Spectrum Editorial Board Consulting Editors

Editor Beverly Beem Koren Bottomley EdnoMoyeLcweJe. EngHsb, OJair History EngHsb Roy Branson Walla Walla College Canadian Ulion College La Sierra Umvenity Bonnie L. Edward Lugenbeal Roy Benton c_,. Antbropology Malhematical Sdeooes Wriler/Editor Atlantic Union College Senior Editor Columbia Union College Wasbiogtoo, D.C. Donold R. McAda.,. TomDybdahl Roy Branson Raymond Cottrell Presideol Ethics, Kennedy losl!tule 1beology McAdams, Faillace, and Assoc. Georgetown University Loma Uoda, California ClorkDovlo Ronald Numbera Assistant Editor Joy c-ano Colelnlln History of Medicine Freelance Wriler History Chip Cassano University ofWiscoosin- Federalsburg, Maryland La Sierra Uliversity Lawrence Geraty BenjomlnReoveo MoUcurU& Couper.­ President Pbysician President Book Review Editor oaicwood College St. Helena, California La Sierra Ulivenity Gary Chartier Fritz Guy Gerhard Svrc:ek.Seiler Gene Dotrorn Psycbiatrist Pbysician Theology Vienna, Austria Frederick, Maryland La Sierra Uliversity Production Helen Word Thompoon Bonnie Dwyer K.orl Hall Educational Administration Joumallsm Doctoral Candidate Chip Cassano College Place, Washington Folsom, California Harvard Unhoersity F. E. Harder LouloVenden TomDybdohl J, Religion Student Educational Administration Editorial Assistants Loma Uoda University University of Peoosylvaoia Law School College Place, Washington Alita Byrd Nor~n~~n Young Gary Land DovldLIII'SOil New Testament Krista Knapp History, Cbsir Director, Ethics Cenler Avondale College Andrews University Loma Uoda University Rennie Schoepnln History, Cbsir La Sierra University Charles Sc:riven President Columbia Union College Association of Adventist Forums

OJT~eers Directors Regional Representatives

President or Campus Relations Atlantic Lake LeoPIUon Kendra HaloYiok Gary Gilbert Donold Gillespie Vice President Doctoral Candidate Instructor Heallbcate Administrator Adventist Heallbcare Mid-Atlantic Graduate Theological Union Harvard Medical School Berrien Springs, Micbigao Vloe President Of Development Canadian (East) Norlhero Pacific Brent Geraty Ronald M. Smith Todd Coupland Soulhero Attorney Develop1oent lnvesbneot Analyst Robert Hale Bcetoo, Massachusetts Porllaod, Oregon Toronto, Canada Certified Public Accountant Executive Secretary Of International Relations Canadian (West) Atlanta, Georgia Mory Halovlak Walter Douglas Bruce Buttler Soulhem Pacific Admioislllltive Secretary Cburcb History, Cbair Deau, Science Division Jim Kaatz Silver Spring, Marylaud Andrews University Canadian Union College Education Treasurer Of Marketing Central Lakeside, California NaneyKiuge Patricia Salcedo Williams Kay Clayton Business, Cbsir Marketing Cleburne, Texas Staff Columbia Union College Sacra~oento, California Central Pacific Legal Coosultaot Editoc Of Special Projects Michael Saucedo Bradley Litchfield RoyBranoon AdamRcee Legal Analyst Attorney Ethics, Keuoedy Institute Student Sacra~oento, California Washington, D.C. Georgetown University Harvard University Law School Columbia

SPECTRUM is a journal established to encourage Seventh-day Adventist Editorial CorrespOndence: SPEC/RUM is published by the Association of participation in the discussion of contemporary issues from a Ouistian viewpoint, Adventist Forums. Direct all editorial correspondence to SPECTRUM, PO Box 5330, to look without prejudice at all sides of a subject to evaluate the merits of diver.;e Takoma Park, Maryland 20913; Fax:(301) 270-2814. Manuscripts should be typewrit­ views, and to foster Ouistian inteUectual and culrural growth. Although effort is ten, double spaced, Of' on Macintosh disks. Please include a self-

© 1997 All rights reserved Litho USA Vol. 26, No. 1, January 1997

FROM 1HE EDITOR

Bringing the Dead to Life 2

ARTICLES SDA Hero Saves Jews From Nazis 3 Marta Fuchs Winik recounts how an unarmed Hungarian Adventist army officer saved the lives of 140 prisoners.

SPECIAL SECTION TEACHERS AND STUDENTS Ottilie StaHord-creator of Worlds 10 Norman Wendth profiles the teacher who transformed her students' worlds. Growing Up on Zion's Holy Mountain 13 Delmer Davis remembers Pacific Union College and Graham Maxwell's reasonable God.

Merge 14 Colleges Into Two? Yes! 20 Frank Knittel sounds the call for heroic action now. Merge 14 College Into Two? No! 29 Lawrence Geraty argues that diversity best serves the church's mission. The Art of Teaching the Bible 36 Ron Jolliffe's students respond artistically to Scripture.

The Unembarrassed Adventist 40 Charles Scriven says Adventist professors should initiate students into conflict.

DEPARTMENTS Reviews 51 Adventist English professors savage books on the New York Times best seller list.

Responses 59 Readers respond to reports on Rwanda, Atlantic Union College, and creationist pilgrims in Carolina. FROM THE EDITOR

Bringing the Dead To Life

ell, Mr. Branson, if you're going to insist introducing them to a reasonable, accepting God. A on disagreeing with the rest of the class, professor reports that Walla Walla students are W why don't you come up to the front and startled, then enriched by artistic responses to defend yourself?" Scripture. From La Sierra University, we hear a My freshman composition teacher, Ottilie Stafford, debate raging over the fundamental structure of had assigned an essay for us to read. In class that Adventist colleges in North America, while Charles morning, she peppered us with questions, insisting on Scriven, the president of Columbia Union College, discussion. We struggled to analyze seriously the almost demands that Adventist colleges produce string of metaphors the essayist used to characterize partisans engaged in conflicts of ideas. the United States Constitution, including the Constitu­ tion as a dock to which the Ship of State could be eachers are asked to do the impossible. Despite tied. I became more and more convinced that the TAmerican youth typically being excited only about author was making fun of writers who use overblown the present, teachers are expected to stretch their language to express their religious-like devotion to the students' minds to encompass the past. The scientific Constitution, and finally said so. I hadn't counted on community assumes that the young will master the the tall, redheaded professor I had barely met chal­ longest-standing theories of what is and has been for lenging me to withdraw my views or support them, to a very long time. The nation demands that students put up or shut up. I'll never forget the fear and remember how it came to be a great civilization. The exdtement of that march to front of the class. I was church insists that those enrolled in Adventist schools amazed at what was going on. be exposed to-and care about-the memories of The word education just sits there-the very Hebrews and Christians written down over millennia. essence of boring. It is like civics, another word that Great teachers are totally undaunted. They do not brings yawns. (Politics, on the other hand, sounds drone on with endless facts about the long ago and like personality conflicts, public debates, boisterous far away. They shock the present with the past. They campaigns, parades, money, power-many different ridicule commonplace assumptions, rescue imagina­ things, both good and bad, but none of them tions from the trivial, bring students into the pres­ boring.) Instead of education to describe the special ence of the wisest, most fascinating personalities the section of this issue, we hoped "Teachers and world has known. Great teachers overwhelm the Students" would suggest the vivid personalities, the trash of the present with the vividness of humanity's conversations, the debates, the defeats and victories most enduring visions. In the presence of great that form the drama of college experience. Conse­ teachers, the forgotten and dead live again. Students quently, this issue includes profiles by former are astonished and transformed. In the presence of students revealing Ottilie Stafford stirring up Atlantic great teachers, students experience a resurrection. Union College and Graham Maxwell saving the faith of undergraduates at Pacific Union College by -Roy Branson

2 VoLUlfE 26, NuMBER 1 ARTICLES

SDA Hero Saves Jews From Nazis

An unarmed Hungarian Adventist army officer leads 140 Jewish prisoners to freedom.

by Marta Fuchs Winik

Y FATHER MET ZoLTAN KumNYr, THE MAN his holster. who saved his life and then lost his The labor battalion, number 108/52, was M own, in the spring of 1944. Like other composed ofJewish men from northeast Hun­ Hungarian Jewish men of military age during gary. That spring they were situated in Russia's the Holocaust, my father was taken in 1940 to Bryanszk Forest, which was occupied by the a forced-labor battalion, part of the Nazi-allied German forces for whom they worked. In Hungarian army. It would be five years before Hungarian, my father told me what happened he returned home to Tokaj-the sole survivor there: in his family. In that same spring of 1944, his brother, two sisters, and all their children, By the time Zoltan Kubinyi came to us, many men, especially the older ones, had died from malnu­ along with the majority of Hungarian Jews, trition and the harsh conditions. In the forest, were deported to Auschwitz, where, in the some of the men had made contact with the euphemism of survivors, "they remained." partisans, who said, "Listen, why don't you just Zoltan Kubinyi was in his early 40s when overpower your guards, steal their rifles, and join he was my father's commanding officer. He us?" A heated discussion ensued among the men in the labor camp and people took various sides. was a Seventh-day Adventist. He had fought I was opposed to the idea. I and a few others against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, pleaded with the rest to stay and not endanger us. and now was a conscientious objector. My I said, "Here are these men, these guards. They father remembers that he never wore a gun in haven't done anything bad; they're just here on duty. The other thing is, look, there are a number Marta Fuchs Winik is a licensed marriage andfamily thera­ of people here who are in poor health. Some are pist in Albany, California. This essay is excerpted from an malnourished or sickly or not walking very well. upcoming book, by Winik and Henry Fuchs, entitled Frag­ They wouldn't be able to keep up with us healthy ments of a Family: A Multigenerational Memoir. Tbe essay ones. Aren't we endangering their lives inordi­ appeared in a shortenedform in Christian Century, November nately by taking them out of this difficult but 13, 1996, and appears here with permission. orderly place and running into the forest?" jANUARY 1997 3 SPECTRUM------

So, there was no general uprising. But a few days ters, he married an Adventist woman. A little more later, a couple of men who were driving the than a year later, in May 1944, he was drafted into wagons went to town to get supplies and never military service as a lieutenant. returned. The following day we went out to work, and 20 men didn't come back. All of them went The Jewish prisoners noticed that Kubinyi took an over to the partisans. The next day, again, be­ interest in our religious practices. On Yom Kippur tween 20 and 25 men disappeared. The com­ we worked like every other day, and of course we manding officer said, "The results of this are not all fasted. He came out to the fields and fasted going to be pretty. I'm going to headquarters and with us and allowed us to pray during breaks. asking for authorization for decimation." That Somehow he managed to arrange an extra ration meant they would line us up and shoot every of food for us that evening. tenth man. After the commanding officer left, we were kept inside the compound, not allowed to My best friend, Isaac Guttman, was this short, work out in the forest. All day we waited anx­ little, thin boy, very weak constitutionally, but a iously, not knowing who among us would be great scholar, very educated and cultured. He was killed when the commander returned. also a rabbinical student, very knowledgeable in Judaism. And someone called the commanding Well, on the officer's way to Gamel, where the officer's attention to this man, that he was physi­ headquarters of the German command was lo­ cally weak. He didn't eat anything at all because cated, his horse bolted in fright when a truck he was strictly kosher. He only ate bread and jam approached, running the wagon into the ditch. The and margarine. He lived on this for years. officer was thrown out and broke his leg. Another commanding officer was sent out to replace him So the commanding officer appointed him the and came later that day in the same wagon. The camp rabbi, and he didn't have to go out to work. driver, one of the Jewish men, explained the Instead, once on Sunday or Saturday, I no longer situation to him. As soon as the officer arrived, he remember, he had to deliver a speech. He would called us together and said, "I have heard what has prepare it very nicely and quote something from happened here. I can certainly understand people's the Torah, and he would speak to us about that motivation for trying to escape. But you have to in Hungarian. That was the extent of his duties. He understand that I cannot shield you from the was the camp clergyman. consequences of attempting to do so. If you will all stop trying to escape, I will try to protect you." One morning when we were being marched Everyone agreed to that, and from that first day, along a road and took a break, we all put on our things were better. teftllin and started our morning prayers. Suddenly we saw some soldiers and officers coming toward Kubinyi was very different from all the command­ us in trucks. We quickly took the teftllin off and ing officers we had before him. The rest had been put them away, but my friend Isaac Guttman just cruel and treated us horribly. Under Kubinyi we continued to pray. We urged him to stop, and told still worked long, hard days with little food. But he him that he was putting all of us in danger. So, our was kind and respectful to us. He protected us commanding officer had this young Jew sit in the against the German orders for abusive physical covered transport in his place, so that he could labor by negotiating on our behalf. He always saw finish his prayers and not be caught. Our com­ to it that we had humane lodging and enough food. manding officer marched alongside us as the group of soldiers passed without a problem. Years later we learned that he had been chris­ tened in 1937 in Barcelona, and became a mem­ The commanding officer was such a fine man. ber of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. During When somebody was smoking on Saturday he the civil war in Spain, there were barely 2,000 would say, "Why are you smoking on Saturday? Adventists and times were difficult. In 1942 he This is forbidden by your religion, that there returned home and officially became an Adventist should be smoking on Saturday." When his boots in the Hungarian Adventist church. He worked as were in the workshop to be repaired, if they a colporteur, then served as director of the weren't ready on Friday, he would send his religious liberty department. In January 1943, in servant to bring his boots because he didn't want the Szekely B. chapel in the Adventist headquar- Jews to work on his boots on Saturday.

4 VoLrnm 26, NuMBER 1 ------THEjOURNAL oF THE AssociA170N oF AnVEN77sr FoRuMs

Once when we were clearing a big forest, moving help us. Finally, in the middle of one night, we trees that had been felled, a German officer-we awoke to whispering and quiet movements. were working closely with the German army­ Kubinyi whispered, with great agitation, "Come shouted to us, "One man, one tree!" Well, it's very quickly and quietly. We need to leave in a hurry." hard to carry a big log by yourself. Our com­ Some of the men had gotten the military police­ mander told the German officer, "It's faster if a men nice and drunk, and when they finally fell man is on each end." Of course, he didn't say that asleep Kubinyi came to get us so we could escape. it was also easier for the men. In such ways he We walked and ran as fast as we could the entire would intercede to make everyday work a bit night in the opposite direction. easier for us. After two or three days, we arrived in a big city, Finally, he received orders to march us toward Balasgyarmat, where we could hear the booming Germany to a concentration camp. But he sabo­ of cannons. The Soviet military forces were very taged the orders and marched us in the opposite close and our liberation was imminent. All around direction, back to Hungary. He arranged to have us we heard the explosion of bombs. The people us hidden in farmhouses along the way. At one of the city were gathered in the bomb shelters and point we hid on a farm near the city of Miskolc. cellars. Kubinyi took care of us and sheltered us Our group of now approximately 140 Jewish men in different cellars as well. Nobody could sleep did farm work for which we received food and because we were all frightened as the war noises lodging. We had worked there for a few weeks came closer and closer. when Hungarian military policemen, under Ger­ man orders, appeared and arrested us all. Appar­ At daybreak the noises subsided, and we awoke to ently some neighbors had reported seeing us. the voices of soldiers speaking Russian. We care­ fully emerged from the cellar and realized that the . Kubinyi was helpless to protect us from the all­ town was being liberated, that the war was over. A powerful military police. They ordered us to group of Russian soldiers turned into the yard. march immediately in the direction of Germany. They knew who we were because they saw our We marched for a few difficult and exhausting yellow armbands with the labor camp numbers, days. At night we lodged in village stables. During and they were very friendly to us. They went from this time, Kubinyi was always with us and tried to house to house to look for German soldiers.

The Case of Zofia and Jakub Gargasz he case of Zofia and Jakub recovered .... [However], accord­ health, he too is an accomplice to T Gargasz illustrates the German ing to paragraph 1 of police regu­ the act of sheltering her. ... As the tendency to methodical neatness, and lations ... , it was forbidden for the law allows only for the death a meticulous clinging to written law Jewess Katz to be found in penalty for extending aid to Jews, Brzezow after December 1, 1942. this too must be imposed on the and regulations without regard to ... Therefore, the moment the husband. In accordance with para­ their moral implications. They were defendant woman decided, in spite graph 465 (St. Po.), the defen­ discovered sheltering an aged Jewish of this, to keep the Jewess in her dants must bear the court costs. woman in Brzezow, Poland, after home, she is guilty as charged (in she fled from a nearby ghetto. Let us accordance with paragraph 312 of follow the logic of the verdict by the above) .... It is therefore neces­ In this particular case, Nazi gover­ learned court judges (two of whom sary to impose on the defendant nor Hans Frank commuted the death sported Ph.D. titles), as it appears in woman the only penalty which penalty to life imprisonment, and the official court minutes: the law provides--the death pen­ two defendants survived the concen­ alty. As for the defendant's hus­ tration camps. band, he too must bear this pen­ The defendant woman claims that alty, for the moment he discov­ as an Adventist, her religion for­ ered the Jewess in his home and · bids expelling a sick person from did not expel her immediately Reprinted by permission of Shelter­ one's home. This compelled her but, on the contrary, together with ing the jews, by Mordecai Paldiel, to keep the Jewess until she had his wife nursed the Jewess back to copyright© 1996 Augsburg Fortress. jANUARY 1997 5 SPECTRUM ______

Suddenly the streets were fllled with people. From job and could now provide for herself and the everywhere Hungarian soldiers and the forced­ child. At the same time, she wrote that she had labor camp members came out of hiding. Hungar­ received word from Russia that her husband had ian soldiers were scurrying to quickly change into died in a labor camp in Siberia. civilian clothes and hide among the peasants so as not to be caught. We warned and pleaded with hen my father first recounted these Kubinyi to do the same. But he refused, saying, W events almost 10 years ago, he was "No, I will not. I haven't done anything wrong. I embarrassed and ashamed that he could not have nothing to be ashamed of. I am proud to have saved the lives of you men. I'm an honorable remember his commanding officer's name. "It member of the Hungarian Officer Corp. I'm proud was more than 40 years ago," I said, but that to be a member of the Hungarian Army. Nothing was little comfort to him. "But here is his will happen to me." As the Russian soldiers came picture," he said, pulling from his files an old to arrest him, we pleaded with them as well, envelope with the black-and-white photo­ protesting, "This is a good man! He saved our lives!" They would not listen and took him away. graph he had received decades earlier and which he had packed along with the barest of The Russians gathered all of us in a city square. essentials when we escaped from Hungary in The labor camp men and those in civilian clothes the wake of the 1956 revolution. Never had I were separated into one group, and those wear­ seen this picture before. Never before had we ing uniforms into another. They took our group to a sugar factory in the nearby city ofHatvan, where discussed in detail what had happened to my we worked for a couple of days until our dis­ father during the Holocaust. charge papers were completed and we were set I turned to him with resolve. "We must find free. The group in military uniforms, including out his name. We must have him honored at Kubinyi, was taken to Russia. Yad Vashem as a Righteous Gentile." In the Some of the men knew he had a wife and child midst of all the horror, this one man acted at living in Budapest. We took turns sending her great personal risk to save his fellow human packages of food, for life was hard for everyone beings. The world must know. after the war. These monthly packages went on My father began writing. Perhaps one of his for a year or more, and I remember that each time labor camp friends might remember. Perhaps it was my turn she wrote me a nice thank-you note. With one of these she included a picture of the one in New York or the other in Budapest. him. In response to the last package, she said not A few months later both wrote back. Unfortu­ to send any more because she had found a good nately, neither could remember the name, but Morton and Uona Fuchs at their 50th wedding anniversary (February 11, 1996). both sent their own recollections testifying to the officer's goodness. One also mentioned that he had written to another labor camp friend in Hungary. Perhaps he would remem­ ber. Several months later my father called to say he had received a letter that day. The commanding officer's name was Zoltan Kubinyi. We quickly prepared the documentation and included the testimony of my father's friend Isaac Guttman as a required witness. In his letter to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Me­ morial Museum in Jerusalem, my father summed up his testimony with the following words: "Zoltan Kubinyi was a true human

6 VoLU\1E 26, NuMBER 1 ------THE joURNAL oF mE AssociATION oF ADVENTlST FoRuMs being in the deepest sense of the word. During ceived the Medallion of Honor on behalf of his this catastrophic event, when civilized, intelli­ father, posthumously honored as a "Righteous gent people were blinded with irrational ha­ Among the Nations." A tree had also been tred, and innocent people, mothers with ba­ planted in Zoltan Kubinyi's memory in the bies in their arms were slaughtered, HE WAS Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. A MAN. Risking his own life, he stood up for and defended the innocent persecuted people. n May 1994, at the 50th anniversary com­ The memory of Zoltan Kubinyi deserves the I memoration in Tokaj in memory of the highest honor that a person could possibly Tokaj Jews who were destroyed in 1944, I receive for his altruistic, heroic, and self­ spoke about Zolt

8 VoLLME 26, NuMBER 1 ------THEjouRNAL oF mE AssociA110N oF AnVEN7Isr FoRuMs didn't have a father, that his mother quit her job tion, as if he had made peace with it all, "I, too, and, as a result, he had to quit school and start have often thought about this question. I think working at age 14," his wife explained. "And his he didn't take off his uniform because he was mother became quite fanatical, praying all the such a religious man, always honest, never time for her husband's return. My husband has lied. And to take it off would have been to lie. been a bus driver in Miskolc for many years. He He hadn't done anything wrong, so why has worked hard all his life. That's how he should he take off the uniform?" knows how to do everything, like all the We looked at each other, trying to absorb building that we are doing on our house," his those events and the repercussions they have wife proudly stated. "And I do the letter writing had in our lives. Silently, the Kubinyis pulled he doesn't like to do," she added, chuckling. out the certificate of commendation and the Finally, I asked the crucial question that had heavy silver medallion and placed them in been haunting me for years: "Why didn't your front of me. As I started to pass them around father take off his uniform and save himself as to the others at the table, Mrs. Kubinyi reached he had saved so many others? Was it his into her purse and took out a photograph. It feeling of honor as a military officer and a showed Zoltan Kubinyi with his wife, a lovely deeply religious man? Was it pride in having young couple, smiling and looking radiant. used his Nazi-allied uniform for the higher "Please have this from us," she said. good? Did he really believe that nothing I have shown the picture and told the story would happen to him-that the Russians would of Zoltan Kubinyi to my son. When my daugh­ follow the Geneva Convention protocols for ter is older, I will tell her the same: "This is the humane treatment of prisoners of war? Was it man who saved your Grandpa's life. Like him, principle above pragmatics? Did his funda­ you too can act with courage and goodness. mental respect for others, the honesty, integ­ Though hatred and prejudice still permeate rity, and conviction that must have compelled the world, you can make a difference. And his him to act with such courage, transcend any example can provide you with comfort and consideration for himself and his family?" inspiration, as it does for me. And it can give The son answered, simply and with resigna- you hope for creating a better world to come."

jANUARY 1997 9 SPECIAL SECTION: TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Ottilie Stafford­ Creator of Worlds

They came as Goldwater Republican chemists and left as reforming English teachers. by Norman Wendth

STARTED COLLEGE AS A CHEMISTRY MAJOR close to overwhelmed. (occasionally calling math a second major). Close to, I said. Actually, the class was I I had enjoyed science in high school, and confusing but glorious. It was confusing my parents were pleased with the practical because, as I believe is true with most great direction my education was taking. They teachers, Ottilie Stafford seemed much more dreamed of a financially comfortable son; I interested in how we were growing than in the envisioned myself in a white lab coat with a facts we were learning, and I was not alone in Texaco pocket protector, mixing bubbling, feeling confused when parroting the "right colored liquids by day and reading great answer" no longer proved enough. We were books by night. Then, in the honors section of expected to thoroughly master all assignments, Freshman Composition, I met Ottilie Stafford. of course, but not because Tbe Grapes of Students never accused Stafford of coddling Wrath was going to be on the Graduate them. The first (and easiest) book we read that Record Exam. Rather, for Stafford, ideas like year was]. B. Phillips' Your God Is Too Small; "academics" and "integrity" were part of the soon we were wrestling with Joseph Wood ethical fibers of her very being, and we were Krutch's Tbe Desert Year, with Alan Paton's expected to feel-and perform-likewise. Cry, the Beloved Country, and with the In my own case, Stafford kept pushing me difference between ].B. and Archibald to be more honest and less glib in my reactions MacLeish's biblical original, job. I still find to class reading. In responses to an essay on most of those books challenging; at 17, I was ethics in public life (Walter Lippmann?), I wrote a long, smug essay demonstrating the Norman Wendth, chair ofthe English department at Atlantic Protestant roots of Goldwater conservatism Union College, in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, received his and arguing its resulting ethical and spiritual Ph .D.from Claremont Graduate School. A graduate ofAtlan­ tic Union College, be is editing a collection ofessays honoring superiority. Years later I still wince at the word Ottilie Stafford. oversimplified; in Stafford's distinctive red

10 VoLCME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS scrawl at the end of that early essay, it inspired I hadn't known were there-which, in turn, a terror I had never before known. (Most of my proved to be thresholds to even newer and classmates remember the phrase "be concrete larger mental universes. Others may have and specific" appearing in their nightmares.) called the author of their confusion "rotten, After I slipped a quick, angry protest note mean, and hateful" (Stafford's favorite quote under her office door, I plunged back into my when she's being self-deprecating), but I never own thought processes, determined to prove heard any student actually say so. I began to myself complex and sophisticated. I only see her as a charismatic, intellectual liberator. emerged breathless and red-faced at the And I finally wrote a successful college essay. immensity of my own naivete. Not only were It argued that real education cannot give a my parents' Adventism and Eisenhower's student the means to grow, without first Republicanism not identical, but I hadn't really destroying the illusions that had been holding understood either one. I don't remember him back. The essay was clearly auto­ Stafford actually trying to talk me out of my biographical; it was also the very first time I youthful enthusiasm for Goldwater; I clearly ever really stopped to ask myself why I was in remember her pushing me to think critically, college. Happily, I not only received my first not only as an academic necessity but also as "A" from Stafford (all right, all right, it was an an issue of character. "A-"), I also started a thinking process I have not yet concluded. tafford's classes gave me the dizzying sense One less immediate result was that in my Sthat doors were opening into entire worlds junior year I became an English major. Judging

he grand apocalypse moves from the Stafford-In Her Own Words T factual world of geographically lo­ cated cities to a geography filled with othing in my childhood or youth warmed by the obvious affection be­ unreal beasts, symbolic women, and N would have led me to believe that tween students and teacher. The teacher polarized cities, where all humanity is women were made to be silent, invisible, was now alive with a quickness and wound on two spools of good and evil. and submissive .... In the New York confidence that stimulated the students' In the perfect city is gathered the Conference, my mother for several years thinking. One community of memory perfect society. As evil deepens in the was in charge of the Sabbath school had nurtured a person who was fostering earthly society portrayed in the Apoca­ department. For an even longer period, another that would, in tum, shape the lypse, the contrast with goodness is height­ Mabel Vreeland was a district leader. memories of the future .... ened. Gradually the society governed by Although Miss Vreeland loved young -Scales Lecture, Pacific Union Col­ the beast becomes unnatural, ghastly, people, we ran when we saw her ap­ lege, 1980 filled with groans and the sound of weep­ proaching, not because we disliked her, ing. Everything is lurid. And like the but because her handshake was so dy­ would hope ... that your lives will be nightmare world it has become, the natu­ namic we feared for our elbows and I filled with the excitement of curiosity, ral world turns grotesque: insects fill the shoulders. the hunger and thirst for knowledge, the air, water is blood, the heavens speak of -"On Mislaying the Past" (Spectrum, keen delight in the quest, that you will doom, leaders of the society think only of Vol. 15, No. 4) be driven from question to question as warfare. Horror grows until God's people you learn and find answers, that the are called to come out of the dreadful [recall] an English major who ... was mysterious and the inexplicable will night and the violence of Babylon. Then I a plodder, not brilliant at all, never always be there, that you will be freed the contrasting society is pictured. Groan­ impressive, doing only barely adequate from the familiar and the trite, that you ing and weeping are replaced by song; work. We debated every semester whether will be neither fool nor pedant, but will messages of doom followed by shouts of or not we should advise the student to so combine imagination and knowledge praise; suffering and violence end and the change majors or at least not to plan to that you will have the power to change splendid city is filled with order and love. teach English. . . . your personal worlds and the worlds ... The Christian's chief responsibility is to The student finished college . . . and around you. become a visionary and a revolutionary. did indeed become a teacher. Not long -Commencement Address, Cana­ - "Tbe Bible As Visionary Power" ago I sat in that person's classroom, dian Union College, 1992 (Spectrum, Vol. 13, No. 2) jANUARY 1997 11 SPEcmUM------by what I remember of their comments, most of no one did it as often or as well as Stafford. my friends assumed either that I enjoyed being Even more importantly, no one else so quickly considered a part of the elite, or that I had been showed me that new worlds were ready to seduced away from the real world by the replace the old. She transformed my life. impractical beauty of literature. Both were in part true, of course, but both missed the main have now spent most of that life as a point. My chemistry classes were rigorous I professional educator in the Seventh-day enough for any elite, and I found physical Adventist college system. Much more than chemistry at least as beautiful as Shakespeare's non-educators could possibly imagine, that mighty line. The real reason for my new major means countless hours in committee meetings was that I had changed my entire purpose for with colleagues, discussing-often heatedly being in college. Rather than training for a job, arguing--not only how best to reach our goals I was addicted to the rush of having my worlds but even what our educational goals properly instantly remade. That meant hanging around are. The more committees I sit through, the Ottilie Stafford; to do that as much as possible, more I realize how much our teaching attempts I became an English· major. to do for others what has been done for us. I Again, Stafford showed the genius of a great am convinced that both our practical teaching teacher. She never argued me into a reluctant and our educational goals are shaped little by belief that I needed to switch majors. She theories of education. Rather, what we strive introduced me to Roy Branson, a recent AUC to do--what we believe education ought to English graduate, and over a couple oflunches be--reflects our love and respect for some all my fears of "what will I do for a job" were one teacher. handled by someone else. Instead, Stafford I walk into literature classes prepared to treated me as part of the departmental ''family" confuse my students, but also to help them long before I had even decided to be an work their way through their confusion; I English minor. She would discuss cybernetics argue in committees that interpreting is more with me, while Dr. Smith, my physics professor, important than memorizing; I believe we are was teaching me about Norbert Wiener. She not done teaching until our students know us hired me to work for the English department, personally. My colleagues, themselves shaped where I could listen to academic gossip. She by their own teachers, want their students to let me play softball with her sons on the lawn be professional, or to be committed to the behind the English department when I wasn't search for Truth, or to be skilled researchers. being productive. She invited me to her home They know I am right, and I know they are for lasagna. In short, she saw to it that my right, and we vote to modify a general studies education broadened beyond English and requirement and move on. And then, when included the personal. crises force me to rethink whether or not we The experiences Stafford created helped need Seventh-day Adventist colleges, or Spectrnm me throughout my entire four years at AUC. asks me to write an essay, my reflections come Once Stafford showed me what a class could back to the same place. Real education is that do, I started treating other classes as capable heady experience of having a daring teacher of the same. I doubt a week went by without catapult you to the side of Keats' Cortez on an some lecture or assignment pulling the intellectual "peak in Darien," about to walk intellectual rug out from under me, although into a New World.

12 VoLrnm 26, NuMBER 1 Growing Up on Zion's Holy Mountain

"I would not be an Adventist today," says the author, but for

Irwin Hall-Pacific Union College Graham Maxwell and his reasonable approach to Scripture. by Delmer Davis

ORN A FOURTH-GENERATION ADVENTIST ON Keeping Saints and Gentiles both sides of the family line, I grew up Separate B the child of devoted Adventist parents who worked for an Adventist institution lo­ can still vividly picture the trees, flowers, cated in what may be the most Adventist I streams, lakes, hills, and yes, rocks, in ways setting in the whole world: Angwin, Califor­ I cannot image the settings for the other places nia. All of my education through the master's I have lived. At night, the locations continue to level was in one Adventist school: Pacific haunt my dreams. Perched on top of a moun­ Union College, with its elementary school and tain, separated from the more earthly delights academy. If Paul could boast of being a Jew of the Napa Valley and the wine industry(now among Jews, then I could boast about being some vineyards have invaded the very edges an Adventist among Adventists. of college property), Angwin was then popu­ As a child and teenager, I reveled in my larly known as a "hill of saints." Even though surroundings. Young and old alike constantly this was a phrase of disparagement among the reminded me that, living on that beautiful "gentiles" in the valley, to us on the mountain mountain top at Angwin, we were "just a little it seemed a self-evident reality; we were closer to heaven." engaged in a holy work at a holy school on a holy mountain. Like Abraham of old, we could Delmer Davis, a graduate ofPacific Union College, received look down on the dwellers in the valley and his Ph .D. from the University of Colorado. For nine years he seroed as dean of the school ofgraduate studies at Andrews imagine Sodom and Gomorrah awaiting de­ University, in Benien Springs, Michigan, andfor two ofthose struction for evildoing. The very act of driving years seroed as vice-president for academic administration. up the hill, leaving the vineyards and or­ He has taught in the English departments of Lorna Linda University and Walla Walla College, and is currentlyprofessor chards, and navigating the tight turns on the ofEnglish at Andrews University. twisting, tree-lined road that approached the jANUARY 1997 13 SPEC-mUM ______campus was to make real the age-old allego­ contacts with non-Adventists, making me some­ ries of rejecting the broad road leading to what uncomfortable and remote in their pres­ destruction and taking the narrow and difficult ence. path to paradise. Blessed by nature, climate, and scenic beauty, we knew we lived on Zion. kriew what sins could result in my down­ Separation was the key factor in our reli­ I fall: smoking, drinking (caffeine as well as gious life. We were almost totally Adventist in alcohol), going to shows, swearing, and com­ the elementary school, the academy, and the mitting adultery (any sexual misbehavior was college. In those years, the community sur­ categorized as adultery). rounding the college was almost totally Ad­ The educational system was quite success­ ventist as well (about 95 percent, I would ful with the first two--smoking usually meant guess). Most of us who lived there any length immediate dismissal, as did drinking (even of time could point out the few houses in the students caught drinking Cokes on elemen­ community occupied tary school field trips by non-Adventists. Dur­ In class, Dr. Maxwell was the were suspended). It ing my 24 years of liv­ was, of course, easier ing in and around Pa­ epitome ofthe rationalperson­ to hide the last two cific Union College, my always in control of the situa­ evils-swearing (in re­ knowledge of these ality, for us, often just "gentiles" was limited tion, possessed of a ready wit the use of vulgar lan­ to brief encounters on andgood humor, willing to joke guage out of earshot of shopping trips and field adults) and adultery, es­ trips off the hill: the about himself, but always aim­ pecially since the latter drive-in eatery at St. ing us towards the greater pur- usually took the form Helena, the warm­ of awkward and hasty springs swimming pool poseoftheclass--neveroffended linkages in dark and in Calistoga, and the byanyanswerorquestion, and secretive places, includ­ movie theaters in Napa ing the back seats of or Santa Rosa. I felt I always willing to treat any com­ cars or even the abun­ knew all I needed to ment seriously. I would not be dant bushes. know about them from In truth, something people who said they an Adventist today had it not about the remoteness knew them: family, been for that religion course. of the environment and neighbors, Sabbath the emphasis on purity school teachers, school teachers-from my in language and sex in the Angwin of the 1950s earliest years. resulted in teenage outbursts of almost com­ In elementary school, I learned from teach­ pulsive vulgarity and would-be lustful behav­ ers that any real contact with these non­ ior. I well remember the extraordinary means Adventists could result in my downfall. I never taken by our seventh- and eighth-grade teacher doubted this wisdom until I was into academy. to stamp out these criminal activities. That a Even then, the early teachings had so much problem existed is clear. Some of the more force that I remained fearful and skittish on squeamish among us (the goody-goody girls) those secret trips to the movie theaters in the had told parents of the obsessive vulgar talk surrounding towns. The force of this separate and suggestive horseplay and gestures rou­ upbringing continues to this day to plague my tinely a part of our everyday covert, away-

14 VoLlME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS from-teacher school days. The teacher brought upward, eternally. We understood that justifi­ us in one by one to answer the investigative cation was not enough and that all of us had questions. Had we done this? Had we said been justified (we had, after all, been bap­ that? Generously sprinkling his questions with tized, some of us as early as the fourth grade admonitions from the Bible and Ellen White, at ages 9 or 10). We now engaged in a constant the context for his interrogation quickly be­ battle against the big behavioral sins as we came possible loss of eternal life. He at­ traveled that upward line that led off the tempted to get us to confirm the rumors and chalkboard and into heaven. name others to be questioned later. In retro­ Although we knew a lot about Christ and spect, it seems more than coincidental that this the Bible (there is no question in my mind that mini-witch hunt took place during the McCarthy the memorization techniques of the time led to era in American politics. I really do not think better "Bible Trivial Pursuit" players), we gen­ that the teacher himself favored the investiga­ erally did not know Christ himself or God. I tion. He seemed a reluctant questioner, very doubt that many of us had any sort of a real young himself, no doubt forced into the spiritual experience or commitment, beyond a unsavory role by his principal and some deep sense of belonging to an embattled anxious parents. church headed for mass persecution. Many of us were obsessed with vulgar We went to church faithfully, even to Sab­ language and sex, but our teachers' approach bath school, but at lesson times we would did not result in reform. The unsavory behav­ duck out and walk the campus in gendered iors and obsessiveness went further under­ clumps, looking for fun, laughing, giggling, ground. This kind of continual and unnatural and hiding from adults. We had a total lack of interest in sex and vulgarity no doubt contrib­ seriousness about what the Sabbath stood for. uted to the "gentiles"' in the "valley" believing Our Sabbaths, indeed, were ruled by dosand (verified by friends less squeamish than I don'ts. The dos included going to Sabbath about contact with non-Adventists) that al­ school and church in the morning, .eating a though tho~e Adventists girls did not smoke or special Sabbath meal at noon (usually vegetar­ drink, they were wild and unrestrained in the ian, though not especially healthful), followed back seats of those big 1950s cars with the fins. by napping lightly or going on afternoon nature walks or hikes. At older ages, rides in cars became permissible, especially if said to Following the Rising Line be taken to particularly scenic spots-Lake Of Sanctification Hennesy, the ocean, Pope Valley (not too scenic, but certainly out in nature in those urs was, then, for the most part a religion years), Mt. Saint Helena, even Clear Lake. The 0 of surfaces and appearances. Although don'ts were: don't play athletic games (base­ our Bible teachers explained justification by ball, basketball, football); don't swim (wading faith in academy Bible classes, they did not was permissible as long as we didn't have too separate it from a heavy emphasis on sancti­ much fun); don't buy anything in a store and fication. Always in such classes, the teacher don't get gas at a service station; don't listen to drew that inevitable visual aid, the diagonal the radio or watch television (in academy, as line reaching toward the top of the black­ an avid sports fan, I would sneak out to the car board, with justification represented by a and turn on the car radio to catch the Saturday mark at the bottom of the line, and sanctifica­ football scores); don't go to a movie theater tion shown as the line itself, reaching ever- (going to movies was a dreadful sin on any day jANUARY 1997 15 SPECffiUM------but much worse on Sabbath). It wasn't that our elders didn't attempt to Rainy days might mean gathering around open our eyes to impending doom. In 1957- the piano to sing hymns, or playing acceptable 1958, after the Russians put a man in space, Bible or nature games (Ruth Wheeler's "Bird," our academy Bible teacher and principal pre­ "Flower," and "Animal" games were especially dicted that God would never allow human popular in our family). In many homes, read­ beings to get to the moon. Christ's coming ing on Sabbath was carefully monitored, but would intervene. The Kennedy/Nixon cam­ those of us devoted to this pastime (perhaps paign in 1960 was seen by nearly all Angwinites a higher percentage than would be the case as a sign of the end. Because of Kennedy's today) managed to subvert such restrictions Catholicism, most of the few Democrats on the by reading fiction (also often forbidden on any hill voted Republican. day) covertly in our rooms, with faked sleep By and large, those of us raised in the always handy as a cover, should we be church had little difficulty ignoring such warn­ interrupted. ings. We had heard predictions like these I do not wish to paint a picture too colored before. That none had come true undercut the by restrictions and monitoring, however. Most urgency of reform. We would listen politely, of the "good crowd"-that is, the non-rebel­ but remain unmoved. So, we were not pre­ lious teenagers, the conformists such as I­ pared for the Adventist version of hellfire that found nothing particularly annoying about hit our academy my senior year. An Armenian these conditions. Our somewhat innocent immigrant pastor, well respected in the de­ subversions spiced our otherwise monoto­ nomination, kept us on the edge of our seats nously routine lives. That we were no more all week with thrilling stories of fleeing from certain of salvation than the big rebellious and persecutors in Eastern Europe. In his final notorious sinners around us in the academy, sermon, he vividly pictured hell and hellfire as the ones who always caused trouble, seldom the ending place for each of us unless we occurred to us. Uncertain as we were, most of repented immediately-then and there. As us saw ourselves on that journey across the good Seventh-day Adventists, we had heard blackboard, the upward path towards sancti­ almost nothing about hell as a reality during fication. our growing-up years. Even though discus­ sions of prophecy often referred to the lake of fire at the time of the end, hell was, after all, a Catholic or apostate Protestant idea. But this powerfully built and stirring preacher, with a voice full of emotion, made each of us realize that no matter how committed we had been to our surface goodness, hell could, indeed, lie ahead, so we streamed out into the aisles of McKibbon Hall chapel that Friday (even the most hardened of the "bad" students), fer­ vently knelt, and gave our hearts to the Unforgetting Judge. Of course, this commitment to the new life could not last long. Inevitably, a number of us felt tricked, and those who didn't could not long serve God out of fear. Two weeks after

16 VoLLME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND S7VDENTS the event, most of us resumed the same openly and rationally the basic tenets of spiritually famished lives as before. The emo­ Christianity and Seventh-day Adventism, tion-filled Week of Prayer remained an embar­ The keyword, of course, was rationally. To rassing memory, an anecdote for alumni re­ those of us who were would-be intellectuals unions. during the late 1950s, a rational approach to Given the lack of depth in our experience, Scripture had tremendous appeal. Maxwell's it is no wonder to me now that the majority of class had, as a basic premise, the idea that God my academy class of 1958 quickly fled the speaks to people through their minds. In truth, church. Very few stayed around for college. in those buttoned-down times, many of us felt Many married young (sexual intercourse made uncomfortable with emotions and distrusted moral and legal; this was before the Pill), them, particularly in religion. We might float divorced soon after, and married again and along dreamily with the sentimental love songs again. of Patti Page, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, or Pat Boone, or even Elvis Presley, but we thought that religion had no room for emotion. So, Discussing a Rational Bible when Dr. Maxwell explained, the first day of With Graham Maxwell his course, that discussions would center around each of the books of the Bible, that we robably because I was less adventurous would try to understand why the book was in Pand more completely comfortable with the Bible, what its major purpose was, and my surroundings than my classmates, I went what the book said about God and his eternal on to college at Pacific Union College. Al­ character, all of us knew we had embarked on though I loved my family and fully enjoyed my a new and exciting adventure. The sort of fun-filled academy years, I have to credit my open-ended analysis of Scripture Dr. Maxwell college years as the significant influence in my introduced suggested that we might even spiritual growth. Only in college did I begin to come up with new answers. discover depth to my religion. My Bible teach­ ers in academy were both well-intentioned n class, Dr. Maxwell was the epitome of the and admirable people; indeed, one of them I rational person-always in control of the was exceptionally talented and creative and situation, possessed of a ready wit and good really did minister to a number of teenage humor, willing to joke about himself, but boys through organized and imaginative group always aiming us towards the greater purpose activities. of the class-never offended by any answer or I like to think it was divine providence that question, and always willing to treat any led me to register for A. Graham Maxwell's comment seriously. Not only the method, but course in biblical philosophy, one of the the man himself moved me toward the under­ dreaded required core classes then a part of standing of concepts that, until then, had been PUC's general-education package. Even though but vague, dark clouds looming around my other teachers attempted to carry out his otherwise conventional Seventh-day Advent­ vision in the sections they taught, Dr. Maxwell ist landscape. Later, Pacific Union College had really invented the course. At the height religion teachers became uncomfortable with of his influence among both the faculty and this approach and the title Biblical Philosophy, students, Graham Maxwell's following on the some challenged the idea that any religion hill probably seemed almost dangerously loyal. course is truly philosophical. But what hap­ But this following felt the need to discuss pened in Maxwell's classroom was philoso- jANUARY 1997 17 SPEcmuM------phy. Within the context of a dedicated Sev­ in the light of our reading of the Bible. enth-day Adventist teacher's perspective, an Rather than memorizing texts and regurgi­ inquiry was being conducted every class pe­ tating doctrines, Dr. Maxwell's tests required riod--an inquiry about truth and how we us to put on paper our own ideas, formulated know what is truth. Perhaps the understand­ through the class discussion. Most of us had ings attained in this "philosophical" format little experience writing essay answers or were limited, but I would not be a Seventh-day writing at all (this was the golden age of Adventist today had it not been for that workbooks in American Adventist education). religion course. No doubt our efforts seemed rather feeble to Inevitably, we never got through the Bible. someone from a well-known writing family, We bogged down somewhere in the minor and educated at least partially in the British prophets--never even advancing to the New system. Testament, even though the course met all Dr. Maxwell and his method later fell from year, three days a week. But we dealt with the highest esteem. His move to Lorna Linda some of the hard questions: Why all the killing University (as well as the moves of several and bloodshed in the Old Testament? What do other influential PUC professors to other col­ these events say about God's character? Why leges and universities) is another story. It are so many of the Old Testament heroes so radically changed PUC, I believe, to a lesser faulty in character? Why does the Old Testa­ institution, although one perfectly adapted to ment include these stories? Are Seventh-day the 1960s. Maxwell and his rational approach Adventists more Old Testament in their beliefs could not sustain its popularity in an era of than New Testament? For whose benefit is flower power and feeling, a time when ex­ there an investigative judgment? We often "got pressions of emotion came easily, and loving off the subject" onto contemporary issues seemed the solution to all problems. among Adventists (wedding rings, jewelry, shows-those ageless Adventist themes). But, of course, we were never really off the subject; Learning to Sing Along Dr. Maxwell wanted us to address these issues With the 19o0s A. Graham Maxwdl (1943) uring the middle 1960s, I remained up in D an intellectual and rational cocoon, work­ ing on a doctoral degree at a secular campus, out of touch with mainstream Adventist youth. In 1967, when I joined the teaching faculty on the La Sierra campus ofLoma Linda University, I remember a Friday evening sing-in. Guitars played and testimonials flowed freely. Songs were sung that I had never heard; they seemed indistinguishable from the ones about peace and love I heard daily on the radio. (In my youth, guitars had been unacceptable at PUC on Sabbath.) Perhaps my greatest shock came in the college Sabbath school--a Hawaiian group sang and softly swayed to the accompa­ niment of a steel guitar. Now, of course, I know

18 VoLlhW'E 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND S7VDENTS that Dr. Maxwell's emphasis on rationality can from temptations, wrapped in a protective only partially fill the Christian life; that for real doctrinal gauze, superior to those less fortu­ spiritual fulfillment, emotion and love and nate, cut o~f from the world, self-satisfied, if, doing unto others must blossom; that a balance perhaps, spiritually empty. among all the elements of spirituality provides Yet, how oddly attractive it seems to return the most rewarding Christian experience. to that oversimplified nest; to lose oneself in Now, when I return to Pacific Union Col­ the religious routine of that earlier era in that lege, driving up the hill, I begin to feel very special place in which battles against evil constriction in my stomach, a tightness in my and the religious answers seemed clear-cut neck, a feeling that someone is watching over and obvious ... and at least one great teacher me, checking my bad behavior. At the same stood above fear and superficiality to demon­ time, memories nearly choke out the sur­ strate to us that faithfulness to the. Bible and rounding glories of physical nature. I am once the God of the Bible meant asking question again young, secluded in holiness, guarded after question after question.

jANUARY 1997 19 Merge 14 North American Colleges Into Two? Yes! An acute crisis demands heroically courageous action.

by Frank Knittel

DVENTISTS OUGHT TO REDUCE THEIR 14 SE­ Why I Care So Much nior colleges in the United States to A two-Andrews University in the East, and a university in the West with a reorganized am a product of Adventist education and La Sierra and Lorna Linda at its core. At the I have devoted my career to being a teacher same time, Adventists ought to keep open and administrator in the system. My education only a fraction of the academies we now run in Adventist elementary schools in the San and close many of the elementary schools we joaquin Valley of California was so good that operate. The result of consolidation would when I was put into public school I was mean we could provide the highest quality of allowed to skip the fifth grade. education at less than half the current price. My subsequent educational preparation at Adventist families could afford to provide their Southwestern junior College (now Southwest­ children with a superb Adventist education. ernAdventist University) and at Union College But prompt action must be taken, or our was superb. Not only did their training permit colleges-possibly our unions in North me to do well in my entrance exams to the America, even the General Conference-could graduate English program at the University of be forced into involuntary bankruptcy. Minnesota, but I also found myself ahead of student colleagues in every area except the Frank Knittel, professor ofEnglish atLa Sierra University since novel. My fellow graduate students had not, 1983, was president of Southern College of Seventh-day Ad­ for example, benefited from my classes at ventists from 1967 to 1983. For several years prior to that, be was vice-president of student affairs at Andrews University, Union College in classical Greek. whose faculty be joined in 1959. Knittel graduated from I further believe that my decision to devote Union College and received his Ph.D. in medieval English myself to Adventist colleges and universities literature from the University of Colorado. Tbis essay is taken from a longer presentation to the Adventist Forums national was a response to a divine call. After graduate conferencebeldinSanDiego, California, March 14-17, 1996. school, while still in my 20s, I vowed to make

20 VoLCME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS public education my vocation. From the per­ The next day, Dr. Rittenhouse and Dr. spective of my family, our home in Colorado Gibbs both took me to the airport. Some time was Eden. Suddenly, a serpent appeared in later, Dr. Gibbs told me that on their way to the the garden-Floyd Rittenhouse, then presi­ campus Rittenhouse said, "Well, I guess this is dent of Emmanuel Missionary College, and a lost cause. He said hardly anything while he soon to be president of Andrews University in was here." Berrien Springs, Michigan. When I received a By the time I got on the plane to go home, letter from Dr. Rittenhouse, asking me to come I knew we were moving to Michigan. But how to the university, I wrote a very courteous would this affect my wife, who was steadfastly letter, declining the offer. Ten days later an­ opposed to the change? I mentally tried out all other letter came. I sent a second letter, sorts of scenarios. Perhaps the first day after apologizing that my first letter had not reached my return I could casually say that Michigan him, and again declining to visit Berrien was not all bad, but Colorado had wonderful Springs. Ten days later, a third missive from points as well. Then maybe the second day the Dr. Rittenhouse arrived. He was delighted that comments about Michigan would be more I was so interested in coming to Michigan that emphasized and Colorado would be down­ I had taken moments from my precious time played. After a few days of this I might bring to write two letters. Again, I responded-no her around. Then I remembered her once euphemistic language this time. I told him that saying that if I moved to Michigan, she hoped I had no interest in making a change and that I would write her in Colorado. he should not bother to be in further touch My desperate hope was that she would be with me. asleep and the moment of truth would come Then he called. When he identified himself, in the morning. No such luck. She greeted my I was grimly determined to get this man off my coming into the bedroom by sitting bolt up­ back. Then he struck me where it hurt. "If we right. Her question was so predictable-"Well, are willing to pay your air fare to come visit us how did it go?!" I don't know what happened before you completely make up your mind, to all my little, pretty speeches. I just blurted don't you have it in your heart to donate no out, "We're moving to Michigan!" There was a more than two days of your time?" long pause, and for a second I wondered if I visited Berrien Springs the following week. after only three years of marriage I was going Dr. Paul Gibbs, from the English department, to spend my first night in the study. Then picked me up in South Bend, Indiana. A half Helen said very quietly, "I've been praying all hour later, we drove through a short block of day that you would make that decision." what looked like little Mom-and-Pop busi­ nesses. I innocently inquired, "How far is it to elen and I have never backed away from Berrien Springs?" H that commitment. For many years, she Gibbs responded, "We just went through it." and I have offered the hospitality of our home During my stay on the campus, I said very free of charge to students who otherwise little, asked a few questions. But something would not have been able to attend an Ad­ was stirring within me-the students walking ventist college. We are passionately devoted back and forth, the mid-morning chapel pro­ to the continued existence and welfare of our gram, the absence of the lewd, the tawdry, the schools. My years teaching and administering profane, the very presence of a spirit way out in Adventist colleges have been rewarding there in the middle of the apple orchards of ones, including the recent, sublimely happy Berrien County. days at La Sierra University. jANUARY 1997 21 SPECffiUM------Why the Church Began Its then they should secure the services of some­ one who could. Elementary Schools In those days, many rural children in America were taught mainly by young women with no t is not possible to evaluate properly the more than an eighth-grade education. Some I present or the future of Adventist education had less. When young women in the mid- and without first understanding the beginnings of later 1800s finished the eighth grade, they the grand and expansive-and expensive­ often were delighted to be employed in homes experiment of educating people under the where they taught primer-level students the umbrella of our church. Ellen White, our basics of the three R's. These same young primary church pioneer, took the lead. Some people often also helped with domestic chores, of her far-reaching recommendations are mis­ with very little compensation beyond room understood today. and board. They were sometimes almost slaves. She stated more than once in her writings­ These young teachers often moved from and presumably in her speaking-that if there home to home in order to spread around the are two or three children in a family who need burden of room and board. It was therefore to be educated, or if several families in close possible for families to educate their children proximity to one have a few children, the in the lower grades for very little cost. family or families should provide for educa­ To be sure, there were numerous regular tion. If the parents could not do the teaching, formal schools, but many children had no

1996 ENROLLMENT (FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT) North American Colleges and Universities

Wallamm WaUa College 1,585 II Andrewsli University Union College 2,522 Canadianm Union College 475 269

Atlantic Union College •498 Pacific Union College 1,475 ll"Cr--- Columbiam Union College 828

Loma linda University 3,080

La Sierra University 1,442 0~:449lege ~~ Soudtem 1:'382 University Southwestern Adventist University 836 • Florida Hospital College 187

22 VoLIME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

opportunity to attend these. They had no computers, or access only to obsolete cast­ chance to learn other than at home. This home offs. Grounds are often shabby and buildings education was strictly on the elementary level. careworn, often held up by little more than I have never read a statement from Ellen White paint. discussing boarding academies. However, we Today, a host of these elementary schools can assume she approved of them; by the time should not exist. I have heard the cries that of her death, church boarding academies small elementary schools are desirable be­ existed across the country. During the lifetime cause students genuinely get to know their of Ellen White, my parents both attended teachers, teachers know all their students by those early schools. name, as well as their parents. All that is true, What is often not understood is that when but it is not a substitute for what our teachers Ellen White was speaking about little schools need in order to provide the education they of two or three students, she was undoubtedly are trained to provide. I am embarrassed to say thinking about an education for the largely that, in some instances, our children would be rural children making up most of the Adventist far better off in public schools. homes. She had a passion for literacy, and her plan sought to minimize academic ignorance in the Christian home. Many people agreed How Academies Got Started with Ellen White's recommendations, but the And Hardly Ever Close only way they could fulfill God's plan for their children was to hire in-home teachers for little ithin the minds of a critical mass of or no money. W Adventists, Ellen White's charge that Two problems arose. First, in the many little everyone should go to school was gradually schools that sprang up, the teachers were the transformed into the belief that the Adventist least expensive, and hence the least trained, Church should educate every one of its young that could be found. The near absence of people, fromfirstgradethroughcollege. Hence, money for educational matters also meant that the church established academies to fill the teachers had virtually no resources for even gap between home-or church-schools and basic educational tools. Battle Creek College. Second, an attitude emerged that teachers In those early days of Adventism, through in our schools ought to prove their moral, the first part of this century, difficult transpor­ spiritual, and professional worth by submit­ tation decreed location. Boarding academies ting to inconvenience, long hours, and short were located as close as possible to where pay. This naturally gave rise to the long­ prospective students lived. As a result, Ad­ standing concept that church education does ventist academies proliferated. Today, poor not need a systematic method of financial judgment sometimes perpetuates boarding support. academies where they are not truly needed, Today, in little Adventist elementary schools, and day academies where they cannot be there is usually no money for special assis­ properly supported financially. tance for the learning disabled, for students Boarding academies are often monuments having problems in math and reading, for to our passion for competition. Let me illus­ adequate libraries, for serious science educa­ trate. Until the late 1940s, Enterprise Academy, tion. In an age when many preschoolers have located in Kansas, served both Kansas and never heard of a home without a computer, Missouri, and had a roaring 250 students. The students in our small schools either have no Missouri Conference decided in 1946 that it jANUARY 1997 23 SPEcrnUM------had to have its own boarding academy. What Pasqual academies now enroll. West of the happened? The predictable. Each academy Mississippi River, three boarding academies ended up with a little more than 100 students. could handle all the students now attending Both schools continue to languish in lamen­ the many academies that currently exist in that table poverty. region. Day academies can exacerbate the problem Similarly, many of our day academies ought of proliferation. Instead of investing in school to be shut down or amalgamated into single buses to transport children half an hour to an units. By way of illustration, in the Los Angeles established school, San Pasqual Academy, the area, Orangewood, Lynwood, Glendale, and Southeastern California Conference, for rea­ San Gabriel academies are barely hanging on sons never logically defined, permitted the by their fingernails. They ought to be inte­ San Diego and Escondido churches to run grated into one school, with bus services, if their own 12-grade schools. These schools are necessary. chronically short of library books, other edu­ If the people in our churches were really cational materials, and funds. (I have visited interested in making Christian education avail­ the libraries of every academy in the Southern able for their families, they would invest the and Southeastern California conferences, and money slated for new facilities, and from the only one or two of them can claim even a returns on this investment they could send semblance of needed library holdings.) At the their children to improved schools at a very same 12-grade day schools, tuition is at least much reduced fee. The tuition cost for all our double what it ought to be. Similarly, within academies is unconscionable. By consolidat­ easy commuting distance of Lorna Linda Acad­ ing fixed costs, reducing capital needs, and emy, two churches were permitted to open vastly improving the student cost/tuition ratio, their own 12-grade schools. One, in 1996, fell we could have better education for far, far behind on its debt to the conference office by lower tuition charges to Adventist families. some $160,000. In all of these instances-and many more­ money spent to keep alive several schools, Why We Must Consolidate 14 instead of one, ought to have been dedicated Colleges Into Two North to maintaining fewer schools at a high level of American Universities excellence, while dramatically reducing the present exorbitantly high tuition rates. hen Adventist colleges in North America I know of no boarding or day academy that W were built, transportation and local pride is funded as it should be. Within the past year, dictated that each union conference develop I have been in the residence halls of half a its own college. By the first quarter of the 20th dozen academies--one of these the largest century, we had organized half a dozen col­ boarding academy in North America. The leges, two foreign language seminaries, and condition of the average physical plant of several secondary schools that ultimately be­ these academies is somewhere between de­ came colleges. Now, we have 12 senior col.:. plorable and morally criminal. leges and universities, and two junior colleges We need to reduce the number of our opera ted by the Kettering Adventist hospital in boarding academies to a fraction of the num­ Ohio, and the Florida Hospital near Orlando. ber we have. For example, one boarding A majority of these colleges could accom­ school in California could handle the students modate much greater enrollments. Fixed capi­ that the Rio Linda, Monterey Bay, and San tal expenses continue, and so do more or less

24 VoLUME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND S7VDENTS fixed operating losses. Many of the physical three choices. The first is to offer a slate of plants are in serious decline. Although the remedial classes to bring them up to some sort colleges frantically beat the bushes for stu­ of college level. The second is to cut them out dents, flat or dropping enrollments have been quickly when they do not perform up to an a major factor in skyrocketing tuition charges. acceptable college level. The third is to bring Not one Adventist college in America has the our teaching level down to their level, so that minimum funding needed to make that school they can finally graduate. what it could and should be to provide stu­ I have heard through the years that we dents a truly excellent education. should admit non-eager and non-performing Our colleges have countered sagging en­ enrollees, and then if they don't make the cut, rollments by continuing broad admissions that is their affair. Cut them out. Sorry, but it policies. Sheer economic survival has dictated does not work that way. Every time we admit admissions practices that have seriously eroded a student, we give tacit affirmation that we the academic reputa- believe the student is tions of Adventist good college potential. higher education. This Broad, sweeping changes must That affirmation con­ is true, despite the fact stitutes the beginning that Ellen White was be made to rescue Adventist of an obligation on our very clear that all stu­ education in North America. part to that student. dents in our schools Capital investment needs are Every day, every quar­ have a decided respon­ ter or semester that stu­ sibility to be superior astonishing. Yearly operating dent is enrolled, our scholars, to master their expenses are almost beyond obligation increases. disciplines. Sadly, these Moreover, in spite of calls of hers to be intel­ calculation. Student charges the fact that we do not lectually great were al­ are staggering. Tbe crisis is so like to admit it, we, like most totally ignored, re­ all other colleges and placed by cries ofvocal acute, heroically courageous universities, do indeed constituents to have action must be taken. enroll and then teach gardens and farms and for a common denomi- teachers working with students in strawberry nator among our students. patches. Now, all of our colleges are plagued Not for a moment do I decry the plain fact with a disconcerting number of students who that families want their children in an Advent­ by either personal choice or level of ability are ist college for social reasons. Many come to not college material. our colleges for the express purpose of finding We sometimes try to minimize our plight by mates. Such reasons and others are commend­ anecdotal data. We point out that many of our able, provided students also come in order to students have achieved high professional and become scholars worthy of the name. We like intellectual standings: they have gone on to to tell ourselves that we turn away numbers of the most glittering graduate schools in the students because of low test scores and/or low land, they have made their marks in both the grades. In actuality, the number of Adventist secular and spiritual world. We applaud all of young people we turn away for purely aca­ them for that. But the clear fact remains, that demic reasons is so small as to be almost when a critical mass of our students enter on insignificant. Statistics vary from school to the lower edge academically, we have only school, of course, but the general picture is jANUARY 1997 25 SPECffiUM------grim. lization would not reach them, it is often The first goal of our colleges is to provide difficult, even impossible for them to peruse superior education-superior intellectual at­ adequate libraries. (When I was at Andrews, tainment, superior spiritual reality, superior the closest significant library in my field was in student-teacher relationships, and superior Chicago.) Adventist schools need to spend conduct. Tragically, most Adventists do not money building up their academic resources. understand the importance of intellectual at­ Instead, the president of one of our colleges tainment. told his faculty during 1996 that the total amount that would be spent the following ased on almost five decades of experi­ year for new library books was $5,000. (He did B ence as a teacher and administrator in our not want to be stingy; he was following church educational system, it is my strong instructions from his board to cut operating belief that members do not understand, be­ costs by more than $1 million.) cause they have not often-if at all-heard If members are to be confident that Advent­ sermons from pastors in their churches, nor ist colleges can provide excellent education, read essays by denominational leaders in our Adventist colleges must be able to retain church papers, explaining the spiritual value superb teachers. On every Adventist college of academic excellence. Consequently, if Ad­ campus (and at Andrews University), the ventists were asked to list the purposes of average underpayment of teachers is a mini­ Adventist colleges, most would put academic mum of $150,000 for every 10 teachers on the matter in a weak second, third, or fourth place. faculty. For schools of 150 full-time teachers, How often through the years have I heard this comes to $500,000 a year. Even if we major church leaders at camp meetings or lowered our estimate to $10,000 a year for workers' meetings, make a statement such as, each teacher, not one of our colleges comes "Now, I am not an educated man. I do not have within cannon range of that expenditure. That one of those Ph.D.s that some others have. I does not mean that there are no good faculties am just a simple man of the gospel." Members at Adventist colleges. But it does mean that our capture the message being virtually shouted at colleges are presently staying afloat only be­ them: No one can be educated and also be a cause they do not pay their teachers a living person of the gospel. Adventist college and wage and spend very little on necessary university campuses are objects of suspicion, educational resources. grudgingly tolerated, eagerly criticized. The Of course, rumors persist that some Advent­ last General Conference president who openly ist colleges in North America will not keep and avowedly championed intellectual excel­ their heads above water. There has been the lence as a necessity in Adventist higher educa­ almost terminal crisis in the condition of tion was R. R. Figuhr, during whose adminis­ Atlantic Union College. Reports persist that tration Andrews University came into being. Columbia Union College and Union College If Adventist colleges and universities are to are gasping for life. Southern, which is in assure upwardly mobile Adventist families better financial shape, has recently renamed that their children will receive a truly superb itself Southern Adventist University, and voted academic education, they must be able to to begin two M.A. programs-in education invest more to reach even minimum levels in and in business-even though the school basic educational resources. We ask students simply does not have the resources to become to do research, but since a number of our a university. Southwestern is in better financial colleges were deliberately placed where civi- circums.tances than some other Adventist col-

26 Von:ME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS leges, but its also adopting the university tag order. At the present time it is a specialized makes no sense unless it can raise an endow­ science institution, rather than a university in ment of $200 million. the traditional sense. That is not meant pejo­ Not to improve academically, but simply to ratively. The Queen Elizabeth II is not an stay alive, Adventist colleges have raised tu­ aircraft carrier, but it is a majestic ocean liner. ition to exorbitant levels. While creating guilt At the moment, passions probably still run among those who refuse to accept horrendous too high from the previous attempt to try financial obligations, we bleed our Adventist combining La Sierra and Lorna Linda. Norman families dry. We need to reduce tuition costs Woods, who staked his job as president of at our colleges by 50 to 60 percent. If the Lorna Linda on the attempt, had a vision of Mormons can support a major university, what a genuine university ought to be. I do Brigham Young, by charging only $2,450 a believe that he should have insisted, from the year for tuition, Adventists can certainly pro­ start, that the administrative center of the new vide college education for no more than university be located at La Sierra for a cost of double that amount. But not with the prolif­ much less than $1 million, rather than moving eration of colleges we now have. The only the La Sierra operation to Lorna Linda at a cost way members can become proud of the excel­ of many millions of dollars. Woods' attempt lence of North American Adventism's schools failed, but not because the problems were of higher education, and also afford their imponderable. tuition charges, is for members to demand that If it were patterned after what a trueuniver­ the North American church realistically and sity ought to be, the union of the Lorna Linda decisively concentrate its resources at two and La Sierra campuses would be a non-issue. universities. Distance between the two schools is negli­ gible. (It takes longer to find parking at Lorna Linda than it takes to drive there from the La Where Should We Build Up Sierra campus.) The one-time merger of La Two Superb Universities? Sierra College and the College of Medical Evangelists could have been a glorious expe­ he Adventist university in the East must be rience. It would be again if, in addition, the TAndrews. Better judgment might have human resources of Pacific Union College and decreed that Andrews be situated on the East Walla Walla College faculties could also be Coast rather than in the orchards of Michigan. incorporated into a first-rate Adventist univer­ But it is there, and we have too much invested sity on the West Coast. in it-including a still-inadequate library-to Some may think that drastic action is unnec­ move it once again. Within 600 miles of essary, that the church in North America will Andrews are several Adventist colleges that grow itself out of its problems. They cling to a should be closed, with the best of their facul­ mirage. The growth in the North American ties and staff grafted on to the Andrews church is largely among first- and second­ University structure. generation immigrants. As a group, they have The West provides even greater challenges no financial resources to even begin to resolve and opportunities. It is a monumental waste of our educational financial problems. No signs church resources to have six major higher on the horizon suggest that they will ever do so. educational centers west of the Mississippi Other Adventists may be numbed by the River. Lorna Linda University has a gigantic conviction that God led us in the past and will start toward being a full university of the first again lead us out of our quandary, without our jANUARY 1997 27 SPEcrnuM------having to make excruciatingly difficult deci­ unswayed by constituency passions. We should sions. I hold earnestly that, in our quest for have resolved these problems when it was Christian education, God worked miracles on obvious they were beginning. Now, the crisis is our behalf in the past. But I just as earnestly so acute, heroically courageous action must be believe that past miracles are no reason for taken. present indecision. I do not for a moment regret devoting my I do not go into further detail as to how to life to Adventist colleges and universities. My make the broad, sweeping, and hard changes commitment is as intense as when my wife that must be made to rescue Adventist educa­ and I first felt the call to leave the university tion in North America. In North America we are where we were and go to an Adventist campus caught in a vise. Our capital investment needs in Michigan. Indeed, my passion for what are astonishing. Our yearly operating costs are Adventist education can be is precisely why I almost beyond calculation. As a result, student plead with North American Adventists to make charges are staggering, and beyond the reach the wrenching decisions confronting Advent­ of a majority of Adventist young people. Action ist higher education--before the present crisis must be taken by a group ofleaders from across becomes insurmountable and we lose our the North American Adventist Church who are entire system of higher education.

28 VoLUME 26, NuMBER 1 Merge 14 North American Colleges Into Two? No! Diversity and local autonomy advance the Adventist mission.

by Lawrence T. Geraty

HERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY I DO NOT some very helpful s1,1ggestions, I do not be­ wish to argue with Frank Knittel's broad­ lieve one can proceed from his particular Tstroke history and analysis of the crisis examples to his prescription for the future. It in Adventist education: He set the standard is primarily with the prescription that I differ. when it comes to being a successful college I will first suggest why I do not think paring president; now on my faculty he serves as a our number of colleges down to two is the valuable mentor and friend; and he has articu­ right way to go. Then I will suggest why, even lated a defensible point of view cogently as if it were the right way to go, it would not befits a keen mind who has mastered the work. Finally, I propose my assessment of the English language. While his diagnosis of some future for North America's Adventist colleges very real problems within Adventist higher and universities. education is probably correct and he has made

Lawrence T Geraty, president and professor ofarchaeology Why Only Two Colleges Is at La Sierra University, in Riverside, California, since 1993, Not a Good Idea was president ofAtlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massacbusetts,Jrom 1985 to 1993. For 13 years prior to that be taught Hebrew Bible, archaeology, and the history of s proud as I am of Andrews University (an antiquity at Andrews University's SDA Theological Semi­ A institution where, for 22 years, I was nary, in Berrien Springs, Michigan, where be founded the either a student or faculty member) and as Institute of Archaeology and named its archaeology mu­ seum for his mentor and predecessor, Siegfried H. Horn. proud as I could be of a reorganized Lorna Geraty graduated from Pacific Union College and received Linda/La Sierra University (where I soon will his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Syro-PalestinianArcbaeology have given four years), and even considering from Harvard University. During the past 30 years, be bas directed 10 seasons of archaeological excavations in Israel the possibility that it might in some way and jordan, the most recent being in the summer of 1996. "enhance my career," what follows are rea- jANUARY 199 7 29 SPECffiUM------sons why I believe that closing all but these Also, the size of an institution does not two universities is not a good idea for the necessarily correlate with the quality of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its mem­ education it offers-though research does bers: indicate that maintaining quality at an institu­ tion with fewer than a thousand students is n my opinion, such a plan would not serve very difficult unless its program is very special­ I the needs of the church better. Brigham ized. Of course, the definition of quality is Young University (BYU) is often held up as the important here. But Frank Knittel's experience example for North American Adventists to offers typical examples. By his own admis­ emulate, but there are reasons why it is not the sion, Union College offered him a quality model to follow. One of the key reasons is that education that prepared him for graduate despite the fact that the majority of Mormons school. The reason this is so often the case in live within easy travelling distance ofBYU, the Adventist colleges is because quality teachers percentage ofMormons attending BYU is smaller like Frank Knittel are, against the odds, at­ than the percentage of Adventists attending tracted to the mission of Adventist higher North American Adventist colleges and univer­ education. I well remember the day when, as sities! We must be doing something right. president of AUC, I looked out at the chapel Consolidation of Adventist institutions does audience and was surprised to see Frank not necessarily guarantee healthier enroll­ Knittel. Afterwards, I sought him out and said, ment. In every case I know of, the consolida­ "What brings you to AUC?" His response tion of Adventist academies has meant smaller supports my point: "AUC sends La Sierra our enrollments. Why? Because, despite the con­ best graduate students in English, so I'm here venience of travel nowadays, it is still true that to recruit!" the majority of Adventist students wish to If only two Adventist universities existed, attend school and even college as close to and they were to admit only the "highest home as possible. So fewer colleges would quality" students (such as LLU does, for in­ probably mean fewer Adventist students within stance, in medicine and physical therapy), the Adventist system as a whole. And maybe many students who currently go on from even fewer college-educated Adventists? That Adventist colleges to provide distinguished could not be good for the church. service to church and society would no longer get educated. Currently, Adventist colleges admittedly take more chances on the under­ Adventists and Mormons: prepared Adventist student, but the results Comparing Enrollments justify the risk. If only the two universities advocated were Latter Day Seventh-day Saints Adventists to survive a North American Division higher educational downsizing, imagine how much N.Amerlcan Membership 4,613,000 843,690 poorer ·church life would be without these 1 2 literally hundreds of vital higher-education Enrollment 30,465 19,354 employees who are currently so emotionally Percentage of Membersllip 0.66% 2.30% and intellectually, not to mention financially, invested in the church. 1 Enrollment of Brigham Young University. Further, I doubt whether the two universi­ 2 Combined enrollment for institutions of higher educa­ tion in the North American Division. ties advocated would provide for the diversity that the Adventist constituency desires or even

30 VOLIME 26, NUMBER 1 TEACHERs AND SronENTS accept all the Adventist students who would Second, each college currently enjoys a wish to enroll. (I will expand on this issue corps of loyal, emotionally invested alumni, below.) Keep in mind that, given the choice, who would make it very difficult to close their most Adventist families still wish to send their particular alma mater. (Witness what the well­ college-aged students through Adventist higher financed "Friends of La Sierra" did to torpedo education. consolidation with Lorna Linda a few years Finally, a very important function of the back.) Furthermore, should consolidation suc­ current colleges and universities in the system ceed, it is a sure thing that for most alumni is each one's Adventist presence in its respec­ their financial support would not translate into tive community. If a dozen of them were to support for the successor university nor would close, imagine the diminished Adventist wit­ union subsidies go from one union to another. ness in those communities and in the sur­ Third, I believe it would be a fallacy to rounding institutions and organizations where suggest that the larger the university, the more they now have a positive impact. economical is the education it provides. Stud­ ies have shown the opposite because the larger universities provide higher salaries, more Why If Two Colleges Were a scholarship aid, more recent and more expen­ Good Idea, It Would Not Work sive technology, subsidize research, and ex­ pend more money on extracurricular activities f the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North that are not integral to a quality education. I America were setting out now to devise the While state universities charge lower tuition ideal plan for its higher educational system, it fees because they are tax supported, studies might very well come up with a similar plan to have shown that their operational costs per what Frank Knittel suggests, and for many of student are not lower than private schools. the same reasons. But that is not our situation. Finally, the administration of Lorna Linda We have a history and a current reality that University and what was its Riverside campus have to be taken into consideration. My con­ tried to reorganize and unite on one campus. tention is that even if having only two colleges What seemed the ideal lost out to local politics seemed to be the ideal, it would not work now and control-a tendency that seems to have for the following reasons: the inside track in the age in which we live. First, each college and university board is What evidence do supporters of only two now autonomous and so recognized by NAD American Adventist universities have that action; this was an important governance would make that process succeed this time issue to most accrediting bodies. Most col­ around? What has changed? Everywhere, it leges are owned and operated by a union seems, the notion of big government is out constituency. The truth is that no self-respect­ and local control is in. ing union would want to see its college closed-in this day and age, what other rea­ son is there for the union boundaries? If you My Assessment of the Future don't believe that, look carefully at the length for North America's Adventist to which the Atlantic, Columbia, and Mid­ Colleges and Universities America unions have been going to subsidize and restructure their college operations so as believe there is room for as many Adventist to allow them to continue to serve their I colleges and universities in North America constituencies. as can make it successfully! While having two jANUARY 199 7 31 SPECffiUM------universities might be the way to go if the tional; denominational officials are in a finan­ denomination were starting its educational cial squeeze as tithes and offerings lag behind system from scratch, that ignores history. That expenses. They have to attend to many tradi­ is not where we are now. As long as the tional programs. Often they allow everything Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America to suffer equally. While that strategy may work is organized as it is, with each union governing for certain areas of the church, it is the death its own college or university, it is unlikely that knell for quality education, as Knittel points any institution will close unless forced to do so out. I agree with him that there is an urgent by finances. And if that happens, beware: need in the Adventist Church for higher edu­ Finances will not go out of union to finance cation to be better funded. Every constituency another institution unless unions merge. I meeting should put this issue higher on its list agree with Knittel that each constituency must of priorities. Education in the Adventist Church decide whether it wants a quality institution. If does not have a tax base. People don't have to it does, then it needs to support it. If it doesn't, give to it. Therefore endowments must be then it needs to close it in an orderly fashion developed. Members need to remember edu­ rather than allowing it to die by attrition or cation in their estate planning. Why? Because, starvation. Denominational officials must also as recent studies have shown, growing num­ then be prepared to deal with the implications bers of Seventh-day Adventists are no longer of such a loss for their territory, its member­ willing to sacrifice quality for loyalty. ship, and their leadership. Denominational subsidies used to be a key source of funding for Adventist colleges. Rather hat is happening is that the Seventh-day than building up endowments as other Ameri­ W Adventist Church is quietly changing its can institutions were doing, Adventists institu­ priorities, just as is society around it. The tions were led to believe that this "living statistics of support demonstrate that the de­ endowment" would always be there. But nomination is no longer as committed to times have changed. Resources are being higher education as it once was. When I used shifted away from subsidies to colleges, for to hear church leaders say we must never instance, to shore up the retirement fund­ allow to happen to our colleges what Presby­ certainly another worthy cause. Today, the terians allowed at Princeton, Congregational­ denominational subsidy to a college, instead ists at Harvard, or Baptists at the University of of being a rna jor source of support, is fourth, Chicago, I pictured the leaders of these insti­ after tuition, government loans to students, tutions becoming "liberals," with lessened and philanthropy. In fact, most Adventist interest in their denominational moorings. But colleges yearly pay out scholarship funds to from where I sit now, I realize that it was their Adventist constituents in excess of that year's denominations gradually abandoning them denominational subsidy received! that produced the changes; loss of denomina­ Consequently, Adventist colleges are scram­ tional support required these institutions to bling for resources, looking for new sources of make up for the resources elsewhere. income to make up the shortfall from the I can see the same thing happening in the church. And you can be sure these new Seventh-day Adventist Church. Denomina­ sources will have implications for the nature of tional leaders are gradually, if unwittingly, the colleges. The church, too, understands abandoning their fiduciary responsibility to this, because when it is not able to control the colleges on whose boards they sit. I would higher education through generous subsidies, not suggest that this is conscious or inten- it sometimes tries control through other means

32 VoLCME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

(witness the "Commitment to God" document colleges operated by Kettering and Florida voted at the most recent Annual Council, hospitals, each with its own largely local which applies a different standard of account­ clientele); Andrews University has the semi­ ability to higher education compared to other nary and other unique programs, largely tech­ church entities). nical in nature, architecture being the most I believe that in spite of the denomination's successful example; Walla Walla College has inability to maintain the kind of financial engineering; Griggs University is known the support its colleges and universities in North world over for distance learning; and now America deserve, they will remain Adventist Union College is imaging itself for its new because of the loyalty and commitment of physician's assistant program. their faculties, administrations, and boards. When it comes to perspectives, for instance, And I am optimistic about the future of these Southern Adventist University subtly promotes institutions for the following reasons: itself as ethnically homogeneous and conser­ • More colleges, properly financed, will vative (of course, all Adventist institutions are inevitably serve more constituents. While conservative when compared to options out­ some few students will go anywhere to get side the church, though there is a spectrum at their desired education, the majority wish to the conservative end of the scale and Southern attend nearer home. So we need colleges is definitely farthest to the right), while La located where the students are. The church Sierra University has historically been progres­ cannot afford to diminish the total number of sive and now is the most multicultural, and Adventist students receiving an Adventist perhaps even the most "urban" of all of the higher education. institutions (as befits the southern California • Communism and the U.S. Government society that supports it); Southwestern Ad­ have shown that central planning seldom ventist University promotes itself as the cheap­ works in practice. Having two universities est to attend, while Oakwood College has the makes good theory, but constituents who pay market cornered for African-Americans who the bill have needs that cannot be serviced by desire the "Oakwood experience," as does distant governments-whether political or de­ Canadian Union College for Canadians who nominational (and remember, the two univer­ want an Adventist education in Canada. sities suggested by Knittel are General Confer­ Institutions whose secret of success is their ence institutions, not even North American, while increasingly the union colleges have boards made up of local people who care Drop In North American about them, know their needs, and are loyal to Division Support-'86-'95 them). 1986 1995 • The Seventh-day Adventist Church in ----- Operating North America is increasingly diverse. Two Income $243,335,896 1 $392,154,654 1 universities controlled by the General Confer­ Total 2 ence would not be able to serve these diverse Subsidies $15,107,716 $16,573,8882 Percentage of needs. Therefore the Adventist institutions in Income 0.062 o/o 0.042% North America are beginning to develop niches

for which they are becoming known. 1 Gross income of all higher educational institutions in When it comes to programs, for instance, the North American Division. 2 Combined higher education subsidies from all jurisdic­ everyone knows that Lorna Linda University is tions within the North American Division. a health science institution (as are the junior jANUARY 1997 33 SPEcmuM------place include Pacific Union College, which Adventist system is thus losing students off the takes advantage of its rural setting near the "high" end of the scale. But because I am at La beautiful Napa Valley, Columbia Union Col­ Sierra University, I can say what we are doing lege, which makes the most of being situated to address this problem, for instance. The in the nation's historic capital, and Atlantic faculty has recently adopted and applied the Union College, which profits from its location strictest policies for student admission coupled near the Athens of the New World with its with faculty promotion and tenure of any history, culture, and natural beauty. These Adventist institution anywhere. Furthermore, characteristics do not begin to do justice to the to get any La Sierra degree, a student will have special qualities of each institution, but they to take a general-education core program that do illustrate real differences. (In addition, of includes passing written tests in science and course, AU, LLU, and LSU are known for their math, knowing another language other than fine graduate and professional schools, which his or her mother tongue, and demonstrating make them unique.) One can readily see that annual voluntary community service work. two universities could We are delighted with not possibly serve the the quality students and increasingly diverse As expensive as the tuition at professors being at­ needs of the Adventist Pacific Union College and tracted our way. And constituency nearly so La Sierra University is, their while I believe this well as these 14 institu­ trend is typical of Ad­ tions located in North charges for room, board, ventism's other cam­ America, properly and tuition are lower than puses, I grant it is not funded. universal. The system • Size of institution the charges at two-thirds of needs not only better will be even less criti­ the 66private, four-year ac­ marketing, but also cal for quality in the better substance; our future than it has been credited schools in the State students definitely de- in the past. Cyberspace of California. serve to get their is making virtually the money's worth. same resources available to every institution • It is well known that the majority of that can afford to be hooked up, no matter its American society's leaders in areas of aca­ location or size. Andrews and La Sierra univer­ deme, government, business, and voluntary sities, particularly, have invested heavily in associations has received its education in this new technology, and the West Coast small private liberal-arts institutions--institu­ colleges and universities, through a consor­ tions like the ones in the Adventist system. tium arrangement, are exploring supplement­ Here they get taught by caring teachers and ing their academic offerings, through interac­ researchers rather than graduate teaching tive technology, with the best each campus assistants. Not a week goes by but what has to offer the others. students volunteer to me what wonderful • Admissions standards have been a prob­ teachers they have and how interested these lem on certain campuses, as Knittel correctly teachers are in them, both in and out of class. points out. And he is also right that many of For obvious reasons, the same cannot be said Adventism's brightest students, knowing of at larger institutions. Furthermore, our smaller the unevenness in quality, often choose to go institutions are the ones that offer our stu­ to a prestigious non-Adventist institution. The dents leadership opportunities that they would

34 VoLLME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND SWDENTS seldom get at more prestigious universities. evidence that they were great colleges, the How else, for instance, can one explain the jury is out on whether they will have the fact that Pacific Union College ranks in the resources to compete as great universities. top tier of liberal-arts colleges in the West or that La Sierra University students have won n summary, I would agree with Frank the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) inter­ I Knittel that the miracles of the past are no national championship three times in a row, reason for the poor judgment and indecisions competing with several hundred other schools of the present. Our constituents deserve better of business across the nation and even over­ leadership. Our institutional boards must ei­ seas? ther adequately fund their educational pro­ • And all of this quality at a reasonable cost grams or get out of the business. In the to the student! As expensive as the tuition at meantime, the 14 colleges and universities Pacific Union College and La Sierra Univer­ operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church sity is, for instance, their charges for room, in North America are a precious resource. board, and tuition are lower than the charges They have done a remarkable job with what at two-thirds of the 66 private, four-year they have had. I have been closely associated accredited schools in the State of California with a third of them and am well acquainted belonging to the Association of Independent with the rest of them. Like most institutions, all California Colleges and Universities (AICCU). of them have a range of faculties and students, It is a truism that resources are more critical including some of the finest anywhere. In the at the graduate level than the undergraduate. final analysis, then, it will depend on leader­ For that reason I do regret the rush to ship and board support as to whether all of university status that is now taking place in these institutions will prosper or close in favor of North American Adventist colleges with South­ a couple of big universities. I vote for diversity ern Adventist and Southwestern Adventist and local autonomy, believing in the end that universities leading the way. While there is Adventist mission will be best served that way.

jANUARY 199 7 35 The Art of Teaching the Bible

From reading Genesis to creating art to understanding Creation; from Gospel stories to the whole person worshiping. by Ron]olliffe

earing four-part harmony fill the sterile ter of the innocents, or the opulent gifts. They H confines of the tiered lecture hall startled wondered why I had brought only "We Three me. I had brought carols on CDs to my Ministry Kings" for Matthew's story. After class, several of]esus class, but I had expected the class to be students said everyone liked it and hoped we reserved about singing in an academic environ­ could do it again. ment. So I had placed a transparency of the Adventist higher education has a tradition song on the overhead projector and timidly of commitment to educating the whole per­ suggested that we sing the first verse. Some­ son. Mission statements in Adventist college thing wonderful happened. Without a piano, bulletins commonly state that the college the students sang, not just in unison, but in four­ intends to train the whole person, mind, body, part harmony. They didn't stop after the first and soul. Walla Walla College "aims to de­ verse. When they finished, they asked if I had velop in students the whole of their human brought other carols. potential." While a college's reach certainly After singing, I asked them to find the verses must exceed its grasp, these ideals continue to in Matthew or Luke that had instructed the challenge faculty to teach more effectively. hymn writer. They noticed that the carols were Western higher education invests the major­ predominantly based on the Lukan infancy ity of its resources in the development of narrative with its sheep and manger, angels verbal and analytical skills. The creative and singing and cattle lowing (clearly some edito­ celebrative skills are too frequently over­ rial license). Not many, they saw, had to do looked, or even dismissed as "non-academic" with the Matthean Magi, the house, the slaugh- and inappropriate for the college classroom. Consequently, in the majority of classes, stu­ Ronjo/liffe, a graduate of Walla Walla College, received his dents are rewarded for reactionary work­ Ph .D. in New Testament studiesfrom the Claremont Graduate School. He is professor of biblical studies at Walla Walla responding to arguments, analyzing literature, College, College Place, Washington. categorizing art periods, exegeting Scripture

36 VoLl:ME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS texts, learning taxonomies, and reacting to others. I wondered if there was a way to allow position statements. students to actually bring their own creative I've discovered that when I require students skills into the course, so that they could only to read texts, they do little more than note respond out of their own unique vision and potential quiz questions. For example, if they experience. are to read the birth narratives of Jesus, many I was encouraged in this line of thinking by (probably instructed by creches) notice no certain biblical texts. What might we come to essential differences among the four Gospels. understand by actually "go[ing] to the ant" or But if I require them not only to read the four "consider[ing] the lilies" (Proverbs 6:6; Luke Gospels, but to list differences among their 12:27)? There must be something to know that narratives of the birth of Jesus, students are is not conveyed by verbal instruction. Since more observant, seeing differences among the neither Proverbs nor Jesus say what is to be texts they otherwise overlook. discovered, perhaps the lesson must be expe­ However, even this careful observation leads rienced rather than learned from a lecture, to responses other than worship. When han­ dling the texts analytically, students typically hen the weather permitted, I began bring good critical skills to the task and W taking students out of doors to sketch respond in predictable, "academic" ways: con­ leaves, rocks, and trees. When inclement cerns about how to explain the differences or weather restricted outdoor activity, I brought harmonize them, questions about background dandelion stems and stones into the class­ information, and discussions of the relation­ room. Sketching teaches us how little we ship of inspiration and factuality. During the actually know about familiar things. Students past few years, as I have begun to utilize tell me they didn't realize how much they various art forms to augment lectures and class depend on symbols for their drawing, and discussions, I have noticed something new how difficult it is to actually see what is there. occurring in the classroom. However, my favorite creative activity for When critical study is coupled with the arts the classroom is having students make faces (for example, the music and poetry of the with clay. Learning by doing an activity the carols), the discussion frequently includes a text describes can be instructive (though cer­ larger number of students, and becomes more tainly not all texts should be practiced: Mat­ interdisciplinary. Now, in addition to more thew 27:5!) For example, what might be un­ standard "academic" concerns, the discussion derstood about the process of creation by incorporates nativity scenes, church versus making a head and face out of modeling clay cathedral architecture, holiday gift-giving, as part of the study of Genesis 2:7? Christmas trees, Ingathering, caroling, and the After seeing how responsive students in the work of the Spirit through young people. The classroom have been learning with clay, I've text ceases to be an isolated object for dissec­ distributed clay to audiences and workshop tion, and becomes part of a more integrated participants. I ask them to shape heads and awareness of the multifold layers and mean­ faces following step-by-step instructions. I am ings of Jesus' birth. amazed by the attentive, silent concentration The inclusion of song in the classroom grown adults lavish on their work with a bit of significantly enhanced the quality of the Min­ clay. Afterward, participants say: istry of Jesus course. However, the approach "I was amazed that I could actually make to the text remained primarily verbal, and still something myself." involved reacting to the creative work of "The clay has a mind of its own. I couldn't jANUARY 1997 37 SPECffiUM------control it completely." nother homework assignment requires "This face doesn't look like anybody I A students to "Respond to [a biblical text] know. But clearly some kinds of conversation non-verbally." Sometimes the assignment is to would be consistent with who it is, and some be done individually, though normally I ask kinds would not 'fit' at all. It has a personality." groups of students to work together on a Reflecting on just these comments, I find project. They come to class with sketches, myself amazed at what these observations collages, dramatic mime performances, mu­ have taught me. Why are we continually sic, etc. surprised at the work of our hands? Do we Some years ago, for a Parables ofJesus class, actually think we could be made in the image I assigned groups of six to eight students a text of the Creator, yet not be creative? or parable to non-verbally "explain, teach, or In attempting to experience the role of illustrate" to the rest of the class. One group was creator, we learn about the Creator. We also assigned the text "where two or three are learn about ourselves. We discover that al­ gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of though creators have intentions, the created them" (Matthew 18:20). When the time came also has "rights" that are inherent in its nature. for them to make their presentation, within 60 The creator has no control over these inherent seconds they had covered a long classroom "rights," unless willing to substantially alter the wall with butcher paper from the floor up eight very essence of the medium itself. But this feet. Other students appeared with an over­ usually destroys the very qualities that made head projector to serve as a "light source," and the medium attractive in the first place. Finally, buckets of fmger paint. They began to paint the created always has the impress of its predrawn outlines with their hands. Gradually, creator. The faces we make do have person­ life-sized human shadows began emerging, alities. Even though they are made of clay, wearing T-shirts and jeans or shorts, corre­ they still have potentialities that are individu­ sponding to how the students were dressed. ally unique. Wouldn't it be interesting to select Upon finishing, the eight students took their several of these heads and let them be the places between the projector and the nine characters in a novel? shadow figures they had painted. Each was Sculptures by students of Ron Jolliffe. holding a tool reflected in his or her shadow that they planned to use in service to the tall, central, ninth figure, Jesus. It is not easy to verbalize the understanding that art seems capable of giving in the class­ room. Perhaps an anecdote can capture some of that essence. Recently I sat in Room 10 of the Monet introspective at the Art Institute of Chicago, surrounded by scores of people looking at paintings of water lilies. One per­ son entered with a companion and said aloud, "What are these? I didn't know Monet did anything this abstract. I don't see anything in these at all," and went directly on to Room 11. Some minutes later a second couple entered. One of them repeated words similar to what I had just heard.

38 VoLlh\1£ 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND SWDENTS

The other answered, "These are paintings of necessary part of any creative activity. Learn­ water lilies." ing involves more than right answers. It is "I don't see anything." important to remind ourselves that assigning After several attempts to explain what the grades is far less important than learning, and pictures were about, the companion said, discovering what does not work is also an "Come, look at this early water lily painting, important part of education. just where we entered the room. It shows the It seems that what students learn through art shoreline. In later works Monet omitted the and words is qualitatively different from what shoreline. These dark green areas are tree they learn through words alone. If we learned reflections, and the globs of paint are the lilies to think through both art and words, perhaps floating on the surface." Adventists would exhibit less hubris about After nearly a minute of concentration, the how right we are. To understand through art first person said, "Oh! I see them! They're and words could lead us to practice our faith beautiful!" and proceeded to walk slowly more responsibly. around the room absorbing water lilies float­ To use just one example, we have a long­ ing on the surface of deep tree reflections. standing commitment to the words "heavenly sanctuary." When heard and believed only A rt teaches us something fundamental about through words, the heavenly sanctuary seems .1"\Janguage. Without art, we operate under essentially interchangeable with some physi­ an illusion about words. School, with its cal building in heaven. Were we to come to primary focus on verbal skills, leaves many understand "our sanctuary message" through with the incorrect impression that words are the interaction of art and word, we might exact, accurate depictions of reality. Art does choose to spend more time as Adventists not solve the problem of describing reality, being a "heavenly sanctuary" to other people. but it does make us aware that words are only It was Jesus himself who continually re­ one way to perceive and describe reality. minded us that '"the Kingdom of God is in I am aware that not all courses easily lend your midst'" (Luke 17:21, NASB). Imagine an themselves to creativity, especially at introduc­ Adventism that was considered less a reposi­ tory levels. This is especially the case where tory of truthful facts about certain biblical students are learning the basic skills and lan­ texts and more a sanctuary for those needing guage of a discipline. Nevertheless, when even a city of refuge. beginning students are required to utilize a Providing opportunity to participate in the creative activity, they learn more quickly. text verbally and creatively in the classroom A more genuine concern is the difficulty of seems to touch the whole student, and that is grading these types of assignments. Misguided what Adventist college mission statements applications and personal subjectivity are a claim: Adventists educate the whole person.

jANUARY 199 7 39 The Unembarrassed Adventist

Adventist educators should initiate students into conflict and make them partisans. by Charles Scriven

It is the work oftrne education ... to train the know what I believe?" he said. "I believe that youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of going to heaven is like going to Philadelphia." other men's thought. ... [to} possess breadth of Campolo was taken aback-Philadelphia? mind, clearness ofthought, and the courage of The man explained that just as there are their convictions. "many ways to get to Philadelphia," so there -Ellen Whitel are many ways to get to heaven. You don't have to be a Baptist or even a Christian-"we HEN ToNY CAMPOLO FLIEs HOME TIRED all end up in the same place; how you get from his speaking appointments, there doesn't matter." W and his seatmate wants to know his Campolo was too tired to argue. He maneu­ name and what he does, the answer depends vered himself out of the conversation as fast as on whether Campolo feels like talking or not. he could and went to sleep. But several hours "When I want to talk," he explains, "I say I'm later, when the plane began its descent into a sociologist. And the person next to me says, Philadelphia, he woke up to gusting winds, 'Oh, that's interesting.' But if I really want to heavy rains, and fog as thick as wool. The ride shut someone up, I say I'm a Baptist evange­ was rough and scary. Everyone was tense. list. That generally does it." So Campolo, feeling pugnacious, turned to Once, on a red-eye special, he told the man his seatmate and said, "I'm certainly glad the sitting beside him that he was a Baptist evan­ pilot doesn't agree with your theology." gelist. But the man didn't retreat. "Well, do you "What do you mean?" "Down in the control tower," Campolo Charles Scriven, president of Columbia Union College, is the replied, "the controller is telling the pilot he's author of several books, including The Transformation of 'on beam,' and the message is: Don't deviate Culture (Herald Press, 1988). Scriven graduated from Walla Walla College and received his Ph.D. in theology from the from this." Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. Campolo went on: "It's foggy outside, and

40 Von:.ME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND SWDENTS

I'm glad the pilot's not spouting off about how for priests," he said, but it is "intolerable" in he can get to Philadelphia anyway he pleases. universities.4 I'm glad he thinks the controller knows the Eliot perhaps gleaned his comparison from best path to the runway, and I'm glad the Cardinal Newman, who in Tbe Idea of the pilot's going to stay with it." University had declared more than a decade earlier that the university is neither a convent s for how to live the best life you can­ nor a seminary.5 In any case, the misgivings A how to get to "heaven," how to walk the about religious training in higher education road to fulfillment-Campolo's seatmate was were taking an ever-stronger hold. In 1904, very like the modern educational establish­ DeWitt Hyde, who studied at Harvard while ment. From the viewpoint of conventional Eliot was there and soon afterward became understanding, school is no place to take a the president of Bowdoin College, called the strong position about morality and religion. "narrowness" he associated with church col­ On these matters, the rule in school is, Don't leges "utterly incompatible" with responsible be partisan, and don't ruffle any feathers. higher education. "A church university," he When Adventist education was developing declaimed, "is a contradiction in terms. "6 in the second half of the 19th century, our To these educational leaders, in other words, pioneers were flat-out partisan feather-rufflers. teaching a general awareness was fine; teach­ In her first extended essay on education, Ellen ing a specific religious heritage was suspect. White declared that the young can be trained Today, well toward the end of the 20th century, "for the service of sin or for the service of this sentiment still predominates. Partisan edu­ righteousness." She said, too, that we should cation, especially in matters religious and give them "that education which is consistent moral, is seen widely to be, at best, narrow, with our faith. "2 Percy T. Magan, describing and, at worst, bigoted and victimizing. Re­ the 1891 (and first-ever) Adventist education sponsible teaching does not inculcate a par­ convention, said the reform participants envi­ ticular point of view or set of virtues; it rather sioned was seen mostly in terms of making the imparts knowledge and skills sufficient, as Bible central to the curriculum. 3 Mortimer Kadesh writes, to enable the self to All the while, the conventional secular or­ criticize its "social milieu" and to "form" its thodoxy, especially as regards higher educa­ being and "determine" its wants. 7 Even a tion, was headed in another direction. The teacher at a Southern Baptist college echoes oldest colleges in the United States were the conventional understanding: "It's not my sponsored by churches, but many were just job as a professor to tell [students] what to then breaking their religious ties. Educational think," the teacher told TbeCbronicleofHigber leaders were challenging, or even ridiculing, Education recently, "it's my job to make them education that tried to instili in students a think."8 specific spiritual heritage with its own distinc­ I will show here why the historic Adventist tive way of thinking and living. understanding is closer to the mark than At his inauguration irt 1869, Charles Eliot, secular modern orthodoxy. My claim, made the Harvard president who cut the last links with a view to secularization inside as well as between the university and its original Chris­ outside the church, is that teaching and learn­ tian patrons, mocked the teaching that tries to ing in the Christian setting, including the instill some particular set of beliefs about Christian college, should be, as Ellen White what is good and true. That may be "logical insisted, "consistent with our faith." It should and appropriate in a convent, or a seminary display (in its own way) the church's true jANUARY 1997 41 SPECffiUM------identity; it should be, indeed, a deliberate United States, that differences of faith, politics, strategy for building and bracing the circle of morality, and custom occasion not only charm disciples. Bland neutrality is a mistake, and it but also bloodshed. is a dangerous mistake. These are the conditions we live in, and under these conditions, bland neutrality, I et me begin by explaining a figure of repeat, is a mistake. If uncharitable narrow­ Lspeech I learned from my teacher and ness is also mistaken, that does not gainsay the friend, Professor James Wm. McClendon, Jr., point. Conflict is a fact, and bland neutrality now Distinguished Scholar in Residence at leaves conflict, even violent conflict, unchal­ Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. In lenged. Conflict is a fact, and bland neutrality Ethics, the first volume of his Systematic puts blinders over people's eyes. Bland neu­ Theology, he remarks that we humans exist "as trality, in short, threatens society by feeding in a tournament of narratives."9 What does he indifference and then compounds the threat mean by the arresting phrase "tournament of by feeding self-deception. narratives"? It is in this light that His point, first of all, I want to advance my is that whatever idea or In a world of many lan­ claim, namely, that possibility confronts us, guages and histories, there Christian education, any day or any hour of including Christian the day, the way we can be no neutralpoint of higher education, respond-the way we view, no single pathway should be partisan. It think and feel and act­ ofknowledge available to should not be blindly depends on the stories or arrogantly partisan, we're attached to. The everyone. The point is not but, without embarrass­ stories, or narratives, whether to be partisan, ment and without apol­ we know and identify ogy, it should both with shape our whole but how. build and brace the lives, our whole ethos circle of disciples. or ethics. Narratives, in others words, are As we have seen, among the secular-minded, bedrock-bedrock for both personal and com­ and to a surprising degree among the reli­ munal frame of mind-for insight, for attitude, gious, antipathy to the partisan is widespread. for conduct. The background to this antipathy is the En­ The second point of the phrase concerns lightenment. Kant declared that movement's conflict. The narratives men and women iden­ ideal of the autonomous individual when he tify with are many-across the total human called his readers to thrust off dependence on landscape, beyond counting. And frequently, others for direction. "'Have courage to use like contenders in a tournament, these narra­ your own reason!"'-that, he said, "is the tives clash with one another, one story feeding motto of the Enlightenment. "10 And with the this loyalty or outlook and another that. The ensuing shift to the self-governing or self­ result is variety in human culture, often wel­ defining individual, the meaning of respect for come and often winsome. But more than others veered toward non-interference, or anyone would like, the conflict of narratives even neutrality, with respect to differences of feeds strife as well, including violent strife. We outlook and conviction. The partisan was now are sadly aware, we who inhabit the world of bad manners. Conflict was to be domesti­ Sarajevo and Rwanda and (for that matter) the cated. The motive was admirable. The Enlight-

42 VoLUME 26, NuMBER 1 TEACHERS AND SWDENTS enment grew into full flower on bloodsoaked ally comes across as a kind of intellectual soil. The Thirty Years' War, religion-stoked bazaar, catering, at least ostensibly, to autono­ and staggering in its brutality and senseless­ mous selves in the process of forming their ness, ended (more or less) in 1648, endowing being and determining their wants without Europe with a need and a lively desire for "direction" (as Kant put it) from others. Stu­ peace, or at least respite. Bloodletting had dents are still said to be learning how to think, failed to resolve the doctrinal discord from not what to think. It is still "narrow" and which it sprang. As Stephen Toulmin writes, "sectarian" to inculcate a particular point of circumstances called for a means of determin­ view, especially if the point of view involves ing truth that "was independent of, and neutral religious or moral commitment. Except in between, particular religious loyalties."ll defense of diversity itself, it is still bad man­ But truth, despite these hopes, could not be ners, and bad education, to be partisan. determined in total independence of particu­ The deception in all this, or self-deception, lar religious loyalties. Consider the idea that is palpable. But antipathy to the partisan the individual is self-governing and self-defin­ jeopardizes education in other ways as well. ing, with no need to depend upon others for For one thing, it trivializes differences. When direction. This idea subverts-indeed, it was disagreements over faith, politics, morality, meantto subvert-accountability to authority, and custom flame up in violent strife, as they whether religious, familial, or communal. often do, it is disingenuous to speak, in the Autonomy was needed, so the thinking went, customary, bleached-out phraseology, of mere in order to fend off acquiescence to inherited "competing value systems," as though stu­ prejudice and folly. But we each speak a dents were consumers meant to pick and human language, and every human language choose like shoppers in a marketplace. To be gives particular peoples, each with the par­ or feign to be impartial is to push the truth ticular narratives they have lived and told, the away, to keep it at a distance. It is a kind of ability to communicate. What is more, every indifference, and it communicates indiffer­ language bears the freight of stories past and ence. so gives every user an inherited frame of mind. Far from being innocuous, the indifference Thus no neutral vantage point exists from damages humanity. For when in matters of which the self may practice its alleged au­ faith and morals, education must be too open tonomy. In a world of many languages and to contain conviction, it can no longer fight off histories, there can be no neutral point of the tendency to spiritual coma that seems in view, no single pathway of knowledge avail­ any case to bedevil contemporary culture. able to everyone. How and what we think at Differences trivialized by the trivialization of all times reflects a storied past. morality itself-and examples abound: This is an age when expert witnesses can make he point, despite conventional modern ethical judgments seem repressive even at an Tthinking, is not whetberto be partisan, but incest trial; it is an age when "standards" at bow. Even so, the narrative that shapes the media command posts consist of whatever the dominant version of higher education contin­ market will bear; it is an age when lawmakers ues to be that of the Enlightenment. The wring their hands over teen violence and still debate over "political correctness" sweeping cast votes for murder weapons. The situation the campus and the wider culture betrays, it is recalls what Yeats, in "The Second Coming," true, growing uneasiness about standard, edu­ declared of an age without conviction: "Mere cational assumptions. Still, the curriculum usu- anarchy is loosed upon the world, I The jANUARY 1997 43 SPEc.ffiUM------blooddimmed tide is loosed ... " among contending points of view. So-called Suspicion of commitment in the classroom "truths" are only fictions to assist the "will to does not, of course, produce students with no power," conventions whose conventionality biases at all; it rather favors their "assimila­ has been forgotten. tion," as Patricia Beattie Jung writes, to the But even if we accept the absence of a "prevailing cultural ethos. "12 The fiction of neutral viewpoint, it's still possible-and im­ neutrality tends to baptize the status quo, with portant-to make a vigorous argument for its implicit morality or immorality, and to accountability, and thus for the importance of nullify the stark alternatives. Antipathy to the defending right against wrong. Sheer consent partisan turns out, then, not just to trivialize to rival truth claims, after all, is not just the differences, but also to protect whatever now embrace of charming or fertile disagreement; predominates. Despite the homage paid to sheer consent is surrender to injustice and criticism, antipathy to the partisan is funda­ bloodshed, for these are what differences of mentally conservative. faith, politics, morality, and custom all too What this entire criticism of liberal educa­ often bring about. Writers such as Alisdair tion displays is the emerging awareness that Macintyre, James McClendon, and Nancey the modern era, heralded by Descartes and the Murphy, who will figure prominently in what Enlightenment, is now passing. We are enter­ follows, argue that even though we see the ing what some now call the "postmodern" era, world through our inherited frameworks, no with its key realization that outlooks are framework must be a prison-house. It is pos­ bequeathed to individuals, not disc;overed or sible and important that conversation, both created by them. How we see and live de­ within and across the lines of human differ­ pends on the background-family, commu­ ence, should yield new increments of under­ nity, history-we each absorb growing up in standing and agreement. The shift to the our particular language and culture. Systems postmodern does not, in other words, compel of thought and practice characteristic of par­ anarchy and resignation with respect to hu­ ticular communities may involve differences man knowledge. too deep to be adjudicated or even under­ stood through simple conversation. n light of all this, let me now suggest the But does all this add up to irrationalism, add I outlines of a postmodern conception of up to the tribalization, as one might say, of intellectual accountability for colleges of ex­ knowledge? This is question central to the plicit Christian commitment. How can higher issue of ethics and education. If we are left education under the church's auspices con­ with mere subjectivity, if everything comes tend responsibly-with no retreat of mind or down to mere personal choice, how is anyone heart-in the human tournament of narra­ accountable? How does ethics, with its as­ tives? How can it nourish post-adolescent sumption that some attitudes and actions are minds with its own distinctive vision? How can right and some wrong, even have a place? it be partisan and still hold itself responsible to Nietzsche, who in the 19th century antici­ justify its partisan convictions? To begin, let me pated the shift to the postmodern, believed say unmistakably that thepartisanship in ques­ that the ideas we consider true are fixed and tion is countercultural. From the biblical nar­ binding merely from long usage and endorse­ rative, this is obvious enough: solidarity with ment within a particular group. One may God and God's Messiah means dissent from employ strategies to promote or subvert a the wider world. Nevertheless, the lure of point of view, but it is impossible to adjudicate respectability within the surrounding, domi-

44 VoLChWE 26, NuMBER 1 TEAcHERs AND SroDENTS nant culture has always tantalized the Chris­ toward authority and obsession with personal tian community. As McClendon writes, "The autonomy. It reflects as well the earlier Socratic church's story will not interpret the world to form of moral education, which trained stu­ the world's satisfaction. Hence there is a dents for criticism of convention without of­ temptation (no ~eaker word will do) for the fering a positive account of the good in human church to deny her 'counter, original, spare, life. The overall impact of a purely negative strange' starting point in Abraham and jesus approach was to leave students without rea­ and to give instead a self-account or theology sons· for preferring one way of life to another, that will seem true to the world on the world's and thus without reasons to fend off the own present terms. "13 blandishments of purely private satisfaction. What is true for the church is true for its In his play Clouds, the Greek writer colleges. Here, too, the endurance of distinc­ Aristophanes made this point with his imagi­ tively Christian vision must be a matter of nation. A father named Strepsiades has a son deliberate design. In its decisions about per­ who is a spendthrift and idler, with hardly any sonnel, curriculum, and student life, the Chris­ conscience at all. The father, desperate for tian college must re- change, brings his son nounce congenial neu­ to the school ofSocrates trality, which is in any Education that plays down in Athens. case artifice and self­ feeling and imagination, and Socrates arranges for deception, and em­ the son to hear a de­ brace without apology pays no heed to training the bate between one its own heritage and entire selfis both indigent and teacher, who is a stern discipline. In the tour­ guardian of traditional nament of narratives, undependable. Christian edu­ values, and another anything less is a recipe cation must acknowledge and who is a smirking, self­ for defeat. Anything less indulgent enemy of marks capitulation to confront conflict; it must ini­ these values. In the end "the unstoried bland- tiate students into conflict. it becomes clear that ness (and the mortal Socrates himself, terrors) of late-twentieth-century liberal indi­ though courageous and serene compared to vidualism."14 both debaters, has more in common with the In the college setting, learning takes place smirking critic of traditional values. It turns out under the leadership of teachers. So if the that he has nothing positive to teach about countercultural, the embrace of distinctive how to live. He is like the tradition-hating vision, is crucial for responsible Christian debater, in that his whole mode of teaching is partisanship, a corresponding view of the to raise questions about traditional morality teaching function is also crucial. In the guid­ and to shoot it down. He ridicules inherited ance and inspiration of students, intellectual wisdom and those who try to instill it in the accountability allows, and indeed requires, minds and lives of students. And it's all the commitment to a particular point of view. worse because he offers virtually nothing to Being responsibly countercultural means substitute for what he ridicules. He says noth­ acknowledging the self-deception and empti­ ing about what a person should aim for in life, ness in the platitude about teaching students nothing about the standards and convictions how to think, not what to think. The platitude that should prevail. fits neatly with the Enlightenment antagonism Aristophanes is Socrates' critic; he thinks the jANUARY 1997 45 SPEGrnUM------situation is disastrous. So in his play, the fancy narrows vision and foils insight. Perception, to education at the fancy school in Athens leaves be complete, must involve "emotional and the son as selfish as ever. In the end, he just imaginative, as well as intellectual, compo­ doesn't care about anything but himself, any­ nents."17 thing but his own personal satisfaction. The But as with the bare noticing of facts, so with wider world, and the people in it, don't meet the emotion and imagination that deepen our any of his needs and don't even matter.15 perception: They, too, reflect personal expe­ In order to make advances in awareness rience over time. Emotion and imagination and comprehension, the inquirer must first disclose stories heard and lived. They reveal have been taught what to think, must first have communal ways of life. They make manifest been initiated into some actual way of life or the past and present habits, duties, and affili­ type of practice. Knowing how to think pre­ ations that constitute the evolving self. All this supposes some partisan account of the subject signals the need for attention to the whole matter, some positive immersion into a tradi­ person. Education must concern itself with tion. Being partisan may, it is true, slump into character, with the total way of life. This narrow indoctrination. matters, indeed, for the mere removal of igno­ But it doesn't have to, and responsible rance; for positive enlightenment, it matters all partisanship is in any case fundamental: Noth­ the more. · ing positive can happen without it. The road That is why Parker Palmer, in To Know as to enlightenment requires advocacy as well as We Are Known, his work on the spirituality of criticism. education, declares his opposition to "objec­ tivism" in education. In this still-dominant et another respect in which the learning classroom pattern, students learn the "facts" Y environment at Adventist institutions must from an emotional distance, like bystanders. swim against the current is in the attention Mostly, the heart has no role; in accordance paid to the total way of life-not just technical, with the "objective" ideal, what is investigated calculating intellect but also feelings, imagina­ remains at arm's length, an object and nothing tion, habits, and virtues. The mere removal of more. Yet this detachment, this denial of the ignorance-what the distinguished education connection and interdependence of the stu­ writer Jacques Barzun reveres as the "prime dent and the subject matter, "leaves the inner object" of education16--calls for such atten­ self unexamined." And without attention to tion, anyway, since study itself is a discipline the inner self, Palmer declares further, humans involving virtues. Just paying attention and tend to scorn the common good and veer seeing clearly-traits important for scholar­ toward arrogant manipulation of the world ship as well as moral growth-require emo­ outside themselves. IS tional involvement. As Martha Nussbaum ar­ If mere technical expertise-the mere re­ gues, interpreting Aristotle, a person may moval of ignorance-were truly the prime know something as a fact--a connection as object of education, then few could be said to father or mother, say, to a child; or the benefit have received better training than the scien­ of unearned privilege relative to others in tists who produced the first atomic bomb. one's society-yet fail to take in the fact "in a Before the initial explosion, their technical full-blooded way," fail to confront or acknowl­ expertise smoothed the way toward the per­ edge what it means and what response it calls fecting of their awesome creation. On the day for. When a person lacks "the heart's confron­ after the first mushroom stained the sky, when tation" with what lies open to view, the deficit the scientists stopped to agonize over what

46 VOLLME 26, NUMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS they had done, one said that "the glitter of engage the whole person, Christian education nuclear weapons," had seemed "irresistible." must do so in a manner appropriate to its own The participants were overcome, he said, by struggle in the tournament of narratives. It "technical arrogance" that arose from their must acknowledge and deal constructively knowledge of what they could do with their and honestly with the challenges posed by minds.19 They no doubt understood, at some other points of view. Masking over differences level, that weapons with the capacity to lift a feeds apathy by pushing truth away, whereas million tons of rock into the sky would bring the point is to nourish passion and involve­ unspeakable danger and death to humanity. ment. But without confronting this fact "in a full­ In the second volume of his Systematic blooded way," through feeling and imagination Theology, McClendon says that]esus enrolled as well as calculating intellect, they failed to see his followers "as students in his school, his what it meant or what response it called for. open air, learn-by-doing, movable, life-chang­ The story illuminates the point: Education ing dialogue." The purpose was "training" for that plays down feeling and imagination and world-changing witness; the method was pays no heed to training the entire self, "costly apprenticeship." Then he alludes to including those habits, duties, and affiliations blind Bartimaeus, said by Mark to have re­ that give shape to feeling and imagination, is ceived his sight from Jesus and immediately both indigent and undependable. followed him on his dangerous mission to Jerusalem. On the view suggested by the third aspect of responsible partisanship is story, declares McClendon, "enlistment and A this: It must acknowledge conflict and scholarship are integral parts of one whole." confront conjlict; it must initiate students into Bartimaeus, occupied with Jesus' mission and conflict. ]ames McClendon writes about the immersed in its conflict, was "the paradigmatic school in Alexandria where Origen, the great Christian scholar. "21 Bible scholar and theologian, first gained fame Alisdair Macintyre, who himself suggests as a teacher. He told his students no topic or the need for "rival universities," says one task question or opinion was off limits, but at the of responsible partisanship is "to enter into same time took an unmis­ takablypartisan position. By instruction and example, he sought to instill the theory and practice of Christianity and to model an alliance of piety and scholarship. To him, the school was a train­ ing ground; its goal was the formation oflives that would honor and reflect the church's narrative.20 The same spirit and goal must infuse the responsible partisanship of Christian col­ leges today. If all educa­ tion, to be complete, must jANUARY 199 7 47 SPECffiUM------controversy with other rival standpoints." This tive framework for instruction-it may, for must be done in order to challenge the rival example, lead teachers to discourage the use standpoint, but also in order to test one's own of scientific knowledge for violent purposes­ account against "the strongest possible objec­ but the course content will no doubt reflect tions" against it.22 The pairing of enlistment what broadly respected authorities have had and scholarship by no means entails, in other to say. At the points, however, of profound words, a flight from challenges or a refusal to difference-in the human sciences and the give reasons and make adjustments. Within humanities; in the administration of student limits required· by the maintenance of basic life-the only responsible conduct in the face identity, the Christian college or university, of challenge is honest conversation. And this like a responsible partisan journal or newspa­ means readiness "to amplify, explain, defend, per, must tolerate-must, indeed, seek out­ and, if necessary, either modify or abandon" lively confrontation with other points of view. what one believes. 23 · This can happen, not just in the classroom or library, but also through the selection of n her book on Tbeology in the Age of students or even faculty. Postmodern aware­ I Scientific Reasoning, Nancey Murphey ar­ ness puts the difficulty of the knowledge gues that the right method for defending enterprise in bold relief, but accountability is Christian convictions is exactly analogous to still vital. Convictions must still be justified. To the scientific method. She writes from a post­ be responsible, partisan higher education must modern point of view and relies on the provide, or better, be, a context for account­ distinguished philosopher of science, Imre ability. Lakatos. Christian communities, she says, are In certain academic disciplines and aspects "experiments" in a "reasearch program." The of collegiate bureaucracy, the Christian insti­ program has to do with the claims of the tution may find itself in virtual consensus with gospel. As in productive science, the convic- models dominant in the surrounding cul­ tions central to the program must be held ture. Consider the natural sciences. Here tenaciously. Secondary convictions may be the Christian setting may evoke a distinc- held less tenaciously, but all-the central as well as the secondary-must be. willingly subjected to testing. The testing is in the living out of Christian life, and in the meet- ing of objections to the beliefs and practices associated with that life. The objections are met either by displaying, through words or deeds, their deficiency, or by attempting to make adequate adjustments. Over the long run, evidence accrues that counts for or against the secondary or even the central convictions. The intent and hope, always, is that "new and more consistent models of the Christian theory" may emerge.24 A paragraph gives short shrift to the nuance and complexity of Murphy's argument. She means to embrace the postmodern awareness of the limits and uncertainty of human knowl-

48 VOLlhl1E 26, NUMBER 1 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS edge while arguing for standards of evidential "critical years" of post-adolescence when, as reasoning that defeat "total relativism" and Sharon Parks writes, the emerging self is reclaim accountability. justifications cannot especially open to "life-transforming vision. "26 be absolute, even in the natural sciences. In In these ways such colleges, following their the domain of moral and spiritual conviction, particular purpose of education, can embody as in the human sciences, the difficulties are and refine the practices of teaching and learn­ even greater. But when challenges are suffi­ ing and thus create standards for these activi­ ciently understood to cause dismay-a com­ ties that assist congregations and eventually mon enough experience-they must be dealt the wider world. with through honest, open conversation. The The genesis of modernity was, substan­ attempted justifications, as McClendon writes tially, a hope for peace. But the attempt to in his own discussion of these matters, may realize the hope proved self-deceptive and, all seem acceptable and effective only in the eyes too often, oppressive, not just in its hostility to of the person or community being challenged. 25 differentiation but also in its drift toward But the effort of justification, and the intent of compelled uniformity. My argument for parti­ framing new and more consistent models of san education is an acknowledgment, as the Christian theory, must be embraced. Oth­ Toulmin puts it, "of the unavoidable com­ erwise, the partisanship so necessary for growth plexities of concrete human experience."27 in knowledge becomes a barrier to growth But as a call for responsible partisanship, it is and ceases to be responsible. also a,n evocation of a humane approach to For colleges and universities of explicit discord-honest partisanship, involving mind Christian commitment, then, intellectual ac­ and heart alike, fused with honest conversa­ countability requires a countercultural frame tion and shorn of the need to injure or coerce. of mind, a willing dissent, that is, from the Here higher education can be a beacon-and wider world and a deliberate advocacy of the especially Christian higher education, whose church's distinctive belief and practice. In the narrative, in decidedly unmodern fashion, exercise ofsuch accountability, teachers should calls its partisans to peaceable and prayerful first of all be protagonists. Second, they should, regard for those with whom it differs, includ­ in their teaching, engage the whole person, ing its mortal enemies. intellect and character alike. Third, they should The point of the Christian narrative is not acknowledge and participate in conflict; they resignation, it is transformation. In a some­ should meet challenges with attempted justi­ times winsome but often violent tournament fications. of narratives, colleges embracing such an In these ways, colleges that honor and approach to discord and such a hope of reflect the church's narrative can address the transformation may and must stand tall.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. Ellen G. White, Education(Mountain View, Calif.: Christian Higher Education in America: Diagnosis and Pacific Press Publ. Assn., 1903), pp. 17, 18. Prognosis," in Stanley Hauerwas and John Westerhoof, 2. , Testimonies for the Church (Moun- eds., Schooling Christians (Grand Rapids, Mich.: tain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publ. Assn., 1903), Vol. 3, Eerdmans, 1992), p. 133. pp. 131, 159. 5. Quoted in Jaroslav Pelikan, The Idea of the 3. The description appears in Emmett Vande Vere, University: A Re-examination (New Haven: Yale Uni­ ed., Windows (Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Publishing versity Press, 1992), p. 39. Association, 1975), pp. 172, 173. 6. Ibid., p. 132. 4. James Tunstead Burtchaell, "The Alienation of 7. Mortimer Kadesh, Toward an Ethic of Higher jANUARY 1997 49 SPECZRUM~·------

Education (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 79-81. pp. 73, 79. 18. Parker Palmer, To Know as We Are Known (San 8. Quoted by Courtney Leatherman in "Southern Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), pp. 33-39. Baptist College Enters Carefully Into Women's Studies," 19 .. Parker Palmer tells this story to introduce his Tbe Chronicle ofHigher Education Ouly 14, 1993), p. argument. Ibid., pp. 1,_ 2. A13. 20. McClendon, Systematic Theology: Ethics, pp. 42- 9. James William McClendon, Jr., Systematic Theology: 44. Ethics (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1986), p. 143. 21. James William McClendon, Jr., Systematic Theol­ 10. Quoted in James C. Livingston, Modern Christian ogy: Doctrines(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), ch. 1, Thought (New York: Macmillan, 1971), p. 1. p. 12 of the May 1993 draft. 11. Stephen Toulmin, Cosmopolis: TheHiddenAgenda 22. Alisdair Macintyre, Three Rival Versions ofMoral ofModernity(NewYork: The Free Press, 1990), p. 70. Enqui-ry(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 12. Patricia Beattie Jung, "A Call for Reform Schools," 1990), p. 231. in Hauerwas and Westerhoof, p. 117. 23. Ibid., p. 201. 13. McClendon, Systematic Theology: Ethics, p. 17. 24. Nancey Murphy, Theology in the Age ofScientifu: 14. Ibid., pp. 71, 72. Reasoning (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990), 15. See Martha Nussbaum, "Aristophanes and Socrates p. 1_96. on Learning Practical Wisdom," in Jeffrey Henderson, 25. James William McClendon, Jr., and James M. ed., Yale Classical Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge Smith, Understanding Religious Convictions (Notre University Press, 1980), Vol. 26, pp. 43-97. Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975), p. 182. 16.Jacques Barzun, BeginHere(Chicago: University 26. Sharon Parks, Tbe Critical Years (San Francisco: of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 54. Harper and Row, 1986), p. 17. 17. Martha Nussbaum, Love's Knowledge(New York: 27. Toulmin, Cosmopolis, p. 201.

50 Vorrnm 26, NuMBER 1 REVIEWS

TilE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW ,,,,,,,,,, Adventist English Professors Best Sellers ~~!~!~!~ This Last Weeks I~~~~j Week Savage the Best Sellers Primary Colors 1 by Anonymous The Horse Whisperer 5 26 2 by Nicholas Evans by Scott Moncrieff Absolute Power 3 3 by David Baldacci 4 The Celestina Prophecy 7 1 07 5 ~~i~-~-!-:-=-~o0!a~~:t~{~~~~~~)~:~~~~~~~f~~~~:~M~if::;;:; ~d~~~~~~~~f~~~~~~~~l~~~rf~=:;>·=·=·=·.. ,,$~~=t

In 1897, Ellen White wrote that mained from our top 1 0; Pri­ does at the beginning ofa jour­ "Literature and cheap fiction of mary Colors, our number one, ney, yet wary. For the most part, every order is circulated like the was number 12-the rest ofthe our hopes were disappointed, our leaves ofautumn; and the minds of list was out ofthe top 15. Most of fears confirmed. thousands are so taken up with these books have the shelflife of irreligious, cheap trash that there is unrefrigerated yogurt. Nevertheless, we bad a good noplace in the mindfor solid read­ • Crime/detective/mystery stories time writing the reviews. It's im­ ing"(Ms. 46, 1897,p.1, asfoundin and hijinks among the rich and portantfor Christians to give some Manuscript Releases, vol. 6,p.263). famous seem to be the most critical attention to what is What kinds of books are on the popular ingredients. Refresh­ captiving the popular imagination. "Best Sellers" list now, 100 years ingly, titles by Dr. Seuss and From time to time, it's worthwhile later? 1bat question guided a group She/ Silverstein are on the june to detail why bad is bad, and it's a of Adventist English professors as 9/ist. wondeiful spur to one's creative we divided up the top 10 list of • 1be authors are better at creat­ spleen. But we don't want to rest hardback ftetion best sellers from ing exciting plots than interest­ there. In a future article, we plan the New York Times Book Review, ing characters. We set out with to recommend some recent books March 17, 1996. Each ofus agreed hope, as each devoted reader we've especially enjoyed. to write a revieW covering the moral/ ethical and aesthetic aspects ofthe book in question. Primary Colors Some brief introductory obser­ vations may be useful. Primary Colors, by Anonymous vice president would be unbiblical, (Random House, 1996). and I would have to step aside in • 1be list is volatile. 1bree months favor of the second-place, but ap­ laterOune 9), onryThe Celestine Reviewed by L. Monique Pittman, propriately gendered, candidate. Prophecy, at number nine, re- Pacific Union College Perhaps something about the pos­ turing and self-fashioning that ac­ Scott Moncrieff, associate professor of English atAndrews University, received y first taste of politics came in companies politicking forces those his Ph.D .from the University ofCalifor­ M the lOth grade. I had been involved in the profession to con­ nia at Riverside. Tbough his training is elected class president, but almost front the fissures and contradic­ in Victorian studies, his recent research immediately my identity betrayed tions in their own identities. Recog­ and writing has been about popular me; our class advisor informed me nizing the link between questions culture, including Adventist culture. that a female president and male of identity and the business of jANUARY 1997 51 SPECTRUM------campaigning for public office, Pri­ and whether Burton will remain I finished the book asking my­ mary Colors attempts to explore with the campaign-in order to self whether I knew more about the soul-searching of a relatively maintain reader suspense. Anony­ the state of politics in America than young political advisor who must mous carefully structures chap­ I had learned in the lOth grade. I'm determine whether to compromise ters to juxtapose markedly dis­ afraid the answer is No; most hu­ his personal ethics for the success similar incidents and to leave read­ mans understand at an early age of his candidate. ers guessing about the outcome of that politics involves the endless Primary Colors chronicles a certain episodes; however, all this reshaping of identity, and if we democratic presidential primary suspense backfires as the reader need this concept confirmed we campaign suspiciously similar to loses interest in the novel's action can look to far greater, more ac­ Bill Clinton's, and caused quite a and flounders in the mire of a complished writers than Anony­ fluster for some months as politi­ rather disappointing prose style. mous for such information. cians and reporters scrambled to identify the Anonymous respon­ sible for.the novel. Told by Henry The Horse Whisperer Burton, a campaigning manager for the Bill Clinton stand-in, Jack The Horse Wbisperer, by Nicholas wants the horse whisperer. Stanton, the novel explores the Evans (Delacorte, 1995). The theme of manipulation is motives of politicians and the prin­ deftly underscored through ciples they blithely obliterate to Reviewed by Douglas jones, An­ Booker's abilities to understand satisfy their need for power and drews University equine sensibilities and then nurse public admiration. Henry Burton the damaged Pilgrim back to his joins the campaign team as a skep­ he last time I rode a horse, the former strength and glory. tical political advisor, but gradually Tanimal stopped in the middle The book recalls the power succumbs to the persuasive sincer­ of the trail, lay down, and rolled (diluted, however) of Peter Shaffer's ity of Jack Stanton, who seems over-with me still in the saddle. I play Equus and the randy schmaltz­ eager to right the social inequities feel there's a parallel between my iness ofRobertWallers' The Bridges plaguing late 20th-century America. last horseback ride and reading ofMadison County. It would seem As the campaign faces sex scandals The Horse Wbisperer by Nicholas that Evans was intent on commer­ and disappointing primary results, Evans. Much of the reading was cial success, and the book's long­ Burton gradually recognizes that enjoyable, much of the book was time presence in the best sellers' even Stanton reconciled himself to engaging. But toward the end of it stables is evidence of his achieve­ the endless dissimulation of the I felt let down and put upon. ment. But I don't think the novel is politician, and Burton must decide The novel centers around the lasting art. Its gait is uneven. Stylis­ if he still believes enough in the potential help that Tom Booker­ tically, The Horse Wbispererplods, worth of Jack Stanton to sacrifice the horse whisperer-can provide then gallops, then plods again. his own values for the sake of the Grace Graves, a young girl, and her While many of the setting descrip­ campaign. horse, Pilgrim, who has been maimed tions, especially those of the Booker I wish I could say that Primary in a freak accident. Grace's mother, ranch in Montana, are handled with Colors convinces its readers to Annie, knows that if Booker can heal precision, Evans' diction, I think, is care about Henry Burton's jour­ the horse, Grace's physical and emo­ inconsistent. And the book's end­ ney to disillusionment, but I can't. tional scars will also be healed. ing is worthy of daytime television Too late, we understand the depth I found the psychological thread drama. of Burton's admiration of Jack in The Horse Wbisperer to be the The Horse Wbispererfalls short Stanton and his disappointment in most rewarding. Not only does of its promise to explore the mys­ Stanton's human frailty. Too late, Evans portray the poignancy of the tical bond between human and we learn enough about Burton's Graves family's coping with trag­ animal. Instead, it sinks finally into background to sympathize with edy, he explores the fragile taut­ tawdry exploitation---{)[ its charac­ his own struggle to understand ness of the mother-daughter rela­ ters and its readers. I'd much rather himself. Anonymous hoards sig­ tionship with respect. Ultimately, recommend Cormac McCarthy's All nificant information-whether though, the novel is a study of the Pretty Horses (1992) to readers Stanton fathered an illegitimate manipulation: Annie Graves always who want to experience the emo­ child, whether Stanton truly cares gets what she wants, and she wants tional bonds between horse and about improving the United States, her daughter whole again. She also rider in a novel of artistic integrity.

52 VouME 26, NuMBER 1 ------THEjOURNAL OF mE AssociA110N oF ADVENTIST FoRuMs

"off camera," which makes me Absolute Power wonder if the inevitable movie will achieve a PG-13 instead of an R Absolute Power, by David Baldacci forward moraVethical framework. rating, the four murders and two (Warner, 1996). The bad guys all worship the equa­ suicides notwithstanding. tion: money = power = sex. The Aesthetically, the going is quite Reviewed by Terrie Dopp Aamodt, good guys hold some kind of value a bit trickier. The plot invites pur­ Walla Walla College system outside that equation, al­ suit even though it's soon clear though the sources are never clear. that Luther will get blown away t's tough to write inside-the­ The men-both good and bad­ and Jack and Kate will probably I Beltway fiction because the real are men, brave and bold. The survive. In this time-deficient age, thing is by turns so exciting, women are neurotic, emotionally though, I have to care about the overripely scandalous, and banal fragile, and given to throwing up in characters enough to keep flick­ that fiction pales by comparison. tense situations, tom between their ing those pages. And none of the David Baldacci partially succeeds in powerful ambitions to succeed in a men and women who people this carving out a fictional niche in Wash­ man's world and their need to be book are sufficiently complex or ington, D.C., thanks to an ever­ traditionally feminine. admirable to complement the plot. boiling plot. His characters are less The pleasures of Baldacci's bad It would take one powerful piece interesting. More of that anon. guys are disgusting rather than of fiction to pull me voluntarily The world of absolute power delicious. The topic requires anum­ from the tales of Watergate, Iran revolves around the U.S. president, ber of steamy sex scenes, but the Contra, Clarence Thomas, and Alan Richmond, and his vast cho­ author apparently is not enjoying Anita Hill. Absolute Power didn't rus comprises mendacious corpo­ himself-most of them take place do it for me. rate lawyers, the well-padded, well­ paid vassals to the unbelievably rich, who in tum control both do­ The Celestine Prophecy mestic and foreign policy. The presi­ dent has enough power to seduce Tbe Celestine Prophecy, by James lightenment. the young wife of his mega-billion­ Redfield (Warner, 1993). The nine Insights are a combi­ aire friend, Walter Sullivan, but the nation of pantheism, Eastern phi­ drunkenness of the amorous pair Reviewed by Andrew P. Woolley, losophy and religion, and pop psy­ leads to tragedy, and she, regretta­ Southwestern Adventist University chology, with elements ofEmerson, bly, gets killed, all in the way of the Darwin, and D. H. Lawrence thrown world. eeling nostalgic for the Sixties? in. They reveal that as people are Covering up the event might FParanoid about the Nineties? becoming more aware of coinci­ have succeeded except for an un­ Nervous about the corning millen­ dences, they will look for a new believable coincidence: An unde­ nium? Want to combine all these spiritual age. Once they begin tected burglar, Luther Whitney, feelings? If the answer is Yes, then searching, they discover fields of witnesses the slaying through a Tbe Celestine Prophecy is for you. energy, created from the first vibra­ one-way mirror. On a spiritual quest, the narrator tions in the universe; each level of The president is abetted by his goes to Peru, looking for a manu­ being evolved by vibrating up from ambitious, amoral female chief of script written around 600 B.C. that a lower level. The individual may staff, Gloria Russell, while Luther's contains nine Insights. Unfortu­ connect and vibrate in tune with champion is Jack Graham, a former nately, no one possesses the entire the universe (Insights 3 and 5). On public defender who seems to be manuscript. Each Insight (except the other hand, he may be dis­ on the verge of selling his soul to a the ninth) has been copied and tracted into power struggles or may prestigious law firm and to his passed around, but the narrator be held back by "control dramas," principal client, his fiancee's fa­ must find each person and gain patterns learned in childhood (In­ ther. one Insight before he can discover sights 4 and 6). Or, he may be Luther's estranged daughter, the next. It's a dangerous jour­ distracted from an insight by be­ Kate, a fierce prosecutor of bur­ ney--evil sources, particularly the corning "addicted" to another per­ glars, complicates matters because government and the church, want son (Insights 7 and 8). she once was engaged to Jack. to keep the manuscript suppressed The intellectual level of infor­ The tale spins out in a straight- because of its great spiritual en- mation here is that of a nodding jANUARY 1997 53 SPECTRUM------pass through Smvey of Civiliza­ the insights change him; his typical Christian redemption story: God tion. For instance, part of the Sec­ response is "I don't know," so that will restore order in a world where ond Insight is an awareness that those with knowledge of the next disorder (sin) has been temporarily people were once spiritual. Then, Insight can explain it to him. The in control. Does our mystery read­ the Protestant Reformation and the explainers are simply markers on ing indicate that we are being se­ Industrial Revolution made these the journey, conduits for explana­ duced by a rationalistic substitute believers materialistic, seeing the tions. There is no attempt to make for the redemption story? Or does physical world only as a commod­ them individuals; they just talk. our love of mysteries speak oddly ity. Until Einstein, the Third Insight Theoretically. Tediously. The style of our loyalty to the traditional says, people weren't aware of the is excruciating. College professors Adventist world view? fields of energy that can be bent by talk about "hanging around," "be­ Parallels with The Great Con­ individual communion. ing blown away," and "checking it troven-ymay explain why Advent­ The appeal of the spirituality of out." Witness this curious event in ists enjoy mysteries so thoroughly. the Insights (there's also a work­ a restaurant: "Our dinner arrived so Ellen White and Conan Doyle (who book available) is its ease. One we paused for several minutes as created Sherlock Holmes), both begins noticing coincidences. One the waiter poured more wine, and wrote their redemption stories tunes into the vibrations of the to taste each other's food." Ironi­ against a Victorian backdrop that universe. One advances the cause cally, in a book praising the energy saw disorder enter the world of human evolution by vibrating to in physical beauty, the description through foreigners with "criminal the next higher level. This is not a is vague. minds." Ellen White's moral en­ spirituality of hard-won battles; it's Nothing is sensually palpable. emies were often Catholics, immi­ certainly not a spirituality of intel­ The Peru of this book is not vivid grant disturbers of Protestant or­ lectual rigor and thought; it's not mountains and valleys; even Machu der in 19th-century America, and even a spirituality of physical disci­ Picchu is just big blocks of stone. among Doyle's cruellest villains pline. A sequel about the Tenth In­ were Mormons from Utah. Christ, Characterization is nonexistent. sight is being published. What's the of course, restored heavenly order The narrator remains nameless and Tenth Insight? Don't read the first by paying the legal penalty we faceless. We see no evidence that book. deserved for breaking divine law, and Christ's arch-enemy Lucifer seems victorious before Christ re­ The Cat Who Said Cheese turns from the dead. Sherlock Holmes used reason to restore The Cat Who Said Cheese, by Lilian Food Explo" of new food specialty order when society's systems (i.e., Jackson Braun (Putnam, 1996). stores and restaurants with "mod­ Scotland Yard) failed, apparently ern" versions of traditional Pickax surrenders his life for the greater Reviewed by Norman Wendtb, At­ dishes. The important "explo" in good when he dies with his arch­ lantic Union College this plot, however, is the bomb that enemy, Moriarty, and returns from goes off in the hotel. Apparently a literary tomb. be Cat Who Said Cheese main­ intended for a mysterious woman If 19th-century mystery novels T tains Lilian Jackson Braun's for­ guest, it kills a young hotel house­ reveal something of the world in mula: Koko, the smarter of central keeper. Then a possible witness is which our church began, does the character Jim Qwilleran's two murdered. popularity of The Cat Who Said Siamese cats, yowls at key mo­ The popularity of The Cat Who Cheese tell us anything about our­ ments or knocks books off shelves Said Cheese raises issues familiar to selves today? Braun gives right­ as he helps "Qwill" solve the latest students of popular culture, and leaning readers what they want. mystery. should raise questions for Advent­ Disorder comes from a world out­ As the title indicates, this time ists. Years ago, W. H. Auden pointed side small-town America, whose Braun's entertaining theme is out that mysteries console readers traditional family values are worth America's love affair with "gour­ by showing rational processes re­ more than fortunes and need pro­ met" food, especially the Gruyere, storing order in a society where tection. Brie, and feta cheeses that Koko disorder (murder) has been tem­ Strangers from other cultures and Yum Yum devour. Pickax, a porarily in control. But some Ad­ are suspected at first, but are em­ small town "400 miles riorth of ventists see Au den's satisfying mys­ braced when they support the tra­ everywhere," is sponsoring a "Great teries paralleling the traditional ditional order; eccentrics are lov-

54 VoLUME 26, NuMBER 1 ------THEjOURNAL OF mE AssociA770N oF ADVEN77ST FoRuMs able until they reject society, when veal their crimes, sometimes be­ business losses and a broken nose. even long-time locals become dis­ cause they are filled with genuine One of the reasons I was able to tasteful. remorse. Post-modem tastes are read this book so quickly was that Murders may occur in Pickax, foolish, although we often can learn the characters and their struggles but no one the reader knows from the contemporary world if we were painfully predictable. At no enough to care about ever dies. pick and choose carefully. point did I feel regret, knowing that Those guilty of disrupting Pickax I wonder if Braun attends church soon I would have to let these eventually-and voluntarily-re- ... and if so, whose. characters go. At no point did I pause to ponder a particularly well­ crafted prose passage. Though That Camden Summer Spencer tries to raise feminist con­ cerns by sketching an independent 1bat Camden Summer, by La Vyrle prejudice of the townsfolk, in­ heroine, she blatantly undercuts Spencer (Putnam, 1996). cluding her own family, who are these efforts by repeatedly holding convinced that divorce must be up for our appreciation some lines Reviewed by Beverly Matiko, An­ the woman's fault. from Longfellow describing men drews University Roberta's presence clearly chal­ and women as "Useless each with­ lenges their preciously preserved out the other." Such sentiments are am a slow reader. Most of my status quo. The resulting story is more than sloppy; they are danger­ I Monday morning e-mail from part Petticoat junction, part 1be ous. 1bat Camden Summer is a Fairbanks or Allentown, Boston or Brady Bunch, part "Harper Valley book waiting to be made into a Portland begins with "I read a book PTA." Spencer's is a world where mini-series. The week it airs will be this weekend that I think you'd the good are rewarded with love a week I happily catch up on my enjoy.... " My response is typically and marriage, while the evil suffer composition grading. a confession that I spent most of Sunday on the New York Times Book Review, and that it will take Guilty as Sin me the rest of the week to get Guilty as Sin, by Tarni Hoag (Ban­ psychology professor Garrett through the paper's remaining sec­ tam, 1996). Wright. tions, even with skipping Business. Along the way she must battle a Because I am a slow reader, I Reviewed by Renard Doneskey, La former lover-turned-adversary de­ was unprepared for how quickly I Sierra University fense attorney, an incompetent and turned the pages of LaVyrle politically motivated supervisor, a Spencer's 1bat Camden Summer. ne would think that, with a sex-for-information sheriff, and an And it wasn't because I couldn't 0 title like Guilty as Sin, Tami obnoxious true-crime writer, Jay put the book down. I wanted Haag's latest novel would at least Brooks, who practices seduction badly to put it down even before give a token nod to the genesis of more than journalism. These are I began the first chapter. A list of evil or seek to explore its religious the good guys. the author's earlier novels sug­ ramifications. However, not only The evil characters receive much gested that I was clearly in the does she fail to explore the nature less attention, remaining shadowy realm of the popular romance: A of evil-contentedly leaving it as throughout, partly to keep the sus­ Heart Speaks, Separate Beds, Twice an unsolvable mystery that even pense (who really has committed Loved, November ofthe Heart, and the book's priest cannot fathom­ these crimes?) and partly, I think, more than a dozen more. 1bat but she never considers "sin" at all, because Hoag already has enough Camden Summerwould have sat­ at least in the traditional religious evil in the "good" characters and isfied my early adolescent reading sense. Instead, she serves up unbe­ doesn't need much anywhere else. tastes; at 41 it annoyed me. lievable characters and plot cli­ Haag's novel straddles the line Spencer sets her story in Maine, ches. between a psychological thriller 1916. Roberta Jewett, the heroine, The plot revolves around Dis­ and a mystery, but lacks the best is a divorced woman who has trict Attorney Ellen North, who tries elements of either genre. In psy­ moved back to her hometown to solve a series of crimes that chological fiction, we want charac­ with plans of supporting herself begins with a small boy's kidnap­ ters who would behave as we would and her daughters as a traveling ing, allegedly by one of the small behave if we were in their situa­ nurse. She must contend with the town's most upstanding citizens, tion. Here the characters behave jANUARY 1997 55 SPECTRUM------exactly as characters do on a 1V between things we miss. disappointing reading experience miniseries-bearing little relation Just the opposite situation de­ on a number of levels. Its literary to life as we know it. The defense velops here. I knew who was in­ qualities lack the stamp of good attorney annoys us in just the way volved in the crimes before reach­ fiction. Immature portrayals give we expect him to-he's arrogant, ing the halfway point. Further, I readers characters with little ap­ self-righteous, and concerned only made connections that D. A. North peal or depth. Harris overloads the with winning rather than justice. and the police fail to consider. narrative with details that add noth­ The priest shows his humanity as Obvious things, too. Example: ing to plot movement; for example, other priests have since The Thorn North's car, parked in a snow­ a phone call between Sean and his Birds (and it was cliche then)-he covered parking lot, has been van­ sister is interrupted by call waiting wears jeans and flannel shirts and dalized, with an obscenity scratched for no apparent reason other than falls in love. The D.A.'s love rela­ into the door and the tire slashed. an attempt at authenticity. Style tionship develops along the lines Three police officers and North are and editing issues could distract of a Harlequin romance, with North baffled at how to determine who the most inattentive of readers. first being repelled by, then strongly might have done the deed. Mean­ Among the slender pleasures in attracted to, Brooks. while, I'm talking out loud directly this novel readers can count the Besides failing to develop real­ to the book: "Follow the tracks in distinctive African-American ban­ istic characters, Haag also fails to the snow!" ter, particularly among the female surprise us with the story line. In Problematically, Guilty as Sin characters. Two minor characters mystery fiction we want a well­ delivers exactly what you would also deserve special attention. Gina developed plot and enough plot expect it to. Despite its flaws, it DeMarco, the fast-talking publicity twists that we can't guess the per­ does entertain-in a mind-numb­ agent who represents Zurich, is far petrator too early. Also, we look for ing way. It's diverting. And the fmal more engaging than either of the a detective at least as intelligent as 100 pages create considerable sus­ two main female characters. But we are. The popularity of Sherlock pense. However, reading the novel the star of the show is MamaCee, Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Peter reminded me why I don't read Zurich's grandmother come to Chi­ Wimsy, and other such detectives much popular fiction. Guilty as Sin cago from Warm Springs, Missis­ stems from their ability to make us is a best-seller-and it just isn't very sippi, to take care of her "baby" marvel at the connections they make good. during the hearing. Her visit to an upscale Chicago beauty salon emerges as one of the most memo­ And This Too Shall Pass rable scenes in the book. Harris attempts to treat some And This Too Shall Pass, byE. Lynn among the four major characters, social issues in And This Too Shall Harris (Doubleday, 1996). gradually weaving their lives to­ Pass: alcoholism, rape, and par­ gether. Mia accuses Zurich of rap­ ticularly the struggle of gay believ­ RevieWed by Meredith ]ones-Gray, ing her; an alcoholic, she was too ers to maintain their faith in the Andrews University drunk to remember what really face of rejection by organized reli­ happened when she was assaulted. gion. our young African-Americans Tamela is assigned to defend Zurich But the seriousness of these con­ F on their way to the top make but struggles to preserve her objec­ cerns is diminished by their juxta­ up the ensemble cast of E. Lynn tivity in the case because it triggers position to salacious, explicit de­ Harris' And This Too Shall Pass: memories of a college incident in scriptions of casual sexual activity, Zurich Robinson, the virtuous-to­ which she heard, in her boyfriend's both homosexual and heterosexual. a-fault starting quarterback for the rooming house, four football play­ And the answers are facile. When Chicago Cougars, an NFL expan­ ers gang-raping a young woman Sean fmally turns/returns to God, sion team; Mia Miller, the first Afri­ and did nothing to stop them. Sean, he is "rewarded" by Zurich's affec­ can-American female sportscaster who is writing an article on the tion. Harris's coupling of a simplistic on Chicago's 1V Channel3; Tamela emergence of black quarterbacks, religious outlook with his less-than­ Coleman, attorney with a presti­ suspends his formal interviewing critical portrayal of a life-style that gious Chicago law firm; and Sean of Zurich until the rape case is includes a crass use of language, Elliott, a gay freelance sportswriter resolved but finds himself falling in troubled relationships, and sex with­ in New York City. love with the quarterback. out commitment, will not satisfy the An omniscient narrator rotates And This Too Shall Pass offers a serious Christian reader.

56 VoLl:hWE 26, NuMBER 1 ------THEjOURNAL oF mE AssociA71oN oF AnVEN77ST FoRuMs

thousands of readers could derive McNally's Puzzle that much pleasure out of the in­ credibly arch tone, the humorous McNally's Puzzle, by Lawrence which is probably the intellectual condescension, the nuggets of re­ Sanders (Putnam, 1996). high point of the book for both condite information, and the inside protagonist and reader. Archy is jokes that the hero employs. Reviewed by Winona Howe, La Si­ not a mental heavyweight; after all, If you like classic Florida mys­ erra University it takes him 200 pages to discover teries, read the Travis McGee series that there is a market for smuggled by John D. McDonald; if you prefer 've never read an entire book by parrots and macaws. There are a a more contemporary Florida scene, I Lawrence Sanders before, al­ few murders in the book but, be­ try the Matthew Hope series by Ed though I've thumbed through some cause of the cartoonish quality of McBain. If you are intrigued by the of his previous 27 titles while kill­ the hero's mental and physical per­ name Archy (better make that ing time at airports. But now, I was egrinations, the violence never Archie), read the Nero Wolfe series on assignment for Spectrum; I went seems real. The novel seems like by Rex Stout. There are a host of to Crown Books and bought my the print equivalent of a television mystery authors whose protago­ 25-percent-off copy of Sanders' summer replacement show: trivial, nists are engaged in the search for McNally's Puzzle. I'm glad I got the boring, and silly. Furthermore, Archy justice and truth and concerned discount. is correct about the characters who with the question of how this search I enjoy reading murder myster­ inhabit the pages of McNally's fits into the context oftoday's world, ies. The concept of good triumph­ Puzz~they are like the denizens authors such as Tony Hillerman, ing over evil combined with an ofParrots Unlimited, most of whom Ruth Rendall, P. D. James, Sue intricately plotted puzzle is, for me merely preen and·squawk. I found Grafton, Ross McDonald, and Eliza­ (as for many readers), irresistible. it hard to believe that McNally's beth James. The list is extensive, As Carl Hiaasen, another author of Puzzle is the sixth (or even the but it doesn't contain Lawren!=e Florida suspense fiction remarked, second) book in Sanders' McNally Sanders. I can't recommend they are satisfying because "for series. I found it hard to believe that McNally's Puzzle. once the bad guys get what they deserve." Fictional detectives are often tremendously concerned with Rogue Warrior: Task Force Blue moral questions, such as the ap­ propriate response to the evil that Rogue Warrior: TaskForce Blue, by Some readers probably enjoy exists in the world. Archy McNally, Richard Marcinko and John the passages on weaporiry and however, the protagonist of Weisman (Pocket, 1996). fighting technique. There is spe­ McNally's Puzzle, doesn't spend cific (and presumably knowledge­ his time pondering weighty ques­ Reviewed by Scott Moncrieff, An­ able) description ofdozens ofweap­ tions like this. He is too involved drews University ons, combat clothes, and finer with other weighty questions: What points of staking out, storming a should he order for dinner? What "Vengeance is mine," thus saith hijacked aircraft, killing a "tango" should he wear today? What in­ the Lord. For 300 pages, (bad guy) without excess blood credibly clever thing can he say however, the Rogue Warrior tres­ spray, and so on. Another pre­ next? This book didn't tempt me to passes on the Lord's territory, tak­ sumed attraction is the inside examine moral questions either. ing a terrible revenge on bad guys glimpse at the way the CIA, NIS, My thoughts tended to be along the from Key West to Rancho Mirage. NSA, and other government orga­ lines of: Archy? Binky (Archy's dim­ The action centers around this nizations operate: opportunism, wit sidekick)? Are people still stuck Navy SEAL's attempts to stop a con­ petty politicking, personal vendet­ with these names from the 1940s? spiracy/revolution masterminded by tas-except for a core of misunder­ Even in south Florida? California billionaire L C. Strawhouse stood and underappreciated guys Archy's investigation is centered (Ross Perot with a grudge), while like the hero. Then there is the at Parrots Unlimited, a "psittacine simultaneously protecting his back­ simplified and ego-gratifying pic­ supermarket." He compares the side from sinister goings on among ture of good and evil. Ever been cut brightly colored, exotic birds to the the new military opportunists in off in heavy traffic? Lost out in a flamboyant, shallow people who Washington who dislike his uncon­ romantic triangle? Had your toes inhabit south Florida, an epiphany ventional methods. stepped on? If you could (a) be jANUARY 1997 57 SPECTRUM------~------certain that you were the wronged To. give authors Richard highest fulfillment in revenge, a party and (b) could visit a terrible Marcinko and]ohn Weisman their character without purpose or plea­ vengeance on the perpetrator, you due, the tactical angle of the book sure in a world without "enemies." would be the Rogue Warrior. The is often interesting, as are the sur­ If Marcinko and Weisman had rest of us Walter Mittys can read the prising and sometimes skillful ref­ written Pride andPrejudice, it might book. erences by the narrator to Kafka, have gone something like this: Men who communicate through Gilbert and Sullivan, Shakespeare's "one-fingered salutes" and gutter Henry V, Gauguin, and others. Mr. Darcy slipped on his fleece­ sarcasm (this is to friends!), and But let's not get carried away. lined Nomex balaclava, snapped who don't relate well with women This is a pernicious book. It's not his Beretta M-92 pistol in its at all will find themselves on fan­ just that if the F-word were re­ hidden shoulder holster, and tasy island. The main characters­ moved it would be 30 pages shorter. hefting his Remington 870 riot Rogue Warrior and his homog­ It's not just the assumed co­ shotgun, with 100 rounds of enous band-are men; women dependency between being a double-0 buckshot slung appear only in a few cameos and macho man and having a degraded around his shoulder, headed for degrading epithets, with one or view of women. It's not just the Longbourne. That •#$!@ Mr. two minor exceptions. Dialogue glorification of being a Rogue, free Wickham had better not be lurk­ rarely rises above grunts and ges­ from society's restraints, yet smugly ing in the •&fl%$#@ bushes. tures. Conversely, the words flow justified by one's private moral endlessly from Rogue Warrior's first­ code. It's also the demonic world It's just one more reason to person narration. view of a character who finds his thank God for Jane Austen!

58 VOLlh11E 26, NUMBER 1 RESPONSES

Ntakirutimana Says Spectrum Smears His Father's Reputation

totally agree with you when you September 26, 1996. The police I say that all those who are re­ acted on accusations made by some sponsible for the massacres that members of the Tutsi community took place in Rwanda in 1994 should in the United States and arrested be brought to justice. I also agree Pastor Ntakirutimana without giving with you when you recommend him the opportunity to defend that every effort has to be made so himself. Now an innocent person is that what happened in Rwanda suffering in jail. I am sure that those will never happen again. who made up those accusations However, I was shocked to read are celebrating now because they the article entitled, "Sabbath have achieved their goal. They Slaughter: SDAs and Rwanda," by know very well that Pastor Alita Byrd (Spectrnm, Vol. 25, No. Ntakirutimana, 73 years old, is 4). All the accusations made against innocent, but they want him to die my father, Pastor Elisephan Ntaki­ in prison so that their godfather, rutimana, and myself are false. Asiel Kabera, an influential member It is hard to understand how a of the Rwanda Patriotic Front and Christian journalist of your caliber, governor of the Kibuye region, who is aware of the ninth may take over his estate back in commandment (Exodus 20: 16), can Rwanda. However, I pray to God publish such serious accusations that he prevents those wicked against someone without doing persons from interfering with justice anything in order to check if those so that my father may get a fair trial. accusations are true or false. Since Coming back to the Spectrnm you had my address in Zambia and article, I want to point out two Responses to Rwan­ the Ivory Coast, you should have things: First, I have never discussed asked me to give you my side of the with Pastor L. T. Daniel what da, Atlantic Union story before publishing (Deuter­ happened in Mugonero on April College, and "Pil­ onomy 13:14). What you did to us 16, 1994. Therefore I have never is just unfair. told him that I wanted to be grims in the Hills of Actually, the way you handled absolved, as the article reported. I this problem is similar to what the have not done anything wrong. I Carolina" police in the State of Texas did on do not need to be absolved. Second, jANUARY 1997 59 SPECTRUM ______being a survivor of a massacre let your magazine become a workers. It would have been far does not make a person always channel for smearing other better to have adopted the practice tell the plain truth. Remember what people's reputations. of, "from everywhere to every­ Pastor L. T. Daniel and Heraldo Finally, I invite you-along with where." This might have helped to Seidl said about the value of some Rakiya Omaar and his informants­ undermine the continued entrench­ of the testimonies coming out of to read Hebrews 10:26 and Exodus ment of tribalism and provincial­ Rwanda: "Some of it is true, some 20:16, if you recognize the authority ism in the working force. Perhaps is not." "Nobody tells the truth. of the Bible. we should have expended much People are afraid to. You cannot more time and effort in interiorizing prove anything in a confused Gerard Ntakirutimana within the rank and file of the situation like that," Please, do not Cote d'Ivoire membership the biblical truth that, in Christ, all are one. In Africa, Adventists Have In Africa we have fallen woe­ 2 fully short in the provision of Catered Too Much to Tribalism <;haracter-building literature for the membership. Rwanda and Zaire recent issue of Spectrum con­ examine carefully where, as a are prime examples. In Zaire, for Atained a disturbing article en­ church, we may have erred in our example, until very recently, by titled "Sabbath Slaughter: SO As and presentation of the gospel-how and large the membership had no Rwanda" (Spectrum, Vol. 25, No. we administered the church pro­ access to Sabbath school lesson 4). I read it with much interest and gram; how we may have set our­ quarterlies, Bibles, or hymnals. a growing concern that perhaps we selves up for a tragedy such as There was practically no literature have failed to ensure that this kind this. May I submit a number of available for a church member­ of tragedy does not recur. areas that I believe deserve our ship that was growing by the tens I am well acquainted with the careful attention: of thousands every year. Much the Rwandan situation, having been same situation existed in Rwanda. connected with that part of the I fear we were too concerned We have spent millions of dollars world for many years as a mission­ 1with numerical growth at the in buildings and institutions, but ary in Rwanda, Zaire, and the expense of discipling. When we have not found the funding for Africa-Indian Ocean Division. fail to disciple adequately, we bring literature with which to nurture a Many of the workers who per­ into being a church whose con­ growing church. In many parts of ished in the holocaust were former verts may be vulnerable to pres­ Africa, what is seen in print and colleagues and friends. As trea­ sures such as those that eventu­ what comes over the airwaves is surer of the Africa-Indian Ocean ated in the Rwanda tragedy of accepted as gospel truth. Africa Division from 1990 to the end of 1994. As a church we may have has been bombarded with broad­ 1993, I made repeated trips to relied upon figures of numerical casts from secular and atheistic Rwanda, both on a routine basis increase as the evidence of true sources. Millions, hungry for the and in response to emergency growth. Pressure exerted upon in­ printed page, have absorbed non­ calls for help in dealing with the digenous administrators for numeri­ Christian, revolutionary concepts worsening situation. The fact that cal growth sometimes resulted in from the abundance of undesir­ Adventists participated in the kill­ hastily baptized and under indoc­ able publications put out by the ings is particularly disturbing be­ trinated accessions to membership. purveyors of this poison. It was cause it raises serious questions Christianity has had to compete Brother Andrew, of Bible-smug­ that need to be addressed-and I with traditional concepts (tribalism gling fame, who made the state­ am afraid we are bypassing the is part of this), and as long as ment that missionaries taught Af­ issue when we adopt a mentality converts do not become new crea­ rica to read, but they left it to the of, "There should be a point where tures in Christ Jesus, ethnic hatreds communists to provide the litera­ we just say what is gone is gone. and resultant cruelty will surface ture. This situation in our church Let's begin afresh. n What assur­ under the right conditions. in Rwanda would leave one to ance do we have that, given a I perceive one of our serious conclude that many of the mem­ repeat of the circumstances, Chris­ shortcomings was that we catered bers were ill-equipped to with­ tians will behave any differently? too much to tribalism in our selec­ stand the ethnic pressures that _We need to have the courage to tion and deployment of church tore the country apart.

60 VoLlME 26, NuMBER 1 ------THE joURNAL OF mE AssociATION oF ADVENTIST FoRuMs

Our educational system was More than 60 percent of the with him and other Rwandan 3too dependent upon state aid baptized membership in the Af­ church leaders as late as April1993 and approval. When we accept state rica-Indian Ocean Division was in Kigali. His is not just another finance and recognition, we fmd under 25 years of age. Because of name-he is a brother in Christ ourselves having to bow to the this, our education system was, who has a fearfully dark cloud state's demands in a number of likely, a key factor in setting the hanging over him. We owe it to the areas, perhaps the most notable spiritual tone of the church. victims and their surviving family being quasi-control over which stu­ Unless I am mistaken, our members in Rwanda to come dents we can accept and the cur­ church has yet to conduct a seri­ through with a clear message and riculum we offer. History bears wit­ ous inquiry into Adventist involve­ stance on the issue. We owe it to ness that students have played not a ment in the atrocities. We may Elisephan and others of his kind little part in fomenting unrest and have underplayed the death toll who may have been guilty of geno­ violence in our educational institu­ among Adventists in Rwanda. I am cide to make them aware of our tions. At the university college lo­ inclined to agree with the article in horror, revulsion, and sorrow for cated at Mudende, where hundreds Spectrum that many more than the what they did, and to let them of people lost their lives, students 10,000-plus or minus-were know that Jesus is "able to save to acted as informers upon fellow stu­ killed. A mentality of, Let's forget the uttermost" even perceived kill­ dents and staff. Students rioted and the past and start anew, is not ers like them. even threw hand grenades. Did the good enough. Denominational What I have written is in no way curriculum we offered cater more to employees, in particular, should intended as destructive criticism. I head knowledge than to a knowl­ be held accountable for their in­ realize that my observations may edge based upon eternal truths? volvement in the carnage. What be faulty, but my heart bleeds for Were our attempts to balance the have we done about it? To tum a the Africa in which I grew up as a budget by opening the doors to blind eye in this direction is to missionary's son, and for the Africa non-committed students really worth ensure that the evil will persist and in which we spent more than 40 it in the long haul? occur again when conditions are years in the Lord's service. The ripe. I am shocked that Elisephan Rwanda and Burundi tragedies are was present upon a number of Ntakirutimana and his one son are my tragedy, my sorrow, my loss. I occasions when the university named as collaborators with the board grappled with the crises· killers. I have known Elisephan Don H. Thomas brought about by student and local for more than 35 years, having met Stafford, Arizona community intervention in the af­ fairs of the institution. There was the occasion when three Tutsi stu­ Editors' Response: We Delayed dents were abducted and killed. Although the university pressed Publication, Awaiting a Response the government for a thorough he anguished letters from Don ported that Pastor Elisephan inquiry, it was obliged to settle for T H. Thomas, aformercolleague, Ntakirutimana was living in Laredo, an untruthful, unsatisfactory report and from a son of Pastor Elisephan Texas, Spectrnm attempted to con­ as to what became of these three Ntakirutimana remind us just how tact him at the natural grocery store students. I personally helped the tragic the events in Rwanda have operated by his relatives. Again, widow of one of them as she been. We can only try to appreciate we received no response. struggled to cope financially, fol­ Dr. Gerard Ntakirutimana's agony. After the Spectrnm report finally lowing her husband's disappear­ We do wish to respond to Dr. appeared, Dr. Ntakirutimana ance. What disturbed me in par­ Ntakirutimana's letter. On Novem­ responded, writing from the Af­ ticular was the seeming unconcern ber28, 1995, Spectrnmsentafaxto rica-Indian Ocean Division head­ of some of our Rwandese board the Africa-Indian Ocean Division quarters. Dr. Ntakirutimana cites members (administrators both on headquarters in Abidjan, on the several biblical texts in his letter, the union and local field level) Ivory Coast, asking for information and we certainly agree with the about the killings. I remonstrated regarding Dr. Ntakirutimana's counsel of Deuteronomy 13:14, with them right there on the board. whereabouts. We received no re­ which says, "Then shalt thou en­ The impression was clear-the vic­ sponse, and delayed publication of quire, and make search, and ask tims were Tutsi, so what else could our report. diligently; and, behold, if it be one expect? After the Washington Times re- truth, and the thing certain, that jANUARY 1997 61 SPEdRUM------such abomination is wrought organizations, Spectrum printed its among you." We also note the account of a tragic and important Northeastern immediately following verse: "Thou event inAdventism-a story widely shalt surely smite the inhabitants reported in the mainstream media. Conference Is of that city with the edge of the We regret that the International sword, destroying it utterly, and Tribunal has become so convinced Paying "Debts" all that is therein, and the cattle of the evidence that it has indicted thereof, with the edge of the sword" Pastor Elisephan Ntakirutimana for have noted in your recent article (verse 15). crimes against humanity. I about Atlantic Union College After finding additional infor­ (Spectrum, Vol. 25, No. 4) some mation from reputable human rights -Tbe Editors observations about Northeastern Conference that should be clari­ fied. The New York Conference Did The article states that the North­ eastern Conference "refused to join Not Loan Money to AUC other local conferences in lending trustors, practically all of which are money to the college." In fact, invested in the revolving fund, avail­ only one of the six conferences in able to an .organization which, ac­ the Atlantic Union Conference cording to the audit presented at loaned money to the college. That the college constituency session, is loan was drawn from that con­ "not a going concern." It i~? not that ference's revolving fund. Three the New York Conference does not other conferences, including believe in Atlantic Union College, Northeastern, expressed a clear or is trying to be obstinate; it is, willingness to do the same, but simply, that we are trying to be had no significant revolving fund read with interest your account faithful stewards of the funds that account to draw on. Two other I of the events that have been trustors and other New York inves­ conferences who did have revolv­ transpiring in the Atlantic Union tors have entrusted to our care. We ing fund accounts chose not to with the college (Spectrum, Vol. value the confidence they have lend money to the college. To 25, No. 4). It is, by and large, an placed in us. We do not intend to single out Northeastern on this accurate description of the matter. violate that trust. point seems to me to be both The one discrepancy that caught Since many of your readers are misleading and unfair. my attention was the report that the from the region serviced by the Second, you state that North­ "college officers secured $2 million Atlantic Union, it may be valuable eastern "is already $5.1 million in from the New York and Southern to them to have the correct infor­ arrears in tithe payments to the New England conference revolv­ mation-to wit, that the union of­ union, according to the official re­ ing funds to meet the school's ficers have assured us that no New port of the General Conference payroll and finance general opera­ York Conference monies were in­ service." The report to which you tions." cluded in the loan from the revolv­ refer is dated December 31, 1995. I cannot speak for the Southern ing fund to Atlantic Union College. At the time of that GC report, the New England Conference, but I statement was accurate. However, can tell you that such was not the Richard H. Coston since that time-and many months case in New York. The New York Secretary, New York Conference before your August publication Conference Executive Committee, Syracuse, New York date-Northeastern began an ag­ following the advice of counsel, gressive payment plan to bring its voted an action to decline the account up to date. At this writing college's request to use New York Direct all editorial (August 28, 1996), Northeastern revolving fund monies for the pur­ Conference has reduced that ac­ pose of the loan. Our attorney correspondence to count to approximately $1.4 mil­ explained that the New York "pru­ Spectrum, PO. Box lion. And I must stress that none of dent investor" law, enforced by the that remaining amount is owed to state upon all trustees, would not 5330, Takoma Park, the Atlantic Union. The remaining allow us to make the funds of our MD 20913 (U.S.A.). funds, with a scheduled plan for

62 VoLChWE 26, NuMBER 1 ------THE joURNAL oF mE AssociA770N oF ADVENTIST FoRuMs repayment, are owed directly to ence "is already $5.1 million in But we must be very careful not the North American Division, and arrears" is significantly out of date. to degrade Creationism by main­ will simply be passed through the I hope this information helps to taining an untenable concept of it. Atlantic Union Conference accord­ clarify your story. Evidence that life has been present ing to regular policy. Thus, the on this planet far longer than 6,000 present-tense statement in an Au­ Leon D. Thomassian, Treasurer year has become so abundant, so gust publication that the confer- Atlantic Union Conference diverse, and so reliable, that I cannot with integrity ignore, evade, Editors' Response: Latest Infor­ or discredit it. I believe this evi­ dence to be far more reliable than was the primitive astronomical data mation on AUC Is Encouraging available to Galileo when he was ichard Coston expresses the August 19%. A recruitment pro­ proclaiming the heretical notion Rview that, except for one item, gram under the guidance of interim that the sun, not the earth, is the spectrums report was generally president Clifford Sorenson, re­ center of the solar system. We accurate. Many others have also sulted in the enrollment of 447 must not emulate the Christian communicated to the editors their students (financial full-time equiva­ leaders of Galilee's day who re­ appreciation for what they describe lents) in the fall of 1996. A stringent fused to look through his tele­ as a succinct account of a complex operating budget that included the scope at the craters of the moon or and critical period in the history of reduction of 55 employees, meant the satellites ofJupiter. I wonder if Atlantic Union College. We appre­ that an enrollment above 350 per­ we do not make as great a mistake ciate Pastor Coston's correction­ mitted the faculty and staff to be in setting a time for the creation of that the New York Conference did reimbursed for the 17 percent pay life on this earth as did our spiri­ not advance the college money cut that they had taken during the tual forebears in setting a time for from its own funds. We also appre­ summer. By reducing its annual the Second Coming. ciate Pastor Thomassian's letter. operating subsidy to the college Evidencefor aLong Chronology: While acknowledging that we ac­ by $1.2 million per year for the Bristlecone Pine Tree Ring Chro­ curately reported information from next 15 years, the Atlantic Union nology and C-14 Dating. The con­ the written, public documents avail­ assumed the majority of the tinuous 7,700 year tree ring chro­ able to us, he provides helpful college's $8.7 million outstanding nology would appear to rule out a additional information concerning debt, leaving the campus nearly worldwide flood since the 5th mil­ the Northeastern Conference. debt free. All these developments lennium B.C. Radiocarbon dates Recent news fromAtlantic Union must have encouraged a new presi­ closely follow the tree ring dates, College must cheer its alutillli. Ac­ dent when he assumed his respon­ except that they gradually shorten cording to a report by Mark Hyder, sibilities September 30, 19%: Syl­ by a few hundred years when dat­ the vice president for finance, to a van Lashley, Ed.D, formerly ing material several thousand years January 26 college constituency president of Caribbean Union Col­ old. This correction is in the wrong meeting, the Atlantic Union and lege in Trinidad and of West Indies direction to support the concept the Atlantic Union Revolving Fund College in Jamaica. that radiocarbon was missing or at provided $3 million for the college very low concentrations before the to operate from March through -Tbe Editors Flood. Biological specimens, such as peat, show radiocarbon dates Other Pilgrims Searching for throughout the 30,000 year range limit of this dating method, and no the Creator detectable C-14 is present in coal and petroleum. n response to the article, "Pil­ FossilForestojYellowstone. More I grims in the Hills of Carolina," by than 40 layers of petrified stumps Randy Neall (Spectrum, Vol. 25, are displayed in a ravine appar­ No. 5), faith in God as Creator is ently produced by glaciation or one of the most fundamental be­ erosion. I visited this site in 1985 liefs in all Christianity. Without God while on a geological field trip as Creator the entire biblical record sponsored by the Association of is without foundation. Adventist Forums. As I remember jANUARY 1997 63 SPECTRUM------them, the layers are perhaps 20 or Hawaiian Islands are on the big know it and applied the term to the 30 feet thick. Many of the stumps island at the extreme southeast end countries adjacent to Egypt. are several feet in diameter. Nearly of the chain. The other islands are Matthew 24:1-44 records how, all of them are upright and in an considered to have been previ­ when Jesus was asked by the dis­ apparent position of original ously formed by the same volcanic ciples when the destruction of growth. One of them has roots center, as the continental shelf Jerusalem and the end of the world embracing a huge stone. To me, drifted by. Most of these islands would occur, he did not clarify that the usual explanation of sequential have eroded back into the sea, these were separate events, but volcanic activity burying the for­ leaving a chain of more than 1,000 mingled in his reply descriptions of ests appears much more logical miles of seamounts. both events. than the rafting hypothesis designed The Grand Canyon. The pro­ Perhaps the accounts of cre­ to shorten the time span of these gression of fossils from primitive to ation and the flood in Genesis may formations. How could a raft of mammal as samples are taken from be a similar mingling of a short­ trees float in over a tall forest with­ the bottom to the top of the forma­ term creation of the Garden of out toppling it? And then repeat the tions has been explained by the Eden and a long-term creation of process more than 40 times in a ecological zonation hypothesis. But the universe. Could the creation brief time span? could not large reptiles be more story describe a literal, six-day ContinentalDrift. The west coast mobile to avoid the Genesis flood miracle in a limited geographic of Africa and the east coast of South than small rodents? Can we invoke area? Then, when Adam and Eve America, with their continental the Genesis flood to explain both were evicted from the garden, they shelves, would fit together like the formation of the sediments and would live "by the sweat of their pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The then the formation of the canyon brow" in land long dominated by continents are now separating at by erosion? the presence of Satan, where many the rate of approximately a centi­ A Possible Explanation. Genesis of the animals lived by predation. meter per year. Similar fossil for­ 41:57reads, "Moreover, all the world This hypothesis would solve many mations at corresponding areas of came to Joseph in Egypt to buy geologic problems and preserve both continents demonstrate the grain, because the famine became the literal origin of the Sabbath. presence of life when the conti­ severe throughout the world." The nents were contiguous. author of Genesis, of course, had Ralph Adams The only active volcanos in the no concept of the "world" as we Salem, Oregon

64 VoLUME 26, NuMBER 1 Spectrum Advisory Council

Victor F. M. Aagaard Robert and Sally Hasselbrack* Don and Gwen Oliver Cheree and Delmar Aitken* J. Michael and Linda Hay Samuel C. Pang Edward C. Allred* Dwight and Judy Hiscox Thomas R. Pellow Terry and Jan Anderson Jerry and Ketty Holt Edmund and Barbara Peters Len and Nancy Bailey Bill Hughes Maxine and Thomas Pittman Geneva Beatty Eve Lou and Richard Hughes Les and Joni Pitton Ted and Ruth Benedict* Wilfred and Margaret Hose* Ernest and Cecilia Plata* Kevin and Jeanie Benfield Judy and John Jacobson* Kaaren and Larry Powell Charles and Bonnie Bensonhaver* John and Matjorie Jacobson* Zane Price* Gary and Lee Blount Bernarr and Dorothy Johnson* R. Marina and E. Gary Raines Michael and Shelley Boyson Leonor Boulin Johnson Reuben A. Ramkissoon Bernard Brandstater Gail Kendall Alfredo and Martha Rasi* Bruce and Betty Branson** Elton and Marga Kerr* Robert Rausch** Floyd and Mary Brauer* William and Doi:ane King** Gordon and Judy Rick* Ellen Broderson Wayne and Debra Knecht Janene and Larry Rick M. L. S. Brown* Giles and Mary Koelsche E. Arthur and Debi J. Robertson Becky Cheng Albert and Elizabeth Koppel** James and Thais Sadoyama* Gerald Chipeur Ed and Bev Krick Eric W. Shadle Edgar and Teresa Cleveland Doreen and Irvin Kuhn** Donald and Ursula Shasky* Glenn and Judith Coe Alvin and Verla Kwiram** Gordon and Lovina Short Molleurus and Dos Couperus* Fred and Aura Lee Donald and Susan Sickler William and Judy Cowling David and Diane Lim Hans and Donna Sjoren Marilyn and Michael Crane . Charles and Rae Lindsay* Grover and Bonnie Starr Merlyn and Rosemary Duerksen Bradley and Roberta Litchfield* Walter and Lola Ann Stilson* Jay M. DuNesme Ewald Looser* Gerhard Svrcek-Seiler* Beth and Elwin Dunn* Felix and Lucille Lorenz Carlene and Leonard Taylor* James and Mary Dunn* Eino and Mary Magi Floris and Rob Thomson Tom and Bonnie Dwyer* Eric and Cynthia Magi Lorna and Gustav Tobler PaulH.Eun Robert and Marguerite Marsh Robin Vandermolen** Gerald and Joy Fuller* Jim and Becky Matiko John and Nancy Vogt* Gary and Sandra Gilbert Donald McAdams Harry Wang* Linda Gilbert Mario and Virginia Mendoza Rodney and Barbara Willard* Sanford Graves Mary and Ken Moe* William A. and Betty H. Woods* Lyndon and Linda Harder Robert and Jacqueline Moncrieff* U and Freda Zollinger Barton and Janet Moore

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