SILVER SPRING - Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear Saturday, and Adventists are hopping mad.
Jeltza Nimble of the Adventist-run Center for Secular and Postmodern Studies in Silver Spring explains the ire this way:
"First of all, Jon Stewart, being Jewish, should know better than to hold a rally on Sabbath. We have been studying secular and postmodern people in America for a really long time now, and I can tell you that most of them were at this rally on Saturday. But the problem, and it was a glaring injustice, is that all the secular and postmodern Seventh-day Adventists were unable to go to this rally because it was held on Sabbath. And the one thing we know from our study of secular and postmodern Seventh-day Adventists is that they will not break the Sabbath, even for an event like this one!"
Nimble asserted that Stewart and Colbert's decision to hold the rally on a Saturday constitutes a "clear cut case of religious discrimination against all sabbatarians," and noted that over 10,000 Adventists living in the Washington D.C. metroplex would have likely attended the rally had it been held on a Wednesday evening.
Jackson Billamy, a 27 year old member of the Tacoma Park Seventh-day Adventist Church agrees.
"I would gladly have skipped the Wednesday night prayer meeting to attend the 'Restore Sanity' rally, but there is no way I'm going to miss church on Sabbath to be there. I feel like Adventists were really marginalized on this one."
Adventist Association of Religion Liberties Directors spokeswoman Patricia Frankstein says that a lawsuit will be brought against Comedy Central comedians Stewart and Colbert for the discriminatory rally. "We feel we have a solid case, and we intend to pursue it vigorously," Frankstein said in a press release.
Nimble told the GRAPEVINE that a rally against religious discrimination against Sabbath keepers is being planned for Saturday, November 27 on the National Mall in the nation's capitol. The march is tentatively being called the March to Restore Saturday, and will feature speeches from numerous religious liberty representatives, both Adventist and non-Adventist. A spokesperson for the event estimates that at least 500,000 people of faith will attend the event, "including many Jews."
Comdey Central did not respond to the GRAPEVINE's requests for comment.
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