August 29, 2008 – Miami, Florida…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Church leaders from throughout the Seventh-day Adventist church in Inter-America gathered for a special Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) council earlier this week at the church's headquarters in Miami, Florida.
“Our main interest is to activate the PARL department in all of our territory,” says Pastor Roberto Herrera, PARL director for the church in Inter-America. “We want to reinforce our relationship with governments and authorities in the countries of our Division and maintain a good relationship with religious groups for religious liberty which is a principle that affects all human beings.”
It's a council that allows union leaders to have a common vision which has been developing in the territory, said Herrera. The council also allowed the exchange of experiences and strategies yielding good results in the Inter-American Division territory.
The council provided a number of seminars to educate church leaders on Adventist diplomacy, the history of religious liberty, contacting important government officials and more.
Although in general, the church in the IAD enjoys vast religious liberty, in some areas in Mexico there have been recent outbreaks of religious intolerance affecting several groups including Adventists, according to Herrera. Occasionally our young people have faced problems with the Sabbath, but in general the church has been enjoying freedom, he added.
Yet church leaders want to ensure that the Religious Liberty department functions as any other department of the church. “We know that in some places in our territory, the department is not doing the work it is expected to do and we want to continue emphasizing the importance promoting religious liberty in the countries of our territory,” Herrera.
Pastor John Graz, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the Adventist World Church, spoke to the more than dozen leaders at the council on the importance of their work.
“Seventh-day Adventists defend religious liberty because it is a principle in favor of the entire world,” Graz said. He continued challenging PARL leaders to remain committed.
“We need to keep active in promoting and defending religious liberty because it's being attacked around the world,” Graz added. There are 10 countries in the world where there is no religious liberty and forty more countries where people are very discriminated for their beliefs.
“The church in Inter-America still needs to understand really how important this department is,” says Herrera. One of the challenges facing religious liberty department throughout the territory lies on the misconception that religious liberty is not important.
Educating church members on the purpose for religious liberty is a task church leaders studied and strategized to increase awareness
“We have discovered that the majority of our church doesn't really understand what religious liberty is. Sometimes when church members see church leaders associating with other church denominations, or government officials and not think is appropriate,” Herrera says. “But the church is obligated to have a relationship with government offices and authorities who handle the laws that affect our churches and our institution. We cannot alienate ourselves. We are very clear in our mission not entering in political affairs nor compromising our principles.”
So far, Religious liberty congresses and special events have taken place and the church has responded very positively, says Herrera. He credits church members' trust in the church leaders for the support of these programs. Aggressive initiatives are planned to continue this year and in 2009.
Next year, Inter-America will holds its first Religious Liberty Congress on Apr. 29-30, 2009, in the Dominican Republic.
For more information on Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for Inter-America, visit www.interamerica.org
