Welcome to the Liberty
Insider. This is the Program
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that brings you news,
views and discussion on some
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very interesting
religious liberty issues
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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 this
program is Melissa Reid,
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associate editor
of Liberty Magazine,
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but more pertinent
for our discussion.
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You're director
of the North American
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Religious Liberty Association.
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Right. NARLA? Yes.
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I know that
sounds little bit like...
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was that National
Rifle Association?
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And the N.R.A.
Nothing to do with that.
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Yes. This is NARLA?
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Right NARLA. And as you said
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it's the North American
Religious Liberty Association.
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It's also part of the
Seventh-day Adventist Churches
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Religious Liberty Ministry.
And basically it's a way
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for church
members that are excited
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about religious
freedom issues that, you know,
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are already participating in
the religious liberty campaign
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and supporting Liberty
Magazine through, you know,
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through
sponsoring subscriptions.
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It's a way for
them to get involved
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in religious
freedom on a personal level.
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We want to turn them
into activists, right?
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Exactly. Exactly.
So we're training them
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into activism for our
ministry and so that's really
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the key in the role of NARLA.
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Now I've been
around few years longer
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than you on Liberty Magazine.
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When I came, I thought I knew
a lot of about Religious Liberty
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and I had lot of opinions
and I was in some meetings
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with people who
had a lot of opinions,
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a very opinionative group.
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They used to
argue and debate a lot
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and took me while to
find my feet on that.
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But I remember
from the very beginning,
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people kept bringing
up NARLA, NARLA. You know,
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we need to start up NARLA.
We need to get serious about it,
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and it took me
a while to realize
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because there was nothing,
but talk then that there
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was a real need for what
you just describe to not just
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to get the message out
which Liberty does adequately,
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but to utilize the individuals
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who have energies and
interests on religious liberty.
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We want to mobilize
them to become basically
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an army for religious
liberty. Absolutely, Absolutely.
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And so NARLA was reformulated.
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It existed before our
times and I don't know
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what they did in
yesteryear, but I know you know
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on developing very
clearly what we need to do now.
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And I think it's exciting
to the idea that these people
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can be honest and they
could write letters to the paper
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and they can go and
talk to the legislators.
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Well, I should stay
longer and finally you get
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to show what we need
to do. Yeah, absolutely.
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It really is feeling a need.
I know that when I am excited
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about something I
want an outlet for it.
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And so what we were
doing is providing an outlet
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for individuals that are excited
about religious freedom issues.
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I know, you know,
there is an individual
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that's living in
Oklahoma City area,
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I think you're gonna
be speaking in his church.
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He is putting on,
you know, an event there.
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But he wants to, you
know, he's had a conversation,
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but he is passionate
about religious freedom issues.
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He is also
passionate about the government,
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and making sure that his rights
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are maintained there
in his local community.
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And so he is
starting or he is establishing
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a local NARLA chapter
there in his community.
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You know, we deal with
a lot of national issues
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and international
issues as far as the magazine
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and, you know, our
organization as well
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in our lobbing efforts there
in the Washington D.C. area.
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But individuals,
who have that passion
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and commitment
to religious freedom
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can do things on a local level
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that we just don't have
the resources to do. Yes. yes.
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And most of the
resources that you can bring
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to bear with it in our
office in Liberty Magazine
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is really just a sort of
corralled their intensions,
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bring them
together to discuss it,
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and then sort of send
them out from a central point.
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But we don't
have great resources.
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But we believe that each
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of these people
represent resources.
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Absolutely,
absolutely. We tried to provide
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them with
information. We tried to--
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Liberty Magazine.
Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
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We featured Liberty Magazine
articles on our website.
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We also featured, you
know, we will-- we have one
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of those Google Maps
that's on the website,
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which I'll just mention.
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The NARLA website is
www.religiousliberty.info.
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Not.com .info,
religiousliberty.info.
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And I really would encourage
individuals to visit it because
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what we do, we have one of those
Google Maps on the website.
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And it has both the
look at United States
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and then also in
international prospective.
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And every new story
that we highlight, you know,
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it gets a little dot on the map.
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And it's really interesting
because a lot of times
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and it's surprising
to individuals who visit
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the site just how
common religious liberty issues
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are both in The United
States and internationally.
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And to see them, you
know, to visually see
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these little dots in
the map is very interesting.
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And then when they actually
take a look at the stories
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and see the variety of
religious freedom articles,
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you know, or issues. Some
of them are unfortunately,
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you know, to our
brothers and sisters overseas
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are persecution issues.
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Can I interject here? Yes.
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This is on the topic
per say not on NARLA,
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but it's worth mentioning
that we are living through
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an era of extreme
religious persecution all around
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the world or restrictions.
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It's not always persecution,
but severe restrictions
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on religious freedom
in the United States even
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in the Western World
and certainly in many
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of these third world or
non-Christian countries.
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And the irony is that
this is happening in the time
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when religious activities
never been greater. Yeah.
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It's not religion in retreat,
but as in different countries
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a religious
identity is search itself,
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it's not very
kind to its competitors
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or to the other
forms of religion.
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Yeah, it's difficult.
It's interesting to see
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that happen and as Christians
it's so kind of counterintuitive
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to our own belief system. Right.
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But more reason for
people to join NARLA.
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I am sure you would get to
it, but this is a good time
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to remind people that
NARLA is North America
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and we work with I.R.L.A.
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the International
Religious Liberty Association,
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which director across
the whole from our offices,
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but he is globally oriented
and traveling most of the time.
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But so NARLA is sort of a feeder
organization for global concern.
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Right, and where we--
so we focused primarily on,
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you know, issues
that are happening
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in The United States and Canada.
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But again as I said
before and as you mentioned,
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it really is, we
try to be a resource
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for people as far as
information, you know,
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we put together a lot of
like we make available some
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of our
presentations on the website
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we provide them with,
you know, information as far
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as new stories
and actions whenever
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we have account
of events on that.
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So whenever you are traveling
and gonna be speaking in areas
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or other
religious liberty leaders,
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we let them know because again
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if I'm excited about
a particular ministry
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I want to know where I can
go and hear more about this.
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So we send them
links to particular
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Liberty Magazine articles.
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So it's really just feeding
that desire. Yeah, it's working.
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A couple of times people
have told me that they had come
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to an event because they
had seen the result. Yeah.
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So I am actually not
sure when this will air,
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but I want to let viewers
know incase it's in advance
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there is actually going
to be a national NARLA event
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in Atlanta Georgia in the
fall on Sabbath October 20,
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right at the
Airport Hilton. So you could
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just fly directly
into the-- To the Hilton.
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Hopefully your plane will not
fly directly into the Hilton.
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But fly into the
airport. You write there.
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It's a one day event as I
said it's Sabbath, October 20.
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And it's the Hilton, not
the Hilton Garden or another--
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Exactly, yeah.
It's the Airport Hilton
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and we've been able to
get a nice reduced rate.
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But it's $35 registration
fee. Again go to our website
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religiousliberty.info to hear
about, to get more information.
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But we have spiritual emphasis
by Pastor David Asscherick,
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who I know is a friend to
our 3ABN viewing audience.
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And then so we'll have morning
and afternoon spiritual emphasis
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by Pastor Asscherick
and then we will have
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religious liberty
segments, breakout sessions.
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Some seminars.
Yes. Some seminars,
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and I'll be involved in that.
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Elder Eddy would
be involved in that.
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And who is he? He is
also a friend of 3ABN,
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I believe, and
more importantly a huge
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proponent of religious
freedom. Yeah, Very Good.
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We're excited to
have him involved as well.
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But--and he is
somewhat connected.
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Yes. Yes,
connected to me as well.
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And so and then we have some
other individuals- Tim Golden,
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who is a practicing attorney
and long time religious liberty,
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again perfect example
of being involved in NARLA
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because he is not an employee
of Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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He is just someone who is
a committed church member,
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who is excited. No,
I've heard his presentation.
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I spoke to him. I
know what he is doing.
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So anyway, hopefully that
this program happens before
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in advance of that and
if you live in that area,
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in the Atlanta area,
you will be able to come
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and be involved as well.
And this should be probably
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400-500 people at least I think.
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I think that there and not so,
I am glad you made that point
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because I think it
seats a room of about 350
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and so we are
really encouraging people.
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You have to register beforehand.
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There's not registration outside
and it's first come first serve.
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So really do try to find out,
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you know, as
quickly as possible.
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And if you are
watching this program
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ahead of time then might be
in your interest to register.
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If afterwards you will
know that was a great success.
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Well, exactly.
And the other thing
00:10:05.02\00:10:06.64
that we're looking into
is not making it is video,
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its video and providing that
on the NARLA website afterwards
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and letting people that
are, you know, in other parts
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of the country or don't have
the means or you know, the time.
00:10:17.29\00:10:20.54
So we are going to let them
know afterwards we'll make those
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tapes available on the NARLA
website as well, afterwards.
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Yeah. Well, all of this
means that NARLA is alive now.
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It's not just an ideal
and I think I've mentioned it
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on this T.V. program before
as we have spoken about NARLA.
00:10:33.51\00:10:36.12
But to me it is a
testament that it even exists
00:10:36.15\00:10:38.94
to Adrian Westney, who
is religious liberty leader
00:10:38.97\00:10:42.96
in the Washington D.C.
area for that whole region.
00:10:42.99\00:10:46.86
But he is stuck
with it. Year after year,
00:10:46.89\00:10:48.98
he wanted NARLA to reinvigorate
itself and it surely has.
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Yeah, he absolutely was.
And really again, you know,
00:10:54.01\00:10:57.60
he had a burden for
religious freedom outside
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of his own
denomination employment.
00:11:00.63\00:11:02.00
His background was in
education and, you know,
00:11:02.03\00:11:03.89
he was a great educator.
00:11:03.92\00:11:05.45
But he really had that personal
passion for religious freedom.
00:11:05.48\00:11:07.80
He had a long
time radio program.
00:11:07.83\00:11:12.86
Well, I was about
to mention that because
00:11:12.89\00:11:14.26
that's my memory of
him, in fact last memory.
00:11:14.29\00:11:16.67
He died--I can't
figure how many years ago,
00:11:16.70\00:11:19.80
I would say
about three years ago.
00:11:19.83\00:11:22.69
But I did a series of
radio programs with him one day.
00:11:22.72\00:11:27.24
It turned out, week
or two before he died.
00:11:27.27\00:11:31.01
I asked him about his
health and he said he was okay.
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But he died very
quickly after that.
00:11:34.11\00:11:35.86
But I've got that memory as
we sit there across the table
00:11:35.89\00:11:39.12
with the headphones on
and he is always, he says,
00:11:39.15\00:11:41.68
now Mr. Editor, you know, never
called me Lincoln, Mr. Editor.
00:11:41.71\00:11:45.64
Yes, yes. No, he really
was an example to individuals
00:11:45.67\00:11:50.07
to be involved
there on that local level.
00:11:50.10\00:11:52.27
And something that, you know,
and again he found that outlet
00:11:52.30\00:11:55.88
and hopefully we are
able both with the magazine
00:11:55.91\00:11:58.41
and with this organization
are able to provide people
00:11:58.44\00:12:01.70
with an outlet, you
know, that are interested
00:12:01.73\00:12:04.30
in this issue. And I should give
00:12:04.33\00:12:05.70
my prospective on
this I have always believed
00:12:05.73\00:12:07.64
in NARLA and a lot of the
early funding to reinvigorate
00:12:07.67\00:12:11.64
NARLA was directly from
liberties reserves. Right.
00:12:11.67\00:12:14.67
And now I think it's a
natural that you're leading
00:12:14.70\00:12:18.50
that and this is part
of the liberty emphasis.
00:12:18.53\00:12:21.77
So we wanted to be, you know,
00:12:21.80\00:12:23.34
as the material,
Liberty Magazine.
00:12:23.37\00:12:25.37
It's the people and the activism
with NARLA and I think all
00:12:25.40\00:12:28.25
of it can do something more
than each element individually.
00:12:28.28\00:12:33.28
Oh, yeah. I mean
again, we are working
00:12:33.31\00:12:35.41
for this one main goal in just
different areas of doing it.
00:12:35.44\00:12:39.67
Yeah. And
internationally we will continue
00:12:39.70\00:12:41.93
to work great
closely with I.R.L.A. Yeah.
00:12:41.96\00:12:44.46
And the I.R.L.A. is
less a grass effect.
00:12:44.49\00:12:48.78
It's not really a
grass root organization
00:12:48.81\00:12:50.74
at least that to
the national groups.
00:12:50.77\00:12:52.78
But the I.R.L.A.
has some wonderful
00:12:52.81\00:12:54.62
government to government
contacts and U.N. and so on,
00:12:54.65\00:12:58.97
and so it provides
incredible resources
00:12:59.00\00:13:01.48
and material to the
NARLA members. Right.
00:13:01.51\00:13:05.35
The time has gone very quickly.
00:13:05.38\00:13:07.73
But we have a
half a program left.
00:13:07.76\00:13:09.40
So after a short
break we'll be back
00:13:09.43\00:13:11.59
and we'll be telling you
how you can become involve
00:13:11.62\00:13:14.27
with NARLA. Stay with us.
00:13:14.30\00:13:15.82