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Sabbath Keeper Wins $2.25M Judgement

United States federal jury has awarded $2.25 million to a man fired by the Federal Aviation Administration for refusing to work on Sabbath, or Saturday. Don Reed was the victim of religious discrimination, said the Denver jury, rejecting the FAA's argument that accommodation of Reed's beliefs would have left the agency dangerously short-staffed.

Reed, a nondenominational Sabbath-keeper, observes a day of rest from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. An FAA employee since 1990, Reed says his Sabbath-keeping was accommodated by two successive managers. In 1995, however, a new manager called Reed's belief a "scam" and a "religion of convenience," firing Reed after he failed to show for work on six Saturdays.

Mitchell Tyner, an associate general counsel for the General Conference, welcomed the jury's verdict, saying that employees should rarely be forced to choose between their faith and their job, and only then when accommodation would cause genuine hardship to the employer.

Each year, Tyner participates in as many as 30 law suits involving on-the-job religious discrimination--usually related to Sabbath-keeping. He says the scope of the problem is much larger than most people realize.

Every day, on average, two or three Adventist church members in the United States lose their jobs or are denied jobs because employers will not accommodate Sabbath observance, says Tyner.

"Free exercise of religion is a legal principle," Tyner adds. "But in practice, legal protection for people of faith in the work place is not adequate."

He cautions that even when an employee wins a jury verdict, employment cases have the second highest reversal rate of any type of case, and that large damage awards are often subject to remittitur, or subsequent reduction by the court.

Tyner, who has twice litigated religious discrimination cases against the FAA, says the Adventist Church will file an amicus brief in support of Reed should the FAA appeal. --Adventist News Network

Largest-Ever Adventist Health Study
Targets 125,000 Members
The relationship between diet and cancer among Seventh-day Adventists will be the focus of the largest-ever health study to be conducted by Loma Linda University's School of Public Health. The university, in California, United States, has secured a grant from the National Institutes of Health for the study, which will concentrate on cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate.

Dr. Gary Fraser, director of the university's Center for Health Research, will look at many factors including soy, calcium, and meat consumption. He notes that earlier studies demonstrated evidence of a correlation between meat consumption and colon cancer.

The study, which requires the participation of 125,000 Adventist church members, will be the first to compare rates of cancer among Adventists, rather than between Adventists and a control group made up of other members of the community. It will also attempt to target some 45,000 Black Adventists. The Black community experiences almost twice the average rates of prostate cancer, as well as higher rates of colon cancer, says Fraser.

Participants in the study will be enrolled on a church-by-church basis during a four-year period, he explains. Preparation for enrollment has already started, and church members across the United States will be contacted starting in January 2002.

Dr. Allan Handysides, director of the General Conference Health Ministries Department, believes the study holds exciting possibilities. "Within Adventism, there are subsets with slight variations in lifestyle," explains Handysides. "By comparing these groups, we'll be able to more precisely identify factors that contribute to a healthy, disease-free life.

"This is a significant study," adds Handysides. "The number of Adventists around the world is growing; and in the area of healthy lifestyle, we are a showcase to the world." He encourages local church pastors and members to get involved when they are approached about participating in the study.

Over the past 30 years, Loma Linda University's Center for Health Research has conducted groundbreaking research into the impact of many Adventist health practices. In July 2001, Fraser announced the results of one 12-year study showing that the lifestyle habits practiced by many Adventists contribute to a longer-than-average life. --Adventist News Network

7 Cyclists Complete 3,055-Mile Trek
Seven cyclists ended their seven-week, 3,055-mile trip across the United States on August 20 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Starting July 1 from Portland, Oregon, the cyclists, led by Tony Mavrakos, who is on the pastoral staff at the Takoma Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in Maryland, handed out 5,000 copies of the Ten Commandments, prayed with hundred of people, and performed random acts of kindness along the way.

Mavrakos, who is convinced that the world needs to hear a message of hope, recruited the cyclists, who range from 12 to 61 in age. "It’s time for the church to get out of the pews and onto the pavement; out of the seats and onto the streets; out from behind the stained glass windows into a stained sinned world," he says.

Mavrakos is planning to organize another trip next year. The Adventist Review will carry more on this story in an upcoming issue.

Mongolia Church Conducts First
Campmeeting, Ordains First Pastor
With a baptized membership of 207, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mongolia, held its first campmeeting, August 1-6. Some 220 persons from nine church groups gathered near Erdenet for the meetings, says Dale Tunnel, Mongolian Mission Field director.

The theme of the gathering was "United by God’s Word." Activities included worship services and seminars on prayer, Bible study, health, children’s ministry, friendship evangelism, making the gospel relevant in non-Christian cultures, the sanctuary, and more.

The highlight of the meetings was the ordination of Bold Batsukh, the first Mongolian-born pastor ordained by the Adventist Church to the gospel ministry. Church members set a goal to have 400 persons come to next year’s campmeeting, Tunnell says.

Florida Hospital Featured on MSNBC
On August 22, MSNBC TV featured Florida Hospital’s Cardiac Program. The national cable news channel spent nearly three weeks at the Orlando campus recording more than a dozen different cardiac procedures for the one-hour television special entitled "Heart Hospital," reports Celeste Ryan, North American Division assistant director of communications.

MSNBC took viewers inside the country’s busiest cardiac program, where cardiologists, surgeons, nurses, and surgical technicians performed life-saving procedures on patients. Florida Hospital’s cardiac program was chosen because of the sheer volume of patients treated and the high level of care the hospital provides.  

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