Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI200472B
|
00:01 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider
00:02 where we're donning the economist mantel 00:07 here but no, what we're doing 00:08 really is connecting to religious liberty. 00:12 What always is money is very important 00:16 in this secular world that we live in. 00:19 Money is the means that carries on a lot of religious activity, 00:24 of course, the heart 00:25 and commitment is unquantifiable. 00:27 But yet these budgets, 00:28 all churches or organizations 00:30 and governments give money, 00:32 they take money and they give it, 00:36 and that's always a reasonable discussion 00:39 when you're talking about religious liberty. 00:40 Are you giving... 00:42 Are you taking money that entangles 00:43 and even restricts your religious practice? 00:47 And I believe and it's worth discussing here, 00:50 that we may have just sort of put that process 00:52 on steroids during the COVID emergency 00:55 when a financially troubled empire, 00:59 the United States wanting to help 01:02 its citizenry in this incredible emergency 01:04 is sort of opened the floodgates 01:06 of monopoly money. 01:09 How much did everybody get, 1200 or something? 01:12 That's phenomenal. 01:14 It was a total of $3 trillion 01:16 which I think included aid to businesses. 01:19 But the receipts for the US are 3.3 trillion in one year. 01:23 So the entire expected income 01:26 for the year was given away in one single give out. 01:29 And most people say thank you government, 01:31 they don't realize 01:32 you can't give what you don't have. 01:35 Well, that's true. 01:36 Can we talk a little bit about... 01:38 So the debate and this is where 01:40 I want to involve you which you know ahead of time, 01:42 we talk behind the scenes. 01:44 It's created quite a lively discussion 01:46 within I think a number of church groups 01:47 including our own. 01:49 Is it appropriate in this situation to take money 01:54 and the way money was offered among several, 01:57 but one way was offered was like the businesses, 02:01 if you didn't lay any workers off 02:04 during the emergency, 02:06 then you could keep the assistance that was given. 02:12 I think once we accept that money, 02:15 we're at a dangerous point right now 02:17 where there's invasion of privacy, 02:20 they're coming in through your iPhones, 02:21 they're coming in through social media. 02:23 They're basically, it's kind of like 02:25 a helicopter parent hanging over you. 02:28 And the government knows everything that you're doing. 02:30 So all they need is, 02:32 I think that this stimulus money 02:34 is a foot in the door for them to be able to say, 02:37 but you accepted it. 02:38 So now it's time for a little payback. 02:42 Well, I didn't live through World War II. 02:45 And I didn't either. No, no. 02:49 We didn't live, I should have included you. 02:51 What I mean is that's ancient history 02:52 World War II. 02:54 I mean, when I was born, 02:55 it was not far in the Review and Herald, 02:57 I don't know anything about them. 02:59 I didn't live through that, 03:00 but before World War II this country, 03:03 the United States 03:05 and most of the world had a huge depression. 03:07 And one way the US got through it was people became, 03:13 many people unemployed people 03:15 became wards of the state basically. 03:17 They were sent to work camps. 03:19 Wonderful things were done by that administration. 03:22 But they lost a lot of practical freedoms. 03:25 Then in World War II particularly, 03:28 I know even in Australia, certainly in England, 03:32 and I believe in the US, 03:34 there was a lot of rationing. 03:38 Was of no matter how much money you had, 03:40 there's some things you couldn't buy, 03:41 no matter how much money. 03:43 You were given a certain amount, 03:44 the government was in control. 03:45 And I think that the COVID gift money 03:49 is a form of rationing. 03:51 It's the same model, 03:53 because they have given nothing. 03:54 So how do you turn that back in and say I don't want it? 03:58 Well, the check that we got individually, 04:02 I think it came without even applying. 04:03 But the church has to apply for money. 04:06 It's not given automatically. 04:08 And I think both out of respect 04:11 for the continued viability of the state, 04:14 the church shouldn't hamper 04:16 he state's already failing effort 04:19 and out of concern for its ongoing integrity, 04:23 it shouldn't take it either because it complicates. 04:25 I don't think there's any logic to taking it 04:28 that's overwhelming other than a momentary fix. 04:31 So just so we don't send everybody into a panic 04:34 here with this, the personal stimulus check. 04:37 Is there a problem with that or not? 04:39 Well, it's a problem, but it's not a problem 04:41 of religious liberty or freedom. 04:43 Okay, so you accepted yours? I haven't cashed it. 04:47 You haven't cashed it yet? But I probably will. 04:49 You probably? Okay, so you will. 04:51 But you're talking about your application... 04:52 You know, the people, the taxpayers 04:54 should recognize the government 04:55 cannot give you what it doesn't have 04:58 and what it has, it only gets from you. 05:00 Yeah, so it's like, 05:01 I'll take it out of your bank and I'll give it to you. 05:03 How much do you want? 05:05 So this is smoothing out the process, fine, 05:08 but they're not giving you something new, 05:10 especially when they don't have either money nor real credit. 05:16 So this isn't religious liberty, 05:18 but it's a commentary on our times. 05:20 We're living in a time of great financial bankruptcy. 05:24 And why I think it's worth mentioning every collapse, 05:29 and there's been many, many of them in the modern era. 05:31 Every collapse 05:33 has a negative civil liberty component, 05:36 it will create social dislocation. 05:39 Right now we have rioting from police actions 05:41 that is impounding on the civil rights movement 05:44 which is fine, because there's something 05:46 that people can address by group action, 05:49 but we likely before the civil war 05:50 was seafood riots. 05:52 We'll see riots from the inequalities 05:55 that are highlighted 05:56 by great unemployment and so on. 05:59 And in the crackdowns on that, almost inadvertently, 06:04 even a well intentioned civil government 06:06 is going to have to restrict certain actions and practices, 06:10 probably some form of religious activity. 06:12 So in your thinking, considering that we are moving 06:16 into this hyperinflation 06:19 could be by the end of the year, 06:20 could be in a few months from now. 06:22 How do you think that compares to what happened in 2009 06:27 with the economy? 06:30 This is Act 2. This is Act 2. 06:32 Yeah. More trouble, less trouble? 06:35 No, it'll be more of the same and you and I are not prophets, 06:39 but hopefully you and I are like most of our viewers, 06:43 we read and we see information. 06:45 It's an inevitability, it's already begun, 06:47 and the real estate agents know it. 06:49 There's a housing collapse coming, 06:53 which will have shockwaves 06:55 through the economy of banks failing, 06:59 people unemployed, less workman building houses. 07:02 I mean it just filters up. Yeah, it's coming. 07:05 But right now actually 07:07 that the real estate market is very hot right now. 07:09 It seems to be, well there's pent up demand. 07:11 You know what I'm talking about. 07:12 Yeah, it's hot now because people 07:14 who are in the cities, 07:15 this is what I was told by a financial attorney. 07:18 People in the cities after this COVID thing 07:20 let up a little bit, 07:21 they're wanting out of the cities right now. 07:23 And so the market is hot for country homes. 07:25 And this is interesting as Seventh-day Adventists, 07:28 we had advice that 07:29 we believe was given divinely to co-founder Ellen White 07:34 who there's plenty of evidence that she was under... 07:39 Inspiration. 07:40 Got to watch the words, you know, 07:42 people don't understand it. 07:43 But you know, the Spirit of the Lord 07:45 had moved on her, 07:46 it's not that she was all knowing 07:47 or some Delphic Oracle. 07:49 But on key things, she was given communications, 07:52 and she was told many of the things 07:55 that were happening now, 07:56 and she gave a warning to Adventists back 07:59 before we have the urbanization we have today, 08:01 but that we should move out of the built up 08:05 central city areas just as a matter of precaution, 08:08 because that's where troubles, 08:12 troublous times impact people the most negatively. 08:15 Right. 08:16 And what you're saying I think just confirms that. 08:18 There might come a time for all of us 08:23 wherever we are, it's best to stay in place. 08:26 I had a woman call me up 08:29 about six or eight months ago before the COVID thing. 08:32 And she said that some evangelist had told her 08:34 that she should sell her home and move to the country. 08:37 She was a retired lady. 08:38 And I said, "Have you ever lived in the country before?" 08:40 "No." You know, retired by herself. 08:42 I said, "If you sell now and move to the country, 08:44 that will be your time of trouble." 08:46 That's right. 08:48 So you know things have to be done 08:49 in the right context. 08:51 But we have to be moving our frame of mind currently now 08:54 out of those city areas, out of the worldly concepts 08:58 into a country mindset right now. 09:00 It is the time period that God is giving us. 09:01 And I think that it's not a uniquely Adventist, 09:04 uniquely Christian, it's just a practical concern. 09:09 In India or large population countries 09:13 where there's a lot of people that are very close, 09:16 you know, their income 09:17 is a little more than subsistence. 09:20 It's already happened a couple of times 09:22 in the last couple of decades, 09:23 when say the price of rice doubles. 09:26 A person living in a city with no access to a garden 09:29 or anything, they dropped to starvation level, 09:31 just like that. 09:33 And yet, if they could even leave the city, though, 09:36 they would have some security. 09:38 So this is very practical. 09:40 It's not relating just to Adventist, 09:41 not relating just to North America. 09:43 It's the cities usually where revolutions come, 09:46 where disease comes that we're in COVID now, 09:49 but the plague and so on. 09:51 These are practical considerations 09:53 and I believe religious liberty 09:56 will be strengthened by people that make life 09:59 a little easier for themselves when the hard time comes. 10:02 That's true. 10:03 Do you know there was a belief 10:05 it was a congressman from West Virginia. 10:08 I remember him stating one time, he said, 10:11 "You need to get out of the cities right now." 10:14 And the reason is that as you move out, 10:17 you become less dependent on the government, 10:20 because you don't want to be dependent on the government. 10:22 And so his whole point that he's saying is, 10:24 for each of us today living, 10:26 we want to be less dependent on the government 10:29 and more self-reliant, but for a Christian, 10:31 we want to be more reliant upon God. 10:34 And this is the time period 10:35 that we have to put our faith more and more in God, 10:39 and less and less on the government itself. 10:43 It's a scene I can well visualize. 10:46 Jesus holds up a Roman coin with the emperor's head on it. 10:50 And He says, "Whose face is there? 10:52 Who do you see on that coin?" Oh, Caesar. 10:55 He says, "Well, render unto Caesar 10:56 what is Caesar's and unto God the things 10:58 that are God's. 11:00 We deal with money in our Western society 11:03 and in a capitalist society, it's indispensable. 11:06 The system cannot exist without it. 11:08 But we need to make a distinction 11:10 between the things of God, 11:12 the charter the God has given us 11:13 in proclaiming 11:15 His liberation to all sinful human beings 11:18 in protecting our ability to do that 11:20 which is called protecting religious liberty. 11:23 We need to draw that distinction, 11:25 and do not think that 11:28 with unlimited or gratuitous golden coins, 11:32 figurative, that we can make up for a spiritual deficiency. 11:37 God does not need the visaged coins 11:41 of whatever system we live under. 11:43 God needs a dedicated pure people 11:47 who are advancing the kingdom of God 11:49 and spreading liberty throughout the land. 11:54 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2020-08-07