Fat and Identity Politics, UCLA

this is a very rich topic as habit that there's so many different things to say about so what I'd like to do today is to first of all trouble you a little bit and then really upset and then hopefully sir drawing back thinking that maybe this guy has a point anyways even though a lot of my senses are positively true so starting with the the topic of badness and identity politics but the notion of fat as a political issue i think is still very unusual to people it sounds very counterintuitive that that could be a political issue susie orbach 30 years ago suggested that fat was a feminist issue an idea which I think has become almost platitudinous in a way but as a professor so he indicates has perhaps been a serious injury arises in a variety of ways the feminism it's been mr.

Proclaiming that the person was the political and certainly I think that's nowhere more true than the context of arguments troubles over body weight in American culture today now what I'd like to do today is first of all the way out why I think we're in the grip of a moral panic on the issue of weight in America and then make an analogy to another area of social contention that is I think usefully compared to the moral panic that we're having overweight especially to the question of the kind of cures that are being put forward for the supposed crisis health crisis that we're facing because of the fattening America now I premises with the usual academic caveats about analogies being limited by their very nature as a strippa logician will point out say a is like B is always going to be to some extent false given that a is not be so there's going to be ways in which these analogies are not perfect if you wish to dismiss what I'm saying by pointing out that what I'm saying is not perfectly analogous feel free because you will certainly have been used to do that but that being said I do think analogy in this kind of contest we can secretly power organs and cause people to think about things in ways that they otherwise would not have considered so beginning first of all oh maybe said let me say a couple words first about how I got into this business in the first place I was a law professor and a lawyer by training and so are people naturally especially doctors are often curious as to why I am cramming them about their they're mistaken views on the relationship between body weight and health I got into this originally because there was a president of the United States name to a Clinton's 1990s and he had a lays on of a woman named Monica Lewinsky and the I was in a conference of a patient Bill Clinton at the time and I was a discover that that would seem to be a tremendous amount of anxiety and the culture about the fact that Monica was he was born with fact and it was a tremendous amount of discussion of that could understand it and I was doing that confidence and I had to fill enough a gap in the program with speaker drop that I was going to talk about media coverage and so I just did Alexis search an online search I put in the search charms Lewinsky and zaftig because I notice the word softy just out of curiosity how many of you know the words out that means maybe ten fifteen percent and imagining it is very very many socio-economic determines that we have no idea what was optic means i think is a yiddish ism it's from the german word for juicy and originally advanced custom n a curvaceous and therefore logically desirable woman but through semantic drift and became a euphemism for fat so to call it open and soft it was essentially it such a polite way of saying she was fat and so I was wondering why are all these stories singling that Monica Lewinsky is quote unquote fat and also by the way not coincidentally Jewish what's going on there especially given that the vast majority of Americans have no idea for words optic means and it was and a hundred stories that use the turns out digging and describing always that's how I got into it in the first place and then there's a really long story as in regard to how I found that this sounds like a wild separation but I tell you is true Bill Clinton got impeached because Monica this people together diet that is literally true and to find out how this little human companies but so with well just bracket at the moment that's how I got into it and when I was when I was getting too into the subject issue that I was just going to talk about bad anxiety in the context of a Clinton presidency and like most people of my background I just assume that it was true that mean that was really bad for you from a health perspective and I wasn't really questioning at all the venice area that sometimes the case for that proposition very poorly supported actually so much so that it could be analogized to a lot of other panics that we have in society or the risks that are either small such as smoking marijuana or non-existent such as being subjected to satanic abuse while you are a preschooler which probably none of probably some of you in my math you're some of you at least may have actually been none of you were subjected to can't refuse at that time but there was in the nineteen eighties in the United States a huge panic over a satanic ritual abuse in our preschools believe it or not there was a one of probably the most famous trial at your place regarding this happened right here in Los Angeles the McMartin trial I without my sentence essentially it was a not saying that no preschoolers ever been subjected to Costa tannic abuse but what happened was that there was the click on that there were hundreds of cases of this all around the United States and what it really turned on is essentially anxieties about women going into the pain workforce a band on the the satanic ritual users essentially imagined in three schools where this or folk Devils of this moral panic over having so anyways the young it turns out that that that the fat panic we're having America's largely like that it's a largely like reefer madness it's largely life satanic ritual abuse in our preschool it's largely like 153 kindness in the State Department Joel McCarthy it's piece of paper it's largely like crack babies will be known supercriminals I'm sure some of you will if you haven't already encountered these social phenomenon study more organized in a variety of social science concepts so to get to the meat gritty of why we're having now or how it is that we're having a panic or fat in the culture um let me just a sort of a few things for sort of punta there's a possible statistical demonstration of the things that i'm saying you can check that out check your visa first of all the correlation between Wayne and health is actually fairly weak except in real statistical extremes if you look at very thin people or whether we're rarely talked about in this context and extremely bad people you do see some kind of a significant correlation between health risk and weight but you probably have to be looking at fairly extreme subgroups of the population for the vast majority of people for essential for one hundred percent of people who are classified as overweight in our culture and for most of the people who are classified as obese in our culture going to have to go these four categories under way to never talk about and almost impossible for any human being to achieve it about like starvation towards rationalism Hollywood actresses then normal weight which means thinner than me and seriously and then are overweight which is me and eighty percent release and then obese which is like a really fat category well I'm is over though there's no increased risk associated with a boy whatsoever and in fact the highest i should say the lowest mortality list in the launch life expectancy is found in the overweight category so that's it has this Pony a category as you can get the lowest category on most people movies can we do not have increased mortality risk associated with their way although very very bad people do so correlation between weight and helpers in general and mortality was in particular is weak and tremendously exaggerated in the literature second as I'm sure many of you have already discovered by being introduced to those to the concept of the relationship and correlation and causation correlation is not the same thing as causation the fact that you see some correlation between body weight and health risk as distal experience does not mean that the body weight is causing the health risk it's associated with it but that's a different matter there's all kinds of reasons why there might be a correlation that is it's positive if you find that people like yellow t have a mutton-headed of stratospherically higher rate of developing lung cancer in the United States and people who don't that does not mean that teeth whitening is going to greatly reduce the risk of contracting lung cancer for reasons that I'm sure you can all figure out for yourself the confounding variables that might lead to people who are significantly heavier than average having increased health risk rather than the weight itself is identical let me just name a few lower socioeconomic status which is strongly associated with higher way the cultural the crab you are the more likely you are to be poor I mean comports and gentle bring bad for your health for all kinds of reasons in the United States not least of which being that we have a highly dysfunctional healthcare system at least four can put more now privileged a situation another reason why a very people who are significantly higher in the average might have increased health risk is dieting dieting is in general a pretty bad for people's health specifically was harmful people's health is is a weight fluctuation is so-called yo-yo dieting and wishes the outcome of a significant percentage of diet affects what people do is lose weight them to gain it back and at least certain cases more so when the effect that you get is the in the studies that I've looked at this have all found either that there is a there's a risk associated with weight fluctuation or there's no effect there are no studies that show that there's a positive outcome to a graduation which is very strongly suggest that weight fluctuations per se that all kinds of reasons is strongly associated with in competed with the increased congestive heart failure I'm hypertension and with and with other bad things as well so dieting which is the cure of course or the obesity epidemic and they they're compelled me actually the cause of the health risks associated the cause of many of the health risks associated with fatness another thing that's very bad for people's health is stressed I can feel the stress in this room right now it's just very comfortable to talk about this subject because people and I can go and win in this culture are basically largely uncomfortable with their bodies in regard to well thank you ok all right ok better speed up now I mean visit any I'm being a little bit decisions and I don't I don't wish me this is just because this is a census I think it's an extraordinary jen and subject I me just take a look round all right why am I getting to talk away i am about this kind of thing even though I'm quota for Roy which I am for it can we get on their cover because a man and there's a second reason I can what it is mainly about man and therefore i have 0 at time i think even though i'm overweight I'm thin right I'm thin in terms of the social meaning of thinness in our cultural man of my particular social class of that by the so forth is tight as thin and therefore even though i call it away at the BMI you know 25 change 5 367 pounds and that makes me overweight or the US government I am socially thin so I'm a man so I get to say whatever I want about weight and not be judged for it because nobody cares one that way needless to say i'm painting of their we brought fresh air okay so yes you know weight discrimination definitely affects men and it's not as if this kind of craziness does not have negative effects on men to it certainly does but it has a vastly stronger effect on women as i'm sure many recognize from his real life experience so i'm a man I can say what I want about weight without being judged by it for it and secondly I'm thin if I was a woman and I was 5 8-9 is 57 pounds i would not be thin even though ever have exactly the same body mass though I physiologically i have seen BMI body mass index but socially i would be in this context at least upper class privileged institution of higher learning i will be math and therefore of course i would not have standing to say anything about this because obviously quote unquote i will be rationalized for my own failure to have maintained in the glorious body type so stressed you're stressing about this right now okay that's bad for our health so this whole exercise is at least as a short term matter backyard isn't any good real long but worth it right now feel some stress to talk about this very subject so the correlation between weight and help us a week causation in regard to that correlation is very poorly established essentially not stablished at all because epidemiologist it's really improve science and when it's just impossible to control rigorously for the kind of confounders that we want to be able to control for saying they really didn't differ about the subject a third and this is the part that never ever gets acknowledged by people who know better even though they will acknowledge them and just renowned with the pronounced of a monstrous foot second later we can't make people thin okay there's no empirical proposition in medicine that is better established than this there is no no way to produce significant long-term point loss in a statistically significant population just don't know how to do it and that includes weight loss surgery or stomach annotation that does not produce significant long-term weight loss among most people who undergo it certainly what absolutely fails completely in terms of sequence significant long-term weight loss is random people about their weight and telling them that if they ate right and exercise more they would be thin for the vast majority of people that prescription is a complete failure now it's a hopefully relatively rare in medicine in particular and social policy in general to keep pursuing an intervention which is demonstrably a failure over and over again e of the you I'm Sherman no the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result that's just not right there's a very well done study here right here at UCLA about three years ago authored by Tracy man and others which had really excellent produce really excellent data for the question of how how well do diet programs were and the answer is they don't write it is I mean this is this is one of these things that is certainly in co Hagel you know my many people but no the really rigors they demonstrated in this study and very usefully so so even if it were true that the correlation between weight and health was strong even if it were true that the causation the causation that is pivotably a product of that correlation have been well established which it hasn't even if all that wood tree would still would not make sense to produce to pursue weight losses of probably how the remediation given that we don't know how to use it now I know a lot of you are thinking right now well I just know that's not true in my case because it may be true on mas so to speak but it's not true for me because i know that i just did x y and z I would weigh five pounds less or ten pounds less or 20 pounds less or 50 pounds less than I weigh right now which is what I should be doing but I shouldn't have had that little something together when I walked in but it was right hungry in but I go the you know I'll go to the gym for three hours tomorrow we can many people then maybe you're the exception there are exceptions of course are exceptions to every because I will get two other times but in general we can make people think about this given that our testament asian are not only failures but also positively harmful in all kinds of ways both physiologically and psychologically and given then finally the final point example says here that fitness is absolutely not necessary for hell what sense does it have to have a social policy as we do in the United States right now based on the notion that we are trying to make people thinner and for the purposes of improving their health the answer is that's a rhetorical question no sense at all in fact it's a miami sociologists don't like this kind of phraseology improve good reason but it's basically crazy it's a kind of cultural madness on on the loose and one of the great things about sociology as a feel is that it allows one to consider that today's in do tible scientific truth I'm firmed by the very best and highest authorities and consensus panels all over the world of mission statements of the world health organization and by your mother like all the top authority figures that all those things which are today and one day's truths that we hope to be self-evident then good that bad is tomorrow's unbelievable nonsense that you just can't understand how anybody could have built into that we see this over and over again in the history of science and history of Medicine in society in general and it's my belief I don't know when could be tomorrow it could be 50 years from now we will look that on the current orientation towards way in this culture and health as a form of social praising is similar to way that lots of people although unfortunately not our legal system look at things like reefer madness today or satanic ritual abuse in our preschools which I have to assure she was a really big deal 25 years ago so that's the UH that's the the thesis that's the situation I think and now I'd like to draw an analogy to another controversial topic which i think is usefully comparable in various ways a little different than others of course to the situation with fat panic in America today here I need to say a little something about terminology the word fat is almost like a verbal assault in this culture right I can't even say it's a without causing people to like I do that to Elysium researchers all the time private pray it's like what you have against back and it's like saying that is like saying that levels words you're just not supposed to say to people we're going I notice in the context of the Clinton whiskey they got it people fledged a lot less its semen stain dressed and then back I guess they'd seen same dress into my mother okay crazy about it but dad as another cab you have to be sour the but he's important to use the word because as Marilyn Juan all had to come to her talk a month from now but really want makes me look like Miss Manners and we are talking about this stuff and she's only a super powerful and important really sneaker as Marilyn Juan what has reminded us over and over again that is what fat people are it's a descriptor it's like it should be it isn't but it should be a neutral physical descriptor in this culture I was trying to come up with neutral physical descriptors but given our neuroses about bodies cartoon with a purely neutral this old script but something like I can't come up with even one but something she has freckles but as I am saying is i can teach tall because tall is very positive in the context of male frame I ensure that right you can't old obviously yeah but neither the idea the point is factually just a physical description saying all you know it's the kids are right ahead red red hair there that's with that kid single s just observe why is that absurd well it's absurd because it's an insult to call somebody fat why is it insult to call somebody fat because being fat is considered as these and a morally degrading status in this culture and therefore to call somebody fat to call in sick and to call them essentially vicious as most virtuous in some way you'll have a disease and you could cure yourself of this disease if you try hard enough and therefore a diesel to call you fat as Marilyn and many others have pointed out that's not the way off of me we ought to talk about as fat so what we should not talk about is obesity I hate it using that word title my boat and the end decided my shyness public decided that it was a necessary why should we be talking about a VC why shouldn't be not use the words obesity on boy because those words are begging the question those words are tainted semantic markers of a pathological state you can't in from some of you have to deal with nonsense questions all the time by how can you say it's over healthy to be overweight a lot of doctors to then it's just like that's like saying how do you say it's healthy to be sick I don't get that some nonsense stated to me well because the word all the way is because it's a fraudulent charge of junk science appeared simple so we shouldn't be calling people over Roy dovie's we should be calling them back because that's what fat people are I'm I'm not fat right now but in certain social context I would be if I was a 20 year old gay man Santa Monica if I was if I was a woman I'm quite sure in this particular i was saying earlier well language is important and that brings me to my my analogy which I've been creeping up to an analogy is s let us think about the parallels between the conceptualization of …

Talking Points, Part 1: What Is Jesus’ Take On Politics? // Andy Stanley

– So today we begin
this three part series, designed to make you
uncomfortable and
hopefully, better. It's entitled, "Talking Points," and I came up with
the sub title myself, "The perfect blend of
politics and religion." We'll see how perfect it
is, that will be up to you. Now, I have found it very
difficult to stay away from the topic of
religion in church. (audience laughing) But I found it very
easy to stay away from the topic of
politics in church. But whenever something
Jesus says specifically intersects something that
we're wrestling with in culture or wrestling with specifically
at a time like this in the life of our nation,
I have to talk about it. Or I should say I
have talked about it, I get to talk about it, I look
forward to talking about it, because the words of
Jesus are so relevant and they are so
extraordinarily relevant with everything that's happening
in our nation right now. And, the division, that's
no new news, right? The division in the
church created by our current political
context and climate, intersects directly with
something that Jesus taught.

So we're gonna look at it. And, since we are a
large and more and more diverse and geographically
dispersed group of network churches
in the Atlanta area and now more and more
all around the country, it's even more important
for me to talk about this because we are set
up to be divided, because of what we're
about to experience in the next few months. Now I became, I dunno, I don't
wanna say painfully aware, I became extraordinarily
aware of the diversity of political views
in our churches; actually the Sunday
following the 2016 election. So here's what happened. So if you can go
back in time, okay, it's the Sunday after
the 2016 election, which meant churches in
primarily Republican counties, they sang so loud on that
particular Sunday, right. I mean, they were
just singing, right.

And churches that were filled with primarily non-Republicans, they probably didn't even have
music that Sunday, I dunno. You remember it
was so emotional, everybody was in
shock and awe on both, you know, going both ways. And so, you know, we plan
our services way ahead, and so we kind of, you
know, we got to Sunday, and we just kind of
did our regular thing, that's what we do. We just rarely interface with
what's going on in culture unless it's, you know,
something big and dramatic. And we just, you know,
went with the program. So anyway, after the service,
I'm sitting there in my truck, at one of our more
suburban campuses. For those of you who are
watching from all the country, we have like nine or 10 churches
all over the Atlanta area. So right on the outskirts. And I'm sitting
there in the traffic, in park, just so you know, with my phone scrolling
through Twitter.

And the cool thing
about Twitter, when you preach
with one of these, is you find out if people
are paying attention to your main points. It's like, it's so good. So I'm like, yep
yep yep, anyway. So I get a mention from
an African American woman who attended our church
that's more toward town. And this is essentially what
her text said, she said: I came to church this morning
looking for reassurance.

I'm scared. And no one even
mentioned the election. I feel abandoned by my church. And of course, as a pastor, really as her pastor,
I felt terrible. But, you know, the Republicans,
who would read this, if you're Republican
and you would read this, and you would say,
and this isn't, I'm not, you know, this is gonna be uncomfortable, so listen, go ahead and
be uncomfortable together. You're like scared of what? We won. Scared of what? Now if the Democrats
had won the election, now that would have been
something to be afraid of. That's what, you know,
if you're Republican, that's what you're
thinking, right? But she's thinking something
entirely different. She has experienced this in a completely
different way, right? Because, nothing
divides like politics because, nothing
divides like fear. As you know, because you've
been a victim of this, or maybe you've
been a part of this, you can raise a lot of
money pedaling fear.

You can't raise this much money if you're not
pedaling fear, right? I mean the Republicans
are gonna take away your opportunity to vote, and the Democrats are gonna
take away your guns, you know, for $25 or $50 or if you
check $100, you know. You know, if the
president is re-elected, you know, the end of the world. If a Socialist
Democrat is elected, you know, it's the
end of the world. For $25 or $50 or $100, right? I mean you pedal enough fear, you could raise a lot of money. I'm not trying to
give you any ideas, I'm just telling you, it works.

But here's the question. What exactly, just
within the context of, you know, the United
States of America, what exactly do we fear? And I tell you, I
know the answer, because the answer is
the same for all of us, you know, at the macro level. It's this, it's loss. We fear something is
gonna be taken away. We fear loss, we fear
the loss of control, the loss of opportunity, the loss of the future
of our children, the loss of our culture, the loss of our freedom, the loss of our progress, because we've made progress
in some areas, you know? White people, we fear
what might happen.

Brown and black people fear
what has already happened. For them, it's not,
you know, theory. For them or for
you, it's history. And it wasn't that long ago. So there's fear for all of us, and it's the fear
of the unknown. And you can't raise
very much money if you don't pedal in fear. So we're in this culture, we're in this season in
the life of our nation, where everybody is
pedaling in fear.

And if we're not careful,
we will be victims of that. And not only will we be victims, we will be, this is what
we're gonna talk about, we will be divided. So back to my story. So I see this text and
I'm like, oh no, you know. Is there something that
we could have done, or should have done? It was at, you know, a
different one of our churches, but still, you know. So the traffic starts moving. So I put my, I'm in
my pick-up truck, I put my truck in gear, and I'm behind another
pick-up truck and I look, and on the back window
of the pick-up truck, on the left is an NRA sticker, and on the right side is a very
unflattering bumper sticker that has to do with
Hilary Clinton.

We'll just leave it like that. And I thought to myself,
this is all those years ago, here we are, here we are. We have the complete,
pretty much, you know, political spectrum
in our churches. And I gotta tell
you, I love that. In fact, I would say
this, and maybe this is– I don't wanna say
this too strongly, but if you're
looking for a church where everybody is
the same, (chuckling) you're in the wrong church,
okay, let me just tell you. And if you're looking
for a group of churches where everybody
agrees politically, you're in the wrong church, and I hope you never ever ever
attend a church like that, as we're gonna see
in just a minute.

Because what this means for us, because we're big and
we're influential, thanks to what you've
done all over the country, and really all over the world, we have an unprecedented
opportunity. We have an unprecedented
opportunity to model for our community
and maybe our nation, what it looks like to
disagree politically, because we are going to continue
to disagree politically, and love unconditionally. Now, here's the question. And I don't want you
to answer it out loud, I don't want you to say amen, I don't want you to say hm mm, I don't want you to do anything. I don't want you
to throw anything, unless you're at one
of the other churches, you can throw stuff
at the screen, I'll just keep on
preaching, okay? (audience laughing) So this is for you and I
really want you to be– Because here's the thing, what we're gonna
talk about today, I understand, I'm in
the audience with you.

What we're gonna
talk about today, you think you've got
it, I know you do. That's why we're gonna
spend three weekends talking about this. You think you're fine,
like I think I'm fine. But I want us to really dig down and maybe face some things
we've never faced before, and they're gonna be
a little bit scary, a little bit terrifying. I'm not gonna ask you to
change political parties. I just want you to think a little bit differently
as a Christian. And the question I
wanna ask you is, do you, don't answer out loud, do you want to do this? And do you think
you can do this? To which, on the surface,
it's like, oh yeah, I can do this, I do it all
the time.

Just hang with me. And I don't mean tolerate
people from other parties and other persuasions, even
those that are kind of out on, you know, the fringes,
and are super extreme. Not tolerate, not
just be nice to, with an eye roll, you know. Let me ask you in a different
way. And this is more pointed. And I think this goes
to the heart of it. Are you willing to
evaluate your politics, through the filter
of our historical collective Christian faith? Are you willing to
evaluate your politics through the filter of your faith rather than create
a version of faith that supports your politics? Which is what most
Christians do. As we're gonna talk
about next week. Everybody wants a
piece of Jesus, right? I mean in the United
States of America, Jesus is part of
every political party.

He is in lockstep. No matter what your thing is, if you're a Christian at all or any kind of version
of Christianity,
it's like, oh yeah. And again, we're
gonna see next week, anywhere in the bible, you
can find something Jesus said, or somewhere in the bible, to
support your political view. The real issue is, are you
willing, and am I willing, to put our political
filter behind, instead of in front
of, our faith filter? Are we willing to evaluate
and re-evaluate our politics in light of what specifically
Jesus has taught? Let me say it a different way. Are you, and can you be, but are you willing
to follow Jesus? I mean that's the
mission of our church, is to inspire people
to follow Jesus. Are you willing to follow Jesus, when following
Jesus creates space between you and your
political party, your party's platform, and
your party's candidate? And I'm just telling you, most Christians are
not able to do that, especially in the climate
that we're in now, and in months that
we have ahead.

Because it's so
easy to be divided, and it's so easy to
rush to the corner, and it's so easy to just assume that God and Jesus are
in lockstep with us. Now, any questions so far? Good, okay now, Jesus,
this is what's so amazing, this is why I have
to talk about it. Apparently, Jesus
saw this coming. Not the election, not that part. What Jesus saw coming
was the division. In fact, this is extraordinary. After Jesus had his
final passover meal
with the disciples, he prays a prayer in John; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; actually records this, sometimes it's called
the High Priestly Prayer, and in this prayer, there's
two interesting things. Number one, he prays for us; we're gonna look at
that in just a minute.

But number two, Jesus
has a prayer request. Now if you grew up in church, you know what a
prayer request is. You're sitting in a circle, you're about to finish
your Sunday School class, or your small group, "Anybody have a prayer request?" Somebody raise their hand,
you share a prayer request. Imagine sitting in a circle
(chuckling) with Jesus? "Anybody have a prayer request?" Jesus says, "I have a request." It's like, "Really?", "Yeah." Jesus had a prayer request, and in this passage that
John records for us, we discover what Jesus
asked the father for. Now wouldn't you like to
know what Jesus prayed for, when Jesus pray? We know
what we pray for, you know, "Thank you for this day, "you know, get us to school, "help my kids," you
know, that stuff. What did Jesus pray for? And so here he is, this is cool, he's at the very end, in a few hours, he's gonna be arrested,
and tried and crucified.

Everything moves really
quick after that. So he's praying here at the end, and he asks something
of his heavenly father. And what he asks of
his heavenly father has everything in the world
to do with any of you, any of us, who consider
ourselves Jesus followers. This is remarkable. Here's what he prays: Father, the hour has come. Here we are, you know, three,
three and a half years, of walking around
with these guys, trying to explain
what you're like, and explain what the
kingdom of God is like, but here we are at the
end, the hour has come. Glorify your son, he's about to be
arrested and crucified, again, it moves really quick. Glorify your son, in other words, light
me up in such a way that people recognize who I am, that your son may light you up, so that people recognize
we're connected.

And the interesting
thing is the hour, when Jesus was crucified, that he's referring to here, the hour in which God
was most glorified, we would have been
most horrified. We would have looked away. And God never looked better. Because he sent his
son to redeem mankind. And Jesus' like, okay,
we're at that hour, but before all those
events kick off, there's something I gotta ask
you to do, O heavenly father. Here's what he says. It goes on, verse 11, he says: I will remain in
the world no longer, but they, the disciples,
are still in the world, and I'm coming to
you, I'm leaving them. And he's told them, I'm leaving,
I'm leaving, I'm leaving, and Peter kept saying,
where are you going? Where are you going,
where are you going? And Jesus like, "Where
I'm going, you can't go." Peter's like, "I'm going
with you everywhere." And Jesus is like,
"No, you're not, okay?" But what comes next is amazing and I think, this
is just my opinion, I think what comes next,
most Christians don't know.

So you're gonna be an overly
educated Christian after today. Now it's been in the gospel
of John this whole time, you know, it's like
Dorothy, it's like, that movie should have
lasted, what, 20 minutes? I got the ruby red slippers,
I'm back in Kansas, right? So, this has been
here the whole time. Here is Jesus' prayer request
to the father at the very end. Here's what he says: Holy father, protect
them, these 12 guys, by the power of your name, the name that you
gave me, so that, in other words, here is the
purpose of the protection. Here's specifically how I
want you to protect them. Now the interesting thing is, he's already given
them some bad news. Okay guys, here's what
your future looks like. You're gonna be arrested,
flogged and beaten, some of you are gonna be killed. That's your future. Oh great, wish you had
told us that earlier on. Ah I know I kinda held back 'cause I knew you
wouldn't follow me.

But anyway, that's your future, but now they're in it, right? But here he is praying that
God would protect them, and he's not praying for
their physical protection. He's praying for
something he thinks is more important than
their physical protection. That they may be, here it is: Holy father, protect them
by the power of your name, the name that you gave me, so that they may be, this
is his one prayer request, here is what he wanted protected
more than anything else, that they may be one, as we are one.

At the very end, the thing that Jesus
was most concerned about was their unity, and their oneness. Because here's what he knew, and here's what he's gonna
say in the next few verses. He knew that as long as they
were in lockstep together, and in lockstep with
his heavenly father, the world would change. But if they ever got
divided and splintered, things would stall out.

Then, in verse 20, skipping
down if you're following along, he prays for you and he prays
for me and he prays for us. This is amazing. My prayer, he says,
is not for them alone. Not just these 12 guys. I pray also for those
who will believe in me through their message. In other words, that next
generation of Christians, and the next generation
of Christians, and the next generation
of Christians, leading all the way up to us. And what do you think
he prays for us? And the answer is, not
what we pray for us. In fact, here's something
that's really sad, I mean it's convicting to me.

My hunch is
virtually none of us, who consider ourselves
Jesus followers, virtually none of us
have ever asked God for what Jesus asked God for. Virtually none of us have
ever prayed the prayer that Jesus prayed even
though he modeled it, and clearly, this was
so close to his heart, and so important to him
in those final hours. Which may be the problem. Because we're gonna discover, maybe if the church, maybe if people like me, have been begging God for this, leading toward this,
pleading toward this, the world would be a
different and better place.

who will believe in me through their message. That all of them, all of them. In the first century, that
meant Jew and gentile, and rich and poor and
slaves and free men, and military leaders and
soldiers and tax gatherers, and those from whom the
taxes were gathered, and the educated and the
uneducated, everybody. In the 21st century, it means
Republicans and Democrats, the privileged, the not-so
privileged, the independent, the indecisive, the
libertarians, the librarians, you know, the black and
brown and white and beige, privileged, married, single;
in other words, all of us. That all of the people
who call me Lord, no matter where they're from,
what they've experienced, or how good life
has treated them, or how poorly life
has treated them, connected, disconnected, I pray that all of them,
in this vast array, this extraordinary
dispersion of people with different experiences, I pray that somehow,
all of them, this is amazing, may be one.

Which sounds impossible. But Jesus was convinced, we're about to see this
because he says it. Jesus was convinced, as
impossible as that may sound, it was mission critical. Which meant, even though
it seemed impossible, it was absolutely imperative. This was not an add on, this was not a wouldn't it be
nice if we just all got along? Which means we should
become intentional about ensuring that there
is unity in local churches and unity in the church. Because this is what
Jesus prayed for. And it doesn't come
naturally, does it? And the reason it
doesn't come naturally is because well we
only know what we know and we were raised by
who we were raised in, and we've experienced
what we've experienced.

And we tend to run
to our little corners politically and relationally
and every kind of way, right? And Jesus' like, oh my church
is gonna be so diverse, and my church is gonna
be so international, and my church is gonna have
so many different languages and so many different colors, and so many different cultures. If there is anyway
they could remain one? And then he
continues his prayer: Father, just as you are
in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that, another purpose clause. Do you know why he
prayed for oneness? This is the shocker. The reason he prayed for oneness really doesn't even have
anything to do with us. He prayed for oneness because
of what he wanted to do through us.

And there can be a lack of
unity in a local church, and the church will survive, but if there's a lack of unity in a local church
or in the church, the will of God will not be
accomplished through the church. Look at what he says. The reason I want
them to be one, is so that the world, not
the people in the church, so the people
outside the church, the people outside the faith, the people that roll their
eyes and drive on by, so that when they see the unity
in spite of the diversity, when they see the unity
in spite of the diversity within the church
and between churches, they may actually come
to the conclusion, they may believe, that is,
they might be convinced, that you have sent me.

Look, this isn't an add on. This is mission critical. The way the world is gonna
sit up and take notice of this beautiful diverse
thing we call the local church, is when the church works
together and is unified, even though we disagree,
and agree to disagree. Even though we've been
raised in such different ways that we will never see
the world the same way politically and other ways, and yet, at the same time, there's this beautiful,
magical, unusual unity. And Jesus is, I'm telling you, this is the way forward, this is what will eventually get the attention of the empire. This is what will eventually get the attention
of the pagan world. There's never been
anything like it. And you can't sacrifice
your unity for anything. You know what he was doing? He was actually asking
his heavenly father to come along later and
nudge us and, you know, nudge that generation
of Christians and the next generation
of Christians, to nudge us toward what he
had just commanded us to do a few minutes
earlier when he was having passover meal
with his disciples.

Because in that conversation
with his disciples, he said: Look, I'm
about to leave. Peter, shh, you're not going. I'm about to leave. And here's the one thing I
don't want you to forget, I'm gonna give
you a new command, we talk about this all the time, I'm gonna give
you a new command, I'm gonna establish
a new covenant, and the new command's gonna
replace all the other commands and it's very simple, nobody
even needs to write this down, he would say, ah ha,
he could have said, because it's so simple. And my new command is this, you're to love one
another, right? To which they would have
said that's not really new. And Jesus would say
I'm not through, you're to love one another, as I have, look at this,
as I have loved you.

You don't get to make this up. I've modeled this …

Why Youth Shouldn’t Study Politics | Nicomachean Ethics Book 1 Ch 3

In Book 1 Chapter 3 of Nicomachean
greater clarity, outside the cave.

Aristotle says we should expect only the
lifetime, from circumstance to circumstance, we cannot expect precise
particular person's lifetime and circumstances.

What is good for one
flourishing work, Aristotle is telling us.

Aristotle says we should be satisfied
not the rule to follow.

But I can make a generalization that it is in general
second level of generalization, the generalization based upon
any human being.

Notice I've risen here to a level of
this particular burning building. So "generalizations upon generalizations"
Aristotle then emphasizes again that it is the mark of an educated
satisfied with less precise answers.

We could state the converse of this claim
good life, for ethics and political science, you
Aristotle's second point in this chapter is his famous or perhaps infamous
argument that certain character traits of youth disqualify one from the study

And he gives
actions and the full range of circumstances that require judgment and
It does not matter if one is immature in age or

prejudiced against teenagers but that reason must rule over your desires and
helpful for people who haven't resolved that particular problem, who haven't
yet. So that's his argument for excluding youth or immature people
from the profitable study of ethics.

So that's been my quick look at Book 1
Thanks for watching today; goodbye..

As found on YouTube

Party Systems: Crash Course Government and Politics #41

Hello, I'm Craig and this is
were 6, but that's just me.

even though they were also called Federalists.

And Alexander Hamilton was prominent in both
after 1815. In fact, the period between 1815 and 1824

Sadly, the Era of Good Feelings came to an
second party system.

have newspapers anymore. The Democrats also established state and national conventions
we could all use a little more flair.

This was the first time a Whig candidate,

So catchy it's still used
and Tyler, too." This came from Harrison's supposed status

So the Republican party was originally a conglomeration
for ending slavery. Democrats during the third party system were
for support to win elections and maintain power.

The most famous of these machines tended to
The supposed Democratic abuses of machines brought about electoral reforms like voter
less fun. The third party system lasted from roughly
parts of the US.

eventually merged with the Democrats when they nominated the Democrat William Jennings
Roosevelt, who started his own progressive party.

The rise and fall of the Populists show us
became president and the Great Depression had kind of discredited Republican economic

Thanks to these
of the Democrats, were attracted by New Deal farm policies.

New Deal support for jobs and
Democrats camp. The Democrats acknowledgment that African Americans were suffering especially

The coalition of groups that make up the Democratic

Most historians will tell you that this has
is much less powerful than it used to be.

We could say a lot more about political parties

at voqal.org. Crash Course is made with the help of all these nice people, who aren't
Phil. Thanks for watching!.

As found on YouTube

Turning The Coronavirus Into A Political Weapon Will Cause More Deaths, Who Warns

The director-general of the World Health Organization sent a strong message to world leaders and the media on Wednesday: “Stop politicizing the coronavirus if you don’t want to see more bags with corpses.”

Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus made the remarks during his regular pandemic update press conference, after being confronted by journalists after receiving criticism from various countries for his response to the pandemic.

The leader of the World Health Organization emphasized that, as a former minister of Ethiopia, he understood that it was a difficult task to separate the virus from politics, but that it would take advantage of these weaknesses and would be more difficult to defeat.

You cannot use COVID-19 to earn political points, and there is no need.

“Ultimately, people belong to all political parties; the mission of all parties must be to save their people, please do not politicize this virus. It will exploit the differences we have at the national level. If you want to have more bags with corpses, then do it, but if you don’t want more dead, you have to avoid politicizing this virus. My message is, please quarantine the COVID-19, national unity will be very important to defeat this dangerous virus, “he said.

The official explained that, as it is a new virus, so serious and dangerous, it is possible that mistakes have been made, so the Organization it leads conducts regular evaluations to identify weaknesses and strengths, and to learn.

The World Health Organization belongs to all nations

Precisely, Tedros stressed on Wednesday, and the World Health Organization is not with one country or another, but with all States.

“We are next to all nations, we do not look color, for us rich or poor is the same, for us, weak or strong is the same, small or large is the same, north or south, east or west, is what himself,” he said.

The WHO director said he received criticism last year after choosing the head of the Organization’s nursing department because she was from the Cook Islands.

“People did not want the global head of nursing to come from a small country like the Cook Islands, which only has 10,000 people, but I think that talent is universal, the opportunity is not. You can find the most talented person in a small country like that. We work with them, with Cook Islands that have 10,000 inhabitants and we work with China that has 1.4 billion. And why did we choose her? Is Cook Islands influencing us? And how? We see everyone the same, “reiterated the official.

Tedros took the opportunity to thank the United States for their contributions to the Organization and assured that this has always been in a bipartisan spirit, which he hopes will continue.

“We need solidarity now more than ever. Everything that begins in one place affects everyone, we cannot live on our national borders, because we are interdependent. And that is what I hope and believe will continue in the United States,” he said.

Victim of insults and even death threats

“I am only an individual; Tedros is a point in the entire universe. I don’t care if they attack me; I prefer to save lives. I’ve said it many times, why would I care if they attack me when people are dying? Let’s compare both things, and we are losing lives right now. Why is someone with a clear conscience going to think about their personal attacks and ignore the great challenge that we are facing as humanity? Said the WHO leader.

The director had harshly criticized a suggestion by a group of European scientists that coronavirus vaccines be tested first in Africa, calling it racist.

“Personal attacks have been going on for more than three months, abuse, or racist comments, and they give me a name, they call me black. I am proud to be black, and I do not care about those things, even death threats I have received, I do not care, because this is personal, it is towards me. What makes me sad is when the entire African community is insulted, I will not tolerate it, I said there, people are crossing the line . When I was personal, I didn’t care, I didn’t even respond, but as a community when they start insulting us, it’s enough. We cannot tolerate this, “said the official.

Since then, WHO has worked day and night in five key areas:

  1. Helping countries develop their preparedness and response capacity.
  2. Providing accurate information to combat disinformation
  3. Working hard to ensure the supply of essential medical equipment for health workers
  4. Training and mobilizing health workers
  5. Accelerating research and developmen

Other key data:

  • The UN Supply Chain Task Force COVID-19 has been launched to dramatically increase the supply of these life-saving tools and match supply to needs
  • In February, more than 400 of the world’s top researchers were brought together to identify and accelerate research priorities, and Solidarity Trial launched in March, with more than 90 countries working together to find effective therapies for the coronavirus as soon as possible.