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 […]
Comments of the Week May 26-June 1 “All our churches use this as the code I’m not even joking.” –Andrew Mod on SATIRE: Security Experts Warn Adventists to Stop Using 1844 as PIN Number Comments on PTSDA, Is This Religious Persecution?; SATIRE: Wilson Confirms Retirement, Promises Not to Manipulate GC Session Nominating Committee; Evangelist Says […]
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 […]
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 […]
26 May 2025 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I am so discouraged by the backbiting and manipulative behavior of Adventists that I want to just get away from it all. You’ve been a part of this denomination longer than I have, Aunty—how do you survive? I want to be a part of a loving Christian community. […]
Comments of the Week May 19-25 “Whenever I encounter something that makes God look cruel, I refer back to Jesus, who came to show us what God is like.” –Steve Tatum on Editing Out the Bible’s Horror Stories Comments on Why Don’t Liberals Write the Big Checks?, New Rules to Oversee Adventist Governance Meetings: Will […]
In 2000, when I was four years old, I attended my first General Conference (GC) session in Toronto, Canada. My grandfather was a respected church administrator and pastor for 50 years, allowing us a chance to be in the epicenter of the event. My first GC Session and those afterwards were experienced from the delegate […]
21 May 2025 | Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John 2 We Adventists say that we’re very interested in health. The extensiveness of Adventism’s hospital system is rivaled only by its educational system. It’s not uncommon for a health […]
19 May 2025 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, In Luke 21 where Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of time, he said, “They will put some of you to death” (v.16), followed by “not a hair of your head will perish” (v.18). What did Jesus mean by these seemingly contradictory statements? […]
Comments of the Week May 13-18 “When leaders cling to tradition and bad theology, a church becomes irrelevant.” –Janelle Smiley on Your Church Is Too Told Comments on Editorial, Can Adventists Use Condoms?, This, Right Here, Is Church, Members of the Dorcas Society Honored by Zambia’s President, & The Death of a Pope EDITORIAL: Your […]
Something you’ll often hear Adventists complain about is that there aren’t enough young people in our church. There are probably many reasons for that, but one that I’d like to explore has to do with who’s leading the church. The word to describe leadership by the oldest people is “gerontocracy.” Our General Conference (GC) is […]
14 May 2025 | Considering all the knowledge of the educated, well-read Adventists in the world today, the traditional concept of Divine inspiration seems inadequate. It doesn’t comport with: the best of our “inspired” descriptions of God’s actions on earth as seen, for example, in scientific thought and discoveries, expanded, nuanced theological/philosophical depictions of God, […]