(upbeat music)
- Does that person know Jesus?
Where is he the way to Jesus?
Is he also going to heaven?
Because I see Christ in every human being, I'd say no.
(upbeat music)
- [Interviewer] Christianity is the only path to salvation.
3, 2, 1.
- Yeah, I would say agree
because I believe that Jesus is God and his life,
his death, his resurrection is the great redemption
that God had for the world.
- If you really think about it, if you believe
Jesus is not the only way, you're calling God an idiot,
'cause you think he's gonna say one day, "Oh, shoot.
You could go to Heaven by being a good person."
Or, "And I spent all this energy and time
to sacrifice my own son,
why didn't somebody tell me there was another way?"
I mean, if there was another way,
Jesus would not have gone to the cross.
- Do you think it may be just a tad harmful
to say that were calling God an idiot
for those that maybe haven't come to that conclusion yet,
or maybe people that are wrestling through that?
'Cause I mean, think about it like this.
If I grew up, or if we grew up in an Islamic,
predominantly Islamic territory, could we confidently say
that we would still be Christian in those environments?
I love your passion. I just fear we as Christians
have caused so much hurt by just how we've
communicated things and just in not giving people room
to be messy in their beliefs and messy in where they are.
- [Interviewer] I support the LGBTQ+ community. 3, 2, 1.
- I'm just curious to see what support means.
I feel like a lot of Christians,
at least that I've been friends with,
I mean even myself at one point would be afraid
of saying that I support the LGBT community.
- I know that we're just called to love our neighbors.
And if my neighbor's LGBTQ,
there's no reason why I can't love them.
Especially where we live, to not invite people
of that community into our churches, into our lives,
into whatever we have going on,
would be just like a big loss for the church,
because especially where we're at in the country,
that's a very big demographic.
And so I think missing out on that would just be
a shame for the church.
- See, that's the thing.
I agree with everything that you've said, because I know
that God loves them and they are a minority group
that's been persecuted wrongfully.
And I believe no one should be shamed or beat up
based on their sexual orientation,
but the thing is what people do with their sex life
in their own bedrooms is none of my business.
I'm not gonna say anything about that.
I don't really care what they do.
But when they come to my area and they tell me that my God
thinks all that is okay, that's when I have a problem.
But in terms of supporting,
their view of God is what I don't support.
- I would also say, though, that that's a big generalization
just like people generalize Christians and say
Christians hate gay people.
There's a lot of gay people who literally
don't give two craps what Christians believe, you know?
It's kind of the same way, as much as we wanna love people
and we have experienced the love of Jesus
and we want other people to experience that,
I'm not gonna love someone with an agenda.
I'm not gonna love them
with the hope that one day they'll convert.
I'm gonna love them.
- Would you say that being gay is a sin?
- No.
What do you think would classify being a part
of the LGBT community?
- Homosexual activity.
- Because I would consider, I'm gay,
but for some Christians just phrasing that
is horrifying, because they believe that being gay is a sin.
Personally, I think that there's cultural
and societal attachments to the concept of being gay.
But if you just take it down to the textbook, I mean,
being gay is simply attraction to the same sex.
- Some of you are saying that you would advocate
for celibacy for the LGBTQ community
if they want to be Christian or not?
- I think most Christians are on the same page
of being gay is not a sin, but it's more so what you do
with the fact that you are gay.
Kind of delineates what's sin and what's not.
- And I would even say, it's not my place to decide
if it's right for a gay person to choose to be celibate.
If someone wants to put something in their mouth, they can.
I don't think I should have any opinion in that matter,
'cause it's not my life, it's not my sex life.
You know what I mean?
'Cause we don't have opinions
on heterosexual relationships.
I mean, aside from sex before marriage,
but it's like we're not asking people what they're doing
in their free time.
You know what I mean?
- I think a question we have to ask as evangelicals
is why the LGBTQ community doesn't feel safe in our spaces?
And I think that is a question that should be primary,
if we really do love and accept people as made
in the image of God, why don't they feel safe,
and why do they feel like they have to leave our spaces?
And I've had so many gay friends leave the church,
leave Christianity,
so many people part of this LGBTQ community.
And so that is the question that I lead with
in how I talk about and think about
how we love and care for the LGBTQ community.
- [Interviewer] Evangelicals are misunderstood
or mischaracterized by the media.
3, 2, 1.
(Angel whimpers)
- Sorry. Oh, my gosh.
Sorry. It's just that is so hard.
I do feel like media outlets sometimes can focus on failures
in Christian leadership and stuff.
In that regard, looking at these examples
in a way that feels portrayed,
in a way that feels frustrated,
then I would go on that side.
- A lot of the times the negative media that does come
to the church or Christianity, is because of one extreme.
Again, that's just a generalization.
If you see one group doing one thing
that doesn't mean the whole Body of Christ is doing it.
- If the prompt were Christians,
I would definitely be on this side.
I think the reason I would choose this side
for the term 'evangelicals' is because generally,
vast majority, like 80% of evangelicals voted for Trump.
I do think a lot of the news or the coverage
about who we are and our failures is real.
And it's kind of like the stark reality of our church.
A lot of the issues that we see,
I think we need to own them.
I think we need to apologize for them.
I think we need repent from them.
And I think we need to show people who Jesus really is,
apart from this sort of conglomerate movement that we have.
And I do think we're more represented right now.
Also, there's so many evangelicals doing beautiful work
that represents who Jesus is
and what the kingdom of God looks like, absolutely.
But I think we need to own that the media
isn't covering things that they're making up,
they're covering things that are really happening
(people cheer) in the church.
- Oh, my God.
(people laugh) - Yeah.
(indistinct chatter)
- [Interviewer] Women should be allow the leadership roles
in the church.
3, 2, 1.
- Well... (chuckles)
I didn't want to open my mouth
so I don't get taken out of context.
So I wanna first start off by saying
I do believe that women are valuable and crucial
in the leadership of the church.
And God has defined gender roles for the family.
I've had wonderful women pastors preach at my church.
And so I do believe women pastors are good.
But I believe that the senior pastor of the church
is the father of the church family.
And the father is a male.
- I think there's a loose definition of leadership.
And I don't know if we're referring to specific positions
within the church.
But I do feel like even in the Bible
there's so many instances of females
expressing like leadership.
- As a woman who is studying to be a pastor,
I appreciate that you say that
you think women can be pastors.
I do still think there's harm in over-differentiating.
I think something Jesus says is, or not Jesus,
something Paul says is there's no more male or female.
And ultimately I think part of what Jesus brings is equality
where there was once difference.
- [Interviewer] The Bible should be interpreted literally.
3, 2, 1.
- I think to interpret the Bible literally
is a very Western Christianity thing.
And so I'm not gonna say that one person who doesn't
take the Bible word for word is in the wrong with that.
- Yeah, I think the Bible is absolutely
the inspired word of God, and that we need to understand it.
But we need to understand it in its contexts and its genre,
and make sure we pay careful attention
to not just put our Western lens on.
And I think that's how we can treat the Bible
most faithfully.
- I agree with that, that there are different genres,
so I don't take every little thing as literal in the Bible.
I take it as I see it.
- I'd be curious to see your perspective
on some of the psalms.
- Yeah. So as she mentioned, different genres
like Revelation, isn't all literal.
But the message where most of what the Bible says,
I think should be taken at face value,
is what I mean by literal.
- There's still some room for interpretation
with that, though.
So it's like how literal is that? You know?
- Yeah.
Especially when your perspective can be shaped so much
off of cultural and societal upbringing.
- [Kayli] Yeah.
- [Interviewer] I support the overturning of Roe V Wade.
3, 2, 1.
(indistinct chatter)
- I think you can absolutely believe in the sanctity of life
and the sacredness of choice.
And when it comes to medical decisions, I don't see why
anyone else should have a say.
There are no other ways that the government
is regulating bodily decisions.
I feel like it's just making abortion unsafe.
It's making it much more difficult for women
in low income communities to get out of their cycles.
And so I think it's just gonna do a lot more harm than good.
And they're coming for things beyond abortion.
They're gonna start coming for birth control.
They're gonna start coming for contraception.
They've already said that these things are
they're gonna start working towards,
and this is just kind of like the first step of it.
- I am actually pro-life, but I think we should have done
a lot of groundwork in investing more
in the foster care system,
investing more in women's healthcare,
investing more in education and all these different spheres.
Anybody who was pro-life, I think we also need to be
the ones to also step up and invest more
in women and children.
We need to be putting our money where our mouth is,
and putting our time and our resources.
- I totally agree with all that.
And as you mentioned, I think there's a lot of issues
around abortion and Roe V Wade.
But I don't really see this as an evangelical issue
or even a religious issue, I see it as moral issue.
When is it okay to kill a baby?
And overturning Roe V Wade is saying you shouldn't
- I don't even think any pro-choice person
is wanting to kill babies.
I think that is a very harsh use of language.
Because also 70% of women who have had abortions
identify as Christian.
And so in using language like that,
especially when it's coming from the pulpit
or whatever, it is that is so harmful
because women in your churches, in your pews,
in your small groups, and whatever, someone there
has probably had to be faced with that decision.
And so when we, as the church are using such harsh language,
it's kind of putting a wall, it's putting a barrier,
and it's pushing people away.
- I also do think that there is something
somewhat disheartening about how this looks right now,
that all males are on this side
and all females are on that side.
Personally, I don't necessarily agree
with using the language of killing babies
because that's like the darkest day
in some of these ladies' lives, the darkest day.
- And if I could, I would go more that way,
because you are right, there are a lot of issues,
and personally, I haven't experienced them.
But I think the question is still
when is it okay to kill a baby?
- I just don't feel like as a guy, I could say much to--
I don't know, maybe-- I don't know what I'm doing right now.
(people laugh)
- You're right. If it was about opinions,
which basketball team is better.
I think opinions, whatever, everybody's opinion is the same.
But because as evangelicals,
we stand on what the word of God is saying to us.
We can stand on whether something is right or wrong,
or we could say that
we could be wrong about that, you're right.
- I think any person who was pro-life,
we need to be putting ourselves in a situation
where we are bearing that cost as well.
And it's not enough just to donate some money every month,
right, and support.
I think all of us need to actually have skin in this game
if we're gonna be pro-life.
And I think the church really needs to step up
and be the ones to actually go to all those--
to go to the women directly, to really put--
It needs to cost us something.
- I'm excited to see the church equally fight
for the sanctity of life at all levels.
And not just in terms of the mother and the baby,
but in terms of, yeah, people experiencing all kinds
of quality of life and that yeah,
I feel like talking about the sanctity of life has become
politicized in terms of how we care for the immigrant
versus how we care for the woman having an abortion.
And I'd love to see us as the church be vocal about
caring about life in general.
- [Interviewer] I think we get to wrap up (indistinct).
(indistinct) a round of applause.
(people clap)
- I'm proud to be a citizen of my country.
♪ Proud to be an American ♪