Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is your program
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bringing you
insights, news, views,
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and an overall understanding
of religious liberty
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in the United States often,
but also from 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 a young man
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who has the
same last name as me,
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my son, Christopher Steed.
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And thank you, Christopher,
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for being on this program again.
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Not very often, once
or twice in your life,
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you've been a part of it.
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This will be, I
think my third time.
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Yeah, the first time
you were just a little kid
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I had you as a walk on cameo
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and I remember afterwards
I had two or three letters
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from elderly ladies
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and one of them
says that dear boy
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and that resonated with me.
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But apart from good
thoughts that you have,
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I think it's great
to have a young person
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talking about religious liberty.
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You know, I'm a
teenager inside still
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but things have
moved on unknown to me,
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and a lot of us working
with religious liberty here
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are not
necessarily senior citizens,
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but middle-aged people.
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So we need to know
what young people think.
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I want to talk on
this program a bit about
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religious
liberty around the world.
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But, you know, let's
talk about an example
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that you were sharing before.
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We need to somehow disarm people
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because a lot of
people have prejudice
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either against
our particular version
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of Christianity
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because, and prejudice by
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and large comes
from a lack of knowledge.
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So it's a prejudgment.
That's what prejudice means.
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But beyond that,
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different
religions have prejudice.
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And again, most people
that are nominally part
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of the Buddhism or
Islam or Christianity,
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they know almost nothing,
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first of all
about their own religion
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and even less about
another, so it's very difficult.
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Tell me about a situation
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where you were
helping with the local church
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and going door-to-door
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and you've met quite
well muscled prejudice.
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What happened?
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Well, we were doing a
food pantry for shut-ins.
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So people who don't
normally come to church,
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mostly elderly people,
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who can't drive, who
have limited mobility,
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and I go to one of
the person's doors,
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I knocked on the door,
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I was about to
turn around and leave
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when I hear the door just get.
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I thought the door
got ripped off his hinges.
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And I see this,
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he was about 6'5",
6'6" massive bodybuilder guy
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just standing
there glaring down at me
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in the roughest,
roughest tone he had.
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He goes, "What are
you doing at my door?"
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I was 15-16
years old. I'm just...
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And so I gained confidence.
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I say, "I'm here
delivering food."
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For shut-ins. For shut-ins.
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And he looks at
me, gives me a look.
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He says, "What organization?"
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I said, "I'm
with the Seventh-day
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Adventist Church."
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"Oh, come on in,"
just like that he changed.
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And you hear his mother
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saying something
behind the scenes.
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His mother calls,
"Tye, who's at the door?"
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And just this very,
very small voice in the back.
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It was like almost
like his conscience
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that I could hear.
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And I say I'm from her church.
We go to church together.
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She used to come to church,
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but we haven't
seen her for a while.
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And we got a letter or a
call from her saying that
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she needs some help with food.
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So we're bringing
food from our church.
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He said, "Oh, I thought the bag,
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I thought you were
going to sell me something
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or the other
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and I was just
not having it today."
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And I was like,
"Well, here I am."
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So almost the implication
of violent oppositions
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turned into great friendliness
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when he
understood what was going on.
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And that's usually the key.
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I can remember many years ago,
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well, not many,
several years ago now.
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We were in Israel on a tour,
3ABN tour actually to Israel.
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With Jim Gilley.
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With Jim Gilley,
who was heading up 3ABN
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at that time,
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and, but one scene
that stuck in my mind,
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it was wonderful.
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We went to the
so-called Wailing Wall.
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The Jews don't call
it the Wailing Wall.
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It's the Western Wall.
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Foundations
basically that they dug down
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after the Six-Day
War, war and uncovered
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and it's a real site
of pilgrimage and prayers
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and we were there Friday
night, remember at sunset?
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I do.
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It was a wonderful
time, they blew the shofar,
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the ram's horn,
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it was an
elemental sort of feeling
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and the excitement was palpable.
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And you know, a lot of,
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even Adventists who
understand the Old Testament
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more than many Christians,
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you know, we
don't always understand
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Jewish sensibilities
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and many Christians
have great troubles, right?
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You've been to Germany and
I think you picked up there
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some of the
history with the Nazis
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and that where they just
turned on the Jews, right?
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That's a horrific case.
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So I thought it
was wonderful there,
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we were at that exciting moment
close of or opening of Sabbath,
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and spontaneously
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the young Israeli men
started dancing in a circle.
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Remember, you joined in?
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They handed out this
little pamphlet about
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the size of a iPhone.
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And it had the Hebrew song.
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And then underneath
it had it in English.
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Well, in...
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I wouldn't say
English, it was Hebrew,
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but in a way I could read it.
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And so I started
singing along with them.
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- And... - Well and it was...
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It was like a cyclone,
it was just like a tornado
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just growing
bigger and bigger and...
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They were so happy and exalted.
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And it was a
little bit of a mixture,
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to be honest of
Jewish national identity
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and Jewish faith.
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But it was very spiritual
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because this was the
beginning of the Sabbath,
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and how you
joined in and I thought,
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man, he looked so at
home there and they were,
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they accepted you fully
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and you were
wearing a little yarmulke...
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I had skull cap.
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That Jim Gilley had given you
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and because we
don't wear a yarmulke,
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but it's very biblical.
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I mean, it talks
about covering your head
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when you pray and so on.
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So it's a sign
of prayer respect,
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but I thought that
was a wonderful moment
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of a spiritual affinity not,
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you know, he might
not know much about it.
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But you know, I grew up
where we were scared silly
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of an ecumenical syncretism.
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Syncretism is a word where
you, you come together when you,
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you just negate
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and don't care
about deeps doctrinal
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or spiritual differences.
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They're important.
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You can't just
give them away and say,
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"We're fine, you
know, God loves us.
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I love you."
It's not that simple.
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But as far as the
brotherhood of men
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and an understanding
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of someone else's
genuine seeking of God
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that should be respected.
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And we have
that in common often.
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And I thought that
was a wonderful moment.
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And I'm positive
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that's something you'll
remember forever, right?
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Well, one thing I
clearly remember is
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I was, I didn't,
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at first I didn't want
to jump in, but you know...
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I remember pushing you.
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You had to push
me into the crowd.
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But once I got in,
the guy that was that,
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actually he pushed,
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my dad pushed me.
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And one of the guys
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wraps his arm
around me, pulls me in,
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and I just felt
these two strong arms on me
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and I just felt the electricity.
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It was almost like,
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just spinning in
that circle just singing
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was just
phenomenal and just awe...
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It's eye opening to me on how,
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you know, how
these people have been
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through pretty
much hell and torture
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through Egypt,
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through the
Hitler and the Nazis,
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even in more modern times
the persecution they have.
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Well, one thing that
I mentioned recently,
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you might not know about,
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but it might have in
history in the Middle Ages
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when the plague fell.
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And you know, we're
in a little plague now
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with the COVID.
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People started
looking for culprits
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and the Jews were dying
too, but maybe not as much
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because certain
health regulations
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in the Old Testament
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would clearly protect you a bit.
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So they started saying
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that Jews were
poisoning the world
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and causing the plague.
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And in one city,
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I think it was in France,
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3,000 Jews were burned alive.
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So yes, they've
often been picked upon,
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because their
faith is very visible.
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It was a statement
in the ancient Romans,
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they said no other
group were as dismissive
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of the ancient gods as the Jews.
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Well, that's sort of true,
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but it's pretty
good negative spin,
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they were
committed to their God.
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Yeah, so that was an experience.
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So what I want to bring out
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and you know, sort
of a semi travelogue,
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but the world
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is an
interesting array of people
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reaching in their own way to God
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and I don't think
they're all equal.
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But I think equally
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all human beings
have an inclination
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to seek the divine and
God planted it within us.
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And it's a privilege of us
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to share a biblical
clarity on that, isn't it?
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It is.
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And I know what impressed you
or anybody that goes to Israel,
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and even to Turkey in places
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that Paul traveled on his tours.
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You know you see
how vitally important
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the origin of Christianity was
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and the battles
they went through
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and in many ways
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they're still
the battles of today.
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What did you think
when we went to Turkey
00:10:23.85\00:10:25.55
which I think I've
explained it to you,
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but maybe even
some of our viewers
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don't realize,
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Turkey today is a
overwhelming majority
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Islamic State,
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it's not a an Islamic Republic.
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It's a democracy of sorts.
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After Kemal Ataturk
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following World War 1 took over,
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he westernized it
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and public elements
of Islam would diminish.
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They're not allowed to
wear the head coverings
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and things like that
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because they
wanted to appear Western,
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but it's a
deeply Islamic country,
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but most people don't realize
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it was the seed of Christianity.
00:10:59.55\00:11:02.02
When the Emperor Constantine
adopted Christianity,
00:11:02.06\00:11:05.39
he moved the
capital of the Roman Empire
00:11:05.43\00:11:07.56
to Constantinople.
00:11:07.60\00:11:08.93
It was the first
Christian city in the world.
00:11:08.96\00:11:12.00
And remember going to
Hagia Sophia Museum now
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after being
converted to a mosque,
00:11:15.50\00:11:16.91
but it was the
original structure
00:11:16.94\00:11:20.54
of Christianity, it
predates St. Peters.
00:11:20.58\00:11:23.04
St. Peters is the
Roman Catholic Church.
00:11:23.08\00:11:26.08
But Hagia Sophia was
the first major cathedral
00:11:26.11\00:11:30.45
of Christianity.
00:11:30.49\00:11:33.12
What did you think about that,
getting a sense of the roots
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that goes back
about 1,500 years?
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Well, I remember walking in
and just looking straight up
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and all I saw
was a ginormous dome,
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and the paintings
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and everything
that were on there,
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the architecture and
everything was beautiful.
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But being in
the birthplace of...
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Well, I won't
say the birthplace.
00:11:59.25\00:12:01.15
In some ways, it's
the political birthplace
00:12:01.18\00:12:03.42
because Constantine
skewed Christianity a bit,
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but it was at that time
it was purer than it became
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and let's make
your comment about...
00:12:09.79\00:12:13.06
Being at the... At origin point.
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Political
birthplace of Christianity
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was just,
00:12:19.10\00:12:22.54
it brought a whole
new light on Christianity
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that I had not seen before.
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In a country that has now
been, I wouldn't say overtaken,
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but that is now majority Muslim
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and Sikh faith that are there.
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Well, they're not Sikhs. It's...
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There are some Christians still.
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This is the Coptic
Christians in that general area,
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but they're mostly Muslims.
00:12:49.46\00:12:52.13
And seeing how the Muslim
and Christian though for them,
00:12:52.17\00:12:57.54
there are pretty
much there as one,
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you see Christians
and Muslims hanging out.
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It's interesting even
though we get that image
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in post 9/11 in the US,
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there's not a lot
of direct confrontation
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in Turkey
between religious faiths.
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Now in Egypt,
which we didn't go to,
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the Arab Spring was kicked
off with direct persecution
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and attacks on
Christians by Muslims.
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But what you're getting at
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I've tried to say
on this program before,
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it's worth remembering
that the Middle East as a whole
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was the
birthplace of Christianity.
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And today, the Middle
East as a whole is Islam.
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There was a massive displacement
00:13:41.45\00:13:43.08
of one religion by another
and not always peacefully.
00:13:43.12\00:13:46.25
And now in this modern era,
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most particularly
since the Arab Spring,
00:13:49.42\00:13:52.16
what we're really seeing
00:13:52.19\00:13:53.63
is the final
expulsion of Christianity
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from the Middle East.
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That is a massive moment.
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And there's a lot of
persecution involved,
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but a lot of it is subtle.
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It's marginalization of
people of Christian faith,
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which is not good, is it?
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You know, you're talking about,
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you're accepting and
being integrated socially,
00:14:11.18\00:14:14.48
in Israel into
their sort of faith,
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culture, that's fine, you know,
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and that doesn't
lead to wars and fighting.
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That's, I think
God smiles upon that.
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That's an openness.
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But it is worth
remembering that the Middle East
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is generally is the scene
of conflict at the moment.
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Where else do you remember?
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You remember we
went then to Asia,
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to Southeast Asia to Bangkok?
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You remember
worshiping on Sabbath there?
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Sort of.
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We went to a church
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near the Bangkok
Adventist Hospital.
00:14:52.15\00:14:53.99
Remember we walked
from? That's right.
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Now did you feel
any sense of threat,
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it was a difficult moment
00:15:00.00\00:15:04.47
to worship in that country?
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None at all. Absolutely none.
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So that was a plus experience.
We need to take a break.
00:15:08.24\00:15:10.61
We'll be back.
00:15:10.64\00:15:11.97
Stay with us,
00:15:12.01\00:15:13.34
talk a little bit about a
world of religious practice
00:15:13.38\00:15:16.75
and what that means
00:15:16.78\00:15:18.11
for a person of Christian faith.
00:15:18.15\00:15:19.48
How do you relate
to it? Stay with us.
00:15:19.51\00:15:21.42