Welcome back to Liberty Insider.
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Before the break
with guest Melissa Reid,
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we were bouncing around
on the topic of persecution
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but particularly
two cases that have come
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that have come to the
Adventist churches attention,
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one in Pakistan and one in
Togo of Seventh-day Adventist
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that have been imprisoned
and suffering for their faith
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although the dynamic
in each case is different.
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One charged of blasphemy on
a telephone call, Mr. Sajjad.
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Now the second one,
do you want to introduce?
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The case that's been on the
board for a couple of years now.
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Yeah, unfortunately I
think we've just celebrated
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a two year
anniversary for a pastor
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who's actually originally
from Cape Verde came to Togo
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which is a
Western African nation
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and was serving there
and has been imprisoned
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or was accused but has not
been convicted, is that correct?
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There hasn't even been--
Either there's not been trial.
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He's been charged in
the sense he was arrested
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but no formal charges--
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No formal charges. No trial.
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And yet he has now
celebrated two years in--
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or not celebrated,
passed two years in prison
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for blood trafficking charge.
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Again, as we
mentioned in the first story,
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the witnesses now recanted,
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is that correct or
he's proven unreliable.
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Proven unreliable. Yes.
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Well, you know for
our viewers, it mean--
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I'd mention this
on another program
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I think about six months ago.
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It's worth
repeating but it's bizarre
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but it's an illustration of
often how persecution comes.
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Not very often except
in a full phase program
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against the group you'll
find someone put in jail say,
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because they are an Adventist,
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because they are
catholic or whatever.
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It's usually a subtle thing that
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because they are that
there's deep prejudice
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an intention to trap them up
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or to frame then, if you would.
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Yes. Yes.
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And so Pastor Montero, as
you said a native of Cape Verde,
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a little group of violence,
400 miles of the coast of Togo.
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And Togo itself is not very big,
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just a little sliver
of a country below Ghana,
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six million people.
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And so this-- essentially
this missionary church leader,
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Pastor Montero serving as
a Sabbath school director,
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in other words the
internal responsibility,
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not even an
outward looking position
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but on one
occasion this gentleman came
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and asks some
advice of church leaders
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and among others
he spoke to Montero,
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that's the only
contact it had to this man.
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Then a few weeks later something
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that I discovered
fairly common in that area,
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there was some murders
and the charge was made that--
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not that murders were common
but the nature of the murder
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that young woman had been killed
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and their blood drained
for animistic sacrifices.
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That is typical of
that area of course.
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And nine women,
allude seems unclear
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whether the bodies
were ever discovered.
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So it might just
been a broad brush charge
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but nine women were
killed, blood taken,
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this man that had come
to the church just revise,
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was arrested
quickly as none criminal,
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confessed
quickly and then he said,
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Pastor Montero
was the ring leader.
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Well, it's just logical,
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they had the most
cleansing connection,
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not to mention such a
thing as true Christians
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and people of other
faiths have done bizarre things
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but there's not logic
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or almost opportunity for
him to do something like this.
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Right. Right.
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And so he was arrested quickly
and two other church members
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but its
interesting that the charge
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was never really repeated.
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No evidence were call in.
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And that's the thing,
that's the frustrating thing
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because I am sure
the pastor and his family
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and are very anxious
for either a charge or--
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and then a subsequent trials
so he can prove his innocence
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or you know,
obviously the case being dismiss
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and so there's no
evidence towards the charge--
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And you think by now,
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after two years if
there was some hard evidence
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that would at
least be floating around
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but nothing but for of.
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It appears to a number of us
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that there's a bigger
political issue applied
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we don't quite
know what's going on.
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But there's some
higher calculation
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but we don't know why
they don't deal with him
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at least just even the
sort of put it under the rug
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and quietly let
him out of the jail.
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So he and the
other stay in jail,
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rotting quite literally, a jail
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where there's no
internal services
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just a door or guards outside
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and they throw the prisoners in
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and the food is passed in by
family members every few days.
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Right.
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And the
prisoners pass out the dead
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and a couple of
hundred people have died
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since he's been there.
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So it's not a good situation.
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Now I hear, I imagining myself
in that kind of situation,
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it's difficult to but I imagine
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that I, you know,
where it would a lot of times
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of discouragement especially
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when you don't have
any sort of, you know,
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end inside or hope inside as far
as not even a trial or anything.
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But from what I
understand Pastor Montero
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is in there leading Bible
studies, encouraging other
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prisoners. He certainly doesn't
want to get out unless he's
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vindicated. Yes.
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Which I hope for
his sake that happens.
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I mean, I don't
think its Christians
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or any one of faith to call upon
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to suffer
unnecessarily for their faith.
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So if there's a
release available
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I think we should
take advantage of it.
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Although it's
interesting and Paul talking
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about the
persecuted through the ages,
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I often preach on these
things, he names them all
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and the ones that
were showed him to
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and then he says
not accepting release.
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But I know what
Paul was meaning.
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If to get release you have to
compromise your faith, you know.
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Absolutely.
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That used to be the
thing in the middle ages,
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you know, we can't, you are out.
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Yes.
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But in this case it's not
really that narrowly speaking
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because of his faith but because
he is a Christian in a country
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with only 25%
Christians, 25% Muslims,
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a very unstable
dysfunctional political system,
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lot of
prejudice floating around,
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there's animistic
practice of blood sacrifices.
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It's easy for him and his
religion to be mischaracterized.
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Sure. Absolutely.
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And it's just
the irony of the fact
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that he was actually
having to help this--
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wanting to assist this gentleman
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or help this gentleman
who he met one time before
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and now has turned
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and you know, is
the accuser, it's just--
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Well, but still-- the
Christian needs to help.
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And US, you know, always
trying to draw the connection.
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It's not seen as
religious liberty problem
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but you know, good Samaritan
laws in the US are fine
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but many, many
times in the US people
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find themselves
under legal challenge
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because they
tried to do a good deed.
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And you know,
doctors are complaining
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about that all the
time with the malpractice
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and so on that,
you know, doing good
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they may inadvertently
destroy their career.
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It's interesting, I just
read an article the other day
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about how we
celebrate individuals
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for doing what they should do.
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Get a couple of instances
of someone finding money
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and returning it
to the individual
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or somebody seeing, you know,
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one person being taken
advantage of the other person
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and it was interesting
the author of the article
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was saying, are we
now at a point in society
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where we celebrate--
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we're so
depraved that we celebrate
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when someone actually
just behaves in the way
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they are suppose to,
you know, it's interesting.
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And the answer is
probably yes, we are.
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And same with
whistleblowers. Yeah.
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There is a whistleblowers law
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but practically every time
especially in the government
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someone blows the
whistle, their career is finish.
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Absolutely.
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So there's
really not a protection
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but what is it,
integrity isn't something like
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integrity is the best reward.
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Sure. And certainly--
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Virtually, it's its own reward.
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Yes, and certainly
it's our eternal reward
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but that also
brings me back to Mr. Masih
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and back in Pakistan
and I think about knowing
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that he is a
member of this faith group
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and knowing the consequences
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that could happen to him being--
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publicly being a
Christian, I just--
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I really want to affirm
him and his family and just--
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I mean, it's
incredible to know, you know,
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standing up for
Jesus in the consequences.
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I mean, he of course did
not that his romantic rival
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was going to, you know,
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but he knew that by being as
Christian in that environment--
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Absolutely, it was
filled with praline
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and in spite of that
he decided to maintain
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his Seventh-day
Adventist Christian faith.
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Yeah, absolutely.
And that is important.
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One thing that
it's worth mentioning
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with Pastor Montero,
yes, he wasn't in there
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narrowly speaking
because of something
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he had done or not
done as an Adventist
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but once he was brought
in the media had a field day
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vilifying him from
religious perspective
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and mischaracterizing
Adventist as people
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with strange practices
including some blood rituals.
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So religious
prejudice kicked in big
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so I don't think that's
even slightly off the limit
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to characterizing this as
religious prejudice/persecution.
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Yeah. Well, it's--
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defiantly both
of these families,
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I really have been impressed,
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I haven't-- I
am not as familiar,
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it's a newer story
that the family in Pakistan,
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the young man
in Pakistan but I--
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in the anecdotes that
I've heard about Mrs. Montero
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and her friend
bringing food to the prison
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and all those sort of
situation really suffering
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but also they seem like they are
holding up this great attitude.
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It's impressive, it's certainly
is a testimony to their
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relationship
with Christ being able
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to see the
positive in situations
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and ministering
to the needs of those
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in the prison as
well that's with them.
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We certainly want to commend
them and hold them up in prayer.
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A few years ago I
head a rather humorous
00:10:08.27\00:10:10.24
regarding world
population levels.
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there's way too many
people are being born,
00:10:13.51\00:10:17.37
the world is over
crowded and he says,
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somewhere in the
world every 3 minutes
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a woman is giving birth.
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And in the
audience someone yelled out,
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I say we find that
woman and stop her.
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When you are
talking about persecution
00:10:28.72\00:10:31.60
we need to realize there
are hundreds of thousands
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perhaps millions of people
are suffering for their faith.
00:10:34.25\00:10:37.62
Many thousands
presently are dying.
00:10:37.65\00:10:40.91
But perhaps
it's not all that bad
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as we have in this
program with Pastor Montero
00:10:42.78\00:10:46.34
and our brother in Pakistan
focus on a particular case
00:10:46.37\00:10:50.54
because in the particular
we can see the general.
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We know that
Seventh-day Adventist
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as many other Christians
and people of other faiths
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are suffering for their faith.
00:10:59.29\00:11:01.47
And when we have a
face to that reality
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it will perhaps
give us a greater impetus
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to be concern for
those unnamed faceless
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but real thousands,
millions around the world
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who need relief
from the suffering
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that they are
facing for their faith.
00:11:18.96\00:11:22.39
From Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:11:22.42\00:11:25.97