Comic from Foxtrot by Bill Amend
(click to enlarge)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Reviewing Adventist Today
November-December 2008
GENERAL COMMENTS
This is an issue that is big, and I mean BIG on graphic illustrations, and advertising. We Need to Talk by Chris Blake and God Wants Israel Back, the Andy Nash Interview, were accompanied by picture spreads that covered a page and a half. (There was only space for four letters to the editor.) I would have happily donated most of the full-page picture of LA that accompanied my cLAim news update to reader feedback.
COMMENTS
We Need to Talk by Chris Blake makes the obvious point that the SDA church in North America will “continue to lose our next generation” unless changes are made. The changes he suggests have to do with identifying and catering to the preferences of “Older Mosaics” and “Young Busters”, ages 16 to 29.
I don’t buy it. Tweaking the delivery system of the Adventist message won’t solve the problem. The problem is the message itself, the 28 Fundamental Doctrines of the Church. Children raised as Adventists who do not attend SDA schools discover early on that other Christian communities tolerate less restrictive lifestyle choices. Young people that leave the sheltered world of the Adventist educational system discover that they have left a loving, inclusive Christian environment in which SDA doctrine is virtually ignored. The nonacademic Adventist world requires all but the cynical to conform to doctrine that dictates ritualistic, traditional behavior that is Christian in name only. For both groups, Adventist dogma is an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual turnoff.
Andy Nash and family had a great time in Israel, and the pictures that accompanied his tour bus editorial are charming. Unfortunately, his interview with Richard Elofer, President of the Adventist church in Israel needs the kind of editorial scrutiny that was afforded my piece. God Wants Israel Back is an interview that is scattered and too informal. Consequently, it looses focus and the title of the interview remains an unsupported assertion.
The “special advertising section” sponsored by Alumni Awards provides four pages of information about the state of Adventist secondary education and a reward strategy designed to improve it.
A Time to Laugh features caricatures and a brief biography of famous personalities; most are Adventists. Their author is anonymous “to avoid any sort of reprisal from the saints lacking humor”. (I too have had the honor of being “caricatured”!)
The Eye Doctor by Alden Thompson makes the point that “the whole truth is presented more clearly by several than by one. He is aided in this observation by an extensive quote from Ellen White’s Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, pp. 432-433.
The Seven Questions for Mary Whipple, Olympic Gold Medalist coxswain leaves out what for me is the most interesting question for Adventist readers. “How does she navigate traditional Sabbath taboos as an international athlete?”
Adventist Man’s comedic performance is steadily improving. However, he should have ended his answer to the question, “What should we avoid doing on the Sabbath?” with the first two sentences of his answer, “Adventist Man notes that many Christians tend to require lists. Otherwise, they feel listless.” The rest of the answer is preachy.
GENERAL COMMENTS
This is an issue that is big, and I mean BIG on graphic illustrations, and advertising. We Need to Talk by Chris Blake and God Wants Israel Back, the Andy Nash Interview, were accompanied by picture spreads that covered a page and a half. (There was only space for four letters to the editor.) I would have happily donated most of the full-page picture of LA that accompanied my cLAim news update to reader feedback.
COMMENTS
We Need to Talk by Chris Blake makes the obvious point that the SDA church in North America will “continue to lose our next generation” unless changes are made. The changes he suggests have to do with identifying and catering to the preferences of “Older Mosaics” and “Young Busters”, ages 16 to 29.
I don’t buy it. Tweaking the delivery system of the Adventist message won’t solve the problem. The problem is the message itself, the 28 Fundamental Doctrines of the Church. Children raised as Adventists who do not attend SDA schools discover early on that other Christian communities tolerate less restrictive lifestyle choices. Young people that leave the sheltered world of the Adventist educational system discover that they have left a loving, inclusive Christian environment in which SDA doctrine is virtually ignored. The nonacademic Adventist world requires all but the cynical to conform to doctrine that dictates ritualistic, traditional behavior that is Christian in name only. For both groups, Adventist dogma is an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual turnoff.
Andy Nash and family had a great time in Israel, and the pictures that accompanied his tour bus editorial are charming. Unfortunately, his interview with Richard Elofer, President of the Adventist church in Israel needs the kind of editorial scrutiny that was afforded my piece. God Wants Israel Back is an interview that is scattered and too informal. Consequently, it looses focus and the title of the interview remains an unsupported assertion.
The “special advertising section” sponsored by Alumni Awards provides four pages of information about the state of Adventist secondary education and a reward strategy designed to improve it.
A Time to Laugh features caricatures and a brief biography of famous personalities; most are Adventists. Their author is anonymous “to avoid any sort of reprisal from the saints lacking humor”. (I too have had the honor of being “caricatured”!)
The Eye Doctor by Alden Thompson makes the point that “the whole truth is presented more clearly by several than by one. He is aided in this observation by an extensive quote from Ellen White’s Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, pp. 432-433.
The Seven Questions for Mary Whipple, Olympic Gold Medalist coxswain leaves out what for me is the most interesting question for Adventist readers. “How does she navigate traditional Sabbath taboos as an international athlete?”
Adventist Man’s comedic performance is steadily improving. However, he should have ended his answer to the question, “What should we avoid doing on the Sabbath?” with the first two sentences of his answer, “Adventist Man notes that many Christians tend to require lists. Otherwise, they feel listless.” The rest of the answer is preachy.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Improbable Stories
When should parents and teachers raise questions about the literal interpretation of these stories?
Comics from Rubes, by Leigh Rubin.
(click for enlarged images)
Comics from Rubes, by Leigh Rubin.
(click for enlarged images)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Reviewing Spectrum
Summer 2008
Volume 36, Issue 3
GENERAL COMMENTS
This edition of Spectrum is one of the best ever and a cover-to-cover MUST READ. My only ongoing criticism is that most Spectrum articles are about a third too long. That said, Bouquets all around! Bravo! I was particularly impressed by:
Allita Byrd’s skillful interview of Ronald L. Numbers.
Eric Scott’s comments regarding “Scientific Subjectivity: Bias Evolution, and Astrophysics”.
E. Albert Reece, Catherine Verfaille, Dan Kaufman, and Terry Burns knowledge of stem cell research.
Adrian James’ “Uphill, Downhill, and the Wretched of the Earth” was the story of a robbery and kidnapping that, at least to me, was less about racism than it was about mindless criminality.
A quote by Haney Lopez included in Maury Jackson’s “Answering the Call for a Sacred Conversation on Race” elegantly expresses something that I have attempted to communicate to my students for a very long time.
“The rejection of race in science is now almost complete. In the end, we should embrace historian Barbara Field’s succinct conclusion with respect to the plausibility of biological races: ‘Anyone who continues to believe in race as a physical attribute of individuals, despite the now commonplace disclaimers of biologists and geneticists, might as well also believe that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy are real, and that the earth stands still while the sun moves.’”
Volume 36, Issue 3
GENERAL COMMENTS
This edition of Spectrum is one of the best ever and a cover-to-cover MUST READ. My only ongoing criticism is that most Spectrum articles are about a third too long. That said, Bouquets all around! Bravo! I was particularly impressed by:
Allita Byrd’s skillful interview of Ronald L. Numbers.
Eric Scott’s comments regarding “Scientific Subjectivity: Bias Evolution, and Astrophysics”.
E. Albert Reece, Catherine Verfaille, Dan Kaufman, and Terry Burns knowledge of stem cell research.
Adrian James’ “Uphill, Downhill, and the Wretched of the Earth” was the story of a robbery and kidnapping that, at least to me, was less about racism than it was about mindless criminality.
A quote by Haney Lopez included in Maury Jackson’s “Answering the Call for a Sacred Conversation on Race” elegantly expresses something that I have attempted to communicate to my students for a very long time.
“The rejection of race in science is now almost complete. In the end, we should embrace historian Barbara Field’s succinct conclusion with respect to the plausibility of biological races: ‘Anyone who continues to believe in race as a physical attribute of individuals, despite the now commonplace disclaimers of biologists and geneticists, might as well also believe that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy are real, and that the earth stands still while the sun moves.’”
A Conversation About God
In my review of the July 10 Adventist Review, I included the following words from Kenneth R. Miller’s, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution. New York: Cliff Street Books.
In the course of a recent conversation with Sarah Andrews, a friend who is a geologist and mystery writer*, I shared Miller’s perspective. I was delighted with Sarah’s response. Both writers are brilliant scientists and philosophers. Each has challenged the way I perceive the world and made me a less narcissistic and more thoughtful Christian.
KENNETH MILLER: Believing in Darwin’s God
Evolution is neither more nor less than the result of respecting the reality and consistency of the physical world over time. To fashion material beings with an independent physical existence, any Creator would have had to produce an independent material universe in which our evolution over time was a contingent possibility. A believer in the divine accepts that God's love and gift of freedom are genuine - so genuine that they include the power to choose evil and, if we wish, to freely send ourselves to Hell. Not all believers will accept the stark conditions of that bargain, but our freedom to act has to have a physical and biological basis. Evolution and its sister sciences of genetics and molecular biology provide that basis. In biological terms, evolution is the only way a Creator could have made us the creatures we are - free beings in a world of authentic and meaningful moral and spiritual choices.
Those who ask from science a final argument, an ultimate proof, an unassailable position from which the issue of God may be decided will always be disappointed. As a scientist I claim no new proofs, no revolutionary data, no stunning insight into nature that can tip the balance in one direction or another. But I do claim that to a believer. Even in the most traditional sense, evolutionary biology is not at all the obstacle we often believe it to be. In many respects, evolution is the key to understanding our relationship with God.
When I have the privilege of giving a series of lectures on evolutionary biology to my freshman students, I usually conclude those lectures with a few remarks about the impact of evolutionary theory on other fields, from economics to politics to religion. I find a way to make clear that I do not regard evolution, properly understood, as either antireligious or antispiritual. Most students seem to appreciate those sentiments. They probably figure that Professor Miller, trying to be a nice guy and doubtlessly an agnostic, is trying to find a way to be unequivocal about evolution without offending the University chaplain.
There are always a few who find me after class and want to pin me down. They ask me point-blank: "Do you believe in God?"
And I tell each of them, "Yes."
Puzzled, they ask: "What kind of God?"
Over the years I have struggled to come up with a simple but precise answer to that question. And, eventually I found it. I believe in Darwin's God.
SARAH ANDREWS: Experiencing God
It amazes me to think that any biologist worth his or her salt spends a minute of any millennium worrying about such matters. As a geologist training with a master, I was taught to leave thoughts of genesis out of my thinking as much as possible until I had my observations and facts together. Coming from that direction, one observes what is, rather than what one thinks it should be. By leaving out myself-centered and, in some obscure or obvious way, self-serving recipes for the universe, I can better hope to see it clearly and admire its divinity without judging it by my puny standards.
I don't believe in God; I experience God.
*Sarah’s eleven mystery novels entertain and explain what geologists do. I recommend them all. The setting of her latest novel, “In Cold Persuit”, is Antarctica’s McMurdo Station where Sarah spent two months on a research grant.
Comics from Rubes, by Leigh Rubin.
(click for enlarged images)
In the course of a recent conversation with Sarah Andrews, a friend who is a geologist and mystery writer*, I shared Miller’s perspective. I was delighted with Sarah’s response. Both writers are brilliant scientists and philosophers. Each has challenged the way I perceive the world and made me a less narcissistic and more thoughtful Christian.
KENNETH MILLER: Believing in Darwin’s God
Evolution is neither more nor less than the result of respecting the reality and consistency of the physical world over time. To fashion material beings with an independent physical existence, any Creator would have had to produce an independent material universe in which our evolution over time was a contingent possibility. A believer in the divine accepts that God's love and gift of freedom are genuine - so genuine that they include the power to choose evil and, if we wish, to freely send ourselves to Hell. Not all believers will accept the stark conditions of that bargain, but our freedom to act has to have a physical and biological basis. Evolution and its sister sciences of genetics and molecular biology provide that basis. In biological terms, evolution is the only way a Creator could have made us the creatures we are - free beings in a world of authentic and meaningful moral and spiritual choices.
Those who ask from science a final argument, an ultimate proof, an unassailable position from which the issue of God may be decided will always be disappointed. As a scientist I claim no new proofs, no revolutionary data, no stunning insight into nature that can tip the balance in one direction or another. But I do claim that to a believer. Even in the most traditional sense, evolutionary biology is not at all the obstacle we often believe it to be. In many respects, evolution is the key to understanding our relationship with God.
When I have the privilege of giving a series of lectures on evolutionary biology to my freshman students, I usually conclude those lectures with a few remarks about the impact of evolutionary theory on other fields, from economics to politics to religion. I find a way to make clear that I do not regard evolution, properly understood, as either antireligious or antispiritual. Most students seem to appreciate those sentiments. They probably figure that Professor Miller, trying to be a nice guy and doubtlessly an agnostic, is trying to find a way to be unequivocal about evolution without offending the University chaplain.
There are always a few who find me after class and want to pin me down. They ask me point-blank: "Do you believe in God?"
And I tell each of them, "Yes."
Puzzled, they ask: "What kind of God?"
Over the years I have struggled to come up with a simple but precise answer to that question. And, eventually I found it. I believe in Darwin's God.
SARAH ANDREWS: Experiencing God
It amazes me to think that any biologist worth his or her salt spends a minute of any millennium worrying about such matters. As a geologist training with a master, I was taught to leave thoughts of genesis out of my thinking as much as possible until I had my observations and facts together. Coming from that direction, one observes what is, rather than what one thinks it should be. By leaving out myself-centered and, in some obscure or obvious way, self-serving recipes for the universe, I can better hope to see it clearly and admire its divinity without judging it by my puny standards.
I don't believe in God; I experience God.
*Sarah’s eleven mystery novels entertain and explain what geologists do. I recommend them all. The setting of her latest novel, “In Cold Persuit”, is Antarctica’s McMurdo Station where Sarah spent two months on a research grant.
Comics from Rubes, by Leigh Rubin.
(click for enlarged images)
Reviewing Adventist World, NAD Edition
November 2008
Vol. 4, No, 11
GENERAL COMMENTS
This edition has a great deal to recommend it. I was particularly impressed by the ADRA materials. However, its juxtaposition to the advertisement for the eStore Music Cruise, “7 Days in the Western Caribbean” sponsored by the Quiet Hour was a bit unsettling. Two Black Eyes have been awarded, and I have some critical comments.
BOUQUETS
IS THE GENERAL CONFERENCE NECESSARY? General Conference president, Jan Paulsen, recently spoke with the Adventist World editor, Bill Knott, about the purpose and future of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s world headquarters.
CELIAC DISEASEL by Allan R. Handysides and Peter N. Landless
AND THERE WAS LIGHT: A vision, a mission, and the story of this journal by Bill Knott
ENABLING THE DISABLED IN MONGOLIA by Sally Lam-Phoon
BLACK EYES
According to Gabriel E. Maurer and Angel Manuel Rodriguez, the Ten Commandments is a PERSCRIPTION FOR FREEDOM and THE NEW COVENANT IN HEBREWS and “should be internalized, shaping our character and actions. It’s not a burden but a joyful expression of our covenant relationship with God; a covenant instituted through the gracious blood of Jesus.”
Gentlemen, have you read Galatians 3? Here are some excerpts from The Faith or Observance of the Law chapter that might jog your memories.
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?”
“All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’.”
“What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.”
“Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
COMMENTS
Bill, I was applauding your editorial, EVERY GOOD GIFT, until I hit the “just” in your last sentence. Here is the sentence. “That great numbered throng gathered at the Father’s throne will include JUST those who have allowed the Lord’s good gifts to transcend all other human categories. I was willing to forgive the word “categories” as being a confusing word choice, but the “just” smacked of perfectionism and would certainly eliminate Sampson and David and even, I suspect, the entire “great numbered throng”!
I was disappointed with the two articles that described plans for evangelism in North America. Both SAY IT BOLDLY by Gary Gibbs and CHRISTIAN MARKETING 101 by Dan Day ignore the message and hype the marketing strategies. “It’s the message, stupid!” The 28 Adventist Doctrines that finally surface at the end of Revelation Seminars, Amazing Facts, and It is Written evangelism don’t sell and are viewed as irrelevant by target audiences. According to Monte Sahlin, “Conventional evangelism is largely stalled, despite the widespread use of satellite technology, Web sites, etc., and increased funding. The majority of baptisms in North America come from immigrants, despite the fact that these are not the focus of most of the evangelism initiatives. . . .There are very few real converts among the cultural mainstream of America—less than one per congregation per year.” (Surprisingly, this quote is cited in Marketing 101.)
FOUR LESSONS FROM THE POTTER’S HOUSE by Keisha McKenzie was so well written that it is painful to take issue with the central metaphor that she so beautifully develops, namely the efficacy of suffering. In my experience, extreme suffering only succeeds in creating goodness in a tiny minority of survivors. The notion that God is responsible for these “fiery trials” is reprehensible. It mocks the words, the life, and the death of Christ. In addition, it leaves the Devil without a job.
Vol. 4, No, 11
GENERAL COMMENTS
This edition has a great deal to recommend it. I was particularly impressed by the ADRA materials. However, its juxtaposition to the advertisement for the eStore Music Cruise, “7 Days in the Western Caribbean” sponsored by the Quiet Hour was a bit unsettling. Two Black Eyes have been awarded, and I have some critical comments.
BOUQUETS
IS THE GENERAL CONFERENCE NECESSARY? General Conference president, Jan Paulsen, recently spoke with the Adventist World editor, Bill Knott, about the purpose and future of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s world headquarters.
CELIAC DISEASEL by Allan R. Handysides and Peter N. Landless
AND THERE WAS LIGHT: A vision, a mission, and the story of this journal by Bill Knott
ENABLING THE DISABLED IN MONGOLIA by Sally Lam-Phoon
BLACK EYES
According to Gabriel E. Maurer and Angel Manuel Rodriguez, the Ten Commandments is a PERSCRIPTION FOR FREEDOM and THE NEW COVENANT IN HEBREWS and “should be internalized, shaping our character and actions. It’s not a burden but a joyful expression of our covenant relationship with God; a covenant instituted through the gracious blood of Jesus.”
Gentlemen, have you read Galatians 3? Here are some excerpts from The Faith or Observance of the Law chapter that might jog your memories.
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?”
“All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’.”
“What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.”
“Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
COMMENTS
Bill, I was applauding your editorial, EVERY GOOD GIFT, until I hit the “just” in your last sentence. Here is the sentence. “That great numbered throng gathered at the Father’s throne will include JUST those who have allowed the Lord’s good gifts to transcend all other human categories. I was willing to forgive the word “categories” as being a confusing word choice, but the “just” smacked of perfectionism and would certainly eliminate Sampson and David and even, I suspect, the entire “great numbered throng”!
I was disappointed with the two articles that described plans for evangelism in North America. Both SAY IT BOLDLY by Gary Gibbs and CHRISTIAN MARKETING 101 by Dan Day ignore the message and hype the marketing strategies. “It’s the message, stupid!” The 28 Adventist Doctrines that finally surface at the end of Revelation Seminars, Amazing Facts, and It is Written evangelism don’t sell and are viewed as irrelevant by target audiences. According to Monte Sahlin, “Conventional evangelism is largely stalled, despite the widespread use of satellite technology, Web sites, etc., and increased funding. The majority of baptisms in North America come from immigrants, despite the fact that these are not the focus of most of the evangelism initiatives. . . .There are very few real converts among the cultural mainstream of America—less than one per congregation per year.” (Surprisingly, this quote is cited in Marketing 101.)
FOUR LESSONS FROM THE POTTER’S HOUSE by Keisha McKenzie was so well written that it is painful to take issue with the central metaphor that she so beautifully develops, namely the efficacy of suffering. In my experience, extreme suffering only succeeds in creating goodness in a tiny minority of survivors. The notion that God is responsible for these “fiery trials” is reprehensible. It mocks the words, the life, and the death of Christ. In addition, it leaves the Devil without a job.
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