Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is a program
that for those of you
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that have been
watching for many years
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has long brought
you updates, analysis,
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and I hope in plan and intend
to be interesting conversation
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on religious liberty issues
in the US and around the world.
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My name is Lincoln Steed,
editor of Liberty magazine,
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and my guest on the
program is Dennis Seaton,
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Legislative Liaison for
the Church State Council
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based in Sacramento,
California in the US,
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but working with
several nearby states
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on legislative issues.
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I know from
talking to you before,
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while your own work
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is very
interesting and rewarding.
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Something that you
really want to encourage
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is to motivate other people
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to contact the legislators
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and become community
liaison so that we can...
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Watch dogs if you like,
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to help keep
our system on course
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and to be sensitive to
religious liberty issues.
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Correct.
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What's your
track record on that?
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You think
there's a reason for hope
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that others will
answer the challenge
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and get involved?
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I do think that
there are other people
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that are
interested in getting out
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and becoming part
of their community.
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And we've been
working at this since 2012.
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And we live in an environment
or we live in a culture
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that everybody's busy,
they have three or four jobs,
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and they know don't
have time to get involved.
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So typically, what
we've asked people to do
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is get involved
by writing letters
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and letting
their elected officials
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know where they stand on
various different issues.
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Now they can send
emails too, can't they?
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Well, that's,
generally speaking,
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the legislators prefer email.
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Well, that's
why I brought it up.
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I know since 9/11...
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Yes.
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Letters carry the
promise of white powder
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and other substances so,
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often, email is the best
way to get through to them.
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Yeah.
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And we have avenue
or we have a website
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that we encourage
people to go and sign up to,
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and they can see the bills
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that we're looking at
on the federal level of...
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What is your website?
Say it for our viewers.
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It's churchstate.org.
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Churchstate.org.
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Yes. And get involved.
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And it will give
them, on your side,
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there's some
information to start with.
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Yes.
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And maybe some
motivation for them
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to start these direct contacts.
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Correct.
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And then we also
send out for the people
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in the states that we work with,
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we send out bulletins as such
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to the churches to let them know
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about the various different
legislative initiatives.
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But for a long
time, the church has been,
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the Seventh-day Adventist
Church has been involved
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in getting
involved with legislators
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and with people
in their community.
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So we began to get a
bit more involved with that.
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And we've been
encouraging people
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to get to know
their elected officials,
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not for the purpose
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of asking them for something.
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Typically, when you go
in to a legislator's office,
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the staffers and
the elected official
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are used to and accustomed to
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and expect you to
ask them for something.
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And what we've
been asking people to do
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is just go be friendly.
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So most people think
that it's really intimidating
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to go into a
district office in California,
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you can do that other states,
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they don't necessarily
have district offices,
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but to talk with
the staff members
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at that office.
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And so we've just suggested
that you go, walk in and say,
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"Hi, my name is Dennis.
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And I just wanna thank
you for the job that you do."
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And when you do that,
immediately, they go, "What?"
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It's not...
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Certainly or hardly
an offensive approach
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to get their
interest bit disarmed.
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And it's hardly ever
that they get thanked
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for doing the job
that they're doing
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and specifically
the staff members.
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So we have at least one person,
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couple others that
have taken up that charge
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or that banner and said,
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"Okay, we're gonna start going
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to our elected
officials' offices,"
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and beginning to
talk to them about ways
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that we can partner with them.
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We can be a door
opener for other people
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or for other
circumstances or other issues.
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And not only we're
asking them to get out
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and get to know
their elected officials,
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we're also asking them to
get out and know the people
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in their community
that are doing things.
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So now when you
start doing that,
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all kinds of
things begin to happen.
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One person that we have
that's working has shown up
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at a variety of
different community events
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that are part of what
the elected officials do,
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as well as
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what other organizations
are doing in the community.
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And so as she
gets out and about,
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then she has these experiences
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where she meets people
from different walks of life
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with different positions
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and what needs to be
done in their community.
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And in California,
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there's lots of
human trafficking.
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And so this is something
that she's gotten involved with
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and getting more involved with.
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And that's also then began
to bleed over into society.
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And after a while
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the legislators and
the other public officials
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get to know about our side.
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That's correct.
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And so the
contacts become even easier.
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And it grows. Yes. Yeah.
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And so we've started doing that.
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But we've also began to look at,
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you know, what is
our responsibility
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as individuals?
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Who do we represent?
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And how can we make a difference
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in our communities?
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And we can do that by partnering
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with not only elected officials
but with other organizations.
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So when we look
at what's going on,
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we look at the homeless...
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What's happening
with homelessness?
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Well, how can we help?
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One of the
largest growing groups
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of, not homeless people,
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but people that
have food insecurities
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are not the children.
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Well, they're
not small children,
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but they're college students.
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That's the fastest growing...
Well, that's just true.
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I remember when
I was in college.
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I was at the...
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I mean, this is not
to make light of it,
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but it's a good story to tell.
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When I was actually
doing my graduate studies,
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it was the oil crisis time,
and I lost my part time job,
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and I didn't wanna
go bothering my parents.
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So I used to go pick
field corn at the college
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that they fed to the cows.
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And no amount of boiling
would ever soften that down,
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but that's what I
was eating for weeks,
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my main food.
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And so the question is
we as a group of people,
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and speaking about
here in the United States
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because that's where I work,
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or in California, or in Arizona,
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or in Nevada,
Utah, or in Hawaii,
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do we have a
responsibility to look
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at what's
happening in our community,
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address those
issues, and how can we do it?
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Now, you know, we work for
religious liberty directly.
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But in our church,
Seventh-day Adventist Church,
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the sub
department that's responsible
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for that is
called public affairs
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and religious liberty,
which broadens that a bit.
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As I think it
naturally can be, anyhow.
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So what you're saying,
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these public contacts,
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keeping an eye out for
civil and religious liberties,
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generally,
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can easily
embrace social concerns
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where we, you know,
concern for the homeless
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and just the moral
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and clear
functioning of society,
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we can be a help and watchdogs
in many and vary ways, right?
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Now I'm a little
personally cautious
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of social gospel
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or a sort of a
do-goodism Christianity
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that, well, that
may do good things,
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but sort of
sidetracks the whole concern.
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But that's more a matter of bias
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and ignoring as Jesus says,
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you know, you do this and that,
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but, you know, ignore
the things of the Spirit.
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But we are as Christians,
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and as good
citizens of any country,
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I think called to have a
concern for our fellowman
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and to ease the situation
of anyone we can, right?
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I believe that to be the case.
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And I think that the people
that we come in contact with
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are going to know who we are
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based on how we
represent ourselves
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and what we do
to make a difference
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in their lives.
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And so when
you're looking at people,
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oftentimes, we
characterize the homeless
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or people with hunger issues
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as people who do
don't want to have a job
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or they're
having a mental illness
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or they have a
variety of different issues,
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that are all their problems
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and their problems
are their problems,
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they're not our problems.
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Yeah.
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The question is, how
can we make a difference?
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You know,
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there are extraordinary
personal stories often,
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but I know in the
US, it's relatively easy
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for many people to
have, say a divorce,
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and the husband
can end up homeless
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if he's not careful.
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And he's lost a little
grip with watching his business.
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I know families that
have a major health illness
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and other are
uninsured or badly insured,
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they can lose
their home and be...
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And if there is
no relatives around,
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maybe essentially homeless...
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Great disasters
can befall people
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that you wouldn't think of
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as sort of the
undeserving poor, right?
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There's a tenuousness
even in a first class,
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first world country
like the United States,
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Australia, where I
come from, and so on.
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You might have a lot but
in one sweep, you can be...
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You have nothing.
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We were talking last
night a little bit about this.
00:10:07.14\00:10:09.84
And you mentioned that
00:10:09.87\00:10:11.61
it's difficult in
today's environment,
00:10:11.64\00:10:14.71
for most people
in the United States
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to have an event in their life
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that would require
them to come up with $400.
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I've seen the statistics. Yeah.
00:10:22.88\00:10:25.09
And that is a reality.
00:10:25.12\00:10:27.82
So when you then
talk about a child
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that has to go to the hospital,
or a spouse, or a parent,
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and you can take one event,
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and it will completely
destroy your entire life
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because there's no money.
00:10:42.67\00:10:44.01
Yeah.
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And, you know, people
generally cope with this
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by running up the
credit card or something.
00:10:46.84\00:10:48.71
But there's
often a limit to that.
00:10:48.74\00:10:51.11
And then in a moment,
everything sort of vanishes.
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Just to beg the question and...
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Well, it does make a question.
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What it does is it
allows us an opportunity.
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So when you look at...
00:11:00.82\00:11:02.16
When you see the
homeless, you see the hunger,
00:11:02.19\00:11:03.93
you see the people
that are being trafficked,
00:11:03.96\00:11:06.26
and it's not just
for sexual purposes,
00:11:06.29\00:11:10.23
you've got people who
come here on a legitimate...
00:11:10.27\00:11:15.30
They have made arrangements
to come here to work,
00:11:15.34\00:11:18.41
their passports are
taken away from them,
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and they're endangered
in that particular service.
00:11:20.41\00:11:22.31
Yeah, it's
basically a form of slavery,
00:11:22.34\00:11:24.98
modern slavery.
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And so the question here is that
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with all of these
things happening around us,
00:11:28.25\00:11:31.19
how can we as one
person make a difference.
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And it's very
difficult for one person
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to make a difference.
00:11:35.79\00:11:37.13
But it's not so
impossible when you begin
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to combine the
one person's efforts
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with many efforts.
00:11:42.70\00:11:44.03
Yeah.
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And then when you
begin to look at those issues
00:11:45.43\00:11:46.94
that are in your community,
00:11:46.97\00:11:48.87
generally speaking,
00:11:48.90\00:11:51.17
when you look at the statistics,
00:11:51.21\00:11:52.54
most Americans are suspicious
of politicians and government
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and whether or not
they're actually doing anything.
00:11:56.71\00:11:59.38
So the question is,
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then why would we want to engage
00:12:01.18\00:12:05.89
a group of
people we don't trust.
00:12:05.92\00:12:07.32
Well, generally speaking,
00:12:07.36\00:12:08.69
when you really
meet the legislators,
00:12:08.72\00:12:10.06
or the staffers, or
the people that are there,
00:12:10.09\00:12:12.23
generally speaking,
they go into public service
00:12:12.26\00:12:14.20
because they
wanna make a difference.
00:12:14.23\00:12:16.06
And so if we go
00:12:16.10\00:12:17.43
with that
particular perspective,
00:12:17.47\00:12:18.80
we thank them
for their service...
00:12:18.83\00:12:20.37
And this is...
00:12:20.40\00:12:22.00
I better call you up short.
00:12:22.04\00:12:23.37
You mean, they
don't go into politics
00:12:23.41\00:12:24.74
to make a lot of money
or to rip off the community?
00:12:24.77\00:12:27.31
Yeah, I don't...
00:12:27.34\00:12:28.68
Generally speaking, that's true.
00:12:28.71\00:12:30.05
Unfortunately,
politicians are getting
00:12:30.08\00:12:32.01
a lot of bad press
lately, some of them deserved,
00:12:32.05\00:12:34.28
but it's worth mentioning,
00:12:34.32\00:12:35.65
and you've observed
that the high number
00:12:35.68\00:12:40.22
of these public
officials really are motivated
00:12:40.26\00:12:43.29
by serving one way or another
00:12:43.32\00:12:45.49
the community as always they say
00:12:45.53\00:12:46.93
giving back sometimes.
00:12:46.96\00:12:48.30
But then that is
our responsibility
00:12:48.33\00:12:50.40
as the corporate group
00:12:50.43\00:12:52.13
of the citizens
of the United States
00:12:52.17\00:12:54.84
is to hold that
group accountable.
00:12:54.87\00:12:56.71
And the best way
that you can do that
00:12:56.74\00:12:58.54
is just to watch
what they're doing
00:12:58.57\00:13:00.61
if they're on the money side,
00:13:00.64\00:13:02.24
then there's this
brief period of time
00:13:02.28\00:13:04.98
that they have to get your vote.
00:13:05.01\00:13:06.35
- Yeah. - And so...
00:13:06.38\00:13:07.72
And what you
also I think in doing
00:13:07.75\00:13:09.08
and by encouraging
people to interact,
00:13:09.12\00:13:10.65
you help to keep
them connected to reality.
00:13:10.69\00:13:13.69
The elected
officials, that's correct.
00:13:13.72\00:13:15.52
Yeah.
00:13:15.56\00:13:16.89
And, you know, I go
enough to Washington DC,
00:13:16.93\00:13:18.26
there's a little bit
of an ivory tower there
00:13:18.29\00:13:20.10
that can start to envelop them
00:13:20.13\00:13:21.83
and, you know,
00:13:21.86\00:13:23.60
if they're not
careful pretty soon
00:13:23.63\00:13:24.97
they're throwing rolls of paper
00:13:25.00\00:13:29.97
or toilet paper
out into the crowd.
00:13:30.01\00:13:32.34
Okay. Okay, now.
00:13:32.37\00:13:34.41
But I think the way
you're talking about,
00:13:34.44\00:13:36.61
how can we get involved?
00:13:36.64\00:13:37.98
So the best way to
maybe have this discussion
00:13:38.01\00:13:40.72
or leave people
that we're talking to
00:13:40.75\00:13:47.06
with an idea of what they can do
00:13:47.09\00:13:48.86
is that when people
move to helping other people,
00:13:48.89\00:13:53.73
it actually makes a
difference in their life.
00:13:53.76\00:13:55.80
Absolutely.
00:13:55.83\00:13:57.87
We'll take a break.
00:13:57.90\00:13:59.23
We'll be back shortly.
00:13:59.27\00:14:00.60