30 December 2024 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Is there a path between regarding Ellen White as being as authoritative as Scripture, and seeing her as a plagiarist and fraud? Signed, Searching for a Middle Way Dear Searching, Yes, of course there is. But it would involve correcting some long-held attitudes that Seventh-day Adventists have about […]
Comments of the Week December 23-29 “Who bows down, or worships their Christmas tree? No more than you bow down or pray to your child’s picture. Common sense needs to be used in ALL things!” –-Barbara Clark Wassom on whether Jeremiah bans Christmas Trees Comments on Grief, Christmas Scolds, Aunt Sevvy, and Missing the Forest […]
I am happy when Adventists are spoken well of in the media, and for reasons that show us at our best. Recently United States senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia introduced legislation to rename the Veterans Affairs clinic in Lynchburg, Virginia, after Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, an Adventist conscientious objector whom […]
26 December 2024 | The New Testament contains only two accounts of the birth of Jesus, both dating to the 80s of the 1st century of the Christian Era. The first is in Matthew (1:18–2:23). the second in Luke (1:45a, 36–38; 2:1–40). Although these accounts are very different, for most of Christian history, including today, they […]
23 December 2024 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Why do people have Christmas trees, when Jeremiah 10:3-4 clearly warns against them? For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with […]
Comments of the Week December 9-15 “Why did our pioneers make it all about us, when it was clearly about the people who read it back then? This is the best ‘unpacking’ of Revelation in terms of the first century I’ve ever read.” –-Loren Seibold on Revelation Comments on Revelation, Pagan Christmas, Aunt Sevvy, and […]
In last week’s editorial, Loren Seibold wrote about not being an ex-Adventist. I am an ex-Adventist. I left the church about seven years ago, and I haven’t been back. Like most divorces, my break-up with the church was painful and bitter at first. I had a lot of anger and a lot of grief. It […]
18 December 2024 | Raising questions about what inspiration means is not new. Do you ever wonder how inspiration worked in a prophet? And were all biblical prophets inspired in the same way? In fact, are there different levels of inspiration? Take, for example, the narratives of the life of Jesus, or of the kings […]
16 December 2024 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Would it be wrong for me to leave the original Seventh-day Adventist Church and join an offshoot movement that has maintained our original standards? Signed, Seeker Dear Seeker, What people almost invariably mean when they say that want to find a church that maintains better Adventist “standards” is […]
Comments of the Week December 9-15 “I feel the outrage. And maybe worse, I feel shame that our church has drawn us away from the path of righteousness instead of proclaiming love, justice, and mercy.” –-Patti Purdy Hansen Tompkins on Christian Outrage Comments on being ex-Adventist, Fairies, Bunnies, and a Jolly Fat Man, Adventist Secrets, […]
There is little less attractive than someone who spends his or her life as an “ex.” Ex-spouse, ex-employee, or ex-Adventist—it doesn’t matter: it is unhealthy to spend your life having your identity be “the ex.” Yes, it’s hard to break free from a strong loyalty. You grieve. You regret. You may even fume and hate […]
11 December 2024 | How do we recognize the presence of God and the Holy Spirit—in the world, our communities, and ourselves? Is it an intellectual pursuit, an emotional encounter, or the fullness of life’s experience? Eduard Schweizer reminds us in The Holy Spirit that “we cannot capture him in anything like a mathematical formula.” Similarly, Clark […]