Liberty is published by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists and printed at Pacific Press Publishing Association. Liberty is one of several sharing magazines; it is geared toward members and others interested in religious freedom subscribing and sharing with their family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Liberty magazine, the fourth to be featured in our series, is available for subscription at libertymagazine.org. It is also available at adventistbookcenter.com.

What is Liberty magazine, and what is its mission?

Liberty magazine exists to reach a very specific and often-overlooked “mission field”—people of influence in society. More than a century ago Ellen White urged the church not to neglect society’s “men of influence.”1 And so, for the past 120 years Liberty magazine has reached out to lawmakers at the federal and state levels, members of the judiciary, city officials, county administrators, academics, leaders of other faith groups, and many others who help shape our country’s public discourse. Liberty shares with them a unique Seventh-day Adventist perspective—a biblical and prophetic perspective—on contemporary issues in culture and law, especially those related to religious freedom.

This is an exciting area of mission! Today Liberty is the oldest continuously published journal of religious liberty. It’s published bimonthly, with a national print circulation of around 180,000. We’ve also launched a weekly podcast called Liberty Matters. You can find each issue on our website, where there’s also a searchable archive stretching back 25 years.

How did Liberty magazine get started?

Liberty was first published during a time when a powerful advocacy group in America—the National Reform Association—was pushing for Sunday closing laws at the state and national levels. These Sunday “blue laws” proved a tremendous challenge for many Adventist Church members throughout the mid to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Adventist farmers were arrested for tending their fields on Sunday. A pastor was arrested for spending a couple of hours painting the side of his church on Sunday. As late as 1931, in Maryland, a church member was denounced to the authorities by his neighbor for doing repair work on his house on Sunday and served time in jail.

These experiences, along with the guidance of Ellen White, have helped shape a distinctive Adventist understanding of church-state relations—and this continues to direct the work of Liberty magazine today.

It’s an approach that recognizes religious liberty as a universal God-given right: that our Creator has given freedom to every person, regardless of who they are, where they live, or what they choose to believe.

Second, it’s an approach that points to history and says, “If we want to avoid the persecutions and religious wars of the past, and if we want religious freedom to flourish, then it’s clearly best when church and state occupy separate spaces in society.”

As students of prophecy, also, our Adventist pioneers realized we couldn’t take religious liberty for granted—even in the United States, with its wonderful ideals of freedom. So Liberty magazine was founded against this specific historical and theological backdrop.

It seems, though, that religious liberty has become a divisive topic lately—especially as it relates to issues around LGBTQ+ rights. Has this made the mission of Liberty magazine more complicated in recent years?

Complicated is an understatement! When I first worked in Washington, D.C., back in 1999, lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle were happy to rally around legislation protecting religious liberty. It was a bipartisan issue.

Since that time, however, there’s been a seismic shift in how religious freedom is seen, in large part because of changing attitudes toward sexual orientation, gender identity, and marriage. Religious freedom has gone from being a politically unifying ideal to a lightning rod for extreme rhetoric. Its reputation has been tarnished, and it’s often labeled as merely “code for bigotry.”

But there’s another trend shaping attitudes to religious freedom we shouldn’t ignore—the waning influence of faith in the everyday lives of Americans. In 1999, 70 percent of Americans reported that they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque. Last year it was 47 percent.2

A few years back University of Chicago law professor Brian Leiter wrote a book that created a stir in the academic world. It was called Why Tolerate Religion? and in it he argued forcefully that there’s nothing inherently special about religion. So, he concluded, it is morally wrong and legally incoherent to single out religious liberty for special legal protections in America. These ideas sound outrageous, yet they reflect the views of a growing number today.

It’s not surprising, then, that laws and regulations at the municipal, state, and even federal level are gradually making it more difficult for us to administer our schools and institutions according to our biblical convictions. And so, year by year, the legal and cultural “real estate” we occupy seems to be shrinking. If ever we needed Liberty magazine, it’s now.

Clearly, topics you’re dealing with in the pages of Liberty magazine in 2023 are vastly different from those 1906. Do you think the early editors of Liberty would recognize it as the same ministry they began all those years ago?

Yes, absolutely. Society may have changed, cultural and legal norms may have changed, and the issues we’re talking about have certainly changed, but there remains an unbroken thread of biblical principle that has guided the magazine from its beginning.

On the first page of the first issue of Liberty magazine that rolled off the press in 1906, the editor, L. A. Smith, explained the philosophy of this new magazine: “No power but that of love can rightfully compel the [human] conscience.” That principle was important 120 years ago, and it’s a principle that’s just as vital in today’s cultural and legal battles surrounding religious freedom. With every issue, Liberty seeks to reflect the character of a God who does want to transform society—not through laws, court rulings, or political power, but through the loving service and witness of His followers.

How can church members get involved in the ministry of Liberty magazine?

Liberty magazine is a wonderful relationship-building tool. I hear from pastors and church members who subscribe to Liberty on behalf of different leaders in their communities. And more than that, they’re visiting these individuals—whether it’s the mayor, the school board chair, the fire chief, or a pastor from another denomination—and they’re sharing who Adventists are and how we can be a resource on religious freedom issues.

Every second Sabbath in January is Religious Liberty Sabbath, and the offering collected that day not only supports the ministry of Liberty magazine, but also the work of defending religious freedom in the courts, providing legal support to members facing discrimination in the workplace, and advocating directly with lawmakers at the state and national levels.

I’m sometimes asked whether Liberty magazine is making a difference and my answer is a resounding “Yes!” I often hear from elected representatives, attorneys, and members of the judiciary. Recently the mayor of a large city sent me a handwritten note of appreciation for Liberty’s guidance on challenging policy issues. “Please rest assured,” he wrote, “there are politicians and other decision-makers who consistently read and are influenced by your hard work.”

So, yes, we are making inroads into this unique “mission-field.” But the support and involvement of church members in the ministry of Liberty magazine is needed now more than ever.

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1 Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Nov. 25, 1890.

2 Jeffrey M. Jones, “U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time,” Gallup, Mar. 29, 2021, https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx, accessed on Mar. 16, 2023.