Spectrum Editorial Board Charles Scriven Edward Lugenbea! Senior Pastor Health Care Administration Kettering. Ohio Beverly Beem Sligo Church Editor English Donald R. McAdams Roy Branson Walla Walla College Consulting Editors Senior Vice President American Productivity Center ·RoyBenton Earl W. Amundson Matgaret McFarland Mathematical Sciences Church Administration Senior Editor Columbia Union College Asst. Attorney General Karen Bottomley Annapolis, Maryland Tom Dybdahl Roy BllUlSon RistoI)' Ronald Numbe.. Ethics, Kennedy Institute Calgal)', Alberta Georgetown University RistoI)' of Medicine Bonnie L. Casey University of Wisconsin News Editor Molleurus Couperus Writer/Editor Edward E. Robinson Physician WaShington, D.C. Bonnie Dwyer Angwin, California Attorney Raymond Cottrell Chicago, Illinois Gene Daffern . Theology Gerhard Svrcek-Seiler Physician Loma Linda, California Book Review Editor Frederick, Mal)'iand Psychiatrist Geri Fuller Vienna, Austria Beverly Beem Bonnie Dwyer Public Relations Carolyn Stevens Shultz Journalism Washington, D.C. Folsom, California English Production Lawrence Geraty Walla Walla College TomDybdahI President Editor Helen Ward Thompson Barry L. Casey Atlantic Union College Vice-President Allentown, Pennsylvania Friiz Guy Loma Linda University FastForWord Alvin L. Kwiram Theology L. E. Trader Publication Services Vice Provost Loma Linda University University of Washington Education F. E. J. Harder Mariehoehe Gymnasium Gary Land Educational Administration West Gerrnany . RistoI)' Editorial Assistant College Place, Washington Andrews University Louis Venden Lori D. Kuehnert Jorgen Henriksen Senior Pastor Rennie Schoepflin Artist Lorna Linda University Church RistoI)' Walla Walla, Washington Loma Linda University

Association of Adventist Forums Officers Directors Regional Representatives Northern Pacific Terrie Aamodt President Of Chapter Development Atlantic English GlennE.Coe Walter Douglas .. Gary Gilbert Walla Walla College Attorney Church Ristory .. Physician Hartford, Connecticut Andrews University Melrose, Massachusetts Southern Laura Gladson Vice President OfEarvest '90 Central Psychology Verla Kwiram Arthur R. Torres Joseph Bozovich Atlanta, Georgia Business Senior Pastor Business Seattle, Washington Glendale City Church Denver, Colorado Southern Pacific Jim Kaatz Executive SecretaI)' Of Promotion Central Pactfic Education Virginia Murray Mendoza Richard B. Lewis, Jr. LarIJ Mitchel Lakeside, California Administration Advertising Hospital Administration Silver Spring, Maryland Boston, Massachusetts Roseville, California Staff Treasurer Of Special Projects Columbia Legal Consultant Richard C. Osborn Lyndrey A. Niles Susan Sickler Bradley Litchfield Superintendent of Education Communications Kettering. Ohio Attorney Potomac Conference Howard University Eastern Canada Washington, D.C. Editor Of Campus Relations Beverley Conno.. Office Manager RoyBlllllSon Iris Yob Oshawa, Canada Scott Sanchez Ethics, Kennedy Institute Education Lake Silver Spring, Maryland Georgetown University Harvard University Wesley Amundson OfMernbership Missions Connie Saxton Andrews University Long-term Care Administration St. Joseph, Missouri

SPECTRUM is a journal established to encourage Seventh-day Advent­ Editorial Correspondence: SPECTRUM is published by the Association ist participation in the discussion of contemporary issues from a Olristian of Adventist Forums. Direct all editorial correspondence to SPECTRUM, viewpoint, to look without prejudice at all sides of a subject, to evaluate the 7710 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland 20912. Manuscripts should be merits of diverse views, and to foster Olristian intellectual and cultural typewritten, double spaced (submit the original and two copies), or on either growth. Although effort is made to ensure accurate scholarship and discrimi­ IBM and IBM-compatible single-Sided floppies or Apple Macintosh disks. nating judgment, the statements of fact are the responSibility of contributors, Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. In matters of style and and the views individual authors express are not necessarily those of the documentation articles should conform to the SPECTRUM style sheet which editorial staff as a whole or as individuals. will be sent, upon request, to prospective authors. Letters to the editors may The Association of Adventist Forums is a non-subsidized, non-profit be shortened before publication. organization for which gifis are deductible in the report of income for . Subscription Information: In order to receive SPECTRUM, enclose a purposes of taxation. The publishing of SPECTRUM depends on subscrip­ membership fee ($20 per 5 issues, $25 in Canada and in other foreign tions, gifts from individuals, and the voluntary efforts of the contributors and countries, $18 for students) by check made to the Association of Adventist the staff. Forums, Box 5330, Takoma Park, Md 20912. Phone: (301) 270-0423. Single copies are $4. For address changes, send old address label along with the new address. © 1988 All rights reserved Litho USA In This Issue Vol. 19, No.2, November 1988 Adventists and the USSR

t least three Sabbathkeeping pris­ Union," Vol. 11, No.3, June 1981.) A oners of conscience remain incar­ Careful examination of the article by Catherine cerated in the Soviet Union. Action by readers Fitzpatrick in this issue reveals that the Sabbath­ now may well hasten their release. keeping Adventists still in Soviet prisons today Spectrum has printed articles concerning Ad­ were arrested in 1984, a year when, unnoticed by ventists in the Soviet Union since 1977, when it the world Adventist community, many other True published an interview with Mikhail Kulakov, the and Free Adventists were also hunted down and leader of the officially recognized Adventists thrown into prison. In the four years since, apart permitted to attend the 1975'General Conference from Neal Wilson's general call last year for Session. We subsequently published a cluster of release of all prisoners of conscience, the only articles that pointed out that one year after our public protests on behalf of specific Sabbath­ interview, while relations between Adventist keeping Adventist prisoners of conscience have world leaders and the Soviet government contin­ come from non-Adventist human-rights groups, ued to improve markedly, the KGB launched a such as Amnesty International. campaign against the unrecognized True and Free The Fitzpatrick essay gives specific ways indi­ Adventists, culminating in the arrest and trial of vidual members can make their views known to their leader, V.A. Shelkov. While world Advent­ the Soviet government. The Sabbathkeepers still ist leaders in Washington remained silent, non­ in Soviet prisons deserve to know that Adventists Adventist human-rights advocates in Moscow, in other parts of th~ world care enough to protest such as Andrei Sakharov, dared to protest Shel­ their continued imprisonment; that despite years kov's conviction. In 1980, at 84 years of age, of official silence, the Seventh-day Adventist Shelkov died in prison, where he had spent 23 community can, on behalf of human and religious years of his life. (See "Adventists in the Soviet rights, still exhibit moral integrity. -The Editors

Articles

Loma Linda's Beam of Hope: A First for Cancer Therapy W. Clark Davis 2 The Media Center: Getting Ready for Prime Time? Bonnie Dwyer 6 1990 and After: Visions of the Church's Future A Symposium 11

Special Cluster: Adventists and the USSR

Human Rights and the True and Free Adventists Ludmilla Alexeyeva 25 The Unique Ideal Vladimir Shelkov 33 Adventist Prisoners in the Soviet Gulag Catherine Fitzpatrick 41 Proposals for Peace and Understanding Neal C. Wilson 44 Risking Martyrdom for Sabbathkeeping Adventists Ronald Geraty 49 A Dissident Emigre Remembers His Adventist Prisonmate Paul Lippi 53

News Update Merit Pay for Ministers? Raymond Cottrell 56 Changing of the Guard at the SDA Seminary Wendy Ripley 57

Responses 60 LOlTIa Linda's BealTI of Hope: A First for Cancer Therapy

by w. Clark Davis

anuciry 1, 1990, will mark the Not all elements in the university'S constitu­ J opening of Lorna Linda Univer­ ency have been pleased by the vast financial com­ sity Medical Center's Proton Beam Therapy Sys­ mitment Lorna Linda has made to the project. In tem, the world's fIrst clinically based charged­ a time of financial retrenchment for the university particle accelerator facility designed to treat can­ and medical center, some in the local constituency cerous tumors. The facility's opening will mark question any new large expenditure. With talk of the fruition of a cooperative effort by researchers campus unification and the selling of some of the at Lorna Linda, Harvard University, the Univer­ university's holdings, suspicions have circulated sity of California at Berkeley, Los Alamos Na­ that these proposals are efforts to raise money for tional Laboratory, the National Cancer Institute, the proton accelerator. In response to continual the Swiss Institute of Nuclear Research, Science allegations to this effect, the medical center board Applications International Corporation, and sev­ has reiterated its long-standing commitment that - eral other research institutions around the world to no money for the project will be allocated from the use charged-particle radiation for cancer treat­ sale of university holdings. ment. These researchers believe that Lorna Grumblings have also been heard among some Linda's proton accelerator, presently under con­ physicians in the medical center that the depart­ struction at the Fermi National Accelerator Labo­ ment of radiation sciences, which will run the ratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, lllinois, will revolu­ proton accelerator, has been the recipient of a tionize cancer therapy. disproportionate share of the medical center's During the past two decades Lorna Linda has resources. Those involved in the project, how­ invested heavily to develop the necessary equip­ ever, argue that once it is understood what proton ment and staff to operate a charged-particle facil­ therapy will mean to the university and to medical ity. Now that the technology is available, Lorna science, the entire constituency will rally around Linda is committed to developing and building the project. Medical center and university ad­ the $40 million accelerator and its housing facil­ ministration assert that to remain competitive and ity. The institution's investment in infant heart viable, they must be on the cutting edge of new transplantation research has proved enormously scientific technology. They unequivocally vow fruitful. Now Lorna Linda again hopes that study to commit the institution to areas in which Lorna and diligent medical research and preparations Linda can assume a leading international role. will inaugurate a new era in another fIeld of Infant heart transplantation and proton therapy scientific medicine. are examples of two such commitments. Many others could be cited. Clark Davis, a 1988 graduate of Lorna Linda Uni­ w. The proton-beam therapy Lorna Linda will versity'S College of Arts and Sciences, is beginning a doctoral program in 20th-century American social history employ is a result of 40 years of effort on the part at the University of Southern California. of scientists to make radiation a dramatically Volume 19, Number 2 3 more viable treatment for cancer. Radiation is ranging from 85 to 95 percent on some of the lo­ known to be an effective cancer treatment, able to calized tumors that are more difficult to treat. Be­ destroy most cancerous tissue when given in cause of the design configuration and other de­ sufficient doses. However, two factors have hin­ mands of these facilities, however, clinical and dered its effectiveness. First, it has been difficult medical research is severely limited. to locate the precise site and extent of tumors to Lorna Linda's involvement with proton beam which radiation should be administered. Second, therapy began in 1971 when Dr. James Slater and under traditional cobalt beam or x-ray treatments, others at the university, frustrated by the limita­ the dose of radiation needed to destroy tumors tions of traditional radiation therapy, turned to the also affects the healthy tissue surrounding the idea of a charged-particle therapy facility as the cancerous site, often causing intolerable side ef­ best hope for cancer treatment. Slater then began fects. Thus, even when radiation oncologists what has been 17 years of meticulous effort to could precisely locate the site of the tumor, they prepare the way for a proton therapy facility at often could not irradiate it with the needed dose Lorna Linda. without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. Lorna Linda began participating with the The result is that the dose of radiation given a Berkeley particle-beam studies in the early 1970s patient often is less than what is needed to destroy and has remained closely tied with research at the the tumor. Itis estimated that 100,000 Americans Berkeley Laboratories ever since. Lorna Linda die each year because their localized cancer is not staff were also involved in particle-beam research totally removed or destroyed. at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New In this decade, advances such as computerized Mexico until 1982, when President Reagan's tomography (CT scans) and magnetic resonance budget cuts closed the facility. imaging (MRI scans) have solved the problem of mapping tumors. These instruments allow physi­ cians to determine the precise definition and loca­ Lorna Linda's involvement with tion of tumors. The marvel of the proton beam is proton beam therapy began in that it allows physicians to deliver radiation di­ 1971 when Dr. James Slater and rectly to a specific point, predetermined by the others turned to the idea· of a accelerated energy of the beam, with minimal charged-particle therapy facility as effect on the healthy tissue surrounding the the best hope for cancer treatment. growth. Thus, with the use of proton beams, scientists can deliver doses of radiation strong enough to destroy tumors without affecting other As Lorna Linda staff were gaining clinical tissues and causing crippling side effects. experience in the use of particle beams for cancer The use of proton beams to destroy tumors therapy, the university was acquiring and devel­ within healthy tissues was first proposed by oping equipment and technology that would ulti­ Robert Wilson in 1946 while he was at the Law­ mately be needed to run a particle-beam facility. rence Berkeley Laboratories. His comments Among the significant preparations made at sparked a flurry of scientific interest in charged­ Lorna Linda was the development of a CT com­ particle radiation. Eventually, 13 charged-par­ puter-assisted planning system that provided the ticle, high-energy physics laboratories were con­ basis for the serious pursuit of a clinically based, structed and patient trials begun. These laborato­ particle-beam accelerator. ries, including the Berkeley Radiation Laborato­ Lorna Linda has also been steadily recruiting a ries, the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory, and the team of physicists, physicians, engineers, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, are all de­ computer experts trained in the uses of charged­ signed for physics research, yet currently all but particle radiation. At present, Lorna Linda has Los Alamos treat cancer patients. The results already assembled the requisite number and qual­ have been uniformly positive, with success rates ity of personnel needed to run the facility. 4 Spectrum

By 1984, Dr. Slater felt that worldwide tech­ be the visible tip of a mountain of research efforts nology and cancer biology were sufficiently at Loma Linda and around the world. advanced to plan for a proton beam therapy sys­ Construction of the proton beam facility began tem. He then organized a group of approximately in April and has proceeded on schedule. The 100 physicists, engineers, and physicians who medical center is going to extreme lengths to first met in January 1985 at Fermilab to discuss ensure that the facility is completed by its sched­ the possibility of designing a clinically based uled opening date in 1990. Construction of the charg~d-particle therapy system. They called 250 million electron-volt proton synchrotron is thems~lves the Proton Therapy Cooperative well underway at Fermilab. The accelerator is Group. One year later, the Fermilab administra­ expected to be completed this year in order to _ tion, the University Research Association­ allow for a period of testing. which guides the operation of Fermilab-and the The treatment facility at Loma Linda will be a 250,OOO-square-foot complex located on the southeast corner of the medical center. It will Lorna Linda's radiation oncol­ house four treatment rooms, two operating rooms ogists convinced their department for administering radiation during surgery, and - years ago that proton therapy, a one room for research in radiobiology and proton "beam of hope," would provide physics. Loma Linda anticipates that the center dramatic new treatment for those will treat·more than 1,000 patients a year. suffering with cancer. This will be The total cost of the venture is roughly $40 the visible tip of a mountain of million, yet Loma Linda's bill has been cut in half as the U. S. Department of Energy rallied the research efforts at Lorna Linda federal government to support the project. Twen- and around the world. ty million dollars has been committed by the De- _ partment of Energy, approved by Congress, and U. S. Department of Energy, which owns Fer­ signed into law by President Reagan, although milab, all agreed to build a clinical proton accel­ until the president signed the final allocation in erator for Loma Linda, which in turn promised to early August, there was some question as to finance the venture and operate the facility. whether the money would be forthcoming. While With other universities already operating the news media made fun of various pet projects charged-particle laboratories, many have queried in the budget bill, the money for Loma Linda's how Loma Linda became the first institution to proton accelerator was often questioned in news­ develop a medically dedicated facility. Accord­ paper and magazine stories. ing to Philip Livdahl, then deputy director of Fer­ Of the remaining $20 million, Loma Linda milab, "No one picked them. They singled them­ University Medical Center has already contrib­ selves out." Dr. John Glancy of Science Ap­ uted roughly $12 million. The medical center plications International Corporation applauded plans, however, to recoup this cost and raise the Loma Linda as "a sponsor that had the courage to remaining $8 million through a massive corporate be first." A review ofLoma Linda's proposals to fund-raising drive. Augustus Cheatham, vice­ establish the facility makes it clear that Dr. Slater president for public relations at the medical cen­ and his colleagues worked for nearly two decades ter, believes the money will be easily raised. He to bring hospital-based proton therapy to Loma states, "In a time of budget reductions, the proton Linda. Loma Linda's radiation oncologists con­ accelerator project captured the mind of the U. S. vinced their department and institution years ago Congress, which immediately put forth half of the that proton therapy, what they like to refer to as a cost for the entire project. Finding others willing "beam of hope," would one day provide a dra­ to contribute to the project has been equally easy matic new treatment for those suffering with and the funding campaign is now actually ahead cancer. Loma Linda's proton therapy facility will of schedule." Volume 19, Number 2 5

Financial concerns no longer trouble those at Scientists from other universities and national Lorna Linda, for they believe the project's rami­ agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and fications will extend far beyond their earliest Space Administration, have expressed strong hope. Lorna Linda anticipates the facility will interest in cooperative research efforts with this become a self-supporting, National Cancer Insti­ new facility. The university hopes to develop tute-approved regional cancer center for the four master's and doctoral programs in radiation phys­ California counties that the Lorna Linda Univer­ ics. Finally, by owning the patent on the Fer­ sity Medical Center serves. milab-constructed proton synchrotron, Lorna A cooperative association of the Adventist Linda will be able to continue developing ad­ Health Systems hospital network for cancer pa­ vancements in charged-particle therapy and will tient care and professional education is also remain a guiding force behind proton therapy for planned. The facility will also become the pri­ many years to come. mary international center for cancer research with Some 80 years since its establishment as a proton-beam therapy, including clinical and basic sectarian medical sanitarium, Lorna Linda is now studies. To varying degrees, every department pinning two decades of investment and its reputa­ within the school of medicine, as well as many of tion on scientific research and treatment in the the undergraduate physical and biological science belief that proton therapy will provide those diag­ departments, are expected to become involved nosed with localized cancers a simple and effec­ with this technology. tive cure. The Media Center: Getting Ready for Pritne Time?

by Bonnie Dwyer

hen William Fagal and George Magid survey mentioned above. It was done for W Vandeman started broadcasting the church by the research firm used by the the Adventist message via television in the 1950s, American Broadcasting Corporation and the - the new medium seemed to offer dynamic possi­ Mormon church, in conjunction with the Media bilities for spreading the gospel. In the 1980s, the Center Commission, which was charged with the picture is not as rosy. Ever since the Bakkers, task of investigating the church's media ministry. Jimmy Swaggart, and Oral Roberts grabbed na­ In its February 1988 report, the commission tional headlines with their sordid affairs and bi­ said Magid had found zarre behavior, televangelism registers nega­ only a relatively small portion of people in this country tively with a majority of the American public. A have even basic knowledge of the Seventh-day Advent- recent national study by Frank: Magid Associates ist church. Of the seven different religious denomina- - found that 63.2 percent of those surveyed had un­ tions listed in the survey, Seventh-day Adventism is the favorable feelings about religious television pro­ only one about which the majority say they know noth­ grams. And as Andrew M. Greeley wrote in TV ing.... Guide, "there has been almost no effort (on the The current [Adventist] media efforts do reach some part of the media) to present the other side of the people, statistically estimated in the millions, but the impact is far too limited to make a significant dent in the story; there have been very few news segments population of North America. "It Is Written," "Voice of about the honest, dedicated, hardworking preach­ Prophecy," and "Christian Lifestyle Magazine" have ers who have been tainted with guilt by associa­ measurable levels of awareness in the population, but tion." even these programs are unknown to 90 percent Dedicated Adventist preacher Dan Matthews, Separate research of Adventist members and leaders director/host of "Christian Lifestyle Magazine," found that even people within the church do not view or claims the Bakker and Swaggart scandals did not listen to the programs very often and do not evaluate them very favorably. hurt the income of his television program, which is mainly supported by Adventist church mem­ If media ministry is to play a major role in the church's outreach, a new overall approach is required. bers, but the negative effect on potential viewers The research pointed to several areas of considerable presents a real problem. promise, both for focusing the current programs more Discussion of potential viewers, target audi­ effectively and developing new media initiatives. ences, public awareness, and media challenges at That might be considered the bad news pre- the General Conference was heightened by the sented to the General Conference's Media Center Commission. But given the general public's per­ Bonnie Dwyer, before assuming her present responsibility ception of religious television programming, of raising an infant son, was the public information officer perhaps it wasn't bad news to be unknown after of the city of Brea, California. As its news editor, she has all. Maybe now is the time for the church to move frequently appeared in Spectrum. from relative obscurity in the media to a place of Volume 19, Number 2 7

prominence. Perhaps Adventists can be at the cated questionnaire which required an hour or forefront in helping to change the public's per­ more to fIll out," George said. ception of religious television. One major fInding was that the church wants media to do outreach to young adults. More than 90 percent of the members gave that as apriority. Magid Study Provides New Outreach to persons over 50 received only 51.3 Role for General Conference percent response. Random digit dialing was used in the national telephone survey, with careful attention paid to ertainly, the Magid study is an statistically balancing the response regionally as C important fIrst step in establishing well as in terms of age, race, and gender. Data new directions for Adventist media ministry. It is from the national survey broke down the audience a signifIcant piece of work because it marks the for the current programs along age and gender first time that the General Conference has done lines, showed the perceptions people had ofreli­ such in-depth audience research. And with the gious programming in general, what they knew data the church has developed a rational basis for about various denominations, and where they decision-making, as well as specifying target sought information to improve their lifestyle. audiences that it wants to reach. How the denomi­ Response to the programs presently produced at nation will implement the goals that have evolved the media center bore out the initial impressions through this process is still open to question, of the Magid organization. For the most part, the however. There were four steps in the work done by For the employees at the media Magid: an evaluation of the current programming center in Thousand. Oaks, the produced at the Adventist Media Center, a written questionnaire that was circulated among church Magid study and the commission members and leaders, a national telephone sur­ created a high level of anxiety. vey, and a media plan that identifies goals for the Adventist Media Center. The numbers generated shows score highest among people over 50. in the 1987 survey will serve as the baseline for "Christian Lifestyle Magazine" had the best rat­ future studies. ing of any of the Adventist programs with people Magid's director of marketing, Joe George, under the age of 35. took three months at the outset to do a subjective General Conference President Neal Wilson analysis of the media center and its programs. At personally reviewed the long written question­ that point his assessment showed some duplica­ naire. His interest in the media center led him to tion among the programs, and that present pro­ accept the chairmanship of the center's board grams were attracting mostly an older audience. early in 1988. He told George that the media are But there was more to know before any recom­ key to the future of the denomination. mendations could be discussed. In the three For the employees at the media center in Thou­ months of analysis, George had become well sand Oaks, the Magid study and the commission enough acquainted with the Adventist system to created a high level of anxiety. When the commis­ be able to draft a questionnaire for church mem­ sion was created in 1986, the various components bers and leaders about the media ministry. were asked to prepare papers on their operations. A tremendous effort was made to reach lay With a flurry, the papers were written, considered, people as well as paid officials for the in-church and seemingly put aside while the Magid people study, George says. The interest level of church did their work. Tension built as the workof the members was high, according to the survey re­ commission dragged on, simply because of the sults. "We considered the 50 percent response unknowns that it represented. But in the end, the rate excellent, particularly since it was a compli- components became closer. "I have talked more 8 Spectrum to H. M. S. Richards, Jr. and George Vandeman in someone has to bust the sod and prepare the soil the past two years than in the previous six," says for the sowing of the seed." Dan Matthews. Now the programs are looking at Where will funding for the new directions ways in which to cooperate. Richards and Vande­ called for in the media plan come from-the man have both appeared on "Christian Lifestyle General Conference? In 1988 only three percent ~ Magazine." And all the programs are making an­ of the General Conference's $151.5 million bud­ nouncements for one another to help in audience get went to direct communication programs. building. That three percent, or $5.25 million, covers the In February 1988, the commission reported to General Conference's contributions to the media the center's board of trustees. It recommended center and its programs, Adventist World Radio, - that the church create programs for young adults special projects, and the departmental budget for and do a campaign of spot advertisements to communications. increase general awareness of the church. It also A look at the three largest production compa­ made some suggestions for streamlining the work nies at the Adventist Media Center helps to put at the center through reorganization. that $5.25 million into perspective. In 1987, the _ To the people at the center, the reorganization gross income (which includes the General Con­ seemed like the most important result of the ference appropriation, listener donations, gifts, commission's work. It is the story that has been trusts, et cetera) for the "Voice of Prophecy" was featured in the Adventist press. Consolidation of $6,736,000. "It Is Written's" total income came the Bible schools, treasuries, and mailroom have to $5,613,000, and "Faith For Today's" figured been mentioned. Particular emphasis has been given to the fact that contributions given to a The media center is requesting particular ministry will go to that ministry and not $5,677,000 for 1989 from the into a gigantic melting pot. Program production General Conference. That includes - will also remain separate. These distinctions are very important for fund·raising. People give to a $1 million for development of spot specific ministry or to a particular person, not to advertisements and station time. the bricks and mortar known as the media center or the General Conference, says Robert Jacobs, out to $2,338,000. The media center as a whole media center president. posted almost a $2 million gain, not quite equal­ ling the $2,345,000 base contribution of the General Conference to the media center. Funding and Programming Donations are down in 1988. As of July 31, the receipts were $200,000 less than for 1987 during he Magid people were concerned the same time period, but Dale Bidwell, the media T that funding is coming mostly center vice-president for fmance, says he expects from church members. If the audience is to be the final balance sheet for 1988 will show a gain, used for fund-raising, the audience base will have rather than a loss. to be broadened, George said. This issue will Looking to the future, the media center is re­ continue to be important as the plan sketched out questing $5,677,000 for 1989 from the General by the media center commission is implemented. Conference. That includes $1 million for devel­ If people give to specific programs, which come opment of spot advertisements and station time. first-the program or the money? How can fund­ The various center components have also made ing be found for new programs or those that some special requests. "Faith for Today" has a appeal to audiences without money? potential for a matching grant of $200,000 to "Adventists like to give money to harvest ma­ produce a program showcasing Adventist values. chines," says Matthews, [and to] "programs that "It Is Written" is seeking $200,000 for major result in baptisms. But to be able to harvest, cable time. A five percent increase is being asked Volume 19, Number 2 9 for in the base General Conference appropriation. that was made when "Faith For Today" created According to the Magid survey of church the "Christian Lifestyle Magazine" format. "The membership, when asked what support should be General Conference did give an appropriation for received from the General Conference, 52.2 per­ that," he notes. cent said limited support should go to certain programs; 26.1 percent said that the General Conference should give total support to certain "Christian Lifestyle Magazine" programs; 10.1 percent felt that the General Scores High in Its First Year Conference should not support any programs. Media Center President Robert Jacobs feels that the General Conference will assist with start-up ,'C hristian Lifestyle Magazine" is capital for new programming: As an example of the success story of the Adventist their willingness to help, he cites t~e contribution Media Center, according to the Magid study. It is The Case for Photojournalistn by Dennis Crews communication arts. The church finds itself struggling to communicate with the generation that stands at the thresh­ small staff of dedicated photo reporters old of leadership. The church will be unable to nurture or A would greatly enhance the work of the even attract the interest of this generation whose language various departments in the General Conference. They could it does not speak-unless it changes its approach and learns provide a current picture archive for the secretariat, pursue to use that new language. vivid photos and hard news for Liberty, continue (and even People can scarcely be expected to feel deeply for expand) the "Mission Spotlight" program with follow-up something they have never really seen. Our church is a vital, stories, document the Adventist Development and Relief fascinating family, but many of its young members only Agency's (ADRA) accomplishments, provide material for perceive it as a group of nondescript people who wear suits, Ingathering, and document the work of the church for the attend lots of meetings, and sit around theologizing. Tragi­ secular media-the list could go on. The Adventist Review cally, the many shining faces of the real church have never should have one photographer assigned to it full-time. been shown them. There are many parts of our world church Photography is only a tool; its real value is derived from that members would be edified by seeing. What is it really the use that is made of it. Pictures can be shallow and like to be a Seventh-day Adventist behind the Iron Curtain? irrelevant, or they can be eloquent, powerful witnesses. What is the condition of the church today in Central Amer­ Having a reliable source for quality editorial photography is ica' the Middle East, South Africa, and other regions tom by critical to the communication process. But this tool has internecine strife? Exactly what are our relief efforts become a tool of universal choice for the mass media, and accomplishing in Ethiopia and other famine-stricken areas? with good reason: Good pictures are much harder to ignore Although some of these subjects are sensitive, the con­ than good words. fidence of church members would be bolstered immeasura­ We remember what we see for longer than what we read. bly by their leaders' willingness to permit a candid portrayal Who can forget Eddie Adams' Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of these situations as they really are. Positive photojournal­ of the street execution of a Viet Cong soldier during the istic reports would enhance members' esteem of their height of the Vietnam war? Or the heroic World War II church, and the painful ones would, if wisely photographed image of U.S. infantrymen planting the American flag on and written, give members a meaningful subject for their Iwo Jima? Or the awesome sight of the whole earth, concerns and prayers. I am convinced that whatever the resplendent as a huge jewel, photographed from space? By cost, the ultimate benefits to the church from such such images our imaginations are fired, our indignation is ecclesiastical glasnost would be great. kindled, our compassion is awakened. The opinions we hold and the convictions we cherish are profoundly influ­ Dennis Crews is editorial director of "Amazing Facts." enced by the visual images our minds retain. His photography and writing has appeared in several The Seventh-day Adventist church has thus far failed to Adventist publications and in such other journals as realize the powerful potential waiting for its use in the Country, Governing, and Regardie' s. 10 Spectrum the Adventist program that most appeals to the actress who not only played the part of an abused under-35 age group. It had only been on the air for wife on the set, but at home also. about a year when the Magid survey was done, As 1988 draws to a close, the major accomplish­ and its recognition rating was very close to that of ment at the media center from the new media plan the programs that have been on the air for many is the reorganization. New vice-presidents are on years. The program has gone through several board for field services and production. But that phases since its creation, and with new music and is all background for the major suggestions in the graphics for 1988, settled into a happy balance of plan-producing promotional spots to increase stories that are socially relevant and entertaining. awareness of the church and more youth-oriented The look and sound is pure "thirtysomething," the programming. It has not been determined, how­ popular "baby boomer" ensemble show on ABC. ever, who will carry out these missions. New technology is being tried also. The crew of "It will probably take five years to see whether the Canvasback, on its tour of the West Coast fol­ anything has been learned from the research that lowing a mercy mission in the Marshall Islands, was done by Magid and the commission," says was interviewed via satellite. Robert Nixon, until recently General Conference Producer Don Davenport says that limited pro­ director of communication, and a moving force in duction money can affect the possibility of doing the decision to begin utilizing major marketing some stories, but not to the point of having to research finns. Targeting a message to a specific compromise quality. If a story does not work, it audience is not the way things have been done at can be dropped. the media center in the past. Perhaps as the Gen­ The staff research team has come up with some eral Conference continues with audience re­ very unusual pieces for 1988, including stories on search, the numbers will begin to sway financial the Christian Surfing Association, the Christian and production decisions. Certainly, with the Ma­ Motorcycle Association, the gospel radio station gid study the data is there to make the tough deci- - in the Louisiana State Prison, and a soap opera sions that are part of the media business. 1990 and After: Visions of the Church's Future

Adventist members deeply involved in their have faced disappointment over blunders and church are increasingly turning their attention to scandals in the church's financial dealings. We the 1990 General Conference session-quite have seen energetic women and thoughtful pro­ likely a watershed event in the history of Ad­ fessors stifled under the impact of unseemly fears ventism. We invited several articulate and active in high places. members to share with Spectrum readers what At the extremes, all this has engendered defen­ they would say if they were invited to address siveness or cynicism. Everywhere we have seen the delegates ofthe 1990 General Conference ses­ loyalties weaken, especially among the young sion. Included are members from different parts and well-educated, and now we are having to cope of the North American Division, divided be­ with the ensuing troubles in our schools and other tween men and women, including one student, institutions. two denominational employees, and three layper­ We are at a crisis point. We need a new era. sons. Some concerns recur, but each person has To the church's loyal sons and daughters, the a distinctive perspective. Adventistvision still speaks the truth; the Advent­ Readers are invited to share their own ideas ist way of life still moves hearts and hands and about the future of the church. These responses feet; the Adventist family still gives strengthening will be included, as space permits, in subsequent companionship. We must capitalize on this now; issues. Those who care about the church have an it is a mortal danger to think we have spare time. opportunity to shape its future. We must determine now, with both'courage and -The Editors farsightedness, to set this church upon a course of renewal under God. No concern, aside from the quality of our We Need a New Era faith, can matter more for this renewal than the selection of our leaders in 1990. It is true that by Charles Scriven reforms begin typically at the lower and not the higher levels of power. It is true that local lead­ he Seventh-day Adventist church ers-those who energize and oversee churches, T is coming to a crossroad. At the lay organizations, schools, and conferences­ General Conference session in 1990 we will be bear responsibilities of immense importance. electing leaders for the world church, and nothing Still, those we elect in 1990 will, by their influ­ can matter more, surely, than that this election ence and visibility, symbolize the direction our mark the beginning of a new era of hope and ac­ church is going to take in the new decade. The complishment in Adventism. importance of the leaders who symbolize us is For some 20 years now our church has been simply crucial, both for our morale as well as for struggling, especially in its older strongholds, our renewal. with profound change and a deepening loss of No indictment upon our recent past is greater confidence and unity. We have met with difficult than the losses we are incurring among our youth adjustments in our knowledge of Ellen White and and young adults. We all believe these losses can our understanding of the doctrinal pillars. We be reversed. But we cannot wish away the bore- 12 Spectrum dom and cynicism that feed the losses. Success we must have leaders who are committed to doing here can only come through imagination and it, doing it soon, and doing it well. courage fed by the indwelling Spirit. We must Everything good and excellent in human life pray for an outpouring of such imagination and stands always on the razor edge of danger and such courage in 1990. It must reach the ones who must be fought for. So it has been said, and so it select our leaders and it must reach the new must be said again, especially as we think about leaders themselves. If it does not, our prospects the church. What we have together is a good and for th~ future will diminish, perhaps irreversibly. excellent thing, but it must be fought for. wr. at leadership qualities are fundamental to a Leaders of excellent ability and potential do healthy future for the church? What should those exist-at headquarters and in the divisions, the who select new leaders bear especially in mind? union and conference offices, the schools, the Surely the following points are fundamental: churches, and the hospitals. With this in mind 1. Our leaders should be creative visionaries, those who can make a difference in 1990 must people who are able to see and to articulate a make a difference. You who will be the delegates, revitalized future for the church. Management is you on whom so much will hang-you must fight not enough; we need dreams and dreamers. for our future. You must fight for it by finding 2. Our leaders should have a dynamic under­ leaders who can give us the new era we need. standing of church unity; without sacrificing the Your brothers and sisters in the Adventist family church's loyalty to Christ, they should acknowl­ will be counting on you-and so will your chil­ edge and celebrate the pluralism inevitable in a dren, your own sons and your own daughters. family that reaches across boundaries of nation, race, gender, and class. The journey to uniformity Charles Scriven, the senior pastor of the Sligo Church in Washington, D.C., is the author of several books, including is a journey to death. The Demons Have Had It, published by the Review and 3. Our leaders should have demonstrated ex­ Herald Publishing Company, and The Transformation of pertise in Bible study and in spiritual leadership; Culture, Herald Press, 1988. Scriven received his M. Div. they should build our confidence through preach­ from the SDA Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in Theology and Ethics from the Graduate Theological Union, ing and reflecting as well as through planning and Berkeley, California. He was the founding associate editor organizing. We need fresh thoughts born of fear­ of Insight magazine, co-editor of Spectrum, and for many less, impassioned attention to Scripture; nothing years a theology professor at W alia Walia College, before less will do. assuming his present post in 1985. 4. Our leaders should encourage the wider sharing of authority in both teaching and admini­ GC, 1990: The New stration in the church; they should trust those who share in leadership, taking pains to give church President's "State of the administrators everywhere sufficient leeway and control for constructive innovation. Only thus Church" Address can we benefit from the wealth of creativity and insight God has given us; only thus can the low by Pay Blix morale that springs from repression become the high morale that springs from participation. This sermon presupposes an imaginary scenario 5. Our leaders should be open to reevaluation where the General Conference of 1990 has taken official and restructuring of the role of the General Con­ action to approve the ordination of women. Wishful think­ ference in the administration of the church. This ing,! know, butfun nevertheless. body should not be the extension of the North American Division; today that is an affront to the y church has made me very proud dignity and creativity of North Americans. These M this week in its decision to be matters are complicated; simple answers will faithful to its belief in the priesthood of all believ­ mislead. Something, though, must be done, and ers by approving the ordination of women to the Volume 19, Number 2 13 gospel ministry. The light that has seemingly one example where we as a church have consid­ been "forever amber" has finally turned to green. ered institutional preservation more important By taking this action, my church is giving a than the nurturing of individuals. clear signal to its people that it intends to start We have worked hard and contributed sacrifi­ keeping its promises in matters of justice and cially to hewing out the broken cistern of our equality, that it is finally willing to truly acknowl­ church structure. Year by year we have added edge the presence of authentic ministry wherever more bricks, more scaffolding so that we have it is occurring, regardless of gender. become more closed, more self-perpetuating; While I am stirred by this historical decision erecting walls that we claim to hold living water, within Seventh-day Adventism, Ithinkitis appro­ walls that have instead served to insulate us from priate to express regret to the public for so long the heart cry of humanity. misrepresenting the message of the gospel as meaning that women are unworthy of full partner­ The time has come to halt our ship in the church. I feel it is absolutely essential frenzied attempts at patchwork that we in church leadership also make public repair of the cracks in our apology to you, the women of our church, for the system. It is time to admit our collective pain our exclusion and denigration has brokenness. It is time to begin caused you over the decades. We recognize that ordination will not be the again. panacea for all the problems endured by women in the church. The scars that have resulted from the In our attempt to preserve the truth, our waters continual rejection, criticism, and ostracism will have grown stagnant in our passion for doctrinal not immediately disappear. However, we want rigidity, where questioning has been seen as a you to know we are now committing ourselves to mark of disloyalty, where the possibility of alter­ your growth, to your search for meaning. We ask native views on traditional policy has been con­ you to hold us accountable for the education of all demned as anarchy. members regarding gender inclusiveness and for We, as leaders, as arch-preservers of the cis­ a systematic plan for the inclusion of women in all tern/system, have behaved more like rulers than dimensions of church life and leadership. We will servants, and as if to legitimize our position, we need every ounce of creative energy we can gen­ have been eager to purge any highly visible sin­ erate to develop the reality of equality. ners from our midst, to cast clouds of suspicion The rigorous discussion, the paper missiles, over any scholar who refused to employ old the emotional roller coastering from apprehen­ rhetoric, so as to more clearly reveal our sancti­ sion to despair to euphoria I have observed this monious dedication to the cause. Representative week are but a microcosm of the general climate government has been more illusion than reality, of the church of the past several decades. I was leading to abuses of power, reduced accountabil­ jarred as I saw more clearly than ever before how ity of leadership, and frequent financial scandal. often our clinging to the past had much more to do with fear than conviction. n this, the last Sabbath of this A verse that I could not seem to shake as I OGeneral Conference of 1990, you reflected on what to say this Sabbath is Jeremiah might expect me to highlight our Laodicean ten­ 2: 13, "For my people have committed two evils; dencies and sound the clarion call to repentance in they have forsaken me the fountain of living readiness for Jesus' soon return. Each General waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cis­ Conference and almost every camp meeting usu­ terns, that can hold no water." ally closes with such a plea to turn from our Our failure to take action on the women's issue individual worldliness in the haunting likelihood years ago, despite official acknowledgment that that Jesus will return before the next such sched­ no biblical injunction deterred such action, is but uled session. 14 Spectrum

Although I, too, want us all to be ready when instead retrace our steps to the wounded and Jesus comes, I choose not to place my emphasis discarded souls we have rejected when their be­ this morning on measuring our lives by some havior didn't quite measure up to our blueprint exacting life-style standard, on our rule-keeping model. For too long we have been too ready to ability, on our fears of facing some ominous stamp the mark of Cain on their foreheads, judg­ judgment event of the future, on frenetic witness­ ing them unholy, unusable by God. I say they have ing activity so that the gospel can be spread been absent from our family table far too long, and throughout the world by this time next year. although there's always room for one more plate Instead, I simply ask that we stand still in the on the table, a crowded table never fills the empty tracks of our Harvest 90 labors, that we stop our spot left by those who have been driven from our well-intentioned busyness of cistern construction midst. and maintenance and find our way back from the We also need to seriously consider those who emptiness of our artificial official basins to the have left or are on the verge of leaving, those who cool, refreshing fountain of living water. The time hang on only by their sociologically comfortable has come to halt our frenzied attempts at patch­ fingernails. So many of our children and youth, work repair of the cracks in our system. It is time eager for life, have come to our cisterns and found to admit our brokenness, our inability to shore up nothing to quench the thirst within their souls. and preserve our little pool of truth. It is time to They have seen our priorities, understood that we begin again. have been more committed to image than to justice, that we have been obsessively compulsive his morning I make a call for dras­ about clean faces but have turned a deaf ear to the T tic measures, for a dismantling of cries of broken hearts. They have felt the chill systems and programs, for a shifting of power wind of our icy rejection of their creative alterna­ bases and positions that will regrettably result in tive views and felt indicted by our suspicion of the pain of loss and security and influence. It is their honest searching questions. In our passion to time for us to recognize that our broken cisterns preserve the purity of our tradition we have mis­ have left us morally bankrupt, and we must ask for taken 19th-century cultural norms for immovable the Chapter 11 protection of a reorganization plan principles of truth, and thus we have rendered our in order to survive. church irrelevant to the daily experience of the Just as Scandinavian Airlines System in the lives of our youth. We have introduced them to a late 1980s gave its employees the opportunity for Christ who died for Seventh-day Adventism but direct involvement in the salvaging of their com­ not for them individually, and in their youthful pany, so I invite you, the members of this church, intolerance they have summarily dismissed this to have a more direct say in what happens, to have apathetic anachronistic deity and all his trappings. a more meaningful participation in church gov­ Instead of forcing our vision of the kingdom, with ernment. Rather than pressuring one another into all its corrective lenses and legalistic fIlters, upon building bigger and better protective walls around our sons and daughters, it is time once again to see our system by catchy slogans such as, "We'll the kingdom of God through the eyes of children. arrive in '95," I am announcing the appointment In addition, while it is true that we must be of a constitutional commission to design a church committed to the more meaningful participation order that will keep our church government re­ of an informed laity, we also need to ask ourselves sponsible, representative, and as participatory as why the best among our clergy and our educa­ possible; a new church structm:,e where those in tional personnel are choosing to leave our em­ authority can be easily held accountable to the ployment, thus draining our church of its most laity. creative resources. As our conferences and insti­ As part of the dismantling process, I think it is tutions are rocked with one financial scandal after time to examine our passion for numbers, for another due to fiscal mismanagement, incom­ adding one more notch on our baptismal belts, and petence, or occasional bold-faced greed, does the Volume 19, Number 2 15 minimal remuneration given for priceless, dedi­ this century, it is time to tum back to the source of cated, professional service (once acceptable in the life, away from veneration of man-made organ­ spirit of mutual sacrifice) now seem to remind the izational structure, to the fountain of grace in recipient with each paltry paycheck that the sacri­ Jesus Christ. To refuse will doom us to die of fice is only being given in one direction? Idealism thirst in a desert land, where the cistern we have so can only endure so much. To have one's loyalty carefully constructed for ourselves proves to be an questioned, vocational gifts denied, motives sus­ illusion and fails to hold life-giving water. pected, simply because one has a different but I recognize that many of the thought leaders of honest perspective, erodes one's idealism more our church may be applauding much of what I effectively than almost any other factor. have said this morning, and I welcome your sup­ We need to awaken to the fact that Revelation port. But I would also remind you that the organ­ Seminars are not the only way of reaching the izational and philosophical changes I am propos- masses; in fact, such seminars can sometimes block the very message we are trying so desper­ The organizational and philoso­ ately to communicate. In addition to providing phical changes I am proposing will canned evangelistic programming, we need to tap no longer allow you to sit around in the creativity of our people, to welcome fresh Adventist Forum and Adventist thinking, to be open to astounding alternatives. Women's Institute circles lament­ We need to consider the witness of our very organizational structure and procedures even ing the foibles of leadership, the aside from the message we feel it is our mission to blocking of gifts, the suppression of convey. free thought. Just as Jesus seemed to customize his approach according to individual need, so we need to be ing will no longer allowyou to sit around in places innovative in sharing the Good News. The imagi­ like Adventist Forum and Adventist Women's nation and uniqueness of each individual mem­ Institute circles lamenting the foibles of leader­ ber's ideas could present such a dynamic and ship, the blocking of gifts, the suppression of free diverse vision of the gospel that we could change thought. This morning I am giving you the chal­ the world. The key is having members realize that lenge of an open door, an opportunity to act on their diverse, unique contributions are not only your ideals, to transform your critic's comer into appreciated but also essentiaL creative action. You may find that the solutions that seemed so simple and obvious from a recognize that my message this spectator's perspective are not quite as simple to I morning is unusual rhetoric from a implement in practical reality, but I urge you to General Conference president. My comments give us your best. We need your gifts, your ideas, may seem to strike at the heart of an institution we your advice. all hold dear. I may appear to be undermining the I recognize that it is difficult to change­ very thing I have been commissioned to uphold. whether you have given your life to this church The changes I have envisioned could mean loss of and feel secure in its present structure or whether jobs for many of you, the giving up of pet projects you have deep hurt, rage, or sadness from being for some of you, and a crisis of truth for others. I judged or marginalized by its actions-I beg all of am sensitive to the immense amount of pain and you, wherever you fall on this wonderfully broad regrouping that will be engendered by these major spectrum of our church polity, to take the time for shifts in philosophy. honest reflection, for careful consideration of the However, for too long now, we have been costs of failing to choose refreshment from the insensitive to the pain being caused by our rigid­ fountain of living water. ity, by our readiness to judge one another. We can no longer afford to live in the past or Now, at the beginning of the final decade of to drain our energies in grieving over a history 16 Spectrum that cannot be rewritten. We must move on, for many are waiting to know there is a place where Confronting the wounded people are welcome, where the God who sustains our community is a God with open "C" Word arms. We must move beyond the tallying of hurts and losses, beyond shattered dreams to fresh vi­ by Susan Sickler sions. We are able to move beyond because we have a God who has promised, "I will repay you he one thing the General Confer­ for the years the locusts have eaten... You will T ence officers would most like to have plenty to eat, until you are full ... never again accomplish in 1990 is to halt the spread of congre- - will my people be shamed" (Joel 2:25, 26, NIV). gationalism in North America. Actually, if they Because we have taken a major step this week knew just how broad and deep feelings among in recognizing the full equality of men and women members really ~e they would be even more we have deliberately decided to follow the ex­ concerned. As a lay member of a local conference ample of Jesus in matters of justice arid equality. personnel committee I spend a fair amount of time We have opened the way for significant healing talking with pastors across the United States. I to occur within our midst, and provided God the have been amazed to find them every bit as opportunity to minimize the devastation from the concerned and frustrated as laypersons about locusts of our past. what is happening in the church today. If any­ The prophet Joel assures us that once we have thing, pastors are even more agitated. None of us committed ourselves to God and his community thinks congregationalism would be good for ofjustice, he will redeem our past. After these new North America or the world church. Then why commitments have been made, God promises, "I are we rapidly heading down a road that no one will pour out my Spirit on all people" (Joel 2:28) really wants to travel? and "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord The answer is that congregationalism is hap­ will be saved" (verse 32). pening by default, as a reaction of members and Dear members of my church family, as this pastors to the General Conference. Acutely aware General Conference of 1990 ends and we go forth that at higher levels of church structure their to face this new era of our history, it is my money is sought but their ideas are unwelcome, dream-and I like to think it is God's dream-that lay members and church pastors alike are retreat­ our decision to stand true for equality and our ing from involvement at the General Conference, determination to radically reshape our focus will division, union, and even local conference levels. make it possible for this Indianapolis conference Because they are still deeply committed to the to be transformed into a true Upper Room experi­ Seventh-day Adventist church they begin to in­ ence; a moment when the Holy Spirit can come vest their time and money at the local church level. upon each of us, men and women, in full power. Exciting things start to happen. Laypersons and It is my dream that a church that admits its pastors begin expanding the expression of their brokenness and emptiness, that responds to the gifts, they start making a difference,-and they feel invitation to be fIlled with life-giving water, will fulfilled. And there you have it--congregational­ become a fountain of God's renewal. ism-the perfect way to give up on a hierarchical church structure without giving up on Adventism. Let me illustrate the problem. We frequently Fay Blix, a partner in the Santa Ana, California law fII1Il of Ching, Kurtz, and Blix, is head elder of the Irvine, Califor­ speak of the world church as a family. This is a nia' SDA Church and chairperson of the Adventist Wo­ good analogy. The divisions are adult children of men's Institute. Her B.A. is from Walla Walla College various ages, personalities, and resources. North and her M.A. in English from the University of Wash­ ington. She was chairperson of the English department America is the oldest child-frankly middle­ at Canadian Union College and a dean of women at Walla aged. The parental role in organizational struc­ Walla College in the 1970s. In 1983 she received her J. D. ture is played by the General Conference. The Volume 19, Number 2 17 roles were set when the offspring were small. comparing the Adventist church to that of Ca­ Now that the divisions are grown, rather than tholicism in terms of structure and authority, also celebrating the opportunities this holds for the reminds us that Adventist church members in church, the parent refuses to let the offspring go, North America frequently relate to the General insisting that only the parent's fIrm guiding hand Conference in ways that closely resemble the way is "keeping the world church together." North ordinary Catholics relate to the Vatican. How­ America finds itself in the untenable position of ever, the Pope has two distinct advantages over being the oldest child, the only one living in the the president of the General Conference. The same town with the parent, the one providing Pope doesn't have to live in North America, and most of the parent's financial support, but the one his structure is consistent with his theology. Our given the least autonomy. To put it bluntly, North attempt to pair a deep commitment to the priest­ America is the division most treated like a child. hood of all believers and a hierarchical structure The issues are definitely money and control. produces a very odd couple indeed. The people who give the money have major differences with the people who decide how the money should be spent. In a volunteer organiza­ We need a General Conference tion such as the church, that is a serious situation. president who will encourage all The argument is not over money donated for parts of the world church family to missions. (One of the fastest-growing areas of interact with one another. We don't giving in the United States is to independent need a president who seeks to solve ministries, which often bypass denominational our problems for us by imposing channels sending the donations they receive di­ rectlyto a specific need in the world field.) No, the his way. argument is over money used for administrative costs. Everyone says the local church is the most When North America tried to communicate its important focus in the denomination, but spend­ concerns, the General Conference produced the ing decisions are made by administrators with usual flurry of study commissions, white papers, only token input from pastors and laypersons. polite conversations, and lack of action. The next Consequently, General Conference, division, step was increasingly confrontative constituency union, and conference administration is funded sessions at the local and union conference levels. first, with only leftovers allowed to trickle down There the basic underlying issue has been, "How to the local churches. will we choose to divide up the pie of power?" The General Conference appears increasingly con­ ll healthy organizations seek the vinced that only its fIrm controlling presence is A stable middle ground between the keeping the world church together. Reduce our extremes of opposite views. The opposite of a authority, the General Conference seems to be hierarchical system of church government is con­ saying, and Adventism will split in every direc­ gregationalism. The more Adventist offIcials tion. move toward the hierarchical end of the spectrum The more the hierarchy asserts its presumed the more inevitable that, in order for members to prerogatives the more the laity and their pastors regain balance, the pendulum will swing the other react by immersing themselves in their local way. The church members' swing away from hi­ churches-the cycle of congregationalism. erarchicalism was bound to start in North Amer­ How is the cycle interrupted? The first step is ica because of its "special relationship" with the to recognize that unity is not an organizational General Conference, and because hierarchical achievement but a spiritual quality. The person authority conflicts with the democratic values of ultimately responsible for unity in our church is America culture. not the General Conference president but God. It Neal Wilson's testimony in the Proctor case, is our love for God that binds us in love for one 18 Spectrum another. Godis not only tolerant of a good bit of The way to get North America to give to diversity, he created people that way. He does not missions is not to elect North Americans to the perceive diversity as a threat to his power. General Conference, send them around the world, The next step is to admit that adult children and then put them on a committee to allocate ever­ must have a different relationship with their par­ decreasing dollars. Rather, we desperately need ents if they are going to get along well with each exchanges among pastors, students, teachers, and other and openly celebrate the opportunities this institutional administrators throughout the world opens for the church. Our greatest need in a Gen­ divisions so members, not merely the denomina­ eral Conference president in 1990 is someone tional hierarchy, realize that they need one an­ who will nurture relationships and delegate au­ other. More than all the overseas trips of Ameri­ thority. We need someone who will encourage can General Conference leaders, the best thing to decision-making at the level· where the problem happen to mission awareness in North America exists, rather than elevating all problems to the has been the student-missionary program and General Conference level. A classic example of Maranatha Flights International. the decision-making process run amok was The ultimate irony is that by its own actions the spending a whole day at the Annual Council de­ General Conference is creating the very thing it bating wedding bands in North America. (Even fears most--congregationalism in North Amer­ many of the North American administrators came ica. Unless we make major changes in 1990 the home disgusted and muttering under their breath pace will quietly but rapidly accelerate. Pastors, about "fiddling while Rome burns.") The ordina­ laypersons, and administrators must work to­ tion of women is another good example of an issue gether in integrated teams to use the principles of where insisting that the General Conference leg­ servant leadership to invert the pyramid and fash­ islate for every part of the world church will do far ion a structure that actually does what we say a more to destroy unity than to preserve it. structure should do-serve the needs of the local We need a General Conference president who church allover the world. will encourage all parts of the world church fam­ ily to interact with one another warmly and Susan Sickler received a B.S. in nursing from Columbia openly, sharing their failures and their fears as Union College, and an M.P.H. from Lorna Linda Univer­ sity. She is a member of the Association of Adventist well as their successes, engaging in joint prob­ Forums board, and serves on the Kettering Medical Center lem-solving without getting caught up in self-de­ board and the Columbia Union executive committee. feating struggles over power. We don't need a president who seeks to solve our problems for us by imposing his way. Instead, we need someone Seize the Day: who can create an atmosphere in which we can solve our own problems. Once we get decision­ The Church's Oppor­ making down to the level of the people who have the problem we will include far more pastors and tunities in Society laypeople in our decisions. This will produce two very positive results: Our chances of seeing the solution actually implemented will increase and by Herbert R. Doggette, Jr. we will need fewer administrators. The money saved can go to local churches and schools all uring the remaining years of the over the world. D20th century, America will un­ A concern for genuine denominational unity dergo such significant and rapid changes that dictates. that a full and equal North American children born in the year 2000 will enter a society Division must be established in 1990. By 1995 it that in many ways will be unrecognizable. will be too little, too late to reverse the trend As the economist Kenneth Boulding says, toward congregationalism. almost as much has happened since we were born Volume 19, Number 2 19 as happened before. These changes will provide • In 1988, 125 million workers will pay $248 tremendous challenges and opportunities for the billion in Social Security taxes. Seventh-day Adventist church. • In 1988, over 38 million people-about one Let's look at just a few of the changes coming out of every six-will receive checks totalling that by the year 2000 will bring major challenges over $217 billion. to the church. • About 43 million people do business with the • Many of the technologies just beginning to Social Security Administration every year. emerge will become fully mature (speech recog­ • The Social Security Administration has is­ nition systems, smart cards, optical disk storage, sued and maintains active records on more than artificial intelligence/expert systems, etc.) 205 million Social Security numbers. • Most households (60-65 percent) will have two people or less. Since 1950 the divorce rate has The church should strengthen its doubled and the percent ofpeople living alone has ministry to ministers by making tripled. Today, there are six million more women completely confidential counselling than men, and more than 50 percent of mothers available. In addition, the church with children under the age of six are working outside the home. needs to explore the needs and • It is quite probable that more than 25 percent concerns of ministers' wives. of all women currently in their late 20s will re­ main childless. In 1988, the Social Security Administration • There will be 10 million more people over the developed and published a "Strategic Plan for the age of 65 (35 million vs. 25.7 million today). Year 2000." One item in the plan called for ne­ • Fully one-third of the population will be gotiating voluntary agreements with all states to minorities. include a request for a Social Security number on • Service industries, as opposed to manufactur­ all applications for birth certificates. This means ing industries, will create the new jobs. a new parent would merely check a block on the • The number of people entering the workforce application for a birth certificate, the state would will continue to decline and the workforce will notify the Social Security Administration, which become older, more female, and more disadvan­ in turn would issue a Social Security number to taged; many workers will be functionally illiter­ the newborn infant. This project is called Enu­ ate. meration at Birth. These trends suggest that the Adventisl church The Social Security Administration is moving must become increasingly focused on the chang­ rapidly to implement this project, and has already ing role of women in our society and our church; received a favorable response from 46 states. By the dramatic increase in the active aged-a largely the time the General Conference session begins in untapped resource for the church; and the rapidly 1990, almost all of the newborn children in increasing numbers of minorities and foreign­ America will be issued Social Security numbers at born members in North America-groups that birth. should be properly represented in leadership Behind the scenes, many other so-called effi­ positions. ciencies are being implemented. Massive com­ A change with which I am directly familiar is puter data bases are being routinely matched to the use of increasingly large and powerful com­ deter/detect fraud in government entitlement pro­ puters to bring about efficiencies. If misused, grams, to locate parents who are delinquent with these could result in a completely controlled soci­ child-support payments, and to ensure compli­ ety. My government agency, the Social Security ance with the laws of our nation. The potential im­ Administration, is moving in this area. This ad­ plications of these efficiencies are enormous. ministration touches the lives of nearly all Ameri­ None of these changes in society should come cans. A few facts will illustrate this point. as a surprise to Seventh-day Adventists. Rather, 20 Spectrum

they should inspire us to move even more rapidly develop seminars and written materials specifi­ to finish the work while we can. Thank God, the cally designed to help ministers' wives. A first church has produced leaders equal to the task, and step would be a national survey of ministers' with God's help, the 1990 General Conference wives, to properly identify these concerns. session will produce leaders who will accelerate Thirdly, Christian education has continuously the advancement of this work. proved its value. However, the cost, at all levels, As a church, we have many strengths. How­ is causing parents and students to seek alterna­ ever, +here are a few areas that need some focused tives. The church must find a way to subsidize the attention if we are to successfully meet the chal­ cost of Christian education, particularly at the lenges beyond the 1990s. As a concerned layman elementary and secondary levels, so our youth can I offer these suggestions as to how we can move be given the strong foundation they need. We aggressively to shore up some long-standing should reexamine using the tithe to pay a reason­ weaknesses. able salary to high quality teachers. Incidentally, I have been thoroughly im­ Fourthly, the evangelistic program of the pressed and extremely pleased with the way our church has resulted in large numbers of new church paper, the Adventist Review, has modified converts each year. Unfortunately, large numbers its approach to meet the current needs of our con­ are also leaving the church and some who attend stituency. I would like to see every department in regularly are not fully committed. Specific pro­ the General Conference go through the same grams need to be developed to improve the spiri­ process. My suggestions can be seen as part of tuality of our members. Positive, encouraging such a process of reexamination. messages need to be promulgated from our pulpits First and foremost, our ministers must be better and through our publications. prepared to deal with the pressures and tempta­ Our leaders today must bear awesome respon­ tions confronting them. Most of our pastors are sibilities, and be totally dedicated. We, the laity, strong, God-fearing Christians. However, far too must provide them with the support they need to many are being overwhelmed by the pressures of develop and implement the programs of this great their responsibilities and submitting to tempta­ church. Working constructively together, we can tions that bring disrepute to the church, disgrace successfully meet the challenges of the 1990s and to their families, and disillusionment to some hasten our Lord's return. members. The church should strengthen its ministry to HerbertR. Doggette,Jr., the Deputy Commissioner, Op­ ministers by making completely confidential erations, of the federal government's Social Security Ad­ ministration, is responsible for the management of over counselling available. Ministers are reluctant to 60,000 employees in some 1,300 offices around the country, reveal this need to their "bosses" for fear it will distributing more than $200 million of Social Security jeopardize their standing. In addition, relevant benefits annually. seminars where peers can communicate freely Doggette, who has served as a deputy assistant secretary should be routinely conducted. in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and as Second, and related to the first point, the church acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, has received the highest awards given federal executives, needs to explore the needs and concerns of minis­ including the rank of Distinguished Executive by President ters' wives. These women have served with great Carter and Meritorious Executive by President Reagan, distinction as unpaid members of the pastoral bringing awards of $20,000 and $10,000 respectively. team. Many have had to bear the "burdens of the In 1987 Doggette was named Alumnus of the Yearby ministry" along with their spouses. In addition, Oakwood College, which he attended for two-and-one-half they have been expected to run the home, raise years. He received his B.A. from the University of Mary­ land and an M.P.A. from George Washington University. ideal families, and supplement the family income Doggette has lectured on public administration at Harvard, by working outside the home. In some cases, this Princeton, and Yale Universities. An active church member has resulted in almost unbearable pressure and in the Allegheny East Conference, Doggette has served on created serious problems. The church should several church committees and panels. Volume 19, Number 2 21

opposed to development and change, but the Adventism's Common channel for it. Our common ground is our com­ mon vision-union in Christ, celebration, hope in Ground: Human Need the Second Advent. Our common ground is not merely adherence to or profession of a common by Tom Wehtje set of minimum requirements but a common ex­ perience. We move from our past to a disparate smile of recognition broadened present, ahead to a common vision of the future, A his face: "Oh, I know who they rooted in, but not constricted by, our past. From are! They don't eat nothin' but fish and chicken, a common emphasis come unity and identity; right! 1" Well, sort of. What is an Adventist? from a relevant, consistent message, purpose. That's not an easy question, neither for the United On a Friday night this August I stood alone, Parcel Service driverinquiring during my last day shivering, on the pristine coast of Maine, breath­ of summer work what kind of college I would be less under splashes of Milky Way stardust. Imag­ attending, nor for the born-and-raised Seventh­ ining the Atlantic to be the Galilee, I·wondered day Adventist, like myself. It wasn't an easy about Christ, under the same speckled dome, question on Ingathering Day in fourth grade when asking God about his mission-asking the Father a young mother answered my sales pitch and what he wanted for his Son. I doubt that the expectant pause with a pledge to contribute some­ answer he received differs much from that for the thing if I first told her what an Adventist is. church today: Be joyful, overflowing with the "Well, um, we are Seventh-day Adventists. We vibrant fullness of life, and meet the whole range keep the seventh day, Saturday, as Sabbath, and of human needs, both physical and spiritual. we believe that Jesus' second coming is soon." Jesus responded by being a radical, a reformer. She unexcitedly kept her side of the bargain by He shook up the establishment He did not have giving me an offering, but I was not so sure that I institutional, hierarchical authority, yet showed had kept mine. Something about that answer such power he was asked by what authority he lacked urgency, warmth, and real conviction. It lacked personal relevance. The Adventist mes­ Jesus responded by being, a radical, sage must be something more than a marketing of a reformer. He showed such power doctrinal differences, a "shop around, but we've he was asked by what authority he got four-wheel drive, bucket seats, and bumper­ acted. He answered by proclaim­ to-bumper protection." ing the gospel of Christ. Like the Democrats and Republicans at their party conventions this summer, Seventh-day Adventists will need to establish an identity anew acted. He answered by proclaiming the gospel of at the 1990 General Conference. And, as at the Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be­ political conventions, "unity" will undoubtedly cause he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to be essential for a clear identity. If political parties the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken­ can find what Jesse Jackson calls "common hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and ground," certainly the Seventh-day Adventist recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty church can. Unity is a positive concept, not them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable merely the absence of differences. The church year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18, 19). may have many differences and maintain strong unity. As the variety in our cultures, geographi­ he mission of meeting people's cal locations, and traditions expands--our unity T needs must form the unity of the can grow. Adventist church. With that vision, the church, Unity cannot be imposed. Nor is it an end in united, can move aggressively, even radically, to itself. Unity is not tied to static conditions; it is not confront the needs of humanity . The Seventh-day 22 Spectrum

Adventist message must be relevant because it qualified to minister. Through his own experi­ addresses the common ground of our humanity. ences he addressed my haunting questions and We all experience death, despair, guilt, hun, love, emotions: disappointment, loss, joy, doubt, de­ hope-life. It is our mission to respond to the spair, suffering, the mystery offaith, the existence spiritual needs of people with the same love and of God, the fear of inevitable death, and the hope pity and urgency with which we must care for the of resurrection. The testimony of a man no longer physically hungry, poor, and sick. welcome in most Adventist pulpits bolstered my People need consistency. For a church profess­ faith, and strengthened my commitment to a ing to believe in Christian principles and the church that is not perfect, but which has an priesthood of all believers, it is an outrage that we enormous responsibility to share a message are dragging our heels about allowing women an humanity needs desperately. equal place in their own church. Just as Advent­ What is the Adventist message? Hope for ists once championed racial equality, we should humanity. God with us, with our needs. That is now be in the vanguard of those advocating sexual our "common ground." equality for the whole of society. If health is the motivating principle behind Tom Wehtje is a junior English and mathematics major at alcohol abstinence, why isn't obesity or sugar use Atlantic Union College and editor of The Lancastrian, the campus newspaper. likewise condemned? How does losing one's temper compare with wearing jewelry or drink­ ing a glass of wine in Adventism? The compari­ Discovering Our Future son shouldn't suggest a lowering of standards. It does suggest that we have misinterpreted our rules by Affirming Diversity of social conduct as being spiritual emphases. People need to be able to ask questions freely. by Alyce Pudewell We must not just tolerate, but promote study, debate, and a spirit of discovery. Everyone has ecently a letter to the editor was doubts; that is basic to our common human expe­ printed in a union conference rience. But there is no such thing as a heretical R paper that attempted to explain why women question, not even asking if God really exists. should not be ordained into the ministry. It said: That is a helpful question. If we think such questions, why not voice them? Rather than I am surprised no one has mentioned the obvious­ repressing them in private, where they can fester, whether or not women have the mentality to function in said capacity .... Whenever and wherever women have let's share them on the way to a stronger faith. involved themselves in "causes," without exception Many (including ministers and teachers) admit such causes have suffered .... In all areas of denomina­ that what they express publicly about Adventist tional service, the women use their positions to use and practices or beliefs, and what they believe pri­ abuse authority in the typical manner that females are vatelyare sometimes two different things. We noted for. Adventist women are not really wanting their can't condone hypocrisy. Monuments of inc on­ so-called "rights;" they are desiring power. .. Ordain if you will, but suffer the consequences! sistency in enforcing behavioral codes distract from basic Adventist principles and a spirit of The flood of letters responding to this reader's love and needs-meeting. The church needs to hear opinion was the greatest of any issue printed in the the candid views of its members, the open ex­ union conference paper. change of ideas-Glasnost. But to me the issues raised by the letter was not Ironically, the sermon of a defrocked Advent­ the ordination of women. The issue was whether ist minister most vividly showed me the Advent an official church paper should publish a letter message's relevance for meeting the needs of that insults an entire class of members in the people. The very experience of losing his minis­ church. If the Adventist denomination is to sur­ terial credentials made this preacher all the more vive into the 21 st century, it will no longer be just Volume 19, Number 2 23 a harmless "exercise of free speech" to publish a Where indigenous leadership has emerged,' as letter defaming a group of the church member­ in Inter,.. America, South America, and Africa, ship. It will be a violation of Christian ethics. abundant, quick growth has often resulted.. B.e­ Indeed, if the Seventh-day Adventist church is cause it is unruly, does inot conform, and because to not only survive but grow and flourish into the it sometimes appears uncontrollable, fast growth next century it must go beyond respecting its can be frightening. But should we settle for slow, members; it must rely on its members for leader­ controlled passivity when asspmptions of greater ship. Unfortunately, as conferences and unions responsibility by lay leaders can lead to increased have set up committees to study such urgent dynamism? topics as the slow growth of membership, decline in the paying of tithe, the disenchantment of the Paternalism robs the chUrch of the youth, the disinterest of young adults, and the energy, enthusiasm, and talent members' perception of the Adventist educa­ needed to create an Adventist tional system, church officials have too often church for the 21st century. After overlooked laypersons and limited membership 1990 we need church leaders who on these committees to church administrators. This is an exercise in futility, for church adminis­ understand their role is to empower trators are not leaving the church from lack of the members to become the true interest, do not constitute the tithe base of the leaders of Adventism. church, or decide whether or not to send their children to Adventist schools. Youth in the church also deserve greater re­ Other committees do include loyal, lay work­ spect. The degree to which an institution takes its ers. Their excitement in problem solving can be youth seriously-including inviting them to contagious. Even then, certain relevant groups serve as leaders---determines the future of that in­ are never asked their opinion. I know of no com­ stitution. The fact that today the highest exit rate mittees that include, for example, non-tithe-pay­ in the Adventist church is among the young ing, non-church-attending members. people is a sign that they do not feel the church trusts its youth enough to include them among the s tithe is on the decrease, the giv­ leaders of Adventism. This kind of paternalism A ing to independent ministries and robs the church of the energy, enthusiasm, and missions is on the increase. Adventists still want talent needed to create an Adventist church for to give, still care about others. But they want to the 21st century. give to causes that do not discriminate 'against An increasing number of Adventists, in North race or gender. They want to give to ministries America and worldwide, are becoming profes­ that have a small administrative overhead; causes sionals. That changes the kind of expectations with which they have an emotional bonding and Adventists have of their leaders. As we mature in over which they have some control. The member­ this way as a church, we need to remember that ship is sending a strong message to leadership: Do the goal of professionals is to eliminate the need not patronize us; do not act paternalistically to­ for their services. Doctors heal so the patient no ward us. longer requires a doctor. A teacher educates so Outside North America, for example in some the student no longer depends on a teacher to Pacific Rim countries, indigenous church leaders learn. A minister enlightens so members can are still not invited to lead. And yet Adventist themselves become ministers. In each case, pro­ laypersons are part of societies and cultures that fessionals respect others so much they adopt the can out-perform, out-bank, and out-trade Amer­ goal of creating and nurturing self-sufficient per­ ica. The Adventist denomination is still slow to sons to the point that they are no longer depen­ realize that members in these booming countries dent, but are themselves capable of giving, creat­ are capable of self-rule in church administration. ing, growing, and building others. 24 Spectrum

Disrespect for one another in the church is another's value, Adventism can become known unethical; paternalism is not only offensive but as that community that follows a servant leader. counterproductive. Mter 1990 we ne.ed church We wiU deserve to be known as Christians. leaders who understand their role is to empower the members to become the true leaders of Ad­ Alyce Pudewell, associate director of education for the Pacific Union, oversees 172 elementary schools in Cali­ ventism. If after 1990 we become a community fornia with 13,500 students; She received her M.A. and that has the common goals of enhancing one Ed.D. in education from Lorna Linda University, and has another's cultural diversity, and affirming one served as principal of the Lorna Linda elementary school. Special Section: Adventists and the USSR The Hutnan-Rights Movetnent and the True and Free Adventists

by Ludmilla Alexeyeva

he very name of the religion of the January 4, 1919, signed by Lenin released from T Seventh-day Adventists suggests military service any people whose religious be­ its fundamental tenet: the expectation of an im­ liefs forbade them to bear arms. This decree grad­ minent Second Coming and final judgment day. ually ceased to be observed. At the Fifth Congress The Adventists' plan of salvation consists of a of Seventh-day Adventists in 1924, the church rigid observance of the moral law contained in the suspended the categorical ban on carrying arms; it Ten Commandments. They treat all the com­ was resolved that every church member should mandments as equally important and do not per­ individually decide whether to serve in the mili­ mit the transgression of a single one. tary. The Fifth Congress also modified adherence The church was founded in 1844 in the United to the fourth commandment on observing the States, and its adherents appeared in Russia in the Sabbath in the same way-a decision thatcompli­ last century. An internal split occurred within the cated the lives of those Adventists who refused to Russian Seventh-day Adventist church in 1914 work on Saturday, a workday in the Soviet Union over the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not at that time. kill"-a commandment the Adventists follow to At the Sixth Congress of the Seventh-day the point of not eating animal flesh. The entry of Adventists in 1928, the church leadership, under Russia into the First World War and the subse­ pressure from government authorities, passed a quent general mobilization created a dilemma for resolution that forced members to renounce both the group: either the Adventists had to transgress the fourth and sixth commandments. The new the sixth commandment and join the army, orthey resolution required that every member, under the had to disobey the mobilization order. After the threat of excommunication, "carry out state and October Revolution, arguments over this point military service of all kinds, just like any other ceased for a few years, because the decree of citizen." Orthodox Adventists refused to recog­ nize this resolution, and an internal schism re­ Ludmilla Alexeyeva and her husband were forced to flee sulted. Adventists who held to the conviction that the Soviet Union and move to the United States in 1977. moral law obliged them to observe all Ten Com­ The year before, Alexeyeva, who graduated from Moscow University and edited Soviet scientific publications, was a mandments without exception (even under condi­ founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Watch group. tions in the Soviet Union where this obligation (Other founding members included such prominent human­ inevitably leads to conflict with the authorities) rights leaders as Alexander Ginzburg, Yuri Orlov, and called themselves the All.,.Union Church of True Anatoly Sharansky.) Alexeyeva now lives in northern and Free Seventh-day Adventists. Virginia and continues to write and lecture widely on the From its inception, the True and Free Adventist subject of human rights. The essay printed here first appeared as a chapter in Alexeyeva' s book Soviet Dissent: chUrch was not recognized by the authorities, and Contemporary Movements for National, Religious, and so was subjected to persecutions. Gregory Ost­ Human Rights, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, vald, the first leader of the church, died in a labor Connecticut, 1985. camp in 1937. His successor, Pyotr Manzhura 26 Spectrum died in camp in L949. Vladimir Shelkov, the third ent-day True Adventists seems to have resulted in church leader, was arrested several times and in part from the influence of Vladimir Shelkov, a 1945 was sentenced to be shot. After 55 days the gifted and prolific religious writer of sermons, sentence was reduced to ten years in a labor camp; essays on biblical themes, and the history of the Shelkov spent a total of 26 years in camps and in Adventist church. His works, which would fill a internal exile. Between prison sentences he lived library, are embued with civic concerns. He also "illegally," that is, with a country-wide search wrote many articles on legal issues: "The Interre­ warrant out for his arrest. 1 Like his predecessors, lationship of Church and State," "Legislation on Shelkov died in camp, in January 1980 at the age Cults," "The Foundations of a Genuine Free of 84.2 Conscience and Equal Rights," a series of bro­ chures entitled "The Struggle for Freedom of Conscience," and "The Legal Struggle With the Commitment to Spiritual and Dictatorship of Government Atheism for Free­ Civil Freedom dom of Conscience."4 Shelkov strongly denounced both the Soviet state, which had made atheism the state ideology, ike other religious groups in the and "bureaucratic," "restricted" churches, which L USSR, the True and Free Seventh­ have agreed to recognize the regulations on reli­ day Adventists formulated their civic position gious cults imposed on them by an atheistic gov­ vis-a.-vis an atheist government that imposes its ernment: "The government-sanctioned registra­ will on them. The position adopted by the inde­ tion ofreligious organizations facilitates the proc­ pendent Baptists and the Pentecostalists was a ess of unification of church and state and the direct result of their religious doctrine. They interference of government in internal church considered it a sacred duty of the church and its matters."5 In the process the government exploits members to stand up for an independent religious the state-sanctioned churches for its own pur­ life and freedom of conscience in the face of gov­ poses. "Honest" governmental support of any ernment pressure. The civic position of present­ church is, according to Shelkov, no better than day True and Free Seventh-day Adventists does government atheism. In either case, persecution, not follow from their religious teachings, but administrative and criminal prosecution, and rather is anorganic part of those teachings. In the even the annihilation of dissident believers and words of Shelkov, this consists of "a struggle, thinkers are inevitable. This is amply demon­ without bloodshed, for the basic rights and liber­ strated by past experiences of the Russian Ortho­ ties of every citizen."3 The church of True and dox church, the Catholic, and the Protestant state­ Free Seventh-day Adventists is founded on the sanctioned churches: "Believers who are free and conviction that man is created in the image of God true to their religious ideals," he said, and retains his divine likeness as long as he ought to resist any pressure whatsoever from the gov­ observes the Ten Commandments with a free ernment and refuse all government support; they ought conscience and conviction, a process that ensures to struggle for equal rights by peaceful means, for the the development of a harmonious and whole per­ independent spirit of the individual and for freedom of sonality. One's duty before God is to preserve conscience and of faith. one's freedom and moral principles under any Shelkov insisted on government neutrality not circumstances and at any sacrifice. If one relin­ only in the relationship to religion, but also to quishes one's freedom, one ceases to be a human nationality. In this regard, he wrote: being in the full sense of the word. The most important human rights concern civil, rather than The present supremacy of government atheism has economic freedoms, since the soul is more impor­ created ideological confusion and moral decay in the land. Appeals to recreate a national consciousness tant to believers than the body. in the Russian people and a Russian Orthodox church in The cultivation of this moral principle by pres- the spirit of the past are heard: it is said that only a Volume 19, Number 2 27

national rebirth and a national church will save the tional Covenants on Human Rights were confis­ country from spiritual bankruptcy. But Russian Ortho­ cated. The Chronicle reported that believers de­ doxy prevailed in the past as the official religion, and it manded the return of the confiscated materials; stained its hands with blood by crushing freedom of they managed to get back the confiscated Bibles.9 conscience and of faith in dissident believers and think­ ers. A Russian Inquisition took place, which destroyed In the section of No. 38, entitled "Statements by 12 million Old Believers and hundreds of thousands of Church Officials and Believers," an article of Evangelical Christians and sect members. How does Shelkov's "A Unified Ideal," was cited,1O indicat­ this historical violation of freedom of conscience differ ing some contacts between the Seventh-day from the Catholic Inquisition, which killed 52 million Adventists and human-rights activities. How­ Christians over a period of twelve-and-a-half centuries? ever, after issue No. 38, no further information on ... [In the light of this experience] legal guarantees of freedom of conscience and of religious faith are essen­ the Adventists appeared for two more years. tial, so that they will not be restricted either by the From issue No. 44 (March 1977) on, reports reigning state religion of atheism-materialism-evolu­ on the persecution of the Adventists and their tionism, or by the tyranny of any religion that favors uni­ legal battles appeared regularly. This indicates fication with the state on the basis of nationalism .... [On that contacts between the Adventists and human­ the basis of these considerations] the equal rights of all rights activists had become regular. These con­ men, given by God at birth and enunciated by the Constitution, which have not been guaranteed, but ig­ tacts seem to have been established at the end of nored like orphans, ought to be observed by all citizens 1976: in document No.5 (July 1976) of the Mos­ as a law of God and of pure statehood. Such interna­ cow Helsinki Group, "Repression Against Fami­ tional and universal laws should be observed in the same lies of Believers," among instances of children way as the laws of one's country.6 being taken away from parents was the case of Seventh-day Adventist Mariya Vlasyuk in the Connections With village of llyatka in'the Ukraine. The affair was reported in detail and supported by the relevant Human Rights Groups documents. 11 In 1977 Shelkov wrote an open letter on behalf of arrested Moscow Helsinki Group members uring the trial of Shelkov and his Yury Orlov, Aleksandr Ginsburg, and Anatoly Dassociates in 1979, it was noted Shcharansky to President Carter and the Belgrade that the human-rights activities of the True and conference of countries that had signed the Hel­ Free Seventh-day Adventist church had begun in sinki Accords. He described the persecutions of the late sixties, when the human-rights movement Seventh-day Adventists in the Soviet Union­ was gaining influence, and that their human­ searches and the breakup of prayer meetings, the rights activities were intensified in the mid­ persecution of Adventist parents for giving their seventies when they made personal contact with children a religious upbringing, and prison terms the Moscow human-rights workers.7 for refusal to bear arms in the militaryP He and The first mention of Seventh-day Adventists in an associate, a minister of the True Adventist the Chronicle of Current Events was in June church, Rostislav Galetsky, also in hiding, both 1970, but this was not based on personal contacts. signed an appeal to the Belgrade Conference as Issue No. 14 contained a report on the trial of representatives of the All-Union Church of True Mikhail Sych, a Seventh-day Adventist min­ and Free Seventh-day Adventists (document No. ister, on whom a regional Vitebsk newspaper re­ 26 of the Moscow Helsinki Group),13 This docu­ ported.8 The next information on the Adventists ment appealed to the conference delegates to look appeared five years later in issue No. 38 (1975)­ into violations of religious freedom in the USSR. a report of police searches of homes of Seventh­ It referred also to violations of the right to choose day Adventists in Samarkand, during which reli­ the country of one's residence and of the rights of gious literature as well as the United Nations' national minorities, and on the use of forced pri­ Declaration of Human Rights and the Interna- son labor and on the existence of political prison- 28 Spectrum

ers in the USSR-prisoners of conscience-and and limit democracy in the Soviet Union at a time the difficult conditions in camps for political pris­ when the country needed to democratize itself in oners. every possible way. IS In February 1978, Rostislav Galetsky partici­ pated in a press conference of the Moscow Hel­ sinki Group on the anniversary of the arrests of Persecution and the Search for Orlov and Ginsburg.14 Galetsky popularized the an Underground Printing Press religkms and legal views of the True Adventists in the ankles "The Situation of Religion and the Believers in the USSR," and "On Our Attitude to eginning in the mid seventies, the the Government." Following Shelkov's lead in B Adventists underground publish­ justifying the active human-rights position of the ing house, True Witness, raised the level of its ac­ True Adventists, Galetsky writes: tivity. It acquired a printing press and published Biblical history is replete with examples of faithful religious literature and works on human rights. It believers engaging in lawful protests and waging deci­ also published the works of Shelkov. sive (exclusively nonviolent) and just battles. They As soon as the KGB became aware of its upheld the principles of freedom of thought, conscience, existence, steps were taken to liquidate the True and of religion-a God-given birthright of every human being and an integral part of the personality.1s Witness; an investigation was conducted to dis­ cover the identity of its contributors and workers, He considers such a position even more essential as well as the location of the press. Numerous at the present time: attempts to recruit informers among the members Our epoch is one of a specific and decisive battle for of the True and Faithful Seventh-day Adventists human rights .... The year 1977 was declared a year of are known to have been made. During the KGB's religious freedom, yet freedom is not the fruit of inactiv­ ity and joyful expectation; it never comes to us of recruiting attempts several persons were prose­ itself. 16 cuted on the basis of fabricated evidence because Galetsky appealed to the West for support, not they refused to help the KGB in its efforts to only to Seventh-day Adventists, but to all Chris­ discover the publishers. Nina Ruzhechko and tians, all religious believers, and, in general, "to Semyon Bakholdin were arrested. In good health all people of good will ... who value human rights before their arrest, both died in imprisonment­ and liberty." He asked them to disregard menda­ Ruzhechko within a month and Bakholdin within two-and-a-half years-of unexplained ill­ cious information released by official Soviet 19 organizations and to avail themselves of newspa­ nesses. Just what some of those religious believ­ pers and radio broadcasts to discover the true ers whom the KGB counted on to find True situation of dissidents in the Soviet Union. He Witness had to endure is clear from the report of asked that they "make good use of the upcoming a 19-year-oldAdventist, YakovDolgoter. He was Belgrade Conference.... to condemn inhuman stopped at the marketplace in Pyatigorsk in Feb­ and illegal acts of violence and oppression in the ruary 1978, and brochures printed by the True USSR and support those who are deprived of their Witness were found on his person. He was de­ rightS."17 tained for a month, supposedly to ascertain his During discussions of proposals for the 1978 identity, while the investigators demanded that he Soviet Constitution, many True Adventists wrote reveal the source of the literature. Two KGB to the Commission on the Constitution in 1977- agents were assigned to the investigation: 1978, criticizing the proposed constitution. The They beat me by turns, fIrst one, then the other. They letter was also signed by the Russian Orthodox beat me on the head, the face, and the jaws; they beat me on the neck, being careful to raise the collar of my shirt priest Gleb Yakunin, Tatyana Velikhanova, and each time so that there would be no marks.... They beat other Moscow human-rights activists. The letter me under the ribs and near my kidneys, each time curs­ claimed that the new constitution would reduce ing and repeating, "Tell us where you got it and who gave Volume 19, Number 2 29

it to you, or else we'll show you what Soviet poweris!" of the investigations of their leaders.23 This group, They suspended me by the neck with a scarf and beat me with the Moscow Helsinki Group and academi­ under the ribs. They stood on either side of me; one of cian Sakharov, came to the defense of Shelkov.24 them beat me from one side and the other from the The trial of the Seventh-day Adventist leaders opposite side, so that I bounced like a ball between them. They stood me against the wall and beat my face so hard took place in Tashkent in March 1979. As is my head was smashed against the wall. ... Several times almost always the case, the trial was for all prac­ they beat me unconscious and then revived me with cold tical purposes a closed one. Only the immediate water. They made me squat down as many as 500 times. families of the accused were admitted to the They used a kind of chemical preparation, which they courtroom. The defendants were accused of writ­ made me smell and then sprinkled on my left arm. It ing works printed by True Witness. Shelkov and turned red immediately and began to swell. Lepshin received five years each in a strict-regi­ After three-day "investigations" like these, men labor camp and their houses were confis­ Yakov said they threw him into a cold room full cated; Spalin and Furlet received five and three of bedbugs, and the next morning they took him to years respectively in a standard-regimen camp; a psychiatric hospital where the doctor repeated Maslov received two years probation and his the same questions: Where did he get the bro­ home was confiscated alsO.25 chures? Who gave them to him? Later the inves­ In spite of many protests against the cruel tigators frightened him by saying that the doctor sentence given to 84-year-old Shelkov, he was had declared him insane and that now they would send him to a psychiatric hospital. They threat­ In spite of many protests against ened him with the arrest of his father, with the the cruel sentence given to 84-year­ electric chair, with castration, and with a long old Shelkov, he was sent to a camp sentence for "distributing anti-Soviet literature." Having learned nothing from the youth after a in Yakutsia, which has one of the month, they released him. On March 20, 1978, he harshest climates in the USSR. reported to foreign correspondents in Moscow After a few months, he died. what had happened, after which he was rear­ 20 rested. Along with Rikhard Spalin and Anatoly sent to a camp in Yakutsia, which has one of the Ryskal, he was convicted of organizing an under­ harshest climates in the USSR. After a few ground press. Ryskal and Dogoter received a months, he died. His children tried for several four-year term in camp and Spalin, a seven-year days to get permission to receive his body so that term. 21 they could bury him according to his last wish, but In March 1978 Vladimir Shelkov and his clos­ permission was refused on the grounds that his est aides, llya Lepshin, Arnold Spalin,'SQfya Fur­ sentence would not be completed for three more let, and Sergy Maslov, were arrested. During the years, and even though he was dead, his body had search conducted at the time of the arrest, the to remain in the camp. After his term was up, his walls of their home were destroyed and the floors children could again request permission to take taken up in a vain effort to find the printing his ashes home. From allover the country sup­ 22 press. porters of Shelkov' s church came to the funeral in At one of his press conferences in Moscow the Yakut village of Tabaga. Evidently, this un­ during May 1978, Galetsky announced the forma­ organized demonstration of support had an effect, tion of a human rights group of seven Seventh-day since the authorities took the unusual step of Adventists who had worked for two years under giving permission for a religious burial and for a his direction. Galetsky gave the journalists the cross bearing the name of the deceased to be names of the members, as well as copies of five placed on the grave. Other graves in the camp documents, issued by the group, that were con­ were simply marked by boards with the number cerned with various incidents of illegal persecu­ by which the prisoner was known in camp.26 tion of Seventh-day Adventists and with the status After Shelkov's death, Leonid Murkin, his 30 Spectrum deputy, became head of the True and Free Sev­ the rights of believers by government atheists as enth-day Adventists. Immediately after Murkin' s an illegal consequence of the state-sanctioned election to this post, he went underground and a religion of atheism-materialism-evolutionism; country-wide search warrant was put out for his and also to condemn all those who violate the arrest.27 rights of others. The death of the leader of the True and Free 5. To put an end to all forms of religious Seventh-day Adventists and the incarceration of oppression in the USSR: surveillance, eaves­ its leading advocates did not interrupt the work of dropping, intercepting the mail, and discrimina­ the True Witness. After Shelkov's arrest, the tion in the workplace and in educational institu­ press began to publish upon letters from the tions. Council of Churches of True and Free Seventh­ 6. To revoke the antireligious legislation on day Adventists, in addition to the usual religious cults, enacted from 1929 to 1975, because it is a literature. Each letter described some concrete contradiction of Lenin's teachings and his direc­ example of persecution with explanations of un­ tive of January 23, 1918, "On the Separation of lawfulness of these occurrences. Each letter Church and State and Church and School," Ar­ ended with the same demands. The demand "to ticle 13 of the constitution enacted under Lenin in free the unlawfully sentenced religious leader and 1918, Articles 34, 39, 50 and 52 of the present champion oflegal equality between believers and constitution of the USSR, the Universal Declara­ atheists, Vladimir Shelkov, President of the All- tion of Human Rights, the Declaration of the Rights of Children, the Convention Against Dis­ crimination in Education, the International Cove­ Since 1978 the KGB has not nants on Human Rights, and the Final Act of the stopped trying to locate the print­ Helsinki Accords. ing press and the publishers of 7. To separate atheism, as a private world True Witness. Over a three-year view, from the state and from schools; to make period, they conducted more than the Society of Atheists a private organization supported not at government expense, but at the 350 searches. expense of individual atheists, just like any other religious society in the USSR. Union Church of True and Free Seventh-day 8. To declare and enforce a fundamental law of Adventists" was later changed to a demand to complete equality among believers and atheists. "posthumously rehabilitate" him. Further de­ 9. To enforce complete freedom of the reli­ mands were: gious press, religious meetings, and other reli­ 1. To free all arrested and convicted ministers gious rights and freedoms on an equal basis with and members of the True and Free Seventh-day the rights and freedoms of atheists. Adventist church, with compensation for any 10. To guarantee and enforce complete free­ moral, physical, or material damage they may dom in educating children in a manner compat­ have suffered. ible with their parents' views, conscience, and 2. To return all materials confiscated during conviction. searches or at the time of arrest. Since 1978 the KGB has not stopped trying to 3. To restore the reputation ofthe church presi­ locate the printing press and the publishers of dent Vladimir Shelkov and of other church True Witness. Over a three-year period, they members slandered and defamed in the eyes of the conducted more than 350 searches, during which world by government atheists because of the they confiscated literature printed by the True members' purely religious way of life and their Witness and arrested more than 70 people.28 lawful struggle for freedom of conscience and Most of those arrested had publicly spoken out in equal rights. support of Shelkov and his helpers; all were 4. To condemn the repression and violations of charged with "slandering the Soviet system" on Volume 19, Number 2 31 the basis of Article 190-1 of the RSFSR criminal and other printing equipment. In addition, 16,433 rubles code. They were specifically charged with dis­ was found in a total of three hiding places. A large seminating letters of the Council of Churches of quantity of illegal literature of the Reformist-Adventist the True and Free Seventh-day Adventists, as well Sect-more than 20 different titles-was stored there. as other Adventist literature on human rights. The The article claimed that Fokanov wasrespon- standard sentence was three years in a general­ sible for obtaining the necessary building materi.,. regimen labor camp. Rostislav Galetsky was als, copy equipment, paper, and such for the among those arrested. He was arrested on July 1, press, while Kovalchuk collected the necessary 1980, during one of his usual visits to Moscow and funds from believers. This fund allegedly came sentenced to five years in camp on the basis of ar­ from tithes levied on church members. Shelkov ticles on religious activities and Article 190-1.29 was supposed to have raised the tithe to one-fifth of the members' earnings. n spite of the searches and arrests, Vera Kaduk received a two-year prison term; I both True Witness and the human­ Fokanov and Kovalchuk each received three-year rights struggle of the True Adventists continued. prison-camp terms.31 The Council of Churches of the True and Free The legal educational activities of the True Seventh-day Adventists published the volumi­ Adventist church yielded, unquestionable results. nous report of the conference between the coun­ Church members accepted the civil-rights posi­ tries that had signed the Helsinki accords in tion of Shelkov and Galetsky and courageously Madrid in 1980. The report described in detail the upheld them. On October 15,1979, a 25-year-old situation of the church since the 1977 conference Adventist, Nina Ovcharenko, a floor polisher in Belgrade and the Madrid conferences.3o In from Pyatigorsk, defended herself during her trial addition, True Witness published at least 15 open for disseminating open letters of the Council of letters to the Council of Churches up to 1982. All Churches. Her defense speech would have done this material was typographically reproduced. honor to any lawyer: her arguments were persua­ In March 1981, three Adventists accused of sive; her ability to deal with complex legal issues outfitting an underground press were put on trial was impressive; and her political courage went in Kalinin. On April 19 , the Kalinin Pravda pub­ beyond what is permissible for a Soviet lawyer: lished a long article on the trial entitled "The Throughout the centuries, people with different Secrets Revealed," stating that in June 1979 Vera views on life and different religious beliefs have lived on Kaduk purchased a house in Kalinin fOt:, 18,000 the earth. Everyone has the right, as a complete individ­ rubles (with money from the "sect"). It srud that ual endowed with all rights and liberties from birth, to his with the help of Vladimir Fokanov, a 25-year-old own convictions. This right is enforced by Article 19 of Muscovite, and Vasily Kovalchuk, a 23-year-old the Declaration of Human Rights and international pacts resident of Dnepropetrovsk, she began to build in on human rights ratified by our government in 1957 and 1973 .... the basement of the house a printing shop. Al­ though it never went into operation, it was mod­ All laws, both international and state, guarantee freedom of conscience for all. This is the most funda­ eled after functioning publishing operations: mental and most important right of all; it makes every A camouflaged hatchway led from the veranda of citizen a free and complete human being. The lack of the house to a tunnel one-and-a-half by two meters and freedom of conscience deprives man of dignity and considerably higher than the average person's height. A reduces him to the status of an animal, having only the trapdoor connected the tunnel to an entryway made of right to work and to rest.... Even if atheists were in the concrete, from which one entered the room. The room majority and believers in the minority in our state the was equipped with a water heating system run by two government is nonetheless obligated to consider the batteries and a boiler that heated the water by an electric interests ofbelievers. Truth and justice are not always on heater. The "bunker" received current by circumventing the side of the majority, especially in the sensitive area the meter. The cabin contained four typewriters, a hec­ of freedom of conscience .... I consider myself a happy tograph, a rotary press, a large supply of rotary ink, person because I am part of the struggle for truth .... stationery, and printing paper, 35 rolls of rotary fIlm, Truth requires sacrifices; for the sake of truth, one must 32 Spectrum

stand fInn or even hang from the cross. A just cause is ership at every level: community, club, village, worth the devotion of one's entire life.32 city, province (oblast), republic, etc."33 Nina Ovcharenko' s defense speech was distrib­ For obvious reasons, the church does not report uted in the letters of the Council of Churches. on the number of its membership, although it The ability to hide leaders wanted by the au­ sometimes refers to itself as "many thousands of thorities for many years, to keep the whereabouts God's people." Estimates of church membership of a printing press secret, and to keep the press in may be made by comparing data of recent arrests operation while under constant surveillance tes­ of members of the Evangelical Baptist church and tify to a flexible and functional organizational Seventh-day Adventists. From 1878 to 1981, 152 structure within the True Adventist church. This members of the Council of Churches of Evangeli­ is confIrmed in a report on religious life in the cal Christian Baptists were arrested, and 87 USSR (published in the Chronicle ofthe Catholic members of the True and Free Seventh-day Ad­ Church in Lithuania). Catholic priests have rec­ ventist church. Total membership in the inde­ ognized the success ofJehovah's Witnesses, Pen­ pendent Baptist church is 100,000, according to tecostalists, and Seventh-day Adventists in the G. Vins, their representative abroad, but if the dissemination of religious teachings. This they level ofrepression is similar for both churches, the attribute not only to missionary zeal, but also to membership of the True Adventist church would "the creation of a strong organization, with lead- be approximately 50,000.34

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. CCE, No. 48, pp. 117-118; Documents of the Chris­ 16. Ibid., p. 19. tian Committee for the Defense ofBelievers' Rights in the 17. Ibid., p. 21. USSR, vol. 1 (in Russian with summaries in English) (San 18. CCE, No. 46, pp. 101-103. Francisco: Washington Street Research Center 1977), pp. 19. AS 33, No. 4411 (1981). 133-138. 20. CCE, No. 48, p. 118; the complete text is in the 2. CCE, No. 56, p. 93. Khronika Press Archives. 3. AS 17, No. 2439 (1976), p. 1. 21. CCE, No.48, p. 118; List ofPolitical Prisoners in the 4. Khronika Press Archives. USSR,1 May 1982, USSR News Brief. 5. AS 17, No. 2439 (1976), p. 17. 22. CCE, No. 49, pp. 57-63. 6. Ibid., pp. 1, 16, 18. 23. Ibid., pp. 63, 64. 7. "Open Letter No.8," pp. 13, 16, Khronika Press 24. Ibid., p. 63. Archives. 25. CCE, No. 53, pp. 11-23; AS 19, No. 4301 (1981). 8. KTS, No. 14, pp. 433, 434. 26. CCE,No. 56,p. 93; the full text of Open Letter No. 12 9. CCE, No. 38, pp. 134, 135. is in the Khronika Press Archives. 10. Ibid., p. 140. 27. CCE, No. 62, p. 72; AS 33, No. 4411 (1981), p. 12. 11. Reports of the Helsinki Accord Monitors, 1979, pp. 28. CCE,No. 57,p. 70; AS 19,No. 4302 (1981),pp. 3,4. 37-48. 29. CCE, No. 47, p. 76; No. 62, p. 71. 12. CCE, No. 45, p. 300; No. 46, p. 99. 30. AS 19, Nos. 4301-4302 (1981). 13. CCE, No. 47, pp. 160, 161; Documents of Helsinki 31. CCE, No. 62, pp. 70, 71. Dissent from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1978, 32. Khronika Press Archives. pp.74-81. 33. CCChL, No. 28, pp. 13, 14 . . 14. CCE, No. 48,p. 7; AS 17, No. 3216 (1978). 34. Figures are based on data in documents of the Council 15. Rostislav Galetsky, "Report on the Situation ofReli­ of Relatives of the Evangelical Christian Baptist Prisoners gion and Believers in the USSR" (in Russian), p. 1, Khron­ and the All-Union Church of the True and Free Seventh-day ika Press Archives. Adventists. The Unique Ideal

by Vladimir A. Shelkov

"The Unique I deal" is printed here in its en­ Free Adventists, translated this essay, originally tirety for the first time in English. (Portions are written in October, 1975. Biblical quotations are quoted in Ludmilla Alexeyeva's article in this translatedfrom the Russian language. issue, pp. 25-32.) Shelkov's views are important -The Editors becausefor 31 years (1949-1980) he was the head of the True and Free Adventists, a Sabbathkeep­ e need a legal struggle for human ing group estimated by some authorities to be W rights and a readiness for self­ equal in size to the 32,000 members ofthe Advent­ sacrifice in its name. It must be a bloodless ist church officially recognized by the Soviet struggle for the basic rights and freedoms of men government. Shelkov spent 26 years in Soviet and citizens. The equal rights of men, granted by prisons, labor camps, and internal exile. Shelkov God from birth and proclaimed in state constitu­ died in a labor camp in 1980 at the age of 84. tions, but then neglected and disregarded like Alexander Ginzburg, the noted human-rights orphans, should be defended by every citizen of leader, met him in a camp and later described him the country on the basis of God's law and the laws as "very tall, with a huge beard, exhibiting a very of pure statehood-both the laws of one's own brilliant personality" and "always surrounded country and those that are universal and interna­ by other people." Shelkov and his followers pub­ tional. Unfortunately, it is a fact that these inter­ lished materials for the human-rights movements national agreements--declarations, conventions, and predicted the arrest of its leaders. In turn, and pacts on human-rights-are always signed so Andrei Sakharov visited the site,ojShelkov' s trial easily and ratified with such flourishes of public­ '--: and protested his sentence as "cruelty surpassing ity, but afterwards clearly are not observed and are all notions of decency." (See "An Interview with scornfully ignored and flouted. Such is the arbi­ Alexander Ginsburg," by Tom Dybdahl, Vol. 11 , trary behavior of the powerful, the bitter truth, No.3, June 1981). revealed by history. These are the usual charac­ Leaders ofthe officially recognized Adventists teristics of any impure state power, like super­ in the Soviet Union claim that the views ofShelkov structures built up in abnormal circumstances that and his followers are not genuinely Adventist. hinder production: state power is unlawfully and Although many other writings remain untrans­ quite criminally united with some religious or lated, Marite Sapiets, the researcher at Keston anti-religious ideology, and degenerates into College, the center in England that possesses forcing this (artificial) ideology on people. It thus perhaps the largest collection of their writings, diverges from pure state power, determined by claims this essay more than others contains theo­ God from time immemorial. logical reflection (as distinguishedfrom constitu­ "Can wicked rulers be allied with thee, who tional and legal interpretations). Thus, Spectrum frame mischief by statute?" (Psalm 94:20). All readers canfor thefirst time make up their own such forcible imposition of any ideology with the minds whether these believers hold views that can aid of state power is alien and repugnant to the be described as genuinely Seventh-day Adventist. Lord God, who afflicts no one (Job 37:23). Sapiets, who is completing a book on the True and How tragic is the historical abuse of means, of 34 Spectrum the rights and responsibilities of pure statehood, The loud slogans of the official press, stating as we see in our long-suffering country! The the godless viewpoint is the "mind and conscience unlawful, arbitrary encroachment by atheist ma­ of the people" humiliate the working people, as terialism on the state sphere and the use of state this is said without proof, allegedly in the name of power to forcefully impose its particular the whole people, without taking into account worldview on all citizens (starting from infancy, their many nationalities and religions or their from creches, kindergartens, and schools up to traditions and customs, their personal ideals and academies), this particular atheist-materialistic consciences, their individual wishes and those of viewpoint, which should in principle be treated as their families and communities (churches). The equal to any religious viewpoint, has been trans­ working people, however, are the true productive formed into the ruling state religion of today. power. "Every one who exalts himself will be Lenin, however, wrote that belief or lack of belief humbled," Christ said. was a matter for individual conscience and that This bold self-importance and self-exaltation, the state should not interfere in this sphere of this pretension to exclusiveness and universality, private conscience. ("the hub of the universe") create a thoroughly Atheism-materialism-evolutionism as an arti­ bad impression both of the ideologists propound­ ficial, invented theory, a false science, senses its ing such an arrogant, but forcibly imposed, view­ own ideological weakness, its emptiness and point, and of their barren, ideologically weak re­ sources. This foolishly saws away at the branch of The vital struggle against the evil the tree on which the leaders of productive forces of state force and dictatorship, in are seated; for by discrediting nations and men as defense of one's own intellect independent, whole personalities with their own free and independent consciousness, individual and morality, and the sacrifices conscience and will, they discredit the productive resulting from this, are necessary forces, which consist of working atoms-per­ for victory. sons, families, and nations, with their own inde­ pendent religious views ofthe world. And in prac­ bankruptcy and therefore tries to establish itself tice, these productive forces influence not only by utilizing the mighty resources of the state to the economic development of society but its intel­ exert mental and physical pressure on all dissi­ lectual and moral development-these three dents. Thus the dictatorship of state atheism has foundations uphold the world and the individual. developed, with all its abuses and the terrible consequences of cruel coercion on the freedom of he vital struggle against the evil of state conscience, belief, and conviction. There has T force and dictatorship, in defense of one's been arbitrary intrusion into the independent own intellect and morality, and the sacrifices sphere of the whole individual human personality resulting from this, are necessary for victory. and forcible replacement of the free individual Christ the Lion prevailed only by taking the way reason, the free conscience and will by social of the cross as the Lamb that was slain (Revelation thinking-supposedly that of the people. Both 5;5,6). children and adults are compelled and forced to This is true, but for it we need a clear ideal. In adopt as "scientific" this false unreasonable view serving the shadow law of the Old Testament, of the world, as if what is basically lacking in only a sacrifice, we must now know why and for reason and life could somehow create something whom we are sacrificing ourselves, thus setting an living and reasonable. This leads to a process of example to others as well. People have sacrificed eliminating and liquidating individuality, thus themselves with a clear understanding of their reducing people to the level of animals. aims, motives, and ideals. Those who degrade others thereby degrade "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb themselves. and by the word of their testimony; and they Volume 19, Number 2 35 loved not their lives unto the death." (Rev .12: 11). Such true searches for an ideal as the real aim Moses ... refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's of life (personal and social), as well as advice to daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the those seeking, and the rmding of the ideal and its people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a verification are all graphically described in the season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the Bible: recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, The search: "By night. .. I sought him whom not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured as my soulloveth.... I will rise now and go about the seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:24-27). city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek Moses endured "as seeing him who is invis- him whom my soulloveth.... " ible." All those who have fought and sacrificed A question: "Tell me, 0 thou whom my soul were conscious of having a clear aim. In the light loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy of their idea, they saw an essential ideal, concrete flock to rest at noon, for why should I be as one and practical, for whose sake they went to the that turneth aside by the flocks of thy compan­ sacrifice with firm, well-grounded steps. ions?" But what is this ideal? Where and how can you find it, so as to act correctly, give an example to Thank God that the truth, although others and not sacrifice yourself for nothing? it is at times trodden underfoot The Bible warns us: "Thus saith the Lord: and thrown down in the dust, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old nevertheless springs from the earth paths, where is the good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah (psalm 85:11) and finds people to 6:16). support and work for it. "An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules" (2 Timothy 2:5). Advice: "If thou know not, 0 thou fairest of For "if the foundations be destroyed, what can women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). flock [learning the history of the kingdom of As to what is lawful or unlawful, and when, heaven in all ages in continuous succession-the what constitutes a firm foundation-on rock-or old path] and feed the kids beside the Shepherds' an unstable foundation-on sand, only the Lord tents [at the side of faithful, true pastors of the God, the Lord of truth, can make that clear in his kingdom of heaven]. word, in the harmony and unity of the whole Bible Finding and verification: "I found him whom as the only means of establishing contact with the my soulloveth; I held him and would not let him mind ofGod, the Master of the universe (Jeremiah go, until I had brought him into my mother's 10:10; Isaiah 8:20; John 1:1-5; Revelation 19:13). house and into the chamber of her that conceived A true search-both personal and social-is a me" (Song of Solomon 3:1,2; 1:7,8; 3:4). This natural yearning, implanted by God in reasoning, is the discovery of Christ the Word, the Logos, the moral beings, implanted from birth for the forma­ Idea, the Truth, in harmony and coordination with tion of man as a whole personality-the formation the mother's house-unbroken ancestral thread of his spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians of truth and experience of the kingdom of heaven 5:23). This is expressed by the apostle Paul in the down the ages, from Adam to the end of this following words: world's history. He has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell Reading the many of various kinds of advice, on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times suggestions, and prescriptions for healing a sick before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, that society, especially in our country, from the en­ they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after croaching epidemic of worldliness (Colossians him and fmd him, though he be not far from every one of 1:8) and the moral and ideological corruption of us; for in him we live and move and have our being, as the personality from infancy, you involuntarily certain also of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring' (Acts 17:26-28). rejoice at the literacy mastery of educated people, 36 Spectrum their ability to touch on profound, subtle variants those who compiled it were from one Shepherd of thought "from the cedar to the hyssop," high­ (Ecclesiastes 12:11). Although it was written lighting both the negative and positive sides of more than 1,900 years ago by many authors, modem society. Thank God that the truth, al­ at different times and in different places, it has a though it is at times trodden underfoot and thrown united ideal in the great plan of salvation-in the down in the dust, nevertheless springs from the news of the eternal gospel and the great moral earth (Psalm 85:11) and finds people to support decalogue, the law of God (the Ten Command­ and work for it, following it in various ways, from ments), which is the constitution of the universe, different angles, to a different extent, but with a the only determinant of good and evil, the source single aim-to expose evil, so that some shadow and standard of all just laws of pure statehood, as of the serpent's seed may have its head bruised it is written: "By me [by Divine wisdom] kings (Genesis 3:15). This has always been so in the reign and princes decree justice" (Proverbs 8: 15). history of mankind, the history of the struggle "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light between light and darkness, good and evil, life unto my path." and death, truth and error. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it The Bible says: "There is no darkness, nor the giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psalm shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity 119: 105,130). "Search the scriptures, for in them may hide themselves"-no matter how they try to ye think ye have eternal life" (John 5:39). disguise their true colors (Job 34: 22). "All scripture is given by inspiration of God God "uncovers the deeps out of darkness and and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for brings to light the shadow of death" (Job 12:22). correction, for instruction in righteousness" "Hell is naked 'before him and destruction hath (2 Timothy 3:16). no covering" (Job 26:6). And the Lord exposes all error through men he only way out of the existing which is why Christ advised us to pray to "the T diversity of views and contradic­ Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers tions in the reasoning, intellectual world is to into his harvest" (Matthew 9:38). study the Bible and its harmonious, indivisible Arise, shine" [this is said the spiritual Jerusalem] essence, without worrying about the differences "for thy light is come.... For behold, the darkness shall of form and style in the presentation of its authors. cover the earth and gross darkness the people; but the We must show a serious interest in this and Lord shall arise upon thee. . . . and the Gentiles shall make a sincere effort, following its manifestation come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. in the achievements of progress in any branch of ... the abundance of th~sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.... And human life. (Matthew 11:12; 1 Corinthians 9:24- the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their 27; 2 Peter 1:5; Ecclesiastes 1:8.) kings shall minister to thee." "Because of thy temple" We need to respect this Book of books and trust [the temple of truth] "shall kings [ideologists] bring that it is the word of the almighty God, revealing presents unto thee. . . . princes shall come out of the the thought and will of the master of the universe, [spiritual] Egypt. Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her and especially of our earth which is temporarily hands unto God" (Isaiah 60:1-10; Psalm 68:29, 31). occupied in a state of sin by the kingom of evil. A certain writer said about the discussions of the We need to know that at the time of the occu­ dissidents, that they all know what they don't pation of our earth, through the fall from grace of want (tyranny in the sphere of human rights) but the first human beings, the Lord decided on a great they don't know what they do want. They are not plan of salvation to be realized over six centuries. united in their views. They are not united because This only plan of salvation for the whole of human they have no united ideal coming from a single history was the creation ofthe kingdom of heaven, source and based on one cornerstone-Christ­ the spiritual kingdom of Christthe Logos, the only God, Word, Logos-revealed in the Bible. church of God though all ages, besieged by the The Bible is in itself a harmonious unity, as kingdom of evil (Psalm 145:13). Volume 19, Number 2 37

This sinful world is symbolically depicted in they have not known them" (Psalm 147:19,20). the Bible as the troubled sea, where waters cast up "B ut ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest­ mire and dirt (Isaiah 57 :20). In the prophecy of hood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye Isaiah 4: 1 it is symbolized as seven women who should show forth the praises of him who hath have their own bread (ideology) and their own called you out of darkness into his marvelous apparel (morality) but take hold of one man­ light" (1 Peter 2:9). Christ-to cover their ideological-moral poverty "And what nation is there so great, that hath and their errors with the name of Christ-good, statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, truth, and righteousness. which I set before this day" (Deuteronomy 4:8). The true ideal of life is given to us in the "My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the historical personality of Jesus Christ, the Son of only one for her mother, she is the choice of the God, in his historical incarnation as a human one that bore her. The daughters saw her and being almost 2,000 years ago, and also in his blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, unique, luminous incarnation as God the Word and they praised her" (Song of Solomon 6:9). (Logos) in the eternal gospel (Revelation 14:6), These are the "called and chosen and faithful" the great plan of salvation since Adam and in the of all ages, "the light of the world" and "the salt of periodic, progressively increasing news of his the earth" (Revelation 17:14; 7:9, 13, 14; Mat­ coming. The Bible is the revelation of Christ the thew 5: 13, 14). Logos. The Bible is the history of the unfolding At the beginning of the kingdom of heaven, in of the great plan of salvation in essence and in time the period before the Flood, this united church of with the aid of the news of its coming. God, preserving the unique divine ideal, was the We always need to have an historical memory, church of Adam and of Seth and his descendants an historical glance backwards, to be able to find (Genesis 4:25, 26). our bearings correctly in the sweep and commo­ In the period after the Flood, the heritage of the tion of time. This means going "by the footsteps kingdom ofheaven was continued by the Semites, of the flock" (the historical traces) and feeding the church of Noah (Genesis 9:26, 27). "beside the shepherds' tents" (Song of Solomon 1:8). Christianity also generally fell The unique ideal, the essence of all and the true short of the unique divine ideal. aim of life, is to be found only in the Bible with its The right seed turned into a great plan of salvation; only in Christ the Logos, degenerate plant. who is revealed in the Bible and while in human form founded his only church of all ages, in which After that came the church of the Israelites and he exists in his fullness and which is symbolically Judah, which continued until the time of Christ. depicted as the woman in chapter 12 of the Book In the New Testament, an ideologically and of Revelation (the Apocalypse). It is the only morally outworn Judaism, which had departed kingdom of light and truth of all ages, the king­ from the divine ideal and was immersed in the dom of the only enlightening and life-giving letter rather than the spirit, in the appearance means of heavenly salvation. rather than the essence, was replaced by the Chris­ About the only true church of God of all ages, tianity of the first centuries. By the law of succes­ which embodies in itself that unique heavenly sion, through the unbroken genealogical thread of ideal, the Holy Scriptures say: the church of the the kingdom of heaven, Japheth (the pagans) living God is "the pillar and ground of the truth" came to dwell in the tents of Shem (Genesis 9:27). and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (1 However, through the mystery of unlawful­ Timothy 3:15; Matthew 16:18). ness and the cunning art of seduction, Christianity "He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes also generally fell short of the unique divine ideal. and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt The right seed turned into a degenerate plant so with any other nation and as for judgments, (Jeremiah 2:21). There was a retreat from the 38 Spectrum divine truth and the great moral law of God, from God and the eternal gospel. the basic news of the eternal gospel; at the same The aim of all of them, as members of the time the church became united with the world and kingdom of heaven, was to preserve the ancient its false philosophy and sinful customs. Thus path of truth and restore the age-old spiritual ruins spiritually impoverished but wishing to retain its created by the great retreat of Christianity (Isaiah influence and authority, the fallen Christian 58:12-14). church united itself with the state. In this way the In fulfillment of the most true prophecy of spiritually erring union of church and state, con­ Genesis 3:15, concerning the bruising of the trary to God's will, arose. The prophecy of the woman's seed, from 1914 to 1928 a reversal apostle Paul was fulfilled-concerning the renun­ occurred in Laodicea in the midst of the church of ciation of Christianity, the man of sin and the son Seventh-day Adventists-fallen Seventh-day of perdition, who sits as God, showing himself as Adventists left the ancient biblical path of truth God, in the temple of God-the church and the and the moral law of God, particularly in breaking temple of truth (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; Ezekiel the fourth and sixth commandments, and lost the 43:10,11). And the inevitable result of such a unique divine ideal, going as far as union with the wrong union between the fallen church and the world and spiritual error with the princes of this world, by worshipping and sinfully bowing down The rule of the state atheist to the image of the papal beast (Revelation 14:9- dictatorship has led to ideological 11; James 4:4). But as in all ages, the Lord God has sent the confusion and moral disintegration news of his coming-the news sent by the faithful in the country today. and true witness to Laodicea in the work and action of another, last angel (Revelation 3: 14-22; state was the violence done to the conscience and 19:11; 18:1-4), preserving a true remnant, the personality of all dissidents, those who would not remnant of the woman's seed (Isaiah 1:9; 10:20, accept the official, servile state religion, and the 22; Romans 11 :5; Revelation 12: 17). These were cruel persecution, to the extent of the Inquisition. the true Seventh-day Adventists, free from the The white horse, symbolizing the ideological and error of spiritual union with the princes of this moral purity of the gospel movement in Ephesus earth (James 4:4), free from submission to the in the apostolic period, gave way to the red horse image of the beast, free from sinful registration (that of strife), then to the black horse (of dark­ and fatal documentation and statistical records, ness) and then already to the pale horse (complete free from all and every error and false teaching of spiritual death and Inquisition) (Revelation 6:1- the great Babylon (John 8:32). 11; 17:6). The world church of True and Free Seventh­ But the gates of hell could not prevail against day Adventists, being at the end of the Laodicean Christ's church (Matthew 16:18; John 1:5). By period the only continuation of the age-old thread the choice of God's grace, in that dark, gloomy of descent of the kingdom of heaven, itself the age of retreat a true remnant was preserved fullness of the divine ideal for the church of God (Romans 11 :5)-persecuted and oppressed and on earth, as the embodiment of the humanity of thus forced to flee into the "desert" from their Christ the Logos, is "the fulness of him that filleth persecutors (Revelation 12:6, 14). all in all" (Ephesians 1:23). This was the church of the desert-the church The search for this unique ideal should be the of free Christians, Waldensians, Sabbatarians, concern of the progressive minds of humanity , the and others, also of the Reformists, then the Chili­ best brains, without wasting their energy on that asts and the Advent movement of the third angel's which is not bread. Christ the Logos invites all: message (Revelation 14:6-12; Song of Solomon Ro, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters 3:6; 8:5), who embodied in themselves and spread ... come, buy wine and milk without money and without abroad the divine ideal-the great moral law of price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is Volume 19, Number 2 39

not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? matter of personal conscience for each individual hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is and the state should not interfere in this. good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness (Isaiah Materialist atheism is also a kind of belief or 55:1,2). religion and so should not be a state religion or forcibly impose its materialist viewpoint by state he rule of the state atheist dicta­ means through the schools. It should be a private T torship has led to ideological con­ ideology like any religion. fusion and moral disintegration in the country The principle of separation of the church (reli­ today. Voices are heard saying we need to restore gion) from the state and schools also applies to the national consciousness of the Russian people separation of state atheism from state and school. and the native Russian Orthodox church, on the model of Russia's past, and it is alleged that only If there is anything that must be such a national revival and national church can taken seriously and decisively save the country from spiritual disaster. fought for legally, it is equality of However, in the past the Russian Orthodox human rights, independence of the religion was the ruling state religion and stained human personality, freedom of itself with human blood, suppressing freedom of conscience and religion among citizens who conscience and religion. thought and believed differently. It was a Russian inquisition which destroyed 12 million Old Be­ The state registration of religious organiza­ lievers, and hundreds of thousands of evangelical tions has led to a process of uniting religion with Christians (sectarians). How did this past sup­ the state, including state interferences in the inter­ pression of freedom of conscience and religion nal affairs of religion; also this union, contrary to differ from the present-day inquisition of the state Lenin's 1918 decree, was part of the creation of atheist dictatorship? It is only that then its cruelest state atheism and its dictatorship. Ministers of the expression was the burning of Old Believers in registered, servile religious organizations have wooden huts, while now dissidents are destroyed now turned into servants of criminal investigation in psychiatric hospitals, prisons, camps, and ex­ and carefully carry out their state duty in betray­ ile? And how does this historical violation of ing their innocent dissident brothers in the faith, freedom of conscience differ from the Inquisition merely because they are free and true to the divine of the Catholic church, which wiped out 52 mil­ ideal, not state serfs. No religion or church reli­ lion Christians over twelve-and-a-half centu­ gious community should ever be allowed a state ries? Does it differ from past persecution of true position, for this leads to a present-day repetition believers and dissidents by state Christian reli­ of the bitter experiences of the past, as regards gion and how different will it be in future, when state atheism and the servile churches of the they will again become state religions, from the Orthodox and sectarians. No kind of state should persecution by paganism during the days of the be allowed to interfere in the purely religious Roman emperors in the first century (Hebrews sphere or in purely religious ideologies, in the 11:35-38)? lives or activities of believers orreligious citizens. It is unnecessary and even sinful to sew various If it is allowed, harassment, repression, and ad­ new labels onto the ancient garments of state or ministrative and criminal persecution, even inqui­ church societies. The Word of God advises us: sitions, cannot be avoided with regard to dissi­ "Break up your fallow ground and sow not among dents of even the mildest variety. If there is thorns" (Jeremiah 4:3). anything that must be taken seriously and deci­ Pure statehood should be objective. The state sively fought for legally, it is equality of human should not interfere in the sphere of religion. rights, independence of the human personality, "Render... unto God the things that are God's" freedom of conscience and religion. We must (Matthew 22:21). Belief or lack of belief is a achieve a state of equality of human rights, equal- 40 Spectrum ity before the law, as we are equal before God This is the biblical prophecy concerning state from birth. We must seek and achieve in legal religion, depicted symbolically: struggle the kind of freedom of conscience and So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilder­ belief that not only cannot be suppressed by the ness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, present ruling state religion of atheism-material­ full of the names of blasphemy , having seven heads and ism-evolutionism and its arbitrary state violence, ten horses. And the woman was arrayed in purple and but that would not suffer arbitrary interference scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones from any religion that intended to unite with state and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And power in future on a national basis. upon her forehead was a name written: Mystery, Baby­ The enthusiasm of false Christians for involve­ lon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations ment in state politics is a modem, sinful, and of the Earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the deeply criminal element of this world (Colossians blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of 2:8). It will also pass, as nothing human is eternal Jesus ...and when I saw her, I wondered with great and "the sun knoweth its going down" (Psalm wonder... The woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth (Revela­ 104: 19). People will tire of worldly politics and of tion 17:3-6, 18). the spiritual Egypt and Babylon and, following the prophecy ofIsaiah 19, will be convinced of the "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and emptiness of this art of ruling and will vomit it up see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good (Isaiah 19:13, 14). Then the last worldly element way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for will be set in motion-enthusiasm for the state your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16). religion with all its negative aspects, its violation "Blessed are they that do his commandments, of freedom of conscience and belief-a repeat of that they may have the right to the tree of life and past inquisitions: papal, Russian, Orthodox, and may enter through the gates into the city." atheists. Although now wholesome opinion May the Lord God help all of us who are warns against such a repeat of history, biblical fighting a legal battle for the bright ideals of prophecy has foreseen it and it will come in its freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and time (Ezekiel 38:10,12; Revelation 13:4-7; conviction, and other universal and equal human 17:12-14; 19:19; 20:4; 12:17). With thislastreli­ rights and freedoms, to achieve and faithfully gious violence, world history and that of the guard from any impurity and defilement the kingdom of heaven will come to an end. unique divine ideal, the one divine saving truth. Adventist Prisoners in the Soviet Gulag

by Catherine Fitzpatrick

etween April and October 1988 yeva, 37. Exile, address not known. B Helsinki Watch has confIrmed the Motrya, Ivan Fyodorovich, b. 1941-Ar­ releas~ of eight True and Free Adventists. rested March 17, 1983, and sentenced April 26, Three-possibly four-Sabbathkeeping Advent­ 1983 to three years standard-regimen and five ist prisoners of conscience remain imprisoned in years exile. To be released December 24, 1990. the Soviet Union. All belong to the True and Free Art. 227 ("violating person and rights of citizens Adventists (see articles on pp. 25-40 ). under the guise of performing religious rituals"). Wife, three children, including minor daughter: 295727, Ukrainian SSR, Zakarpatskaya obI., Who They Are Tyachevsky rayon, s. Uglya. Suffers from vari­ cose veins. Exile address: 418360, Kazakh SSR, Uralskaya obI., s. Karatobe, uI. Rabochaya. Bei, Valentin Vasilievich-Arrested no later (?) Spalin, Rikhard Albertovich, b. 1937- than 1983. To be released no later than 1990. Art. Arrested August 13, 1978. Sentenced to seven 247 (desertion from the anny). Wife: Anna years standard-regimen labor camp. Arts. 92-2 Nikolayevna Bei, children: 343250 Krasnodar­ ("theft of state property"), 162 ("illegal enter­ sky kray, Seversky rayon, St. Novodmitriev­ prise"), Art. 190-1 ("anti-Soviet slander"). Circu­ skaya, ul. Rechnaya, 1. Criminal camp, address lating religious literature, organizing under­ not known. According to the Soviet government, ground print shop for Seventh-day Adventist in­ no information is available on this prisoner. dependent publishing house called True Witness. Krivoberets, Timofei Ivanovich, b. 1940- Reportedly rearrested in labor camp in 1985 under Arrested April 19, 1978. Sentenced March 1979 Art. 188-3 ("habitual disobedience of demands of to eight years reinforced-regimen and fIve years labor camp administrator"). To be released not exile. To be released April 1991. Arts. 174-2 (bri­ later than 1988. No release confIrmed. Epilepsy, bery), 196 (forgery) believed to be trumped-up as heart disease, high blood pressure, chronic head­ punishment for activities in Seventh-day Advent­ aches. Criminal camp address not known. Ac­ ist church. Co-defendants: G. Astashova, S. Bak­ cording to the Soviet government, no information holdin, A. Yutsevich. Wife: Yelena Krivoberets, is available on this prisoner. three children, mother: 487310, Kazakh SSR, Chimkentskaya obI., g. Saryagach, uI. Chapa- How to Help Catherine Fitzpatrick is theresearch director of Helsinki Watch in its national office in New York. Fitzpatrick has he following points of advice are traveled to and lived in the Soviet Union. Helsinki Watch, intended to launch you on your a part of Human Rights Watch, monitors domestic and T foreign compliance with the human-rights provisions of the own letter-writing campaign. If you should need Helsinki Accord. additional advice or information on prisoners, 42 Spectrum please write the Iollowing organizations: simply to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Krem­ USSR News Brief lin, Moscow, USSR. If a prisoner's address is Das Land und Die Welt e. V. available, you should write directly to the prisoner Schwanthalerstrasse 73 at his or her labor camp address. Even if this does 8000 Munich 2 not reach him or her (the chances are almost nil West Gennany that it will), but reaches the KGB or prison au­ tel. (89)-530514 thorities, it will signal to them that the prisoner has support. A personal letter of concern expressed Keston College, U.S.A. (religious prisoners) directly to an individual prisoner shows the au­ P.O. Box 1310 thorities that people care. You can also write to Framingham, MA 01701 the prisoner's family; here, the chances are tel. (617) 226-7256 A personal letter of concern to an Amnesty International individual prisoner shows the 322 Eighth Avenue authorities that people care. A New York, NY 10001 prisoner will get more or less tel. (212) 807-8400 attention depending on how much Sending telegrams is a faster, more effective, public support seems to be gen­ and more reliable way of appealing to Soviet auth­ erated for an individual prisoner. orities. A very brief telegram of a few lines is not expensive. You can call the toll-free number 1- slightly higher that the letters will reach them. 800-257 -2241 to send a telegram or what is called For more dedicated groups that plan to do a "night letter" (less expensive). It is charged to frequent writing, here are points of information to your telephone bill. request from Soviet authorities: Letters take longer and more easily go astray. • Status of prisoner; released or detained. If sent, they should go "registered, return-receipt • Address oflabor camp or prison or exile place requested" (certified is for domestic mail) so that if not known. it can be determined if the letter reaches the • Health condition of prisoner. addressee and so that the post office takes it more • Nature of sentence (article in Criminal Code, seriously. This costs about $3.50. Letters can and activity for which sentenced, etc.) should be written in English and need not be writ­ • Copy of trial transcript and sentence (never ten in Russian or other languages of the Soviet issued by authorities, but worth trying). Union. They should be brief and politely worded. • Status of visiting, letter-writing, letter-receiv­ Frequent, short, objectively stated inquiries ing, and reading and exercise privileges. will be taken more seriously than long-winded, Always send copies of all correspondence to angry, emotional diatribes or condemnations. the Soviet Embassy, 1125 16th Street, NW, Each letter should be individualized to be noticed. Washington, DC 20036. The Soviet Ministry of The most effective letters are those sent on busi­ Justice has stated that infonnation on prisoners' ness stationery or on the letterhead of a civic lists has been issued to its embassies abroad and organization or professional society. Letters need is available on demand. This method of finding not be typed; handwritten notes are often more out about prisoners has rarely been tried and convincing because of their simplicity. should be encouraged. Efforts can also be made Soviet authorities take letters from foreigners to call the embassy and set up appointments with seriously; they have a very widespread, profes­ diplomats to discuss individual prisoners. Num­ sional bureaucracy that sends these on to the bers that can be tried for information at the em­ proper authorities. You can address your letter bassy: (202) 347-135~; 347-1347; 328-3234. Volume 19, Number 2 43

Keep calling and be persistent. correspondence/rom Soviet authorities or prison­ The State Department is now regularly in­ ers or families comes, it should be sent immedi­ volved in Soviet-American bilateral meetings on ately to Helsinki Watch. human rights and is regularly handing over lists ofprisoners to Soviet officials. A prisoner will get Address correspondence to: more or less attention depending on how much public support seems to be generated for an indi­ Ambassador Richard Schifter vidual prisoner. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Human Rights Bureau, Room 7802, Copies of letters to authorities or prisoners Washington, D.C. 20520. need not be sent to Helsinki Watch. But if any Tel. (202) 647-2126. Proposals for Peace and Understanding

by Neal C. Wilson

he attendance of six delegates Adventist institutions. Serious discussions con­ T from the Soviet Union to the 1975 tinue between the Soviet government and the General Conference Session in Vienna marked General Conference about their creating ajoint­ the beginning of an increasingly friendly rela­ venture publishing company-51 percent owned tionship between the Kremlin and the world by the Soviet government, 49 percent owned by Adventistchurch. (See "MesarInterviewWithan the church's Review and Herald Publishing com­ AdventistPastorFromRussia," Spectrum, Vol. 8, pany. (See Roy Branson, "Deliver the Captives," No.3, March 1977.) Since that time delegates Spectrum, Vol. 18, No.4, April,1988.) . from the USSR have attended all Annual Councils In February 1987 Neal Wilson was invited by and the 1980 General Conference Session. Dur­ the Soviet government to a conference at the ing the same period many world leaders ofthe de­ Grand Kremlin Palace on a "Non-Nuclear nomination, including several vice-presidents World and the Survival ofHumanity," chaired by and two successive presidents of the General Mikhail Gorbachev and attended by luminaries Conference, have been invited to the Soviet Un­ such as John Kenneth Galbraith, Kris Kristoffer­ ion, increasingly often as official guests of the son, Norman Mailer, Yoko Ono, Andrei Sakharov government. (released from internal exile only two months In October 1986 the chairman of the USSR before), and Gore Vidal. At the conference Wil­ Council on Religious Affairs, Konstantin Khar­ son delivered the following statement orally to chev, visited the United States, where he was the religion section; he subsequently submitted it entertained by the General Conference. A char­ in writtenform to Kharchev and Gorbachev. (See tered helicopter flew him from Washington, Liberty, Vol. 82, No.3, May-June 1987). Regret­ D.C., to the Review and Herald Publishing Asso­ tably, the Soviet Union has not met the May 1, ciation in Hagerstown, Maryland, and back to 1988, deadline suggested by Wilsonfor "declar­ Takoma Park, where at a reception at the ing an amnesty for all 'prisoners of conscience,' church's world headquarters, he was given a a gesture that would arrest and grip the attention warm (nonalcoholic) toast by Neal Wilson, presi­ of the world." dent of the General Conference. On January 27 -The Editors of the next year the Council of Religious Affairs approved the establishment of an Adventist Sem­ inary, including the construction of a building to s the delegates of the Seventh-day house it. In September 1987 Karchev, accompa­ Adventist Church, we are honored nied by Wilson, was flown to Andrews and Loma A to be guests at a peace conference in a nation Linda Universities, as well as being taken to other which suffered so sorely in the Great Patriotic Neal C. Wilson is president of the General Conference of War. Suffered, moreover, not only for itself, but Seventh-day Adventists. for all peoples threatened by the armies of Nazi Volume 19, Number 2 45

Germany. Scribed deeply into our memories are "preach the gospel." great battles and tragic losses-of our fathers, The gospel is "good news." And preaching it sons, relatives and friends who died on foreign means above all else to reflect the character and shores. teachings of Jesus Christ. Today, we call to But not forgotten are those who died unknown memory messages of peace-He inspired not to us on the Eastern Front: During the desperate alone peace among nations, but peace between attempts of the Soviet Fifty-fifth and Eighth neighbors, peace of mind, and serenity of spirit. armies to break the German ring at Kolpino and "On earth peace, good will toward men."­ Dubrovka in defense of Leningrad: on Defense Luke 2:14. Commissar Zhdanov' s "Road of Life" across the "So then, we must always aim at those things ice of Lake Ladoga. Not forgotten are the heroic that bringpeace."-Romans 14:19, TEV. defense of Stalingrad and the sacrifice of "So Christ came and preached the Good News Rodimtsev's guards that saved the city in Septem­ of peace to all."-Ephesians 2:17, TEV. ber 1942. Not forgotten are the names that "Blessed are the peacemakers."-Matthew Zhukov's resistance bequeathed to history: the 5:9. "Red Barricade" ordnance factory, the "Red October" metallurgical works, the "Dzershinsky" Our Christian commitment tractor works, the "Lazur" chemical works-the compels us to re-appraise the con­ "forts" of Stalingrad. tribution we may make to peace In scores of Soviet cities great monuments and the social justice intrinsic to speak eloquently, and yet so inadequately, of the patriots who died by the millions resisting Fas­ peace. cism. Nonbeliever, believer-they died side by side so that our world might live in peace. And so But the Bible speaks not only of peace but we come, this time not to lay wreaths at memori­ judgment, and that too we shall remember at this als to the fallen, but to give voice to our hope for peace conference, for the Apocalypse, the "Reve­ peace and its requisites: justice, moral integrity, lation of Jesus Christ," says that in a time when the dignity and freedom of the individual-for all man has at last gained the capacity to destroy his those humanitarian and spiritual values for world, God will judge mankind and "destroy them which mankind hungers. which destroy the earth."-Apocalypse 11:18. We come to add our voices not to the "window Has mankind now this potential? As General dressing" of tired propaganda, nor to that "pecu­ Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev reported on be­ liar psychology" of which General Secretary half of the CPSU Central Committee to the 27th Mikhail Gorbachev has spoken-"how to im­ Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet prove things without changing anything"-but Union: rather to constructive proposals and programs "There is. . . a qualitative leap in means of within the purview of our Christian commitment destruction, in the military sphere, 'endowing' and theology. man for the first time in history with the physical We represent the Seventh-day Adventist capacity for destroying all life on earth." CPSU Church, a worldwide body of believers who wit­ Report, p. 11. ness in 190 nations and more than 600 languages Thus, said the general secretary, "the changes and dialects. Some live among you-believers in current world developments are so deep-going who uphold the right of their neighbors not to and significant that they require a reassessment believe and who love their country, treasure its and a comprehensive analysis of all factors. The history, its culture, and its humanitarian aspira­ situation created by the nuclear confrontation tions. Believers who pray for their officials, work calls for new approaches, methods, and forms of productively for the nation, and seek to fulfill the relations between the different social systems, commission given them by Jesus Christ-to states, and regions."-Thid., p. 5. 46 Spectrum

Our Christian commitment compels us to re­ frank call for "radical reform" and "democratiza­ appraise the contribution we may make to peace tion" of Soviet society, the February 7 release of and the social justice intrinsic to peace. In the 42 dissidents; and his program for peace, that person of the God-man who walked among us as encourages me to speak of a perception that must one of us, we see divinity and humanity com­ be faced if the Soviet Union is to achieve these bined. Thus we cannot serve God without also objectives. serving our fellowman. Not only in His incarna­ I refer to the widespread belief that religious tion but in His ministry to us we see an example of freedom in the Soviet Union means something how we should relate to a choice between conflict different from its meaning in many other coun­ and peace. On one occasion in a Samaritan tries, particularly those in the West. village, Jesus and His disciples were not well Will our gracious hosts misunderstand me if I speak frankly ofthis perception? And of why, in The great pogroms of history have the interests of peace, it must be addressed? come most often not from bad As a Christian, I find it painful to admit the emerging Communist state had reason to remem­ people trying to make other people ber with distaste the church-state alliance that bad, but from good people trying had oppressed the Russian people. And even, sad to make other people good. to say, set it an example of persecution, in the way it treated its religious minorities. received. Two disciples, James and John, said, As a Christian, I fInd it painful to admit, fur­ "Lord, do you want us to call fIre down from ther, that the great pogroms of history have come heaven to destroy them?" And Jesus answered: most often not from bad people trying to make "You don't know what kind of a Spirit you belong other people bad, but from good people trying to to: for the Son of man did not come to destroy make other people good. Well our prayer might men's lives, but to save them."-Luke 9:51-55, be, "Lord, save us from the saints." TEV. Philosopher Jacques Ellul has astutely ob­ I have visited the Kazan Museum in Leningrad served: and the Museum of Religion in Lvov. I have seen Whatever the position adopted by the church, every the tableaux of Christians torturing fellow Chris­ time she becomes involved in politics, on every occasion tians to bring them into God's "tender" embrace. the result has been unfaithfulness to herself and the aban­ I have seen the evidence of rich and corrupt donment of the truths of the gospel. Every time... she has been misled to act treasonable, either toward revealed truth churches allying themselves with rich and corrupt or incarnate love.... It would seem that politics ... is the governments to oppress the poor. I have seen the occasion of her greatest falls, her constant temptation, the unscrupulous preying on the credulous-all this pitfall the prince of this world incessantly prepares for in the name of Christ! And history witnesses to her.-Jacques Ellul, Fausse Presence Au Monde Modern. the truth of the exhibits. pp.105-111. But such exhibits show the perversion of Chris­ I say, then, that while the Christian world can­ tianity, not its seminal purity and idealism: but not condone the persecutions of the Stalinist era other systems, too, have suffered at the hands of and, to a lessening degree, afterward, it should those who reduced lofty idealism to selfish ends. understand them. In addition, I am compelled to I ask only that you recall the crimes that have been admit that, unlike their status under the czar, all done in the name of Lenin-and testifIed to by religions have equal standing before the law. Soviet leaders from Khrushchev on. I note the And certainly, as leader of a world church, I anguished admissions of "contradictions" in would not wish to leave the erroneous impression General Secretary Gorbachev' s report to the 27th that restrictions on religion are a monopoly of the Party Congress. But as Lenin said: "Our strength Soviet state or of Eastern Europe. The most lies in stating the truth." severe restrictions today are imposed by countries In fact, it is General Secretary Gorbachev's dominated by fundamentalist religions. Volume 19, Number 2 47

Why, then, must I speak of Soviet policy to­ is something more than "window dressing." That ward believers, particularly at a conference that the paper on religious tolerance and peace that seeks unity on issues of peace? Chairman Kharchev presented in Minneapolis, Simply stated, because Christians of the West­ Minnesota, U.S.A., October 1986, foreshadowed ern world, and especially the United States, who further advances toward religious freedom; that are disturbed by the circumstances of their ~ol­ the report presented by General Secretary Gor­ leagues in the Soviet Union, translate their con­ bachev to the 27th Party Congress does reflect a cerns into influence and support for defense alli­ new idealism as well as a new reality in confront­ 'ances and strategic defense initiatives. ing "contradictions" in Soviet society. (If I under­ It is really not necessary that our hosts and we stand that word "contradiction," it's what we agree on whether the Christians I refer to reflect Christians refer to as "sin," which comes from a reality or perception. For perception is enough, in Greek word meaning to fall short of the mark.) and of itself, to frustrate mankind's hopes for The changes in policy toward religious minori­ peace, and as General Secretary Gorbachev more ties in the Soviet Union that I have personally specifically defines it, the building of "an all­ observed may be made progressively, little no­ embracing system of international security."­ ticed by the world: or they may be made dramati­ CPSU Report, p. 92. cally, with maximum impact on the world, and As Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the consequently, with maximum impact on detente Appeal of Conscience Foundation,which spon­ and nuclear disarmament and world peace. sored Chairman Konstantin Kharchev's U.S. I suggest then, that on or before May 1, 1988- visit, observed: "It is important for him the 1,OOOth year of Christianity in Russia-the [Kharchev] to understand the impact that . . . Soviet government witness to its greatness and American believers have on our domestic and generosity of spirit by declaring an amnesty for all foreign policy" and "to know about their concern "prisoners of conscience," a gesture that would for fellow believers in the Soviet Union." arrest and grip the attention of the world. That concern embraces not only the right to I have faith to believe that this dramatic gesture worship within a church or mosque or syna­ of goodwill shall be followed by further democra­ gogue but the right freely to witness to one's faith tization of relationships between the Soviet state in society-a right that many believers hold is and Soviet believers. given to his children by God Himself, and that' therefore is not rightly man's to withhold. I suggest that on or before May 1, Will I be misunderstood if I make a construc­ 1988-the I,OOOth year of tive proposal? Perhaps one that no churchman, Christianity in Russia-the Soviet given the history of ecclesiastical intolerance, has government declare an amnesty for the right to ask? I ask it, I believe, on behalf of all "prisoners of conscience," a many who respect not only this great nation's sacrifice for peace in the Great Patriotic War, but gesture that would grip the also the idealism that motivated the Leninist attention of the world. experiment in equality. And I dare to ask it because I believe that coupled with General Sec­ I suggest further, and do so with problems in retary Gorbachev's initiatives for democratiza­ my own country on my conscience, that this tion and for a nuclear-free world must be a mean­ democratization include a new commitment to the ingful change in Soviet policy toward its religious United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of minorities. All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination I believe that delegates to this conference based on Religion or Belief. should do General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev I would think it particularly helpful should this and Chairman Konstantin Kharchev the honor of commitment include the following: believing that the democratization they promote 1. Respect forreligious holy days. This means, 48 Spectrum in part, that Orthodox and other believers observ­ world church, we seek to reflect, as best we can, ing such a holy day as Easter may do so without Christ's selfless service to the poor and op­ discrimination. This means also that believers pressed. observing the seventh-day Sabbath may do so Therefore, we would like to explore the follow­ without penalty at their place of employment. ing areas of cooperation that fit within Mr. Respect for religious holy days means also that Gorbachev's humanitarian sphere-science, the children of Sabbathkeepers will not be re­ education, and medicine. quired to be in school on Sabbath, an accomoda­ 1. We are very actively involved in anti-drug tion made in most nations. and anti-alcoholism programs. Through the In­ 2. Not only freedom of worship (within the ternational Commission for the Prevention of confines of a church building) but freedom to Alcoholism and Drug Dependency, we work with practice one's religion, to "witness." many governments. We would be happy to help I ask consideration for these proposals not train people who could reduce absenteeism, acci­ contentiously, but respectfully, in the spirit of dents, and other alcohol-related problems in in­ peace. In these proposals our delegation shares dustry and elsewhere. with you what General Secretary Mikhail Gor­ 2. In our hospital system-including some 500 bachev has called a "Leninist answer"-that is, hospitals and clinics worldwide-we have pio­ that "Communists want the truth always and neered certain methods that are being used suc­ under all circumstances." And the truth is that cessfully in major medical centers. AmO'ng them: believers' concerns must be addressed if democ­ heart catheterization, angiograpy, transurethral ratization and nuclear disarmament are to receive prostatectO'mies, and proton-beam acceleratiO'n. credibility. Our proposals, then, are milestones We are also giving special postgraduate training on the way to peace: milestones that must be at our LO'ma Linda University Medical Center, traversed on the way to what Secretary Gorbachev near Los Angeles, CalifO'rnia, U.S.A. has called "an all-embracing system of interna­ 3. We seek further participation in cultural tional security." exchange programs. This system includes, as he said in his speech to 4. We would welcome opportunity to' sit down the 27th Party Congress, not only the military and discuss any of the above technolO'gies, proce­ sphere, but the political, economic, and humani­ dures, specialities, and programs-as well as tarian as well. In the l~tter, he called for "coopera­ others-that might be O'f mutual benefit. tion in the dissemination of the idea of peace, Whatever the field, and however small O'ur disarmament, and international security; greater contribution, we welcome opportunities to en­ flow of general objective information and broader hance understanding and aid humanity in its so­ contact between peoples for the purpose of learn­ cial, moral, physical, and spiritual needs. ing about one another, reinforcement of the spirit God Himself has commissioned mankind to of mutual understanding and concord in relations hold back the night of nuclear annihilation. With between them."-CPSU Report. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, we are Our proposals serve these objectives and thus, convinced that indeed "God on high has not we believe, the national interests of the Soviet refused to' give us enough wisdom to find ways to state, as well as the interests of all humanity. bring an improvement in our relations." Though not sharing the Communist vision of present reality and the future hope of mankind, we Neal C. WilsO'n, President do not participate in that "unreality" that dis­ General Conference of Seventh-day misses mankind's woes and needs as objectives to Adventists be met only in some future paradise. Rather, as a February 10, 1987 Risking MartyrdolTI for Sabbathkeeping Adventists

by Ronald Geraty

natoly Ivanovich Koryagin was abuse had the extent of the problem been known. A born on September 15, 1938, in Koryagin examined a number of patients and Kansk. He graduated from the Krasnoyarsk published an article entitled "Unwilling Patients" Medical Institute in 1963 and worked for four in the English medical journal, Lancet. One of years as a psychiatrist in Abakan. In 1972 he suc­ the patients Koryagin evaluated was a Seventh­ cessfully defended his doctoral thesis on "Some day Adventist, V. Kushkun. Koryagin reported Problems of the Psychopathology and Patho­ that Kushkun had been beaten up by drunken col­ physiology of Apathetic-Abulian Conditions in leagues at work who called him "traitor" and Schizophrenia." In 1972 he became Deputy Head "spy" and the police took him to a psychiatric. Doctor of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Psychiatric hospital without a psychiatrist's order, where he Hospital in Kyzyl and in 1978 a consultant at the was subsequently diagnosed as psychiatrically ill Kharkov Regional Psychiatric Clinic. and hospitalized against his will. Kushkun there­ While working for the Soviet system of psy­ by joined other Seventh-day Adventists who were chiatry, Dr. Koryagin became concerned about hospitalized because of their "anti-Soviet" activi­ the political use and abuse of psychiatry in the ties. As Koryagin states in the subsequent inter­ USSR. In 1979, he became a consultant psychia­ view, he found no evidence of any psychiatric trist at the Working Commission to investigate the illness in Kushkun. use of psychiatry for political purposes. The Of the patients evaluated by Dr. Koryagin, he commission collected facts and documentation reports that 70 percent were diagnosed as "psy­ on the abuse of psychiatry for the punishment of chopaths" and 30 percent diagnosed as "schizo­ Soviet citizens. People could be hospitalized for phrenics." In the vast majority of cases, the term political, private, or professional reasons or for "paranoid" was used in the diagnosis. In his arti­ disagreeing with the restrictions on religion. cle on unwilling patients, Dr. Koryagin states, Anyone who proved to be a nuisance for a bureau­ Several doctors, in different hospitals and at differ­ crat or civil servant, and in whose case there ent times, diagnosed nearly all the people I examined in wasn't reason enough for even a rigged trial, one of two ways, both of which are part of the same could be handled in a simpler manner by the abuse syndrome. A striking coincidence, illustrating the differ­ of psychiatry. Political psychiatry was widely ence of opinion and divergence in diagnosis which practiced at the time, but not until the Working always has a place in Soviet psychiatry! One easily Commission started collecting information on its gains the impression that paranoia is an indubitable clinical sign of mental illness in all anti-Soviet elements. Ronald Geraty, M.D., presently the senior vice-president Koryagin points out that the career structures of Parkside Medical Services in Marblehead, Massachu­ of psychiatrists is identical to that of engineers or setts, received a B.A. from Columbia Union College. He received an M.D. from Lorna Linda University and also any other professional in the Soviet Union, in that took his psychiatric training there. He chairs a two-day a psychiatrist is completely under the control of seminar in Japan on psychiatry at the end of the year. the party authorities. He is dependent on the 50 Spectrum chief psychiatrist-who is always a party official An interpreter assisted Dr. Ronald Geraty in the and subordinates all decisions to considerations interview with Dr. Koryagin. of politics-for a decent work assignment, pro­ motions, salary increase, and even an apartment. Koryagin said that, "Psychiatry in a totalitarian Geraty: How did you fIrst come into contact society is located entirely in the hands of those with Kushkun, the Adventist? who have the power." He saw that the cases in Koryagin: He came to my home looking for which he was involved were not rarities or acci­ me and requested that I perform a psychiatric dents but were, in fact, the rule. His conscience as evaluation on him. He found me while he was in a doctor led him to resist these practices. He con- hiding. He had been threatened with another psychiatric hospitalization and my recollection is I remember that he was being that he was referred to me by members of the persecuted because he kept the Working Commission. Sabbath and because he was Geraty: What had he originally been charged distributing literature. with to be detained by the authorities? What were his symptoms according to the authorities? iders that a doctor is obliged to restore a person's Koryagin: I don't remember at this time ex­ health and not to ruin it. actly what the diagnosis made by the authorities Dr. Koryagin was arrested on February 13, before I saw him was in this case. It may have 1981. In July 1981 he was convicted and sen­ been that he was given a diagnosis of psychopathy tenced to seven years of camp and five years of or a personality disorder because of head trauma, exile. During his stays in camp and prison he was or he was given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. severely maltreated. He suffered repeated beat­ However, I do recall that he was placed in psychi­ ings in Chistopol Prison. Even as a prisoner he atric hospitals as "nonreputable," which means continued his human-rights activities, and that he could not be tried for crimes because of the worked to expose the maltreatment of prisoners. psychiatric disorder. I do remember that he was From prison he urged Western psychiatrists to being persecuted because he kept the Sabbath and boycott Soviet colleagues. In 1983 the World because he was distributing literature. It is pos­ Psychiatric Association elected Dr. Koryagin an sible that he continued to be in trouble with the honorary member of that prestigious international state because he refused to stop distributing litera­ body, and forced the Soviet All Union Society of ture. Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists to withdraw Geraty: To the best of your information and from the World Psychiatric Association. knowledge, where would Kushkun be now? While at Chistopol Koryagin was almost con­ Koryagin: The only thing that I can tell you is stantly on a hunger strike, demanding better treat­ that he remains inside the Soviet Union. I have not ment' food, and medical care for other inmates. seen him since that evaluation, approximately His health deteriorated quickly. While in prison eight years ago and, to the best of my information, he lost 40 percent of his total body weight. InMay he was sent to a concentration camp after I saw of 1987, Dr. Koryagin was finally released from him. He no longer was given a psychiatric diag­ prison and expelled from the Soviet Union. Since nosis and therefore had to be charged with some that time, he has been working vigorously for the kind of a crime to be sent to a concentration camp. prevention of the abuse of psychiatry, culminat­ Geraty: Did you come into contact with other ing in his spirited presentation to the American Adventists while you were in the Soviet Union? Psychiatric Association in May of 1988. He now Koryagin: No, I have not come into contact lives in Geneva, Switzerland. The subsequent with any other Seventh-day Adventists. How­ interview took place in Dr. Koryagin' s hotel room ever, when I evaluated Kushkun he invited me to a few days after his presentation in Montreal. join him with other True and Free Adventists in a Volume 19, Number 2 51 prayer meeting. I did attend. For the fIrst and on­ You, of course, need to join in the overall ly time in my life I saw and participated in prayer struggle for religious freedom in the Soviet Un­ with True and Free Adventists. But I never had a ion, and the focus of that should be to demand that chance to see another Adventist even in the the laws and regulations concerning the relation­ camps. ship between the church and state should be Geraty: Did you ever hear of or meet Vladi­ amended, so that your religion as you know it and mir Shelkov? as you wish to practice it, will be allowed to Koryagin: I heard of an old man from Central continue and to develop as you wish to develop it. Asia in his 80s by that name who died while in You should not be parochial in your fight, because exile in Siberia, but I did not realize that he was a if in general the control of religions in the Soviet Seventh-day Adventist. Oh yes, I do remember Union is relaxed and the overall conditions im­ that he was a member of the underground move­ prove, your brethren also will benefIt. ment of Seventh-day Adventists who refused Geraty: Is there hope that Glasnost, as it is registration and were therefore operating ille­ currently being expressed, is going to free many gally. I remember that he and another Adventist described the Soviet state as a "Satan State." You, of course, need to join in the Geraty: When you went to the Adventist prayer meeting, what were the spirits of the Sev­ overall struggle for religious enth-day Adventists like? Were they in good freedom in the Soviet Union. spirits? Were their spirits low? Koryagin: First of all, I was introduced to of these people who in the past have been perse­ them when Kushkun brought me there. Kushkun cuted? introduced me to the elected leader of the congre­ Koryagin: The Soviet Union remains an athe­ gation and explained what I was doing there and ist country and this will remain part of their what I was doing for him. My impression was that national policy. They view religion as a compet­ these were fervent Christians who were very ing ideology with Marxism, and therefore they uplifted by their prayer and who were very intense will continue to be wary of any religious beliefs, in their prayer. One could get an impression that Christian or otherwise, that are not consistent with these were people who felt at union with their Marxism. General help in the struggle for reli­ God. gious liberty must be done as loud and vigorously Geraty: How many people were there that he as possible. met with in this group? Geraty: As a result of contacts with Helsinki Koryagin: About 200 people. Watch, we have been able to compile a list of Geraty: What is your impression as to what several True and Free Adventists who have been Seventh-day Adventists in the United States detained in the Soviet Union as "prisoners of could do to help these underground Adventists in conscience." Do you have any suggestions as to the Soviet Union? how we might put faces and locations with those Koryagin: The best thing to do is to make names? direct contact with them and ask them about their Koryagin: All people who leave the Soviet concrete needs. It is very possible to make contact Union go fIrst to Vienna as their exit point. with these people directly through the registered Almost everyone who leaves the Soviet Union Seventh-day Adventists who all have contacts leaves with a Jewish identity. That even includes with the unregistered Adventists. When members the Protestant priests who leave. So they initially of your American congregations visit the Soviet go to the Jewish Department of Absorption in Union as tourists, it's good to visit the prayer Vienna and are then taken to a safe location. There meetings of those Adventists who are registered, they are asked by the Israelis about their true because those who are not registered always identity and there people may say, "I am a reli­ appear at such meetings. gious Jew, I want to go to Israel," or "I am a 52 Spectrum

Protestant." They are then transferred underneath Koryagin: I don 'tregret anything, and I would the care of the International Rescue Committee repeat the same thing if I were again called to do or, in rare instances, when they are a member of a it. The only regret I have is that I didn't start particular church, they may be transferred to human-rights activities earlier. However, I try Catholic Charities or a specific religious organi­ and recognize that one's own conscience grows zation. And so much of this information can be slowly and perhaps I should not expect more of gotten from the Absorption Ministry officials in myself. Vienna who have up-to-date information about Geraty: I want you to know, Dr. Koryagin, that people still detained in the Soviet Union. we applaud your bravery, we respect your values, Geraty: It's been just over one year since you and appreciate what you have done for the inter­ were released from the Soviet Union. Now, look­ national community, for psychiatry, and for ing over the past year, do you have any regrets? Adventists. Notes FrolTI the Underground: A Jewish Dissident RelTIelTIbers His Adventist Prisomnate

by Paul Lippi

he Siberian village of Aisino (near those of any new immigrant to Israel: fighting red T Tomsk) is the site of the forced­ tape, finding decent housing. labor camp in the Soviet Union designated JU In labor camp m 114/2 there were no cigars; 114/2. Among the 2,000 criminal inmates held in Brodsky had to give up smoking. Even necessi­ JU 114/2 were two political prisoners: Vladimir ties such as soap, detergent, and toothpaste were Brodsky and Pavel Raksha. Vladimir Brodsky is in short supply. Brodsky was amazed how Rak­ a Jewish physician; Pavel Raksha a pastor of the sha managed to maintain a high standard of per­ True and Free Seventh-day Adventist church. sonal hygiene and neatness. Brodsky admits that They were together from December 1985 until he himself couldn't do as well. Maybe it was a September 1986, when Dr. Brodsky was re­ matter of experience. Brodsky was a first-time leased. Pastor Raksha had been sentenced to hard offender; it was Raksha's third time in a labor labor a year earlier than Brodsky and remained in camp. the labor camp for almost two years after Brodsky Brodsky's troubles with the KGB began in was released. Raksha has reportedly been freed 1976 when he applied for an exit visa to Israel. In this year, after four years of incarceration. July 1985 Brodsky was arrested in Moscow for Two years after his release, Brodsky remi­ having nonofficial international contacts. Brod­ nisces in a flat provided by the Jewish Agency in sky later was a founding member in 1982 of a Gilo, a southern suburb of Jerusalem, practically pacifist group that attempted to build personal in Bethlehem. We sit among stacks of books a bridges between the Soviet Union and the United living room almost bare of furniture. States, without praise or criticism of either super­ Brodsky takes pleasure in a cigar after a long power. day at Hadassah Medical Center on Mt. Scopus. Pastor Raksha was last arrested in the Cauca­ Although routine operations are not scheduled sian city of Minwod in June 1983. On February during the high holy days, it has been hectic, with 17, 1984, he was sentenced to four years labor so many of his colleagues called up for army duty under Article 1901-1 "anti-Soviet slander" and this month. Dr. Brodsky has ample employment Article 227 "violations of right of citizens under in his new country. Now his worries are only the guise of performing religious ritual." Raksha impressed Brodsky as a dignified, sensitive Paul Lippi received an M.A. from Andrews University. He human being. He was widely read and conversed is aresearch fellow and doctoral candidate in the department knowledgeably about history, psychology, and of the Hebrew Bible at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and other topics. a staff member at the East Jerusalem Center of Seventh-day Brodsky and Raksha were assigned to different Adventists. units in the camp, but mornings and evenings they 54 Spectrum attempted to spot each other and on these occa­ formed Brodsky that Raksha had been to the sions would signal by nodding. Brodsky was infIrmary and that although he was allowed assigned to unit four, which made giant wooden medication, the authorities would not allow him spools for transoceanic cables. Raksha was as­ the presecribed rest. signed to unit three, which maintained the ma­ Disease due to primitive sanitation and over­ chinery in the prison factory. The task in the crowding contributed to the punishing regimen in factory was not as physically taxing as that in the JU 114/2. Prisoners slept 50 or 60 to a room. forest, but it was hazardous because of antiquated Summer and winter dysentery swept through the machinery. Injuries were frequent. camp. Many men had contracted tubercolosis. Raksha's worst hardship was the direct result Dr. Brodsky examined Raksha while in the camp of his refusal to work in the prison factory on and found him to be a very sick man. He diag­ Sabbath. For each refusal he was subjected to 15 nosed a kidney problem, hypertension, and mitral days in the punishment cell without food or cloth­ valve sclerosis. ing. Upon release from two weeks in the punish­ Brodsky considers he had it easier than Raksha ment cell he was expected to report for work on because by the time he was sentenced to Siberia the following day. He would faithfully show up his case was well-publicized in the West and was for work until the following Sabbath. This round constantly being brought to the attention of the of Sabbathkeeping and punishment went on for authorities. He believes he has human-rights and the entire period Brodsky was with Raksha. Jewish activists to thank for his relatively mild Twice during his incarceration, Brodsky was treatment and early release. This, after all, is the era of glasnost, and world opinion makes the Dr. Brodsky examined Raksha decisive difference in the treatment of political while in the camp and found him prisoners. to be a very sick man. When On September 15, 1986, Vladimir Brodsky was released from JU 114/2. Four days later he Brodsky saw him last, in the labor was reunited with his wife and child in Vienna. camp, Raksha had not seen his From there they went to Israel. Pavel Raksha was wife for two years. He had never not allowed to enjoy this contact with the outside seen his youngest child. world. When Brodsky saw him last, in the labor camp, Raksha had not seen his wife for two years. himself put in the punishment cell. He does not He had never seen his youngest child. understand how Raksha or anyone could repeat­ Brodsky is still involved with international edly undergo this treatment. As a secular Jew, peace and human rights. In June of 1988 he made Brodsky tried to reason with Raksha, urging him a lecture tour of Europe and the United States not to be as strict in his Sabbath observance. But under the auspices of the Union of Council for Raksha was adamant; he would not work on Soviet Jewry and the Christian Embassy in Jeru­ Sabbath. salem. Brodsky says that Soviet Jewry is over the Brodsky also spoke with him about the possi­ worst in a current wave of persecution. Well­ bility of applying for an exit visa, but for Raksha known Jews are not sentenced to the severest this was out of the question. Raksha was a pastor labor camps. The full terror of the system is now and would not voluntarily abandon his flock. His reserved for unoffIcial Christian groups. In Nor­ father also was an Adventist pastor, who had been way, Brodsky heard that Raksha, who was due to arrested. Indeed, the elder Pastor Raksha had be let out of the labor camp June 29, 1988, had died in a labor camp. been released. Helsinki Watch and other human­ Raksha insisted on sharing his faith with the rights organizations confIrm this. Brodsky still other inmates despite the additional harassment wonders if this is disinformation or the truth. this brought from the KGB. He was consistently Christians whom Brodsky met in Norway were denied medical rest. The camp nurse once in- looking into the possibility of bringing Raksha to Volume 19, Number 2 55

Norway for medical treatment. When Brodsky Brodsky, sitting in his makeshift living room was in the United States he spoke before several in Jerusalem, asked me if, with the present free­ Christian groups about his Adventist friend, but dom to enter the Soviet Union, some Adventist did not find other Adventists at these meetings. I would go to Minwod and visit his friend, Pastor was only the second Adventist he had ever met. Raksha. News Update

than $1,000 per month. Eighty percent of the Merit Pay for Ministers? respondents reported a spouse employed outside the home, with monthly spousal income averag­ ing a little more than $1,000, which they said was by Raymond F. Cottrell essential for financial survival. In other cases relatives and church members were providing financial assistance. Seventeen percent indicated he 1987 purchasing power of a that their children were in non-SDA schools be­ T pastor serving in Southeastern cause of the cost, even with the educational sub­ California Conference has dropped more than 30 sidy. Forty-four percent were considering the percent since 1967, whereas in the United States possibility of leaving the ministry, solely for fi­ as a whole, purchasing power of pastoral workers nancial reasons. Many respondents volunteered dropped only a little more than six percent over comments such as: the same period of time. * In a January 1987 meeting, the senior pastors "Today I found my wife sitting on the kitchen of multi staff churches in southern California floor in tears over finances." invited Jay Du Nesme, an Adventist investment banker, to meet with them and discuss retirement "My sons would never consider the ministry planning. It quick! y became evident that no one's because of the perpetual financial crunch." income was adequate even for meeting basic family needs, let alone having anything left for retirement. The task force made a recom­ As a result of that meeting, a group of pastors mendation "That the wage scale took their concerns to the conference administra­ recognize increasing levels of tors, who subsequently brought the matter before experience and responsibility." the conference executive committee. The confer­ ence committee established a Remuneration Task Force, consisting of six laypersons, three pastors, "My in-laws are putting my kids through Sev­ and the conference undertreasurer. With Du Nes­ enth-day Adventist schools." me being asked to chair the task force, the lay­ persons included an attorney, a financial planner, "Three-fourths of my girls' clothing comes an investment banker, a controller, a business from the local thrift store." owner, and a contractor. Since the last conference constituency meeting had already established an "I have not paid 1986 taxes and have no way of educational task force, one of whose functions paying 1987's." was to study teacher remuneration, this task force only examined the finances of pastoral workers. "Every month I have to dip into our savings to The task force set short- and long-term goals, catch up." spent several months in research, conducted two pastoral surveys, evaluated the responses, and Based on the information it accumulated, the prepared a formal report that included specific task force formulated three recommendations to recommendations. The second survey, com­ the conference executive committee: pleted in June 1988, provided a stark profile of the 1. "That the wage scale for Southeastern Cali­ pastors' financial plight. In order to provide for fornia Conference pastoral workers reflect the basic family needs alone, the average family'S true cost of living in southern California." expenses exceeded denominational pay by more 2. "That the wage scale recognize increasing Volume 19, Number 2 57

levels of experience and responsibility." TaskForcerecommendations. Elder Neal Wilson . 3. "That a 'cafeteria plan' benefits package, chaired the meeting in Washington, which form­ including the educational subsidy, be adopted, ulated a number of recommendations of its own, replacing the existing benefits package." for presentation to the year-end meeting of the The report provided detailed explanatory ma­ North American Division at Minneapolis in terial for each of these recommendations. It also November. These recommendations largely con­ proposed a wage scale that would restore the sist of adjustments to existing policy that for the purchasing power of workers' salaries to where it most part would have only minor effect on the was about 20 years ago. Under the "cafeteria situation in southern California. plan" benefits package, a worker would select However, it did recommend that a trial pro­ benefits to match his or her particular family gram be set up in three conferences and one needs, in most cases paying for those benefits with General Conference educational institution. This pretax dollars, thereby increasing take-home pay pilot program would be modeled on the principles by lessening taxable income. The conference developed by the task force in Southeastern Cali­ could also be helped financially, because it would fornia Conference, which is requesting to be be much easier to control the cost of benefits. designated as one of the three conferences. The task force did not think the church should Southern California pastors await further de­ or could compete with comparable wages paid in velopments with mounting interest and concern. the business world. However, it recommended that the church provide its employees with a living *United States Department of Labor statistics indicate wage that would allow pastoral workers "to con­ that the cost of living in southern California has risen 420 centrate their efforts on what they have been percent since 1967, while the General Conference wage called to do." "We have already lost valuable factor grew by only 322 percent The cumulative national inflation rate over the same period of time was 343 percent. workers simply because of economic hardship, This means that in southern California it took $4.20 to buy and we will be seeing many more leaving the what $1.00 would purchase in 1967. Nationally, it cost ministry in the coming months and years if the $3.43 to purchase what $1.00 would buy in 1967, while problem is not corrected." The fact that a major­ the church gave its employees $3.22 to accomplish the same ity of those now entering the ministry are rela­ task. Obviously, the cost-of-living crun.ch on church tively new converts rather than offspring of pas­ workers in southern California is much more severe than in most of the country. tors and established Adventist families lends emphasis to this conclusion. Raymond Cottrell served as a missionary in China for The conference executive committee dis­ several years, as associate editor of the Adventist Review cussed the recommendations, ways they could be and the SDA Bible Commentary, and as book editor of the funded, the impact their approval and implemen­ Review and Herald Publishing Association. Now retired, tation would have outside of the conference, the he writes and preaches extensively, and serves on the South­ eastern California Conference Constitution and Bylaws education of workers in personal [mance, and the Committee. time required to phase in the plan. It then voted unanimously (by secret baUot) to accept the rec­ ommendations in principle, and asked the task Changing of the Guard force to set up a plan for funding and implemen­ tation. at the SDA Seminary Representatives of the task force and South­ eastern California Conference participated in the by Wendy Ripley North American Division Church Finance and Employee Remuneration Task Force that met in Washington, D. c., from July 11 to 15,1988. This he Seventh-day Adventist Theo­ committee considered various aspects of church T logical Seminary faculty recently finance, including the Southeastern California chose a search committee at its August 1, 1988, 58 Spectrum meeting for the purpose of selecting a new dean from the university. One evidence of this was the for the seminary. At the request of Dr. Richard recent establishment of the Seminary Executive Lesher, Andrews University president, recom­ Committee, a move viewed by some as taking mendations were made to fill the position left power away from the faculty and giving more vacant by the recent resignation of Dr. Gerhard control to the union presidents and General Con­ Hasel. It is expected that a new dean will be ference officials who make up the committee. selected and assigned responsibilities by the Hasel's desire for seminary independence was summer or fall of 1989. Hasel's resignation be­ also shown at a spring 1988 faculty meeting in comes effective December 31, 1988. Dr. Raoul Dederen, present associate dean of the seminary, Many of the seminary faculty will serve as acting dean until the new dean anticipated a change of dean assumes responsibilities. Dr. Hasel will continue because of a growing concern as a professor in the Old Testament department of the seminary. over what some regarded as The seven-member search committee began Hasel's "purging" of faculty with 51 names suggested in response to letters members perceived as liberal and sent from seminary faculty and students, union by his increasing interest in the presidents, and General Conference officials. seminary's autonomy from the The committee reduced the list to 32, contacted university. each person, and requested resumes of those in­ terested in the position. Dr. Norman Miles, secre­ tary of the committee, predicts the list will be which he proposed a change in the mission state­ further reduced by half. ment of the seminary. (The mission statement These vitae will be reviewed by the search was being revised for the self-study accrediting committee in light of 18-20 specific criteria committee.) Attendance at seminary faculty drawn from suggestions made by the seminary meetings had steadily declined throughout the faculty. The ideal candidate will be ordained year; at this poorly attended meeting the sentence (ensuring the gender of the new dean), hold a stating the seminary was a school "of Andrews Ph.D., give evidence of scholarship, teaching, University" was voted to be changed to read a and administrative experience, and be under the school "at Andrews University." This same age of 62. Other criteria such as an open, sentence, however, was discussed again at the healing personality, a willingness to decentralize, next faculty meeting and restored to read a school and a solid conservative stance on theological "of Andrews University" following Lesher's issues reflect the concerns resulting from the explanation of the seminary's historical relation­ circumstances surrounding Hasel' s resignation. ship to the university. When asked for reasons for Hase1's resigna­ Hasel's resignation leaves in its wake a divided tion, Dr. Lesher replied that the dean resigned faculty and a confused student body. While the "because he was asked to resign." Lesher de­ students rose to their feet in a standing ovation clined to elaborate stating that, "One reason a when Hasel approached the podium during this person resigns is so that the question 'why' does past August graduation, they are frustrated and not have to be answered." Hasel also gives no concerned by the lack of information and the reasons for his resignation, saying "There are rapidity of recent events. Even the faculty who plenty of other people who will say why." agree that it is time for new leadership within the Many of the seminary faculty anticipated a seminary maintain that what was needed was a change of dean because of a growing concern over lateral move for Hasel resulting in an "all-win" what some regarded as Hasel' s "purging" of fac­ situation. ulty members perceived as liberal and by his While opinion is divided on Hasel's perfor­ increasing interest in the seminary's autonomy mance as dean, he is generally credited during his Volume 19, Number 2 59 post from 1981-1988 with successfully gaining seminary faculty. This list will be submitted the support of the conservative constituency dur­ to the university president following the Annual ing a time when confidence in the seminary was at Conference in October. The fmal names, how­ a low following the events of Glacier View and ever, will not be taken to the full Andrews Univer­ the defrocking of Desmond Ford. He has also sity board until the February 1989 meeting. The been a positive influence on skeptical attitudes new dean will assume the post sometime during toward the value of higher education. the summer or fall of 1989. Meanwhile, the search for Hasel' s successor When asked about his plans after December continues. According to Norman Miles, chair­ 31, Hasel stated, "My plans have already been man of the search committee, all names currently laid out for me by the university. I will begin on the list are well known within the academic teaching in the Old Testament department begin­ community. The committee does not anticipate ning January 1, 1989." any kind of theological inquisition. Miles adds that there is no front-runner at this time. Wendy Ripley teaches in the Andrews University English The search committee will interview those department and serves as the director of Academic Support candidates whose resumes meet the desired crite­ and Advisory Services. She received her B.A. from Atlantic ria and develop a short list to be approved by the Union College and her M.A. from Andrews University. Responses

traditions whatever the cost? Why do we pretend to the laity On Nicaragua that our scholars hold certain positions, which in fact they have repudiated long since? o the Editors: I would like to join In this book (p. 330), Dr. Arthur Ferch is cited as T Doug Morgan ("Responses," Vol. 19, supporting the traditional date of 457 B.C. for the com­ No.1) in praising Herold Weiss' unusually objective and mencement of the 2,300 "days. " Yet, while in Australia in infonnative report (''Letter From Managua," Vol. 18, No. March of this year, I found that many conservatives there 5), although Morgan appears to have read it selectively. had been angered by an article by Dr. Ferch in the South Morgan calls the Contra effort a "proxy war" by the Pacific Record. This article admitted that dogmatism on the Reagan administration. But then Daniel Ortega is Mos­ initial date for the 70 weeks was impossible. Of course, if cow's "proxy." The Sandinistas are exculpated from all 457 B.C. is rickety so is 1844. This inference was perceived their atrocities against the Miskito Indians, their political by many of the laity there. opponents, and Christians as being simply "misguided," Just as bad in the recent book is the shocking assertion but the democratically elected government of El Salvador that modem translators did not know what they were doing ("El Salvador: A High-Risk Mission for Political Refonn," when they translated ta hagia as the Most Holy Place or Vol. 15, No.3) is immoral when, in defending itself against equivalent (see page 327). Adventist scholars, for the most a leftist insurgency, it does not maintain perfect control of part, have long agreed with the translators. In the Heritage its army. Room of Andrews University you may read Dr. R. Loasby's Apparently, when a leftist government is in power, class lectures on the book of Hebrews. In his own handwrit­ opposition is immoral. When a non-Communist govern­ ing we fmd these words alongside Hebrews 9:4ff. "This ment is in power, defending itself against rebels is immoral. surely foreshadowed the nonexistence in heaven of a holy This may be good (leftist) ideology, but it is a corruption of place in any sanctuary." Then in his typed notes we have the both language and thought to speak: of it in tenns of ethics. following: ''The Holy Place was the scene of man's ap­ In my opinion, the Adventist church has been right to proach to God, but the Holy of Holies was a type of the abstain from this sort of religio-political pontificating. presence of Jesus in the heavens. Any approximation of the Sidney Reiners first sanctuary and its services cannot be taken into heaven. Grand Rapids, Minnesota Cf. verse 9." Another well-known Adventist scholar has pointed out that when Hebrews 9:7 is compared with 9:25; 13: 11; 9: 11, 12, it is undeniable that the equivalent of "into the second" Desmond Ford on in the first reference is "into the holiest" in the later refer­ ences. In other words, ta hagia is used repeatedly in Adventist Doctrine Hebrews for the heavenly equivalent of the earthly second apartment or Most Holy Place. In pre-Glacier View meetings with the committee ap­ o the Editors: Among the various signs pointed by the church, I pointed out that ta hagia was T that Adventists are church members be­ reached by priestly passing "through the veil" (see Heb. cause of social and cultural reasons, rather than ideological 10: 19,20). All scholars expert in this area admit that the veil convictions, is the lessened interest in church doctrines. referred to is the second (see Heb. 6:19,20 which uses the Recently Seventh-day Adventists Believe-A BiblicalExpo­ technical phrase "within the veil" borrowed from the LXX). sWon of Fundamental Doctrines has appeared, and its Typical of the reponses I obtained in those days was the circulation is being promoted by financial inducement. comment by one committee member that I had employed a What remains to be seen is how many will be stirred by the dangling participle in my argument! This type of superficial volume to emphatic disagreement or endorsement. circumvention of the real issues was sadly typical. Oh, that I rejoice that the editors of the book have had the courage some Churchills might rise up within the SDA community to set forth the long-controverted teaching of the sinlessness saying, as he did on such an occasion, "This is the sort of of Christ's human nature, but I mourn to see the same trite, nonsense up with which I shall not put!" oft-repeated arguments used to support a heavenly sanctu­ On pages 174-176 of the published edition of my Glacier ary with two distinct rooms, and Christ as coming to the View manuscript are listed 22 assumptions implicit in the Father in 1844 to do a work of investigative judgment upon traditional investigative judgment doctrine. Nothing in the all professed believers in order that celestial beings might be new book being promoted by the General Conference even edified (see pages 313-331). Is the denomination resolved acknowledges the spider-web consistency of the Adventist to learn nothing in these areas? Must we hold to erroneous doctrinal structure at this point. When I suggested that none Volume 19, Number 2 61 of these 22 assumptions can be scripturally demonstrated as review Mr. Cook's faults and his "addiction." The whys or true, the only response I received that was worth consider­ what to do about it were left to the readers' contemplation. ing was the suggestion that I lessen their number in the I personally feel uncomfortable with such a stance and I feel manuscript before it was sent out. that we as readers are left to be voyeurs to a person's well­ Ifperchance my gloomy hint that not many in the church intentioned activities which have ended up in a tragic really care whether its doctrines are true is ill-founded, may situation. I make two offers? One-Dr. Walter Martin and I, over It might have been a better use of this experience to national radio, have, on more than one occasion, invited discuss the pros and cons of homosexual reorientation, what representatives of the General Conference to discuss these to do with an apparent spiritual leader who relapses into an matters on the air (at no cost to the GC). The offerremains. overt, unacceptable physical problem, and how the church Two-if any would like a copy of the Glacier View manu­ should relate to a community anonymous program. I script to study, I would be happy to send copies free while appreciate your efforts to deal with tough issues. However, they last. Write to me, care ofGood News Unlimited, 11710 this should be tempered with the greatest respect for those Education Street, Auburn, CA 95603-2499. who try to make changes even if they temporarily fail. No sensible person looks for infallibility in the doctrinal I personally feel that Mr. Cook's goal of homosexual structure of any church. That would be impossible. At the reorientation is appropriate, and that it can be done through close ofa series of more than 100 hours of instruction in one Christ's grace. However, at Mr. Cook's present state of debatable field, I once told my students: "Half of what I recovery I don't feel he should be allowed contact with have told you is wrong, but I don't know which half." people in early stages of recovery until he has developed a Teachers and church leaders at best are only one-eyed track record of consistent behavior. Even then he should be leaders of the blind. I repeat, sensible Christians do not under immediate supervision. expect infallibility of their leaders, but they do expect Greg Goodchild honesty. To repeat trite, oft-refuted traditions as truth, Punta Gorda, Florida when we know better, is just not honest. And to invite Heaven's benediction on such a project may be to invite Heaven's wrath. Desmond Ford, President Good News Unlimited Auburn, California o the Editors: Bonnie Dwyer's report on We will be publishing a review o/Seventh-day Advent­ the vicissitudes of homosexual Advent­ ists Believe-A Biblical Exposition of Fundamental Doc­ T ists (Vol. 18,No. 4) illustrates the false dilemma confronted trines. by those struggling with this issue. She declares that "it is -The Editors this issue of how likely it is that a homosexual can change orientation that divides the Adventist gay community." Classical Adventist theology, rooted in Scripture and the More on Adventists writings of Ellen White, rejects the popular Christian notion that sinful tendencies constitute sin itself. An orientation to sin we all possess; this is why Christ took fallen humanity and Homosexuality to show how human beings can live sinless lives in sinful flesh (Romans 8: 3,4; Hebrews 2:16,17; 4:15). Scripture declares: "Each man is tempted when he is lured and enticed o the Editors: Regarding the article by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives T "Lawsuits and Scandals," Spectrum birth to sin" (James 1:14-15, RSV). Ellen White agrees: (Vol. 18, No.4). I have several comments. First of all, I "There are thoughts and feelings suggested and aroused by would like to commend the General Conference for appar­ Satan that annoy even the best of men; but if they are not ently being on the cutting edge of such a controversial issue cherished, if they are repulsed as hateful, the soul is not as homosexual reorientation. It takes a lot of courage and contaminated with guilt and no other is defiled by their apparently a considerable amount of funds to take such a influence" (Review and Herald, March 27, 1888). To insist positive stance. Perhaps an article on this subject would be that homosexuals--or any other sinners, for that matter­ worthwhile. must change their orientation is to miss the point. It is one's The second issue is that of Colin Cook. The article ends will and conduct that require change. with "Adventist members are left to contemplate the impli­ What is frequently overlooked by observers is that cations of this chronicle ofevents." That is a nice way to end Colin Cook has long been a promoter of the evangelical an article but it appears the intent of the article is to clearly Adventist view of the gospel, commonly known as the "new 62 Spectrum theology." This persuasion holds that sin and guilt result, had so loaded the day with trivia that it had lost its original not from choice, but from merely possessing a lower nature meaning and intent It was he who was foreshadowed by the with sinful promptings. Moreover, Cook's published con­ day as the Better Rest (the book of Hebrews). That has been fidence in "Christ's continual overarching forgiveness" as completely lost sight of by these great purveyors of religion a substitute for complete sanctification (see ''Which Door to in Spectrum. What was lost to Israel through their leaders Heaven," These Times. September 1979, p. 14) leaves him is seemingly reenacted by the church leaders in our day. exquisitely vulnerable to the tragic lapses that have lately Spectrum has done more to elevate the Sabbath day as an brought embarrassment to the church. institution than most of the Adventist media. But the Homosexual Adventists-like dishonest, materialistic, problem, I believe, is not "How to keep the Sabbath," but racist, quick-tempered, adulterous, and gluttonous Advent­ "who hath required this at your hand?" (Isaiah 1: 12). ists-are faced with a single dilemma: Will we claim God's William Ritz power for victory, or continue making excuses for defeat? Santa Cruz, California Kevin D. Paulson Loma Linda, California o the Editors: I have a great deal of T respect for Doctors Weiss and Cox, and I am pleased that the fruits of solid New Testament scholar­ The Gospel Sabbath ship are being allowed to make their appearance in the pages of Spectrum (Vol. 19, No.1). Iamdelightedthatform-and redaction criticism are being used in defense of the Sabbath. o the Editors: I very much appreciated But I wish to question the rather too-facile assumption that T Charles Scriven's article, "How to Keep grounds both of their contributions, namely that we can the Sabbath" (Vol. 19, No. I). His views are akin to mine. without further ado proceed in our explication of the Gos­ Sabbaths have become a special celebration for me to look pels upon the assumption that the Sitz im Leben can be forward to at the end of each workweek, a day for spiritual deduced from the fmal form of the gospel materials. We do rejuvenation as well as a day of rest. This was not always not want to follow a viciously circular procedure in which the case. In my younger years there were times when I was a text is used as a pointer to a Sitz im Leben which is then made to feel guilty if I did not abide by certain rules and employed to determine the meaning and assess the authen­ accepted standards of Sabbatbkeeping. Sabbath became ticity of the text; I should think some external criteria better much more relevant as I matured. Now I resent it when I suited to this purpose. need to finish a necesary chore on the Sabbath, not out of As concrete substantiation for my point I point to Profes­ guilt, but because I want to spend this allotted time in a much sor C. F. D. Moule' s discussion of the relationship between more meaningful way. Luke and Acts in The Phenomenon of the New Testament As asocial worker I have a need to get away from human and The Origin of Christo logy. By pointing to various fa­ service work on the Sabbath. For me, Sabbath may take the cets of Luke's account of Jesus' life, particularly the refer­ form of worshipping with fellow Christians of like thinking ences to him as ''Lord,'' Moule shows that the understand­ through such creative means as celebrating communion ing of Jesus current after the Resurrection does not seem on with God at a wildlife reservation, or at a distant retreat by the whole to have been read back into the Lukan picture of the ocean. After such worship occasions I have always the pre-Resurrection Jesus. I would point to [this] as returned with a refreshed spiritual reality. evidence that some care is necessary in impugning the Whether I spend Sabbath at church, in nature, in an art Gospels as testimonies to the events that spawned faith. gallery listening to a concert with friends, or quietly in My second point of concern is a recent decision to reading or writing, I am grateful for the opportunity that is employ C.E. and B.C.E. in place of A.D. and B.c. I am mine in experiencing anew the joyous sacredness this spe­ mystified by the rationale advanced-"respect for our read­ cial day holds for me. ers whose commitment is to a religion other than the Ursula L. Hess, M.S.W. Christian religion." Charity to all men is a signal mark of Boston, Massachusetts fidelity to Christ But I cannot accept that it follows from this that the adoption of a value-neutral dating system is an o the Editors: The gospel Sabbath as set appropriate expression of such charity. Spectrum should T forth and treated in Spectrum (Vol. 19, exhibit respect for those of its readers who are not Chris­ No.1) is a desperate attempt to revitalize, not the day, but tians, of course. But if the journal really exists to encourage vital worship; a quality which is greatly lacking in the "the discussion of contemporary issues from a Christian denomination. The three authors turn cartwheels to imbue viewpoint," then it follows that that viewpoint will be the day with some kind of viability in the world of religions. genuinely evident, even in so picayune a matter as the Actually, Jesus never did set an example of Sabbath­ expression of dates. For Christian faith is grounded on the keeping, except for the benefit of the Jewish leaders who assumption that Jesus Christ is the center of history-that Volume 19, Number 2 63

millennia of history prior to his birth had prepared the of the Scriptures we should be taking more seriously those Eastern Meditteranean to serve as the cradle for the genesis historians among us who are coming up with potentially of a movement that would flood the earth with the story of spectacular breakthroughs in the biblical historical criticism God's incarnation, and that all of subsequent history is to be that may help dispel the doubt and ridicule that now sur­ lived both in the light of his triumph in the Resurrection and rounds the sacred writings. in expectation of his reclamation and restoration of the If the Bible is not true then we all need to recognize that world in his Second Advent. If these beliefs are both central it is only an attempt by a small tribe of people to raise the to Christian faith and true to human history, as I believe importance of their own small group in a world of equally them to be, then to view world history as pivoting around the important tribes! But if the biblical tradition is true, we life, death, and resurrection ofJesus will be a natural conclu­ should be able to fmd confIrmation by spade and scholar­ sion. The use of B.C.-A.D. dating seems to mean appropri­ ship. ate expression of what I take the essence of Christianity to Clifford G. Munce, D.D.S. be-that the fullest revelation of God to humanity is to be Sandpoint, Idaho found in the Incarnation, the personal presence of God in Jesus of Nazareth, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity incarnate. Gary Chartier Carnbridge University, England Gladson Responds

The Sources and Back­ o the Editors: Dr. Clifford Munce's sug­ T gestion that the author of the Egyptian "Instructions of Amen-em-opet" borrowed from Proverbs, ground of Proverbs rather than the reverse as indicated in my article (p. 28), has been espoused by a minority of scholars since the parallel o the Editors: I read with interest the was fIrst noticed (e.g., W. O. E. Oesterley, "The 'Teaching T article by Dr. Jerry Gladson, "Taming of Amen-em-opet' and the Old Testament," Zeitschriftfur Historical Criticism" (Vol. 18, No.4). It is indeed time we die Altestamentliche Wissenshaft 45 [1927] 9-24; O. Diro­ should be open to all forms and methods of proof for the au­ ton, ''Le Livre des Proverbes et la Sagesse d' Amen-em­ thenticity of the biblical record. opet," Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lova­ I was especially interested in the brief example of the niensium 12 [1959] 229-241). The strength of the Egyptian "Wisdom literature" of Amen-em-opet and its similarity to dependency theory depends, as Dr. Munce recognizes, on a section of Solomon's proverbs (Proverbs 22:17-24:22) how the book of Proverbs is dated with reference to Amen­ and the comment that this similarity indicated that the em-opet. ancient Bible writers may have borrowed ideas from other Dr. Munce tries to solve this problem by making two writers of that day. critical assumptions: (1) Solomon authored this portion of Though I don't have a particular quarrel with those who Proverbs (22: 17-24: 22); and (2) the date of Solomon would espouse the view that some of the Bible passages should be pushed back to a time prior to Amen-em-opet. could have been influenced by some of the pagan philoso­ Regarding the authorship issue, the book of Proverbs does phies and writers, there could be another explanation for this not attribute all the material within it to Solomon, as can be one specific similarity. It could be explained by the possi­ inferred from 30:1; 31:1. Proverbs 22:17 and 24:23, in fact, bility that this particular supposed "pagan philosophy" was suggest this material derives from anonymous "wise plagiarized from the writing of the "wisest man who ever [men]." Therefore, we may be dealing in Proverbs 22: 17ff. lived"-Solomon. with wisdom from sages later than the time of Solomon. One source in my library gives the possible dates of Even assuming Solomic authorship, to push back the Amen-em-opet as ranging from c. 1,000 B.C. to c. 600 B.C. date of Solomon as Dr. Munce suggests would create more (Documents from Old Testament Times, D. Winton Tho­ problems than it solves. It would require virtually the mas, editor, 1957). The accepted date for the reign of complete redating of all crucial dates in the histories of Solomon is 970 B.C. to 930 B.C. Israel, Egypt, and much of the ancient Near East in general. There are historians within and without our own de­ To the contrary, the date of Solomon, somewhere between nomination who feel that the Egyptian dating is erroneous 961-922 B.C.E., seems to be too thoroughly established for and should be pushed up by at least 600 years. this kind of radical revision. If this be true then Solomon's wisdom could have been Recently, the Egyptian dependency theory was finally extant for some time prior to Amen-em-opet. put to rest by the discovery of a new manuscript of Amen­ As a denomination that prides itself in belief in the truth em-opet dating to the 12th or 13th century, if not earlier. 64 Spectrum

The date of this manuscript now requires we understand the but fmally said he "couldn't argue with success." I praise writer of Proverbs as in some way dependent on Amen­ God daily as I run up and down my stairs. Acts 10:38 tells em-opet, not the other way around. us Jesus healed them all-all who were oppressed. He Jerry Gladson, Ph.D. didn't wait to clean them up first. Psychological Studies Institute Yes, I believe miracles are for our time, and that part of Atlanta, Georgia the gospel commission is ''Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, even so I send you" (John 20:21, RSV). Norma Zapara Miracles Still Happen Mission Viejo, California Faith and Science o the Editors: Regarding your article T "The Moral Danger of Miracles" (Vol. Are Complementary 18, No.4) by David Larson. I was amazed when he said, "authentic miracles, especially genuine instances of dra­ matic supernatural healing, are rare." o the Editors: As one trained in the social I can only tell you what he has done in my life. I had T sciences, I am always pleased when I lupus and had been on Prednizone for over a year, then I learn of efforts to be systematic, objective, and scientific in also got shingles. I was in such pain, it was hard to walk, approaching the solutions to problems within the church. much less climb the stairs. My son and I attended a "Signs We need to abandon the parochial idea that some subject and Wonders" seminar to see if these things could really areas, such as the social sciences, are naturally opposed to happen in our time. All denominations were represented, religion/theology-or at best irrelevant. Rather, faith and and the speaker was teaching that whoever believes and science each have a role to play in our institutions. One prays in faith, God is willing to heal. About five or six cannot prove or disprove the other; rather, they operate in people came around me, and quietly prayed that God would different spheres and have different bases for their conclu­ heal me. And he did! I was completely healed! There was sions. However, faith and science can complement one no hero-worship for anyone but God. I did not know those another. So it is encouraging when some scientific effort is people. They were just ordinary people like you and me, made to learn more about a reality it can best deal with (Le., willing to ask God in faith for a miracle; willing to leave the church structure and dynamics). choice up to him. Thanks for the reports and please give us more. That's been more than three years ago. Praise God, I Dean Riley have been pain-free since. My doctor couldn't understand, Banks, Alabama Spectrum Advisory Council

Delmar and Cheree Aitken Gordon and Nadine Hale Daniel and Marilyn Patchin Floyd and Charlene Andersen Daniel Paulien ~,:. F.E.J. Harder Ted Benedict Jon Hardt Thomas and Sharon Pellow Charles and Julie Bensonhaver Milford and Cheryl Harrison Ernest and Cecelia Plata rt Doug Bertleson Robert and Sally Hasselbrack Zane Price Viveca Black John Hodgkin Winslow and Vema Randall Larry Botimer Jerry and Ketty Holt Alfredo and Martha Rasi Joseph and Cynthia Bozovich Wilfred and Margaret Huse Alvin and Carol Ratzlaff Bernard and Neridah Brandstater Fil Inocencio Robert Rausch Bruce and Betty Branson John and Marjorie Jacobson Walter Rea Roy Branson Bernard and Dorothy Johnson Merlin and Arlene Reeder Floyd and Mary Brauer Eugene and Liv Joergenson Barbara Renschler M.L.S. Brown Gail Kendall Gordon Rick Morris Brusett Elton and Marga Kerr William and Anieta Rippey Robert and Marilyn Burman William and Dorane King E. Arthur Robertson Harold Campbell Richard and Claire Knierim Wayne Rohming RH.Carson Alice Koelsch Jan and Patricia Rushing Glenn and Judy Coe Edward and Ruth Komarniski James and Thais Sadoyama Douglas Collins Albert and Elizabeth Koppel James Sands Patricia Cople Doreen and Irwin Kuhn Michael and Shelly Saucedo Molleurus and Dos Couperus Alvin and Verla Kwiram Michael Scofield William and Judy Cowling Melvin and Karen Lake Donald and Ursula Shasky John and Anna Mae Crowder Robert and Anita Lang Gordon andLovina Short Eryl Cummings Fred Lee Walter and Lula Ann Stilson Raymond Damazo Andrew Leonie, III Gerhard Svrcek-Seiler Merlyn C. Duerksen Charles and Rae Lindsay DennisandJodiSwena James and Mary Dunn Bradley and Roberta Litchfield Leonard and Carlene Taylor Elwin Dunn Ewald Lonser James Thomas Thomas and Bonnie Dwyer Felix Lorenz Dort and Nancy Tikker Richard and Juanita Engel Richard and Heidi Ludders Lorna Tobler Rene and Mary Evard Edward and Marilyn Lugenbeal Darwin and Faye Tompkins Walt and Lois Fahlsing Robert and Marguerite Marsh Thorvaldur and Lou Anne Torfason James and Erika Fallbeck Temple G. Matthews, III Robin and Nancy Vandermolen Joy and Gerald Fuller Donald McAdams John and Nancy Vogt G. Elaine Giddings Kenneth and Irene McGill Harold and Ella Mae Wallar Gary Gilbert W.M.Meek Kenneth and Karla Walters David and Joyce Grauman Mario and Viginia Mendoza Harry Wang Sanford Graves Ken and Mary Moe James Webster Octavian Gregorescu Robert and Jacqueline Moncrieff Rodney and Barbara Willard John Griffen Barton Moore William Woods Paul Gruzensky Lyla Neumann Joe Zweig William Hafner, Jr. N.W; Northey

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