\n\tThe battle for religious liberty is fought perhaps more often in the quiet corners than on the grand stage. No one knows this better than Pastor Eliezer
\n\tBenavides, associate director of the Church State Council, who began handling primarily Sabbath accommodation cases for the Church State Council in 2006.
\n\tAt 87 years old, Pastor Benavides, who chuckles when he says he \u201cofficially\u201d retired 20 years ago, never thought he would spend his \u201clast days in ministry\u201d
\n\tworking tirelessly for religious liberty. \u201cThe Lord is wonderful,\u201d Pastor Benavides says, \u201cand He had a purpose, and so I thank the Lord for His goodness.\u201d
\n\tThere is a peace in his softly accented, lilting voice that can only be attributed to an unshakable confidence in the power of prayer and a deeply rooted
\n\tfaith in God. It is a faith he lives out daily and a power he seeks constantly.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBenavides credits the beginning of his ministry with gratitude to God for saving his life in World War II. As a junior at Fresno Adventist Academy in \n\tFollowing his return, he finished his schooling, spending three years at Pacific Union College, then graduating with a B.A. in religion from La Sierra \n\tAlthough he should technically be spending only a third of his time working on cases for the Church State Council, many times he puts in long hours \n\tShe had been working at the hotel for a little more than four months. She was allowed to refuse work four times a month, and she used those refusals for \n\t\u201cI talked with her and told her this country has laws and that I might be able to help her,\u201d Pastor Benavides says. \u201cI called and spoke with the human \n\tPastor Benavides advised Ruth to file charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Church State Council would back her up. So \n\t\u201cAll the time I had to wait,\u201d says Ruth, \u201cI felt anxious and depressed because I didn\u2019t know how these things were going to end up. I didn\u2019t know what \n\t\u201cWe did pray together many times,\u201d agrees Pastor Benavides. \u201cI would call her, or she would call me. Thank the Lord, Alan and I worked very hard, and after \n\t\u201cIt wasn\u2019t so much the money,\u201d says Ruth, who got quite sick during the long ordeal, which was very hard on her and her family. \u201cIt\u2019s important to know \n\t\u201cI told her to be faithful to the end; the Lord will take care of this,\u201d Pastor Benavides says. \u201cI would always tell her that the Bible says, \u2018Call to Me, \n\tJos\u00e9 Carrizosa also ran into trouble with Sabbath accommodation. He applied for work at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jos\u00e9, California. \u201cThey \n\tWhen the hospital again ignored the letter, Pastor Benavides drove eight hours to the hospital to try to arrange for a dialogue with someone in human \n\t\u201cShe said, \u2018You are so right. There has been discrimination. You have the right to file charges.\u2019 I asked her why they couldn\u2019t just give him his job back, \n\tAttorney Alan Reinach filed charges, but the process dragged on for a year and a half before the hospital finally agreed to settle for $40,000 and give \n\t Jos\u00e9 learned so much from his experience that his church of 1,000 members appointed him director of religious liberty. In his position he can help others \n\tWhen confronted with a Sabbath accommodation situation, Pastor Benavides says he always prays with the person involved first. \u201cThen I direct myself to the \n\t\u201cI also always ask their pastor to write a letter stating that the member is a member in good standing with the Seventh-day Adventist Church and that we \n\t\u201cThe first thing he asked me was \u2018Are Seventh-day Adventists willing to speak up for a Jehovah\u2019s Witness?\u2019 I said, \u2018You know, we don\u2019t discriminate. We\u2019re \n\tWhen preparing to help people with religious accommodation, Pastor Benavides says, \u201cI inform them that we also provide legal counsel if it\u2019s needed, and I \n\t\u201cI also deal directly with the person involved with Sabbath accommodation. I pray with them; I read to them from the Bible to encourage them because many \n\t\u201cOnce people are dismissed, it takes time. Often we are able to negotiate in mediation, but if not, it generally takes at least six to eight months for us \n\t\u201cAnd I\u2019m thankful that I can still be working,\u201d says Pastor Benavides. \u201cThe Lord\u2019s been good. He\u2019s given my wife and me good health, so we never say no to The battle for religious liberty is fought perhaps more often in the quiet corners than on the grand stage. No one knows this better than Pastor Eliezer Benavides, associate director of the Church State Council, who began handling primarily Sabbath accommodation cases for the Church State Council in 2006. At 87 years old, Pastor Benavides,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tFresno, California, he received a letter from Uncle Sam telling him it was time to register. \u201cI got a letter from the president congratulating me because I
\n\twas 18 years old,\u201d he remembers. \u201cForty-five days after I turned 18, I was in the service for the Second World War. But the Lord was good even then,
\n\tbecause I learned to be faithful to my Lord. I battled to be a noncombatant and to keep the Sabbath. I had to appear before officers and talk about my
\n\tfaith, but the Lord was good. I took medical training and was sent to Germany and later into France. Then we came home; thank the Lord, the war was over.
\n\tThe very first thing I thought was Lord, You saved my life; I give my life to You<\/em>. And that\u2019s how my ministry started.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tCollege (now La Sierra University), and officially began his ministry in June of 1951. After working for the Southeastern California Conference for 16
\n\tyears, he received a call from the General Conference to go as a missionary to Colombia, South America, in the Inter-American Division. He pastored the
\n\t1,900-member church including many groups for two and a half years. Then he worked as the ministerial secretary and evangelist for the Colombia-Venezuela
\n\tUnion, being greatly blessed in soul winning. While on furlough he completed his studies and received his Master of Arts degree from Andrews University.
\n\tWhen he came home on permanent return, he was appointed to be the first director for Hispanic ministries for the Pacific Union Conference. He worked there
\n\tfor eight years before returning to pastoral and evangelistic work for a few years before his retirement in 1994 from the Fresno Spanish Seventh-day
\n\tAdventist Church, where he was the senior pastor. \u201cI retired from Fresno Spanish Church, and I had graduated from Fresno Academy,\u201d he says, \u201cso it was nice
\n\tto retire from the place I had spent my younger days.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tobtaining the information he needs to help someone get Sabbath accommodation as well as praying with them and counseling them as they face difficult
\n\tsituations because of the threat of job loss. Ruth Parra, who was dismissed from her job as a housekeeper at the Vdara Condo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on
\n\tApril 20, 2012, for refusing to work on the Sabbath, credits prayer with strengthening her faith during her ordeal.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tSabbath observance. But then she found herself in a month that had five Sabbaths, and they told her that if she did not work on Sabbath they would dismiss
\n\ther. She spoke to her local pastor and asked him to send a letter for her, explaining why she needed to take the Sabbath off. Unfortunately management paid
\n\tno attention to the letter her pastor sent. Pastor Benavides and attorney Alan Reinach of the Church State Council happened to be giving a seminar in Las
\n\tVegas at the time Ruth was fighting to keep her job.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tresources person, laying out what they should do. I said I hoped we could settle this problem because we didn\u2019t want to file any charges. He said, \u2018Maybe I
\n\thave to learn some things, but as far as I\u2019m concerned right now, I have to follow the orders of the company.\u2019 \u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tshe filed charges of discrimination and retaliation with the EEOC. \u201cI told her it would take quite a long time,\u201d Pastor Benavides says.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tGod\u2019s will was. I had to wait about two years. I felt good every time I was able to talk with Pastor Benavides. He told me to have faith in the Lord, and
\n\twhatever the outcome, it would be the will of God and that would be sufficient. We had many prayers together, which strengthened my faith. This led me to
\n\tfeel that I must have faith in the Lord.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tfiling charges, with the backing of EEOC, everything we asked for in the settlement was finally given.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tthat in everything we do that we are communicating with the Lord. This was a great experience in my life. I have grown in the Lord, in my spiritual life,
\n\tand in my confidence in my God. It has been very good for my life.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tand I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know\u2019 [Jeremiah 33:3, NKJV].* That strengthened her faith. There is no one as
\n\tgreat as the Lord.\u201d \n\t<\/p>\n
\n\taccepted my application,\u201d he says, \u201cand they said they would be willing to hire me as an extra-help janitor. They could give me a Monday through Friday
\n\tschedule, and if they needed me, I was willing to work on Sunday. In the beginning they respected my Sabbath, but eventually they wanted me to work on
\n\tSaturday.\u201d He asked his local pastor to write a letter to the hospital, but the hospital didn\u2019t listen. Next he asked his conference to write a letter, and
\n\tthe Spanish director wrote a letter, but the hospital still refused to listen. \u201cIt was like nothing had been sent,\u201d Jos\u00e9 says. \u201cWhen that happened, I
\n\tcommunicated with Pastor Benavides, who also wrote a letter stating what my rights were and so forth.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tresources at the hospital. He and Jos\u00e9 spoke to the human resources person for almost an hour. Pastor Benavides says, \u201cI told her, \u2018You have received
\n\tletters from the pastor, the conference, and myself as a representative of the Church State Council, and you have not responded.\u2019 She said, \u2018Well, I
\n\thaven\u2019t seen the letters.\u2019 \u201d Pastor Benavides, who had copies of all the letters, showed them to her.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tbut she told me they had recently been cutting help, and it wasn\u2019t a good time. I told her, \u2018I have no other choice. We\u2019re going to file charges with the
\n\tEEOC.\u2019 \u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tJos\u00e9 his job back. Although it was a difficult time for Jos\u00e9 and his family, he says, \u201cI feel very good, very positive about this because I know the
\n\tReligious Liberty Department is doing exceptional work in helping people with their Sabbath problems. Prayer had a great effect on me and my family. We
\n\tprayed together that the Lord would direct and guide. The outcome was positive because I got my job back. Prayer to us meant so much. We prayed a lot. Many
\n\ttimes I cried with Pastor Benavides. He helped me very, very much, and he continues to help me.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tas Pastor Benavides helped him. \u201cWhen people have problems,\u201d he says, \u201cI can help them. Thinking about what I went through, I can encourage them. They
\n\thelped me, so now I feel the Lord wants me to help others. And I will continue to do this as long as the Lord permits me to.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\thuman resources person, or a supervisor, and I always send a letter stating that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a Church State Council, which is the
\n\toldest public policy organization in the western United States that is devoted exclusively to issues of religious freedom. I tell them one of our
\n\tresponsibilities is to provide counsel and assistance to church members faced with religious discrimination in the workplace on the basis of their
\n\tobservance of the Sabbath.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tobserve the seventh day of the week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday and that we are asking for religious accommodation.\u201d Though Seventh-day
\n\tAdventists often encounter difficulties because of Sabbath observance, they are not the only denomination the Church State Council assists. Pastor
\n\tBenavides recently helped a member of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tall created by the same God, and when you\u2019re in a trouble, we\u2019re ready to help anybody.\u2019 We have helped people of many faiths.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tremind them that the EEOC says, in relationship to religious discrimination, that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from
\n\tdiscriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. I always write a letter
\n\tspelling out an employee\u2019s rights because I know I\u2019m going to be facing people who don\u2019t want to give religious accommodation. I have to let them know what
\n\tthe civil rights are, what the human rights are, what they should do, and that we\u2019re hoping they will cooperate with us.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\ttimes they\u2019re threatened with dismissal. I assure them that the Church State Council and the EEOC, which is a federal agency, are there to protect our
\n\treligious rights. And, thank the Lord, I would say that the good Lord helps us get Sabbath accommodation for between 80 and 90 percent of all our cases. In
\n\tthe others, we have to fight.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tto settle. We have been able to help many, many people. I feel that prayer has been a great force and a great impact. The Lord has said \u2018Call upon me and I
\n\twill answer,\u2019 and He sure has. I thank the Lord for His goodness.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tthe Lord. As long as He keeps us alive we\u2019ll serve Him; that\u2019s the way I feel.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"