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VOTED, To record the following statement which will serve as a guide to the on-going conversations concerning the funding of faith based initiatives as proposed by the administration of the United States government.

Consensus Statement Regarding United States
Government Funding of Religious Organizations

The Seventh-day Adventist Church recognizes both the natural involvement of religious groups and the necessary and proper involvement of government in seeking solutions to social problems. Religious groups are required by faith to be of service, to heal the wounds of society. Government must, to fulfill its responsibility, address the same issues and search for solutions to the same problems. Neither may properly look to the other to take the entire burden. Addressing the needs of people is a shared responsibility. Therefore, religious groups and government should cooperate in seeking solutions to social problems, each doing so with mutual respect for the role of the other.

The church also recognizes the fragility of religious freedom and the necessity of giving careful attention to every aspect of any proposal or program that might change the relationship between religious organizations and government that has been so carefully developed over the centuries of the American experience. While the relationship is ever changing, as it exists in an ever changing society, certain aspects of that relationship, made clear from experience, must be safeguarded. The following aspects of this relationship require special attention in the context of governmental funding of any function of any religious or religiously affiliated organization.

1. Autonomy. The church must remain free to be who and what it is. Cooperation between government and religious groups should not compromise the right and freedom of those groups to manage their own affairs. The mission and voice of the church must not be diminished or circumscribed by governmental intervention. If a church, in order to participate in government programs, gives up the right to hire only those who share its convictions, it gives up too much. A delicate balance must be maintained between the internal autonomy of religious groups and the necessity to avoid governmental funding of religious functions.

2. Dependance. Religious groups must beware of becoming so dependent on government largess that their independence, the authenticity of their witness and voice, and indeed their very survival, are threatened.

3. Neutrality. The genius of the American relationship between religion and government has been the requirement of governmental neutrality. Government must never be allowed to differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable religions. The state knows and establishes no religious orthodoxy. Few things could be more destructive of the fragile relationship that has produced so much religious freedom in the United States than to allow government to evade the requirement of neutrality.