sex relationships. As much as we would like to consider ourselves powerful and deserving of writing our own rules, God has already spoken on this. Without God in our life, the idea of denying these desires that seem so fundamental and innate to who we are seems impossible. And it is. Without God, we can't follow his ways. And the Bible says we have all fallen short of God's standard of goodness. And thus, stand guilty before God. Because of Jesus' payment on the cross on our behalf, we can be forgiven and transformed from the inside out. Now that we've been transformed by God, we no longer want to just pursue the thing that we think will give us the most sinful pleasure. Now, we actually want to walk in God's ways and find our deepest pleasure in him. 2 Corinthians 10, 13 says, No temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. And so... And that's where it falls apart because the principle of religion is actually a beautiful thing. It's community-driven. The idea is to find solace and to find comfort in the arms of others and not just yourself to help you through tough times. Yeah. The problem is that in the framework, it's more and more rigid because it appeals to money and business. And it just pushes people with big hearts out of the room. I really think Zane is missing the point on this. It's not about just finding community or comfort when you're going through a tough time. It's much deeper than that, at least when it comes to Christianity. We are looking for truth, like real objective authoritative truth and our conscience has testified to us that we are standing guilty before God and we have no means of escape on our own. We're asking ourselves, how can we have a restored relationship with this creator that we've rebelled against for so long? These questions are important and they're just a few of the questions that are answered in Jesus. Loving community and spiritual comfort are the elve flowing of a relationship with Jesus. But to only focus on this outward fruit would cause us to miss the point, Jesus. Yeah. And when I found out that the owner of the church or the pastor of the church bought a $20 million plane with the church's money There it is. After I was saving up my money for offerings, I was like, I'm out of here. I'm sorry, you're a... Yeah. You do that, you're a dick. Yeah. Yeah, this is absolutely disgusting. These guys do a lot more harm to the gospel than we could really ever realize. But the Bible is clear when it talks about folks like this. In Matthew 7.15, it says, Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. There's a song on this album called Heaven, which is actually about a Bible verse. It's a good one. So this Bible verse is Matthew 5.30. It says, If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better to lose one part of your body than your entire body to hell. And it's about masturbation. Right. And so I was like, I was told at a very young age, which I should not have been told that, Bible verse, I was told that in church and I remember thinking like, Oh my God, like I can never do this. That's so shameful. Who wakes up and decides to tell a kid that? Who goes up today is the day. Big life lesson coming up. I don't remember exactly what age I was, but it was too young and not old enough to be discussing that topic. Agreed. That is really weird. And you should not be talking to kids about this stuff. I mean, but honestly, look beyond the church and look at schools nowadays. I don't know where you guys live, but where I live in Canada here, it's pretty common to see this stuff discussed in books that you'd find at the library or in classrooms for elementary school kids. And so it's just kind of disgusting. And by the way, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't read that Bible verse to your child. It's going to go right over their heads and they're not going to understand. And also it's not just talking about masturbation too in the greater context of what it's saying is saying, Hey, you're a sin. These things, if your eyes are causing you to stumble, then pluck them out because it's not worth it. Sin is not worth it. But anyways, I heard that. I feared. I lived in fear. And then as I got older, I just, I felt so much shame around my sexuality because of the church that I was raised in. And when I was taking the power back of my anger, you know, I was like, I'm going to write this song about this Bible verse and it's going to be called heaven because I'm going to hell because it feels like heaven. There's the line. You get one for that. Asa. I always get nervous when people start joking about hell because it is a real place of eternal judgment. People like to think of Hitler and other evil people get what's coming to them in the afterlife, but then they think they are absolved of responsibility for what they've done in their life. They think they're a good person, but we're not. Only God is good. And that's why we need him. So how do we understand the M word from a Christian perspective? So the M word is an isolated act purely for instant gratification and pleasure. But like I mentioned before, God made sexuality for men and women within the context of marriage that they would become one flesh. It's designed to be a relationally, physically, and spiritually bonding activity. I guess you could call it that. One act is selfish and the other is selfless. While Demi now can laugh about her distaste for biblical truth, one day she'll need to come to terms with her conscience that is crying out for relief, that she is suppressing. She'll need to come to terms with her sin, whether now or in eternity. I'll leave you with some final words from Scripture in 1 John chapter two. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride and possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Until next time.