Dr. C. Norman Farley passes to his rest

We are sad to announce the passing of Dr. C. Norman Farley in November 2020.  He formally began serving on our Advisory panel beginning in 2016 and he, along with his wife Alice, have been great supporters and volunteers of ReligiousLiberty.TV and Founders’ First Freedom.  I spent many hours talking with him over the years about current events in religious liberty and we will miss his wisdom and advice.

Dr. Farley was a retired Seventh-day Adventist pastor who remained very active even after retirement. A graduate of the University of Southern Maine in Portland, ME, Atlantic Union College in So. Lancaster, MA, Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI, he received a doctoral degree from the California Graduate School of Theology in Glendale, CA. His interest in Religious Liberty and Freedom of Conscience dated back to his Business/Pre-Law education at the University of Maine. He is listed in Who’s Who in California, Who’s Who in Religion, The Dictionary of International Biography and Community Leaders in America and The International Book of Honor. He was particularly interested in the Constitution including the Bill of Rights and its formation based on John Locke’s concept of “Natural Rights.”

More recently Dr. Farley served as the President of North American Religious Liberty Association West  (NARLA West), a ministry associated with the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and while there he founded and implemented Freedom Classroom, a program designed to introduce high school students to the concepts of religious liberty first hand as they toured Washington, DC and met with the leadership from a variety of advocacy organizations. (To learn more about Freedom Classroom, check out Liberty Magazine’s article on the innovative program. )

Describing Freedom Classroom, Dr. Farley wrote, “Our purpose is to implement this middle-centrist framework by helping students to embrace the concept that the direct outcome of the Gospel is freedom of conscience. Our goal is to help students look through the long lens of history and discover that Christians never engage in coercion to fulfill the mission of Christ.”  Dr. Farley continued, “History is crowded with those who have sought to enforce the gospel through coercion. Those who resort to such tactics have worked for God like the devil!  Freedom of conscience, religion and the maintenance of individual rights is the high ground needed to restore bi-partisan efforts at all levels of society which includes the church.  Freedom exercised within a pluralistic community recognizes and respects conscientious convictions. It is this framework that gives our nation its strength and its unity under God!”

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Farley family at this time.  We do not have a service announcement at this time, but understand that it will be taking place virtually in January at the Yucaipa Seventh-day Adventist Church.