GC EXCOM Spring Meeting: Ted Wilson Names New “Human Sexuality Task Force”
14 April 2023
On the first day of the General Conference Spring Meeting (April 10), Elder Ted Wilson announced that he is creating a “Human Sexuality Task Force.”
We’re going to talk to you about a very serious item for a few moments. We’re not going to spend a lot of time, and we’re not even going to open it for discussion. We organized what is called “Human Sexuality Task Force” to help our church members, and especially our younger church members, to understand what the Bible has to say about human sexuality. We are facing a huge onslaught of aggressive conditioning of people’s minds from social media, from culture, regarding LGBT and other aspects. We need to treat all people with respect, with love, with care. But, my dear brothers and sisters, what the Bible has to say is the most important. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has documented that it uses the historical-grammatical or historical-biblical approach to allowing the Bible to interpret itself. The Human Sexuality Task Force will be producing materials—and you need to know this so you will not surprised—they will be producing materials in small 60-second, 90-second sound bites, two-minute expositions, two-hour presentations, two-day summits, whatever it takes. We’re not going to be discussing this, we’re not voting on anything, we want you to be informed. And let me again remind you, we are to treat all people with respect, with love, with care, and to point them to Jesus Christ, who can make us all new creatures in him.
It seems likely that the task force is a response to the announcement by Pastor Saša Gunjević of the Hamburg-Grindelberg Adventist Church, in Northern Germany’s Hanseatic Conference, that he identifies as bisexual, followed by his conference’s decision that Pastor “Gunjević had not committed a disciplinary offense that would prevent him from continuing to exercise pastoral ministry.” This decision by Hanseatic occasioned a response from the General Conference—which appeared to have been ratified by all division presidents—that affirms gay change.
Rejecting the ability of God to transform the life of any person, even in seemingly impossible areas, is also rejecting the very doctrine of salvation. The ability of God to transform our lives is indisputable and those who are called by Him to be ministers must be seen in word and deed to uphold this truth. “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37, NKJV).
It’s not clear who will make up the task force, or why the delegates of the General Conference Executive Committee were not asked to vote on it.
Maurice Valentine, general vice president of the GC, has been named to lead the committee.
