The Spectrum Blog

"Sky angel arrives" department

By Alexander Carpenter

In light of our hot and heavy discussion of scripture, I found several word choices in the piece particularly apt, not to mention that last clause. Here's an update on the man behind 3ABN, in today's copy of St. Lucia's The STAR:

Danny Shelton received a celebrity welcome at the St Lucia Mission of Seventh Day Adventists’ grand annual lay preachers rally on Saturday.

The event which saw hundreds of Seventh Day Adventists travel from around the island to the George Odlum Stadium was an all-day affair with Danny Shelton and his wife as special guests. Shelton a familiar face to 3ABN (Three Angels Broadcasting Network), channel 42 viewers, shook hands with fans and even took time to sign a few Holy Bibles.

Signing scripture -- now that takes inspiration.

Wave that flag for evangelism

By Alexander Carpenter

I think church and state collapsed a bit in this video that is tagged Indiana Conference. That sure is a lot of flag waving and a certain political leader. Apparently it was made for Adventist evangelism by this ministry. A low in exploitation and saccharinity all while reaffirming patriotism for God.

While there's no doubt that the terrible attacks prompted both good and dangerous national responses, I think that religious leaders must tread very carefully when mixing the symbols of the state with religion. And they must tread even more cautiously when doing any kind of overt evangelism. It is a marketing environment with at best a spiritual goal. Certainly people need questions answered, but mixing God and country always lowers Theos to the banality of the state.

BREAKING: 3ABN and Amazing Facts to join forces

By Alexander Carpenter

3:37 PM

According to Bonnie Ensminger, secretary to Doug Batchelor, Amazing Facts and Three Angels Broadcasting Network will be "uniting."

Doug Batchelor, the president of Amazing Facts and senior minister at the Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church has flown to the studios of 3ABN, Inc of Thompsonville, Illinois and will join with current 3ABN president/speaker Danny Shelton in a live announcement at 8:00 PM CDT today.

Sources, including Save3ABN.com, suggest that organizational change will include Doug Batchelor assuming the presidency of 3ABN although questions remain about the continued role of Danny Shelton in the TV ministry he started in 1986.

UPDATE: Here's the official press release.

6:00 PM PDT: Watch the announcement on 3ABN LIVE.

The GC's stained-glass ceiling

By Alexander Carpenter

"Imagine a Black youngster approaching their Adventist-worker parents with these questions: “Dad/Mom, are all positions in the church open, or are some closed to people like me?," so asks Roy Adams, Associate Editor of the Adventist Review.  His rhetorical child continues, "Are there glass ceilings in the church?"

And then Roy asks us, "What would be the honest answer from an informed Adventist parent?"

Recently the Adventist Review changed leadership and Roy Adams was passed over for Bill Knott who recently finished his dissertation in journalism, actually history. As noted before in Spectrum, some Adventists expressed sadness that someone so qualified, experienced, and gracious not even be nominated.

Adams asks: "What are people really like in their true selves, behind closed doors, away from the cameras and microphones?"

And then he hammers it home.

We’ve been in existence now for more than 160 years; and we’ve represented ourselves as an interracial, multicultural, multiethnic global community. But what do our actions say?

 

That thought came to me about three or four years ago as I walked the halls of the General Conference, looking at the pictures that adorn the walls of key departments in the building—pictures of the church’s topmost officials over the years. I counted 92 leaders, 89 of them (96.7 percent) Caucasian. This one reality trumps all our professions about diversity. They tell the story of a glass ceiling beyond which certain folks cannot rise. It’s as if there’s an unwritten understanding that certain positions in the church are too sensitive for certain ethnic groups to occupy. The United Nations can afford to take that risk, but the church is much too delicate for that!

As a fifth-generation white Adventist I'm  proud of my community's history; but reading Roy I'm ashamed too. Sure some racists out there will laugh him it off as quota-calling, or mumble something about white guilt, but the reality is that they just fear new power shifts and they have not yet seen that long arch of history bending toward justice. A record of 96% is the kind of color bleach out that Clorox craves. We don't need a quota for this wash, we need a whole new laundromat, and maybe a bit less silver and some more red & yellow, black & white in our spring. There's no doubt that right now it's an old white boys-only club with power given to those who look and sound right--theologically, sartorially, votingly, i.e., culturally.

I have nothing against the Review with its crashing circulation numbers (less than 25,000), but if our church paper is going to continue calling itself the "flagship journal of Seventh-day Adventist Church"--it had better raise its colors a lot higher and soon if it's going to witness to a world smashing through marble, glass, stained-glass, and even celluloid ceilings.

The last time I checked "Revelation," I recall an eschatological vision where every nation, tribe, tongue, and people aren't floating around in ships. No, in fact, the saints stand together with Christ on top of, yes, that sea of glass.  Come on church leadership--let's look and act like we mean it today.

Amazing Facts shoots down the smokescreen of rape and incest

By Johnny A. Ramirez

Listen to an Amazing Facts recording here to hear about this "rape and incest smokescreen". There is also another recording discussing if God is pro-choice or pro-life. 

The Bible teaches pro-life, they say, and abortion is a serious sin.  Personhood is ascribed to the fetus by the Amazing Facts personality in opposition to well respected Adventist perspectives on what is a person.

The Church does not serve as conscience for individuals; however, it should provide moral guidance. Abortions for reasons of birth control, gender selection, or convenience are not condoned by the Church. Women, at times however, may face exceptional circumstances that present serious moral or medical dilemmas, such as significant threats to the pregnant woman's life, serious jeopardy to her health, severe congenital defects carefully diagnosed in the fetus, and pregnancy resulting from rape or incest. The final decision whether to terminate the pregnancy or not should be made by the pregnant woman after appropriate consultation. She should be aided in her decision by accurate information, biblical principles, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, these decisions are best made within the context of healthy family relationships.

From the official Seventh-day Adventist church Guidelines on Abortion.

Is Amazing Facts propagating its own divergent views on the abortion debate?  In my honest opinion our official statement, and common sense, tell us that victims of rape and incest are more than mere rhetorical ploys.

Nam/Goldstein Interlogue

Make sure that you get over to LLU Professor Julius Nam's Progressive Adventism site for an informative interlogue with our pal Clifford Goldstein.

Nam: Some who read your writings, especially on matters of belief, have formed an impression of you as a dogmatic, militantly partisan, even closed-minded individual. But I’ve heard others (who have disagreed with you) describe you as a fair-minded, fun person to fellowship with. What are your critics not seeing or understanding?

Goldstein: Well, I think there tends to be a lot of energy and forcefulness in my writings that turns some folks off. I try and hone in on my point as sharply and strongly as I can. That gives the impression of dogmatism, I know, and I suppose to a degree it’s a fairly accurate representation, though I have mellowed with age. I think too that because I started writing as a pretty new Adventist, with a lot of zeal and fire, I got that reputation early on, and even though I have mellowed out (though folks who didn’t like “Seventh-Day Darwinians” might disagree) your past tends to follow you long into the future.

A thousand thanks to our readers (and a contest!)

The Spectrum Blog just recorded its millesimal comment today. Woohoo!

I'd like to thank those who just visit and read and those who comment too. It looks like Jim Miles was the thousandth. It's great to be among those who entertain and challenge views that differ.

I'd also like to acknowledge the expanding Adventist blogosphere. If you've read Ellen White's Spiritual Gifts Vol II its clear that Adventism comes from a community-based tradition of free-wheeling spiritual exploration. Since 1968 the Adventist Forum has sought to continue that community-building through conversation. It's been wonderful to see more and more Adventists not just interested in pounding out the prolix, but advocating present truth. 

As we move forward and continue to hone our personal beliefs, let us speak out and encourage more action by our local church, NAD, and GC leadership. Whether one reads Genesis literally, contextually, or rarely, there's no doubt that Jesus preached a politically-risqué message of peace, economic justice, inclusion, and that he acted and died to heal body and spirit for all. Individually we all fall short; together we are the body of Christ today.   

In the Spring, the Adventist Forum will be engaging in an expansion of our entire web offering.  If you have ideas, critiques, or would like to post something brilliantly provocative, let us know.  alexander [at] spectrummagazine.org

Onward and upward to two thousand. . .

With deep appreciation to you,
Alexander Carpenter

In celebration, I'm offering three FREE one-year subscriptions to the Spectrum journal. $40 value each.

Email me a poignant paragraph (to be published on the blog) expressing what you'd change about Adventism.

The three short essays (less than 200 words) that I select (based on critical whim) will win a subscription. Deadline: Friday (1/19) midnight PST. Include your name and mailing address. alexander [at] spectrummagazine.org 

World Church: Redefining the Meaning of Adventist Mission

What is this? A news report that includes differing viewpoints by an official church organization. And it raises significant issues about Adventist Mission. Props to those involved in this story.

What do you think about the issues raised? Wither lies the future of Adventist mission?

Reprinted from the Adventist News Network:

January 10, 2007 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Taashi Rowe/ANN]

Up until fairly recently the idea of mission in the Seventh-day Adventist Church was relatively simple to define. "Real" mission work involved church members from Western countries moving across the world to live among native groups for long periods of time with the hope of sharing the gospel and eventually baptizing people into the Adventist church. Today, there are literally hundreds of ways to become involved in mission work in the Adventist church independent of that traditional concept of cross-cultural mission work.

What is mission? It depends on whom you ask. Some say mission is volunteering in your local community. Others say mission is a youth group spending 10 days building a church in another part of the world, risking life to share the news of Christ with neighbors in heavily non-Christian areas, or offering an in-demand skill such as medicine to communities where public proselytizing is illegal. Still others think mission is working for an Adventist institution, a school or hospital for example, in another part of the world.

Bruce Bauer, a missiology professor at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, says, "the Adventist church is struggling right now [with] what mission is all about." Today, there are some 1,000 mission workers sent out by church headquarters, about half of what there used to be. And close analysis of that number reveals that many of those missionaries are in fact institutional workers not directly involved in frontline work, or preaching the gospel to first-time hearers.

Bauer, who has spent years in the traditional mission field, is concerned by how many missionaries are "working for those who are already Adventist."

"When our early church leaders were recruiting missionaries they were going out as pioneers, as church planters to start the work in some countries. They went for long periods of time, learned the language and culture and thought of going for the rest of their lives. As we moved into the 1940s and 50s missionary work became more institutionalized," explains Bauer.

But working for Adventist institutions is still mission, insists Cheryl Doss, a former missionary and associate director for the Institute of World Mission at Andrews University.

"Yes, we tend to concentrate mission work in areas where we have had success," says Doss, "[But] that doesn't make you not a front line worker. We lived on a mission station that had a ministerial training school. During the 10 years we were stationed there seven new churches were planted. There were already 250,000 members in that little country so it wasn't like pioneer work but it was ... an important part of the mission work that needs to continue."

In 2005 the Seventh-day Adventist Church came up with a new way to articulate its mission. Church leaders made plans to Tell The World--a slogan that embodies the church's mission to introduce as many people as possible to Jesus. The Tell the World statement challenges "five million Seventh-day Adventists to reach at least one person for Jesus and bring them into fellowship with God's family by 2010." Telling the whole world about Jesus would mean going beyond traditional methods.

One non-traditional way of Telling the World has already been implemented through Global Mission, which was created in 1990 to help establish churches in areas where there were no Adventists. Global Mission's role is to "reach the unreached with hope." They mainly function in areas of the world that the church calls the 10/40 window, a term used to describe a geographical rectangle that extends from West Africa, through the Middle East, and into Asia. Since Global Mission came on the scene there has been some growth of the Adventist church in those areas.

Jon Dybdahl, former president of Walla Walla University and a former missionary, said Global Mission "quite radically changes the mission strategy of the church. Instead of emphasizing the number of people we move into the baptism tank we focus on how many churches we can start in places where there are no Adventists."

While filled with praises for Global Mission, Lester Merklin, director of the Institute of World Mission, is however concerned about its impact on cross-cultural mission work. "I suspect ... it has left an impression in the [Western world] that everywhere in the world there are local people that can do the mission if we give them a little stipend. Mission is a world church responsibility. We don't have any Muslim contacts in the 10/40 window who can go and do the mission work. It will take cross-cultural effort."

Although there is a visible decrease in "professional" long-term missionaries there has also been a surge in people who volunteer for short-term mission work. People like Tom Slikkers, who most people would not consider a missionary. But the vice president of S2 Yachts, a boating company based in Holland, Michigan played a big part in building a long-lasting monument to Christ. Along with the short-term mission group, Maranatha Volunteers International, Slikkers and his company applied their expertise in boat-building to establishing a floating church on the high-altitude Lake Titicaca in Peru.

Though many church leaders agree their impact is significant, short-term missionaries are another cause for concern for some in the church. Traditionalists like Bauer, Lester Merklin and others worry that short-term missionaries do not have the training to be effective in foreign cultures.

He adds that long term missionaries tend to think of what they do as a result of "God's call on one's life to a particular people and place. You have to have a sense that you are where God wants you to be at that time and that place."

On the other hand, Vernon Parmenter, associate secretary at the church's world headquarters, says short-term mission workers are a boon to the church. He says because the church doesn't have the budget to pay as many missionaries as it would like they have come to depend upon short-term missionaries. Through the Adventist Volunteer Center, which Parmenter directs, some hundreds of people go out to do mission work for anywhere from two months to two years. He says much of what these volunteers do, preaching and holding Bible studies, would be considered frontline mission work.

Bauer says he doesn't believe in instant missionaries. "I'm having trouble understanding the type of people that are baptized after three weeks without any insight into culture."

Bauer's concern is one that has been expressed by church leaders. Over and over again the church's statistics have proven that along with a huge influx of new newly baptized members into the church after a three-week crusade comes a sizable exit months later.

But long-term mission does not have to be pitted short-term mission says, Scott Griswold, who directs the Adventist church's Buddhist Study Center in Asia. He says, "short-term mission can take up a lot of time of the long-time workers, but can really inspire those who go."

He shares Bauer's concern that proper contextualization of the gospel message is where short-term missionaries tend to fall short: "When it comes to short-term mission, stumbling blocks are there because of their own perspective and beliefs. We must try to understand what [natives] believe and then present God's truths in ways they can understand. This is not changing God's message but changing the way it is heard. However, contextualization is not near as important as a reliance on the Holy Spirit who is able to overcome any barrier especially through His incredible divine love."

Griswold, who has been a missionary for 10 years, advises, "Short-term missionaries should listen carefully to the field to see what is truly needed instead of letting their agenda push what happens. A careful, long-term partnership with short-terms going frequently to one spot may be more helpful."

Kyle Fiess, vice president of marketing for Maranatha Volunteers International, agrees that changing people's hearts and minds for eternity doesn't happen in 15 nights at a crusade. He explains that Maranatha mainly works in areas where there is already an Adventist church working with the community and preparing people for baptism.

"We are definitely committed to the opportunity for people to be missionaries. Through these [short-term] experiences we hope to influence people's lives and change the way they think of mission," Fiess says.

When asked about the future of mission work in the Adventist church, Dybdahl expresses a concern that many "people in the church really know very little about the international church and its mission, history of mission and mission strategy."

Bauer agrees, saying that this is because many Adventist churches give members the "impression that there is nothing left to do. We can sit in our rocking chairs and wait for Christ to return." Bauer suggests that the church redirect more of its resources to unentered areas.

Doss says, "We have a long way to go. There are a lot of people who haven't heard about Jesus in a way that makes sense to them. We have to find people who are willing to listen and learn and live with them. I see movements in that direction. I hope and pray that we seize the moment and find ways that we can empower people to answer God's calling."

Involvement in mission is a crucial part of the Christian experience, says Gary Krause, director of the Office of Adventist Mission at the Adventist world church headquarters. He sums up the church's need to do mission by pointing to Matthew 28:19: "Jesus didn't suggest or request--He told us to go into the world. We are a world church with a world commission."

A new year message from Bonnie and Chuck

The Great Contra-verses

By Alexander Carpenter

Here's a short film that my brother and I made on Monday and posted on You Tube.

The film explores themes in the Adventist tradition of the Great Controversy. An attempt to create a meta view of human experience (why bad things happen to good people, why there are various religions), the filming of an idea/doctrine allows me to include visual and auditory (Philip Glass's symphony no. 3, iv) bridges from me - a student in Berkeley to the cosmic struggle for justice - far beyond. As with any representation of religious experience, this "plot" lies essentially subjective and driven by mysterium tremendum.

On which side?

By Nathan Brown

Independent Adventist evangelist Doug Batchelor is on the big screen at a cinema near you—or at least selected cinemas in capital cities around Australia—this month. He is among half-a-dozen interviewees Australian media personality Andrew Denton features in his new documentary God on My Side.

Considering much Western media attention has focused on Muslim fundamentalism in recent years, the documentary set out to explore “our side” of fundamentalist belief. To this end, Denton spent four days at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Dallas, Texas, held in February this year. This annual convention attracts more than 6000 Christian communicators representing 350 TV stations and 750 radio stations. As one first-time convention-goer describes it to Denton, it’s “an interesting mix of religion and money.” Denton’s first objective is to assess the scope and impact of these broadcasters and the magnitude of the Christian industry of which they are a part.

Originally conceived as a special edition of Denton’s regular Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Enough Rope, Denton—an avowed atheist—employs his trademark interviewing style to gently, sympathetically and intelligently explore the faith and ministry of a number of the participants in this event. In this context, Batchelor has opportunity to give his personal testimony briefly and to explain the focus of his TV ministry.

Of course, one of Denton’s reasons for interest in this gathering is to explore the political influences of such a gathering. And he finds himself in the heart of George Bush country, geographically and ideologically. President Bush sends his greetings to NRB convention-goers by prerecorded video, praising the work of these media evangelists. Indeed, the closest Denton comes to finding a differing political viewpoint is one interviewee who reports knowing some Christians who vote Democrat.

Denton’s storytelling moves on to the end-time focus of many of these voices. America and the wider world are in moral decline, Denton is told, and this coupled with various disasters is a sure sign of the nearness of the end. Most of the interviewees link this prophetic focus strongly with the role of Israel and the United States in the Middle East. Having worked through the various shades of Christian “industry” and other oddities, this is where the fundamentalism turns nasty.

For some focused on Israel and Bible prophecy, the US should stop at nothing to preserve and protect the nation of Israel, including the use of nuclear weapons if necessary. Denton includes footage of preachers calling on US leadership to expand military action in the Middle East for this purpose.

And somewhere in the midst of this is at least one Adventist voice, not standing out significantly in what he contributes to the documentary. Without doubt, Denton and many other observers would situate Adventists firmly within this fundamentalist, end-time school of thought. But the question this documentary asks of Adventists is whether this is where we truly belong and where we should be seeking to identify and position ourselves.

God on My Side largely leaves it to the viewer to draw their own conclusions but offers a prompt with the words of John 15:12—“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you”—punctuating the final credits. This is a profound contrast to the appeal to military power preached in the last few minutes of the documentary.

It’s also at least a partial answer for those of us who are less than comfortable joining in the narrow, often negative, politically conservative, fundamentalist agenda that seems to be increasingly assumed with the label Christian. Even when we share some of the same beliefs, a priority on Christian love and service will set us apart. After all, that’s what Jesus said: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Update: here is a blog post on the film.

Messages to Wrong People

Wait, is Doug Batchelor on deck in the Enterprise?

But seriously, is this version of Adventist eschatology some type of pre-trib, non-secret rapture escapism?

"We got ours sucka. Oh, you didn't respond to the evangelistic flyer you got in the mail, well, we tried to appeal to both your aesthetic sense and fear of the unknown. Can't win'm all. Watch out for the ro. . ."

But hey, at least Jesus comes back rainbow positive. . .and, oh yeah, old people will look like their grandchildren. . . the ultimate nip/tuck? Oops, sorry mother earth, you have to wait a thousand years for yours.

Yeah, it all makes sense now: I guess since God killed only the wicked in the past and will do the same in the future - we humans have got to pick up the slack these days.

Why Adams Should Have Been Review Editor

The Adventist Review and the Adventist World have a new editor, Bill Knott.

Over at the Spectrum web site, Andy Nash writes:

Although I personally respect President Jan Paulsen and other church leaders, it’s difficult for many of us to understand the dynamics of what happened here. Even after the world church’s Spring Meeting in April, when the delegation voted to send back Bill Knott’s name and specifically requested that Adams be considered, Paulsen returned six months later with only one name, Knott’s, and the choice of a yes or no vote.

Read the rest here.

The Means and Ends of Adventist Media

By Alexander Carpenter

The Adventist blogosphere has raised some questions about the Danny and Linda Shelton divorce and Adventist Today's coverage.

Perpetual Student points out, "Now I don't have the time or interest to figure out what really happened, but I thought the letters provided a good example of some of the pitfalls that a ministry can face if it is too tightly controlled by a dominant personanility (sic)."

Ron Corson and the rest writes: "It may be a shame that people search the AToday site for information on the 3ABN situation but that is really not the fault of AToday. To report on the situation is part of AToday's purpose in reporting news of Adventist interest and it certainly does not have lots of material on the subject."

But let's not mix posting emails with news reporting.

I worry that my friends at Adventist Today are letting the wrong kind of interest drive their content. At the root, it seems, they are mixing their means and ends.

Behind some the prurient discomfort over the Sheltons' personal lives lie serious objections to the content and management of 3ABN. 

But let's stop for a second. We must pull away from the brink of employing personal relationships as substitute arguments for raising essential questions about the people who represent our faith to the world.  It troubles me that some religious folks have been at the forefront of personal attacks on public figures (Bill Clinton/John McCain) - and we cannot allow dehumanizing titillation and argument by innuendo to leak into the public discourse of our faith community.

I've interviewed Linda for Spectrum and investigated the multi-million dollar waste and the bumbling right-wing coddling of 3ABN. And yes, you can buy a wedding dress or a doll by Marie Osmond from 3ABN on Ebay.

But beyond the personal, Danny's email retort reveals a troubling morality - essentially saying that he has many converts so shouldn't be criticized by folks with less. That hint of "ends over means" justification should make his accountant and 3ABN board sweat.

Ron gets at that when he writes: "Just claiming that Danny Shelton is spreading the gospel is not enough, Christian responsibility calls for accountability as well."

When a person starts defending themselves by saying: "but look at all the good I've done (Duke Cunningham/Pol Pot)," their moral jig is up.

I believe, Mr. Shelton, that the Spanish Inquisition got even more converts than you.

As an Adventist I want to see better content and leadership at one of the largest cultural signifiers of Adventism; but we should make sure that our own means stay high. Concerned Adventists need to drive smart change at 3ABN, but we'll give our whole community a better media experience by staying off "the he said/she said" road.

Adventist Media Finds Bizarre Bedfellow for Ten Commandments Day

By: Alexander Carpenter

On May 6 and 7, Adventist media—including 3ABN, Hope Channel, and Amazing Facts—teamed up with Ron Wexler and a group of right-wing religious broadcasters such as Pat Robertson to restore the Ten Commandments’ role in American public life.

More than 3.2 million dollars were spent just by 3ABN and ASI, hundreds of thousands of books were printed, and more than seventeen hours were broadcast during the weekend. What was behind all this and who is Ron Wexler?

In late 2005, Ron Wexler (a developer of Israeli real estate for right-wing Christians) and Pastor Myles Munroe (Bahamas Faith Ministry International—a Pentecostal organization) organized the Ten Commandments Commission. Their stated objective was to elevate the importance of the Ten Commandments by placing monuments, plaques, and symbols throughout North America. Originally, the commission had settled on February 5 as Ten Commandments Day.

Something happened and Munroe was removed from the leadership. Blackie Gonzales (Son Broadcasting, a couple of VHF stations in New Mexico) replaced him as chairman of the Ten Commandments Commission board of directors. The main focus of the Ten Commandments Day is the promotion of little fake gold pins in the shape of the Decalogue that allow people to show their commitment to God’s law. See several videos on the Ten Commandments Web site that encourage people to purchase these pins for $14.99 each, plus $6.95 shipping.

According to Wexler, an orthodox Jew, as interest grew, the Ten Commandments Day was moved back three months to Sunday, May 7, 2006. Wexler says: "We literally have not been able to keep up with the incredible response we’ve gotten over the last few weeks for our Ten Commandments Pins.

Some folks at Daily Kos think the whole thing is an attempt to make money. As Tatarize points out:

It is worth $14.95 right? Wait, at the bottom of the page there is a distributers link for the wholesale price…$5.50. That’s a 270% markup. Then they want $6.95 for shipping USPS Media Mail which actually costs $2 for a package that size.

Didn’t Moses smash the Ten Commandments? What was that over? Oh yeah, religious leaders and people celebrating a golden religious icon.

And some folks in the world of Adventist media jumped on this bandwagon. View the proclamation here. And see Pacific Press and Signs of the Times’ book here; 3ABN’s book here; Amazing Facts’ book here; Ten Commandments bookmark here; Hope Channel’s book here; and Mark Finely’s book here. Finally, North American Religious Liberty Association offers a Ten Commandments CD here.

During the three-hour special program on the denomination’s Hope Channel, Pastor Brad Thorp and Gary Gibbs, president and vice-president, hosted Ron Wexler and Blackie Gonzales. During the interview, Wexler shares the usual restorationist shibboleths about how weather and homosexuals are running amuck because the Ten Commandments aren’t in certain courthouses. Be sure to see the thousands of petitions that Hope collected from Adventist churches.

Wexler provides further "reason" to restore the Ten Commandments (and buy his pin).

As the fury of hurricane Rita is about to hit the shores of Texas just 3 weeks after the disaster left Katrina, people of faith must be wondering…it was revealed to me that in numerology, the numerical value of the Hebrew letters that make up the name Rita + God is equal to 620. The number of all the Hebrew letters that make up the Ten Commandments is.…620! Is there a onnection?

What? Why is the Adventist Church advertising this guy’s wacky agenda?

Well, what became of all this? According to the Washington Post, many Adventist are wondering, as well. Apparently, there are a lot of books left over.

And here is a chat room where conservative Adventists dutifully wonder where the "first day" folks were when it was time to spread the word about the Ten Commandments.

Or was it all about making a buck?

Here Alan Reinach, head of the North America Religious Liberty Association—West, admits that it all "turned out to be largely a non-event."

Were we used by Ron Wexler? Who spearheaded the Church’s coordinated jump onto this bizarre bandwagon? Was the Ten Commandments Commission just an attempt to make money off of pin sales?

The gnats and camels of May

By: Nathan Brown, editor, Signs of the Times Australia/NZ edition

I am a semi-professional observer of our church community. Sometimes the way it conducts its business and mission raise questions for me.

And sometimes a conjunction of “events” brings these questions into stark focus. Such was the case last month. And someone needs to ask the hard questions about what this says about us and what we can learn along the way.

The first event was the self-proclaimed Ten Commandments day. The Adventist focus on this event began with the television stations associated with the church. They highlighted this event, interviewed the experts, drove the “Adventist” alternative and focused their broadcasting for that weekend on this issue.

And where the television stations go, other voices of the church are expected to follow. Our publishing houses scrambled to produce resources—“as seen on TV.” Millions of Ten Commandment-focused booklets were printed and promoted to viewers and church members to arm them with the ammunition to counter the “attack” on the decalogue.

And among some within the church, the level of focus on this upcoming event almost seemed commensurate with one’s measure of orthodoxy. Working with a church news magazine—even on the other side of the world—questions were asked as to why the Ten Commandments day was not a priority in our reporting.

And then the day came and went, the special broadcasts were broadcast, the books were distributed—or perhaps many of them are still sitting in a warehouse or churches’ backrooms somewhere—and the statements were made. But no-one noticed.

Searches by myself and others could find barely a mention of this “event” in major news services. Even Christian news services gave it little attention. For all our frantic attentions, in terms of its relevance to mainstream culture, the Ten Commandments day was a non-event—and our Adventist “responses” even more so.

Two weeks later, The Da Vinci Code became one of the biggest movies of the year. This story—based on Dan Brown’s mega best-seller—questions the divinity of Jesus, alleges that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, re-imagines church history and challenges the origins of the Bible. And by its best-seller/box office hit status, The Da Vinci Code is launching these claims into the hearts and minds of mainstream society.

And the Adventist response? Apart from a few magazine articles and a couple of hurried publishing ventures, it was somewhere between ignoring it completely to limited, especially when compared with the Ten Commandments hype. At a time when Jesus—who must ever be the centre of our faith and lives—is again a topic of legitimate but too often misguided conversations in the movie theatres, the bookstores, the mainstream and Christian media, the educated forums, the workplaces and the social gatherings, for whatever reason, it seems we have chosen largely to be non-participants.

In a scathing criticism of the religiosity of His day, Jesus said to the religious leaders, “You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat; then you swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:24, NLT). In May, it seems we got the gnat—and, proverbially at least, beat it to death with a sledgehammer—but the Da Vinci camel roams free and unhindered.

Yes, we have a sensitivity and special regard for the Ten Commandments, but without Jesus the commandments are of little consequence, to us or anyone else. We should be prepared to stand up for our specific beliefs in the Christian community and beyond, but we must not allow our preoccupations or paranoia—or our associated television stations—to misdirect our priorities in such a way.

After the millions of dollars have been spent and all that evangelistic fervour misdirected, someone somewhere—or perhaps all of us everywhere—should pause to consider what we have to say to our culture, how we go about it and how the agendas are set for what occupies our primary attention. Until then, we will probably go on answering the questions we think our society should be asking, while continuing to ignore the challenging but exciting possibilities of answering real questions and being the link between the real Jesus and our communities that he loves.