Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000391B
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00:05 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider,
00:06 before the break with Tina Ramirez. 00:09 We were talking about journey to freedom. 00:11 The part of your 00:15 Hardwired program, right, 00:17 for this particular to educate young people. 00:19 Yeah, it's a really exciting campaign, 00:21 I mean, so we've been running this campaign 00:23 for the past eight months now and we've seen youth 00:26 across the country get very excited 00:28 about religious freedom. 00:30 And about having real conversations 00:31 about this right with their communities, 00:33 which is what we wanted to do. 00:35 So every month they get a different thing, 00:38 it could be pitching a tent in their backyard 00:40 and having a conversation 00:41 of what it's like to be a persecute refugee, 00:43 that had to flee because of their faith, 00:45 which happens 00:46 to a large percentage of refugees 00:48 in the world, to having, 00:50 you know, a Thanksgiving Dinner 00:53 with a refugee or somebody that, 00:55 somebody that fled here 00:56 and to hear their stories and to understand, 00:58 you know, with all the immigration debate 01:00 going on in America. 01:01 There are a lot of people 01:02 that fled here for religious freedom, 01:05 you know, from many different faith communities, 01:07 and so to really personalize what this freedom means 01:10 for a lot of people in America today that... 01:11 You're right. People don't realize. 01:12 You might not even hear their stories. 01:14 I mean, it's a few years ago now, 01:15 but I'm sure even some caught up 01:16 in this current immigration disaster 01:20 and not necessarily the policy but, you know, 01:21 the human disaster that's ongoing. 01:25 There's an area of... 01:28 Yeah, southern Mexico called Chiapas, 01:31 used to be part of where my wife comes 01:33 from Guatemala, but it's Chiapas. 01:35 There was a grose religious persecution there 01:38 a few years ago, 01:40 where Evangelical Protestants or actually not Evangelical, 01:45 they were Pentecostal Protestants 01:47 were being persecuted in their villages directly 01:50 by not necessarily the Catholic Church, 01:52 but people that had Catholic identity. 01:54 It was persecution where they're rejecting, 01:57 whole villages of people were being cast out 01:59 and sent to the wilderness, 02:01 losing their property sometimes they were physically set upon. 02:04 So there was a huge wave of them came up to the US, 02:06 well, that's part of what the president 02:09 is trying to stop 02:10 for legitimate national sovereignty issues. 02:14 But there's a huge tragedy of people fleeing 02:17 under threat of their very life for religious persecution. 02:19 People come to America every year 02:22 on the basis of religious persecutions. 02:24 One of the five reasons 02:25 that you can get refugees statuses 02:26 on the basis of religious persecution. 02:28 Yes, I know that but people forgot... 02:29 So most people don't know that... 02:30 But you know, they think it was, 02:32 you know, the pilgrim fathers and others that came, 02:34 but they didn't stop there by any means, 02:36 not even in World War II. 02:38 No, and we are challenging young people to go out 02:41 and meet people in public life. 02:43 I met a guy in Turgay 02:46 when I was shopping for Christmas stuff, 02:48 and I could tell he was Sunnis and he was... 02:51 I think a Dinka, 02:52 and it was so neat because I could recognize 02:54 that he was definitely Sunnis and he had come here recently, 02:57 so I asked him his story. 02:59 Those are the kinds of stories we want people to share, 03:01 because he had to flee his country, 03:02 he's a Muslim that flee because the president, 03:05 even though the president of Sudan is a Muslim, 03:07 he's a dictator and oppresses even his own Muslim community. 03:10 So it was really neat to meet him 03:12 and to hear his story, 03:14 and then to share it with others, 03:15 the people can have a very different perspective 03:17 of what immigration is like in America. 03:19 And I think that we, 03:21 you know, as we started the conversation, 03:22 we are talking about the fact that young people have 03:24 a very narrow view of religious freedom, 03:27 because of how it has been portraying, 03:28 we want to expand that conversation 03:29 and really have a real conversation about, 03:31 it's much bigger and it's global, 03:33 and what we're dealing 03:35 with in most of the world its life or death for people 03:36 that they might be homosexual, 03:38 they might be bloggers, they might be women 03:40 or, you know, artists, whatever they are. 03:43 People that relate to the people right around them 03:46 and these are people that are threatened 03:49 because countries and governments 03:51 are attacking them on the basis of religion 03:54 or stifling their freedom to express themselves simply 03:58 because they have diverse beliefs. 04:00 You know, it's a legitimate argument in the US 04:04 about how many immigrants or so, 04:06 and I don't want to get into that, 04:07 that's not right here. 04:09 But I do want to only on this program remind people, 04:14 you know, I'm from another country, 04:15 I came, my parents brought me. 04:17 My father transferred, I didn't want to come, 04:18 I was a 16-year-old. 04:20 Why would I want to leave my country? 04:21 And to remind people that all around the world 04:24 there are countries 04:25 some as rich as the US, many much poorer, 04:29 but generally speaking even a poor person, 04:31 people won't leave their country, 04:34 where they've got an intact society, 04:37 they have a place in it, 04:38 it's not poverty that sends them 04:40 crating across the border, 04:42 it might nearby, say, Tijuana, close by 04:44 because it's just convenience. 04:46 But people don't leave unless there's civil war, 04:49 unless their life and limb is threatened, 04:51 or they're politically endangered 04:54 or usually religious liberty. 04:56 It takes some extraordinary thing 04:59 to have people abandon their whole life, 05:01 those that they knew, their family, 05:03 people forget that. 05:05 Most people won't do that just to get a slightly better job. 05:10 Well, most and a lot of the refugees 05:11 that I know that have comments, 05:13 it's very hard, because we don't... 05:15 Even then it's a trauma for them. 05:17 It is, it is traumatizing, 05:19 so I think that one of the reasons 05:22 that Hardwired provides education training in countries 05:25 for local leadership is because religious conflict 05:26 is creating so much of the instability 05:29 that's causing these refugee crisis, 05:32 and so if we can stabilize those countries 05:34 we can make them safer for the countrymen to stay 05:39 and to not be persecuted, to have a home. 05:42 We have such a vibrant culture, 05:44 so many vibrant cultures in the world and people want... 05:47 I mean, like Syria, 05:48 you know, we shared in our earlier session. 05:50 Syria is a beautiful country, I love traveling in Syria 05:53 and it's so disheartening to know that, 05:55 that is gonna be impossible for a lot, 05:56 you know, for several years until it re-stabilizes, 06:00 I mean, the world is missing out 06:01 on a cultural gem 06:02 and not being able to go to Syria. 06:04 And I was trying to think, 06:05 we would talk about Boko Haram in one episode. 06:09 And I remember seeing a program in Nigeria where an American, 06:14 a fellow that had lived for a long time in America, 06:15 a Nigerian origin, 06:17 he had gone back to the stronghold of Boko Haram 06:19 to run a street side stall. 06:21 He was living in poverty there, 06:22 but he said he owed it to his country. 06:24 He wanted to go back and they showed 06:26 how the fundamentalists were coming by 06:28 and even threatening him on camera, 06:29 you know, you are doing something that's Western, 06:31 we are against and all that. 06:33 And he say I want to help my country. 06:35 We should give some credit to people, 06:37 not their divided loyalty. 06:39 The record is very plain. 06:41 People that come to the US, buy into it, 06:44 the Japanese's cases study, 06:46 never any case of Japanese that turned against America. 06:49 But still someone that's left another country 06:52 especially under duress, 06:55 they have this great burden to go back 06:57 and help their country. 06:58 And the US used to understand that. 07:00 Remember... 07:02 Now I'm forgetting some of the programs, 07:04 but they were conscious programs 07:05 of educating professionals 07:06 and sending them back to seed another country 07:09 with democratic ideals, religious freedom and so on. 07:12 Well, so I think part of the journey campaign 07:15 is to reignite the sense of what is religious freedom 07:19 and freedom of conscience for younger generations 07:21 that aren't as close to, 07:24 you know, the Vietnamese 07:26 that have come over fleeing persecution 07:27 or the Iraqis or, you know, 07:29 the different religious communities over the years. 07:30 We have that our ethnic 07:32 or, you know, countries like Burmese, 07:35 you know, that have had to flee persecution, 07:38 people from the former Soviet Union 07:39 and we've had waves and waves of this throughout our history. 07:42 And those stories are all around us 07:45 and we want young people 07:46 to share those stories through this campaign, 07:48 through our social media, it's just either you go 07:50 to any of the Hardwired social media sites, 07:52 you just hash tag I'm Hardwired, and that's... 07:55 And so that people can really get a big perspective 07:58 of why religious freedom is so valuable, 08:01 and a better conversation can be had but that's some. 08:04 So Hardwired is establishing 08:06 representatives on college campuses 08:08 across the country to do this. 08:10 We have church youth groups doing it. 08:13 So anyone that wants to do the journey, 08:15 they just sign up online 08:16 and then or get in touch with us 08:17 if they want to do something bigger. 08:19 And then at the end of the year, 08:21 our goal is to bring the students 08:24 that have become these ambassadors for freedom 08:26 over the course of the year 08:28 as well as people in their community, 08:29 they've engaged that may not haven't really 08:32 thought about it before together 08:34 in Washington D.C., 08:35 where we can bring leaders from around the world 08:37 that from all different perspectives 08:38 are advocating for religious freedom 08:40 to really celebrate 08:41 that this is for everybody, it's universal, it's global, 08:43 and it's something 08:45 that we needed younger generation 08:46 that's gonna stand and they gap for it. 08:47 Yeah, we need that. 08:49 You know, I love history and in English history 08:52 there was the period of religious civil war 08:55 and, you know, religious dictator 08:57 Oliver Cromwell. 08:58 And he wasn't as bad as history has painted him. 09:01 But, you know, it's a classic scene 09:02 where toward the end of his rule, 09:04 when the whole revolution 09:06 and the religious fervor was dying away, 09:08 his chaplain friend comes before parliament 09:11 and he says, 09:12 "Take heed, that they arise not a generation 09:15 that knew us not in the time of our distress." 09:18 He says "To whom the whole thing 09:20 is a story of that which is past," 09:23 where in they are not concerned 09:24 and that's the challenge I think facing us today. 09:28 As a matter of history of the US experiment 09:31 and the principle of religious liberty; 09:32 we got to get by, from the new generation, 09:35 for them to think it's Jefferson, 09:37 and Madison, or Puritans, that's not good. 09:42 And you can't separate freedom of religion 09:45 from the trafficking problems in the world, 09:47 or the poverty problems in the world, 09:48 or the sexual slavery. 09:50 Not when you talk a religious right... 09:53 I mean, human rights... 09:54 Or even racial problems around the world. 09:56 I mean, you cannot separate it when you have a massacre, 09:59 a genocide against a Yazidi community in Iraq, 10:02 based on their religion being treated as infidels 10:05 and allowed to be, 10:06 you know, have 6,000 women sexually enslaved 10:08 because of it. 10:10 Completely impoverished, traumatized, 10:12 you just you can't separate those two issues. 10:13 No, it's true. 10:17 Just before we finish, 10:19 what is the essential difference 10:20 between the Yazidis and Islam generally? 10:24 What is the... 10:26 Well, the Yazidis are not Islamic. 10:27 I thought it was a spin-off from Islam originally. 10:29 No. They are different. 10:30 They are almost descendants of like Zoroastrians, 10:32 so it's like... 10:33 Oh, okay, then that's the connection. 10:35 Now you're doing a wonderful work 10:36 and so the future is bright, right, 10:39 you see that young people gonna to respond... 10:41 Yeah, I think that the time is now 10:43 for younger generations to really see that, 10:46 that freedom of conscience 10:47 is one of the most important justice issues 10:50 that they have, 10:51 because without the freedom of conscience 10:53 they can't fight for anything else. 10:54 And it's so intertwined with all the other concerns 10:57 that they have in the world. 10:58 So we are excited, we hope that they will sign up 11:01 and join the campaign 11:02 and join us in Washington in December, 11:04 so that we can together have a united front 11:08 for religious freedom in the future. 11:13 Journeys, it's worth remembering 11:15 that all of the great tales 11:17 of human endeavor involve journeys, 11:19 traveling from somewhere to somewhere else. 11:22 The odyssey of Ulysses, 11:26 the journey establishing the empire of Rome, 11:30 the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, 11:35 and for us in the modern era, 11:37 the progress from an age of limited knowledge 11:40 and poor understanding of the human potential 11:43 through to an age of enlightenment, 11:45 at least they used to say that. 11:48 There is a spiritual reality that evil lingers 11:50 and will one day reveal itself fully, 11:52 but why not, 11:53 when we are talking about religious liberty, 11:56 realize that we are journeying 11:57 toward a fuller knowledge of what God has created 12:01 in each of us. 12:02 A yearning toward the freedom to worship 12:05 and to understand the divine in a way that's inhibited, 12:09 and unrestricted by other human beings. 12:13 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2018-03-29