 Do you miss God's presence in a way at all? I miss the, uh, what's that called? In a sense of being stupid? Do Christians have a stupid ignorance? Is Christianity a fear-based faith? And how do we respond to corrupt churches and hypocritical leaders? All that and more in today's video as I respond to a clip from the H3 podcast with Ethan Klein and Brittany Borowski. But what got me intrigued was that she calls herself an ex-Christian, so let's see what she has to say. This video is made possible by the Daily Disciple Club on Patreon to support my mission of equipping people to follow Jesus daily, join Patreon today. Was there a, was there a moment where you realized you were ready to leave the faith? Yeah, it was, it was very gradual. I mean, like, I was baptized at the age of 12. Is that late? You're in no, I, it's about right on time. I mean, if you grow up in the church, it's around middle school, they start doing baptisms because it's like you're sentient for the first time. Okay. And I just, that is so young. And I have, I still to this day struggle with like my idea of femininity and my womanhood and sexuality and being sex positive because of the church, you know, like I will never, it is truly religious trauma. The sad thing is that people have legitimately experienced harmful teaching by the church around sexuality. Now this is often referred to as purity culture, but there's an important distinction that needs to be made. What is extra biblical purity culture teaching by the church in the past and what is true biblical commands of scripture around God's design for sexuality? Because Brittany wasn't specific around what she was taught about sexuality and the biblical perspective of it, I want to hone into a little bit of like what might be negative purity culture, things that were not right. One example of that is just an analogy, people passing around a rose at a youth group and by the time it gets back to the pastor, the pastor looks at this rose and he says, who would want this rose? This rose is used up. It's touted. It's torn. It's been passed around. You don't want to be like this. Or maybe they passed around a piece of tape and they got each kid to stick it on their wrists, pull it off, give it to the next one. And by the end, it wasn't sticky. And what was the culmination of the pastor trying to communicate? Don't pass yourself around. You won't be able to bond with people. If you've already been with one person, it's going to become that much more challenging with the next person. You're going to be used, dirty, torn up. You're going to have pieces of the last person still on you. Now, in my view, it's important to recognize that there are real consequences to sin and there are real dramatic consequences to sexual sin. That's not really what I'm debating here, but what I saw within that movement was a lack of redemption, a lack of grace, a lack of Christ transformation in the message that, yeah, you are like that. You are this tattered rose. We all are because none of us have been pure sexually. None of us, even if you've saved yourself for marriage, maybe you've looked at pornography, maybe you've looked with lust. That means that we are all impure before God sexually and we need Jesus. The truth is that Jesus does want us. He wants to bring us restoration and healing in our lives. So that's one aspect of what I would consider unbiblical purity culture. If you want to go more in depth on my perspective of purity culture, there's multiple videos that I'll link down below or link up here that I want you to watch. And it'll give you much more of an explanation. But aside from that, there are real true biblical commands that God has given us that we should be holding to. And maybe Brittany experienced and encountered those things where the Bible said and preachers said, hey, look, like not every one of your sexual desires is good and that you should, you know, give into. And there should be a place of kind of withholding and denying yourself of those things. And that's good. And that's right. This is honestly one of the most common challenges that unbelievers have with Christianity or people that have left the faith or Christianity or whatever. They said they were Christian, but now they're not saying they're a Christian anymore. They have a problem with this idea of denying yourself, of having a desire and not giving into it. Because it's like, if I feel this, then I should just be able to give into it. That must be me stepping into my higher self or my most authentic self. Why do we do this? Why do we deny ourselves? Is it because we want to earn God's favors because we want to earn God's love? Is that why we are, you know, abstaining from, you know, sexual immorality? As the Bible puts it, it's just, we're going to earn our way to heaven. No, not at all. In fact, we're all sinners. We all need God's grace. And the only reason that we desire to obey God, because he's been so gracious in the first place, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And out of that love that he shown us, now we have love for him and we desire to obey him and honor him with our sexuality. To wrap this section up, I'm definitely not trying to deny that people have experienced religious trauma. I think a big result of the cause of that was purity culture and these extra biblical things that were forced on people. And this graceless kind of attitude towards people's sin, it gave them this heavy burden that they needed to carry. And it was all about rules and trying to do my best so that God would give me his best back. And so I would have a good life. And it was very kind of transactional. And I think there could be a lot of trauma or what it hurt coming from that, whatever you want to call it. Absolutely. Ultimately, I think many people's issues stems far beyond those things, though. I think it goes towards the Bible itself. They have a problem with what the word of God says about our sexuality. It puts parameters and borders around it that sexuality should be expressed in the context of marriage with one man and one woman. That seems limiting. That seems repressive to them. And then when they experience shame and guilt, when they take part in sexuality outside of marriage, they interpret that as kind of religious trauma or kind of just because they were taught this way. So that's kind of lingering still. But ultimately, I believe that is God trying to get your attention. He's trying to say, turn from these things. He's trying to convict your heart of your sin and calling you to repentance. And the internet's helped, but the internet is also, the pendulum has swung so much the other way of like, you need to be body positive, sex positive, man positive. No, you don't actually. But I just, you know, hypersexualizing yourself as in the solution to having suppressed sexual, you know, desires. She gets it right here, in my opinion. Sexual liberation is a lie. It's founded on the idea of sexual gratification, personal autonomy, and selfishness. With the advent of birth control and abortion, the consequences for promiscuity seem to be minimized significantly, at least in the world's perspective. But the truth is the consequences for promiscuity are just as bad, if not worse than they used to be. A baby's life now can be taken. People are just as empty as ever. And when you get past the initial excitement of breaking free from these societal norms of sexual expression, you settle into the fact that this lifestyle really doesn't provide you the love that you thought it would. It's a tale as old as time. Sin offers up something that in the moment seems right and seems good and it seems to tap into something so deep within us. But that's because it's a distortion of a good and right desire that's within us. I'm sure tons of women and men get plenty of attention on Instagram by showing off their bodies and that feels good for them because they get all this attention, they feel this love, but ultimately it's just a counterfeit love. Like those people will never truly care for you. It's empty. It's a facade. So at what point did you start to doubt that Jesus Christ was your Lord and Savior and your one true love? Probably mid-high school. And then I got to college and I was kind of on my own. And then I went through this like, I need to be saved again. And then I was like, no, I don't. I'm just like, I'm really valid. You got scared a little bit. I got scared. Well, because that's the whole thing. It's Hellfire and Brimstone. Yeah. It's all about fear. It's all fearmongering. That's all that. I mean, having an evangelical faith, that's all of it. We all know some fire and brimstone preachers maybe in our personal life or maybe just online, but there's a spectrum to this. Usually when we think of these folks, we think of kind of this graceless, it's only about judgment. It's only about God's wrath, but they never truly get to the good news of the gospel. At the same time though, there are people that never talk about sin. They never talk about judgment. They never talk about God's wrath. They only talk about God's love and His mercy and His grace and all the good, fun stuff, the heartwarming stuff. But when you disconnect the good news from the bad news and the bad news from the good news, you lose sight on the true gravity of what the gospel is. If you're only hearing about God's wrath and His judgment and hell and all this kind of thing, and it's like, yeah, this is true. This is a reality. But if you're only hearing about that, that's going to put a big weight on your shoulders because you're trying to measure up. You're trying to be that good Christian. You're trying to earn your way to God. And I've seen and I've heard from a lot of people that that was their experience growing up in church. It might have been Britonies as well, that they hear about God's wrath. They hear about His judgment, and they get burnt out. They get burnt out on trying to be good enough. They're scared. They're weary. It's just this big burden on their shoulders. But this is what makes me so sad is that Jesus comes in and He says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls. That in Jesus, we have found rest because He has taken all the wrath and judgment of God on Himself that we could be free from sin and alive in Him. If you want to talk about true, fear-based religions, then look at every other religion in the world that requires for you to be a good person or do these certain practices in order to earn God's favor or become, you know, one with the earth or achieve Godhood or all these things like what you're striving for. It's all through what you need to do. Don't you think that sends fear through a person? Because ultimately they know. They know they can't measure up. But Christianity is the only faith that says, yes, you can't for all of a sudden fall short of the glory of God. But while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you that you could be in right relationship with God. When did a big deal with your family? Oh, it still is. I talk about it online and my parents and family do not like it. They think you're going to hell. Well, they think the L.A. has changed me and that's really not the case. I've never been more myself. It's just that I finally feel free enough to speak about it. And it's upsetting, you know, because it's so much ingrained in the culture of being Southern and having that Southern family that you pray before every meal and you do this and you go to church and whatever. And it's just like, I don't subscribe to that anymore. And it's really tough for them. So I don't know. It's an ongoing thing, but I'm happiest I've ever been. So when you go back and visit your family, do you still lock hands and say prayers and stuff? I play along. Just a vibe. Yeah. Well, because I'm not going to be like, I'm not doing that. You know, it's like, it's not going to be an annoying. Yeah. And do you miss God's presence in a way at all? I miss the, uh, what's that called? The like, in a sense of being stupid. Now, if you're a Christian and you're hearing this, the last thing I want you to do here is to get offended or get defensive. But truly the goal here is not to be outraged. And I can't believe Brittany would say something like that about Christians saying that they're stupid. And that's so mean. And she's the stupid one. And we're smart. And it's like, okay, let's not go there at all. This brings an important verse to mind. Let me get my Bible. First Corinthians 127 says this, But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Miracles, talking donkeys, big arcs, big fishes, wild wilderness men. I'm looking at you, John the Baptist. God used the things that this world would see as foolish and simple and maybe even stupid to bring about his purposes to humble and even shame. Those who had considered themselves to have an astute intellect. God wanted to humble the prideful. I think of Jesus emphasis on having a child like faith. Yes, there are things that we don't understand. I don't know how God made the whole, you know, everything out of nothing. I don't know how that happens. I don't know how Jesus came to this earth fully God and fully man. I don't understand how that can work. I don't understand how he multiplied, like all those bread and all those fish. I just don't get it. Childlike faith isn't a stupid faith, but it is a humble faith, a faith that says and admits I'm not God and comparison to God. I am a lowly child. Now that's not to say there aren't Christians with great intellects or that there aren't great answers to intellectual questions. There absolutely are. But if you aren't willing to humble yourself first, you'll completely miss it. That's exactly why somebody can have an astounding intellect and yet still believe that something came from nothing. Romans 1 says that we know God exists, but we suppress that truth in our unrighteousness. It's not that there isn't enough answers to challenging intellectual questions from unbelievers. It's that people have yet to submit themselves to God, to humble themselves like a child. And for an unbeliever watching this, you're like, why would I want to do that? Well, that's why God needs to change your heart, truly. And that's if you're an unbeliever watching this right now and you're like, okay, I'm kind of understanding what you're saying, but I really just, I don't get it. I would ask you, ask God to humble you, ask God to give you repentance, ask God to convict you of your sin and convict you of your unbelief. Ultimately, it's God that changes our heart. Right. Totally. Because it's like there's an answer to start. Right. It's like you had, I had for the longest time a clear answer when there was a problem, I would pray and now it's just like, well, this is so interesting to me. It seems like there's a moral superiority in uncertainty, but you see where this leads. They reject God and his presence, yet there's no place to take the questions that you have in your life or your struggles or any of it. You're just, well, I guess that's it. I guess, you know, I got to figure it out. Would you consider yourself an atheist or agnostic? No, I just consider myself an ex-Christian. I don't know what I am. I'm just, I know I'm not. I don't subscribe to what the Bible teaches or the culture of Christianity because you can still be like a doubting Christian, but you still exist within that world. I reject all of it. I think all churches are corrupt because they're of man. You know, they're not of God. The f***ing pastor in one of my hometowns was just suspended because he was caught like sexually messaging with a woman who wasn't his wife. Suspended. Suspended. He's going to come back. You know, it's these are supposed to be the moral leaders of our society and small town tech. That's the one thing I can't stand is the hypocrisy of like absurd. Yes, some people call themselves Christians and some places call themselves churches and they are absolute garbage. Now we can all recognize that simply because there are bad Christians and there are bad churches that doesn't invalidate the belief system entirely, you actually need to go to the book that they say they believe and see what it says. Hypocrites aren't an indicator that a belief system is false. It's just an indicator that that person is a hypocrite. What I also find interesting is that they're making a moral judgment against these pastors and churches as they should. But from an atheistic or godless worldview, where are you getting this morality from? Like I'm okay, you know, weigh them against their own standards. They fall short. Absolutely. But from your worldview, why is what they're doing wrong? Why is deception wrong? Why is hypocrisy wrong in your worldview? Because in an atheistic or godless worldview, we're all just kind of stardust walking our way through space. We're just kind of chemical reactions. There's no truth or falsehood. There's no right or wrong. Maybe it's societally constructed, but that's not objective. That's just whatever your opinion is in the moment. It really doesn't hold any weight. Now in my worldview, according to Christianity and the Bible, we have something really clear to say to these folks that they are wolves in sheep's clothing and that they need to repent. The full flaw with Christianity is like whatever the most f***ing thing you can do whatever you want. But as long as you believe in Christ, he'll forgive you. So if you're like a prolific f***er, if you're like Jesus, my dog, you go to heaven forever and me a Jew who never f*** kids, straight to hell forever, like come on, explain the consistency of that. I've heard Ethan say this many times and it pains me because it demonstrates that he is a keen misunderstanding about the Christian faith. The apostle Paul addressed this question when he talked about, hey, can we keep sitting that grace may more abound? Meaning can I continue in my sinful lifestyle and my sinful life because Jesus will just save me. But Paul goes on to say by no means how are we who are dead to sin still live in it? When God saves us, he changes our heart. We no longer desire to walk in these evil, sinful ways of the old man, but rather we desire to honor God. And yes, we don't do it perfectly. Yes, we still sin, but it's this lifestyle transformation that happens. Yes, even folks that have done something unimaginably wicked in their past can still be saved by Jesus. That is forgiveness. But Jesus commands us to repent from that, to turn from that, to pick up our cross, to follow Christ. It doesn't say, oh, you know, hey, that's okay, all murderers and axe murderers just come on over and you can continue doing what you're doing. But you know, just trust in me and you can go to heaven. That's not the deal at all. When God saves us, he makes us into a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. So maybe in Ethan's worldview, there is no room for forgiveness that once you've done something bad, you're just bad for life. I mean, he doesn't believe in eternal justice, but at least, you know, in his perspective, you're just bad. There's no forgiveness for you. Look, I recognize that God's grace can be incomprehensible at times. How could God save somebody so wicked, so vile, like that doesn't seem to make sense. But I would encourage you to look at your own heart. You should be just as astounded at God's grace for you and His mercy for you in light of your own sin. He didn't have to save us. We weren't owed forgiveness, but He loved us and He died for us. There is forgiveness and reconciliation available in Christ. And that's my prayer for everyone at that podcast table, honestly. And that's my prayer for you too. If you enjoyed this video, subscribe because I'm putting out new content all the time. Thanks again to all my patrons on Patreon that enable me to continue to make this content. Thanks so much for watching, guys, again, and I'll see you guys next time.