Well Well Well.
It looks like the Michigan Conference Religious Liberty / Communication director put a hasty revamp of the troublesome 2021 GC Reaffirmation Statement on their MISDA website two days ago (December 26). LINK
Go to the this URL addresss: https://www.misda.org/departments/public-affairs-and-religious-liberty/reaffirmation-statement-summary
Observations
This is a huge swing and a miss.
Notice that Im quotes the problematic statement “Claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately in objecting to government mandates or employer programs” and says this:
“This language reflects the Church’s institutional approach to legal advocacy while acknowledging the importance of individual liberty, particularly in contexts like the United States, where constitutional protections safeguard personal beliefs.”
Huh?
He continues:
“The statement affirms the value of individual conscience and provides a framework for understanding claims of religious liberty as defined by the Church in relation to personal convictions about vaccination, though further clarity in this area might have helped address differing interpretations.”
Huh²?
The problem with the 2021 Reaffirmation Statement is that it does NOT value individual conscience, and presumes to tell 22 million church members what is acceptable in matters of conscience in response to government impositions. In short:
In 2021, the Biden administration was so eager to force Americans to be injected with mRNA, that it made an unconstitutional (meaning illegal) mandate through OSHA that all companies with 100 or more employees must ensure that their employees were jabbed with mRNA or face heavy fines. This illegal mandate was seen for what it was by many Seventh-day Adventists — an illegal overreach into human rights and liberty of conscience. Who didn’t see it for what it was (or they did and didn’t care) is the organization tasked with protecting the religious liberty of Seventh-day Adventist members (PARL). They said,
“The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not opposed to public safety and government health mandates.”
That statement will not age well. In other words, people who should be the most aware and opposed to the unconstitutional (meaning illegal) Biden mandate were asleep at the wheel, and actually supported it, sacrificing the collective conscience of their members on the altar of political capitulation. Because of the (unnecessary) 2015 Immunization Statement and the troublesome 2021 Reaffirmation Statement, conscientious church members lost jobs, houses, custody of children and much capital. And church administrators lost something priceless— the trust of their people.
The U.S. Supreme Court
Who did NOT support the illegal mandate, was the United Supreme Court, who ruled it unconstitutional (illegal) on January 13, 2022. How noble would the SDA Church appear today if they had opposed the mandate publicly and been vindicated by the United States Supreme Court? We would all have been proud of our church. Let this be a lesson to all of us, taking the easy path usually ends up with egg (or Eggbeaters) on your face.
In the aftermath of the GC’s poor ADCOM decisions, the conflict has carried over into Michigan where one courageous church demonstrated the awareness that the GC should have had. The Village Church stood for liberty of conscience, to the dismay of the official SDA church and the local conference. What is needed?
An open and honest discussion and withdrawal of the problematic 2015 ADCOM Statement and the 2021 Reaffirmation Statement would ease the conscience of both church members worldwide and the GC administration who made the benighted statements. At a minimum, these problematic Statements need an overhaul to bring them into line with our biblical commitment to liberty of conscience.
It’s interesting that the Michigan Conference—currently embroiled in the aftermath of decisions to ban one of their most effective speakers and fire one of their most popular pastors—makes a sneaky attempt on the day after Christmas to defend the Reaffirmation Statement and quietly put it on their MISDA website.
This MISDA defense of the 2021 Reaffirmation Statement is just spin. It’s quite a feat to claim that a statement—which says your liberty of conscience is misplaced if used against an illegal (Biden) mandate—is actually championing your individual liberty and affirming the value of individual conscience. In spite of Im’s claim, he fails to explain how a groupthink decision by the GC which discouraged individual religious liberty claims actually “affirms the value of individual conscience.” Such doublespeak is worthy of Ramses II, who lost the battle of Kadesh (1274 BC) but convinced the world that he won it.
Friends, these two statements don’t need a 5,000 mile oil change. They need a complete overhaul or a trip to the scrapyard. The sooner the better.
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“For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17).
