The Role of Union Conferences in Relation to Higher Authorities The Dangers of Unity From “Ekklesia” to Something Else The Judicial Dilemma: How the Church Works—and How it Gets Worked An Open Letter to Any Parent of an LGBT+ Child The Perfect Storm Cosmology and Morality: The Scientific Captivity of Creation and Beyond VOLUME 44 ISSUE 4 n 2016 SPECTRUM is a journal established to encourage Seventh-day Adventist participation in the discus- sion of contemporary issues from a Christian viewpoint, to look without prejudice at all sides of a subject, to evaluate the merits of diverse views, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT © 2016 ADVENTIST FORUM and to foster Christian intellectual and cultural growth. Although effort is made to ensure accu- rate scholarship and discriminating judgment, the Editor Bonnie Dwyer statements of fact are the responsibility of con- Editorial Assistants Wendy Trim, Linda Terry tributors, and the views individual authors express Design Laura Lamar are not necessarily those of the editorial staff as a Spectrum Web Team Hallie Anderson, Alita Byrd, whole or as individuals. Pam Dietrich, Bonnie Dwyer, Rich Hannon, Steve Hergert, Wendy Trim, Alisa Williams; Jared Wright, managing SPECTRUM is published by Adventist Forum, a editor nonsubsidized, nonprofit organization for which gifts are deductible in the report of income for purposes of taxation. The publishing of SPEC- Editorial Board: TRUM depends on subscriptions, gifts from indi- About the Cover Art: Tamara, the Woman at the viduals, and the voluntary efforts of the Beverly Beem Richard Rice Well, bronze. Walla Walla, Washington Loma Linda, California contributors. Re-imaging themes from Christianity, and the underly- Alita Byrd Charles Scriven ing themes for living life in Dublin, Ireland Phoenix, Arizona SPECTRUM can be accessed on the World Wide “the way,” are what matter Web at www.spectrummagazine.org. most to artist Tom Emmer- Alexander Carpenter Gerhard Svrcek-Seiler son. His friend, Beverly Sacramento, California Vienna, Austria Beem, has called the Woman at the Well “Tama- Editorial Correspondence Sharon Fujimoto- Norman Young ra,” inspiring the name for Johnson the sculpture and adding Cooranbong, Australia Direct all correspondence and letters to the editor to: meaning to the story for the Sacramento, California artist. From the idea in his head, he made a clay Fritz Guy SPECTRUM model, which then was cast Riverside, California in bronze and given a pati- P. O. Box 619047 na. The work is life size. David R. Larson Roseville, CA 95661-9047 There is a subtle decoration Loma Linda, California on the amphora of crocus flowers that have many Juli Miller ancient references to purity, tel: (916) 774-1080 Sun Valley, Idaho health, honor, worthiness, fax: (916) 791-4938 and ritual. The artist did not want to spell things out too [email protected] much since he is more inter- ested in viewers bringing their own thoughts and feel- Letters to the editor may be edited for publication. ings to the story. About the Artist: Thomas Emmerson chairs ISSN: 0890-0264 the Walla Walla University Art Department, a position he has held since 1982. Subscriptions and Advertising In 2015, he received the WWU President’s Award for [email protected] Excellence in Teaching. He is (916) 774-1080 continually creating new bronze, clay, and paper works for personal, public, and campus/church spaces. His most recent exhibition, with Steve Miller in the Harris Gallery, was in the spring of 2015. VOLUME 44 ISSUE 4 SPECTRUM contents 7 Editorials 2 Statements, Surprises, and Sunshine | BY BONNIE DWYER 3 Leadership from Elsewhere | BY CHARLES SCRIVEN Feedback 13 5 Resolving Conflicts | CASEBOLT, JACOBSEN, WIBBERDING Noteworthy 7 The Importance of the Backstory | BY BONNIE DWYER AND JARED WRIGHT 18 The Bible: New Readings 13 Cosmology and Morality: The Scientific Captivity of Creation and Beyond | BY DAVID LARSON 18 “The Perfect Storm” | BY KENDRA HALOVIAK VALENTINE 32 Process, Unity, and the Church 27 From “Ekklesia” to Something Else | BY THOMAS 32 The Role of Union Conferences in Relation to Higher Authorities | BY GEORGE R. KNIGHT 45 The Judicial Dilemma: How the Church Works—And How It 53 Gets Worked | BY GARY PATTERSON Feminism and the Church 53 Finding their Voice: The Expanding Role of Women—Early Adventism in Context (1865–1875) | BY GILBERT M. VALENTINE 65 The Dangers of Unity | BY MEGEN MOLÉ 65 LGBT Issues 70 The Story of SB 1146 | BY HALLIE ANDERSON 75 An Open Letter to Any Parent of an LGBT+ Child | BY ELDER O. KRIS AND DEBBIE WIDMER 75 Poem back cover Thirsty Woman at the Well | BY BRUCE JOHANSON WWW.SPECTRUMMAGAZINE.ORG 1 EDITORIAL n from the editor Statements, Surprises, and Sunshine | BY BONNIE DWYER n the flurry of statements about church unity nificantly hurt the local efforts of the church, that emanated from the General Conference perhaps more than it would impair the General I this past fall, beginning with the fifty-page Conference. Portions of the tithe dollar come He initiated a document entitled “A Study of Church Gov- back to the local church in the form of salaries ernance and Unity,” a blanket of words obscured for pastors, they also significantly fund activities process, totally the divisive intent of the General Conference at the conference and union level. Only sixteen President. He initiated a process, totally inde- cents on the dollar make it to the General Con- pendent of the procedures already spelled out in ference and some of that comes back, too. To independent of Working Policy, to take over the unions whose send a message to the General Conference, per- constituencies have voted to ordain women. His haps the best thing to do is to sit down and write action took most people by surprise, and is it out and send it on its way. the procedures explored more fully in this issue with papers by Staying engaged with the process, supporting historian George Knight, pastor/administrator the local church, conference, and union are sig- already spelled Gary Patterson, and theologian Dave Thomas. nificant, too. We pledge to follow the commit- On our web site, we reported the actions lead- tees that will be tasked with carrying out the ing up to Annual Council, and that surprised voted actions. Recently, I wrote to communica- out in Working many people, too, particularly at the General tion officials at the Division and General Confer- Conference, where the plan appears to have been ence, asking for the names of those who would to have key committees quietly vote the action be on the committee voted by the North Ameri- Policy, to take against the unions and then simply have that rati- can Division, and involved at the General Con- fied at Annual Council without fuss or bother. ference. In one reply that I received, I was told over the The timeline of actions is included in the Note- that the North American Division Administrative worthy section of this issue, for reference, also. Committee had not yet (at that time in late By passing over Working Policy and creating his November) voted the names of committee mem- unions whose own documents, President Ted Wilson rein- bers, but they might not be sharing the names forced the growing sense of “kingly power” his anyway. That response took me by surprise. As a administration is building in the way that it han- journalist I expect the church to be open and constituencies dles issues in the church. It seems the only votes transparent in committee work, as well as in the that carry meaning for him are those that take way that it handles money. The church members have voted to place at the General Conference. But the votes of in whose name these actions are being taken constituencies—church members—matter, too. deserve to know who and what is being done. Frustration at the local level with being We need more sunshine—openness—and ordain women. ignored at the General Conference has led some fewer surprises and statements to build the trust to consider withholding tithe dollars in protest, that is at the heart of unity. n thinking that offerings are the votes that carry the most weight. However, doing so would sig- Bonnie Dwyer is editor of Spectrum magazine. 2 spectrum VOLUME 44 ISSUE 4 n 2016 from the forum chairman n EDITORIAL Leadership from Elsewhere | BY CHARLES SCRIVEN dventist Christianity is not the same Holy Spirit innovation. Brook Pierce, the as the General Conference hierar- church’s Communications Coordinator, recently Achy. As always, we can look else- wrote, on the Spectrum website, about its where, not just there, for leader ship. response to Hacksaw Ridge, the feature film about And living memory can recall no time when Desmond Doss. In preparation for its release, this point has been more important, more worth members got in touch with Terry Benedict, one celebrating. of the film’s producers and the maker, earlier, of a Only one A few weekends ago I heard a children’s documentary about Doss. Benedict visited the choir—sixth-to-eighth graders—sing before a church for a screening of the documentary and of Jesus’ Spanish-speaking congregation in Tennessee. discussion afterward. His hope for both films, The sound was elegant, the words uplifting, and Brook Pierce reported, was that viewers would every listener seemed alive with Sabbath joy. come away reflecting on “where they are (and are Beatitudes The effort that had gone into that moment was not) willing to compromise themselves”; and on paying off, and I marveled at how local passion how they might (or might not) consider chang- persists despite troubles in Silver Spring. ing. The congregation thinks of itself as an addresses This fall I witnessed at close hand how a tiny “Adventist Peace Church,” and the theme carried congregation in Arizona responded when a through to November 5 when Ron Osborn, the church mission, childless and deeply vulnerable older couple Adventist author and peace advocate, preached seemed no longer able to manage in their own the morning sermon.