THE LATE C. MERVYN MAXWELL REVEALS SOME IDEOLOGICAL ABUSES USED AGAINST THE PEOPLE BY DENOMINATIONAL LEADERSHIP !!
Updated 11/15/2003: made easy to print out.
He writes:
One of the seething causes of the current wave of unofficial publications is frustration with disenfranchisement. Church leadership, apparently intent on retaining our educated liberals, has politically and editorially found ways to give several of the denomination's colleges, periodicals, and key administrative positions to educated liberals. Time after time our conservatives, the ones who still read the Spirit of Prophecy, have been frustrated. THEIR ARTICLES HAVE BEEN REJECTED BY DENOMINATIONAL EDITORS. And even when they have written "letters to the editor," too often their letters haven't been published unless a contrary letter was available for publication next to theirs, to make their letters look foolish. All of this maneuvering has left many of our thinking conservatives frustrated. But they love our church more than they love their money. They are alarmed at the way things are going because they care enough to be alarmed; and so, well, they speak up through their own publications, and they put their money where their mouths and hearts are. . . .
Perhaps, however, we should say more precisely that certain views which had been held for some time by a small minority were, in the 1950s, reformulated, given new emphasis, and taken up by a group of those Adventists who enjoyed the advantage of attending our schools. I believe in our schools, of course (I teach in one), but I observe that the theological cleavage which exists today among conservative NAD Adventists is largely between those who have studied the writings of non-SDA theologians in our colleges on the one hand and, on the other hand, those who, deprived of an SDA college education, have confined their study mostly to the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White. I am repeatedly struck with the way new converts, fresh from the study of the Bible and Ellen G. White, side with the older SDA theology, while so-called "second-" and "third-generation" Adventists trend to side with the new theology. . . .
Old-theology conservatives such as the editors of Our Firm Foundation [one of the, we are told: "Destructively critical self-supporting ministries"] are frequently criticized for bringing up the issue [concerning the nature of Christ]. BUT LET’S FACE IT: THEY DIDN’T START THE ARGUMENT! The argument was started publicly by the 1949 edition of Bible Readings, by the 1957 publication of Questions on Doctrine, and by certain Seminary professors and others in the years that followed. And the pot has been kept boiling by the new-theology liberals and conservatives, who now control several of our magazines and colleges.
ONE RECALLS THE OLD QUIP, "YOU STARTED THE FIGHT WHEN YOU HIT ME BACK."
The fact that new-theology people control the chief NAD publications and colleges represents choices made by entities of the NAD. Choices involve consequences. If NAD entities have chosen such editors and presidents, NAD must expect a reaction. It is in my opinion irresponsible and unsportsmanlike for NAD to choose partisans of new-theology views which have not been officially accepted by the General Conference and then cry foul when loyal church members publish evidence in favor of the old-theology views which they committed themselves to when they became Seventh-day Adventists.
I have just spoken about the convictions of people who adopted certain understandings when they became Seventh-day Adventists. If church leadership thinks the time has come to teach different views from the views being taught when these people became Seventh-day Adventists, that is one thing. But to treat people as rebellious, heretical, disloyal, and legalist because they choose to continue to believe what they sincerely committed themselves to years ago, seems gross and boorish.
There is really a good deal more to this letter both before and after this portion, but this portion is most crucial to what we are trying to say here.
END
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