Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000371B
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00:05 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider
00:07 before the break with Edwards III. 00:10 I've got to remember that III. 00:11 I didn't know your father 00:13 and couldn't have known your grandfather, 00:15 but to be a III is a great privilege, I think. 00:17 They both are waiting for the second coming 00:20 but are great role models for me. 00:23 My grandfather always had me going out doing ingathering. 00:27 I remember ringing the bell at Jules 00:30 and just a pioneer. 00:32 The church I grew up it started in his living room. 00:36 Maybe we should explain ingathering to... 00:38 There's many non-Adventists, non-church audience. 00:41 Try to remember we haven't done ingathering. 00:43 How would you describe ingathering? 00:45 We usually associated with investment, 00:47 a part of our investment, 00:49 when we had an investment leader 00:50 who was a part of the church. 00:51 I don't even know if we still have that. 00:53 Investment in some churches I guess. 00:54 Some of them turn to vesper leaders, 00:55 but we used to raise funds for evangelism... 00:58 And for missions. And for missions. 01:00 Usually it was for missions. 01:01 And... 01:02 So that was just a chance to go out door-to-door 01:04 and offer to the community the chance to be involved 01:07 in some of these missionary outreaches 01:09 in other countries, 01:11 even educational projects and so on. 01:12 And then we had our pamphlet that we passed out 01:15 so let me just say, 01:16 but my grandfather was really staunch behind that 01:19 and then obviously my father, 01:20 lot of my leadership and networking skills 01:23 come from him as well as my mom. 01:25 And so I lost him in December but big influences on my life, 01:29 but the reason 01:31 I love my grandfather and love my father 01:32 but always my only identity was Edwards Woods III, 01:36 so the III means something but I miss them both. 01:40 But speaking about Public Affairs 01:42 and Religious Liberty ministry as a local ministry, 01:46 I shared my testament with you before we got back on the air, 01:49 I got a questionnaire where I had to really think, 01:53 "Is my biblical perspective aligned 01:57 to meet my political perspective?" 02:00 And that's a serious question, of course. 02:01 Or is it based upon who I am as a Christian, 02:06 you know, because I have seen enough words missing 02:09 and deceptive phrasing, 02:11 and however else you want to call it 02:14 to last them a lifetime, 02:16 and I really had to think about, 02:17 you know, this whole Public Affairs 02:19 and Religious Liberty ministry, what are we really saying? 02:23 You know, I started this job 02:26 for Lake Region Conference in 2008 02:29 and this was something 02:31 that I was going through in 2007, 02:34 and when I thought about it, I said, you know what? 02:36 You need to do a paradigm shift, 02:40 you know, it's really not about votes. 02:41 What did you do? 02:43 What job did you have before that? 02:44 Oh, that job that I was doing then, 02:46 I was actually, 02:48 I'm a two-timer elected official... 02:50 I didn't know that. 02:51 I was in the Lake Michigan College Board of Trustees 02:53 and on I first campaigned I actually got a nice flag 02:55 from my grandfather and my dad, 02:57 one of the highlights in terms of victory. 02:59 The Lake Michigan, 03:00 it's a Community College at Benton Harbor, Michigan, 03:02 I've also served with the Board of Oakwood University, 03:05 but this particular incident I'm referring to was 03:07 when I was at the Lansing Community College 03:09 Board of Trustees and I ran in 2007. 03:13 And I started this job in January of 2008 03:15 but it was just... 03:17 I was doing at the local church 03:18 and so that's how I was able by God's grace 03:21 to build the PARL ministry at my home church, 03:24 Highland Avenue, in Benton Harbor, Michigan. 03:27 Dr. Jasper, I believe gave me a text, 03:28 actually he brought it to me 03:30 saying you need to consider this. 03:32 You would be perfect for this and what he saw 03:36 was I was able to leverage my work contacts 03:39 with the judges, the sheriff, the reps, 03:41 and then invite them to come to church 03:44 and they would come to church. 03:45 As a matter of fact, by God's grace, 03:47 you know, my father was heavily involved 03:49 in the community, my godfather, Russell Ties 03:51 heavily involved in the community, my mom, 03:53 Carl Herod, it's just a bunch of different people, 03:55 Alvin Davis, Alvin Collins, Ron Small. 03:58 Now, were you living in Benton Harbor? 03:59 I was living in that area and Dr. Lynn Gray, 04:02 and so we had this network with them and their wives 04:04 where we could invite people 04:06 and they would actually come to church 04:08 and so we grew our Public Affairs 04:11 and Religious Liberty Sabbath to that outgrew the church, 04:15 so we had to rent the Community College 04:17 because we didn't have enough room. 04:18 And Dr. Barry Black, 04:20 who is a great friend of our families 04:22 gave the keynote that year 04:24 and that was not too long afterwards 04:26 when he became Senate Chaplain. 04:28 Congressman Fred Upton was there, 04:30 very supportive when we were at the college. 04:33 That really helped me to say, 04:35 you know, how we could do it differently 04:37 in terms of making the connection 04:38 but getting back to my testament, 04:40 you know, you're reading 04:41 and you're filling out these questionnaires, 04:43 and I said you know what, "I need to take a step back," 04:47 and I need to understand what does the Bible say 04:50 not only about conscience, not only about justice, 04:54 but also about love 04:57 and how do I interact with people 04:59 who do not behave or believe the same way that I do. 05:03 I mean we have this, "Who is going to heaven, 05:06 who is not going to heaven" 05:08 but, you know, 1 Corinthians is really clear 05:10 about who is not going to heaven 05:11 but, you know, 05:12 but that's something totally different 05:14 but how do I interact with people 05:16 who are different than I am? 05:17 Who might be of different orientation than I am? 05:19 And how do I show them 05:20 the love of Christ where I'm not, 05:23 how can I say, 05:24 supporting what they might be doing 05:26 that I disagree with? 05:27 Relate to them as a fellow creature... 05:29 A fellow human being. 05:30 That God created, 05:31 and a fellow human being, of course. 05:33 And you have to take a step away from that 05:35 because you can always write something 05:37 to get votes or to do something, 05:39 that's not necessarily the right thing to do. 05:41 You have to be transparent and open in telling people 05:44 who you are, 05:46 and so what that did for me it was, 05:48 I had to pull back, 05:50 you know, no longer do I believe that anyone, 05:52 in my opinion, should register as a Democrat or Republican, 05:55 I think we should be independents. 05:56 Yeah. 05:58 I think we need to look at issues 05:59 but I had to have this, 06:02 how can I say, this challenge in front of me 06:04 to kind of pull back because, of course, 06:06 if you're running for election you want to win, 06:08 I don't want to lose. 06:10 I mean, I wanted to win, 06:11 but also at the same time I don't want to compromise. 06:14 And you see these creeping compromises, 06:17 they are so subtle but you just start here, 06:19 you start here, 06:20 you start there and before you know it, 06:22 you've crossed the line. 06:23 Yeah. 06:24 By the way it's little aside, we've got a few minutes. 06:27 I studied American Government. 06:29 I had a great interest in that 06:30 and history generally before I came into this job, 06:33 but I don't remember 06:35 when this party registration began. 06:38 I do know that there were no parties 06:40 at the beginning 06:41 and there was some opposition 06:43 to the whole idea of the Whigs and the Tories in Old England. 06:47 When did it begin? 06:49 You know, I have really no idea 06:50 when this whole party concept... 06:53 To me it links somewhat with very strong statements 06:56 from Ellen White, 06:57 who was a visionary that helped co-found 07:00 the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 07:01 and she said very definitively that any pastor or teacher 07:05 that's involved in partisan party politics should resign 07:09 or be fired and I agree with that. 07:11 Partisan politics can be easily turn toxic. 07:16 Easily and quickly as you turn around. 07:19 I mean, we got to be more issue focused 07:21 than party focused. 07:22 And the US as a whole is a secular nation, 07:24 I think, some big parts of the devolution 07:28 that we're seeing 07:30 is this partisan loyalty run amok 07:34 and it expresses in different ways. 07:35 At the moment there is a lot of discussion 07:37 about the whole gerrymandering 07:39 and so that's partisan politics that hurts the people. 07:44 And we know that, and that's why 07:46 if you look at who has a better run 07:48 state operation in terms of doing it, 07:51 that influences that in terms of how 07:53 we have the gerrymandering, 07:55 and I'm really kind of concerned 07:56 because I think people should know 07:58 what I care about 08:00 more than what party I'm aligned 08:01 with in terms of the issues. 08:03 And I think we as a church 08:05 have kind of gotten away from that. 08:07 I mean we care about people 08:09 and if we don't care about people, 08:11 the gospel is lost. 08:12 Right. 08:14 Our primary purpose is people and the thing 08:17 that PARL ministry can do 08:20 'cause it can change the paradigm shift 08:22 where it can show 08:24 that Adventists are not only concerned 08:25 about victims but they are also concerned 08:28 about marginalized people... 08:29 Right. 08:31 And that's where we... 08:32 But I'm gonna say marginalized people, 08:33 you know, we talk about us being a minority religion, 08:35 and we talk about 08:36 the Protestant Reformation celebrating the 500 years 08:39 and how we want to protect our rights 08:41 as minority religions and others, 08:42 but what about caring about marginalized people 08:45 or individuals versus the collective body of Baptists 08:48 which I do support or the marginalized religion 08:50 but why don't we care about people? 08:52 I mean we did a great job with the ended now campaign 08:55 in terms of the violence but we have Charlottesville, 08:58 you know, we have other issues 08:59 where we as a church need to show 09:02 that we care about people and not limit it to race 09:05 but also to gender, but also to class. 09:08 You know, it's funny because you know, Kevin James, 09:10 I send out this... 09:12 He is an associate director in another region... 09:14 In Southern Union attacks and he was sharing with me 09:18 how his church actually went 09:20 to a trailer park in terms of saying 09:22 we care about people and their concerns 09:25 and it dawned to me, I grew up in Michigan, 09:27 Berrien Springs, 09:28 and I had never been part of initiative, 09:30 went to Adventist schools 09:31 where we actually went to a trailer park to say, 09:33 hey, we care about your concerns 09:36 and what could we do to help? 09:38 And what I say is we have to be concerned 09:41 not only by race, 09:42 but also about class 09:44 and also about gender and I believe, Lincoln, 09:46 if we care more about people... 09:48 I'm gonna say preach, preach. 09:49 I don't want to preach, 09:51 but I do believe if we cared about people 09:53 we wouldn't have regional conferences. 09:55 Absolutely. 09:56 But the thing is, we have... 09:58 Which many people don't know, 09:59 but regional conferences 10:01 in the Seventh-day Adventist Church 10:02 for North America, 10:04 these are separate conferences sometimes overlapping 10:06 with the general conference structure designed 10:09 for African-Americans over minority. 10:11 State conferences... Yeah. 10:13 And, you know... 10:14 They were begun for a good reason. 10:15 Of course, you know, for people who might not know 10:18 the story of Lucy Byard, 10:19 you know, she was at the hospital. 10:20 She was a light skinned woman, they thought she was white, 10:23 they didn't realized she was black 10:24 and when they realized that she was black, 10:26 they were going to shift her 10:27 to the Negro Hospital she caught pneumonia, 10:29 you know while going there. 10:30 Well, the history of the US on race relations 10:33 is very checkered, not admirable, 10:35 but our church, 10:36 I think dealt with it well and... 10:38 Well, I don't know if they dealt with it well 10:39 because it hasn't finished. 10:41 Well, not well, but it had good intentions. 10:43 Intentions, but there are some things 10:44 that we need to do as relates to marginalized people 10:48 that I believe that can make a difference. 10:50 That's why the Public Affairs to Religious Liberty ministry, 10:54 ministry is so important to me is because we have marginalized 10:57 people surrounding our churches, 10:59 and if we don't have them surrounding in our churches, 11:01 in our communities, 11:03 and if we want to make a difference 11:04 in Public Affairs or Religious Liberty, 11:06 we have a mandate to show them the love of Christ 11:09 to everyone we come in contact with. 11:12 Traveling around talking about religious liberty, 11:14 you get a variety of responses but this too 11:16 that I've discovered quite a lot of. 11:19 There is one group of people let's say, what does it matter? 11:22 The Book of Revelation says 11:24 it is all going blow up in our faces 11:26 and then Christ will bring His eternal kingdom, 11:28 so why bother? 11:29 In fact, if we allow religious liberty 11:32 to drift away, Christ will come sooner. 11:34 While that's defeatist 11:35 and ignores Nineveh and other cases 11:38 where God has given a last chance 11:41 and even though something set to happen, 11:42 it may not happen now if people turn back. 11:45 But as well as that, others say, 11:47 "What can I do?" 11:49 And that's a very positive response 11:51 because there is a crying need 11:53 for people to do something themselves, 11:56 not just support liberty, 11:57 not just pay the bills which we did, 11:59 to go out and make a difference in their community, 12:02 contact their legislator, write to their newspaper, 12:05 talk to their neighbor. 12:07 As it says, proclaim liberty throughout the land. 12:11 That will change things. 12:13 All great movements start with the individual. 12:16 How about you? 12:19 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2017-10-26