Peter was a fisherman, and by all accounts, the senior member of the twelve disciples of Jesus. If anyone is familiar with the TV program, “The Most Dangerous Catch” on the Discovery Channel, one has a fair idea of commercial fishermen, their language, their lifestyle, their education, their risks, their feast and famine, and their superstitions.

Every day, I check Google news with the search phrase “Seventh-day Adventist.” Most hits are local newspaper announcements about a cooking school, a church school concert, or a Pathfinder club’s Halloween food drive.

Recently, a piece from Grand Forks, North Dakota, caught my eye.

The Grand Forks Seventh-day Adventist Church is where, thirty years ago, I served my internship year before going to seminary. It was a good year: there were quite a few young couples in the church, and I had a senior pastor I liked.

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.

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.