FOUNDATION BOARD Inside Adventist :foCIay. Doug Schultz, Board Chair Elwin Dunn, Secretary/Treasurer Greg Billock Virginia Burley Keith Colburn Reading Through Adventist Glasses Raymond Cottrell Reni Dupertuis Diana Fisher Edmund Jones s a youth I learned to read the Bible through Adventist glasses. The "little hom" in Daniel 7 James Kaatz was the papacy. The "Lord's Day" of Revelation was Sabbath, not Sunday; the message to the Frank Knittel John McLarty church in Laodicea applied uniquely to my church. Adventism gave me a distinctive interpre- Lourdes Morales-Gudmundsson Don Shasky tation of the final chapters of Ezekiel and a particular view of "Michael the Archangel." John Sickler A Adventism even influenced my harmonization of the synoptic gospels. When I read about Mary Ervin Taylor David Van Putten Magdalene I "knew" she was the woman who anointed Jesus at Simon's feast and that she had been exor- James Walters cised seven times after getting involved in prostitution with Simon as one of her customers. RAYMOND F. COTTRELL In recent years this "Adventist hermeneutic" has come under fire. Many people with deep roots in ENDOWMENT BOARD Adventism report that by laying aside their ~dventist glasses they've discovered a whole new world in the Douglas Ewing, Board Chair Frank Knittel, Secretary Bible. These children of Adventism have found that you won't necessarily find the investigative judgment James Walters, Treasurer Ron Cafferky in the Bible unless you're reading with P::aventist glasses. ules regarding lifestyle matters--dress codes, dietary rules, Sabbath regulations-are all seen to be at least as much the creation of the Adventist com- ADVISORY COUNCIL Ken & Jo Abbott munity as they are the dictates of Scripture. (And that's stating the challenge in the mildest possible lan- John & Susan Adams guage.) Ken & Diana Bauer Robert & Kelli Black I agree that there is great value in learning to read the Bible through otherglasses. However, I emphati- Gary & Jeanne Bogle cally disagree with the notion that we make any significant spiritual advanc discarding the glasses of Antonius & Lilia Brandon Todd & Ginny Burley Adventism. Ron & Anita Cafferky Greg & Dana Carlson There is no untinted vision of the Bible. Evangelicalism, Gatholicism, i eral Protestantism- each John & Charlotte Cassell offers a distinctive way of reading the Bible. Each nasits own glasses. SCholars in each community are pre- Keith & Judy Colburn Ronald & Patricia Caple pared by the convictions and history of their community to see more keenly in some matters and less so in James & Kathryn Dexter others. None is more objective than Adventism. l'hey are at nest merely different. Merlyn & Rosemary Duerksen James Dunn In spite of our weaknesses and defects, the Adventist "whole Bible" approach has great strengths. While Douglas and Patricia Ewing the insights of Ellen White are not infallible, they are hardly negligible. But we deprive ourselves when we Donald & Beverly Farley Gary & Sharon Fraser limit our reading to Adventist authors and our understanding of the Bible to the "Adventist view." And Gary & Annette Frykman Brent & Karen Gardner we deprive ourselves and our children if we fail to speak clearly about what we see through our Adventist Richard Green glasses. Richard & Kathi Guth P. Edgar & Patricia Hare Lyndon & Linda Harder What we see includes: Bruce Heinrich Jim & Jackie Henneberg • Love and justice as hermeneutical principles: Biblical statements that appear to support outrageous Dennis & Jolene Hilliard Russell & Sally Hoenes doctrines such as eternal hell and absolute predestination are reinterpreted on the basis of passages Wayne & Susan Jacobsen more congruent with love and justice. John & Judy Jacobson Brian & Erika Johnson • God's high regard for human bodies: He delights in human cooperation with his ministry in the Jim & Averille Kaatz Elton & Marga Kerr world. This truth is expressed in Adventist health care ministries and Adventist rules regarding diet Dean & Dolores Kinsey Frank & Helen Knittel and drugs. One consequence of this perspective is the documented Adventist increased longevity and Richard & Janis Larsen decreased morbidity. Yung Lau Berryl & Ralph Longway • God's law: The Adventist appreciation for law brings us the benefit of Sabbath keeping in the face of Ken & Florence Lorenz Don & Penny Miller modem frenzy. It assigns more than psychological meaning to the crucifixion. It argues for the ulti- Richard Morda Rick Murray mate intelligibility of God's ways. (God is not arbitrary nor hopelessly inscrutable.) Adele & James Nelson T. Clint & Elaine Nelson • Christian maturity: Adventism helps me move beyond an obsessive concern with my own escape Thaine Price from damnation to concern for discipleship and the honor of my Savior. Gary & Ruthe-Marina Raines Judith Rausch • Creation: Because of my Adventist glasses I've learned to commune with God through Creation in Phil & Joyce Reisweig Gordon & Judy Rick ways that I do not find supported in most Christian traditions. Richard & Missy Rouhe Glenn & Cherie Rouse • Judgment: The Adventist doctrine of the judgment speaks of hope for suicides Doug & Sandy Schultz Don & Ursula Shasky and for people who have lived beyond the geographic reach of Christian witness. Jeff Stevens Walter 1. & Lula Ann Stilson I treasure the insights I've received while reading the Bible through the glasses of James & Maryan Stirling Ervin & Marilynn Taylor Quakers, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. They've helped me see Bob & Karen Torrey truths I likely would never have learned in Adventism. In tum, with eager confi- John & Nancy Vogt David Van Putten dence I offer others a look through my Adventist glasses. If they look, they'll see James & Priscilla Walters something good-something too good to miss. James & Betty Webster Tim & Stephanie Welebir John McLarty, editor 2 May-June 1999 ADVENTIST TODAY Contents FEATURES Where is Robert Brinsmead? LARRY PAHL Whither, Robert D. Brinsmead? RAYMOND F. COTTRELL Adventism: Fat Lady or Beautiful Bride? ERIC BAHME a1bday Website: An Interview JIM WALTERS AND GREG BILLOCK NEWS AND ANALYSIS ------------------------------- 7 Proposed Name Change Triggers WWC Student Sit-In COLLEEN MOORE TINKER 8 Supreme Court Rules in Dennis's Favor 9 NAD Considering Changing Higher Education Salaries LARA BEAVEN 24 La Sierra University Navigates Rocky Spring Quarter COLLEEN MOORE TINKER LETTERS 4 The FOlkenberg Issue 5 Publisher's Response 6 Adventist Ethos 6 Institutional Memory 6 "Sligo Church In Turmoil" 6 Keep the Stories in Print 6 Problems in Atlanta 6 Great Interest SOUNDINGS Headlines from school papers give a sense of the turmoil that is happening on some Adventist Campuses. 22 A Real Family DEBRA FOOTE Cover BY Richard Tinker PUBLISHER: AsSISTANT EDITORS: Unsolidted submissions Adventist Today (ISSN 1079-5499) is James Walters Gayle Foster are encouraged. Payment is camper, published bimonthly for $24 per year J\QVENTiSTToDAY Cherie Rouse itive. Send a self-addressed, stamped ($18 for srudents, $35 for institutions) by EDITOR EMERITUS: James H. Stirling Susan G. Walters envelope for writer's guidelines. Adventist Today Foundation, Calkins Raymond Cottrell Hall, 225, La Sierra University, Riverside, EDITORIAL ADVISOR: Annual subscriptions: CA 92515. Periodica~ postage paid at EDITOR: Steve Daily $24 ($40/2years) for individuals Riverside, Califomia, and additional mail- John McLarty OFFICE MANAGER: $18 for students ing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address Hanan Sadek $35 for institutions changes ro Adventist Today, PO. Box MANAGING EDITOR! (Payment by check or credit card. Add $10 for addresses outside North America.) 8026, Riverside, CA 92515-8026. NEWS EDITOR: Adventist Today reports on Colleen Moore Tinker contemporary issues of importance to Telephone: (800) 236-3641 Copyright @1999 by Adventist Today Adventist church members. Following VOL. 7, NO.3 basic principles of ethics and canons Fax: (909) 785-1595 Foundation, a nonprofit organization ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN: of journalism, this publication strives E-mail: [email protected] dedicated ro fostering open dialogue MAY. JUNE 1999 Richard Tinker for fairness, candor, and good taste. Web site: www.atoday.com in the Adventisr community. ~ ADVENTIST TODAY May-June 1999 3 AT. Reader mMyHomeSt- HomotoI'mvIll",CA Letters to the Editor Adventist Today p.o. Box 8026 Riverside. CA 92575-8026 The Folkenberg Issue be healthier than many of us are accus- carte-blanche to anyone at the central The last issue of Adventist Today tomed to acknowledging." I am not wheels of power. That will also disrupt the (March-April 1999) might well be called impressed. If they had acted in '91 to con- administrative hold on ministerial protest. "the Folkenberg issue" due to its preoccu- front both Folkenberg and McClure, then We ought, as a church, to have learned pation with the latest GC presidential I would have been impressed. something from the unending series of misconduct. However, from almost all As a church we do not believe the debacles that started with the Davenport writers, in this and other SDA journals, Lord Acton axiom ... ("power tends to affair. We may have learned. We seem there has been virtually no comment on corrupt and absolute power corrupts not to care enough to act. Shouldn't we? the corporate failure of we FRANK AND JULIE R. LEMON the church to mind the VIA THE INTERNET store and its bosses whom The article is, in my view, unethical, we have allowed. Elected I have been a subscriber to would be the wrong word. your magazine for some time We have so little to do unprofessional, and grossly unfair. now and have generally with "election." And it is been impressed with the our fault that we have so With articles such as this, you might quality of the articles. Until little to do with it, for the now. I can hardly believe constitutions of our various you would let an article like divisions, conferences, well rename your journal, after the "Folkenberg Business Details institutions, et ai, generally Revealed" pass for journal- make it fairly clear that manner of the well ..known gossip rag, .