Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Andy Im
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000340A
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00:28 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:30 This is the program bringing you analysis, 00:32 up-to-date news, and principles 00:35 so that you can judge 00:36 religious liberty developments in the US and around the world. 00:40 My name is Lincoln Steed and my guest is Andy Im. 00:46 I do a double take on your last name 00:48 because I have another contact 00:51 with the very similar last name, 00:52 but nobody quite like you and your job is very important 00:56 as communication director 00:58 for the Michigan Seventh-day Adventist church division. 01:02 And as I've said a number of times 01:04 before working with campus crusade for young people, 01:07 very significant with religious liberty. 01:11 And dealing with the young people, I know... 01:13 Well, I know you not only know how they operate, 01:16 you operate like them, 'cause you're still young. 01:18 I am. 01:20 And a characteristic of the younger generation 01:22 is to be very computer literate, isn't it? 01:25 Yes. 01:27 And I, myself use the computer from time to time, 01:31 and I realize that the world is at your fingertips. 01:33 Yeah, you just punch a couple of buttons 01:35 and it's like you're in the public library 01:37 or better videos, and blogs, 01:41 and music whatever you want. 01:45 Is this information conduit to the younger generation? 01:51 Is it working to their advantage or ours? 01:54 What's your judgment on this? 01:56 I think the access to the information 01:59 can be both good and bad. 02:01 I think it's bad in the sense that people 02:06 or young people now can just pick and choose 02:08 what they want to hear. 02:10 And that's not good in the objective sense 02:12 because you're not getting a wide variety of use. 02:15 Now you can just pick and choose 02:17 what you want to hear. 02:19 And so that's not necessarily positive. 02:24 Another thing for example, 02:26 to give a specific example with YouTube, 02:29 you know, it's really clips, little sound bytes, 02:33 one minute clips of things 02:36 that various popular figures are saying 02:40 and, you know, they get millions of millions of hits. 02:43 And so that shift begins to shape 02:46 their views on a whole wide range of things 02:49 from politics to social norms and so forth and so there's... 02:55 I'd say a lot of dangerous or negative components to that. 03:01 Yup, I agree with your point. 03:03 Well, I'm a YouTube user as I drive to work. 03:05 I am too. Yes. 03:07 And I watch a... 03:08 Actually yesterday I watched a three hour documentary 03:11 on YouTube, they're not little clips... 03:13 It was a history of the czars in Russia. 03:18 I don't think it's the length so much, 03:20 I think it's what often is missing is context, 03:23 and it seems to me education is not just absorbing facts. 03:29 If that were the case then people 03:30 with photographic memories would rule the world. 03:33 But they don't because they don't necessarily 03:36 synthesize it correctly. 03:38 And a lot of the input 03:41 or the reaction to their information 03:43 or postings from other people. 03:47 And I think that's positively degrading of 03:51 from what I've seen of real knowledge, 03:54 but perhaps it's what the Bible says, 03:56 forever learning and never arriving at the truth. 04:00 But information, is it more accessible 04:02 than ever before, there's no question about that. 04:05 And I know you have a burden 04:07 as many in our religious liberty fraternity do 04:11 that we need to be careful about conspiracy theories. 04:14 Yes. 04:16 And there's no question, the internet exist 04:18 on conspiracy theories on one level, 04:20 it's not the only thing. 04:22 But if you're a conspiracy theorist, 04:25 that's the happy hunting ground. 04:28 That's right and it really satisfies 04:30 our curiosity for the sensational 04:35 and that kind of thing 04:36 and I think we need to ensure that as Christians 04:40 that doesn't become our message. 04:42 I have been to some gatherings if you're well aware, 04:47 then entire sermon was 04:48 just simply a conspiracy theory. 04:52 And I think that's dangerous. 04:53 You know there's a lot of redirect to today 04:56 of this anti mainstream media movement. 05:01 And I understand that, lot of times 05:03 the parent organizations of these news companies, 05:07 they do have agenda, it's no secret, 05:09 it's not a conspiracy that's widely understood. 05:13 The flip side of that is you also don't want 05:16 some 18 year old, 20 year old 05:19 and I'm not being pejorative to the age 05:23 but some young person sitting in a basement 05:27 and, you know, having millions of followers 05:31 and he's just ranting off his opinions on various events 05:36 whether it involves politics or other social concerns, 05:41 and so I think we need to be balanced... 05:43 Well, tell me... Yes, go ahead, yes. 05:46 I agree with you but it painted the sad picture there. 05:49 Does that differ very much from a frustrated... 05:59 I'm trying to think how to characterize the guy. 06:01 Frustrated revolutionary but it's not the best word 06:04 I was looking for sitting in prison, 06:06 writing a little crazy pamphlet 06:08 that disturbed the whole country. 06:11 Yeah. 06:12 I mean in essence that's what Adolf Hitler did 06:14 with Mein Kampf, same thing but now it's accessible to any, 06:19 not any but selected bloggers 06:21 who could get a big enough following. 06:23 Yeah. 06:25 The idea is probably just as crazy 06:26 but they hunt out there, there are fellows all around. 06:31 It's an interesting dynamic and I... 06:33 It is. 06:34 I don't think anyone quite yet knows what to make of it. 06:37 Yeah. 06:39 But from all that I can observe I don't really think 06:43 societal knowledge is much advance, 06:45 but information is available, 06:47 but understanding is obscure as ever. 06:52 Yeah. 06:53 I think as it with any discipline, 06:56 I believe very strongly that it's important to find out 07:00 who the players are in any given discussion. 07:04 There are editorial list, there are writers 07:08 who are respected within the field of journalism 07:12 that do their best to remain objective. 07:17 And of course there's no, as you and I know 07:18 there's no true objectivity when you're reporting on news, 07:23 people insert their viewpoint 07:25 and we're gonna be able to run away from that. 07:28 Even Christianity is a viewpoint, 07:31 you know, it is a biased viewpoint. 07:34 And so we just need to be responsible is my point. 07:40 And as far as religious liberty in being sensitive 07:43 to what's happening 07:45 in this regard around the world, 07:47 I think to go to many sources is good. 07:50 That's right. I have people that phone me up. 07:52 They are on some right wing religion does source 07:57 and of course they exaggerate everything 07:59 for fundraising if for nothing else. 08:01 Yeah. 08:02 And people can get a very skewed view. 08:04 And I originally came from Australia, 08:06 it was a long, long ago. 08:09 And I've been back many times. Yeah. 08:11 But that sort of gives me a look 08:14 from an outsider's viewpoint and it's very obvious, 08:17 most anyone outside the US knows 08:19 that the news is not very comprehensive 08:23 or balanced in the US. 08:24 And I don't think 08:26 that's particularly from design. 08:28 I think it's from several sources, 08:31 first of all this is a big enough country to be... 08:33 So many things happening, you get self absorbed, 08:36 so it's not very outward looking. 08:39 And then the news that it gets is filtered through 08:42 so many agencies and all, 08:44 and particularly in the US collared by 08:48 a besetting sin of America, 08:51 but it's also tied up to its great strength, 08:54 that we imagine that everybody else 08:56 thinks like us. 08:58 Else where in the world, 08:59 their thought process is a different... 09:01 Yeah. 09:02 Their reality norms are totally different. 09:04 They can say something that 09:06 even if it's translated accurately which is often not. 09:09 Yeah. 09:10 It can still mean something different to them than to us. 09:13 The way we get over it, I see it all the time. 09:15 Oh, he said that for domestic consumption 09:18 but he doesn't mean that. 09:20 Yeah. 09:22 That's not good but I think what's really going on 09:23 and I see this at work 09:25 is that with the computerization 09:29 revolution traditional print media 09:34 and news media is on hard times. 09:36 Yes. 09:38 Remember the Christian signs news service, 09:43 they monitor in that, oh, I had a business 09:44 cut-down to almost nothing. 09:47 And you can see signs of that 09:49 when you go to events in Washington. 09:51 There's not that many reporters, 09:53 they don't have the facility with them 09:56 and they don't have the time 09:58 or the charter to give on investigative journalism. 10:01 So they go to the meeting, 10:02 they come in the door, and there's the handout. 10:05 And I get those handouts and I will see them, 10:08 print it in the newspaper without comment, 10:10 you know, that's not really journalism 10:13 because the people in power 10:15 whether they're government leaders 10:16 or even church leaders, they love to you 10:18 to be promulgators of their viewpoint. 10:21 That's right. 10:23 It's in the questioning that you get to the truth. 10:25 Yeah. 10:26 So we have a lazy, I just put it 10:28 and of course there's no question 10:30 that more and more the universities 10:31 are pouring out people are of a secular mindset. 10:34 So the reporters themselves may have 10:38 somewhat biased against say religion. 10:41 But I don't think that's the main thing. 10:43 I think it's just the superficiality. 10:47 And then as we saw during right after 9/11, 10:52 there was self censorship in the US 10:54 that didn't really serve the US well. 10:57 I want to add to, you know, 10:59 'cause you mentioned the word superficial, 11:02 you know, ultimately the news organizations, 11:05 and bloggers, and so forth. 11:08 Ultimately they have an incentive 11:10 to either make money or to increase their audience. 11:14 And so lot of times, you know, lot of, 11:16 even many of the serious news organizations 11:19 are moving towards more entertainment news 11:22 and that kind of thing... 11:24 Oh, that's corrupting if it's part of their 11:27 'cause much time given to, 11:30 you know, some dog was shot, shot, 11:33 what, a pit-bull was shot in the neighborhood 11:36 because it went run amok. 11:38 than perhaps the genocide in Rwanda or something. 11:41 Exactly, exactly. 11:43 That is more of a phenomenon in the US to other countries. 11:46 I mean that's not unknown in other places 11:48 but there's a huge imbalance 11:50 and it largely is entertainment venue 11:55 but you can get the news if people want to... 11:57 Yeah. 11:59 I don't name newspapers 'cause that will throw biased 12:01 but there's some more serious news papers in the US... 12:04 And you can go online and different news services 12:08 from Holland, and Germany, BBC, even Russian TV. 12:15 Even if you allow it's biased, it's another viewpoint 12:17 then you can synthesize that with that... 12:20 One that's typically my practice 12:22 and I'm not saying people should follow what I do, 12:24 but I tend to read, you know, from organizations that, 12:30 you know, are right leaning or left leaning 12:33 or more moderate. 12:35 And then synthesize the information and data... 12:38 And then if you know how news works, 12:41 you can sort of seek through a lot of it. 12:43 That's right. 12:44 I've been to some demonstrations 12:46 that they might just be 50 people there. 12:47 Yeah. 12:49 And they'll have them cluster together 12:50 or else frame it where they're clustered together, 12:53 and you watch the evening news 12:54 and all you see in front of the camera, 12:56 milling, yelling people. 12:57 May be nothing around it, try if it's going by as normal. 13:00 So it can create huge misperception about 13:05 what's really going on. 13:07 It's not that it's factually wrong 13:08 but it's misrepresenting what went on. 13:10 What's really happening, absolutely. 13:12 But what troubled me more than anything 13:15 and I'm building to a point here. 13:18 After 9/11 and I don't think it would have mattered greatly 13:22 which administration were in charge. 13:26 But I think the one we had at the time, 13:29 had a certain vested interest in encouraging 13:31 some of the worst tendencies. 13:35 Hiding things and encouraging others. 13:37 And the media should have seen it, 13:40 they probably knew it but they didn't call it. 13:44 And some horrific things were not mentioned like one 13:47 that still sticks in my mind, the Washington Post a few days 13:52 after 9/11 ran a picture with a caption 13:57 but no comment of the brother of the then president shaking 14:01 Osama Bin Laden's brother's hand 14:03 just signed a big biz, 14:05 multimillion dollar business deal in Saudi Arabia. 14:09 That was it, no comment. 14:11 Normally that would be subject to a little question, 14:14 you know, how come they're still in business 14:15 with the family. 14:18 And, you know, the Republic didn't rise or fall on it 14:21 but to me it showed that there was reticence 14:24 to deal with real topics, thing, 14:26 some things went hands off. 14:27 Yeah. 14:28 And so we can say proudly we don't have censorship. 14:31 But why censor if you've created 14:34 the same thing through intimidation. 14:38 We'll be back after a short break, 14:40 stay with us. |
Revised 2016-11-07