Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters
June 17, 2008

In This Issue:
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'Critical' for nations to reaffirm religious freedom, U.S. legislator Franks says at annual religious liberty event
Kulakov ran underground churches in Russia, receives Lifetime Achievement Award
June 13 Washington, D.C., United States

Church Chat: New mentality needed to combat AIDS, Adventist VP says
Mwansa on the limits of the morality argument; African graduate school update
June 17 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Ray Turner, bass in original King's Heralds, dies at 99

June 16 Killeen, Texas, United States


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'Critical' for nations to reaffirm religious freedom, U.S. legislator Franks says at annual religious liberty event
June 13, 2008
Washington, D.C., United States ... [ Ansel Oliver/ANN ]

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Trent Franks, U.S. Congressional representative from Arizona and keynote speaker for the sixth annual Religious Liberty Dinner, told attendees that protecting freedom of religion at home is key to ensuring similar freedoms around the world. Currently more than one-half of the world's population lives in countries without full religious liberty. [photos: Ansel Oliver/ANN]


James Standish, Esq., director of Legislative Affairs for the Adventist Church, at the June 12 event held in Washington, D.C.


Mikhail P. Kulakov Sr., who labored in the gulag and was exiled for his faith, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Religious Liberty Association, which organizes the dinner to promote religious freedom and honor its champions.


Carl Wilkens, former head of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda, was awarded for staying behind during the 1994 genocide and saving hundreds of lives in Kigali.


Religious liberty has its greatest champion in the Adventist Church, said Constitutional scholar Alan E. Brownstein, Esq. whose work in the area of church-state relationships was honored at the dinner.


NARLA board member Dorothy G. Keith was awarded for her nearly 30 years of religious liberty work.

International standards of religious freedom must be reinforced, a U.S. legislator said yesterday in a speech marking 10 years since the United States passed the International Religious Freedom Act, a bill recognizing the importance of freedom of belief in foreign policy.

"It's critical that other nations join with us in reaffirming this foundational human right and stand for the freedom of all people to choose their religious beliefs," said Trent Franks, U.S. Congressional representative from the state of Arizona and co-chair of the Congressional Religious Freedom Taskforce.

Speaking to religious freedom proponents in Washington, D.C. on June 12, Franks affirmed congressional staffers, foreign ambassadors and members of the North American Religious Liberty Association, calling their work "absolutely critical" at a time when more than one half of the world's population lives in countries without "true religious freedom."

"I am convinced that we have to protect religious freedom here at home so that we can project it across the planet," Franks said. His remarks were part of his keynote address to the sixth annual Religious Liberty Dinner, held this year in the Presidential Ballroom at the Capital Hilton Hotel a few blocks from the White House.

The event is sponsored by the International Religious Liberty Association, the North American Religious Liberty Association and Liberty Magazine -- three religious freedom organizations founded by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Attendees met with 77 members of congress or their staff on Capitol Hill earlier in the day to lobby for the passage of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which was introduced in 1996 by Senator John Kerry, keynote speaker for last year's dinner. Other previous keynote speakers at the event promoting religious freedom include Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

"The most significant thing is we're coming together, the NGO community, the diplomatic community and the world of faith community, to focus on religious freedom in a way that's seldom done in this city and in this world," said James Standish, Esq., director of Legislative Affairs for the Adventist Church.

"You might think this is just a dinner, but we've had serious tangible effects from this event throughout the years," Standish said. "We've met with ambassadors from nations that have excluded Adventists and have had some very concrete and productive conversations. The ambassador from one nation has promised to work with us in a country where we've not been able to work for over three decades. If we can get back in, that's an amazing accomplishment."

During the dinner, which drew some 160 NARLA members from across the United States, several individuals were honored for their commitment to religious liberty.

Mikhail P. Kulakov Sr., director of the Bible Translation Institute at Zaoksky Adventist University in Zaoksky, Tula Region, Russia, received the association's Lifetime Achievement Award. Born in 1927 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Kulakov was arrested for his faith and sentenced to hard labor in the gulag and later exiled in Khazakstan. In 1953 he began an underground journal for ministers and established unofficial courses for the training of ministers. In 1992, he founded the Russian chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association.

Kulakov's father and brother were also arrested for their faith and sent to labor camps. "For one reason -- we had a burden on our heart, our desire to share with others the beauty of Jesus and his love and importance to live by faith in this world."

"These are men and women of character and substance," Standish later said of Kulakov and others honored at the event, including Carl Wilkens, the former head of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda. As the only American aid worker stationed in Rwanda who stayed behind during the 1994 genocide, Wilkens is credited for saving hundreds of lives in Kigali.

"In my judgment, religious liberty and equality have no greater champions today than the Seventh-day Adventist community," said Alan E. Brownstein, Esq., who teaches constitutional law, law and religion and torts at the University of California, Davis School of Law. Brownstein was awarded by the association for his Constitutional scholarship relating to church-state issues and Free Exercise and Establishment Clause doctrine.

"I don't know any other organization in my home state of California that's been as effective in bringing religious communities together to work for religious liberty for everyone than the Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council," Brownstein added.

Dorothy G. Keith, a board member of NARLA-West, was awarded the association's A.T. Jones Medal for her nearly 30 years of work for the Adventist Church and promotion of religious freedom. Keith served as a missionary in Sierra Leone for nine years, and in South Korea for three years.


Church Chat: New mentality needed to combat AIDS, Adventist VP says
June 17, 2008
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States ... [ Ansel Oliver/ANN ]

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Pardon Mwansa receives the letter of interim authority from Kenya's Commission for Higher Education on behalf of the Adventist University of Africa in Nairobi last month. Mwansa, a general vice president for the Adventist world church, gave ANN an update on the church's first graduate program in the region and shared his vision for how the church could alter its respond to AIDS. [photo: courtesy ECD]

Pardon Mwansa wants to change people's thinking about AIDS -- both people who care for AIDS patients, and those who could contract the disease.

One of nine general vice presidents for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Mwansa recently granted ANN an interview regarding his extensive travels and the church's progress in establishing an Adventist graduate program on the continent of Africa.

But in a follow-up interview, while finalizing his commencement address for the church's Babcock University in Nigeria, Mwansa responded with intensity to another line of questioning, sharing in his soft, reassuring voice his vision for the church's fight against AIDS. The church, he says, could alter its view of AIDS patients and how to prevent the disease.

Though it's not the first time he's called for "practical involvement" in the fight against AIDS, Mwansa says other preventative methods along with a shift in thinking would complement the church's outreach through its AIDS International Ministry, launched in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2003.

Mwansa, who holds a doctorate in missiology from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, hesitates when asked his age, instead pointing out he's the youngest vice president.

Excerpts from interviews with Pardon Mwansa:

Adventist News Network: Last month you received the letter of interim authority to operate the graduate program in Kenya. Has it taken awhile to get going?

Pardon Mwansa: Not really. It's been very fast. We broke a record in Kenya of getting this letter of interim authority. They told us some have to wait for eight years. We were the first in getting it in four years. It's just that the Bureau of Standards is very rigorous.

ANN: What is the church trying to accomplish with this new university?

Mwansa: This is big. We're trying to position ourselves by responding appropriately. I think ... you know, I played volleyball in high school. I still wish I played today but I don't have time. In volleyball, you watch the ball. When it's going to the center, you should position yourself for any strike that could come from the other side. The church in Africa is growing so fast. So fast. It is only fair for the church to position itself in terms of educating its members, its personnel, its leadership.

ANN: What does the church have to offer people in that region?

Mwansa: One thing we can offer to the world, I think ... our message of hope and resurrection is very unique. The world will send disaster relief. They'll send psychologists to counsel those who are traumatized. But I think it's only the message of John chapter 14 that says, "I go and prepare a place for you." I think the message of our church is more than just a biblical statement. Rather, it's a message of hope.

ANN: What sort of challenges are we having with our work against AIDS?

Mwansa: Probably the biggest challenge is that it's moving outside of Africa. Some of the highest growth rates are now in China, India and Russia. It's becoming a global concern.

ANN: The church had a meeting on AIDS scheduled for February in Kenya, but it was canceled because of the political unrest?

Mwansa: Yes, that was to address how to respond.

ANN: How is the church responding?

Mwansa: By prevention, by education, care. You know, what I wish would happen is for the church to approach this subject from a practical point of view. The world is not a Christian world. Many [people], they're not going to stop lifestyles that cause AIDS. So [when] we tell them, "This is what you are supposed to do to avoid AIDS," they're not going to do that. The question is then, How do we respond to them if their concern is not about being right or wrong? I guess what we need to do then is to move our campaign against HIV/AIDS to issues that make sense to them other than issues of morals.

ANN: Like what?

Mwansa: Like a father who might get HIV/AIDS, ask him about his kids. "What will happen to your children if you get AIDS?" The concern is transferred from whether he is doing right or wrong for himself to the issue of, "Do I care about my family?"

ANN: How does that change the platform of thinking?

Mwansa: If it's right or wrong a person can say, "Leave me alone about what's right or wrong." But when [you] say, "You know, you have a two-year-old kid, do you want that child to grow without their mother or their father?" It's something to think about. And I wish we would use those types of arguments.? Not everybody approaches issues from "right" or "wrong."

ANN: What about prevention?

Mwansa: Prevention is extremely critical. With due respect to all ideals, I tend to [side with] people who are practical -- meaning: this world is not full of people who read the book of Romans and the book of Genesis and Luke. This world has people who watch television and listen to music that doesn't teach them about Christ. And such people, the first thing when they are confronted with a situation in which they can contract AIDS, they don't think about a statement in Luke chapter four. They think about their desires and feelings. So I always say, when it comes to prevention we should cast as many nets as we can ... with no exclusions.

ANN: What nets are we not casting out that we could?

Mwansa: For example, I've heard church, religious people say to teach people to change their behavior and [that using condoms] is wrong. That's only so if a person thinks about right and wrong. The truth is this world does not think about right and wrong. So when I say cast the net as wide as we can, basically it's [to] use everything we can to save anybody who needs to be saved.

ANN: You said in previous interviews that you address this issue with your own children about the choices they're free to make. Would you advocate a "casting all nets" approach for them?

Mwansa: I talk to them about choices very, very strongly. I say to myself, if I have talked with them about choices and they are in a situation in which they failed to make the right choice, I would still want them to use something that would prevent them from contracting HIV/AIDS. That's not to say I don't believe in teaching, it's just that I want to prevent the worst disaster that can come. And, to be on a practical platform, people in the church are not beyond sin. Even people in the church do sometimes lose grip on the "thus sayeth the Lord." And when people lose grip, I think wisdom calls for us to still save them from the disasters and consequences of behavior by any lesser evils available.

ANN: You've said AIDS still carries a stigma in some parts of the world. How can that be overcome?

Mwansa: Sometimes only when it is in their house. You see, it's one thing to have an HIV/AIDS patient in the hospital. It's another development to have it in their home. When a person with AIDS is in your house, you don't quickly see an immoral person, even if they were immoral, by the way. You are likely to see a child, a brother, a sister who needs help. I think that we need to operate on a template of care rather than judgment.


Ray Turner, bass in original King's Heralds, dies at 99
June 16, 2008
Killeen, Texas, United States ... [ Voice of Prophecy/ANN Staff ]

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Ray Turner, right, with the King's Heralds and H.M.S. Richards circa 1937. [photo: courtesy VOP]

Ray Turner, the bass in the original King's Heralds Quartet, a singing group long supported by the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Voice of Prophecy radio ministry, died May 15 at a care facility in Killeen, Texas. He was 99.

While a student at Southwestern Junior College (now Southwestern Adventist University) in Keene, Texas, Turner began harmonizing with the three Crane brothers -- Louis, Waldo, and Wesley -- and formed the Lone Star Four Quartet in 1927.

They were hired as a quartet in Oakland, California after graduating from nursing school. But the $30 each earned a month didn't pay the bills during the Depression. The four men traveled south to the Los Angeles area and began working at Glendale Sanitarium and Hospital.

Upon hearing the group, hospital chaplain H.M.J. Richards recommended them to his son H.M.S. Richards, founder of the Voice of Prophecy, who asked the Lone Star Four to join his evangelism and radio team in 1936.

The group was featured during a one-hour program every afternoon on Hollywood's station KMPC. On Saturday mornings they sang for a program on KNX, also in Hollywood. Every evening they assisted with Richards' evangelistic campaign in his tabernacle in nearby Long Beach and assisted other evangelists in the area when they could.

The following year, the Voice of Prophecy conducted a radio contest to re-name the quartet, since the name "Lone Star," a Texas reference, was no longer applicable in California. The winning name was the King's Heralds.

Though Louis and Waldo Crane left the quartet in 1939 to attend medical school, and Wesley Crane left in 1943, Turner's bass voice was featured in the King's Heralds until 1947. Besides singing, Turner also directed Voice of Prophecy live broadcasts at the radio studio.

Turner and his wife, Ouida, then began a life-long career in evangelism. Ouida played piano while he sang for church services and evangelistic campaigns around the world. The couple last year celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary.

Survivors include Ouida, the couple's two daughters, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, James Milton Turner, in October 2002.



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ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news and information issued by the Communication department from the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. It is made available primarily to religious news editors. Our news includes dispatches from the church's international offices and the world headquarters.

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ANN Staff:
Rajmund Dabrowski, director; Ansel Oliver, assistant director; Taashi Rowe, editorial coordinator; Elizabeth Lechleitner, editorial assistant. Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara and French translations by Stephanie Elofer.

- Release Date: 6/16/2008 7:20 AM