President
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Dear Sir;
There are many issues of interest to the world where I would like to hear the church take a position. Some of them include racism and immigration in general. I'll start with the issue of racism and segregation especially with regards to the segregation of our conferences. First of all what is the church's official stance on racism? And why isn't the church taking a more aggressive role in seeing to it that the practice of segregation within the church discontinued? How can the church set itself up as the moral leader when it also practises racial discrimmintation? How then is the church different from the world? I'm also of the opinion that this practice tends to sublty discourage interracial dating if youngsters are taught to only appreaciate those who look like them and shun those who don't, passing them off as potential creeps of having the notion that they will be more likely to be in abusive relationships or that mixed children are more likely to be delinquents in society or that the world will put them at a disadvantage. Aren't we all the same in God's eyes? I think it's time we practise what we preach. Also, I would like to know how the church plans to handle cases where possible institutional racism is carried out by institutions that bear the name Seventh-day Adventist. The whole system in my opinion needs to be revamped as there are some prominent colleges where the percentage of minority students, particularly black students is less than 4%.
I'm also concerned with the church's stance on immigration in general. I'm concerned and I have proof of this; that prominent leaders in the church are against immigration in general. I was told quite bluntly by one person in a prominent conference that people are just wanting to have a foot hold in America. What about humanitarian reaons why people leave their native countries to come here? How can you influence the government on this issue? Can't the church take a more aggressive stance?
I think that the church needs to lead by example and focus more of it's efforts in ensuring that people in the church and generally speaking feel loved and accepted. Unless it does that, people, especially young people like myself will continue to leave the church in droves and potential church members will be turned away.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and I'm sure that your administartion will look into this thoroughly.
