Adventist Today falsely inspires fear for denomination employees

 Adventist Today's fundraiser newsletter asserts that denominational employees cannot talk to independent organizations. On Dec 6 2024 they wrote

 "A fundamental shift has occurred in our church that directly affects your right to know what’s happening within our denomination. This fall, the General Conference adopted item #6 — a GC working policy addition that makes it a disciplinary offense for any church employee, including pastors and communication staff, to share information with independent Adventist journalists. In simple terms, if a church worker speaks to publications like AT about important developments in our church, they could lose their job."

Most things on Adventist Today should be taken with a huge grain of salt. You can search the internet and you won't find this item 6, but Adventist Today wrote about it earlier in Oct. 19 2024 in an article entitled:

 Editorial: “Will Disciplinary Item #6 Be the Death of Us?” Item #6: “Unauthorized or improper disclosure of information–unauthorized or improper use or release of personal, confidential, private, or proprietary employer or denominational information by any means.”

Now when we read the quote we see that the question asked in the title does not in fact prevent employees from talking to independent organizations but says they are not authorized to relate improper disclosure or use personal, confidential, private or proprietary employer information. Which is pretty much the same thing that any large employer requires of their employees. 

You notice that in this editorial the question is asked. It never states that the employee cannot talk to an organization like Adventist Today, it just asserts that maybe it will mean that. Then a couple of months later in their fundraiser letter, it has become a fact. "for any church employee, including pastors and communication staff, to share information with independent Adventist journalists." 

I heard this recently as if it was a new rule to keep Adventist Pastors from going on podcasts not run by the denomination. Item # 6 does not do that, once again Adventist Today shows they can't be trusted.