1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:01,920 A, the number of people that sent this to me 2 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:02,960 was insane. 3 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:05,120 B, it confused a lot of people. 4 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:07,360 And it went like super mega viral. 5 00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:08,640 All right, let's see it. 6 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:11,440 So it's just I get suspicious when anybody, whether it's 7 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:14,560 a uh a televangelist or a politician tells me that 8 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:16,880 something is central to my faith when Jesus never talks 9 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:17,200 about it. 10 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:20,960 To me, that should, I think, ring alarm bells as 11 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:22,480 to what is the agenda here. 12 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:25,200 Um what is someone trying to get across. 13 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:27,360 And I think if we're looking at the last 40, 14 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:30,560 50 years, the religious right has made a concerted effort 15 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,080 to make homosexuality and abortion the two biggest issues for 16 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:34,480 Christians. 17 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:36,320 One thing I'll say is Jesus never said anything about 18 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:38,880 nuclear warheads, bestiality, or paper straws, but they're all awful 19 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:39,280 too. 20 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:39,520 Yeah. 21 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:41,360 So that's number one, it's argument from silence. 22 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:42,720 It's the weakest form of argument. 23 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:45,920 There's tons of stuff Jesus never explicitly talked about that 24 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:47,920 everyone knows are evil. 25 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,240 So this is a flagrant straw man fallacy. 26 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,200 Josh is not responding to what Representative Tallerico said in 27 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:53,680 that clip. 28 00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,120 Josh is responding to an entirely different claim that Representative 29 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:01,120 Tallerico not only never made, but explicitly distinguished from the 30 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:02,400 argument he was actually making. 31 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,760 Because Josh is acting as if what Representative Tallerico said 32 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:09,360 was, Jesus never said it, therefore you can't say it's 33 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:10,000 wrong. 34 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,800 Or therefore it's not wrong, or something like that. 35 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:16,160 And Representative Tallerico said absolutely no such thing whatsoever. 36 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:19,760 And in fact, later on in this interview said, I 37 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:24,080 recognize that Christians have scriptures that they will appeal to 38 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,840 in defense of their positions on homosexuality and abortion, and 39 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:30,480 that's a debate that we can have, but that's not 40 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:31,520 what I'm arguing. 41 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:33,200 I'm arguing this other thing. 42 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:36,800 Because what Representative Talarico is arguing is that Jesus never 43 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:39,920 said it, therefore he gets suspicious when people try to 44 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:42,640 insist that it is central to Christian identity. 45 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:44,560 And he doesn't like that Christians are trying to make 46 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,360 these things the two biggest issues for Christians. 47 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,720 And he doesn't like that people automatically assume that because 48 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:54,560 you're a Christian, you must be anti-gay and anti-abortion, because 49 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,400 there are many Christians who are not. 50 00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:00,000 So his position is about the salience of these positions. 51 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,480 to Christian identity and the fact that Jesus never said 52 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:03,720 it 53 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,480 So how can we turn this into central Christian identity 54 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:08,200 markers? 55 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:10,440 That's Representative Talarico's argument. 56 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:14,280 And let's watch him distinguish that position from the claim 57 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:16,040 that Josh is addressing here. 58 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:18,680 Again, I'm very open for my fellow Christians to disagree 59 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,720 with that, and they may have um scriptural passages they 60 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:24,280 point to to be anti-abortion. 61 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:25,960 And I think that's a debate that that we should 62 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:26,840 feel comfortable having. 63 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,160 All I'm saying is that it shouldn't be assumed that 64 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,680 just because you're a Christian, you are anti- gay or anti-abortion, 65 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,160 because there are so many Christians out there who who 66 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:37,800 don't uh subscribe to either of those policy positions. 67 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,000 So as you can see, Josh is not addressing what 68 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:42,520 Representative Talerico said. 69 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:46,120 Josh is addressing a flagrant straw man fallacy, a claim 70 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,520 that Representative Talarico never made and in fact explicitly distinguished 71 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:52,280 from the argument he was actually making.