AR: 14 Soldiers in God’s Army

The Adventist Review continues the recent focus on the anniversary of World War I with the story, "14 Soldiers in God’s Army" (Victor Hulbert, 28 Oct 2014).

The article begins with a brief description of the abuse the Adventists experienced:

Fourteen Adventist soldiers laid down their tools at 4:00 p.m. on Friday to prepare for Sabbath. But the sergeants were ready, armed with sticks, revolvers, and boots. Severe beatings followed. The bruised British conscripts then were roughly thrust into prison cells, irons tightly clamped on their wrists, digging into their flesh, their hands behind their backs.

After relating the staggering statistics relating to WWI, Hulbert shares,

Adventist soldiers found a different kind of horror. Determined to keep the Sabbath and not carry weapons, they were beaten, starved, forced to clean toilets to a shine without equipment, and punished with the dreaded “crucifixion,” which saw soldiers shackled in irons and painfully strapped to a gun wheel or some other object for hours in the hot sun.

Hulbert describes the difference between the ways leaders in Great Britain and Germany responded to the war. Adventists in Germany predominantly supported fighting for the nation, though some did resist, which led to the Reform Movement.

Adventists in Britain took a different stance. They followed the Adventist example of noncombatance adopted during the American Civil War in 1861 to 1865. This was not an easy choice, and British Adventists were widely scorned as belonging to an odd, working-class church exported from the U.S.

Things went smoothly, more-or-less, for the first 18 months for the Adventists who were conscripted.

But a new young officer took charge in November 1917, and he declared that Sabbath duty was mandatory. When the Adventists refused to work, they were placed under court martial and sentenced to six months of hard labor at Military Prison No. 3 in Le Havre.

The lengthy article addresses how the Adventists were treated in prison and the steps to their eventual release. Special focus is given to their first Sabbath in prison.

The complete article can be read here.

Additional APF stories about WWI:

• WWI and the Adventist Church (30 Sept 2014)
• Viewpoints #15: Dr. Idel Suarez Jr, Reform Movement President (5 Sept 2014)
• Love Your Enemy? (27 Aug 2014)
• Symposium on the Impact of WWI on Adventism (2 June 2014)

Do Justice: Our Call to Faithful Living (Edited by Nathan Brown and Joanna Darby)

Nathan Brown and Joanna Darby have recently published a collection of essays on just living entitled Do Justice. The book is currently available in Australia, and it will be released in the U.S. in 2015. The One Project plans to distribute the book at their conferences around the world, increasing exposure for the book. ADRA Australia released the first statement about the book, which is fitting because the Forward was written by Jonathan Duffy,  former CEO of ADRA Australia and current ADRA International president.

Mark Webster, the current ADRA Australia CEO, writes that the editors have pulled "together the wisdom of a diverse group of 26 people for whom justice is a passion, harnessing their thoughts, experiences and advice into a cohesive whole." Webster continues,

Authors such as Kendra Haloviak Valentine and Ty Gibson explore that foundational nature of justice to our faith and indeed our existence. Dwight Nelson and Lowell C Cooper, among others, explore the nexus of faith and justice in the context of the church and its beliefs. Lisa Clark Diller and Zivayi Nengomasha join their voices with those of others seeking to make justice an intentional part of their lives. And another group, including Tim Gillespie, Ella Smith Simmons and Mindi Wiygul, share guidance from their own experiences of justice in practice.

The entire review can be read here.

College View Academy Hosts Fundraiser for ISIS Victims

College View Academy students put on a fundraiser for ISIS victims, Megan Conway reports for KLKN TV (ABC 8) in Lincoln, Nebraska (link). Recently, Union College also hosted an event focusing on Iraqis affected by the conflict.

KLKN article excerpts:

At the Union College campus tonight, hundreds came out for a benefit concert. The purpose of the concert was giving back to families in the middle of a war zone, thousands of miles away. College View Academy students hosted the benefit concert all in an effort to help the victims of ISIS.

Special guests Mayor Chris Beutler and his wife came to the event. Baked goods were sold and students sang and played instruments.

The volunteers raised just over six and a half thousand dollars. Their hope is to influence other schools and organizations to do the same, stressing that every little bit helps. [complete article]

Update: APF has been told the funds are going to Adventist Frontier Mission's (AFM) refugee ministry in northern Iraq (link). Also, all funds designated for Yazda are being sent to that nonprofit. Finances are going to AFM because neither ADRA nor the Middle East Union is active in the area, we are told. As of Wednesday night (15 Oct), the total raised has increased to $9,500.

The Good Neighbor Community Center posted two short videos of local media coverage:

• KLKN ABC 8 (article transcription)
• 10 11 Now

Union College Hosts Interfaith Iraq Memorial

Today is the International Day of Non-violence. The UN describes three categories of non-violent action:

• protest and persuasion, including marches and vigils;
• non-cooperation; and
• non-violent intervention, such as blockades and occupations. (link)

A meaningful story about an Adventist vigil is the recent memorial service hosted by Union College in Lincoln, NE. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that

300 people of different religious backgrounds gathered for the "Interfaith Iraq Peacemaking and Memorial Service on Sunday, which was dedicated to remembrances of Yazidis who have been killed and enslaved by ISIS" (Chris Heady, 28 Sept 2014).

The article shared the context and motivation for the event:

Lincoln is home to more than 1,000 Yazidis, a group of Kurdish-speaking people who live largely in northern Iraq. Lincoln's Yazidi community is the nation’s largest, and on Sunday some of them, along with other Lincoln residents of various faiths, tried to send out a message of peace to the world. They urged everyone to look at humans as people, not as their faith or skin color.

Doug Hardt of the Union College Center for Interfaith Studies and Culture conceived of the remembrance ceremony after traveling to Iraq this summer. After seeing one million people without homes and after talking with people who had gone through hell, he said, he wanted to do something to remember those who had died.

The article concludes:

As the group of 300 or so reflected during a moment of silence, phones lit the poem on the back of a program: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” (complete article)

See also the earlier article, "Union College's Iraqi memorial service aims to begin healing, reconciliation" (Lincoln Journal Star, 26 Sept 2014).

APF readers who are interested in nonviolent peacemaking in the Middle East may find the following items worth considering:

• CPT - Iraq
• Is There a Nonviolent Response to ISIS? (Flood, Huffington Post, 12 Aug 2014)
• What Can Christians Do About Iraq? (Raushenbush, Huffington Post, 8 Aug 2014)
• Fasting for the Middle East (September 11 to October 20) (Komarnicki, Evangelicals for Social Action, 9 Sept 2014)
• Jim Foley, ISIS, and What I Learned from Being Kidnapped (Gish, Red Letter Christians, 25 Aug 2014)
• ISIS vs the Way of Jesus (Medearis, Red Letter Christians, 11 Sept 2014)
• Acting Like A State: ISIS, the US, and Jesus as Lord (Wilson-Hartgrove, Red Letter Christians, 22 Sept 2014)
• ISIS and the Good Samaritan (Hunt, American Jesus, 22 Sept 2014)
• How Christians Reject Jesus: On Violence and ISIS (Ericksen, Sojourners, 24 Sept 2014)
• War Is Not the Answer (Wallis, Sojourners, 11 Sept 2014)
• more...

"Alternatives to Violence: Various SNVM Members Speak About the War on Da'esh (ISIS)" SNVM member Rasha al-Qass Yousef:

As a Syrian from a Christian background who has many years of experience with different Syrian opposition groups, I believe military intervention against ISIS will only lead to the creation of more extremism.

Before starting with a military solution, why not explore political, economic, and social solutions? Why did it take the West so long to embargo the oil produced by ISIS? Why did the West turn a blind eye to the flood of jihadists entering Syria through Turkey? Why no real pressure on Gulf countries for their official and unofficial massive support of different nefarious armed groups? Why did the “Friends of Syria” fail to provide Raqqa—the first liberated area in the country—with any support for the local community, the civil society organizations, and the emerging local council, despite all the calls to do so?"

—Rasha Qass Yousef, member of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement and the Syrian Democratic Forum, a co-founder of the Haquna Movement, a civil resistance group in the city of Raqqa that campaigned against both the Assad regime and the armed groups who seized the city, including ISIS

Posted on Facebook by the Syrian Nonviolence Movement

Published online by Dissent Magazine

WWI and the Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United Kingdom has compiled information regarding how Adventists in the region responded to World War One--WWI and the Adventist Church. "There were roughly 2,500 Seventh-day Adventist members in the UK in 1914. Some 130 of them were conscripted." The men who chose to be noncombatants experienced "scorn, humiliation, arrest, beating, and even threat of death." Furthermore, "a number spent time in Dartmoor, Wakefield or Knutsford prisons. A particular group of 14 were sent to France and following a court martial in November 1917 were sentenced to six months hard labour at Military Prison #3 in Le Harve."

In addition to four PDF documents--WWI Brian Phillips, Adventist Heroes Devotional Talk, Armstrong Letter 1957, The Tribunal 4-04-1918--the website also lists a number of primary sources and links for further study.

The site also has a devotional video from the 2014 SEC camp meeting. The speaker in the video is "Victor Hulbert, great-nephew of Willie Till, one of the 14 who were court martialled and imprisoned in Le Harve."

Finally, a trailer for the film, A Matter of Conscience, is provided. The complete film is now available:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qSLHb0TGcQ?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

WWI and the Adventist Church (UK)

The Story of Lucille Lewis Byard

I failed to post the following story on September 22, when Benjamin Baker of the Ellen White Estate shared it with me. I included a minimalist telling of this story in a writing project earlier this year. Adventist Archives - - -

On this day (September 22) in 1877, Lucille Lewis Byard was born in Petersburg, Virginia. She accepted the Adventist message in 1902 in New York City, and was an active member in the Jamaica Long Island Church for the rest of her life, serving as a Bible worker and church musician, renowned for her gracious hospitality and vegetarian cooking.

In October 1943 while visiting the Washington, D.C., area, Byard contracted a severe case of pneumonia. She checked into the Washington Sanitarium and Hospital, and since she had a very light complexion, it was assumed she was Caucasian. However, after she was admitted, hospital staff discovered from a patient form Byard had filled out that she was African American. Despite her pleading, Byard was discharged from the hospital. Her family took her to the Freedman’s Hospital (now Howard University Hospital) across town, but she died shortly after on October 20, 1943.

“The Byard Incident,” as it became known, sparked a grassroots protest among black Adventists, who saw the event as a reflection of the unfortunate state of race relations in the church. Several groups were formed, demanding church leaders to act to redress the situation. It was pointed out that African Americans robustly supported the Adventist church with tithes and offerings, yet were unable to be treated in church hospitals, attend certain churches and church schools, and were regularly and systematically discriminated against. Through a series of events, regional (black) conferences were organized in 1945-1946. Byard’s death was a key catalyst of their establishment.

AR: Safe at Home (Haugen)

Tyler Wigg-Stevenson confesses in his book The World Is Not Ours To Save that he believes there will be no perfect solution for this world's great injustices "until the kingdom of God comes." However, "the absence of evident solutions does not absolve us from the pain of loving the world as Christ loves it" (p. 60).

I was reminded of this when I read about Liv Olsen, who works to save young girls from being trafficked in Thailand (Gry Haugen, "Safe at Home," Adventist World, September 2014, pp. 40-41). Olsen, who is 82, "has a passion for children, especially children at risk. When Olsen, from Moss, Norway, was 78 years old, she traveled from Norway to Chiang Rai, Thailand, to visit the newly constructed Keep Girls Safe shelter, which she helped finance through ADRA Norway in cooperation with ADRA Thailand" (p. 40).

The Keep Girls Safe program has three initiatives: a "home for vulnerable girls; educational support for girls who remain in their villages; and value-based awareness campaigns and training for parents and adolescents that seeks to warn them about the dangers of human trafficking and exploitation" (p. 41).

The article reports two statistics that exemplify Wigg-Stevensons point -- (a) the shelter can hold up to 40 girls and (b) worldwide, 40 percent of girls and young women in prostitution are from northern Thailand. Liv Olsen cannot solve that massive injustice, but she can care for those forty. And even this care must be given in collaboration with other volunteers and organizations. We can't do it all, but we can do something. Olsen's dedication shows what personal sacrifice can accomplish:

Over many years, Liv Olsen has saved money to be able to give poor girls in northern Thailand a home. To be able to do that she has, for example, ridden a bike instead of taking the bus to get around town. (pp. 40-41)

May we all live as faithfully as Olsen regardless of the particular mission God calls us to.

[Featured Photo: SAFE AND SECURE: Children who benefit from the Keep Girls Safe Shelter can look forward to a future that won’t be marred by the prospect of human trafficking. Credit: Adventist Review.]

News Round-up

News Round-up: Ferguson, Iraq and Syria, Hobby Lobby, Ebola, UN Day of Peace

Finding the Adventists in Ferguson (Byrd, Spectrum, 1 Sept 2014)

Darrell Alexander, an Adventist minister of music who is now retired, and lives in the St. Louis area, said, “Do we actually get out there and help other people the way Jesus did, or do we just talk about it? If we are a church about people, and a church about helping the afflicted, then we need to be on point. We need to back that up with our actions.”

Adventist-Linked Group Presses UN on Iraq and Syria (McChesney, Adventist Review, 2 Sept 2014)

A religious freedom group with links to the Seventh-day Adventist Church urged the United Nations and international community on Tuesday to act quickly and decisively in protecting Christians in Iraq and Syria against “unimaginable and unprecedented” violence from Islamic State militants.

Viewpoint: Politics and SDA Religious Liberty (Gessel, Spectrum, 5 Sept 2014)

In a statement posted on June 30, 2014, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America announced that it is “encouraged” by the ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case. This week, the online Adventist Review published a document prepared by a General Conference Associate General Counsel that provided the underlying support for the June 30 statement.

Dispatches from Ebola-Hit Liberia (Appel, Spectrum, 8 Sept 2014)

Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, has come to a standstill as the deadly Ebola outbreak sweeps the region. Cooper Adventist Hospital is the only hospital still open to treat patients with problems other than Ebola. In mid-August Dr. James Appel, a graduate of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine with years of experience at Adventist hospitals in Chad, flew to Liberia to work at Cooper Adventist, an Adventist Health International hospital with only 25 beds and very little supplies and equipment.

Adventist Church to mark UN’s International Day of Peace September 21 (Etats-Unis/ANN, 18 Sept 2014)

Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders are inviting members to join the United Nations’ International Day of Peace on Sunday, September 21 by responding to a call for a minute of silence at noon with prayer.

Adventist Mission Doctor Speaks Out on the Ebola Crisis and Foreign Aid (Appel, Adventist Today, 19 Sept 2014)

I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be foreigners involved.  I’m just saying that the foreigners should be working alongside the Liberians, helping them to find a solution to the Ebola problem, not trying to impose Western ideas that obviously aren’t working.  Foreigners should not be bringing in a lot of money that is spent on things that will just make the Liberians envious and want to share in the spoils of aid money.

Brown Calls for Active Creationism

In the September installment of his Engage series, Nathan Brown calls for an active creationism (Adventist World). Brown writes:

Yes, I believe taking action to conserve and protect our natural world is important. We should be using our voice, influence, choices, and actions to protect natural habitats, change our economies and practices in response to global warming, seek to prevent and reverse pollution, reduce waste, and so much more. But this is more motivated by theology than ecology.

From “God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good” (Gen. 1:31 ), to “Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all the springs of water” (Rev. 14:7), and many places in between, the Bible is filled with God’s justifiable pride in the world He created, and His concern that we should honor Him by working with Him to care for it. Creationism is not so much about scientific argument as a call to celebrate and serve God’s good creation.

The complete article can be read here.

Todd Leonard confronts Adventist apocalypticism in the light of violence in Iraq and in Ferguson

In an August 30 sermon entitled, "Changing Times: The Time of Trouble and the Mark of the Beast," Todd Leonard, senior pastor of Glendale City Church and APF Advisory Board member, asks the urgent question: What does it mean to follow the Christ of the Book of Revelation in the light of violence in Iraq and in Ferguson? (starting at minute 30)

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tLzMjWDDgOk[/embed]

Viewpoints #15: Dr. Idel Suarez Jr, Reform Movement President

I interviewed Pastor Idel Suarez Jr for the Viewpoints interview series at Adventist Today (link). Suarez is the president of one branch of the Adventist Reform Movement, which started in Europe during World War I. I met Dr. Suarez in Germany earlier this summer when we both attended a symposium on how WWI affected the Adventist Church (link). In this interview Suarez shares about the movement's history, values and theology. Excerpt:

AToday: You've spoken to this already, but what were the major factors or events at the time of WWI that led to the Reform Movement in Germany, Russia, and elsewhere?

Suarez: The Reform Movement started in Germany. It was Germany that entered the war first, that made a declaration of war. And Guy Dail, secretary of the European Division, issued a letter, stating that Adventists should bear arms and go to war. That was August 2, 1914. Of course that letter caused a grave difficulties among the churches in Germany. Many believers—these were Adventists, they did not see themselves yet as reformers—stood up during Sabbath services, saying that we need to remain pacifist. It's one thing to be noncombatants, but it's a totally different position to be combatants, to bear arms, to kill, and to break the Sabbath.

AToday members can read the entire article here.

The other interviews in the Viewpoints series can be accessed here.

Shall I or Shall We War?

Submitted by Pastor Dr. Mark A. McClearySenior Pastor, Liberty Seventh-day Adventist Church, Windsor Mill, MD

In the 60s, the musical group Chilites rhetorically asked, “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again!” Marvin Gaye, the soulful balladeer, caused us to reflect on war’s impact when he asked, “What’s going on?—Brother, brother, brother, there is far too many of you dying. Mother, mother, mother, there is far too many of you crying.” These lyrical prophets speak to the reverberating issues and negative impact of war, then and until now.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet pondered this topic at the micro and interpersonal level when he asked, “To be or not to be, ah, that is the question?” George Hebert Meade describes the individual and socialization via the metaphor of “I” and “Me.” The former is the individual as idiosyncratic initiant, and the latter as the situated person within society, sending and receiving influencing messages. Thus, Shall I or We War? indicates the personal and public dynamics and decisions involved in war.

Christopher Marlowe stated, “Accurse be he that first invented war.” On the other hand, Francis Edward Smedley declared, “All is fair in love and war.” Ironically speaking, both are right in my opinion. War is terrible at the individual and corporate levels, and yet the effectual ends of war seem to legitimize even the terribleness of war. Perhaps William Sherman’s assertion helps explain this conundrum—“the legitimate objective of war is a more perfect peace.” This seems to be the battle cry of jingoist protagonists and religious pulpiteers who are pro-war in Iran, Korea, the Middle East, or wherever USA Manifest Destiny is hampered. This is especially the case after the recent beheading of the American journalist by Isis. It seems similar to the nationalist pep-rally-like rhetoric of George W. Bush after 911—“the folk who did this will hear from us soon.” Bush made this prediction before any alleged hijacker was identified and before he launched what turned out to be a bogus hunt for weapons of mass destruction. Said weapons, if found would have been used to confirm Iraq and Sadaam Husein's blame for the 911 tragedy. Shall I or shall we war? According former President Bush, "Yes."

220px-S._Baring-Gould_portrait

Human history is a record of war in various manners—between men and women (James Thurber), Civil War (100 Years War in England and between the North and South in the USA), pre-1989 Cold War between the USA and its democratic allies and the USSR, and lastly, the Medieval Crusades until today’s Christian West versus the Islamic fundamentalists. How ironic that a popular Christian hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers, written by Sabine Baring-Gould, affords Christian individuals and groups to sing heartily, “On onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ the royal master, leads against the foe, forward into battle see His banners go.” Shall I or shall we war?

The New Testament writer, James, explains the cause of war when he says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war” (James 4:1, 2, NKJV). Perhaps, the mention of war sends chills up your back. However, on this side of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, history and present media outlets report that war is a present and future reality for individuals and global society.

Conclusions

God’s guidelines for Israel, in anticipation of encounters with non-Jewish peoples as they traveled to and later occupied the Promise Land are as follows:

• War is with an enemy and not a friend.

• War is a final reaction to oppressive interactions that would not respond to positive peace negotiations.

• War, sanctioned by God, is to protect His people from the corrupting influence of the aggressor and infidel.

• War, authorized by God, will result in salvation for His people and their land.

The Lord, maybe not some individuals and groups, loves all people—Iraqis, Palestinians, Israelis, Ukrainians, and Koreans—“For God so loves the world…” (John 3:16). God is no respecter of persons, regardless of nationality or ethnicity, gender, or social-economic status. I suggest that the President, war pundits, grieving families, and every “I” and “We” consider war according to counsel. I trust in the practice that a multitude of input is safer than impulsive reactions (Prov. 11:4).

I look forward to the day when all wars—Ferguson, MO, environmental upheaval, legislative, religious, micro and macro—will be moribund.

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11:1-9, NKJV).

News Round-up

Adventist Church Files Amicus Brief for Workplace Religious Freedom Case at Top U.S. Court (Ansel Oliver, ANN, 27 Aug 2014)

The Seventh-day Adventist Church filed an amicus brief today urging the United States’ top court to accept the case of a Muslim girl who was denied a job because her hijab—a head-covering—violated a company’s policy. The Adventist Church’s “friend-of-the-court” brief is joined by seven other faith groups for the case Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. [complete article]

Adventist Church Sponsors Its First Religious Liberty Festival in Britain (Victor Hulbert, John Surridge, Dan Serb and ANN staff, ANN, 26 Aug 2014)

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Britain held its first religious liberty festival, in which Church leaders offered an overview of religious freedom developments and urged Church members to continue defending rights for people of all faiths and beliefs. More than 2,000 people attended the “Free to Worship” festival on Saturday, August 16, the second of a two-day event at the Bethel Convention Centre in West Bromwich. [complete article]

Adventist Leaders Speak Out on Unrest in Ferguson, Missouri (Adventist Today, 21 Aug 2014)

Pastor Daniel R. Jackson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination in North America, released a statement early Thursday morning (August 21) about the ongoing civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. “As a part of the larger family of America, Seventh-day Adventists grieve with Michael Brown’s family and extend our heartfelt condolences for their tragic loss," he said. "We are praying for our Ferguson community family who are in such great pain." [complete article]

Adventist Church’s Anti-abuse Initiative Set for August 23 (Ansel Oliver, ANN, 15 Aug 2014)

Seventh-day Adventist world church leaders are calling on all Adventist congregations to designate a portion of their August 23 church service to mark the EndItNow Abuse Prevention Emphasis Day. The Adventist Church’s annual day of emphasis brings awareness to the issues of domestic violence, sexual abuse and other forms of mistreatment. [complete article]

AW: Love Your Enemy?

Denis Kaiser, a presenter at the recent symposium on World War I held at Friedensau Adventist University, has written a reflection piece on WWI for Adventist World--"Love Your Enemy" (August 2014, pp. 24-27).

Kaiser providers a brief history on the first world war and the Adventist response to it, including the formation of the Reform Movement. Kaiser explains:

As armies mobilized, young Adventists were conscripted and dragged into the machinery of war. Some denominational leaders in Germany lost their nerve and assured the military authorities that its conscripts would defend the homeland with weapons even on the Sabbath. At the same time they sought to convince church members that the Old Testament readiness for war was still applicable today.5

This position was, admittedly, not entirely new for Adventists in Central Europe. Yet the fact that these leaders practically told church members what they expected from them was certainly unique. A number of individuals voiced their discontent and opposition. The subsequent turmoil and contention could apparently only be stopped by disfellowshipping the “troublemakers,” resulting in further alienation, antagonism, and hard feelings. This internal “war” eventually led to the establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement.

Kaiser then turns to an ethical exploration of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, arguably the portion of scripture to which Christians (i.e., followers of Jesus Christ) should first turn when attempting to discern Christian moral responsibility. "In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) Jesus outlined the laws of His kingdom and gave us a glimpse of the wide framework in which He addressed moral and ethical issues. John Howard Yoder, a Mennonite theologian and ethicist, detected seven ethical principles in that sermon that I find helpful in considering how we can apply biblical principles under changing conditions and circumstances."

Kaiser concludes the article by considering the Adventist Church's mission. "God’s children should be characterized primarily by the attempt to resemble God’s character of perfect, excessive, and reconciling love to friends and enemies. Ultimately, Seventh-day Adventists consider it our mission to proclaim the three angels’ messages 'to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people' (Rev. 14:6) to draw people to Jesus so that they may not perish but be saved."

The complete article can be read online here.

AR: God Was a Recycler

As noted previously (link), the Adventist Review has been posting updates on the International Conference on the Bible and Science. News editor Andrew McChesney reports on two presentations regarding environmentalism or creation care. Steve Dunbar, a marine biologist at Loma Linda University and co-editor of Entrusted, asked the group, "Should Seventh-day Adventists care for the environment more than the rest of the world?" Dunbar continued:

“It’s interesting that some research has been done, and what it has found is Christians are measurably less interested in caring for the environment.”

Dunbar said he was reminded of the Israelites’ complete apathy toward the environment as described by God in Jeremiah 12:10, 11: “Many rulers have ravaged My vineyard, trampling down the vines and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness. They have made it an empty wasteland; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate. And no one even cares” (NLT).

“No one cares,” Dunbar said. “What a statement for God to say about Israel, His chosen people. Not even one cares.”

He said Adventists more than anyone have reason to care about the environment because they should understand the biblical teaching that the Earth is owned not by humans but by God.

The second presenter to address environmental issues was Jo Ann Davidson, a professor at Andrews University Theological Seminary. Davidson shared "that the Bible contains a 'robust doctrine' in support of the environment from the first pages of Genesis to the last pages of Revelation, and she said that Adventists needed to adopt 'a more worldly attitude.'" She continued, "It seems curious to me and even remarkable that Seventh-day Adventist Christians who believe in the divine creation of this world … have rarely acknowledged that the biblical parameters of stewardship involve more than money.”

The entire article can be read online here.

What is Central or Peripheral to Adventism, to Adventist Peacemakers?

Chris Blake uses the language of central and peripheral when discussing the priorities of faith (see "In Christ There Is Neither Conservative Nor Liberal," Adventist Review). In the past few weeks, two communications from Ted Wilson (Seventh-day Adventist world church president) have hinted at what is central and peripheral to Adventism, at least as Wilson envisions it.

First, in the August 2014 edition of Adventist World, Wilson considers noncombatancy in Adventist history ("The Battle: Should Adventists Serve in the Military?"). Wilson briefly describes the early roots of the position:

As with other difficult questions, the pioneer leaders studied the issues using the Bible as their guide, and concluded that the position most consistent with biblical principles was noncombatancy (the conscientious objection to bearing arms). The primary reason for this position was that Adventists serving in the U.S. military would be forced to compromise their loyalty to God if they obeyed the commands of their officers. The two Bible commandments most directly involved were the fourth—to keep the Sabbath holy, and the sixth—not to kill.

This short overview omits that those who enlisted were disfellowshiped, but there certainly isn't room to cover every detail of this early period in such a short article. After considering various aspects of Adventist practice and history, Wilson addresses the question of the church's stance today:

Gary Councell, director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries, addresses this question in his book, Seventh-day Adventists in Military Service: “Though the Seventh-day Adventist Church advocates a noncombatant position, pacifism, military service, or noncombatancy are not tests of church membership. The denomination does not act as the conscience for any member or military commander, but it does seek to inform the conscience and behavior of both, so decisions can be made with a maximum of understanding and thought.” [Gary R. Councell, Seventh-day Adventists and Military Service (Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries, 2011), pp. 30, 31.]

Thus, while the official church position is that of noncombatancy—conscientious objection to bearing arms—the decision as to whether or not to serve in the military and bear arms is left to the conscience of the individual.

The church supports Y (noncombatancy), but members are allowed to practice X (combatancy) or Z (pacifism).

Compare this openness to disagreement regarding noncombatancy with a second topic--creation. Wilson spoke about creationism to open the International Conference on the Bible and Science in Las Vegas, Nevada (15 Aug 2014, Adventist Review coverage). Wilson supported a 6-day (6 x 24 hours) recent creation. "We believe that the Biblical creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 was a literal event that took place in six literal, consecutive days recently as opposed to deep time." This is the most common view held by Adventists, as I understand our history, so it is not noteworthy in itself. The notable feature of the speech was the boundary-drawing that marks off who is a true Adventist. Wilson stated,

If one does not accept the recent six-day creation understanding then that person is actually not a “Seventh-day” Adventist since the seventh-day Sabbath would become absolutely meaningless historically and theologically and most of our Biblically based doctrines centered in Christ and His authoritative voice would become meaningless as well. The person may claim to be an “Adventist,” but in reality without the clear Biblical understanding of the foundational Sabbath doctrine and God’s authority as Creator and Sovereign of the universe, it is really impossible to arrange a meaningful theological construct that would lead to or be acceptable for a belief in a literal second coming of Christ. ("God's Authoritative Voice," 18 Aug 2014)

To be a true Seventh-day Adventist, one must believe in (1) a literal six-day creation that (2) happened recently (approximately 6,000 years ago; "Wilson: No Room for Evolutionists in Adventist Schools"). To be a true Seventh-day Adventist, one must agree with both features.

Comparing these two stories reveals what is central to Adventism and what is more peripheral, at least as understood by the current president. A recent, 6-day creation is central or fundamental, so there is apparently no room for alternate views, even on how recently this creation occurred. Social constructs of peace and nonviolence are considered more peripheral, so there is significant space to state where the church stands, while leaving room for personal conviction.

What do you think?

1) According to your understanding of Adventist history and biblical ethics, how central is shalom to the church, to God's kingdom?

2) What guides our valuation process of determining what is central and what is peripheral?

3) Is it better for church leaders to lay down absolute boundaries (e.g., creation article) or to state a given position and allow diversity of thought on the topic (e.g., military article)? What are the pros and cons of either approach? What are the useful limits of either approach?

4) Creationism is certainly important to Adventist peacemakers, no matter our various understandings of the details of origins. How do aspects of this doctrine affect our actions, values and lifestyles today (e.g., made in the image of God, creation was "good," God being the source of life, or relationships between humans, between humans and the rest of creation, between humans and God)?

5) The science and faith conference is a 10-day event. If the church were to convene a similar gathering on Adventist peacemaking, what themes would you want covered?

The Moral Imagination

Note: I write from a North American perspective, specifically from the United States.

The questions we ask greatly determine the answers we find. Therefore, I believe Christian peacemakers need to be intentional about the questions we prioritize. Which of the following questions are productive, distracting, dangerous, or beyond our sphere of influence?

• What should the Ukrainian government do to ensure the integrity of its borders?
• What should the Iraqi government do to protect religious minorities?
• What should Hamas and Israel do to enable peace and security in the region?
• What should the US military do in Iraq and Syria to protect US interests?
• What should the US government do around the world to protect minorities and stop genocides?
• What should Christians do in situations of violence and injustice?
• How can Christians live, work and serve in ways that promote true peace?

For me, the final two questions are the most critical; however, judging from the conversations I have within my Christian social circles as well as the content that appears on my Facebook wall-feed, they are the most ignored.

I occasionally hear this comment in the context of the first five questions: We have to do something. Unfortunately, it seems that for too many of us, the military option is the only something that comes to mind.

It can be difficult to voice reservations about this option. “Don't you care?! You just want to be pious and righteous, ignoring the reality of evil injustice. You can't just talk to these tyrants; they only understand the bullet and the bomb.”

While I genuinely believe that nonviolence is a productive strategy for people of any world view or religious conviction, I will direct my thoughts here to Christians, specifically Adventists.

First, I think we need to be careful about believing too firmly in the efficacy of violence. Blowback is real. Unintended consequences are numerous. For example, the US supported Saddam Hussein against Iran, but then for various reasons it was determined that his influence in the world needed to be curtailed, so the US took him out. That left a power vacuum, allowing ISIS/IS to expand, which is today's problem. Arming one group today seems to require the arming of an opposing group tomorrow.

We also supported rebels/freedom fighters in Syria, with some calling for much more military support. “The government is killing their people; we must do something.” Now we know that IS was one of the groups in Syria that we supported; some even had a photo op with John McCain during his trip to Syria (Counter Current News). Of course McCain didn't intend to support IS, but rushing to the military option can lead to new problems such as this.

Or consider the US involvement in Afghanistan. We supported the freedom fighters against Russia. But then the winners built a nation we didn't like; so we had to go against the ones we had armed. The cycle of violence—the repeated reality that military intervention creates tomorrow's conflicts—should make a person pause, regardless of whether or not they claim to follow the way of Jesus Christ. That is, setting Christian ethics and values aside, this historical pattern should seemingly diminish our confidence in the effectiveness of military intervention for creating the future we desire (For more on this see chapter one of Subverting Global Myths, Ramachandra, 2008; yes, a bit dated. There are many more examples both current and historical.).

Second, I think we need to take more seriously the injustice-violence cycle. I once came across a statement by Quakers that essentially said, “Don't ask us to engage in a violent solution to the Nazi problem when you ignored our counsel all along that the Versailles Treaty was bound to foster such problems.” Similarly, throughout the “War on Terror,” some of us have argued that US actions—drone strikes, indefinite detention in Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, to name a few—act to make recruitment efforts by terrorist organizations all the more effective. Peace activists are not surprised by IS and other radicalized movements; we have been warning about the possibility all along. Naturally, it is not only the acts of the US military that incubate movements like IS; governments in the Middle East are quite capable of stoking it as well. Acts of injustice today—regardless of the actor—create conditions for violence tomorrow.

Third, I think far too many people have failed to develop what John Paul Lederach calls the moral imagination (see The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace, 2005). And here I now speak directly to those who desire to follow Jesus in the real world—this messy, violent, unjust world.

If we can't imagine a response other than military action, then that is the only something we'll advocate for in the public space or work for in our sphere of influence. So I ask: What else can Christians do to limit violence and promote a just peace? I believe that any action that supports justice today makes peace possible tomorrow. “If you want peace, work for justice.” There are countless ways to support justice in the world; let your imagination run wild!

Here are some questions to spark your imagination:

If I would go to the Middle East to fight violently for justice, would I go and work nonviolently with a development and relief agency? Consider MCC (positions, story).

If I would advocate for America's youth to go fight in the Middle East, would I also advocate for Adventist youth to go on a delegation there with Christian Peacemaker Teams?

If I would advocate for American tax dollars to go for military operations, would I also advocate for church finances to support peace and justice ministries and projects?

Do I consider the promotion of peace and justice to be the business of government but not the business of the church? If so, what assumptions is this division based on?

What injustice is some entity in my circle of influence perpetrating or experiencing today? How can I work to promote justice in this area today in order to prevent violence tomorrow?

One significant struggle peacemakers face is the call for instant results. We need to stop the Syrian war now. We have to end the Ukrainian conflict now. We must stop Hamas and Israel from bombing each other now. Somebody has to stop IS now. Because military intervention is perceived as the only effective short-term approach, we too easily ignore the need for longer-term approaches that deal with the roots of the problems. As soon as Country X is “solved,” we must immediately stop the violence in Country Y with another “humanitarian intervention.” We follow the media, jumping from headline to headline, from conflict to conflict—solve each one now (and “my party would never have let it get this bad in the first place”). As Christians, maybe we can find a way to slow down and look at the longer game. Kevin Courtney, who founded Preemptive Love while living in Iraq, shares this conviction:

We need a long-term plan, not just a short-term fix. There are agencies helping Christians, Yezidis, Turkmen, Shabak and others, and those services are necessary. But this isn't only about what Obama or Maliki must do now. The Christian church needs to reconsider its relationship with violence; that is part of what has landed us and others in this dire situation. We cannot carp about Christian persecution and not talk about violence and our use of violent solutions. We need a 40- to 50-year plan so that when the time comes to overthrow the next dictator, we are not as blind to our own complicity and stuck with short-term gains. (Huffington Post, 11 Aug 2014)

The questions we ask greatly determine the answers we find, so I encourage Adventist peacemakers to start with the question, What can I uniquely do as a disciple of Jesus? Jesus isn't caught off guard by these violent developments. He said the love of most would grow cold and that there would be wars and rumors of wars. Peace organizations can't stop all war, but wars don't end war either. Only Jesus' return will do that. But here in the midst of great suffering and evil, Jesus blessed the peacemakers and taught many lessons on peacemaking if we have ears to hear them. The world knows how to use its weapons; do we know how to use the tools of the Spirit? What questions am I prioritizing?

A few articles to nurture the moral imagination:

• What Can Christians Do About Iraq? (Raushenbush, Huffington Post, 8 Aug 2014)
• Is There a Nonviolent Response to ISIS? (Flood, Sojourners, 13 Aug 2014)
• Seeking the Peace of Christ: Christianity and Peacemaking (Roberts, Patheos, 2010)
• Fr. John Dear, Dismissed from Jesuits (Sweas, Religion Dispatches, 6 Mar 2014)

We Are Our Communication: Violence, ISIS, and Adventist Peace Witness

By Barry Casey

"Every part of a system is so related to its fellow parts that a change in one part will cause a change in all of them and in the total system. That is, a system behaves not as a simple composite of independent elements, but coherently and as an inseparable whole."

These dispassionate words may not come to mind when we see the shelling in Gaza or watch in horror the videos of what the Islamic State is doing to Christians in Mosul. But they give us a way to deal with these extremes and to understand them.

The quote is from Pragmatics of Human Communication (1967) by Paul Watzlawick, Janet Beavin, and Don Jackson, who were three of the principal researchers at the Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto in the late 60s and early 70s. The pioneering work that they did, trying to understand the connections between communication and human behavior, was an interdisciplinary venture that spanned psychopathology, mathematics, literature, systems theory, and communication studies. They wanted to know how communication as an interactional process affected our behavior.

Starting from the axiom that "all behavior is communication and one cannot not communicate," they arrived at the conclusion that everything we do when we communicate with each other affects all our communication processes and cannot be separated out. Put simply, to say that the actions of person A causes the behavior of person B ignores the relation of B to A and the effect B may have on A's subsequent reactions.

Like it or not, they seem to be saying, we're all in this together. Every time Hamas fires a rocket at an Israeli settlement it is communicating; with the inevitable reciprocation on Gazan villages there is a deadly communication process in place that becomes a feedback loop. Every action results in a reaction which provokes a new action ad infinitum.

Furthermore, if we isolate an action in order to find its cause—and thus to blame—we miss the wider context in which that action takes place. We discover that actions happen in a context and that that context occurs within a relationship between people and groups. Focusing on the particular actions and not on the relationship between the parts of this system results in us missing the meaning of the actions that take place.

An example given by the authors is the difference between my foot kicking a stone and me kicking a dog. When my foot hits the stone it will move and eventually come to rest again. But if I kick the dog it may jump up and bite me. The kick has become not simply energy but information; my behavior has communicated something which the dog, rightfully so, interprets as an attack and responds accordingly. A kick is not just a kick within a relationship: it sends a message that grew out of the relationship prior to the kick and will affect responses to the kick.

As I read news reports of the actions of ISIS/Islamic State, watched videos, and read the comments of readers and viewers I could feel a tension building in me. I could imagine the desperation of the thousands trapped on Sinjar Mountain, the children dying from thirst and exhaustion. And I wanted to obliterate the militants surrounding them on the plains below. It wasn't enough that American pilots drop supplies to the victims: I wanted to see the bodies of those fighters after the bombs tore through them. I wanted video of them calling out for help as they bled to death.

And then a curious but inevitable thing happened. As the tension in me built the world divided up neatly into right and wrong, black and white, us and them. Crush them all! Barbarians! Stomp their lives out! So they're killing Christians and ethnic minorities? Damn Muslims!

In a flash I had gone from righteous indignation to murderous wrath, from a generalized tolerance for other religions to a Crusade mentality against all Muslims. From the particular to the general. Kill 'em all and let God sort it out later.

It got even worse when I stumbled across a website that is apparently run by Christians who believe Islam is Satanic. Their comments were raw hatred, all the visceral fear and fury of those who are absolutely certain that their enemy is the Devil and they are on the side of the angels. And these were self-confessed Christians. In the words of George Orwell's Animal Farm, I looked from pigs to men and from men to pigs, and already I could not tell the difference. And that's when I remembered Paul Watzlawick and his pragmatics of human communication.

I realized I was confronted with a moral dilemma that I couldn't face—the slaughter of the innocents. I was helpless to do anything except inwardly rail against the perpetrators. The situation was too complex for me to handle, so I simplified it. I had divided my perceptual world in two: Christians and Muslims. But of course it's much more nuanced than that. It's Sunni against Shiite, Kurdish against Iraqis, caliphate against sovereign states, America against rebel forces, economic interests against religious and political ideologies, men against women and children, hate-filled Christian extremists against fanatical Islamic jihadists.

But even that was still too simple, a binary response to something multi-faceted and entangled. I recalled something I'd read years ago by William Irwin Thompson, a cultural historian and philosopher: "We become the thing we hate," he said. And I remembered, too, how easily we are manipulated by media images, and how adept political and military groups have become at the propaganda arts. Our instant and ubiquitous media draws us all across the lines in the sand. By watching we become changed—and not for the better. All those Christian groups glued to their YouTube videos, who thought Hamas and Islamic State would be in our streets next week unless we nuked them, would be more likely to turn on their neighborhood mosque or to beat up someone wearing a hijab on the Metro.

I am not at all settled on this. I could visualize myself, with the best intentions, running out into no mans land with my hands out, imploring both sides to cease fire, and getting shot before I could make my eloquent statement. Where am I on the non-violence idea? Generally for it, from the safety of my Maryland suburb. Children in Mosul were being beheaded, said a Chaldean-American activist on CNN. Is that true? I shudder to think so, and yet my children have their heads on their shoulders in the sweet summer evening air. Am I to feel guilt because we are safe, our home has not been bombed, my wife and daughter have not been raped? Guilt of that sort doesn't seem productive and yet my heart can feel the terror and the blind rage and the sheer relief of having survived an attack, all in my imagination.

Hobbes thought the world was a place of constant terror, a life that was, as he famously put it, 'nasty, brutish, and short.' Kant was steadfast against lying and murder, for any reason, and Aristotle counseled moderation in all things. Courage and prudence were cardinal virtues that didn't need to be moderated; how could you be too courageous or too prudent? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that Christian exemplar of integrity and ethics, said, 'When a horse is running wild in the street, you stop the horse.' There is a time for words and a time for action, he seemed to be saying. Pacifist that I am would I hesitate to shoot someone about to murder women and children? The Tao cautions that violence should be the absolute last resort, and be discharged with sorrow and not with triumph.

What is becoming clearer to me is that we are, all of us in this tortured, dark, yet beautiful world, bound to one another. The death of one—any one—impoverishes all of us. This, I am convinced, is not New Age ignorance disguised as bliss. It is, rather, part of the virtues of humility and courage that Jesus and others exemplified. We cannot not communicate. All that we are, says the Dhammapada, is a result of what we have thought. Our revolution begins from the inside—and affects the world.

Barry L. Casey 240-273-2345 (cell) darmokjilad@gmail.com Read my blog @ http://danteswoods.com

ANN: Adventist Church President Releases Statement on Religious Minorities in Iraq, Syria

The Adventist News Network (ANN) has released the following statement by Seventh-day Adventist Church President Ted N. C. Wilson:

It is with great sadness and deep concern that we have learned of the tragic situation where tens of thousands of Christians and others have been subjected to persecution, coercion, killings, intimidation and lack of religious liberty in certain areas of Iraq and Syria.

I urgently call upon all Seventh-day Adventist Church members around the world to pray for the victims of this extremism in religious intolerance. We also need to pray for various religious minorities who are targeted because of their religious convictions and beliefs.

It is important that the international community act unitedly to stop the persecution of Christian believers and others who represent those who have lived in relative peace with their Muslim neighbors in the Middle East for hundreds of years. The Seventh-day Adventist Church will do its best to assist victims of this new tragedy, which reflects a total lack of religious liberty, and we will earnestly pray for a positive resolution to this appalling situation. May the Holy Spirit as the Comforter come especially close to those facing immediate persecution and death at this time.

ANN Statement

AR: Dutch Politician Marianne Thieme Continues to Lead the Party for the Animals

The Adventist Review recently ran a story on Marianne Thieme, the Dutch Politician who co-founded the Party for the Animals.[1] Despite criticism, the party has thrived in the Netherlands and has spread to other countries. "Thieme said her secret for success has been to live what she teaches, stand by her convictions, and determinedly press ahead despite opposition, remembering that heated emotions can be a catalyst for change." Thieme shares, “I have experienced that one can be successful by sticking to your ideals and by practicing what you preach.”

Although she is a Seventh-day Adventist, "never expect to see Thieme preaching on the job. The Party of the Animals is secular, and Thieme keeps matters of church and state strictly separate." A colleague reveals, “She doesn't believe in 'Christian politics'; therefore, she started a secular party. She strongly believes in the separation between church and state.”

Naturally, Thieme is a vegetarian, as is her husband, Jaap Korteweg (aka, The Vegetarian Butcher). The Adventist Review article looks into this part of her story:

While studying vegetarianism a decade ago, Thieme learned about Adventists and began to read books by Ellen White. She said she was struck by White’s message of compassion toward animals and her passionate plea for vegetarianism.

“I dare say she was an animal rights activist,” Thieme said.

One passage that particularly impressed her came from a chapter titled “Flesh as Food” in White’s book “Ministry of Health”: “Animals are often transported long distances and subjected to great suffering in reaching a market. Taken from the green pastures, and traveling for weary miles over the hot, dusty roads, or crowded into filthy cars, feverish and exhausted, often for many hours deprived of food and water, the poor creatures are driven to their death, that human beings may feast on the carcasses.”

“Together with my beliefs and my animal advocacy, the Adventist Church appealed to me and I became an Adventist in 2006,” Thieme said.

Her joy was short-lived, however. As she began to talk with other Adventists, she found that some downplayed White’s writings as old-fashioned.

“Old-fashioned? I was so surprised,” she said.

Thieme said she saw nothing 19^th century in White’s writings about a healthier life with no animal products, her compassion toward animals, her advice not to smoke cigarettes, and the fact that Adventists were the first religious group with health programs to stop smoking and provide vegetarian products.

“Right now, at this moment, it’s a most relevant and current message,” she said.

She said Adventists should be more visible in ongoing global discussions about the impact of meat on climate change, obesity, animal welfare and a looming food crisis.

Read the entire story here. Note the additional resources at the end of that article, as well as these three:

• Marianne Thieme — Party for the Animals (Adventist Activism, 3 May 2013)
• Sabbath at the Spectrum Café: Marianne Thieme (Spectrum, 1 May 2013)
• A Platform of Compassion (Spectrum, 18 February 2008)

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[1] Andrew McChesney, "Dutch Politician Finds Success in Practicing What She Preaches," Adventist Review (24 July 2014); http://www.adventistreview.org/church-news/pioneering-dutch-politician-finds-success-in-practicing-what-she-preaches.

NOTE: See other APF articles about Thieme here.