@ BobRyan @Geanna Dane: Mr. Gallimore has directly, …

Comment on Michigan Conference takes substantial action in LSU conflict by David Kendall, PhD.

@ BobRyan

@Geanna Dane:

Mr. Gallimore has directly, blatantly, and undeniably undermined Fundamental Belief #14, while on the church’s dime. He must immediately resign or be fired. (Quote)

One way to gauge the depth and significance of a man’s positions is to take note of the perspectives taken by the crowds that oppose him.

Very often the objective observer will find this little detail to lead to an insightful source of objective “recommendation” for or against the man’s views.

Do you mean that a man’s (or woman’s) position is vindicated by intelligent and reasoned responses by those who oppose, or by unintelligent and unreasoned responses by the same?

The statement was a bit of verbal irony, characterizing the views of one set of observers from the perspective of another set of observers, and is intended to illustrate what happens to a particular position when it is taken to one of its logical conclusions. In this case we might say that the moral of the irony is: “the knife cuts both ways.”

You remain very concerned with the “objective observer.” Who is this observer and how does he or she remain objective?

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University

David Kendall, PhD Also Commented

Michigan Conference takes substantial action in LSU conflict
Clarification: The first part of the quote is from Geanna Dane, while the second and third parts are BobRyan’s response. Sorry for the confusion, I put a quote within a quote; bad academic form!


Michigan Conference takes substantial action in LSU conflict
@ Faith

The point of their attending university and college is that they come to learn from those who supposedly already know what is right and true. Putting the young into an institute of learning and telling them to think for themselves when heresy is being taught and truth suppressed is stacking the deck against them.

First you teach them what is right and true so that they have a foundation to evaluate all subsequent information that life is going to throw at them. You wouldn’t take a college grad and immediately make him a surgeon, would you? Of course not; he hasn’t had the education he needs to operate safely. Same principles apply here.

Faith,

I must respectfully disagree (and respectfully is the way we should all disagree) that the point of a student attending a college or university is to learn from we who supposedly know what is right and true. Any professor who claims to have discovered all there is to know on a subject is disingenuous. We never (and neither should we claim to) arrive at a place where there is nothing more to learn or nothing to debate or struggle over. If we could arrive at such a place, there would be no need for the liberal arts university as an institution. The university environment has always been the place for “collaborative struggle” in all fields of learning. If we are not willing to put students in an environment to think for themselves, I believe that they will never function as autonomous individuals, they will never become adults.

At what age do we trust our students to engage difficult issues like these for themselves? Nearly all of our students come to us already having reached the age of majority (18), and at what point will we be finished completing the foundation and declare the students ready to handle the issues subsequently thrown their way? I believe that the university is the perfect place to confront these issues and where godly and committed professors, administrators and staff are there to help and to safely guide students in that journey. The educational process can be uncomfortable for some (as it was for me) but that does not mean that it is not beneficial. Our university environment is certainly a better place for them to learn these things than in a frat house party or on a street corner somewhere. This is about as passionately as anyone will see me speak on an issue, except of course my own research fields!

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


Recent Comments by David Kendall, PhD

Clifford Goldstein: Seventh-day Darwinians, Redux
@Hope Sekulic

Goldstein, not to long presented a talk at Weimar Institute. I watched him talk, He appeared perplexed his subject of presentation was all mixed up and confusing. It had not foundation and point. He was jumping from subject to subject, he was moving all over the platform, scratching his head, looking in to his I-phone or what ever it was in his hand, passing up and down with a disruptive spirit.
I was sad to see him so discordant and so disorganized in his talk.

Hope,

Are you suggesting that Goldstein’s difficulties in speaking at Weimar are a result of Satan sowing discord and confusion in the church generally, or an attack on him specifically? I was not sure.

Read and see Who are the Wolfs in the Sheep’s skin and where they like to graze.

I am familiar with the theories stating that Jesuit infiltrators are everywhere, seeking to destroy the church. An SDA pastor friend of mine had his church’s website “denounced” by the “Adventist Liberation Front.” I am familiar with Fr. Alberto Rivera’s testimony that the Jesuit order is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Interestingly, I get testimonies from a number of friends who have left the SDA church asserting that Adventism is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Which am I to believe, as both sides have equally heart-wrenching horror stories to tell? Maybe both of them, or maybe neither. I am friends with a number of Jesuit and other Catholic priests through my research in the Philippines (my wife is Jesuit-educated), as well as very many Adventists of different backgrounds (having been a life-long SDA in Arizona, Southern California, Taiwan and the Philippines). I have to say in all honesty that when I look for Christ-centered attitudes, kindness and service towards one’s fellow man, I have often noted these attributes to be significantly stronger among the Catholic priests. Some have told me that this is their deception, their apparition as Satan as an angel of light. However, I have only Christ’s statement, to know them by their fruits. This does not cause me to want to leave my church, but rather expect it to be better; to bear sweeter fruit.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


Dr. Geraty clarifies his “Challenge” to literal 6-day creationism
@BobRyan

unbiased objective readers

objective unbiased reader

Bob,

I have made this query before, but as I have noticed your increased use of the above term (and related variants) both here and in other forums, and I ask again: Who is this unbiased objective reader? How does this reader remain objective and free from bias? I understand that you are using the phrase as a rhetorical device to impart value to your arguments and responses vis-a-vis opposing arguments; by appealing to a supposed authority (objectivity). The only truly objective authority to which we can appeal is God, and as none of us can claim that identity, I am unsure as to the reasoning behind your continued and consistent use of the term.

@Ron Stone, M.D.

Professor Kent, You’re right–there is no point in your “sharing” anything here, as you are pointedly shot down whenever you do! Good bye!

Dr. Stone,

This statement does not, to my mind, seem to be a very efficient process toward convincing others of the rightness of your position. It is this very type of discourse that proves to non-Adventists, non-Christians, and other interested observers that our faith and the commands of Christ to love one another are of a low priority in our everyday lives. I am asking my delegate to the GC session to call for a broad-based, civil, open and honest discussion on origins in the Adventist church, without polemics, threats, and un-Christian language. This is the very minimum we should expect of ourselves and of others who call themselves by Christ’s name.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


Catholic School Fires Math Teacher for Expressing Atheistic Views
Geanna,

I encourage you to go get a PhD, if you can find a good, supportive department (and some funding, hard to come by these days, at least in California), either inside of or outside of the SDA system. I found all of my graduate work to be incredibly rewarding and I strongly recommend it to my own students, though they should always be prepared to open their minds and question their assumptions, despite what others have warned about the dangers of such a route (reading infidel authors, engaging in philosophical debates in the religious sphere, etc.).

One suggestion for working at an SDA institution is to prepare a syllabus and approach a department chair and offer to teach an introductory class, a lab or something else in an adjunct capacity. Working for the church is likewise very rewarding (but not usually in a monetary sense!), though a bit less so in the current environment. Having the privilege of helping to guide and mentor students in an Adventist Christian environment (just as I was in turn guided and mentored) is enough for me. Go for it!

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


Dr. Geraty clarifies his “Challenge” to literal 6-day creationism
@Former LSU Student

I am interested in when you attended LSU, because it sounds like you must have been there around the time I was a student (1998-2002). I remember the land sale, etc. that you mentioned, though I may have been serving as a student missionary in Taiwan (2002-2003) when the sale was final. I also do not know what floor of Sierra Towers you lived on (I was on 2nd floor from 1998-2001, then South Hall), but my experiences there, as well as everywhere else on campus, were very different from yours.

Also, not to be confrontational, but it would not be wise to suggest that Dr. Geraty served at LSU due to his inability to perform in the public, secular academic world (if that is what you were suggesting). A cursory glance at his CV will show that he would be a very big fish in any pond.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


Clifford Goldstein: Seventh-day Darwinians, Redux
@ Kevin Paulson

David Kendall seems to view the “teasing out” of various viewpoints in the present controversy as a harmless exercise–the necessary full airing of a particular concept in the name of fairness. This is fine if we are talking about human theories and philosophies or some debate in the secular realm (e.g. politics).

Pastor Paulson,

I did not mention that the “teasing out” of viewpoints is either a harmless exercise or that it is done in the name of fairness or for any other reason; I said simply that this is what scholars do as part of a venerable (or venerated) academic tradition.

In matters spiritual we are not dealing with the harmless interchange of ideas, where any number of varied conclusions might be embraced with innocence.

No mention was made of embracing varied conclusions, be they innocent or otherwise, but rather I advised that “we should keep in mind that philosophers and other scholars often discuss and theorize concepts at great length without necessarily espousing those concepts as truth.”

Do you consider certain lines of inquiry to be off-limits? What kinds of scholarship should be forbidden when our primary concern is the salvation of our souls? Is the very knowledge of “wrong ideas and wrong practices” that which can and will lead to eternal damnation? What do you propose we do about this?

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University