Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Kim Peckham
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000273B
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00:06 Welcome back to the "Liberty Insider."
00:08 Before the break with guest Kim Peckham, 00:11 I was putting the question to you 00:13 since it how back the way we started on. 00:15 You given some invaluable help on putting together 00:18 one of our program videos based on 00:20 what we are talking about this real challenge of radicalism, 00:23 how would we-- 00:25 how should we project a video to communicate 00:29 this concern to our supporters 00:31 or to gain supporters for Liberty 00:33 and what we are doing for religious liberty? 00:36 Well, I would think we would need like talk about-- 00:40 How do we make it user friendly, 00:41 that's what I'm asking? 00:42 I'm not sure there is anything really friendly about it. 00:44 But we shouldn't show severed heads, it's not gonna help. 00:47 No, no but its like, 00:50 I think people would want to see the connection 00:52 between what is happening over there so far away, 00:56 you know, by in the Levant as you said with things 01:00 are not peaceful in North American communities 01:04 and I would, I would ask you what is the connection. 01:08 I mean, we are not as Europe feels like 01:11 they are being pressured by a lot of Muslim immigrants. 01:14 We don't really feel that. 01:16 Yet here we don't feel like 01:17 that that's going to become a problem, do we? 01:20 How do we, how do we express that? 01:24 I got an idea, I'm gonna follow that next year. 01:29 If we interviewed my son, your son 01:33 and ask them about religious liberty 01:35 and what it meant to them 01:37 and what they expect in their society 01:40 and their communities as they develop a commitment 01:44 toward religious liberty 01:46 and then interview perhaps some of the young Muslims 01:49 that are growing up in the same community 01:51 what they thing? 01:52 What appeal hopefully they would say 01:55 there's not but still you could show the tension 01:58 that even among their peers 02:00 and the spectrum of backgrounds 02:04 that are present in most cultures, 02:06 even in Hagerstown where we live. 02:08 Yeah. 02:10 Those reasons really sort this out 02:12 before the problem comes here. 02:15 Well, what interest me is I've actually 02:17 read through the Quran myself-- 02:19 Good. Even I read it. 02:20 Yeah. 02:22 The unique company other than the Imam's. 02:25 Very few people have read it. 02:26 After 9/11, you know, I think we got to-- what is, 02:29 what is that they really believe 02:30 and I don't want to hear everything second hand. 02:32 So you go through that 02:34 and what you realize is that of course, 02:37 religious liberty is not any part of the-- 02:41 Certainly not separation of church and state. 02:43 Certainly not. 02:44 Its concurring victorious point of view like convert 02:50 or you know get out of the way pretty much. 02:53 And so I would be interested to know 02:56 and I think that interesting idea 02:57 you have about interviewing young Muslims 03:00 is in the United States they pick up 03:03 the same value of religious freedom 03:05 that we've had as part of our culture 03:08 or do they lean more toward the Muslim point of view 03:11 as that you take charge politically 03:13 and you bring people inline 03:15 with the same religious beliefs. 03:17 It's an interesting point. 03:20 We are always depending on our culture 03:23 to move someone in this case, 03:26 in the direction of cultural constitutional view 03:28 on religious liberty but in this case 03:32 it might mean them turning their back 03:33 on what the holy books are saying 03:35 and I'm not comfortable 03:37 with that process working on my faith. 03:40 Right, and so they probably aren't either. 03:42 No. You know, religious liberty as this program is said over 03:46 and over again is an interesting conundrum 03:49 because only an uninformed 03:52 or naive person would think 03:54 that all religions are created equal 03:56 and that they are organized. 03:59 Most of us are to have our religion 04:02 and we look at others in the more negative way 04:04 or we have no religion 04:05 and we see it all sort of, perhaps even as silliness. 04:10 But most people forget that true religious liberty 04:12 doesn't mean that you bow into what the other person believes. 04:16 You just accept the inherent dignity 04:18 and right of human beings particularly as creatures 04:22 of a creative God. 04:24 The US Declaration of Independence 04:26 is all to fuse on that. 04:28 It's sort of a guard not necessarily the guard 04:32 but still that raises the value of human a little higher 04:35 than just a civil contract. 04:38 Here is the special creature that has aspirations 04:41 toward religious faith and we need to respect that, 04:44 wherever that leads that person. 04:46 Yeah, the term is like liberty of conscience. 04:48 Right. And this is the conundrum 04:50 even though I think its-- 04:53 it goes without saying that an extremist 04:56 or I don't even like that title, 05:00 a fully engaged version of Islam 05:04 it leads pretty readily to empowering 05:08 at the very least some of these things 05:10 we see in the Middle East that we all find problematic 05:13 that is what it is. 05:15 But that shouldn't lead me to back off from my commitment 05:18 to defend the right of Muslims 05:20 to hold their beliefs in any context. 05:24 And like anybody else 05:25 whether it's a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, 05:28 seculars for that matter whatever they believe 05:31 as their spiritual values, you know, 05:34 their sense of how the world works in a civil society 05:38 if they harm someone, if they defraud someone 05:41 there is a civil penalty for that. 05:43 That's quite apart from their faith. 05:45 And so that takes care of it. 05:47 You don't need to worry about whether the faith 05:49 inherently has some problems, 05:50 let those problems manifest themselves 05:53 the society will deal with it. 05:54 But we have to defend the right of everybody 05:57 to have their belief system regardless no matter how pure, 06:03 no matter how even dangerous 06:05 we find it by observation from the outside. 06:09 Now why is that work so well for America? 06:12 Well-- 06:14 And still causes trouble. 06:16 The opposite point of view 06:17 still causes trouble in the Middle East. 06:18 I don't know if I would-- 06:21 I'm a historian or want to be. 06:24 I've studied history 06:26 and that was my major for many years 06:27 and I love history. 06:29 I challenge that point and we need to have a program on it. 06:32 I don't think it worked so well, 06:34 it worked better than most countries. 06:36 Okay. It's a relative thing then. 06:38 Yes. There have been many problems here 06:41 but I think what distinguishes the United States 06:44 more than most countries is its set for itself 06:48 an ideal of protecting and advancing religious faith 06:53 and of course at most points in the country 06:55 that was expected to be by the society 06:58 as sort of a generic Protestantism 07:01 and finally even a generic Christianity 07:04 but at the edge is it doesn't respond well 07:08 as we are seeing to oddball religions. 07:11 There is a cultural norm here 07:13 that's being empowered by the constitution I think. 07:18 Well, that's true because as you go back 07:20 to the immigration years in the early 1900s 07:23 and stuff there was large prejudice against Catholics. 07:27 Irish Catholics. Yeah. 07:28 And all things are complicated as they are in the Middle East 07:31 because there is an anti-colonial thing 07:34 that is not religious 07:35 and of course religious favors being applied to. 07:38 And the anti-Catholic thing was as much reaction 07:41 against Irish immigrants who were stealing jobs, 07:43 it was an economic thing. 07:45 So it's an interesting scenario isn't it? 07:48 And just starting from the video in a civil war 07:52 where there was terrorism all this 07:54 you can see the ramifications that we are dealing 07:56 with when we talk about religious liberty 07:58 and how do we communicate this, that's the challenge isn't it. 08:02 It is to communicate I think 08:04 I hope we will always appeal to fear when we talk about it 08:08 but then we show it as a God like quality 08:13 a virtue to be respectful 08:15 about the people as you say now matter 08:17 how bizarre their beliefs may seem to us 08:21 that we provide liberty of conscience. 08:22 Yeah. And that's been the commitment 08:24 and I hope our regular viewers will recognize that. 08:27 We describe situations and right, 08:29 very often religious liberty is described in a negative way 08:33 where the lapses are the by religion 08:36 or a country or threats toward it. 08:39 But religious liberty itself is a wonderfully, 08:41 positive, fulfilling thing for the human spirit 08:43 I think and we need to empower that. 08:47 Yeah, absolutely because its just the very idea 08:50 that in the past that there was a belief 08:53 that you could control people's conscience, 08:55 a belief just seems ludicrous now 08:56 and this is an improvement we've made 08:59 and we hope we can stay that way. 09:02 It's often been said that a picture 09:04 is worth a thousand words 09:06 but some pictures worth more words than others 09:09 but I think none more worth more words 09:11 than the living pictures 09:13 that Liberty Magazine produces every year 09:16 calling it a promotional video. 09:19 I could wish they were more and longer 09:22 because the stories we have to tell about religious liberty 09:26 are often incredibly inspiring and always moving. 09:31 This year for example we tell the story of Kim Crider, 09:34 a young woman trying to make 09:36 her way with a university employment 09:39 who found out almost within hours of gaining a job 09:43 that she would lose it because she was not willing 09:46 to take her telephone with her on weekend to be on call. 09:49 This was against her Sabbath conviction. 09:51 And story is Kim told that is that losing her job 09:55 and appealing it she was given the privilege of explaining 10:01 why her faith and religious freedom was so important. 10:04 This is the sort of visualization 10:06 of a principle that is without equal. 10:10 This is the sort of thing that Liberty Magazine 10:12 I believe is called to do. 10:14 This is the sort of thing when you see it viewer, 10:16 I think has the ability to move you 10:19 and should make you a co-partner 10:22 in what we are trying to do. 10:24 Of course, we need money. Money is what makes it happen 10:28 but more importantly we want you to be part of the picture. 10:33 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2015-09-03