More than 30 Seventh-day Adventist attorneys and their families enjoyed triple digit weather in Palm Springs during the ninth annual Adventist Attorneys Conference Oct. 23-26. The conference combines an excellent continuing legal education program with social and spiritual pursuits.

The Sabbath speaker, Alexander Bolotnikov, is a Seventh-day Adventist theologian who began his theological journey as an ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jew. He challenged the lawyers to think about the relevance and practicality of biblical law in light of Paul’s inspired counsel that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable.”

Bolotnikov observed that at the time Paul was writing, the only Scriptures in existence were the “Old Testament.” He also remarked that the distinction between the Old and New Testaments is of human origin, and that the titles—“old” and “new”—were not inspired. The Bible speaks of old and new covenants, but both of them are discussed in the Hebrew scriptures. The law of God, Bolotnikov insisted, is much broader than the Ten Commandments. Even the various statutes and regulations in the Torah, the five books of Moses, contain inspired principles that can inform our conduct and values today.

The Continuing Legal Education program was a professional and inspirational feast. Russell Swartz presented four hours on the paperless law office—how to effectively utilize computer technology to provide quick and easy access to all your data, evidence, contacts, etc., in order to maximize efficiency and effectiveness at case handling.

Nicholas Miller presented two segments, first, reviewing the challenges posed by the war on terrorism to individual liberties. He presented a controversial but well documented perspective that the Bush administration has taken government from a postmodern era, back to a pre-Protestant/Enlightenment era to the Middle Ages when there was no separation of powers and kings insisted that they ruled by divine right.

In support of this thesis, he provided evidence that the Justice Department is seeking to act unilaterally, without oversight either from Congress or the courts, ostensibly to protect our security. In a separate program, Miller reviewed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 and how local churches are impacted by land use problems.

Michael Peabody spoke about the California Workers’ Compensation Crisis, and Rob Sweezey, head of Adventist Risk Management for the General Conference, spoke about the legal challenges facing the Church today.

The association voted to meet in the Napa Valley next year and in Hawaii in 2005, and also voted in a new slate of officers, including Mark Cimino, president; Roxanne Ware, vice president; Alan Reinach, secretary/treasurer; Ruthe Ashley, site coordinator; and Russell Swartz and David McDuffie, continuing education coordinators. Joel Peterson and Carol Adams, who were largely responsible for this year’s program, are due many thanks.