The significance of this story is how it highlights the …

Comment on Michigan Conference vs. LSU – Right Wing Politics or Truth in Advertising? by David Read.

The significance of this story is how it highlights the war between the liberal and conservative factions in the SDA Church. These factions are currently in a struggle for the soul, not to mention the organizational infrastructure, of the SDA Church.

Anyone who has observed American politics recently surely has noticed that, because left and right in this country have two utterly different and mutually exclusive secular religions, our politics consists of each of these ideologically committed wings trying to capture the un-committed middle third of the electorate on which every election hinges. Each side is trying to impress the middle third that it is reasonable, and that the far side of the spectrum is unreasonable and untrustworthy. In practice, this has devolved into “gotcha” politics in which each side tries catch the other side in an unguarded statement or action that will make it look bad to the ideologically uncommitted guy in the middle. And if they can’t find real “gotcha” moments, they manufacture them.

What this story basically is, is the liberal wing of the church, through the person of Randal Wisbey, manufacturing a “gotcha” moment to make the conservative wing, as personified by Jay Gallimore, look bad to the ideologically uncommitted middle third of the church. Randal Wisbey knew that Gallimore had forbidden LSU to recruit in Michigan. Wisbey also knew very well that college group (choir, band, orchestra, tumbling, etc.) tours, especially when they stop at Academies, are a form of recruitment. Thus, Wisbey knew perfectly well that the request for the LSU Chamber Singers to perform at two Michigan academies would violate Gallimore’s previously stated ban on LSU recruiting in Michigan. Finally, Wisbey also knew that if the Chamber Singers would ask anyway, and force Gallimore to actually refuse them, it could be turned into a “gotcha” moment, i.e., it would look bad or somehow “unChristlike” to the ideologically uncommitted middle-of-the-road Adventist.

This whole thing was a propaganda coup planned and carried out by Randal Wisbey. Of course, those of us who understand the stakes and understand that Darwinism is the death of Adventism, aren’t impressed with Wisbey’s stunt. But it wasn’t designed for us. Wisbey knows there’s no influencing the conservative third of the church, and he’s not trying to; he’s trying to convince the middle third that the conservative third is cruel and un-Christlike.

It is entirely specious, but it just might work. It is impossible to overestimate how grossly uninformed the average Adventist in the pew really is. They don’t know what’s going on; they do not have a clue. And because they don’t, Gallimore’s action might well seem extraordinary and unjustified to them. And that is the whole point of the exercise.

David Read Also Commented

Michigan Conference vs. LSU – Right Wing Politics or Truth in Advertising?
@Eddie: Eddie, let me make clear that although I disagree with Randal Wisbey ideologically, I do not make the mistake of underestimating him, his intelligence or his political acumen.

Randal Wisbey is a very smart man. So when I think about the facts, and I have two ways of interpreting the facts, one of which makes Randal Wisbey an imbecile and the other of which assumes him to be clever, I interpret the facts according to the latter assumption.

Now, try to follow along, if you would. Jay Gallimore had forbidden LSU to recruit in Michigan. Do you think Randal Wisbey just forgot that, or that he was keenly aware of that fact? I say the latter.

Adventist college group tours (e.g., choir, band, orchestra, tumbling, etc.) are a form of student recruitment, especially when they stop at Adventist academies, where many of the students at Adventist colleges are recruited from. Do you think Randal Wisbey didn’t know that, or that he was keenly aware of it? Again, I take it for granted that Randal Wisbey understands this fact.

Now, since Gallimore had forbidden LSU to recruit in Michigan, and college choir tours are a form of recruitment, do you think Randal Wisbey knew that Jay Gallimore, to uphold his previous ruling, would have to deny the La Sierra Chamber Singers permission to perform at any Michigan SDA academy? Again, I have to give Randal Wisbey credit for having an IQ above room temperature, so of course he knows this.

But as long as Randal Wisbey just has the Chamber Singers ASK, he wins either way. If Gallimore says yes, then Wisbey has made of none effect Gallimore’s ban on recruitment. He essentially uses the Chamber Singers to flout the ban and rub his victory in Gallimore’s face. If Gallimore says no, then you get what we’ve had for the last two weeks: a propaganda coup for LSU as Chuck Scriven writes two Spectrum articles (in addition to two other Spectrum articles) whining about the horrible, world-ending injustice of the LSU group not being allowed to sing at Michigan academies.

Even I have to admire Wisbey’s sheer diabolical cleverness.


Recent Comments by David Read

LSU Removes Dr. Lee Grismer as Chairman of the Biology Department
@Pauluc: I do not agree that science must be naturalistic, but if that is your bottom line, it will not trouble me much where it concerns most day-to-day science–the study of current, repeating phenomena. But a rigid naturalism applied to origins morphs into philosophical atheism. Hence, mainstream origins science is not science but atheistic apologetics. This is what should not be done at an Adventist school, but sadly what has been the rule at La Sierra.


Dr. Paul Cameron and the God of the Gaps
@Pauluc: The Adventist doctrine of creation is that God created the world in six days and rested on the Seventh day and hallowed it. (Gen. 2:2-3; Ex. 20:11) Do you believe that doctrine? It won’t do to say that you accept some vague “Christian doctrine of creation.” The Seventh-day Adventist Church has a very specific mission to call people back to the worship of the creator God, on the day that He hallowed at the creation.

You say you believe that the “core doctrine of Christianity is the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ,” but what was Jesus Christ incarnated to do? Wasn’t his mission to redeem fallen humanity, to be the second Adam who succeeded where the first Adam failed? And doesn’t your view of origins make nonsense of a perfect creation, a literal Adam who fell, and the need for redemption because of Adam’s sin? You seem to want to gloss over all the very profound differences you have not only with Seventh-day Adventist dcotrine, but with the most basic reasons that Seventh-day Adventism exists.

The syncretistic hodgepodge religion you’ve created for yourself, combining elements of a biblical world view (the incarnation) and elements of a pagan worldview (a self-created creation) is not Adventism. It is anti-Seventh-day Adventism.


LSU Removes Dr. Lee Grismer as Chairman of the Biology Department
@Holly Pham: Holly, I will try, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.


LSU Removes Dr. Lee Grismer as Chairman of the Biology Department
@Pauluc: Since no creationist could land a job as chairman of a biology department at a public university, it seems entirely appropriate that no Darwinist should be given the chairmanship of a biology department of a Seventh-day Adventist college.

The SDA educational system doesn’t exist to expensively duplicate the public university system. It exists to provide a uniquely biblical and Seventh-day Adventist education to interested young people. If mainstream origins science is correct in its assumptions and conclusions about our origins, the entire enterprise of Seventh-day Adventism is an utterly foolish waste of time. So at Adventist institutions, our professors should assume that Darwinistic science is false, and that creationistic science is true (just the reverse of how it is done at public universities), and proceed accordingly.


LSU Removes Dr. Lee Grismer as Chairman of the Biology Department
@gene fortner: What I like about your list of topics, Gene, is that it points out that many disciplines are implicated in the necessary change of worldview. It isn’t just biology and geology, although those are the main ones. History, archeology, anthropology and other disciplines should also be approached from a biblical worldview. The biblical worldview should pervade the entire curriculum.