21 June 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, People tell me that Ellen White didn’t plagiarize, because copying from other authors was a commonly accepted practice in Ellen White’s time. Is this true? Signed, Truth Seeker Dear Seeker, When in the 1970s Adventist scholars began to notice that significant amounts of Ellen White’s writings (in some […]
6 June 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, “Let go and let God.” I’ve heard this phrase frequently. People tout it as the answer to their prayers. It doesn’t work for me, no matter how I try to apply it to my life’s situations, nor can I find satisfactory examples in scripture. Is there, or is […]
30 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, This weekend was Memorial Day in the United States, when we are supposed to remember our servicemen and women who died fighting for our country. Every year on Memorial Day Sabbath in my church, an elderly veteran arranges for the uniformed Pathfinders to march in (with barked military […]
23 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Recently I’ve been hearing in vegan online groups that anything with cane sugar isn’t vegetarian because sugar is processed with bone char. Is this something I should be concerned about? Signed, Vegan with a Sweet Tooth Dear Sweet Tooth: Though Aunty isn’t vegan, she understands concerns about what’s […]
16 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy: I just recently read Aunt Sevvy’s response to a person who had issues with having a drug addict attending church with them. I have a related question. How should the church handle a person addicted to pornography, masturbation, or illicit sex? The church manual lists these as issues […]
9 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Is Jesus white, and are we black people a cursed race? Signed, Puzzled African Dear Puzzled: The short answer is an emphatic no, to both questions. Jesus was a Jew of the Levant, and though artists pictured him for centuries with European features, he undoubtedly had dark skin, […]
2 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Is detaching the Ukraine Union from the Euro-Asia Division and attaching it directly to the General Conference a good thing? What impact will the change have? Just Curious Dear Curious: According to the press release, “a 21-member Ukrainian Union Conference Oversight Committee, chaired by GC general vice president […]
25 April 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I’m a ministerial student. I have been urged that I should have a wife to get a call. Why won’t anyone date me? Signed, Lonely wannabe pastor Dear Lonely, When Aunty was in college, she remembers ministerial students being told that they needed a wife before they’d be […]
18 April 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy: We all know that Africa has seen the most growth of any region in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the entire world. Why, then, do we see so many fewer Africans representing and speaking for the church? For example, though I know there are many African theologians, I […]
Dear Aunt Sevvy: Is oral sex a sin? Signed, Consenting Adult Dear Consenting: Aunt Sevvy has addressed this before. You can read her response here. But since this keeps coming up, let me say again that the simple answer is no. The Bible doesn’t say anything about it either way, and what consenting spouses enjoy […]
4 April 2022 | Dear Aunty Sevvy, My 10-year-old (at the time) daughter was raped on her way from school by unknown men. We were born-again Christians and had been members of the Adventist church for over 18 years. I had specifically prayed and trusted God for my children’s protection every day. Since then, whenever […]
28 March 2022 | Dear Aunty: I want to marry an Adventist man. How can that happen? Signed, Someone to Share my Faith Dear Someone, You are not alone! There are many young (and not-so-young) people who want a spouse who shares their beliefs. Especially after a person has left formal Adventist education, the dating […]