Seventh-day Adventist Church Statement on the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Religious Tolerance and Non-discrimination

Discrimination, intolerance, and outright persecution have challenged the expression of religion or belief throughout history.  Today, religious hatred and prejudice based on beliefs are once again on the rise.  Despite the pronouncement of the freedom of everyone to hold and disseminate religious views and to change one’s religion—an affirmation sustained in the United Nations documents that comprise an “International Bill of Rights,” and particularly the 1981 Declaration—many countries deny this right to their citizens.

For more than a century the Seventh-day Adventist Church has actively promoted religious freedom, recognizing the need to champion liberty of conscience and religion as a fundamental human right, in harmony with the instruments of the United Nations, in particular the 1981 Declaration. The Church supports the explicit identification of specific rights and principles of freedom of religion or belief, and similarly condemns violations that are revealed in discrimination, hatred, and violence. Adventists have always held that force in religion is contrary to human dignity and the principles of divine government.

International instruments, including the 1981 Declaration, condemn discrimination against minorities of faith or belief. Tragically, for example, some nations have published lists of religious groups describing them as potentially dangerous sects.  Anti-sect commissions have been set up, investigative personnel have been trained, and restrictive laws passed.  Hundreds of thousands of innocent believers are now under official suspicion and are treated as second-class citizens.  Worse is the imposition of the death penalty for the act of changing from one religion to another. All this violates religious freedom, the most essential and fundamental rights of humankind. 

Adventists believe in religious freedom for all, and that this is best achieved when state and religion are kept separate. Insofar as the 1981 Declaration spells out how religious freedom is to be implemented—through free association for worship, the right to disseminate beliefs, the ability to receive voluntary funding, the opportunity to educate and train, and most importantly, the right to follow the dictates of conscience in changing one’s religion—then Adventists will continue to support these vital principles that lead to security within society and mutual respect between those of differing beliefs.

In support of the 1981 Declaration, and in harmony with its beliefs and its history, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is fully committed to promote, defend, and protect religious freedom for everyone, everywhere.  To that end, the Church will continue to cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights bodies, other international agencies, and organizations of religion or belief, to encourage every nation to implement the fundamental right of religious freedom.

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Statement issued by the Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty, Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters on October 3, 2006, to mark the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the 1981 Declaration on November 25, 2006.