WEBVTT 00:00:00.660 --> 00:00:03.660 It is the 20th of February, 2026. 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:04.820 I am Corey J. 00:00:04.820 --> 00:00:07.240 Mahler, and this is At Any Cost. 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:08.980 This is episode 17. 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:11.120 It is a Q&A episode. 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:16.260 And I have a little bit of housekeeping before I get into the questions for tonight. 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:21.740 I have 12 questions I would like to get through in addition to perhaps some from the chat. 00:00:21.740 --> 00:00:27.500 The little bit of housekeeping is, if anyone from ReStream sees this, please stop signing me out of the plugin in OBS. 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:28.800 I don't need to reauthenticate. 00:00:28.900 --> 00:00:31.060 I am using the same hardware. 00:00:31.060 --> 00:00:33.620 Just verify it's the same hardware and stop doing that. 00:00:33.620 --> 00:00:40.480 It's very annoying for a service that is supposed to make things more convenient, not less. 00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:44.000 I think that's pretty much all of the housekeeping, so irrelevant for most of you. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:51.180 But if someone from ReStream happens to see this, it would be nice of them to fix that. 00:00:51.180 --> 00:00:53.640 So getting right into the questions here. 00:00:55.580 --> 00:01:03.020 This is going to be a little bit of a Bible study tonight, and I'm fairly certain we're going to run a little bit long because of that. 00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:08.200 I don't think those who are watching this on a Friday night are going to object to running a little bit long though. 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:15.380 So the first topic, it's not really a question, just a topic that I wanted to address. 00:01:15.380 --> 00:01:20.560 No one specifically asked about this, but the issue has come up a number of times, and I posted about it earlier. 00:01:22.520 --> 00:01:39.820 We are at a point now where technology is good enough with regard to faking a person's likeness and voice that you really need to have a discussion, assuming most of those listening to this are on the younger end of things. 00:01:39.820 --> 00:01:42.580 Most of you probably are not in your 50s and 60s. 00:01:42.580 --> 00:01:45.960 Most of you are going to be 20s, 30s, maybe 40s. 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:48.400 So you're elderly parents in some cases. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:56.300 You're not so elderly parents in others, or you're less tech-adept family members, because we all typically have those as well. 00:01:56.300 --> 00:02:02.940 You need to have a discussion with them about the state of technology and how easy it is to get scammed. 00:02:02.940 --> 00:02:11.380 And part of that for elderly parents is going to be awkward, because you may have to take away their debit cards. 00:02:11.380 --> 00:02:32.120 Now, credit cards are probably less of a problem because they have fraud protection, but debit cards and wire transfers and things like that, if you can, you probably need to restrict your elderly parents from access to those things, because they will probably be scammed eventually. 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:37.040 It's the reality of the situation in which we live right now. 00:02:37.040 --> 00:02:39.480 The scams are getting particularly bad. 00:02:39.480 --> 00:02:51.900 And it's because, like I said, deepfakes, the fake videos and the fake audio, are so good now that even those who know for what to look can be deceived by some of them. 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:55.040 We're to the point where you basically can't believe your eyes. 00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:59.620 It's going to be a major problem for the courts, obviously, with regard to that sort of evidence. 00:02:59.620 --> 00:03:02.840 Perhaps it's going to bring back the importance of eyewitness evidence. 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:20.120 But for those who are in a position without, again, elderly parents or less tech adept members of your family, have that discussion with them, basically tell them, never trust anything that's just video or audio because it can be faked. 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:26.240 And you're not going to have any way to be able to tell if it is fake, because it is that good now. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:34.280 If I had been so inclined and desired to do so, I could have made this introduction me but AI. 00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:35.240 I'm never going to do that. 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:37.880 I don't like using it, so I'm not going to do that. 00:03:37.880 --> 00:03:40.640 But I could have done that to prove the point and then cut in with me. 00:03:41.540 --> 00:03:48.680 And many of you would have been fooled by that, because that's how good it is now if you use the best available tools. 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:57.640 So, just a couple little tips for how you can help parents deal with this and others in your family. 00:03:57.640 --> 00:04:01.280 Set up a key phrase, a passphrase, whatever you want to call it. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:02.780 It doesn't have to be a word. 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:04.700 It can be a full sentence. 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:08.160 Because, for instance, you can use a sentence as a password on your computer. 00:04:08.160 --> 00:04:12.120 Your password does not have to be gibberish or one word. 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:13.240 It could be a sentence. 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:17.940 It could be the first sentence from your favorite poem, say, something you can remember easily. 00:04:17.940 --> 00:04:18.600 That's part of it. 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:20.600 You need to be able to remember this thing. 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:32.780 But set up some sort of phrase where your family knows it, and then you can work it into a conversation to let the other person know it's actually me, because no one else would know it. 00:04:33.380 --> 00:04:35.100 So do make sure it's something no one else would know. 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:36.560 Don't make it something that's super common. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:42.840 Make it something your family can remember, and that someone else will not be able to easily discover. 00:04:42.840 --> 00:04:45.680 Another thing that you can do, this is sort of the second tip here. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:50.300 There are additional things, but these are two good things for a starting place. 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:59.680 Set up a question and answer, but you may be thinking, well, that's like my bank tells me, what's my favorite restaurant, or where were you born? 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:01.460 Those questions are actually fine. 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:02.960 Those are totally fine questions. 00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:05.000 You can pick any question you want. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:16.500 The key here, the little trick I want to teach you, make the answer unrelated to the question, because then it makes it very difficult, if not almost impossible, to guess. 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:21.820 So if someone has their question as, what is your favorite restaurant, right? 00:05:21.820 --> 00:05:24.660 Say the answer is purple snow. 00:05:24.660 --> 00:05:39.560 No one is ever going to think of that answer or come across it randomly, but you've now created a pair, a question and answer pair, that is actually quite secure, because no one is going to guess it, and it's unrelated, right? 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:40.260 That's what you want. 00:05:40.260 --> 00:05:41.840 You want that disconnect. 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:56.320 The problem is when you use those questions, they're terrible questions, if you give the right answer, because quite frankly, for a scammer who has access to your personal information, say some of your bank records were leaked, or your credit card statements got leaked. 00:05:56.320 --> 00:06:05.220 Well, they might have a pretty good idea of what your favorite restaurant is, if it's the one you've been charging on your card twice a week for 10 years. 00:06:05.220 --> 00:06:09.580 So those questions are not good when you give the real answer. 00:06:09.580 --> 00:06:17.080 When you give a constructed answer, they're very good because then they're basically immune to equivalent brute force, right? 00:06:17.080 --> 00:06:20.820 So just two little tips to help with these things with your family. 00:06:20.820 --> 00:06:30.960 In addition to the one of, just don't talk to people who randomly call and claim to be your son or your daughter or your cousin or whatever it happens to be. 00:06:30.960 --> 00:06:36.340 You cannot do that these days because of where the technology is and how many scammers there are. 00:06:36.340 --> 00:06:43.420 Part of it, of course, is that we need to disconnect certain countries from the internet, but that has not happened yet. 00:06:45.380 --> 00:06:50.620 So, on to the second question for tonight. 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:53.160 This one from the forum. 00:06:53.160 --> 00:06:54.900 Does your family know about your views? 00:06:54.900 --> 00:07:00.220 And if so, have they shunned you or have they expressed disapproval of your views? 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:08.460 How do you recommend we deal with our families if they discover without us telling them that we espouse certain viewpoints that they may vehemently disagree with? 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:24.560 This is quite similar to a question that I answered last time about a man dealing with his wife and her feeling isolated because of her views and trying to find friends that have similar views and things like that. 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:32.520 So, in part, I would say go back and listen to that answer because that is a big part of the answer to this question. 00:07:32.520 --> 00:07:38.120 But insofar as I am concerned, I'm willing to go so far. 00:07:38.340 --> 00:07:41.860 I usually don't answer personal questions that involve other people. 00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:43.800 That's my general rule. 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:46.700 But I'm willing to say that I'm on good terms with my family. 00:07:46.700 --> 00:07:53.020 Certainly, there are some extended family back in California who do not agree with my views. 00:07:53.020 --> 00:07:54.180 That's just the reality of it. 00:07:55.140 --> 00:07:59.460 That's not unexpected these days, certainly, given my views, right? 00:07:59.460 --> 00:08:03.220 And the state of our country and propaganda and things like that. 00:08:03.220 --> 00:08:05.660 But no, I'm on good terms with my immediate family. 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:13.720 We don't necessarily agree on everything, but even if you have a family that is right wing, say, far right wing, right? 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:15.100 You probably still won't agree on everything. 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:17.000 That's just the nature of being a human being. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.740 We are going to disagree over sometimes stupid stuff, sometimes serious stuff. 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:29.460 But with your family, there are going to be some differences concerning distance. 00:08:29.460 --> 00:08:38.000 If you have your immediate family, particularly if you're living in the same house as your immediate family, you need to get along with them. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:43.100 And I would say go read the article that I just wrote on women in defense of women. 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:52.020 I'll put it in the show notes, because it's similar to some of the things I said there that need to be repeated here. 00:08:52.020 --> 00:09:07.020 There are times when you are dealing with immediate family, particularly in your own household, where winning does not need to be the goal, because winning comes at too high of a cost in those circumstances, because you need to keep the peace. 00:09:07.020 --> 00:09:09.140 That's basically the baseline there. 00:09:09.140 --> 00:09:12.640 You need to keep the peace in the home as best you can. 00:09:12.640 --> 00:09:17.880 You know, insofar as it depends on you, live at peace with all, right? 00:09:17.880 --> 00:09:20.940 So with your immediate family, that's the general rule. 00:09:20.940 --> 00:09:24.940 Or distant family, you can have a little more conflict because you don't live with them. 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:26.440 You don't see them as often. 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:36.460 If it's family, you see once a year, and you get into an argument about politics, at your family potluck, maybe don't do that because there's not really any reason to. 00:09:36.460 --> 00:09:44.740 But if you do, the consequences are not as dire, as if you are at enmity with someone who lives literally down the hall from you in the same building. 00:09:44.740 --> 00:09:46.920 That's more of a challenge. 00:09:46.920 --> 00:10:01.800 So, it's going to depend on that immediate versus distant family, and then part of it overlapping with my previous answer from the last episode regarding that man and his wife, just don't bring some things up. 00:10:01.800 --> 00:10:09.460 Yes, your question asks specifically, if they happen to discover them without you telling them, then you have to address it. 00:10:09.460 --> 00:10:23.180 And you should make clear that you value that relationship with your family, with your family members, highly, and you do not want to let politics and social issues and things like that destroy that relationship. 00:10:23.180 --> 00:10:24.740 And so basically, you agree to disagree. 00:10:25.780 --> 00:10:30.000 That is not something that we can do in the larger society, because that's a different arena. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.880 It's the public square versus the private home. 00:10:33.880 --> 00:10:39.300 In the private home, we can agree to disagree, because keeping the peace is very important. 00:10:39.300 --> 00:10:52.000 And so if it comes up in the way that they have discovered your views, make it very clear, again, that you value the relationship with your family, and you want to live at peace in your home. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:54.140 You don't want to be fighting over these things all the time. 00:10:55.140 --> 00:10:57.060 So maybe you set some ground rules. 00:10:57.060 --> 00:11:00.280 We don't discuss X, Y, and Z topic. 00:11:00.280 --> 00:11:02.520 We don't discuss politics at the dinner table. 00:11:02.520 --> 00:11:04.820 There's nothing wrong with that. 00:11:04.820 --> 00:11:07.180 Growing up, that's certainly something my family did not do. 00:11:07.180 --> 00:11:10.380 We've always been discussed religion, politics, social, whatever it happens to be. 00:11:10.380 --> 00:11:20.280 But in many families, you're going to not want to do that, because you don't need to have that sort of strife and fighting in the family, and the stress and things that attend it for many people. 00:11:20.280 --> 00:11:22.260 That's not what the home is supposed to be. 00:11:22.260 --> 00:11:23.740 The home is supposed to be a sanctuary. 00:11:23.800 --> 00:11:26.200 It's supposed to be a refuge from the world. 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:30.080 And you will not have that if you're constantly fighting over certain things. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:31.480 So set bounds. 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:43.320 There are topics that are out of bounds, or we don't discuss these topics at home, but maybe you go out with your father and have a beer at a bar or something, and then you discuss politics there. 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:45.540 Maybe that's how you bound it. 00:11:45.540 --> 00:11:48.760 So you can keep the piece at home, but still have the option to discuss it. 00:11:48.760 --> 00:11:56.420 It's going to depend on your circumstances, your family, your tolerance for argument and strife and things like that. 00:11:56.420 --> 00:12:01.240 Some families have a very high tolerance for it, and so you discuss politics at the dinner table. 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:05.300 Some families have a very low tolerance for it, and so you avoid it totally. 00:12:05.300 --> 00:12:30.540 The goal is to keep that piece in the home and not let these issues that we know are important and that are worth having a knockdown, drag-out, knives-out fight in the public square, obviously I'm speaking about metaphorical in this case, not literal knives, metaphorical in this case, but worth having that sort of fight in the public square, but you don't have it at home. 00:12:30.540 --> 00:12:33.140 These things are different and they should be treated differently. 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:45.840 The third question, trying to number the questions as I go to make it easier to tag them in the future so people can find things easily. 00:12:47.860 --> 00:12:53.960 This one has a number of subtopics, so I will get into each of those. 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:58.900 What should devout Christian men in modern America do about the lack of marriageable women? 00:12:58.900 --> 00:13:03.840 I was wondering if you could comment on each of these strategies. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:05.080 And so he has a number of strategies here. 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:06.660 There are seven of them. 00:13:06.660 --> 00:13:14.000 Dating women from other major traditional Christian denominations, for example, Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Presbyterianism. 00:13:14.880 --> 00:13:21.500 So, asking this obviously from given that list has to be a Lutheran or Baptist, which doesn't narrow it too much. 00:13:21.500 --> 00:13:27.080 But temporarily moving abroad, for example, to Eastern Europe, where feminism is not as pervasive. 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:31.540 Find a European woman who speaks English and bring her back here. 00:13:31.540 --> 00:13:35.960 Dating Anabaptist or Mormon women who grew up under male authority. 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:40.640 Dating women who have lapsed in their faith yet may still have maintained their purity. 00:13:40.640 --> 00:13:45.540 Dating women with some type of learning disability that has prevented her from attending college. 00:13:45.540 --> 00:13:48.520 I will go ahead and not make the obvious joke there. 00:13:48.520 --> 00:13:54.600 Dating half-damaged women who may have retained some aspects of purity, but not all aspects. 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:58.620 Dating women who have a small percent of non-white admixture. 00:13:58.620 --> 00:13:59.780 Is this ever acceptable? 00:13:59.780 --> 00:14:02.980 If so, do you have a recommended cutoff? 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:09.080 In the Stone Quire episode, Entirely Young Man's Life, you seem to advocate approaching baristas and cashiers. 00:14:09.780 --> 00:14:13.220 Yet my experience has been that approaching women already puts you in their frame. 00:14:13.220 --> 00:14:16.140 That is, they see you as needy or desperate. 00:14:16.140 --> 00:14:27.400 Should I just be content with being single, I am at the point where I really think it's better for me to just focus on myself and not actively try to pursue women who don't seem to be interested in getting married anyway. 00:14:27.400 --> 00:14:32.480 So, obviously, a number of sub-questions here and topics to address. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:44.140 Insofar as that last bit is concerned, focusing on yourself in the sense of, you know, getting in shape and focusing on your hobbies and having a life is important, because women recognize if you have that or don't. 00:14:44.140 --> 00:14:50.980 And yes, as a man, you don't want to come across as desperate because that gives women the Ick, as they would call it. 00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:57.360 Even if they don't recognize the reality of it, that's just a biological and a psychological reaction women have. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:01.080 They can't even control it, so don't get mad at them for it. 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:01.800 That's just how they are. 00:15:01.800 --> 00:15:02.540 It's how God made them. 00:15:03.700 --> 00:15:15.440 So, yes, focusing on those things and making sure that you have a personality and a life, because a wife is something you bring into your life, that is a piece of it. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:17.000 She's not the total. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:18.480 She's not the sum of your life. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:20.700 She's not everything you have. 00:15:20.700 --> 00:15:25.460 In fact, you should be more of her life than she should be of yours. 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:34.020 That is how it works when things are functioning properly, which makes perfect sense because, of course, she's the one keeping the home, she's the one taking care of the children, the house, all those things. 00:15:34.020 --> 00:15:36.940 You have more of a life outside the home than she does. 00:15:36.940 --> 00:15:45.560 It's not to say she can't have friends and hobbies and things like that, but the larger chunk of a man's life is outside his home, often. 00:15:45.560 --> 00:15:50.080 Not always, you can have a little bit of a balance there, but you have things you go out and do in the world. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:50.840 That's important. 00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:52.400 You need to have that. 00:15:52.400 --> 00:16:10.220 Even if you work at home, you need to have a part of the house set aside for when you work at home, close it off, and don't deal with your wife during certain hours, because psychologically, she is not going to like the fact that it looks like you're just staying home all the time. 00:16:10.220 --> 00:16:17.720 There are some women who can sort of deal with that, and deal with the dissonance there, and not have that reaction, but most women can't. 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:19.380 And so you need to have that separation. 00:16:19.380 --> 00:16:23.640 For men who go outside and work outside the home, it's not as much of an issue. 00:16:23.640 --> 00:16:32.340 But to get into the specific sub-questions here, dating outside, your particular strain of Christianity is entirely fine. 00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:39.040 I've spoken to the topic before, and the big question is going to be, will she follow your lead? 00:16:39.040 --> 00:16:41.280 Does she recognize that you are the head? 00:16:41.280 --> 00:16:47.380 Does she recognize that you get to make these decisions because you are the one who will answer to God for them? 00:16:47.380 --> 00:16:53.640 And so if she is Presbyterian and you are Lutheran, she has to become Lutheran. 00:16:54.520 --> 00:16:57.440 That is part of the deal if she is going to marry you. 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:05.720 It is not being unequally yoked in the fullest sense, because obviously you're not just marrying an outright pagan, which is what we get into later here. 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:15.600 But it is being unequally yoked in a minor sense, because she is going to have a lot of the duties and a lot of the time raising your children. 00:17:15.600 --> 00:17:18.240 Part of that will be instructing them in the faith. 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:25.860 Now, it is incumbent on you to see that they are instructed rightly, but you will not be the one doing all of that. 00:17:25.860 --> 00:17:27.620 She will do part of that. 00:17:27.620 --> 00:17:34.940 And so you need to make sure that she is teaching the things that you believe, because you are the head and she has to follow. 00:17:34.940 --> 00:17:42.540 And if she's not willing to do that, then you are just signing up for strife in your marriage and suffering in your home. 00:17:42.540 --> 00:17:45.580 So you need to take that into account. 00:17:45.580 --> 00:17:51.000 But yes, it is generally fine to date Christians outside your denomination, outside your tradition. 00:17:51.060 --> 00:17:52.660 That's not a problem. 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:56.520 The problems arise tangentially related to that. 00:17:56.520 --> 00:18:05.520 If she will not follow your lead, if she will not submit, which Scripture says wives are to submit to their husbands in all things, then you have a very real problem. 00:18:05.520 --> 00:18:09.500 If she was raised as a proper Christian, you shouldn't have as much of an issue. 00:18:10.580 --> 00:18:15.760 Do also recognize, of course, there is the issue that comes alongside that. 00:18:15.760 --> 00:18:22.620 How will her family react to her marrying outside their tradition, outside their denomination? 00:18:22.620 --> 00:18:25.420 Is that going to be a source of strife? 00:18:25.420 --> 00:18:34.100 Generally speaking, this, of course, does not always happen, particularly these days, but historically the woman became part of the man's family. 00:18:34.100 --> 00:18:45.400 And so she had significantly less interaction with her family, her parents, grandparents, cousins, siblings, all of that, because she became part of your family, part of your clan. 00:18:46.940 --> 00:18:51.480 These days, that's not always going to be the case, and it doesn't even necessarily have to be the case. 00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:55.340 You'd like to get along with your in-laws, and she'd like to get along with hers. 00:18:55.340 --> 00:18:56.560 That's how it should be. 00:18:56.560 --> 00:19:13.700 But if her family is going to be very involved in your life, say, her mother is going to do a lot of babysitting, things like that, then it is a very real concern if they are going to cause strife for you in your marriage, because they disagree with you on these issues. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:15.860 It's a matter of wisdom. 00:19:15.860 --> 00:19:32.880 You have to investigate this and make sure that her parents aren't going to cause trouble for you, because they are Roman Catholic and think that you are an evil Presbyterian, or whatever it happens to be, or they are Baptist and think that you are an evil baby sprinkling Presbyterian, or whatever they want to call you. 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:47.760 Make sure you are not signing up for strife there, and you may have to have a very frank discussion with them about how you are going to raise your children and what the boundaries are for what they are permitted to say to your children or not say to your children. 00:19:47.760 --> 00:19:52.300 Because ultimately, they are your children, you are the one who will answer for them. 00:19:52.300 --> 00:19:56.180 So apply your wisdom there, investigate these issues. 00:19:57.380 --> 00:20:03.860 As far as temporarily moving abroad, I obviously don't recommend that, because I don't think men should go shopping for wives in other countries. 00:20:03.860 --> 00:20:06.440 You should marry a wife from your own country. 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:14.200 Now, is there as much of a problem if, say, I'm not saying go shopping for a wife, but let's say you're English, right? 00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:22.240 English descent, just for the sake of the hypothetical, and you live in the US, and you meet a nice English girl from England, somehow. 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:25.360 She's hiking, you meet her, however it happens to be. 00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:27.020 Is there a problem there? 00:20:27.020 --> 00:20:29.060 No, there's no problem there, that's totally fine. 00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:30.420 You can do that. 00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:36.860 It's not going to happen that often, but it's not objectionable, because you are ultimately from the same nation. 00:20:36.860 --> 00:20:38.220 Just a little bit of separation there. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:44.260 Same thing for if you're German, and marry a German from Germany, versus a German descended person from the US. 00:20:44.260 --> 00:20:48.860 Or again, it's this matter of concentric circles, right? 00:20:48.860 --> 00:20:53.920 You are more closely related to those of your nation, and then of your larger nation. 00:20:53.920 --> 00:21:01.500 So say, in the case of Germany versus Germanics, versus Western Europe, versus Europe, concentric circles. 00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:06.000 You are going to encounter more and greater problems, the greater the distance. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:14.720 And so yes, if you are German, and you marry someone who is Chinese, significantly more problems you have created for yourself and your children than if you marry someone who is Dutch. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:20.020 Maybe a little bit of tension there, because the Germans and the Dutch are different, but they are not that different. 00:21:20.020 --> 00:21:23.520 The Germans and the Chinese are extremely different. 00:21:23.520 --> 00:21:26.780 So no, I don't recommend going and shopping for wives in other countries. 00:21:26.780 --> 00:21:28.720 Don't do that. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.500 Dating an Anabaptist or a Mormon who grew up under male authority. 00:21:32.500 --> 00:21:33.200 That's fine. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:37.600 There are plenty of Anabaptists, plenty of Mormons here, and they are of our nation. 00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:39.980 So same blood, same race. 00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:40.980 That's completely fine. 00:21:40.980 --> 00:21:49.780 Again, you're going to have the same sort of issues that you had with dating someone from another denomination, but perhaps a more extreme version of that. 00:21:49.780 --> 00:21:55.180 Do recognize that in those communities, typically if someone leaves, they are going to be shunned. 00:21:55.180 --> 00:22:02.340 Now, as you are a man and you're looking for a wife, it's not as big of an issue because again, she is properly joining your family. 00:22:02.340 --> 00:22:04.020 You're not joining hers really. 00:22:04.700 --> 00:22:08.520 And so, the fact that she's going to be shunned is going to be a problem for her. 00:22:08.520 --> 00:22:13.800 That's going to be hard for her emotionally, psychologically, recognize there are going to be hurdles to overcome. 00:22:13.800 --> 00:22:22.920 But as long as you have family who are going to support you and support her, you can probably do that and you'll be just fine. 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:27.620 You probably want to move away from the Anabaptists of the Mormon community though. 00:22:27.620 --> 00:22:33.860 You probably don't want to live right next door and have stolen one of their women, as some of them will view it. 00:22:35.340 --> 00:22:41.340 The next part, dating women who have lapsed in their faith yet may still have maintained their purity, completely fine. 00:22:41.340 --> 00:22:42.420 Same sort of consideration. 00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:43.420 Bring them back into the faith. 00:22:43.420 --> 00:22:45.240 In fact, you're doing a good thing. 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:47.000 Bring them back into the faith. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:50.000 Make sure that they are willing to follow your lead. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:56.460 Recognize that maybe you're going to have some challenges there, some struggles because she's had struggles with her faith. 00:22:56.460 --> 00:22:59.400 Make sure your faith is firm enough to be able to support hers. 00:23:00.220 --> 00:23:02.260 So, make sure you're ready to do that role. 00:23:02.260 --> 00:23:09.760 You have to do that anyway as a husband because God is going to ask you, where is your wife when you get to the judgment because you're her head. 00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:12.660 So, same sort of challenge there. 00:23:14.120 --> 00:23:22.960 The question about women with a learning disability, that's going to depend really heavily on what you mean by that because there's a wide spectrum. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:31.740 There's a difference between a woman who has really mild autism or a woman who is profoundly mentally retarded in the technical sense, right? 00:23:31.740 --> 00:23:33.520 Wild difference there. 00:23:35.120 --> 00:23:38.940 So, I can't really give a general answer to that one. 00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:44.240 I don't think producing severely mentally disabled children would be wise. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:47.560 I think I've been fairly clear about that many times in many places. 00:23:47.560 --> 00:23:55.520 But if it's a woman who has some mild problem, dyslexia or something, something mild, there's no problem there, there's no objection there. 00:23:56.520 --> 00:24:03.920 Again, just recognize that if it's something that has a genetic component, you will pass it on to your children potentially, and so there are risks. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:06.140 But, you know, weigh these things. 00:24:06.140 --> 00:24:07.680 Everyone has problems, generally speaking. 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:15.820 There are very few people who don't have some sort of mild genetic something, or some sort of baggage, right? 00:24:15.820 --> 00:24:21.560 And it obviously depends on how broad you cast that net, how broadly you define it, you know. 00:24:21.560 --> 00:24:24.540 I have gray hair, like, is that genetic? 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:25.480 Absolutely. 00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:28.380 Some men grow gray much earlier than others. 00:24:28.380 --> 00:24:31.660 I'm 40, and my beard is, you know, half gray at this point. 00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:35.440 So it just depends on how broadly you define these categories. 00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:44.300 The next one, dating half-damaged, in quotes here, women who have maintained some aspects of purity, but not all aspects. 00:24:44.300 --> 00:24:51.720 So basically, these are women who have been not necessarily wildly promiscuous, but have not been entirely chased, I think, is what we're getting to here. 00:24:53.460 --> 00:24:57.320 This is going to be a matter of wisdom. 00:24:57.320 --> 00:25:10.240 Do you have what it takes to deal with a woman who has that baggage, and part of it is going to be baggage that she literally cannot herself get rid of, because it is genetic baggage in some cases. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:22.600 There are some things where this is now just part of who she is biologically and psychologically, and she will never get rid of it until the resurrection, the general resurrection, right, in the new creation. 00:25:22.600 --> 00:25:27.480 And so make sure you are the sort of man who can handle that. 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:31.300 I'm not going to say it's always unwise or it's always bad. 00:25:31.300 --> 00:25:38.880 I did set a general sort of formula for how to calculate that, and you can go find that in my comments archive. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:44.820 I won't say it here because it'll probably get the video flagged in some way, but you can go and find that, and I stand by it. 00:25:44.820 --> 00:25:46.520 I think it is a general rule of thumb. 00:25:47.120 --> 00:25:55.380 There are men who can have a fudge factor, deal with women who are a little more damaged, and there are men who can't. 00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:57.140 You know the sort of man you are. 00:25:57.140 --> 00:26:04.860 You know what you can handle, what you can't handle, and whether or not you will be comfortable settling a little bit. 00:26:04.860 --> 00:26:12.500 And do, of course, recognize that women these days are also settling because men are also damaged goods in a lot of cases. 00:26:13.080 --> 00:26:17.660 So recognize that maybe you're damaged goods a little bit too. 00:26:17.660 --> 00:26:22.600 So give her a little grace, a little leeway, and hopefully she will return that. 00:26:22.600 --> 00:26:29.460 But the central part there is recognize that maybe you are the sort of man who can deal with that, and maybe you aren't. 00:26:29.460 --> 00:26:42.460 And if you have a great opportunity to marry a good woman who was maybe a little bit off the reservation in university, not wild party girl, right? 00:26:42.460 --> 00:26:45.840 But maybe she made some mistakes, did some things she should not have done. 00:26:45.840 --> 00:26:47.580 And yes, they're more than mistakes, they're sin. 00:26:47.580 --> 00:26:50.820 But does that mean she can't be a good wife? 00:26:50.820 --> 00:26:52.140 I don't think so. 00:26:52.140 --> 00:27:01.140 You know, if she had one or two serious boyfriends in university, and yes, she slept with them, does that mean that she absolutely can never be a wife? 00:27:01.140 --> 00:27:03.560 No, that would be ridiculous to claim that. 00:27:03.560 --> 00:27:04.280 Is it ideal? 00:27:04.280 --> 00:27:05.060 Absolutely not. 00:27:05.060 --> 00:27:05.700 Of course not. 00:27:05.700 --> 00:27:08.700 Because a woman is supposed to be a virgin on her wedding night. 00:27:09.660 --> 00:27:19.020 And one of the ways you can look at that is that one of the examples that is held up for marriage in scripture is the requirements for the priests. 00:27:19.020 --> 00:27:20.420 And what was the requirement? 00:27:20.420 --> 00:27:26.360 They had to marry a wife of their own race, and she had to be a virgin. 00:27:26.360 --> 00:27:28.940 God's pretty clear about what he wants for marriage. 00:27:28.940 --> 00:27:32.520 And so there is an ideal, but we live in a fallen world. 00:27:32.520 --> 00:27:35.860 And, you know, if you're millennial, you're getting up there in years. 00:27:35.860 --> 00:27:37.120 I know that personally. 00:27:37.900 --> 00:27:42.620 And so maybe there will be a little bit of settling in order to find a wife. 00:27:42.620 --> 00:27:50.660 And you just have to make it through this life that's not fatalist or pessimistic or cynical or whatever it happens to be. 00:27:50.660 --> 00:27:55.140 But I think this is something that we don't really think of enough. 00:27:55.140 --> 00:27:59.320 All you have to do with your marriage is survive for 60 years, right? 00:27:59.320 --> 00:28:06.820 Find the happiness where you can, live a good life together, let small things slide, but recognize that it's really only about 60 years. 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:09.800 Or if you're a millennial, then maybe, you know, 40 years or something. 00:28:09.800 --> 00:28:14.240 But it's not the highest bar to hurdle. 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:18.680 And all the problems we have today are gone in the next life. 00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:20.720 You just have to get through this one. 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:23.380 So keep a perspective on things. 00:28:23.380 --> 00:28:26.120 Don't look for perfection because you won't find it in this life. 00:28:26.120 --> 00:28:28.360 It doesn't exist in this life. 00:28:28.360 --> 00:28:33.320 Find something that is good for you and that you can make into a good life. 00:28:35.660 --> 00:28:43.380 The next sub-question is dating women who have a small percent of non-white admixture. 00:28:43.380 --> 00:28:48.800 I'm sort of tempted to get out my tablet, which I have set up here. 00:28:48.800 --> 00:28:51.640 Of course, now it's decided to disconnect. 00:28:51.640 --> 00:28:52.700 I think it probably went to sleep. 00:28:52.700 --> 00:28:56.580 But I don't think I need to do that because I think everyone kind of understands the percentages here. 00:28:56.580 --> 00:28:57.720 They're pretty straightforward, right? 00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:11.960 So you are effectively half your father, 25% your grandfather, 12.5% your great grandfather, and then, you know, 6.25, 3.125, so on and so forth back. 00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:17.660 So after a certain number of generations, it becomes trivia, if even that. 00:29:17.660 --> 00:29:25.380 So you get people sometimes in the US context, usually they've just had some sort of weird family legend that's a complete wild fabrication. 00:29:25.520 --> 00:29:28.920 Someone said it while he was drunk 100 years ago or something. 00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:31.800 And they'll say, oh, I'm part Cherokee. 00:29:31.800 --> 00:29:35.360 And you do a genetic test, and they're 0% Cherokee. 00:29:35.360 --> 00:29:40.460 Well, let's say you had an ancestor at some point way back who was Cherokee. 00:29:40.460 --> 00:29:42.820 Let's say it's 9, 10 generations ago. 00:29:42.820 --> 00:29:45.100 You are effectively 0% Cherokee. 00:29:45.100 --> 00:29:55.780 So marrying someone who has some small admixture from another race is not going to be a problem, generally speaking. 00:29:55.780 --> 00:29:58.780 Is there a slightly elevated risk of genetic and other issues? 00:29:58.780 --> 00:30:00.960 Of course, that's the reality of it. 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:16.100 But that doesn't mean that it rises to the level where it would be unwise to marry a woman who has a 16th, a 32nd, whatever it happens to be from some other group. 00:30:16.100 --> 00:30:20.780 Part of it is also going to depend on which other group, because again, it's that matter of distance. 00:30:21.560 --> 00:30:37.580 If you are half-Irish and half-Russian, that is not going to give you the same risk of genetic disorders and psychological stresses that you would have if you were half-Russian and half-Thai. 00:30:37.580 --> 00:30:41.640 It's that distance, it's that incompatibility of the cultures. 00:30:41.640 --> 00:30:42.960 You are going to have more problems. 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:53.400 And anyone who is of mixed race, who is being honest with you, is going to say, yes, I feel torn between two worlds, because you literally are biologically in yourself, you are torn between those two worlds. 00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:59.040 And so, if you marry a woman who has that, recognize she is going to have those issues, right? 00:30:59.040 --> 00:31:11.500 That's going to be part of her psychological makeup, and the biology as well, because that is how she was made, because her parents made that unwise decision. 00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:18.480 But if it's four, five, six, seven, eight generations back, she is not going to care. 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:21.320 That's faded into time, it's not going to matter. 00:31:21.320 --> 00:31:24.860 So you're not going to have issues with that. 00:31:24.860 --> 00:31:25.740 Again, is it ideal? 00:31:25.740 --> 00:31:26.460 No. 00:31:26.460 --> 00:31:28.460 But we don't live in an ideal world. 00:31:28.460 --> 00:31:35.220 There are going to be things where you have to give a little bit of leeway, a little bit of grace basically. 00:31:35.220 --> 00:31:36.680 And this is one of them. 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:42.080 So no, if it's something like that, I don't think it's really worth having that consideration. 00:31:42.080 --> 00:31:44.360 Again, it depends on the admixture. 00:31:44.360 --> 00:31:57.920 You know, someone who is half Japanese is not going to have the same sort of stresses and psychological baggage as someone who is half Ugandan and half, you know, European. 00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:01.340 I'm using European because that's obviously most of the audience and what I am. 00:32:01.340 --> 00:32:04.720 So use wisdom there. 00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:08.760 I've spoken about that a number of times before, touched on it in Stone Choir. 00:32:08.760 --> 00:32:17.940 But yes, once you start getting into 1st 16th, 1st 32nd, 1st 64th, it's practically not even worth considering anymore. 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:25.420 So I think that pretty much answers all of the sub-questions there. 00:32:25.420 --> 00:32:28.460 Except for, no, I don't think you have to be content being single. 00:32:28.460 --> 00:32:30.620 Just go out and find a woman. 00:32:30.620 --> 00:32:32.680 You're a man, find a younger woman. 00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:34.640 Go date a zoomer. 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:35.820 Good luck. 00:32:35.820 --> 00:32:39.680 I recognize there are problems, but there are problems with men as well. 00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:40.780 We're all damaged. 00:32:40.780 --> 00:32:41.920 We're all kind of broken goods. 00:32:41.980 --> 00:32:45.100 We're living in an interim generation, essentially. 00:32:45.100 --> 00:32:51.420 So the goal is to get through this, to make a better world for those who come after us. 00:32:51.420 --> 00:32:55.800 And part of that is that there have to be those who come after us to have that better world. 00:32:55.800 --> 00:33:00.680 So go find yourself a 24-year-old and date her. 00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:02.360 That's entirely fine. 00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:14.460 The next question, question four, is about English and the Septuagint. 00:33:16.660 --> 00:33:23.300 Do you think God is preparing to use English as a new scriptural language similar to Greek for the Septuagint? 00:33:23.300 --> 00:33:29.300 Will the future faithful English translation of scripture be used similar to the Septuagint to spread the word of God? 00:33:29.300 --> 00:33:30.660 Thoughts behind the question. 00:33:30.660 --> 00:33:40.620 In your series on the Septuagint, the basic idea was that the scriptures needed to be translated into Greek because it was the lingua franca, which is a term I always find funny. 00:33:40.620 --> 00:33:43.840 This permitted its spread throughout the Greek and Roman empires. 00:33:43.840 --> 00:33:49.080 English is known worldwide now and likely to remain the lingua franca for quite some time. 00:33:49.080 --> 00:33:52.740 Even far-flung tropical islands know some English due to commerce. 00:33:52.740 --> 00:33:54.520 That is true. 00:33:54.520 --> 00:34:00.420 This seems to me like a similar set of factors for why God preserved the word of Greek after he permitted Hebrew to die. 00:34:02.120 --> 00:34:10.960 I might go so far as to say he killed Hebrew, but I don't necessarily know that it is the equivalent for a number of reasons. 00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:22.340 I think that English, I'll start out by saying, I think that the English translation will be the word of God, the sort of official word of God in English for English speakers. 00:34:22.340 --> 00:34:29.720 But I don't think that we're at a point in history, given just the realities of technology and commerce and things like that. 00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:36.180 Where we need to have one language of scripture as the universal one. 00:34:36.180 --> 00:34:43.920 Because, like I said previously, I have a German translation of the Septuagint somewhere in this room. 00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:45.400 I don't know where I've said it. 00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:49.040 But there's no reason the Germans should use English. 00:34:49.040 --> 00:34:50.180 The German is just fine. 00:34:50.180 --> 00:34:54.780 You can translate Greek into German with minimal difficulty. 00:34:54.780 --> 00:34:58.260 And you can do the same thing for French and Dutch and Danish and whatever else. 00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:09.400 So, I think that is what should be done today, because we don't have these prohibitive costs with regard to printing, and everyone can buy a copy. 00:35:09.400 --> 00:35:14.600