Ep 1295 | The Sad Truth Behind Meghan Trainor’s Surrogacy Story

What if I told you that the outrage that you're seeing to immigration enforcement is not organic, but is actually well-funded and well orchestrated? Also, Meghan Trainor just announced the birth of her new baby, The Assurget. This has sparked a new conversation about the ethics of reproductive technology. We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. I know it's a chaotic time. It is a tough time to be a Christian woman on social media. There's a lot of pressure to think the right things, to say the right things. And if you are finding yourself saying, hang on a second. I'm not sure that I can repeat the entire narrative that I'm seeing from these influencers or maybe even your favorite Bible study leader. Or maybe you're wondering how they know all of the conclusions that they're coming to, well you are in the right place because whether or not you agree with me, I want you to be a critical thinker. I do not want the media to be able to dictate your feelings and your outrage. And you're probably noticing a lot of the people that you follow don't typically weigh in about politics. They spoke up in 2020 after George Floyd died and they're speaking up right now, but all of this time in between when you've seen a lot of injustice happen, even when Biden was president, they didn't have anything to say. And it's just curious how so many people, including those who call themselves Christians and conservatives, allow the liberal media to dictate when they get publicly angry about something. Now, I want to tell you what's going on. And I hope that you'll think about this and I hope that those in your life will think about this. Stick with me as I tell you a lot of things that are happening and what's being reported by the media. So according to political, ICE has conducted a deportation operation targeting families that include young children as a part of a massive expansion of the effort to detain moms and dads and kids who are here illegally. Now these were not hardened criminals. These were according to the American Association of Immigration Lawyers quote asylum seeking children and mothers who are fleeing extreme violence in the northern triangle region of Central America. So we're talking Guatemala Honduras, El Salvador on this group goes on to argue this practice is a due process and humanitarian disaster in must end. You've probably heard that from a lot of people in your life who are worried about what's going on say that this is a due process issue. The concern about due process stems from the fact that these home raids and detentions and deportations are not being done with an immigration court hearing, but rather decided by DHS agents according to the ACLU. They also point out that unlike in decades past 75% of those being deported do not get to go before a judge. They're just shipped out of the US back to their home countries where they may be facing threats of violence. In fact, 87% according to the ACLU of the families detained reportedly have legitimate asylum claims. Family detention has expanded at an unprecedented rate under the administration. These cage-like centers constructed just for the purpose of detaining these families. And the administration who did this brak to belt this saying ICE is committed to tough law enforcement that protects the safety and security of the American people. This was ICE director John Morton. These records that he numbers he said are the result of strong, sensible enforcement programs and priorities and the dedication of thousands of ICE agents and officers who work tirelessly every day to keep our community safe. Can you believe that? Deporting children fleeing violence. 56 illegal immigrants have died in ICE custody and Tom Homan, who is directing these deportation ICE efforts, is getting a medal for this. Just look at this. I'm getting a medal. Now let's hang on a second. I want to zoom out in this picture. Look at the next full screen. Hang on. That's Barack Obama, awarding Tom Homan. That's Trump's current borders are. And he was also the director of deportations under the Obama administration here receiving an award from Barack Obama. In fact, everything I just relate to you happened not right now, happened not under Trump, but under President Barack Obama. The target family rage that deported and detained women and children happened in January of 2016. The fort going of judicial warrants for home raids expanded drastically under Barack Obama, deporting those who claimed to be seeking asylum expanded drastically under Barack Obama, family detention expanded drastically under Barack Obama and it was Barack Obama's administration that constructed the so-called cages in which children, mothers and fathers were held. 56 individuals that were detained died under Barack Obama's watch. And we can post all of the links for you in the description of this episode for you to explore and check out for yourself. And there was clearly pushback and even demonstrations to protest Obama's deportation efforts, but there were no riots. He was not called Hitler. Homan was not called a Nazi then. Ice were not called Gestapo. There were not coordinated well-funded efforts to impede ice operations. There were not widespread influencer campaigns convincing you that not only what ice is currently doing is wrong, but also that ice as an entity is illegitimate and that deportations are always fundamentally morally wrong. And maybe you'll listen to this and you'll say, well, you know, it was always wrong. There should have been more to push back against that. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. But I want you to think about why. You didn't know about these things then. Do you think it is possible that right now in this moment, while Trump is president, that your outrage is being manufactured? Do you think it's possible that you and your favorite Christian influencers are being purposely agitated with emotionally provocative images and headlines to convince you that immigration enforcement is fundamentally wrong? The killing of Renee Good and Alex Freddie were tragic and feeling strongly about their deaths is completely valid. I also mourn their deaths. I am not joining in any choir of people who is celebrating or feeling calloused about their deaths. I should feel calloused about the loss of their lives, but we should also consider that the outrage fueled chaos that led them to attempt to impede perfectly legitimate law enforcement operation to Minneapolis, which have occurred in the same manner for decades was not organic. Ask yourself why this violence and chaos is happening there in Minneapolis and not elsewhere. Ice is conducting business in all 50 states right now. Why don't we see this kind of deadly conflict in Austin or in Washington, DC? Could it be because Minnesota politicians are purposely stoking this violence to score political points? Could it be that nefarious anti-American organizations are looking to cause problems or funding this or stoking the flames of chaos and violence? Could it be that your empathy is being weaponized by bad actors for bad ends? I think it's possible. So let's look into what is really going on because it's not as organic as it seems. Let me pause, tell you about our first sponsor for the day, and it is Adele natural cosmetics. You guys know how much I love Adele. Unfortunately, a lot of cosmetics can care companies out there, especially those that are marketed toward women are pro choice. They are donating your dollars to pro LGBTQ, pro abortion organizations, and you just don't want to be a part of that if you can help it. Make the switch to Adele natural cosmetics. I've been using their oil based skin care line for years. It's made a huge difference in helping the texture of my skin also keeping the moisture locked in. Love them so much. Also when I'm not in the studio, I use their moisturizing foundation, their bronzer, their lipstick is all great. Arlene and her family, they make all of their own products. They're handmade and they're unapologetically Christian pro life. They're awesome. Go to AdeleNaturalCosmetics.com. Use code Alliet Checkout. You'll get 25% off your first time purchase. That's AdeleNaturalCosmetics.com code Alliet. Okay, Fox News Digital obtained signal group chats to show how activists are being mobilized to track, observe and ultimately stop ICE operations. We can put up full screen six. This is the spreadsheet of what's going on. Predean other members of the anti-ice rapid response team, that's what they call themselves, the chat on signal, knew that ICE and Border Patrol agents would be at the location outside of Glamdall, Zona, shop in South Minneapolis because of group chats and spreadsheets that are tracking agents. That's the spreadsheet that you are looking out there. They are keeping tabs on all of the ICE agents and they are making plans together to try to impede their law enforcement operations. Now you'll remember that all of this was sparked mostly because of the reporting that was done by Nick Shirley who is an independent journalist who exposed widespread fraud among Somalian immigrants, Som Legal I'm sure, Mini Illegal. They're using fake daycares, fake home health companies in order to funnel millions of dollars to themselves in order to enrich themselves. And then of course it seems like Democrat politicians are then getting those people to help fund their campaigns. And so it's an absolute racket. ICE kind of descended upon Minneapolis, not just in the past few weeks. They've actually been there conducting operations for a while, but it certainly seems like it's picked up in the past few weeks. And then you had people like Renee Good and all of these other people in Minneapolis trying to stop ICE from deporting the people who are there illegally. And it's not just the Somalian fraudsters that they're trying to deport as we'll get into in just a second. It's a whole long list of illegal aliens who have committed heinous crimes. And so people like Freddie, like Renee Good are trying to stand in the way of ICE doing something that is completely legitimate and good for Minneapolis by the way. We've got this other full screen. This is full screen seven. And so they share pictures with each other. They share information with each other. They say back up needed at the black forest in, I mean, these people, I mean, it's just absolutely stupid for so many reasons. One to think that you should be impeding this completely fair operation, but also in thinking that you have the strength and the fortitude to do so without putting your life at risk. It almost makes you wonder if the chaos and the martyrdom and the marketing that comes from that is the point. Also we've got this headline from CNN that actually points out that they're going to say that Alex Freddie had just broken a rib a few weeks earlier with a, in a previous confrontation with federal agents just a week before his death. Now I am not saying that his previous conflict with ICE justifies him being shot in that moment. When it comes to that particular tragedy, there are a lot of different details that are being revealed about what was going on. I don't think that those who are saying it is 100% clear that this was unjustified the way that the way that it's being shot. I don't think that we can say that with 100% confidence. I think we have to wait to see what the investigation reveals. Regardless, I've compassion for him. I am absolutely devastated for his family. He was made in the image of God. I can acknowledge that, but I'm not going to come out and say yes, it was 100% clear. ICE was not justified in doing what they did. The fact of the matter is that there was a lot of manufactured chaos and stupidity that led up to these preventable moments when these lives were lost. Then we also have, we have some videos that will play of the riots that are going on. Again, the chaos is the point. This is before Alex Prety was shot by federal officers. I want to show you another example of the chaos that's going on. I know this seems like, oh, these are just peaceful protests, but I'm going to read you a post that explains why something like this actually is not peaceful. Get back! Okay, so there's a post by someone on X that has over 30,000 likes. I think it's very insightful. This person says, chaps, there's a reason these demonstrations are, these demonstrators are using whistles, horns and making so much noise in all the video clips you are watching. They don't do these when protesting climate change or LGBTQ rights. These sudden and pulsive noises trigger the acoustic startle response. It's a rapid, involuntary reaction mediated by the brainstem involving muscle tension, elevated heart rate and adrenaline release. That repetitive exposure from them fatiques neural pathways, but sustains heightened arousal, diverting cognitive resources from higher order tasks to basic threat monitoring. It is an acute stressor activating the hypotherlamic pituitary adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system, which releases cortisol and adrenaline. Long exposure to this stuff impairs prefrontal cortex function, critical for decision making. Pair this with shared annoyance. These tactics are a low tech escalation of protest disruption rooted in documented physiological response to noise. He is actually arguing he goes on to say it puts these officers on edge, it's triggering them to act. You know when you are overstimulated, say you're a parent and you are trying to focus so closely on something on your phone that's taking a lot of effort, it's taking a lot of focus and you have a child that comes up to you and it's like, I don't know constantly tapping your shoulders or as yelling in your face. You kind of feel an extra sense of being on edge in those moments or really it can be in any scenario. Maybe you're at work and you're trying to focus something on your computer, someone comes up and taps you and it's just like one too many stimuli and it startles you or it makes you turn around quickly whatever it is. Your brain can get overloaded with these stimuli and it can put you on edge or it can make you more annoyed or react more harshly than you would otherwise. So he's arguing that is actually what they are trying to do. They are trying to actually get these officers to act out so they can use that moment of conflict or violence to further get what they want, which of course is the retreat of ICE and the ending, the cessation of all immigration enforcement. Politicians are also adding to aiding and abetting in this chaos including governor walls. We've got governor walls comparing the Trump administration. Now it used to be fascism. Now it's to communist China, sought-seven. The irony of walls behind a border. The irony of him using the security of a parameter and some might call it a wall while he is basically saying the country has no right to do that. It's always like that with Democrats. The rules are for thee but not for me. It just makes me think when he is comparing the Trump administration to communist China. It makes me think that progressives really want a teonoman square situation where they can get that iconic picture. This truly is an incredible iconic picture. You've got the person who is standing up to the tanks in communist China, such a horrific time in Chinese history when people continue to just be slaughtered and persecuted under communist rule. It looks to me like they are trying to create those images that can again be used to their policy ends. We also, okay, so we're moving around here. We've got, we've first had fascism, we went to communism, we're back to Nazism. Here's walls, sought-seven. We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody's going to write that children's story about Minnesota. And there's one person who can end this now. This has nothing to do with the Holocaust. This has nothing to do with Nazi Germany. This is nothing like that. Jews were targeted because they were Jews. There were other groups that were targeted as well, but by and large, this was an anti-Jewish operation that is not what is going on here. This is doing its very legitimate and good and overall compassionate and loving job of removing the people who are not legally here. And I know people are saying, oh, well, they should just be removing the violent criminals. I agree. Let's prioritize the gang members and the murders and the rapists in those people. But they have every right and responsibility to remove every single person, no matter who they are, who is not a citizen of this country. This is how you protect the sovereignty or the legitimacy of your country. Every single nation has the right and responsibility to protect citizenship and to create the parameters of both citizenship and lawfulness and who gets to reside here and who doesn't. That is like nation state 101. Every nation has that right and that responsibility. So comparing this to the Holocaust, to what Hitler did, you're igniting tensions. You are hoping that people go out there and they fight the Nazis because they fancy themselves, you know, bonhoeffer. That's not what's going on here. And so if Walls wants to continue to see this kind of chaos and conflict that is so tragically getting people killed, then he should keep up the rhetoric like this. It's not just politicians, media is playing their very, very disturbing part in this as well. We'll get to that in a second. Let me pause. Let me tell you about our next sponsor. This is Seven Weeks Coffee. We love Seven Weeks Coffee so much in our home, not only because it's super clean, sustainably sourced, no mold, no pesticides, anything like that, but also because of what it represents. It's called Seven Weeks Coffee because it's Seven Weeks Gestation that baby inside the womb is just the size of a coffee beam. Yet here she is fully made in the image of God. She matters and she needs to be protected. 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But this is the picture that they used on the right in the segment talking about him. Here is that clip. This time it was 37 year old Alex Prety and I see you nurse who cared for veterans. Donald Trump and his cabinet, his administration are demanding once again that you not believe your eyes and ears. Now why would they use this photo? Let's put up the side by side again where you've got him in the right side looking on Tanner looking a little somehow like more muscular. They changed his nose. They changed his chin. They made his face a little wider. Why would they do this? And I pointed this out on Instagram. People got very upset with me. People on the left, all the sheers on Instagram got very upset when I pointed out that the guy, this is why they're doing this. The guy on the left looks more like a left wing agitator. And the guy on the right looks like the persona that they are wanting to convey some kind of strong brave veteran. Now for some reason the sheers got really angry and the they thems got really upset when I said that as if I am the one who manipulated the image as if I am the one so, blim and only making the argument that you can only have compassion for a person when they're 10 and when they're more handsome. I'm not making that argument. You might be mad that I categorized him in that way, but that is exactly what they are trying to convey. Like why else do you think that they're doing this? They're using this manipulated image because they know human nature is superficial as it may be is to feel more deeply for a child who is cute or a man who is handsome or a woman who is beautiful or an image of someone that looks more wholesome and looks more attractive in some way. That is why they are employing the psychological operation and it goes back to what I talked about on Monday. If you have not watched or listened to Monday's episode, go back and do that. But they are trying to target women specifically knowing that we so often operate on our feelings, operate on those base instincts and that we, like all humans, but I would say even more so are very moved by an image. More so than we are moved by an argument. I mean, that's what effective propaganda is. It is meant to paralyze your critical thinking abilities and just make you feel. And whether you like it or not, whether you consciously or morally agree with feeling more compassion for someone who is more handsome or prettier than the other, like our instincts, I guess are just wired in that way. It actually takes, I think, Christian virtue to be able to say no matter what someone looks like, no matter what their background is. That person is made in God's image and they have an eight value. I don't have to be sure about the circumstances surrounding their death to say I wish that they were still alive. And I think there should be a thorough investigation of all of this, whether or not this person is tan or has a chiseled jawline. Trump is also saying that he wants a thorough investigation into this and he sent love to Alex Prede's family. And I thought this was a good response here's Trump. He also posted on truth social on January 26th. He said, Governor Tim Walls called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota was a very good call and we actually seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walls that I would have Tom Homan call him and that what we are looking for are Indian all criminals that they have in their possession. The governor very respectfully understood that and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He said he was happy that Tom Homan is going to Minnesota. He also points out what I said earlier that they are seeing tremendous success when it comes to ice operations in DC, Memphis, New Orleans and other places that they have touched down and even in other places in Minnesota. I mean, you'll remember that Minneapolis was the epicenter of chaos also in 2020. So it just makes you wonder like what is going on with local politicians and local left-wing operations there. Why do things always turn into this propaganda war and sometimes a hot war in Minneapolis specifically, something to think about. There will be an investigation into what went on and I think there should be and I don't know. There could be an officer that actually is indicted and convicted for murder here. There will be due process that they go through in that. But I think that we can say that we hope for the fullness of justice to be executed here and also say that we don't know everything. Like we just don't know everything and we can also acknowledge that this person was made in God's image. Now, I want to get into the unbiblical response to what's going on and also the biblical response to what's going on because if we put aside for a second what happened to Alex Pready, we can acknowledge that that is tragic. What I am actually seeing is a lot of people trying to invalidate the efforts of ICE in general saying that ICE does not have a right to operate, that they should be abolished, that they should be defunded, that these people should not be deported. I mean, you actually even saw Trump in that post saying that we're just looking for criminals who are also illegal aliens. Well, actually, no, like we should be just deporting everyone who is not here legally. Now, you'll hear from the left and I understand why this is very compelling. We've talked about this many times before, citing different portions of the Bible to say, no, this is why we shouldn't be deporting people. This is why we shouldn't be closing our border. You've got Gavin Newsom, who of course is a theological giant. He cited Matthew 2535 in response to the Trump administration's federal deportations. And this verse says, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. And just by the way, this just reminded me and we'll find a picture and we'll put it up. But you'll remember, I wrote an article about this for World Magazine. A few years ago, Gavin Newsom funded billboards in red states that were enacting pro-life laws, advertising California as a refuge for those who were seeking abortions and actually put a Bible verse up. Love your neighbor as yourself, as is justification for inviting women who are looking to hire someone to slaughter their child to come to California to do so. Okay. So I'm not really interested in the theological interpretations of someone like Gavin Newsom. That was just utter blasphemy. You'll remember maybe that the late John McArthur, a long time pastor from California actually wrote an open letter to Gavin Newsom very lovingly but sternly and profetically urging his repentance because of that gross act of blasphemy. I think it's really important to note that Gavin Newsom right now, if he died right now, he would be going to hell. Like I think it's just really important to note that someone like that doesn't need to be wielding scripture at all. And so I'm not interested in his interpretation but because some of you might also be persuaded by this and because Tim Walls is also citing Matthew 2540, truly I say to you as you did to one, the least of these my brothers, you did it to me, I feel the need to kind of respond to this for a second. So if you look at Matthew 25 and the context of what Jesus is saying, he is talking about the persecuted church. I've talked about this before and Russell Moore said that it is not the language to point out this widely accepted interpretation of Matthew 25, which is that Jesus is talking about his persecuted brothers and sisters. He is talking about persecuted Christians in other places we are called to care for the poor in general. But here Jesus is talking about caring for those who are persecuted and who are mistreated in his name. That's why he says the least of these my brothers. So this is a complete misinterpretation and misapplication of Matthew 25. You'll also hear people cite Exodus that we should care for the foreigner. Now I want to point out a little bit of hypocrisy there because the same people that point out the verse and Exodus that tells us to care for the foreigner, they reject the rest of Old Testament law giving when it comes to American policymaking. Like they will call me a Christian nationalist for saying, well, one of the 10 commandments is that shall not murder or pointing to Psalm 139 to look at the preciousness of life inside the womb. That's scary Christian nationalism, but they can go to the Old Testament and say, oh, well, God told the ancient Israel to care for the foreigner. So we should too. I just want them to pick a lane. Like if we're interested in applying all the biblical principles to American policy today, I say, let's go. We also read in Exodus, Exodus 1249, there will be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. There is nowhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament that justifies the idea of illegal immigration because of course, illegal immigration is lawlessness. It's anarchy. Lawlessness and anarchy are always depicted as satanic agents and satanic outcomes in Scripture. Remember, the curse after the tower of Babel of people trying to build this building up to heaven to be more like God themselves was a difference in language. That caused chaos that was not good. And now we're trying to actually do the same thing here in the United States, bringing a curse upon us. We've got this very popular perspective on white evangelical Christian Instagram. I won't post like the entire account, but this person posted Jesus wasn't white. Jesus wasn't American. Jesus wasn't God in country. He was God for the world. He was an immigrant. Nothing good could come out of Nazareth. They'd say he cross cultural divides, et cetera, et cetera. This is a straw man. No one is claiming that Jesus was white. No one is claiming that he was American. No one is claiming any of these things to say it's just good sense for a country to have borders. And without walls, it's like a man without self control that has a proverb that has a principle that still rings true today. Read the book of Nehemiah. Read Nehemiah 6 to see the wisdom of the walls that were built around Jerusalem in order to protect her. The same is true today. What do we always say that we replace not in a jungle, but in a garden. The difference between a garden and a jungle is order. God is a God of order. He created governments. He created laws. He created borders. He created nations. All of these things were his idea. Now can you believe in all of these Biblically true things and also still have a problem with what happened with Alex Freddie in your opinion? Yes. But do not allow your compassion to lead you to very stupid and evil places and advocate for borderlessness. Remember nations are like families. This is you are tasked with stewarding the lives and the protection of your children, so governments are tasked with protecting their people first. Allowing unvetted strangers into your home does not make you a good neighbor. It makes you a bad parent. And just because you lock your door at night doesn't mean you hate your neighbors or hate your community or that you think all of them are murderers and thieves. But you're thinking there might be one out there who is, so it's probably safe just to keep your door locked. The same principles are true when it comes to caring for a nation. And I also just want to remind you that while ice is deporting, all of these illegal aliens that there are very real criminals who are being deported and will put some of their pictures up, ice reminds us of these people that they're deporting. Many of them are sexual offenders. Many of them serial drunk drivers. Many of them have killed innocent people either accidentally or on purpose. And these are the people that these protesters in Minneapolis are protecting and it's evil. And I also just want to remind you that illegal immigration kills. It kills unnecessarily. We already have homegrown criminals here. There is no just need to add to those by importing people who shouldn't be here. I don't understand why this is hard for people to understand when they say, oh, well, you know, citizens commit crimes too. Sure, citizens commit crimes. So is that your argument for importing more criminals? I just want to show you some of the pictures of the people who have died very recently at the hands of illegal aliens, aka people who should never have been here in the first place had we enforced just immigration law. We've got Fletcher Harris and Skyler Provenza. This is a sweet young teenage couple who was killed by an illegal alien drunk driver, Patrick Marksen, a young boy, Alex Wise. You'll remember Kate Steinley, little ivory Smith. Remember Molly Tibbetts? Remember Lincoln Riley? Lincoln Riley brutally sexually assaulted and murdered by someone who snuck in under the Biden administration. Look all of these people, including Alex Preddie, including Renee Good, would be alive today if we had enforced common sense immigration law in the first place. This is the sacrifice that we have decided to make sadly because we have stupid, lax immigration law. Okay? And it's really ugly and it's really sad, but this is why lawlessness and disorder when it comes to our nation and our protection and our security and our immigration process is so unjust and so wrong. So just remember that. I'm sure we'll be talking about this more, but I do want to move on to some things that I've been meaning to talk about for a couple of weeks now, so we'll get into them in just a second. Let me pause and go to our next sponsor for the day. And that is Alliance Defending Freedom. Y'all, I love Alliance Defending Freedom so much. I've had several of their clients on this show. Jessica Bates, mom out of Oregon came to share the arrows, got her share the arrows award because of how she is courageously trying to adopt children out of the foster care system without compromising on her Christian beliefs. They represented Jessica. They've represented so many young women who are fighting for fairness. When it comes to women's athletics, they've gone all the way to the Supreme Court to fight for these constitutional rights, have religious liberty, of free speech, of fairness in sports. They're doing amazing work. They are on the front lines for constitutional freedom. So support them. However you can, Kristen, who is the CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom. I know her well. A wonderful Christian woman. You got to support them. Go to joinadf.com. Slash. Ali, find out more about what they're doing. Joinadf.com. Slash. Ali. All right. Speaking of subjects in which women's compassion and empathy is weaponized for evil ends, surrogacy. It's a subject that we've been talking about on the show for about six years. Thanks to very wise women like Jennifer Loll and Katie Faust for really bringing the ethical issues with this industry to so many people's attention. We started talking about the ethics of hormonal birth control, the whole reproductive technology industry, including sperm and egg-selling, surrogacy, IVF, and all of that a while ago. When we first started talking about it, we got a ton of pushback even from Christian conservatives. And I understand why. We like babies. We want people to have kids. And so if you don't think about it, you could justify and justify the means approach to having children. But as you dig into the industry and just the practice itself, what it does to women's bodies, what it does to the physiology and psychology of babies, you see that it's actually a very disordered practice. So whenever there is a celebrity that posts a picture glorifying this practice of surrogacy, I always use it as a way to kind of remind us that this is something that goes on and that is very, very harmful to both women and children. So this time it is singer, Megan trainer. And we can put up the picture that she has. She shared a photo for herself holding her baby that she had through a surrogate. She's having skin-discan contact after taking the child away from the woman who carried this little girl. And look, images, as we've already talked about, we can put the image back up, it's very powerful. You see this image and it looks like a mother in her baby. She's obviously very happy that happiness is sincere. This really is her biological child. So she loves this baby. There is absolutely no doubt about that. But Christians are not just called the feel. We are not just called to see an image, to feel something and then to make our decisions, especially big moral decisions that affect vulnerable children based on pictures that make us feel a certain way. We've got to think more deeply than that. And so this is how I responded on X and it's kind of the kicking off point for what we're about to talk about. People are waking up to the fact that womb renting, which is what surrogacy is, is disordered and unethical. Number one, the physiological bond created between a baby and the woman who carried her is necessary for the child's healthy development. It is meant to continue after birth. You see Megan doing skin to skin there, but skin to skin with this woman. The woman who carried the child, not just anyone, regulates the baby's heart rate and makes the stark transition to the outside world more peaceful. We somehow understand this when it comes to puppies and kittens, but not with human babies. Puppies and kittens have to stay with the mom for eight plus weeks. Yet when it comes to surrogacy, we take babies away from the only woman he or she has ever known. Give them to people who, to them, are strangers. On then number two, surrogate pregnancies are high risk for the surrogate and the baby. They regularly result in preterm deliveries, late-term miscarriages and nick-ew stays. When moms hire a surrogate, they are transferring the risk that she would carry. So in this case, that Megan would carry to another woman and her child. And then third point I wanted to make here. The surrogacy industry is inherently exploitative. Women who need money sign hefty contracts, often with requirements to abort the baby if the parent so choose. We have interviewed one of those surrogates to commodify their bodies. There are no background checks for the parents who purchased these surrogates, which is why this is a method used in all kinds of child buying schemes around the globe. That's not what's going on in this story with Megan, but people should know that it is not all rainbows. It is a very dark practice and industry. So for those who don't know how surrogacy works, in this case, I assume that Megan trainer used her own egg. So she has to pump herself with a lot of hormones in order to be able to ovulate artificially and then they harvest the eggs from her body. And then they take this egg and I suppose her husband sperm, they put this together in a dish in a lab and they make not just one embryo, but multiple embryos. And typically, just like in the IVF process, these embryos are graded and very often, especially in celebrity cases, you determine the gender of these embryos, you determine if this embryo has some kind of special need like a down syndrome or other kinds of chromosomal abnormalities very often, these embryos who are not graded well, they're graded as weak or something else they're thrown out. Maybe they are forever frozen because you want a girl and you created six boys that happens very often. Paris Hilton talked about having all of these embryos on ice because she wanted a little girl and her embryos kept on being boys. You even have fertility clinics or IVF clinics in places like California that can guarantee a certain eye color in the embryos. All of this is possible. This is all human experimentation that is happening completely legally in the United States because this industry is very lucrative. So in this case, Meghan Trainor has probably made multiple embryos. You transfer an embryo to a woman that you hire. This is the surrogate. The surrogate is typically not related to anyone, certainly not related to the child. The surrogate has to be pumped with all of these artificial hormones so that the embryo will actually implant in her uterus and then she carries this child because this is an unnatural process. This is very risky for everyone involved. The bond that's created between this baby and this woman knows the smell, knows the sound of the heartbeat, knows her voice. All of that is very important in the psychological development of the child and creating that brokenness of bond on purpose at the moment of birth, I think is extremely unethical immoral and cruel, especially when we're talking about two men that are buying the eggs from one woman and then renting the woman of another woman to separate women and then taking that child away both from the biological mother and from the only body that he or she has ever known. To put that baby on their hairy chest, it's disgusting. It is immoral in every single way. Again, this is more cruelty that we showed to human beings than we would ever show to puppies and kittens and it happens on a daily basis. There was this other article that was going around a few weeks ago that I've been meaning to talk about and it's from the Wall Street Journal. Chinese use US surrogacy industry for birth tourism. I think that we have the headline to put up. This article says a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that an increasing number of ultra wealthy Chinese individuals are using American surrogate mothers to have large numbers of children. Sometimes dozens or even more than a hundred in order to get US citizenship. Traditional birth tourism where pregnant women travel to the US to give birth so that the children are born citizens has been dropping due to greater scrutiny and enforcement by authorities like the Trump FBI. Now birth tourists are taking advantage of the fact that the US, along with Ukraine, allows surrogacy for international clients, unlike most developed countries. This is basically trafficking. These women's bodies are being commodified. Their wombs are being rented and these children are being used as pawns. They are also being commercialized. This is almost like a form of slavery that we're talking about here. Then also when people say, well, at least they consented to this, well, you can consent to being objectified but objectifying a human being is still wrong. The investigation into what was going on here highlighted the case of someone named Zubo, a Chinese billionaire in the video game industry who has become a prominent example of this trans-extremes. Zoo saw legal parentage recognition for multiple children born via US surrogates, but in 2023 a California judge unusually denied his request in a system where such orders are normally granted routinely leaving some children in legal uncertainty. At the time, certain children were being looked after by nannies in Southern California while waiting for travel documents to leave the country these poor children. I mean, think about how confusing and how disordered this is for them. And again, this is happening to millions of people every year. America is the wild wild west for the reproductive technology industry. And Christians in particular are way too silent about this because we want to pretend that this is being pro-baby. Being pro-baby does not mean that you justify every means of creating a child. We're not pro-rape, right? And pro-rape or rape sometimes conceives a child. So we don't support this ends justifies a means method to procuring children. Children are a gift. Children are a privileged children are not a right. You're not entitled to a child just because you get to pay for it. And remember, these people don't have to go through background checks. Children have a right to a mother and father. Ideally their mother and father, but if not, then through adoption or some ethical means, which really is just adoption, whether it's a private adoption or through the state, they should still be entitled to a mother and father. We are creating this grand social experiment at the expense of kids. And it's just sad. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor for the day before we get into the rest of that. And that is Good Ranchers. America turns 250 this year. And so it's time to celebrate it by supporting American farms and ranches. I love Good Ranchers. We eat good ranchers meat almost every single night in our home. We love their ground beef. We love their better than our organic chicken. They've got seed oil free chicken nuggets that are great for kids. They've got seafood. And again, you are supporting the American meat industry when you buy all of your meat from Good Ranchers. When you go into the grocery store and you buy meat there, it might say made in the US, but regulations say that they can put that sticker on there. If it's just packaged in the US, it doesn't actually have to be from an American farm. But with Good Ranchers, you are getting that guarantee. This is another Christian family owned company that puts their money where their heart is. They are donating a portion of their profits to paralyzed veterans of America. So as we celebrate America this year, we want to celebrate an American company. American ranches are American veterans. And you can do all of that by buying your meat from Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use code Allie. Check out. You will save $25 off your first order. It's Good Ranchers.com. Code Allie. What do we always say? Children are always the unconsenting subjects of progressive social experiments. Whether it comes to surrogacy or whether it is the redefinition of marriage and parenting or whether it's COVID lockdowns or whether it's abortion or whether it's even a legal immigration. Children are the ones who pay the price for that and they don't have the political power. They don't have the capital to be able to stop it. And we see that here. We don't really know the long term consequences of a child being created to be taken away from the woman who carries him or to be raised motherless. Christians are called to care for the fatherless, but motherlessness is really a historic anomaly. It doesn't happen very much, but we've manufactured motherlessness by saying to men can pretend to be a mom and a dad and take a child away from his mother. It's actually very sick and saddening. This particular story that we were reading about in the Wall Street Journal, the guy Zubo, the billionaire from the video game industry, the network was questioned about the number of this guy's children and the company, I don't know how to pronounce it, Dowie Network, confirmed that after years of surrogacy efforts in the US, he has only a little over 100 children. This is an immigration story. This is a child trafficking story. This is, I think, a form of prostitution story. I mean, you're paying someone to use their body. It is prostitution. So I mean, this should so obviously be unethical in a legal and every way. It's hard for me to see, well, I can't see why America wouldn't crack down on it. It makes a lot of money. The reproductive technology industry is very powerful because of that. There was a 2024 study published in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine that analyzed international commercial surrogacy contracts in the US from 2014 to 2020. The study found that the percentage of gestational carrier cycles involving international parents nearly doubled from 2014, 22% to 39.7% in 2020 before dropping off slightly to 31.8%. The study showed that Chinese nationals accounted for 41.7% of these international surrogacy agreements, making them the largest group driving the rint of womb industry. And so when you think about the stories that come across your feed, the woman who went through and then survived a variant cancer was only able to have a baby by freezing her eggs and then using a surrogate. Or when you come across this very sweet picture of Meghan Trainor, it's very easy for us to feel and to arrest our thinking and to say, you know what, I'm just not going to think about that because this person wanted a baby and I'm just glad they're happy. But that kind of thinking that is so prevalent among all of us as women is actually what allows us to be silent and complicit in this widespread evil practice. Now I'm a hard liner on this. I think surrogacy is always wrong no matter what because unlike an adoption, you are purposely creating the child to be separated from his mother or from the woman who carried him. Like you are purposely creating that brokenness, whereas when a child is conceived and then adopted out or given to adoptive parents, that wasn't intentional. The baby wasn't conceived with the intention of breaking that bond. When you're talking about egg selling, when you're talking about sperm selling, when you're talking about surrogacy, you're intentionally creating that brokenness in order to satisfy adult desires. So you're sacrificing the well-being of a child on the altar of adult desires and that is disordered. Parents were created to put our desires last and put the needs of our children first. And if you start that in a disordered way during conception, then you're not really set up well for the rest of your parenting experience. Senator Rick Scott, thankfully introduced something called the Safe Kids Act in November of 2025, a bill that would prohibit foreign nationals from adversarial countries like China, from participating in the US commercial surrogacy industry, and in January 2025 President Trump issued an executive order titled protecting the meaning and value of American citizenship, which is prompted, renewed examination of birthright citizenship, especially when it is acquired through legal loopholes, rather than authentic connections to the United States. Shortly after the executive order was issued, Circusy Organizations released guidance aimed at preserving the citizenship pathway. That's good. With immigration lawyers and agencies arguing that a child born to a US citizen surrogate should still qualify for automatic citizenship. That's not good. Even if the intended parents are foreign nationals, like, how can you not see that that is just enabling and exacerbating human trafficking, international human trafficking. I think they do see that. I think Circusy agencies are complicit in this knowingly complicit in this. Just the same way that Planned Parenthood knows that there are children, that there are girls being brought in against their will, who are being trafficked, prostituted, raped to have abortions to cover up the men's crimes that are buying their bodies. I think that Planned Parenthood knows that they sell fetal tissue to different organizations that are doing research. In the same way, I think that these Circusy agencies are participating in evil knowingly. When you think about that women and children consenting or not are all kind of at the center of this scheme, of this objectification and commercialization of bodies scheme, it just makes you again go all the way back to the garden. I know we do this on every episode, but everything we talk about reminds me of the order than the disorder that occurred when Satan tempted Eve. She said yes because of her lust, because of her mistrust of God did God really say. Obviously, Satan had it out for women, but Satan obviously has it out for children. Satan is going to be defeated by a king who came to earth first as an embryo. Satan loves to prey upon the minds of children, the bodies of children, child sacrifice as a tale is old as time, something that God prohibited from the very beginning, but something that Satan loves. When I say children are always the subjects of progressive social experiments, that's not just a political statement. I actually think it's a spiritual one too, because the powers of darkness hate the innocence of children. And Jesus Christ changed everything. He changed everything because he came as a savior not in the form of an adult warrior king that so many expected him to, but first as an embryo and then was heralded by the cakes of an unborn John the Baptist was worshipped in a manger as a newborn and then against the protestation of his disciples that no let the little children come to me for such as these belong the kingdom of heaven. Jesus and then his followers changed how the world saw children. And so I think it is 100% the responsibility of Christians to continue to stand up for children from the embryonic stages onward. Like we understand that a life is a life no matter how small when it comes to abortion, but for some reason a lot of Christian pro-lifers when it comes to IVF and when it comes to all these reproductive issues, just don't want to wait into it. Its inconsistency, its ignorance and its fear, and the time is done for all of that. So let's start speaking up about the things that matter especially on behalf of kids. Alright, I've got more to say about the biblical perspective on this and that's where we'll end. But let me pause tell you about our last sponsor for the day and that is Patriot Mobile. I'm so thankful that Patriot Mobile is America's Christian conservative wireless provider. They are allowing us to vote with our dollars. So not only are they giving us really good service, they make switching to them really easy, but they are also supporting the pro-life cause. They are supporting our first and second amendment, our veterans, our first responders. So many of these big companies are donating dollars to organizations that are directly working against us or they're funding Democrat pro-abortion politicians. You don't want to be a part of that. I've talked to the people at Patriot Mobile. They are the real deal plus their customer service is top notch. You won't regret switching. Go to PatriotMobile.com slash alley. They'll make your switch really easy. That's PatriotMobile.com slash alley. I was thinking about this last night because we were reading in our Bible actually was that last night or this morning that we were reading in Genesis about Abraham. It was just this morning. Wow. It's been a long day. We were chief related, bro, and I were reading about Abraham and Sarah and the decisions that he made based on fear and all of that. We were reading about Heygar and how Heygar was used basically as a surrogate, obviously in a different way. They didn't have an egg donation and an egg selling back then, but because Sarah couldn't have a child, they then used Heygar, the conky-bind, the slave woman to have isch-male. I know it's funny, whenever I'm arguing with Christians about the ethics of surrogacy, they'll point to this. They'll say, well, surrogacy is in the Bible. Look, no wives, no problems in the Bible. Things are descriptive in Scripture that are not prescriptive. So just because the Bible describes something doesn't mean that it is prescribing it. And actually, we saw so much jealousy, so many problems, so much pain for Heygar and for isch-male and for Sarah and for Abraham because of this situation. You can read, I won't read all of this because it's long, but in Genesis 16, we read about this that really Sarah didn't trust the Lord, and that's why they used the surrogate. And Sarah said to Abraham, may the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me, but Abraham said to Sarah, I behold your servant as in your power due to her as you please, then Sarah dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. And then, of course, later, we see that when Sarah actually was given a child by God, when she delivered Isaac, she wanted nothing to do with Heygar and Isch-male and basically pushed them away, and they had to flee. And so this caused all kinds of divisiveness and pain because they didn't trust the Lord and because they used surrogacy. We also read in Genesis 30, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob, no children. She inved her sister. She said to Jacob, give me children or I shall die. Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, in mind the place of God who is withheld from you the fruit of the womb, then she said, here is my servant, go into her so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her. And so the servant did so. Then Rachel said, God has judged me and has also heard my voice and given me a son, therefore she called to his name Dan. So this highlights once again the envy and the rivalry again that can come up because of the use of the servant as a surrogate. I'm not saying that this describes every situation of surrogacy in the United States today, but this is not a prescription. Remember that children are a gift from the Lord. Psalm 127 3 says, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb reward. And so I think a lot of times we think that this is something that we are entitled to, but we are not. And having children and desiring children is a very good desire, but we do not have an entitlement or a right to have or to fulfill all of the desires that we have on earth. There are ethical ways to go about that, like through adoption and unethical ways to do that. Remember that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And so renting them out or getting paid to use our body, even if it seems altruistic, but in a way that actually harms us and hurts a child, even for the benefit of parents who want that child is not okay. First, Corinthians 6, 19, 19 through 20, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own for you are bought with the price. So glorify God in your body. So this underscores the sanctity of the body, opposing the commodification that comes through surrogacy. So, Meghan Trainor, I'm sure she loves her children. I have no doubt about that. I'm sure that she is a great mom. It's not about that. It is about causing brokenness intentionally and service to your own desires, no matter what we are talking about. That's always wrong, but especially when it comes to sacrificing children. And remember, the dark, dark world that is underneath the surface of pictures like that reproductive technology industry is trafficking children every single day in the name of just wanting to be a parent. And Christians have the responsibility to speak out about that. All right, I want us to be Christian thinkers, not just Christian feelers, the world needs that now more than ever. We will be back here on Friday.