Ideas for Action and Collaboration

in

Occasionally, people tell me they would like to get involved with social action, but they aren't sure where to begin. I encourage people to take a first step by working with those who are already engaged. Don't start from scratch. Don't reinvent the wheel. Skip the beginners mistakes by working with professionals already active on the ground. One easy first step is to raise money for projects and organizations that you respect. In the process you will hopefully learn more about the issues involved and will be increasingly prepared to expand your efforts on a given issue. Here are four quality Seventh-day Adventist campaigns, projects and organizations that your APF Peace Chapter or Peace Church could support:

ENDITNOW CAMPAIGN. The Adventist News Network and Adventist Today recently highlighted this campaign to end violence against women and children (link), and I interviewed Heather-Dawn Small in 2010 (link). "To learn more about enditnow and its digital resources, visit www.enditnow.org. Also, to learn how to implement a campaign in a local congregation, go here."

IRAQ REFUGEES (ADRA). We all would like to end the violence in Iraq and in other parts of the region. One positive action we can take is to support ADRA's efforts to care for those displaced by the violence. Read more at Adventist Today.

Natalia López-Thismón, Associate Director for Communication at ADRA International, shared: "You can give to the Middle East Emergency Response Fund at ADRA (you just make your check out to that or call in). Alternatively, you can contact ADRA Kurdistan directly and make your contribution. The churches could hold fundraisers for these efforts. It would be very helpful."

REFUGEE MINISTRY (AFM). Adventist Frontier Missions reports: "During the summer of 2014, more than 1 million people were forced to flee their homes in northern Iraq. Most were offered a simple choice by radical Islamist fighters—convert, leave or die. Today, more than 1 million IDP have fled into Kurdistan, a region in northeast Iraq, where they have found temporary sanctuary. Many are living in schools, churches, church-yards and other public facilities. Many are Christians who were driven out simply because they bear the name of Christ. They cannot return to their homes, and they have no end destination for their journey." "We have already started to minister to the physical needs of the IDP of northern Iraq through a latrine and shower project for IDP families, but we want to combine this with ongoing ministry for the spiritual needs of the IDP and their host communities" (link).

Click here to watch Conrad Vine and Doug Hardt sharing about this project on 3ABN. While living in Lincoln, NE, Doug was active in this work; see Union College Hosts Interfaith Iraq Memorial and College View Academy Hosts Fundraiser for ISIS Victims.

KEEP GIRLS SAFE (Human trafficking; ADRA Thailand). "The girls at the Keep Girls Safe shelter are all from extremely poor families, most of them from different villages in the hills and jungles of Northern Thailand. The shelter is able to accommodate up to 40 girls, most of whom have come from difficult backgrounds caused by sickness, death, drugs, abuse, and lack of care and education. These and other factors may lead to human trafficking, which is prevalent in this area of Southeast Asia. Reports say that girls as young as 8 years old are forced into prostitution, but others are exported to developed countries in Asia, North America, and Europe, where they are forced to do menial tasks with little or no pay, work long hours, and receive no benefits or medical care" (Adventist World, 2014). Read more at ADRA International, ANN (2006), ADRA AU, and an ADRA video (2009).

There are numerous organizations you can partner with, both locally and internationally, but any of these four Adventist ministries would be a great place to start if you want to do something but just aren't sure how to begin.

ANN: Religious Liberty Experts Examine Peacemaking Power of Faith

in ,

Adventist News Network: August 19, 2015 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Bettina Krause and Barry Bussey

A group of scholars, lawyers and religious freedom advocates met last week to challenge a widespread belief that religion is primarily a divisive force in society, fuelling tension and violence. The 17th annual “Meeting of Experts,” organized by the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA), brought together some 20 academics at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California, to consider the role of religion in current global conflicts, and to focus on ways that faith can, instead, be a powerful force for peacemaking and conflict resolution.

“We need to use faith anchored in forgiveness and reconciliation,” said Ambassador Robert A. Seiple, a former United States Ambassador at large for Religious Freedom, and current IRLA president. “We need to know our own faith, and likewise, we need to understand our neighbour’s faith and respect it.”

Ambassador Seiple, who gave the first of ten major presentations, focused on his firsthand experience with the horrific 1994 Rwandan genocide. He described visiting the country in the aftermath of the violence and standing on a bridge over a river clogged with hundreds of decaying bodies. According to Ambassador Seiple, one of the most troubling aspects of the Rwandan genocide is that it took place within a “Christianized” country—some 85 percent of the total population identified themselves as Christian. But in spite of this colossal failure on the part of churches in 1994, religious values have since played a vital role in rebuilding social stability. As Rwandans have reclaimed their country, they have shown the world the power of forgiveness, said Ambassador Seiple. He noted that many perpetrators of the genocide are today living side-by-side with their victims.

According to Dr. Ganoune Diop, Secretary General of the IRLA, each presentation during the four-day event was shaped in some way by two key questions: “How can we live with our deepest differences?” And, “How can the best of religions overcome the abysmal record of religious wars, religious ethnic cleansing, and genocides fuelled by religious discrimination?”

Although the Meeting of Experts examines these questions from a scholarly perspective, the issues that drive the work of these scholars are far from abstract. “Too many people suffer discrimination, persecution, or even martyrdom or genocide because of their religious differences,” says Dr. Diop. According to a Pew Forum study released earlier this year, some 5.5 billion people—or 77 percent of the world’s population—live in countries with “a high or very high overall level of restrictions on religion.”[1]

The meeting brought together a diverse panel of scholars who represented universities and organizations from seven countries. Presenters included Dr. David Little, Professor Emeritus of Harvard Divinity School; Reverend Canon Brian Cox, Senior Vice President of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy; Professor Cole Durham, President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies based in Milan, Italy; Professor T. Jeremy Gunn, professor of International Relations at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco; and, Dr. Amal Idrissi, law professor at the University of Moulay Ismael in Meknes, Morocco.

Over the past two decades, the Meeting of Experts has aimed to bring together some of the world's foremost scholars and practitioners in the field of religious freedom to track legal and sociological trends. Papers presented at the annual meetings are published, and have produced a significant body of academic and practical resources. The papers from this year’s Meeting of Experts will be published in the 2015 edition of Fides et Libetas, which will be available later this year from the IRLA, which can be contacted through its website at www.irla.org or its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/IRLA.HQ.

The IRLA was established by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1893 and is the world's oldest religious freedom advocacy organization. It promotes freedom of belief for all people, regardless of faith, and has non-governmental organization status at the United Nations. Along with the annual Meeting of Experts, the IRLA sponsors regional religious freedom festivals and forums, and every five years organizes a world congress, which attracts an international mix of scholars, legal practitioners, government officials and human rights advocates.

[1] For the full study, visit the Pew Forum website at www.pewforum.org/2015/02/26/religious-hostilities/

Pastor Todd Leonard Addresses Racial Justice within the Adventist Church

in

Adventist pastor Todd Leonard's June 27 sermon addressed racial history in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Leonard is pastor of the Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is a member of the APF Peace Church network. In this sermon Leonard addresses what he sees as the need for historically white churches to stand up and work for justice in our communities and our denomination. The sermon, titled "EPIC: Moses, I See My People's Misery," can be viewed here or on YouTube.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugg6LC94ehE?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Adventist Youth Join Demonstrations against Corruption in Honduras (ANN)

in

The Adventist News Network reports that "Adventist young people took to the streets of major cities in Honduras last week to as thousands of protesters from many faiths marched against government corruption. More than 10,000 Adventists holding signs and banners marched in Tegucigalpa, the capital, as well as in La Ceiba, San Pedro Sula, and dozens of other cities" (posted on Adventist Today). There have been numerous marches recently calling for an end to political corruption. The report continues: "'Our Adventist young people gave a clear message to our Honduran population that unless citizens seriously commit to keeping all of the commandments of God, there won’t be positive changes to help the country forge ahead,' said Pastor Adan Ramos, president of the Adventist Church in Honduras. As part of the demonstration, Ramos spoke in the main squares of Tegucigalpa and La Ceiba."

Read the entire ANN article here.

Lake Union Conference Apologizes for Failures Regarding Race

in

On June 20, 2015, Don Livesay, president of the Lake Union Conference, apologized for the Adventist Church's racial failings. These are excerpts from Livesay's speech: "A review of the conversations in the early to mid-1940s reveals key reasons why that major change in approach to  the ministry to the black community took place. It was seen that the mission to the black individuals in this country would be more effective with black conferences. It was seen that leadership development could progress better with black conferences. But we all know there was an additional serious factor. A simple, honest look at the segregated Church of the past: the segregated General Conference cafeteria; the Negro Department of the General Conference that was first directed by white men; the segregated hospitals that led to the death of Lucy Byard; the dismissive attitudes and actions. These and more issues were also major contributors to the establishment of Regional work."

Livesay 1"Let us recognize the Church at that time failed the black community."

"Some might attempt to excuse the behavior of the Church through those years because of the culture of society of that specific time. One could say that the white church, the white members, the white leadership, merely reflected what was going on around us, but God has not called His church to reflect the evil of the world. God has called the church to reflect His character, to treat each other in love, with the Golden Rule, in respectful ways, and to honor each other as all of God's children."

"If only our failures were just in the past.... It is clear that even [the election of President Obama] did not mean that we had arrived. Awareness of our lack of racial equality, of social justice, has been heightened as black lives have been needlessly and carelessly taken in Ferguson, New York, Baltimore, and other locations--both recently and through the years past--and now even in Charleston."

"So as we celebrate 70 years of the Lake Region, the progress, the mission, the tens of thousands of people brought to the Lord who may not have ever heard the message, children educated, the expansion of the message and mission of God's remnant people, I come to you with my fellow officers of the Lake Union with a heart that compels us to not only bring our joy and the success of the Lake Region, but also to bring a personal and an official apology to our brothers and our sisters of the Lake Region Conference on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Lake Union."

"We apologize with sorrow for the failures of the Church in regard to race, for individuals disrespected, for lack of time taken to understand, for the mistreated, for the leadership marginalized, and for students of our college who were only able to sit with black students in the cafeteria, for Lucy Byard, and for the slowness, reluctance, and the stubbornness to do the right thing. We are sorry that we as a Church did not rise above the sins of society that day, and we are sorry for the lack of progress our church has made in the last 70 years."

"Our apology is from our hearts, but we recognize an apology is not enough. We are also committed to seek deeper, more meaningful understanding of each other, more sensitive approaches, more inclusive and stronger partnerships that will make us more united as God's people and for His cause that we may come closer together, march together, arm-in-arm...now and then someday together into the Holy city to spend eternity with our God and with each other."

Livesay's complete speech can be viewed here. Clifford Jones, president of the Lake Region Conference, responded to the apology:

Jones 2"On this historic occasion, in the wake of what took place this week in South Carolina--the fact that we were all shocked, shaken, and shattered by these senseless killings of innocent brothers and sisters who were simply aspiring to dig deeper into the word of God only to have their lives senselessly snuffed out--we want to thank our Union president for his courage, for looking at the history of our people in this church, God's remnant church, and for offering this heartfelt and meaningful apology."

"Mr. President, on behalf of the officers...and on behalf of the constituency of the Lake Region Conference, I'd like to say that we accept your apology."

"And as you stated, an apology is good, but let's work aggressively and vigorously and intentionally now to eliminate this scourge of racism that is so prevalent and pervasive in our land, yay even in our church. Let's work to that end."

The apology and response can be viewed on Vimeo.

Guess Who is Coming to Church, Now?

in

By Dr. Mark A. McCleary, Pastor and Adventist Peace Fellowship Advisory Board Member I'm deeply saddened by this tragedy (Charleston, SC), but also tragically not surprised. The evil spirit that has permeated the minds of "these folk" affirms Revelation's prediction: "[America] has become the hold of every foul and evil bird." Such villainy justifies the punditry of Elijah Muhammad who called them devils. The recent spate of police v. young Black male murders have aggravated old wounds within our community of White on Black brutality. However, the perpetrators, via media (i.e. O' Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh) will not articulate nor are they sensitive to our pain and plight. Many of our own folk have elected to puppet the post-racial discourse, "I don't see color." That's a lie or at least an act of psychological denial and inhibition. To not see color is to not see reality or respect my true ontology. The real issue is whenever or whomever you see, treat them with respect and dignity— Shu/reciprocity/The Golden Rule or as MLK Jr eloquently stated, "...be judged by their character not by the color of their skin."

In the last few days, we have two White murderers who have been helped by a White female to escape prison and are still objects of a nationwide manhunt as I write this. Now we have a skinned-head, Aryan-type White young man who reminds me of Columbine, CO, mowing down helpless church folk inside a church during Prayer Meeting. What vicious inhumanity is this for Satan to move this possessed fellow to sit for an hour then open fire on unarmed Christians? This is why Black Muslims, non-Christians, and Afrocentrists point the finger at the hypocrisy of Americans who promote the propaganda of "This is a Christian nation." Paul said, "If they speak any other gospel, get away from them." It's time for White Christianity to speak out loud and long that this is unacceptable. When Blacks do something, the media will post it almost 24-7. The hideousness of this perpetrator, I hope, gets appropriate coverage, and I trust the justice system will reinforce that liberty and justice is for all people—the living and the dead. Furthermore, I pray that justice will roll down like water and righteousness as a mighty stream in this desert of America.

I am shouting at the White preachers, especially those centered around and among these entrenched pro-Aryan hideouts. "Stop being silent when you know these cowards lurk within your community." Dietrich Bonhoeffer indicted German Christians for what happened to the Jews because of their winking and nodding at Nazi violence against German Jews. Their example of not being their brother's keeper yields nominal and historic silence as well as tacit approval for these heartless punks to sneak up on unsuspecting folk without being called to account by community stakeholders. I'm waiting to hear some proactive response form my SDA leadership, but history says, we won't pray for newly elected President Obama in a 2008 NAD morning worship, we'll continue to be late to every urban tragedy since Emmitt Till. We, historically, have sought to be politically correct and socially agreeable. So I'm starting to speak here. I'm sending this to every outlet (i.e., SDA News, Spectrum, Facebook) and beyond. I am motivated to standup and say something that is helpful in a timely fashion.

Instead of AU students holding a forum on the relevance of Regional [Black] Conferences, or SDA's struggling over the Biblical validity of Women's ordination, a voice must be heard that challenges the spirit of White supremacy that holds our church community in its spell. Before I be a slave, I will speak out and speak up. RIP to my brothers and sisters who died on the battle field in SC yesterday night. They fought a good fight, they stood for the right, and justice will pronounce them victors one day. Free at last, Free at last, thank God almighty, we'll be free at last one day.

In His service,

Pastor Dr. Mark A. McCleary

Adventist and Muslim Activists Promote Faith-based Engagement

in

Geoffrey Nelson-Blake (an Adventist minister and the director of interfaith Community Organizing Residency at Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice) and Sarah Jawaid (a Muslim community organizer) recently co-authored a Huffington Post article on the role of faith in social action--"Faith in Our Streets." The authors note what they believe are deficiencies in the Pew Research Center's recent report on America's diminishing religiosity. They report routinely encountering people "experiencing their faith outside the walls of a church, synagogue, or mosque. It's harder to quantify the role faith plays for people expressing their values through fighting for justice, but it's an important piece of the current puzzle of faith in America that we won't find in the Pew study."

To back up their claims, Geoff and Sarah present stories of social action.

Last fall, faith leaders joined ranks with peaceful protesters in Ferguson to demand justice for black lives and capture the stories of heartbreak and hope lost in the news. This past Hanukkah, Jews and Muslims demonstrated together in New York City to decry police brutality. An interfaith rally led by Pastor Jamal Bryant united the Baltimore faith community in hopes of healing after the death of Freddie Grey in police custody. These voices made an impact and the other week, President Obama announced banning military-grade weapons at local police departments.

The authors conclude by pointing out two expressions of faith-based activism--one that divides and one that unites. They share:

Too many people associate faith activism with those who abuse faith language to promote exclusionary and regressive policies. We saw that recently in the language used to promote Indiana's so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which promoted discrimination against the LGBT community. People in power often abuse faith to divide and keep communities separate from one another. However, as the American landscape of faith becomes more diverse -- racially, ethnically, and religiously -- we can expect to see more diversity in how faith is expressed and the impact it has -- personally, communally, and in our streets.

The entire article can be read here: "Faith in Our Streets" (Nelson-Blake and Jawaid, Huffington Post, June 2, 2015).

Featured Image Credit: By Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Anaheim Adventist Church Marks Memorial Day

in

To commemorate Adventist Peace Sabbath, Dr. Jeff Gang, DMin., pastor for the Anaheim Seventh-day Adventist Church, gave a presentation on F.M. Wilcox’s seminal book Seventh-day Adventists in Time of War (R&H: 1936). Dr. Zane Yi, PhD., assistant professor in the School of Religion at Loma Linda University, preached in the main worship service. Yi's sermon can be heard on SoundCloud. Before he spoke, the congregation viewed this video by Rachel Held Evans.

Volunteer with APF at the 2015 GC Session in San Antonio

in

The 2015 General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will soon convene in San Antonio, Texas (July 2-11). This world-wide gathering of Adventist leaders and laity occurs every five years for the purpose of making denominational decisions and electing leaders. The Adventist Peace Fellowship will have an exhibit at this year's event, and we are looking for people to join us at the booth, welcoming people who pass by. All you need is a friendly smile and a desire to spread APF's message of peace and justice. We'll help all volunteers prepare for the most common questions.

We need volunteers to sign up for hours when you can be at the booth, telling people about our actions and goals. We hope to have two or more people at the booth at all times.

Please click here to register as an APF representative at the booth.

And if you'll be at the GC Session, please stop by our booth even if you aren't able to volunteer with us. Come say hi!

See you in Texas!

Anaheim Congregation to Mark Adventist Peace Sabbath

in ,

The Adventist Peace Fellowship has designated May 23, 2015 as the first annual Adventist Peace Sabbath. On a weekend when our nation remembers those who have lost their lives in war, this Sabbath will be an opportunity to be inspired again by Jesus’ vision of peace for the world. Dr. Jeff Gang, DMin., Pastor for the Anaheim SDA Church will be giving a presentation on F.M. Wilcox’s seminal book Seventh-day Adventists in Time of War (R&H: 1936) at 9:30 AM. Dr. Zane Yi, PhD., Assistant Professor in the School of Religion at Loma Linda University, will be preaching the sermon in the main worship service at 11:00 AM. A special “Litany for Peace” is also planned for the service. For more information please visit http://anaheimadventist.org.

APF Sabbath brochure-1 (2) v2APF Sabbath Brochure (PDF)

APF Statement on Freddie Gray and Baltimore

in

The APF Board has released the following statement on Freddie Gray and the subsequent events in Baltimore:

The Adventist Peace Fellowship is deeply troubled by recent events in the city of Baltimore. While all the facts are not yet known, it is beyond dispute that a young man's life was violently taken from him while in the custody of police officers—an event that falls within larger patterns of systemic racism, structural injustice, historical inequalities, and brutality targeting young Black men. It is also clear that many citizens—including the elderly poor—are now suffering severe hardships from the destruction of several days of violent riots.

It is our hope and prayer that Baltimore now experience not merely a return to the “peace” of the status quo but rather a true transformation of values and policy priorities that promote justice and equality for residents of the city’s neglected neighborhoods. We call on Seventh-day Adventists in Baltimore and throughout the country to follow the examples of the Hebrew prophets and to actively resist injustice and oppression wherever they encounter it, whether on their streets or in City Hall. We herald Adventist pastors Reginald Exum, David Franklin, and DuWayne Privette who have embodied these ideals on the streets of Baltimore. We continue to urge peacemakers to follow the principles and tactics of nonviolent resistance to oppression powerfully demonstrated by individuals such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We also encourage pastors to promote a culture of nonviolence and a vision for peacemaking within their churches. History has taught us that violence begets violence and hatred begets hatred. As Christians we are called to seek justice precisely through tireless and active peacemaking.

APF Listed in Best Practices for Adventist Ministry

in

The Adventist Peace Fellowship was recently covered in Best Practices for Adventist Ministry, an email service provided by the Ministerial Department of the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The email said:

The Adventist Peace Fellowship is a 501c3 non-profit organization and independent lay ministry founded in 2001 that seeks to raise consciousness about the centrality of peacemaking and social justice to the beliefs and heritage of Adventists.  We provide a wide array of resources for Adventist peacemakers, including a certification program for churches committed to working on peace and justice issues as a central part of their identity and mission.  Five Seventh-day Adventist churches spread across the United States have passed resolutions to be known as Adventist peace churches, and one church, Glendale City, has already completed certification.  One additional Adventist church located in a region of Papua New Guinea marked by constant violent tribal skirmishes has expressed a strong interest in becoming a peace church that models principles of nonviolent peacemaking and reconciliation.

The blurb linked to a longer article posted on the Ministerial Department website. The information can also be found on Facebook.

Glendale City Church Remembers the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide (by Todd Leonard)

in

(The following article was submitted by Todd Leonard, pastor of Glendale City Church, the first Adventist church to become a fully certified Adventist Peace Church.) IMG_0891

In April 1915, an edict went out from the government of the waning Ottoman empire for the removal and execution from what is now Turkey of every Armenian, man, woman and child. Over the next ten years, approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed by gun, sword, drowning, crucifixion, immolation and more. Raphael Lemkin, a polish lawyer who spent his life working to prevent and punish those responsible for mass killings, coined the term “genocide” to describe what was done to the Armenian people.

On April 24, 2015, the nation of Armenia and the Armenian diaspora pause to grieve this atrocity, to give thanks for those who came to their defense during this time of terror and to protest governments, including Turkey and the United States, who still will not acknowledge this event for what it is: a holocaust upon the Armenian people.

The Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church is located in a city adjacent to Los Angeles whose population is made up of over 100,000 people of Armenian descent, almost half of Glendale’s citizenry. For the past 35 years, the church has hosted an Armenian-speaking worship service on its campus each Sabbath in addition to having a number of Armenian-descent members who worship in its English-speaking worship.

On April 18, this congregation hosted a Day of Remembrance, a collaborative worship gathering hosted by the English- and Armenian-speaking congregations. Dr. Hovik Saraffian, the pastor of the Armenian congregation and a voice for Armenian Adventists around the world, presented the history of the genocide, called for Turkey’s repentance and expressed confidence that God’s righteousness would ultimately be triumphant over all evils in our world. The 40-voice Armenian Society of Los Angeles Chorus provided traditional Armenian songs that celebrated the heritage of the Armenian people, lamented the atrocities of a century ago, grieved God’s apparent absence during this awful time and, at the same time, celebrated God’s work in courageous men and women who stood up to do the work of God in the face of monstrous violence.

Over 100 guests of Armenian descent attended the Day of Remembrance. Afterwards, you could hear people sharing the stories of their ancestors, how their parents made it to an orphanage or how their grandparents were able to escape to a neighboring country. One guest told me how her mother was being taken by boat with dozens of others into the Black Sea to be drowned. Just before she was thrown overboard, she was pulled aside because the executioners thought she must not be Armenian because of her blonde hair and blue eyes.

For those in attendance who were not of Armenian descent, it was an eye-opening experience to be immersed in the story of the genocide. Because the events that began in 1915 have never been formally acknowledged by the United States, many Americans grew up, myself included, never having a history lesson about what happened. Many people expressed their gratitude at the opportunity to learn of this history and experience the sorrow of their Armenian neighbors.

Hosting this gathering is part of Glendale City Church’s commitment to be an Adventist Peace Church working to follow Christ’s call to bring peace into our city through community service, ecumenical relationship-building and gatherings that highlight the need for and celebrate those who do the work of peacemaking locally and around the world.

The Day of Remembrance service can be viewed in its entirety online at www.CityChurch-Online.org.