Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000391A
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00:27 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:29 This is your program bringing you news, 00:32 views, insights 00:33 and up-to-date information on religious liberty. 00:36 My name is Lincoln Steed, editor of Liberty magazine 00:39 and my special guest, Tina Ramirez, 00:42 president and founder of Hardwired. 00:45 And this is not your first time on the program, 00:48 thank you very much. 00:50 No, thank you for having me, Lincoln. 00:51 It's great to be here. You're one of my best guests. 00:52 I don't know. 00:54 You subdued me into silence 00:57 when you are carrying on about 00:58 the philosophy and your activities. 01:00 It's so authoritative, what can I say? 01:02 No. Usually, I harass the guests. 01:06 But I know you have a burden 01:09 to communicate religious freedom principles, 01:12 not just all over the world 01:14 but here in the United States and to young people. 01:17 You know, what can you say about programs 01:19 that you have to try to educate that way? 01:22 Yeah, thank you so much for having me. 01:23 So Hardwired is an organization 01:27 that provides education and training around the world, 01:29 to establish leadership in countries 01:31 where religious freedom is most at risk for this human right. 01:34 And in the United States, 01:36 when we first got started as an organization 01:38 we saw a really unique need that younger generations 01:43 weren't really aware of this human right 01:44 or why it was valuable. 01:46 And in particular in my travels across the country 01:49 to different universities and different youth groups, 01:51 I found that a lot of students 01:53 weren't aware of the challenges here in America. 01:55 Or the history in America of religious freedom, 01:57 or of really what's going on around the world 02:00 that is putting this freedom at risk 02:01 for others and for them here. 02:04 Then why do you think it's so, 02:06 I mean, that's an obvious reality. 02:08 You know, you could talk to any number of people 02:11 involved in the field 02:12 and they all agree that the young people 02:14 don't really understand it, 02:15 they're just indifferent largely. 02:16 Right. Why is that? 02:18 So what we found is that a lot of the issues 02:20 that they would typically hear about religious freedom 02:23 are some, certain conservative issues that are worth, 02:29 traditionally just been with things 02:30 that they don't care about. 02:31 Whether it's prayer in the public schools, 02:33 you know, it's a very, it's an issue that kind of, 02:35 you know, happened 50 years ago, 02:36 but it's not necessarily something 02:38 that concerns them today. 02:40 Unless it affects like a coach, 02:42 you know, wanting to pray 02:43 with his football team or something. 02:45 But for the most part it's not a big issue that faces them, 02:48 and so they see a lot 02:50 and then you can name the gamut from, 02:52 their views are changing 02:53 on a lot of other social issues, 02:54 and so the more conservative 02:56 traditional religious freedom issues 02:57 just don't fall in line with their views of the world. 03:00 But in addition, they are more concerned 03:03 with other social injustices around the world, 03:05 so other global issues like... 03:07 I have heard that many times. It's not that, right. 03:10 The new generation, do want social justice is my question. 03:12 Right. 03:13 So I mean, I think some of the big issues 03:14 that we've seen lately 03:16 are the issues over racial equality, 03:17 or gender equality, and ending sexual harassment, 03:20 or alleviating poverty, those are some big ones. 03:23 But also trafficking, 03:25 and ending the trafficking of women and children, 03:28 or just other, 03:34 you know, other injustices that you see 03:35 and where there are so many we can name the gamut of them. 03:38 But these are just some of the major ones that we see 03:40 that are really drawing the attention of a lot of people. 03:44 So how you've been able to involve 03:46 the young people then, 03:47 pick up on that particular type of concern? 03:50 How can that be related 03:51 to the principle of religious liberty? 03:53 So Hardwired defends the fundamental human right 03:57 to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief 03:59 for all people. 04:00 This is Article 18 04:02 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 04:03 and it really is the foundational human right 04:05 for having the conscience to even determine 04:08 what rights should be human rights or not, 04:11 to have a moral compass really. 04:14 Now, you might know more than me 04:15 because this is a GAAP. 04:16 I've been dealing with this for years, 04:18 but what was the genesis of that UN declaration? 04:21 Where did that come from? 04:22 You know who was the author of that 04:23 and what's sourced it right now? 04:25 Right, no, that's a great question 04:26 because I think it sheds light on 04:28 why this freedom is so important. 04:29 So the Universal Declaration was written in 1948 04:33 and when it was written, it was written 04:34 in the context of the Holocaust and the World War II, 04:38 which there were, you know, 04:40 tens of millions of people murdered, 04:42 not just in the Holocaust 04:44 but in the former Soviet Union countries 04:47 and then, since then, we've seen you know, major choices. 04:49 But do we know who actually penned that up. 04:51 Well, right, so Eleanor Roosevelt, 04:53 President Roosevelt's wife 04:55 was a major author and promoter of the declaration, 04:58 but really the main author of the declaration itself 05:00 were two gentlemen, Rene Cassin was very involved, 05:04 and then when it came to Article 18, 05:06 Charles Malik, a Arab Christian. 05:09 And so you had involvement 05:11 from all the different countries 05:12 but they were really very involved in the writing. 05:15 And so when you look at Article 18, 05:18 you look at what happened in the Holocaust, 05:21 you realize that one of the things 05:23 that they wanted to do 05:25 and in the preamble to the Universal Declaration 05:26 that it says is, "That this declaration was written 05:30 to recognize the inherent human dignity of all people. 05:34 And to ensure that 05:37 human dignity is respected for all people." 05:39 And one of the... 05:40 It has many rights that are recognized 05:42 that are really essential first freedom. 05:45 So the freedom of conscience, 05:46 if people don't have a conscience, 05:48 if they don't have the freedom of belief, 05:51 then we end up with situations like the Holocaust, 05:54 where they're just simply exterminated 05:56 because of their beliefs being different, 05:58 being unacceptable, being whatever. 06:00 You know, the government in power at the time 06:02 determines they are, and I think, 06:04 you know, post-Holocaust at the Nuremberg Trials 06:07 when Nazi Germany tried to defend itself and say, 06:10 "Well, look, we did all this in line with our own laws." 06:13 Justice Roberts and others said, 06:15 "It doesn't matter if you did it in line with your laws, 06:17 there's a law above the law." 06:18 And ultimately that's what 06:19 the Universal Declaration reflects, 06:21 is that there is a law above the law, 06:22 a law in the conscience of man that dictates 06:25 that certain things are simply wrong. 06:26 And those laws were floated on the idea 06:29 that these were less than fully human, not true humans. 06:34 And so when you look at human rights, 06:37 right, that they weren't fully human 06:39 because of their religion or because of their beliefs, 06:41 which is, you know, crazy to think 06:43 that we would look at people that way today. 06:45 And I don't want to derail you, 06:46 in fact, this will, but I have to insert this. 06:48 I've read some articles lately that point out plain facts 06:51 that Nazi Germany before the war 06:54 when they were developing these laws, 06:55 they sent the lawyers to the US 06:58 and they particularly studied 06:59 the miscegenation laws of the US. 07:01 They said that this was their model. 07:03 Not that the US was on the same, 07:05 well, we were on the same wavelength, 07:07 not that we were doing those things, 07:09 but we had a legal structure in place 07:11 that they took and then turned it in a toxic direction. 07:15 Right, and I mean, Turkey pulled a lot of... 07:18 What happened there in Armenian genocide 07:20 was pulled from what Nazi Germany did as well. 07:22 So a lot of... 07:25 Not Nazi Germany at time, 07:27 but I mean, you could see that a lot of these ideas were, 07:29 you know, were being shared 07:31 between different countries too. 07:32 That's true and what I would say is, well, 07:35 you know, slavery goes back much further 07:36 but in the modern context, 07:39 it was eugenics that fed all of this 07:41 and that was a global phenomenon. 07:43 I'm sorry, I meant that Germany 07:44 pulled from Armenia genocide, not vice versa. 07:46 Anyway, but what we see is that young people 07:49 obviously care about a lot 07:50 of these injustices in the world. 07:51 And at the core of what, of injustice, 07:54 so much injustice in the world, 07:56 is really a violation of the freedom of conscience 07:58 for so many people, 08:00 so that they can't live with the dignity, 08:01 so obviously, they're being trafficked 08:03 and, you know, the tens of billions. 08:06 So you've got 40 to 60 million people 08:08 as refugees in the world, you've got a couple, 08:10 you know, 10, 20 million trafficked, 08:12 you've got, I mean, just amazing numbers of people 08:14 that are living in horrific conditions, 08:18 where they're denied their most basic human rights. 08:20 But one of the statistics that I think 08:24 that really shocks a lot of young people, 08:26 is to realize that 79% of the world's population. 08:31 Eight out of ten people live in countries 08:34 where there is absolutely no freedom of conscience. 08:36 And so the very freedom 08:40 that they have to express their beliefs as anti-religious 08:43 as those expressions might be, 08:45 or to be artistic, or to fight for justice, 08:48 their conscientious, you know, frustrations with injustice 08:53 in the world, it is not allowed, 08:55 it's not permitted, 08:56 for eight out of ten people in the world. 08:58 And so I think that's really shocking 08:59 when they would not be able to be who they are, 09:02 express who they are, 09:04 live out who they are 09:07 and, you know, 80% of the world, 09:09 that's pretty shocking. 09:11 There was a quote that I may have shared on this program 09:13 but it's been a while. 09:14 After 9/11, I remember reading an article 09:17 where they quoted from an article 09:19 in Lemon magazine, 09:20 speaking about 9/11 and it said, 09:23 pretty much memorized this statement it says, 09:25 "We have reached the point with the idea of freedom. 09:31 So relatively, recent and new 09:34 is in the process of disappearing 09:36 from our consciousness." 09:38 When you say eight out of ten, right. 09:40 That's a horrible figure. Yeah. 09:42 But even the 20% is really historical anomaly, 09:45 if you go back in the majority of prior history. 09:49 It's only, really in the last few hundred years 09:51 that this idea of human self determinism, 09:54 and the right of the individual 09:55 and conscience on a larger scale 09:58 is being given any right. 09:59 So we got to fight harder, 10:00 we'll drift back into the dark ages, 10:02 literally, I think. 10:03 And we had a period of individual rights, 10:05 you know, since the Magna Carta, 10:06 we've been moving in that direction. 10:08 Well, that, you can trace it to the beginning of it 10:09 but that was not a good time for... 10:10 No, no, no, but you can trace it 10:12 from the rights of man 10:14 and rising up and say, 1800s a big movement for that, 10:17 but right now, you know, 10 years ago, 10:19 we've said this before, 10 years ago, 10:21 the Pew Research Center said 10:23 that 67% of the world's population lived in countries 10:26 where there was egregious violations 10:28 or repression of this freedom of conscience. 10:30 Now it's 80. 10:31 Now, it's 79% just in 10 years. 10:33 So in 10 years we've had this trajectory 10:36 that's not good for conscience human freedom. 10:39 And for young people today, 10:41 one of the things that we recognize is that, 10:43 to maintain your convictions 10:45 about all this injustice in the world, 10:46 you have to have the freedom of conscience. 10:49 And if we don't make a stand today, 10:53 you will not have the freedom to do that in the future. 10:56 And so we at Hardwired have started a campaign 11:00 called Journey for Freedom to help young people recognize 11:02 and have real conversations about 11:04 what that freedom means for them 11:05 and for people around the world. 11:07 Yeah, I like the idea because it's journey, 11:08 it's something moving, it's not a static thing. 11:12 It needs to develop in a positive direction, right? 11:14 Yeah, and it doesn't, it won't just end, 11:16 you know, it won't just end 11:17 when the journey campaign ends, 11:19 but right now Hardwired has started a campaign 11:21 called Journey for freedom. 11:22 And we are inviting young people and communities 11:25 across the country to join us, 11:28 to challenge themselves every month 11:30 to take one step closer to understanding 11:33 what freedom of conscience or religion is 11:35 and how they can defend it for others, 11:36 so to become essentially ambassadors 11:38 for this freedom in their communities 11:40 that we can preserve it for others. 11:41 And how you're connecting with the young people 11:42 in the communities, through churches, 11:45 and social organizations, schools? 11:48 So Hardwired, you can go to Hardwired's website, 11:51 at hardwiredglobal.org, 11:54 and on the home page 11:55 is the campaign journey for freedom. 11:57 And they can download a map 11:59 and anyone whether they're in a church, 12:01 youth group, or on their college campus, 12:04 at home, in their schools, 12:07 you know, we could have entire schools doing this, 12:08 but you can download a map 12:10 and then you map out your journey 12:11 and every month you get a new challenge 12:13 when you sign up. 12:14 And so we're in step eight now, 12:16 we're, you know, celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday 12:19 and this idea of honor a hero for religious freedom. 12:22 So there are a lot of heroes of religious freedom 12:24 around the world whether it's Thomas Jefferson 12:26 or you know, Patrick Henry 12:28 or whoever it might be in the world, 12:30 Mahatma Gandhi, I don't know. 12:32 So we're celebrating heroes this month 12:35 but you can do any of the 18 challenge steps, 12:38 any time between now and December of 2018. 12:41 That's a good idea. 12:42 Yeah, I mean, there's no question 12:43 that heroic figures can inspire. 12:45 I've read an editorial once about 12:47 the Great Man theory of history, 12:49 which I used to subscribe to more than that, 12:52 and you can't dismiss the great men, 12:53 but it takes a lot of men and women 12:56 responding to make the difference, doesn't it? 12:58 It does, it takes a ripple effect, 13:00 so one person can start that ripple 13:02 but you want lots of voices to really create that encore. 13:05 So in the journey, 13:08 every month, there's a different challenge 13:10 and we have 18 challenges, which reflects Article 18 13:13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and this is... 13:15 Yeah, that's, I wondered why 18... 13:17 Yeah, so 18 steps 13:19 and this is the 70th anniversary 13:20 this year of the Declaration, 13:22 it's also the 20th anniversary 13:23 of the US policy on religious freedom. 13:26 So we're trying to make this year 13:27 where we will really start to have real conversations 13:30 about religious freedom with people across the country. 13:33 The Bible says, "Now is the acceptable day," 13:36 right, so let's start from here. 13:37 Yeah, so it's today. 13:38 We will be back after a short break, stay with us. |
Revised 2018-03-29