This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council in 1964.

It was a turbulent time in American life. The U.S. Supreme Court had recently struck down state-mandated prayer and Bible reading in the public schools. President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The civil rights movement was in full swing, and opposition to the war in Vietnam was building.

Warren Johns, an Adventist attorney who served as director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Pacific Union at that time, obtained support to establish a new organization to carry on the religious liberty ministry of the Church in the western United States.

This organization has had a profound impact on religious liberty in its 40 years. Throughout 2004, this column will carry vignettes about the work of the Church State Council throughout its 40 years in celebration of the anniversary.