After her ill-advised foray into age-inappropriate sexual politics, children’s YouTube star “Ms Rachel” has decided to dig the hole she’s found herself in even deeper.
Rachel Accurso, whose Toddler Learning YouTube channel has more than 10 million subscribers, turned off many parents with a TikTok video celebrating LGBT “pride” month.
“Happy pride to all of our wonderful family and friends,” Accurso said in the video Saturday.
“This month and every month I celebrate you,” she said. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad you’re exactly who you are.”
Accurso then dismissed those who might object to seeing someone who makes videos for toddlers advocating sexual degeneracy.
“To those who are going to comment they can’t watch the show anymore because of this support, no worries and much love your way. God bless,” she said. “I am not chasing fame or views. I’m standing strong in love.”
@msrachelforlittlesHappy Pride! 🌈 Love you!♬ original sound – Ms Rachel
The video garnered the 41-year-old YouTuber some well-deserved backlash from conservative parents and commentators, including Libs of TikTok and Matt Walsh.
But Accurso, either not understanding or not wanting to understand the criticisms coming her way, doubled down on her stance in a Monday video on TikTok.
She claimed the reason for her pro-LGBT post was her Christian faith.
Accurso began by saying, “I’ve shared prayers on here and said God bless” — so far, so good — “and that’s because my faith is really important to me.”
“It’s also one reason why I love every neighbor,” she continued, before deploying a well-worn tactic of the more liberal branches of Christianity.
“In Matthew 22, a religious teacher asked Jesus what’s the most important commandment, and Jesus says to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself,” Accurso said. “All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”
“So yes,” she said, “everyone belongs, everyone’s welcome, everyone is treated with empathy and respect. It doesn’t say love every neighbor ‘except.’
“There are so many reasons I stand strong in love. I stand with everyone. That’s who I am.”
@msrachelforlittles💗💗💗♬ original sound – Ms Rachel
Unfortunately, Accurso’s understanding of biblical “love” is severely lacking.
Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey explained where the YouTuber erred in an X post on Monday.
“I’m sure Ms Rachel is a genuine person, but she gets love wrong,” Stuckey wrote. “Biblical love rejoices in the truth.”
In the video, she said, “Look, Ms Rachel seems to be a very sweet and very sincere woman, but this is the wrong definition of love.”
“God is love. And in 1 Corinthians 13, we read that love, among other things, rejoices with the truth,” Stuckey said. “God, who is love, also defines truth, and that God tells us that the truth is that we are created male and female.
“That this is our biological reality. The only definition of holy sexuality and holy marriage is the marriage between one man and one woman.”
She then identified the crux of where Accurso went wrong in her understanding of love.
“The God who is love, who loves us so much, who created us in his image, has created these definitions, has created these parameters, has created these boundaries,” Stuckey said. “The most loving thing that we can do is agree with God.
“It is never loving to affirm someone in sin.”
“And so,” she concluded, “if we truly want to love our neighbor, we have to love God first. And if we want to keep God’s commandments, then we have to agree with him in what is good, right and true.”
I’m sure Ms Rachel is a genuine person, but she gets love wrong. Biblical love rejoices in the truth. pic.twitter.com/jXHunuiLUY
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) June 4, 2024
And Stuckey was spot on in her diagnosis of the flaw in Accurso’s logic.
Do you agree with Allie Beth Stuckey?
Affirming someone in sin is never the loving thing to do. As Thomas Aquinas wrote centuries ago in the Summa Theologiae, love is willing the good of the other, not making them feel good about themselves regardless of their actions.
Would it be loving to affirm people in, say, the alcoholism that’s killing them just because they seem “happier” when they’re drunk?
Would it be loving to affirm their debilitating mental illness just because they get angry if you try to persuade them to seek treatment?
Of course not — it would be more loving to get them the help they need even if they don’t think they want it.
Accurso’s pseudo-Christian defense of her “pride” post was at best a gross misinterpretation of Scripture and at worst an attempt to deceive.
