Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider
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and before the break
with guest Steig Westerberg,
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we were, you're the
founder and CEO of Altserv...
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Altoserv.
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Altoserv, sorry. Yeah.
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Yeah, Altoserv,
sounds like a command...
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That's why I'm getting wrong,
alt-delete it's not alt-delete.
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Yeah, control delete. Yeah.
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But what the topic
really is, is something beyond
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that you're in the
process of developing
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the American
Religious Liberty Institute,
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which is a matrix program
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service plan to integrate
lay people or the citizenry
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and give them information
and the facility to contact
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the legislators directly
on a wide range of nascent,
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baby legislative proposals
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before they're at
the trouble stage, right?
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Yes, and not all
legislation of course
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just that
focuses on religions...
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Well, of all
that you have to have
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the ability to scan all
potential legislation but,
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yes, they wouldn't
be involved with all.
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But it is amazing and
you've already discovered it.
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An awful lot of this
legislative proposals,
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which on the face of
it have nothing to do
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with religion or
religious liberty.
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Yeah.
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When you really
examine the ramifications
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or the intent or just
read it more carefully,
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it's the fly in the ointment.
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Yeah, often times, yeah.
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You know, the most classic one
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that went to the Supreme
Court was the Smith Case,
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they call it
where it was decided
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that the law against drug
use applied against peyotes use
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in the sweat lodges,
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which was their
religious ceremony.
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Yes.
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And the Supreme Court
said, "Well, yes, this is fine
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because it's a law of
universal application."
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Well, there's plenty of
laws of universal application
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that
advertently or inadvertently
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could actually directly restrict
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your religious liberty.
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And the whole
point of the constitution
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and indeed the
founding of the US commonwealth,
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well, not commonwealth, republic
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was designed to protect
the minority from the majority.
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Yeah.
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So there's plenty of things,
the majority will be just fine
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and be happy with
but you got to make sure
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you protect your
minority interests.
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Yes.
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And at the end of the day
we're all a minority of one.
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We are, yeah.
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So you know where
are you going from now,
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I know you've given
me some encouraging news
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of different organizations
you think you need to contact
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and ways that you
can get as many groups
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and people behind this?
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Well, initially...
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What I'm trying to
fish out of you is,
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this needs to be broad based,
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it's not just a
narrow view for one church
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or one
geographical area, this, this...
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This is for anybody that has
a heart for religious liberty
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that understands that
rules, laws that are crafted,
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they restrict that
fundamentally impact our nation
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and how we relate to each other,
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how we interact
with the government,
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and so what I'm trying to
do is just get the word out
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that this site
exists ARLinstitue.org.
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We want people to come...
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ARLinstitue.org.
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And we want
people to come sign up,
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we want people to
visit the site often.
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Obviously the publicity
to collect email addresses
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and get people aware of it
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is happening
simultaneous to the development
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of the backend and
so the more they visit,
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the more changes they will see
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as we get this
fully functional...
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You're not
gonna use their emails
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for anything at
all, just for this.
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Yeah, these emails are
specifically for people
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to be getting
information, you know,
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about pending legislation.
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And we do plan on expanding
beyond pending legislation
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into interpretations of
rules and laws that agencies
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are coming up with and so on,
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and we also will have places
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in there for crowd sourcing
that sort of information.
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If you have been a
victim of or you feel
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that you have been a
victim of some agencies,
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some governmental agency
and I don't care what level,
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federal, state, county, city
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where they're
passing rules or restrictions
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that are impacting your
ability to live your life,
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conduct your profession
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in violation of
your belief structure.
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We want to learn about it.
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We have ways of
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gathering and
accumulating information
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about pending legislation
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at a federal
and the state level,
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but when it comes to
the interpretation of rules
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and the crafting of
rules that agencies do,
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it's a lot harder.
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Yeah, and before the break
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you were getting
into this, won't you?
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It's not just
legislation although
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in a certain way policies
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and regulations do
flow from legislation.
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But they don't in
themselves require legislation.
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So when someone's in position
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with a mandate to operate that
department, they can pass him.
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Yeah.
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Apparently petty things
that can have huge affects.
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Well, an example
for you would be,
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this senate bill in California,
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which was
potentially catastrophic
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for the 32 private
parochial religious colleges
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and universities in
the state of California.
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An example of that would be,
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that those entities
all need to be accredited.
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So what if we start
seeing the accrediting agencies
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looking at those same
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rules and
deciding that they feel
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that those schools
are not open enough,
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are not supportive
of the lifestyle choices
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that these rules
are trying to look at.
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You know,
there's, that's not any...
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that's something
they crafted on their own.
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There was no
legislative act that told them
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you need to look at it
and interpret it this way.
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I investigated a
bit of that lately
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and I found that
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it is not
government control directly.
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It's really government
affiliated but the accrediting
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is a separate organization
and it already is being used.
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You and I know one case,
where there was the good cop,
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bad cop routine used by
an accrediting organization,
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I won't get specific...
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But by an accrediting agency
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toward religious
school that we know.
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I don't, I think it was
more threat than anything
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but you can see the
dynamic could be used
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because no institution
wants to lose accreditation.
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No.
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And ironically that's
the path that led them down
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to their present vulnerability
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that accreditation required
greater facilities and so on,
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which appeared to
require government aid.
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So they sold
their birth right...
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Yes. To government control.
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And we believe we can bring
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the same sort of
response from voters
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on those situations,
but we need to warn of them.
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That information where
building a network of attorneys
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that will be feeding
those sorts of things to us,
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but the best way to get that
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is from the people themselves
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that are
directly involved in it.
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And there's a
form on the website
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where they will be able
to complete that information,
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submit it to us so that we
can aggregate it and use that.
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And the more people you
have, the more attorneys there,
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the more entities and so on,
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it becomes just
ever more effective.
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And obviously it
just baby steps now but...
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I can see already
this, if this was fully up
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and running with the
broad cross section of
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all of the people institutions
across the whole country
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and perhaps the whole continent.
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'Cause Canada,
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I'm sure this is part of
your vision too, isn't it?
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We do intend on supporting--
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Yeah, you know this
could be an incredible tool,
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and I think it
could do it in a way
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as you have stated it.
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Your intention in a way
that it's less intrusive
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and what's the
word I'm looking for,
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complicating to true
separation of church and state.
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Because you know, in the
70s we saw the moral majority
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and then I think they
recast as the religious right,
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they have voter list and some
pressure politics and so on,
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scare tactics often.
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And I'm very, to this
day very uncomfortable
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with that because it
was toying with religious
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or with political
power and even coercion.
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And co-opting of
political figures.
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We don't want
that, we just want to...
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As I see what you're doing,
we want to smooth the contact
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between the people
and their legislators
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and give them information
to interject their wishes
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and ease some
complications with people.
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A lot of people
don't believe it,
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in the United States
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which has a good constitution
of reasonable history
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of tolerance and religious,
true religious liberty.
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There are many people who
are practically restricted
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and harassed for their faith.
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Absolutely.
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You don't have to
go to the Middle East,
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or somewhere else to see it,
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could be by our egregious
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and maybe your
very life's at threat
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which is not
typically of the US.
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But eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty,
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this was
written a long time ago.
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It is, it's important
that we keep, you know,
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keep control of
the edges of those...
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And it also might, I don't know
that this is your intention,
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this might uncover
some of those legislators
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and they do exist
who are of good intent
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towards religious
liberty and empower them.
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Maybe the word
has embolden on them
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to put up
protective legislation.
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Yes, well,
because of the nature of
00:10:03.20\00:10:06.87
what we're tracking
and how we're empowering
00:10:06.90\00:10:09.00
individuals to
make their voices heard.
00:10:09.04\00:10:13.14
The outcome of that of
course is that we will know
00:10:13.17\00:10:15.68
who is proposing legislation,
who is supporting it,
00:10:15.71\00:10:19.21
who is not supporting it.
00:10:19.25\00:10:21.02
I mean it's the natural
byproduct of it, and so, yes,
00:10:21.05\00:10:24.22
we will know all
that information.
00:10:24.25\00:10:25.59
Again you know, just to not warn
00:10:25.62\00:10:28.46
but to caution you
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I really believe we
should stay very clear of well,
00:10:31.26\00:10:34.56
you effectively would
gather the information
00:10:34.60\00:10:36.43
sheet on a politician.
00:10:36.46\00:10:39.40
I think we
should be very careful
00:10:39.43\00:10:41.67
to not sort of put them up as
exhibit A, B or C or whatever.
00:10:41.70\00:10:45.27
Right.
00:10:45.31\00:10:46.64
We need to focus
on the legislation.
00:10:46.68\00:10:49.31
We're not trying to...
00:10:49.34\00:10:51.01
Our focus is not on
parties or politics.
00:10:51.05\00:10:52.88
Right, thank you for
putting it in a better way.
00:10:52.91\00:10:55.05
Yeah, it's focused
specifically on that process
00:10:55.08\00:11:00.72
of working with the individual
representatives, congressmen,
00:11:00.76\00:11:04.69
senators wherever this is
at, whichever form it's in,
00:11:04.73\00:11:09.10
and no matter who has
proposed that legislation
00:11:09.13\00:11:11.93
to ensure that the outcome
is one that we preserve...
00:11:11.97\00:11:15.94
I think you said your emphasis
is not on party or politics.
00:11:15.97\00:11:21.31
Yeah. But you're half right.
00:11:21.34\00:11:23.71
I hear it all the
time from Washington,
00:11:23.75\00:11:25.78
and it's on the news often.
00:11:25.81\00:11:27.15
They'll be some big hot
issue and a politician will say,
00:11:27.18\00:11:29.18
"I'm not being
political on this."
00:11:29.22\00:11:30.55
Yeah.
00:11:30.59\00:11:31.92
But there's nothing
else that they can be
00:11:31.95\00:11:33.29
other than political.
00:11:33.32\00:11:35.09
What we all need to
beware of is that they may not,
00:11:35.12\00:11:37.63
I'm not being partisan.
00:11:37.66\00:11:38.99
Yes.
00:11:39.03\00:11:40.36
And the
Seventh-day Adventist church
00:11:40.40\00:11:42.26
and others too,
we're not the only ones,
00:11:42.30\00:11:44.10
we're very scrupulous to not be,
00:11:44.13\00:11:48.70
you know, party biased.
00:11:48.74\00:11:50.97
Because religious liberty
is not a single party issue.
00:11:51.01\00:11:54.61
Both parties at different
times have supported us strongly
00:11:54.64\00:11:57.48
and both have
been negative on it.
00:11:57.51\00:12:00.65
Yeah, absolutely.
00:12:00.68\00:12:02.45
And so by going
to ARLinstitute.org
00:12:02.48\00:12:06.12
you have the ability
to have your voice heard.
00:12:06.15\00:12:09.42
Get your message across
00:12:09.46\00:12:11.56
and make sure that
people understand your viewpoint
00:12:11.59\00:12:15.36
and how you feel
those law should be
00:12:15.40\00:12:18.43
enacted in our country.
00:12:18.47\00:12:21.24
In Jesus days, social
networking was quite simple.
00:12:21.27\00:12:25.37
It was a matter of face time,
00:12:25.41\00:12:27.88
direct time with your neighbors.
00:12:27.91\00:12:31.15
With Jesus it
was the 12 apostles,
00:12:31.18\00:12:34.32
with Jesus it was
the 70 that was sent out.
00:12:34.35\00:12:38.29
And after Jesus, in the
early days of Christianity
00:12:38.32\00:12:41.36
it was Paul before Felix
before governor or Agrippa
00:12:41.39\00:12:45.79
and perhaps even before Caesar.
00:12:45.83\00:12:48.10
The amazing reality
about technological era
00:12:48.13\00:12:52.73
is that was something like
00:12:52.77\00:12:54.40
what Steig
Westerberg is providing.
00:12:54.44\00:12:59.51
Untold numbers of Christians
00:12:59.54\00:13:02.41
link through an
electronic network
00:13:02.44\00:13:05.11
can again stand before Caesar,
00:13:05.15\00:13:07.35
can stand before
the local legislator,
00:13:07.38\00:13:09.68
can make their voice
and their witness heard.
00:13:09.72\00:13:13.22
We live in a marvelous
age and as Daniel said,
00:13:13.25\00:13:16.29
"Knowledge should
be increased in men,
00:13:16.32\00:13:18.76
travel to and fro."
00:13:18.79\00:13:20.23
It is not all
scary or apocalyptic,
00:13:20.26\00:13:24.67
it's an enabling providence
00:13:24.70\00:13:27.57
that has given us
tools to reach out.
00:13:27.60\00:13:30.17
Religious
liberty is not something
00:13:30.21\00:13:32.47
as Jesus said to be
kept in the darkness
00:13:32.51\00:13:34.64
because all of those
things done in the darkness
00:13:34.68\00:13:36.95
could battering
different have to be known,
00:13:36.98\00:13:39.31
will be known
at the end of time.
00:13:39.35\00:13:41.02
And our charter,
the gospel charter
00:13:41.05\00:13:43.79
is to proclaim
loud and far and wide
00:13:43.82\00:13:47.22
the great truths that we
have and that we cherish.
00:13:47.26\00:13:52.76
For Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:13:52.79\00:13:55.70