CareCast: Interview with Allie Beth Stuckey (Care Net Conference 2022)

This is a special episode of CareCast with Roland Warren, Care Net’s president and CEO, and Allie Beth Stuckey, author, speaker, and host of The Relatable Podcast.

This episode was recorded live at the Care Net National Conference 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference’s theme was “Come Alive,” based on Ezekiel 37. It was our first-ever conference to be hosted in the aftermath of the Dobbs Decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. More than 1,600 pregnancy center staff and volunteers gathered to sharpen their skills for reaching out with Christ’s compassion to women and men considering abortion.

One of our keynote speakers was Allie Beth Stuckey, the host of The Relatable Podcast where she breaks down the latest in culture, news, and politics from a Christian conservative perspective. She is a frequent guest on Fox News, a writer, and the author of You’re Not Enough (And That’s Okay). Roland sat down with Allie during the conference to chat about her work and her keynote address. Let’s listen in on Roland and Allie’s conversation. 

RW: Allie, welcome to the 2022 Care Net Conference, so delighted that you could join us today.

ABS: Thank you so much for having me.

RW: Now you just gave your keynote to 1,600 folks in the audience. You almost couldn’t get through it because of so much applause and people amening. So why don’t you tell me a little bit about what you shared with our audience.

ABS: Yes, so I know that pro-lifers are super excited about living in post-roe America. We’ve been celebrating and thanking God. But also, we realize that our work is cut out for us””not just in the number of patients of women who are coming into pregnancy clinics””but also just in the political atmosphere that we’re in.

Now pro-lifers understand pushback. They have had pushback for a very long time. They’ve dealt with it. You know the slander or the different kinds of political obstacles that they have to jump over in order to just do their jobs and care for women. But now it seems even more heightened. We’re dealing with a lot of opposition, even vandalism, arson threats of violence, and all kinds of media hit pieces, you even have politicians saying that they’re trying to shut down pregnancy centers. And so. there is a new level of opposition that a lot of pro-lifers and especially those that work at pregnancy centers are seeing.

So I really just wanted to encourage them (attendees), to reinvigorate them, to remind them what they already know””that this is gospel work””that it echoes in eternity, and that this world is passing away.

What we do today matters. But what matters so much more is eternity. Our hope is in heaven. Our identity is in Christ. And therefore, any pushback or persecution that Christians receive in this life, when it is for the glory of God, all pales in comparison to the goodness that God is working out through his believers in the lives of these babies and moms.

So I just wanted to remind people in this room that, hey, it’s worth it. God is on your side. You can do it. Keep going. Be more energized than ever. And what you’re doing will pay off both here but also in eternity.

RW: Well, that was fantastic and you know it’s interesting because you and I talked a little bit before you came to the conference. But I didn’t know exactly what you were going to talk about. God put on my heart the beatitudes””which was what I talked about. Of course, one of those is “blessed when you’re persecuted for righteousness’ sake” and I really want to encourage folks because this is righteous work. It’s righteous work in terms of preserving life. It’s righteous work in terms of helping people become disciples of Jesus Christ. And so I really appreciate how you spoke and God was working through all of that. So tell me about like where your passion for the life issue comes from?

ABS: Yes, so I’ve always been pro-life. I was raised in a Christian home. I was raised in a conservative home. So that was always a value that I had. However, when I was in high school politics wasn’t really something that we talked about. Today it’s different with social media a lot of young people are talking about things like abortion. We’re talking about politics and so it wasn’t really something I was paying attention to””until I went to college.

I was confronted with a lot of different worldviews. I was confronted more than I had been with the reality of people, with the reality of sin, and when I realized how invigorated the other side was””the pro-choice side””and how a lot of my friends who identified as Christians were kind of being manipulated by a lot of the propaganda on the other side thinking, “Well, the empathetic or the compassionate or the loving position is to just say….well, you know, live and let live…or it doesn’t really matter…it’s not a real human…” These are girls who were raised the same way that I was and when I realized in college how women were being deceived by this kind of propaganda, along with a lot of other things, that’s really why I started my blog which launched into a full-on career, just seeing a lot of young people my age be manipulated by the media in a variety of ways.

But especially when it came to abortion. This life and death issue on which the Bible is so clear, it breaks my heart, especially when professing Christians get it wrong. Maybe they intend well, but at the end of the day, this has physical ramifications on the lives of children and so I guess it’s grown over time just like my interest in a lot of issues.

Also when you have kids of your own and when you mature as an adult, when you mature in your faith your heart starts to break even more for what breaks God’s heart when you see the child growing in your own womb it becomes a lot more personal to you.

RW: We’re just delighted to have you as a warrior on this issue and you know, I’m older than you are by probably a pretty big stretch, but I get encouraged when I see people your age out there speaking the truth, speaking boldly. I have sons in your demographic and it’s very challenging, particularly the culture that has the highest human virtue as tolerance””and tolerance being defined in a way that you kind of rejects truth in any of those kinds of things and being able to stand in the public square and boldly say these thanks there’s a cost that comes with that.

So I really applaud you for that, appreciate you, praise God for your boldness. It’s interesting, I really love the title of your book You’re Not Enough (And that’s Okay). I think it’s escaping the toxic culture of self-love and I was looking at the five lies or myths that women believe. And I don’t think it’s just women who believe these lies, by the way. But as I was thinking about this, certainly those lies are very much connected to the life issue. Particularly number two, which is, “you create your own truth.” Talk to me a little bit about that, why you were inspired by that particular myth and then how you see that relating to this issue.

ABS: Well that’s a perfect one to bring up because one thing that I say in that chapter is that you believe you are your own truth as well as you believe that you’re enough, that you’re perfect the way you are. Those are some of the other myths that I tackle but you believe that you are the arbiter of truth when you replace the God of Scripture with the god of self.

There are two main values of the god of self that I think are especially applicable. You can see them manifest themselves the most in this abortion issue. I argue that the two main values of the god of self are authenticity and autonomy.

Now, we hear those words and we might not necessarily think of them as bad, and they’re not. We believe that someone should have autonomy over a lot of the choices that they make. We believe in authenticity in the sense that we don’t believe anyone should lie or try to be something that they’re not. But authenticity and autonomy, when they are not submitted to Christ, they become excuses to do whatever you want to do””no matter who else or what else you are sacrificing.

So authenticity, when you say that “I am going to do what I want to do…I’m going to be whatever I want to be…I’m going to identify however I want to identify…no matter what reality says…no matter what science says…no matter what anyone else says…I’m just going be authentic…” That means cutting people out of my life if that means denying biological reality, male-female, whatever it is when authenticity is your main value not submitted to Christ it becomes an excuse to sin.

And the same thing is true of autonomy. While autonomy certainly has its place in society and its place in individual life. When autonomy reigns supreme but it is not submitted to Christ you will even sacrifice a child on the altar of it. I mean that’s what we hear bodily autonomy””my body my choice. Yes, so when you become your own god and autonomy rules, you’ll sacrifice everyone else on the altar of that.

RW: You know, any virtue, so autonomy is a virtue, in a sense. And certainly, authenticity is a virtue. But any virtue, separated from God, becomes a vice. You know one of the things I was really inspired by when I first started doing this work was sort of this autonomy””my body my choice””which outside of God’s design creates enmity””conflict between a woman and a child””the woman and the father””the woman in society and the woman against God. And the contrast that we see in Scripture to autonomy and enmity is unity and community.

This is what you see in the godhead and you also see that in the process of bringing children into the world. The woman and the child””unity and community. She gives birth. The father is part of that process””unity and community. And so we have these two things and once you take God out of it you’re always going to have that situation where it’s going to be something that God creates in a way that can be a virtue””like empowerment””becomes a vice when you take God out of it.

ABS: Or confidence or anything…that was that’s really the driving point of my book because the title can be jarring for people. You’re not enough, really? Is that what we should be telling people? But the point is not that you should be self-loathing or that you should have low self-esteem. The point is that you’re not enough but God is.

We were created fallible we were created to depend on God, not just for our strength and our sustenance but also for our salvation. So you think that you are self-sufficient. You alluded to this hyper-individualism that we’ve taken on as a culture today. If you believe that you will be burying a heavy weight””that only God himself has the ability to carry so even though all these things that we hear, that you’re perfect the way you are, you’re enough how you are, you determine your own truth, you’re entitled to anything that you want, you can’t love anyone else until you are fully confident in your own self””all of these things might sound good but really they are telling you that you are God.

There’s a lot of freedom, a lot of liberation in realizing that you’re not. You can’t save yourself. You’re not enough for yourself. You’re not enough for other people but God is.

RW: Going back in terms of the beatitudes, that’s one of them, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In other words, you’re needy, you’re not enough. You need righteousness. It’s not hunger and thirst for happiness. It’s to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I love that. I encourage folks to get a copy of your book even if they’re not women!

So as we close up just a word of encouragement from you for the folks that are listening to this, particularly those who are in this pro-life fight. What would you say just to encourage our folks who are listening to this podcast in the days that we face ahead?

ABS: This work is worth it. Inherent in the Christian life is tribulation, struggle, trials disappointment, rejection, and hostility from the world””these are all things that we are told in Scripture and by Jesus Himself that are not just possibilities but are guarantees.

So we should not be surprised when these trials come. We should not be surprised when the world doesn’t like us when there is hostility, when there is pushback, when there are forms of persecution…that doesn’t mean we take on some sort of victim complex.

Actually, we are victors in Christ. Romans 8 tells us that we are more than conquerors in him who loved us. So knowing that God is on our side so who can really be against us? Because there is no match for him. Because we can know in full and total confidence that we are on the right side of this””that God is on our side and that the work that we’re doing matters in eternity. We have every reason to wake up with joy, with energy, and to fight the good fight that God has called you to. 

I mean we never thought that Roe vs Wade would be overturned in 50 years. We never thought that and God is so good and He’s so gracious. Think about the seeds you are sowing now and what they could reap 50 years from now. You never know what God is doing with our current obedience. So do the next right thing in faith, with excellence, and for the glory of God…that’s all we can do and that’s enough.

RW: Well thank you so much for being a part of this and for the words of wisdom and perspective that you brought.

 

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