Desmond T. Doss was 23 years old when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942. The lanky Lynchburg, Va., native was much like other young men of the Greatest Generation, but one thing set Desmond apart from the other new troops. He was a devout Seventh Day Adventist and refused to touch a weapon. Some of the men in his training unit made jokes about him, others threatened him, but Desmond held firm to his beliefs. . . . >>>
Category: Current Events
Obama’s Olive Branch Doctrine: Religion & the Path of Democratic Reform in the Arab-Muslim World (PART I)
By Gregory W. Hamilton, President Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) March 15, 2011 President Barack Obama came to Cairo in 2009 with the purpose of announcing to the Arab-Muslim world that he was not following his predecessor’s “Democracy Project” as a matter of U.S. Middle East policy. One could call this Obama’s “Olive Branch Doctrine”:…
Conversation is the True Work of Peacemaking – Huffington Post
Last week I spent three days at a gathering of the leaders of the Religious Peace Fellowships in Stony Point, N.Y. There were representatives from more than a dozen Christian denominations — from Catholic and Orthodox to Mennonite and Brethren — as well as Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist peace fellowships. And me, from the Adventist Peace Fellowship. It was the first time such a gathering had taken place in many years. It was clear that while peacemaking in our increasingly violent world was an urgent priority for all of us, working together across denominational and religious lines was something we didn’t understand as well.
Article18: Thailand Part 1 — Dissenters Arrested for Insulting the Monarchy; Malay Insurgents Continue Terror Campaign in South
By Martin Surridge – On Tuesday I returned from one of the most beautiful and enchanting countries in Southeast Asia–Thailand–a country known for its spicy cuisine, tropical mountainous rainforests, marvelous Buddhist temples, and the cosmopolitan city of Bangkok. But there’s much more to Thailand than the glossy posters in the travel agent’s window. …
Obama Administration Changes Its Approach to the Defense of Marriage Act
During the brief window between the California Supreme Court’s decision finding a ban on same-sex marriage in violation of the California Constitution on May 15, 2008 and the ballot-initiative amending said constitution on November 5, 2008, Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer got married.
While same-sex marriages during this window period have been recognized in California since they were presumably “constitutional,” the newlyweds filed a case against the federal government in state court that was transferred upon motion of the federal government into federal court alleging that “the refusal of all states and jurisdictions” to recognize the validity of their marriage resulted in the denial of their marriage status by other states, and federal rights and benefits that other married couples received so long as they were of the opposite sex.
Advanced Citizenship: The Cost of Free Speech in America
By Jason Hines – One of my favorite movies is “The American President,” (1995) starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. It is the story of a widowed president who falls in love with a liberal lobbyist. He struggles to navigate his relationship with her while also doing his job as the President. It’s a good…
New book addresses Conscientious Objection in today’s military
Since its organization in 1863 the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been counter cultural. In its Christian witness to modern society it has advocated keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, vegetarianism, abstinence from tobacco and alcohol and refusal of its members to bear arms. But the stance on the refusal to bear arms has seen a metamorphous in…
The End of the Community Action Program?
By Monte Sahlin – One of the items on the hit list of the new majority in the House of Representatives to “balance the budget” is the Community Action Program (CAP) or what is currently labeled Community Service Block Grants. This is a program begun in the 1960s in the Lyndon Johnson administration. It is…
Secularism isn’t the same everywhere: Three models in Europe highlight various church-state relations (ANN)
23 Feb 2011, Berne, Switzerland Corrado Cozzi (Reprinted from Adventist News Network) Understanding three models of church-state relations in Europe is a key first step in addressing issues of religious freedom here. As recently as a decade ago, religion in the West was considered to be facing extinction. Now more than ever, matters of religious…
Analysis: Obama Administration Declines to Defend Part of the Defense of Marriage Act
Today Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Administration announced that the Justice Department will no longer attempt to defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) (which defines “marriage” as between one man and one woman and “spouse” as a member of the opposite sex) from challenges in states that recognize gay marriage.