Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is the program bringing
you up-to-date news, views,
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discussion,
analysis and information
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that you may not know on
religious liberty concerns.
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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. Ganoune Diop.
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Welcome, Ganoune. Thank you.
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You are the Director of Public
Affairs in Religious Liberty
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for the
Seventh-day Adventist Church,
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also Secretary
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of the
Christian-willed communions.
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And-- Secretary--
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I know you've got
the International--
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Secretary General
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of the International
Religious Liberty Association.
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Religious
Liberty Association. Yes.
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One of the oldest
religious liberty organizations
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charted in 1893, you know.
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So the Adventist Church
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initially
supported this organization
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but then it became
an interdenominational,
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international
organization and even...
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Had some wonderful activities.
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You and I have been
to some recent events.
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I remember the
one in Punta Cana.
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That was the-- The
Dominican Republic.
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The Seventh World--
Were they, 800 people there?
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Yes, 800 people.
From all over the world.
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Seventh World Congress
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and actually there's one coming.
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I was going to ask
you. Where is the next one?
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Well, the next one would
be in Hollywood, Florida.
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Actually in... That's
really Fort Lauderdale.
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I was just down.
Yeah, Fort Lauderdale.
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I mean, area and this
will be in August 2017.
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Yeah, we are working on it
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and we'll have a lot of people
coming from all over the world
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precisely to look into
religious freedom issue.
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You know, this organization,
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the International
Religious Liberty Association
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is involved in several
activities, several functions,
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again, for the
promotion of religious liberty.
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You mentioned the congresses
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but there are
festivals all over the world.
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Do you have any
festivals coming up?
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I know you are
predecessor to Dr. John Graz..
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Well, yes.
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So why he is full of excitement
and that the latest festival
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were there were
bigger and bigger crowd.
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The largest, well, I think
was about 80,000, wasn't it?
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Yes. I know that was 10, 20, 30.
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In Angola. Yes.
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And but-- It's in Africa so--
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Mozambique, right there.
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But there is one
coming in Mexico City,
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in January for example,
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and there are
others all over the world.
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But there are also
symposiums and interestingly
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what it's called
also meeting of experts.
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Why?
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Because the International
Religious Liberty Association
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would like to develop a
culture of freedom of religion.
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And it'd be a catalyst
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for a religious
liberty discussion and action.
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And given what we
said in one of the program
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that religious
liberty is really central
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to all other freedom.
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When you touch
religious liberty,
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it's so core that you
touch other freedoms also.
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So in the large, in
a global perspective
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that is like contributing
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to develop a culture
of human rights, you know.
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So this is why and we have
meeting of experts every year.
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Once a year we have thinkers,
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scholars from all over the world
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gathering together
and we have journals
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like Fides et Libertas.
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And Liberty had
evolved more at that too.
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Exactly.
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Then we have also what
we call The World Report.
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Now The World Report is
also an important function
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in a sense, it look at
every nation of the world,
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I mean, every
nation of the world.
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Look at the
geopolitical situation, one.
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Then look at what the
constitution of that nation
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in particular says
about religious liberty,
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then how the government is
complying to its constitution
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and then another section
of that world report would be
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how the popular, you know,
consciousness is reacting--
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It's a fabulous report.
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In fact, I think only
the US State Department
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puts out anything comparable.
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Yeah, and even though ours
is more focused on Christians
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and in particular,
Seventh-day Adventist is like.
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You can look at any nation
in the world and see that,
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"Ah, this is what
the constitution say,
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this is how the government
is behaving, this is--"
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Because sometimes you
have government restrictions
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but you also have
popular hostility.
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And so sometimes of course,
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the combination
of both and so forth,
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so this really help us to
better understand our world
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and what people would like
to do during this quinquennium.
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Clearly this-- Five years.
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Is to really
allow every of course--
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Now and then plenty of it is
important to you and even to me
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because every five years our
church re-elects the leaders.
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Absolutely and since I
was just elected so I can,
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you know, speak about our vision
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and mission
statement and so forth
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for the next five years
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and one of which would be
to empower, to enable every,
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of course,
Adventist but beyond the,
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you know, beyond the church
every person of good will,
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who'd like to know
more about religious freedom
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and who'd like
to join us actually
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in promoting a
culture of human rights,
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in particular,
scented on religious liberty
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because it is a
compound freedom,
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it is central freedom, it
is of course, as you know,
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a constitutional provision
and so forth and so on.
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Particularly in
the United States
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where the constitution is not
just giving a nod to what it is
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as we said in another program.
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Every constitution by and
large in around the world,
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even repressive
countries gives a nod toward it.
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But the United States is the one
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I think is a very
enabling constitution.
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And not only that,
concretely even, you know,
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Congress has also, I
mean, nominated commission
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that looks more
clearly, more intentionally
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I must say about
religious liberty which is good
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and I wish that every
country will have this kind of,
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you know, commission
that will help promote--
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And the US commission
that was primarily concerned
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with other the countries--
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Yes, but we know that this is--
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They don't self
criticize very much so--
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But you know, this
is a global phenomenon.
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There's no country that
has an absolute clean record
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in terms of religious freedom.
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But again, this is why
and I come back to that
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when you don't wait
until things are perfect
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in order to work
for the good, you know,
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this is extremely important.
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And this is a good chance
for me to interject a comment
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that occurred to me when we were
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talking about the
festivals of religious freedom.
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A numbers of those
were held in countries
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that were not sort of
perfect on granting it,
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but that's not the point.
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It's to raise their
awareness and to thank them
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for what considerations
the government has applied
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and to
encourage them to be more,
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I'm trying to think
not liberal, but more open
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and accurate in administering
religious practice.
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And this is why some
criticism against the UN
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are unfounded to
a lot degree, again,
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I represent the
Seventh-day church,
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I'm not
representing the UN, right?
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But when it
comes to truth telling,
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I think this is something that
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we should share with
all and it is important.
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There are nations at
the UN with some functions
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that seem to contradict
their national record.
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So shall we shame
and blame and say,
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"See, you know, how can you
be a part of this commission.
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Look at your
record in your nation."
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But actually there's a
synergy, a dynamic at the UN.
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These ought to be allowed
so that by mingling with others
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those same country
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violating other
people's rights and so forth,
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may join the human
family and learn, you know--
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It's true and
I'll tell you one area
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that I have
noticed this at work.
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You know, every year
for the last was it 14 years
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we had our Liberty
dinner in Washington
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and we, Liberty Magazine
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and one of your
predecessor's associate--
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I think you founded it--
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I was with Liberty mainly
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but working with the
General Conference liaison.
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We started this Liberty dinner.
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And we wish more
came but we've got
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reasonable representation
from Congressmen and Senators
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and the from the
Diplomatic community.
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And I've noticed every
year we have a good sprinkling
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of either
ambassadors or top officials
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from the different embassies
from precisely the countries
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that you and I would think
of "where the worst problem is?"
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And yet they are
attracted to come along--
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No question.
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To find out more
about religious liberty
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and to show by their presence
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that they are
interested, that they want it.
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So we shouldn't describe
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the worst of
motives to these countries.
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Sometimes they sort of
reflexly act the way they do
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because of their political
ideology or their societies,
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say, if it's a Buddhist society,
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it's not open
immediate to another religion
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but they want to change
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and I think the United Nations
has done a lot to creating--
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No question and I--
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This liberalizing
human rights approach.
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And a space had to be created
where no paternalism exist
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because sometimes,
some nations think that,
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"Okay, the others are less
advanced on this and that."
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That is totally unacceptable.
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I think equality should be
the basis of an interaction.
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Speaking together,
respecting other people's value
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and dignities and
of course, talking.
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That is the
foundation for democracy
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where people can speak
up and out and you know,
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sharing their values
without coercion, you know,
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without patronizing or being
paternalistic or the you know--
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Right.
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And even a lot of the events
that you hold and isn't there--
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next year you have a
dialogue, one day dialogue
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at the museum in Washington, DC.
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Correct, correct.
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And this I believe
what we characterize
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what you just said,
where we bring in together
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a bunch of experts in different
views on religion liberty,
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all of them won't to exemplify
what you and I directly hold
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but there will be
encouraged toward our view.
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It will give us a vehicle
to present how we see it.
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And people may--
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Moving people in
the right direction.
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Absolutely and
people may not even have
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the same moral foundations
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about the same
values that they defend.
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But this is where by
talking to each other
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on some things you would differ
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but some others
they are intersection
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so you work on that,
this is like bridge building.
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It is important
that people start
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where they have some
common values in order,
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again, the goal is to make this
world a better place for many.
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Even though we
Adventists are people of hope,
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we are waiting for a
better world, you know,
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and this is why we--
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Even Jesus said,
"Occupy till I come."
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In the meantime we shouldn't
throw up our hands and say,
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"The world is hopeless,
there's nothing we can do."
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And there's a beautiful--
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We need to work for
the knowledge of God
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and free values that honor
God by their very existence.
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There's a beautiful statement
of a Rabbi who say that,
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"If he knew the world would
end tomorrow he would build,
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he would plant a tree today."
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You see, so that means that
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you do good for
the sake of doing good.
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Regardless of, you know,
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what tomorrow
could bring and so forth.
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Let's take a break now
and come back after the break.
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I want to move the discussion
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to something quite contemporary.
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Stay with us.
00:12:06.39\00:12:07.72