Comment on “Don’t go backwards to interpret Genesis as allegorical or symbolic” by Sean Pitman.
@Ken:
So it was not OK for the Catholics to strong arm Galileo because The Catholics were wrong about their science, but it is OK for the SDA to sanction the LSU biology professors, and perhaps Dr. Clausen, because the SDA is absolutely right about its science. Is that about the gist of it?
Not quite.
The Catholic Church wasn’t so much wrong in wanting to defend its own views of what it thought was right at the time, but in appealing to the arm of civil power and authority to enforce its views on civil society at large. In other words, no one could just leave the Catholic Church or challenge the Catholic Church at all – not even from outside of the Church because there was no viable option to leave it.
This was a huge mistake. It is never ever good for a church of any kind to take on civil powers and authority in order to enforce its views on general society – never. This does not mean, however, that a Church organization need not enforce its views on its own employees who freely choose to represent the Church on the Church’s dime…
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Sean Pitman Also Commented
“Don’t go backwards to interpret Genesis as allegorical or symbolic”
@Bravus:
“…and there was rejoicing in heaven, for lo, many would be driven forth from the True Church into outer darkness.â€
Hmm, I’m pretty sure that’s not how I remember that one going.
All are welcome who actually wish to worship with the SDA Church body – regardless of their opinions or background. However, not all are welcome to expect a paycheck from the Church as paid representatives of what the SDA Church stands for because not all who would take such a paycheck actually subscribe to the Pillars of the SDA faith.
Try not to confuse these concepts…
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
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I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.
Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).
Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.
