As an ex-Seventh-Day Adventist, I’m loving my former religion’s time in the spotlight.
In my experience, ex-Seventh-Day Adventists tend to have a visceral hatred for the SDA church, much like ex-Catholics have for the Catholic church.
I’d like to think that my feelings are more positive than negative, but I might be fooling myself.
Comments at the Washington Post:
* I am not a religious individual, nor do I harbor any ill-will toward those who are religious. I never knew what a 7th Day Adventist was until I moved to Chicago. I have had the experience of working with two large Adventist organizations in the western suburbs and it has been interesting to say the least. They are very much a closed group. In my experience, they highly value children and education. There always seems to be endless infighting and subversion amongst leadership which makes daily interaction uncomfortable and bizarre. They are openly discriminatory with very limited non-discrimination statements that do not protect all citizens. My overall assessment is that Adventists are educated and intelligent. Their externally projected character appears righteous, but the true intent of their actions and decisions is highly questionable and occasionally offensive. I did not know Carson was an Adventist until recently, but after learning that he was, his crazy comments and bizarre demeanor combined with his medical and educational background suddenly made perfect sense. There is much more behind this man’s motivations than he expresses publicly. Be careful and be wary.
* “I mean, Negro, I don’t know about. I just don’t know about.”
* Trump knows exactly what he is doing. Any fool can look up SDA on the internet–even Trump. He knows what they believe, and once the Evangelicals know, Carson is finished.
Just try to tell an Evangelical that there is no Hell. Good grief, each one of them has lists of people that they know are destined for the lake of eternal fire, and they love the idea.
* This will be a problem for Carson when people get to know more about him and his religion. He’s already had an appearance before the Southern Baptists cancelled because of his religion.
* Carson also said he’s not supporting a Muslim as president, so I think it’s fine that Trump said he doesn’t know about Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) faith. Even though SDA Claims about Ellen White’s Visions and Dreams as given to her by God, Her “I was shown” visions were even copied! White is found guilty of copying extensively from other authors ( White copied “The Great Controversy” 1886, from “The History of Protestantism” 1876, not only the words, but the pictures, and claimed it was a revelation of God). Most people just know the SDA worship on Saturdays, not Sundays, but did not know according to White, the papacy is the seven-headed beast from the sea in Revelation who is accompanying by a lamb-like beast from the earth. The latter causes the world to worship the former and has an image made of it. White proclaimed that the second beast is the United States (The Great Controversy, 387–8), and that it will force people to worship the papacy by enforcing Sunday worship rather than Saturday worship. Thus SDA see themselves as the “remnant”, the one and only group that has the “truth” and all other Christian churches are anti-Christ or under “strong delusion”.
* Keep them fighting, media boys. Create the news. Divide and conquer. It works every time.
* Gotta love how all these GOP guys try to convince people that one flavor of mindless superstition is better than all the other flavors of mindless superstition.
* We can NOT have a Seventh Day Adventist for a president.
* “Donald Trump: No apology for …” fill in you own blanks. When did “dog bites man” become headline news?
* Suppose for a moment that Trump is elected POTUS (shudder). Suppose he makes remarks in advance of a State visit by Angela Merkel:
“Angela Merkel is coming to visit me next week at the Trump White House. I look forward to seeing her, although, to be honest, she is nothing to look at – and by that I mean that she may have once been great looking, but years of worry about the economy in Germany, which is, quite frankly, very, very bad, have taken a toll on her face. And that body! She should be wearing pant suits, like Hillary, because there’s nothing worse than an old woman dressing like a young one, like my wife – have you seen her? She is an amazing woman, my wife. She is as classy as me, and she looks almost as good now as when I married her. Anyway, so Angela Merkel is coming to ask me for my advice, because she read my books and she knows how amazing I am in business and how I’ve grown the economy in the US just since taking office last week. Looking forward to helping her out.”
* There are:
1. Roman and Eastern Catholic Christians–who trace back to the original Christianity.
2. Eastern Orthodox Christians–who trace back to the original Christianity & Councils.
3. European Reformation Christianity–a 16th century set of re-definitions of Roman Catholic Christianity
4. Later European, esp English, new forms of Christianity:eg Methodism,Presbyterianism
5. Uniquely American forms of Christianity–Colinial era:e.g. Baptists
6. Pre and Post Civil War unique forms of Christianity with founders alleged to be Prophet(esses), or founder’s dicovery of New Scriptures etc:Adventist,JWs,Mormons etc
7. Many 19th-20th century American Liberal(Social Gospel) or Evangelical(biblical fundamentalist) Christianity.
Trump is Presbyterian. Carson is 7th Day Adventist. Fiorina is Episcopalian. Rubio is Roman Catholic. Hillarious is Methodist. . . . . Their Religion does matter! Imagine if one of them were a Shi’a Muslim–intent on an apocalyptic holy war to eliminate all Sunni Muslims and non-Muslims. That would matter, wouldn’t it?
BTW Carson is a devout biblicist–he believes every word in the TORAH, the GOSPELS, and the Apostolic Letters are infallible truth! He may know his anatomy of the human brain, but not Christianity, or any other world religion.
* I used to enjoy the “Spy vs. Spy” cartoons in Mad Magazine when I was a kid. Now I get to enjoy “Bigot vs. Bigot” in the GOP primary. It’s not as enjoyable.
LINK: “Let the colored people work chiefly for those of their own race. …The best thing will be to provide the colored people who accept the truth, with places of worship of their own, in which they can carry on their services by themselves… Schools and sanitariums for colored people should be established.”
“Let white and colored people be labored for in separate, distinct lines.”
* So now the republicans are arguing about which religion is the best one? This should be interesting.
* Trump sure doesn’t act like the Presbyterian Christians I know. On the other hand, my recent experiences with dogmatic Seventh Day Adventists make me question their ability to play nice with others.
* It’s good to know that Trump and Carson both need the help of the nutty religious right to win the GOP nomination.
It will be fun listening and watching both of these cons trying to out religion one another with their nutty ideas and beliefs when it comes to their lack of experience in governing.
* Dr. Carson really sells his religion as one of his high points for electability. So why can’t we talk about it?
* 7DAs do have their own prophet, and have some interesting views on the rest of Christianity. DEFINITELY not mainstream by any standard. Trump is the most effective politician we are likely to see in our lifetimes. His choice of words in this case is perfect. Millions will now have a look at this faith, and will have to wonder: With all that religious life in America has t offer, what compelled Dr. Carson to choose this one? He’s been born again in it, twice.
If republicans think that the Clintons won’t make an issue of it, they’re dreaming. Trump wins again. Evan Tom Bevan at RCP has to really amp up the propaganda to make Trump look extreme here, the link I followed from RCP said Trump paints Carson’s faith as extreme. “I don’t know”, he said. Trump’s on solid ground here. 70% of republican voters now see him as most electable. I wonder if Hillary will survive to face him. Can anyone ask for more than a Trump/Sanders battle? Sanders wrote that women have a subconscious desire to be gang raped. Will Trump mention that? How many times? How about until everyone’s heard it.
* Does Trump still say he’d date his daughter if he could? (She has such a great body.) He has two daughters, but, I guess, the other one doesn’t have such a great body.
* I’ll have to say that probably the only thing i liked about Trump’s campaign was his disinterest in getting into ‘religiosity’ competitions. So I’m sorry that he decided he had to throw that out – even though Carson deserves whatever he gets.
Nevertheless, from a cynical viewpoint – he’s probably doing a smart thing bringing up subtly that the Seventh Day Adventists aren’t large denomination and therefore others might find their beliefs different than their own. AND he was careful to not actually ‘say’ anything about the religion – so he can’t be accused of dissing them.
He’s a sharp operator – I’ll say that. Not someone I’d ever want for president – but very shrewd with the innuendo.
* It is the well practised dog whistle.
However Carson invited this he went further down that road with Moslems.
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
* As a Seventh-Day Adventist, many of us knew this day would come. Carson views is outside of many of the tenets held sacred By SDAs:
1) On Religious liberty: SDAs have been in the forefront for maintaining the separation between Church and State. We believe that the greatest danger to Christianity is when the state become one with Religion particularly the Christian Religion.
2) The matter of free will: We believe that God in all his dealings with man, allow him to exercise free will. Therefore it is wrong to impose Christian Tenets or doctrines with the power of the State or with coercion by family or friends. Carson views on the role the STATE on Gay marriage is not a SDA viewpoint.
3) The provision of health Care: Jesus in all his interactions placed the health of the individual as primary, before addressing their Spiritual needs he would perform miracles: hence very early in SDA history, health became important to us: (See Kellogs, Post and Loma Linda) If the ACA allows for increase access to healthcare it is something to be praised, If they are flaws, then work to fix it or ameliorate it. It is from that perspective that Dr Carson approach to both Medicare and ACA is more in keeping with the Historical AMA, rather than SDAs.
4) Views on borders: In Christ there is no East nor West, The Bible addresses the favorable treatment of strangers (foreigners) 10X more often than it speaks of homosexuality. Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with Christ as a child, The gospel is to be spread in all nations. On this basis we are particularly happy when walls and barriers to free movement between people are removed.
4b) The Sabbath has 3 components, 2 of which is rest and work, one cannot keep the Sabbath if you have not worked. The gift of work originated in Eden. Therefore barriers to work where-ever you are is not in keeping with Gods plan.
These positions may not be politically feasible in any modern day country, and would be the opposite of Republican Dogma.
* Tone2, the Bible does not mean just open the gates and let anyone come into the country and let the government support them and give them other peoples hard earned possessions. I do not know many Seventh Day Adventist that believe we should have open borders.
* 1) Open Gates; an entire book in the bible is based off that concept, The book of Ruth. Naomi and family was an economic refugee to Ruth’s country (something we are against) when Naomi and Ruth return to Judea Ruth would be by our definition an economic refugee, Naomi has no resources to sponsor her either, and would not be granted a visa she would have been here illegally.
When Ruth enters Boaz field she is essentially relying on the welfare system (spelt out in Leviticus) which says that a farmer cannot return and glean the crop that he misses in the first pass, it was to be left to widows and orphan. (imagine interfering with private property)
It is instructive that Ruth who is the foreigner here is in the birthline of Christ.
2) In acts of the Apostles the early Christian Church ( they had all things in common) the story of Annanias and his wife is a story about the treatment of private property in the early Christian Church. As Peter points out that it was theirs to dispose of as they see fit, but they were sharing with the other believers but lied about the extent of their sharing. A concept drawn from (Numbers 10:32)
3) You ignore that all is required to work. treating the stranger among you like yourself is allowing them to work.
4) Read again the Story of the Good Samaritan, You will notice that while all the other characters are listed by religious persuasion the Samaritan is listed by nationality, and he is not an Israelite.
Christianity is a difficult concept and in practice totally alien to our current practices and beliefs.
* SDA is the Wahhabi version of Christianity, believing in the literal Bible, including all the nutty stuff. Christian Taliban now occupies the White House, let me out of here.
* I’m a Presbyterian too! Hypocrisy is our central creed, so we welcome Mr. Trump!
* Since Carson’s whole campaign is wrapped in a cocoon of religiosity that is largely his way or the highway and he cares not a whit about separation of church and state, his beliefs and his religion should be fully exposed.
* I was wondering if someone was going to bring up Carson’s Seventh Day Adventist’s faith. People who are unfamiliar with the quirks of this sect would be in for a surprise. Not only because of their Sabbath, but SDA are generally vegetarians, against eating meat. They are also pacifists who have a history of conscientious objection to war, refusing to serve. How would that reconcile with being commander in chief? These questions have not been put to Carson by the other candidates or the media. Will it be examined now?
* Ben Carson is like Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon, who was brought up a Quaker. He does not let the pacifism of his religion keep him from beating the drums of war:
“In February [2015], Carson said America must step up its leadership in the effort to combat Islamic State. At CPAC, Carson said he would order the military to destroy the group and would not ‘tie (the military’s) hands'” (Desjardins, 2015, Islamic State, para. 2).
* The Seventh Day Adventists are extremely Anti-Catholic and Anti-Pork. Two things that should give Iowans grave concern.
* It is right that Seventh-day Adventist Church is much different from mainstream Christianity. Adventist leaders and their members use the writings of Ellen G. White to interpret the Scriptures. Ellen G. White proclaimed that: 1) the papacy is the seven-headed beast from the sea in Revelation 13:1–10, who changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, making this change a mark of its authority. 2) Accompanying this beast is a lamb-like beast from the earth. The latter causes the world to worship the former and has an image made of it. She proclaimed the second beast is the United States (The Great Controversy, 387–8), and that it will force people to worship the papacy by “enforcing some observance which shall be an act of homage to the papacy”. This observance, she says, is Sunday worship rather than Saturday worship. Thus, Seventh-day Adventist Church worship on Saturdays, not Sundays, and view themselves as “the Remnant Church” alone especially called by God in 1844, over all other churches, which they called Babylon.
