Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000346B
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00:04 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider
00:06 and before the break with guest Steig Westerberg, 00:10 we were, you're the founder and CEO of Altserv... 00:14 Altoserv. 00:15 Altoserv, sorry. Yeah. 00:16 Yeah, Altoserv, sounds like a command... 00:18 That's why I'm getting wrong, alt-delete it's not alt-delete. 00:21 Yeah, control delete. Yeah. 00:24 But what the topic really is, is something beyond 00:27 that you're in the process of developing 00:30 the American Religious Liberty Institute, 00:32 which is a matrix program 00:35 service plan to integrate lay people or the citizenry 00:42 and give them information and the facility to contact 00:45 the legislators directly on a wide range of nascent, 00:52 baby legislative proposals 00:54 before they're at the trouble stage, right? 00:56 Yes, and not all legislation of course 00:58 just that focuses on religions... 01:00 Well, of all that you have to have 01:01 the ability to scan all potential legislation but, 01:04 yes, they wouldn't be involved with all. 01:07 But it is amazing and you've already discovered it. 01:09 An awful lot of this legislative proposals, 01:13 which on the face of it have nothing to do 01:15 with religion or religious liberty. 01:16 Yeah. 01:18 When you really examine the ramifications 01:19 or the intent or just read it more carefully, 01:23 it's the fly in the ointment. 01:25 Yeah, often times, yeah. 01:27 You know, the most classic one 01:29 that went to the Supreme Court was the Smith Case, 01:32 they call it where it was decided 01:36 that the law against drug use applied against peyotes use 01:42 in the sweat lodges, 01:43 which was their religious ceremony. 01:45 Yes. 01:46 And the Supreme Court said, "Well, yes, this is fine 01:48 because it's a law of universal application." 01:52 Well, there's plenty of laws of universal application 01:54 that advertently or inadvertently 01:57 could actually directly restrict 01:59 your religious liberty. 02:01 And the whole point of the constitution 02:04 and indeed the founding of the US commonwealth, 02:08 well, not commonwealth, republic 02:10 was designed to protect the minority from the majority. 02:13 Yeah. 02:15 So there's plenty of things, the majority will be just fine 02:16 and be happy with but you got to make sure 02:18 you protect your minority interests. 02:20 Yes. 02:21 And at the end of the day we're all a minority of one. 02:23 We are, yeah. 02:26 So you know where are you going from now, 02:30 I know you've given me some encouraging news 02:32 of different organizations you think you need to contact 02:35 and ways that you can get as many groups 02:40 and people behind this? 02:41 Well, initially... 02:42 What I'm trying to fish out of you is, 02:44 this needs to be broad based, 02:45 it's not just a narrow view for one church 02:48 or one geographical area, this, this... 02:51 This is for anybody that has a heart for religious liberty 02:55 that understands that rules, laws that are crafted, 03:00 they restrict that fundamentally impact our nation 03:05 and how we relate to each other, 03:06 how we interact with the government, 03:08 and so what I'm trying to do is just get the word out 03:12 that this site exists ARLinstitue.org. 03:16 We want people to come... 03:17 ARLinstitue.org. 03:21 And we want people to come sign up, 03:23 we want people to visit the site often. 03:27 Obviously the publicity to collect email addresses 03:31 and get people aware of it 03:32 is happening simultaneous to the development 03:35 of the backend and so the more they visit, 03:38 the more changes they will see 03:40 as we get this fully functional... 03:41 You're not gonna use their emails 03:42 for anything at all, just for this. 03:44 Yeah, these emails are specifically for people 03:47 to be getting information, you know, 03:50 about pending legislation. 03:52 And we do plan on expanding beyond pending legislation 03:55 into interpretations of rules and laws that agencies 04:01 are coming up with and so on, 04:02 and we also will have places 04:04 in there for crowd sourcing that sort of information. 04:09 If you have been a victim of or you feel 04:13 that you have been a victim of some agencies, 04:16 some governmental agency and I don't care what level, 04:19 federal, state, county, city 04:22 where they're passing rules or restrictions 04:25 that are impacting your ability to live your life, 04:29 conduct your profession 04:33 in violation of your belief structure. 04:36 We want to learn about it. 04:38 We have ways of 04:40 gathering and accumulating information 04:42 about pending legislation 04:44 at a federal and the state level, 04:45 but when it comes to the interpretation of rules 04:49 and the crafting of rules that agencies do, 04:52 it's a lot harder. 04:53 Yeah, and before the break 04:55 you were getting into this, won't you? 04:57 It's not just legislation although 05:00 in a certain way policies 05:03 and regulations do flow from legislation. 05:08 But they don't in themselves require legislation. 05:10 So when someone's in position 05:13 with a mandate to operate that department, they can pass him. 05:18 Yeah. 05:19 Apparently petty things that can have huge affects. 05:21 Well, an example for you would be, 05:24 this senate bill in California, 05:26 which was potentially catastrophic 05:30 for the 32 private parochial religious colleges 05:36 and universities in the state of California. 05:40 An example of that would be, 05:41 that those entities all need to be accredited. 05:44 So what if we start seeing the accrediting agencies 05:48 looking at those same 05:51 rules and deciding that they feel 05:54 that those schools are not open enough, 05:58 are not supportive of the lifestyle choices 06:02 that these rules are trying to look at. 06:07 You know, there's, that's not any... 06:09 that's something they crafted on their own. 06:11 There was no legislative act that told them 06:13 you need to look at it and interpret it this way. 06:17 I investigated a bit of that lately 06:18 and I found that 06:21 it is not government control directly. 06:25 It's really government affiliated but the accrediting 06:28 is a separate organization and it already is being used. 06:32 You and I know one case, where there was the good cop, 06:35 bad cop routine used by an accrediting organization, 06:38 I won't get specific... 06:39 But by an accrediting agency 06:42 toward religious school that we know. 06:44 I don't, I think it was more threat than anything 06:47 but you can see the dynamic could be used 06:49 because no institution wants to lose accreditation. 06:52 No. 06:54 And ironically that's the path that led them down 06:57 to their present vulnerability 06:58 that accreditation required greater facilities and so on, 07:01 which appeared to require government aid. 07:05 So they sold their birth right... 07:08 Yes. To government control. 07:12 And we believe we can bring 07:14 the same sort of response from voters 07:18 on those situations, but we need to warn of them. 07:21 That information where building a network of attorneys 07:25 that will be feeding those sorts of things to us, 07:28 but the best way to get that 07:30 is from the people themselves 07:32 that are directly involved in it. 07:34 And there's a form on the website 07:36 where they will be able to complete that information, 07:39 submit it to us so that we can aggregate it and use that. 07:41 And the more people you have, the more attorneys there, 07:43 the more entities and so on, 07:46 it becomes just ever more effective. 07:48 And obviously it just baby steps now but... 07:51 I can see already this, if this was fully up 07:54 and running with the broad cross section of 07:57 all of the people institutions across the whole country 08:00 and perhaps the whole continent. 08:02 'Cause Canada, 08:04 I'm sure this is part of your vision too, isn't it? 08:06 We do intend on supporting-- 08:07 Yeah, you know this could be an incredible tool, 08:10 and I think it could do it in a way 08:13 as you have stated it. 08:15 Your intention in a way that it's less intrusive 08:18 and what's the word I'm looking for, 08:23 complicating to true separation of church and state. 08:27 Because you know, in the 70s we saw the moral majority 08:30 and then I think they recast as the religious right, 08:33 they have voter list and some pressure politics and so on, 08:36 scare tactics often. 08:38 And I'm very, to this day very uncomfortable 08:40 with that because it was toying with religious 08:44 or with political power and even coercion. 08:48 And co-opting of political figures. 08:51 We don't want that, we just want to... 08:54 As I see what you're doing, we want to smooth the contact 08:57 between the people and their legislators 08:59 and give them information to interject their wishes 09:05 and ease some complications with people. 09:10 A lot of people don't believe it, 09:11 in the United States 09:13 which has a good constitution of reasonable history 09:16 of tolerance and religious, true religious liberty. 09:19 There are many people who are practically restricted 09:22 and harassed for their faith. 09:23 Absolutely. 09:25 You don't have to go to the Middle East, 09:26 or somewhere else to see it, 09:28 could be by our egregious 09:30 and maybe your very life's at threat 09:31 which is not typically of the US. 09:33 But eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, 09:37 this was written a long time ago. 09:38 It is, it's important that we keep, you know, 09:42 keep control of the edges of those... 09:45 And it also might, I don't know that this is your intention, 09:47 this might uncover some of those legislators 09:51 and they do exist who are of good intent 09:55 towards religious liberty and empower them. 09:59 Maybe the word has embolden on them 10:01 to put up protective legislation. 10:03 Yes, well, because of the nature of 10:06 what we're tracking and how we're empowering 10:09 individuals to make their voices heard. 10:13 The outcome of that of course is that we will know 10:15 who is proposing legislation, who is supporting it, 10:19 who is not supporting it. 10:21 I mean it's the natural byproduct of it, and so, yes, 10:24 we will know all that information. 10:25 Again you know, just to not warn 10:28 but to caution you 10:31 I really believe we should stay very clear of well, 10:34 you effectively would gather the information 10:36 sheet on a politician. 10:39 I think we should be very careful 10:41 to not sort of put them up as exhibit A, B or C or whatever. 10:45 Right. 10:46 We need to focus on the legislation. 10:49 We're not trying to... 10:51 Our focus is not on parties or politics. 10:52 Right, thank you for putting it in a better way. 10:55 Yeah, it's focused specifically on that process 11:00 of working with the individual representatives, congressmen, 11:04 senators wherever this is at, whichever form it's in, 11:09 and no matter who has proposed that legislation 11:11 to ensure that the outcome is one that we preserve... 11:15 I think you said your emphasis is not on party or politics. 11:21 Yeah. But you're half right. 11:23 I hear it all the time from Washington, 11:25 and it's on the news often. 11:27 They'll be some big hot issue and a politician will say, 11:29 "I'm not being political on this." 11:30 Yeah. 11:31 But there's nothing else that they can be 11:33 other than political. 11:35 What we all need to beware of is that they may not, 11:37 I'm not being partisan. 11:39 Yes. 11:40 And the Seventh-day Adventist church 11:42 and others too, we're not the only ones, 11:44 we're very scrupulous to not be, 11:48 you know, party biased. 11:51 Because religious liberty is not a single party issue. 11:54 Both parties at different times have supported us strongly 11:57 and both have been negative on it. 12:00 Yeah, absolutely. 12:02 And so by going to ARLinstitute.org 12:06 you have the ability to have your voice heard. 12:09 Get your message across 12:11 and make sure that people understand your viewpoint 12:15 and how you feel those law should be 12:18 enacted in our country. 12:21 In Jesus days, social networking was quite simple. 12:25 It was a matter of face time, 12:27 direct time with your neighbors. 12:31 With Jesus it was the 12 apostles, 12:34 with Jesus it was the 70 that was sent out. 12:38 And after Jesus, in the early days of Christianity 12:41 it was Paul before Felix before governor or Agrippa 12:45 and perhaps even before Caesar. 12:48 The amazing reality about technological era 12:52 is that was something like 12:54 what Steig Westerberg is providing. 12:59 Untold numbers of Christians 13:02 link through an electronic network 13:05 can again stand before Caesar, 13:07 can stand before the local legislator, 13:09 can make their voice and their witness heard. 13:13 We live in a marvelous age and as Daniel said, 13:16 "Knowledge should be increased in men, 13:18 travel to and fro." 13:20 It is not all scary or apocalyptic, 13:24 it's an enabling providence 13:27 that has given us tools to reach out. 13:30 Religious liberty is not something 13:32 as Jesus said to be kept in the darkness 13:34 because all of those things done in the darkness 13:36 could battering different have to be known, 13:39 will be known at the end of time. 13:41 And our charter, the gospel charter 13:43 is to proclaim loud and far and wide 13:47 the great truths that we have and that we cherish. 13:52 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2016-12-26