@ Steve Billiter: While I share your concern about Spiritual Formation, …

Comment on LA SIERRA: Four resign after recording emerges by Ethan Muse.

@ Steve Billiter:

While I share your concern about Spiritual Formation, I would humbly suggest that you hold off on attacking individuals and stick to issues. Just because you read something on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s true (being a junior in college, you should know that by now). Have you personally discussed these issues with Derek Morris or are you just going by what Vance Ferrell wrote on his sdadefend website?

I can say that I personally took Derek Morris’ TWO classes on Spiritual Formation the single year I attended school at Southern. I emphasize the fact that I took both classes because only one was required. Anyone who knew me back then could attest to the fact that I was one of the most right-wing students in the religion department that year (I even went to hear one of the Standish brothers when he came to town that year). Yet I never heard Dr. Morris teach ANYTHING in either of those classes that I believed to be heretical.

The first semester addressed topics like Bible study, prayer (using both the Lord’s prayer and the sanctuary as models), Christian meditation on Scripture (not New Age or mystical in any way), and fasting. During the semester, our only textbook was Steps to Christ by Ellen White. The second semester was based entirely on Bible memorization, and we each had to learn 100 memory verses on various subjects. 

I was there when certain right-wing Adventists in the community were publishing accusations against Dr. Morris and demanding his resignation or termination. Their accusation was based entirely on the NAME of his class rather than on the CONTENT of his class. Yes, it is true that you can go to any Jesuit seminary and take a class called Spiritual Formation. However, I have a feeling you could also go to any Jesuit seminary and take a class called Old Testament. So, since Jesuits might call their Old Testament class by the name Old Testament, does that mean we should change the name of our class in order to avoid being confused with or called Catholics? That would be silly. The only danger would be when you couldn’t tell the difference in content between a Jesuit class on the Old Testament and an Adventist class on the Old Testament.

And so again I urge you to focus your criticisms toward issues and not people. If the Roman Catholic version of Spiritual Formation is being taught in an Adventist setting then please, by all means, speak up and sound the alarm. But I can assure you that Derek Morris is not a Catholic or a spiritualist, and his classes that I took contained neither Catholicism nor spiritualism. He is a good man and a faithful Seventh-day Adventist (who even took the time to personally transcribe all of C. D. Brooks’ evangelistic sermons from the old tapes and freely provides them with his recommendation to any young preacher wanting to do an evangelistic series).

And, by the way, the issue on this site is creation vs. evolution, not attacks on individuals regarding Spiritual Formation. I believe you’ve strayed off-topic. 

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