Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Melissa Reid
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000192A
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00:22 Welcome to the Liberty Insider. This is the Program
00:26 that brings you news, views and discussion on some 00:29 very interesting religious liberty issues 00:32 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 of Liberty Magazine, 00:42 but more pertinent for our discussion. 00:45 You're director of the North American 00:47 Religious Liberty Association. 00:49 Right. NARLA? Yes. 00:51 I know that sounds little bit like... 00:53 was that National Rifle Association? 00:54 And the N.R.A. Nothing to do with that. 00:57 Yes. This is NARLA? 00:59 Right NARLA. And as you said 01:00 it's the North American Religious Liberty Association. 01:03 It's also part of the Seventh-day Adventist Churches 01:05 Religious Liberty Ministry. And basically it's a way 01:10 for church members that are excited 01:11 about religious freedom issues that, you know, 01:14 are already participating in the religious liberty campaign 01:17 and supporting Liberty Magazine through, you know, 01:20 through sponsoring subscriptions. 01:22 It's a way for them to get involved 01:23 in religious freedom on a personal level. 01:27 We want to turn them into activists, right? 01:29 Exactly. Exactly. So we're training them 01:31 into activism for our ministry and so that's really 01:35 the key in the role of NARLA. 01:37 Now I've been around few years longer 01:40 than you on Liberty Magazine. 01:41 When I came, I thought I knew a lot of about Religious Liberty 01:46 and I had lot of opinions and I was in some meetings 01:49 with people who had a lot of opinions, 01:51 a very opinionative group. 01:52 They used to argue and debate a lot 01:54 and took me while to find my feet on that. 01:57 But I remember from the very beginning, 01:59 people kept bringing up NARLA, NARLA. You know, 02:02 we need to start up NARLA. We need to get serious about it, 02:05 and it took me a while to realize 02:07 because there was nothing, but talk then that there 02:09 was a real need for what you just describe to not just 02:14 to get the message out which Liberty does adequately, 02:16 but to utilize the individuals 02:20 who have energies and interests on religious liberty. 02:23 We want to mobilize them to become basically 02:26 an army for religious liberty. Absolutely, Absolutely. 02:28 And so NARLA was reformulated. 02:30 It existed before our times and I don't know 02:33 what they did in yesteryear, but I know you know 02:36 on developing very clearly what we need to do now. 02:40 And I think it's exciting to the idea that these people 02:43 can be honest and they could write letters to the paper 02:46 and they can go and talk to the legislators. 02:50 Well, I should stay longer and finally you get 02:52 to show what we need to do. Yeah, absolutely. 02:54 It really is feeling a need. I know that when I am excited 02:57 about something I want an outlet for it. 02:59 And so what we were doing is providing an outlet 03:01 for individuals that are excited about religious freedom issues. 03:05 I know, you know, there is an individual 03:07 that's living in Oklahoma City area, 03:09 I think you're gonna be speaking in his church. 03:11 He is putting on, you know, an event there. 03:14 But he wants to, you know, he's had a conversation, 03:18 but he is passionate about religious freedom issues. 03:20 He is also passionate about the government, 03:24 and making sure that his rights 03:27 are maintained there in his local community. 03:30 And so he is starting or he is establishing 03:33 a local NARLA chapter there in his community. 03:36 You know, we deal with a lot of national issues 03:39 and international issues as far as the magazine 03:42 and, you know, our organization as well 03:44 in our lobbing efforts there in the Washington D.C. area. 03:48 But individuals, who have that passion 03:51 and commitment to religious freedom 03:53 can do things on a local level 03:55 that we just don't have the resources to do. Yes. yes. 03:57 And most of the resources that you can bring 04:00 to bear with it in our office in Liberty Magazine 04:02 is really just a sort of corralled their intensions, 04:08 bring them together to discuss it, 04:09 and then sort of send them out from a central point. 04:11 But we don't have great resources. 04:13 But we believe that each 04:15 of these people represent resources. 04:16 Absolutely, absolutely. We tried to provide 04:18 them with information. We tried to-- 04:20 Liberty Magazine. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. 04:24 We featured Liberty Magazine articles on our website. 04:26 We also featured, you know, we will-- we have one 04:30 of those Google Maps that's on the website, 04:32 which I'll just mention. 04:33 The NARLA website is www.religiousliberty.info. 04:38 Not.com .info, religiousliberty.info. 04:41 And I really would encourage individuals to visit it because 04:44 what we do, we have one of those Google Maps on the website. 04:47 And it has both the look at United States 04:49 and then also in international prospective. 04:51 And every new story that we highlight, you know, 04:56 it gets a little dot on the map. 04:58 And it's really interesting because a lot of times 05:01 and it's surprising to individuals who visit 05:03 the site just how common religious liberty issues 05:09 are both in The United States and internationally. 05:11 And to see them, you know, to visually see 05:13 these little dots in the map is very interesting. 05:15 And then when they actually take a look at the stories 05:17 and see the variety of religious freedom articles, 05:21 you know, or issues. Some of them are unfortunately, 05:25 you know, to our brothers and sisters overseas 05:28 are persecution issues. 05:30 Can I interject here? Yes. 05:31 This is on the topic per say not on NARLA, 05:35 but it's worth mentioning that we are living through 05:38 an era of extreme religious persecution all around 05:41 the world or restrictions. 05:44 It's not always persecution, but severe restrictions 05:46 on religious freedom in the United States even 05:51 in the Western World and certainly in many 05:53 of these third world or non-Christian countries. 05:56 And the irony is that this is happening in the time 05:59 when religious activities never been greater. Yeah. 06:02 It's not religion in retreat, but as in different countries 06:06 a religious identity is search itself, 06:08 it's not very kind to its competitors 06:10 or to the other forms of religion. 06:12 Yeah, it's difficult. It's interesting to see 06:15 that happen and as Christians it's so kind of counterintuitive 06:21 to our own belief system. Right. 06:23 But more reason for people to join NARLA. 06:27 I am sure you would get to it, but this is a good time 06:29 to remind people that NARLA is North America 06:32 and we work with I.R.L.A. 06:34 the International Religious Liberty Association, 06:36 which director across the whole from our offices, 06:42 but he is globally oriented and traveling most of the time. 06:45 But so NARLA is sort of a feeder organization for global concern. 06:50 Right, and where we-- so we focused primarily on, 06:53 you know, issues that are happening 06:54 in The United States and Canada. 06:56 But again as I said before and as you mentioned, 06:59 it really is, we try to be a resource 07:02 for people as far as information, you know, 07:05 we put together a lot of like we make available some 07:07 of our presentations on the website 07:10 we provide them with, you know, information as far 07:12 as new stories and actions whenever 07:15 we have account of events on that. 07:17 So whenever you are traveling and gonna be speaking in areas 07:21 or other religious liberty leaders, 07:22 we let them know because again 07:24 if I'm excited about a particular ministry 07:27 I want to know where I can go and hear more about this. 07:29 So we send them links to particular 07:32 Liberty Magazine articles. 07:34 So it's really just feeding that desire. Yeah, it's working. 07:37 A couple of times people have told me that they had come 07:39 to an event because they had seen the result. Yeah. 07:42 So I am actually not sure when this will air, 07:44 but I want to let viewers know incase it's in advance 07:48 there is actually going to be a national NARLA event 07:51 in Atlanta Georgia in the fall on Sabbath October 20, 07:57 right at the Airport Hilton. So you could 08:00 just fly directly into the-- To the Hilton. 08:04 Hopefully your plane will not fly directly into the Hilton. 08:07 But fly into the airport. You write there. 08:09 It's a one day event as I said it's Sabbath, October 20. 08:13 And it's the Hilton, not the Hilton Garden or another-- 08:15 Exactly, yeah. It's the Airport Hilton 08:18 and we've been able to get a nice reduced rate. 08:20 But it's $35 registration fee. Again go to our website 08:25 religiousliberty.info to hear about, to get more information. 08:29 But we have spiritual emphasis by Pastor David Asscherick, 08:33 who I know is a friend to our 3ABN viewing audience. 08:37 And then so we'll have morning and afternoon spiritual emphasis 08:41 by Pastor Asscherick and then we will have 08:44 religious liberty segments, breakout sessions. 08:47 Some seminars. Yes. Some seminars, 08:49 and I'll be involved in that. 08:52 Elder Eddy would be involved in that. 08:54 And who is he? He is also a friend of 3ABN, 08:57 I believe, and more importantly a huge 09:00 proponent of religious freedom. Yeah, Very Good. 09:02 We're excited to have him involved as well. 09:03 But--and he is somewhat connected. 09:05 Yes. Yes, connected to me as well. 09:09 And so and then we have some other individuals- Tim Golden, 09:13 who is a practicing attorney and long time religious liberty, 09:16 again perfect example of being involved in NARLA 09:19 because he is not an employee of Seventh-day Adventist Church. 09:21 He is just someone who is a committed church member, 09:24 who is excited. No, I've heard his presentation. 09:25 I spoke to him. I know what he is doing. 09:28 So anyway, hopefully that this program happens before 09:31 in advance of that and if you live in that area, 09:33 in the Atlanta area, you will be able to come 09:35 and be involved as well. And this should be probably 09:37 400-500 people at least I think. 09:39 I think that there and not so, I am glad you made that point 09:42 because I think it seats a room of about 350 09:44 and so we are really encouraging people. 09:46 You have to register beforehand. 09:48 There's not registration outside and it's first come first serve. 09:52 So really do try to find out, 09:55 you know, as quickly as possible. 09:56 And if you are watching this program 09:58 ahead of time then might be in your interest to register. 10:02 If afterwards you will know that was a great success. 10:05 Well, exactly. And the other thing 10:06 that we're looking into is not making it is video, 10:11 its video and providing that on the NARLA website afterwards 10:15 and letting people that are, you know, in other parts 10:17 of the country or don't have the means or you know, the time. 10:20 So we are going to let them know afterwards we'll make those 10:24 tapes available on the NARLA website as well, afterwards. 10:27 Yeah. Well, all of this means that NARLA is alive now. 10:30 It's not just an ideal and I think I've mentioned it 10:33 on this T.V. program before as we have spoken about NARLA. 10:36 But to me it is a testament that it even exists 10:38 to Adrian Westney, who is religious liberty leader 10:42 in the Washington D.C. area for that whole region. 10:46 But he is stuck with it. Year after year, 10:49 he wanted NARLA to reinvigorate itself and it surely has. 10:54 Yeah, he absolutely was. And really again, you know, 10:57 he had a burden for religious freedom outside 11:00 of his own denomination employment. 11:02 His background was in education and, you know, 11:03 he was a great educator. 11:05 But he really had that personal passion for religious freedom. 11:07 He had a long time radio program. 11:12 Well, I was about to mention that because 11:14 that's my memory of him, in fact last memory. 11:16 He died--I can't figure how many years ago, 11:19 I would say about three years ago. 11:22 But I did a series of radio programs with him one day. 11:27 It turned out, week or two before he died. 11:31 I asked him about his health and he said he was okay. 11:34 But he died very quickly after that. 11:35 But I've got that memory as we sit there across the table 11:39 with the headphones on and he is always, he says, 11:41 now Mr. Editor, you know, never called me Lincoln, Mr. Editor. 11:45 Yes, yes. No, he really was an example to individuals 11:50 to be involved there on that local level. 11:52 And something that, you know, and again he found that outlet 11:55 and hopefully we are able both with the magazine 11:58 and with this organization are able to provide people 12:01 with an outlet, you know, that are interested 12:04 in this issue. And I should give 12:05 my prospective on this I have always believed 12:07 in NARLA and a lot of the early funding to reinvigorate 12:11 NARLA was directly from liberties reserves. Right. 12:14 And now I think it's a natural that you're leading 12:18 that and this is part of the liberty emphasis. 12:21 So we wanted to be, you know, 12:23 as the material, Liberty Magazine. 12:25 It's the people and the activism with NARLA and I think all 12:28 of it can do something more than each element individually. 12:33 Oh, yeah. I mean again, we are working 12:35 for this one main goal in just different areas of doing it. 12:39 Yeah. And internationally we will continue 12:41 to work great closely with I.R.L.A. Yeah. 12:44 And the I.R.L.A. is less a grass effect. 12:48 It's not really a grass root organization 12:50 at least that to the national groups. 12:52 But the I.R.L.A. has some wonderful 12:54 government to government contacts and U.N. and so on, 12:59 and so it provides incredible resources 13:01 and material to the NARLA members. Right. 13:05 The time has gone very quickly. 13:07 But we have a half a program left. 13:09 So after a short break we'll be back 13:11 and we'll be telling you how you can become involve 13:14 with NARLA. Stay with us. |
Revised 2014-12-17