| Author | Message | ||
| Velo1 Registered user Username: Velo1 Post Number: 11 Registered: 1-2005 |
What would be the SDA take on the Supreme Court decision referenced below? It seems to me that a national Sunday Law with a penalty of death would be even more remote. FYI, I never bought into the mark of the beast scenario as presented by my friend's SDA pastor but I am interested in learning how SDA's view these news items. Here are select quotes and the link: "In its first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said the government cannot hinder religious practices without proof of a "compelling" need to do so."... "Religious groups of various faiths, along with civil liberties organizations, filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the sect. "This is just one step in the right direction in the fight for religious liberty," said Jared Leland, legal counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington." <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060221/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_religious_tea> | ||
| Ratthedd Registered user Username: Ratthedd Post Number: 18 Registered: 2-2006 |
I have only one question: Who gets to decide on the proof of a "compelling" need? Erik. | ||
| Cathy2 Registered user Username: Cathy2 Post Number: 7 Registered: 2-2006 |
Social Services--Child Protection Services, for one. They don't always need or use proof nor logic. All they need is bias, sometimes. A few years ago, in Colorado Springs, one teacher in a public school decided that some parents were not qualified to teach their child the Bible, since they were not theologians. Somehow it got all escalated and the child was taken out of the home (I know, it's unbelievable). In the end CPS got sued and their hand slapped, but it was an awful mess. I hope more stringent laws are made against agencies and for famlies/faiths so that this kind of nonsense does not happen. My SDA family (and how I recall myself thinking as an SDA) would rejoice at the religious freedom, but on the other hand, would talk about when the freedoms were gone and specualte how they could be taken away. A scenario like above, would cross their minds, only in a Sabbath context and more dramatic on a national/global level. As someone on this forum put it so profoundly, once--while Christians in the real world, right now, are being persecuted and even killed for Christ around the world, we SDA's would endlessly speculate how we would be persecuted for not keeping Sunday. When my niece was 15 y/o, her parents read the GC aloud to their girls every night. She came to me, crying, one night, terrified that she was going to be taken away from her parents because they kept the Sabbath not Sunday during Probation.She was afraid to tell them she was upset. I knew that she wasn't going to be taken, but I was caught between not wanting to show disrespect towards her parent's well meant actions and wanting to give her absolute assurance. I finally told her "I, personally, truly believe that won't happen. You are safe in Jesus, forever." And I prayed with her. She calmed down and I hope it helped. She has never talked on the subject again. (She is 22, now, strong SDA) But I believe nothing, nothing said or done by anyone, high or low, changes their belief that the Sunday Laws will come, sooner or later. Some, like my brother, don't think about it a whole lot. Others, like my sister, and father, never stop thinking about it. Just depends on the SDA. Some are more social/lifestyle Adventists. Some live and breath it. Probably, if one brings it up, all of them will argue about it because it is a core paradigm. (Not necessarily arguing in a negative way. Many are very skilled in detached, intellectual debate. My theory on that is SDA education) Grateful for our country, where I can be wrong or right and free (pretty much), Cathy |
