Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000373B
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00:05 Welcome back to The Liberty Insider.
00:07 Before the break with my voluble guest. 00:13 Thank you, valuable. 00:14 No, valuable... Okay, okay. 00:15 I'm sorry, if I could make sure I got it. 00:17 I said an optimus. 00:20 Ed Woods III, you know, we really in fine 00:23 form studying about witnessing. 00:25 And we looked at pastors first but all of us can be involved 00:29 in public affairs and religious liberty 00:31 which, this is more focused on our problem 00:34 but it really goes to the gospel commission 00:35 and spreading the gospel... 00:37 Oh, absolutely. 00:38 And relating to your fellow human beings. 00:40 I'm very, my best friends are pastors. 00:43 Dr. Byrd as you know is with a Breath of Life Ministry, 00:45 and another good friend of mine 00:47 who's the godfather of my daughter, 00:49 Pastor Furman Fordham, 00:50 from Riverside Chapel are pastors. 00:52 And where makes it a little bit easier 00:55 for our relationship is that they're very good pastors. 00:57 And I respect it if you can in terms of credibility. 01:00 But pastors set the tone, and the reason 01:04 why I think there's sometimes a disconnect 01:08 where we don't value 01:09 and respect pastors the way that we should. 01:12 And I know some of that is their own doing, 01:14 so let me not excuse that. 01:16 But they do set the tone of leadership, 01:18 you know, in our church. 01:20 I don't expect them to do everything 01:21 nor do I expect them to have the expertise. 01:24 But if they set the tone and go to the meetings 01:27 in providing some enthusiasm, 01:29 you know, just different things it makes a difference. 01:33 I mean, it makes a huge difference. 01:36 Dr. Byrd is about to speak in Charleston, 01:37 you know, where the people died in Charleston, South Carolina. 01:40 You know, Fordham just hosted 01:43 the police response in Riverside 01:45 where they, his church was the designation site. 01:48 And so, Lincoln, this church and the stuff. 01:51 You know, our pastor Marlin Reid 01:53 did a march at Strafford. 01:55 You know, our Pastor Silas Lebrite Coleman 01:56 was a part of praying in the police department. 02:00 So it's those different things where you have the leadership 02:03 in terms of, you know, setting the tone. 02:05 He galvanized the congregation. 02:07 And having said that I do believe our congregation 02:10 need to be more active and not dependent. 02:12 But we got to be galvanized and committed 02:16 because the great gospel commission 02:18 as you so noted wasn't just for the pastor, 02:20 all of us are supposed to go. 02:22 But let's take a little sidetrack on this, 02:24 it's connected too. 02:26 I drove to 3ABN this time. 02:28 Never done it before a long way from Maryland and I 02:31 actually came by via Tennessee, big looping around. 02:35 And way out in the back blocks was it Tennessee 02:40 but anyhow a couple of hundred miles from here 02:42 I see Martin Luther King Boulevard, 02:45 you know, that he is being stamped 02:47 on the American sensibility correctly. 02:49 Right? 02:50 Not just in areas where he had an immediate influence. 02:53 Yeah, but he took a while, you know, Martin Luther King 02:55 is more valued in death 02:57 than because of life in its proper view. 02:59 I mean, it's complicated story. Right. 03:00 But you know there has been 03:02 and there were debates at the time, 03:04 here Martin Luther King a religious leader 03:08 was involved in what many saw as a political adventure. 03:13 He saw it as part of the Gospel Commission, 03:16 and the Christian message, right, 03:18 change this country, big time. 03:21 And yet at the same time, 03:24 I think there's good reasons to reign the church 03:26 and pastors back from becoming 03:29 political instruments and functionaries and so on. 03:32 Where do, you know, how do you know 03:35 where the differences between representing Christ 03:39 to old rules principalities and neighborhoods 03:45 and becoming unduly involved or political? 03:48 Well, I think it really speaks to motive. 03:50 I mean, I am doing my Christian responsibility 03:55 as a disciple of Christ. 03:56 And my motive is to get my five seconds of fame 04:00 or do have my name and highlights 04:02 and stuff like that. 04:03 That's the wrong reason. 04:05 And unfortunately we do have people 04:07 that have these pictures and moments of glory, 04:10 but I mean this mission doesn't just stop 04:13 once the cameras have stopped taking pictures. 04:16 Even when you say that I think of... 04:18 I forget the first name but it invokes the whole thing 04:21 the Brawley, you remember. 04:22 Who's that? 04:24 Tawana Brawley or whatever, remember that incident. 04:27 You have to refresh my memory, please. 04:29 In one of the Rev. Al Sharpton earlier iterations. 04:33 He tried to enter into a scene where there was some, 04:36 I think it was a police action, 04:38 anyhow there was this girl Brawley, he told the story 04:40 which was all fabricated at the time. 04:42 And I think he had what was largely 04:45 a political agenda at that time, 04:47 he's matured a lot since 04:48 and I don't know have the same issue. 04:50 Well, the thing about human needs, 04:53 suffering and rights, 04:54 you know I guess what I'm saying is to me 04:57 is not a political agenda it's a moral agenda. 05:00 And why I say a moral agenda 05:01 is we have moral responsibilities 05:03 as Christians not to just talk about our faith 05:07 but to live our faith. 05:09 And when you see some of these things 05:11 that are transpiring in our communities. 05:14 And the church doesn't have a response, 05:16 I'm talking more than just a statement. 05:18 It seems like there's a indifference. 05:21 Samuel London wrote a book entitled 05:23 Seventh-day Adventists and the Civil Rights Movement. 05:26 And it talked about one of the reasons 05:28 why we're not involved. 05:30 And one of the things that he said 05:32 was he talked about evangelism and we felt our 05:35 primary interest was evangelism, 05:38 but not caring about West African 05:40 as the community. 05:42 And I'm like how in the world can you evangelize someone, 05:46 when you can't even show compassion for them. 05:49 I mean, you're gonna give them a Bible, 05:51 and they can't have, 05:53 they don't have any food in the cupboards, 05:54 you got to give them a Bible 05:56 and they don't know, their lights turn on. 05:59 You're gonna give them the Bible 06:00 and they're under an eviction notice, 06:03 I mean what are we saying 06:06 when we're doing these things where we don't really care, 06:09 I mean obviously it's well documented 06:11 that our church really didn't take a stand 06:13 on the civil rights movement, 06:15 but we had E.E Cleveland and other... 06:18 Well, we were sociologically divided. 06:22 We're still sociologically divided. 06:26 You're being kind, I guess... 06:27 But I know what it was like then... 06:28 And I want to be respectful, 06:30 but we're still sociologically divided. 06:31 We're not pushed, you know we have the saying you know 06:34 if I do this, half the church is gonna be mad, 06:36 and half the church is going to agree with me. 06:38 And I guess what I'm saying is that's true in a democracy, 06:42 but in a theocracy we don't get to vote 06:44 whether or not we're gonna follow God's word. 06:47 And we are under a theocracy, and God's word reign supreme. 06:51 So either we're gonna follow it or not. 06:53 I'm not looking for the populous vote. 06:56 I know there are some people that 06:57 everybody is not going to like... 06:59 Or the approach to public affairs religious liberty. 07:04 But if it's a biblical mandate which I believe it is, 07:08 and I believe that the indwelling power 07:11 of the Holy Spirit is going to make that difference 07:14 not me in and of myself. 07:16 I think we can transform the community 07:19 and make a difference. 07:21 And this is something that I'm very passionate about 07:24 from a witnessing standpoint 07:26 is because we are not having the impact 07:29 that we need to have and I also think 07:31 just to have latter rain implications as well. 07:34 When you make the general statement 07:35 transforming the community. 07:37 There's elements within that on the simplest level 07:41 which Christians do, and our church is involved 07:44 and you should give out, you can have soup kitchens 07:46 and give out material aid and help in involvement right. 07:49 But then there's the level that we were really talking about 07:52 with Martin Luther King taking a social initiative 07:55 for justice and so on. 07:58 I don't think one substitutes for the other. 08:01 There's an article coming up in Liberty, 08:04 it's not printed yet. 08:06 But it gives the example from the Vietnam War of a... 08:09 Happened to be a Roman Catholic but a Roman Catholic cardinal, 08:14 blessing and sprinkling holy water on the be B52's 08:16 as they headed off to bombing. 08:18 To me that's a wrong involvement of the church. 08:21 Absolutely. 08:23 And how about in the antiwar movement, 08:25 because it's not just war and peace, 08:26 but there's a counterpoint to that, 08:28 was it appropriate for there were many ministers 08:32 of different religions at the time 08:33 during the Vietnam War. 08:35 I remember them marching in those protests 08:37 against injustice and bloodshed and all the rest. 08:41 I feel comfortable with that, 08:42 I think we should bring it to the fold, 08:45 we shouldn't just sit back and think, 08:46 "Well, it's not my business, 08:48 it's going to hell in a handbasket anyway." 08:50 I think the antiwar movement is one we can be involved 08:52 with against violence in communities, 08:56 the injustices that are being perpetrated. 08:58 I do think we need to be involved in it, 09:00 that's not our main game. 09:02 You know, Muhammad Ali is a true consciences of that. 09:05 Oh, yeah. In terms of that he was... 09:07 I mean look at how he was treated. 09:09 You know for doing that look what he lost. 09:11 But he never wavered or regret what he has done, 09:15 and the thing is we as a church need to stop 09:18 being so populous minded, 09:20 that we forget our moral responsibility. 09:23 And if we would do that and not just come out 09:26 when it's victims, you know everybody wants to have victims 09:29 but nobody wants to be 09:30 for the marginalized and the oppressed. 09:32 I think we can make a difference. 09:34 And I think people need to see that, 09:37 because now if you look at it people are now looking 09:40 and shopping for churches. 09:44 That's not all good but there's certainly 09:46 an opportunity people have a great need, 09:48 and they're not tied to their old loyalties 09:51 or indifference even, the spiritual hunger. 09:54 And even just care, I mean... But we have to give them... 09:56 Something beyond a good time in the pews. 09:58 Absolutely, they want to see how you're making a difference 10:01 in the community and representing Christ. 10:03 And I've studied a lot of these mega churches 10:06 as well as within our own church 10:07 we had a phenomenon it's not quite over 10:09 but it peaked while back of the celebration churches. 10:12 And they all had very active social programs, 10:15 a lot of member involvement. 10:17 Both things within the church 10:19 but often moving out into the greater community. 10:22 I mean, they did, the American city church 10:24 I saw a clip 10:25 where they did a baby shower for the whole community. 10:28 And they put stuff in Claudia Allen, 10:30 who's one of our phenomenal speakers was leading it 10:34 and she's from Lake Region, she's out there in Baltimore. 10:37 And they showed how they were just doing this 10:39 big community baby shower. 10:41 Just helping people in need, they didn't ask 10:44 who the daddy was or anything like that. 10:47 It was an oblique way to face a very real social problem. 10:49 A situation. You know how can we do that? 10:51 And there would probably be lead-ins 10:53 that they could make to link more actively 10:55 with the community. 10:57 Public affairs, religious liberty 10:58 and witnessing. 11:00 Witnessing is something that we do as individuals 11:02 not on a collective basis, 11:04 and we as to make a conscientious choice 11:06 whether and how we reflect the love of Christ 11:09 in our community. 11:11 That also responds to the marginalized people 11:14 whether they might be prostitutes 11:16 or whether they might be people that we love in our family. 11:19 Immigrant crisis is something when it comes to witnessing 11:22 in terms of how we treat our immigrants 11:24 and how the Lord has required us to remember 11:26 that we were immigrants in Egypt. 11:27 So how do we treat those that might be undocumented 11:30 here in the United States of America. 11:32 I encourage you then if you want 11:33 to make a difference in your public affairs 11:35 and religious liberty ministry, 11:37 you won't just talk about it, but you'll act 11:40 and that action will speak louder than words. 11:42 Because reflecting the love of Christ 11:44 not only inside the walls of the church, 11:47 but outside the walls of the church. 11:49 Thank you. 11:51 One of the most moving moments of my life 11:53 was coming back from a trip on the east coast 11:56 toward Salt Lake City, Utah. 11:58 Finding out that I was on the same plane 12:00 as the Brigham University singers 12:02 sitting next to the choir director 12:04 and finding out that they were returning 12:05 from three weeks in the Middle East. 12:08 As we came down close to their golden city, 12:12 their promised land, 12:13 spontaneously the young people leapt to their feet, 12:16 and started singing 12:17 "I'm going to be a witness for my Lord." 12:20 I don't share their particular faith 12:22 but what I do share is this conviction 12:24 that we are to be witnesses 12:27 when we deal with religious liberty, 12:28 we're witnessing for many individual faiths. 12:31 And me as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, 12:33 I am obligated to witness to all and sundry. 12:38 As the Bible says of what He has done for me, 12:41 and what He can do for you. 12:42 With that sort of dynamic, 12:45 religious liberty will be alive and valid. 12:49 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2017-11-02