Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), John Graz
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000254B
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00:03 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:05 Before the break with guest Dr. John Graz 00:07 we were talking about something that you've really identified 00:11 within your leadership, the festivals 00:13 or the celebrations of religious liberty 00:16 held with massive crowds filling entire stadiums 00:19 all around the world. 00:20 This is been a growing a phenomenon. 00:23 Yeah, you know, and as I said I challenge the others, 00:26 you know, I said you have to do the same. 00:27 Try to do better than us and for the women 00:31 I'm still waiting but I encourage them 00:33 to do the same because you know, 00:35 as you mention when you have a meeting 00:38 about religious freedom most of the time 00:40 its a meeting between lawyer, officials. 00:43 Even if we have a congress like the World Congress 00:46 with 900 participant which is the largest, 00:49 it was the largest World Congress 00:51 but still its selection of people. 00:54 But when religious freedom is threatened 00:57 ordinary people have trouble. 01:00 It means everyone. 01:01 Not just the lawyer and so on, everyone. 01:04 It means they have to stand for religious freedom 01:06 publicly at least time to time. 01:09 And when you have that privilege 01:11 to live in a country where you have this 01:14 religious freedom protected by the constitution, 01:17 by the law you have to show that you like it. 01:20 You want to keep it and if not, you know, 01:23 it means that that's not important 01:25 and you will lose it. 01:27 Have you thought about running a festival 01:29 in a country that's obviously less free 01:33 sort of a public call for this value 01:37 that so important to humans around the world? 01:41 Yeah. 01:42 We want religious liberty, let's have it. 01:44 Yeah, but, you know, when you organize 01:46 such a big event you need authorization. 01:49 And of course and sometime also you have to be careful like, 01:53 you don't want to organize a big event 01:55 just few weeks before big election. 01:58 This kind of thing you have to avoid 02:01 and it means there are several things 02:03 and people like, you know, 02:05 beautiful music about religious freedom 02:07 which is the-- from Verdin, Nabucco the Slaves, 02:11 the Hebrew Slaves song playing in Spain 02:15 when we had our festival in Spain 02:17 that was fabulous, you know, 02:19 but in Brazil this is the hymn of the communist party 02:22 and they say that you will have a confusion if you play that. 02:26 It means you are really to adjust 02:28 but, you know, just imagine-- 02:30 Music can get you into trouble, you know. 02:32 Yes, exactly. 02:33 Laugh and hymn all that many Adventist churches 02:36 use there's a song and I wish I could remember title 02:38 but its about American singing about America 02:41 but I know this that its done 02:42 to the tune of "God Save The Queen." 02:46 So there's a lot of-- 02:47 But that's adjust that adjust then you know-- 02:50 Well, its not dangerous say in context 02:53 but there are political overturns to many things 02:55 that people don't realize even classical music. 02:57 The beautiful side in Spain we had meeting of expert 03:01 with 60 university professor and so on. 03:04 It was organized by the university 03:06 with our association in Europe. 03:09 And after they came to the central church of Madrid 03:13 for the festival you had a professor, 03:15 you have people from the European Union, 03:17 people from the United Nation they came to the church 03:20 for the festival of religious freedom 03:22 which was a beautiful concert. 03:25 It means you have ambassadors coming and so on, 03:28 that's very important to show that 03:30 you have in the world today people who are dedicated 03:35 to promote and defend religious freedom. 03:37 But that's not, you know, 03:39 religious freedom doesn't bring a lot of money, 03:42 we have always to deal with it. 03:44 We have to learn how to do big things 03:47 with a small amount. 03:48 What you are countering in a very positive way 03:51 is the religious liberty is often defined in the negative. 03:54 It's when its taken or when its restricted, 03:56 when this persecution and somehow we need to put 04:02 the very real positive tool. 04:03 But people don't think of it that way 04:05 and in some ways I was thinking while you were 04:07 claiming this to be again and I'm very familiar with it 04:09 but I'm thinking in some ways its probably harder 04:13 to get people out in a country 04:14 where they have religious freedom 04:16 because its not a great burden to them-- 04:18 Very difficult, very difficult because they say 04:20 that's another point, we have religious freedom 04:22 and I said to them thank you for those who are persecuted. 04:25 You have them in doing nothing. 04:27 And secondly you can lose your religious freedom 04:31 and if you are not aware you will not see the change. 04:35 It will go gradually step by step 04:37 and one day it will be too late. 04:39 You know, in the United States particularly 04:41 here I deal with lawyers and legal principles 04:45 and it struck me yes, 04:47 there's a constitution in the United States, 04:48 yes, there is a certain historical norm 04:52 that people are in expectation even in the courts. 04:55 But that said law is a very movable dynamic thing 04:58 and something that settled now, 05:00 you think the constitution backs it full time. 05:02 If people paid little attention to it 05:04 and were sloppy about it paid little attention 05:08 it could drift away and in a shortest handful of years 05:12 you could find that practically speaking 05:13 you don't even have the most basic religious liberty. 05:16 So it needs to be defended. 05:18 You will have-- you will not have all people 05:21 affected when you have 05:22 the restriction of religious freedom. 05:24 It means the majority of people 05:25 will say that's all the problem. 05:26 The majority always have whatever they have. 05:28 Yeah, but for some people that will be very difficult 05:32 and this is why it's so important 05:33 to have this kind of initiative 05:35 and not to say we cannot do that. 05:37 Yes, we can. 05:38 We cannot do maybe with 30-50,000 people 05:42 but we can do that with what we have, 05:44 even two or three hundred. 05:46 You know Romania and Bucharest 05:47 they put several thousand people. 05:49 They could have put 10,000, the put 4,500 05:52 in a beautiful auditorium with a beautiful concert, 05:56 the minister came and so on. 05:58 That's okay, there is no problem. 06:00 You know, if he can do better, 06:01 if you want to do better you have also to choose. 06:04 You can have a beautiful problem 06:05 and not too lot of people because you select 06:08 and it could be a great, great event 06:11 or you can have an event in the stadium. 06:13 It means there is no rules, 06:15 you choose to do the best to promote. 06:18 Well, in Mexico, in Mexico the first time in Chiapas. 06:21 This is the Chiapas one, yeah. 06:22 Chiapas, you know, the first time-- 06:23 Which of course was in an incredible context 06:25 because that's where they been 06:26 that religious prosecution of evangelical Christians, right. 06:31 Yeah, and we can see the affect today 06:33 where you have evangelicals and Adventist 06:36 who have lost everything. 06:37 And few years ago we start with the first symposium 06:41 and the first concert on religious freedom 06:44 and then they decided to do something big 06:47 in the stadium and they gathered 27,000 people. 06:51 You know, that was the day of religious freedom. 06:54 The day of religious freedom that was fabulous. 06:56 So how long have you been organizing these 06:58 with I think Costa, Williams Costa was the first-- 07:01 He was there on for really-- organized the first, 07:07 the first big, first media festival. 07:10 We had before some festival but that was just in churches. 07:13 This was all within the last decade certainly isn't it? 07:15 You know, we start the festival in 1997, 07:18 the idea, the first one we to-- that was my idea to have, 07:23 when we have a World Congress I thought that we have 07:26 a World Congress it lasted four days, 07:29 then after its finished I said, 07:30 we should involve the local churches 07:33 and instead to stop with the World Congress 07:36 we should have an event to promote religious freedom 07:39 in the same city and we called this event festival 07:43 and started in Rio. 07:45 But you know, during the, 07:46 within of developed the concept really of Festival 07:50 for Religious Freedom came in 2006 07:52 when I go tin the Bible these promise of God, 07:57 you know the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. 08:00 I said that we should not be happy 08:02 when we have 200 or 300 08:04 we should see bigger than that and God can do that. 08:08 And you know, my goad as I said, 08:10 10,000 and God brought 50,000, 45,000. 08:13 You had a bigger God. 08:14 And I'm sure that one day we will have 08:16 100 or 80,000 people saying that we love religious freedom. 08:20 Of course, you are coming up against the limitations 08:23 of the stadiums, there's not too many huge ones. 08:26 We could have in Brazil, we could have the festival 08:29 in a big stadium but also, you know, 08:31 the place they decided to go to the public square. 08:35 Why not? That's great. 08:37 Public square is in the city, 08:39 it attracts more the attention of people 08:42 than in a stadium. 08:43 It mean there are many, many possibility. 08:45 You can also organize a big march, you know, 08:48 with 30,000 or 10 even 10,000 people. 08:52 People who are walking marching in the street 08:57 like in Yongding, you know, 2,000 young people 09:00 march in the street for religious freedom. 09:02 It attracts the attention of people incredibly. 09:05 Oh, I'm sure that this is making 09:06 an affect all around the world. 09:08 We just need the really do it 09:09 in the United States in particular. 09:11 I'm sure that potentially it's fabulous. 09:13 We had a very small event some years ago in Honolulu. 09:17 Yeah, yeah, that was the first one. 09:19 And in anticipation that was good by 09:22 and by different churches and different groups 09:24 but the attendance was rather poor on the day. 09:27 And I put most of it they on to-- you know, 09:28 specially wide, surf and sand and you know, 09:31 wonderful environment they don't feel threatened. 09:33 But you know, you remember-- 09:35 But people believe in it but they need to be 09:36 motivated to make a statement. 09:38 You remember what happened, the mayor came to the event. 09:42 The mayor of Honolulu, 09:45 member of the parliament there of the city 09:49 and the state parliament came and they say we want to have 09:51 a day of religious freedom in Honolulu. 09:53 Yeah. 09:54 Unfortunately we do not have 09:56 the number of people we expected 09:58 but that was our fault we missed something. 10:01 But you know what we should aim for, 10:02 you think what if a 100,000 mixture of young people 10:06 and others but lot of young people 10:08 walk down to the Washington mall 10:10 and then have a big public meeting 10:12 will be noticed of course. 10:13 And it's possible. Yeah, I'm sure that's possible. 10:17 We should do that one day. 10:18 You know, the civil rights movement, 10:19 the march of Washington was the pivotal event 10:21 with the objections to Vietnam War of the young people 10:25 when they camp there and young people camp there 10:27 but changed the political reality 10:30 and I believe a massive demonstration 10:32 in Washington for religious liberty 10:33 like you already had in other countries 10:36 would not easily for them, sure of it. 10:38 This is what its-- 10:39 And importantly it could be inoculation 10:42 against future troubles. 10:45 Yeah, I'm happy to see that-- you got the vision, you know. 10:49 This is why it's so important time to time 10:50 to say publicly thank you God, 10:53 thank you my country for religious freedom. 10:57 When we talk about religious liberty 11:00 very often it's expressed in the negative. 11:03 It is not a negative concept but we often 11:06 look at places where someone is imprisoned, 11:08 harassed or their belief system is made illegal. 11:12 Those are negatives but religious liberty itself 11:14 is the most incredibly positive God directed 11:18 concept that can be. 11:21 When I read the Apostle Paul's work 11:23 I'm really encouraged to hear his testimony. 11:25 He says, you know, I've been shipwrecked, 11:27 I've been stoned, I've been lashed, you know, 11:31 betrayed by fellow believers, shipwrecked. 11:34 He goes on and on with all of these things 11:36 which are the types of troubles that we describe now thus 11:39 with religious liberty often but then he says 11:42 all of this is amazing, all for the love of Christ. 11:46 Wonderful, not a hardship at all. 11:49 Dr. John Graz has explained in great detail 11:53 how around the world now 11:54 Christians and people of all beliefs 11:58 are able to gather together and to celebrate 12:01 the freedoms that they do have. 12:03 This is our God given privilege. 12:05 For Liberty Insider this is Lincoln Steed. 12:10 Thank you for being with us. |
Revised 2015-01-15