USA Today Features Closer Look at Adventists as Hacksaw Ridge Opens
November 7, 2016: USA Today has zeroed in on the faith community of Desmond T. Doss, the real-life hero of the recently-released war film, Hacksaw Ridge.
USA Today has a circulation of over 1 million, and reaches approximately 7 million reader daily. Along with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, the newspaper shares the status of widest-circulated newspaper in the United States.
In an article that originally ran in The (Nashville) Tennessean, USA Today spotlights members of the Nashville First Seventh-day Adventist Church and its pastor, Melvin Santos; Steve Rose, executive secretary of the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; and Daniel Weber, director of communication for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America.
The article also reveals some of the teachings of the church, including its views on violence and military service.
Hacksaw Ridge was released on November 4, and directed by Mel Gibson. It tells the story of Doss, an Adventist World War II army medic who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving the lives of 75 men as a conscientious objector in the Battle of Okinawa.