In harmony with holdings by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that government at any level does not have the constitutional right to instruct anyone how to pray, when to pray and who to pray to, let alone what religion to believe in — if any at all.
The government cannot sponsor, endorse or sanction prayer in public schools. Voluntary prayer by students, yes; but not staff-organized or sponsored prayer. Nor can the government directly fund religious institutions as these violate the constitutional separation of church and state enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. While the government must remain neutral, the church also does not have permission to co-opt government for its own enrichment and control. Ellen White put it this way in The Great Controversy:
“The founders of the nation wisely sought to guard against the employment of secular power on the part of the church, with its inevitable result — intolerance and persecution” (page 442).
The First Amendment begins with the Establishment Clause, which restricts the government from promotion of — and infringement on — religion. It states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...” It specifically uses the indefinite article “an” and not the definite article “the,” which might otherwise be construed to apply only to the prohibition of a national or state-sponsored religion. But it means so much more. The article “an” essentially means “any” establishment.
Religious Freedom and Hastening the Lord’s Coming
Some question why we even need to promote and defend religious liberty. “After all,” they argue, “these events are inevitable and we are going to lose our freedoms anyway.” But this attitude is dangerous and actually serves to hinder the proclamation of the gospel. It also exposes our lack of hunger for the lost. For, when we promote religious freedom for, all we in turn open the door for evangelism to flourish throughout America and the world. Again, E.G. White counsels, “We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude, doing nothing to [advance and thereby] preserve liberty of conscience” (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, page 713).
Liberty Magazine
Ultimately, God calls us to preserve religious freedom not only for the sake of Adventists but for all people and institutions of faith. This is the real mission of Liberty magazine — keeping our community’s thought-leaders up-to-date with thought-provoking articles regarding religious freedom law and civil rights issues. And it provides a glimpse of the true nature of our God who refuses to violate our power of choice. It reaches them in a way that no other magazine can.
Religious Liberty in the Pacific Northwest
Ten percent of the money raised during this Liberty campaign returns to support the religious liberty work in the Pacific Northwest and the Northwest Religious Liberty Association’s government relations program, connecting in the civic, legislative, judicial and academic arenas in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
- Government Relations: Our government relations team represents the religious liberty interests of our church members as well as all people of faith, in our state legislatures, supporting and advancing religious liberty-friendly bills and opposing legislation that would hamper freedom of conscience.
- Judicial Decisions: We constantly monitor the courts, both state and federal, for decisions and actions that may impact our religious convictions. In 2023, our office joined in filing an amicus curie “friend of the court” brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Sabbath workplace accommodation case, Groff v. DeJoy.
- Mediation Services: NRLA mediates anywhere from 50–120 cases a year to facilitate Sabbath accommodation, labor union exemption and other kinds of religious accommodation needs. You can call Debbie Morauske at 360-857-7022 or email her if you need religious accommodation assistance.
Religious Liberty Sabbath is the second Sabbath in January. But it’s always best to promote religious liberty and Liberty magazine several weeks before. Promotional resources are now available to download at religiousliberty.info.
Please do all you can to support religious liberty and the offering that extends our reach to help spread the gospel.
Northwest Religious Liberty Association Philosophy
We believe in freedom of religion, not freedom from religion or freedom to enforce religion, particularly acts of worship.
This means upholding both the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment to a high constitutional standard.
Using this standard, government neutrality means that religion and religious institutions must be allowed to thrive freely, but without official endorsement of the government.
The First Amendment, in part, states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
Today, some seek to reinterpret the no Establishment provision separating Church and State in ways that would require government to financially support their institutions and, thus, their dogmas so as to solve the moral ills of the nation.
Others seek to marginalize the Free Exercise of Religion by failing to recognize that government must have a sufficiently compelling interest to lawfully deny or restrict the constitutional right of individuals and institutions of faith to exercise and maintain their religious mission and practices.
Both are harmful to our constitutional health. We believe our nation’s Founders anticipated this tension. That is why they created an internal check and balance within the very wording of the First Amendment in order to prevent the country from being overrun by either extreme in the great church-state debate (a puritanical vs. godless society).
Remove this balancing safeguard and our nation’s constitutional guarantees will be lost and with it, our civil and religious freedoms.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor summed it up best: “The religious zealot and the theocrat frighten us in part because we understand only too well their basic impulse. No less frightening is the totalitarian atheist who aspires to a society in which the exercise of religion has no place.”
