Adventist and Mormon Leaders Meet, Agree to Collaborate
by Monte Sahlin
From ANN, April 29, 2014
Top leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were hosted last week by leaders of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland. The meeting convened to preview a planned social media campaign on the Internet.
The “Faith Counts” campaign was produced by a multi-faith group and encourages people to seek religious faith. Short, professionally produced videos make the case for why faith, family and religious freedom need to be preserved in society.
“We’ve got to find a way to keeping faith alive in the 14- to 35-year-olds so that faith will grow with them, so they’ll have a foundation for their life,” said L. Tom Perry, who is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon church. A test video distributed for Easter, titled “Because of Him,” was viewed more than 5.3 million times in recent weeks. “The goal is to provide content for our Millennial friends, so they can take it and pass it along,” Perry said.
Perry said the campaign was launched to counter what he sees as a waning of spirituality throughout society. The campaign will launch within a month.
During the meeting, leaders from both denominations pledged to continue promoting religious freedom in the face of what they saw is an increasing marginalization of people of faith and the concept of freedom of conscience. The Adventist Church maintains sponsorship of the International Religious Liberty Association, and the Mormon church operates the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, which is its flagship educational institution.
“In a world that needs more faith, more focus on family, and now a defense of religious freedom, we are trying to join with people of good faith like you to help fight these very basic battles that are going on in the world,” said Ronald A. Rasband, senior president of the Mormon church’s Presidency of the Seventy. Pastor Lowell Cooper, a vice president of the Adventist General Conference, said Adventists honor the Mormon church for its “public discourse” of its beliefs and values. “We have found that it’s good to have you as neighbors and partners,” he said.
The Adventist News Network (ANN) is the official news service of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.
The Mormons and SdAs were on the same side on Prop. 8 in California against same sex marriages. We know how that worked out.
Yes the two denominations were on the same side on California Proposition 8, and rightly so. I remember some of the arguments by SDA's who were against Prop. 8, arguing their position was based on religious liberty. Now that the gay rights activists are steam rolling over every obstacle in their way, they could care less about religious liberty. All their talk about how gay marriage was a state issue has been turned upside down as they now sue to overturn the laws in states that do not allow same sex marriage. the same SDA's who were part of the NO on 8 crowd are all too willing to accomodate them.
I have maintained on posts here on AT dating back 6 years now, that this is all about POWER cloaked in the garb of equality. I believe in toleration and compassion, but there is little toleration or compassion by the movers and shakers in the gay rights movement. They are a powerful force to be reckoned with.
SDA's need recognize this and realize that while they have been obsessed with the Pope and Sunday laws,
this anti religious movement is coming at us at full speed.
Thanks Tom. Yes, I have been very interested where 'religious liberty' exists and doesn't exist on both sides of this sort of debate. Seems a real pickle.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Politics makes strange bedfellows.
Religion makes strange religious freedom fighters.
(i.e. SdA's have David Koresh and Rawanda. Mormons have Kody Brown and Warren Jeffs.)
Hi Brother,
Firstly it is "Rwanda" not "Rawanda" and that conflict had ethnic and class based fault lines – not religious.
Apart from some localized instances where SDAs of one enthnic group attacked SDAs of another – the denomination did not figure much in that conflict.
It is always interesting to read SdA spin.
This time about "localized attack".
In the real world it was called genoice and crimes against humanity.
By SdA "Pstor" Eli and his son.
tqm can fix this spelling, too.
"Religious Liberty" for Adventists only means protecting Sabbath. But it does not extend to laws that are religiously based which they have been too eager to enforce. There is no argument against same-sex marriage but religious beliefs. This would be a collusion between the church and state, and void the separation required.
Thank you Elaine, well stated, glad to hear someone say this!
Any group of good will, organized for action seeking to outlaw bias and prejudices they are being violated of, should have the high calling of all Christians support.
All I can say to this is a union made in hell! I want nothing to do with the Mormons or their causes and taking any common cause with them is an association that will allow their oder to rub off on us. Even before becoming an Adventist I had too many experiences with their sort of righteouness, ethics, and understood their occult theology too well to ever associate with them. I grew up around Mormons and had too many dealings with them out west and know better then to ally with such. Believe me they think little of you and consider us "gentiles" as useful dupes.
As for the Gay marriage issue in California, sorry, I do not approve of gay lifestyles but am not judgmental of them either, having known too many of them and found most of them to be very kind, not oppresive of others, some even better Christians then most,…….and one other thing, as long as the government is handing out the marriage licenses, then it has to be fair and equal and not based on religion. What we really need in this country is to take away government involvement in marriage, have civil unions which are a legal contract between too adults, and the marriage itself strictly religious or whatever you like. When I got married back in the 70s I had a cold chill run down my back when the SDA minister said by the power of God and the state I pronounce you married, brrrrrr!
Hey, I guess there are two Tom's here. We are not the same person.
One should take a last initial to differentiate.
Hello. I just signed up here to say that, no, I do not as an LDS consider my SDA wife a 'useful dupe', and to remind that if we go looking for religious offense instead of religious beauty and divine corroboration, we will soon find ourselves buried under mountains of it. I obviously don't speak for everybody, and I don't discount others' bad experiences, but despite inescapable differences, I have often felt LDS and Adventists are some of the most natural theological neighbours in the world. This announcement was a little underwhelming after checking into it, but if all it does is signal our two communities to pay more attention to each other, it will have been useful enough.
I think it is totally unfair to generally condemn all or the majority of LDS adherents because of the arrogance of the few. I have worked with excellent LDS colleagues (including a former Adventist) and have a number of them for neighbors here in Oregon. Generally good folk in my experience. I do not agree with many of their teachings but that is a matter of my choice.
"I had too many experiences with their sort of righteouness, ethics, and understood their occult theology too well to ever associate with them."
The same has been said on other occasions of Catholics, Jews, Italians, Japanese, Russians and even of Adventists. In my years of running my own business the only people that have failed to pay me were (coincidentally) devout Christians.
Three of my closest colleagues and friends were a Catholic, a Jehovah's Witness and an Orthodox Jew. All have been invited into my home and/or shared their homes with me. In the home of the Jew I gladly donned a yarmulka while he prayed in Hebrew.
To my LDS friends, brothers and sisters, (and to my Catholic friends and others who have been maligned by some comments on this web site) please accept my apologies on behalf of the minority of my fellow Adventists who practice guilt by association. We all have our biases and blind spots – some are more public than others.
For any Adventist to be critical of our LDS friends is someone who apparently does not know much about Adventist and LDS 19th century history. Both denominations were born out of the same cultural and religious environment that included the "Burned-Over" region of Western New York which featured a particular American brand of religous fanaticism. We both have "prophets" and we both have a facination with the "Sanctuary/Temple" theme in the Old Testament. Our "prophets" had very different kinds of "visions." The problem is which ones came from God and which did not. Or did both or neither? Interesting.
"…which ones came from God… Neither
One could well say the same for the history of the whole world. For example, is there any coincidence that the three most prominant religions in the world all come from Semitic cultures in the Middle East, or that the second biggest and most prominant religions all come from the Indian subcontinent?
Once again we see examples of overgeneralization, stereotyping, and prejudice; but the good part is that this also enabled some people to express the opposite perspective. The tendency of SDAs to withdraw into their own insular world and cease communication with non-SDAs, is one of the least attractive features of those in the church who do this. LDS dogma, like SDA dogma, is plenty strange, but each group includes many wonderful people. Jim, where in Oregon are you? Many in my family, including a number of SDAs, were early settlers of Oregon, and it feels more like home to me than anywhere outside coastal northern California.