“I Have Not Left My Church. My Church Has Left Me”
22 November 2022
RE: I Have Not Left My Church. My Church Has Left Me, by Hannele Ottschofski, Nov. 17, 2022:
Ms. Ottschofski makes some good points. But her perspective seems a bit short-sighted. Things have changed, often for the better, in the Seventh-day Adventist Church; they have, in fact, changed a great deal.
The Adventist church of the 50s had schools where girls were made to wear only dresses to class, could not be seen with a boy after dark, and could be kicked out for wearing jewelry or too-short skirts.
The church of the 50s did not allow the wearing of wedding rings, and a pastor could be fired for baptizing a woman with her wedding ring on.
The church of the 50s had, as its most ubiquitous set of children’s books, endless stories that told of disobedient children and the terrible consequences that came of their disobedience. Very few were stories of grace.
The church of the 50s removed tithe from some salaries so as to be sure the recipient wouldn’t get away with stiffing the Lord, and so the church would have its coffers filled.
The church of the 50s had boarding schools that often made the Sabbath a burden by insisting on overly strict and sometimes senseless rules and mandatory religious meetings.
The church of the 50s developed vegetarian canned food heavy on salt and saturated fat, and called it “health food.”
The church of the 50s required its pastors and churches to keep strict records of the number of pieces of literature handed out, the number of Bible studies given, the number of attendees, the number of baptisms, the number of days a member studied their Sabbath School lesson that week, and other stultifying, legalistic means of measuring “success” or one’s religiosity.
The church of the 60s had its members drive around at Christmastime in cars topped with loudspeakers blaring the King’s Heralds singing canned Christmas carols while other members went door to door asking the besieged residents for donations.
The church of the 50s encouraged women in general to choose one of just two fields: nursing or primary-school teaching. If you flunked out of those two, you could be a secretary.
The church of the 50s did not allow women to be church elders, or children to partake of the Communion emblems.
Talk about masculine Christianity and patriarchy! Maybe the church Hannele Ottschofski feels has left her is really a church that has grown a great deal, but is simply anxious to hold onto a few traditional values in a world that has “progressed” into non-binary gendering, same-sex “marriage,” child mutilation in the name of “gender-affirming care,” and a bitterly divisive race consciousness.
Maybe a little patience, gratitude, and understanding is in order?
Janine Colburn
Loma Linda, California
