Rumors have recently surfaced that need to be addressed. Accuracy in reporting is vitally important if we would be a credible resource when issues of significance arise. Some are so anxious for the Second Coming that they hail "news" like this rumor as the fulfillment of prophecy, then they hastily disseminate it without verification. Please make haste slowly in affairs such as this.
We rely on the North American Religious Liberty Association (NARLA) to investigate and substantiate or disprove the rumor, then make an official statement that reflects their diligent research. This letter from James Standish arrived today and we share it with you to help you evaluate these rumors for yourselves. Please feel free to pass this on.
Dear Colleagues:
Whenever we receive information relating to Sunday laws, we examine the information diligently and extensively. In addition to reacting to information sent to us, we proactively monitor legislative developments on Capitol Hill and attend many meetings with a wide variety of entities at which prospective legislation is discussed. Further, we undertake extensive research. For example, our team performed an extensive review of Sunday laws in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, culminating in a 421-page report detailing every existing state Sunday law.
When we receive information about Sunday laws from individual sources, our team of dedicated Seventh-day Adventist professionals follow four steps to evaluate it:
- If the information contains claims that can be independently verified, we perform the detailed research necessary to determine whether the claims are factual.
- We contact the source of the information directly to invite him or her to speak and/or meet with us in order to gain perspective on the information.
- If the source will not speak and/or meet with us, we contact people who are in contact with the source—for example, his or her church pastor—to ascertain why the individual refuses to communicate directly with our Church’s religious liberty team and whether there are any indications as to the credibility of the source.
- We review our first-hand observation of the process on Capitol Hill, we speak with personal contacts, and we access a variety of printed sources to ascertain whether there are associated movements.
In short, we take information on Sunday laws very seriously and we follow a rigorous path to evaluate it.
Currently, there are two Sunday law rumors circulating in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We have run both of these through our four-step process and, after this serious review, find both to be unreliable at this point.
The first rumor claims that there was a secret meeting in Washington, DC last November to plan for the passage of a Sunday law. We checked every specific claim that accompanied this rumor and every one of them proved false. The meeting did not occur at the site claimed, and the high-profile individuals who allegedly attended the meeting are documented to be in other locations at the time. After we made our investigation public, the rumor morphed. The new rumor contained no claims that could be independently verified. Our invitation to the source of the rumor to meet with us has not been accepted. There has been no Sunday law bill introduced in the subsequent four months and our research has turned up no evidence that would tend to corroborate the rumor. Rather, the closer we have looked at the situation surrounding the rumor, the more it appears to be false.
The person who is the source of the current claim also circulated another Sunday law claim approximately seven years ago. Once again, we vigorously researched the elements that could be verified and found each one to be inaccurate. In the seven years since that claim, no Sunday law has been introduced in Congress.
The second rumor currently circulating is that the Pope will urge the passage of a Sunday law when he is in Washington, DC in the near future. The source of this rumor is the same as above. We have once again followed our four-step process and to date have found nothing to corroborate the claim.
The Seventh-day Adventist religious liberty team is dedicated to advancing the cause of religious liberty and the gospel, including the Three Angels Messages. We take Sunday laws very seriously, diligently research any information we receive, and proactively search for information on Sunday laws. When we receive credible information on religious liberty matters, whether it is on Sunday laws or other religious liberty matters, we use every avenue available to us to share it promptly with our church family as a whole.
Yours in Christ,
James Standish
Public Affairs & Religious Liberty
General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church