30 January 2023 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Given that our church teaches a short human history timeline, how does it explain such wide differences in racial features? Signed, Racially puzzled Dear Puzzled, You ask a question that is loaded with controversy—and the classic Adventist explanation is a bit embarrassing. It has to do with Noah’s […]
9 January 2023 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Was the tabernacle in the wilderness a literal copy of one in heaven? Or is it all just symbolic? Signed, Really Wondering Dear Wondering: You pose a provocative question, because the difference between the real and the symbolic is an overdue discussion in Adventism. Seventh-day Adventist eschatology has […]
26 December 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I was married to an Adventist for 25 years of total mismatch—emotionally unavailable. Then I dated non-Adventists, and met my current husband of 4 years, a Jewish man. This marriage? Sexual betrayal. Pornography addiction. Narcissistic emotional abuse. I’ve spent over $30,000 in therapy to work on myself. Now […]
19 December 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Our Thanksgiving dinner was a disaster. We expected a happy gathering around the table with everyone feeling gratitude, but my father hijacked it by lashing out at the table with political topics and dumb conspiracy theories about vaccinations and the 2020 election. Several of us tried to change […]
12 December 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I keep hearing of more preachers who have bypassed theological training (undergraduate and seminary) and have somehow managed to be hired after a few months of an evangelistic training course. Some conferences hire only such candidates, which makes me wonder if there’s a reason—or if we are just […]
5 December 2022 | Dear Aunty I recently attended one of our churches where the majority of the congregation was of a different ethnicity than myself. The coldness was shocking. Not even a handshake was extended to me. I felt like some made a conscious effort to avoid me. Are we not all brothers and […]
28 November 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Why is Christmas never as relaxed and enjoyable as it is portrayed in the movies and sung about in popular songs? I was introduced to family Christmas when dating my now-husband. I quickly learned that the preparations are stressful, and the tension rises. The family dinner seems to […]
22 November 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, What do you think about the mass mailings of The Great Controversy? Or the “mission trips” where they leave the book on people’s doors? I’m not convinced it’s an effective witnessing technique. People don’t need new fears of the end times as much as they need reassurance. Why […]
14 November 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Would it be better for me to marry a Seventh-day Adventist man even if he’s not my ideal man, or a man who isn’t Seventh-day Adventist but has the qualities I’m looking for? Signed, Searching Dear Searching, When Aunty was young, she was told that Adventists should always […]
7 November 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I like our pastor, and his wife is a nice person, except for this: she doesn’t help out enough in church. I asked her once why she doesn’t always bring food for fellowship dinner, and why she won’t teach an occasional children’s class, and she said that being […]
31 October 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Genesis 3:6 says that Eve gave the forbidden fruit to her husband who was with her. Patriarchs & Prophets (pp. 53-56) paints a different picture: that Eve wandered away from her husband and his sensible control over her, so that she was alone at the tree—and when she […]
24 October 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I knew when I married my husband that he had grown up hunting with his family. I just didn’t know how important it was to him. Every year there are a few weeks of big get-together hunts with his father and brothers and brother-in-law, with lots of camaraderie […]