Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break with
guest Kingsley Palmer,
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we were...
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Well, I don't know about you,
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I was really
getting into the topic.
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Because we really
get into the nitty-gritty
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of what religious liberty is
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and how we are to
cry aloud and spare not.
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I believe, as a
Seventh-day Adventist
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with our particular
take on religious liberty,
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it's a prophetic call.
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It is.
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And it's, it is inseparable
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from our view of where we
are in the stream of history
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and what must take
place on this earth,
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and then on the cosmic sphere.
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Right, we have a message
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to warn.
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You know, back home in England,
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they say that the queen,
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the objective of the
monarchy is to warn government.
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That's probably
not a very good thing.
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Yeah, she's
moving into direction.
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To warn because
she's the sovereign...
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These are things, your policies
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that you are
doing are affecting.
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And although I don't step in,
but she has done that recently.
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Let's put it back here.
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I cannot be,
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as a spiritual leader
and a community leader
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at the same time,
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disconnected from one
area of this prophetic ministry
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that we have and
only hold on to that
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which I feel
most comfortable with.
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That renders me useless.
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You can't do
anything, you cannot be happy
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if people are
being abused by a system,
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violating their civil rights,
violating their human rights
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because when you
violate a human right,
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we're telling from a
religious standpoint,
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I don't respect your
God, I don't honor your God,
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I don't know your God, I
don't care about your God.
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So that gives me
justification to do whatever...
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To behave.
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You broaden that little
bit and I agree with you.
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Religious liberty
is not just the narrow
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or what can become
a narrow application
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of the Second Amendment
in the US particularly.
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It's been said
and correctly said
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that religious
liberty is the first right,
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but all rights
are interconnected.
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You meddle with one,
you affect the other.
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Well, of course.
And all the others.
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And I think it's arguable,
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and I think
observable in the US,
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especially after 9/11,
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when we've seen an
erosion of many civil liberties
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that at root,
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religious liberty is weakened.
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Yes.
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And we've lost...
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And it manifests different ways.
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It's not yet
manifesting by people being,
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you know, throwing into jail
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because they're Christians
or a type of Christianity,
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because they're Muslims,
for that matter or anything on.
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But I think it follows, like,
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I'll just give
you one roar example.
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I won't say the organization,
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but I have had personal
contact with and get emails
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and another missives
from a legal advocacy group
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that are concerned
about religious liberty
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within the largest civil scale.
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And they're talking
about many cases lately
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and one in particular,
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a mayor of a city mistakenly...
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The authorities didn't know
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they were approaching
the mayor's residence,
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but a SWAT team came
into his, on to his property,
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burst through the
doors and windows,
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shot his dog twice,
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and handcuffed him,
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and had him up against the wall,
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and, you know,
shocking over treatment
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of a private individual.
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Mistaken,
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but let's just say
he had been the one
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they were after.
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That sort of an approach
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can be applied now for
the drug user or suspect.
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But with the collapse
of all the civil liberties,
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particularly religious liberty,
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with this sort of
thing now more rampant,
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you now...
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You were seen as belonging
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to a suspect
religious liberty group,
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SWAT group may be coming
through your window tomorrow.
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So I think they
all are threatened
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declining at the same time.
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It isn't just,
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you know, here we
have a nice healthy
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civil liberty situation,
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but religious liberty
is a little bit troubled.
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That doesn't work that way.
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No, no, they are
all interconnected.
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And so we have a vested interest
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in upholding the
general civil liberties
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of the West and the US
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that recognizes the
Declaration of Independence.
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I just love to quote it
because it sounds great,
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but at root, it means nothing
unless it's a Christian logic.
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It says, you know,
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"Nature and nature's
God has given us this."
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You know, natural law is not
as natural as people imagine,
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it's revealed.
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Revelation as in the Bible
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that there's a
God that loves us,
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and wants us to
live in His image,
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and to remake our
fallen sensibilities
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in a divine image and
respect the other people.
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That's the marching orders,
and we need to uphold that.
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Well, and I agree,
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and we can't be
shrinking violets,
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we can't be non...
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We can't be
inactive, as it were.
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We wouldn't be sitting here
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if it were not for the
things that our pioneers did.
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Those of the biblical era,
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those that are
living in the 21st century,
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we have to care
about the planet.
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And we also have a
younger generation,
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the millennials
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who are very engaged.
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You got to give them credit.
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They're engaged
and wanting to make...
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To map out the identity
of Seventh-day Adventist,
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what we mean to a community,
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what value do we bring
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without losing
the prophetic focus
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of telling forth
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and also predicting
what will come at the end.
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I mean, that's what I'm finding
with this particular group.
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I let you freely
like all older people,
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I've become older.
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I remember when I was younger,
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but it was a different
age when I was younger.
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But the new generation
are always a mystery to the...
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Every generation is, I'm
sure, we were at our time.
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You know, I have a
daughter who's a teenager,
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so I'm not totally
disconnected from it.
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But it seems to me
that this generation,
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more than others, runs the risk
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of having lots of energy
and reaction to the times,
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but not really
being well informed.
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And that is our job.
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That's our challenge.
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That's our
challenge, it's our job.
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Misdirected passion can be
or effort can be dangerous.
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And that is why,
at least in my field,
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we have some young adults
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that we have to
educate and train.
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I got trained and
educated by people
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who were
concerned about the things
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that I was 30, 40 years ago.
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I have two grown sons.
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And so there has to be a way
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in which we're able to
engage and encourage that.
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We use our wisdom,
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we couple that
with their energy,
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and they can identify...
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It's worth remembering
that through the ages,
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especially being young people
that made a real difference.
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Well, Adventism was
started by young people
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and I believe it.
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And nearly out of their teens,
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Ellen White is
one of the cofounders.
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When she was 15 or so
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when she first
started as a Millerite,
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but she was...
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I'm trying to think of her
age when the church was formed,
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but she was... She had
to be still very young.
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Yeah, she was, I mean,
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1861, 1863, and
right in the middle,
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she jumped in with
all our contemporaries.
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We have a group
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that's like that
in the 21st century.
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You have back end of the Bible
and Daniel and his friends,
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I think they were 17 or so.
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As I told you,
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trying to shock you
as much as I discovered,
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they were much abused
by the conquering power.
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I think, the unkindest
cut had been performed.
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Remember, that was the way
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that Babylon was using them,
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they didn't want
them to intermarry and...
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No, kept them separated.
They were kept separate.
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They were nullified by...
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Well, how am I
describe it? Muted.
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Muted.
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And remember, he
went to the king,
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the ruler of the eunuchs.
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Of course,
which kind of imply...
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It doesn't mean
they were eunuchs.
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Well, you know,
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we don't need to be,
we don't need to be...
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Well, the Bible does
say something interesting.
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It says we're to be
eunuchs for the kingdom.
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That's true.
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That's where I
was going with that.
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They are always single-minded...
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Yeah, focus not in
the physical realm,
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like that, but...
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So focused on spiritual things
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that the worldly
things have no place for them.
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Exactly.
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And we don't have
that kind of generation.
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And again, 30, 40 years later,
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and watching this
group emerge passionate,
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but need direction, connected,
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but need purpose.
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And I think it
serves as a reminder to us
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of where we came
from, what we're about,
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and what we should be doing.
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And there's no need
to apologize for that.
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We have a
wonderful, powerful message.
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Religious liberty, I think is...
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It's so close to the
very point of Christianity,
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and, you know,
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it goes to the very
ministry of Jesus Himself.
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It isn't just something
that as Christians we do,
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it's right at the central thing.
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It should become a lifestyle.
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Christ died for us to
reclaim our humaneness,
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and religious
liberty helps us reclaim
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what is most human
about us, not our visage.
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And I think some
Christians have misunderstood
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that we look like God.
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It's to reclaim our character...
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The character of God.
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And how we share
mental similarity to God.
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And to each other. Right.
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Well, in relating to each other,
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we will rediscover
that and encourage it.
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Exactly, and it's like...
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Let me share
with you very quickly.
00:09:56.52\00:09:59.03
When we were in India,
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seeing how young
people would come to our home,
00:10:00.90\00:10:04.17
and they would
mingle with each other,
00:10:04.20\00:10:05.60
some whose countries
were at war with each other,
00:10:05.63\00:10:08.07
and sitting down
listening to their dialogue
00:10:08.10\00:10:09.74
and watching them
share common experiences.
00:10:09.77\00:10:14.58
That is what we
need to be doing,
00:10:14.61\00:10:16.18
and, you know,
00:10:16.21\00:10:17.55
we've talked about my journey,
00:10:17.58\00:10:19.85
and I'm very, very
pleased, and happy,
00:10:19.88\00:10:22.28
and privileged to be
able to serve in this capacity
00:10:22.32\00:10:26.45
in public affairs
and religious liberty.
00:10:26.49\00:10:28.86
And I think the best
days are yet to come.
00:10:28.89\00:10:31.66
So I thank you
for that opportunity
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to come and
share my little story.
00:10:34.56\00:10:38.07
Hopefully it will be a blessing.
00:10:38.10\00:10:41.57
Jesus said when He was
asked about John the Baptist
00:10:41.60\00:10:45.57
that he was the
greatest of the prophets.
00:10:45.61\00:10:47.48
Nobody greater born of a woman.
00:10:47.51\00:10:51.31
I like to think
that religious liberty
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is a prophetic ministry.
00:10:53.08\00:10:55.15
And I would
appropriate the words of Jesus
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to this prophetic call
00:10:57.35\00:11:00.06
that in the words
of the Apostle Paul,
00:11:00.09\00:11:03.49
that we are proclaiming
the gospel of liberty
00:11:03.53\00:11:07.56
and explicating it in a way
00:11:07.60\00:11:09.26
that is meaningful
to those around us,
00:11:09.30\00:11:12.37
perhaps those
that don't even know
00:11:12.40\00:11:14.10
about the Bible
00:11:14.14\00:11:15.47
or the particular
direct call of Jesus.
00:11:15.50\00:11:18.21
We are
proclaiming religious freedom
00:11:18.24\00:11:21.64
that is part of a
pantheon of civil liberties,
00:11:21.68\00:11:25.58
that in the West,
00:11:25.61\00:11:26.95
we've been taught to ascribe
to secular constitutions,
00:11:26.98\00:11:30.69
but ultimately derives
from the divine percentage
00:11:30.72\00:11:35.16
from the Creator,
00:11:35.19\00:11:36.76
from His messenger, the
Son of God, Jesus Christ,
00:11:36.79\00:11:40.10
and ultimately,
00:11:40.13\00:11:41.50
at the very end, absolutely,
00:11:41.53\00:11:44.40
is a prophetic
message to all mankind.
00:11:44.43\00:11:49.30
For liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:11:49.34\00:11:52.54