Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Allen Reinach
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000234B
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00:06 Welcome back to Liberty Insider.
00:08 Before the break with guest Alan Reinach, 00:11 we were talking, well, 00:12 initially we started off talking about the Citizens United case 00:15 that has really empowered corporations 00:19 essentially as individuals 00:21 and changed the whole electoral process 00:22 or not the electoral but the process building up 00:25 to an election, fund rising and so on. 00:27 And I want to come back to Citizens United, 00:30 Lincoln, because there was one particular conservative 00:34 who donated $60 million 00:37 to try to get Mitt Romney elected president 00:40 and obviously it didn't work. 00:43 And so people are tended to be lulled into 00:46 a sense of false securities though Citizens United 00:49 is not going to be a game changer. 00:51 Where it's a game changer is at the congressional elections, 00:56 at local elections, congressmen are being cowed into submission 01:01 by the threat of $3 million 01:04 as what it takes to unseat a congressmen. 01:06 And there are plenty of millionaires 01:08 and plenty of corporations 01:10 that would not blink at spending pretty well. 01:12 But we've already seen the game changer, 01:14 it's a corrupting influence. 01:16 The type of--you know, is a swift-boating 01:18 I mean it's just become a term in language is swift-boating. 01:23 I don't think that sort of thing 01:25 would happen without this phenomena. 01:26 There is one conservative industrialist family 01:29 that's well known that has started to implement 01:32 the strategy of reshaping the Republican Party 01:35 according to the tea party. 01:37 And we've seen the dire impact that that has had 01:41 in bringing Congress to its knees. 01:44 Congress is almost completely dysfunctional because 01:48 it is no longer a place of compromise, 01:50 if it's a place of ideological purity nothings gonna get done. 01:54 Let me-- I mean, I don't know 01:57 what's your likely response to this 01:59 but this is not a direct parallel 02:01 between modern packs not packs but the packs of Americana 02:06 and the system of empire, pseudo empire 02:10 that America represents and the Roman Empire 02:14 but you're talking about Congress. 02:16 There was a corruption of the power of the senate in Rome. 02:21 What--do you remember your history, what-- 02:24 wouldn't that dysfunction lead directly to autocracy. 02:29 Well, we have had the accumulation 02:33 of executive power the imperial presidency, 02:36 we've been writing about it at least since the 1960's. 02:40 But, you know, for all the conservatives 02:44 that like to criticize Obama's use of power, 02:48 he inherited it as it were. 02:51 If you have it, you're gonna use it. 02:52 You know, using drones. 02:55 You know, using drones as a primary instrument 02:58 of the war and terror as a substitute 03:01 for sending boots on the ground. 03:03 Yeah, killing American citizens with the use of drones 03:08 without due process of law 03:09 which is taking place under this administration. 03:12 But unless I'm forgetting some of our Roman history, 03:16 there was a shift within the senate, 03:18 there was always the aristocracy 03:21 if you like-- but I think it became consciously 03:24 the wealthy families represented there--the oligarchs of Rome 03:30 and that removed them from the people 03:32 because this was always been to represent the people. 03:34 And once that happened they became dysfunctional 03:37 because it was like mortgages of the capitalized 03:40 to pick another illustration from Italy. 03:42 And--no I don't believe these-- 03:44 I'm not suggesting parallels are direct because what really-- 03:48 well, we were saying working through Roman 03:50 and now today, it's human nature 03:52 how it works out as self interest. 03:54 The reality is we have an increasing divide 03:57 between the one percent and the 99 04:00 and the fact is the mega rich and the corporations 04:04 are increasingly dominating our political polices 04:08 and our debates and shaping the politics for the nation. 04:12 And those policies are not necessarily 04:16 in your best interest or mine and those of the listeners. 04:20 You know, I believe the TARP program 04:23 for example was necessary. 04:25 Did we need to pump liquidity into the banking system 04:28 to keep it from collapsing? Yes. 04:30 But did we need to do more than that. 04:31 Did we need to pump liquidity into Main Street 04:35 and do something to help Main Street recover? 04:39 There is a reason why five years later 04:43 we're nowhere close to the level of employment 04:45 that we had before the collapse 04:48 and the economy is limping along, 04:50 it's because of policies that have been 04:52 contouring to Wall Street. 04:53 Back to our text how now--you know, 04:56 you're wealthy because you held it back by fraud. 04:58 I mean, political developments countries 05:00 can do them right or wrong but what the root here 05:02 I think is the changed attitude towards fellowmen 05:05 and a Christian religious sensibility 05:07 is a moderating force and an equalizing force 05:10 and that's being withdrawn literally. 05:12 You and I believe this and the Bible, indicates that 05:15 at the very end of earth's history 05:17 God will no longer strive with men. 05:20 His parable no longer strive-- 05:21 So we're now more, and more under the natural inclinations 05:25 of people and there is more people that haven't accepted God 05:29 or a higher power and so these things follow through 05:33 to their logical end which is despotism, 05:36 it's unconcern for the-- for the common person, the poor. 05:41 People often ask Me, Lincoln, 'cause 05:44 I do a whole series on the coming economic collapse 05:47 from a Biblical perspective. 05:48 And they ask me if you know, 05:50 what's gonna bring this about? 05:52 And of course the Bible doesn't tell us 05:54 and I don't have a crystal ball 05:55 but I'll take a lesson from the example of Greece. 06:00 You know, Greece is continuing 06:02 to be a drag on the European Union. 06:04 And I ask my brother who is--you know, 06:07 I'm the first in three generations 06:09 to leave Wall Street. 06:12 My whole family has been in Wall Street 06:13 for three generations. 06:15 And he is a trader, 06:16 I said, how is it that a 23rd rate economy 06:20 can have such a dire impact on global markets. 06:24 Well, it's because of centralization, 06:27 it's because of globalization. 06:29 The reason that we have the potential 06:32 for the kind of global economic collapse 06:35 that Revelation portrays is because of this consolidation, 06:40 this globalization that is tying everything up 06:43 into a nice neat bundle that can burn with one flash point. 06:48 You must have been reading Ellen White. 06:51 One of the pioneers-- Binding in bundles to be burned. 06:54 Seventh-day Adventist Church pioneer 06:56 and a visionary Ellen White, 06:57 she made that comment about the end of time 06:59 that-- she use confederacies. Yes. 07:03 Confederacy of business, confederacies of ideology, 07:06 They're uniting and we've seen-- I mean, 07:08 the takeovers in business, 07:11 the European Union collecting countries 07:14 when the Soviet Union collapsed. 07:15 It seems to be the spirit of the times. Right. 07:17 And, yes, we see it in the prophetic sense 07:20 but it's clearly happening before everyone's eyes. 07:22 It is. And-- And I'm surprised that it's happening 07:25 because apart from anything else I thought I studied this 07:29 that the lesson of World War I, 07:33 was that these bundles lead directly to World War I. 07:35 Right. It's a bad phenomenon. 07:37 It's sort of whole or nothing, we all gonna down together. 07:40 Right. 07:41 So if there is one thing though 07:43 rather than take a passive attitude or you know, 07:47 fatalistic attitude there is nothing I can do. 07:49 For starters the role of the church 07:52 is to be prophetic, not priestly. 07:55 The priesthood is part of the establishment, 07:57 part of the status quo and helps to maintain the social order. 08:02 The prophets are apart from the social order 08:04 and they are to call the society to a higher level. 08:09 Now if we as a church are going to call for repentance, 08:13 call for revival, call for a higher standard of moral living 08:17 then our footprint, our carbon footprint has to be reduced. 08:22 Our-- you know, consuming the products of slave labor, 08:27 we have to think twice about what products we are buying 08:30 and who is making them. 08:31 You know, we have to start-- And which investments-- 08:33 We have to start applying morality 08:36 to the decisions of our everyday life 08:39 and then we have the courage to talk about 08:43 how morality influences all of our decisions in life 08:48 and it's not just about, you know, the issues 08:51 for example of sexuality that are the things 08:54 that church is probably speaking about. 08:55 We need to be morally consistence 08:57 what you are saying. Right. 08:58 And also when you say prophetic 09:01 that's not to condemn the world 09:03 but to call the world to answer to a higher authority 09:08 and put them on their best behavior. Well-- 09:11 And the-- there's a law that expects them 09:14 to behave differently. 09:15 That is-- every generation the prophets and the preachers 09:19 have decried the moral decline of the age. 09:21 Unfortunately Jesus says, 09:22 which of the prophets haven't you killed. 09:25 So it's not always in a self, you know, 09:28 you do not think in your own time. 09:30 But it still needs to be done correctly. 09:32 I don't think of-- let me say prophetic 09:35 it can't be good to just sort of lash out at the world 09:38 but call it to a higher, higher calling. 09:40 But you know, it is a myth that too many Christians have 09:45 that somehow the free market is Biblical or Christian. 09:48 The free market is built on greed. 09:51 There is that famous Michael Douglas 09:53 line in the movie where he says, in the sequel he says, 09:57 I used say the greed is good now it appears to be legal. 10:01 Well, Christians should not be endorsing a system of greed, 10:05 we should be speaking a prophetic voice 10:08 to a higher moral agenda 10:10 when it comes to the economy and concern for our fellowman. 10:18 Confederations have an interesting history. 10:22 In pre-history there's the story of Nimrod, the hunter 10:27 and his leadership in what became Babylon. 10:30 As the association of Nimrod with the Tower of Babel 10:33 and man's efforts to challenge God himself 10:36 by building a great edifice 10:40 that was over when God dispersed men. 10:42 But when I look at the other side of the Biblical story 10:46 in Revelation it tells there that 10:49 when all of men's worst endeavors are put to an end 10:52 when the earth is cleansed and ready for a new beginning 10:56 God's eternal Holy City comes down 11:00 and descends to the earth itself with several miles on a side. 11:05 Its message bigger than the Tower of Babel. 11:07 And they're God's people look down on the wicked 11:10 who confederate again for the last time 11:13 against God and His principle. 11:16 We need to realize that man in his own inclination 11:20 really doesn't work for a godly end. 11:22 We need to realize that God's people 11:25 have the ability, the opportunity 11:27 to unite themselves with Him for ultimate freedom, 11:31 for ultimate security and an ultimate solution 11:34 to the confederations of evil men. 11:38 This is Lincoln Steed for Liberty Insider. |
Revised 2014-12-17