Adventists, Prohibition, and Political Involvement
- November/December 2011
- November 1, 2011
Charles Dickens began one of his essentially autobiographical tales by wondering aloud if he would prove to be the hero of his own life. Reality is so dynamic and changeable it is hard for anyone to know where their actions will lead them, or how they will bear up to the challenges of the day
READ MOREOn July 15, 2011, with political headlines dominated by negotiations over the U.S. debt ceiling, another political story caught the nation’s notice. At the top of CNN’s political page that day, the story read, &”Michele Bachmann Officially Leaves Her Church.&”1 According to the report, the Bachmanns—members of the Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, for
READ MOREJust two years after the Seventh-day Adventist Church officially organized, it met for its third General Conference session in 1865. The church made one of its first official statements on voting at that time: &”Resolved, That in our judgment, the act of voting when exercised in behalf of justice, humanity and right, is in itself
READ MOREIt was not asking if the pope is Catholic, but the answer to the chief justice's question of whether the pope is a minister had the same answer. Cheryl Perich's attorney Walter Dellinger knew better than to try to answer this rhetorical question, instead he had to dodge it. The Supreme Court found itself wrestling
READ MORESuppose a state desires to reward Jews—by, say,$500 per year—for their religious devotion. Should the nature of taxpayers’ concern vary if the state allows Jews to claim the aid on their tax returns, in lieu of receiving an annual stipend? Suppose the state of Hawaii, in its desire to preserve the ancient native Hawaiian religion,
READ MOREEditors' note: This is the fifth and final article in a series on the history of Christian persecution up to the end of the seventeenth century. The first, second, third, and fourth articles can be found here and here, here and here. In considering religious toleration, it is helpful to bear in mind that it
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