Adventists for Racial Justice [Updated]

Adventists are responding to the recent killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling as well as the five police officers in Dallas, Texas (not yet named). The Adventist Peace Fellowship is preparing a statement and a plan of action that coordinates with efforts of others, but before that is released, we want to share what Adventists are already thinking, planning, and doing.

Pastor Dan Jackson and Pastor Alexander Bryant, leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination in North America, released the following statement:

Statement on Shooting Deaths in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas

Daniel R. Jackson and G. Alexander Bryant, the president and executive secretary of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, issued the following joint statement on July 8, 2016. The statement is in response to this week’s shooting deaths in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Dallas, Texas:

“We are heartbroken and disturbed by the tragic and brutal shooting deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and five Dallas police officers.* We extend our deepest condolences and prayers for the seven people killed this week, the seven officers and two civilians wounded in Dallas, their families, loved ones, and friends. We also pray for the communities of Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, and Dallas, and the heartache they are experiencing as a result of this tragedy.

“This week has been an extremely difficult week as we wrestle with the senseless loss of life. It is past time for our society to engage in open, honest, civil, and constructive conversation about the rights and equality of every member of our community. Having an open discussion means talking about difficult topics in a productive manner. However, we must move beyond the talking stage and begin to actually develop practical ways of dealing with racial intolerance in all of its forms — whether subtle or overt.

“This week we continue the struggle with what it means to fear for your life because of the color of your skin. We struggle with the pain that the African-American community feels. Last night we struggled seeing a hate so evil, so intense, that it led to the murder of those who were attempting to protect the right of American citizens to peacefully protest.

“We were deeply troubled by the shooting deaths of two African-American men by police officers this week. This brings the total number of blacks shot to death by police in the United States to 123 so far in 2016, according to press reports. We are equally troubled that five Dallas police officers were killed by a gunman filled with hate who, in his words, wanted to “kill white people and especially white police.”

“Let us be clear: the violent death of any human being is wrong. The deaths of these seven people in these three events are equally tragic and agonizing for God. While so many in our country are angry and frightened, hate and revenge are never the answer.

“We find wisdom and comfort in the life of Jesus. Human experience illustrates that hatred breeds more hatred. Jesus lived a life that demonstrated love in the face of hatred, and peace in the place of anger. Evil cannot be eliminated with evil; it must be overwhelmed with peace, love, and goodness. We know that there is growing anger, frustration, and alienation throughout our division. These emotions are accompanied by a growing distrust and fear.

“How will we personally and corporately respond? We believe that . . .

• Now is the time to listen, to hear, and to understand the cry of those living in fear.
• Now is the time for the men and women of the North American Division to stand up and link arms together, in peace and love, to say “NO” to racial inequality; and demonstrate that love is stronger than hate.
• Now is the time for our local congregations, for our state and regional conferences, for our educational and medical institutions to pray together, to engage in creative thinking together, and then to work together to strengthen what we have in common and bring the hope and healing compassion of Jesus to our communities.

“We pray for peace and compassion to guide our way forward as we acknowledge and seek to heal the hurt and fear that pervades this country. We pray, once again, for the day when all of God’s children, of all races, treat each other with love and respect rather than bias and hate.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28, NIV).

* NOTE: At the time of this release the names of all of the officers had not been released.
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=84ac041b8b705798057dab6f2&id=513e5c0847

Chaplain Michael Polite, who works in Campus Ministries at Andrews University offered this analysis on Facebook — CLICK HERE.

Pastor David Franklin, who leads the Miracle City Church in Baltimore, MD, used his Instagram account to promote a gathering at the Lincoln Memorial today, July 9, 2016.

Pastor Franklin was back on Instagram this morning highlighting the day’s upcoming events.

Attorney Michael Nixon posted on Facebook:

I’m encouraged.

I participated in a conference call that Oakwood University put together this morning along with 200+ other minority attorneys.

There is an SDAs for Social Justice group that went from 200 to 1500+ members in 24 hours – there is a conference call to discuss action plans and organizing this evening at 8pm.

I was reached out to by an Adventist publication to write a piece on how we as a church can get engaged & involved.

This time it’s going to be different. We are in this for the long haul. We will not be silent. We will not be shaken. We will not wait for another hashtag. We have the one we need: ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬.

Pastor Moses Eli of the New Beginnings Seventh-day Adventist Church distributed an email yesterday highlighting a 4-point action plan that “hundreds of black clergy” created in a conference call moderated by Rev. Dr. Emanuel Cleaver III:

Adventist Peace Fellowship Board member and pastor of Liberty Seventh-day Adventist Church in Baltimore, MD, Dr. Mark McCleary wrote to the APF leadership team:

These recent tragedies have jettisoned Adventists into public speaking like I have never seen in my SDA lifetime. I believe it’s part of the national (millennial rising) within the Black Lives Matter Movement, but also a unique prophetic energy long waiting to express itself in light of War and Baby Boomer generational social justice lethargy and alienation.

APF is needed and others like it. Lord, help us keep shouting, blowing the trumpet and searching for peace everywhere and for everyone until Jesus comes.

UPDATE: Fellow APF Board member and professor at Washington Adventist University, Dr. Olive Hemmings shared on Saturday evening:

Today we had church in DC with top officers in the NAD office – Dan Jackson, Alex Bryant, Dave Gemmell,  and many black pastors in the DC metro area and Baltimore present giving speeches and offering prayers at the MLK memorial. About 500 Adventists marched from the Lincoln memorial arms locked to the MLK memorial where WE HAD CHURCH!  We began our march at 6:30 pm singing “we shall overcome” and ended our vigil with the same at sunset.

Two APF Board members shared this list of actions we can take to work for positive change — 30 Things Your Church Can DO to Affect CHANGE! (Christopher Thompson, PELC, 9 July 2016). I appreciate the various areas for action.

There are surely other actions, groups, and preparations, but these are the ones I’m aware of at this point. May unity and peace guide our prayers and actions for a more just world. May God’s will be done on Earth as in Heaven, so that we will be unified in the reality that we are one humanity formed of one blood (Matt. 6:10; Act 17:26).

Pastor Ma on Sabbath Economics

Pastor Yi Shen Ma, who is a member of the APF leadership team, recently began a YouTube channel. Two of his first videos speak to one of the Fellowship’s core values — Sabbath Economics:

APF Statement on Florida Mass Shooting

The Adventist Peace Fellowship is devastated by the mass killing of members of the LGBT community in Orlando, Florida. We extend our deepest grief and support to the families, partners, and friends of the victims, and we stand in solidarity with individuals and organizations working to combat all forms of hatred, bigotry, violence, and intolerance. We also call on church leaders in the Adventist tradition to speak forthrightly to the fact that the slain in Orlando were by every indication targeted not only as an act of terror but also as an act of homophobia by an individual whose hatred was stoked by religious intolerance.

Since 2011, the Adventist Peace Fellowship—a broadly inclusive network that has sought to promote principles of nonviolence and a spirit of dialogue across theological differences—has included on our website a statement about both racial and gender justice. We realize it is a very imperfect document reflecting the fact that we are ourselves an imperfect and often sadly fractured community, but we hope that it might challenge all Adventists to a renewed commitment to the work of peace and justice in a broken world. The statement reads:

The Adventist church emerged at the height of slavery in the United States and was led by a group of young people from New England who embraced the most radical social reforms of their day,[1] including: abolitionism, elimination of class distinctions based upon birth rights, and women’s suffrage. The Adventist pioneers were led by a young woman, Ellen White, who was accepted by the fledgling denomination as possessing a unique prophetic ministry and authority. While the movement was in many ways a hotbed of theological exploration, vigorous debate, and radical thinking, on some questions the pioneers refused to allow for any compromise: White declared that individuals who publically defended slavery should be expelled from the Adventist movement.[2] She also urged Adventists to defy a Federal statute, the Fugitive Slave Law.

Despite these radical beginnings, the Adventist church over time became increasingly socially cautious and disengaged from pressing human rights issues. After an early period in which numerous Adventist women held important leadership roles, male officials increasingly came to marginalize women from leadership positions in the church that was originally led by a woman. During the Civil Rights era in the United States, the movement begun by New England abolitionists remained largely silent in the face of racial injustice. Adventists leaders and members were complicit with apartheid in South Africa and active participants in genocide in Rwanda.[3] Today, many gay and lesbian Adventists[4] are unable to find Adventist congregations where they know they will be treated with full dignity and humanity as persons made in the image of God.

You Are All One in Christ

The APF welcomes actions to repair historical wrongs and to put an end to all forms of violence and discrimination rooted in a refusal to accept the Other at the deepest levels of their personhood. We support women in ministry and at all levels of church leadership. We repent of all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination and seek ways of overcoming divisions based upon injustices of the past. Recognizing the complexity of the theological, scriptural, historical, and cultural questions concerning homosexuality in the Christian tradition—a matter that tragically divides Adventists no less than Catholics, Anglicans, and others—the APF, until such time as we receive greater clarity and consensus:

1. Affirms the dignity and fundamental human rights of all persons regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation;

2. Embraces campaigns and actions aimed at ending all forms of violence, intimidation, harassment, and bullying of persons for their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation;

3. Supports public policies that maintain a clear separation of church (mosque, synagogue, or temple) and state, neither attempting to impose essentially religious or theological understandings upon society as a whole nor penalizing forms of religious expression and association that include their own understandings of sexual ethics;

4. Urges all Adventist churches to serve their communities as places of refuge from threatening, bigoted, and uncompassionate actions and speech; and

5. Encourages respectful, inclusive, and ongoing dialogue between persons with different understandings of what sexual faithfulness within the Body of Christ requires of believers today.

[1] http://www.memorymeaningfaith.org/blog/2010/04/adventist-pioneers-women-ministry.html

[2] http://www.oakwood.edu/goldmine/hdoc/blacksda/champ/index.html

[3] http://spectrummagazine.org/node/2716

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_Seventh-day_Adventism

Adventists Respond to Mass Shooting in Florida

“Seventh-day Adventist congregations in Florida and California have reached out to LGBT+ communities in the wake of yesterday’s massacre at the Pulse gay club in Orlando, Florida. The shooting claimed the lives of fifty people and wounded fifty-three more,” reports Jared Wright for Spectrum.

Wright continues: “The Forest Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church in Apopka, Florida, under the leadership of Senior Pastor Geoff Paterson, announced on Facebook that it would hold free funeral services for any of the victims of the shooting.”

Image above is a screenshot taken from Facebook

“On the opposite coast, the Glendale City Adventist Church in Glendale, California will host a community vigil to honor the victims tomorrow (Tuesday, June 14). From 11:00 am to 7:30 pm, the doors of the sanctuary will be open for mourning and reflection. At 7:30 pm, the church will host a service of remembrance.” Read Spectrum’s full article here.

The Glendale City Adventist Church is a member of the Adventist Peace Fellowship Peace Church Network.

Additionally, pastor Dan Jackson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, released a statement about the mass shooting.
This is an excerpt from his statement:

We strongly denounce the hate that led to this mass shooting. This type of senseless violence has no place in this country or in this world. It is appalling that these lives were tragically cut short because of hate. We pray that God’s love will comfort and console the victims’ loved ones whose lives have become a nightmare overnight.

As Christians, we strongly believe that hate, for anyone, brother, sister, friend or enemy, comes not from God, but from the father of evil himself, the devil. We must condemn all expressions of hate, from speech to deadly violence. All of the women, children, and men in this world, regardless of whether they worship, live, or love like us, are children of God.”

Jackson’s complete statement can be read on the NAD website. 

AT: Observations of a Black Seventh-day Adventist American

APF Board member and pastor Mark McCleary has recently begun writing for Adventist Today. His first article is titled, “Observations of a Black Seventh-day Adventist American.”

The themes in this portion stood out to me:

Christianity is not exempt from racism. It has absorbed racist norms, and the Christian church and its Adventist subculture offer a truncated version of Biblical egalitarianism. I am reminded of H. Richard Niebuhr’s book, Christ and Culture, where this noted Christian theologian and ethicist posits that the Christian Church is challenged to either emulate secular society’s elitism or model Christ’s kingdom.

Black SDA’s reacted to White SDA racism by accepting the latter’s suggestion to establish Regional Conferences in 1944. Since then, Black SDA’s have turned the other cheek, while White leadership has winked at the practice and impact of racism within the Church.

In my opinion, the nature of the comments people have made in reaction to his article point out the necessity of his voice and demonstrate how difficult it can be to foster positive and healthy dialogue online.

To improve online communication and to improve our understanding of racial issues, may we each be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19).

See the complete article here.

Adventist History Podcast: Civil War, Part 1

Matthew Lucio, host of the Adventist History Podcast, recently posted an episode on the American Civil War (episode link, Facebook link).

Episode 19: The War Between the States

In this episode, we learn about how the new Seventh-day Adventist Church coped with the American Civil War.

An important part of the early story was an editorial James White wrote about the draft. I was glad to hear Lucio cover this aspect of the church’s struggle. One meaningful reaction against White’s argument — which was to follow the state’s orders because the moral blame lies on the government that commanded it — was someone who pointed out this was the exact logic the church was arguing against in the context of Sunday laws. Clearly, there were good reasons to oppose James’ early views on the topic.

The amount of debate demonstrates that there were mixed views in the early group about how Adventists should respond to war and the draft. However, the denomination’s official stance became clear:

May 17, 1865… While we thus cheerfully render to Caesar the things which the Scriptures show to be his, we are compelled to decline all participation in acts of war and bloodshed as being inconsistent with the duties enjoined upon us by our divine Master toward our enemies and toward all mankind.

(GC declaration quoted from Douglas Morgan, “The Beginnings of a Peace Church: Eschatology, Ethics, and Expedience in Seventh‐day Adventist Responses to the Civil War,”Andrews University Seminary Studies 45, no. 1 [Spring 2007]: 36.)

That this pronouncement was prescriptive and not entirely descriptive is most certainly true.

For more on Adventists and the Civil War, see these resources.

Adventist Author Using Kickstarter to Fund Book on Social Justice Advocate

Adventist author Debbonnaire Kovacs has launched a KickStarter campaign to fund a children’s book about John G. Fee.

Kovacs describes Fee:

Fee was an astonishing man for his time. In the 1850s, when race and slavery issues were heating to the boiling point that would set off the American Civil War, Fee was working hard to educate both black and white students, and both male and female (another taboo of his time) together. He was a staunch abolitionist, anti-racist, and anti-sexist–and he lived below the Mason-Dixon line that separated slave states from free states. He started a school and a church on a wooded ridge in central Kentucky, which have grown into world-famous Berea College, the Church of Christ, Union, nicknamed Union Church, a second church called First Christian Church, and ultimately, Berea, Kentucky, itself.

To learn more about both Fee and Kovacs’s campaign, click here.

Walla Walla University Opens Race and Ethnicity Studies Center

Walla Walla University has opened the Donald Blake Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture—named after one of the first black tenure-track faculty members to be hired by an Adventist college or university. The center will promote research through an annual conference, and encourage student involvement in matters of social justice.

The center also will offer pedagogy workshops on curriculum inclusiveness and multiculturalism, and it “will aim for excellence in thought, generosity in service, beauty in expression, and faith in God through the promotion of research, the provision of pedagogical resources, and the encouragement of student-led acts of service that relate to race, ethnicity, and culture.”

Read the full article in the Adventist Review.

In War-weary Colombia, Adventists Look Ahead to Post-Conflict Challenges

On March 30 of this year, both sides of the decades-long Colombian conflict (the Colombian government and the largest rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) “announced an agreed framework for [peace] talks aimed at ending the conflict.”

Around the same time, “A two-day peace forum held last month at the Adventist Church’s South Colombia headquarters in the capital, Bogotá”—and organized by Gabriel Villarreal, country director of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Colombia—“brought together religious leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academics, and others, to discuss strategies for supporting post-conflict reconciliation and rebuilding.” The International Religious Liberty Association and the Seventh-day Adventist Church supported the forum.

“The main goal of this forum was to develop a deeper understanding of the basic elements of the post-conflict phase in Colombia and the peace-building process,” explained Villarreal. He said the presentations focused on ways that NGOs and religious groups could contribute to peace efforts, while also helping to support vulnerable populations in Colombia. Villarreal said that, when peace comes, it is vital for the Adventist Church and ADRA Colombia to be prepared to make substantial contributions.

Read the full story from the Adventist News Network.

Unlocking Revelation and U.S. History

In church this past Sabbath, I listened to a sermon about the United States in biblical prophecy. The sermon was part of a prophecy series (Unlock/Unlocking Revelation) that is being preached across the Lake Union Conference, not just in our single congregation (Media: WNEM5, MLive). I was told there are over 170 locations running the series simultaneously.

I like our local pastor. I respect him. My frustration with the sermon is not about him (I don’t believe he wrote the sermon). My frustration is about a very white-centric view of U.S. history. For context, the pastor is white, I’m white, and the majority of the small congregation is white (more so now than when we began attending three years ago).

After writing an initial draft of this blog post, I shared it with him so he could comment before I posted it. I’ve made a few revisions based on that hour-long conversation.

The basic theme of the sermon—and this is an overly simplified summary—was that the U.S. started as a good Christian nation, but now our laws are becoming bad, which is clear since we are losing our Christian freedoms. The breakdown of the family and laws that allow this were the key example of the current problems. Presumably this related to same-sex marriage, but this wasn’t stated outright. This degradation was paralleled with the second beast of Revelation 13, the one that has horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon.

So what the sermon was really saying by describing a fall from good to bad was that slavery did not discredit the early great Christian version of America. The U.S. was still godly. But today U.S. laws don’t support a certain version of Christian ideals relating to the family, so now we’re falling. However, this disregards the generations of families in slavery who were ripped apart as they were bought and sold (more than 10 million ^arrived^ in the New World, plus those born here; besides all those who died or were killed while crossing the Atlantic). How’s that for “Christian family values”? The abuse of those families didn’t invalidate the great Christian start to this country, but gay marriage does?

If our biblical interpretation demands that we disregard the violent injustice experienced by millions of people, then based on the centrality of justice to God’s Word, I propose that we reconsider our interpretation, or at least add a bit of nuance.

If one accepts the overall Adventist understanding of Revelation 13, then I propose a simple alteration of the sermon’s message: understand both features (lamb-like horns and dragon-like speech) throughout its history instead of saying one was earlier and the other was later. That is, at its start the U.S. had an appearance of godliness (lamb-like appearance), but it spoke like a dragon (slaves not treated as humans, at best counted only as three-fifths human). Injustice in word and action despite a religious appearance have continued in different forms ever since, and these require a persistent critique. To this end, I shared a small book with the pastor—Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

This approach is in line with early Adventist views (not that early is necessarily right or best, but merely demonstrates that my proposed interpretation is hardly novel). Adventist historian Doug Morgan writes about those Adventists:

Challenging the prevalent postmillennialist conception of the United States as an instrument of progress toward the millennium, they asserted that apocalyptic Scripture cast the Republic as a persecuting beast. They pointed to slavery and the Protestant establishment’s intolerant treatment of dissenters as evidence of the fulfillment of prophecy. (Adventism and the American Republic, 2001, p. 11).

After our conversation, the pastor decided his interpretation could have been kept in place while being supplemented with the admission that the ideals expressed in the nation’s founding documents are the key point while also admitting we have not done a good job of living up to those ideals.

This racial issue was my main disagreement with the way U.S history and God’s values were portrayed, but there were three other points that were less central to the sermon’s main arguments. First, and I don’t remember the exact wording, the violent entrance of Columbus and the conquistadors was greatly minimized (something like: they joined the people already here).

Second, yes the Bible says there will be persecution, but I’m frustrated when American Adventists accept the view that American Christians are being greatly persecuted today. Allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry is not persecuting Christians; Christians are still free to worship however we like. There is a difference between being persecuted and simply not being able to force one’s values or morals on others. We want our civil and religious freedoms, so let’s extend that concern to all others as well.

Third, the quick rise of U.S. power was described as a blessing from God. I cringe a bit when I hear this argument because I believe slavery was a key factor in our economic development. Later military dominance became another unjust tool for economic expansion. For starters, consider Smedley Butler,*John Perkins, or the case of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala (Wiki, GWU). To say that growth of the U.S. economy and our subsequent place of power in the world is simply because of God’s blessing is to sweep too much history under the rug.

In conclusion, if the Adventist interpretation of prophecy is correct, then surely it can be presented in balanced and meaningful ways that don’t (a) ignore gross injustices such as slavery and imperialism and (b) accept popular definitions of Christian victimization in the U.S. that ring hollow compared with true persecution seen in other times and also in other places today.

– – –

*My favorite Smedley quote: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Adventists in Côte d’Ivoire Host Peace Summit Following Terrorist Attack

Five days after a jihadist attack at the seaside resort of Grand-Bassam, the National Forum of the Religious Confessions of Côte d’Ivoire hosted a peace summit on March 18, “calling for a unified response to violence carried out by Islamic extremists.” Representatives from many different faith backgrounds attended the summit, which was held at the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s West-Central African headquarters in the capital city of Abidjan.

The vice president of the National Islamic Council, Imam Mahamadou Dosso, read out a prepared statement that included:

No religion should lead somebody to kill his or her fellow beings. May God help us to overcome this evil.

Read the full story on the Adventist News Network.

Walla Walla University Peacemaking Week: Civil Discourse & Civil Rights

By Emily Muthersbaugh, Student Life Manager, Walla Walla University

This year, Walla Walla University’s sixth annual Peacemaking Weekend extended to a full week and focused on civil rights and civil discourse, promoting peaceful discussion and interaction during a politically charged time.

The week extended from January 18 to 23 and began with the national holiday celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in order to honor King’s commitment civil discourse and civil rights. Rising tension in the political landscape during this election year called for a continued discussion of issues particularly central to Dr. King’s work: civility.

Peacemaking Week began on Monday with WWU’s weekly campus-wide assembly called CommUnity. The program featured choral music, a video depicting the legacy of King, a singing of “We Shall Overcome”, and a presentation by Dr. Ricardo Graham, president of the Pacific Union Conference. Graham presented: “A King’s Dream.” Monday evening, WWU joined Whitman College and the Walla Walla community in a march to honor the life and legacy of MLK that extended from Whitman’s campus to the main plaza in downtown Walla Walla. The WWU choir performed gospel songs during the march.

On Tuesday of Peacemaking Week the Amnesty International Club served warm beverages and encouraged those passing by to take a moment and discuss a heated topic civilly with a stranger. The event “Peace Drinks” lasted three hours and received significant interest on campus. On Wednesday, the Social Work Club challenged the campus to engage in a day of intentional listening. They passed out pins with the phrase “The Future is Listening” on it and those who took the pins were asked to be more intentional about listening to others in conversation, rather than dominating discussion.

Walla Walla University’s David Bullock (chair of the Department of Communications and Languages) and Montgomery Buell (professor of history) delivered a presentation Thursday evening: “Making Peace with Uncivil Campaigns.” Bullock started the discussion by presenting about some of the least civil presidential campaigns in United States history and Buell discussed where the concept of “civil discourse” came from. There was significant interest from the audience in the topic as the current election is seen by many as more partisan than ever.

Friday evening continued the tradition of a candlelight vigil and march honoring lives lost in efforts to promote peace. The vigil began outside the University Church immediately following the vespers program and was led again by the Amnesty International Club. After a scripture reading and prayer, participants marched with candles around the perimeter of the campus, ending in the Student Activities Center where students practiced civil discourse in debate.

Saturday morning featured a panel discussion: “Making Peace with Uncivil Friends” where panelists considered how we can engage with each other more civilly every day, particularly when discussing controversial topics. Panel participants included Loren Dickenson, Brooklynn Larson, Cendra Clarke, Alden Thompson, and Emily Tillotson as moderator.

The Peacemaking Weekend Committee is now working in collaboration with the Chaplain’s Office, Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee, and the Office of Diversity on preparations for next year’s Peacemaking Weekend, with a commitment to promoting ongoing peaceful discourse in the Walla Walla Valley.

Church responds to terrorist attack in Brussels

On March 22, the Adventist News Network put out two articles regarding the three coordinated bombings that took place in Brussels, Belgium that day. A statement from the EUD Public Relations department reported that no Adventist church members had been affected, but encouraged members to “draw close to all who are suffering, in these times of great anguish.”

On terrorism, the statement read:

Firm and unconditional is our condemnation of all acts of terror, violence and oppression. May weapons, hate and violence cease! No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism. We are all brothers and sisters, children of one same Father.

See the full article here.

Seventh-day Adventist World Church President Ted Wilson also issued a statement in response to the the bombings:

Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Brussels who have sustained terrible explosions causing death and destruction. One of those blasts was very near our Seventh-day Adventist headquarters for that region. I have prayed for the people of Belgium and for our church members who can be a spiritual strength to others in this very difficult time. We thank our youth for having encouraged many in the city,  including the police station, this last Sabbath on Global Youth Day....may our youth and members continue to provide Christ’s ministry of love and compassion  in Total Member Involvement during this traumatic situation. Today, during our General Conference committees, we will earnestly pray for the country of Belgium, our church members and the families affected by this terrible tragedy.

See original statement here.

Lincoln Peacemakers pledge 10,000 acts of peace toward worldwide effort

Chris Blake is an Associate Professor of English and Communication at Union College. He’s also the Chair of Lincoln’s Interfaith Peacemaking Coalition, an organization which—in celebration of their 30th anniversary—has pledged to lead their community in committing “10,000 acts of peace.” This goal was set in support of a ten-year international initiative, “One Billion Acts of Peace,” led by the PeaceJam Foundation. To learn more about PeaceJam, Lincoln’s peacemaking goal or their upcoming event, read the full article from the Lincoln Journal Star.

Renewed Heart Ministries Podcast

Pastor Herb Montgomery, through his ministry Renewed Heart Ministries, deals with many themes relevant to Adventist peacemakers. For starters, check out his recent podcast that draws on the notable work of Walter Wink -- Renouncing Rights (more podcasts).

His earlier series on nonviolence is quality as well: "The Active, Nonviolence of Jesus" – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9.

Contest: Name the New APF Podcast

The Adventist Peace Fellowship will soon launch a podcast, and it needs a name. What do you think would be a great name for it? Here's how the contest will run:

1. Participants submit ideas via the APF Contact page.
2. The deadline is Sunday, February 7, 2016.
3. The APF Board of Directors will select the winning podcast name.
4. The winner will receive a copy of Do Justice (Brown and Darby, 2015), and they will also be mentioned in the first podcast.

Thanks for sharing your creative ideas with us!

Walla Walla University—Peace Week 2016

Walla Walla University will be hosting another peacemaking week, which will coincide with Martin Luther King Jr Day (Jan. 18-23). See the flyer below for more details (and click here to read about WWU's 2015 peace week).

You may also download the flyer -- Peacemaking_MLK Poster (PDF).