Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Paul Anderson
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000311B
|
00:05 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider
00:08 with guest Paul Anderson. 00:10 We've been doing our best to stir up viewer antagonism. 00:15 But we're dealing-- you know, 00:16 we're dealing with the heavy duty topic here. 00:17 Oh, yes. 00:19 You know, politics and religions 00:20 supposedly the two things that can stir people up. 00:23 And I'm suggesting 00:25 a discussion of Clash of Civilizations 00:27 as part of the war on terror. 00:29 So we got everything turned together. 00:31 Yeah, I think the clash of cultures 00:35 and civilizations are really based on fear. 00:39 And if we can be more informed, we'll have less fear, 00:44 especially, as in a phobic fear of other people, 00:47 if we know more about them 00:49 and know more about their philosophical pillars 00:56 and the things that are important to them. 00:57 Right, well, let me tell you one-- 00:59 and I don't know, I don't think you meant it this way, 01:01 you're probably suggesting us to know the other. 01:04 But I'm quite certain that a big part of the-- 01:08 of the burgeoning distrust of the US and the West, 01:16 is because many in the Muslim world 01:19 equate what the US 01:21 and its allies do as Christianity. 01:25 I mean, we know it-- 01:27 all the time on this program 01:28 saying this is not a Christian nation, 01:30 not structurally. 01:31 It was once a Christian society, 01:33 but it may not even be overwhelmingly that anymore. 01:36 But they judge us from the other side, 01:39 as all of our actions are indistinguishable 01:43 from Christianity and that needs to be clarified. 01:47 There are many things that are done, 01:49 not so particularly by the US 01:50 'cause I'm not wanting to pick on the US 01:52 but by western powers 01:53 that might have a history of Christianity. 01:56 But the actions of the government 01:57 have nothing to do whatsoever, good, bad or different 02:00 with Christian ideology or doctrine. 02:04 And so, you know, the actions, some immoral 02:09 from the point of view of Islam, 02:11 now they taken as a designed slide 02:15 and a state projection of a religious viewpoint. 02:21 I think often times the-- 02:24 we are looked at 02:26 from an our priority perspective that, 02:29 that is an imprecise template 02:34 and, so people will see us 02:36 based upon how they're told we are. 02:40 And we have the same problem. 02:43 But when there's exposure and experience, 02:47 many of the people from other nations, 02:51 who've come to the US 02:53 for college and university studies, 02:58 have a different perspective when they go back. 03:02 Because they've seen that there is a power of choice. 03:06 And that Americans are not monolithic. 03:09 And Americans who travel abroad see that people in other places 03:14 are not monolithic as well. 03:16 You're right and that's been a real plus for the West 03:19 and the US in particular. 03:21 They are training a leadership class in many countries 03:23 and particularly some of the Islamic countries. 03:26 But even as you're saying that I realize 03:28 that we're hitting ourselves in this regard now, 03:32 because an awful lot now of the-- 03:34 the refugees/immigrants, they come 03:37 and they did they are not on a professional level 03:40 and they're in a very low income area 03:44 or crime ridden, drugs. 03:47 It's sort of the-- 03:50 it's not exactly- for a society or a religion. 03:53 And they could easily, in fact, almost certainly 03:56 will get a highly skewed version 03:59 of the role of law and order and faith in this country, 04:02 where they would get a different one 04:04 if they went to Chapel Hill, was it North Carolina? 04:09 You know, they are very, not that everyone is saint, 04:13 but I mean, it's a church going... 04:17 In Chapel Hill? I'm joking. 04:20 No, but, you know, what I mean. 04:21 Little-- or I could say, middle America... 04:23 One of the things that... 04:25 Little America is not the same as downtown 04:27 anywhere near the Y.M.C.A. 04:30 or the unemployment bureau 04:32 where this thing happened and... 04:34 But some of the projected hedonism 04:39 that happens on college campuses, 04:42 in university campuses 04:44 might be disconcerting to an immigrant 04:47 because of the-- the largest perhaps, 04:52 of the college life. 04:54 They may see that as frightening. 04:57 But another... 04:59 But these are cultural clash then that's the culture clash, 05:01 what I was saying. 05:03 Right. 05:04 It may be that, if we looked at the biblical exhortation 05:11 to care for strangers and to afford strangers' 05:16 opportunities in our midst, 05:19 if we took that to heart 05:22 and embraced some as we have. 05:29 I mean, the United States has probably 05:31 a more open immigration plan than any of the other nations. 05:34 But this situation currently begs 05:39 some dialogue and discussion about screening etcetera. 05:43 But once here, once here, what needs, 05:47 I think our Immigration and Naturalization Department 05:52 might do well to look at preparation 05:55 for the second generation. 05:57 Because if the second generation experiences 06:02 the power of the American economic engine 06:07 and the academics available here 06:10 they'll be very different 06:11 from the experience that their parents had, 06:13 which is the immigration story of America from the 1800s. 06:18 You know, I can follow through I got to be careful. 06:20 I don't want to be an expert and I just saw it or an ex-- 06:24 I don't want to put myself as an expert 06:25 and then inadvertently insult rather this country or another. 06:28 But I did see in Australia, 06:31 the immigration system and it was pretty open. 06:35 I would say Australia is like the US. 06:37 Because Australia to this day still wants people. 06:41 I'm not saying America doesn't like people 06:43 but it doesn't feel a need for people. 06:45 It will take them as a matter of charity 06:47 but Australia needs them, wants them 06:49 and it is gathering them. 06:51 But they don't just bring them there. 06:52 There's a full process where they house them, 06:56 they have training sessions about 06:59 how to fit into society and so on, 07:01 I think it's for about three months. 07:02 Then jobs are found for them. 07:05 But I get the feeling 07:06 that more and more since the end of the Cold War, 07:08 immigrants come to the US and they sort of landed here 07:12 and then you're on your own. 07:15 Perhaps sometimes they have someone that signs for them. 07:19 But that doesn't mean they necessarily, 07:21 they backstop as they move out into the society. 07:24 That's true but then, you see the tremendous work ethic 07:28 and it's not uncommon 07:30 for the second generation of an immigrant family 07:34 to have their students in a university, 07:37 medical doctors, teachers etcetera. 07:39 So the father or mother may-- the father may be cutting grass 07:44 and the mother may be a maid. 07:48 But the children may become doctors. 07:50 But you are countering what said in the media now 07:52 and it's not true that the immigrants 07:55 are much more aggressive about self improvement, 07:58 usually the long term residents. 08:00 They've got this aspiration 08:01 as they come into a new environment. 08:03 And there's just opportunity in abundance here. 08:07 Food may be more accessible here 08:10 then perhaps where they came from 08:12 and you go in the average grocery store 08:15 and you have the challenge of so many choices. 08:18 Yeah, yeah. 08:20 There'll be 300 versions of baked beans. 08:24 You know, you see all the red peppers 08:26 and the green peppers 08:27 and yellows peppers and you know. 08:29 And thank God for that abundance. 08:32 May be this is a good time lead to a story. 08:35 I went to Latvia years ago 08:36 and I love the Russian style bread they had. 08:40 So I took an extra case the next time I went, 08:42 an empty suitcase. 08:44 And I bought 60 some loaves of bread. 08:46 Wow. 08:47 And I still remember all the ladies 08:49 gathered around in the department store 08:51 and ordered three loaves of this, 08:52 five of that, six of that. 08:54 And the president of the union was with me and ordering for me 08:58 and after a while he said to me, 08:59 he says, you know, 09:01 bread is very expensive for the Latvians. 09:03 It was sort of a wake up call for me. 09:06 Wow. 09:07 We take things for granted but in some places 09:09 and then the women were laughing among themselves 09:12 and so I asked what they were saying 09:14 and someone says, "Oh, he must be going to Moscow." 09:18 They didn't have much bread but there's nothing in Moscow. 09:21 Respective matters. 09:23 This is still in the land of plenty, 09:24 you are right. 09:26 But, you know, what's your take on where we're going on 09:29 as I say presuming that 09:30 there's a certain clashes of civilizations. 09:32 Do you see it improving or getting worse to it? 09:35 I mean the war on terror is showing us the crazies 09:39 within the system and they are not all Muslim. 09:41 Mostly, I think by the nature of the terrorist thing 09:43 but you know there was a bombing at a-- 09:45 or a shooting at, at a clinic recently 09:49 so there are several elements that were... 09:52 Yeah, I think our eschatology declares 09:54 that we can expect to see more and worse. 09:58 But that's why we have to teach, preach 10:02 and proclaim security in Jesus Christ 10:08 so that in the face of all these trials and traumas, 10:10 we'll still be steady. 10:11 Absolutely. 10:13 And I think that's the best way for you and I to look at that. 10:16 We can't solve all of it we should be ignorant of it. 10:18 But we have to have a hope beyond that 10:20 we for something that the Lord has promised. 10:22 So true. 10:23 I hope that going forward our chaplains 10:29 and believers will be forward looking 10:32 and faithfully thinking of how we can 10:36 help the strangers in our midst. 10:40 A few days ago I was in Istanbul, Turkey 10:44 actually, just about the time 10:45 when the Turkish Air Force shot down 10:49 a Russian fighter plane much to the dismay 10:52 of every peace loving person in the world. 10:55 But what caught my attention in Istanbul 10:57 was the Hagia Sophia, 11:00 the museum now maintained by the secular government 11:04 of majority Islamic Turkey. 11:08 But the Hagia Sophia was once the Church of Christendom, 11:13 at the time when the Roman Empire 11:14 was based in Constantinople 11:17 as Istanbul was once known. 11:21 At that time, this was the big church 11:23 into 1,000 years before St. Peters. 11:27 This was the massive structure that represented 11:29 not only the power of Rome 11:31 and its sponsorship of religion, 11:34 but it was the seat of the Christian church. 11:38 That of course is changed. 11:40 And the Ottoman Turks ruled for many years 11:43 much of the world and threatened 11:45 the rest of the world from that base. 11:47 It's worth remembering that Martin Luther, 11:51 a major proponent of the Reformation, 11:55 probably would not have survived his challenge to Rome, 11:59 but for the paranoia 12:00 at the time of the threat of Islamic invasion of Europe, 12:06 there has been a clash of religions for millennia. 12:12 Not just the crusades, but a continuing struggle 12:16 between competing visions of God, 12:19 Allah and Jesus has characterized what we call 12:24 the development of Western civilization. 12:28 We should not wonder then in these last days 12:31 we're seeing this continued clash of religion. 12:36 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2015-12-24