Oklahoma’s Oldest Continuously-Published Newspaper Calls Liberty Magazine Anti-American, Pro-One World Order and in Lockstep with Democratic Party Leaders

The rocks are crying out. It is not just concerned Seventh-day Adventists who can see how the mighty have fallen within the church. Others are seeing it too. Others are writing about it as well. This should be a wake-up call for our people, and it is a sad and shameful day when secular newspapers can see what many of our own people cannot.

The Kingfisher Times & Free Press was established in 1889 and is the longest running newspaper in Oklahoma. On Sunday, July 25, 2021, Gary Reid, editor emeritus of the newspaper, published an editorial on page 4. In the editorial, Gary Reid rebuked Liberty magazine, the official religious liberty magazine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America for its May/June 2021 issue. The Kingfisher Times & Free Press published the following about Liberty magazine:

 “We read an article in Liberty magazine by a fellow named Ed Guthero who criticized all voters for President Trump as Christ crucifiers. The article was entitled ‘Crucified Twice.’ The gist of the column was this: No real Christian could vote for President Trump and that Trump’s decision to continue to challenge how the 2020 election was handled is an attack on democracy. The guy is obviously a victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome, possibly caused by getting his information through major news media, which have abandoned any effort to provide straight, unbiased news but, rather, have fallen into lockstep with the anti-American, pro-One World government policies of the leftist elite now in charge of the Democratic Party” (Editorial: Writer claims Trump voters ‘Christ crucifiers’, editorial, p. 4, 5). [1]

The Kingfisher Times & Free Press is basically telling its readers that Seventh-day Adventists, through Liberty magazine, believe that those who voted for President Trump have crucified Christ again. [2] And it is not just this newspaper that is seeing this because Adventist churches and conferences throughout the United States are sending Liberty magazine to non-Adventist religious, political and community leaders. And what message are we sharing with the world? “If you voted for Trump, you’ve crucified Christ again.”

How political can a church publication get? Liberty magazine has become the political mouthpiece of the Democratic Party under the guise of “religious liberty.” We have political agents doing the bidding for the Democratic Party running our media ministries. We have political operatives in leadership who openly support the Democrats’ political platform in our church publications. This is not an isolated incident. Last year, Liberty magazine declared its bitterness towards President Trump by attacking Trump, his supporters and promoting the Vatican’s global “Integrated International Order” [3].

The political animosity and prejudice that Liberty magazine has shown to Donald Trump, his voters, supporters and to half the nation has blinded their eyes from seeing that they are on the side of the Democratic Party that is enacting laws promoting abortion, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, feminism, and other policies that directly oppose God’s law? Liberty Magazine mourns Donald Trump’s personal life while completely ignoring much more serious matters, such as the murder of millions of defenseless babies and the destructive LGBT+ agenda. Regardless of whether we like Donald Trump or not, he is not an excuse to support those who are openly and defiantly breaking God’s Ten Commandments.

The Kingfisher Times & Free Press also makes this point in its editorial. The newspaper showed the inconsistency and hypocrisy of Liberty magazine in supporting a “far-left Democratic Party” that is “directly opposed to the moral values ​​of the Bible.” Notice the sobering question that was raised in the editorial:

How could Christians in good conscience support a party that promotes laws and policies that:

• allow abortion up to the moment of birth,
• authorize the use of our tax money to pay for abortions
• and gender reassignment surgery,
• cripple our economy with ever-increasing government control and taxes,
• further cripple the economy with expensive Green New Deal energy regulations,
• support the rising influence of judges who are not constrained by the original meaning of the words of the Constitution or of the laws,
• support draconian laws that compel an artistic professional or a professional counselor to affirm the validity of same-sex marriage even when that is contrary to the professional person’s conscience,
• reinstate the Obama-era guidelines that required schools to allow biological males who claim to be transgender females to use girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers (the guidelines were canceled by Trump),
• allow biological males to compete in women’s sports, setting new statewide records in women’s track events and other sports
• seek to defund the police,
• use violence and intimidation to nullify freedom of speech (in practice) for those who disagree with them politically. [4]

This editorial published in Kingfisher, Oklahoma has completely destroyed what Liberty magazine was trying to accomplish. Liberty magazine, as far as Northwest Oklahoma and other locations around the nation are concerned, is dead on arrival. This kind of political partisanship is blurring our priorities and keeping us from offering the true gospel of Christ. Political pandering is weakening our allegiance to God’s moral law. One-sided political bias is replacing our spiritual witness with secular campaigns. Political activism is making us forget that our true citizenship is in heaven, not in this world. We need to repudiate the politicization of Adventism, whether it comes from the left or the right. As a commandment-keeping people, the only platform we must defend is “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

Seventh-day Adventist leaders need to stop their one-sided political name calling and be found in the highways and byways bringing souls to Christ. Preaching the gospel is the only way to turn people back to God. And the gospel of Christ is not the social gospel or the ecumenical gospel or the rainbow gospel or the evangelical gospel (new theology) or a political gospel, but the everlasting gospel of Revelation 14:6-12. We have a platform that we must present to the world and it is not found in any political party. It’s called the platform of eternal truth.

“The third angel’s message must do its work of separating from the churches a people who will take their stand on the platform of eternal truth” (Manuscript 19, 1900).

In order to achieve this, we must remain apolitical. Lincoln Steed is the editor of Liberty magazine, and He needs to stop being the poster boy for the Democratic Party. Adventists were never called to be the propaganda machine for political organizations. You can write to Lincoln Steed (lincoln.steed@nad.adventist.org) and ask him to return to our original mission and stop his political pandering which only weakens our testimony and hinders our work. Half of the American population will not want to listen to us when we participate in these political shenanigans. And in places like Kingfisher, a conservative community in Northwest Oklahoma, we are talking about 99.99% of the population who have just closed their doors to Adventism, thanks to Lincoln Steed and Liberty Magazine.

This is completely frustrating and counterproductive, especially for the team of faithful Seventh-day Adventist missionaries and Bible workers who have been working in Kingfisher, Oklahoma and the surrounding communities for the past 2 weeks. If Liberty Magazine kept its views on politics out of our church publications, as the prophet has told us, our work and mission would not fall into disrepute. It is Liberty magazine that is crucifying Christ again and putting Him to open shame:

 “Whatever the opinions you may entertain in regard to casting your vote in political questions, you are not to proclaim it by pen or voice. Our people need to be silent upon questions which have no relation to the third angel’s message” (Letter, 4, 1898).

We are sending the contents of this post to the editor of the Kingfisher Times & Free Press in an effort to correct the misinformation in Liberty magazine.

Sources

[1] http://adventmessenger.org/wp-content/uploads/Kingfisher-Times-and-Free-Press.pdf

[2] https://www.libertymagazine.org/article/crucified-twice

[3] http://adventmessenger.org/liberty-magazine-attacks-president-trump-his-supporters-and-promotes-an-integrated-international-order/

[4] http://adventmessenger.org/wp-content/uploads/Kingfisher-Times-and-Free-Press.pdf