Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Melissa Reid
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000189A
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00:22 Welcome to the Liberty Insider. This is the program that brings
00:26 you up-to-date news and views and discussion 00:28 on religious liberty events and developments 00:31 in the United States and around the world. 00:34 My name is Lincoln Steed, editor of Liberty Magazine. 00:37 And my guest on this program is Melissa Reid, 00:40 associate editor on Liberty, which means 00:42 that we work together fairly closely. Yes. 00:44 And also you are director of the North American 00:47 Religious Liberty Association which is a membership based 00:51 religious liberty emphasis using Seventh-day Adventist 00:55 mostly, but I think anybody could join. Yes. 00:58 Now since I've mentioned Seventh-day Adventist 01:01 for a purpose, there's something 01:03 that I want to discuss with you on this program. 01:05 Our annual promotion which is targeted more particularly 01:09 to our church members, mostly because 01:12 they're immediately there, right? Yes, yes. 01:14 But we want anybody to know what we're doing 01:16 and to help us do it. Right, right. 01:18 Well, what we do, 01:19 we have an annual promotional campaign 01:21 encouraging church members both to donate to Liberty magazine, 01:26 all of our funds come from donations from individuals, 01:30 from the local church members. So it's really important 01:34 as far as the continuation of our ministry. 01:37 Thank the Lord, we've been in existence 01:39 for over a hundred years now-- We are 106 annual. 01:42 Yeah, yeah. So, you know, we are 01:44 so grateful for the faithful giving of our donors, 01:48 but we encourage not only donations, 01:51 but we encourage individuals to sponsor subscription 01:54 Celebrity magazine and this is done 01:55 through that annual campaign. We send information 01:59 to the local church, we put together 02:01 promotional packet of a DVD that, 02:08 you know, sort of tells a bit about our ministry, 02:11 shares different aspects of it-- 02:12 Promotional video that you're talk a bit more. Right, right. 02:15 And we have someone compose a sermon 02:17 that they can share with their local pastor, you know, 02:21 many churches in North American division which is, 02:25 you know,--- Canada and the United States. 02:26 Canada and the United States. And a need of little noble. 02:28 Yes, you know, our multi church districts, 02:31 you know, there are pastors 02:33 who have three or four churches and so-- 02:34 How many churches do we have in North America, 02:36 do you know the number? I don't know 02:38 the answer to that, dear. 02:39 The last figure I had it was a bit over 5,000. Okay. 02:42 So there's a lot of company. 02:44 Now I must tell our viewers, most of whom I'm sure 02:48 are not Seventh-day Adventists, but all of whom 02:50 I presume are supporters of religious liberty. Absolutely. 02:54 You can promote this for us and you'd be very happy 02:57 to mail anybody that wrote in. Absolutely. 02:59 A packet for their church to bring 03:01 this emphasis before them. Absolutely. 03:02 Because I'm at pains as I speak 03:05 on Liberty magazine and often on this program 03:07 to point out that our religious liberty emphasis, 03:11 obviously, is because Adventists believe in it 03:13 and we've had a history of even some little persecution 03:16 even in The United States, but we're promoting 03:18 a generalized religious liberty for all people of faith. Right. 03:22 It's not an Adventist in particular. Absolutely. 03:26 And we are-- I think most effective 03:29 in our work on capital here, we see when we work in coalition 03:32 with other faith groups. Absolutely. 03:34 Even, you know, we have that strength. 03:36 And so absolutely, you know, people can give us-- 03:40 can visit the website which is libertymagazine.org. 03:43 Send the request in if they'd like to promote 03:45 our magazine there in their local church. 03:47 What was that website again? 03:49 Yes, so the website is-- Maybe we didn't know. 03:51 It's www.libertymagazine.org. And so, yeah, absolutely. 03:57 So I mentioned that we have someone write, compose a sermon. 04:01 We also have that person tape the sermon 04:03 and so again, you know, if you want to promote, 04:08 you know, on Sabbath morning, absolutely, you can do that. 04:11 Sunday morning? Or Sunday morning 04:12 or if you want to do it-- Friday afternoon. 04:15 Yeah, if you want to do it, you know, you have a 04:18 a midweek prayer service, a prayer meeting on Wednesdays, 04:21 you know, this is a great time to show that sermon 04:24 and then have your pastor reemphasize it then on Sabbath. 04:27 But it's really important, we encourage individuals 04:31 to sponsor those subscriptions, to give us names of individuals 04:35 there in their local community. We have what we call 04:37 a national priority list that you and I put together. 04:41 And we're able to send subscriptions to federal judges 04:47 and all the senators and--you know, 04:49 members of congress and things like that. 04:51 But we're not able to identify those thought leaders 04:54 in the local community and so that's really-- Not as easily. 04:57 Not as easily and so that's where we really 05:00 rely on the local church member to say, 05:02 "Well, here's our city council people and here's 05:05 our local library that I know would be great to--" 05:11 I'm trying to think how to rephrase it again 05:13 even for our non-Adventist friends, 05:16 even non-Christian friends because-- 05:19 and as I say this, I may alienate 05:23 or trouble some people, but Liberty magazine 05:25 from its very beginning was set for the separation 05:28 of church and state. Right. 05:31 Some very well intentioned Christians particularly in 05:34 the United States are troubled by separation 05:36 of church and state. They think that means that their 05:38 religious viewpoint is set aside in the country. Right. 05:41 But separation of church and state doesn't mean that, 05:43 it means that the government should not be in 05:46 the business of promoting any particular religious viewpoint. 05:49 Because we know from the middle ages 05:51 that ended up very badly, it ended in persecution. 05:54 But a government that-- keeps to its civil's fear 05:58 and then enables by law as the United States does 06:00 the full practice of anyone's religious faith 06:03 is being shown as what's that French writer 06:07 Alexis de Tocqueville. He said that, 06:09 when he came through in the early 1800s, 06:11 he says, uniformly, he said, he asked people 06:13 and he says they all described the strength of religion 06:16 in America to the separation of church and state. 06:19 But we're a little past that now and some people 06:21 who see gay marriage and immorality in the movies 06:25 and so on, they think, 06:26 "Oh, it's time to get religion back in the government." 06:28 Right. But, you know, that cure 06:29 would be worse than the problem. Right, and I think-- 06:32 We defend separation of religious-- 06:34 of church and state. Right, right. 06:36 I think that's also kind of intuitive 06:38 to sort of God's model of freedom of conscience. 06:42 You know, He obviously has a plan for our life. 06:45 And it's the best plan, we know that that's the best plan. 06:48 But it's not something mandated, He doesn't--you know, 06:51 we have the free will to choose whether or not 06:53 to live that life. If you're going to mandate 06:56 a particular way, you know, of living through 07:00 the government, it's not a genuine conversion-- 07:05 Sorry to interrupt, but there's a problem with that, 07:09 but people make the assumption the mandating would be 07:11 on the true faith. Yes. 07:13 Then it would be still misbegotten. 07:16 But what if the government were mandating that we be 07:19 and they'll be careful what religion I follow, 07:21 I'll make up a religion, mandating that, you know, 07:24 people worship on Tuesday and acknowledge 07:26 the Neptune is the God over all. Right. 07:30 That will trouble every other faith. 07:32 You don't want that. Exactly. 07:34 And so we argue for the right of every 07:36 belief system, most of which I think are purer, 07:39 but they have to be allowed to practice, 07:42 they all believe that they're true and as well as 07:44 that the right to believe none of them, 07:46 to be a total skeptic. Right, right. 07:47 Well, I think that too, when there was the big 07:51 trend of public disgrace of the Ten Commandments, 07:54 one of the things they talked about was which version of 07:56 the Ten Commandments you're gonna display. 07:58 So I think that sort of goes along with that. 07:59 But, absolutely, this is not-- religious freedom is not 08:03 unique to the Seventh-day Adventist church, 08:05 we have a very rich tradition in it. 08:07 But one of the things that I always encourage 08:09 local churches is to sponsor subscriptions 08:12 to other local faith leaders in their community--- 08:14 I don't think there's enough of that going on. 08:16 Yeah, I think it's a banner that we should all feel 08:19 very proud to be involved. And when we have 08:22 our Religious Liberty Sabbath, which we can talk about, 08:26 we have a specific day in the Seventh-day Adventist church 08:29 is designated as Religious Liberty Sabbath. 08:31 We should invite, you know, local faith leaders, 08:35 local--maybe even government leaders to come 08:38 and participate in that event and maybe it's something 08:42 that they have never thought, you know, 08:45 that they should pay attention to or something like that, 08:49 so, absolutely, it's not something that we should 08:52 shelter, you know, to ourselves. We've talked about this before, 08:54 but not so publicly and I think it should be mentioned. 08:57 This is the perfect opportunity to do what some of our own 09:00 Seventh-day Adventists have been suspicious about, 09:03 we don't believe in ecumenism in the sense of getting together 09:05 and putting all the beliefs in the pot and stirring them up 09:08 and whatever comes out of that we can all 09:10 sort of have a generic faith. But we should be joining 09:14 with people who acknowledge religious freedom preeminently 09:18 and perhaps even in some cases with other Christians, not 09:22 to sort out doctrinal things but to have this common point 09:26 of religious freedom and we're doing them a favor. Yes. 09:30 During our promotion. Just tell them here's 09:32 the magazine that's arguing for that. Right. 09:34 So we could have gatherings of different religious groups 09:37 together and, of course, in Washington context, 09:39 we do just that. Exactly. 09:41 But on the membership level, it's not much of it. 09:43 Yeah, and I know that even just from the letters to 09:45 the editor that you share with me that I've seen, 09:47 we--you know, it's individuals from many, 09:51 from a wide representation of faith groups 09:52 that appreciate the articles. 09:54 And so I really am thankful for those individuals 09:57 who had the foresight to share it with whether 09:59 it's a faith leader or just a friend or a family member 10:01 who's of a different faith or maybe no faith at all, 10:04 who has really, you know, thought about this issue 10:07 and learned its importance and learned to protect it 10:11 because of the magazine. And so that's what 10:12 we want to encourage people to continue to do. 10:14 Wonderful. And you're doing a good job on that. 10:16 But I need to take the chance to remind people 10:19 not just liberty exists but to explain its size 10:25 even which, in this case, is very important. 10:28 You know, it's not that we're the biggest and the best, 10:30 but since we're trying to be effective in promoting 10:34 this principle, I think it's very pertinent to recognize 10:36 that we're printing nearly 200,000 of these magazines 10:40 every issue and that almost as a block, 10:44 these go out to these thought leaders, 10:46 senators, congressmen, judges, lawyers, mayors. 10:52 We need to revise the figures, but last time I checked, 10:54 there's only about 10,000-15,000 that go 10:56 to individual Adventists. Right. 10:58 The rest of them are almost totally targeted to these 11:02 influential policy makers. Right. 11:05 And this--I don't really know of any other 11:08 religious liberty journal that's quite doing that on that level. 11:11 There are a few others from the Baptists in particular 11:13 but I think theirs is a more general distribution 11:16 and not as targeted. Yeah, 11:17 I feel like we're doing a great job with reaching 11:21 those thought leaders and we certainly know 11:23 from the reactions that we get from those individuals. 11:26 I feel like we can do more on the local level 11:27 as I just mentioned, those thought leaders there. 11:31 But I feel like, you know, I know that you emphasize 11:34 this in your presentations and I feel like it's so true. 11:38 We need to encourage individuals, you know, 11:42 whether it's local Seventh-day Adventist church members, 11:44 whether it's our viewers that are watching today, 11:46 these are important things that you personally should be 11:49 educated about, not just I've sent, you know, 11:52 I've sponsored to six dollars subscription to this 11:55 individual-- My duty is done. And now my duty is done. 11:57 It's important for us, just like it's important 11:59 to have our own relationship with God, 12:01 for us to do our own study of the scriptures. 12:04 I think it's important for us to be 12:06 well-versed on these issues as well. 12:07 Well, it's important for them to know this material because 12:11 yes, there's coming, I think fairly soon, a time 12:14 when there'll be severe stresses on practice of faith 12:17 even in countries as free as the United States. 12:20 But there's no stress if you don't know the issue. Yes. 12:23 If you have a false model of it, 12:26 you could be sort of carried along and think 12:28 as they do in some very repressive countries, you know, 12:31 land of the free and brave and so on and you may 12:34 actually be in a totally compromised position. 12:35 Yeah, I think-- 12:37 We've run out of time for this first half, 12:38 but we'll be back, lots to talk about on Liberty Magazine 12:41 and how you can become involved. 12:43 So stay with us, we'll be right back. |
Revised 2014-12-17