Welcome to "The
Liberty Insider."
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This is the program
designed to bring you
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the very latest
news, views, information,
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and insights
into religious liberty
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developments around the world.
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My name is Lincoln Steed,
Editor of Liberty Magazine,
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and my guest on the
program is Dr. John Graz.
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Welcome again, John.
This is not the first time.
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And I could say, I hope not
the last time but it might be.
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May be.
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For our viewers
you've been for 20 years
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the head of the
religious liberty program
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at our church headquarters,
Seventh-day Adventist
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headquarters in
Silver Spring, Maryland.
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You carried the responsibility
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for the International
Religious Liberty Association.
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You've been the
exec-- what is it?
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Executive
director-- secretary general
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of the
Christian World Communion.
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Secretary of the
Christian World Communion.
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Yeah.
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And there maybe even a
few others that I missing.
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I know, you've been
busy traveling all the time
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and generating a
lot of enthusiasm
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for religious liberty
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and I just want
in the little time
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for this program
let's do a bit of a,
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of a swing through some
of the things in your life
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and please even go back further
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to your work in Europe
and France and other places.
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You know, what are
some of the highlights
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that you remember
working for the church
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and for religious liberty?
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Oh, that's that
difficult really to answer.
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I saw--
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I see many, many very
pleasant, attractive--
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you know when I
became Christian--
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I grew up in a Christian--
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Yeah, so how old were you
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when you became a
Seventh-day Adventist?
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Yeah, you know my
father was Protestant
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he did not go to church.
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And my mother was Catholic,
she was a formal Catholic.
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But my grandmother was very
much involved in the church.
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She was a
Catholic and really a--
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she communicate to
me the faith in God.
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And my aunt on my
father's side was an Adventist
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and she also communicate
the love of the Bible.
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But you know,
when I was 13-years-old
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I decided that
religion was no good, not good
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and I became agnostic
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or I don't know what
but I did not believe--
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You took a time out of this
knowing teenagers how they--
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And at 18 my cousin was
really a very good Adventist
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and died from leukemia
and that was an occasion,
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opportunity for
me to meet Adventist
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and to talk with
them and to had a Bible
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and I started
to read the gospel.
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And during the three
days-- days and night,
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you know, I was fighting.
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I thought like I
did not hear any thing
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but I had strong
pressure on my mind
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and my heart to follow Jesus
because when I read the gospel
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I was so moved that I remember,
you know, I cannot sleep
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and when finally in
the middle of the night
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I was ready to sleep.
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I thought yeah, tomorrow
I will become Christian.
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But in the morning when I got up
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I said, no, no, I don't want.
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I'm becoming crazy now.
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I don't know what,
I'm becoming insane.
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I don't want to
become Christian.
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And finally after a
three night, three days,
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you know, the
pressure was so strong
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now I said that the
only way to find peace
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is really to become Christina
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and I decided to
become a disciple of Jesus.
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But that was really--
it changed my life totally,
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you know, totally.
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It changed everything
in my life in a few days.
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So that was your
Damascus sleep of--
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Yeah.
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And now you believe God
works on people's hearts.
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Of course you know, I--
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Beyond the convictions so--
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I grew up in a family where my,
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from both side of my
family father and mother
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they were very
involved in defending freedom.
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My grandfather died
in a concentration camps
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because he was arrested
helping French resistant,
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helping some Jews to
and my uncle was killed
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because he was
fighting with the ally.
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All my brothers
and sister of my mother
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were involved with the ally.
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You know, they
crossed the Atlantic,
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they went to fighting with
the American and the English.
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It means the concept of freedom
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was very strong in our
family, justice and freedom.
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I grew up with this idea that
every people should be free.
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That's-- it gives another--
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then when I became Adventist,
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you know, I
decided I was working
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in a printed
house and printing house
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and I decided to become pastor.
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I said, I don't want
to be a half Christian,
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I want to give my life to God.
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And as I explained, you
know, just a few days ago
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at the General
Conference, you know, the verse,
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the biblical
the Bible verse was,
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"Seek first the kingdom of God."
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I said there is no
room in my life for--
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I know the space I want
to belong totally to God
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and I want to serve
Him, how can I do that?
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Maybe if I'm pastor I
will give all my life,
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all my time to God.
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And that--
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And you were youth
director initially, weren't you?
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No, no.
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This time I went to
school to the Adventist school
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and I started again.
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You know, in secondary school
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I was a very young
kids, I have to learn
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and because I was not
able to speak in public,
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not able to write correctly
and sort of everything.
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And I did and I learned
very important lesson that,
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you know, first life
is a great adventure.
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Secondly do your
best wherever you are
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because God
wants you to be there,
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wherever you
are but do your best
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and let God to open other doors,
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if they want, if He
wants and it has led my life.
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And I saw every year,
you know, new doors open
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and finally I
went to the university
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and I passed my
doctorate at the best school,
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one of the best
school in Europe.
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That means I was
totally something
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that I even could not imagine
before I became Christian.
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I thought that I
will never, never do
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anything like that, you know.
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So God's taken
you on a heady ride.
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You had no idea
where you were getting off.
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And life became
really a great adventure
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and that was fabulous, you know.
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But I see God then I had
to go to the military service.
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And you know, when you arrive
the first thing had to say that
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I don't work tomorrow
because it's Saturday.
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You can imagine
when you are a young guy,
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you have to face there office.
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This was the Swiss military?
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No, I was living in France,
this time it was they had
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an agreement
between Swiss and France.
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As I was living in
France I went to French Army.
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And you know the first
thing you said to the colonel
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or sorry but, you
know, tomorrow I don't work.
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Why? And tonight too.
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Why?
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Because it' Saturday
Sabbath, I'm Adventist.
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People say who is
this guy? What is he doing?
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And I had to fight really
but fortunately at this time
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you know, people were
more open that now than today
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and there was-- they
were very helpful to me.
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But I remember also a story,
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you know, where
it' always connected
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with religious freedom.
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The first night in the
army and it was a dormitory,
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it had a 30, 35
young soldiers there
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and as I used to do
I kneel down by my bed
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and I start to pray.
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And you know, you
had a lot of noise--
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I can imagine, they were almost
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probably trying to
give you just to show you.
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And at the end of my prayer,
you know, that was very quiet.
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I said, my, something happened.
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I opened my eyes
and I looked around.
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All the soldiers were
around me and they look at me.
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Watching you.
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They were really,
what you are doing?
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What is this guy doing?
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And someone came
and say, are you Muslim?
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I say, no, I'm
Christian. I'm an Adventist.
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And I saw so many opportunity
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to share my
faith during this time
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which was not
really an easy time
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but still and the God opened
the door so many times that
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even during these
time of military service
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I was able to pass my
exam to go to the universities.
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That's the background--
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But then you were a
pastor for sometime.
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Then I'm a pastor, youth leader.
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I work at the
University of Montpellier,
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I study at the university
but I work for the church.
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And we visited,
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I had the privilege
of visiting Montpellier.
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And what is it a
year and half ago?
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Yeah.
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We had 20 some of us we
were on a bus tour with you.
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Yeah.
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It's the reformation
tour but some of us joked
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that this was the
John Graz's career tour
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because we were retracing
some of those spots you worked.
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And you know, connected
with religious freedom.
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Montpellier, was the
place where the Protestant
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were very strong and
they were prosecuted.
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And we visited, you
remember the Tower of Constance.
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Marie Durand was
there for 37 years
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because she refused
to recant her faith.
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Thirty seven years.
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And then we saw in the stone
where she scratched resist.
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Resist. Yeah, yeah.
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And of course,
that this connected
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with religious freedom.
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You know, it
means I was very open,
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very sensitive about
religious freedom about
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the suffering of
minorities in some countries
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where you don't
have religious freedom.
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So was it that
period that you started
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to get into
religious liberty work?
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No, I was communication director
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but I was always interested.
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I organized the tour
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of the religious liberty leader,
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the conference,
lectures and so on.
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Then after I
was during six years
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very involved in
the youth ministry,
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communication 10 years
at the European level for US
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and then you have
still a connection
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because I organize congresses.
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I organize meetings
and of course when I came
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to religious freedom I
came with these experiences
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of congresses
international meeting and so on
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and after I was called
at the General Conference
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after 10 years
the division level
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as
communication and US director.
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But they believed
that you are skills
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were in religious liberty.
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I think I always wanted,
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you know, have
always had these idea
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that one day I
would be very happy.
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You know, after
my time with the US
00:11:01.42\00:11:03.12
where I learn a lot of things
00:11:03.16\00:11:05.46
I would be very happy to
work for the religious freedom.
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Yeah, and that's
the and we've discussed
00:11:08.40\00:11:10.60
on other programs
and other times with you,
00:11:10.63\00:11:13.00
you know, to involve the youth
00:11:13.03\00:11:14.54
with religious liberty
is still the big challenge.
00:11:14.57\00:11:16.94
Yeah. But--
00:11:16.97\00:11:18.31
To pass the torch
to the next generation.
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You know, when we
have, when we have
00:11:19.71\00:11:21.14
a festival of
religious freedom 70 person--
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You get a lot of young people
00:11:23.78\00:11:25.11
and that's the great
success of that I think.
00:11:25.15\00:11:26.55
And they pass the
torch, you know, we start
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the festival of
religious freedom
00:11:30.59\00:11:31.92
with pipe thunder march.
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They bring the flag of
the country on the platform.
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That's a
beautiful and very often,
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you know, the
presenter play about Joseph
00:11:38.69\00:11:42.16
or about Daniel, about Moses.
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I remember seeing
that about the programs.
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You remember.
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Back forth one in
Dominican Republic.
00:11:46.70\00:11:49.04
Yeah. And they
continue to do that.
00:11:49.07\00:11:50.51
Crossing the Red
Sea I remember the cloth
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they were waving and
yeah, very impressive.
00:11:53.61\00:11:55.51
And you know, when you see Moses
00:11:55.54\00:11:56.88
and people
applaud that's fabulous.
00:11:56.91\00:12:00.28
And also you know,
you can see young people
00:12:00.32\00:12:03.08
in the concert
because we can do--
00:12:03.12\00:12:05.02
we try to encourage a
concert of religious freedom.
00:12:05.05\00:12:07.82
Religious freedom concert
and many other activities.
00:12:07.86\00:12:11.36
Well, you know, I believe
we need to involve young people
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but it's a greater
imperative to live before
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because I'm
sure you noticed that
00:12:16.16\00:12:17.83
when you travel the world
many, if not most countries
00:12:17.87\00:12:21.30
that populations are
overwhelmingly young.
00:12:21.34\00:12:24.31
There's any number of countries
00:12:24.34\00:12:25.67
that two thirds of the country
are below mid to late 20s.
00:12:25.71\00:12:30.31
Exactly.
00:12:30.35\00:12:31.78
So we had--
00:12:31.81\00:12:33.15
some have to pass the
baton to that generation.
00:12:33.18\00:12:36.42
And they have to understand that
00:12:36.45\00:12:37.79
if you don't
have religious freedom
00:12:37.82\00:12:39.39
what are you doing?
00:12:39.42\00:12:40.76
What are you doing as believer?
00:12:40.79\00:12:42.39
Yep, absolutely
we need to be active.
00:12:42.42\00:12:44.39
We will take a break
now and I will rejoin
00:12:44.43\00:12:46.93
and you too I
hope rejoin John Graz
00:12:46.96\00:12:49.20
talking about a great career.
00:12:49.23\00:12:51.60
It's not over but it's peaked,
career in religious liberty.
00:12:51.63\00:12:56.17
Yeah, thank you.
00:12:56.20\00:12:58.34