The Jackson Sun has interviewed Walter “Chick” McGill and Lucan Chartier about their trademark dispute with the Seventh-day Adventist Church (their church is named “Creation 7th Day Adventist”) that has landed both of them in jail for contempt of court. Although later released, McGill and Chartier maintain that they could be incarcerated again if they refuse to change the name of their church, which they believe was given to them by God.
McGill and Chartier have launched an online petition asking the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to drop the lawsuit.
EXCERPT:
“The court issued warrants for our arrest for ‘contempt of court,'” Chartier said. “And we were arrested on those charges and held without bail.”
McGill said their arrests and incarcerations were civil rather than criminal arrests. “We suffer no criminal record as the result of our arrests,” he said. “The law enforcement and courts would do nothing to us without the requests of the plaintiffs in this civil lawsuit. A few of the greatest names in history were made via ‘civil disobedience’ when faced with the need to satisfy conscience and stand for righteous principle.”
Read the full article at Jackson Sun.
The Religion Law blog (Howard Friedman) has also posted several articles on the unusual case.