Calendar
CARSON, CA
Carson City SDA
415 W Torrance Blvd.
Date: August 22
Time: 11:00am
Speaker: C. Norm Farley
LYNWOOD, CA
Lynwood Spanish SDA
3801 Courtland St.
Date: August 28-29
Time: 4:00pm, 11:00am & 7:00pm
Speakers: Fabian Carballo &
Alan J. Reinach. Esq.
SAN MARCOS, CA
San Marcos SDA
363 Woodland Pkwy
Date: Sept. 5
Time: 11:00am & 2:00pm
Speaker:
Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
GLENDALE, CA
Vallejo Drive SDA
300 Vallejo Dr.
Date: Sept. 12
Time: 2:00pm
Speakers: Marvin Moore, Editor, Signs of the Times and Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
SPARKS, NV
Sparks SDA
2990 Rock Blvd
Date: Sept. 26
Time: 9:30am, 11:00am &
2:00pm
Speaker:
Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
Freedom’s Ring
Radio Broadcast
Schedule
The Separation of Church and Sate
Host,
Alan J. Reinach, Esq., explains what the Historic Protestant view of
separation is and contrasts it with the secularist and fundamentalist
approaches.
Broadcast date:
August 1, 2009
Proposition 8 Revisited: A Post Supreme Court Analysis
Nicholas
Miller, Esq., Director of the Andrews University International
Religious Liberty Institute, on the California Supreme Court’s decision
upholding traditional marriage.
Broadcast date:
August 8, 2009
Report from Geneva: Human Rights Commission
Barry
Bussey, Legislative Affairs Director for the Seventh-day Adventist
Church, discusses the current state of Resolutions on Religious
Defamation.
Broadcast date:
August 15, 2009
Censorship
Host,
Alan J. Reinach, Esq., discusses the liberal intolerance that would
silence the church on moral issues, despite insisting on their own
right to advocate for public immorality.
Broadcast date:
August 22, 2009
Marriage as Illegal Bigotry?
Host,
Alan Reinach discusses the current status of traditional religious
beliefs regarding marriage in California, in the wake of a series of
state cases regarding religious liberty and gay rights.
Broadcast date:
August 29, 2009
Hate Crimes and Hate Speech in Congress
Lincoln Steed, Editor of Liberty magazine, discussing current legislation in Congress regarding hate crimes.
Broadcast date:
September 5, 2009
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In This Issue... Volume 2, No. 5, July August 2009
ACTION NEEDED!
Attention all Wal-Mart Employees
Wal-Mart Policy Change Affecting Adventist Employees
A
recent policy change by the corporate offices of Wal-Mart in
Bentonville, Arkansas has resulted in religious accommodation problems
for Seventh-day Adventists and others. The new policy requires its
employees to show “open availability” regarding scheduling.
So far, approximately a dozen Adventist employees have experienced a
number of discriminatory actions, such as non-consideration for
management positions, managers being demoted, or hours being cut back,
reports Todd McFarland, Associate General Counsel for the Office of
General Counsel, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Notwithstanding the prevalence of the new company-wide policy,
apparently certain categories of employees are exempted. A church
member in Nevada who worked as a greeter for many years discovered her
position was exempted and that she would continue to have Sabbaths off
after discussing the matter with the new manager who had announced the
new policy.
The Office of General Counsel is seeking to engage Wal-Mart in a
constructive solution to this problem. In the meantime, we need to
continue gathering information on how this new policy has impacted our
own church members. If you or anyone you know is an Adventist working
at Wal-Mart, please inform our office in Westlake Village at :
805-413-7398 or in Sacramento at: 916-446-2552.
Religious Liberty Teams Now Being Formed
The
old saying still holds true: united we stand, divided we fall.
Religious liberty leaders and interested church members throughout the
five states of the Pacific Union are urged to begin forming teams to
advance the cause of religious freedom in their area. Summer travel and
speaking activities have spurred the formation of teams in various
areas throughout the Pacific Union, including Phoenix, Arizona, San
Diego county, Riverside, Bakersfield, Fresno, Central Coast and
Sacramento. E.mail to mrliberty@churchstate.org, if you are interested in joining or forming a team in your area.
Andrews University to Host Conference on Marriage, Homosexuality and the Church, October 15-17
A conference will be held at Andrews University that deals with issues
of marriage and sexual orientation in relation to Seventh-day Adventist
church teaching and public policy positions. The Church State Council,
a religious liberty ministry of the Pacific Union Conference of
Seventh-day Adventists, is proud to join with our colleagues throughout
the church in sponsoring this critically important
conference.
To register online, please visit: www.plusline.org/eventdetail.php
Prayer and Praise List
Each
month, we urge you to continue praying for those who have lost their
jobs due to faithfulness in observing the Sabbath, and for others
seeking to keep jobs, for those with active claims and cases in court,
and for others with religious liberty problems. Prayer changes things!
Please join us in making prayer an increasingly active and effective
part of this ministry.
- Sandra – to find work after being fired for refusing to work on Sabbath.
- Teresa – to find witnesses to support her case, and another job.
- Bruce – strength to endure ongoing harassment
- Anthony – for blessing in his work selling used cars
- Judy – success with her appeal
- Scott,
David and other postal service workers – for help in obtaining or
retaining Sabbath accommodations during a time of upheaval and
transition
- Esteban – guidance for the administrative judge deciding his case
- Saul – for help in finding work
- Ricardo – for blessing in starting his own business
- Dennis – for blessing on his case in Federal court
- Willie – for wisdom to guide the lawyers handling his case
- James – to find new work while his complaint is processed by the EEOC
- Richard – for his job to be restored and religious discrimination to be remedied in management
- Terrice – for physical healing of work-related injury and restoring of her work hours
- Rajina - that she would be accommodated for the Sabbath
Please feel free to send in your own prayer needs to be added to the list!
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TOP NEWS STORIES
Oregon and Tennessee Enact Religious Freedom Acts
Oregon Governor, Ted Kulongoski, quietly signed Senate Bill 786, the
Oregon Religious Freedom Act on Thursday, July 16, 2009. The bill
establishes protections for employees needing “holy day” and “religious
apparel” accommodations in the workplace. By bringing greater clarity
to what constitutes an “undue hardship” for businesses, it reduces the
threat of litigation for employers and accommodates the religious
beliefs and practices of people of all faiths.
The Oregon bill was the culmination of a long term cooperative effort
between Speaker of the House of Representatives, David Hunt, and the
Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA), under the leadership of
its president, Greg Hamilton. The Church State Council and the North
American Religious Liberty Association-West give thanks to God and
congratulate Greg Hamilton, Rhonda Bolton (Administrative Assistant),
and many others from NRLA for their vision and determined efforts in
working to help bring this bill to fruition. (For more information on
the specifics of the bill and its history go to http://www.nrla.com/.)
Two weeks prior to Oregon, Tennessee’s governor enacted House Bill
1598, The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, on July 1, 2009. The bill
addresses the right to freely exercise one’s religious faith under the
state constitution, and restores for the State of Tennessee the
“compelling governmental interest” and the “least restrictive means”
standards that were diminished by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Smith ruling
that a generally applicable law did not substantially burden a person’s
free exercise of religion when no compelling state interest was
essential to the law.
The Tennessee bill establishes a broader basis for protecting a wide
array of religious beliefs and practices in contrast to the more narrow
focus of the Oregon bill. This difference is due to the political
climate of each state and the possible outcomes that can be achieved in
each. The federal Workplace Freedom of Religion Act (WFRA) has stalled
in Congress for a handful of years due to the strength and influence of
particular lobby interests and the reluctance of legislators to go
contrary to their concerns.
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NORTH AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION BLOG
In Troubled Times, the Pope Calls for a New World Order
In the encyclical Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth) Pope Benedict
argues the time has come for a world political authority to correct the
evils of our time - everything from the excess of capitalism to the
challenges in the environment. Such a call for a world political body
is not new. Read Barry Bussey's entire Blog at www.religiousliberty.info/blog/
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And Now the Rest of the Story
In
our last newsletter, we brought to your attention a news article
titled, “San Diego County Issues Citation Ordering Home Bible Study to
Cease,” which hit the national news very quickly. It made great news,
but the aftermath of the story was overlooked by those same news
venues, even though the outcome was positive. So here is “The Rest of
the Story.”
San Diego County reviewed the
situation and disavowed the actions of the code enforcement officer who
had issued the citation to the pastor conducting the home bible
studies. The county determined that the studies could continue as they
were before. The positive outcome was largely due to the efforts of the
Western Center for Law and Justice, and attorney Dean Broyles,
representing the pastor, whose letter to the county documenting the
various legal issues was superb. For a local news source discussing the
county’s and pastor’s positions and the views of constitutional
scholars regarding the situation, follow this link:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/30/1n30bible00100-county-wont-force-permit-bible-stud/
In an earlier newsletter, we had an article on anti-Christian violence
committed by Hindu extremists in Orissa, India that killed hundreds and
forced tens of thousands to flee the region. A Seventh-day Adventist
pastor and several elderly Adventists were among those killed. The July
issue of Christianity Today (pg. 13) reported that Orissa held national
and state assembly elections in May. The outcome of those elections
resulted in a local centrist party, the Biju Janata Dal, taking control
of the government by soundly defeating the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party by 109 to 7 assembly seats. Secularists Hindus accounted
for the overwhelming defeat of the extremism of the Hindu nationalist
party. The change in control of the government will lead to greater
protection of the very small minority of Christians in Orissa.
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News from the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
The Department of Justice issues a monthly newsletter titled “Religious
News in Focus”. Their June newsletter highlights two cases dealing with
Muslims wearing headscarves either in court or as correctional
employees, another case addressing a land-use ordinance controversy
over the location of a conservative Jewish ministry “Shabbos House” in
a residential area, and a fourth case concerning a Roman Catholic
inmate denied a vegan diet by the New York Department of Corrections on
the basis that the Roman Catholic Church teaching does not require such
a diet. (To read more about these cases see:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/religdisc/newsletter/focus_39.htm)
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NARLA-WEST NEWS
Spanish Website Launched
NARLA-West Board Member, Daniel Rodela, who started a local Team with
now sixteen members under the title “NARLA-West Los Angeles,” announced
the launching of a website in Spanish highlighting religious liberty
news from a Hispanic perspective, as well as their local Team and
efforts on behalf of religious liberty. NARLA-West congratulates the
motivation and efforts of NARLA-West Los Angeles! (See www.libertadreligiosa.webs.com)
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FROM OUR INBOX
We continue to receive occasional e-mail inquiries about e-mails
purporting some form of federal threat to our religious freedom.
Have you received a forwarded e-mail about the new coins issued by the
United States Mint claiming the phrase “In God We Trust” was removed
from the coins and to refuse accepting or using them? Well, according
to Snopes.com, the phrase was not removed, but moved from the face to
the sides of the coin.
Another e-mail continuing to make the rounds for many years is the one
declaring the Federal Communications Commission has granted a hearing
to consider petition #2493, which intends to remove pastors and
religious programming from the airwaves. Snopes.com will reveal this is
another urban legend, now over a decade old. The following link will
provide information demonstrating the fallacy of this false claim:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_petition_2493.htm
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EDITORIAL
Religious Liberty: Majoritarian vs. Individual
Matt McMearty
Associate Director, Church State Council
Have you noticed that when some people speak of religious liberty, they
mean something different from individual religious liberty? They use
the same term but mean something else. In fact, there are two distinct
approaches to religious freedom: majoritarian and individual.
Protestants and Enlightenment philosophers, from the founding era of
our nation, tended to view the church and voluntary religious societies
as the outworking of individuals in agreement with each other in
matters of belief and practice. A church only exercises authority
delegated to it by its members while subject to their ultimate control,
and the state has no part in its internal matters. By comparison, the
new states and the new federal government were civil organizations also
formed on the basis of the voluntary choices of the people and subject
to the control of the people via constitutions and bills of rights. In
this way, church and state on the federal level were to remain separate
and among the states they were in various degrees of separation. Thus,
our nation was established on principles of individual religious
freedom, a freedom which also encompassed the voluntary associations in
churches.
The view of churches as the product of personal choices developed in
contrast to the historic reality of “Christendom,” a unique blending of
religion, culture and society. For centuries, government and religion
were two parts of one society. Both in Roman Catholic Europe, and in
the Protestant countries post-Reformation, society was seen as before
and above the individual, but not as the product of the people’s
choices. The Church and the State were ordained by God, established to
reveal the complete will of God for society. The church and the state
were the essence of society, while individuals’ lives were molded by
both. The church, whether Catholic or Protestant, shaped the individual
according to its teachings, while the state controlled the people by
its laws formed in harmony with the teachings of an established church.
Thus, the individual’s mind and body was not his own, per se, but the
domain of the church and the state or the society.
This basic historical difference leads to either an individualist or a
communitarian approach to defining religious liberty. In the former
perspective, religious freedom was defined by beginning with the
individual conscience and ending with the people determining the role
of the church and the state in relation to the individual’s rights. In
the latter perspective, religious freedom is defined on a communitarian
basis in that the individual's rights are shaped and determined by the
needs of the community as directed by the church and, ultimately, the
state. The two approaches are diametrically opposed. Islam in various
Muslim countries is communitarian.
Thus, in our day, many Christian leaders express an essentially
communitarian ideal when they speak of America as a Christian nation.
They think of religious liberty in these terms, that the nation must
first and foremost uphold its social and legal commitments to being
Christian, while still respecting the rights of others to their own
beliefs and observances. Many enduring church-state battles begin to
make sense when this is understood. Thus, for example, arguments over
prayer and Bible reading in the public schools reflect the conflict
between communitarian values – “of course a Christian nation must
conduct devotional services in our public institutions!” – and the
individual value – “no student should be made to feel excluded by the
religious practices of the majority.”
When communitarian values prevail, individual rights are subordinate.
Yet, when individual rights prevail, communitarians argue that the
state subordinates religion to a purely private matter, thereby
diminishing the rights and respect for religious institutions and the
Christian society itself. Thus, communitarians see the emphasis on
individual rights as sowing the seeds for the destruction of the
society. By contrast, the individual rights perspective views
communitarian arguments with suspicion convinced that the communitarian
approach tramples on the rights of individual conscience, especially of
those belonging to minority religions.
Christian Nation advocates both Protestant and Catholic, seek a common
agreement among all Christians, and reinterpret our nation’s history by
applying the basic assumptions of Christendom thinking. The First
Amendment cannot mean what the Supreme Court says it means, because
that would have meant our founding fathers intended to dismantle
“Christendom.” Precisely! Instead, such Christian nation advocates
insist that our constitution was intended to uphold and preserve the
Christian society and culture, and to shape our nation based squarely
on legislating the Ten Commandments as the basis of all civil laws.
Today’s secular government profoundly undermines the influence of
Christian religion, thus leading to the disintegration of the moral
fabric of society. Ultimate collapse is the expected outcome. This is
why the Supreme Court remains the scapegoat of many communitarians as a
central cause for many of the ills of society.
Of course, the Catholic community has its own unique commitment to
communitarian ideals. It regards the teaching authority of Church
centered in papal encyclicals as essential for understanding what is
good for society. In turn, these teachings are applied by the bishops
according to national circumstances. When non-Catholics embrace this
communitarian approach, Catholic ideals of social good obtain greater
acceptance in the broader social and political realities. Undoubtedly,
the Catholic Church has obtained considerable wisdom through its
centuries of experience in dealing with society, and its policy
positions often make a very positive contribution.
Although there remain important differences between Protestant and
Catholic conservatives in the U.S., the socially conservative movement
in the U.S. popularly known as “the Religious Right” is essentially a
proxy war for the reinstatement of the historic Catholic communitarian
ideal once described as “Christendom.” Only now, it will not be a Roman
Catholic Christendom, but a “Catholic” Christendom or a “pan-Christian”
social order supported by all forms of Christianity and religions.
Communitarians approach religious liberty, first and foremost from what
is best for the community, because what is at stake is the role of
their institutional influence and the preservation or reintegration of
a defined “Christian” morality for a sound Christian social order. They
want religious freedom for the individual subsumed under the freedom of
religious institutions influencing and guiding society from a generally
Christian perspective. It is similar to the federal government thinking
that in order to prevent collapse in our economy, it is necessary to
“bail out” and uphold the financial institutions that are integral to
the economy. In the past, a similar rationale justified the “divine
right” of kings to preserve society, and in early colonial America,
supported religious establishments as essential for social and
political order. James Madison galvanized opposition to such religious
establishments in Virginia by publishing his famous Memorial and
Remonstrance.
Adventists, other Protestants, many Jews, and secularists, and even
among some ranks of Roman Catholics, view religious freedom as a matter
of individual right that precedes and is independent of the formation
and existence of any religious institution and any political or civil
society. It is a right that cannot undermine the need for appropriate
civil and social order, but neither can any civil and social order
undermine the individual rights of the people who formed the social
order. The goal is to find the balance between individual and social
rights so that both are upheld. Communitarians will tend to choose
communal rights over the individual's religious rights when the two
conflict, while individualists will tend to favor individual rights as
superior to the imposition of communitarian views toward life and
society by law.
If the individualists have their heads on straight, and many today do
not, they will seek to preserve the religious rights of religious
institutions without endorsing communitarian viewpoints within the
content of laws made for our society.
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QUOTABLE QUOTES
"The founders of this nation would regard the mixing of religion and
politics in the ways now being engineered by the religious right as
part of the problem of failing public morality, rather than as an
answer." Isaac Kramnick
The Godless Constitution
(New York, W. & W. Norton Company, 1995) p.153
"A
religious party seems distinctly out of place in a country that made
the elimination of an established church one of the first orders of
national business."
Ibid.
p.160
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