Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break, we
had an interesting point,
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what were you talking on?
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I think you were talking
about how military are trained.
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Yeah.
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And so I'm like,
"Oh, that seems like
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a direct tie to how we feel..."
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I mean, there's some...
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I don't know that
there's necessarily
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a bad intent behind it
but in certain plan as ours
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there's a necessity
to basically militarize
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the police force for riots
and other violent challenges.
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And the real downside of
that is you pointed out is
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on the one to
one community level.
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There isn't that
personal connection,
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and often
people are objectified,
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and violence breaks out.
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And one of the things
that I just want to point out,
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I used to work for
the City of Benton Harbor
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community policing,
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it was something
that was very important.
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When we had our port
conference in Chicago,
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the director of
community engagement
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for the Chicago
police department
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said they were
bringing that back in
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because the requirement,
you know, shook the world,
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you know, all across
you have unarmed minorities
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being shot by police.
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Now we know all
police are not bad
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so it's like go down that trail,
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I'm not saying like
that but Laquan McDonald
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could have been my son.
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You know, just
like the president.
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You know, spoke out
about Mike Brown and Fergusson,
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you know, because it's...
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And we have to
like you said earlier
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see people as human
beings and by doing that
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community police and
having that relationship.
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Chicago police, I
mean, I was very encouraged,
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obviously they are
under federal monitor
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and really some of
the things I'm reporting
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this disciplinary
action being followed
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through a new police chief.
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And so I'm encouraged, you know,
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to be honest with
you but we still have
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a responsibility to do our part.
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You know, how are we, you
know, it's one thing to protest.
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But now how are we gonna
become part of this solution?
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And now they're asking for help,
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the police
department in terms of...
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They say they're going
back to knock on doors,
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they're going back to going
to good old fashion policing
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but guess what, the
church needs to go back
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to knocking on doors.
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The church needs to go back
into building relationships.
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We did it before when
we were had foot traffic,
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we were walking to our churches.
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Now that we have
commuter traffic,
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how do we get back
and knock on doors.
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I have...
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And be that voice of
conscience in the community.
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What you're saying
is absolutely true.
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This is all the
things we need to do.
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I have a dark
vision. A dark vision?
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For where we are
sociologically on all of this.
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Now in the US obviously
there's a burden of history
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and I quoted a lot,
John Brown statement
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on the eve of the civil war.
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He says, "The sins
of this guilty country
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can be only
wiped away by blood."
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We hope not blood of
violence, he meant that.
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But we've never
really been able to escape
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the bad history in the US.
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It's not that many generations
since the reconstruction,
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for example.
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But beyond that...
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In the US there's an
incredible gun culture.
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There is a
tradition of heavy police work
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which goes back
to reconstruction.
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But what I think is that,
where my real dark vision is
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I'm afraid in a
number of countries
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but the US is as bad
as any in this regard.
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I think the social
contract is broken down.
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Law and order doesn't come
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from police
patrolling all the streets,
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they can maintain
it at the margins.
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Law and order comes
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when people
agree to be governed,
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they agree to be law abiding.
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It's encouraged
by sense of community
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but it's basically
an unspoken agreement.
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When the govern and
the governed in a country
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where the people
rule that this is our game
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and that we have vested interest
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each
individually in law and order,
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I think that's broken down.
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And I'm not sure myself
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in any method
that the government has
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that they can
stop that breakdown
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'cause there's a
great irony here,
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the more they
come in heavy handed,
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they break it down further.
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That's a trust factor.
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I mean... That's trust...
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You're getting back
to the social contract.
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There has to be a trust
that the mechanisms of control
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in maintaining law
and order and interchange
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between different
elements of society,
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that's
predictable and acceptable
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to the greater community.
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When it's not,
there's no number of police
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that can maintain law and order.
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I mean, you have
a text that bounces,
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I mean, is there
a code of silence.
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You know, we hear about
it not just in the police
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but also within the
ministry with clergy.
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Yeah. Is there
a code of silence?
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You know, does
internal affairs really work?
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You know, when you see people
being prosecuted, you know,
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for these crimes and
they get off, you know,
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over and over again, I mean
does the system really work?
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And let just face,
I'm not a legal scholar.
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You know, so it's
like what can't be proven.
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And then people are not talking
about what can't be proven,
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they want to see what is right
and how can we implement right
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and I think that is, you know,
really part of the challenge
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is because you know
we want to talk about
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the legal argument
but people are saying
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what's morally right.
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And what Public
Affairs Religious Liberty
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has an opportunity to do
if we're truly as Christians
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are gonna reflect
the love of Christ
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as we have to reflect
Him in every situation.
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And our churches really
need to be known as churches
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that love people
in spite of whatever.
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Right. And back
to my hobby horse.
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Okay, your hobby
horse. Connected to yours.
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And really it's mine too.
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Social contract
is in a bad state
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but what you're saying
about the church reaching out,
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and connecting, and
Christian individuals,
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that will rebuild
the social contract.
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And what's worked
against it in the US
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it's been for a long time now,
certainly since World War II.
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A very mobile
society people come and go,
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they don't know their neighbors,
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there isn't
intact as it should be
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overall social structure
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but the church
can help rebuild that.
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The church can help rebuild that
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but another thing
is helping to rebuild
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the social
contract outside the church
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and we've seen in a lot
of these different cases
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is social media.
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I have responsibility of
getting on a Facebook live,
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on a Twitter feed,
or Instagram, I mean,
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that social
accountability is back.
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And now you're
seeing more millennials,
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more young people
taking in activist approach
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and putting this live of
in terms of what's happening,
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you know, these body
cameras, these things
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that, you know, come along.
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People saying money, I
know Chicago police department
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is planning to invest
to reduce the violence
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but also misconduct.
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That's good idea, just
like Richard Nixon's secretary
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tripped over in a
race a few minutes.
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The body camera always
seem to be off with them.
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At an appropriate time, right?
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But accountability
can't be a buzz word.
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Accountability has to be,
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this is how we're
coding people accountable
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or this is how we're
holding police accountable,
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this is how we're
holding clergy accountable.
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There you go, this is
step one, this is step two,
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this is step three,
but then people are like,
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"Well, I'm
afraid of retaliation."
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I mean, I have to
see these police officers
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everyday in my neighborhood.
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What do you do to
prevent retaliation?
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And how do I see
that actually taking place
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so that I can speak
about it and tell people,
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"Oh, no, no, no,
things have changed."
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And going back to
that social contractibility
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and the trust factor,
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it's not gonna happen overnight.
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I knew that
can't happen overnight.
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It's not gonna happen
in 90 days or 6 months.
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It's gonna take a
while to reverse the trend.
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And the church and
the public affairs,
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I think you're big
time on to something.
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There's public
affairs to do that.
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And it leads to
be institutionalize.
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And the thing
that was so interesting
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like let me think about a church
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that abolish this movement.
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When we have worked together
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to assist marginalized
people, things happen.
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The problem is we put politics
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instead of the Bible in the way.
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I mean, Jesus was
a rock star, I mean,
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I don't want to use that
as a hip-hop pop culture term.
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He was a social phenomenon.
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He was a social
phenomena, there we go.
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And he made a difference,
I mean, they're thinking
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and back that day
who went to attack
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the collector's house?
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Who hung out with a prostitute?
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No, we were too clean as
Jews at the time as Pharisees.
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And the Romans. And the Romans.
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Jews wouldn't talk
to them. Oh, we do that.
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But, Jesus, you
know, set things in motion
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in terms of what love
from an individual basis.
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Now, He didn't even
talk about the church,
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He didn't do
that in the synagogue,
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He did it as an individual.
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You know, we say,
"Do you not know that
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you are a temple of God
and that the Spirit of God
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dwells in you?"
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Well, individually we as
a church would transform.
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Just think about
the social impact,
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the impact that we could have
on the community as our church
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and the
difference that we can make.
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I mean, you know, Elder
Eric... Can I throw in there...
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He told me is what
you got to understand.
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People want the three
A's of social acceptance.
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They want to be Accepted,
Approved, and Appreciated.
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That's what he said, we go
and through that interaction,
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you can make a difference
in the life of people.
00:09:00.40\00:09:02.00
Yeah, now we didn't
see these possibilities.
00:09:02.04\00:09:03.64
I remember seeing a cartoon
in a religious journal once.
00:09:03.67\00:09:07.44
There was a church
and the door is open
00:09:07.48\00:09:09.18
and the pastor standing
there and then people running
00:09:09.21\00:09:11.35
like crazy in
different directions.
00:09:11.38\00:09:13.21
Someone says, "The
pastor must have really preached
00:09:13.25\00:09:15.12
a great sermon today."
00:09:15.15\00:09:16.52
But, you know, the
church would be an action point,
00:09:16.55\00:09:18.59
people should be fired
to go and to do and do dare,
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not just enjoy it,
like you've heard it,
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we were fed today.
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Well, if you're really fed,
you're vitalized and you go out
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and do something and the church
should be an action center.
00:09:29.23\00:09:32.60
I agree, and it's not
the pastor's responsibility
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to only do the action.
00:09:35.00\00:09:36.34
Oh, no, no. But,
you know, we come...
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He can be the
coach of the quarterback.
00:09:37.81\00:09:39.64
I mean the church is
becoming like a theater.
00:09:39.67\00:09:42.24
We come to get our praise on
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and then we leave it
and don't do anything.
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Yeah, yeah.
00:09:46.21\00:09:47.55
And we're Public Affairs
Religious Liberty ministry is,
00:09:47.58\00:09:49.65
it's challenging
us as an individual
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to show the love of
Christ everyday during the week.
00:09:52.65\00:09:57.86
You should not come to church
during the welcome prayer,
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that's the only time
we're giving people hugs.
00:10:00.16\00:10:03.30
You should be interactive.
00:10:03.33\00:10:05.83
You know, sometimes visit
00:10:05.87\00:10:07.87
a lot of
churches that bothers me.
00:10:07.90\00:10:09.44
I sit there and
they won't say hello.
00:10:09.47\00:10:10.94
And there's the moment, suddenly
00:10:10.97\00:10:12.31
everyone wants to hug.
00:10:12.34\00:10:13.68
I read much more
into how they react
00:10:13.71\00:10:15.81
in the foyer and so on.
00:10:15.84\00:10:17.18
Absolutely.
00:10:17.21\00:10:18.55
I remember going, be in a foyer,
00:10:18.58\00:10:19.91
the person
didn't even talk to me.
00:10:19.95\00:10:21.28
I think I averse to that.
00:10:21.32\00:10:22.65
Folks, Public
Affairs Religious Liberty
00:10:22.68\00:10:24.02
when it comes to you, we
have to look at our motives.
00:10:24.05\00:10:27.29
Why are we involved
in being Christians?
00:10:27.32\00:10:29.86
Is our motive to
reflect the love of Christ,
00:10:29.89\00:10:32.36
or is our motive to
get the credits that comes
00:10:32.39\00:10:35.20
with reflecting
the love of Christ.
00:10:35.23\00:10:37.20
As the Public Affairs
Religious Liberty ministry
00:10:37.23\00:10:39.70
we can make a
difference by showing our love
00:10:39.73\00:10:42.50
for one another
not just in words
00:10:42.54\00:10:45.07
but also in deeds
and I can assure you,
00:10:45.11\00:10:47.94
if you do that Public Affairs
Religious Liberty ministry
00:10:47.98\00:10:51.05
will make a
difference in your community.
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Over the years
of Liberty Magazine,
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I've had a lot of
letters, nowadays more emails.
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But this one common
threat that unites many of them
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and its news that I should know,
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if somebody in religious liberty
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that's compromising and
often they are accompanied
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by pictures of a handshake
that maybe goes a little beyond
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that's worse, deep hugs
and perhaps a kiss or two
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between religious
leaders, compromise.
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What many of these
people fail to notice
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or to realize is
that in my church
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the Seventh-day Adventist church
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there is a department called,
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the department of public
affairs and religious liberty.
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Public affairs is
all about meet and greet
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and presenting who we
are and what we're about.
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It's not public
relations, it's communications.
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And sometimes that
seems to these people at odds
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with religious
liberty where you see
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a doctrinal out
there and people in error.
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With religious
liberty, people need to realize
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this is a universal
approach that accepts
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our common humanity
under a Creator God.
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For Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
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