Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Greg Hamilton
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000131
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00:22 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:25 This is the program that brings you discussion, news, 00:27 views and up-to-date information on 00:29 Religious Liberty events in the United States 00:32 and around the world. 00:33 My name is Lincoln Steed, Editor of Liberty Magazine 00:37 and with me on the program is my guest, Greg Hamilton 00:40 Welcome back. Thank you, Steed. 00:41 This is not the first time and nor will it be the last. 00:44 And Greg, you're the President 00:46 of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association. 00:48 And you're Editor of Liberty Magazine. 00:50 Thank you for re-affirming that. 00:52 And those that watch this program know 00:54 that Liberty Magazine is near and dear to my heart. Yes. 00:57 Thanks for the chance to promote it again. 01:00 It's a magazine you can go, if you're watching this program 01:03 to libertymagazine.org. 01:05 We can just show to them right here. 01:07 That's the latest edition right here, the latest, very good. 01:09 Right here, look at that. Yeah, barely off the press, 01:12 it's a very good issue. 01:13 I highly recommended especially your editorial. 01:16 Well, thank you, that sort of guarantee 01:18 that you're coming back on the program. 01:20 I hope our viewers who are reading Liberty Magazine 01:23 read the editorials too. 01:25 It was a great editorial on globalization. 01:27 I really appreciated it, everybody should read it, good. 01:30 Anyhow, I'm from Australia 01:32 and I remember a number of things growing up there, 01:36 but one thing that stuck in my mind is the, 01:38 the trade Union control of that country. 01:41 And often it would be something as simple 01:43 as say a train driver is disciplined by his supervisor 01:46 and he didn't like what they said. 01:48 And, so his Union would go out on strike 01:52 and then immediately maybe the bus drivers 01:54 would go out on sympathy strike, 01:56 then it would be the long showman and before you knew it, 01:59 it happened many times all the Unions would go down. 02:03 And I remember on one occasion 02:05 every single Union in the country was on strike 02:08 and the Prime Minister needed to go to the US, 02:11 he had a plane meeting there 02:12 and they would not fuel his plane, he couldn't leave. 02:14 So, I know that writ large Unionism 02:17 can absolutely control all of civil society. 02:22 That's not the case in the United States though, is it? 02:25 Well, it's... it's they're actually 02:26 at a very small minority. 02:29 But they have tremendous power, 02:31 and they're not growing by any means. 02:33 In fact, governors because of the economic crisis 02:35 are hitting them hard, even democrats 02:38 like the Governor Cuomo in New York is attacking Unions, 02:46 so is the Governor 0Gregoire in Washington, 02:47 even our Governor in Oregon, new Governor Kitzhaber. 02:49 Even Democratic Governors, Liberal Democratic Governors 02:52 are going after Unions, especially the... 02:55 Which is in the grand tradition of the United States. 02:57 Again when I first came to the U.S. back in the 60s 03:00 and then watch things through into the 70s. 03:03 I can remember the FBI and Edgar Hoover was still alive 03:07 when I first came, they were perusing Jimmy Hoffa big time. 03:11 Broke that Union pretty much 03:13 of course Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. 03:15 So, it's not just Republican phenomena, 03:17 that's happening right now was Scott Walker with Hudson, 03:21 it's democrats too. 03:22 And of course...there was the air traffic controllers Union. 03:27 Yes. With President Reagan. 03:30 So on a certain level I see Unions 03:33 under the perpetual attack in this country. 03:35 But as a Seventh-day Adventist, Ellen White 03:40 picking up on prophecy in that dynamic of the end of time says 03:43 that we'll see this, this Union scourge 03:48 or Unions in a form of a scourge at the end of time. 03:52 So something must have changed. 03:55 Yes, and of course with the auto workers Union 03:57 that occurred recently that was the part of the 04:00 political and economic fall out that occurred back in 2009 04:03 and 2010 with the economic crash. 04:05 Basically United Auto Workers, one of the main causes for 04:09 that crash in the automobile industry. 04:11 And, yet Obama... President Obama chose to restore them 04:14 by infusing tons of Federal money 04:17 and even taking over the auto industry essentially. 04:20 And...and they have recovered somewhat. 04:22 But what's happening in Wisconsin is very interesting, 04:30 They're blaming the Unions 04:31 for the economic fall out nationwide. And, and... 04:35 It's not going to help them much? 04:37 It's not going to help the Unions much, 04:38 but I also see it back firing on Republican zealots 04:43 who want to do away with Unions all together. 04:46 Now, I have to extrapolate on a lot of this myself 04:49 because I don't see it presently 04:51 evidenced in the United States society, 04:56 as I say, weak Union situation compared to Australia. 04:59 But I look in the Bible and it says that the great thing 05:02 of the end of time is the capital holding back 05:06 the workers wages by fraud. 05:09 Then it's clear that at the end of time people rise up against 05:12 the economic system that's collapsing. 05:14 So, looking at that Bible outline and they're looking 05:19 at the way revolutions typically work, 05:20 as they're working in the Middle East. 05:23 I would expect that the every man, the worker, 05:26 the, the... everyday citizen that makes thing happen 05:29 is going to assert himself in the United States, 05:33 as he's done elsewhere. 05:35 And in that environment, yes, I think Unionism 05:38 probably has a second, if not last life to go. 05:43 And in that phase, 05:44 I think we need to b e careful because Unionism... 05:47 You're saying, they have... they have another life. 05:49 A big life, writ large, and the problem with the Unionism 05:53 from the Religious Liberty perspective is that they 05:56 they're a close shop type of arrangement 05:59 where they can decide, this is the Union policy 06:01 and we'll do as the Union says, and...and your principles 06:05 religious few point may... maybe restricted. 06:08 Which goes to the fact in my dealing 06:09 with work place discrimination cases, 06:11 there's no such thing as an open shop, it's a myth. 06:14 Yeah, so, you know, I got to be careful on Unionism, 06:20 I have a historical view and a prophetic view. 06:22 I'm quite certain as a Seventh-day Adventist 06:25 reading prophecy that at some point in the United States 06:27 Unions will at far greater problem then they are now. 06:32 But I do know that they did some very good things 06:35 and at present they're not the major problem. 06:37 But, I agree with you as we look at some of this 06:39 dynamic in Wisconsin and elsewhere. 06:42 And even with this present administration, 06:44 which is a very pro-Union. 06:45 And not socialistic in the ideological sense but maybe 06:50 in the sense of an agenda that is more egalitarian. 06:57 I think that might be the climate for the renewed Union 07:01 power. There's some paradoxical cross currents anomalies 07:04 if you will, that's occurring though at the same time. 07:07 What's ironic is when the Tea Party got it started in 2009, 07:10 they made huge appeals 07:12 to unemployed Blue Collar labor Union members. 07:15 And it even caught up to the point of 12 percent of all 07:18 Tea Party members were labor Union members. 07:21 Now this is very interesting because you know the Tea Party 07:24 is more of a Libertarian, independent streaks, 07:28 sort of that broad middle pushing back the extremes, 07:31 demanding for original intent and other things. 07:33 It's a very populist movement, 07:35 and a leaderless movement, I'll be with that. 07:40 But the thing I see going on with the Tea Party 07:42 is it started with Scott Brown in Massachusetts 07:44 where nearly 59 percent of the AFL CIO 07:48 elected Scott Brown a Republican, 07:51 a Tea Party candidate to take Ted Kennedy's seat. 07:55 Which should have said to the Tea Party that Scott Brown 07:57 would be, you know, fairly moderate to liberal 08:00 once he got in there, 08:03 especially if he's going to survive re-election 08:05 after 6 years to continue to hold Kennedy's seat. 08:08 So, to me that's an interesting phenomenon, 08:10 and also the phenomenon that occurred in Olympia, Washington 08:13 at their capital recently when there was a forced 08:18 Unionization of all child care centers, 08:19 both, public, private and religious. 08:24 Of the 18 Republican Senators five, 08:26 and all five are Catholic, 08:28 were very much for this forced Unionization bill. 08:31 The bill said that all employees and the owners 08:35 of the child care centers are employees of the governor. 08:39 And this was sponsored by the 08:40 Service Employees International Union. 08:42 And fortunately, I was blessed to be able to get 08:45 there in time to defeat the bill, 08:48 getting 10 Democratic Senators 08:50 to pledge no against a final vote on the Senate floor. 08:55 It was a huge victory for us, 08:56 it was a huge victory for religious freedom. 09:00 So, what, what's your take... 09:01 what you just described, 09:02 where did you see this going, what's the next step? 09:05 I don't know, 09:06 it's a very unpredictable scene in my opinion. 09:09 But I would say that with current situation with 09:18 great fervor against collective bargaining 09:19 and all the rights and benefits that attain, 09:22 they're too from it. 09:23 I think it will take a hit in the courts. 09:26 And I think the courts as evidenced already in Wisconsin, 09:30 where the States Supreme Court judges already stepped in 09:33 and said no, what you're doing is unconstitutional 09:37 That to me is an element, 09:39 a factor that we're gonna see more and more of. 09:41 And, and it may not help our 09:44 economic situation in the country. 09:46 I personally think that labor Unions 09:48 are, are harmful to economic recovery. 09:52 Maybe not in the long run, 09:54 but in a short run under desperate economic times. 09:57 But labor resists some of the necessary changes 09:59 that at least governments would think that they have to pursue 10:03 and a Union will not go along with that. 10:05 I've thought long and hard about this as I say, 10:08 prophetically I can see it's inevitable that the dynamic 10:13 that a Union represents will rise up 10:15 and certainly restrict the conscience matters. 10:18 How that will happen is...is what I thought long about, 10:21 and I actually wrote it in Liberty Magazine once 10:23 and nobody challenged me on it. 10:27 And even those 0who read the editorial. 10:28 But this is what I think, 10:31 in the early history of the United States 10:33 there was a huge battle that was won in essence by the Unions 10:37 or at least the Unions with the beneficiaries. 10:38 There was a battle between capital and labor. 10:41 And 150 years ago, the Robber Barons 10:45 and that whole thing were running a muck 10:47 and of course, this is a capitalist country, 10:52 the citizens of the 0Unites States forget it. 10:53 It always has been, money interest controlled this, 10:57 in this country to a large degree. 11:02 had to make his way and he had little rights back in that era. 11:05 The police, the Pinkerton, 11:11 I was fishing for that name, the Pinkertons, 11:12 which were private police, paramilitary force 11:15 was brought out against the strikers, 11:17 they were more of them than the military 11:18 which is worth remembering. 11:20 But anyhow, the up shot of that was the forty hour a week, 11:24 the guaranteed wages, and the whole thing. 11:26 And middle class America, now we're losing it. 11:31 But, what I think, we're facing, 11:33 and sort of inevitable but no one has announced it. 11:36 We're in a new model with a whole structure of the economy 11:39 is broken, regardless where stock market 11:43 goes in the 0next few months. 11:44 The system is broken, it is, the old conventions, 11:46 the old assumptions don't work anymore. 11:49 It's a shaky house of cards, it has been a house of card 11:52 for decades but it is seen to be such now. 11:55 And they haven't erected anything instead. 11:56 And, we are all just sort of on tenterhooks, how do we survive? 12:00 And I think in this new model, 12:04 we're going to, already 0starting to see a bit of it. 12:06 But it probably will get to be a major development 12:08 where capital and labor and now co equals working together 12:12 for the same end and that's not being the case before. 12:15 And in that environment, 12:16 capital might actually work through the government 12:19 to ensure that Unionism is the prevailing status of workers. 12:24 And....when that's the case in essence in the back door 12:28 where you got church and state working, not church and state, 12:31 but the state and the private, and the religious sentiments 12:35 working through, to inhibit religious autonomy 12:39 within a Union environment. 12:41 We would also suggest that labor Unions 12:45 aren't as much factor, 12:46 a bigger factor in even presidential elections. 12:49 They were with perhaps President Obama, 12:51 but what does that say for the future? 12:53 In terms of you know, the influence of Labor Unions 12:56 on the election of the President. 12:57 I don't know, I don't have the answer to the question? 12:59 Well, we'll....we'll see a lot of this as we go, 13:01 and as we discuss a little bit further after the break, 13:03 we'll be back discussing labor Unions 13:06 and what their development and their rights 13:09 to power means for Religious Liberty. 13:19 One-hundred years! A long time to do anything, 13:22 much less publish a magazine, but this year Liberty, 13:26 the Seventh-Day Adventist voice of Religious Freedom, 13:29 celebrates one hundred years of doing what it does best, 13:33 collecting, analyzing, and reporting the ebb 13:36 and flow of religious expression around the world. 13:39 Issue after issue, Liberty has taken 13:42 on the tough assignments, tracking down threats 13:46 of the devil in every corner of the globe. 13:49 Governmental interference, personal attacks, 13:52 corporate assaults, even Religious Freedom issues 13:55 sequestered within the church community itself have been 13:57 clearly and honestly exposed. Liberty exists for one purpose, 14:02 to help God's people maintain that all important 14:05 separation of Church and State, while recognizing the dangers 14:09 inherent in such a struggle. During the past century, 14:13 Liberty has experienced challenges of its own, 14:15 but it remains on the job. Thanks to the inspired 14:19 leadership of a long line of dedicated Adventist Editors, 14:22 three of whom represent almost half of the publications 14:24 existence and the foresight of a little woman 14:27 from New England. One hundred years of struggle, 14:30 one hundred years of victories, Religious Freedom isn't just 14:34 about political machines and cultural prejudices. 14:37 It's about people fighting for the right to serve the God 14:42 they love as their hearts and the Holy Spirit dictate. 14:46 Thanks to the prayers and generous support 14:48 of Seventh-day Adventists everywhere, 14:51 Liberty will continue to accomplish its work 14:53 of providing timely information, spirit filled inspiration, 14:56 and heaven sent encouragement to all who long to live 15:00 and work in a world bound together by the 15:03 God ordained bonds of religious freedom. 15:17 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider. 15:19 Before the break with guest, Greg Hamilton, 15:21 and I'm Lincoln Steed, Editor of Liberty Magazine 15:23 by the way if you have just joined us. 15:25 Before the break I was talking with you Greg about trade 15:29 Unions. Seventh-day Adventists have had a long standing 15:33 suspicion of trade Unions, not for any political or social 15:38 reason but because we see trade Unionism working to restrict 15:41 freedom of conscious 15:42 and practice of religion in the work place. 15:45 And we have believed with prophetic Ques 15:48 that we would see a resurgence of Union power 15:50 at the end of time. I was saying that resurgence. 15:53 Well, I have this book at home, 15:55 and it's the original manual, the original texts 15:59 of benefits promised by the AFL CIOs 16:02 written in 1920 and it's authored by a guy named Bakke. 16:07 And what's interesting in it is, it talks about 16:09 giving the benefit of having Sunday Sabbath off. 16:14 Okay, as one of its benefits. 16:16 It spends two whole pages on it, 16:18 and I thought that was incredible in about a 800 page 16:21 book, that it would actually talk about that. 16:23 Now Unions, largely had their beginnings in industrial 16:30 North East and the Midwest, 16:32 but they started to make their way down to the South. 16:34 That is religious sensibility. 16:38 Right, where they would need to offer that type of benefit 16:41 and to sell it, which they have apparently 16:42 have done quite successfully. 16:45 And not as successfully in another parts of the country, 16:48 but nevertheless, you factor that in, 16:50 and when you factor in my office, 16:53 in which I handle all kinds of people who call up 16:58 and say they want to be exempt from paying Labor Union 17:00 dues and from being a Labor Union Member. 17:03 And so, we provide that benefit, 17:05 it's pretty routine, it's about a five page, a form, paper 17:08 form process which we take them through 17:10 and usually there's no problems. 17:12 But Washington State of Federal employees 17:15 and the SEIU or The Service Employees International 17:19 have come up with a new tactic. 17:21 And, the tactic is blatantly unconstitutional, 17:23 based up on a Six Circuit Court Ruling, 17:26 Federal Circuit Court Ruling, 17:27 and Eight Circuit Court Ruling which Bruce Cameron, 17:29 the attorney that we know in Washington D.C. 17:31 that national way to a foundation. 17:32 And he's about to come out with an article 17:35 at Liberty Magazine on Union development. 17:37 Super, really smart guy on this issue 17:42 and is a real champion and has won numerous cases in court. 17:45 The guy is just a, I mean if anybody is on fire 17:47 on this issue to deal with the situation, it's Bruce Cameron. 17:50 He's the leading expert in the nation. 17:52 Absolutely, I think that he has accepted that. 17:55 And so from these cases, 17:58 , it's proven that it's unconstitutional, 18:01 which is what Washington was trying to say to say 18:03 that you got to prove that it's a religious dogma or doctrine 18:08 of your church that you're against labor Unions. 18:10 When in fact, first of all according 18:12 to many Supreme Court cases, you don't even have to, 18:15 when it comes to religious free exercise law. 18:22 It should be a matter of personal conscience. 18:24 Exactly, which is what they decided, 18:26 and Bruce Cameron pointed that out. 18:27 And so, I you know in dealing with both 18:31 Washington Federal State Employees 18:32 and also the Service Employees International, 18:34 I said, this an unconstitutional tactic on your part. 18:37 You know, you're saying that this is required, 18:39 but that's your requirement that's not required by law. 18:42 Yeah. I said this smoke and mirrors, 18:44 this...this is an unfair tactic and it's a pure tactic. 18:48 And so, and also in the form it says 18:50 you have 30 days to decide whether you want to become 18:53 a labor Union member or not, that's bogus. 18:55 You know, you can become, you can exempt yourself 18:58 from labor Union membership any time you want. 19:00 And so this whole idea of open shop 19:03 and close shop is pure nonsense. 19:05 Well, we haven't revisited what came up earlier with the 19:10 Obama administration that the choice provision was no choice? 19:18 You are telling about faith based issues? 19:19 No, maybe, I got the wrong term, what was aware, 19:23 where they were putting it to a general vote 19:26 of the members, it was an open vote, Greg. 19:29 Oh! Oh! Yeah, I remember that, 19:31 that was actually during the presidential election. 19:34 It was a ballot initiative. 19:36 And there was some discussion of it shortly after, 19:38 but it seems to have gone by the bye. 19:40 It's not trying to, it was a device to more easily form 19:45 Unions, because that that's the real threat of Unionism. 19:49 I don't myself see it as a threat from Unionism 19:52 just that Unions exists. 19:53 It's when a Union model is a monopoly. 19:56 Oh, I know it was, when it came to vote 19:58 and when Unions tried to infiltrate in the companies, 20:01 when it came to vote 20:02 as to whether they were Unionized or not. 20:04 Those who chose not to vote, it said, that they would 20:07 put their names up and reveal those names. 20:10 Which is, which is absolutely, talk about pure pressure 20:14 that's not only dominance, that's bullying. Right. 20:19 And...and, so even George McGovern, 20:21 the former presidential candidate, 20:26 1972 rose up against this tactic. 20:27 And even then Liberal Republican or modern Republican Senator, 20:32 Arlen Specter, became a democrat later, was against it, 20:37 and numerous people stood up against this tactic. 20:38 So, I see what you are saying in terms of tactics, 20:40 but here's my point. 20:41 They seemed to have backed off from that, 20:42 we were worried big time about that 20:45 but that's faded and so now there's another way to 20:49 to give power back to the Unions 20:51 rather then forced Unionization of a given. 20:56 But here's my point, in regard to Sabbath keeping, 20:58 whenever we have a combined Sabbath conflict situation. 21:03 And the Seventh-day Adventist, 21:04 the Seventh-day Sabbath, Saturday. 21:06 And their Labor Union member as well as having a Sabbath 21:09 conflict in the work place. 21:10 We have found that when they get a representative 21:14 assigned to them, okay. 21:19 It amounts to nothing, 0they really don't do much. 21:20 And when they do appeal it beyond the Union system 21:23 and they go court many, times a court will remand 21:25 it back and say, well you had a fair internal equal employment 21:29 opportunity process within your Union. 21:32 So they say, it's out of our hands, 21:34 you deal that within your Union. 21:35 What I have told my church members, 21:38 and warned them about labor Unions. 21:40 Is that, it... it's true, 21:42 you haven't signed your religious freedom 21:44 rights away under the constitution. 21:45 But in practice you almost have 21:48 in a way when you sign on the bottom line 21:50 to become a labor Union member. 21:51 And, so that's why I want to warn people about, 21:53 is it that you don't have the protections there 21:55 that you think that you might have. 21:57 Let's...it acts in two ways, 21:58 as we've always seen just voting in general. 22:01 It may restrict you in your practice of religion 22:04 but you might be then party to certain actions 22:07 that are antithetical to what your religion stands for, 22:10 both general morality or of particular actions of the Union. 22:15 The biggest problem that Ellen G White saw 22:17 in regards to labor Unions in almost all of the writings 22:20 that I see coming through is the thuggery type nature 22:24 of labor Unions that if you won't join, 22:27 then it's the old Bush statement, you know, 22:30 you're either for us or you're against us. Absolutely. 22:32 And that becomes problematic in a last day scenario. 22:35 I'd work in another way a term that against here 22:39 I use, is monopolistic, monopolistic behavior. 22:42 Yeah. This is, we are it and you do what we say or else. 22:46 How many times we have seen that when Unions have striked. 22:50 And then the non-Union members come in to take their places. 22:54 Well, that's where the violence erupt. 22:55 And then the people get their baseball bats out 22:57 and their guns and they started attacking these people. 23:00 Yeah. And...and that's really 23:02 problematic, and so it's true that labor Unions, 23:07 I think when it comes to collective bargaining law. 23:11 they have a right to preserve the benefits that's due them. 23:15 But...and so what's happening in Wisconsin 23:16 is a very interesting phenomena, in Iowa and Indiana 23:21 I believe, the other state where this is happening, 23:23 it's an interesting phenomena. 23:25 But where does it actually goes I don't know, but I think, 23:28 I really don't see Unions dying off and like you said, 23:31 I see them actually coming back with a roar. 23:34 Yeah, and something that I've never heard said before 23:37 that it just strikes me, we would need Unions 23:41 in a modern democratic state if the state had taken up on 23:46 itself to defend the rights of the worker, 23:48 but that's not often the case. 23:50 And in reality the United States 23:53 is not so much controlled by big business 23:55 but it is the...the family documents make quite plan, 23:59 the pursuit of happiness involves the pursuit of money 24:04 and so money was very much at the root of this. 24:07 So, by nature the government tends to support 24:09 the making of money, the big companies that make the money. 24:13 And they're the captains of industry less than the janitor. 24:19 But if there was a rigorous defensive workers rights, 24:22 I would be the first to argue, 24:23 you don't need a Union whatsoever. 24:25 Now, I don't want people to get wrong impression, 24:27 I'm sure you don't either. 24:28 And that is, we don't want to give people the 24:29 idea that being a labor Union member is somehow a sin. 24:32 No. Because there are number of 24:35 of church members in the Seventh-day Adventist church, 24:36 they are Labor Union members. 24:38 And I have had people call my office all the time 24:40 saying I don't see any wrong with Labor Unions. 24:42 And I tell them, you know to the contrary that 24:44 I think just the opposite 24:46 But, nevertheless we need to remember that, 24:48 people who are Labor Union member 24:50 should not be discriminated in our churches. 24:52 And even our North American division policy manual 24:56 stated it very clearly that to withhold a church office 25:00 from a Labor Union member 25:01 is actually a discriminatory by law. 25:05 No it's a matter of individual conscience which is why 25:07 we objected the Union in the first place, 25:09 right, to restrict the exercise of the individual conscience. 25:12 But Ellen White writing to Seventh-day Adventist, 25:14 this is no grand pronouncement of the world at large, 25:18 but she said that any, I'm slightly paraphrasing 25:22 any person that expects the soon coming of Christ, right, 25:26 cannot belong to any Union 25:28 that has been formed or will ever be formed. 25:31 So the caution against Union was not tied to time and place. 25:36 It was...it was there's something inherently 25:41 antithetical to freedom of conscience in the Union 25:44 structure. Absolutely. But clearly as I explain 25:47 from history, you could look at the history of capital 25:49 and labor and there's a good argument 25:50 what Unions needed and have done a good thing. 25:54 So we are not opposed to Unions in that sense, 25:56 right, it's the point of view of conscience. 25:59 And conscience when it comes to that resisting 26:04 the effects politically, even of Unions, which 26:08 tend to side with the democratic party... 26:10 party mainly and that's the other thing 26:12 is that we haven't factored in here in this discussion 26:15 is that typically Labor Unions are the huge donors, 26:21 politically, towards the big war chess of democratic politicians. 26:26 And that's not casting concrete, that could shift 26:28 and we will see in a little.... little in the current. 26:30 You can, but that's one of the reasons 26:31 why Seventh-day Adventist have traditionally 26:33 not been favor of the Labor Unions. 26:37 And it happens to attached to the nature of the very fact 26:42 that we are very conservative in our beliefs 26:44 and we should be conservative in our beliefs. 26:46 We should be concerned about Labor Unions today. 26:51 Imagine you're one of the Israelites slaves toiling there 26:54 at Egypt thousands of years ago. 26:57 Working on shore from before the sun up 26:59 till after the sun down always under the last shift over here. 27:04 And yet we're told that when Moses appeared 27:06 on the scene and proclaimed 27:08 that the Lord required certain things of them. 27:11 Then they were actually worked harder, 27:15 they were given the same or greater quarter but no straw. 27:20 There's been a great battle between capital 27:22 and labor through the years. 27:25 Seventh-day Adventist have recognized 27:27 that while the workers has rights. 27:29 And that the workers very much like those Israelites 27:32 of your bending under the lash of the task master 27:36 that they too have rights and dignity of labor 27:41 and a right to living wage. 27:44 But there is a question of autonomy 27:46 of someone who has a spiritual commitment 27:49 and because of that Seventh-day Adventist 27:51 have long seen Labor Unions as working to repress 27:54 individual freedoms, spiritual rights. 27:58 And as we come toward the very close of time 28:00 it will be more important than ever to maintain 28:03 this position in our current war between capital and labor. 28:07 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2014-12-17