Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is a program
bringing you up-to-date news,
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views, and discussion
on Religious Liberty events
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in the United States
and around the world.
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My name is Lincoln Steed,
Editor of Liberty Magazine.
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And my guest on the
program is Dr. John Graz,
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the Director for
religious liberty
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for the Seventh
Adventist World Church.
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I'm very pleased
to be with you again.
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It's great, always great
to have you on the program.
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There are so many things
that you and I have spoken about
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in the past and
things that we're
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involved in presently.
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One thing I want
to discuss though,
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for a few minutes
here is a recent event
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that both you and I
attended and participated in,
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in Washington D.C.
at the Canadian Embassy.
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It was the latest and I'm trying
to remember was it the 10th or--
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Tenth, tenth.
Tenth Liberty Dinner.
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Tenth Annual Liberty Dinner,
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originally begun
to try to celebrate
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Liberty's 100th
Anniversary but it's now become
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an ongoing event
that is cosponsored
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by the I.R.L.A. which you head.
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Liberty
Magazine. Liberty Magazine
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and the North American
Religious Liberty Association.
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I thought this year it
was a fantastic event, yeah.
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What was your impressions
of it, what stood up for you?
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Yes, I think it
was a very good event.
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You know one of our goal
was really to have the majority
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of people outside of the church,
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because really we
want to reach people,
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we have, you know,
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to have also of big
diplomatic representation.
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It means diplomats, ambassadors,
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member of the
diplomatic court representing
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several countries
and so on and so on.
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People from the
government, the U.S. government,
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people from the
U.S. commission--
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We had all of those--
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We had all, we had all
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and we have a
fabulous group of people there.
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And you know, the
meeting was very good and,
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and as a speaker we had
the minister of foreign affairs
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from the government of Canada,
from Canada, John Baird--
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Which is the second
ranking-- Yes, and he was--
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In federal government
after the prime minister.
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You know, that's interesting
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that someone
from the government,
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not the U.S. government
decided to come to Washington
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not to meet the
President of the U.S.
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but to attend and to speak
to a dinner organize by us,
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and to a dinner which
will give him the possibility,
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the opportunity to
speak about religious freedom,
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about what they
want to do in Canada
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to promote and
protect religious freedom.
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That was really a big event
and the press and the media,
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you know, recognize
that our dinner in Washington
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has become really the
dinner for religious freedom.
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That's a dream. Yeah.
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Now we've had a
great track record with it.
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We've had the U.S. ambassador
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for religious
freedom John Hanford--
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He was the
first one, I remember.
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And his
predecessor, ambassador Seiple
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was also another
speaker but when he spoke,
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he was out of the position.
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But we had John Hanford,
we've had Hillary Clinton,
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and John McCain, John Kerry.
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The recently
appointed U.S. ambassador
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for religious
freedom-- Johnson Cook.
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Trying to
remember her first name.
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Suzan Johnson-- Suzan Cook.
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So you know, we've had
great names and here now
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to have the foreign minister
for the Canadian government
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at the Canadian
embassy, very official of them.
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Hosted by the Canadian embassy,
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that is something that we
did not even imagine you know,
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when we start you
remember how it happened.
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We attend this, we were invited
to Religious Freedom Dinner
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and at the end you know,
James Standish was with us
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and I think James and
you, you ask the question
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"can we do that?"
Yeah. And the answer was,
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yeah, yes we should.
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And with a small amount of money
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because we are always
dealing with a small budget--
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Well, that was the one thing
liberty had at that moment.
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We had some
reserves-- Yeah, liberty--
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To put the money toward it.
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But now it's--the cost
is spread more equally,
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so it's more
doable in our own church.
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I think everybody recognizes,
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this is an unequaled
opportunity in Washington
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to put ourselves forward
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and to join with
these other churches
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and agencies that
we routinely deal with.
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It has, you know, I
have say that it had change,
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it has change
totally the presence
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and the image of the church
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and our
association in Washington.
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People there and especially
those who are involved
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in religious
freedom and when I say that,
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it means people
from the State department
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where you have an
office of religious freedom
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and an ambassador
of religious freedom.
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People in the
embassy, because every year
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they have to write report about
the country where they are,
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about religious freedom.
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And people from
the U.S. commission,
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you know, they
come and they say that,
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"hey, don't miss the dinner,
the Religious Liberty Dinner."
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And the food was very
good this year I must say.
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As we plan it--a number of
those in our office you know,
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work on the details and
they're always very concerned
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to make sure the meal is good
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and they have
always been good meals.
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But I tell them I said, people
aren't coming for the food,
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we want it to be good
food but they're coming to join
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common cause on our shared
commitment to religious liberty.
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And as I said, Lincoln,
there are not a lot of event.
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This is why
religious freedom offer to us
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and to the Adventist
Church and the association,
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a fabulous
opportunity to be on the front.
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Because you know, if you
do that on many other field,
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you have the lot of competition.
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We are strong in education,
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but when we have
to deal with Yale
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and some big university,
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we are almost nothing
but we are not so strong.
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Now in other
part also, you know,
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you have big,
big, big competition.
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But in religious freedom,
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there is not a lot
of big competition.
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It means we create opportunities
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for people who
are not Adventist,
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but who believe
in religious freedom
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to come and to
speak. No, I agree with you.
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By the way, you talk about
ambassadors that were there.
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We had quite a lot,
and their presence gives
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a perfect
opportunity for us to speak
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to that country through
the proxy, the ambassador.
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And I was very taken, I
don't know if you remember,
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the ambassador
from Libya was there.
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Yeah. We invited him
to visit out headquarters.
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Good, I hope he comes. Yeah.
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But you know, that's a country
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that just had a
literal civil war.
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Religious and
political activists
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overthrew the government.
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We don't know quite
where they're going now.
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So at this pivotal
moment in the history,
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for the ambassador to come
to a Religious Liberty Dinner
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like this and
hears our principles,
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not in a
methodical lecture form,
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but you know, he
would have to be, you know,
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just focused on his meal
and not listen to anything else
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to miss the principles
that we were outlining.
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And you know in the past--
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That's a wonderful opportunity
to influence that country.
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You remember we had
ambassador from Azerbaijan,
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from countries where you know,
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religious freedom
is not really their,
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their best achievement.
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They were
interested about the dinner.
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From Morocco,
from other countries.
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Well, we've had some
most interesting ambassadors.
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I also noticed
that the ambassador
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from East Timor
was there again. Yeah.
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Which I know, followed from
our visit there some years ago.
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So if nothing else that tells
me that we planted an awareness
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of the value of religious
liberty in that country.
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And also you know, when
you talk about countries like--
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some countries where the church
have problem or challenge,
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having the
ambassador changed the way
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they see our church
and our organization.
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Also you know, it goes
beyond religious freedom.
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It helps to have
more religious freedom
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just in building
relations with people.
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And you have to
create event, you know,
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people don't come naturally,
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they don't come and
visit you to ask you question.
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You have to
really to invite them.
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And to do that, this
is why we organize events
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like Religious Liberty Dinner
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or festival,
congresses and so on.
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Now I'll--if you'll indulge me
and the viewers will indulge me,
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I'll tell you a story
that my father told me.
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He was in charge
of our World Churches,
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Temperance
Department for many years.
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And there was a period
when an unnamed country,
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I won't name it even though I
think I know which one it was,
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in the Middle-East closed
down our church and imprisoned
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the few pastors and
closed down the church.
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And they came to the
Temperance Department
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and said "can you help?"
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So my father went to the
ambassador in Washington,
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pitched what we were doing
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and he wasn't in
religious liberty
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but he basically
pitched religious liberty.
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And he said that "I'm
going to your country,
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can you help me set up meetings
with the government ministers?"
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The ambassador
said, "of course I can."
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"I'm going tomorrow." He says
"I will arrange everything."
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So the net effect
was when my father went,
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the government
ministries were all lined up
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vying for
attention to talk to him.
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He met with the head of
State. Our church was reopened.
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Not only did they
release the pastors,
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but most of these
government ministries
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all signed up for the
Temperance Department,
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or the Temperance Movement,
they had a conference like
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we held for religious liberty
and everything was set straight.
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And I believe the same
dynamic works for us now.
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When we have these
contacts with the ambassadors,
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that's the key to
that country. Yeah.
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They're not the rulers
but they're your conduit.
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And especially you know,
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ambassador in
Washington it means when they--
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One of more
influential embassies, yeah.
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When the country
give you this position,
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it means you are really high--
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Very often they're
a personal associate
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of the ruler or
the ruling party.
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You know, which was interesting
is I was sitting at the table
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with the Minister of
Foreign Affair from Canada
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and he spokes
also-- speaks also French.
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We speak French and English
and that was very interesting
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and I saw that
he is really very--
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he believe really in
religious freedom for all.
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It mean that is the point,
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the common point
we have with him.
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And we really have to
encourage to these people
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who believe in
religious freedom.
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And the Prime Minister
of Canada too you know,
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clearly, openly
said that they want
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to have an office
about religious freedom.
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No, no, but the Prime Minister.
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In previous statements,
absolutely. Yes, yes.
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It means the
Minister of Foreign Affair
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also mentioned
the Prime Minister.
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It's so important to be behind,
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you know,
government or countries
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when they defend
religious freedom,
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because you cannot just defend
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religious
freedom in your country.
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There are many
international meetings
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you know, and if nobody there,
defend clearly these values,
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that will be
forgotten and people say
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why we should have
religious freedom at home
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because you know,
nobody is interested outside.
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But if you want
to stop persecution,
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you cannot do that
just through the N.G.O.
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This is what I said,
you know, when I spoke.
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NGOs like International
Religious Liberty Association
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needs the support of
government to be more efficient.
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Absolutely.
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You were leader to the
situation that really set us
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on a track to holding the
event in the Canadian Embassy.
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About a year ago, we heard
that the Canadian Government
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were establishing this new
office of religious freedom.
00:11:58.83\00:12:03.24
That they want to project
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religious liberty
values around the world.
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And the best I could say is,
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it sounds very
similar to me like
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the United States
Government establishing
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the U.S. Ambassador
for religious freedom.
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They're trying
to situate candidate
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in the same international
dynamic where they can speak
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with more
authority to the situation.
00:12:20.66\00:12:23.15
And I see this as a reflection
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on the growing
diversity of Canadian culture.
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In the United States
we say we're a mixing pot,
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which we have been.
00:12:32.42\00:12:33.79
But most people don't realize
00:12:33.82\00:12:35.32
that in Canada as
in the United States,
00:12:35.35\00:12:37.66
a much higher
percentage of the population
00:12:37.69\00:12:40.01
are foreign born than before.
00:12:40.04\00:12:43.28
And more foreign born people
00:12:43.31\00:12:45.59
in Canada than in
the United States.
00:12:45.62\00:12:47.88
So it's in their
interest to project
00:12:47.91\00:12:49.62
this value internationally.
00:12:49.65\00:12:51.22
We'll be back after a break
to discuss a little more on this
00:12:51.25\00:12:54.35
and perhaps widen our discussion
00:12:54.38\00:12:56.47
into some other
areas of interest.
00:12:56.50\00:12:58.43
Be right back, stay with us.
00:12:58.46\00:12:59.91