Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break with
NARLA director Melissa Reid,
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we were talking about its
history, some of the plans
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and what I would like
to get into is how can
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we involve the viewers
because I am sure out there,
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there's a serious
number of people that in fact
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there in the Seventh-day
Adventist Church Ellen White,
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the pioneer Ellen White,
said something about the youth,
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fitly trained, an army
of youth fitly trained.
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Oh yes, yes.
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You can change the world
with the few thousand of people
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and we've probably got millions
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one way or
another out there. Yeah.
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Well, we had a really fun
time just a few months ago
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may be just even a month ago,
I mentioned that working as,
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you know, doing a
local NARLA chapter.
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Well, there are also
regional NARLA chapters.
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There is one in
southern United States.
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There is also one out in
California, in the pacific
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or that, you know,
the Western United States.
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And at our offices they
are at in Silver Spring,
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Maryland at the
world headquarters
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Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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We had a group of
energetic young kids come
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that were working that
were sponsored by this--
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Freedom classroom? Yes.
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It was called freedom classroom.
So this regional organization
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of NARLA or chapter of NARLA
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sponsored these
individuals these young kids.
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I think it was may be
12 or 13 high schoolers
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who have expressed interest
in issues of several liberties,
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religious
freedom, and it was really
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and we talked about this
before, training, you know,
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this next generation of
religion liberty leaders.
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That was a very hopeful sign.
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I was encouraged by that. Yeah.
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It's not just in religious
liberty and I don't even think
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just in the
Seventh-day Adventist church,
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too often things
of a faith nature
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not just devotional
things, but church programs
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other than sort
of party or skiing
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and youth programs. Right.
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You see older
people doing these things
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and not so often the
young people really on fire
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to make a difference on faith,
so this was very encouraging.
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I thought it was
encouraging as well.
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And I am sorry to
interrupt, but it reminded me
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its part of their criteria
was that they would done
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well at school and had
done an essay or some paper
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on a religious
liberty topic. Right.
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And again we weren't expecting
them to be experts yet.
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We just wanted to see an
interest and then encourage
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their interests
from there and out.
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And I really
felt like, you know,
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well this is the inaugural
program and it was really great.
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They visited not
only our offices,
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but they were able to
visit with legislators
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in downtown Washington
D.C. They were also able to go
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to see a historical
perspective as far as
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religious freedom
within the United States.
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And so they visited
Thomas Jefferson's home
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and I think also James Madison.
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So it just was
really encouraging.
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So, you know, you
asked the question
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how can our viewers
become involved in NARLA
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and religious freedom
issues on a local level.
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I think that's a great
idea to get your youth involved.
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You know, it can be
something as expensive
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and may be
expensive as during, you know,
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freedom classroom style program.
But it also can be as simple
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and this is probably a great
place to start as, you know,
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a lot of churches
have a local or afternoon
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A.Y. program at their
church. Well, you know,
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start incorporating
religious freedom issues there.
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Bringing in some
lawyers or government people
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that could talk on
this. Right, Exactly.
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Get their minds engaged in
these public policy issues.
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You know, lot of
them I know that I became,
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you know, as a young
person, as a teenager
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became very
interested in political--
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not even political
issues, but social issues.
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And I think, you
know, you see that happen
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you want to encourage,
you want to first of all
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explain to them as a Seventh-day
Adventist Christians,
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you know, your
churches long term history
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with religious liberty and then
encourage development in that.
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And I know when
young people goes
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see some of the legislatives
they bend over backwards
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and they're just captivated
to talk to these young people.
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Any legislature likes
to talk to constituents.
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But still when
these young people there
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this is they are
like the prize. Yes, yes.
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And in the past I
have noticed that.
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So if your church
or your civic group
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can organize a group of young
people for religious liberty
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and then you take them
along to see the mayor inside,
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you gonna have an
open door. Oh, absolutely.
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I am certain of
that. Absolutely.
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Its might be little
hard, you know, leg work
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to actually organize
it. But it's not going to be
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a difficult door
to open. Right, right.
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And then it seems natural,
you know, if you're doing that,
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you know, on a high
school or middle school level
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there to local
church. Then when the kids
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go on to college, well
then they may actually initiate
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and we'd love to see
this, you know, NARLA chapters
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there on campus, there
at Adventist Universities.
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You know, you see
the young republicans
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or the young
democrats or whoever.
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Well, wouldn't it be
great to have, you know,
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a group of
religious freedom advocates
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organizing there on campus?
And it's very important I think
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because you mentioned that they
went to some of these group,
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doesn't know so
that came the other day.
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They went to some
of the historic spots.
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They went to Madison's
home out in Virginia there.
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And they were
being told the history
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which is very
important on religious liberty.
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And Madison in
particular and Jefferson
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on the first amendment,
these were pivotal pioneers.
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But they need to
get the right facts
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because goodness
knows some religionists
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for a variety of self-serving
reasons are skewing history.
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And how are these young
people going to get the facts
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unless they're
taken under the wing
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of an
organization like NARLA. Yeah.
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It's interesting
that you said I just,
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as we were traveling to
come in and be on the show.
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I was listening to a new
story about an individual
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who refers to the
separation of church
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and state as a
myth, David Barton.
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One of his books
is being withdrawn.
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That's exactly
right. He's written a book.
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He's sort of,
well, what do you say?
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He's rewritten
history on Thomas Jefferson,
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who we know, you know,
and if you as liberty magazine
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readers know
because we often feature
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his quotes in our magazine,
you know, a long time advocate
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of separation of
church and state.
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And so this
gentleman-- so you are right,
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going to source and
hearing from the source--
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And it comes
from different angles.
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Like I couple of days
ago bought a beautifully--
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isn't a discount store.
So I got a good deal on it,
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but a beautifully
packaged Bible, leather cover
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and everything and it's
called the Patriots Bible.
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And it had also
quotes from Gorge Washington
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and the others and
then as well as large print
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I got it because
of the preaching.
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But it is just
beautifully presented.
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But as I look through it I
saw that this might have been
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as well been a
David Barton type thing.
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It was of--nothing
was factually wrong,
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but it was all
tilted to give you the idea
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that we basically, as we
were in church, you know,
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and this is a
religious community. Yes.
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I mean we want
to advance religion,
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but religion
misrepresented actually leads
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to false religion.
And so we need to clarify.
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And I think this is a
huge advantage of NARLA,
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which is not
just for young people
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but NARLA's
special role I think can be
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to nurture young people to
be informed and to be active.
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Absolutely, absolutely.
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You talked about
membership before
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and we start our
membership fees very low.
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They are really nominal
and in fact we also have
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a student membership fee,
which is you know, again--
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And the membership
includes liberty magazine.
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That's exactly right.
By design from the cover.
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But, of course, because
again it's one component
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of a religious liberty ministry
want to make sure, you know,
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as you said we really want
to provide resources for people
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and liberty
magazine is that really,
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the preeminent
resource as far as
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religious liberty
issues go. So I really, yeah,
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I do encourage
viewers to visit our website.
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religiousliberty.info
and really take a look,
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see how you can become involved,
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see what others are
doing. We try to focus
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just a few back in
January when we had a religious
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liberty Sabbath
at my local church.
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We had a state
congressman who represented--
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I live in Colombia,
Maryland, represented that area,
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just invited her and
one of our members had
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a relationship with
her. She came and spoke and,
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you know, she was able
to see that our faith group,
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you know, Seventh-day Adventists
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are passionate
about religious freedom.
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We were able to
share that with her
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and so she knows
that her constituents
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there in the community are
religious freedom advocates,
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or you know, this is an
issue that's important to them.
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And so we posted
that on the NARLA website.
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It's just to give
people an idea of, you know,
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I am interested, I am excited
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about this ministry
how can I become involved.
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This education works two ways.
The legislative was learning
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about what people
do. Exactly, absolutely.
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Not just for the people
that attended the meeting.
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Absolutely, no I
feel like and--you know,
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we've talked before
about the annual religious
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liberty dinner that
we do on Capital Hill.
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Sure. It functions that way.
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It functions that way
as well. I mean, you know,
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we want to
influence individuals.
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Well didn't--didn't
we hear from legislative
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as on the other day
that Hillary Clinton
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even referred to
speaking at the dinner.
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Yes. Oh, that was
incredible so for--.
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And I do
remember and I don't think
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it's improper to say
this, but when she was--
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after she spoke I think
it was about the same time
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she did a little video
promo for liberty magazine. Yes.
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And while she was waiting
for the cameras to start,
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she had quite a dialog
with one of our representatives
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about the Seventh-day Sabbath.
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She says, you know,
the fourth commandment.
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I thought that was
Sunday. You know, I wouldn't say
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that she was
convinced of anything,
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but there is a
perfect natural opportunity
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to communicate our theological
and religious liberty viewpoint
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to someone in a
friendly atmosphere.
00:10:04.01\00:10:05.96
Right, right and the thing is,
you know, as a private citizen
00:10:05.99\00:10:08.79
and even you
know, if we are working
00:10:08.82\00:10:11.09
in a professional
environment sometimes it's--
00:10:11.12\00:10:13.04
it can be intimidating
to have those conversations.
00:10:13.07\00:10:15.38
But again if you are prepared
and you've had that, you know,
00:10:15.41\00:10:22.24
you're familiar with
the topic, you're passionate
00:10:22.27\00:10:24.05
about the topic.
Then and this is where
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I feel NARLA's
role coming in again.
00:10:26.85\00:10:28.56
You know, we have
those training sessions to--
00:10:28.59\00:10:30.93
you know, if you are
going be doing a lobbying day,
00:10:30.96\00:10:33.55
you know, whether
it's on the state level
00:10:33.58\00:10:35.00
or on the local
level, we train individuals
00:10:35.03\00:10:38.45
so that they can feel
very comfortable and you know--
00:10:38.48\00:10:41.45
And everybody that's being
part of that has enjoyed it.
00:10:41.48\00:10:44.17
It sounds intimidating,
but in practice it's a fun time
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to meet all by some social
level and just inform somebody
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who is sitting there, yes tell
us about what you believe in.
00:10:52.91\00:10:56.18
Yes, yes. And
many times and again,
00:10:56.21\00:10:58.32
you know, we are doing
this cross pollination here,
00:10:58.35\00:11:01.62
but many times we've
gone to those lobbying visits
00:11:01.65\00:11:03.56
and seen liberty
magazine on the coffee table.
00:11:03.59\00:11:05.49
Yes. It's always
very nice isn't it?
00:11:05.52\00:11:07.10
It's great. No,
it's the introduction of,
00:11:07.13\00:11:10.75
you know, of our
message into--you know,
00:11:10.78\00:11:13.81
starting that
conversation. So anyway I really
00:11:13.84\00:11:16.62
encourage you. If
you are interested
00:11:16.65\00:11:18.02
in religious liberty
issues to become, you know,
00:11:18.05\00:11:20.90
to check out the NARLA website,
which is religiousliberty.info
00:11:20.93\00:11:24.15
see how you can become involved
and even just, you know,
00:11:24.18\00:11:28.29
become aware of what's going
on in your local community,
00:11:28.32\00:11:30.89
checkout that in Google
map and see if there is a dot
00:11:30.92\00:11:33.38
next to your town.
00:11:33.41\00:11:35.46
As I record this,
the television screens
00:11:36.76\00:11:39.73
across the world are
filled with images of violence
00:11:39.76\00:11:43.00
and rebellion and
civil war in Syria.
00:11:43.03\00:11:46.67
I was very moved
on one occasion to see
00:11:46.70\00:11:49.27
a scene of a young woman
probably in her early 20s
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lying critically
ill. In fact she died
00:11:53.24\00:11:57.11
a little later of her injuries
and she looked at the camera
00:11:57.14\00:12:00.52
and she says, "we will
keep the struggle going,
00:12:00.55\00:12:03.49
we will not give
up. " It takes a lot
00:12:03.52\00:12:06.63
when your life is
actually ebbing away to continue
00:12:06.66\00:12:10.15
the commitment to
a cause like that.
00:12:10.18\00:12:13.43
I know that as Christians
standing for religious liberty
00:12:13.46\00:12:16.07
we too are called to
do whatever it takes.
00:12:16.10\00:12:19.30
I read a book once
about Christian witness
00:12:19.33\00:12:22.05
where the protagonist
said that as a young man
00:12:22.08\00:12:24.74
he heard the minister
saying Christ is worth your all,
00:12:24.77\00:12:29.12
if He is worth anything at all.
00:12:29.15\00:12:31.31
When we deal with
religious liberty,
00:12:31.34\00:12:32.85
when we're talking
about NARLA membership,
00:12:32.88\00:12:35.11
when we're talking
about becoming an activist,
00:12:35.14\00:12:37.45
that same dynamic must apply.
00:12:37.48\00:12:40.47
If it's important it
demands out everything.
00:12:40.50\00:12:44.26
It demands
absolute total commitment.
00:12:44.29\00:12:48.63
For Liberty Insider
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:12:50.38\00:12:54.17