By Andrew McChesney, news editor, Adventist Review
The Seventh-day Adventist Church and its members worldwide offered prayers and support for Paris after a series of shootings and explosions killed scores of people.
France declared a state of emergency and closed its borders after at least 80 people were reported killed in a concert hall and 50 others died in attacks on restaurants and near a stadium on Friday night.
Mario Brito, president of the Adventist Church’s Inter-European Division, whose territory includes France, voiced “deep consternation” over the events in Paris.
“We express our solidarity with all French people,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
The Inter-European Division noted in the same statement that twin suicide bombings killed at least 43 people two days earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, a possible indication that “terrorism is growing more and more uncontrollable.”
“Human life is precious in God’s eyes,” it said. “When people turn away from God’s directions and wisdom, they become a threat to the freedom of those who unfortunately cross paths with these agents of Satan.”
