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WATCH: Crowder Challenges Famous YouTubers’ ‘Deconstruction’ Of Christianity

   DailyWire.com
Steven Crowder
Louder with Crowder

In a “Monday Mass” edition of his popular podcast “Louder with Crowder” this week, conservative comedian and commentator Steven Crowder offered a response to popular comedic duo and “internetainers” Rhett McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln “Link” Neal’s “deconstruction” of Christianity, in which the two describe why they each walked away from the Christian faith after moving to California.

Crowder explains in the intro that he decided to address Rhett & Link’s arguments against Christianity in part because they have been “making the rounds” on social media and the two comedians are largely going unchallenged, resulting in a form of “emotional coddling.” While as a Christian, said Crowder, he wants to speak “out of love, compassion” for anyone struggling with their faith, he also believes the faith is true and wants “what’s best for people,” namely a relationship with God. After watching the responses to the comedic duo, Crowder said, they need to be “intellectually challenged, not emotionally coddled.”

The first clip Crowder highlighted came from Rhett’s “deconstruction” of his faith in which he explained the period in which he moved to Los Angeles and adopted “California Christianity,” which he described as having complicated his faith. “Because you are in this incredibly diverse place with so many different perspectives,” said Rhett in reference to Los Angeles, “you really can’t maintain a Christian faith in a place like this without at least some sort of realization that there’s a lot of gray.” L.A., he said, allowed him to ask a “new” question: “Why am I still doing this? And I’ll be honest, I would not have asked that question if I was in North Carolina.”

Link then describes a moment that the two first met fellow creator Michael Buckley, who Link says was the first openly gay person he ever hugged. Hugging him, the co-host said, was a “crisis moment” for him.

Crowder responded by arguing that Rhett and Link had effectively just described themselves as being a “product of their environment,” coming into California with insufficiently thought-through and challenged faiths. Link’s “crisis” over simply hugging a gay man, Crowder argued, demonstrates that he doesn’t actually understand that Christ has called us to love all people but that does not mean approving of their behavior.

As for the new “gray” in their worldviews, Crowder and company argued that one of the real purposes of faith is to handle the uncertainties and lack of clarity here on earth. Rather than being an argument against faith, the “gray” is an argument for the necessity and purpose of faith.

Rhett addressed that issue in another segment. “I understand that it is unreasonable to expect Christianity to be a set of scientifically verifiable principles,” he said. “It is a faith, implying that some form of believing without seeing is involved. And more specifically, Christianity is a relationship with Jesus, and relationships are not well-defined or experienced scientifically. However, I don’t think it insignificant that the deeper I have dug into Christianity, with a thirst for the truth, the more difficult it has become to have faith. In fact, for me, it has become impossible.”

Calling that realization “the reckoning” for him, Rhett noted that when he “jumped ship,” he didn’t “jump to another boat.” Instead, he says, “I jumped into the water, and I pulled my wife and my children in with me.”

Crowder responded by asking again why he only started digging for the truth when he moved to California, implying that Rhett simply allowed himself to be influenced by his environment and that his previous faith was not based in a substantive “search for the truth.” The way the duo have presented each of their “reckonings,” Crowder suggested, dismisses their previous faith as if it is not grounded in any real attempt to “dig into the truth,” suggesting that Christianity is a shallow religion rather than a religion whose adherents include some of the most profound thinkers in history.

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