Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Charles Mills
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000270B
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00:04 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:06 Before the break with guest, Charles Mills, 00:10 again we were uphill and down there, 00:11 but all to bring out how can we involve 00:14 young people in religious liberty? 00:16 I think it's the burning need 00:19 certainly in everything that I do 00:21 for the Seventh-day Adventist church, 00:22 but bit large in the world. 00:24 We need to get this army of young people 00:27 that are involved with many, many things 00:30 even political movements like Occupy Wall Street in that, 00:34 yes, there were a lot of young people there, 00:36 but lets get them speaking up from moral principles, 00:39 for defending the right of anybody 00:43 to believe anything they want. 00:44 Now I'm gonna play the devil advocate here. 00:46 That's a sort of liberalism that our world 00:48 really has trouble with nowadays. 00:49 I'm gonna give you a huge dose of reality 00:51 and you already know this, so I'm giving it you anyway. 00:54 We want to teach young people good morals 00:58 as their parents marriage falls apart, 01:01 as there are affairs 01:03 and as there is pornography in the house, 01:07 and its incredible amount in our Christian world. 01:10 We want to teach young people to be honest 01:13 as they watch their dad or mom cheat on their income tax 01:17 or go faster than the speed limit. 01:19 We wanted to teach young people, 01:21 how if you treat the opposite sex 01:23 kindly as we watch 01:26 what is so seen in advertisements, 01:28 what is seen in everything 01:30 they look at on their iPods or pads or on television 01:34 which does not treat the sexes equally at all 01:37 which is demeaning. 01:38 We want to make sure that these young people 01:41 come out of that completely prepared 01:45 to accept what you're saying. 01:49 So where does it begin? 01:50 Does it begin with the young person? 01:51 Does it begin with the parents? 01:52 Where is it begin? I probably better give up. 01:56 Don't give up, you can't give up. 01:57 Where is it begin? No, but you're right its-- 02:00 there is-- morality is an old fashion word, 02:02 moral declension on every front end society 02:05 and yes it's a toll ordered to create a new generation 02:08 that is broken from the sins of-- 02:10 Is it DNA? 02:12 Is it in your genes that makes sure 02:14 you're gonna be a nice person. 02:16 Can you really be taught, 02:17 can a bad person be really taught and who teaches them? 02:19 What I do think what we need 02:21 and I spoke about it before the break, 02:22 we need renewal in individual lives. 02:26 You know the-- again back to you as history, 02:31 there's different ways to explain US history on the-- 02:35 Interesting way putting it, yes. 02:37 Well, the war of independence 02:38 which I riffed on about earlier, 02:40 probably made some enemies 02:42 can be described different ways. 02:44 You can commit it from Paul Revere and so on. 02:47 But you can also explain it societally by recognize them 02:51 that about 25 years before that revolution, 02:54 they'd been a massive religious revival in the United States, 02:57 the first grade awakening. 03:00 Then in the mid 1800's 03:01 there was the second grade awakening. 03:04 Those two spiritual phenomena I think, 03:10 explain an awful lot of what happened in the United States. 03:13 It doesn't explain well the war, 03:15 but when a war began, 03:16 why so many Americans had high moral ideas, 03:19 sawed as a moral absolute, 03:21 why they selflessly gave themselves to it, 03:23 why in the mid 1800's 03:25 so many religious groups not only, 03:28 so many religious groups came about 03:31 but things that came from that like the temperance movement, 03:35 like the health reform movements 03:38 that led to a better quality of life. 03:39 They were many "social things" that spring from the revival 03:45 and I believe the United States 03:48 is to use an overarching description 03:51 that was becoming spiritually deselect, 03:54 and yes it does need to be healed 03:56 but the way to heal it is for individuals 03:59 to recommit themselves 04:00 in a life changing way to a spiritual idea. 04:04 And when that happens yes, 04:06 even the predictions of doom and gloom 04:08 and to our own church Ellen White, 04:10 said I don't know if you remember 04:12 she says that this country will at some point 04:14 turn its back on every principle of the constitution. 04:17 We are halfway there already. 04:19 But it doesn't have to happen now, 04:21 and it can be-- 04:22 that evil day can be turn back with this process 04:25 which would by definition begin with the new generation. 04:30 You know, I grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist home, 04:35 very Christian, very godly dad. 04:38 My dad was the treasurer of the Middle East division 04:41 and he accused New York at the different missions 04:46 and conferences and unions and this was the man of honor. 04:52 I saw examples of what we should be in his life. 04:57 I remember at the camp meetings 04:59 and he accused New York at the Union Springs Academy 05:01 and every Sabbath they would take up the offering 05:04 and my dad's cabin would be piled high with money. 05:08 The one side over there were raided all of the business 05:11 on the business side of the cabin. 05:13 There were dollar bills stacked up there, 05:15 stacked up there, stacked up there 05:16 and I knew beyond a doubt 05:18 that every penny of that money is gonna end up in the bank 05:22 Monday morning down the Union Springs 05:24 because my dad was in charge. 05:26 I never saw my dad leer at any women. 05:30 If something came on the television 05:31 that he didn't agree with he turned it off. 05:33 I got up walk crossed room and turned it off. 05:35 He wanted to make sure that he was modeling for me 05:40 what I needed to be and I think that helped me 05:44 understand what you're saying about religious liberty 05:46 and how Christ is supposed to be our model. 05:48 I have no problem with that. 05:50 So probably I'm gonna make some enemies here, 05:52 but I'm gonna have to say that a lot of the problem 05:56 is that we are facing not only in this country 05:59 but also in our church, I lay at the feet of parents. 06:03 I'm sorry but I have to say this. 06:05 Teachers as well, pastors as well, 06:08 we need to be models and that's hard work 06:10 that's not easy to do. 06:12 That is something we need to dedicate ourselves to doing 06:16 and the way we do that is we look to our model 06:20 and that model is Jesus Christ. 06:22 There's been a disconnect here. 06:23 Yeah, and it's not just the suddenly 06:26 this generation of parents lit down-- 06:28 No, it's been slipping, 06:29 it's been slipping more and more. 06:31 It's been slipping but its-- 06:33 many of the reasons beyond the families control 06:36 but once they recognize they can be reversed. 06:40 There's no question, well, there is no question 06:44 but I'll go back a little further. 06:46 When you and I were growing up 06:48 was under the cloud of the threat 06:51 from the Soviet Union and global communist. 06:53 Literal possible cloud, yes. 06:56 Yes, the mushroom cloud has come to at least-- 06:58 Oh, yes. Recent thing. 07:01 But part of what we were told 07:05 and it was true was that it was an existential threat 07:08 to western civilization and all that we knew 07:10 because they were, 07:11 they were taking the children 07:12 from the parents and training them 07:14 and secular ways and all of that. 07:16 And you know that sound terrific. 07:18 We saw that, that was the end of the values 07:20 that we held but in reality, modernization, 07:24 capitalism and the social developments 07:29 in the west have done the same thing. 07:31 There's day care, there's-- 07:34 you mentioned the television 07:35 and the mainlining of every abomination, 07:39 murder and you know, the studies of how many times 07:42 in an hour a child sees someone killed on television. 07:45 So they could do on how many times a minute? 07:47 When murder becomes normal, why not turn that thing off? 07:48 I switch it, I switch it, yes, I switch it on, 07:51 when I given to the motel rooms 07:53 and most channels have got someone being killed. 07:55 Oh, awful, awful. 07:57 But the economic structures since World War II, 08:02 which is largely required that women work 08:05 has left the children at home, has broken down the families. 08:08 So there's many huge stresses of modern life 08:12 that have been attacking the family 08:15 and its ability to inculcate these values 08:18 that we are talking about. 08:19 And some how we need to come-- 08:21 what I'm trying to do is explain it in a real world 08:23 but it doesn't just look like an indictment on these people. 08:26 You know, you let your kids down and shame on you. 08:29 Yes, they did but it wasn't out of the blue, 08:32 there's been something that 08:33 I believe that devils behind it. 08:34 I believe it's an evil pulse in society 08:37 to destroy all of the good structures 08:39 and do expose now the new generation 08:42 to selfishness, to violence and to an activism 08:47 with anything but God's principles. 08:50 And of course, I'm totally aware 08:52 that very good kid is gonna come 08:54 from a very bad parents and vice-a-versa. 08:57 You can have model parents who live godly lives 09:01 and their children just go crazy, 09:04 but it's the amount, 09:06 it's the ratio I'm talking about here. 09:09 Absolutely, but, you know, 09:11 there are something we're doing 09:12 in religious liberty to involve young people 09:16 and the time is running out, 09:17 but, you know, we have the freedom class room program 09:20 out of California where young people in high school 09:23 are taken under the wing of religious liberty leaders 09:25 or sent around to all of the high spots 09:27 in Washington and else where brought to conferences trained 09:31 and prepared like the schools of the prophets 09:34 if you like to be religious liberty leaders of tomorrow. 09:36 There are some good things, its not like all hopeless 09:40 but in the aggregate I think we are in a difficult situation 09:43 and we need to work methodically 09:45 to involving and educating and impairing 09:48 and perhaps let the Lord regenerate 09:52 and create reborn young people. 09:55 That's just an old Nicodemus can say 09:57 that a young person can be born again too. 09:58 I like that, that is the message of hope 10:00 for every one of us, we need to take that to heart. 10:03 We can affect what's happening in the world. 10:05 Just like an another program we talked about, 10:07 we can bring God back to this world, 10:10 we can bring God and His love back into society, 10:14 we can also bring that understanding 10:16 of what love is and tolerance is, 10:18 and what acceptance is in religious liberty issues 10:22 when it comes to our young people. 10:24 But it against with each one of us, 10:25 each one of us has responsibility to do that, 10:28 and we begin by finding a model for ourselves 10:31 and of course that would be a life of Jesus Christ. 10:36 There's no question as we read the story of Jesus calling 10:40 is immediate followers His disciples 10:44 that He tended to choose young men. 10:46 Peter perhaps accepted but young men had the energy 10:50 and the vision developed in and then the Jesus intended, 10:54 but in some ways He was backing the tendency of the times 10:58 because for millennia, thousands of years 11:02 it was the experience of age that was respected. 11:05 The elders sitting at the gate 11:07 could direct the community in what to do, 11:09 they knew by experience but we were in a model today 11:14 and young people know how to work the computer gizmos 11:18 that the all people are scared of. 11:19 Young people are more connected socially 11:22 to what's happen through Twitter and so on. 11:25 Young people have the energies they always have, 11:28 and I think it's imperative 11:30 that when we talk about religious liberty 11:33 we include young people and educate young people. 11:36 How we do that is beyond the scope 11:39 of our half hour discussion, 11:40 but I think as you the listener who heard us 11:43 you'd agree with us somehow, 11:46 someway in the very near future young people must be given, 11:52 must catch and must communicate the vision 11:55 and the enthusiasm for the religious liberty 11:58 for these times not an old view but a new view. 12:03 For Liberty Insider this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2015-01-29