Faith leaders express concern over religious discrimination bill
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Australian Union Conference General Secretary Michael Worker was among a group of faith leaders who met with Senator Sarah Henderson and Senator Michaelia Cash to discuss government changes to the Sex Discrimination Act and the proposed religious discrimination bill.
“The Coalition’s guiding principle is that any legislative package brought forward by the Government must be one that takes people of faith, including faith-based schools, forward and not backwards,” Cash wrote in a Facebook post following the meeting.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has since stated that religious freedom protections for faith groups “will not go backwards while I’m Prime Minister of Australia,” a commitment welcomed by faith leaders.
According to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), the implementation of the government’s policy in accordance with the organization’s recommended reforms “will substantially narrow the circumstances in which discrimination by religious educational institutions of their students and staff is permissible at law.” It will also “maximize the enjoyment of human rights and appropriately manage the intersection of rights,” “ensure any restriction of rights is justifiable under international law,” and “make federal law more consistent with state and territory laws and the law in comparable overseas jurisdiction.”
It is something that, if implemented as proposed, faith leaders emphasized, could have negative ramifications for religious schools in Australia. [Tracey Bridcutt, Adventist Record]
Church in Romania releases documentary Who Are the Adventists?
Voluntari, jud Ilfov, Romania
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Romania released the film Cine Sunt Adventiștii? (Who Are the Adventists?), a documentary presentation on Romanian Adventism. The 93-minute film places the Adventist Church within the history of Christianity and explores the major contributions Adventists have made to Romania, including health and education networks and social assistance.
Producers said, “Since they appeared in Romania, Adventists have stirred controversy. Romanians who have heard about them consider them either dangerous or that they think they are better than other Christians. We wanted to answer the question, What is the truth?”
Among the topics that the film addresses are to what extent are Seventh-day Adventists really Christians, what they have in common with other religions, and how they interpret the prophecies of the end times.
Who Are the Adventists? contains interviews with Romanians on the street but also with such personalities as the state secretary for religious affairs, Ciprian Olinici; the president of the Romanian Academy, Ioan-Aurel Pop; the former president of Romania, Emil Constantinescu; and representatives of various religious institutions.
The essential areas in which Adventist spirituality is manifested are the contributions to health, charity, evangelical impact, and Adventist education.
Who Are the Adventists? also shows two of the most important doctrines: why Adventists celebrate Saturday as the seventh day and what Adventists believe about the imminent return of Jesus Christ to this earth. The Adventist understanding of the future is illustrated in the last part of the film by highlighting the role played by Protestants in the Romanian (Timişoara) Revolution of December 1989, as well as the way religion decisively influences political and social crises. [Dragoș Mușat, Romanian Union Conference, Inter-European Division, and Adventist Review]
New Film The Hopeful about Adventist pioneers debuts in theaters
A new Adventist motion picture was released in April, titled The Hopeful, telling the story of the origins of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from William Miller to John N. Andrews. John N. Andrews was the first missionary sent by the Adventist Church to a destination outside the United States. The film, directed by Kyle Portbury, centers on the widower Andrews traveling to Switzerland with his children, telling them stories of the beginnings of the Advent movement and the pioneers who featured in it. The film takes the audience on an emotional journey, recounting the pain and hopes of the church’s pioneers.
In May 2023, the film took the spotlight as the headline screening at the International Christian Film Festival (ICFF) in Orlando, Florida. While the festival typically hosts multiple simultaneous screenings, The Hopeful claimed a unique status as the sole Thursday night feature, drawing the largest audience. Attendees representing various Christian denominations praised the film’s cinematography and storytelling, with many expressing that it served as their introduction to Seventh-day Adventism and its history.
The movie is based on the film Tell the World, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu8QkxXOQYE. [Hope Channel International and Adventist Review]
