Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Greg Hamilton
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000328A
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00:28 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:30 This is the program bringing you news, 00:32 views, discussion, 00:33 little argumentation on occasion, 00:35 but insights into religious liberty events 00:38 in the United States and around the world. 00:40 My name is Lincoln Steed, editor of Liberty Magazine, 00:44 and my guest is Greg Hamilton, 00:47 President of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association. 00:50 You're sounding a little better right now, Lincoln. 00:51 Yeah. 00:52 I'm struggling with getting it out 00:54 but you can help me on that. 00:55 Sure. 00:56 'Cause I really want to draw out of you 00:59 which should come easy. 01:01 What does the Northwest Religious Liberty Association 01:03 been doing? 01:05 Of course what is it, and what's have been doing? 01:07 And I think in many ways, 01:08 you've become a model for similar organizations 01:12 and groupings all around North America. 01:15 Thank you. I appreciate that. 01:18 The Northwest Religious Liberty Association 01:20 actually had its beginnings in 1906, 01:23 when there were Sunday laws being considered. 01:26 By the way, same year Liberty began. 01:28 Yes, 1906, yes. 01:29 So, you know, Sunday laws were being considered 01:33 in state legislatures all across the country, 01:36 Alonzo T. Jones, otherwise known as A.T Jones 01:38 was very frantic about it and rightly so. 01:42 And he started emphasizing 01:44 that we are to have government relations programs 01:48 in every state legislature across the country 01:51 and indeed we did that. 01:52 Every union had there own religious liberty association. 01:55 Most of them had 01:57 their own government relations programs intact and in place. 01:59 In 1906, 02:01 when the North Pacific Union Conference 02:03 of Seventh-day Adventist, 02:04 the Northwest headquarters for the states of Alaska, 02:07 Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington 02:09 and all the Adventist churches in it. 02:12 They developed as its first department. 02:14 They called it 02:16 the North Pacific Religious Liberty Association, 02:18 in fact if you get a Liberty Magazine out 02:20 or even a Centennial, Liberty Centennial, 02:23 it says North Pacific Religious Liberty Association in there 02:27 very prominently along with all the other associations 02:29 at each union conference. 02:31 Yeah, we're talking about 02:32 structure within the Adventist church. 02:33 Yes, yes. 02:35 And Alonzo Jones was the editor of the precursor Liberty. 02:38 Yeah. 02:39 But was he... 02:40 I know he worked in California, was he administrator 02:44 at the time of the beginning of the Northwest? 02:45 No, he wasn't, no, no, no. 02:47 That's I believe that was Byron White 02:50 or somebody like that, 02:53 that actually formed North Pacific Union Conference. 02:56 I'm not sure that's the correct name, 02:59 but anyway in 1906 they developed 03:02 North Pacific Religious Liberty Association, 03:05 because of their fear of Sunday laws. 03:07 And A.T Jones, of course you know 03:09 was a Pacific Northwest guy. 03:12 Yes, that's what I was asking. 03:13 Originally from Oakland, California 03:15 but he was stationed when he was in the military 03:18 at Fort Walla Walla where he, 03:21 when he as a military soldier there in the... 03:26 just after the Civil War, 03:27 he was stationed there at Walla Walla 03:29 and at Fort Walla Walla, 03:31 and he became a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. 03:33 His first church is right there in Palouse, 03:36 in Farmington, Washington, 03:38 and his history is very rich there in the North Pacific, 03:43 including the beginnings of Oregon camp meeting 03:46 and Ellen White coming to speak there and everything. 03:49 And it was all A.T Jones connected 03:51 and people forget about his legacy in the Northwest. 03:54 Well, the Northwest Religious Liberty Association rises 03:57 out of that particular legacy, 04:00 and it was renamed Northwest Religious Liberty Association 04:03 in 1991 under Richard Fenn's leadership. 04:07 My predecessor more than 18 years ago 04:11 and he did a fabulous job 04:14 in envisioning the restoration of the spirit 04:17 of Alonzo T. Jones by developing 04:20 a bona fide professional government relations program 04:24 where we have capital pastors covering each capital. 04:28 I like that answer. 04:29 And yeah, it's nice because actually saves us money, 04:33 the conference is already employing them, 04:35 they get their paychecks from the local conference 04:38 and they also work with us. 04:40 So I work with the conference presidents 04:42 in conjunction with each of the capital pastors. 04:45 That means that each capital is routinely covered. 04:49 When you're doing from a central point, 04:51 maybe something, you will miss something there 04:53 because you know, you... 04:54 Well, we don't catch everything 04:55 but in terms of each legislative session, 04:57 yes, my guys are covering each legislate session, 05:02 they're doing prayers whether in the house or the Senate. 05:06 They're very much involved in meeting legislators 05:11 to see what's needed in terms of bills, 05:14 in terms of blocking bad religious freedom legislation 05:17 or legislation that would harm religious freedom 05:20 and putting forward majors, 05:22 if we can unite with other groups 05:24 to promote religious freedom or putting forth our own majors 05:28 such as the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act. 05:30 What was it? Oh, the workplace. 05:32 I was going to throw out a bone to you. 05:34 You know, a lot of our viewers I'm sure in North America 05:37 have noticed mostly negative news 05:40 lately on the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts 05:43 that are being passed in many, many states. 05:45 Yes, and that's when we started in Oregon. 05:47 And you, I know you've done a lot on that. 05:49 In fact that's where we get started in Oregon. 05:51 But yours is not negative. 05:52 Well, it was... 05:54 No, ours was a positive endeavor in Oregon. 05:57 We never got anything passed in Oregon 05:59 regarding a State Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 06:02 But we did in Idaho, in fact it was our first big victory 06:06 in the 2000 legislative session 06:10 and the bill was signed by then Governor Dirk Kempthorne 06:13 and the main sponsor of the bill 06:15 and we need to pray for him, 06:17 former senator Grant Ipsen in Idaho 06:21 suffering from pancreatic cancer. 06:24 We need to pray for him. 06:27 His family is, needs our prayers right now 06:32 and he needs our prayers. 06:33 But he was the sponsor of our what's called 06:36 Idaho's Free Exercise Religion Act of 2000 06:39 which is a State Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 06:42 And what it did is, 06:43 it restored the compelling state interest 06:47 and least restrictive means, 06:49 test to free exercise jurisprudence 06:51 basically essentially saying that the burden of proof, 06:55 when any religious institution or religious individual 07:00 is accused of practicing a religion 07:05 that's harmful to the good of all. 07:07 The state has to demonstrate 07:10 it's the burden of proof is on them 07:12 to demonstrate that it indeed is, 07:14 whereas before that it was absent. 07:16 In other words, 07:17 the burden of proof was immediately on the individual 07:20 or the institution, 07:21 the religious institution and that's all 07:24 because of Justice Antonin Scalia 07:28 who lot of people want to have some one 07:31 just like Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court. 07:34 I want to remind all of you 07:35 that this man was an enemy of religious freedom. 07:38 So if you say that he is a man that was for religious freedom. 07:42 The presidential candidates who say that 07:45 do not know what they're talking about. 07:48 So what he did? 07:50 He was a partisan for religious view points 07:52 but not for the separation of churches. 07:54 He was a partisan for the Catholic faith 07:56 but not for the free exercise of religion 07:58 understood in American context or Protestant context 08:01 or for the constitution of separation 08:03 of church and state in that same context. 08:05 And so we've to remember that in 1990 08:08 and a case called Oregon Employment Division, 08:13 Employment Division of Oregon 08:14 versus Smith and Mr. Galen, 08:21 actually Galen Smith 08:22 and another guy by the name of White. 08:26 They were two native American Indians 08:28 that had smoked their peyote 08:30 during the ritual sessions on the weekend 08:32 but didn't came in still drugged up so to speak 08:36 and high when they came in to work 08:39 for their ironically the anti-drug 08:43 or the drug enforcement agency for the state of Oregon 08:45 came in hallucinated and were let go and fired. 08:49 And so they appealed 08:51 all the way up to the Oregon Supreme Court. 08:53 Supreme Court says we've no problem with you 08:56 smoking your peyote and having your religious rituals. 08:58 But you can't come in stoned, okay? 09:01 So that basically was the conclusion of that, 09:05 but then Justice Antonin Scalia from the Supreme Court 09:08 pluck that case out of nowhere and said that, 09:11 wait a minute, no you know, these, 09:14 yes, these are generally applicable laws 09:16 but you basically, you don't have essentially 09:21 a right to your religious freedom. 09:23 And basically took away the two religious, 09:27 the two tests, 09:28 the compelling governmental interest 09:29 and least restrictive means test, 09:31 that went all the way back to the US Supreme Court 09:33 in a case called Sherbert versus Smith, 09:36 which involved a Seventh-day Adventist woman 09:38 in South Carolina who was dismissed from her job 09:43 because she wanted her Sabbath off 09:45 and the company wouldn't let her have it. 09:48 She was a longtime worker there that converted midstream 09:51 and they said no, 09:53 so she appealed all the way up to the state Supreme Court, 09:56 then she lost her all the court system 09:58 including the federal appeals court 10:00 and then it got to the US Supreme Court 10:02 and she won by a vote of 7 to 2. 10:06 That had been the benchmark, but still said it a lot. 10:08 But that's where they developed the compelling state interest 10:10 and least restrictive means test 10:12 basically saying, hey, you know, 10:15 and she worked for government agency 10:17 there in South Carolina. 10:18 You have to demonstrate 10:20 that you have the compelling interest 10:21 to deny someone their religious practice 10:24 and their faith, 10:25 their free exercise of religion. 10:26 And Justice Scalia wrote, hey... 10:29 He is very dismissive. 10:30 Religious freedom is a luxury we can no longer afford, 10:32 he wrote in his appeal. 10:34 I've just one, you know, his views 10:35 I think would have expressed themselves like that anyway. 10:38 But I wondered whether that got through, 10:40 because at that time the war on drugs was really... 10:43 Yeah. 10:44 Eating up and there was not much sympathy 10:47 in the larger community for, as you say, 10:50 they even came to work with the aftereffects 10:52 with this drug use. 10:54 He was saying basically, hey, you know, 10:55 religion is important to me but it's not that irreligion, 10:57 that not that important to laws, more important to me. 11:00 And so, he was very stringent about it 11:02 and even pharisaical, and it really hurts me. 11:07 It had set back, 11:09 religious freedom back for years. 11:10 In fact to this day, there are still only I think 11:13 it's like 19 states that have or maybe it's 20, 21, 11:17 that have State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts. 11:19 And right now, it's even harder to get pass, 11:22 because of the concerns by the gay community 11:27 who seem to say that restoring the compelling state interest 11:33 and least restrictive means test is somehow, 11:37 or bring you about these religious freedom acts 11:39 are inherently discriminatory towards gays in the workplace 11:44 and everywhere else. 11:45 As you know, and I wanted to say this earlier, 11:48 what you said is very true 11:50 and the unfortunate part of this 11:53 is there's an element of truth in what they claim, 11:56 because some more rabid right wing religious groups 12:00 to put referral of bills through their particular state 12:04 where they've added language 12:06 that would indeed give Christians rights 12:10 of prejudice election against courts. 12:13 In 1999 we wrote the legislation in Alaska, 12:16 actually I wrote the bill, 12:17 because the first bill was crafted so badly 12:20 by senator up in Alaska. 12:23 Good, a wonderful gentleman, a fisherman, 12:25 who didn't have much education. 12:27 And so, I asked Legislative Council 12:30 there in Alaska, if I could write the bill, 12:33 so overnight at a good member's home 12:37 there I was consulting with James Standish at the time 12:40 and he helped me craft new language for it. 12:42 He was our legislative liaison for the church in Washington. 12:45 Yes, in Washington DC. 12:47 And we crafted that thing together in one night, 12:51 and we put it together, there's lot of hard work 12:54 and he really knew his stuff, 12:55 I miss James in that respect a lot. 12:58 And so we got that through, 13:01 but it went through five different committees 13:03 in four years and we still failed, okay. 13:07 So in fact the senate majority leader 13:09 who was one of the House, at that time in the House 13:12 and was one of our legislative sponsors. 13:15 Senator John Coghill, who is the majority leader 13:18 there in Alaska Senate right now our good friend 13:20 and a wonderful reader of Liberty Magazine. 13:24 I think I remember a story of... 13:25 He loves Liberty Magazine and but he said, 13:30 if we had gotten that pass 13:31 then we wouldn't have the big hurdle 13:34 that we have now, 13:36 dealing with gay marriage as we see it now. 13:40 Let's take a bit of a break and we'll be back. 13:42 And I'll quiz my guest quite a bit more, 13:45 on what the Northwest Religious Liberty Association's 13:48 been up to. 13:49 Stay with us. |
Revised 2016-08-15