Perhaps I’m the only one feeling this way. If so, perhaps comments to this blog will make it clear.
More and more I’m feeling deserted in the SDA church. I mean, I know our numbers are increasing. The church that I belonged to as a child barely had more than 1 million members worldwide. These days I’m hearing estimates as high as 30 million– and no doubt it will soon be more.
But it seems there are fewer and fewer Adventists I can relate to. On the one hand, there are the group I will call the Traditionalists. Like all labels, it is not 100% accurate concerning any single person, but quite descriptive of the group.
These people generally believe in the verbal inspiration of Ellen White, the King James Bible (only), and whatever else they believe to belong to the Faith of the Pioneers. As I’ve indicated in earlier blogs, their notion of what the church “has always been” usually goes back to some time in their own youth or childhood, and often bears little or no resemblance to actual church history.
I sympathize with these people. I was one of these people. But for a number of reasons, I am no longer.
My understanding of inspiration is quite different than theirs, and reading Adventist history has persuaded me that we are a movement, that we have continued to grow and learn, and that we shall continue to through all eternity.That’s what I believe, and hope: Heaven will be boring if there’s nothing left to learn.
Many of the Traditionalists find change threatening–as we all do– and don’t want to let go of anything.
On the other side of the continuum I see the a group who focus not on Tradition, but on Compassion.
Many in the Compassion group, finding the inevitable legalism of Traditionalists unacceptable, have become the mirror image. Whatever is traditional is suspect, at best, evil at worst.
Instead of verbal inspiration, maybe it’s just fallible humans struggling to express their spiritual enlightenment. Instead of seeing sin in fellow church members who compromise standards, we see sin in church members who mention standards of any kind. The problem with the world isn’t sin, it’s a lack of understanding. If Traditionalists were Republicans, Compassionates are Democrats. Traditionalists insist on marriage being one man/one woman; Compassionates support ‘marriage equality.’
One group insists the world was created in six literal days six thousand years ago. The other group thinks the whole account is metaphorical, that creation was a process lasting millions of years.
Both of these groups are growing rapidly, though for different reasons, and both of them are highly vocal.
My problem is I don’t align very well with either side. On issue after issue I find myself–somewhere else. In most–not all, but most– cases, the issues which energize each side of the debate leave me cold.Both positions seem at some points irrational and reductionist.
To complicate matters further, both sides tend to see anyone who does not share all of their positions exactly, as being on the other side. It’s “He who is not for us, 100% all the way, is against us.”
In future posts, I hope to take up many of these questions. I also welcome questions from readers. I’m willing to explain how I see things–if it’s wanted.What I don’t want to do is add more gasoline to the Molotov cocktail- throwing of both extremes.
I believe there must be others who feel as I do, but are frankly intimidated into silence by both the Traditionalist Pharisees and the Compassion Pharisees. If that’s true, perhaps we can share and grow together.
Any way, that’s why I’m an increasingly lonely SDA.
Even outside of church circles, there are polar extremes. Pro-life or Pro-choice… and pretty much every political soapbox. I once asked my dad where he stood on a polarized subject, and he said, “You’re only giving me two options. There’s always a third choice.” That stuck with me, but I don’t think most people look for a third choice… something that takes both sides’ concerns into account and solves it differently.
Patty, I think your dad was very wise. His comment reminds me of what Jesus said when his disciples asked Him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” Jesus replied, “Neither.” Then He outlined the third option—a concept that was totally new to His listeners.
That’s a good point! I hadn’t thought of that, Brenda. 🙂
You’re heard of the sandwich generation? Those sandwiched in between parents and grown children.
Yup, I feel sandwiched inbetween Traditionalists and Compasionates. And I appreciate very much having someone verbalize what I’m thinking. I see very clearly in my world those two groups and I was squirming, not able to belong to either.
Patty, Brenda, Darcy– and whoever else is lurking out there:
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
–Emily Dickinson
I’m with you on this one bro. Thinking for yourself doesn’t always set well with many people, but we have company, for Jesus was also a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He also got in a lot of trouble for being intellectually honest about God and His Word.
I’m with you on this one bro. Thinking for yourself doesn’t always set well with many people, but we have company, for Jesus was also a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He also got in a lot of trouble for being intellectually honest about God and His Word.
I’m right there with you, Ed. I think generalizations of “the other guy” are often more dangerous than anything else. Wanting to distance oneself from the views of another as much as possible then becomes the standard, rather than Christ. How much worse, then, when our perceptions of an opposing view are skewed or entirely incorrect.
For the most part, I find myself in the “traditionalist” camp, though from my perspective it is the purity of faith (rather than the age of it) that is important. One doesn’t need to compromise principles in order to reach an ever changing culture…I think we too often confuse progress with compromise (on both sides of the argument).
The real crux is that the truth isn’t somewhere in the “middle” (or anywhere on the spectrum, actually). That’s why I don’t like labels like “conservative” and “liberal”…they keep us distracted.
These are important topics, Ed. I’m glad you’re taking them on…keep writing!
Thanks for sharing your feelings. I’ve been in the church 12 yrs. During which time only one family visited us for some reason other than babysitting, asking for donations, gossip rounds, or picking something churh related up. Once the job was done, bill paid, or gossip was cut off we went back to being those “not so SDA people” who you shouldn’t be unequally yoked with. But I believe being a lone reed with no support for our beliefs but the sheer determination makes up for what mistakes we make :-).
In the meantime constant fuss over who is doing what, mediation, music, and how much to pay whom clouds the circle of church. The church is in some state of flux. Non manufactured ( those without SDA geneology and SDA credentials ) are outsiders (period). Those members created within the walls of the church are divided over the new and the old. All this division is the devils work. I am certain there are soci-economic divisions too. The real question is how to grow? Growth means diversity. Diversity can lift us higher or strangle us. I am glad you feel sandwiched. Because that means you have empathy and a open mind. The only way you could not feel sandwiched is if you were blinded by your own view point. Its not age .. It is wisdom. I pray more people like you will help us handle all this growth faithfully.
I am sorry for your painful experience. I still believe that Adventism, understood correctly, is the most life-enhancing religion. But it centers on Christ, and on what He is doing.