Monday, June 29, 2009

About NARLA


Overview

NARLA believes religious freedom is about more than ethereal concepts battling in intellectual spheres – it is about real people. Men and women, boys and girls, targetted for persecution, discrimination and marginalization for no crime other than serving God to the best of their ability.

It is about the father in Arizona coming home to his wife and kids and having to tell them he was fired today for no crime other than keeping the Sabbath.
It is about the mother fleeing her country with nothing but her children because if she stayed, the Islamic courts would take her children from her in retaliation for giving her life to Christ.
It is about the pastor sitting in a gulag in Turkmenistan for preaching the love of Christ, waiting to hear if anyone out there cares.
It is about the little girl wondering if her Daddy will be deported to Iran where he will face almost certain death for converting from Islam to Christianity.
It is about giving a witness to our Senators, Representatives, and the President of the United States to the gospel principle of religious liberty so that, as Ellen White puts it, “they will not pursue a course through ignorance, that they would avoid if they knew the truth.”
These, and many like them, are actual cases that the North American Religious Liberty Association has worked on and we are working on many like them today. Religious liberty is about these men and women, whose faithfulness has been rewarded by discrimination, brutality and despotism.

Many are willing to stand by silently as the people the Bible tells us this world is not worthy of are shamefully mistreated (Hebrew 11:38). But, thankfully, there are some faithful men and women willing to take a stand. Women and men who heed the advice of Ellen White when she said "we are not doing the will of God if we sit by quietly, doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience.” If you are one of these faithful few, make a gift to NARLA here and together we will change this world, one life at a time.

Who Supports NARLA?

NARLA is proud to be associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Seventh-day Adventists have been on the forefront of the struggle to advance religious liberty for well over a century. NARLA began as the National Religious Liberty Association in 1893. Today Liberty magazine, which is published by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, provides a modest annual appropriation to NARLA, but the bulk of our funding comes from individual donations from people like you. If you want to support the ideals and the actions of the North American Religious Liberty Association, click here.

Meet the NARLA Team

Dr. Halvard Thomsen, President
Lincoln Steed, Vice President

Deborah Knott, Operations Manager

Kevin Gurubatham, Legislative Fellow


Barry W. Bussey, LL.M., Executive Director



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