My whole life, growing up in the Adventist Church, the prophetic-political paradigm that has been stressed in religious liberty weekends, Daniel and Revelation seminars, and in almost all sermons dealing with political and social issues is that the religious right is scheming (either explicitly or unknowingly) to bring about a Sunday Law, end religious liberty, and establish a theocracy in America.
All political causes associated with the religious right have been viewed with a side eye at best, or often regarded as a cynical ploy to bring about religious persecution on the back end.
This really started in earnest with the emergence of the Moral Majority, with figures like Jerry Falwell, that became a major leg of Ronald Reagan’s political coalition. All the talk of making America more Christian, having moral laws, and opposing militant secularism raised the hairs on the necks of many Adventists. This response came from a good place of wanting to safeguard religious liberty and the separation of church and state.
But, by being in opposition merely to a set of vibes, and not specific criticisms, I believe this attitude leads many Adventists to have a warped sense of the legitimate role of government and Christian’s political involvement.
What were we opposing in this emboldened religious right? Laws restricting access to abortion? Laws defining marriage as between one man and one woman? Law & order policies against crime and drugs? These were the bulk of concerns with modern society that prompted the Moral Majority to organize themselves, and these concerns were and are legitimate and within the realm of the civil government to act on.
I believe that our blanket condemnations of the Moral Majority and religious right has blunted the witness of our prophetic message in two main ways:
We have been blind, and therefore bad watchmen, to threats to both civil and religious liberty that come from the secular left, religious left, and other corners.
We have dulled the ears of many of our evangelical and conservative brethren to our message by essentially crying wolf on many things that were not religious liberty threats, but in fact just political movements. Why would they listen to us when we speak out against real threats from some corners of the right?
Enough dwelling on the problems of the past though. Our direction must be forward facing.
I believe it is essential that Seventh-day Adventists today re-acquaint ourselves with the views of the American founders on religious liberty and public morality, the Protestant two tablet political theory, and the work of both evangelical and early Adventist reformers of civil government.
One thinker we should all read and understand is the Presbyterian minister and philosopher, Francis A. Schaeffer. Schaeffer was considered by many to be the philosophical giant behind the Moral Majority of the 1980s, and his views on separation of church and state and the upholding of basic second tablet morality in public life could perfectly map on to an Adventist paradigm.
The greatest threats to the principles of a free society today are the utter collapse of virtue and morality from both public and private life, the spread of crime and disorder in American streets, the dependence on government evidenced by the welfare state, and disintegration of the American family and family values. But, polities and people long for order and security. When they have not been educated in the proper forms of those things, they will rush to movements promising those things even if they are threats to public liberty. Despots arise from the lack of orderly and virtuous freedom, and as many statesmen have observed since the time of Aristotle—freedom cannot long exist in the absence of virtue.
So, if we want to work to delay the atrocities that will come upon this earth, and preserve liberty, then we need a full spectrum political philosophy. We must robustly defend freedom in the sphere of the first Four Commandments, detailing our duties to God, and push the civil magistrate to stay out of that sphere. But we must also demand as citizens that the civil magistrate DOES enforce just laws in accordance with the last Six Commandments, natural law, and enlightened human reason.
And most importantly, in whatever limited amount of time freedom does still exist in America and the world, we must preach the three angels’ messages with increased focus and vigor, and warn a frightened and troubled world of the soon coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As George Washington said,
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Whoever is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?” (President George Washington in his farewell address).
****
Joey Carrion is a political science student at Andrews University and is very interested in the interaction of political conservatism and religious liberty. He is a co-host on the Gio and Joey Show, which analyzes political and cultural news and events from an authentically Protestant and Adventist worldview. In his spare time, he enjoys basically anything outdoors, country music, studying prophecy and theology, reading, and volunteering with his church family in Gobles, MI.
You can follow him on X at the handle @AdventistCowboy.