Persecution and Cancel Culture: A Gamer's Testament

Markinator99: 0:03

I told them that making a statement like that would be an open abnegation of my faith, and I was not going to do that. I was fired from the GSA commentary team. I sat in my chair and I cried.

Rick Yuhas: 0:27

That was Markinator99, a professional gamer, a Super Mario 64 speedrunner and a three-year veteran commentator for the GSA, the Global Speedrun Association. Believe it or not, that's a real thing. And well, he's a former commentator anyway. We'll hear more from him in a bit, coming up as I discuss cancel culture and the targeting of Christians. Right now, that's a me Mario. Let's go boys. Hey, welcome to Renewed Mindsets, where we study the basics of the faith through the lens of our middle-aged experiences. I'm Rick. Welcome to the show where I help you, gen Xers and millennials, navigate spiritually through a world that looks nothing like we expected back, when cars were square and mullets were totally awesome. I am so glad you're here. So the world is getting crazier and crazier and we wonder why is that? Well, as Christians, we're to blame for a good bit of it. You know, as more and more of our traditional values are banned, we can see the belief in Christianity on the decline and, with the loss of the influence of Christ in America, we're seeing a rise in the enemy of Christ's influence. You know, the recent stats from the Public Religion Research Institute that's a tough one to say show that the number of Americans who identify as evangelicals has dropped from 23% to 14.5%, that's from 2006 to 2020. Catholics have decreased from 16 to 11.7%, and during that same amount of time, the percentage of people with no religious affiliation has gone from 16% to 24%. That's crazy, but this decline in religious influence has come with attacks on our traditional values. There's secularists out there who don't believe in God, and they've been fighting hard to push Christianity out of American society since since as far back as I can remember, like classroom prayer let's use that for an example. It used to be a common thing in public schools until 1962, when the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional, even though the First Amendment says that Congress can't make any laws about religion. As a result, school prayer was banned, and the next year, bibles were kicked out of schools too. Now these two decisions have been used to suppress the free exercise of religion ever since, and now, over 50 years later, most of the children coming out of these schools have little or no influence of Christ in their lives. They operate on feelings and will stop at nothing to defend their right to feel however they want, even at the expense of someone else's feelings or their beliefs. And it doesn't stop there. Some really awful things have been legalized and made normal. God believes that all life is precious, including unborn children, but about 10 years after those school prayer rulings, the court said women had a constitutional right to end the lives of their unborn babies, even though that right was never mentioned in the Constitution before. So we're talking about around 60 million unborn babies being killed, which is more than the population of some whole countries. And, to make matters worse, in 2015, the court said that the same-sex marriage was totally fine, and in 2020, they said that discrimination laws now include sexual orientation and people's chosen gender identity. That means that anyone can claim to be a different gender than what they were born as, and everyone has to accept it as true and normal according to the law. It's crazy right All through society. Now we're seeing a strong pushback when it comes to speaking out against abortion or the LGBTQ agenda. People who hold these views are immediately labeled as problematic or as promoting hate speech or being homophobic, which is not a fair representation of their beliefs. Another trend we've noticed is the cultural shift towards downplaying biological differences when it comes to gender roles. For example, facebook, they now offer 56 different ways for individuals to identify their gender, including options like agender, transgender, mtf and PAN gender I don't even know what that is Now. This move towards inclusivity is certainly commendable from a certain point of view, but it's led to some absurdities, like Apple introducing a pregnant man emoji. Now some people may see this as progress and others find it difficult to accept as normal and true. It's kind of disheartening to see how the concept of free speech seems to be fading away in America. The Founding Fathers saw freedom of speech as a fundamental right, one that derived not from the government but from our Creator. They even enshrined this right in the First Amendment of the Constitution, along with freedom of religion and the press. These freedoms have allowed Americans for years and decades centuries to freely express themselves in a wide range of issues. But in recent years, we've seen the decline in the respect for this right. What was once referred to as political correctness in the 1990s has now become an expectation enforced by a progressive thought police. Speaking out against this orthodoxy can lead to harsh societal backlash and, in some cases, even legal consequences. It's like a wave of woke culture has swept over us, stifling free speech and labeling certain opinions as unacceptable. Now, the rise of social media has also played a big role in this erosion of free speech. Traditionally, the American media has stood up for this principle, but now there's mounting evidence that they, too, want to limit what can be said. Religious and conservative perspectives are frequently censored and silenced in the current media landscape, which is a concerning trend for the future of free expression. Did you know that more than two-thirds of Americans are on social media Facebook, instagram, twitter, youtube, tiktok? There's a ton more of them out there. People use these platforms to connect with friends and family and co-workers and everybody else. But here's the thing as these platforms have become super popular, they've also become super powerful, and unfortunately, they've crossed the line into censorship and manipulating our political and cultural thoughts. That's not cool, especially when it comes to religious and conservative expression. These platforms and their big-shot corporate leaders aren't too fond of it. Take Facebook, for example. They've got an army of content monitors who are in charge of filtering out religious or conservative content. They say they're against hate speech, but the problem is they end up cancelling anything that has religious, traditional or conservative views. It's pretty obvious that these tech giants have some serious biases. They're all wrapped up in this woke culture leaning far to the left, and they're using their own biases as a way to control what information we see and what they censor. Trust me, it's a lot of power in their hands. Just look what happened to our former president, donald Trump. Twitter banned him when he spoke up about voter fraud in the 2020 election. And it's not just Twitter. Facebook and YouTube, which is owned by Google, are known for blocking and deleting conservative and religious content. All the time. They claim to be fair, but religious and conservative groups are reporting their posts being deleted or hidden from view. Even major search engines like Google and Yahoo and Bing have been accused of manipulating search results to hide conservative and religious stuff. They call it misinformation, but it's really just news that doesn't fit the liberal agenda. And that brings us back to my conversation with Mark and Ader99. It all started on Twitter, on his personal account. Now, from here on in, I'm going to refer to him as Mark, mainly because he might want to listen to this with his kids one day and not get eye rolls Like I did when my kids found out I used to be Big Booty Smacker 68 on Yahoo Messenger. So what started all this, mark?

Markinator99: 10:25

A while back, I saw a post from a Twitter user named PhillyTV, who invoked his Catholic beliefs to affirm the idea that love is love and as long as you don't intentionally hurt somebody, everything is fine. And as a fellow Christian, we are called to correct our fellow brothers in Christ where we see them misrepresenting the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.

Rick Yuhas: 11:32

Okay, so I heard you say correct other people, so now I'm assuming that this was like a cage match in wrestling, where you had people coming out from every different direction and it was just a free for all.

Markinator99: 11:47

At no point was I demeaning, nor did I attack anybody. We went back and forth for a few tweets where I made it clear that I was not against this person or anybody, but the Bible does teach that sexual immorality is a sin and sin takes us further away from God, which is the whole point in Christianity. I was very calm and respectful throughout the whole conversation, while maintaining my defense of the Bible and its teachings. Once the conversation was over, philly even got back to me and thanked me for maintaining a level-headed conversation and, even though we disagree, there was no hard feelings from which I completely agree.

Rick Yuhas: 12:23

So that sounds pretty tame and it sounds like it ended without any issues. How did it get to the point that it's at what happens next?

Markinator99: 12:33

So I'm going to go ahead and give you the conversation that I had for the two heads of GSA, Milo and Cheese.

Rick Yuhas: 12:39

Milo and Cheese. Big booty smacker 68 is not sounding too bad right now.

Markinator99: 12:46

Received a message from Milo asking to have a conversation with me over Discord. Of course, I accepted this invitation and had a respectful conversation with both Milo and Cheese.

Rick Yuhas: 12:55

So what happens next is totally absurd.

Markinator99: 12:58

In this conversation I was told that somebody complained about me and that my words over Twitter made them feel unsafe. Nobody ever reached out to me prior to this Discord conversation, and this was the first time I heard of my Twitter conversation making somebody feel unsafe. Conversations sued Boil down to a discussion about trans ideology, and that is the identity of the person who claimed I made them feel unsafe.

Rick Yuhas: 13:22

So it's not even the person that Mark was talking to that was offended. It was some observer to this conversation somewhere in the world. Let's just say it was the United States, somebody who wasn't even involved in this conversation, a bystander.

Markinator99: 13:42

I explain to them that I don't agree with the ideology, but I believe God created us in His image and with a purpose. If somebody attempts to recreate themselves in their own image instead of the image that God created for them, it ultimately takes that person away from God and for the purpose that he has for their life. This is not a position of hatred. It is a biblical-based position that is in favor of people knowing God along with the purpose that he has for their life, so that you may live a purpose-filled life of fulfillment and peace.

Rick Yuhas: 14:10

So that's a very mature way of looking at it. What did Milo and Cheese have to say about that?

Markinator99: 14:16

Neither Milo nor Cheese disagreed with the sentiments that ultimately sided with the trans ideology, under the proposition that trans people are more likely to kill themselves if they are not affirmed in their identity.

Rick Yuhas: 14:28

So what was their solution? It sounds like they caved. I mean, it sounds like they didn't even disagree with you.

Markinator99: 14:35

And they didn't really disagree with anything. They didn't disagree with any kind of sentiments, but ultimately they were siding with the trans community and gave me the ultimatum of well, you can either say that there's nothing wrong with the gay and trans ideology or be fired.

Rick Yuhas: 14:57

That's pretty bold and brazen, isn't it?

Markinator99: 14:59

Yes, it was at this point where it was made clear that I either publicly state that there is nothing wrong with the trans ideology or be let go from the commentary team, a position that I've held for the past three years. I told them that I have been and will be nothing but respectful towards people who hold these views, but I cannot ultimately state or agree with the idea that this is the best thing for people. For reasons already stated, I told them that making a statement like that would be an open abnegation of my faith and I was not going to do that.

Rick Yuhas: 15:38

So how did things get so bad? Well, it's becoming more apparent that there's a progressive narrative that's been at war with God, christianity and biblical morality for a long time now, but in recent years this war has intensified so much more than it was in the 1960s, when all this really started. It's important for us to be aware of what's happening and the effects that it's having on society. We need to question the power of these tech giants and fight for our freedom of expression, regardless of our religious or political views. Let's bring some balance back into the conversation. It may be really bad now, but it's really kind of always been bad. Back in the streets of Jerusalem, the apostles Peter and John experienced great success in preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Following the response of the day of Pentecost, when like 3,000 people were converted, god opened the minds of hundreds of others to the gospel message and before long the church in Jerusalem numbered in the thousands, just like now. There were people back then that did not like that. They were sogyeses. The Sanhedrin were the highest Jewish Judicial Council. They took notice of the apostles' success. They were really just sogyeses, just a bunch of priests who controlled Jerusalem's temple. They saw that the growing power and influence of Jesus Christ's message was a threat to them. Peter and the other apostles had to be stopped. So one day, peter and John healed a man who was lame from birth, and an occasion to arrest them presented itself, with the temple guard to provide muscle. The Sanhedrin leaders swept in and seized the two apostles and they asked them by what power or what name did you do this? They demanded Peter and John tell them, and Peter answered them. He said it is by the name of Christ, jesus of Nazareth, who you crucified, but who God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you, now healed. Now the Sanhedrin couldn't deny, because a lot of them stood there and watched, they witnessed that healing. It wasn't a fluke. So really, in what was an essence of an early attempted case of cancel culture, the Sanhedrin put a gag order on the apostles. They ordered them to stop preaching in the name of Christ. But Peter said Judge for yourselves whether it's right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. It's Acts, chapter 4, verse 17. They refused to be canceled. Today in America, we see cancel culture everywhere, but no one is more targeted than religious Americans, especially Christians. Traditional morals, ethics and values are under assault, and those who hold the Judeo-Christian values that were common for the first 200 years of this nation's existence now find themselves mocked, belittled and attacked if they dare to express or to stand up for their views. A simple way of saying it is that the people who hold this view view those who hold biblical values as uneducated, superstitious people who need to be reeducated or eliminated in order to supposedly save the world. And if we think it's bad here, countries like Australia and Canada and Great Britain have actually passed hate speech laws that make it illegal to teach what the Bible says about topics like homosexuality or transgenderism and false religion, and, shockingly, pastors and other religious figures have been fined or even jailed just for quoting the Bible regarding these matters. Now, thankfully, these kind of laws haven't made their way to the United States yet, but who knows what the future holds right? Back in 2008, during his campaign, barack Obama openly mocked various biblical laws. In a candid moment at a fundraiser in San Francisco, he revealed his personal contempt for small town religious Americans, saying they get bitter, they cling to their guns or religion or antipathy to people who are not like them as a way to explain their frustrations. And a few years later, when they were trying to pass the Health Care Act, our government the US government targeted religious organization that opposed the law's mandate to provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. Now, one organization was the Little Sisters of the Poor. They stood up against those requirements due to their Catholic beliefs. Now, rather than finding a compromise, the government used full force the full force of the federal government to go after a bunch of nuns, subjecting them to years of exhausting and expensive legal battles. And this went on all the way to 2016, when the Supreme Court, in an extremely rare unanimous decision, ruled in favor of the Little Sisters holding their First Amendment rights. It's quite a journey, right? It's important for us to be aware that these issues exist and understand the challenges that face Christians in our society today. So, in so many words, you pledged your case to your bosses and you've stood up for what you believed in. So what happens now?

Markinator99: 22:03

Soon after we sadly said our goodbyes and the deed had been done, I was fired from the GSA commentary team. Heartbroken and with nothing more I could do, I sat on my chair and I cried.

Rick Yuhas: 22:14

Man, I really, really hate that for you, but I've got to commend you. There's not a lot of people that would take that stand that you did.

Markinator99: 22:24

Yeah, yeah. They wanted me to say something I didn't believe.

Rick Yuhas: 22:28

Well, dude, you're just so matter of fact about it. Praise God, you are a man of God and you stood up for what's right. You stood up for Jesus Christ.

Markinator99: 22:41

That's it, praise God.

Rick Yuhas: 22:44

Angels in Heaven are singing about Markinator 99. Praise God. I mean, I don't want you to think I'm sitting here making jokes about it, but this is the kind of thing that Christians are going to have to do more and more of as the next months and years go on. Look in the enemy in the eye and say, no, dude, you're doing it. Now, you're cutting edge. That's what it's about. You're like leading the way. Well, I've known you since you were seven, so I'm proud of you. It's all good. Well, I know your dad's proud. He's going to be wanting to take you on his business trips and introduce you to all the people that he has to speak to. That's a lie.

Markinator99: 23:19

Let me tell you right now you don't know that.

Rick Yuhas: 23:22

I do know that. He's making t-shirts right now with your picture on it and an arrow pointing over where you stand and saying I'm with him. All right, Let me pull this back in. I'm going to make a big joke about everything, but this is pretty serious. So the last I checked, there's people on these threads that are calling for your cancellation in so many words. It just makes me laugh. Maybe we'll have time to talk about that. My generation looking at this from the outside, just thinking that y'all are nuts for even putting up with it. But there's cancel culture. I mean, what is it? Why is it and how could this happen?

Markinator99: 24:16

There's a few reasons. You know. We have cancel culture probably you touched on one of them and that's being where a lot of people are being told that the mainstream way of thinking nowadays has to be validated. The woke ideologies, the people who are a part of it trans people specifically have a high rate of depression, and it is extrapolated from that that they are then more likely to commit suicide. And then it's extrapolated from that to say that it's all because people are not accepting of them and so therefore, everybody needs to be accepting or else you're killing people, dude, that is such a big leap.

Rick Yuhas: 25:11

There's always been people who were extra sensitive, that went to extremes like suicide over things like bullying, and I'm not minimizing it, but it seems like we have a whole generation that's like that.

Markinator99: 25:27

And that's a really important point that you hear all the time and gets brought up in talks and stuff. Maybe you hear a protest or something yell out you're killing people, your speech is killing somebody. That's what they mean. They're extrapolating on extrapolation of data. That doesn't even probably mean what they say it means, Because there could be a bunch of reasons for that data being the way that it is.

Rick Yuhas: 25:53

So basically, it's like we're being told you must validate me and believe my fantasy, or else.

Markinator99: 26:02

Yeah, so you're being forced to validate something and you don't believe in. You're then being told that if you don't validate it, that you're probably hurting somebody, you're probably causing them to commit suicide, which is a crazy thing. It's a crazy thing to put on somebody who simply thinks that there's a God out there, who thinks that you have a purpose and you were made with meaning and you don't have to chemically or physically alter yourself to fulfill that. You don't need to do that. But if you say that all of a sudden you're killing somebody, which is such an insane thing to say, but that's the mainstream idea. That's why it's so important to not platform people, to not give people any kind of say. If somebody does think this way, you have to get rid of them. So that's it, huh. And in this case I think that is the main reason for the cancel culture being the way that it is. But beyond that, I think it is just like a group mentality type deal of people needing to be validated. They're not secure in who they are, despite them saying otherwise, and they feel that sense of importance from being validated by others. And when they stop feeling that way, it's not their fault for not being secure in who they are. It's the other person's fault for making them feel insecure and nobody's correcting them on it.

Rick Yuhas: 27:33

Okay. So how is somebody like me or people in my generation that look at this like it's not even real? I mean, you watch the news and you hear, or you scroll through Facebook and you hear, these stories and I sit back and think this has gotta be fiction. There's no way that this could be real. How are we supposed to connect with young people with this ideology? Now, I realize it's not all just young people, but there are some older people that have jumped on this bandwagon. The majority of it is a younger generation. How are we supposed to connect with them?

Markinator99: 28:19

Well, you have to meet them where they're at, like Jesus meets us where we're at. You're never gonna walk up to somebody who's acting in a particular way. You're never gonna talk to somebody who's addicted to drugs and goes quit doing drugs. God doesn't like that and they're gonna be like oh, you're right, I'm gonna stop doing drugs. It's like no, and it's not gonna work for gay people either, like it's just not. You're talking about people being born into it to a certain degree, but we're all born into sin, into the sinful world, and we're pulled by. You know, multitude of different temptations Could be drugs, it could be sex, it could be, you know, same sex attraction and you know we tend to separate all of that stuff in our minds and we kind of give it hierarchies and whatnot. We give some more understanding than the other. But ultimately the people who you know nowadays are finding themselves in the gay and, you know, lgbtq category. They are being attacked by lust and sinful desires and nobody is beating them where they're at and saying, hey, it's okay to experience these things. It doesn't mean that it's okay to engage with it. You know that's not what God tells us to do, but it's okay. If you have these thoughts, you have to understand that they're not your own. You have to attempt to dwell in that of the thoughts of the Lord and his will and his spirit. But to engage in any sort of thought and to just say which one, which thought, feels the best, that's not the way to go about it, because you know your physical body will desire anything and everything that feels good and brings temporary what's the word temporary satisfaction. Your body loves that because it gets what it wants and it has no concern for the future, but our mind and our spirit does. The spirit that we have maybe not exactly the one that we have right now is built for eternity, but you know, god lives in eternity and ultimately we want to meet him there and be with him in eternity. And so our mind is definitely forward thinking and our body is not, and we have to separate those two things. And that's where a lot of people start to stumble with a multitude of different sense, whether it's like a spiritual or spiritual, like I said, drugs or lustful desires or anything of the sort.

Rick Yuhas: 31:03

Well, listen, mark, I really appreciate you taking time out to come talk to us again. Kudos to you and your faith. We don't really hear that much, do we Kudos, on your faith. Good job on being faithful. That's it. Praise God, man. Well, before we go, how can people find you? I can imagine there's gonna be some people that wanna get a hold of you, get your story, might have more people want to interview you. Then again there might be some people out there that want to do you some real harm. So stay safe. I hope that you feel safe.

Markinator99: 31:45

I don't feel safe. That's such a crazy statement. We could have harped on that statement more, but For real, though.

Rick Yuhas: 31:53

How can people find Markinator 99?

Markinator99: 32:00

Yeah, you can find me my name's out there. I'm not completely anonymous. So that's Markinator 99 is my online handle. You can find that pretty much anywhere Instagram, youtube, twitter. If you wanna hit me up on Twitch, there is an underscore between Markinator 99. It's the only platform it's like that, but everything else Markinator 99, I should come up and also there'll probably be some content on John Mark Walker on YouTube. It's just as far as like general videos and stuff. There's really not much there at the moment, but if you wanna subscribe to my YouTube there, there definitely will be and probably there'll be at least one or two new videos by the time this airs. So yeah, john Mark Walker, if you wanna know more Christian stuff. The Markinator side is all gaming related stuff, which will probably have some crossover now that everything's happened. But that's where you can find me.

Rick Yuhas: 33:02

All right, well, thanks again. We gotta end this thing, because I've had to keep the heat off so that the microphone didn't pick it up, and I'm freezing now.

Markinator99: 33:13

That's the opposite of me. It's hot in here, so yeah, so have a good night.

Rick Yuhas: 33:19

All right, man, you have a good night too Good talking to you. Say hey to the fam, say hey to the family. For me, you too appreciate it All right.

Markinator99: 33:26

Talk to you later.

Rick Yuhas: 33:31

We've heard about the persecution around the world, and it's here in this country. Now, and sometime in the not too distant future, millions of Americans are gonna have to choose between their conscience and their jobs. At a very minimum, it's messed up. But here's the thing All of this is leading to something bigger. It's like there's a plan to cancel God from the public arena. It's an end game where a worldwide government takes control and this system is against anybody who follows God's word, and most of the world's gonna go along with it. But don't be fooled. It's all a front Together. They're gonna wage a war against God's people and it's gonna be a mess and a lot of people are gonna worship the beast. It's all in prophecy, you know. But think about it now. Cancel. Culture has already done so much to turn all these nations away from biblical morals. We're going down a dark path. It's only gonna get worse and it's a little overwhelming. But here's the thing. Don't lose hope. Even though we can't change the whole world, we can make a difference. If we stand up for God in his ways, we can resist Satan's grip on society and even in our own lives. So let's not give up. Let's keep fighting the good fight. And now Deep Thoughts with Rick Uhaas. When people think about traveling to the past, they worry about accidentally changing the present, but no one in the present really thinks they can radically change the future. By supporting renewed mindsets, you're not just backing a show. You're fueling those engaging conversations, insightful interviews and quality content. Your support of this ministry helps me bring God's word to those that may not hear it anywhere else, and you're investing in your own future of listening. Together, let's amplify our voice and keep the conversations flowing. Visit our website at renewedmindsetscom. Slash support and be a crucial part of this show. Thank you for making a difference. Well, that's all for this week's show. You know the name of this show speaks my hope for you. It's taken from the words of Romans, chapter 12, verse two Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. If you enjoyed what you heard, do me a favor, please, and tell someone you know about it. Send them a link and a text you know. You may even need to download it to their phone and show them what a podcast is. If it was valuable to you, it will be to them. Visit renewedmindsetscom to hear past episodes, read the blog and check out the new merch and, as always, while you're there, send me a voicemail by clicking the button at the bottom right corner of the main page. Tell me what you think about this show. I just might play it on a future episode. Until next week, I'm Rick. I love you, see ya. The intro and outro music for the Renewed Mindsets podcast is Are you Ready? By Floodgate From the album Are you Ready? Copyright 2002, offbeat Ministries Inc. Floodgate can be found on Apple Music and iTunes Music used with permission. A special shout out goes to Weston McCurry for writing some fresh new music for the podcast. I love it. You'll be hearing more of it.