November 8, 2007
GENERAL COMMENTS
Once again I enjoyed reading this edition of the Review when I got back from a two-week stay in the Midwest. As they say in New Zealand, it was “good value”. Now for the rest of the story.
LETTERS
I continue to have a difficult time understanding why letters are published almost two months after the articles to which they respond. Often, their impact on the reader is diminished or nonexistent. Also, in the last week and a half, I have received three Reviews! (I have a comic comment on this frustrating and too often occurrence in another “review” of the Review.)
SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF by Roy Adams is a gem. I was one of the folks who hoped that Roy not Bill would become the Editor of the Review. However, this editorial seems to reveal a man who isn't constrained by “that” title; who is very comfortable speaking his mind about the fact that “Adventists can earn the unenviable distinction of being numbered among the destroyers of the earth”. Roy, I'm with you all the way. The world should know that SDA’s are people who are committed to “bringing some of nature's beautiful music back”.
Sandra Blackmore's editorial, SCHOOL DAYS, has special meaning for me. As a university professor, I am delighted to have mature (read older than thirty) students in my classes. Invariably they set the academic standard for everything we do together.
HOW SHOULD CHRISTIANS VIEW ISRAEL by Mark Kellner is informative and fair. His reflections on his July 2004 trip to Israel reminded me of a trip I made when I was nineteen. I considerer Mark a friend. He called me to correct some misinformation in one of my past reviews of the Review. He is a charming person, as friendly as his picture suggests.
His reference to the Garden Tomb “as being of “questioned authenticity” made me smile. I visited the spot in 1962 along with Professor Siegfried Horn, and it is obviously a tourist trap. According to Horn, the city walls of Jerusalem were extended to include Golgotha, and the location of Jesus’ tomb is unknown. The actual site of the crucifixion is enclosed in a basilica owned by six “Christian” orders that hate each other. In the past fifty years, these “guardians” of the site have attacked each other physically, inside the basilica and on the roof. In at least one modern fracas, a number of these old men have ended up the hospital with serious injuries.
Edward Reid’s IS THERE SOMETHING ABOUT MARY? CAN PROSTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS AGREE ON MARY? is of historic interest. However, I came away from the article wondering whether Mr. Reed was aware that Paul's letters were written before the Gospels. Paul makes no mention of a virgin birth. Reid reminds us that “Mariology” is “based on nonscriptural sources and is based on nonbiblical teachings such as the natural immortality of the soul”. I would be more comfortable with comments like that if all of our Twenty-eight Doctrines passed the same test.
Seri Fordham is as bright and engaging a writer as is her smile. I really dig her socks! Her thoughts AFTER A BRIDGE COLLAPSE are a reminder that “tragedy might be as sudden as a falling bridge, but most of it is as constant and is preventable as poverty”.
BEWARE OF GIBEONITES SEEKING FAVORS: AN ANCIENT STORY WITH MODERN IMPLICATIONS by Thurman C. Petty, Jr., portrays God as a collaborator in political and moral depravity. The illustrations were particularly offensive.
Mark Kellner, “with additional reporting from Florida Hospital” notifies readers that ADVENTIST--OWNED FLORIDA HOSPITAL GETS $10 MILLION DISNEY DONATION. Mark, when Des Commings, Florida Hospital Foundation President, reports that “Disney understands that Adventists are the healthiest people in the world”, a scientific attribution supporting that statement is required.
In this issue of the review, readers learn that ADVENTIST WORLD RADIO PLANS TV SERIES. Doesn’t this title seem a little strange? However, the people at Adventist World Radio are an amazing bunch, and Shelley Nolan Freesland, is right when she informs us that very few SDA church members are aware of the contribution they make to freedom of religion worldwide.
I guess it's a good thing for RISK MANAGEMENT TO OUTSOURCE CLAIMS PROCESSING, but I was left with three questions. First, who is the “unnamed contractor” who will be responsible for future health care claims processing? Second, what will the current Adventist Health Management do when it will be “focusing more on administrative issues with local conference administrators”? Finally, I’m not sure who the “clients in North America” are. In the concluding paragraph, ARM is identified as “serving clients in North America including the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Griggs University, the church's North American administration, and employees at the world church’s headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland”. This inquiring blogger wants to know.
WHEN THE WAVES WERE HIGH AND MY BOAT WAS SMALL, Margie Littell Ulrich reminds us that the Circle of Beneficence is more than a figment of the imagination. You're right, Margie. All of us need all of us.
There is a holiday sale on ADVENTIST PREACHING. These are “inspiring sermons for home and church”. I don't know everyone on the list, but HMS Richards was a personal friend of my father’s and one of the men I most admired growing up in Glendale, California.
GROWING A FAMILY MINISTRY by Kathryn Leigh is well written, thoughtful, and inspirational. At least occasionally, what I assume to be non-Adventist writers make important contributions to the Review.
I hope Seth Pierce survives the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. His editorial WE HAVE THE TRUTH is bold and to the point. When he writes, “everything we believe, including our distinctive doctrines, is all found in Christ. If it isn't, it should be thrown out”. (Seth, shouldn’t it read, “should be found in Christ?” I would like to know if “is all” are the words you originally submitted for publication.) He goes on to say, “We need to rethink what having the truth means when we are asked, or we make it as a statement by which to judge others. Christianity's truth is Jesus Christ.” I couldn't agree more.
I'm not sure why THE PERSISTENT POTTERY PEDDLER was included in this issue. The story recommends quiet language, attentiveness, awareness, not giving up, not saying too much, and, smiling a lot. I hope it takes more to be an advocate for Christ’s Kingdom than it does to sell pottery.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Most Essential Difference
Hi Andy,
Just read your letter to the editor in the new issue of Adventist Today [in which you basically said we need to "abandon the god of the Old Testament."]
Good timing! For I have told you I would one day like to discuss the essential differences between left and right in America.
So, I think the time may be now! I see your letter there as going to the heart of what I believe to be the most essential difference between political left-leaners and political right-leaners in this country. That is, I believe most left-leaners either do not take the Bible to originate from God at all or they have a less orthodox view of its origination than do right-leaners. Just to be clear: I do not mean to say that right-leaners are all believers in literal, word-for-word Scriptural inspiration--or necessarily believers in the Bible at all, nor do I mean that all left-leaners are secularists or agnostics. I'm saying that the more solidly one believes in the divine origin of the Bible (if you are a Jew, the Old Testament; if you are a Christian, both the New and Old Testaments), the more likely one is to lean right; the less solidly one believes in the divine origin of the Bible, the more likely one is to lean left.
This is not my own epiphane. I followed Dennis Prager over several years of thinking this through on his radio program, and that is the conclusion he finally came to, a year or two ago. I was not so sure for a long time, but I am increasingly a believer in his thesis, with a few modifications perhaps in his phrasing.
I realize now there are probably very few Leftist Christians who look at the Bible in the same way I do. Meaning, that it is all divinely inspired, probably thought-inspired rather than word-inspired, but nonetheless very reliable as written. How this inspiration works, and how literally the Bible is to be taken in any given divinely-inspired passage, is not, I think, the point. The point is more the firmness with which one believes the Bible to be of divine origin (OT for Jews, OT-NT for Christians).
I think most, if not all, of the seeming contradictions in the Bible can be explained by a theology which is well versed in historical-contextual studies and general Biblical exegesis. I believe this in part because it has been my privilege to know several such theologians, one of whom, a well-known scholar in our church, has been a very close friend and go-to person on Biblical questions for many years. I am always amazed at how he can explain Scripture out of most any hole! And very credibly.
I also find I am a lover of paradox. If I could understand everything about God and His Word, I would be God. I do not care to be God. I prefer to be His creature, and my Biblical questionings--railings, even, at times--delightfully confirm to me my smallness, my human limitations. On one level I find it deeply satisfying that I am not fully satisfied.
So, I think the kernel of the differences you and I have encountered in our discussions lies in this, our differing view of the Bible. How this facet of a person pushes them in either direction politically is a fascinating topic. I think it likely has something to do with the following: The more seriously you take the (whole) Bible, the more you will see and understand--really understand, from your head to your gut--that human nature is not basically good. It's not basically evil, either; it has inclinations in both directions, with the inclination toward the bad being stronger.
Once you realize that human nature is not basically good, there is a cascade of changes in your priorities and in to your approach to human problems. You will care more about ethical training in the young. You will lean more toward tough-love approaches than enabling approaches. (The Old Testament is full of examples of these, in God's seeming incomprehensibly harsh dealings with Man. In the NT tough love seems, on the surface, somewhat harder to find, but especially if read in the light of the OT, I think it is possible--just as I think God's immense love and mercy is visible all through the Old Testament.)
You will recognize real evil earlier, with fewer illusions as to how to approach it. You will more easily grasp the importance of a belief in objective right and wrong. You will be more concerned about global, totalitarian Islamist aspirations than about global warming, which you may suspect is more a product of pervasive political demagoguery than of too many SUV's. You will worry more about soul pollution (bad language, incivility) than about air pollution (second-hand smoke). You will concern yourself more with the molding of children's characters than with ensuring they get early sex education. You will detest and oppose the producers of MTV more than you detest and oppose the producers of cigarettes.
You will better understand the intrinsic connection of widespread, decent, freely-chosen and openly-practiced religion to a decent society. You will see more clearly the dangers in too much power devolving to central authorities, and therefore of too much money flowing into those coffers. You will understand that humans are not re-moldable into perfect creatures, and that any utopian attempt to steer society toward perfection through egalitarian schemes is not only doomed to failure, but is almost certainly going to end in disaster--ship-wrecked on the rocks of human corruption.
In short, you will be what we call today "conservative."
That's the view from here! Subject to modification, as always... ;)
Ever your friend,
Janine Goffar
Editor's note: To read my review of Escape from the Flames, click here.
Just read your letter to the editor in the new issue of Adventist Today [in which you basically said we need to "abandon the god of the Old Testament."]
Good timing! For I have told you I would one day like to discuss the essential differences between left and right in America.
So, I think the time may be now! I see your letter there as going to the heart of what I believe to be the most essential difference between political left-leaners and political right-leaners in this country. That is, I believe most left-leaners either do not take the Bible to originate from God at all or they have a less orthodox view of its origination than do right-leaners. Just to be clear: I do not mean to say that right-leaners are all believers in literal, word-for-word Scriptural inspiration--or necessarily believers in the Bible at all, nor do I mean that all left-leaners are secularists or agnostics. I'm saying that the more solidly one believes in the divine origin of the Bible (if you are a Jew, the Old Testament; if you are a Christian, both the New and Old Testaments), the more likely one is to lean right; the less solidly one believes in the divine origin of the Bible, the more likely one is to lean left.
This is not my own epiphane. I followed Dennis Prager over several years of thinking this through on his radio program, and that is the conclusion he finally came to, a year or two ago. I was not so sure for a long time, but I am increasingly a believer in his thesis, with a few modifications perhaps in his phrasing.
I realize now there are probably very few Leftist Christians who look at the Bible in the same way I do. Meaning, that it is all divinely inspired, probably thought-inspired rather than word-inspired, but nonetheless very reliable as written. How this inspiration works, and how literally the Bible is to be taken in any given divinely-inspired passage, is not, I think, the point. The point is more the firmness with which one believes the Bible to be of divine origin (OT for Jews, OT-NT for Christians).
I think most, if not all, of the seeming contradictions in the Bible can be explained by a theology which is well versed in historical-contextual studies and general Biblical exegesis. I believe this in part because it has been my privilege to know several such theologians, one of whom, a well-known scholar in our church, has been a very close friend and go-to person on Biblical questions for many years. I am always amazed at how he can explain Scripture out of most any hole! And very credibly.
I also find I am a lover of paradox. If I could understand everything about God and His Word, I would be God. I do not care to be God. I prefer to be His creature, and my Biblical questionings--railings, even, at times--delightfully confirm to me my smallness, my human limitations. On one level I find it deeply satisfying that I am not fully satisfied.
So, I think the kernel of the differences you and I have encountered in our discussions lies in this, our differing view of the Bible. How this facet of a person pushes them in either direction politically is a fascinating topic. I think it likely has something to do with the following: The more seriously you take the (whole) Bible, the more you will see and understand--really understand, from your head to your gut--that human nature is not basically good. It's not basically evil, either; it has inclinations in both directions, with the inclination toward the bad being stronger.
Once you realize that human nature is not basically good, there is a cascade of changes in your priorities and in to your approach to human problems. You will care more about ethical training in the young. You will lean more toward tough-love approaches than enabling approaches. (The Old Testament is full of examples of these, in God's seeming incomprehensibly harsh dealings with Man. In the NT tough love seems, on the surface, somewhat harder to find, but especially if read in the light of the OT, I think it is possible--just as I think God's immense love and mercy is visible all through the Old Testament.)
You will recognize real evil earlier, with fewer illusions as to how to approach it. You will more easily grasp the importance of a belief in objective right and wrong. You will be more concerned about global, totalitarian Islamist aspirations than about global warming, which you may suspect is more a product of pervasive political demagoguery than of too many SUV's. You will worry more about soul pollution (bad language, incivility) than about air pollution (second-hand smoke). You will concern yourself more with the molding of children's characters than with ensuring they get early sex education. You will detest and oppose the producers of MTV more than you detest and oppose the producers of cigarettes.
You will better understand the intrinsic connection of widespread, decent, freely-chosen and openly-practiced religion to a decent society. You will see more clearly the dangers in too much power devolving to central authorities, and therefore of too much money flowing into those coffers. You will understand that humans are not re-moldable into perfect creatures, and that any utopian attempt to steer society toward perfection through egalitarian schemes is not only doomed to failure, but is almost certainly going to end in disaster--ship-wrecked on the rocks of human corruption.
In short, you will be what we call today "conservative."
That's the view from here! Subject to modification, as always... ;)
Ever your friend,
Janine Goffar
Editor's note: To read my review of Escape from the Flames, click here.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Reviewing Adventist World
November 2007
Before I write another word, I want to celebrate three wonderful editorials that make me proud to subscribe to “Adventist World”. They are “Beyond Stereotypes” by Jan Paulsen, “Children of Abraham” by William Johnsson, and “Behave Yourself” by Ray Roennfeldt. These guys are fellow Followers of Christ, and are truly my Adventist brothers. Now for the “Rest of the Story”
GENERAL COMMENTS: This is an above average issue. The “World Reports” and “Window” were informative and interesting. I was particularly impressed by our Church’s proactive entry into the information age via the Internet. Readers can really find out for themselves what the World Church is doing by simply artfully assembling a few keystrokes.
The continued use of fear as a motivational ploy is unfortunate, as is Velda Nelson’s “Devotional” LEST WE BE FOUND SLEEPING. In addition, labeling us as members of an “end-time” church, make it easy for nonAdventists to dismiss us as foolish at best and possibly dangerous. The scary quote from The Great Controversy at the end of this article made me want to skip the Ellen White’s THE JOY SET BEFORE US later in the issue. I’m glad I didn’t. The words are timeless and inspiring.
HANDYSIDES and LANDLESS’s words were of particular interest to me in that my mother suffered from undiagnosed Pernicious Anemia. It destroyed a brilliant mind and made impossible our intellectual and emotional companionship. These two MD’s are a wonderful gift to your subscribers.
Schneider’s FORGET WORLD PEACE—USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL was one of his best efforts. However, when he uses the phrase, “Have you led your neighbor to Jesus?” to identify an “issue that really grabs him”, my visceral reaction was instantaneous and negative. Don, how about changing that issue statement to, “Has your neighbor seen Jesus in you”?
OUT OF THE COMMON ORDER by Thomas Riederer had three concluding quotations. My favorites were quotes from “Special “Testimonies to Ministers, series A, No, 6, pp. 59, 60; and “Ellen White, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 9, 1895”. “ Order, yes; but let us not be among those ‘who will always want to control the work of God’ because this ‘leaves so many forces of the church unused’ and ‘closes up the way so that the Holy Spirit cannot use men.’”
Since I have spent some time in Fiji and Jonathan Gallagher has spoken at Grace Connection, MAKING HIS CALLING AND ELECTION SURE was a must read. While I, as an SDA, am impressed by Semesa Karavaki’s decision not to work at his job as Supervisor of Elections on the Sabbath, I am reminded that lots of non-SDAs provide “Sabbath services” that make possible our comfortable and safe lives. As a boy attending Lynwood California Camp Meeting, I was shocked when ministers collected the garbage on Sabbath. One of them explained that someone had to do that necessary work.
My Christmas present to my son is a generous contribution to ADRA.
GOOD NEWS FOR NATIVE AMERICANS describes a mission work that, until I read this article, I knew very little about. Impressive! www.nativeministries.com NAD NEWS was informational and heartwarming.
THE LOMA LINDA REPORT was as remarkable as usual, and in addition to news about the newly refurbished cardiothoracic surgery wing, I also discovered that Stephen Dunbar, a Professor of Biology, is saving the sea turtles in Bay Islands, Honduras. Way cool!
Shawn Boonstra’s new DAILY DEVOTIONAL thought for November 19 at www.itiswritten.com/betterway is Mark 9:41. Highly recommend!
The stories of the children chronicled in GATEWAY TO THE FUTURE: ADVENTISTS IN INDIA ARE USING EDUCATION TO BUILD THE CHURCH reminded me how our Church should be built—from the children up. Wonderful stories.
Angel Manuel Rodriguez was in top form this edition. CHRISTIANITY’S GREAT MYSTERY is a welcome change from his theological hairsplitting.
Only evangelist MARK A. FINLEY would ask the world audience, “What does God want to accomplish in us ‘through the blood of the everlasting covenant’?”
WORLD EXCHANGE should be given more space. “The Place of Prayer” is heartbreaking. There should be a way for those of us reading those prayers to let those precious souls know that we are praying for and with them. Is there a way for us to help answer those prayers?
Before I write another word, I want to celebrate three wonderful editorials that make me proud to subscribe to “Adventist World”. They are “Beyond Stereotypes” by Jan Paulsen, “Children of Abraham” by William Johnsson, and “Behave Yourself” by Ray Roennfeldt. These guys are fellow Followers of Christ, and are truly my Adventist brothers. Now for the “Rest of the Story”
GENERAL COMMENTS: This is an above average issue. The “World Reports” and “Window” were informative and interesting. I was particularly impressed by our Church’s proactive entry into the information age via the Internet. Readers can really find out for themselves what the World Church is doing by simply artfully assembling a few keystrokes.
The continued use of fear as a motivational ploy is unfortunate, as is Velda Nelson’s “Devotional” LEST WE BE FOUND SLEEPING. In addition, labeling us as members of an “end-time” church, make it easy for nonAdventists to dismiss us as foolish at best and possibly dangerous. The scary quote from The Great Controversy at the end of this article made me want to skip the Ellen White’s THE JOY SET BEFORE US later in the issue. I’m glad I didn’t. The words are timeless and inspiring.
HANDYSIDES and LANDLESS’s words were of particular interest to me in that my mother suffered from undiagnosed Pernicious Anemia. It destroyed a brilliant mind and made impossible our intellectual and emotional companionship. These two MD’s are a wonderful gift to your subscribers.
Schneider’s FORGET WORLD PEACE—USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL was one of his best efforts. However, when he uses the phrase, “Have you led your neighbor to Jesus?” to identify an “issue that really grabs him”, my visceral reaction was instantaneous and negative. Don, how about changing that issue statement to, “Has your neighbor seen Jesus in you”?
OUT OF THE COMMON ORDER by Thomas Riederer had three concluding quotations. My favorites were quotes from “Special “Testimonies to Ministers, series A, No, 6, pp. 59, 60; and “Ellen White, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 9, 1895”. “ Order, yes; but let us not be among those ‘who will always want to control the work of God’ because this ‘leaves so many forces of the church unused’ and ‘closes up the way so that the Holy Spirit cannot use men.’”
Since I have spent some time in Fiji and Jonathan Gallagher has spoken at Grace Connection, MAKING HIS CALLING AND ELECTION SURE was a must read. While I, as an SDA, am impressed by Semesa Karavaki’s decision not to work at his job as Supervisor of Elections on the Sabbath, I am reminded that lots of non-SDAs provide “Sabbath services” that make possible our comfortable and safe lives. As a boy attending Lynwood California Camp Meeting, I was shocked when ministers collected the garbage on Sabbath. One of them explained that someone had to do that necessary work.
My Christmas present to my son is a generous contribution to ADRA.
GOOD NEWS FOR NATIVE AMERICANS describes a mission work that, until I read this article, I knew very little about. Impressive! www.nativeministries.com NAD NEWS was informational and heartwarming.
THE LOMA LINDA REPORT was as remarkable as usual, and in addition to news about the newly refurbished cardiothoracic surgery wing, I also discovered that Stephen Dunbar, a Professor of Biology, is saving the sea turtles in Bay Islands, Honduras. Way cool!
Shawn Boonstra’s new DAILY DEVOTIONAL thought for November 19 at www.itiswritten.com/betterway is Mark 9:41. Highly recommend!
The stories of the children chronicled in GATEWAY TO THE FUTURE: ADVENTISTS IN INDIA ARE USING EDUCATION TO BUILD THE CHURCH reminded me how our Church should be built—from the children up. Wonderful stories.
Angel Manuel Rodriguez was in top form this edition. CHRISTIANITY’S GREAT MYSTERY is a welcome change from his theological hairsplitting.
Only evangelist MARK A. FINLEY would ask the world audience, “What does God want to accomplish in us ‘through the blood of the everlasting covenant’?”
WORLD EXCHANGE should be given more space. “The Place of Prayer” is heartbreaking. There should be a way for those of us reading those prayers to let those precious souls know that we are praying for and with them. Is there a way for us to help answer those prayers?
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
What Can I Say? Wes is One of My Oldest Friends and Influentual Critics
Andy, For many long years I've been checking your old SDA Perspective site and not a creature or culture was stirring, not a peep, bleat or pixel, a still coffin, waiting. Goldstein and E.G.W. moved upon the earth unmolested, in those days. But finally the trumpet soundeth and the dead cometh forth, grave clothes thrown aside and mantle freshened, blogging reviews of the "Review" and recaptioned comics all over the place like daffodils in the spring. Alas, a very miracle. The resurrection. With you and so many other ProgAdvs rising from the ground to apotheosis, the real resurrection yet to come could be anticlimax. Congratulations! It is proper, isn't it, to congratulate one upon his resurrection? I let your recent birthday go by but not your resurrection.
W.
The Guindon cartoon is an affectionate gift to Wes Kime, a brilliant artist, pen and ink master, wonderful cartoonist, talented wordsmith, and friend. Needless to say, I constantly beg him for more material. How about begging him with me?
Our friendship began way back in “Perspective” days when he volunteered his time as an illustrator and poet. We were reunited when Claudia and I visited my son, Jonathan, when he was stationed at Wright Paterson Air Base in Dayton.
He illustrated “The Badge”, an essay I wrote for “Perspective”, and rewrote the first paragraph in the bargain. I photographed his three-dimensional work of art; I refuse to take it out of the frame, picture quality be . . . not withstanding.
Andy
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