Participants: Pr. John Carter
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001501A
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00:08 The Carter Report presents
00:10 "The Living Word" around the world. 00:16 Welcome today to the Carter Report. 00:19 Today liberty is being attacked by the very people 00:25 who say they're defending it. 00:28 We have a special guest today, his name is Alan Reinach 00:32 whose mission in life is to defend freedom 00:35 that he believes is under attack everywhere. 00:39 Alan is the executive director of the Church State Council 00:43 right here in the United States of America. 00:48 Today Alan and I are going to talk about 00:51 Edwards Snowden's revelations, about how loss of privacy... 00:57 We could call this segment of the program, 01:00 "Beyond Big Brother." 01:04 Did you know this? 01:06 Listen carefully to this one, 01:08 here in the United States of America 01:13 people are losing their jobs because of their religion. 01:20 We're gonna talk about that also. 01:23 Did you know that Protestantism 01:27 is a dying religion in America? 01:30 And yet Protestantism gave us beliefs in religious freedom. 01:36 What happens when Protestantism goes? 01:40 What will happen to religious freedom? 01:43 Going to talk about that soon. 01:45 Also should Christian churches and Christians 01:48 be forced by the government to participate 01:52 in same-sex marriage? 01:55 All this and much more today on the Carter Report. 02:00 Welcome today. 02:04 Hi, I'm John Carter. 02:06 My wife Beverly and I were watching television 02:08 the other night, watching the news, American news. 02:12 They told us that the church 02:13 in North America is actually shrinking. 02:16 They said that atheism is the fastest-growing 02:18 religious movement today in North America. 02:21 And people are saying, 02:22 what on earth can we do to save the church? 02:25 Well, of course, Christ died for the church. 02:27 He saved the church. 02:28 But what they mean is how can we keep the church 02:31 as a vibrant force in the world today, in Australia, 02:34 in America, and in Europe, and in the rest to the world? 02:37 Let me tell you a little story. 02:39 John Wesley was one of the greatest preachers 02:41 that the English-speaking world has ever heard. 02:44 John Wesley came upon the scene of the church in England 02:48 a few hundred years ago when the church was dying. 02:51 Like the church today, it was a shrinking church 02:54 but the people in the church were in a state of denial. 02:57 They refused to accept the reality 02:59 that the church was dying. 03:01 John Wesley did something 03:03 that other people said couldn't be done. 03:05 He revived the church through public evangelism. 03:09 Did you hear that? 03:10 He started to preach Christ, he preached the Bible, 03:13 and he preached out of doors and indoors 03:16 and the church was saved. 03:18 Not only did he save a lot of souls, 03:21 the souls of sinners, he saved the souls of the saints. 03:26 Please join me my friend, in evangelism. 03:32 It's what Jesus did. 03:34 Write to me, John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 03:38 Thousand Oaks, California. 03:39 In Australia, write to me at the address 03:42 on the screen at, Terrigal, in New South Wales. 03:46 Join me, my friend, in preaching Christ. 03:50 Join me in public evangelism around the world. 03:55 Thank you, in Jesus' name. 04:05 Welcome today to the Carter Report. 04:08 Attorney Reinach, Alan, 04:10 we're delighted to have you here with us today. 04:12 And it's my pleasure and privilege 04:14 to be with you, John. 04:15 You are an old friend and an old guest 04:19 on this program, but not an old person. 04:21 I don't like the old part. 04:23 No, we'll leave that out. 04:25 You and I today, before we go any further, 04:28 affirm the rights of all people. 04:30 That's right. 04:32 Right to be a Muslim or a Christian 04:36 or a Buddhist or a Hindu, a Protestant or a Catholic. 04:41 We also affirm the rights of people 04:43 to make definite choices in the area of sexuality. 04:49 Correct. 04:50 Now you and I may not believe in those choices 04:53 but we believe that every person has the right 04:56 to be what he wants to be. 04:58 We don't believe in everybody's religious beliefs either 05:04 but the genius of America is that this is a place 05:07 where people of different values, 05:09 different religious beliefs, 05:11 different sexual orientation can live together in peace, 05:15 and all of us have our rights respected. 05:18 So what's all this about the Freedom of Act 05:20 in the Patriot Act which is going before Congress, 05:26 I think almost as we speak? 05:28 You know it's amazing to me, John, 05:30 that after the revelations of Edward Snowden 05:33 about the extent of government spying 05:37 on not just people abroad but on Americans. 05:40 You and me? 05:41 On you and me. 05:42 Emails, telephone calls. 05:44 That Congress is ready to give back to the NSA 05:49 some of the same powers that they have been abusing 05:53 up until now spying on Americans. 05:56 But Americans by nature 05:59 and buy tradition believe in freedom. 06:03 What has happened to the American person 06:06 that he is prepared now to ditch those great truths 06:10 that he held dear for so long? 06:11 I have to go back to that great British novelist George Orwell 06:15 and urge people to reread 1984. 06:18 Yes. 06:19 Orwell talked about double speak. 06:21 Yes. 06:22 And now we have the Freedom Act 06:24 which is an act to authorize the government authorities, 06:29 the intelligence community to violate our freedom. 06:32 Give me some illustrations. 06:35 Well-- The Freedom Act. 06:36 It's been widely reported 06:38 that all of the major internet companies, 06:42 Google, Yahoo, Facebook, et cetera, 06:46 they're all letting the NSA tap in and collect everything. 06:53 They are scooping up everything, 06:56 all our phone calls, all of our phone data, 07:00 all of our internet data, everything that you do, 07:03 your phone is a tracking device, 07:07 everywhere you go, everything you do 07:10 is being collected by the government. 07:12 This is in the land of freedom. 07:16 Why is it that so many Americans 07:19 and others too, I'm sure, 07:22 so quick to trade freedom for temporary security? 07:28 Why is this so? 07:29 Well, obviously they haven't heeded 07:31 the wisdom of that wise old American Ben Franklin 07:35 who said those who would trade eternal liberty 07:38 for temporary security deserve neither. 07:40 And that's what they're gonna get, 07:41 they're going to get neither. 07:42 Right. 07:44 Alan, this is a story you'll find hard to believe. 07:48 I was talking as a pastor 07:50 sometime back to a member of my church 07:53 and she had come from Germany, it's a little girl. 07:56 She was brought up 07:57 when the Nazis were ruling Germany. 07:59 And she said to me in her beautiful 08:03 American-German accent, 08:05 she said, if I've been back there what else could I do? 08:08 I would have to follow Hitler, 08:10 she said, otherwise I would lose my life. 08:14 And so people seem to be so quick to give up 08:17 their freedoms for a little bit of temporary security. 08:22 But you know John, this is what happens 08:24 when fear becomes the dominant political tool. 08:28 Fear, fear, fear. 08:30 How often do we hear the word terror, 08:33 terrorism, war on terrorism? 08:36 And when you hear the government declaring war 08:39 on something like drugs or terror understand 08:42 that it's your rights that are going to be 08:45 the first casualty in this war. 08:47 Where does this fit in 08:49 with the great American Constitution? 08:51 Americans are tremendously proud of their Constitution. 08:55 I don't know too many have you read it. 08:58 You know, John, I was sorely tempted 09:00 if I could put my hands on a copy 09:02 and brought it here today, 09:04 I would sit here right now and tear it up 09:06 in front of the cameras 09:08 because that's what the government has done. 09:10 We had a shredding machine, I would put it 09:13 through the shredder to demonstrate 09:15 what our government has done to our constitutional rights. 09:18 Give me some specific instances. 09:21 Fourth Amendment, right to be 09:24 free of unreasonable searches and seizures. 09:26 Yes. 09:27 Government is supposed to have probable cause 09:30 before they can search your belongings, 09:35 your emails, your phone calls. 09:38 They're gathering all of this up 09:40 without any probable cause that any of us-- 09:43 Without a murmur. 09:44 Correct. Yeah. 09:45 So the Fourth Amendment is basically dead. 09:48 Did you hear that my friend, the Fourth Amendment 09:51 is virtually dead right here 09:54 in the United States of America. 09:57 Now this country once upon a time prided itself 10:03 on being a country that believed in the Bible. 10:09 Sola Christus is only Christ and sola scriptura 10:13 and therefore this country 10:15 basically was founded by Protestants. 10:20 And Protestants gave to us 10:22 the concept of religious freedom. 10:24 You did not have religious freedom 10:27 in the Roman Catholic countries. 10:29 Is that true or false? 10:30 That's pretty much true. Sure. 10:33 Religious freedom as a historical matter 10:36 really is a development of Protestant theology, 10:39 of the notions-- of the notion of-- 10:43 So you know justification by faith, 10:46 that each person has the right, 10:49 the obligation to have a personal relationship 10:52 with Jesus Christ through faith. 10:53 His own priests before God. 10:55 We didn't see Catholicism 10:57 was predominantly communitarian. 10:59 You're standing in the community, 11:01 you're standing before God, 11:03 you know, you were part of the community. 11:05 Yes. 11:06 Protestantism shifted the focus from the church community 11:09 to the individual personal relationship with Jesus Christ 11:13 and from that we got a culture of respect 11:16 for the rights of the individual. 11:19 Now, this is history, we're not offending anybody, 11:22 but traditionally the Roman Catholic countries 11:25 were totalitarian systems. 11:28 Latin America, for generations no religious freedom. 11:33 Much to Europe, no religious freedom 11:35 because of the policies of the great 11:40 Roman Catholic Church. 11:42 And America was founded by people 11:44 who came over here because they wanted to set up 11:48 a state without a king and a church without a pope. 11:53 In fairness you have to realize that 11:56 when there is a single religion in a community 12:00 often times that religion exercises power 12:03 and doesn't extend freedom to others. 12:06 And the same was true in puritan New England. 12:08 Yes, it was. 12:09 It was when in the Great Awakening flooded America 12:12 with a diversity of denominations 12:16 that America realized well, 12:18 we can't favor one over another, 12:20 we don't want to battle between all the different churches 12:23 and religious freedom was nail down and respected 12:27 in our state and federal constitutions. 12:30 Is Protestantism dying in America? 12:32 It is. You know, there's a lot of different aspects to this. 12:37 When you go back to Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, 12:41 that all man are created equal that we are endowed 12:45 by our Creator with certain in alienable rights, 12:49 that's a protestant idea. 12:50 Yes, it is. 12:51 But human beings have inherent dignity 12:54 because we're created by God. 12:55 Yes. Now in post-modern-- 12:58 And the state is the servant of the people. 13:00 Correct. Not the other way around. 13:01 And the state is under judgment of God. 13:05 There's somebody that the state answers to. 13:08 When you come to a post-modern ethos 13:11 and you cast of religion the state no longer has anyone 13:15 to answer to, power becomes much more corruptible 13:20 and there's no philosophical foundation 13:24 for human rights and religious freedom. 13:26 And today in the United States of American 13:30 people buy the drugs 13:32 are leaving the Protestant churches 13:35 and are giving up faith in the Bible. 13:38 And if you were talk-- you know, 13:40 I've spoken around the world of vast audiences 13:43 but when I've spoken in America 13:45 and I've talked about Martin Luther 13:47 the vast majority thought I was talking about that man, 13:52 the African-American-- 13:54 The Civil Rights Movement. Yeah, who was killed. 13:55 And I said, I'm gonna show a movie on Martin Luther. 13:58 They said, will be along to see about 14:00 the Civil Rights Movement. 14:01 Right. 14:02 Now, Alan, we're going to talk in the next segment 14:05 about Mister Snowden, was he a hero or a heretic? 14:11 You're watching the Carter Report, 14:13 and we'll be back in a moment. 14:15 Stay with us. 14:19 God has His time and His place for everything. 14:24 And the time and the place now is Latin America, 14:29 including Cuba. 14:31 Time Magazine talks about 14:33 the second Protestant reformation 14:36 and describes how hundreds of thousands 14:39 even millions of Latinos 14:42 are coming to the gospel of Christ. 14:46 I'm not an armchair theologians, 14:49 I'm speeding according to experience. 14:51 I've seen it with my own eyes. 14:55 Recently we went down to El Salvador, 14:59 there I spoke in the largest football stadium 15:02 in Central America with the biggest crowd that, 15:06 that football stadium had ever, ever seen. 15:09 They came not to see a football match 15:12 but to hear about the Blood of Christ. 15:15 Millions are coming 15:17 to a knowledge of God in Latin America. 15:21 Doors are opening in Cuba. 15:25 Who knows we may be going to Cuba soon. 15:28 As the doors open by the grace of God 15:32 we are going to step through those doors 15:35 and we want you to step through those doors with us 15:39 and be part of a team for such a time as this. 15:43 Please write to me friend, don't put it off. 15:46 Write to me, John Carter, 1900, 15:51 Thousand Oaks California 91358. 15:55 In Australia, write to me at Terrigal, New South Wales. 16:00 Be part of the second reformation, 16:04 join us and see the miracles of God. 16:09 Amen. 16:19 Welcome back to the Carter Report. 16:21 My special guest is attorney Alan Reineck 16:24 who is a specialist in church-state relationships. 16:27 Alan, welcome here today. 16:29 Thank you, John. 16:31 Snowden, let's talk about Snowden. 16:33 Now we don't condone people stealing, 16:36 stealing state secrets or any of those things 16:40 but tell me your opinion, did Edwin Snowden 16:44 do the course of freedom a service? 16:48 Is he a heretic or a hero? 16:51 In my books Snowden is a hero 16:54 Oh, you're a brave man 16:56 because that's not politically correct, is it? 16:58 Well, I've never worried about being politically correct. 17:01 God bless you, Alan. 17:02 That's why you're on this program I think. 17:06 You know, secrecy is the enemy of democracy. 17:12 Yes. Democracy-- 17:13 It's un-American. 17:15 America is supposed to be 17:17 in the words of Abraham Lincoln, 17:19 one of our greatest presidents, 17:20 "a government of, by and for the people." 17:24 But in the age of our national intelligence 17:30 we no longer have government of, 17:32 by and for the people because the people have no clue 17:36 what our government is doing 17:38 and the government is not accountable. 17:40 Yeah, but they don't care, do they? 17:41 Well, that's pretty sad. 17:43 Yeah, but most people don't seem to care. 17:45 They say, give me security first 17:48 and I don't care too much about your liberties. 17:52 Journalist were interviewing Americans 17:54 in Times Square and asking them 17:55 if they knew who Edward Snowden was. 17:57 Yes. 17:58 And most of them did not even know. 18:00 No. 18:01 So we can't assume that our listeners know 18:05 that's Snowden is the one who released a lot of documents 18:08 about the extent of NSA spying on Americans 18:13 and on world leaders and others in foreign countries. 18:17 But programs that the American people deserve to know about 18:21 and deserve to have a public debate about. 18:23 That's why Snowden wanted to start a public debate 18:27 about the extent of American spying activities. 18:30 And Snowden said certain things and he said, you know, 18:35 the government has been acting against-- 18:38 outside the law or against the law. 18:40 Well, I think that's pretty clear. 18:42 And only recently the courts have declared 18:45 in his favor on one of these crucial points. 18:48 Correct, that the wholesale you know, 18:52 obtaining of our phone records 18:54 is a violation of the constitution. 18:57 Do you think that this fits in some how into Bible prophecy? 19:02 Well, I do, John. 19:05 We see in the final pages of earth's history 19:08 to the extent that we have hints in Bible prophecy, 19:12 the complete and utter demolition of human freedom. 19:15 Yes, yes. 19:16 And this is part of parcel of it. 19:19 You know, we were all chilled back you know, 19:22 50, 60 years ago or longer depending upon your age 19:27 when we first read Orwell's 1984. 19:30 But as you mentioned-- 19:31 Would you recommend that people read that book? 19:33 Oh, absolutely. So tell us about it. 19:35 We're so far beyond Orwell's vision. 19:38 And the name in the book? 1984. 19:40 And you read the book friend, you need to read it, 1984. 19:44 But we're way beyond that 19:45 in terms of the government capacity 19:48 to monitor your every movement 19:50 and to have access to all of your activity. 19:53 So you believe the government has gone too far 19:56 in violating the privacy of the citizens? 19:58 You know, the thing that I've often said in thinking 20:02 about where we're at here with our freedom John, 20:04 is that you're only free as long as you're irrelevant. 20:09 As long as you're completely irrelevant 20:12 and meaningless then you have nothing to fear 20:14 from the government, but as soon as you have 20:17 something to say that's important-- 20:19 You are free if you are irrelevant 20:21 Yes. 20:22 So you know, if you want to- 20:23 That must make a lot of people feel good? 20:25 If you want to be blissfully irrelevant 20:27 than you can relax in your television 20:31 induced slumber or your beers or whatever it is, 20:34 your drug of choice, television is a drug. 20:37 Do you think we've been damning down 20:39 America through television and other-- 20:43 what shall we call them, you know, 20:45 the American people are bombarded 20:47 with so much stuff and much of it is garbage. 20:51 We're totally over medicated. 20:52 Yes. 20:53 Anti-depressions, anti-anxiety, you know, 20:56 sleeping pills, caffeine, nicotine, alcoholic, marijuana. 21:00 So who cares about the constitution? 21:03 Not too many. 21:04 And then groups 21:05 that are defending it are blasted. 21:08 Yes, yes. 21:09 They considered to be disloyal and unpatriotic 21:13 to the flag whereas in fact, they are standing up 21:17 for America and standing up for the constitution. 21:20 How important Alan, is the constitution? 21:24 If we want to have to preserve a culture 21:29 where individuals have freedom where we have rights, 21:33 constitutions are foundation. 21:35 But you see, the whole culture is changing, is it not? 21:38 We've got-- we're getting 21:39 rid of the protestant culture that gave birth to freedom 21:44 and we have a new culture of permissiveness 21:47 where anything goes. 21:49 Well, but in our postmodern ethos there's no restraint 21:54 on the accumulation an abuse of power. 21:58 And the media has been dominated by large corporations 22:03 that now own the media and the same large corporations 22:06 are the big financial donors to the politicians. 22:09 Yes. 22:10 So there's not really an independent press. 22:13 What happened to democracy? 22:15 Democracy is suffering. 22:18 Tremendously so because when people think that 22:20 they go to the polling booth and they put in their vote 22:24 on the whole it doesn't count for much at all, does it? 22:27 Because you got big forces 22:29 that are controlling the political process 22:33 and many of these forces do not believe in freedom 22:35 as we believe the Constitution teaches. 22:38 You know in the macro sense, in the big picture sense, 22:42 yes, I think you're right but I don't want to be someone 22:47 who sells cynicism and apathy. 22:50 Americans are already apathetic 22:53 and when it comes to influencing specific bills 22:58 and specific actions everybody does have a voice 23:02 and everybody does have influence 23:05 and people should not assume 23:07 that they don't count and be apathetic. 23:10 Let me put something to you, you know, 23:12 as well as I do back in-- was it 1859, 23:17 Charles Darwin put out a book called 23:19 "On the Origin of Species" and the end result of that book 23:25 became the death of God. 23:28 God was not necessary because we had a process 23:31 that was call atheistic evolution and therefore 23:35 God was not only demoted God was sacked, God was executed. 23:40 And somebody said, the death of God 23:44 always leads to the death of a man. 23:47 And with the death God and the death of a man 23:51 does this contribute tremendous 23:54 to the erosion or personal liberties? 23:56 Well of course it does. 23:58 If human beings are not created in the image of God 24:02 and have inherent dignity then who cares if we live or die? 24:07 Yes. 24:08 And so we have a culture today of unbelief 24:11 that God is demoted, God is abolished 24:14 and who cares what is right and wrong. 24:17 And if this is so it's not such a big step to go on say, 24:20 not only is the Bible irrelevant, 24:23 so is the American Constitution. 24:26 But you know, put this into perspective 24:28 of a secular person. 24:30 Yes. 24:31 The reason why religious freedom is so tenuous today 24:35 is because religion itself is increasingly regarded 24:41 as either a harmless myth at best 24:44 or very dangerous at its worst. 24:47 So why protect religious freedom 24:50 if you just protecting people's rights to believe 24:52 a myth that could in fact be dangerous. 24:55 And so you and I believe 24:57 that this book can be demonstrated to be true? 25:01 Oh, absolutely. 25:02 We believe that there is tremendous evidence 25:05 to show that there is a creator God. 25:08 We talk about the anthropic principle 25:11 that everything in the universe, 25:13 everything in the world has been designed for you, 25:18 for the human being and therefore 25:22 we believe that there is a God who made us. 25:23 And if God made us, man is distinct 25:26 in glorious and freedom is a marvelous thing. 25:29 Alan, is there not a fine line between combating terrorism 25:35 and the rights of the citizens to maintain privacy? 25:40 Well, that line has been crossed. 25:43 I don't think it's a fine line, 25:45 I think that crossing that line-- 25:48 So it's a big black line? 25:50 The line has been erased. 25:52 We have principles in the Fourth Amendment. 25:57 You go after people that you have reason to suspect, 26:01 you don't go after people that you have no probable cause 26:04 to suspect but that line has been obliterated 26:08 and now they're gathering up everything. 26:10 And so if anybody wants to abuse that information, 26:14 you know, if the hackers can hack into the White House 26:18 and if they can hack into our large media companies 26:22 you don't think they're gonna be hacking 26:23 into the NSA as well and all of this data you know, 26:28 once its accumulated we're all at risk. 26:31 Why is it that some of the advocates 26:35 of the getting rid of the constitution, 26:39 they don't say quite like that, 26:41 but some of the advocates are the Christians? 26:44 You know I don't know that the Christians 26:46 are so much saying that I think that there's in philosophy 26:51 tremendous support for our rights 26:54 but in practice there's tremendous support 26:57 for the authorities, for the military, 27:01 for our security agencies. 27:04 You see there is this assumption 27:06 that America is the good guy and pretty much does no wrong. 27:12 Well, of course America has been the good guy 27:15 and America has been the great defender of freedom. 27:19 Now, my friend, watching the Carter Report today 27:22 with Alan Reineck, this great attorney, 27:25 I just want you to get behind this and write to us 27:29 and support this work, support the cause of freedom 27:32 I say to you today. 27:34 Write to me John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 27:38 Thousand Oaks, California 91358. 27:41 In Australia, write to me at Terrigal. 27:44 And we're going to put up Alan Reineck's address too, 27:47 he's at Westlake Village just a few miles 27:50 from our office here in Moorpark, 27:52 write to Alan Reineck and stand for the cause of truth, 27:57 defender freedom, defend the Bible, 28:00 my friend, defend the American Constitution. 28:05 And remember what our Lord Jesus Christ said, 28:08 you know the text, Alan, 28:10 because you believe in Jesus the same as I do. 28:12 Jesus, our blessed Lord said, 28:15 you will know the truth. 28:19 What about it? 28:20 And the truth shall set you free. 28:22 And the truth shall set you free. 28:26 Now, we're going to see you next time 28:29 when Alan and I continue this conversation. 28:32 Until now God bless you. |
Revised 2015-07-19