The Dissonance Between Liberty of Conscience and Ecclesiastical Governance: The Administrative and Theological Response of the Seventh-day Adventist Church During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study investigates the administrative policies, official statements, and legal-ecclesiastical implications within the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church amidst the public health crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research highlights a structural tension between the formal doctrinal affirmation of individual conscience autonomy and the administrative apparatus’s refusal to validate a theological basis for religious exemptions requested by members. Employing a qualitative methodology based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and comparative documentary hermeneutics, this paper examines General Conference normative statements, the operational repercussions on healthcare personnel within denominational institutions (specifically Loma Linda University Health), the response of the grassroots movement Liberty and Health Alliance, and a critical reassessment of historical sources attributed to co-founder Ellen G. White. The findings indicate a functional decoupling between corporate institutional preservation and the safeguarding of individual members’ statutory conscience protections under employment law.