Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is an outspoken advocate of "keeping a distance." He will be the Sabbath keynote speaker at the Adventist Forum Conference September 26 to 28 in Florida.

Spectrum asked Lynn about the meeting of faith and politics and how his beliefs have changed over time.

Question: Why is the separation of church and state important? What is the foundation underlying Americans United for Separation of Church and State?

(Translated by Carlos Enrique Espinosa)

As I write these reflections, I experience great joy. It's like a journey: I know where I'm starting, but I also know that I can expect discoveries along the way.

In this lesson, which talks about transformation, I am invited to travel on various routes that take me through different landscapes. So let’s head out, exploring two particular places on our map:

Sometimes I awaken in the middle of the night, for whatever middle-aged guy reason, and can’t get back to sleep. So I’ll put my earbuds in and listen to the radio. Apart from popular music (which I don’t care for) the choices are limited: a couple of shrill political shills, a station that takes calls from eerily impassioned sports fans who stay up all night critiquing athletic feats they themselves could never do, and (where I usually land) Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

John, it has been said, has a different view of the Christian hope than the other writers of the New Testament. Whereas the other writers project the believer’s hope into the future, John sees the hope realized in the present.

More than 30 years after Ronald L. Numbers, one of the “founding fathers” of the Association of Adventist Forums, published Prophetess of Health, his controversial history on the health message of Ellen G. White, the book is being reprinted.

Much has been said about compassion ministries in the church. Indeed, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a long history of ministries of compassion, going nearly all the way back to the beginning of our denomination.

Those who have studied the writings of Ellen White know that she said some things about the physical consequences of “solitary vice,” a term that many take to be a euphemism for masturbation, which the majority of medical specialists today do not confirm. In An Appeal to Mothers, one of her early publications, she attributes a number of maladies to its practice.

From the Andrews University Public Relations office:

Andrews University graduate, author, consultant and management educator Gary Hamel addressed students from the class of 2008 as commencement speaker for the graduate ceremony on Sunday, May 4. The following day, Hamel was recognized by The Wall Street Journal as a top influential business thinker in the article, “New Breed of Business Gurus Rises.”

Two and a half years ago, my congregation in Hollywood, California, embarked on a journey guided by a question: “What would it mean for our church to have a genuine missionary encounter with our neighbors?” This question itself suggests a whole load of other questions.

Somewhere along the way, the disciples mentioned in the title of this week’s lesson got lost. Rather than learning from the experiences of Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Simon, or Thomas, we are encouraged to find principles for missionary activities in the charge Christ gave the disciples in Matthew 10.