Calendar
LOS ANGELES, CA
Central Filipino Seventh-Day Adventist Church
777 Colorado Blvd
Date: Sept. 12
Time: 11:00am
Speaker:
Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
ALHAMBRA, CA
Alhambra Seventh-day Adventist Church
220 S. Chapel Ave
Date: Sept. 12
Time: 11:00am
Speaker: Marvin Moore, Editor, Signs of the Times
GLENDALE, CA
Vallejo Drive SDA
300 Vallejo Dr.
Date: Sept. 12
Time: 3:00pm
Speakers: Marvin Moore, Editor, Signs of the Times and Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
SPARKS, NV
Sparks Seventh-Day Adventist Church
2990 Rock Blvd
Date: Sept. 26
Time: 9:30am, 11:00am &
2:00pm
Speaker:
Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
COMPTON, CA
Tamarind Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist Church
417 S. Tamarind Ave
Date: Oct. 24
Time: 11:00am
Speaker:
Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
SAN DIEGO, CA
San Diego Spanish Seventh-Day Adventist Church
4222 Eta Street
Date: Nov. 7
Time: 11:00am
Speaker:
Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
Freedom’s Ring
Radio Broadcast
Schedule
Lutheran High School Case
Casey
Mattox, Litigation Counsel, Center for Law and Religious Freedom of the
Christian Legal Society, discusses a big win for private, religious
schools, in a case involving the expulsion of two female students for
their public romantic relationship.
Broadcast date:
September 12, 2009
Faith-based Initiative in the Obama Administration
Holly
Holleman, legal counsel to the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious
Liberty, discusses the current status of faith-based funding.
Broadcast date:
September 19, 2009
The Cost of Objecting to Labor Union Membership
Bruce
Cameron, Reed Larson Professor of Labor Law at Regent University School
of Law, also on staff with National Right to Work Legal Defense
Foundation, discusses a recent case from the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court
of Appeals
Broadcast date:
September 26, 2009
Marriage, Homosexuality and the Church
Nicholas
P. Miller, Esq., Director of the Andrews University International
Religious Liberty Institute, discusses an historic conference
addressing an issue crucial to the Christian life and experience in the
U.S.
Broadcast date:
Oct 3, 2009
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In This Issue... Volume 2, No. 6, September 2009
Welcome Back James Standish!
We received exciting news in mid August, when we learned that the
Executive Committee of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
voted to invite James Standish, the former Executive Director of the
North American Religious Liberty Association, to return to church
employment and serve as Associate Director of Public Affairs and
Religious Liberty, assigned as United Nations Liaison.
Standish, who spent nearly a year as Executive Director of the United
States Commission on International Religious Freedom, will bring his
excellent network and experience to the team. He is also a member of
the White House Taskforce on Interfaith Cooperation & Dialogue.
Dr. John Graz, Director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty, gave
us the good news, along with the following report:
During the 18 months that Public Affairs and Religious Liberty has been
without a United Nations Liaison, Debby Knott maintained our presence
by keeping contact with the United Nations and filing necessary
reports. I want to thank Debby for her good work in a difficult time.
In addition, Barry Bussey and I made several trips to Geneva. Barry
will continue to focus on Washington as Congressional Liaison. He has
already built a good network and is very much appreciated.
The July 26 Festival of Religious Freedom in Jerusalem went well. More
people came on Sunday afternoon than I expected. Richard Elofer and his
team did great work. We had a well known Jewish Rabbi and a group of
Jews and Christians. As you can imagine it is not easy to have this
kind of meeting in Jerusalem.
ACTION NEEDED!
Take Action Now!
JOIN CONFERENCE CALL FOR MEMBERS AND THOSE INTERESTED IN JOINING LOCAL
CHAPTERS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION
Religious liberty chapters are now forming around the five states of
the Pacific Union Conference, in places like San Diego, Phoenix,
Riverside, Loma Linda, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Central Coast,
Sacramento and Napa. Joining or forming a chapter is very easy. Learn
what’s happening with existing chapters, how you can participate, and
what’s the latest update in religious liberty issues. Join the September conference call on Monday, September 21st at 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
To participate in this conference call, please call 805-413-7126 to
obtain instructions for toll free access to this conference. Or e.mail:
to info@churchstate.org.
Register Now!
"Marriage, Homosexuality and the Church"
Where: Andrews University
When: October 15-17
To register online, please visit: www.plusline.org/eventdetail.php
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.
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.
Praise List
- Dennis,
whose case in Federal Court was recently settled quite successfully,
with thanks to the Litigation Committee of the North American Division
for taking the case, Todd McFarland, Associate General Counsel of the
General Conference, for supervising the case, and the Sacramento law
firm of Hiroshima, Roth and Jacobs, and lawyers Phil Hiroshima and Jon
Dagette for handling the case. Good work, everyone!
- Saul,
our prayers for him to find work were finally answered, after 1 ½ years
of unemployment following his termination from Rent-A-Center for
refusing to work on Sabbath. His case is still pending.
- Shirley,
a nurse who, with our counsel, was able to change shifts and work
nights, with Friday nights off, to accommodate her Sabbath observance.
- Shelley, a new member of the Adventist Church, whom we helped to obtain Sabbath accommodation in a graduate nursing program.
- Monica, who obtained a better job, and is obtaining an advanced degree, after being fired for refusing to work on Sabbath.
Prayer List
- City
of Lompoc, where an officer issued a citation to a student leader in
the summer literature evangelism program. The case is under
review.
- Eric, who was hired and fired on the same day, fired, when he informed management that he could not work on Sabbath.
- Rocci, a prisoner who is seeking to secure an adequate vegetarian diet.
- 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.
- Ricardo – for blessing in starting his own business.
- 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
Court Strikes Down Reference to God in State Law
FRANKFORT, KY — A Franklin circuit judge Wednesday declared
unconstitutional a reference to God in a 2006 law creating the Kentucky
Office of Homeland Security
In an 18-page order, Judge Thomas Wingate said the General Assembly
created an official government position when it passed a law requiring
the office to acknowledge “the dependence on Almighty God as being
vital to the security of the Commonwealth.”
The law requires the executive director of the office to include a
statement asserting the state's reliance on God in training materials
and on a plaque at the state's Emergency Operations Center.
Read entire article at: courier-journal
Fiji Church Rules No Pants on Sunday
The strict observance of Sunday worship has resulted in men on a Bua
island not being allowed to wear pants on Sunday.
The Sunday ban also forbids travel and the hanging of clothes on lines.
Galoa Village headman Josefa Baleinasiga said the ban was enforced so
that the islanders could learn to respect the significance of Sunday as
a holy day.
Mr. Baleinasiga said the Methodist Church and the vanua also decided to
impose the ban as a means of bringing good fortune to the people.
Read entire article at: Fiji Times Online
How the ELCA Left the Great Tradition for Liberal Protestantism
During last week's biennial Church Wide Assembly of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the church affirmed major policy
recommendations to allow for the blessing of same-sex unions (which
practice will soon inflate to same-sex marriage) and the rostering of
gay and lesbian pastors in partnered relationships.
Earlier in the week it also passed by one vote—out of over 1,000 total
votes cast—a Social Statement on Sexuality that admitted there was no
consensus on the moral evaluation of homosexual conduct, and offered no
compelling biblical or theological reasons to support the policies it
later in fact adopted. The Statement was firm and bold on issues that
everyone agreed upon—the moral condemnation of promiscuity,
pornography, sexual exploitation, etc.—but indecisive and vague about
contested issues—co-habitation, premarital sex, the importance of the
nuclear family, and, of course, homosexual conduct.
Read entire article at: Christianity Today
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NORTH AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION BLOG
Lutheran Church Votes to Approve Gay Clergy 
I’ve been reading a wonderful new history of the Reformation. Luther’s
famous stand before the Emperor was made on the basis of scripture.
Luther risked his life on the principle that the Bible, not tradition,
is the foundation of church belief and practice. Ever since,
Protestantism has been defined by this fundamental commitment to the
Bible.
I could not help but think of this as I read the L.A. Times account of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [ELCA] backing away from
biblical teachings regarding human sexuality to approve of gay clergy
under some circumstances. Those marriage supporters who lament the
decision of the ELCA, and rightly so, may miss the deeper significance
of the action: for it represents a return to tradition over scripture.
Real Alan's entire blog at: http://www.religiousliberty.info/blog/
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QUOTABLE QUOTES
"The great leaders of the American Revolution were determined to remove
political support from every religious establishment . . . So far as
the state was concerned there was to be neither orthodoxy nor
heterodoxy. And so Jefferson and those who followed him wrote
guarantees of religious freedom into our constitutions. Religious
minorities as well as religious majorities were to be equal in the eyes
of the political state." Justice Felix Frankfurter
Dissent in West Virginia Board of Education vs. Barnette
319 U.S. at 653 (1943)
"The
essence of the religious freedom guaranteed by our Constitution is
therefore this: no religion shall either receive the
state's support or incur its hostility. Religion is outside the
sphere of political government . . . . An act compelling profession of
allegiance to a religion, no matter how subtly or tenuously promoted,
is bad."
Ibid.
at 644
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