@Ron Stone M.D.: Sean, You’re naivety is amazing. Teaching a …

Comment on Michigan Conference takes substantial action in LSU conflict by Sean Pitman.

@Ron Stone M.D.:

Sean, You’re naivety is amazing. Teaching a worldly, humanistic philosophy in an SDA institution or SDA Church is not wrong? So, they’re just ignorant dupes of the evolution industry? This is not a moral issue? Ridiculous!

Perhaps I am amazingly naive in being one of those to start this whole conflict over a year ago. But, as naive as I may be, I think this issue is very important…

Also, I never said that believing in or teaching evolutionary theories as truth wasn’t “wrong”. It is wrong. It’s a mistaken theory and those who subscribe to it have been blinded to the actual truth of our origins – a view which has important implications to one’s personal outlook and overall confidence in the future, even one’s happiness, here and now.

However, there are different kinds of “wrongness”. It is possible to be sincerely wrong. Only God can read the hearts of humans and truly know if we are in open rebellion against what we know in our hearts to be true, or if we have been honestly deceived into believing in something that isn’t true. I prefer to let God be the judge of such things.

However, just because I cannot judge the heart does not mean that I am unable to judge the action. Long-standing actions against the Pillars of the Seventh-day Adventist Faith from within our own school cannot be tolerated decade after decade. This isn’t personal. I have many friends who are ardent evolutionists. Many of these are either agnostic or outright atheistic. Yet, we are still very good friends. However, they do not claim to be SDA nor do they expect a paycheck from the SDA Church for promoting their own religious or philosophical ideas…

That’s the difference. No one who takes a paycheck from me or from the Church or from any other employer for that matter is free to just go and do his/her own thing irrespective of the employer’s wishes. It doesn’t matter how honest or sincere you are or how close to God you are. It is always wrong to take money from anyone for doing one thing while you are actually doing just the opposite of what you’re being paid to do. This means, of course, that the employer must be very selective in who is and who is not hired to represent the employer.

This is such a self-evident truism that I am very surprised that anyone would argue against this concept. No employer can afford to pay just anyone as a representative…

This whole situation, in my mind, is simply a matter of Church government, order and discipline. It is not about making moral judgements regarding doctrinal issues… judgements that should be left entirely up to God.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman Also Commented

Michigan Conference takes substantial action in LSU conflict
@former Seventh-day Adventist:

If a school is claiming to be a Seventh-day Adventist institution, it should uphold SDA ideals and philosophy. Basic honesty.

Exactly! Such clear headedness on these basic issues and you’re no longer a Seventh-day Adventist? That is unfortunate because we sure need more people with at least this much basic common sense in our Church…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


Michigan Conference takes substantial action in LSU conflict
@Wendy:

Simple concept, but it’s comforting to know when all this scripture slinging, name calling and finger pointing is going on amongst human sinners like myself.

Just because we are all desperate sinners, and we all are, does not mean that we have to let the Church organization fall into chaos – that we cannot stand for truth while admitting that we all need help to truly live up to the truth that we know…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


Michigan Conference takes substantial action in LSU conflict
@Aaron:

Actually, no, by that logic that would not be the case. Your argument is ridiculous, by no means does that imply that we would have to support families with their tuition bills outside of an SDA institution. This is a totally different matter because LaSierra IS an Adventist institution.

I guess that’s a matter of opinion. I personally fail to see how any school that goes around attacking fundamental pillars of the SDA faith can really call itself “SDA” with a straigth face. It’s like pretending to be something that you’re really not – very much like a wolf in sheeps clothing which enables the wolf to more easily steal away the sheep…

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.