Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is a program
designed to give you insights
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and a deeper perspective
on religious liberty events
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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 this program
is someone I know very well.
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A young lady with the
same last name as mine,
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Kristen Steed, my daughter.
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And I've had your
brother and my son on before,
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Christopher, and for purpose
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because I think it's
very healthy to emphasize
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on religious liberty
that's not just for old fogies
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or middle-aged
people or parents,
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that young people
need to be involved.
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After all,
Christianity was established
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by a band of young people,
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very likely that none of them
were more than their mid-20s,
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maybe Peter was, he
might have been 30 or so.
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But if for no other
reason that we know in that era,
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and right
through the middle ages,
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people didn't live
much beyond their mid-30s.
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Lifespan was very short.
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So young people
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and the energy
they have is important.
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Let's talk about
what you've been doing
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in the last few months, Kristen.
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We've all lived in a
fake reality, haven't we?
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COVID-19.
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What have you been
doing most days lately,
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up until a few weeks ago?
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Well, we had a school online,
of course, because of COVID.
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So all my classes
were quickly put online,
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and we weren't
allowed to go to school,
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weren't really
allowed to see our friends.
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And it was kind of hard
because it was my senior year.
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So we didn't
get to do, you know,
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most of the things
that like the senior year
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consists of which
was really, really sad.
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Yeah, you were going
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to a Seventh-day Adventist
Christian Academy, right?
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How would you characterize
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its Christian
identity during this time?
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What made it different?
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Well, they were able to
show through the students
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what was, like how to
be strong through the time,
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which I think is very important.
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And like, you know,
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they had different children
in the school, do videos,
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and talking about
like, what was going on,
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how we should
stay strong for Christ.
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And I think
that's very important
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and the school
was able to do that.
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And you did still have
religious studies, right?
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So some of that continued.
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But obviously you
didn't have outings,
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you weren't going and witnessing
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or interacting even
with other Christian schools,
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much less community projects.
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So it was
restricted in that way,
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but at least they
were encouraging you
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in a difficult time to
still be Christ oriented, right?
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So it's a good thing.
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Now when it all ended,
there was no big graduation,
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no march down
with lots of parents
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and friends and
all the trimmings
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that go with the graduation.
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How did yours go?
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Because this is,
maybe a lot of people
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don't realize only parents
that had graduating seniors.
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It was very
abhorrent, in my lifetime
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I've never seen
anything like it.
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You had the advantage
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of being at a
fairly small school
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so how many were in
your graduating class?
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So in my class
only had 13 people
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which is really
small and so because
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our class was so small,
they're able to actually
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have our own
personal graduations.
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So the whole
school, all the teachers
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that came to our
house to have me walk down
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the aisle which
happened to be our friend.
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Even had the recorded
music on some circumstances.
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Yeah. I really enjoyed it.
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And I know that I was lucky
because a lot of other students
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were not able to have that
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because of bigger
classes and you know.
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So, yeah, I remember
there was a cavalcade of cars,
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several cars and a bus
and so on that they came,
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they rolled up in
front of our house,
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quickly set up a little
lectern on the front lawn
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and the PA system
with the music playing
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and we went
through the whole thing.
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It didn't take long,
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I think half an
hour for the whole deal.
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But we had, you had an
address from your principal.
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Yeah, it was amazing.
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You had extended testimonials
from some of the teachers
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and did you find it gratifying,
a personalized graduation?
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I think it was amazing
like, of course, I didn't expect
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anything to happen
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because what was
going on, like, you know,
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we thought we're
going to graduate online.
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And, you know,
that was really sad,
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but when, you know,
when they came and did this,
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it was amazing
because, you know,
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I didn't expect the
school to go all out.
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And they were able to,
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like really make
this a personal thing,
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which it is.
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And, of course, we weren't
sure what was going to happen.
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But when it
happened, it was amazing.
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And I couldn't ask
for anything better.
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You want to know the lesson
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that I want to gain
from that to even suggest
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to our listeners is I
think this went deeper
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to the root of what Christianity
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should be about then
than you might have realized.
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It says in the
Book of Revelation
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that there'll be a crowd
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who's no man can
number in heaven redeemed.
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But at the same
time, it's very personal.
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We told that we can have
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the Holy Spirit
dwelling within us.
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We're told that Jesus
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can communicate
to us personally.
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He would die for
one person if necessary.
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And in the Bible, it
gives the implication
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that the crown of life is
placed individually on us.
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So to me, this was fantastic.
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That one single graduate,
all of the focus of the group
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that wanted to get you
through that your teachers do.
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Looking back, I can
remember a few teachers
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that I feared that
they didn't want me to pass.
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But in reality, any good teacher
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wants the students
to do well and to pass.
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So these were your backers,
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and they were
there to encourage you
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and to now acknowledge that
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you're graduating and moving on,
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and I saw a great
spiritual implication
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in a time of restriction,
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when we're keeping to our homes
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and I meant to say this quote,
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maybe not the
right time to say it,
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but I've got a
book on John Bunyan.
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You remember John Bunyan
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was a soldier in
the English Civil War.
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And after the war,
became an itinerant preacher
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and he spent 14 years
in jail for preaching,
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well, not of heresy,
but without a license.
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And the book I have
about John Bunyan is not
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what he wrote Pilgrim's Progress
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and many other great books,
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but it's about his
times what religion was like.
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And, you know, people got fined
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for not going to
church on Sunday.
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There were severe penalties
for spiritual infractions.
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I remember reading
in the same book that
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the village clerk was
fined because he's saying
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with the dissonant
voice during the services,
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and it says in other
words, squeaking like a pig,
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but in that same book,
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it said another
official was fined
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for keeping to his bearlike
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a hand to his kindle
on Sabbath or on Sunday.
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And during COVID
this sort of what we were,
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we will, I felt like
we were in our kennel.
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We weren't allowed out. Yeah.
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But you've said that
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as a student of
a Christian school
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you were able to at
least get spiritual values
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and interact in
a spiritual sense.
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Yeah.
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So where does that leave you
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as a young lady now
sailing forth on to life,
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college probably?
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But you know, in the
COVID era as a young person,
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do you think
it's possible to live
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as a Christian,
witness as a Christian?
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What do you see
the possibilities?
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Oh, I think it's
almost the same as before.
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It's just you have to
do it in different way,
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different manner.
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Because before we could go out,
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we could share our
religion out in public and,
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but now we're more closed
in, but we can do it online.
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And nowadays, you
know, most people can get on
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to like social
media or YouTube and like,
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you know, they can watch things
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and I feel like nowadays
it's going to be a lot of that.
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And that's how we're
going to, you know, go out.
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Now what if by witnessing
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and speaking
about your faith online,
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the same
algorithms that are tracking
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you now that know what you buy,
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what you think can
almost double guess
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what your next search would be.
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What if the same
algorithm said that
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this is anti-social
behavior to talk about religion
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that you either
would be fined in some way
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or more important
for a young person
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maybe cut off
from these contacts,
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you'll be delisted.
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I don't think that...
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How would that
change your behavior?
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I think that's going to happen
like anytime soon maybe in the,
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you know, future but I think
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that'll make things a
little more difficult,
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of course, because you don't.
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People don't get to see
what you're talking about,
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or what you believe.
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And, of course, nowadays,
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it's, people are
really talking about
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what they believe and sharing
what they think is right.
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And if you're
not able to do that,
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it's going to
be like really hard
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for the Christian
faith to share with it.
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It is going to be hard.
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Remember Jesus said,
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very hard times
are coming so hard,
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that unless the day's final days
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are shortened,
nobody would survive,
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and I think he meant
it in the first sense,
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human life would be impossible,
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but the most important
sense though would be, he says,
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will he find faith on the earth.
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If you're not sharing
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and you're not
getting it from anyone else
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and perhaps not even able
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as they were in some places
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recently able to
read the Bible freely.
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That sort of restricts
faith in dangerous ways.
00:11:08.33\00:11:11.37
Yeah.
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So you've got a
challenge ahead of you,
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your generation
young lady, make it happen.
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Yeah. Stand for
religious liberty.
00:11:16.34\00:11:19.01
And, you know, in spite
of what viewers may think,
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I don't lecture
you and your brother,
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family about
religious liberty a lot,
00:11:24.85\00:11:26.68
but you know you're around it.
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What, why do you think
religious liberty is important?
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I think it's important
that people are allowed to say,
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and share what they believe.
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Because that's
the only way like,
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you know, we all be saved.
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If other people know, you know,
Christ says like, you're not,
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we're not, He's
not going to come back
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till the whole world knows,
00:11:48.80\00:11:50.51
and if we're not
able to share that,
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and what's going to happen.
00:11:52.81\00:11:54.18
Yeah.
00:11:54.21\00:11:55.54
So it's something
that has to be shared this,
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it's, if we're
selfish by definition,
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we don't
understand God's concern.
00:12:00.68\00:12:02.75
You know, on another
program with your brother
00:12:02.78\00:12:05.59
I mentioned Jesus prayer
00:12:05.62\00:12:06.96
where He prayed
for His disciples.
00:12:06.99\00:12:09.02
He said He didn't
pray for the world,
00:12:09.06\00:12:10.39
which is interesting,
00:12:10.43\00:12:11.76
although he did
come for the world,
00:12:11.79\00:12:13.70
but in His prayer to His Father,
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He said He prayed
for the disciples,
00:12:15.10\00:12:16.46
but not just for them,
00:12:16.50\00:12:17.83
but for all who
believed in His name.
00:12:17.87\00:12:20.50
So we have to have that sense.
00:12:20.54\00:12:22.44
Yes, young people...
00:12:26.94\00:12:28.28
Let me ask you an even
more difficult question.
00:12:28.31\00:12:32.45
In the United
States where we live,
00:12:32.48\00:12:35.15
and he laughed at me a
bit with my accent still,
00:12:35.18\00:12:38.72
I'll never be able to deny
that I grew up in Australia,
00:12:38.75\00:12:42.19
but I've lived most
of my life in the US.
00:12:42.22\00:12:44.16
But you're an
American young lady, fully.
00:12:44.19\00:12:47.56
And in America,
people think easily
00:12:47.60\00:12:50.67
it's possible to
think that to be an American
00:12:50.70\00:12:53.13
and free is the same thing
as being a Christian and free.
00:12:53.17\00:12:56.50
Is there a difference?
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I think there should
be like a distinction,
00:12:58.81\00:13:02.58
because having
freedom as an American
00:13:02.61\00:13:06.58
and having
freedom as a Christian,
00:13:06.61\00:13:08.95
like, as an American,
00:13:08.98\00:13:11.89
you should have
freedom for your religion,
00:13:11.92\00:13:14.76
of course, you know, rights.
00:13:14.79\00:13:17.96
But as a Christian,
do we actually have that?
00:13:17.99\00:13:23.16
As an American,
we think we might.
00:13:23.20\00:13:25.47
But if you're looking at your,
you know, you as a Christian,
00:13:25.50\00:13:29.40
do we, do we really?
00:13:29.44\00:13:30.77
So ultimately
your loyalty is to...
00:13:30.81\00:13:32.64
God.
00:13:32.67\00:13:34.01
God, and in a nice system,
00:13:34.04\00:13:36.04
there's not an
automatic conflict,
00:13:36.08\00:13:38.81
but on a certain level,
there's always a conflict.
00:13:38.85\00:13:42.05
And when there's the
conflict, you judge God.
00:13:42.08\00:13:45.19
It's like the
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
00:13:45.22\00:13:50.73
the three Hebrew
worthies they say,
00:13:50.76\00:13:52.89
that's what they
said to Nebuchadnezzar,
00:13:52.93\00:13:54.66
you know, whatever you say,
fine, but we have to obey God,
00:13:54.70\00:13:59.27
doesn't mean that
you automatically disobey
00:13:59.30\00:14:01.50
what the state says,
you have to be obedient
00:14:01.54\00:14:03.51
as they were with
the normal things.
00:14:03.54\00:14:05.11
And as Daniel was
within regular laws,
00:14:05.14\00:14:07.78
even if those laws were
not based on Christianity,
00:14:07.81\00:14:11.08
if they were not
requiring you to deny God,
00:14:11.11\00:14:14.75
you go along with
it, but God has priority.
00:14:14.78\00:14:17.92
We'll take a break now.
00:14:17.95\00:14:19.29
So stay with us,
with young Kristen.
00:14:19.32\00:14:22.19
We'll sort of explore a bit more
00:14:22.22\00:14:23.79
what it means to be worshiping
00:14:23.83\00:14:27.13
and practicing your
faith during COVID and beyond.
00:14:27.16\00:14:30.67