Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider
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where I was
sharing some thoughts
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on the
commoditization of humanity.
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Looking back to World War
II and what the Nazis did,
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but to the present
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and what we know is going
on in China against detainees,
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many of whom, if not most
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are detainees
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based on their
religious identity,
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many Christians
certainly among them.
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So I want to raise this point.
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For us, it says, I wrote,
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perhaps we are not
so morally vigilant
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because the
commoditization of life
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is now a full-on
aspect of our digital lives.
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Not too long ago,
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one of the political
parties rather openly railed
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against as they put it,
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the eaters or consumers
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as being a drag
on the producers.
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One natural consequence of that
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is a dulling of
human sensibility
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as we deal with
illegals who are costing us,
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so we are told
and threatening us
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so we are told,
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and must be
cleansed from our midst.
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Of course, any country
has the right to take steps
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to protect itself
and uphold its laws
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and its borders.
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But I see in this,
the social dynamic,
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expressing a reduction
of humans to utility value.
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Meanwhile, we all
fondle our cell phones,
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which track our every
move and watch us incessantly.
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We install ever
listening bugs in our homes.
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We are
surrounded by ever smarter,
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artificial
intelligence that triangulates
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all our personal information
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to evaluate our
personality, our health,
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and our security risk factors
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and indeed our very
utility to the economy
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and to the system.
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In the US, at least,
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there is still a residual memory
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of the founding
principle of republicanism,
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not a party,
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a principle that the
power derives from the people.
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In the Constitution
there is still unobliterated
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if largely unread,
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applications of
the greatly fought
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for protection
such as Habeas corpus
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and protections from intrusion
into our private affairs.
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There is still an
insistence on hands off
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for religious practice.
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But what will we do
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when the
algorithms and the public mood
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tell us that we cannot
afford certain viewpoints?
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That is a huge
unanswered question,
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a huge unanswered question.
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You know, in many
ways we're coming close
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to the mentality of
the Jews in Jesus' time.
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Obviously, there were doctrinal
differences between Jesus
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and the Pharisees, a little,
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less than we might realize.
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He basically was
on their wavelength
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because they believed
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like he did in the resurrection
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from the dead and
miracles and so on.
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There were even
bigger differences
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between Jesus and the Sadducees
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who didn't believe in the divine
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and the supernatural.
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There were huge
differences between Jesus
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and the Roman occupation,
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and then the puppet rulers.
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Remember Jesus
spoke of that fox Herod.
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He was very critical,
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but not involved
with political matters.
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So when Jesus ran foul
of the Jewish authorities
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and with the potential
to be seen as seditious
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by the Romans themselves,
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the Sanhedrin met and
it was said in that group,
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dealing with this
dissident who some of them
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were more
sympathetic than others.
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And we know that
Nicodemus in that group
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became a follower.
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So there was some pro-voices.
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But the swing against
him came when it was said,
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it's better that one man die
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than that the
nation should perish.
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It was said in
Germany in World War II.
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Better for the whole people,
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these Jews and
gypsies and communists
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and, you know,
that was a bit broader
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than just the Jews,
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but this part of our society
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better that they be destroyed
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than the Fatherland
go down to disgrace.
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Better an equation
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balancing one against the other,
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which is done in many things,
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but dangerous
when you're dealing
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with human lives.
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Better that one man die
than the nation should perish.
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The Marines
which I've never joined
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and I'm not militaristic,
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but I've been
inspired by their mentality
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or their slogan in the past,
never to leave a man behind.
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The Marines try to do that.
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I don't think
they've always been able to.
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I think in Mogadishu
there was a horrible incident
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where a few were left behind.
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And I remember,
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in Afghanistan
shortly after 9/11,
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there was the infamous scene
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where a Marine was shot
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and the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda were savaging the body.
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That is the things
that are most regrettable
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because the Marines
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don't want to
leave someone behind.
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There's this great
respect for a fellow soldier,
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for a human being.
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Western democracies also
have, in the larger sense,
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tried to embody this
that humans are valuable.
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And I like to think
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that in our
present COVID emergency,
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which is full of disinformation,
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overreaction, poor planning,
and all the rest of that,
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what lies behind
it is still the sense
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that we cannot
stand by while humans die
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or allowed to die,
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either by
neglect or poor planning,
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but if there's
something we can do anything,
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we need to
intervene to save their lives.
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You know, that's
not a dissimilar dynamic
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that is existed behind
true religious liberty.
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People
misunderstand religious liberty
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just because we have
open religious liberty
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and I'm pushing for it.
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It doesn't mean I
think that this religion
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or that faith
system are wonderful.
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I might think they're
the most pernicious views
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for human beings
to hold destructive.
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But as fellow human beings,
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I have to not
only allowed but defend
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and spend myself in defending
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their right to believe it,
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because they are a human being
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with thoughts and inclinations
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just like me and
is to be respected.
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The West has brought
that to a high level.
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And, of course,
republicanism is a whole-ism,
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is a whole government system,
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based on the
respect of the individual.
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As I've often
said on this program,
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it's not democracy writ large,
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which can easily
have the majority vote
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against and
eject a small minority.
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No, republicanism is power
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deriving from the people
and protecting all people.
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A democratic republican system
doesn't protect the minority,
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the disadvantage, the powerless,
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it's denied its very essence.
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And when we look
at the modern world
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and this
inescapable commoditization
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of the individual,
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it's easily done as we
gather together in cities
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and every activity and
every financial exchange
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can be quantified and weighed
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in the balances of what is said.
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And it's a dangerous phrase.
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The common good,
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it's very easy to decide
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these people are not necessary,
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this class are not to be
helped because it's futile.
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They're costing us too much
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or this belief system
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is something that we
cannot afford anymore,
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because it's
disruptive, it cost too much.
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It might even be something
that will spread through
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and spread
dissatisfaction to other people.
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Any number of reasons,
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but you can sort
of put a number value
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on this freedom
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and it can be weighed
in a utilitarian balance.
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And those that
have no sympathy for it
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maybe decide
whether or not it's allowed.
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That's where we're heading.
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We've been there in
the world at least before.
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The US hasn't had a
great experience with this,
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but I believe
events, modernization,
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the stresses of
life are moving us
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irrevocably toward this point,
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where the bean
counters of morality
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are going to be allowed
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or if we're not careful allowed
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to make these
life or death decisions
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on people groups,
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belief groups,
and on principles.
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And the greatest
principle I believe that we have
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in our government
today or in our civil life,
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is religious liberty.
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It must be protected,
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because human
beings are not commodities.
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They're sent in
creations of a divine being
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and we owe our life to
God, we owe our loyalty to Him.
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And I believe
in reading my Bible
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that we will have
our continued existence
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with Him one day.
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How can we allow
anyone to so demean
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that is to see us
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as just the number and an option
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among many other options?
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