THE SOUTHERN UNION DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

SPECIAL EDITION

Nicholas Miller, JD, PhD Director The International Religious Liberty Institute Andrews University

Amireh Al-Haddad Director Public Affairs & Religious God’s Remnant Liberty and the Danger of Kevin James Associate Director Christian – Public Affairs & Religious Liberty A Call for Unity Around Seventh-day Adventist EDITOR: Sheila Elwin [email protected] Prophetic Identity

2021 | Special Edition The year 2020 was one of the a review of our Church papers re- most difficult in living memory.veals It no perceived religious liberty has not, however, been the most challenges to the church or school difficult year our Adventist Churchclosings that lasted for months. or our country have ever faced. The By contrast, today Church mem- pandemic of 1918 was more severe, bership appears to be nearly as di- Waymarks readers, and the social and political divisions vided as our society in our political during the American Civil War were and social views. We have never we urge you to pray more violent than today. Still, our prescribed political orthodoxy for Church faced those earlier crises our Church members. Rather, we with greater unity than in the cur- have invoked wise counsel from first. Then, read rent era. As a northern denominationthe Spirit of Prophecy to warn them committed to equality in , we from becoming deeply involved in were united in opposition to slavery partisan politics. and contemplate and in support for the Union cause in At the same time, our insistence defeating it. on silence as to political matters for During the 1918 pandemic, our much of the 20th Century caused this sensitive and sanitariums and health ministries us to overlook the fact that our pro- focused on combating the dis- phetic message has profound polit- heartfelt plea to ease and helping our friends and ical implications. Our reluctance to neighbors survive the influenza - on address political topics as a Church slaught. The pandemic did not gen- the Church. erate a partisan political divide, and Continued on page 2... has created a leadership vacu- or near we know not. But, we ignoring and even embracing um on matters of public policy have been seeing clear and the religious right’s pursuit of that relate to public morality. troubling trends toward these “...we simply political power and Christian As a result, many of our mem- final, rapid events. As students nationalism. bers have formed political al- of history, and as Adventist What has brought us to this liances on the right or the left. Church religious liberty lead- cannot puzzling and disturbing mo- These political loyalties leave ers, we are especially troubled ment? We think it is in part them ill-prepared to proclaim by the fact that most local the well-intentioned, but ulti- our prophetic message in its church members are cogni- endorse mately misguided, attempt to fullness. zant of the dangers and prob- keep the Church and its lead- Our prophetic message is lems of the secular left, but ership from engaging with so- spiritual and personal, but also many appear blinded to the the partisan called “political issues.” Ellen should impact our actions and problems of Christian nation- White advised us to stay out views as citizens of our coun- alism found on the political of party politics, but she also try. When we promote the right. They wrongly imagine politics of urged leaders and members judgment hour message of that the left poses the great- to engage with issues of mor- the First Angel of Revelation er risk of fulfilling prophecy. al weight that implicate the 14, and condemn the con- Thus, too many have aligned either the teaching of the Three Angels’ fused teachings of a fallen themselves with the religious messages and basic human Babylon of the Second Angel, right wing of American poli- rights. all in light of the call to honor tics, oblivious that the peril of secular left or Ellen White contended that God’s commands through the Christian nationalism ultimate- members, when they enter the Third Angel, we simply cannot ly poses a greater danger to church, need to have their po- endorse the partisan politics of our civil and religious liberties. the religious litical views “cleansed” by the either the secular left or the re- The secular far left and its gospel from support for slav- ligious right. values are clearly antithetical ery and racism (1T 358.1). She Revelation 17-18 depicts an to biblical . Draw- right.” counseled members to vote to immoral whore and a pow- ing on the materialist and hu- support “temperance and vir- erful beast who combine to manist philosophies of the tue,” both for issues as well as and clampdown. (Of course, enforce false worship on the French Revolution, the far left candidates (GW, 387-388). She peaceful protests, as we have inhabitants of the earth. Theypromotes a materialist out- urged members to vote, even seen in the last year — call- are immoral powers, combin- look that denies a divine Cre- on the Sabbath day if neces- ing for equality, fair treatment ing commercial avarice with ator, promotes an evolutionary sary, to keep immoral and in- under the law, and an end to sexual excess, itself also a model of humanity, devalues temperate men out of political police brutality — are consti- symbol of the promiscuous gender differences and sexu- office (WV, 203.5). She warned tutionally protected, and in the mixing of church and state.al roles as taught in both the us of a three-fold union that best of the American protes- Civil authorities consort with and nature, and places would trample upon the con- tant tradition.) religious leaders, promising a low value on unborn life. The science of mankind (GC, 588). Indeed, most of our mem- them a blasphemous union of far left seeks to spread these She especially believed we bers, along with most evan- civil and spiritual authority to “values” through the media should oppose any candidate gelical Christians in America, further their interests in world- and most public and secular who promised to threaten re- see the risks and problems as- ly power. college and university sys- ligious liberty, lest we share in sociated with this extreme left- This unnatural union of tems. There, an environment the guilt of the repression of ist ideology. But, our prophetic church and state culminates in of “wokeness,” a fixation -on mi religious freedom (CE, 475). message has clearly identified the enforced false worship of cro-aggressions, and an unfor- In short, Ellen White under- the final and greatest decep - Revelation 13 and 14—where giving cancel culture often in- stood that there were “political” tion as coming from just such a modern image is made to timidates and threatens those questions the Bible and Chris- a traditionalist, populist, au- the beast of medieval Chris- who think differently. tian morality did not directly thoritarian backlash — a com- tendom, and religious and Violence against people or address of which we should bination of immoral civil power civil tyranny is erected on the property, rioting and theft in steer clear. But, on moral ques- and national pride, combined ruins of American republican the streets, and calls to abol- tions, even when they were in with false Christian religious democracy. The false religion ish the police represent a the political sphere, we must teaching. This prophetic - un of the beast and its image is spirit of lawlessness that the and should not only vote, but derstanding implicates the undoubtedly Christian in form, Bible warns against. Ironically, also express our convictions danger of the religious right though of course not in char- of course, such rhetoric and by pen, and voice, and vote grasping for political power acter. As Jesus warned, “many action are not so much like- (TE, 253.5). In these instances and dominance in the name will come in my name and de- ly to result in an outbreak of of basic morality and prophet- of Christianity. The hostility to ceive many,” Matthew 24:5. anarchy, as they are to pro- ic significance, action and ad- biblical faith shown by some These final events lie yet vide a justification for a right- on the left does not warrant in the future, and just how far wing, authoritarian backlash Continued on page 3... vocacy were called for, both in of moral issues. This narrow candidate who promised to ed some among us to the dan- the private as well as political moral focus caused them (en- fulfill their political desiresgerous — and dramatic rise of the spheres. couraged through clever stra- for a seat at the power table counterfeit symbolized Our pioneers understood tegic maneuvering by political for federal judges who would by the dragon, beast, and false this to be true, and frequently consultants) to become wed- reverse Roe v. Wade and stop prophet. We have understood called our nation to task in the ded to the party of the right. the expansion of LGBTQ rights, these symbols to represent pages of its publications for But, Adventist neutrality came and for policies that would the unity of a resurgent medi- national sins like slavery, rac- at the cost of having no real give Christianity preferential eval authoritarian church, pop- ism, intemperance, and sup- public witness, unlike our pio- treatment in our national arena.ular American , port of alcohol and gambling, neers, on many moral matters. For Adventists, there were and spiritualism. even though these things were Over time, the evangeli- warning signs suggesting the Indeed, Pentecostal strains divisive political questions of cal right became increasing- trade-off was fraught withof spiritualism in the Religious the day. Church leaders andly frustrated that their politi- prophetic danger. For exam- Right have emerged with pe- authors charged the American cal commitments had failed ple, our religious liberty min- culiar vigor recently. False government of support for co- to produce results. It shouldistry has always defended the prophets invoked the Cyrus lonial promotion of economic come as no surprise, then, rights of religious minorities, at metaphor with respect to the exploitation and western mil- that the religious right eagerly least in part because we are previous president, and many itary and political interests at signed on to support a deep- conscious that the religion of ministers called upon the au- the expense of non-Protes- ly morally-flawed presidential the beast targets a religious thority of the Spirit to sustain tant, non-white, and foreign minority for persecution. Yet, allegations of election fraud to peoples. They viewed these as many persisted in supporting overthrow the election results. the kind of abuses that were the targeting of a religious mi- They did this even though no prophetically outlined in Rev- nority, embracing promises to federal judges, including many elation 13, where the lamblike exclude all from the appointed by President Trump, beast spoke as a dragon and country; to expel those already found meaningful evidence of undermined the principles of here; and to target not only al- such in 61 court decisions. Protestantism (religious free- leged Arab terrorists, but also The forces of Christian na- dom) and republicanism (a their wives and children, for tionalism received a setback democratic rule of equality assassination. These promises at the last election, but the un- under the law). of gross violations of consti- derlying spirit of the last term, After Ellen White died, how- tutional human and religious the blending of nationalism ever, church leaders became rights were accompanied with and Christianity into a form of influenced by the American promises for the political influ- political idolatry, has not. It is fundamentalist movement ence of Evangelical Christian- still with us, and will re-emerge that shied away from social is- ity. This duality is familiar. It is more powerfully again in the sues, and promoted an Amer- the speaking of the dragon in future. We do not perceive the ican patriotic, Christian-nation the former and a lamblike ve- recent election to mark a fun- exceptionalism. No longer was neer in the latter. damental shift in the pathway our prophetic message about Many, including some Ad- of American politics. Rather, the social and political sins of Free Book ventists, who supported these we are presented a temporary the day. Rather, it looked to the policies have embraced this reprieve from the prophesied past, to Heaven, and to a future Supplies are spirit of Christian Nationalism triumph of forces of religious in which Sunday laws were limited. Reserve — a blending of God and coun- nationalism, bigotry, and even- predicted to be an issue. try, church and state, faith and tually persecution in the Unit- For much of the 20th Cen- yours here: , that is antithetical ed States. tury, the Church kept public- to the principles of our nation, This reprieve carries its own ly quiet about issues of race www.southern- but fully consistent with the challenges in safeguarding our and civil rights, environmental warnings of our prophetic her- institutions from a left-wing degradation, as well as issues union.com/ itage. Indeed, it was the Chris- agenda of sexual and gender of abortion, pornography, gen- tian nationalist policy of the re- ideologies, which represent a der, sexuality, and marriage. libertybook. cent administration that many different kind of idolatry. It is We taught on some of these found so appealing. Surpris- one that tends to keep open things internally, but we lacked ingly, these red flags generally casinos, liquor stores, and a public witness in matters of did not overly concern many strip clubs, but close churches public and civil morals. It is conservative Adventists. They during our pandemic. Howev- true, in doing so we avoided appeared to tolerate such er, we regard these challenges the excesses of politicization rhetoric for the higher goal of as manageable given a divid- of some of our evangelical saving the country from left- ed government and a conser- friends, who became ob- wing excesses. Our political sessed with a very narrow set passions appear to have blind- Continued on page 4... Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Public Affairs and Religious Liberty NON-PROFIT ORG. P.O. Box 923868 U.S. POSTAGE PAID Peachtree Corners, GA 30010 NORCORSS, GA 30304 PERMIT NO. 6849

vative Supreme Court. free to you just by asking for The Great Controversy, to help We cannot afford to waste it. The book draws not only re-focus our minds on the true this pause in our national po- on biblical materials, but on nature of our current conflict. Bibliography litical discourse in regards to the predictions of acutely ob- Ellen White was clear that in of References the rise of Christian National- servant men like Plato, James some instances a true applica- ism. We must use this time toMadison, George Washington, tion of must result educate ourselves about the and King, Jr., in the change of certain polit- • CE: Christian serious prophetic nature of the who all predicted the kind of ical principles and outlooks. Education right-wing challenges we will dangers we are now experi- Speaking about church mem- continue to face in the months encing. bers of her day who sympa- and years ahead. Prophe- The chapters detail the his- thized with slavery and racism, • GG: Great cy predicts a future America tory of the dissenting Protes- she wrote that these members Controversy with leadership willing to call tant roots of American con- “need a more thorough draft on the darker angels of our stitutional democracy and from the cleansing fountain of natures, and will again stir up freedom. They also look truthat [of]the their old political prin- • LDE: Last Day the fires of religious national- competing counterfeit ver- ciples, which are not in harmo- Events ism and xenophobic populism sion of Protestantism that has ny with the principles of the and complete the job that was sought to coerce and compel truth (1T. 358.1). started. Inspiration assures belief and religious compli- We pray that our words here • T: Testimonies us of this outcome before the ance. In illustrating these com- and this book can help facil- end. peting strands historically, the itate the cleansing that our So, what can be done? We true nature of our current con- Church and its members need • TE: Temperance invite you to take advantage of flict is more easily seen and from divisive and witness-de- a limited time offer to receive appreciated. stroying loyalty to political par- • WV: Woman of the book, 500 Years of Protest We hope you can use these ties of all earthly and human and Liberty. This offer is good materials, along with those ideologies. Vision for as long as our supply last, found in Adventist classics like