CSC Calendar
CARLSBAD, CA
North Coast Christian Fellowship
3254 Eureka Pl
Date: May 10
Time: 11:00 am & 2:00 pm
Speakers: Honorable Judge Victor Ramirez, Ret. and C. Norman Farley
LOS ANGELES, CA
Festival of the Laity
White Memorial Church
401 N State St
Date: May 17
Time: 2:30 pm & 3:30 pm
Speaker: Alan J. Reinach
WINNETKA, CA
Canoga Park Community Church
Congregation Beth Ohavey Torah
20550 Roscoe Blvd, Winnetka, CA
Date: May 17
Time: 6:00 pm
WASHINGTON, DC
2008 NARLA Captiol Hill Summit
Date: June 12-14
To register call: Lissa Bedford at (301) 680-6687
or e-mail: bedfordm@gc.adventist.org
CARSON, CA
Hispanic Youth Religious Liberty Rally
Carson Spanish Church
21828 S. Dolores St
Date: 6/25 - 6/28
Speakers: Alan J. Reinach, Lincoln Steed, Sam Hernandez, and Fabian Carballo
HONOLULU, HAWAII
Hawaii Festival of Religious Freedom
Honolulu Central Church
2313 Nuuanu Ave,
Date: July 12 & 13
Special Guest Speakers include:
- Ted Wilson, General Conference Vice President;
- John Graz, Executive Director, International Religious Liberty Association;
- J. Brent Walker, Executive Director, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty;
- Lincoln Steed, Editor, Liberty Magazine;
- Melissa Reid, Associate Editor, Liberty Magazine;
- Nicholas Miller, Director, Andrews University International Religious Liberty Institute;
- Alan J. Reinach, President, Church State Council
SOQUEL, CA
Soquel Campmeeting
Religious Liberty Seminar
Date: July 21-25
Speakers: Alan J. Reinach
and Nicholas P. Miller
LIBERTY CRUISE
December 3-7 2008
Freedom’s Ring
Radio Broadcast
Schedule
Churches and Politics in an Election Year
J.
Brent Walker, Executive Director, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious
Liberty, discussing the do’s and don’ts of churches and politics
Broadcast Date:
May 3, 2008
Liberty Magazine Update
Editor
Lincoln Steed observes that we are in a time of crisis for civil and
religious freedoms, and compares this time to previous eras.
Broadcast Date:
May 10, 2008
Foundations of Religious Freedom, Part II, The Demise of Free Exercise Host
Alan Reinach continues a series with a discussion of the erosion of the
constitutional protection for the free exercise of religion. Broadcast Date:
May 17, 2008
Religious Discrimination in Prison
Greg
Hamilton, President of Northwest Religious Liberty Association,
discusses a unique case where prison officials blocked an inmate from
participating in religious services, because he claimed to be both a
Native American and a Christian.
Broadcast date:
May 31, 2008
A Teacher Teaches Religion in Public Schools
High School Teacher, Fabian Carballo, discusses how he incorporates religion legally into his curriculum in public school.
Broadcast date:
June 7, 2008
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Volume 1, No. 4, May 2008
In This Issue...
TOP NEWS STORIES
Texas Sized Mess (reprinted from Religious Liberty blog dated 5/1/08: www.religiousliberty.info )
Texas
is a big state with an even bigger ego, and now it has a legal mess to
match. Everyone is familiar with the incursion of government officials
into the Yearning For Zion compound of the Fundamentalist Latter Day
Saints. We all know that 413 children [and counting] were removed
ostensibly for their own protection, and that the legal games have
begun. Many questions are being asked about religious freedom, and
whether the rights of the church members were violated... Read more...
NARLA NEWS
NARLA-West Mourns the Death of Russell Standish, Father of NARLA Executive Director James Standish
Russell Standish |
We
were grieved to learn of the death of a true spiritual giant, Dr.
Russell Standish, who has been a vigorous defender of Adventist
theology for decades. Dr. Standish died in a car accident in
Mildura, Australia, on May 2nd on his way to a Sabbath speaking
appointment. In addition to his voluminous writing and speaking
ministry, Dr. Standish gave us our NARLA Executive Director, his son
James. As of press time, we have no information on where to send
memorial gifts. Please join us in praying for the family. Russell is
survived by his wife, Glenys, sons, James, Timothy and Stephen, and
several grandchildren.
NARLA West President Speaks on Religious Discrimination for San Francisco and California Bar Association
NARLA – West President, Alan J. Reinach, Esq., appeared on panels for
the Labor & Employment Sections of both the San Francisco and
California Bar Associations earlier this year, to address the topic of
religious discrimination in employment. The San Francisco Bar
Association met in Yosemite, in February, where Reinach shared the
program with William Tamayo, the chief attorney for the United States
Equal Employment Opportunity... Read More...
Immigration Rights Seminar in San Diego
Raul
Green, director of the San Diego office of the United States Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, and one of his investigators, Carmen
Ortiz, participated in a panel discussion of immigrants’ rights at the
San Diego Spanish Church, April 19, sponsored by NARLA – West... Read More...
CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS
Plan Now to Attend the Hawaii Festival of Religious Freedom!
Religious Liberty Leadership Training Program Included
Religious Freedom Festivals are spreading like wildfire around the
world, as there will be at least half a dozen in 2008 alone. The first
Festival ever to be conducted in North America will be coming to
Hawaii, July 12 and 13. In addition, a very special Religious Liberty
Leadership Training Program will be conducted on July 14 – 16, from
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. nightly.
Read More...
Liberty Cruise
We are nearing the end of our favorite time of year: the Religious
Liberty Campaign season. As you know, this is the time when we travel
across North America, visiting local churches, spreading the message of
religious freedom, and interacting with faithful religious liberty
supporters. Very frequently on these trips church members say, “We wish
we heard about religious liberty more often! Why do we only talk about
it once a year?”...
Read More...
RESOURCES YOU CAN USE
"Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land" sermon by Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
NARLA West president, Alan Reinach, has published a new sermon,
"Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land," that looks at liberty of
conscience from the beginning of the Great Controversy to the end, with
a very strong focus on the gospel core of our message.... Read More...
"The Sheep and the Goats" sermon by Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
Who is my neighbor? Asks Alan Reinach, in a new sermon: “The Sheep and
the Goats.” The context is how Americans regard immigrants. Jesus says
our treatment of the stranger is one of the determining factors in the
judgment, in his parable of the sheep and the goats.... Read More...
Texas Sized Mess!
By Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
Texas is a big state with an even bigger ego, and now it has a legal
mess to match. Everyone is familiar with the incursion of government
officials into the Yearning For Zion compound of the Fundamentalist
Latter Day Saints. We all know that 413 children [and counting] were
removed ostensibly for their own protection, and that the legal games
have begun. Many questions are being asked about religious freedom, and
whether the rights of the church members were violated.
Let’s take a stab at asking the hard questions. For those who care
about religious freedom, what should we expect of our government
officials in such a situation, and what rights should we insist be
respected?
First and foremost, we must begin with the obvious: there is NO
religious freedom right to sexually abuse minors. In Texas, as in many
states, the age of consent for a parent to give permission for a child
to marry is 16. Girls 15 and younger cannot marry. It is a crime for
adult males to have sex with minors.
Our first concern ought to be for the welfare of the children. If the
religious freedom interests of the group or church members have been
violated, there are legal remedies that can be pursued. Protecting the
children from imminent harm has to be everyone’s first priority.
There has been a large coalition of faith groups, a Free Exercise
Coalition, working to establish Religious Freedom Restoration Acts in
states throughout the nation. These acts would restore the “compelling
state interest” standard, requiring the state to demonstrate a
sufficiently compelling reason for infringing sincerely held religious
beliefs and practices. Applying even this test, rigorously protecting
religious freedom, to the polygamy practices of the FLDS group, it is
quite clear that the state’s interest in protecting girls from sexual
abuse will prevail over any claimed religious justification for adult
males to marry girls younger than 16.
It should also be noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 19th
century that religious freedom claims to engage in polygamy are not
protected by the First Amendment. Even should that decision be
revisited, and polygamy itself gain some legal recognition, this would
not likely extend to children under the legal age of consent.
Recent news reports suggest that the phone call by a 16 year old girl
to government authorities from the compound may have been a hoax. Even
so, the legal question is whether the authorities had a reasonable
basis for the investigation. Clearly, there have been so many children
who have died because of the failure of Child Protective Services to
adequately and timely respond to calls for help, that the authorities
cannot be faulted for taking the call seriously, and obtaining warrants
to search the compound.
Lawyers for the FLDS are challenging the warrants in court, and have
compared the compound to the Vatican, arguing that the authorities
should have used far more restraint in their investigation. Clearly,
when the government enters a religious site to execute a warrant, great
care ought to be used in respecting the sanctity of the property, and
respecting the religious sensibilities of the faith community.
The most troubling aspect of the raid, in my mind, was the wholesale
removal of all the children, without seeming regard for the degree of
risk to each child. Under the laws of all states, children cannot be
removed from their parents unless there is sufficient evidence of abuse
or neglect AND sufficient risk of continuing harm. Absent the immediacy
of the threat, there is ample time for authorities to present their
case to a court. The purpose of allowing authorities to remove children
is to protect them from immediate harm.
In this case, the risk of immediate harm was to girls, primarily those
between the ages of about 12 – 15. The 16 year olds could legally
marry. Giving the authorities the benefit of the doubt, and in the
interests of protecting as many children as possible, perhaps they
could have justified removing girls between the ages of 10 or 11 and
16. No doubt, they would have had some difficulty establishing the ages
of the girls, beyond doubt.
With that in mind, it is difficult to understand why the authorities
removed all the children, including babies, and all of the boys as well
as the girls. One press report about the two day hearing in court cited
state authorities as justifying the removal of the boys because they
are being taught to become child abusers. Even assuming that this is
true, this does not constitute the sort of imminent harm that meets the
legal standard for their removal. Frankly, this smacks of religious
persecution. The boys were removed because the state did not approve of
the religious doctrine they were being taught regarding marriage and
family. In California, some judges do not approve religious beliefs
that require parents to assume responsibility for the education of
their children. In America, the courts do not judge religious beliefs.
Instead, the law judges actions.
The law is a very poor tool for shaping belief and opinion. Instead,
the law is designed to either deter or punish crime. Enacting stricter
penalties for child sexual abuse or plural marriages may prove
inadequate to deter conduct that is motivated by sincere religious
belief. However, the 19th century prohibitions on polygamy were
successful in causing the LDS Church to abandon its religious
commitment to plural marriage. We may applaud this success because we
oppose the practice of polygamy. Yet we also know that in the future,
the law will be used to deter the sincere observance of the Seventh-day
Sabbath.
The law operates most effectively to punish crime. The focus in
Eldorado, Texas, ought to be on determining whether adult males have
committed crimes by engaging in polygamy or sexual abuse of minor
girls. If so, the men deserve to be punished, not the children.
A basic religious freedom concern in this case must be whether the FLDS
members will be able to obtain a fair hearing in court. While there is
a legal presumption of innocence, it is difficult for us to overcome
our biases against members of a polygamous “cult.” Judges are not
immune from ordinary biases. We already “know” that the “cultists” are
guilty of heinous crimes, of child sexual abuse and polygamy, and we
have already tried and convicted them in our minds. The outcome is
pre-determined.
Of course, the law requires much more careful scrutiny, something we
call “due process.” The logistics of trying so many cases is
mindboggling. Lawyers from around the state have been asked to
volunteer to represent the children. Strict time limits govern how long
the state has to complete the hearings, and make a determination. The
actual risk of harm must be determined with respect to each individual
child.
In the end, I suspect that the state’s over reaching in removing all of
the children will blow up into a huge disaster. Government officials in
Colorado and Arizona are already fearing that the raid will only
confirm to other church members that the government is the enemy, and
will close off meaningful communication with them for another 50 years.
It seems likely that the vast majority of the children will have to be
returned to their homes, and that the government will wind up hugely
embarrassed.
People of good will would do well to pray:
- That the children who need protection will receive it, and will be given a new lease on life;
- That the men who deserve prosecution will be identified, and punished;
- That
the legal process will be fair and reasonable, and that the decisions
will be made on the basis of sound evidence, rather than religious
prejudice;
- That the government will be
subjected to careful scrutiny for the adequacy of its warrants, its
investigation and its conduct, so that the values of due process of law
and religious freedom are carefully protected and valued;
- That we may learn any needed lessons for any future actions that might be needed.
In closing, let us remember that there is good news here: the
government raided a secretive religious compound in Texas, and everyone
is still alive! This is an improvement over the last such raid in
Texas. With the eternal vigilance of those who care about religious
freedom and due process of law, the legal and constitutional issues can
be sorted out in the courts.(back to top)
Plan Now to Attend the Hawaii Festival of Religious Freedom! Religious Liberty Leadership Training Program Included
Religious Freedom Festivals are spreading like wildfire around the
world, as there will be at least half a dozen in 2008 alone. The first
Festival ever to be conducted in North America will be coming to
Hawaii, July 12 and 13. In addition, a very special Religious Liberty
Leadership Training Program will be conducted on July 14 – 16, from
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. nightly. Many of the church’s leading religious
liberty professionals will be participating in this training event,
including Lincoln Steed, Dr. John Graz, Barry Bussey, Nicholas Miller,
Melissa Reid and Alan Reinach, representing the General Conference,
Liberty Magazine, Andrews University, Canada and the Pacific Union.
If you wish to attend, you should make your travel reservations now.
Special hotel rates have been obtained at the Pacific Beach Hotel, call
800- 367-6060, and ask for the rate for the Hawaii Festival of
Religious Freedom or visit their website at: pacificbeachhotel.com
While there is no cost to attend either the Hawaii Festival or the
Leadership Training Program, advance registration is required for the
Leadership Training Event, since there will be supper provided. Please
call
Pat Silvia at 805-413-7126 or e.mail to Pat@churchstate.org.
The basic idea of these Festivals is to express gratitude for religious
freedom to God, to our nation’s founding fathers, and to our elected
officials who preserve our freedom. In addition, we need to shine a
spotlight on the urgency of learning to live together in peace, despite
our deepest differences. (back to top)
Liberty Cruise
We are nearing the end of our favorite time of year: the Religious
Liberty Campaign season. As you know, this is the time when we travel
across North America, visiting local churches, spreading the message of
religious freedom, and interacting with faithful religious liberty
supporters. Very frequently on these trips church members say, “We wish
we heard about religious liberty more often! Why do we only talk about
it once a year?”
We couldn’t agree more, and that’s why we are so eager to tell you
about our upcoming Religious Liberty Cruise, December 3-7, 2008. We’ve
planned this 4-day combination of warm weather, beautiful landscape and
spiritual rejuvenation because like you, we feel that our religious
freedoms are too precious to highlight just once a year.
The Celebrity cruise liner “Infinity” leaves from Fort Lauderdale,
Florida on Wednesday afternoon, December 3, for a tour of the Western
Caribbean, and returns Sunday morning, December 7th. Thursday and
Friday are your days to explore Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico.
See the website link below for additional details on the cruise ship,
itinerary, time table and the port locations where we’ll go ashore.
We will begin the Sabbath and our time worshipping together with an
inspirational Friday evening vespers talk by Dr. Bill Knott, editor of
the Adventist Review. Dr. Knott will be our Sabbath morning presenter
as well, and then Sabbath afternoon you will be blessed by a panel
discussion by the Liberty editorial team and the Southern Union
Religious Liberty department.
We have brokered a great deal, and as before, offer it to you with no
additional fees or overhead costs. Even with taxes the prices begin at
$429 per passenger. That’s for accommodation, food, and a Religious
Liberty event to remember! Prices vary slightly based on deck/category
level and occupancy, so please give our travel agents a call at
(301)977-4141 or e-mail travelfourless2002@yahoo.com for additional information.
But don’t wait! The initial $200/cabin deposit is due April 21, so call now to guarantee you are ‘on board’. (back to top)
Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land
NARLA West president, Alan Reinach, has published a new sermon,
"Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land," that looks at liberty of
conscience from the beginning of the Great Controversy to the end, with
a very strong focus on the gospel core of our message. He asks: why
didn't God put a barbed wire fence around the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, the most dangerous spot ever to exist on the face of
planet earth? The answer, of course, has to do with the nature of love
and freedom. The heart of the gospel, the atoning sacrifice of Christ
for the sins of the world, was made necessary because love cannot be
forced or commanded. The sermon goes on to ask: what are we supposed to
do with what we know? And offers three specific suggestions. To find
out what you can do with the prophetic insight the Lord has given us,
read the entire sermon at: www.churchstate.org. (back to top)
The Sheep and the Goats
Who is my neighbor? Asks Alan Reinach, in a new sermon: “The Sheep and
the Goats.” The context is how Americans regard immigrants. Jesus says
our treatment of the stranger is one of the determining factors in the
judgment, in his parable of the sheep and the goats. Reinach compares
the anti-immigrant sentiment in America to the attitude that will give
us the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is all about separating
out a group of people to become the scapegoat, the “other,” the “them”
as in: “us and them.” We don’t persecute ourselves, but only the
“other.” Reinach also asks what we mean by a Christian America, and
suggests that in order to be truly Christian, we must embrace the
teachings of Jesus, and our own constitutional heritage, regarding the
human rights of all persons. The sermon is now available on line
at: www.churchstate.org.
(back to top)
NARLA West President Speaks on Religious Discrimination for San Francisco and California Bar Association
NARLA – West President, Alan J. Reinach, Esq., appeared on panels for
the Labor & Employment Sections of both the San Francisco and
California Bar Associations earlier this year, to address the topic of
religious discrimination in employment. The San Francisco Bar
Association met in Yosemite, in February, where Reinach shared the
program with William Tamayo, the chief attorney for the United States
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s San Francisco district
office, encompassing several western states. The State Bar meeting was
in Sacramento, in April, where Reinach shared the program with
constitutional scholar, Alan E. Browntein, who teaches at U.C. Davis
law school.
Both panels gave Reinach the opportunity to highlight differences
between state and federal law requiring religious accommodation, and to
remind attorneys that state law provides much stronger protections. He
also had the opportunity to remind labor and management attorneys that,
in most cases, a religious accommodation is do-able, even though
management may not think so.
As a result of these appearances, Reinach was invited to submit
articles to legal publications on the topic, which will help shape the
understanding of the legal profession about these issues of critical
importance to Seventh-day Adventists. (back to top)
Immigration Rights Seminar in San Diego
Raul Green, director of the San Diego office of the United States Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, and one of his investigators, Carmen
Ortiz, participated in a panel discussion of immigrants’ rights at the
San Diego Spanish Church, April 19, sponsored by NARLA – West and the
Church State Council. Adventist Immigration Attorney, Sam Hernandez and
NARLA-West president, Alan Reinach, also participated in the panel.
Mr. Green instructed the audience about Federal labor and employment
laws that protect workers’ health and safety and their right to be free
of discrimination. Carmen Ortiz delved into the sensitive topic of
sexual harassment. Alan Reinach discussed some basic constitutional
issues involving rights under the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th amendments, as
to how our legal system functions, while Sam Hernandez addressed
specific issues facing those with immigration matters.
Prior to the seminar, Alan Reinach preached a sermon entitled: “The
Sheep and the Goats.” The sermon is now available on our website: www.churchstate.org.
Opening the seminar, Reinach reminded the audience that many Americans
have become complacent about their rights, and that immigrants come to
this nation valuing both our legacy of freedom and the economic
opportunity. He urged the audience to care about preserving liberty
just as new converts are often more zealous for the faith than those
born with it.
Some have written critically, assuming that in conducting these
seminars we are approving of those who violate the law by entering this
country illegally. Be assured that this is not the case. The seminar
does not even address the issue of illegal immigration as such.
Instead, it provides information to immigrants about legal and
constitutional issues of interest to them, as a public service of the
local church. The attorney may address questions regarding the desire
to change or improve one’s immigration status, however, we always
encourage people to obey the law.
Future Immigration Rights Seminars have been scheduled at the Carson
Spanish Church in June, and at La Sierra Spanish Church in November. To
host an Immigration Rights seminar in your church, please contact Alan
Reinach at mrliberty@churchstate.org, or call 805-413-7396. (back to top)
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