Letter to Press Enterprise Editor

Source: Press Enterprise

pe

University betrayal

This is in regard to “Evolution controversy at La Sierra” (Nov. 6). I find it sad and tragic that La Sierra University has taken a course that betrays its own constituents in a manner that is both hypocritical and lacking in integrity.

The university claims to be an “Adventist Christian” school, receives large sums of money from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and assures the parents of its students that they are getting a good “Adventist education,” yet it deliberately employs faculty who aggressively and overtly undermine and oppose this mission.

I am in no way a fan of Adventist fundamentalism, but ironically, the university has fueled fundamentalism in the church like no other force through its willingness to allow extreme liberals to run the school.

They have put other Seventh-day Adventist universities at risk and made them vulnerable to unnecessary witch hunts because of their own irresponsible and indefensible course of action.

It is my hope and prayer that the university’s board of trustees asks very hard questions and demands much-needed changes.

Steven Gerald Daily

Riverside

18 thoughts on “Letter to Press Enterprise Editor

  1. I don’t think this letter is complete. I seem to remember seeing comments on the religion faculty specifically and other teachings. Why are we being given an edited version of this letter? Can someone please explain? (I’m going to look it up again at PE.com to see if I am right.)

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  2. Frank L.: I don’t think this letter is complete. I seem to remember seeing comments on the religion faculty specifically and other teachings. Why are we being given an edited version of this letter? Can someone please explain? (I’m going to look it up again at PE.com to see if I am right.)

    Is this not the complete letter published by PE.com?…

    http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_S_op_12_letters.408cbd9.html

    Either way, it certainly hits the nail on the head…

    Sean Pitman
    http://www.DetectingDesign.com

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  3. If the “Steve Daily” that wrote that article is the same “Steve Daily” of the “Celebration Center” and Rodney Howard Brown’s form of charismania then he is significantly understating “I am in no way a fan of Adventist fundamentalism” .

    If Steve Daily “gets the point” then I say that the evolutionists have just “been served”.

    in Christ,

    Bob

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  4. Ron –

    Ok thanks for that. The Steve Daily of the Celebration Center is the same one that wrote the book “Adventism for a New Generation”.

    in Christ,

    Bob

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  5. Indeed. Another “proof” of Daily’s well established claim “I am no fundamentalist” is gained by taking a quick look at his Celebration Center manifesto that basically argues SDA doctrines are for the birds and the only thing that matters is getting in as many Christians of different denominations under one roof in a praise service — because “that” is what brings on the 2nd coming.

    http://www.kingdomadventism.com/wp-content/themes/femme-flora/images/articles/January_2009_KingdomAdventism.pdf

    (That is my paraphrase – which I confess is an extremely condensed version of his manifesto -)

    From his email blog – he has this to say about the charismatic extremist group lead by Rodney Howard-Browne

    Steve Daily
    http://kingdomadventism.com/?p=65#comment-453

    I was totally impressed with Rodney Howard-Browne and his church. He moves at a level of anointing that is truly mind-boggling. I had the privilege of sitting next to him at the minister’s luncheon, during the week, and was the recipient of a powerful prophetic word that he pronounced over me, Celebration Center, and the Adventist Church. I will try to recall it word for word as best I can.

    ===========================================
    “God is pleased with the heart and the interdenominational spirit of this servant. He has seen what you have suffered for His kingdom and is ready to pour out His blessings and favor on your ministry. The Lord is going to use this man to raise up an army in his church and in the Adventist denomination that will trumpet the true Gospel, release His Holy Spirit with fire, and that will produce a harvest of souls that will result from this revival for years to come. So be strong and courageous and persevere unto the end.”
    ===================================

    That same evening Rodney had me give a testimony before his full house and TV cameras, of what God had done in our church and community through the great awakening tour. And he used the inclusion of Adventists in the revival, as a recurring theme of God’s inclusiveness, in his remarks that evening. Finally, when Rodney imparted and prayed over me in the meeting I felt a powerful move of God that allowed me to experience holy laughter to the greatest degree I have experienced to this point.

    Being of Northern European descent, I am not one who manifests easily (I tend to suffer from emotional constipation), but this move of God was powerful and i believe it will release me into a greater boldness in my street ministry. God bless, sd

    Which is just more “proof” that Daily is 100% correct when he argues that he has no sympathy or identification with Adventist fundamentals.

    So the fact that even he can see the problem with evolutionism – leaves the evolutionists standing pretty far out in their left-of-left field stand against the bible as a trustworthy document.

    in Christ,

    Bob

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  6. Why is it that some of you are so eager to attack others? I happen to know Steve Daily, although it has been many years. I certainly don’t agree with all he believes, but I’m NEVER going to ridicule him or what he is doing. If somebody believes in something different than you do–even if radically different–yet considers himself or herself to be a Christian or even SDA, why can’t you just respect that? If people find God through a different path than you do, why not rejoice? Incidentally, I am NOT defending the LSU biology professors. I doubt this discussion would ever have existed if the views of LSU students who believe in traditional SDA views of origins were respected. I wish we could all be more respectful and less critical of others.

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  7. @SDA Biology Professor:

    Adventists have a responsibility to call people out of Babylon. This is an essential premise for their existence. The Bible uses extremely pejorative terms to describe this system (ex. whore, false prophet, beast, dragon etc.). It is not something to rejoice about if someone who is meant to call people out of this system, is instead encouraging people to embrace it. There are few Christian leaders who exemplify ‘Babylon’ as Rodney Howard-Browne does – whose ministry is even frowned upon by many Pentecostals! I personally made a journey out of the Satanic trinity of Bible prophecy into the Biblical remnant. I was active in the New Age movement and spiritualism, then Catholicism and Pentecostalism, before becoming an Adventist. I can from experience tell you that Babylon is fallen – and God tells us her sins have reached to heaven and get out before the seven last plagues fall on us too. Of course the Bible is far too fundamentalist for some peoples liking – and God’s expressions of scorn and derision are too antiquated in their bigotry. Of course the vast majority of God’s people are in these systems just as I was at one time. However, if the time is not now to lovingly in word and deed and character to call them out, as I was called out – there never will be such a time!

    Surely the great controversy is raging even within our church. Darwinism was forged by two men who rejected Christianity (Darwin and Wallace). Their skeptical view of Scripture formed the philosophical underpinning for their theory. Wallace even went on to become a full-blown atheistic spiritualist – Darwin remaining skeptical. Is it any coincidence that Darwinism was birthed in 1844? How can we as Adventists in any way countenance a theory Satanically conceived in diametric opposition to all we stand for – or participate in a movement that exemplifies the ‘False Prophet’ and ‘Babylon’ (Babel) of Bible prophecy (The most extreme form of Pentecostalism)?

    May God have mercy on us all!

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  8. Shane – I was correct that Steve Daily had written more, but it was at a different link from what you provided (http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_lasierra06.47b3990.html) and was a comment in response to the intial Press-Enterprise story:

    “Concerning “Evolution Controversy” at LSU 11-6-09: I find it sad and tragic that La Sierra University has taken a course that has betrayed its own constituents in a manner that is both hypocritical and totally lacking integrity. While the University strongly claims to be an “Adventist Christian” school, receives large sums of money from the Adventist Church, and assures the parents of their students who are sacrificing to pay expensive University tuition that they are getting a good “Adventist education,” LSU deliberately employs faculty who aggressively and overtly undermine and oppose this mission. This has been going on for more than a decade and it is not unique to the discipline of Biology or the subject of evolution. I taught and pastored on the campus for nearly twenty years and was devastated to see how those with a postmodern agenda came into power in the late 1990s and not only made a mockery of Orthodox Adventist teaching, but orthodox Christian teaching as well (See Press Enterprise “La Sierra Students Criticize CORE Classes” May 22, 1999 pp. B-1, B-6). Students were being taught in required freshman classes that Jesus was not God, that God is not a personal Being, that Monotheism is the worst and most dangerous of all religions, and many other views that were a complete betrayal of orthodox Christianity. All of this was done while the University paraded itself in its PR publications as a loyal Adventist school. I am in no way a fan of Adventist fundamentalism, but ironically, La Sierra University has fueled fundamentalism in the church like no other force by its willingness to allow extreme liberals to run the school. They have put other SDA universities at risk and made them vulnerable to unnecessary witchhunts because of their own irresponsible and indefensible course of action. It is my hope and prayer that the board asks some very hard questions on November 12, and demands some much needed changes.”

    The letter suggests that your obsession with science teaching is but a small concern. If his claims are correct, your website should be addressing instead the nature of Jesus.

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  9. @SDA Biology Professor:

    SDA Biology Professor says:
    December 15, 2009 Why is it that some of you are so eager to attack others? I happen to know Steve Daily, although it has been many years. I certainly don’t agree with all he believes, but I’m NEVER going to ridicule him or what he is doing. If somebody believes in something different than you do–even if radically different–yet considers himself or herself to be a Christian or even SDA, why can’t you just respect that? If people find God through a different path than you do, why not rejoice? Incidentally, I am NOT defending the LSU biology professors. I doubt this discussion would ever have existed if the views of LSU students who believe in traditional SDA views of origins were respected. I wish we could all be more respectful and less critical of others.

    There is a not-so-subtle difference between pluralism and compromise.

    Did you read the statements by Daily endorsing Rodney Howard-Browne’s ministry, laughing in the spirit – charismania et al?? Do you know what that is? Are you sure you know what you are endorsing?

    Have you seen his manifesto published on the web declaring that members of his church are not joining as Adventist nor even being educated as to the truth of the 28 fundamental beliefs? That he rejects the 3 angels messages, rejects the Sabbath as an issue at the end of time, rejects anything that Ellen White says to the contrary, rejects the notion of a remenant form of doctrinal purity and rejects the idea that ecumenism on the basis of least-common-beliefs is a “bad thing”?

    My point is that – if even Daily “gets” the point that evolutionism is a “bad thing” — our Theistic evolutionist apologists here have little room for excuse!

    in Christ,

    Bob

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  10. @Frank L.:

    Frank quotes Steve Daily —

    While the University strongly claims to be an “Adventist Christian” school, receives large sums of money from the Adventist Church, and assures the parents of their students who are sacrificing to pay expensive University tuition that they are getting a good “Adventist education,”

    1. LSU deliberately employs faculty who aggressively and overtly undermine and oppose this mission.

    This has been going on for more than a decade and it is not unique to the discipline of Biology or the subject of evolution.

    2. I taught and pastored on the campus for nearly twenty years and was devastated to see how those with a postmodern agenda came into power in the late 1990s and not only made a mockery of Orthodox Adventist teaching, but orthodox Christian teaching as well (See Press Enterprise “La Sierra Students Criticize CORE Classes” May 22, 1999 pp. B-1, B-6).

    Students were being taught in required freshman classes that Jesus was not God,

    that God is not a personal Being,

    that Monotheism is the worst and most dangerous of all religions,

    and many other views that were a complete betrayal of orthodox Christianity.

    All of this was done while the University paraded itself in its PR publications as a loyal Adventist school. I am in no way a fan of Adventist fundamentalism, but ironically, La Sierra University has fueled fundamentalism in the church like no other force by its willingness to allow extreme liberals to run the school.

    They have put other SDA universities at risk and made them vulnerable to unnecessary witchhunts because of their own irresponsible and indefensible course of action. It is my hope and prayer that the board asks some very hard questions on November 12, and demands some much needed changes.”

    Frank says
    The letter suggests that your obsession with science teaching (read: denying science in favor of belief in evolutionism) is but a small concern. If his claims are correct, your website should be addressing instead the nature of Jesus.

    First of all – many thanks for the full quote. Much appreciated.

    1. Daily never says that the false religion of evolutionism “is a small concern” in the quote you provided.

    2. Daily never argues for allowing the denial of all christianity in the form of evolutionism and only opposing the denial of all Christianity on other foundational doctrines.

    Though we can see how the compromise and collapse of Christian doctrine central to evolutionism – so naturally and logically leads to the denial of the other basic Christian doctrines Daily lists. So there is actually not much of a surprise there.

    3. Daily’s theme at Celebration Center is more along the lines of uplifting ecumenism inside of a broad tent of “orthodox Christianity” in general and so dumping anything like a “distinctive” in Adventism as being of any significance at all beyond peculiar cultural preference of one of many denominations. Thus when he sees LSU attacking not only the distinctives of Adventism – but the core doctrines of Christianity itself – he is very consistent in being “concerned”.

    4. Notice that Daily is “drawing a line” and insisting that the LSU program IS NOT “Adventist Christian” in it’s CORE classes that oppose Adventists and is not even the much more generalized and large-tented “orthodox Christian”!

    How sad that our evolutionist friends are standing in the shadowed background on that one – with Daily having more light and clarity than they do!

    How “instructive” for the unbiased objective reader.

    in Christ,

    Bob

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  11. This is perhaps the greatest irony so far of the present controversy. I too have known Steve Daily for some time, and read with considerable outrage his open betrayal of our faith in Adventism for a New Generation.

    As has been noted already, this book openly attacks more than a few of the church’s fundamental beliefs–including the sanctuary, the Spirit of Prophecy, the remnant church theology, and much more. The book openly advocates “ecumenical Sunday services” as a means of growing the church, speaks favorably of the tongues-speaking charismatic movement, and declares that the church has been “too dogmatic” in its condemnation of premarital sex and homosexuality!

    In other words, one doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry when hearing someone with views like these talk about “extreme liberals.” It seems he has been one of these for some time, though perhaps not on the origins issue. And the endorsement by Randall Wisbey on the book’s back cover speaks volumes, not only about the ideological ties between the two men but also the fact that one who is now an Adventist university president could endorse views which easily qualify for church discipline.

    Unless Daily is prepared to publicly repudiate this monstrosity, as well as the heretical views noted by other respondents on his Celebration Center Web site, it would be difficult to view his thinkiong as anything but a contribution to the very problem he now laments. The difference between his views and those of the La Sierra evolutionists is about like the difference between the White Citizens Council and the Ku Klux Klan during the Civil Rights movement.

    Perhaps the most basic point in all this is the fact that when both truth and holiness are marginalized in the name of “grace,” the “gospel,” and a misbegotten “Christ-centeredness” which betrays the Christ of the Bible in favor of an ecumenical counterfeit, the floodgates are opened for compromise and apostasy of every sort. If in fact neither our doctrines nor our lifestyle have anything to do with salvation (something Steve Daily has taught for years, especially in the book noted above), why not be an evolutionist? Why is any doctrine or lifestyle principle important if neither doctrinal nor lifestyle correctness can affect our eternal destiny?

    Perhaps this is a case of those helping to start and nurture a trend finding themselves aghast at its eventual consequences. (Some have speculated that Karl Marx would have been most dismayed at the distortion of his ideology by Lenin and his successors.) But Step One always prepares the way for Step Two, and for multiple steps thereafter. The root of the present tragedy in contemporary Adventism is a false gospel which has opened wide the way for the outrageous errors we presently encounter among us. It is time to lay the ax at the root of the tree.

    God bless!

    Pastor Kevin Paulson

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  12. I did not say that I endorse Steve Daily’s theological views. Yesterday I spent an hour visiting a 41-year-old friend in the hospital who is dying of cancer, something that could strike you or me or any of us at any time. Life is a gift from God, Steve Daily is one of God’s children and every human life is precious. I prefer spending my time encouraging and building up the faith of others than seeking out and destroying heresy in the church–and nothing any of you write will ever change my mind. How about a group hug?

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  13. Thank you Pastor Paulson for the wisdom and insight expressed regarding this situation. How far we have fallen! Yet, the Lord’s hand is still “stretched out” toward us desperately trying to save as many as will return to the “old paths”. We all long for our children to be saved. We must not allow these evils to continue in LSU or any of our institutions, for our silence has endorsed these evils in the past. We have no choice but to sound the trumpet of concern lest “their blood be upon us”. May the Lord give us the true kind of love that is not afraid to admonish and warn with true meekness and kindness yet without fear of man’s wrath. Let us fear God rather than man!
    Finally, while there are some professors in LSU who do teach and exemplify the Adventist beliefs, too many of them live and teach a generic “Christianity”. We are well acquainted with LSU. We are alumni and so are our 2 sons and numerous relatives and friends. We know first hand that the concerns that have been brought to the forefront by Educate Truth and others are fact. We are proud of the young people such as Louie Bishop, who have been willing to confront “Goliath”. May the Lord continue to strengthen them and make them fearless and true to Him. It is too late for the church (from the bottom up!) to be sleeping! The Lord is raising up an army of young people who are not afraid to call sin by its right name. Let us older ones fully support them with every talent and means that we have been given. May we all draw close to Him and be willing to “prepare the way” for His soon appearing!
    Sincerely,
    Daniel and Myrtha Urrutia

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  14. @Daniel Urrutia, M.D.:

    We all long for our children to be saved. We must not allow these evils to continue in LSU or any of our institutions, for our silence has endorsed these evils in the past. We have no choice but to sound the trumpet of concern lest “their blood be upon us”. May the Lord give us the true kind of love that is not afraid to admonish and warn with true meekness and kindness yet without fear of man’s wrath. Let us fear God rather than man!

    Excellent points Daniel.

    1. silence has endorsed these evils.
    2. Adventists should all stand and sound the trumpet of alarm so that the blood of students who have been mislead by LSU staff will not be upon us.

    Finally, while there are some professors in LSU who do teach and exemplify the Adventist beliefs, too many of them live and teach a generic “Christianity”.

    This is another excellent point. Even among those staff who are not “in the tank” for evolutionism – we may find “enablers” of evolutionists. Those with just enough of a “generisized Christianity” to defend and provide “cover” for those evolutionist evangelists that would work to separate this school from it’s denomination.

    We are well acquainted with LSU. We are alumni and so are our 2 sons and numerous relatives and friends. We know first hand that the concerns that have been brought to the forefront by Educate Truth and others are fact.

    No wonder then that we have evolutionists here complaining that this is getting out into the “light of day” and people are taking notice denomination wide.

    I heard of a conference president recently make the observation that “about a decade ago we had a problem with Walla Walla and now it has come up again – at LSU”.

    But as Bradley and Fritz Guy and Taylor and others have noted – this problem at LSU has been cooking for a lot longer than ten years.

    We are proud of the young people such as Louie Bishop, who have been willing to confront “Goliath”. May the Lord continue to strengthen them and make them fearless and true to Him.

    Amen. We need to find those brave souls and strongly support the ones who are willing to stand up to this backroom effort working its way through our schools.

    It is too late for the church (from the bottom up!) to be sleeping! The Lord is raising up an army of young people who are not afraid to call sin by its right name. Let us older ones fully support them with every talent and means that we have been given. May we all draw close to Him and be willing to “prepare the way” for His soon appearing!

    Amen and amen!

    in Christ,

    Bob

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  15. Oh my why must we be attacking the integrity of individual SDAs? I come to this site to learn more about what is being taught at LSU and instead I see a pastor being assasinated.. maybe that is why so many SDAs are going to celebration churches these days. The judgmental attitude of so many of you are driving them away from our church! If you want to make the church a better placd you should be praying and helping to build up the faith of others, not seeking out the sins of others and broadcasting it to the whole wide world!

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  16. Sadly the feelings of Israel about Korah were of the sort that says that the sins that bring about the displeasure of God – should not be dealt with.

    The 3T section on Laodicea is very “instructive” on this point as it turns out.

    3SG 90-91 is also “very instructive” as to what the church should do with evolutionism.

    Ex 20:8-11 is “very instructive” about the amount of time that GOD says HE took in making all life on earth.

    Sadly – these sources of information are not of as much interest to some – as to others.

    And we knew that to start with. What we did not know – was how far this opposition to the Christian view on “origins” had gained a foothold in certain SDA institutions of learning.

    But it is all coming to the light of day now – and surely that has to be upsetting for some.

    in Christ,

    Bob

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