liberty campaign 2019 englishlibertymagazine.org/campaign-materials/2019/2019... · 2018-12-16 ·...

C A M P A I G N M A T E R I A L S 2 0 1 9

2019 LIBERTY CAMPAIGN M

ATERIALS INSIDE

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY OFFERING JANUARY 262019

WALLPROTECTING THE

2 L I B E R T Y ® c a m p a I g n m a T E R I a L s 2 0 1 9

E D I T O R I A L

UNSHACKLED!

In the soup of memory this title pops up from time to time. I think it comes from an old-time

christian radio series. I know I used to be inspired by the stories of victory over rum and ribaldry.

Years ago, I asked the late televi-sion evangelist Dr. D. James Kennedy to write his views of the Jones Bill proposal for Liberty magazine. He was one of the major proponents of this bill which would have allowed for almost unfettered fundraising and political activities of the churches. It was, he said, time to unfetter, unbind, the churches.

In private conversation in his office he told me that he had ultimately rejected the dispensa-tionalist view, with its secret rapture, because under that scenario “god did not clearly win.” It struck me that the same could be said for a low, pass-through wall between church and state. With the power of civil law and the necessary compulsion which that involves, the free will component that god yearns for is sacrifi ed: god and His liberty would not clearly win under such a union of church and state.

We are living through a period of resurgence of concern for religious freedom. This is good. In many ways, it has been forced on us: by images of beheadings in other lands and gross immorality here under the entitle-ment of civil law. christians are stirred

by moral indignation. many “sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land.”

It is a time for action. and it is a time to refle t on the basis of true religious liberty and the state’s role in protecting conscience. It is also a good time to understand the distinction between a godly, christian society, we might wish and pray for, and a dangerous assumption of this or any government being a christian one by design.

Our protestant forbearers and the american founding fathers rather uniformly understood the dangers in allowing state control of religious practice. It would either enable a new inquisition on behalf of some favored subset of faith or it would empower the state to regulate or ban religion altogether. Far better to have a natural barrier, a fence of good neighbors, and a state committed to providing a just society for religious faith to flourish in

We still have in the West particu-larly, and by continuing design in the United states, a system committed to religious freedom and pluralism. and it is still a time for the unshackling of the faith communities: not from what might inhibit their political aspirations, but an unshackling of the inhibitions that hold us back from changing society by spirit-filledwitness.

Our adventist imperative is greater than ever before. The Lord is at the door. prophecy fulfills y the day. The harvest is almost in and even if we are saved maybe we have not

yet used our freedom to inform oth-ers. Time to use our religious freedom rights and shout aloud about the soon-coming s avior!!

This special issue of Liberty con-tains all the elements you and your church need for a successful Religious Liberty campaign. s ee the contents list on the facing page and instruc-tions on how to use the materials on the next spread. You might findthe included sermon by our general conference president a valuable tool for Religious Liberty s abbath, or for a devotional around that time to raise awareness. certainly, be sure to pull out the poster and pin it up publically to signal interest in the Liberty call.

god bless you as you step up financiall , and continue your church’s religious liberty proclamation. Thank you for your prayers of support for all we are able to do, including legal intervention in defending adventists and others who take conscience stands in the workplace particularly. and thank you for what you person-ally are committed to do in talking up religious liberty--the “inalienable” right from god that is a matter of conscience, not of law.

Lincoln E. Steed, EditorLiberty magazine

Experiencing religious discrimination? Call theReligious Liberty Helpline: 877-721-3700

L I B E R T Y ® c a m p a I g n m a T E R I a L s 2 0 1 9 3

2 0 1 9 L I B E R T Y C A M P A I G N M A T E R I A L S

CLASS CODESAssociations01 Boards of trade02 Chambers of Commerce05 Labor organizations06 Religious organizations09 Miscellaneous

Communications

10 Communication associations11 Press12 Radio and TV13 Columnist14 Religious publications15 College newspapers

Education

20 Educational associations21 Governing boards22 Colleges and universities*23 High schools*24 Junior high schools*25 Elementary schools*

30 Libraries

Government

40 International41 Federal42 State/provincial43 County*44 Municipal*45 Military46 Municipal/County attorneys49 Political organizations

50 Business and Corporations

Professional

60 Judges, except federal and state/provincial61 Attorneys62 Clergy63 Doctors64 Dentists65 Entertainers66 Service organizations69 Hospitals*

71 SDA Church Members

72 Friends sponsored by SDA’s

* Except libraries, which are code 30

No change on this name

Corrected address and zip code

“OUT” will delete entire name

Change class code and increase number of subs to fi e

Keeping pastor who receives 50 subs for his churchKeeping member who increased donation amountNot marking “KEEP” on this name means it will be deleted automatically

KEYLINE 7-300-020 LIBERTY CAMPAIGN 7654321-MONTANA 9876543-HELENA CHURCH PAGE 35

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)

LN CL LAST NAME I I TITLE SECOND LINE ADDRESS THIRD LINE ADDRESS CITY ST ZIP DNR QTY

** PROFESSIONAL **

01 60 ALVARES P J HON 420 US COURTHOUSE 350 MAIN ST SALT LAKE CITY UT 84101 1

03 61 ROGERS JR E M ATTY 6401 SECURITY BLVD WASHINGTON DC 20410 1

02 61 WILSON J R ATTY 916 SECOND AVE DENVER CO 80202 1

04 61 WREN H G DEAN TC WILLIAMS LAW SCHOOL UNIV. OF RICHMOND RICHMOND VA 23273 1

** FEDERAL OFFICIALS **

** SDA MEMBERS--SUNSET PROVISION APPLIES **

-06 71 PASTOR FIRST SDA CHURCH 1559 DOGWOOD LANE COLUMBUS MT 59019 50

-07 71 JACOBSEN M MS 440 TANGLEWOOD DR CALIMESA CA 92320 4 1

-08 72 ALEXANDER DJ MR-MR ROUTE 1 BOX 258-A HEDGEVILLE WV 25427 1

LINE NUMBERS WITH A HYPEN BEFORE THEM (-06, -07, -08) WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE DELETED UNLESS MARKED “KEEP” PER INSTRUCTIONS UNDER “SDA NAMES ON THE PRINTOUT” ON PAGE 2 OF INSTRUCTION SHEET.

KEY TO CHANGES

FOLLOW THIS SAMPLE INSTRUCTION SHEET TO CORRECT YOUR CHURCH PRINTOUT

Class Code (Column 2) This is where you can find your CONFERENCE code This is where you can find your CHURCH code

Keep

Keep

22

Out 7150 Ashton Lane 20420

5

3

IMA

GIN

E Y

OU

R W

OR

LD W

ITH

OU

T IT

• W

WW

.LIB

ERT

YM

AG

AZ

INE.

OR

G

RELIG

IOUS

LIB

ERTY

OFF

ERIN

G JA

NUAR

Y 26

2019 WA

LLPR

OTEC

TING

THE

POSTER | PAGE 16

CAMPAIGN INSTRUCTIONS | PAGE 4

SERMON | PAGE 18

CHURCH PRINTOUT INSTRUCTIONS | PAGE 30

LETTERS TO PASTOR, RELIGIOUS LIBERTY DIRECTOR, AND TREASURER | PAGE 6

LIBERTY BOND BULLETIN INSERT | BACK COVER


1. Display poster in church foyer during January and February. 2. present sermon by general conference president, Elder Ted n. c . Wilson, on January 26.3. Insert brochures in church bulletins on January 26.4. continue various religious liberty promotional events thoughts throughout the campaign season:

» Hold s abbath afternoon panel discussion on religious liberty » Feature a church member who has had a s abbath work problem » Interview a local attorney who specializes in religious liberty discrimination issues

JANUARY 26 Religious Liberty s abbath

MARCH 15 Deadline for religious liberty leader to mail corrected printout and new subscription Order Forms to your Union public affairs & Religious Liberty Office. (please note: In mid-america and atlantic Unions, send forms to your confer-ence paRL Department.) a self-addressed return envelope is included as part of your Religious Liberty campaign promotional kit.

MARCH 31 Deadline for church members to turn in religious liberty offering at church: please emphasize to your church members that their Liberty subscriptions will begin with the may/June issue.

Visit our website at www.libertymagazine.org/campaign for online access to the 2019 Religious Liberty campaign materials. These materials feature a very informative video giving up-to-date perspectives on the separation of church and state. and don’t forget to use the sermon text from our general conference president, Elder Ted Wilson.

1. Use the new subscription Order Form for church members who are not on the printout, but who have turned in a Freedom Bond and want Liberty. also use the new subscription Order Form for priority names you want to add to the printout. Be sure to always use full names and complete mailing addresses.

2. To add a priority name in an area where there is frequent turnover, use the position instead of a name (e.g., mayor, chief of police, pastor).

3. please indicate your church and local conference codes which are listed at the top of your printout, as well as the name and phone number of the person filling out the order.

4. Donor codes should be completed as follows:

amount given Donor code

$1,000 and over 1

$500 to $999 2

$100 to $499 3

$50 to $99 4

5. For new donors ($50 or more) who do not want Liberty magazine: add their names to the new subscription sheet and place a “0” in the quantity column. This indicates they are donors, but should not receive Liberty magazine.

Tips for conducting the2019 Religious Liberty Campaign

234

1Plan & Emphasize the Religious Liberty Offering

Special Dates and Deadlines

Liberty Magazine website for Support Materials

Filling Out the New Subscription Order Form

N E W S U B S C R I P T I O N S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1

TITLE FIRST NAME LAST NAME STREET & NO. OR RT. & BOX, APT, BLDG, SUITE, ETC. CIT Y STATE ZIP CLASS CODE QUANTIT Y DONOR

CODEDONATION GIVEN

CHURCH:

CONFERENCE:

PREPARED BY: PHONE:

CHURCH CODE:

CONFERENCE CODE:

DATE:

The names of church members and friends of church members who received Liberty for the past year are listed separately, usually at the end of the printout, under class codes 71 and 72. These are automatically deleted unless you clearly mark “KEEp” next to the name and the printout is returned to your union or conference religious liberty director to be processed. If any of the names on the Freedom Bonds that were turned in to you or your church appear on your printout, write “KEEp” to the left of the line number on the printout, and write the donor code number for the amount given in the column marked “Donor code”. 6A Note on SDA

names on the Church Printout


1. On your Liberty subscription printout are the names of people your church sent Liberty to last year. To be sure these names are correct, please review the list carefully and make all necessary changes. Draw a line through the incor-rect portion only. print all corrections In RED in the space above the old information. To delete an entire subscription entry, write “OUT” to the left of the line number. If you do not have a printout, call your Union Religious Liberty director to request a copy. (In mid-america and atlantic Unions, please contact your local conference office.)

2. Your church priority list should include local government officials, attorneys, judges, clergy, and community leaders who you would like to see receive Liberty as a gift. The north american Division priority List features federal and state government officials, so there is no need to add these names to your church’s list.

3. Based on the offering total, determine the number of priority names your church can afford to sponsor. Your priority list should include any of the individuals listed below. (numbers correspond to class codes.)

» The 2019/2020 subscription starts with the may/June issue of Liberty. » campaign subscription Rate: $6.00 (U.s. and canada) (Regular subscription rate: $7.95) » subscriptions to addresses outside the United states, canada, and Bermuda cost $8.00 (cdn $10.00). U.s. territories

such as guam, micronesia, Virgin Islands, and puerto Rico are not foreign subscriptions.

for conducting the2019 Religious Liberty Campaign

7

5Correcting and Maintaining Your Church’s Current Liberty Subscription Printout

Liberty Subscription Facts:

43-44 GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS: Include only munici-pal and county officials. c all city hall or local county office for a directory, or check the blue pages in your telephone directory.

46 MUNICIPAL, COUNTY ATTORNEYS: c heck blue pages of your telephone directory or city directories.

60 JUDGES: Only local municipal judges should be on your list. a ll state/provincial and federal judges are on the naD priority List.

30 LIBRARIES: Law libraries, school, city, and county libraries should be on your list.

10-15 COMMUNICATIONS: c heck city directories or blue pages. Include only local media personalities—newspaper, radio, and TV organizations and individuals.

61 ATTORNEYS: c heck city directories or blue pages or the martindale-Hubbell legal directory may be found at a law or public library. s pecialties to include: labor, employment and land use.

62 CLERGY: c heck city directories or blue pages, com-munity directories, yearbooks published by various denominations (available in your local library), or church ads in newspapers.

05 LABOR ORGANIZATIONS: c heck city directories or blue pages under “labor organizations” or “trade unions.” s end to their president and/or legal counsel.

20-25 EDUCATION: c heck city directories or blue pages or the state/provincial department of education directo-ries found in the public library. Include local university administration, college, high school, and elementary

school principals (public and parochial); school board members, law professors, higher education political and social science teachers, and religion teachers.

63-69 PROFESSIONAL GROUPS: check the yellow pages, various county and city directories published by specific professional organiza-tions, and chambers of commerce.

01 RETAIL ORGANIZATIONS and 02 CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE: c heck the yellow pages.

45 MILITARY: If military bases are located in your area, obtain a directory from them or consult the yellow pages. Include chaplains, base commanders, legal departments, intelligence officers, and libraries.

COMPLETE LIST OF CLASS CODES

ASSOCIATIONS01 Boards of trade02 c hambers of commerce 05 Labor organizations06 Religious organizations09 miscellaneous

COMMUNICATIONS10 communications

associations

11 press12 Radio and TV13 columnists14 Religious publications15 college newspapers EDUCATION20 Educational associations21 governing boards22 colleges and universities

23 High schools24 Junior high schools25 Elementary schools30 Libraries

GOVERNMENT40 International41 Federal42 state/provincial43 county

44 municipal45 military46 municipal/county

attorneys49 political organizations50 Businesses and

corporations

PROFESSIONAL30 Libraries

60 Judges, except federal and state/provincial

61 attorneys62 c lergy63 Doctors64 Dentists65 Entertainers66 s ervice organizations69 Hospitals71 sDa c hurch members72 Friends sponsored by sDa s

Dear Pastor and Local Church Religious Liberty Leader:

The nnual North American Division Religious Liberty Offering is scheduled for January 26, 2019. Every year we have an opportunity to highlight God’s sacred gift f freedom of conscience, and make an appeal to church members to fi ancially support the Public Aff irs & Religious Liberty (PARL) ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Here are a few of the many ways PARL advocates for your religious freedom:

• Each year one million copies of Liberty magazine are put into the hands of thought leaders in the government and community across the Division.

• The Seventh-day Adventist Church defends you in religious workplace accommodation challenges. Many legal precedents have been set over the years on behalf of your right to uphold your freedom of conscience and keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy.

• We maintain a close communication with legislators at the state and federal levels to protect against legislation that might inhibit your free exercise of religion.

• The weekly “Liberty Insider” television program on 3ABN television network reaches to every corner of the United States and to a global audience.

• The North American Religious Liberty Association, our Church’s member-driven advocacy organization, mobilizes church members for freedom action.

As citizens of this world and ambassadors for Christ, it is our responsibility to emphasize the meaning of religious freedom. It is our responsibility to keep before the thought leaders of our governments the importance of religious accommodation and freedom of expression.

Included in this packet are materials that will help you promote religious liberty in your church. Please be sure to visit the Campaign Resources section of our website www.libertymagazine.org/campaign to view or download our 2019 Religious Liberty Campaign promotional video.

You will need to turn in your new and renewed subscriptions to your union Religious Liberty director (in Atlantic or Mid-America union, please send them to your local conference Religious Liberty director). Please check with your church treasurer for the list of individuals who are requesting a subscription to Liberty magazine. The deadline for turning in subscriptions to your union or local conference is March 15. $6 must be remitted in the offering for every subscription submitted. If you do not have enough money to cover your subscriptions you must delete the appropriate number of subscriptions. Your church treasurer should remit the offering through the local conference, however federal tax code requires that the local church retain the Freedom Bond envelope. The eadline for your offerings to be turned in is March 31.

Offering deadlines and subscription deadlines need to be followed closely. Your union Public Aff irs and Religious Liberty department carefully processes your subscriptions within the shortest amount of time possible. The turn-around time from March 15 (the deadline for your names to be sent in) to May (the beginning of the subscription mailings) is very short. In this amount of time close to 180,000 names are processed for Liberty magazine subscriptions!

Thank you for your commitment as you support and promote religious freedom!

Elder Daniel R. Jackson President


Dear Church Treasurer,

The North American Division Religious Liberty Offering Sabbath is January 26, 2019. However, you will receive significant religious liberty offer-ings in February and March, and donations may be made throughout the cal-endar year. As treasurer of your church, you are greatly needed by your pastor and religious liberty leader to make the offering a success.

On Religious Liberty Sabbath when the offering is taken, all church members will be given a brochure with a tear-off envelope called a Freedom Bond. Church members should put their offering in the tear-off Bond and place it in the offering plate. After you receive these bonds, please do the following:

1. Make sure the ‘Amount Enclosed’ is correct and the money is enclosed.

2. Receipt the offering and give the Freedom Bond back to the religious liberty leader each week. (Step 2 must be done in order for each church member who requests it to receive Liberty magazine. If you do not give this information back to the religious liberty leader, your church members will not receive Liberty magazine.)

3. Send the offering to your local conference treasurer with your regular monthly remittance. You must retain the Freedom Bond at the local church level according to tax regulations. Your church will not be billed for subscriptions. The deadline for your offerings to be turned in is March 31.

Thank you for your part in making the 2019 Religious Liberty Offering the most successful ever. We pray that the message of religious freedom and the mission of Liberty magazine may reach its full potential!

If you have any additional questions, please contact your union or local conference Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department.

Sincerely,

Michael R. JamiesonUndertreasurer



Aykan Erdemir, a Harvard-educated scholar, human-rights activist, and former member of Turkey’s parliament; Holly Hollman, a U.S. constitutional lawyer and Baptist; and Norwegian politician Abid Q. Raja, a Muslim and child of Pakistani immigrants, who cur-rently serves as deputy speaker of Norway’s parliament. Although sharing little in common in terms of background and experiences, each speaker emphasized one key point: that build-ing alliances across social, cultural, and reli-gious divides is absolutely essential in advanc-ing religious freedom around the world.

Erdemir, who gave the evening’s keynote address, urged attendees to “reach out beyond our own close-knit communities, out of our comfort zones, to others.” This doesn’t mean compromising our core convictions or beliefs, he explained, but rather acknowledging our

One of the defining characteristics of the Religious Liberty Dinner, held each year in Washington, D.C., is its ability to draw together people of

vastly different backgrounds to celebrate freedom of conscience as a universal value; something that transcends cultural and religious differences. This was particularly apparent at this year’s din-ner—the sixteenth time Liberty magazine has joined forces with the International Religious Liberty Association, the North American Religious Liberty Association, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church to host the event.

Washington’s religious, political, and advo-cacy communities were represented at the din-ner, held May 22 at the headquarters of the Organizat ion of American States in Washington, D.C., just off Constitution Avenue. Sharing the stage during the evening were

Together We CanThe Sixteenth Religious Liberty Dinner

By Bet tina Krause

“s elfie time! abid Roja, deputy speaker of norway’s parliament, in a lighter moment up with attorney Dwayne Leslie, legislative liaison and associate director of public affairs and religious liberty for the s eventh-day adventist c hurch.

ALL

PH

OTO

S BY

MAY

LON

MED

LEY

be taught from an early age to reject religious and ethnic stereotyping and to embrace such values as tolerance and pluralism.

Hollman, general counsel and associate executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, received the 2018 National Award for Religious Freedom for her many years defending U.S. First Amendment religious free-dom rights through the courts and through her writing and speaking. Hollman was intro-duced by friend and former col-league Melissa Rogers, who served under President Barack Obama as White House director of neighborhood and faith-based partnerships. Rogers praised Hollman’s ability to work with different groups and to build consensus in support of religious liberty.

In her acceptance speech Hollman said that religious freedom advocacy “reminds us that we are dependent on each other and on our ability to come together on common ground.”

This idea—of bringing people together and forging alliances in support of religious freedom—continues to be one of the driving motivations behind the annual Religious Liberty Dinner.

Bettina Krause is communications director for the International Religious Liberty Association. She writes from Silver Spring, Maryland.

common ground and our shared commitment to freedom of conscience. Erdemir has long been an outspoken advocate for minority rights and pluralism: themes that have at times placed him at odds with some in Turkey’s political regime. He served in the Turkish parliament from 2011 to 2015 and is currently a senior fel-low at the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Raja, recipient of the 2018 International Award for Religious Freedom, was honored for his part in building a unique international alli-ance in support of religious freedom. In 2014, along with four other elected representatives, Raja cofounded the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief. The group now has more than 200 mem-bers from 70 countries—all elected representa-tives—who meet together annually and strate-gize ways to promote religious freedom within their diverse political environments.

In his speech accepting his award, Raja acknowledged that growing up in Norway as a Muslim and child of Pakistan immigrants wasn’t always easy. He said it’s vital that children

national award for Religious Freedom recipient Holly Hollman, addresses the audience at this year’s Religious Liberty Dinner.

Keynote speaker aykan Erdemir stressed the importance of building strong ties to bridge our divides.

caption


© M

EHM

ET O

ZDO

GRU

/DEP

O P

HO

TOS

VIA

ZU

MA

WIR

E

months. His legal defenders were not provided a copy of the indictment against him until late March 2017, giving them less than a month to review the evidence against him and prepare a defense before his initial court date.

Family, friends, colleagues, church leaders, human rights organizations, U.S. state and federal politicians, and dozens of international parlia-mentarians all maintain that the clergyman has no connections to, let alone membership in, any terrorist organizations. The 62-page indictment Pastor Brunson provides no concrete evidence to contradict his assertion of innocence, or these numerous affirmations. In press coverage the document is often referred to as “nonsensical.” Erdemir referred to it as “a collection of crazy conspiracy theories.” It would be comical, but for the threat of 35 years in prison.

At Pastor Brunson’s second court appearance in May 2018, things appeared to go from bad to worse. As in the first court date, key witnesses testified anonymously, via video linkage, their faces blurred and voices altered. One witness, who testified openly, was a convicted murderer on parole violation. Brunson’s own attorney came to court prepared with 10 defense wit-nesses, but all were rejected by the judge, as unreliable, and suspected terrorists themselves

A Matter of EvidenceDetainee Following in the Footsteps of Paul

By Melissa Reid American citizen and clergyman Andrew

Brunson was arrested by Turkish officials, who accused him of links with and membership in an armed

terrorist organization. Brunson and his family were not in Turkey on holiday. Rather, they have been legal residents of the country for more than 20 years, helping shepherd a small Protestant congregation in the Aegean coastal town of Izmir. Recently, they had taken on the additional responsibility of working with the Syrian refugee population.

The October 2016 arrest was not Pastor Brunson’s first experience with the risks that go with sharing Christianity in Turkey. An attempt was made on his life several years earlier. “He was so committed to Turkey, he didn’t leave; and he continued to serve,” recalls Aykan Erdemir, former member of the Turkish parliament and current policy expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Erdemir was the key-note speaker at the 2018 Religious Liberty Dinner, which Liberty co-sponsors.

Brunson’s 2016 detainment began a series of events that continue to unfold, and can be described only as tragic. After his initial deten-tion he was not allowed access to an attorney or visits with U.S. officials for more than two

andrew c raig Brunson, center, arrives at his house in Izmir, Turkey, July 25, 2018, after his release to house arrest as his trial continues. according to Turkey’s official anadolu news agency, Brunson was released because of ‘’health problems.”


We have seen numerous cases of harassment, and we have seen numerous cases of attacks on churches and Christians themselves.

because of their association with Pastor Brunson. Brunson told the court, “My service, that I

have spent my life on, has now turned upside down. I was never ashamed to be a server of Jesus, but these claims are shameful and disgusting.”

After 10 hours of one-sided testimony, the judge adjourned the case until July 18.

“I would argue that since the aborted coup [in July 2016], under the state of emergency, Turkey’s legal system has collapsed completely,” says Erdemir. “The average Turkish citizen, and this pertains to Pastor Brunson’s case as well, doesn’t have attorney-client privilege. When suspects meet with their attorneys, their con-versation can be recorded, attorney notes can be copied. People do not have access to their indictments for many months, sometimes more than a year or even two. Individuals can be held in pretrial detention for up to seven years. The legal system has failed across the board. But I would argue that when it comes to Christians, it’s even more callous. It’s even more brutal.”

Hostage DiplomacyUnfortunately, Andrew Brunson’s case is

not isolated. His arrest and indictment are just part of what Erdemir refers to as the Turkish government’s campaign of “hostage diplomacy,” which he describes as a well-coordinated effort to use Western nationals, particularly Protestant Christians, as bargaining chips to extract con-cessions in bilateral relations. Although Erdimir admits it is difficult to tally the number of vic-tims accurately because of privacy laws, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies released a report in May 2018 detailing 56 known cases of Western nationals who have been detained by the Turkish government since the 2016 coup. Nine of those persons remain in prison today.

“I think the issue is not just the wrongful issue of Pastor Brunson, but since the abortive coup we have seen numerous cases of the target-ing of especially Protestant clergy and volun-teers,” says Erdemir. “In the immediate after-math of the coup, I wrote a couple of policy briefs warning about the hate speech targeting of Christians, scapegoating of Christians, incite-ment against Christians. There was really a very coordinated attempt by the Turkish government to scapegoat religious minorities, and as you know, it is always effective to deflect responsibil-ity and put the blame on vulnerable groups.”

Erdemir continues: “We have seen numerous cases of Western nationals who have been denied entry to the U.S., who were not able to renew their residence permits or work permits

or visas. We have seen numerous cases of harass-ment, and we have seen numerous cases of attacks on churches and Christians themselves. I’ve seen many try to downplay what the govern-ment says as merely campaign rhetoric, but as a former lawmaker I know that government incitement is extremely effective. As we’re seeing now, such rhetoric leads to real-life conse-quences for vulnerable communities, especially religious minorities. My philosophy is: If there’s incitement, take it seriously.”

What’s Next for Pastor BrunsonIn June of this year the U.S. Senate passed the

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included an amendment that would delay the planned sale of more than 100 F-35 fighter jets to Turkey because of its detention of Pastor Brunson. The amendment additionally called for the Defense Department to devise a plan to end any Turkish involvement in the F-35 pro-gram. The bill declared that “Congress will not tolerate any foreign government’s efforts to use United States citizens for political leverage.”

On June 24, President Erdogan was reelected, and constitutional changes were implemented that not only shifted the country from a parlia-mentary to a presidential system, but granted the Turkish leader unprecedented executive powers. With his new executive powers, he will have the ability to rule by decree, intervene in the country’s legal system, and run for a third term should parliament call snap elections in his final term.

However, July was an encouraging month for Brunson, his family, and religious freedom advo-cates as a whole. On the 25th of the month, a few days after Brunson’s third court appearance and nearly two years following his initial detainment, a Turkish court ruled that he should be moved from Kiriklar prison to house arrest at his home in Turkey. The following day, Vice President Mike Pence didn’t mince words when he addressed the audience at the U.S. State Department’s first-ever religious freedom ministerial.

“If Turkey does not take immediate action to free this innocent man of faith and send him home to America, the United States will impose significant sanctions on Turkey until pastor Andrew Brunson is free,” said Pence.

When Andrew Brunson decided to follow in the footsteps of the apostle Paul by embarking on a life of mission in Turkey, I wonder if he considered how closely his ministerial journey might resemble that of the New Testament writer.

Melissa Reid is associate editor of Liberty magazine.


Religion is the common denominator in several of the most infamous acts of terror recently committed on American soil. The suspects in the mass shootings in Orlando and San Bernardino were adherents of a radical ideology that advocates the use of violence as a means

to propagate the Islamic faith. Islam’s connection to these atrocities has turned religious liberty into a matter of national security. Many Americans are convinced that Islam is encouraging its fol-lowers to engage in terrorist acts, and they want something done about it. Thus, there is growing support for the suppression of Islam in the United States, be it through a restriction on Muslim immigration or by restricting the freedom of Muslims to live and worship in accordance to their faith. However, Christians in America must not cooperate with any attempts to restrict the religious liberty of Muslims or, indeed, of any religious group. Instead, a Christian response to radical Islamic extremism should include out-reach and evangelism as mandated by Christ.

An Islamic View of Religious FreedomThe Muslim perspective on religious freedom

can be gleaned from the opinions of Sayyid Qutb. Sheikh Qutb was an Egyptian author and theorist whose views were so influential among Muslim extremists that the Washington Post labeled him the “intellectual godfather” of the Muslim Brotherhood.1

In Milestones Qutb promotes the idea that Islam is a crusader for religious liberty. He argues that Islam desires for all people to enjoy religious liberty, and jihad is the means by which Islam strives to ensure religious freedom for all.2 Qutb’s views are based on his belief that God is sovereign and that everyone should be free to serve Him. Qutb sees God as the creator of all things, who desires for all people to have the freedom to wor-ship Him; and religious persecution is the denial of an individual’s inherent right to exalt God. Qutb believes Islam is engaged in a struggle to ensure that everyone has the unrestricted prerogative to affirm the sovereignty of God.3

Qutb considers Islam’s divinely directed quest for religious liberty to be a global mission, and not limited to Arab lands.4 According to Qutb, Islam’s message must not be confined to any geo-graphic or racial boundaries, because God desires

IS SUPPRESSION OF RELIGION JUSTIFIED?A Christian perspective on Islam in America

By David Rhee

a bout 50 members of ac T for america protest on the steps of the pennsylvania state capitol against sharia law. ac T

for america is the largest anti-muslim group in the United states, according to the s outhern poverty Law center.

© J

IM W

EST

VIA

ZU

MA

WIR

E


© J

IM W

EST

VIA

ZU

MA

WIR

E


to reveal Himself to the entire world through Islam.5 So God has granted Muslims the right to take the initiative and fight anyone who obstructs their mission.6 Qutb even suggests that it is the duty of Islam to annihilate any nation or society that impedes its efforts to ensure all people the right to worship God.

Qutb believes Islam should have the free-dom to fulfill its mission, but he does not extend the same freedom to other religions. His reason-ing is that Islam is different from other reli-gions; it is based on the sovereignty of God, whereas other religions are human-made con-cepts that allow one individual to have authority over others. Thus, Qutb sees Islam as releasing people from the oppressive nature of other reli-gions so that they may have the freedom to adopt any belief of their choice.7 However, Qutb says this freedom does not mean people can choose to remain in the servitude of human beings. Instead, they must choose to live under the authority of God; that is what God desires, and it is possible only through Islam. So Qutb demands that Islam have the freedom to pro-claim its belief system, but he affords little toler-ance for anyone with a differing view on God’s will for humanity.

Calls to Repress IslamThe acts of violence committed by Islamic

extremists in America and even in Europe have made many Americans fearful and suspicious of Muslims. Some people feel that any assimilation

of Islam into their communities will make them less safe and more vulnerable to terrorism. As a result, state and local governments are enacting laws to restrict or prohibit Muslims from living in accordance with the tenets of their faith. This is evidenced by recent legislative actions against sharia law.

Sharia is best understood as God’s com-mand ing guidance for an Islamic way of life.8 It is essentially an instructional manual for everyday living, and it includes religious, legal, moral, and economic aspects. Sharia also offers protocols on everything from prayer, diet, and dress to commerce and warfare. Some American skeptics of sharia consider it to be incompatible with the laws of the United States. Others have even suggested that Muslims desire to supplant the U.S. Constitution with sharia. Such fears have prompted the legislatures of eight states to enact legislation that prohibits the recognition of sharia in the courts.9

The growing efforts to impede the religious liberty of Muslims include restrictions on where they can worship. Municipalities are making it harder for Muslims to build mosques, as illus-trated by a situation in Sterling Heights, Michigan. On September 10, 2015, the city plan-ning commission unanimously voted to deny approval for the construction of a mosque. Prior to the vote, some residents expressed fears that the mosque would serve as a gathering place for Muslim extremists. One opponent of the mosque told the city council, “This mosque is going to

“This mosque

is going to

bring in

people

like this. . . .

I don’t want

to be near

people

like this.”


bring in people like this,” while holding up a photo of a woman wearing a niqab, an Islamic face covering worn by some Muslims that covers their entire face except for the eyes. He then continued, “I don’t want to be near people like this. This is not humanity. . . . This is scary. And disgusting. This cannot stand. Please stop the mosque.” Another resident at the meeting expressed concern that the mosque could be used as “a facility to store weapons.”10

The Christian OutlookChristians must not participate in the cen-

sorship of other faiths. Religious oppression is a tool used by institutions that fear the dis-semination of ideas other than their own. North Korea is a prime example of how this works. The Kim family has maintained power in North Korea for more than a half century by suppress-ing the free expression of all religions except Juche, a quasi-religion that depicts the Kims as being divine. The Kim regime fears that if the citizens of North Korea learn about other reli-gions, they will come to realize that Juche is one big lie.

If people are given a choice to make an informed decision on matters of faith, they will be able to choose to follow the truth. Christianity need not fear competition from other religions, because it is firmly rooted in the legitimacy of Scripture, which is not a human-made work of fiction, but rather the inspired Word of God. The Bible reveals the thoughts, actions, and intentions of the one true God. Scripture proclaims that God is the sovereign creator of all things and that He has a relentless desire to bestow love, mercy, and redemption on humanity. God even sum-moned His own Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer a horrific death on a cross as the absolution for humanity’s transgressions. Jesus’ sacrifice is the source of redemption that ensures life everlasting to everyone who chooses to receive the gift of grace and salvation that God offers to all. This is an uplifting and hopeful message that stands out among religions that have more ominous out-looks on God and humanity.

Christians need not feel threatened by the presence of Islam or any other religion. Christianity has a long history of thriving in societies in which it coexists with other faiths. The first churches established by the apostle Paul sprouted out of cities that were religious melting pots. Roman and Greek religions were observed in most of these places, alongside Judaism, and their existence did not stop the early church from gaining converts. In modern times Christianity is rapidly growing in Africa, where it competes with Islam, as well as many indigenous

religions, for the hearts and souls of people. The concept of free will is another good

reason Christians must not support oppression against Islam. Christ called on His followers to share the gospel with the entire world so that everyone might have the opportunity to accept Him as their Savior. However, Christ did not anticipate that everyone who heard the gospel would accept its message. That is because God bestowed human beings with free will. Some people will use their free will to accept Christ, and others will choose to reject Him. God desires for all people to have the freedom to make that choice for themselves. Therefore, religious oppression is against the will of God.

Fear is what incites the growing calls to oppress Muslims in America. The actions of a few individuals purporting allegiance to Islam have created a widespread misunderstanding that Islam itself is a threat to the American way of life. The knee-jerk response to such concerns has been calls to purge Islam from America. However, the views expressed by Sayyid Qutb are proof that religious oppression will only incite greater fury among Muslim extremists. Any efforts to suppress Islam will simply serve as motivation for Muslim extremists and validate their belief that they are justified in using violence to stamp out any oppression that impedes their mission to deliver Islam’s message to the world.

A wiser approach to radical Islam is to fol-low the way of Christ and commit to evange-lism. Christ called on His followers to turn adversaries into advocates. Christians must not view Muslim extremists as the enemy, but instead as prospective converts to Christ. By engaging their Muslim brothers and sisters in cordial dialogue and respectful interaction, Christians can exemplify the teachings and actions of Christ. When confronted with acts of compassion and understanding on the part of Christians, it would be difficult for even the most radicalized Muslim to ignore the plea that Jesus Christ is their Savior too.1 Omar Sacirbey, “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Intellectual Godfather,” Washington Post, Feb. 12, 2011. 2 Sayyid Qutb, Milestones (New Delhi: Islamic Book Service, 2005), p. 70.3 Ibid., p. 76.4 Ibid., p. 72.5 Ibid., p. 60.6 Ibid., p. 75.7 Ibid., p. 61.8 Robert W. Hefner, ed., Sharia Politics: Islamic Law and Society in the Modern World (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2011), p. 12.9 www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/28/exclusive-south-caro-lina-house-passes-bill-banning-sharia-law/ (accessed Aug. 15, 2016).10 Niraj Warikoo, “Proposed Mosque in Sterling Heights Stirs Opposition,” Detroit Free Press, Sept. 10, 2015.

David Rhee is a Christian educator who writes from Pasadena, California.

IMA

GIN

E Y

OU

R W

OR

LD W

ITH

OU

T IT

• W

WW

.LIB

ER

TY

MA

GA

ZIN

E.O

RG

RELIG

IOUS

LIB

ERTY

OFF

ERIN

G JA

NUAR

Y 26

2019 WA

LLPR

OTEC

TING

THE

Of Lawyers and WitnessesEveryone is to be an ambassador for religious liberty. All of you have been called to do that. The work of God on this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work. Today we’re having a special rally that helps us to understand what it means to rally to the work and unite our efforts with those ministers and church officers. Every one of you is vitally important in the great proclamation of this message and in the proclamation of freedom of conscience.

Liberty magazine needs to be sent to thought leaders. Let’s see to that. But each of us also is a thought leader. Understand that it is your responsibility to be part of this great and incredibly important last-day proclamation. Now is not the time to lessen our influences on religious liberty. Now it is day, but we know the night is coming.

We depend upon attorneys and lawyers, upon legal experts, to help us to find a way through many of the challenges that we face. We’re grateful for consecrated Seventh-day Adventist attorneys: honest, faithful attorneys, people who will defend individuals who are facing challenges regarding their work situation, and regarding other aspects of religious freedom.

I want to focus for just a few moments on a well-known episode in the Scriptures involv-ing an attorney and human rights: where religious liberty is a prime focal point. It’s a well-known story, but I want you to understand it from a little bit different perspective. It’s found in Luke 10: “Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him” (verse 25).1

I’m always amazed to read how Jesus responded whenever He was pushed to the limit. Jesus is surely an example for us. We, too, are not to lash out at people. We, too, will be able to respond in direct and powerful ways when we are in connection with Him.

I want to urge you to be part of revival and reformation: taking time every day with your own connection with the Lord and the Word of God; taking time to read something from the Spirit of Prophecy; taking time in private personal prayer. We will not be saved as groups; we will be saved individually. You will not be saved because your pastor is an eloquent speaker and you enjoyed his rendition of Scripture on a Sabbath day. You will be saved by your relationship with Jesus Christ. And your relationship with Jesus Christ is based upon your interacting with Him on a daily basis in the Word of God and through prayer.

So this attorney stood up and tested Jesus. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” he asked (verse 25). Great question: the question is still being posed to us today. Each of us is part of total member involvement doing something for Jesus. We’re trying to help people by pointing them to the cross/eternal life.

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?” (verse 26). Well, the attorney, the lawyer, knew the law well. “What is your reading of it?” Jesus asked, turning the challenge back to the questioner (verse 26).

L I B E R T Y S E R M O N B Y T E D n . c . W I L s O n


So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself ’” (verse 27).

And Jesus said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live” (verse 28). Isn’t that a wonderful summation of our calling? You will have freedom if you understand and accept God’s commandments.

Now, here follows one of the words in Scripture that turns up in many different stories. It is a reply that often tells what the heart is really like. In the English it’s a short word: “But.” Oh, everything’s just great, everything’s going really nicely—but. You know, I really like to have dinner in our church, but. You know, that church member is really a very powerful person in my life and in the life of the church, but. If we cut out that little word in relation to each other and God’s work, I tell you, far more would be accomplished.

The greatest challenge we face in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is not some nuclear holocaust; not some persecution. The greatest challenge we face in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is self: putting self ahead of God and each other.

“But” he, the lawyer, “wanting to justify himself,” replied to Jesus (verse 29). He knew what the issue was, but he was trying to be academic. I have nothing against academics. But do not hide behind intellectual academic pursuits when you know the truth. The lawyer said, “And who is my neighbor?” (verse 29).

Then Jesus answered with a story.

Now, it’s interesting that The Desire of Ages tells us that this was not a parable. I encour-age you to read that chapter. This was an actual story; and interestingly enough, the very people whom Jesus was speaking to and about were present in that circle of people. As Jesus tells the story, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. Now, about two years ago, my wife, Nancy, and I actually had the privilege of being in Israel and visiting our church members there. There are about 800 of them. They speak many different languages, including Hebrew. They speak Russian, they speak Romanian, they speak Spanish, they speak Twi, they speak all kinds of languages. Pray for our people in Israel.

We had the privilege of standing at a particular point overlooking the main road from Jerusalem down into the Jordan Valley and close to Jericho. It’s an easy road now, although it drops rather rapidly and you might even feel a little ear pressure releasing as you drop. But in the old days the road was hard. Looking down into the valley where the old road used to go from Jerusalem to Jericho, you can see why the thieves and the bandits loved it. Not an easy journey. Now, it is important for us in the context of human rights and religious liberty to understand that the person waylaid on the Jericho road was a Jewish person. This will contrast with the person who helped him. And it says that they “stripped him of all his clothing, wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead” (verse 30).

“Now by chance a certain priest came down that road” (verse 31). A priest was a leader in the church, someone entrusted with the care of everyone, not only spiritually but physically, mentally, and socially. That is the balance that God gives to us. It is following

L I B E R T Y S E R M O N PA G E 2



Christ’s method alone to reach people physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. That is why pastors ought to know a lot about good health. That’s why pastors ought to know how to relate to people. That’s why pastors ought to understand that their role is much larger than simply preaching on a Sabbath morning or conducting a religious service. They are to train people, to focus them upon the great task that we have in these last days of earth’s history. It is a balanced approach.

So a priest came by. Maybe we could see him as the president of a conference, maybe of a union, maybe the president of our general conference. He came by. But you know, we can become so busy with the meetings and the committees and all of our high-level activity that we’re involved with that we might miss certain realities. The Bible says that when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. By God’s grace, may you and I never be too busy to pass by on the other side.

Then in verse 32 another character appears: “Likewise a Levite.” Yes, another leader in the church; maybe the Sabbath school superintendent; maybe someone who was a teacher. When he arrived at the place, he came and looked.

Now, in my mind’s eye, I see this Levite coming, and he says, “Oh, how terrible. This is a tragedy, when we have all kinds of security, for this man to have been attacked and left dying on the side of the road. Where are the police? Where is the security? Where are those who will come with an ambulance and take this person to where they can profes-sionally treat him? This man’s rights, his human rights, have been violated. Why isn’t someone helping him?”

At least the Levite looked on this person: but a sad commentary when it came to actually helping this person with his human rights and his liberties? It says that he “looked, and passed by on the other side” (verse 32). What an indictment for the church! What an indictment for us if we are not fully in God’s hands!

Well, the Bible says, then, that “a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was” (verse 33). Now, you have to understand something. The Jewish people at that time hated the Samaritans. Had that Samaritan been in the place of this Jewish man, he never would have received any attention. But be careful about castigating that attitude of the Jewish people or anyone else, because this story represents you and me.

The Samaritan came; and he didn’t stop for a moment and say, “Well, it’s not a good situ-ation. I wonder what ethnic group he comes from. I wonder what race he is of. I wonder what social economic level this person is from. If I help him, will I get something out of it? I wonder what language he speaks.” No, the Samaritan, driven by the power of the Holy Spirit and understanding the fuller concept of true human rights, which is focused upon God’s holy Book, jumped into action and obeyed God’s commandments without think-ing. What a lesson for us. The Bible says he treated his wounds; he cared for him; he clothed him; he put his own robe on him; and he put him on his own donkey. He didn’t just take him to the inn, or the hospital; he even paid for care to be provided for him.

You see, you and I are that poor Jewish man on the side of the road; half dead, half naked, without the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and in great need of God’s power. Jesus is that Samaritan, the one who was hated and rebuffed. Jesus has stopped to take



care of you and me. He’s poured the ointment into our wounds. He has helped us to recover. He has put His robe of righteousness on us, and He has taken us to the church—not to recover and sit in the church and glory in what we have, but to tell somebody else about it.

See, the great challenge today is not to become complacent Laodicea, but to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. In the wonderful book The Desire of Ages we are told that “the lesson is no less needed in the world today than when it fell from the lips of Jesus. Selfishness and cold formality have well-nigh extinguished the fire of love, and dispelled the graces that should make fragrant the character. Many who profess His name have lost sight of the fact that Christians are to represent Christ. Unless there is a practical self-sacrifice for the good of others, in the family circle, in the neighborhood, in the church, and wherever we may be, then whatever our profession, we are not Christians.”2 As Christians we believe in fundamental human rights for people; as Christians, we understand that it is important to treat people with fairness and respect and provide religious liberty for all. To maintain that, we must be connected to the One who truly can give us the power to be Christians, and that is Christ Himself. Christ is asking you today to be that kind of person.

You see, Christ works in a powerful way in the hearts of people. Let me tell you about Tatiana. Tatiana is an attorney. Tatiana was the vice mayor of a central Asian city in a rather prominent Muslim-dominated country. A Seventh-day Adventist pastor came to her office one day and asked for a supply of bricks. In that country, under that system, it was obliga-tory to go to officials and authorities and request the commodities that you needed.

The pastor came asking for his allotment of bricks to build a church, and Tatiana said, “I don’t have time. Go away. Come back in three days.” He came back in three days. She said, “I still haven’t done the research. I don’t have time. Go away. Come back again.” I tell you, my brothers and sisters, as ambassadors for religious freedom, don’t ever let any official push you away to the extent that you never come back. Our pastor came back again and made his plea. And because Tatiana didn’t want to be bothered anymore, she just said, “OK, I’m going to sign your form. Get out of my office.” Our pastor was happy. He got his bricks, and built his church in this central Asian country.

Sometime later Tatiana’s 17-year-old son came to her and said, “Mother, in a few days I’m going to have my birthday. I want you to spend time with me.”

Tatiana, being a very busy professional, an advocate, an attorney, a lawyer, thought, Well, I’ll just give my son some money and let him have a good time on his birthday, because I’m so busy. I tell you, brothers and sisters, take time for your children. Respect your children, respect your spouse. We have a whole other area of human rights and liberty that we need to focus on in the Seventh-day Adventist Church family, and we should not neglect it, as some do.

In any case, Tatiana’s son said, “No, I want you to spend time with me.” And so she finally agreed. On that particular Saturday she put on her scarf and went out the door with her son, and as they were walking along they came to a church. They entered the church, and Tatiana was so glad that as the vice mayor, she had her scarf so she could be hidden some-what. They sat down in the church. The pastor preached an impassionate sermon about Christ and about giving your heart to Him. And Tatiana, the attorney, the lawyer, who



was a professional person, sat very uneasy. At the end of the sermon the pastor gave a call for people to come forward if they wanted to give their hearts to Christ and be baptized. Tatiana was shocked when she saw her 17-year-old son, on his birthday, standing to his feet and going to the front. You see, her son had been attending this church: a Seventh-day Adventist church. In fact, it was the very church that Tatiana had signed for the bricks. He had been attending, and he had been touched by the love of God’s people.

The son went forward. He talked with the pastor after the service. He came back and told his mother, “Mother, we’re going to a lake, and there will be a baptism; and the pas-tor has arranged for me to go there in a van, and he has a place for you.”

“Oh, no, no, I can’t go,” she protested.

“Please, Mother,” he begged, “it’s my birthday.” And so she agreed to go.

They went to the lake together. As he was about to enter the waters of baptism, Tatiana saw her son talking animatedly with the pastor and then jumping up and down and running back to her. The son told Tatiana, “Mother, the pastor says you can be baptized too.” I don’t know what the son told the pastor and I don’t know what the pastor under-stood, because that is not the method that we like to use. People need to understand the Word of God. They usually need to understand fully the liberty in Christ and His full message before they make a decision.

But somehow God had other plans that day. And Tatiana said, “Absolutely not. I don’t even know what this is. You have to believe something and accept it before you are indoctrinated or enter into an organization.”

But Tatiana’s son said, “It’s my birthday.” And so Tatiana was baptized. They were given two baptismal certificates: they took them home, and her son hid those certificates, because they never wanted his father to find out. In that particular country, if you do something against the wishes or without the knowledge of the father of the home, you are in big trouble.

After a while Tatiana said, “You know, I’ve been baptized into something. I better find out what it is.” She picked up a Bible and began to read it. And as she read the Bible, she fell in love with Jesus. After her baptism she became a sweet, loving person. Jesus changed her life. The brilliant, professional lawyer, who knew how to be the vice mayor of the city, now became a much humbler individual.

One day, about five months later, her son came into the home and said, “Mother, some-thing terrible has happened. Father has found the baptismal certificates, and he is angry.” Tatiana knew, even though she was a professional, that she was facing a very challenging situation with her husband. And so after the meal that night she sat down with her hus-band. Her husband said, “How could you bring such embarrassment upon our home by doing something in such a way that I had no involvement in giving you permission?”

You know, the Lord has promised to give you the words to say when you have to face rulers and potentates and governors. He will give you the words to say if you are practic-ing, staying in contact with Him every day. Tatiana received the grace from heaven and


gave her response. She said, “My dear husband, you have the baptismal certificates in your hand. You see the dates on those certificates. If since that time I have become a mean individual and an individual who has never shown any kind of sensitivity to any-one—if I have become a worse person—I will leave this religion immediately. But, my dear husband, if you have seen that I have become a sweeter person, a more loving wife, a more attentive mother, please take that into consideration.”

There was a long pause, and her husband said, “No, Tatiana, you have become a sweeter person. You have become a more loving wife and mother.”

Never discount the young people of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Nurture them, encourage them, learn their names, help them to be part of the mission of the church. The son had stood for Christ. He had been the agent of his mother’s conversion. And now, not long after that nighttime challenge, Tatiana’s husband began reading the book The Great Controversy and the Bible, and then accepted Jesus and became a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He and his wife have become pillars in the church in that central Asian country.

Each of us, regardless of our station in life, can be a powerful witness for God. “We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude doing nothing to preserve liberty of con-science.”3 Whether you are a 17-year-old or a 77-year-old, all of us are to be part of this great proclamation of Christ’s soon coming, of the freedom of conscience and the power of choice that He has given to each of us.

What a day it will be when the Lord returns! I’m looking forward to that day. How about you? We will look up in the sky, and we’ll see a little cloud appearing; about half the size of a man’s hand, we’re told. That will get larger and larger and brighter and brighter, and soon it will fill the entire sky. All of heaven is to be poured out for this climactic event. And we will look up and say, “This is the God that we have waited for, the God who has provided us with freedom of conscience, with religious liberty, and we have chosen to love Him. This is our God whom we have waited for.”

Those people who are looking up will hear the words of our Lord and Savior as He looks down and says, “Well done, good and faithful servants; enter into the joy of your Lord.” And we will rise into the sky following those who have died in Jesus; another beautiful truth of Scripture. You sleep until that time; the next thing you know is the bright calling of Jesus, and we will follow those up into the sky and will be with the Lord forever. What a promise, what a culmination of religious liberty and the choice we have made.

Oh, I long to be there on that day. Don’t you? Are you willing to be part of those who will proclaim the wonderful message of Christ’s soon coming? He has given you a choice, the freedom of choice, the freedom of religious liberty, to worship as your conscience calls.

1 Bible texts in this article are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.2 Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1898, 1940), p. 504.3 Ellen G. White, Christian Service (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1925), p. 162.

Ted N. C. Wilson is world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This sermon is adapted from a Sabbath sermon he gave to attendees at a large religious liberty rally held last year at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.



T he end of liberalism

is in sight,” writes Patrick J. Deneen, a Notre Dame political scientist, in his widely acclaimed new book, Why Liberalism Failed.”1 And this may lead “either to liberalocratic despotism or the rigid and potentially cruel authoritarian regime.” This dire prediction recalls Martin Heidegger’s Der Spiegel 1966 interview, published after his death in 1976, in which, reflecting on the “crisis of modernity” and philosophy’s inability to solve the crisis, he said in despair, “Only a god can still save us,” and added, “I think the possibility of salvation left to us is to prepare, through thinking and poetry, for the appearance of the god.”2

Heidegger comes to mind because his radical cri-tique of modernity mirrors Deneen’s radical critique of liberalism (“liberalism” here understood in the nineteenth-century sense, not the left-liberal American

after liberalism

By Elijah Mvundura Illustration by Robert Hunt

after liberalism


Revelation and the millennium.5 All nine-teenth-century ideologies and movements—Romanticism, nationalism, liberalism, positiv-ism, utilitarianism, Hegelianism, German idealism, Marxism, Darwinism, neoclassical economics—were hatched in a milieu animated by apocalyptic fears and millenarian hopes.

That’s why they secularized Christian escha-tological motifs, as Karl Löwith showed in Meaning in History and Klaus Vondung in The Apocalypse in Germany. And according to Michael Allen Gillespie in The Theological Origins of Modernity, they transferred to nature, science, humans, and other entities attributes and essential powers previously ascribed to God. Thus “concealed theological assumptions” under-lie modernity.6 And “the attempt to read them out of modernity has in fact blinded us to their continuing importance in modern thought in ways that make it very difficult to come to terms with our current situation,” says Gillespie.7

Indeed, it’s very difficult, because our under-standing of modernity, liberalism, science, and other aspects that constitute the world we live

sense). To be sure, “radical critique” goes back to the nineteenth century, when the “crisis of modernity” first became salient in the wake of the great political, social, and economic trans-formations and dislocations wrought by the scientific, Industrial and French revolutions.

Stirred by these transformations (“great events of the age,” in Shelley’s words), major nineteenth-century thinkers and artists “con-ceived themselves as elected spokesmen for the Western tradition at a time of profound cultural crisis.” They called themselves “philosopher-seers” or “poet-prophets.”3 These biblical allusions weren’t merely rhetorical. Nineteenth-century ideologies and aesthetic projects were shaped by biblical prophecy, particularly “in England and Germany, two great Protestant nations with a history of theological and politi-cal radicalism.”4

In fact, the French Revolution’s “violent uprooting of European political and social insti-tutions forced many to the conclusion that the end of the world was near,” and this stimulated an interest in the prophecies of Daniel and

The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 is regarded as the flashpoint of the French Revolution.


in was shaped by thinkers who in their “radical critique” of the Ancien Régime “concealed” the theological origins of modernity. I am speaking here of the French philosophes, who “credited the venerable English trinity, Bacon, Locke, and Newton, with the ideas that inspired their own Enlightenment,”8 yet deviously uprooted their thought from its biblical-apocalyptic moorings.

Voltaire, for example, dismissed Newton’s prophetic apocalyptic studies as “merely a hobby, something he played with for relax-ation.”9 This enabled him to detach God from Newton’s mechanical universe and produce deism. Similarly, in An Essay on Universal History, the Manners, and Spirit of Nations he shifted European history into a secular frame-work, so that “the leading principle was no longer the will of God and divine providence but the wil l of man and human rea-son.”10 Exclusion of God from nature and his-tory was systemized into materialism by Diderot, d’Alembert, d’Holbach, and into pan-theism by Spinoza, Romantics, and German idealists. Tellingly, “self” became the leitmotif of nineteenth-century ideologies and systems: “self-formation” (Bildung), “self-con-scious Geist” (Hegel), “self-directing history” (Marx), “self-regulating market” (neoclassical economics), “self-ordering society” (liberalism), “self-originating nature” (Darwin).

This shift of the center of reality from God to self, represented in Eric Voegelin’s “the egophanic revolt”11 or “the metaphysical rebellion,”12 as Albert Camus called it. Behind it was the cult of genius, by which “bourgeois intellectuals created new roles for themselves as they declared their independence” “and claimed the right to reform society according to their own lights.”13 This entailed denying God any role in human affairs. Indeed, genius-artists were defined by qualities formerly reserved for God. As said, they “could create ex nihilo, out of nothing, as God had supposedly done.”14 And create they did. For all our cultural axioms are nineteenth-century artifacts.

Unlike God, however, they did not create ex nihilo. Like the eighteenth-century philosophes, who “demolished the Heavenly City of St. Augustine only to rebuild it with more up-to-date materials,”15 nineteenth-century thinkers and artists secularized Christian doctrines, mixing them with classical, hermetic, and occult ele-ments to produce new combinations. Hegel is a case in point. This continued dependence on Christian doctrines brings us to Nietzsche, the

self-described antichrist and disciple of Dionysus, the Greek god of madness and formlessness.

Nietzsche’s historic importance is in unmasking the Enlightenment hypocrisy or dishonesty of rejecting Christianity while retaining its moral and humanitarian values. He called for radical honesty. Christianity must be rejected in toto, including values derived from it: equality and democracy. “Christianity made natural,” because they had destroyed the “aristocratic ideal” and produced cultural degeneracy.16 For Nietzsche, only the recovery of archaic Greek Dionysian religion could revi-talize European culture. The choice, as he starkly put it, is “Dionysus against the Crucified.”17 Thus he replaced Christ’s second coming with the doctrine of eternal recurrence. Still he was unable to escape the eschatological horizon opened by the Crucified. In speaking of the god who is coming (Dionysus), Nietzsche aped the messianic vision.

This Dionysian messianism, which Heidegger adopted, is the clue to his cryptic remark that “only a god can save us.” All of Heidegger’s work is pervaded by a sense of deep cultural crisis so pervasive that it would destroy modernity and open up a new epoch. If this sounds apocalyptic, it’s because Heidegger too was unable to escape its horizon. Indeed, like the Apocalypse, he believed that history is under, not human control, but impersonal forces. Or, as his French acolytes argued, it’s under linguistic, symbolic, political, ideological, gender, and logocentric structures, which assume a monstrous life of their own.

That is why “radical critique” since the nineteenth-century dismissed freedoms in lib-eral democracy as false or illusory and sought their destruction so as to disclose “authentic” freedom. For “radical critique,” religion or Christianity is the oppressor, “the opium of the people,” as Marx famously put it. Or, as Heidegger explained: “Since the beginning of and throughout the modern age it [Christianity] has continued to be that against which the new freedom . . . must be distinguished.”18

Christianity as the antithesis of the modern freedom; or, in Voltaire’s words, the “infamy” opposed to reason and science. But it’s mislead-ing. In fact, it’s false. For it doesn’t make the crucial distinction between the different influ-ences of Catholicism and Protestantism on modernity. As it is, it’s the Catholic Church that condemned Galileo and supported the reactionary forces aiming to restore the Old Regime. It’s the pope who, in the Syllabus of

Friedrich nietzsche

Nietzsche’s

historic

importance is in

unmasking the

Enlightenment

hypocrisy or

dishonesty of

rejecting

Christianity while

retaining its

moral and

humanitarian

values.


Errors, refused “to reconcile himself . . . with progress, with liberalism and modern civiliza-tion.”19 This intransigency is what made French intellectuals radical, anticlerical, and virulently anti-Christian, thwarting the growth of liberal democracy in France. As Quinet succinctly put it in the nineteenth century: “Catholicism being the national religion, how can modern liberty be built up on a religious principle that denies it? That is the crux of our history for the last sixty years.”20

As for Protestantism, while Luther and Calvin, like the Catholic Church, rejected Copernicanism and did not champion moder-nity, their theological anthropology, doctrine of sola scriptura, and inviolability of the indi-vidual conscience, made religious and intel-lectual uniformity impossible, thus aiding modern freedoms. Indeed, Protestant sectarian-ism, the multiplicity of opinions it engendered, coupled with the experience of religious wars, made such English thinkers as Hobbes and Locke establish politics on new foundations. And their philosophical prescriptions were rooted in the theology of Luther and Calvin.

As we know, half of Hobbes’s Leviathan deals with the “Christian Commonwealth” and the “Kingdom of Darkness.” In both, his argument is Calvinist and eschatological. “He insists unremittingly on the literal and physical nature of Christ’s return, the literal, physical, and political character of his kingdom after the resurrection of the saints.”21 His thrust was to discredit the theocratic claims of both the Catholic Church and Puritan sects. For him, the state is a human artifice, based on a “social contract,” because the divine kingdom is in the future. But before eschaton the all-powerful state—Leviathan, “King of all the children of pride”22—is necessary to restrain the libido dominandi of the proud or vainglorious.

In placing “limits on government” and insisting on the “limits of human understand-ing,” Locke was also informed by the same goal to restrain pride. Indeed, all major early mod-ern English thinkers, including the American Founders, had a deep aversion to pride based on the theological anthropology of Luther and Calvin, which blamed the Fall on pride, on the desire to become God. As Francis Fukuyama acutely noted: “The Anglo-Saxon tradition of liberalism takes its decisive turn in the relative moral weight assigned to the passions of pride or vanity,” which it deplored as “the source of all violence and human misery.”23

The continental tradition, on the other

hand, took its decisive turn in the primacy it assigned to reason. Inspired by Thomist optimism about human nature, Descartes saw no limits to human knowledge. And the result was a heaven-storming pride that literally reenacted the Fall. Replying to Christina of Sweden on what was the “supreme good,” Descartes wrote, “Freewill is in itself the noblest thing we can have because it makes us in a cer-tain manner equal to God and exempts us from being his subjects; and its rightful use is the greatest of all the goods we possess.”24 Just as Descartes advised, the “rightful use” of free will spawned a self-deifying rationalism. A scarlet thread runs from the Cartesian ego, through Fichte, Romantics, Hegel, to Nietzsche’s “will to power,” as Gillespie showed in his path-breaking book Nihilism Before Nietzsche.

The “will to power” culminated in the “mur-der of God.” As Nietzsche himself put it: “Whither is God?” . . . I will tell you. We have killed him.”25 Of course, God cannot be killed. But His “murder,” accomplished philosophi-cally, was necessary for the fabrication of the secular religions that paved way for the man-gods—the Stalins and the Hitlers. Curiously, Communism and fascism as reli-gions, and Stalin and Hitler as man-gods, is not central to our understanding of these ideologies. Yet Nietzsche, like the Romantics and other nineteenth-century thinkers, explicitly stated his desire to be god and create new religions or myths. As he put it, after “we have killed him [God],” “what festivals of atonement, what sacred games, shall we need to invent? . . . Must we ourselves not become gods?”26 And Jean-Paul Sartre admiringly described “the project of being God . . . as the deep-seated structure of human reality.”27 Similarly, Heidegger, the avatar of postmodernism, “interpreted monotheism as a monopolistic claim on the divine.”28

To put it differently, for Heidegger, divinity must be democratized. We must all become gods. When in the late nineteenth century Nietzsche’s madman announced these news, his listeners fell “silent and stared at him in astonishment,” forcing him to retreat: “I have come too early.” The news of deification “has not yet reached the ears of men,” he said.29 However, thanks to Heidegger’s formidable interpretation of Nietzsche, the demonic tidings of human divinity spread from Germany to France and from there to the United States. Through the dominance of American universities and culture, the tidings are now a global phenomenon, as evidenced

The demonic

tidings of human

divinity spread

from Germany to

France and from

there to the

United States.


by the radical individualism or narcissism that defines our times.

The globalization of the desire to be God, strikingly reenacting the Fall, is perhaps the clearest proof, if proof was needed, of the exis-tence of “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). Indeed, the popular “scien-tific” claim that the Bible is a myth, when its authenticity is universally demonstrated by the rebellion against God and diabolical crimes, can be explained only in terms of demonic mendacity. As it is, blindness to demonic men-dacity goes to the heart of failure of liberalism, as Dostoevsky powerfully dramatized in “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor.”

If ideologically liberalism reflects the deep-seated human longing for freedom, Dostoevsky’s insight was that unlimited freedom ends in unlimited despotism. In Demons he depicted this perversion of freedom into its opposite in terms of demonic possession. And in “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor,” it’s the devil himself behind the Grand Inquisitor. He bides his time, waits for liberalism—unlimited freedom to descend into license, unbridled egoism, and sensuality—caus-ing moral and social anarchy, so extreme and horrific that Dostoevsky describes it as “cannibal-ism,” a Hobbesian war of all against all. Peace comes when the emaciated survivors crawl to the Grand Inquisitor and cry: “Yes, you were right, you alone possess His mystery, and we have come back to you, save us from ourselves!”30

Fanciful? Civilizations do collapse. It’s the pope, we must recall, who saved the West after the collapse of the Roman Empire and was its spiritual leader until the Protestant Reformation. And reason, the new leader fabricated by the Enlightenment, failed to check the demons. After they nearly destroyed Europe in the Second World War, leadership fell on America, which bought them off materially. Now, with Pax Americana unraveling, they are resurgent. Can they be checked? This is the central question of our times.

If liberalism collapses, what comes after? In a chilling prediction, Dostoevsky, who accu-rately predicted the deformations of the Russian revolutions, has the devil himself, tracing the heaven-storming trajectory of continental phi-losophy, say, in the end, “man will be lifted up with a spirit of divine Titanic pride and the man-god will appear.”31 To put it directly, after liberalism—comes the antichrist.

Elijah Mvundura writes from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

1 Patrick J. Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University

Press, 2018), p. 182.2 Martin Heidegger, in https://archive.org/stream/MartinHeidegger-DerSpiegelIn

terviewenglishTranslationonlyAGodCan/Heidegger-derSpiegelInterview1966_

djvu.txt.3 M. H. Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic

Literature (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1971), p. 12.4 Ibid.5 Ernest R. Sandeen, Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American

Millenarianism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 5.6 Michael Allen Gillespie, The Theological Origins of Modernity (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 2008), p. 274.7 Ibid., p. xii.8 Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and

American Enlightenments (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), p. 5.9 Voltaire, in Arthur H. Williamson: Apocalypse Then: Prophecy and the Making of

the Modern World (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008), p. 235.10 Karl Löwith, Meaning in History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), p. 1.11 Eric Voegelin, Order and History, Volume Four: The Ecumenic Age (Baton Rouge,

La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1974), pp. 260-266.12 Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt (New York: Vintage Books,

1956).13 Carl Pletsch, Young Nietzsche: Becoming a Genius (New York: The Free Press,

1991), p. 2.14 Ibid., p. 6.15 Carl L. Becker, The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (New

Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1932), p. 31.16 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufman and R. J.

Hollingdale (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), p. 125.17 Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Penguin

Books, 1979), p. 104.18 Martin Heidegger, in Brian D. Ingraffia, Postmodern Theory and Biblical

Theology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 3.19 Owen Chadwick, The Secularization of the European Mind in the

Nineteenth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 111.20 Edgar Quinet, in Roger H. Soltau, French Political Thought in the

Nineteenth Century (New York: Russel & Russel, 1959), p. xxviii.21 J.G.A. Pocock, Politics, Language, and Time (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1989), p. 174.22 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Michael Oakeshott (New York: Simon &

Schuster, 1962).23 Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: The Free

Press, 1992), pp. 155, 156.24 Rene Descartes, Philosophical Letters, trans. Anthony Kenny (Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota, 1970), p. 228.25 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York:

Vintage Books, 1974), p. 181.26 Ibid.27 Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, trans. Hazel E. Barnes (New York:

Washington Square Press, 1956), p. 742.28 Rene Girard, “Dionysus Versus the Crucified,” Modern Language Notes 99, no.

4, French Issue (September 1984): 817.29 Nietzsche, Gay Science, p. 182.30 Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Constance Garnett (New

York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2004), p. 239.31 Ibid., p. 590.

CLA

SS C

OD

ESA

ssoc

iatio

ns01

Boa

rds

of tr

ade

02 C

ham

bers

of C

omm

erce

05 L

abor

org

aniz

atio

ns06

Rel

igio

us o

rgan

izat

ions

09 M

isce

llane

ous

Com

mun

icat

ions

10 C

omm

unic

atio

n as

soci

atio

ns11

Pre

ss12

Rad

io a

nd T

V13

Col

umni

st14

Rel

igio

us p

ublic

atio

ns15

Col

lege

new

spap

ers

Educ

atio

n

20 E

duca

tiona

l ass

ocia

tions

21 G

over

ning

boa

rds

22 C

olle

ges

and

univ

ersi

ties*

23 H

igh

scho

ols*

24 Ju

nior

hig

h sc

hool

s*25

Ele

men

tary

sch

ools

*

30 L

ibra

ries

Gov

ernm

ent

40 In

tern

atio

nal

41 F

eder

al42

Sta

te/p

rovi

ncia

l43

Cou

nty*

44 M

unic

ipal

*45

Mili

tary

46 M

unic

ipal

/Cou

nty

atto

rney

s49

Pol

itica

l org

aniz

atio

ns

50 B

usin

ess a

nd C

orpo

ratio

ns

Prof

essi

onal

60 Ju

dges

, exc

ept f

eder

al a

nd s

tate

/pr

ovin

cial

61 A

ttor

neys

62 C

lerg

y63

Doc

tors

64 D

entis

ts65

Ent

erta

iner

s66

Ser

vice

org

aniz

atio

ns69

Hos

pita

ls*

71 S

DA

Chur

ch M

embe

rs

72 F

rien

ds sp

onso

red

by S

DA’

s

* Ex

cept

libr

arie

s, w

hich

are

cod

e 30

No

chan

ge o

n th

is n

ame

Corr

ecte

d ad

dres

s an

d zi

p co

de

“OU

T” w

ill d

elet

e en

tire

nam

e

Chan

ge c

lass

cod

e an

d in

crea

se

num

ber o

f sub

s to

fie

Keep

ing

past

or w

ho re

ceiv

es

5

0 su

bs fo

r his

chu

rch

Keep

ing

mem

ber w

ho in

crea

sed

d

onat

ion

amou

ntN

ot m

arki

ng “K

EEP”

on

this

nam

e m

eans

it w

ill b

e de

lete

d au

tom

atic

ally

KEYL

INE

7-30

0-02

0 LI

BERT

Y CA

MPA

IGN

76

5432

1-M

ON

TAN

A

9876

543-

HEL

ENA

CH

URC

H

PAG

E 35

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(1

1)

(12)

(1

3)

LN

CL

LAST

NA

ME

I I

TITL

E SE

CON

D L

INE

AD

DRE

SS

THIR

D L

INE

AD

DRE

SS

CITY

ST

ZI

P D

NR

QTY

** P

ROFE

SSIO

NA

L **

01

60

ALV

ARE

S P

J H

ON

42

0 U

S CO

URT

HO

USE

35

0 M

AIN

ST

SALT

LA

KE C

ITY

UT

8410

1

1

03

61

ROG

ERS

JR

E M

AT

TY

6401

SEC

URI

TY B

LVD

WA

SHIN

GTO

N

DC

2041

0

1

02

61

WIL

SON

J

R AT

TY

916

SECO

ND

AVE

DEN

VER

CO

8020

2

1

04

61

WRE

N

H

G

DEA

N

TC W

ILLI

AM

S LA

W S

CHO

OL

UN

IV. O

F RI

CHM

ON

D

RICH

MO

ND

VA

23

273

1

** F

EDER

AL

OFF

ICIA

LS *

*

** S

DA

MEM

BERS

--SU

NSE

T PR

OVI

SIO

N A

PPLI

ES *

*

-06

71

PAST

OR

FI

RST

SDA

CH

URC

H

1559

DO

GW

OO

D L

AN

E CO

LUM

BUS

MT

5901

9

50

-07

71

JACO

BSEN

M

M

S

440

TAN

GLE

WO

OD

DR

CA

LIM

ESA

CA

92

320

4 1

-08

72

ALE

XAN

DER

D

J M

R-M

R RO

UTE

1 B

OX

258-

A

H

EDG

EVIL

LE

WV

2542

7

1

LIN

E N

UM

BERS

WIT

H A

HYP

EN B

EFO

RE T

HEM

(-06

, -07

, -08

) WIL

L AU

TOM

ATIC

ALL

Y BE

DEL

ETED

UN

LESS

MA

RKED

“KEE

P” P

ER IN

STRU

CTI

ON

S U

ND

ER

“SD

A N

AM

ES O

N T

HE

PRIN

TOU

T” O

N P

AGE

2 O

F IN

STRU

CTI

ON

SH

EET.

KEY T

O CH

ANGE

S

FOLLO

W TH

IS SA

MPLE

INST

RUCT

ION S

HEET

TO CO

RREC

T YOU

R CHU

RCH P

RINT

OUT

Class

Code

(Col

umn 2

)Th

is is

wher

e you

can fi

nd yo

ur CO

NFER

ENCE

code

This

is wh

ere y

ou ca

n find

your

CHUR

CH co

de

Keep

Keep

22

Out

7150

Ash

ton

Lane

2042

0

5

3

Her

e is

my

gift

:I w

ant t

o su

ppor

t rel

igio

us fr

eedo

m in

act

ion,

and

hel

p se

t at l

iber

ty

thos

e w

ho a

re o

ppre

ssed

.

Plea

se u

se m

y gi

ft o

f:

$25

0

$10

0

$50

$

Tha

nk y

ou!

U.S

. or

Can

adia

n su

bscr

iptio

n pr

ice

for

Libe

rty

is $

6.0

0 fo

r on

e ye

ar.

Ple

ase

send

me Liberty

mag

azin

e.

Thi

s is

a d

onat

ion

only

. I d

o no

t wan

t Liberty

mag

azin

e.

NA

ME

AD

DRE

SS

CIT

Y

STAT

E/PR

OV

INC

E

ZIP

CH

URC

H

CON

FERE

NC

E

Plea

se c

ompl

ete

this

form

, det

ach

the

enve

lope

, and

inse

rt y

our

paym

ent

befo

re

seal

ing.

Pla

ce t

he c

ompl

eted

env

elop

e in

an

offe

ring

plat

e. M

ake

chec

ks p

ayab

le t

o yo

ur lo

cal c

hurc

h.

All s

ubsc

riptio

ns w

ill b

egin

with

the

May

/Jun

e is

sue

of Liberty

. Unf

ortu

nate

ly, Liberty

m

agaz

ine

is n

ot a

vaila

ble

in S

pani

sh.

FREE

DOM

BOND

Her

e is

my

gift

:I w

ant t

o su

ppor

t rel

igio

us fr

eedo

m in

act

ion,

and

hel

p se

t at l

iber

ty

thos

e w

ho a

re o

ppre

ssed

.

Plea

se u

se m

y gi

ft o

f:

$25

0

$10

0

$50

$

Tha

nk y

ou!

U.S

. or

Can

adia

n su

bscr

iptio

n pr

ice

for

Libe

rty

is $

6.0

0 fo

r on

e ye

ar.

Ple

ase

send

me Liberty

mag

azin

e.

Thi

s is

a d

onat

ion

only

. I d

o no

t wan

t Liberty

mag

azin

e.

NA

ME

AD

DRE

SS

CIT

Y

STAT

E/PR

OV

INC

E

ZIP

CH

URC

H

CON

FERE

NC

E

Plea

se c

ompl

ete

this

form

, det

ach

the

enve

lope

, and

inse

rt y

our

paym

ent

befo

re

seal

ing.

Pla

ce t

he c

ompl

eted

env

elop

e in

an

offe

ring

plat

e. M

ake

chec

ks p

ayab

le t

o yo

ur lo

cal c

hurc

h.

All s

ubsc

riptio

ns w

ill b

egin

with

the

May

/Jun

e is

sue

of Liberty

. Unf

ortu

nate

ly, Liberty

m

agaz

ine

is n

ot a

vaila

ble

in S

pani

sh.

FREE

DOM

BOND

liberty campaign 2019 englishlibertymagazine.org/campaign-materials/2019/2019... · 2018-12-16 ·...

Documents