Thursday, August 30, 2012
Reviewing the Adventist Review
August 16, 2012
Vol. 189, No.23
http://www.adventistreview.org/index.php?issue=2012-1523
NOTE TO READERS:
WORLD NEWS AND PERSPECTIVES is an important section of each magazine. I don’t usually report on its contents because it is available at the online address I provide with every review.
GENERAL COMMENTS
After I read this issue, it was the words that stuck in my mind. What follows are a sampling of phrases that are quintessentially Adventist.
…affirming the gay Adventists who choose to live celibate lives...
This attitude damages the idea of organ music...
…the national anthem was sung by someone who changed it to be more ‘modern.’
It is sobering to think…that we might often put food ahead of people.
He answers prayers our prayers in ways we may not see.
Do what is right because it is right, and leave the consequences with the Lord.
We voted on the right side of history.
Once you work here, you’re never the same.
Receiving voluntary donations, the lawsuit says, is often the ‘first step’ in someone’s interactions...
The Aeolians lifted our souls and the roof...
Jesus delights in putting us in situations in which He’s the only answer.
I’ve discovered that when I choose to praise God anyway, He moves.
The chief weapon in Jesus’ arsenal is verbal and nonverbal communication.
Unfortunately, how naive, even superstitious, such a belief would seem to those who dismiss the universal flood for the same reason they do a literal six-day creation of life on earth...
Contemplating the cross draws us into an intimate relationship with Jesus...
And that’s were too many believers are spending their time...
But to prevent a public scandal, they made arrangement to send me to another city...
Michele Bachmann could find herself beside Barak Obama. You might be surprised to be kneeling between Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner...
How times have changed. No longer do our guardian angels stand waiting at the doors of movie theaters. Now they sit right there with us, munching popcorn.
But during that short “ordeal,” a thought occurred to me. “Perhaps I love my phone too much.
Learn how you can partner with It is Written...
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Reviewing the Adventist Review
August 9, 2012
Vol. 189, No.22
http://www.adventistreview.org/index.php?issue=2012-1522
NOTE TO READERS:
WORLD NEWS AND PERSPECTIVES is an important section of each magazine. I don’t usually report on its contents because it is available at the online address I provide with every review.
GENERAL COMMENTS
This is a special ASI edition of the Review. And in the best tradition of this volunteer organization, it provides ASI treats for everyone including a charming piece by Dixil Rodriguez, RETURN TO SENDER. If you like sermonizing, there are two: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LOST by Shawn Boonstra and RE-IMAGINING THE LOST by Anthony Kent.
My favorite article is CLOSER TO THE SOURCE, the entrepreneurial story of One Degree Organic Foods. Their packaging allows the purchaser to FoodsScan the QR code and…not only see all the ingredients pictured, but you can also click through to see short 20-to 30-second videos of the specific farm where the ingredient grew, interviews with the farmer, and photos of processing methods. That’s a sample of the ingenuity and talent that has made the men and women of ASI world famous. It a definite MUST READ.
Enjoy the cover-to-cover experience of the issue by ignoring the bottom of page 28. It’s an advertisement for the book, Homosexuality, Marriage, and the Church, published by Andrews University Press. Homophobia should be anathema to informed Christians. The more "gently and lovingly" presented by Christian sources, the greater the harm.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Reviewing the Adventist Review
July 26, 2012
Vol. 189, No.21
http://www.adventistreview.org/index.php?issue=2012-1521
NOTE TO READERS:
WORLD NEWS AND PERSPECTIVES is an important section of each magazine. I don’t usually report on its contents because it is available at the online address I provide with every review.
GENERAL COMMENTS
This issue extolls the quality of Adventist education. And in the opinion of this critic, the accolades are deserved. But before I get to one cautionary note, I want to mention three related pieces that deserve attention. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING by Stephen Chavez is a practical guide to Christian living. TIMELY TIPS FOR TEACHERS by Allan R. Handysides and Peter N. Landless is a medical love letter to teachers. And LAUGHTER by Marvene Thorpe-Baptiste is a reminder that the ability to laugh at oneself is great preventive medicine.
For Kim Kaiser, INCLUSIVE TEACHING, respecting the learning ability of all children and creating opportunities for individual students to learn according to their abilities and learning style, should be the goal for every teacher and educational program. My only caveat is that there are some students who need extra special education that most Adventist schools cannot provide. That is when state supported programs are valuable resources and must be utilized.
NOTE: Kudos to the Pacific Union Recorder for its comprehensive and informative coverage of the Pacific Union’s Special Constituency Session on August 19, AFFIRMING WOMEN IN MINISTRY. Not only did the Recorder explain the issues involved in its July issue, it published an extensive readers’ response in the current magazine. What is especially noteworthy and trend setting is the fact that both the explanation and readers’ response sections were published in English and Spanish. http://pacificunionrecorder.adventistfaith.org/
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Reviewing the Adventist Review
July 19, 2012
Vol. 189, No.20
http://www.adventistreview.org/index.php?issue=2012-1520
NOTE TO READERS:
WORLD NEWS AND PERSPECTIVES is an important section of each magazine. I don’t usually report on its contents because it is available at the online address I provide with every review.
GENERAL COMMENTS
This is a for “Adventists only” Issue! It’s insidiously homophobic and anti-Catholic. (At other times I would question the theological implications of THE FEAR OF GOD by Vanessa Sanders and comment on Cliff Goldstein’s defense of the substitutionary atonement theory in his essay, MISTAKING A PART FOR THE WHOLE.) But this issue promotes pernicious fundamentalist screeds that are terrifyingly out of touch with Christian charity and transparent reality.
Gina Wahlen begins the assault on sensibility with her essay, SPEECH IS NOT FREE.
“Bob” is someone I’ve known for a long time. He’s kind, intelligent, dependable. He’s also gay. As much as I care about Bob and accept him as the wonderful person that he is, the Bible still clearly condemns Bob’s lifestyle. Just as there is “scientific evidence” for evolution, and “scholarly evidence” for a heavily redacted, neutered Bible, some claim science to support “alternative sexual lifestyles”—even within the church. The basic issue is: Who or what is our authority? Upon what basis do we decide what is truth? Science? Cultural norms? So-called experts? The Bible—sola scriptura—has always been the gold standard of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The fact that Wayne Blakely has been given a chance IN CHRIST to advertise his “pray away the gay” Coming out Ministry is stupefying. These so-called “ministries” have been discredited by every authoritative medical journal, and their destructive effects on the children and adults subjected to them have been chronicled ad nauseum.
It has been almost 40 years since the American Psychological Association concluded that homosexuality is not a disorder…[It has] the potential to do harm to young people who may be enduring bullying and harassment for being gay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pray_the_Gay_Away%3F
And then Andy Nash takes the stage to support Wayne Blakely and champion “sexual purity” in his essay THE MISSING STORY IN “SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS”
Blakely’s isn’t the only voice of purity—not by a long shot. His Web site links to other “redeemed” Adventist men and women who have put their eternal destinies ahead of short-term tendencies. A beautiful new memoir, Out of a Far Country, by a gay man, Christopher Yuan, and his mother, Angela, also shouts purity from the shelves of mainline bookstores. These stories are the truly heroic ones.
If this wasn’t enough to make me cough up my breakfast of 4-grain cereal with strawberries and blackberries, there was Shane Anderson’s anti-Catholic TO BEAST OR NOT TO BEAST, illustrated with both the traditional beastly pictures and an updated color rendition that included a reptilian monster!
When preparing people for the end of time, Adventists must present Jesus clearly. That is the heart of our mission. And many, many people won’t see Jesus clearly or be ready for His soon return unless the truth about counterfeit forms of salvation and other real issues of the end-time are presented in detail—including, when necessary, details about Catholicism.
We do live in a post-September 11 world that is more tenuous than ever. But that also means that Jesus is more relevant than ever. “To beast or not to beast?” should thus no longer be a question we approach with irritation or distrust. Instead, let us be tactful, let us be kind, let us be loving—and let us faithfully present Christ with all the prophetic clarity we can muster.
What disturbs me most about these proclamations of official Adventism is that these were the Truths I was brought up on in the bad old days when I prayed (fervently, bare knees on our hardwood floor) that God would overlook the fact that my working mother watched a fifteen minute news program after cleaning the house and preparing supper on Friday evening.
Fortunately, I was blessed by the friendship and thoughtfulness of an effeminate Adventist who worked for my father. Fortunately when I began taking trumpet lessons, my teacher was Catholic. His name was Mathew Prosper. His saintly influence didn’t keep the beastly nightmares away—Catholics machine-gunning my father on Third Terrace behind Adventist Union Academy—but he and my effeminate friend provided the foundation for a religious sanity that I consider priceless.
When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people at his right and the others at his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right,
Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me. Mathew 25: 31-36
No mention here of homosexuals or Catholics.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Reviewing Adventist World, NAD Edition
July, 2012
Vol. 8, No. 7
http://www.adventistworld.org/
Adventist World is free online. For that reason, I only review or comment on articles that I believe to be of special interest. This includes editorials, special supplements, and NAD features not available online.
DON’T MISS:
MINISTROKES. Allan R. Handysides and Peter N. Landless urge readers to remember FAST, the acronym emphasizes the major indicators of a stroke and the need for immediate action.
Face—impaired ability to smile.
Arms—weakness or paralysis.
Speech—slurred speech or lack of comprehension and confusion.
Time—is of the essence!
TWO HEARTS, ONE MISSION. Hein and Melissa Myburgh make the gospel practical in rural Zambia.
EMBEZZLEMENT IN THE CHURCH. Robert E. Lemon lists 7 rules designed to prevent it and 5 things to watch for in employees and volunteers who have access to money and accounting systems.
IN STEP FOR LIFE. Katia Reinert documents the Adventist campaign against obesity.
WHO IS THAT “MIGHTY HUNTER”? Angel Manuel Rodriguez tackles the question: What can you tell us about Nimrod, spoken of in Genesis 10:8-12? and reveals the “post biblical” stories that surround a Mesopotamian hero of uncertain ancestry.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: I want to extend kudos to a guy whose head occasionally “graces” my cartoons: Ricardo Graham. He, and his conference leadership, have taken a strong, principled stand for the ordination of women. In addition, the July Pacific Union Recorder has included a 16-page supplement explaining the Union’s position on this issue in both Spanish and English. This is a first bi-lingual explication of an important issue in any NAD magazine! This is an important first!
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