Fight for the Word: 2 West Tenn. religious leaders continue fight over church name: Creation 7th Day & Adventist Church

The Creation 7th Day & Adventist Church in Guys, shown in July. / Submitted photo

By Tracie Simer
| tsimer@jacksonsun.com

McGill

For more information

To read Walter McGill’s post-release statement, visit www.pastorwalterchickmcgilllawsuit.net/PDF/MyOfficialPrisonReleaseStatement.pdf

To read McGill’s open letter to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, visit www.pastorwalterchickmcgilllawsuit.net/PDF/OpenLetter2TedWilson2.pdf

To read the petition, visit www.LibertyPetition.com

Luke Chartier / Submitted photo

 

Two West Tennessee church leaders have said they are not done with their fight for religious freedom — a fight they said is a “disgrace” for a country that was founded on religious liberty.

Luke Chartier and Walter McGill are members of a church in Guys, Tenn., called “The Creation 7th Day & Adventist Church.” The church was sued for trademark infringement by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Chartier said.


“We argued that our name has never caused confusion, and that our use of the name of our faith is divinely mandated and a key facet of our religion,” he said in an email to The Jackson Sun. “The court agreed with us on both points, but ruled against us on a technicality. Because our religion requires our use of the name, we have not been able to comply with court orders to stop doing so.”
He said the Seventh-day Adventist Church has “persistently” asked the court to jail Chartier and McGill in response to their actions.



“The court issued warrants for our arrest for ‘contempt of court,’” Chartier said. “And we were arrested on those charges and held without bail.”


McGill said their arrests and incarcerations were civil rather than criminal arrests. “We suffer no criminal record as the result of our arrests,” he said. “The law enforcement and courts would do nothing to us without the requests of the plaintiffs in this civil lawsuit. A few of the greatest names in history were made via ‘civil disobedience’ when faced with the need to satisfy conscience and stand for righteous principle.”



Both men were released from federal prison in late September after serving time in California, where McGill was arrested.


Representatives with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists could not be reached for comment.


The Seventh-day Adventist Church has more than 17 million members worldwide and 1.2 million members in North America, according to the church’s official website. The “Seventh-day” refers to members’ adherence to the biblical Sabbath, while “Adventists” means they anticipate the return of Christ and identifies their “faith community and distinct value system.”

Chartier and McGill are traveling the country to raise awareness of their case and promoting a petition they’ve created through www.LibertyPetition.com to increase support. “Our goal is to make it clear to the Seventh-day Adventist Church that not only are people not confused by our name, but that their church is permanently harming its own reputation by putting Christians behind bars,” Chartier said. “With enough signatures, we hope that the public will send that message loud and clear.”

McGill said their trip is strictly about raising awareness, not funds. “We have never passed ‘a plate’ at a worship service or asked for money from anyone outside our membership,” he said. “When a soul seeks membership in our church, they learn the proper way of supporting the work of God, and all members contribute according to their several abilities from their personal income, but not during a divine meeting.”


The pastor and his associate spoke with The Jackson Sun via email as they traveled throughout the northeastern United States in early October.


Question: What’s next in your battle with the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Is there a next step for you?


Chartier: From the beginning, our battle has simply been for the right to freely practice our religion. This petition marks the next step for us, as all legal appeals have been exhausted; if the Seventh-day Adventist church will not stop asking the court to imprison us for the name of our faith, then our church members will inevitably either have to leave this country or face life behind bars. Surrendering our religious requirements is not an option, so what the court is demanding us to do here is really the impossible.


McGill: While the Liberty Petition is one “witness” in our effort to turn the tide, I have written an open letter to the General Conference Seventh-day Adventist President in order to appeal to his better judgment, hoping that he may take action in support of “liberty of conscience” for everyone, not only his own constituency.

Q: What are your thoughts on the court ruling and your subsequent arrests?

Chartier: I think it is a disgrace for a nation founded on religious liberty to acknowledge our beliefs as being sincere and causing no harm to anyone, then proceed to force us at legal gunpoint to deny them. It is a travesty for it to be done at the request of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which touts itself as a global defender of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.


Despite this, we are very thankful for the mercy of the judges in the case. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been asking for permanent incarceration, and neither of the judges wanted to give this to us. They actually had to bend the legal definition of “civil contempt” to do it, but instead of the lifetime sentences the Seventh-day Adventists were wanting, the judges gave us sentences of 30 days each. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to both Judge J. Daniel Breen and Magistrate Judge Edward Bryant for their relative mercy. As we have said from the beginning, we do not hold any grudges or contempt towards the court or its authority; we simply must obey God rather than man.


Q: Could you share some of your experience while you were incarcerated? How long were you in prison? Where? Was it a federal prison?


Chartier: We were jailed in the San Bernardino County Jail in San Bernardino, Calif. It is a county prison that contracts out to the federal government, so we were housed as federal inmates. I served 10 days, and Pastor McGill served 30; I think his experiences were far more worth sharing than mine, so I’ll defer to him for that.


McGill: I was incarcerated from July 13 (just before the beginning of Sabbath) through the morning of Aug. 11, 2012 (a Sabbath day). During my detention, I fasted from all solid food; consequently, they held me in the “I-Tank” (which is the infirmary) with 19 other inmates who were either being monitored for health-related issues or needing regular medications. There were gangsters housed in the I-Tank as well, and because I had no “criminal papers” to show them, and because they could not believe my story, they concluded I was covering up a detestable crime. Eventually, they decided I must have been a child molester, and in jail, that brings a heavy punishment from the inmates — even death in some cases. On two occasions, I was supernaturally delivered from the hands of those gangsters — two of them slipped and fell, hitting their heads so hard on the floor that they were taken to the hospital and not returned. Once I was required by another gangster to clean the toilet area on the Sabbath day. I had told the inmates I could clean every other day of the week, but not on the Sabbath. Because I refused to do work on the Sabbath day, I was beaten by one of the gangsters but suffered no noticeable damage to my body. At 66 years old, I was the oldest inmate in the infirmary.

Typically, the staff (guards and medical personnel) expressed their surprise that I was in jail. None of them thought I deserved to be there, but they had a job to do and could not offer me favors.

Consequently, I was treated as a felon just like all the other inmates.

Q: What has been the response of your church? The community? From the public?


Chartier: People are shocked to find out that this kind of thing can happen in America in this day and age. What we are aiming to do is make their response measurable and definite, by encouraging people to sign the petition at LibertyPetition.com and voice their displeasure with people being arrested for their faith. When we have enough signatures, the petition will be submitted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church leadership as a demand for ourselves and others to be allowed the free practice of our beliefs.


McGill: Our church members have become aware of the danger to them, as eventually, all could be rounded up and incarcerated if they do not recant. It is my joy to say our members are resolved to stand their ground for liberty of conscience and to obey the righteous principles God has taught us.


Q: Anything else you think people should know?


Chartier: The lawsuit is not over. Because we will continue to use the name our religion requires, we will continue to be in violation of the court’s orders. We cannot stop practicing our faith, and the court cannot ignore us violating their order. The only way for this to be resolved is for the Seventh-day Adventist Church to stop asking the court to imprison us. Because this is a civil case, everything that happens is on them to request or not request; the court is simply a sword in their hands. If they do not stop, the court will eventually concede to their demand for permanent incarceration, and we will be faced with life behind bars if we will not deny our religious convictions. We appeal to the public to sign the petition at LibertyPetition.com and demand that the Seventh-day Adventist Church stop making this request and allow us to freely exercise our religion. If it is not stopped now, it will soon be too late.

Further, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has consistently tried to portray this as a case of impersonation, confusion and fraudulent activity bordering on theft. This is simply not the case, and the court outright denies all of these charges as being unfounded in fact. We have not, nor will we ever, impersonate the Seventh-day Adventist Church, nor can I imagine any sane man wanting to be confused with a church that jails innocent men and women for their religion. I will say it clearly: The Creation 7th Day & Adventist Church is not, nor has it ever been, affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Please do not do our reputation the grave disservice of confusing us with them. 

McGill: Often it is stated that we refuse to stop using the plaintiffs’ trademark, viz., the name “Seventh-day Adventist.” I take issue with that accusation. We were told by God to use the name “Creation 7th Day Adventist” or “Creation Seventh Day Adventist” (spelled either way). We made an effort to show good faith in compromising in our advertising. We changed to “The Creation 7th Day & Adventist Church” (for the world church) or, at Guys, “A Creation 7th Day & Adventist Church” for the single congregation. Neither the plaintiffs nor the court recognized our “good-faith compromise” to be adequate. The fact is this: We refuse to give up our “God-given name,” which is “Creation Seventh Day Adventist.” Until God tells us differently, we must adhere to his mandate.