ADVENTISTS JOIN CALL ON AUSTRALIAN AID JustCall
Adventist leaders have joined heads of other Australian Christian denominations in writing to political leaders, urging them to protect Australian aid ahead of Australia’s federal election. Pastor Terry Johnson, president of the Australian Union Conference, and Denison Grellmann, CEO of ADRA Australia, both added their names to the open letter coordinated by Micah Australia, a coalition of Christian development and justice agencies, of which ADRA Australia is a part.
The letter is addressed to the leaders of Australia’s major political parties, as well as independent members of parliament, and calls for these leaders “to affirm [their] commitment to maintaining Australia’s aid program and continuing to build on the stability that has been achieved.” Micah Australia is calling for Australian aid to rise to 1 per cent of Australia’s national budget, increasing from the currently historically low figure of 0.68 per cent that places Australia as one of the least generous developed nations in the world
“We are called the lucky country and as such we should be even more generous!” said Pastor Johnson “As a nation, we can and should be more involved in the Pacific and further afield in sharing God’s goodness to us.”
In addition to Adventist leaders signing this
when Micah asked if I would be willing to be part of this, I said that whatever way I can serve, I will be there.”
(Watch the video “The State of Our World Today: Why Australian Aid Matters ”)
Pastor Stiles said it is particularly important for Christians to be speaking up on these issues
Help the oppressed Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows, says the Lord” (Isaiah 1:17, NLT).
Micah asks, “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (6:8).
Amos thunders, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (5:24).
Solomon shares that the proverbs are written “for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity” (Prov 1:3)
Asaph describes God’s insisting to the “children of the Most High”: “’Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked’” (Psalm 82)
God proclaims, “Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly” (Is 58:6-8)
Ethan the Ezrahite declares, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Psalm 89:14)
comfortable compliance and unseeing eyes and unfeeling hearts, they have in mind creating a better future. In 2 Kings 6 the prophet Elijah prays for his servant: “O Lord, open his eyes ” In 1 Chronicles 28 David says to Solomon his son, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it. Fear not.”
We need new eyes and new backbones. When we grow a backbone and swim against the current, will criticism come as a result? Of course it will. When did “receives no criticism” become a merit badge for Christianity? Seriously, did Jesus ever receive criticism from the establishment? We go forth with good courage.
When did “receives no criticism” become a merit badge for Christianity?
Our very name Seventh-day Adventists is drenched in biblical social justice. The seventhday Sabbath is a day created for equity and liberation Deuteronomy 5 maintains we keep the Sabbath because we have been set free Jesus went about on Sabbath making sure He set people free in every way possible That’s why Adventist pioneers thundered against slavery and worked nonviolently for the abolitionist movement. The name Adventist refers to the Second Coming of Jesus, where God brings justice and liberation to the earth
Our very name—Seventh-day Adventists—is drenched in biblical social justice.
Quoting Isaiah 61:1, Jesus announces, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free ”
Social justice is biblical.
When Bible prophets rail against
in a county board meeting That’s big news But the politician sued and made sure the journalist was the one who felt the heat. The politician went on to win his campaign
Chipping away
Enrich reports on acts of intimidation, harassment, threats of violence, and the costly litigation inflicted upon journalists to make sure the rich and powerful get their way. We see how the libel law industry is actively chipping away at the First Amendment with the goal of returning us to an era in which we have to think twice before criticizing public figures or risk financial ruin Even if a journalist wins in court, the experience is so miserable and, in some cases, traumatic, that the last thing they want to do is cross their opponent again
The sleazy elected officials and lawyers scrutinized by this author love to say that rolling back First Amendment protections of the press primarily benefits the theoretical “little guy” from defamation in the media Enrich proves that the main beneficiaries are the ones with big secrets to hide and with the means to keep them hidden
That’s something worth protesting
Marcia Nordmeyer
The logic of academic freedom
But the Trump administration pulls funds first and negotiates second, dispensing with the rest of the process. Its first target was Columbia University When that school acceded to the administration’s demands, it didn’t get its funding back. Instead, the administration is reportedly considering demanding that Columbia agree to direct government oversight effectively, a takeover of the university.
Harvard chose a different response from Columbia’s On Monday, its lawyers sent a letter to the administration pointing out that the administration was in violation of the law. “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” the letter said. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms ”
“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”
No other response should have been possible by the logic of the law or the logic of academic freedom or the logic of democracy. And yet, the Harvard lawyers’ letter sent waves
One of the people who seemed surprised was Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican and the self-appointed gendarme of higher education who issued a statement declaring Harvard the “epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education ”
Trump administration officials, on Monday evening, promptly announced what they had suggested: that they will freeze $2 2 billion in multiyear grants
Still, one hopes that other universities that find themselves in the administration’s crosshairs and there are many of them now follow Harvard’s example and make self-respect, and respect for the law, unsurprising again.
M Gessen is a The New York Times columnist This column appeared April 15, 2025
A public statement signed by the presidents of more than 150 colleges and universities appeared on April 22, 2025, condemning U.S. President Donald Trump's "political interference" on campuses The open letter, organized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU), is titled “A Call for Constructive Engagement," At the time of this writing, the only Seventh-day Adventist representative to sign the statement is “Weymouth Spence, President, Washington Adventist University ” JustLove Collective applauds Dr Spence and WAU
InSpire
PERSPECTIVE
I see disaster everywhere; I also see generosity and resistance everywhere
Rebecca Solnit
A FRESH SPLASH OF GRACE
Research can become Resistance. He approached every morning as if it were a fresh splash of grace, a clean slate, an opportunity granted through baptism to breathe more life into the world. Guilt and resentment were not in his vocabulary Critique didn’t seem to faze him
Peter W Marty, on the passing of his extraordinary father, Martin Marty (1928-2025)
FEARFUL DESPOTS
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance
–Thomas Paine
Steven Pressfield
First, this is not a method for cowards; it does resist The nonviolent resister is just as strongly opposed to the evil against which he protests as is the person who uses violence
–Martin Luther King, Jr
To the wrongs that need resistance,
To the right that needs assistance,
To the future in the distance, Give yourselves
–Carrie Chapman Catt
Portion of Americans who say that the United States should “take control of” Canada: 1/4 Portion of Canadians who say that California, Oregon, and Washington should become “part of” Canada: 1/3
–Harper’s Index, May 2025
JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO/POPE FRANCIS DIES AT 88
For 12 years, Francis led more than one billion Catholics and reshaped the faith to make it more inclusive He clashed with traditionalists as he reached out to migrants, gay Catholics and victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. He sought to improve relations with Muslim clerics He criticized the powerful for their role in climate change and called for an end to wars He filled Catholic leadership with bishops who reflected the worldwide congregation –Lauren Jackson and Claire Fahy in NYT “The Morning,” April 21, 2025
The Pulse
THE HOME OF THE BRAVE
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the idea of bravery About what it takes to stand up, to make yourself heard, to be a force that forces a system to change
This kind of bravery comes in different forms. Not all of them are loud. Some are quiet. Some are small. But each action is a part of what we all must do
Our national anthem famously proclaims this land, the United States of America, to be “the home of the brave ” In California this week, dozens of people formed a human chain blocking the entrance to the Travis Air Force base They were protesting the American military’s continued role in the genocidal slaughter of the Palestinian people, and they were also protesting the use of American military planes to facilitate Donald Trump’s wrongful and illegal mass deportations of immigrants. Twelve of the protestors were arrested, including these three women in the photo below, two of them grandmothers, after they bravely refused to stop blocking the entrance to the Air Force base.
They each wore placards around their necks with the names and the ages of Palestinian children killed a 1-year old, a 3-year old, and a 5-year old, each one murdered by our weapons and our money
In a Florida high school recently, a student who has a girl’s legal birth name asked their teacher to call them by another name a gender-neutral name. The teacher, Melissa Calhoun, who has been teaching in Broward County for more than a decade, complied she began referring to the student by the name the student had requested, understanding the importance psychologically and socially of this action and what it meant for the high school student’s own well-being. For this simple, quiet, brave action, Ms. Calhoun has been fired. The state of Florida, overrun by the (scandal-ridden) “Moms for Liberty” has passed legislation, now being copied in other states and by the Trump administration, that makes it illegal for a teacher to call a student by any name other than their birth name as assigned by their parents. Ms. Calhoun knew this, and she did it anyway. Not to make a statement, but because it was the right and brave thing to do.
So, on Thursday afternoon this week, the students at Satellite High School held a mass protest and walked out of class and out of the
school, filling the parking lot and the streets in support of their teacher and in support of their fellow student
Across the country in Idaho, middle school teacher Sarah Inama found herself in a similar situation For years now, Ms Inama’s classroom where she teaches History and World Civilizations has featured a poster that says “EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE” with the word “EVERYONE” in multi-colored letters and below the words are pictures of 10 hands, each with a heart in the middle of their palm, each hand a different shade skin tone
Then, just a few weeks ago, Ms. Inama was approached by the school principal and the assistant principal and was told that the poster had to come down.
She said that they told her, “Teachers aren't allowed to have posters that show their personal or political opinions on things, and this is now seen as a personal opinion.”
The Lewis and Clark Middle School teacher was confused but she complied she took down the “offending” sign But then she thought about it. And then Ms. Inama put the sign right back up
She took the issue up with the school board, going over the principal’s head which the principal then claimed was an act of “insubordination ” And the district people agreed with the principal, telling Ms Inama that “political environments ebb and flow” and that in the current environment, the sign was “controversial ”
Controversial? The sign says EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE. If that’s controversial, let’s just send the Statue of Liberty back to France and remove that glass case on the Cornell campus showing off the Gettysburg Address.
When the local public radio station’s news department called the school district to get clarity on its stance, they were told that it
wasn’t the words on the sign that were the problem… IT WAS THE DIFFERENT COLORED LETTERS AND VARYING SKIN COLORS OF THE HANDS
That’s right, folks this depiction of humanity involving people of various Brown and Black skin colors instead of only White people’s hands made the school district determine that the sign does in fact “potentially express viewpoints regarding specific identity groups.”
What a bunch of useless weenies these people are. Of course it expresses viewpoints regarding specific identity groups and that specific identity group is HUMANS! We come in many shades. And the administrators of the school district would know this if they, I don’t know, took Ms. Inama’s world civilization class instead of trying to disrupt it
Here is a picture of this horrendously offensive sign that suggests White people aren’t the only people on earth and that, in America, in a middle school classroom, in a class about the history of human life on Earth, “Everyone is Welcome Here ”
And just as in Florida, the students rallied behind their teacher. The kids held protests in
support of Ms Inama and in support of her poster Then, just last Sunday, the kids and their parents took to the streets of Boise, in front of the Idaho state capitol, and protested en masse again this time holding up their hands of all different shades of humanity, with hearts drawn onto their palms.
There are many ways to be brave We will all need to find our own ways during this wretched time. We may not even see the opportunity coming I doubt either of these teachers knew that their simple act a simple brave act of treating their students like real human beings, with respect and compassion… I doubt they thought this was a brave act when they did it
This is the energy that we all must have in our everyday lives right now.
This is what is at stake
Everyone is welcome here We must protect this, and we must protect each other. In the land of the free and the home of the brave.
and author
Michael Moore is a documentary filmmaker, producer,
JustSmile
You wanted cheap eggs but instead got Measles
One if by land,
Two if by D.C.
Ialwayswondered whysomebody didn’tdosomething aboutthat . ThenIrealized IWASSOMEBODY .
Every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist
INSPIRATION
COLLECTIVE
Podcasts we just love
A House on Fire: This Adventist Peace Fellowship podcast series is based on the excellent book on race and racism
Adventist Voices: Weekly podcast and companion to Spectrum designed to fost community through conversation
The Social Jesus Podcast talks about the intersection of Jesus, faith, and social justice today
Red Letter Christian Podcast: Christian commentary on the way of Jesus in the world today
Adventist Pilgrimage: A lively monthly podcast focusing on the academic side of Adventist history
Just Liberty: A fresh, balanced take on religious liberty where justice and liberty meet
