SDA LEADERSHIP POLITICKING WITH WORLD LEADERS
 The Church’s Substitute for Preaching Rev. 13
and the Third Angel’s Message

The Leader of the Free World
Turns to Representatives of World Religions for Counsel

President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

EXCERPTS FROM

President’s Advisory Council

Report of Recommendations to the President

 

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COUNCIL MEMBERS

Diane Baillargeon, President and CEO, Seedco

Anju Bhargava, President, Asian Indian Women in America Founder,
 Hindu American Seva Charities

Bishop Charles Blake, Presiding Bishop, Church of God in Christ
 Noel Castellanos, CEO, Christian Community Development Association
 Dr . Arturo Chávez, President and CEO; Mexican American Catholic College

The Reverend Canon Peg Chemberlin, President, National Council of Churches;
Executive Director, Minnesota Council of Churches

Fred Davie, Senior Director, The Arcus Foundation

Nathan J . Diament, Director of Public Policy,
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Dr . Joel C . Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, A Church Distributed

Harry Knox, Director, Religion and Faith
 Program Human Rights Campaign Foundation

Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, Bishop, Thirteenth Episcopal District,
 African Methodist Episcopal Church

Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director,
 The Center for Muslim Studies, Gallup

The Reverend Otis Moss, Jr ., Pastor Emeritus, Oliviet Institutional Baptist Church

Dr . Frank Page, Vice-President of Evangelization, North American Mission Board;
 and Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention

Dr . Eboo Patel, Founder and Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core

Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., General Counsel, United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops
 Nancy Ratzan, President, National Council of Jewish Women

Melissa Rogers, Council Chair, Director, Center for Religion and Public Affairs
of the Wake Forest University Divinity School

Rabbi David saperstein, Director and Counsel,
 Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

The Reverend William J . shaw, President, National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
 The Reverend Larry J . snyder, President and CEO, Catholic Charities USA
Richard E . stearns, President, World Vision United States

Judith Vredenburgh, Immediate Past President and CEO,
 Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

Jim Wallis, President and CEO, Sojourners

The Reverend Dr . sharon E . Watkins, General Minister and President,
 Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada

 P. 11

President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships - March 2010

INTRODUCTION

It is difficult to overstate the generosity of the American spirit. From the rubble of Haitian neighborhoods to underserved communities across our own country ,Americans are working to address the needs of the most vulnerable among us. The Government is often a partner in this critical work, collaborating with local groups to serve those in need.

It is difficult to overstate the generosity of the American spirit. From the rubble of Haitian neighborhoods to underserved communities across our own country ,Americans are working to address the needs of the most vulnerable among us. The Government is often a partner in this critical work, collaborating with local groups to serve those in need.

The Council shall bring together leaders and experts in fields related to the work of faith-based and neighborhood organizations in order to: identify best practices and successful modes of delivering social services; evaluate the need for improvements in the implementation and coordination of public policies relating to faith-based and other neighborhood organizations; and make recommendations to the President, through the Executive Director [of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships], for changes in policies, programs, and practices that affect the delivery of services by such organizations and the needs of low-income and other underserved persons in communities at home and around the world.

Within this report, the Advisory Council proposes a number of such recommendations, and it urges President Obama and his Administration to adopt them. As members of this Council, we are encouraged by the fact that the President and his Administration have made sustained dialogue with a diverse set of leaders a key part of this process, and we thank them for inviting the recommendations we present here.

President Obama asked the Council to focus its attention on making recommendations in the following priority areas:

Economic Recovery and Domestic Poverty Environment and Climate Change Fatherhood and Healthy Families

Global Poverty and Development

Interreligious Cooperation

Reform of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Pp. iv & v

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Inter-Religious

Cooperation

Members of the Taskforce

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Immediate Past President, National Council of Churches; and

Legate, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America

Anju Bhargava, President, Asian Indian Women in America; Founder, Hindu American Seva Charities

Nathan J . Diament, Director of Public Policy, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

The Reverend Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary, Reformed Church in America

Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Dr . Joel C . Hunter, senior Pastor, Northland, A Church Distributed

Dr . Ingrid Mattson, President, Islamic Society of North America

Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director, The Center for Muslim Studies, Gallup

The Reverend Otis Moss, Jr ., Pastor Emeritus, Oliviet Institutional Baptist Church

Dr . Eboo Patel, Founder and Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core

Rabbi David saperstein, Director and Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

James D . standish, JD, MBA, Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty, Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters

Dr . William Vendley, Secretary General; and

The Reverend Donald "Bud" Heckman, Director for External Relations, Religions for Peace

Miroslav Volf, Director, Yale Center for Faith and Culture

P. 69

The Seventh-day Adventist Church did not make it to Council membership status, but there is its representative on the Inter-Religious Cooperation list – in the embrace of Caesar and the world’s false religions.

Adventist, other faith representatives share ideas to bolster relationship between religious groups, government

A Seventh-day Adventist Church representative joined other faith leaders at the White House this week to share ideas on inter-religious cooperation with a government office launched last year to give community organizations -- including faith groups -- a voice in policy decisions. . . .

"The intersection of faith and government is complex and fraught with pitfalls, but ignoring [them] doesn't make them go away," said James D. Standish, a task force member who also directs United Nations relations for the Adventist world church's department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty.

"Our goal was to provide thoughtful guidance to the president on ... means he may want to employ to improve the way the government relates to faith," said Standish, who wrote the religious liberty section of the report.

Standish lent the task force an expert grasp on "the role that church-state separation and religious freedom play in keeping faith independent and vital," said Melissa Rogers, council chair and director for Religion and Public Affairs at the Wake Forest University Divinity School.

This all looks well at first sight, but it is deceptive.  A. T. Jones represented the Seventh-day Adventist Church before Congress on the Blair Amendment; however, he was there as a representative from the outside.  In these times the Church is burrowing into membership in apostate church organizations and world bodies.  The motto seems to be “if you can’t beat them [by the power of Truth] join them.”

The rationalization is a delusion, proving that when you depart from the Truth, you also depart from the reality of Truth.

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2 Thess. 2:8-12 (NKJV; emphasis added)

What stronger delusion can beguile the mind than the pretense that you are building on the right foundation and that God accepts your works, when in reality you are working out many things according to worldly policy and are sinning against Jehovah? Oh, it is a great deception, a fascinating delusion, that takes possession of minds when men who have once known the truth, mistake the form of godliness for the spirit and power thereof  . . .”
Who can truthfully say: "Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world"? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: "Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? 'How is the faithful city become an harlot!'  (8T 249)

 

One who sees beneath the surface, who reads the hearts of all men, says of those who have had great light: "They are not afflicted and astonished because of their moral and spiritual condition." Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not." "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie," because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved," "but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Isaiah 66:3, 4; 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 10, 12.

The heavenly Teacher inquired: "What stronger delusion can beguile the mind than the pretense that you are building on the right foundation and that God accepts your works, when in reality you are working out many things according to worldly policy and are sinning against Jehovah? Oh, it is a great deception, a fascinating delusion, that takes possession of minds when men who have once known the truth, mistake the form of godliness for the spirit and power thereof; when they suppose that they are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, while in reality they are in need of everything."  (8T 249)

“Babylon is also charged with the sin of unlawful connection with "the kings of the earth." It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome, corrupting herself in like manner by seeking the support of worldly powers, receives a like condemnation.

Babylon is said to be "the mother of harlots." By her daughters must be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. The message of Revelation 14, announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days; therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries.”  (GC 382-383; emphasis added.)

What was the origin of the great apostasy? How did the church first depart from the simplicity of the gospel? By conforming to the practices of paganism, to facilitate the acceptance of Christianity by the heathen. The apostle Paul declared, even in his day, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 2 Thessalonians 2:7. During the lives of the apostles the church remained comparatively pure. But "toward the latter end of the second century most of the churches assumed a new form; the first simplicity disappeared, and insensibly, as the old disciples retired to their graves, their children, along with new converts, . . . came forward and new-modeled the cause."--Robert Robinson, Ecclesiastical Researches, ch. 6, par. 17, p. 51. To secure converts, the exalted standard of the Christian faith was lowered, and as the result "a pagan flood, flowing into the church, carried with it its customs, practices, and idols." --Gavazzi, Lectures, page 278. As the Christian religion secured the favor and support of secular rulers, it was nominally accepted by multitudes; but while in appearance Christians, many "remained in substance pagans, especially worshiping in secret their idols."--Ibid., page 278.
Has not the same process been repeated in nearly every church calling itself Protestant? As the founders, those who possessed the true spirit of reform, pass away, their descendants come forward and "new-model the cause." While blindly clinging to the creed of their fathers and refusing to accept any truth in advance of what they saw, the children of the reformers depart widely from their example of humility, self-denial, and renunciation of the world. Thus "the first simplicity disappears." A worldly flood, flowing into the church, carries "with it its customs, practices, and idols." (GC 385-385; emphases added)

The greatest want of the world is the want of men-- men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. (Ed 57; emphasis added.)

Some will be honest when it costs nothing; but when policy will pay best, honesty is forgotten. Honesty and policy will not work together in the same mind. In time, either policy will be expelled and truth and honesty reign supreme, or if policy is cherished, honesty will be forgotten. They are never in agreement; they have nothing in common. One is the prophet of Baal, the other is the true prophet of God.  (2MCP 638; emphases added)

 

Seventh-day Adventists May Read and Weep
Over the Betrayal of the Sacred Trust

World Church: Adventist Leaders Meet United States President at White House

Adventists in the Philippines Get Stamp of Approval

Leaders of Diverse Faiths Call for Increased Investment in U.S. International Affairs Budget

NARLA NEWS: James Standish Reports on Capitol Hill Events

United States: Religious Liberty Leaders Honored at Capitol Hill Ceremony

Adventist World Affairs

News – Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department

From Adventist Review Online:

News Notes (March 2002)

Joe Escobar, a Florida Conference member, had the opportunity within the last year to personally present both President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush with copies of The Desire of Ages and The Great Controversy.[1]

 

[1] This presentation would be laughable if it were not so tragic.  George W. Bush is the President who has taken a wrecking ball to the U.S. Constitution and the wall of separation between Church and State.  While this is much clearer at the end of 2007 than in March, 2002, it was nevertheless clearly discernible then.  At about the same time as the presentation Roman Catholic activist Paul Weyrich reported on his website about a call to Karl Rove, "Before I get to the business of why I've called you," I said to President Bush's political guru Karl Rove, "I would be grateful if you would give your President a message from me." Rove was most obliging. "Tell him that he has mastered the art of Catholic governance," I said. Rove replied: "That's pretty good for a Methodist."

Weyrich's opinion of Bush's Catholicity was shared by then U.S. Senate heavyweight, Roman Catholic Rick Santorum.  A report from Rome in the National Catholic Reporter Online, January 18, 2002, titled "Opus Dei prestige on display at centenary event" By John L. Allen Jr. stated:

In contemporary Western debates, this idea of unity between faith and political allegiance often puts Opus Dei-inspired politicians on the right. Santorum was a forceful champion of this view. He told NCR that a distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility, enshrined in John Kennedy’s famous speech in 1960 saying he would not take orders from the Catholic church if elected president, has caused “much harm in America.” . . . Santorum told NCR that he regards George W. Bush as “the first Catholic president of the United States.”

“From economic issues focusing on the poor and social justice, to issues of human life, George Bush is there,” he said. “He has every right to say, ‘I’m where you are if you’re a believing Catholic.’ ”  (Emphasis added)

The President’s brother, Jeb Bush, was and is a convert to Roman Catholicism, and was the prime architect of the theft of Florida’s Electoral College vote in the 2000 election.  There was slim to no possibility that either of these hardened politicians might be moved by these books, even if they read them.

The presentation was naïve - and pathetic!!  It hardly merited mention in a major SDA publication.

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.  Proverbs 14:12

 

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