Loren Seibold
About Loren Seibold
Posts by Loren Seibold:
Editorial: “They Shall Deceive the Very Elect”
For there shall arise false christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24 I remember as a child reading about false christs and prophets. That last phrase, “They shall deceive the very elect” stuck in my brain. I […]
Exploring the 2025 General Conference Session Agenda
by Loren Seibold | 6 June 2025 | The 2025 General Conference Session agenda is out—and it’s a 94-page book. This document feels a bit like the credits at the end of a movie, or that software fine print that you click without reading: you know there is some important information there, but it’s not […]
St. Louis, We Have a Problem! Will denied visas and travel bans keep delegates away?
by Admiral Ncube | 5 June 2025 | Sometime early this year, a friend of mine told me that he had been nominated to be a delegate at the 62nd General Conference Session in St Louis. He was excited! However, a few days ago when I talked to him, he was distraught. He had done […]
Dr. Gina Spivey-Brown Begins New Role as President of Oakwood University
by Greg Dunn | 5 June 2025 | The Oakwood University Board of Trustees two months ago selected the highly accomplished Dr. Gina Spivey-Brown, Ph.D., RN, MSA, FAAN, FNAP, FADLN, as its 12th president – and the first woman to lead the storied institution. In the weeks since, Dr. Brown has been engaged in completing her […]
ATSS: Malcolm Russell, “How Do We Choose What’s Right in a “WEIRD” Culture?”
4 June 2025 | What makes something wrong? In his favorably reviewed book The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt challenges both the wisdom of the ages and our current ideas. Though a secular evolutionary psychologist, he argues that when we make moral decisions, instincts often triumph over reason. Haidt then presents real consequences for politics: for […]
Social Activism: A Recessive Trait in Adventist DNA
by Tyler Kraft | 3 June 2025 | When I was in high school, I struggled mightily with biology: it was a sea of confusing terms and concepts that never seemed to click. But I understood genetics: Punnett squares, dominant traits, and recessive genes all clicked. As a pastor I haven’t had much reason to […]
I’m so tired of hearing how we are the only true believers, and the rest aren’t!
2 June 2025 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I’m a baptized Adventist in Africa, and I have been wrestling with Adventist teachings: I think that we are too rule-based and treat Christianity more as a religion, and not a relationship with Jesus. And we are very judgmental of other Christian churches. I don’t want to leave […]
Editorial: PTSDA
Not long ago I talked to a woman who had suffered a lot growing up as a Seventh-day Adventist. The abuse wasn’t physical. It was spiritual. She was one of those people (I am another) whose parents and teachers drilled down on all the awful things that were about to happen to Adventists: persecution, our […]
Is This Religious Persecution?
Loren Seibold | 29 May 2025 | I was interested to read of a recent (April) action by the Rushmoor Borough Council (a region southwest of London, England, that includes the cities of Aldershot and Farnborough) to restrict the activities of street evangelists. The ban included “Praying, whether with outstretched arms or otherwise, for anyone […]
ATSS: Landon Schnabel, “There and Back Again: Religious Change from Sectarian Roots to Spiritual Quest”
28 May 2025 | Religious change seldom follows a predictable, linear path. Instead, it moves in cycles—shifting between intensity and routine, separation and accommodation, institutional authority and personal authenticity. Institutions oscillate between radical fervor and bureaucratic stability, while individuals navigate periods of deep commitment and disengagement. Generational shifts increasingly reflect a move from institutional belonging […]
Are Christians Guilty of Political Opportunism?
by Robert Crux | 27 May 2025 | Jesus, throughout his ministry, was on the side of the poor and exploited. Yet Christian politicians in 2025 America seem to have forgotten that. When political leaders use religion to try to justify policies that hurt women, children, immigrants, and the vulnerable; when Christianity justifies racism, xenophobia, […]