Comment on The SECC stands for something by David Read.
This shoots a torpedo into my theory that “the leadership just wants to tamp down controversy.” Clearly, they are NOT afraid of controversy and confrontation in the cause of something they really care about. The liberal leadership of the Southeastern California Conference really cares about women’s ordination. They do not really care about Darwinism being taught as truth at LaSierra.
I had a suspicion, now confirmed, that LaSierra’s Darwinism project is supported by a significant and powerful faction in the Pacific Union and its constituent conferences. Obviously, some person or persons unknown prevented the same type of strong statement issued against Doug Batchelor being issued to address the situation at LaSierra.
Personally, I am ambivalent on the women’s ordination issue. I am friends with Pastor Elizabeth Talbot, who was at Glendale, then at Alhambra, and now is working on her doctorate and doing radio with Mike Tucker at the Voice of Prophecy. I attended her “commissioning” service a few years ago at Alhambra. I have heard many of her sermons, and I can attest that she is a better preacher than 80% of the male pastors I’ve heard (and that despite a significant accent).
Despite this personal experience, I’m being driven into the anti-ordination camp, mainly because the people that are so militantly pro-ordination are the same crowd that essentially denies the prophetic authority of Ellen White and enthusiastically promotes Darwinism within the SDA church.
There is no point in denying that the two issues are connected. In his rationale for male headship at home and in church, Paul relies upon a literal understanding of the creation story: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.” 1 Timothy 2:11-14.
Those who are so passionate about women’s ordination would just as soon be rid of the literal creation story. If Paul’s rationale for male headship is wrong, if it is an erroneous literal reading of something intended to be “mythopoetic,” then Paul is wrong about male headship. It is that simple. That being the case, does anyone really believe that the same people who would publicly rebuke Doug Batchelor for opposing women’s ordination would also publicly rebuke the teaching of Darwinism? The answer to that question is becoming all too clear.
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Recent Comments by David Read
The Reptile King
Poor Larry Geraty! He can’t understand why anyone would think him sympathetic to theistic evolution. Well, for starters, he wrote this for Spectrum last year:
“Christ tells us they will know us by our love, not by our commitment to a seven literal historical, consecutive, contiguous 24-hour day week of creation 6,000 years ago which is NOT in Genesis no matter how much the fundamentalist wing of the church would like to see it there.”
“Fundamental Belief No. 6 uses Biblical language to which we can all agree; once you start interpreting it according to anyone’s preference you begin to cut out members who have a different interpretation. I wholeheartedly affirm Scripture, but NOT the extra-Biblical interpretation of the Michigan Conference.”
So the traditional Adventist interpretation of Genesis is an “extra-Biblical interpretation” put forward by “the fundamentalist wing” of the SDA Church? What are people supposed to think about Larry Geraty’s views?
It is no mystery how LaSierra got in the condition it is in.
The Reptile King
Professor Kent says:
“I don’t do ‘orgins science.’ Not a single publication on the topic. I study contemporary biology. Plenty of publications.”
So, if you did science that related to origins, you would do it pursuant to the biblical paradigm, that is pursuant to the assumption that Genesis 1-11 is true history, correct?
The Reptile King
Well, Jeff, would it work better for you if we just closed the biology and religion departments? I’m open to that as a possible solution.
The Reptile King
Larry Geraty really did a job on LaSierra. Personally I think it is way gone, compromised beyond hope. The SDA Church should just cut its ties to LaSierra, and cut its losses.
As to the discussion on this thread, round up the usual suspects and their usual arguments.
La Sierra University Resignation Saga: Stranger-than-Fiction
It is a remarkably fair and unbiased article, and a pretty fair summary of what was said in the recorded conversation.
