Sister Marie Christine: Ambassador Seiple, could you briefly, for our website, tell us about your keynote address at this Conference about the flight of the Hebrews from Egypt and regarding Religious Freedom and Security?

Ambassador Seiple: it is a classic example of overreach on the part of the most powerful, in this case, the Pharaoh. It is also a story about how they forgot what their original relationship were with the Hebrews.

There came a new pharaoh who knew not Joseph, so 430 years have now gone by and a difficult time is coming up for the Hebrews, primarily because they had been blessed there, and they were happy there, and they were visibly prosperous there.


But what was happening on the positive side to the Hebrews, this minority group was caring the pharaoh's sense of security and instead of embracing and trying to use what was positive, he began to oppress them.

He oppressed them with work schedules, he oppressed them with difficult production schedules, he oppressed them by killing all the Hebrew baby boys; and the irony of it is that in trying to create security for himself, he diminished the hegemony of his midst to the point where this security was not going to be there for any body.


And, to use a military phrase, as the " hard power " gave way to the " soft power " we see ultimately the strongest army of the world ever seen being totally destroyed in the water and the very bulrushes that once protected the little baby Hebrew.

So, the ark that protected the baby Moses and the tambourine, Myriam's tambourine, which is part of the praise celebration after the Israelites made it to the other side, represent some of the tensions between religious freedom and security; and there should not be tensions but rather we should find ways to integrate these two.

Because if there is no religious freedom, there is no security and if there is no security, it is very hard to have religious freedom. Top of Page


Ambassador

Robert A. Seiple

President of the Institute

for Global Engagement

In a values-based civil society, what the Hebrews ultimately had when they left Egypt, after the 430 years of soldiering there, in that society, the coin that is the coin of the realm, and the two sides of that coin are religious freedom and security and when either one of those gets out of the equation we can have the most terrific violent situations imaginable happen. When they are in sync comprehensively, relevantly, when they are in sync, we see the best of a peaceful, secure, state, country, civil society.

Sr. M.C.: You have been working on the field for years to feed people, to feed children. Do you miss this kind of activities?

Amb. S.: I miss the people, I mean, that was active engagement in something very basic. You know, Jesus had these harsh words in all the Scriptures for anybody who would put a stumbling-block in front of a child. It's like he says : " If you are going to put a stumbling-block in front of a child, you would do better to tie a mill-stone around your neck and go and jump in lake Michigan." That is basically what He says…

So, our role, in the time I was with World Vision, and our hard compassion, was to remove stumbling blocks.
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How do you create hope today for children who are the future, but as they look at the future, should not look at it in despair and the only way that future hope is legitimate is that people are doing tangible acts of kindness today: feeding the poor, taking care of children, watching out for the most vulnerable in society, the justice issues…

And it is much as we do it not simply to the least of these, but to one of the least of these. So they come to the Kingdom one at a time, they come hungry one at a time, they are born one at a time, and I can tell you, they die one at a time. They are vulnerable people, with faces, and names, and pulses and personalities, and God says: " This is what my kingdom looks like ".

So, watch out, and watch for them… And yes, I miss that part…

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