Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Report

The Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department in the Seventh-Day Adventist church has not always been fully understood in terms of its purpose and its complete function. In many of our churches, it is simply termed the Religious Liberty Department and relegated to a marginalized ministry. Many of our churches don’t even have a designated leader for this valuable ministry. The departments function rightly understood has a dual purpose. The Religious Liberty aspect advocates for our members in regard to their religious freedom rights under the Constitution, while the Public Affairs part focuses on developing constructive and meaningful relationships with the community.

Like never before, our voice and presence is needed to make a difference in society. I realized this when I was pastoring and spent a great deal of time forging alliances with community leaders and public officials. I discovered that some community leaders perceived our church to be a very insular organization. They unfortunately criticized and falsely labeled us as introverts because of our lack of engagement in the public square. This is definitely not true but our image needed to be improved in the community. Efforts are being made to change this narrative. In fact, some community leaders now strongly recognize our value, appreciate our counsel and they are beginning to turn to us for much needed help. There are numerous challenges and problems facing society such as the migrant crisis, gun violence, joblessness and homelessness. Community leaders also need our counsel and wisdom to better serve their constituency.  This presents a tremendous opportunity to secure resources and vital information to enhance our mission and ministry.

This is the Public Affairs side of our departments work which is helpful to the overall ministry of our entire church. We serve as the department that connects our church so that all the other ministries in our organization can benefit. We are not designated to take their place but to help provide the community relational aspect. We are the needed conduit that can help put our church on the map and improve the world’s understanding of the Advent Message. This also means, that we work with other Faith leaders that have different theological beliefs. This may pose a problem to some of our members who accuse PARL leaders as being ecumenical. They are of the opinion that we are joining forces with other religious organizations comprising the purity of our faith. On the contrary, we work together on issues and concerns where there is common ground without compromising our core principles. The Conference leadership asks me to focus on needed area during  this quadrennial period. I was tasked with the assignment to improve our engagement with the Communities around our conference. Our PARL team worked very hard to make an unprecedented contribution through our department. Here are some of the highlights of our service:

1. We were able to increase the number of Liberty Magazine Subscriptions to over 1000. In most of the Cities and States in our field we sent this valuable journal to Politicians, Mayors, Judges and numerous elected officials. We also shared this magazine with Faith leaders from all denominations. Special thanks to our Pastors and local PARL leaders who assisted in raising the funds to pay for our Journals.
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2. We were a part of Government Committees and Task forces around our field working with our Mayors, Governors, Congressional Representatives, City Council members and the White House Faith Leadership. We attended High level meetings and briefings. This gave our conference recognition and access. This was just the beginning because this takes more time to develop over the ensuing year to come. The groundwork has been laid.
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3. We continued to advocate for our members in regards to their religious freedom rights in the workplace. Special thanks and recognition to our former PARL leader, Dr. Lawrence Brown  who assisted with his invaluable expertise in this area. Unfortunately, as many of you know, we lost him during this quadrennial period.
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4. We also authored an  agenda on Improving Community Engagement for the interfaith ministry in New York which is being used today. This is the first time an SDA Faith leader has made this kind of contribution in New York City. This will hopefully benefit all denominations to strengthen their engagement and improve needed relationships in order to access vital resources.
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5. We increased our contribution to Social Justice needs and initiatives. We made this an objective because our church is also called to look out for the vulnerable, the helpless and the marginalized people in society. We partnered with National Action Network along with other National organizations to make a difference.
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6. We started a Know Your Rights Taskforce as the threat of deportation hung over the heads of many of our members. Special Thanks to our conference administration that supported our work in this vital area. Zoom forums and Meetings were held both at the conference level and in our local churches. Special thanks to our visionary Pastors and lay leaders for assisting with this program.
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7. To improve Communication in our Department we established a PARL What’s App Chat so that our leaders can instantly know what is going on around our field and our leaders can share vital insights to help us comprehend current events in society.
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8. We hosted annual trips for our PARL leaders to acquire a historical background of the history of our country and Religious Liberty.
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9. We supported the Regional Conferences CJC/ Conscious and Justice Council  organization by being actively engaged with the objectives of this important SDA Social Justice organization.
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10. During this quadrennial period something out of the norm occurred. I was a part of an interfaith summit with the Metropolitan Transportation Department of New York City. This massive organization directs the entire transportation system for New York City and beyond. This is a $20 billion company with over 70,000 employees. As a result of this meeting, we were able to join forces with the MTA and host two very successful Job Fairs in the Adventist church for the first time where about 4,000 people from our community attended. This would not have happened without working in conjunction with other community leaders. There is so much more work that needs to be done. The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Any religion that just professes to be concerned about the soul but not about what damages the soul is a dry-as-dust religion."

We want to thank our constituency for the tremendous opportunity given to us to serve and make a contribution. It has always been the desire of my heart to make a difference in this great conference. I thoroughly enjoy blazing new trails and exploring new possibilities to strengthen our needed impact on the community. I also want to thank those that assisted me whenever they were able to. Dr. Lawrence Brown previously mentioned for his dedication was remarkable. Even though, he served for many years, he continued to assist us. Thanks to Dr. Reginald Guerrier for his contribution and our new team member, Dr. Richard Means Jr. We also thank Sister Eslyn Carter who served many years in our department for her tremendous service.

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