Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Grace Mackintosh
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000224A
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00:22 Welcome to the "Liberty Insider."
00:24 This is a program that brings you analysis, 00:27 discussion and up to date information 00:29 on religious liberty events 00:30 and developments around the world. 00:32 My name is Lincoln Steed, Editor of Liberty Magazine. 00:36 And my guest on the program is Grace Mackintosh. 00:40 Now Grace, for our viewers I should what-- 00:43 you have too many titles 00:44 but the one that is important for this program 00:46 I think is that you are Director of Public Affairs 00:48 and Religious Liberty 00:49 for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada. 00:52 Correct. 00:53 I want to talk about education. 00:56 None of us can have too much of that. 00:59 We need to know about this increasingly complex world 01:03 and the popular assumption is the education 01:07 department, schools, universities 01:09 they will teach that to you. 01:10 But I believe more and more 01:12 educational institutions are biased. 01:16 Obviously, you expect a Christian school 01:19 to have a bias toward teaching Christian values. 01:22 But may be a state school 01:25 is more biased than people realize. 01:29 They should think initially the state has schools 01:32 because it wants to inculcate values 01:34 that suit a person to function in the society, the government 01:39 and the governing system as established. 01:41 But I think more and more 01:42 it's even a bit bigger than that. 01:43 There's a social agenda that's different from the norm. 01:47 All right. You find that to be true in Canada? 01:48 I agree that completely. 01:50 I think that education is under siege. 01:53 I think they take advantage of the educational setting 01:55 to teach values and a way of processing, 02:00 a way of problem solving and I see a manifestation 02:04 of our teaching methods for processing, 02:07 for thinking and social issues. 02:10 So can I give an example to you? 02:13 Go ahead. 02:14 One of my--an example that I think is most poignant 02:18 and it is when you teach situational ethics-- 02:22 don't have a problem with situational ethics 02:24 but its become a vehicle to promote 02:27 certain kind of problem solving and it shows up in real life. 02:31 So it's a way of teaching a culture of death. 02:34 So an example is you have heard, of these situations. 02:42 You have a got a shipwreck 02:44 and you have the lifeboat 02:47 and the lifeboat can only take five people 02:49 and you've got seven. 02:50 Right. 02:52 And the students are not required to solve the problem, 02:57 they're only required to do one thing 03:01 and that's chose who dies. 03:03 And what it's really teaching 03:05 its teaching even they know 03:09 when they come to school that to kill is wrong. 03:11 But they're being taught that in certain situations 03:14 especially in emergencies 03:17 or in a crisis people are expendable. 03:20 And it doesn't really matter who you pick 03:21 because they're told it's not right or wrong. 03:24 You can pick the doctor. 03:25 You can pick the pregnant lady. You can pick whatever. 03:27 You're not allowed to have shark repellent. 03:29 You're not allowed to have ropes. 03:31 You can't have a mindset 03:32 that says everybody gets out alive or we go down together. 03:36 And you're processing, 03:40 you're teaching the children to think 03:42 analytically in a very small scope. 03:45 Now you believe this 03:46 is the sort of think that is typically-- 03:48 It's taught in schools. 03:49 You get a car-- you come across 03:51 this a lot at all levels of education 03:53 including pro-secondary. 03:55 And to me the way I see that manifested 03:59 and a social issue is abortion. 04:02 Yeah. Right. 04:04 We've got to crisis. 04:05 There're unwanted babies, right? 04:08 You can't have the mindset 04:09 we want them all to get out alive 04:11 or we want to prevent a pregnancies. 04:14 That is not the mindset. 04:16 The mindset is you decide and the courts decide 04:20 when are they expendable. Yeah. 04:22 And it's really teaching that you know 04:26 there are humans that are expendable 04:28 and it comes at the time of crisis. 04:30 These reality shows are also doing the much the same thing. 04:32 The reality shows are doing much the same thing. 04:34 And may be they're reflecting the norms of thinking 04:37 that they're getting in the schools. 04:39 And Hollywood in general is teaching 04:42 that there are certain humans that are expendable. 04:45 I have a friend-- this is thematic. 04:50 I have a friend they were at a Calgary stampede. 04:53 And one of the rides-- a little pod came flying off 04:56 it was up in the air and the pods had people in them. 04:59 And flying off and there were people hurt 05:02 I don't know if anybody was mortally hurt 05:04 but there were seriously hurt. 05:07 And her daughter said to her, 05:09 oh mother I don't know why you're so upset. 05:11 We don't know anybody that was in the pod. Incredible. 05:14 But this is Hollywood their hero is running 05:18 and you know the bullets are flying 05:21 and you know the people are dying and you just. 05:24 You'll find yourself thinking phew, 05:26 I'm glad it wasn't his wife 05:27 or I'm so glad there wasn't the daughter. 05:29 We didn't know that person they're not involved 05:31 with our little group that we hope get through. 05:33 And you get taught. You know-- 05:36 And what's that statement that girl says, 05:38 I mean on several levels 05:40 in most particularly there is no empathy. 05:42 No there is this desensitization. 05:45 We only care if it's someone we know. 05:48 There are people on the other side of it, 05:50 there are people that are expendable. 05:52 Its okay, we didn't know them. 05:54 It's okay, it's not the hero. 05:56 You know, its okay, 05:58 there wasn't enough money you know 06:00 for that baby to have a good life. 06:01 It's okay, the mother didn't want them. 06:04 And this reminds me of one of the television shows 06:10 that I cannot name 06:11 but it's a weekly drama and the hero. 06:14 In Canada? 06:15 You know, this is in the United States. 06:17 The hero is a serial killer 06:20 but he only kills people who deserved to be killed. 06:23 And what are you being taught? 06:25 You're being desensitized to gratuitous killing 06:29 for one thing and you're being taught 06:30 that there are certain people who are expendable 06:32 and they are the bad people are always expendable. 06:36 And I bring that back to the curriculum 06:39 that's being taught and Quebec 06:41 and for 11 years the children are being taught 06:44 that fundamentalism is bad, 06:46 extremism is bad, and fanatics are bad. 06:50 And I have a picture that I collected 06:54 and I will try to find it 06:57 but it basically its protesters with signs that say, 07:02 "When we deal with the Christian-- 07:05 you know fanatics 07:07 then we'll have really solved some problems." 07:10 And conditioning definitely works. 07:12 You know we were always talking about Hitler 07:14 and people get offended that you draw an analogy 07:16 because certainly we don't live in an Nazi regime now 07:21 and how we come we don't know. 07:24 But I think some overdrawn analogies 07:26 can still underscore things. 07:27 Now Hitler tend on the Jews. 07:30 I mean, that was his personal bias 07:31 that he used as a government policy. 07:34 But you know it happened over a long period of time. 07:36 The Roman Catholic Church 07:38 the dominant Christian church of the Middle Ages 07:41 definitely encouraged the idea 07:43 that the Jews had crucified Christ 07:47 and that they brought their own punishment upon themselves. 07:51 Even before the church might have acted 07:53 on that they were inculcating the view deserve-- 07:55 you know people deserve what they are getting. 07:57 They were guilty parties. 08:00 So then the church started to act more aggressively 08:04 and there were programs and so on. 08:07 And coming right down to the Hitler age. 08:10 You know that already 08:11 it had been planted in that society. 08:13 You know as people that are sort of under the frown of God 08:16 they got what they deserve. 08:18 And then the Nazis who the people forget this, 08:21 they were the first real case 08:23 in the modern world of propaganda 08:25 as a tool, a calculated tool. 08:28 And they had these films 08:29 remember the pictures of rats running through the cities. 08:32 These are the Jews infesting our society. 08:36 These cursed people that got what they deserve 08:37 before now they're coming at you and so on. 08:40 And there were several years of that 08:42 before anything really happened in Germany. 08:44 They just planted the idea that, 08:46 you know, these are the scourge of our society, 08:49 the problematic thing. 08:50 The people that really are under a curse anywhere. 08:54 And so when bad stuff started to happen 08:56 it was like the pod that flies off. 08:58 Well don't worry they're not us, 08:59 they're not Germans, they're not real people, 09:02 there's the people that are troubled any how. 09:05 I think it was conditioning. Yes. 09:07 And yes some very good people not so much in Germany 09:10 but in Holland and places 09:12 reacted against it and protected them. 09:14 Not all human were subverted 09:15 but the group shift that came about 09:18 by this sort of inculcation 09:20 and just reinforcement over and over. 09:22 Yes. It was very real and intoxicant. 09:24 And you're right we're getting into that same sort of stuff. 09:26 I believe it. 09:27 Its desensitization and it creates a situation 09:32 when the real thing happens 09:35 there is no cognitive dissonance. 09:37 You know there is an acceptance. 09:39 Yeah. You have heard this before. 09:40 You have seen this before. 09:41 So I found the picture and sorry 09:44 I can't show it to our viewers. 09:45 But the sign says, life begins 09:48 so it's a play on when life begins 09:50 with respective to abortion 09:52 when you stand up to Christian fascists. 09:56 All right, so are you are the enemy. 10:00 You know, Christians are the enemy. 10:01 Christian fascists are the enemy. 10:03 And it's thematic as I had saying, 10:06 it's in education, it's in media. 10:08 Every time you turn around 10:10 there is some reference to a fascists 10:13 or an extremist or a fanatic or fundamentalist 10:17 and they are becoming public enemy number one. 10:21 Now there is little off 10:23 from where we're heading with this 10:25 but I think this is partly enabled 10:27 by too many Christians rising to the bait. 10:30 This is one of my burdens. 10:31 Too many Christians since the 70s in the US 10:34 particularly have taken a political cause. 10:36 They're aggressive, they're social engineering. 10:40 Yes. In your face which get legislative proposals in that. 10:43 And there are perfect foiled to this sort of stuff. 10:45 But in a nominally Christian culture 10:47 which Canada and the U.S. still are if more Christians 10:51 where exemplifying Christian values 10:53 and showing the falsehood of this sort of attack. 10:56 It couldn't gain much traction. 10:58 Right, again back to the individual 11:01 and the regeneration of the heart. 11:03 I quote from the Desire of Ages. 11:06 In another program I would share 11:07 the very powerful quote from Ellen White. 11:10 It was writing about the life of Christ 11:12 how He is was not concerned with temporal power 11:16 and political activity but changing the heart. 11:19 And I think that to bring back to the educational 11:22 setting that the students 11:24 are being taught to think analytically 11:27 but they are not being taught to reason 11:29 from cause to effect. 11:31 So when you narrow the scope of your field division 11:36 you really loose the context within 11:38 which these discussions are being made 11:41 such as abortion or when life begins. 11:44 And the threat is very real 11:47 because you now have a generation 11:50 that is not processing. 11:52 There are not problems solving 11:54 in the context of reasoning from cause to effect. 11:57 They are just slicking at the solving the problem 12:00 how do we get rid of the problem. 12:01 Well we're going to kill off the babies. 12:03 That's the best way to do it. 12:04 Well they're given limited choices and it's, 12:05 you know, here is the question is it a,b,c. 12:08 Yes, yes. That is the standard educational-- 12:12 And this is how we process our social problems. 12:16 I want to read a quote it's a letter written in 1899. 12:24 It was written by Ellen White a wonderful author. 12:28 And Seventh-day Adventist author 12:30 and pioneer of the church. Yes. 12:31 And it was published 12:32 in the SDA Bible Commentary as well. 12:36 It's the Bible commentary 12:37 that the church prepared for its members-- 12:39 They do. To help understand Bible passages. 12:42 It's interpretive not adding to it. Right. 12:46 "As a people we do not understand 12:47 as we should the great conflict 12:50 going on between invisible agencies, 12:53 the controversy between loyal and disloyal angels. 12:56 Evil angels are constantly at work, 12:58 planning their line of attack, 13:00 controlling as commanders, kings, and rulers, 13:03 the disloyal human forces. 13:06 I call upon the ministers of Christ 13:09 to press home upon the understanding of all 13:11 who come within the reach of their voice 13:13 the truth of the ministration of angels. 13:15 Do not indulge in fanciful speculations. 13:18 The written Word is our only safety. 13:20 We must pray as did Daniel, that we may be guarded 13:23 by heavenly intelligences. 13:25 As ministering spirits, 13:27 angels are sent forth to minister to those 13:29 who shall be heirs of salvation." 13:30 And here's is what I think is my takeaway. 13:34 "Pray my brethren, 13:36 pray as you have never prayed before. 13:38 We are not prepared for the Lord's coming. 13:41 We need to make thorough work for eternity." 13:44 And I think that these issues are coming together 13:48 in a significant and powerful way 13:50 and we need to pray as we-- 13:51 And that's calling people of faith 13:53 to a spiritual sensibility to realize 13:55 that battle is on a spiritual level for us. 13:57 Yes. 13:59 We're running out of time in this half of program. 14:01 So I will make a take a break here. 14:03 But please come back 14:05 we're dealing with some serious issues 14:07 under the overarching title of Education. 14:10 But how does it affect societal viewpoints 14:13 and indeed religious liberty. 14:15 We'll be right back. |
Revised 2014-12-17