Leader: Mr. John Krizan

“And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15.

The Bible is full of passages that encourage us to willingly, without coercion, choose whom we will worship. Of course, the hope is that we will choose Jesus: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

The separation of church and state has been a bedrock feature of the Seventh-day Adventist Church since its founding in the 1860’s. Our principles sum it up best: “The God-given right of religious liberty is best exercised when church and state are separate.

Government is God’s agency to protect individual rights and to conduct civil affairs; in exercising these responsibilities, officials are entitled to respect and cooperation. Religious liberty entails freedom of conscience to worship or not to worship; to profess, practice, and promulgate religious beliefs, or to change them. In exercising these rights, however, one must respect the equivalent rights of others.

Attempts to unite church and state are opposed to the interests of each, subversive of human rights, and potentially persecuting in character; to oppose union, lawfully and honorably, is not only the citizen’s duty but the essence of the golden rule – to treat others as one wishes to be treated.” – Seventh-day Adventist Church declaration of principles on religious liberty.