Pastor Released From Jail 30 Days After Loma Linda Arrest in Adventist Dispute

A Tennessee pastor who was arrested in Loma Linda last month in a dispute with the global Seventh-day Adventist Church was released Saturday Aug. 11 from Central Detention Center in San Bernardino.

Speaking outside the jail shortly after his release, Pastor Walter "Chick" McGill, 66, said he fasted 30 days, taking only water, fat-free milk, and juice from oranges, since his arrest July 13 on the grounds of Loma Linda University Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Standing in the shade of a tree, McGill defiantly said he was ready to go to jail again if necessary, and he said he will not change the name of the Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church he founded in Guys, Tenn. The name is at the heart of the dispute with the global Seventh-day Adventist Church.

"For me it's not simply about a name," McGill said in an interview with Redlands-Loma Linda Patch outside the Central Detention lockup on East Rialto Avenue.

"It's about obedience to the creator, my father in heaven," McGill said. "And I intend to obey my father in heaven because the supreme court of heaven is going to decide my eternal destiny. The courts on this earth will only decide my earthly destiny for a temporary period of time. . . .

"I'm not authorized to change the name," McGill said. "The name was given by God, and God would have to change the name. I can't do that."

During his time behind bars, McGill said he was assaulted by an inmate who demanded he "clean the bathroom on the sabbath day."

Central Detention Sgt. Derek Garvin said McGill was involved in an altercation with an inmate and he was not seriously injured.

"A battery report was taken," Garvin said in a phone interview. "Mr. McGill was listed as the victim. The other inmate was housed elsewhere and disciplined."

Garvin said he could not confirm whether McGill fasted because inmates who do so require medical supervision, and medical information is considered confidential. Inmates who refuse food are offered liquid nourishment and monitored regularly, Garvin said.

It was around 102 in San Bernardino when McGill was released Saturday. He sat alone under the tree next to the jail parking lot on East Rialto just before 1:30 p.m., when two of his supporters arrived.

They exchanged hugs and one of them offered McGill a bottle of carrot juice, from which he drank deeply. McGill said the drink complies with his fast, which he intends to continue another 10 days to emulate a 40-day fast by Jesus.

McGill did not appear weakened by his fast, or by the heat outside the jail, and he wanted to pose for photos in the direct sunlight near the entrance to Central Detention Center.

McGill and his assistant Lucan Chartier had been jailed for contempt of federal court in Tennessee, where a judge ruled in April they violated an order they cease using the name "Seventh-day Adventist" and the acronym "SDA" to describe their church.

The trademark infringement dispute was initiated in civil court by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, also known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church of North America.

Chartier gave a press conference outside Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists on July 31 before he at the Redlands Police Department compound on West Park Avenue. Chartier from Central Detention on Thursday Aug. 9, according to inmate records.

Approximately 6,500 members of the Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists comprise the largest Adventist congregation in North America, according to the church's website.

For previous Redlands-Loma Linda Patch reports on the dispute, click , and .

For more information about the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, visit www.adventist.org.

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