| Author | Message | ||
| ????? |
The Church: Leave It and Love It? Open Letter to Walter Fahlsing, M.D. MAX GORDON PHILLIPS Dear Dr. Walt, I hope you will indulge the familiarity. Although weíve never met, I feel as though Iíve known you all my life. I read your letter of resignation from the church as well as your "Reflections Ten Years Later" (AT, March-April, 1995), and I admire your courage, intellectual honesty and candor, as well as your desire "to be fair to my brethren." You are right to leave, if such is your conviction. I note with pride that you chose option fourógo purposefully out the front doorólisted in Richard Winnís ground-breaking article, "When the Pew Gets Uncomfortable," (AT, September-October, 1995). Winn characterizes options four through six as spiritual positions, choices not taken by victims, but by those who are self-defined and self-accountable. I chose option sixóbecome an a la carte member. This option allows me to decide what my church can and cannot contribute toward my spiritual growthóand, I would add, ministry. "Keep the good," writes Winn, "discard the damaging. And shop elsewhere to meet unfulfilled needs." You told me why you chose option four, and now I want to tell you why I chose option six. I will do this by answering the questions that I perceive you raised. IS THERE ENOUGH ROOM? You wrote, "The institutional Seventh-day Adventist Church does not have room for a dubious believer such as myself." Interesting word choice, "institutional." I agree with you. But wouldnít you agree with me that there is more to the church than its institutional superstructure and that people are infinitely more true and fundamental to the New Testament concept "ecclesia" (those summoned by God to assemble) than any institutional concept? While people can establish institutions, only God can establish "ecclesia." I have found that I can make my own room in that part of the Adventist Church constructed of sweet heartwood, in precisely that part that is not coldly institutional but warmly "ecclesian." BY WHOSE AUTHORITY? You quoted former Review editor Kenneth Wood, "Anyone who professes to be a Seventh-day Adventist should be able to affirm, without mental reservation or qualifications, I believe these doctrines.í" But when confronted with this assertion I immediately ask, Who confers divine authority upon Kenneth Wood? Does the God who has so graciously made you and me priests? Furthermore, who recognizes such self-conferred authority? Do I? Can I afford to give any mortal human beingóor body of mortal human beingsósuch power over me and over my soul? With all due respect to both him and the Review, Woodís statementódespite its Adventist faceóis quintessential papalism. An upstart Adventist Martin Luther would have a field day with this one! "...should...be...able...to...affirm..." How these frightening, stifling words resound at 11:00 AM on Sabbath morning in a cathedral gone stone damp, stone cold, stone hard, stone empty and stone dead. T.S. Eliot instructs from his classic "The Hollow Men": "There, the eyes are / Sunlight on a broken column / There, is a tree swinging / And voices are / In the windís singing / More distant and more solemn / Than a fading star." No, God is not mocked. Neither does God become enmeshed nor entangled nor entrapped nor immured nor entombed in any points of fundamental belief, whether 27 or any other number. God remains not only alive, but free and active as well, retaining consummate authorityóbut with a twinkling eyeóin your spiritual odyssey and in mine. WHAT ABOUT THE SANCTUARY? You wrote that the sanctuary doctrine is "seriously flawed." What an understatement! Fashioned not to save souls, but to save our collective, wounded ego in the wake of a "great disappointment" (as though God could be guilty of "standing us up"!), it is actually destructive to the individual soul. Regarding it I again hear Winn: "Discard the damaging. And shop elsewhere to meet unfulfilled needs." In this respect I have already begun my personal inquiry into what mainstream Jewish scholarship has to say about Old Testament apocalypticism in general and Daniel 8:14 in particular. As far as a new Adventist sanctuary doctrine is concerned, I am excited to see how it may develop, since of all doctrines it may well be the most mysterious, mystical, spiritual, intimate and soul-healing. WHAT ABOUT ELLEN WHITE? In your words, she was "a pious fraud," "a liar" and "a false prophetess." But your words make you sound more like a jilted lover than an avenging archangel. "I realize that these words will sound harsh," you said, "but in order to get believersí attention and awaken them from the sedation of ëwe have the Truth,í I will risk being misunderstood." Why do you want "to get believersí attention and awaken them" if you have already said your fond good-byes and have disappeared into the greener grass beyond the well-trampled fence? Of course she was a prophet. No shred of biblical evidence suggests she could be the last or in any way alone. The great Adventist anchor text (Joel 2:28) says, "Your sons [plural] and your daughters [plural] shall prophesy." Yes, she copied without permission or attribution (as did Bible writers), and misquoted and misinterpreted scripture (also as did Bible writers). She made other mistakes, such as espousing the shut-door theology, asserting and later retracting the proposition that the General Conference is the highest voice of God on earth, accepting the pseudoscience of phrenology, making racist statements that certain peoples (such as the Hottentots) result from amalgamation between humans and apes (a genetic impossibility), to list a bare minimum. Beyond her visions I have no reason to believe she was more of a prophet than Martin Luther or Mother Theresa. But I do have reason to believe she was a prophet nonetheless. And a mighty one at that. What is more, in a cultural way that these other prophets (nothing against them) can never be, she is my prophet. She was connected to God. Why do I believe she was a prophet? For one thing, she was a mystic, and I think people who enjoy a direct, unmediated connection to God are prophets prima facie. How miraculous (in the best sense of that word) that she had visions and dreams! References to them as resulting from "temporal epilepsy and complex partial seizures"óeven if confirmed by laboratory researchócould not be more irrelevant. Medical science has yet to discover how God works. She arose from virtually nothing to apply these visions and dreams to one of the most marvelous spiritual events of the 19th and 20th centuriesóthe Advent movement, something I happily choose to believe to be nothing less than a spiritual Second Coming! Without her where would we be? Most importantly, she had vision (as opposed to visions). Her contributions to spiritual living, healthful living, missionary activity, education, medicine, frugality, the work ethic, the abolition of slavery, womenís rights within the church, etc., rise beyond measure. Why are Seventh-day Adventists in North America more upwardly mobile than people of any other religious denomination? Without this prophet among us, where would Adventists be today? Where would you be? Where would I? Donít we owe her something beyond epithets? A sinner? Flawed? Of course she was. Abraham Lincoln wanted to send the emancipated slaves back to Africa. King David committed adultery and then murder to cover it up. In the same year Babe Ruth set his home run record he also set a strikeout record. Albert Einstein flunked math. Historical accusations against George Washingtonís character stand, and yet the judgement of history also stands, "If there are spots on him, there are spots on the sun." Can the fact that misguided Adventists continue to hold Ellen G. White to an unrealistic standard be rightly blamed on this mortal human being? Are not all peopleógreat and smallósinners? Are not all flawed? "False"? Be your own judge. I judge "true." I TOO WALKED OUT THE DOOR When I walked out I too wrote a letter to the church. I requested a transfer of membership in the spirit of Christ from the Mountain View, California, Adventist church to the Sunnyvale, California, Presbyterian churchómuch as one would transfer from Mountain View Adventist to, say, Loma Linda University Adventist Church. To my knowledge my request was never acted upon. Therefore I can only assume my name remains on the books. If it doesnít, then it was expunged without my request, knowledge or consent, and against my will. But thatís not my problem. Iíve done nothing wrong. Itís a moral-ethical-spiritual dilemma I cheerfully leave to the collective conscience of the brethren and sisters involved. For 10 years I attended the Presbyterian church on Sunday andóafter a year or soóthe Adventist Church on Sabbath as well. The earliest Christians, you will recall, followed this practice. Now I attend the Adventist Church only, Sabbath School at one location where I exercise my mind, 11:00 oíclock worship at another where I imbibe wonderfully spiritual sermons. I endure a measure of "good old Adventist shunning," but I realize that it is only the spiritually ill who shun, and the church has a duty to function as a hospital for them. I marvel at the ground swelling ecclesian spirit within certain local churches of the denominationóto ordain women, for exampleóand wonder if an ecclesian movement will grow into historical proportions. Content, even serene, I regret nothing. God bless you, Dr. Walt, Max Max Gordon Phillips is a writer and editor of health publications in the Northwest, where he takes responsibility for developing his own kind of Adventism and obtaining his spiritual nourishment a la carte, from many different sources. Max, Please discuss if your views have changed since you wrote this article. Thanks, ????? | ||
| Max |
Dear ?????, What a mystery you are! Will you ever emerge from the Internet closet as I did? Isn't life well-written? Yes, I wrote said quoted article. I thought I could live within the boundaries among "SDA liberals" and be respected by them. Big awakening! SDA liberals, in my humble opinion at least, are more hypocritical and colder far than SDA conservatives! It is unbelievable! If you only knew what I went through at their hands! God called me to write that article. Later he called me to move on. Incidentally, I edited an as-yet-unpublished book manuscript by Dick (he perfers "Richard" now) Winn called MOVIN' ON on my own time for no pay -- and more than glad to do it, given his positive influence on my life over the years. Blessings on you, Richard, wherever you are! God love you! That's all I choose to say for now, ?????. Thanks for asking the question, and thanks for listening to the answer. With gratitude, Jude the Obscure = Max Gordon Phillips | ||
| BMorgan |
Max, That was quite an article you wrote back then. I sense it came from a very honest heart. This is interesting to me and gives me hope for, and patience with some "friends" and other Adventists who have expressed similiar thoughts and (hurtful) words to me when I was trying to make sense of the dissonance. A conference president told me, the church (elders) are in their right to ask members to not come back to worship in their church. (Said members were in good and regular standing.) He also made no bones letting me know that I had NO voice in the church if I choose to send our tithe any place other than the conference. My dearest friend,who is also a pastor, lambasted me about EGW expressing exactly all you said in the article. I still have a very hard time dealing with it, because I feel he is being disingenious and trying to hold on to his job. Reading your article is a blessing to me. I am hopeful and encouraged and able to give grace freely and be comforted that one of these days, maybe they too might be posting here or preaching the gospel with vehemence just like you Jude=Max. It's like you like to say, perhaps the poster of the above post meant it for evil but I know it is for MY good. God bless. BMorgan |
