From the Press Enterprise

A six-year legal battle between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and a Tennessee pastor has landed nearly 2,000 miles away with the pastor sitting in the San Bernardino County Jail.

The Rev. Walter McGill was arrested Friday, July 13, outside Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists after someone called police to complain that McGill appeared to be preparing for a protest on church grounds, said San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.

“They wanted him removed from the property,” she said.

Sheriff’s deputies discovered that McGill was wanted on a federal warrant and he was taken to the county jail in San Bernardino, Bachman said.

McGill said in an interview a few hours before his arrest that he was planning to hold a news conference Sunday outside the Loma Linda church and turn himself in to U.S. marshals, who he expected may be waiting for him. If marshals were not there, McGill said he planned to travel to neighboring Redlands to surrender to police there.

“People find me a strange individual,” McGill said by phone Friday from a Southern California location he declined to disclose. “But I prayed and asked God what to do, and God told me to come to Loma Linda.”

The Loma Linda church is the largest Adventist congregation in the U.S.

McGill said he had been traveling around the country since April visiting Seventh-day Adventist churches to distribute fliers about his case.

McGill broke from the worldwide Adventist denomination more than two decades ago, citing doctrinal and other differences. He founded Creation Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1991. In 2006, the worldwide church sued McGill, alleging trademark infringement for using “Seventh-day Adventist.”

The worldwide church won the suit, but, according to court documents, McGill refused to comply with a federal district court order to stop using the name. Newscasts from WBBJ-TV in Tennessee show workers ripping down Creation’s lettering from the church building in Guys, Tenn., in February, with an Adventist church attorney looking on, and Creation members putting the name back up in March.

In April, U.S. District Court Judge J. Daniel Breen in Tennessee found McGill and church member Lucan Chartier in contempt of court and issued arrest warrants. Breen fined the two $500 and directed the U.S. Marshals Service to jail them for up to 30 days.

In an email interview Saturday, Chartier, who was traveling in California with McGill, said he has not received official notice of the warrant, but said that if he does get one, he would surrender. Chartier said he and McGill first heard of the warrant on July 5.

Chartier said he has been unable to talk with McGill since his arrest but said the pastor had planned to visit the Loma Linda church on Friday to distribute fliers inviting people to Sunday’s planned news conference.

Chartier accused the worldwide Adventist church of trampling on the religious freedom of Creation members.

“What we have here is the Bible and the Constitution being shredded in the teeth of corporate religion and high-dollar churches, where enough money buys you the right to the name of a religion, and the power to put anyone who follows it without your approval in jail,” he said.

A statement released by the North American Adventist church said it did not want to shut down McGill’s ministry.

“However to falsely identify himself with an organization of which he is not a part, is not acceptable,” the statement said. “This false association confuses the public, media and at times our own members.”

Chartier said Creation Seventh-day Adventist Church views its name as divinely given.

“To cease using it would be to disregard the plain instructions of God,” he said.

McGill sees his church as faithfully adhering to early — and what he views as authentic — Adventist teaching, and the worldwide denomination as diverging from it, said Andrew Hanson, a senior news writer for the Riverside-based Adventist Today magazine who has researched Creation Seventh-day Adventist Church.

McGill likely will be returned to Tennessee now that he is in custody, Deputy U.S. Marshal Russell Kinard said from Tennessee.

Why am I not surprised ... ?

1 Corinthians 6:1
"If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? [2] Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? [3] Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! [4] Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church![Or matters, do you appoint as judges men of little account in the church?] [5] I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? [6] But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!
[7] The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? [8] Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers."

Someone needs to follow the Bible in this matter. Maybe a couple someones.


G

The reason that advice didn't work out is because Pastor_Chick thinks he had visions from God telling him to take the name and hence he would not listen to any earthly church court or civil court. Both parties have to agree on the judge.

Does this mean that Pastor Chick's posts here at CA will be detectably reduced?

Looks like it might.

WINDSOR

thank you for posting this article

dgrimm60

http://religiousliberty.tv/

Last week two Christian pastors were jailed in the United States for violation of court orders involving two different types of property disputes.

In Phoenix, Arizona, Pastor Michael Salman of the Harvest Christian Fellowship Community Church (not affiliated with the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA) is serving a 60-day prison sentence for violating building, fire, and zoning codes. In 2008 Salman received a permit to build a 2,000 square foot “game room” which expressly prohibited its use as a church, business or assembly because it did not meet the physical requirements that such structures were required to meet. Large groups of 80 people would routinely meet on the property.

In 2010 Salman was found guilty of 67 Class 1 misdemeanors such as not having lighted emergency exits, fire doors or sprinklers. He appealed the conviction, lost, and began serving his 6-day term on July 9. Although he described it as a “home Bible study,” the Salman church collected tithes and he reported it as a church to avoid property taxes on the home.

Despite cries of violation of religious freedom, the code violations in question were undoubtedly secular and Salman would have to convince the courts that his church should be exempted from meeting generally required health and safety regulations and that he had been completely honest when describing this structure, which included chairs and a pulpit as a game room when he applied for the permit.

The other case involves intellectual property rights. On Friday, July 13, Tennessee Pastor Walter McGill was arrested outside the Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists on federal charges stemming from a contempt of court citation for refusing to abide by a court order to stop referring to his church in Guys, Tennessee as the “Creation Seventh-day Adventist Church.”

In April a federal judge issued a warrant for the arrest of McGill and a church member, Lucan Chartier who apparently “remains at large.”

McGill who had left the Seventh-day Adventist Church a couple of decades ago for theological reasons had started the “Creation Seventh-day Adventist Church” based on what he believed was a divine mandate. The worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church sued McGill for trademark violation and, after six years of litigation, won the case in 2010.

But McGill, claiming religious conviction, refused to change the name of his small congregation. In an interview with the Press Enterprise, McGill said, “To cease using it would be to disregard the plain instructions of God.”

Apparently McGill had planned to hold a news conference at the Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists on Sunday and had visited the site on Friday. His presence was reported to the police and sheriff’s deputies arrested him.

It is unclear whether McGill will be sent back to Tennessee to serve the rest of his 30-day sentence or remain in the San Bernardino County Jail. McGill reportedly plans to go on a hunger strike, or fast, throughout his imprisonment.

The church has a legitimate interest in protecting its trademark and goes to Federal Court to protect it. This is to avoid situations like the Baptists, who have not been able to trademark their name, face when people like Fred Phelps name their church the “Westboro Baptist Church.” The Church of Scientology has also protected its trademark, presumably for similar reasons.

McGill refuses to abide by the court ruling on grounds of conscience. He ends up in jail. Arguably this is a tougher case than the Salman matter and it presents an interesting juxtaposition between intellectual property rights of religious organizations and individual rights of conscience. With the jailing of Pastor McGill, the matter has entered the sphere of public opinion, and I hope that the Seventh-day Adventist Church™ will recognize that two issues are at play and respond in a way that honors both its legacy and dedication to religious liberty. According to some articles on the subject making their way through the press, the church could at least put in a request that Pastor McGill be released and a compromise reached.

So that’s the story – two pastors jailed within a week. One for violating zoning rules of Phoenix and the other for refusing on grounds of conscience.

###

For more information on the Walter “Chick” McGill story check out Spectrum Magazine’s article by Jared Wright, “Creation Seventh Day Adventist Pastor Imprisoned, Fasting”

For more information on the Michael Salman case, see http://religiousliberty.tv/is-it-really-...ordinances.html

Maybe his guests were just "playing" church? That would qualify him for the "game room" exemption.

Donations, not tithes, besides how can you expect people to play a serious game of church if you don't collect money?Oops, some games get so serious that they begin to blur the line between fun and reality.I'm sure that by the time of his neighbor's complaints "Pastor"Salman had begun to actually think of his home as a real church.Probably an innocent oversight.

Mr. Salmon simply continued a common practice among many "Christians" of not declaring his real intentions in order to avoid rendering unto Caesar. IF the details of the story are here accurately reported Christians everywhere should be sad that Salmon had misrepresented the gospel of Christ that he had been preaching to the world.(that which is done in secret will come to light) They should be glad that he got caught.Thanks for posting this Teresa.

How does this look to the average Christian non-SDA? Do they now see the leadership and members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as violating 1 Corinthians Chapter 6? Does this help or hurt the evangelistic mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

I cannot imagine *any* of my relatives (including the small number of SDA's) or any of my non-Adventist Facebook friends have even *heard* of "Pastor Chick"....and if they had, I doubt very much that anyone would give it a second thought - much less wonder about some violation of a Biblical principle... Most people have much more important things going on than keeping an eye on the Adventist church closet..

I support the church and it's actions in this matter. I feel it is a very positive step.

While I am somewhat sympathetic to Pastor Chic, I have to say this "God told us first to use the name"

Agreed!!