New Venue Found for Dialogue on Adventists & Catholics
6 October 2024 |
October 7 update:
The new location for the meeting, for the same time and date, is Norte Vista High School Theater, 6585 Crest Ave, Riverside. We will give you the livestream information as soon as it is available.
A presentation by Dr. Reinder Bruinsma on the relationship between Adventists and Catholics, scheduled for October 12, 2024, at 3:00 PM at the Loma Linda University Centennial Complex, had been cancelled, according to a note on the Loma Linda University (LLU) website. The event was sponsored by the Loma Linda University Center for Understanding World Religions and Humanities Program. Besides Dr. Bruinsma, the discussion was to feature Dr. Denis Fortin of the Adventist Theological Seminary, and The Rev. Romanus Ike, a chaplain at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
According to several sources involved in the planning, the meeting was cancelled at the behest of Elder Ted Wilson. There has been no reason given for Wilson’s cancelling the event, nor for Loma Linda University’s making its facilities unavailable.
It was initially hoped the event could be moved over to the La Sierra campus, to a meeting room in the Zapara School of Business, but that venue appears also to have been made unavailable.
The event was described this way:
The Seventh-day Adventist and Roman Catholic Churches have had a turbulent relationship through the years. But in today’s world many people see them as having much more in common than what separates them. The panel will explore the intriguing question of what the two churches can learn from each other and what that might imply for the future. Reinder Bruinsma will premier his new book on the topic at the close of the program.
One Adventist leader told Adventist Today, “I’m surprised that Ted Wilson cared about this. But what really surprises me is that Loma Linda University and La Sierra University leaders were both willing to ban this event on their campuses just because they got a phone call from one man at the General Conference? Can no one stand up to Wilson?”
Loma Linda University School of Religion Professor Emeritus Dr. David Larson wrote on his Facebook page,
Bruinsma’s new book, Adventists and Catholics: The History of a Turbulent Relationship (Peter Lang Publishing), is a recently published reworking of Bruinsma’s doctoral dissertation. The book deals with the origins and history of anti-Catholicism among Seventh-day Adventists in North America. It is available on Amazon.
