@Monse Salazar: I certainly agree with these concerns, but I …

Comment on A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education by Sean Pitman.

@Monse Salazar:

I certainly agree with these concerns, but I don’t think our school system as a whole has gotten to a point where it is not worthy of our collective financial support. We can still support our schools financially while voicing our concerns for these other issues at the same time.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman Also Commented

A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
@Professor Kent:

The elements of what is commonly known as the “Spiritual Formation” movement or the promotion of “Contemplative Prayer” by the leaders of this movement are what undermine Christianity in that they mirror various forms of eastern mysticism. Some of these elements make “truth” relative to the individual and negate the primary importance and objectivity of the claims of the Bible.

There is also a danger in various forms of prayer that “empty the mind” via the use of repetitive words or phrases (regardless of the type of “centering” word or phrase chosen). The mind and thoughts are directed inward and the mind made open to suggestion without critical thinking or comparison to the claims of the Scriptures. The higher thoughtful mind is not engaged. In other words, one’s personal experience and feelings take primacy over intelligently and rationally considering the written Word and having an intellectual conviction regarding its origin and authority.

Such methods are now being preached from some of our pulpits and taught in some of our own schools. These ‘New Age’ mystical concepts are indeed a source of concern for our church today – as well as all Christian churches.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
@David Read:

That is why it is better to endow educational programs at the conference or even the General Conference level. This would have the effect of giving the organized church more control when it comes to the governance of our church schools, making it much harder for an individual school to go rogue independent of the church at the conference level or higher.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
@Professor Kent:

We’ve tried the “short-term” benefit approach for a long time and it simply isn’t working any more. Endowments most certainly have their value as is the case for anyone saving up for personal retirement. If you don’t believe in endowments, then you really shouldn’t be saving for your own retirement…

Endowments allow the endowed program to “retire” from the need to be constantly funded by short term donations – to become independent of the need for constant funding from the charity of the supporting constituents or the high tuition charged to parents. Endowments have the potential to allow education costs for parents to be significantly reduced if not completely eliminated all together on a permanent basis. Endowments would also allow for the weathering of economic downturns and the withdraw of vital economic support during difficult times and the equalizing of support for the poor so that the rich do not have such a significant advantage when it comes to higher education. Such a situation would also be attractive for non-Adventists looking at our church and our school system. It would be an effective witnessing tool.

Sean Pitman


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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.