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By Jon Roberts — Brighton, Colorado . . . Within minutes of its outset, the Brighton Fire Rescue District responded to a fire at the Brighton church which engulfed its social annex shortly after 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 21.

Firefighters were on the scene within six minutes of the initial call.   When they arrived, the exterior of the annex side of the church was engulfed in flames and fire had spread to the attic. The initial responding crew placed a call for assistance from three additional units within Brighton Fire Rescue District, and two units from South Adams County Fire Department.

After a forced entry through a door in the back of the building, firefighters were able to gain access to the attic space. They extinguished the flames before the fire had a chance to spread to other areas of the building.

Immediately after putting out the fire, fire crews gave clearance for church personnel to enter the church and they began to clean up and assess the damages.

“This is quite extensive. The annex at this point is not useable,” said Rodney Kelly, head elder. “The food bank has been totally affected. We are not able to hold food bank this week as we were planning to,” he finished.

“This affects our community that were hoping to having appropriate resources coming into the holiday week, Kelly explained.  “This is a big concern [that], we are not able to provide what we had planned for our community.”

Working throughout the night, Kelly contacted an electrician in an attempt to save the refrigerators and freezers in the food bank. Electricians were able to run new circuits overnight to restore power to those vital components of the food bank. The rest of the building remains without power.

Fire investigators are conducting a full investigation, with initial findings revealing that the fire appeared “to have started as an outside fire in bushes and trees. It extended into the soffit and attic space. Crews were able to stop the fire in the attic and limit any further damage,” according to a Facebook update posted on Sunday evening by the Brighton Fire Rescue District.

Insurance has been notified and the conference is working closely to ensure that paperwork is submitted to Adventist Risk Management. The extent of the damage to the exterior and attic is yet to be determined.  No injuries occurred, and the building was empty at the time of the fire.

The church welcomes assistance as it plans to reopen a community food pantry and refurbish its facility, says Kelly. “We could use any help anyone wants to provide,” he adds “if you are able to assist, please contact the Brighton church via email at [email protected].”

“I’m glad nobody was hurt. There are material damages, [but] material things can be repaired and replaced,” Kelly concluded.

–Jon Roberts with additional reporting by Rajmund Dabrowski.  Photos by Rajmund Dabrowski and Brighton Fire Rescue District Facebook.

Columbia, Maryland . . .On June 21, 2020, the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s North American Division issued the following statement after a full-page advertisement was published by a fringe organization on the same day in the Nashville Tennessean, a Gannett-owned newspaper.

“The Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America is deeply disturbed by the two hurtful ads recently published in the Nashville Tennessean.

“The claims made against the Muslim community have caused pain and strife. We soundly reject these hateful and dishonest words. Further, we need to be clear: there is no connection between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and this group and their teachings, which serve to hurt and cause disharmony.

“One of the Adventist Church’s Fundamental Beliefs states, ‘In Christ we are a new creation; distinctions of race, culture, learning, and nationality, and differences between high and low, rich and poor, male and female, must not be divisive among us. We are all equal in Christ, who by one Spirit has bonded us into one fellowship with Him and with one another; we are to serve and be served without partiality or reservation’ (Fundamental Belief 14, Unity in the Body of Christ).

“The Seventh-day Adventist Church requests that the Nashville Tennessean repudiate the advertising and publicly state there is no connection between the Adventist Church and this group.”

Not only does the ad briefly mention the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the group used quotes from Ellen G. White, one of the Adventist Church’s founding members, out of context. “The Ellen G. White Estate rejects any interpretation of Ellen White’s writings that suggests she predicts a specific target of impending disaster, the timing of any such event, or a connection to the Muslim, or any other, faith group,” said Jim Nix, director of the Ellen G. White Estate, an entity of the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters.

–This article was originally published on the NAD Website.

By Mike Maldonado — Colorado Springs, Colorado … It has been said that a church should reflect the demographic of the community it is in. If a community is mainly Caucasian, then it is no fault of the church if its members are mostly Caucasian. But if a church is in a racially diverse community and the demographic is mainly Caucasian then there is work to be done. That is the situation we (my wife and I) found ourselves in eleven years ago when we first arrived in Colorado Springs to pastor Central church. Colorado Springs is a diverse community due to the large military presence, numerous universities and colleges, a booming economy, and a red-hot housing market.

Yet for the most part, Central church was mostly Caucasian with little diversity. I do not believe Central’s “whiteness” (for lack of a better word) was due to prejudice or overt racism, but rather from a lack of diversity-oriented leadership in the past. The bottom line is the leader of an organization or church creates the culture and values of the organization. When my wife and I arrived in Colorado Springs, we were welcomed with open arms, mainly because they had been without a pastor for almost a year! I do not think they realized the implications of having a pastor born in Mexico and a pastor’s wife born in Nicaragua who is also one-quarter Chinese!

One of the core values my wife and I have is that racial diversity is a beautiful thing. It does not matter what area you are talking about, having a mix of cultures and ethnicities always makes life more fun and beautiful. We got these values from having lived overseas for a period of time, traveling extensively around the world, and my wife’s two dozen medical mission trips to places such as Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Venezuela, Columbia, Greece, Iraq and many more.

When we arrived at Central, the standard practice when a person of a different racial background showed up, was to let them know (out of courtesy, of course) that there was a Black church, Korean church, Hispanic church that they might like trying out. We even had directions to the other churches printed out for such an eventuality. I immediately stopped this practice. We made sure that the greeters did not send people of color to other churches but let them know they were welcome at Central. Up front, I verbalized again and again that all people were welcome at Central regardless of race or ethnicity. But it was not just about race, we also let people know that anyone, no matter what their background or history, was welcome. Our vision for the first nine years was simply to create a safe place for all people to come and grow spiritually together. It took time, but word eventually got out that Central had changed!

Two other big steps in transitioning from an all-white church to one more reflective of the community was International Sabbath and Brenda’s mission reports. Once a year we host an International Sabbath where we have a guest speaker from another country, where the service is done in various foreign languages and we encourage members to come dressed in their national dress. It is now our most popular service, mainly because of the international lunch after the service! In addition, every time Brenda went on a mission trip, she always came back with an inspiring mission report/sermon. She has awakened the congregation to the beautiful diversity in the world and brought it back to Central church.

We were also very intentional about bringing diversity into our leadership team. Eleven years later, it is remarkable to experience the diversity at Central. The senior pastor is Mexican, the head elder is Caucasian, the associate pastor is Samoan, the secretary is from British Virgin Islands, our Bible worker is Jamaican, and our school board chair is African-American. In response to George Floyd’s death, I preached a three-part series on “Jesus and Human Rights”.

On Sabbath, June 27, the church will sponsor an evening of discussion and prayer on growing up black in America. There are still a few pockets of resistance in the church, but with love, education, strong leadership and the softening of the Holy Spirit, walls of prejudice and fear are coming down and the banner of Christ is being raised high above the nations.

—Mike Maldonado is senior pastor of Colorado Springs Central Church. Photo by Rajmund Dabrowski

By Doug Inglish . . . I have always had trouble finding the proper fit in long sleeved shirts, owing to arms that are unusually long relative to my stature. But an odd benefit of this configuration has been the ability to check the height of ceilings. Standard residential height is eight feet, and while rarely called on to use this specific skill, all I ever had to do to check that measurement was reach up. If my fingertips barely grazed the ceiling, it was eight feet exactly.

Until fairly recently, anyway. A warning to those who are unaware–you start getting shorter sooner than you think. I can’t do it anymore; my fingertips fall short. Oh well.

As long as I am on the topic of my diminishing skill set, not only are the things I was good at fading, the things I was not good at are getting worse. (Life after 40 is full of these discoveries, and I passed that quite some time ago.) My hearing loss was confirmed while I was still in college, and the progression of this malady requires me to pick up my new and improved hearing aids next week.

Many of you can relate to what you are reading, and the rest of you inevitably will someday. But The Ageless One is not similarly afflicted: “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear” (Isaiah 59:1, NIV).

I may not be able to touch the ceiling anymore, but the God that we serve can reach us anywhere! I may need to ask you to repeat something, but God hears the whisper of every prayer! That’s cause for rejoicing, but it is also a reminder to believe He is able and ask Him to address our needs.

A story to illustrate this point:

The stewardship director of a Conference several years ago noticed, during an economic downturn, that there was a strong possibility the annual tithe would not match the previous year. His concern for the continued mission of the church led him to spend the last half of the year earnestly praying that they could at least hold steady on tithe and not suffer a loss. His prayer was answered when the Conference achieved a gain of 0.1 percent.

Instead of rejoicing, he felt shame. He realized that knowing God has excellent hearing is of limited value if you underestimate the length of His arms. What if instead of asking to avoid a shortfall, he had asked for a substantial gain? His prayers in subsequent years reflected a greater appreciation for God’s limitless reach.

We are currently running more than three percent behind in tithe for the year. The mission of the church will be affected if this loss continues. This is not a drill. This is a time for faithfulness, and a time for prayer.

As you remember the tithe situation in your prayers, remember the experience of the stewardship director in our story, a now retired gentleman whom I appropriately refer to as ‘Dad’. The arm of the Lord is not short, nor is His ear dull, so ask big.

—Doug Inglish is RMC planned giving and trust services director. Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

By Kevin M. Burton . . .The second advent movement was inseparable from the abolitionist call for the immediate and total destruction of slavery and demand for equal rights for the oppressed. From the rise of the Millerite movement in the early 1830s through the end of the Civil War, adventists of all varieties used the tactic of moral suasion to warn pro-slavery Americans that God would soon return and judge them if they did not immediately repent and reform. In this manner, they made protest against racial injustice inseparable from their adventist faith. Though many adventists avoided association with political parties because they supported slavery, beginning in 1840 a significant number joined the Liberty Party, which had a single platform: the immediate and total abolition of slavery and “the restoration of equality of rights among men.”[1] In 1848, the Liberty Party nominated Gerrit Smith—a prominent abolitionist, Millerite adventist, and seventh-day Sabbath observer—as candidate for president of the United States. Throughout the entire antebellum period, Millerites and Seventh-day Adventists also risked their lives to liberate slaves from bondage. While some did this legally by purchasing slaves’ freedom, many broke federal law by assisting fugitives on the Underground Railroad. They upheld God’s fugitive slave law in Deuteronomy 23:15, 16: “Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him” (KJV). Indeed, in all of these ways and more, adventists were inspired by their Christian faith to fight against systemic racism in America.

The anti-slavery cause was rooted in black protest, and black Seventh-day Adventists were also active abolitionists. John “the Dominie” W. West, a Seventh-day Adventist minister, a former slave and close friend of Gerrit Smith, preached against the evils of slavery and racism, published and promoted several of Smith’s abolitionist works, and operated a store in Peterboro, New York, that sold no products grown by slave labor. In Bath, New York, Elias and Henrietta Platt were local Adventist leaders and the most active abolitionists in their town. Elias served as the local agent for Frederick Douglass’ The North Star and operated a free-produce store like West. The Platts regularly hosted traveling abolitionists. In January 1852, the Platts hosted James and Ellen White in their home during a time when virtually all white northerners refused to publicly associate with blacks. When Elias Platt died unexpectantly in 1854, Frederick Douglass wrote his obituary, stating that Platt was “one of the most devoted, honest, and persevering friends of his people in the State of New York.”[2]

Seventh-day Adventists also petitioned against southern slavery and northern racism. Joseph and Prudence Bates were leading abolitionists in Fairhaven, Massachusetts during the the 1830s and 40s. They signed and circulated petitions to abolish slavery and prevent the annexation of new slave states, urged the United States to recognize Haiti’s independence, and helped abolish racial segregation on trains and the law against interracial marriage in Massachusetts.[3] In the 1850s and 60s, Adventists petitioned against more issues, like the death penalty (believing that both slavery and capital punishment “represented systems of brutality that coerced individuals”[4]), the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854). In the 1860s, Seventh-day Adventists sometimes placed the denomination’s name on petitions they wrote and circulated. In April 1862, for example, a group of forty-four “Seventh Day Adventists and others” from Linn County, Iowa, testified, “That our professions of Christianity and boasts of liberty, are but a mockery in the sight of the nations of the Earth and of the God of the Universe, so long as we delay practically to recognize the ‘Inalienable right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ ” The Linn County Adventists then “urged” Abraham Lincoln and Congress to immediately abolish “the great unnatural crime of slavery, the exhaustless inveterate source of our national ruin.”[5]

Seventh-day Adventists also incorporated abolitionist arguments into the Three Angels’ Messages (Rev. 14:6–12). The first angel warned that the hour of God’s judgment was at hand and Adventists emphasized that if pro-slavery Americans remained unrepentant, they would be doubly punished for their sins. The second angel warned that Babylon was fallen, and Millerites came out of the Protestant churches (Babylon) because they supported slavery. Ellen White specified that any Seventh-day Adventist holding pro-slavery sympathies must be immediately disfellowshipped. Finally, Seventh-day Adventists connected the third angel’s message against worshipping the beast with anti-slavery. Revelation 13:1–18 reveals that the two-horned beast enforces idolatry, and Adventists identified America as this beast because it professed to uphold religious and civil liberty (the two horns), but in reality denied those privileges to religious and racial minorities.[6]

The Seventh-day Adventist pioneers fought against oppression through their faith and actions during an era when only a tiny minority of Americans protested against racism. By incorporating anti-slavery arguments into the Three Angels’ Messages, Seventh-day Adventists made protest against systemic racism an important part of their fundamental beliefs and challenged their spiritual descendants to carry on this faith.

—Kevin M. Burton, Ph.D. Candidate (Florida State University), teaches in the History and Political Studies Department at Southern Adventist University and is writing his doctoral dissertation on Millerite and Seventh-day Adventist involvement in the abolition movement.  Photo supplied.

[1] Thomas Hudson McKee, National Conventions and Platforms of All Political Parties, 1789 to 1905: Conventions, Popular, and Electoral Vote, 6th ed.(Baltimore, MD: Friedenwald Company, 1906), 52.

[2] Kevin M. Burton, “Born a Slave, Died a Freeman: John ‘the Dominie’ West, Seventh-day Adventist Minister and Abolitionist,” Adventist Review 196, no. 4 (April 2019): 52–55; “List of Agents,” The North Star, April 17, 1851, p. 1, col. 1; “Free Labor Sugar & Molasses,” Steuben Courier, December 31, 1845, p. 3, col. 2; Carter G. Woodson, ed., The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written during the Crisis, 1800-1860 (Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1926), 353; [James White], “Our Tour West,” The Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, February 17, 1852, 93; Richard Archer, Jim Crow North: The Struggle for Equal Rights in Antebellum New England (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017); Beth A. Salerno, Sister Societies: Women’s Antislavery Organizations in Antebellum America (Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2005), 32–33; [Frederick Douglass], “Died,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, July 7, 1854, p. 3, col. 6.

[3] Kevin M. Burton, “Joseph Bates and Adventism’s Radical Roots,” Adventist Review, March 3, 2020, accessed May 6, 2020, https://www.adventistreview.org/joseph-bates-and-adventisms-radical-roots.

[4] Louis P. Masur, Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 157.

[5] Petition of Seventh-day Adventists and Others of Linn County, Iowa, for the Abolition of Slavery in the United States, April 1862, SEN 37A-J4, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

[6] Ellen G. White, 1T, 259, 358; Charles Fitch, “Come Out of Her, My People”: A Sermon (Rochester, NY: J. V. Himes, 1843), 16; Ellen G. White, 1T, 360; Douglas Morgan, Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2001), 15–29.

This article was originally published on the NAD Ministerial Website.

Columbia, Maryland . . .Daniel R. Jackson, president of the North American Division, G. Alexander Bryant, NAD executive secretary, and Randy Robinson, NAD treasurer, sat down with Mylon Medley, assistant director of NAD communication, to discuss recent events related to racial injustice, the history and relevancy of regional conferences, and the presence of racism in the denomination’s past and present. WATCH the conversation from the NAD website; or go directly to the video on Vimeo.

Resources for Conversations on Racial Justice and Equality

Here are some suggested resources for local churches and members as they have discussions on racial justice and equality. More resources may be added to this list as they become available. The majority of these resources have been compiled by Carmelo Mercado, vice president and Multicultural Ministries department director of the Lake Union Conference, and Dave Gemmell, associate director of the North American Division Ministerial Association.

CLICK HERE  for this comprehensive list. 

—Courtesy of NewPoints June 18, 2020

By Don Marsh–As we enter the summer months, we are getting outside, enjoying the flora and fauna of our Rocky Mountains. After being quarantined for months, to be able to enjoy God’s creation in person is a such a blessing. I love one quaint passage in Proverbs that praises some of God’s small creatures.

Four things there are which are smallest on earth yet wise beyond the wisest:
ants, a folk with no strength, yet they prepare their store of food in the summer
rock-badgers, a feeble folk, yet they make their home among the rocks
locusts, which have no king, yet they all sally forth in formation;
the lizard, which can be grasped in the hand, yet is found in the palaces of kings.
— Proverbs 30:24-28 REB

There are more than 20,000 species of ants in the world, with dozens in Colorado. They build intricate colonies, with different rooms for different functions. They seem to be always moving, working together in an amazing division of labor. Some species store up food for the winter or fatten up so they won’t need to eat during the cold months.

In our area, the pika is most similar to the biblical badgers (called “conies” in the King James Version).  Pikas are small relatives of rabbits that live at or above timberline, protected from the elements and predators by building dens in the talus, or loose rock. They seldom venture far from their secure homes.

It is reported that in 1875 a swarm of Rocky Mountain locusts (now extinct) streamed overhead for five days, blotting out the sun. Composed of 10 billion individuals, the swarm devoured as much vegetation as a massive herd of bison. Experts at the time estimated that the swarm was 1,800 miles long and at least 110 miles wide, large enough to cover Wyoming and Colorado.

There are several varieties of lizards in the geographical area of the Rocky Mountain Conference. The horned toad is even the state reptile of Wyoming. An impressive characteristic of lizards is their ability to camouflage themselves by changing body color and sometimes body patterns to blend with their background. Some species can walk on walls, and have no qualms about sneaking into people’s houses, whether king or pauper.

So, what is the lesson of these wisest of the wise? The ant knows that now is the time to prepare for the future. Conies know they are not strong by themselves but dwell securely in the place God prepared for them. Locusts know they must work together. One locust is harmless. Working together in a swarm, they are a mighty army. By ourselves, we can do little. Cooperating with God, we can do more than we could ask or think. Lizards seem out of place in a palace. We may think we don’t belong either, but Jesus promised he has a room for you in his house.

–Don Marsh, is chaplain at Good Samaritan Medical Center, Lafayette, Colorado.

By Bob Reynolds – Aurora, Colorado . . . Two Denver area churches joined together to support an Aurora refugee neighborhood, with not only basic needs but also fellowship.

For the second year, True Life Community has partnered with Lakewood Fellowship to offer an outreach day to those who have fled their home countries with little or no belongings.

Heavenbound Outreach, meets every second Sabbath in a parking lot between two apartment complexes designed for refugees.  They offer clothing, household items, and toys for the children.  The outreach also allows for interactions with children offering popcorn, cotton candy, fruit drinks, and bottled water.

It is through area church donations, shopping yard sales, and browsing online sites for deals the items are gathered for distribution.  Heavenbound Outreach are always looking for donations of clothing and household items for the refuges. “We can pick up items or they can be brought to me,” Celestino Archaleta, volunteer with Heavenbound stated.

Archaleta started the outreach ten years ago, when he delivered items to a family in the complex and witnessed the need in the community.  The community is thankful to have this outreach available to them.

“This program is a shining example of how we as Christians can be of service to others in need,” stated the True Life Community pastor.  “These people need so much and we have so much we can give.  Each time we go, we see people carrying away boxes and bags full of shoes and clothes to their apartment.  Many of them have small children and we are so glad to see them get clothes, shoes and warm coats at winter time.”

—Bob Reynolds, is pastor of True Life Community in Littleton, Colorado; photo supplied

By Jon Roberts – Durango, Colorado . . . When we all work together to advance God’s kingdom, all things are possible no matter how big and daunting the issue is.

This is a lesson the Durango, Colorado church and school found out first-hand on November 25.

The building was facing serious damage after the sewer system backed up and spilled contaminated water throughout the building.  Action had to be taken immediately to ensure that the preschool, an important community outreach, would be able to reopen in January.

The repair estimate was enormous for the 35 members who attended the Durango church.

They immediately went to God in prayer and sought counsel from Him.

Triple Eagle Construction, a small business in Durango, heard about the situation.

They jumped into action working throughout Thanksgiving and Christmas to ensure the school could reopen in January.

All the work was completed without asking for a down payment or even an advance payment.

When the subcontractors contacted the church for payment, the church was faced with a dilemma–how to pay for the emergency repairs.

Hearing about the church’s inability to cover the expenses of the repairs, Triple Eagle absorbed the debt and paid the subcontractors themselves, even refusing to pursue debt collection, put a lien against the church, or take legal action for the outstanding debt, because they trusted the church and a handshake still means something today.

The news about how God worked miracles to repair the building and now the financial stress facing the members, a small church 700 miles south of northern Wyoming knew they had to do something to help their brothers and sisters.

“When one congregation is hurting, we all hurt,” commented Lester Bentley, pastor for the Northeastern Wyoming district. “We, as a congregation, feel this is a very tough row to hoe for any congregation to do alone, especially since it can affect many of the ministry opportunities for that church for years to come as they pay off their debt.”

The Sheridan congregation would like to “challenge all the other churches of the Rocky Mountain Conference to meet or exceed our donation of $200 to help pay off this debt.  Let all work together for the good of the Durango church and the conference,” Bentley concluded.

“It’s an amazing God thing, because the first Sabbath we are going to be back [from suspension of services], we are going to have a celebration of prayer and thanksgiving,” said Gary Force, pastor of Durango church.  “We have a God that serves, protects, provides, and that answered our prayers in ways none of us could have imagined.”

–Jon Roberts is RMC communication/media assistant; photo supplied.

By Ella Smith Simmons — Silver Spring, Maryland . . . As are most of you, I am outraged over the heartless murder of George Floyd, the brutal slaughter of Breonna Taylor, and the Klan-style killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Yet, as I have sought to properly direct my anger and process my despair for change, I am reminded that I was equally outraged over the heinous executions of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray, all in 2014; and before them, the senseless, vigilante-style killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Perhaps one of the most traumatic for me was the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014. Whenever these atrocities occur, I remember that before them was the loss of my grade school classmate whose name you have never heard to the same racist brutality back in 1968; and before him, the loss of my great-uncle to the ravages of emotional despair in his inability to cope with unchecked societal injustices; and before him, countless black lives lost in lynchings and other brutalities in this country, my country.

In remembering this week, I had to acknowledge the fact that after the shock, the outrage, and the pain, we always return to an unhealthy, inhumane business-and-ministry-as-usual, only praying and hoping for that better day of change.

How can this be? I am asking this of all of us who consider ourselves, at least to some degree, spiritually mature, and all who assert conversion. How can we claim justification and sanctification in Jesus Christ and turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to racism and its ravages in any form? How can we proclaim the gospel to all the world if we will not live it to its fullest? Has the power of systemic racism rendered us numb? Have we just checked out? Is it that we just try to fly under society’s radar to avoid its ire? Yes, there have been some improvements in our society over time. But there have been so many setbacks, and we have never come far enough to claim victory over the sin of racism and its horrible effects on society. To be who we claim to be, we have a long way to go.

Our Fundamental Belief Number 14, “Unity in the Body of Christ,” states our commitment to the value of all human life and living in ways that reflect the commitment. It says in summary:

The church is one body with many members, called from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. In Christ we are a new creation; distinctions of race, culture, learning, and nationality, and differences between high and low, rich and poor, male and female, must not be divisive among us. We are all equal in Christ, who by one Spirit has bonded us into one fellowship with Him and with one another; we are to serve and be served without partiality or reservation. Through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures we share the same faith and hope, and reach out in one witness to all. This unity has its source in the oneness of the triune God, who has adopted us as His children. We cite Scripture as the foundation for these beliefs.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has taken a clear stand. This statement articulates not only our beliefs but also, by this standard of belief, our responsibility to each other and all humankind. If racism can be defined as the devaluing of one group of people as inferior while super-valuing another group or other groups of people as superior, it is clearly antithetical to our stated beliefs. We people of the Book know the origin of racism. As with all other schemes of the enemy, we must reject it, call it out wherever it exists, and live in opposition to it within the church and throughout society.

We should be aware of the deceptions and myths of the “mark of Cain” and “the curse of Ham” being black skin that have survived through much of modern history. It seems that many creationists buy into Darwinian falsehood when it comes to ethnic differences ascribed to fictional stages of evolutionary development from animal to human. Even many who declare the equal value of all people appear to accept the falsehood, at least subconsciously, that God created different races or ethnic groups for different purposes, such as some people groups inherently gifted for leadership, or management, or the performing arts, or athletics, or slavery, and so forth. Surely, we people of the Book do not ascribe any credence to these. So, what is the problem?

I wonder if in part we are waiting for some supernatural change to usher us into a new relational order in which we as a body actually model our Fundamental Beliefs. Yes, some do as individuals and often in private relationships. But should not a great majority of us exemplify the character of Christ? Should we not seek for justice in society? We love Micah 6:8: it calls us to act justly, to love mercy, and to live humbly under God. (One translation says to not take ourselves too seriously, but to take God seriously.) We are called to act justly, not only to think and preach about justice, but to act justly.

Theologians, anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists have reminded us that while we need to identify the core of a problem and must seek to help people change their hearts/minds to overcome the problem, we have to engage in correct behaviors. They have found that correct behavior must sometimes precede the internalization and ownership of beliefs and values. If we take to heart our Fundamental Belief Number 14, what is the problem that allows some to tolerate and even facilitate injustices and atrocities in our nations, communities, and churches? What causes some to replicate the more covert elements of racism while decrying the overt evidences of racism? Is that not hypocrisy?

Explore with me for a moment a phenomenon that is pervasive throughout most of the world and strongly encouraged in the United States — the current worldwide focus on the inevitably outrageous consequences of racism. Let’s look just for moment at the role of the acquisition and maintenance of power, the knee on the neck, even in the church. In a current issue of National Geographic, a writer likens the killing of George Floyd to the lynchings of days gone by: “This man was lying helplessly on the ground. He’s subdued. There’s the cop kneeling on his neck. This man is pleading for his life. To me, that is the ultimate display of power of one human being over another.”

When I try to explain the current dynamics in the United States, I turn to one of my favorite speeches, given by the former Maryland slave, scholar, orator, writer, social reformer, anthropologist, and statesman Frederick Douglass. He spoke these words on the 23rd anniversary of the “West India Emancipation,” on August 3, 1857, in Canandaigua, New York:

Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. . . . If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. . . . This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.

After referencing the work of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce, Douglass said:

I am aware that the rebellious disposition of the slaves was said to arise out of the discussion which the Abolitionists were carrying on at home, and it is not necessary to refute this alleged explanation. All that I contend for is this: that the slaves of the West Indies did fight for their freedom, and that the fact of their discontent was known in England, and that it assisted in bringing about that state of public opinion which finally resulted in their emancipation. And if this be true, the objection is answered.

We see what this looks like in the public arena. What should it look like in the church generally, and in the Adventist Church specifically?

We must act. My prayer is that we can muster the strength to return to the early days of Adventism when we as a people were active, indeed leaders, in the public square. We as a people fought against the evils of slavery, racism, and the marginalization of minorities.

It is past time to acknowledge that indeed we have a problem in the church at all levels. I have seen it up close and clearly. You have seen it too. There is hope for us all if we turn to the Source of our strength. In her writings, Ellen White predicted that in the last days, “Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family.” “The last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.” “In visions of the night, representations passed before me of a great reformatory movement among God’s people. Many were praising God. The sick were healed, and other miracles were wrought.”

I believe this reform movement includes the eradication and healing of racism among us, and the achievement of that love to which Jesus called us — that love by which the world will know we are Christians.

This time, after the shock, the outrage, and the pain, let us not return to an unhealthy, inhumane business-and-ministry-as-usual, only praying and hoping for that better day of change.

There was a time when God told His people to get up off their knees, to stop praying, and move forward. So let us arise and “let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24 NIV).

I hear that charge to move now.

—Ella Smith Simmons is general vice-president General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; photo by UnSplash

1. Deneen L. Brown, “‘It Was a Modern-day Lynching’: Violent Deaths Reflect a Brutal American Legacy.” National Geographic, June 3, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/06/history-of-lynching-violent-deaths-reflect-brutal-american-legacy/.

2. Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 91, 92.

3. Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, 415, 416.

4. Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, 9:126.

This article was originally published on Adventist Review Online.