The Seventh-day Adventist Church, like many conservative denominations, has officially rejected homosexuality and its members who practice homosexuality. The Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual states that “…homosexual practices, and lesbian practices are among the obvious perversions of God’s original plan” [1990: 147]. To what extent does this church help its homosexual members with the ethical issues…… Continue reading Ethics for Gay Christians?: The Seventh-day Adventist Experience
Kinship: Meeting Student Needs at PUC, 1985-87
A new awareness of the needs of the gay and lesbian students at Pacific Union College in Northern California has emerged among administrators, faculty, pastoral staff, and the student body over the past two years. One outgrowth of this has been the establishment of a non-judgmental “listening ear” counselling and support system known officially as…… Continue reading Kinship: Meeting Student Needs at PUC, 1985-87
When the General Conference Sued SDA Kinship: KINSHIP GOES TO TRIAL
Kinship was formed in 1976, and shortly afterwards, through a ballot among its members, chose the name “Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International” as best describing its members and constituency. It incorporated as a not-for-profit religious corporation in California early in 1981. Towards the end of 1981 the General Conference trademarked the name “Seventh-day Adventist”, which it…… Continue reading When the General Conference Sued SDA Kinship: KINSHIP GOES TO TRIAL
Gay Activists in The Churches: Seventh-Day Adventist Kinship International, Inc
A conservative estimate of the proportion of homosexuals in the population at large is 5 percent; some researchers place it as high as 10 percent1. It is my informed estimate that the proportion of persons with strong homosexual inclinations among teenagers growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist church and other similar religious groups is higher…… Continue reading Gay Activists in The Churches: Seventh-Day Adventist Kinship International, Inc
Seventh-day Adventists and the U.S. Courts: Road Signs Along the Route of a Denominationalizing Sect
Seventh-day Adventists have been involved in a number of landmark court cases bearing on both the Free Exercise and Establishment clauses of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and on statutory law. The main issues have included security of employment for Sabbath observers, the right of persons dismissed from their jobs for reasons of…… Continue reading Seventh-day Adventists and the U.S. Courts: Road Signs Along the Route of a Denominationalizing Sect
To what extent has Adventist sectarianism resulted in its being a prophetic minority, with a witness for peace, justice, and humility?
Clarification of question: A sect is defined by Stark and Bainbridge as having high tension with society, marked by separation/exclusivity, difference, and mutual antagonism. Answer to the question posed by Gerald Winslow in preparation for his Metro New York Adventist Forum meetings, 4-10-10.Click here for a PDF version of this paper: Adventist Sectarianism and Prophetic…… Continue reading To what extent has Adventist sectarianism resulted in its being a prophetic minority, with a witness for peace, justice, and humility?
Uni-Directional or Bi-Directional?: Sect-Denomination Theory and the Case of Seventh-day Adventism
Those who developed what we call Church-Sect theory (Troeltsch, Niebuhr, Yinger, Johnson, Wilson, and Stark and Bainbridge) thought of it as laying out a uni-directional trajectory from sect towards (in the USA) denomination for groups that survive and prosper. However, in 1994, in his The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation, Armand…… Continue reading Uni-Directional or Bi-Directional?: Sect-Denomination Theory and the Case of Seventh-day Adventism
