On April 12, 1963, eight Alabama pastors made a plea for unity. They published a statement in the local paper urging blacks to withdraw their support from Martin Luther King, Jr. and his demonstrations. They titled their piece “A Call for Unity.” Although they were in basic agreement with King that segregation should end, they accused King of being an outsider, of using "extreme measures" that incite "hatred and violence," calling King's demonstrations "unwise and untimely," and saying that racial issues should instead be "properly pursued in the courts."
Elie Wiesel – Holocaust Survivor. Author. Read his “The Night Trilogy – Night, Dawn, Day”.
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
ARE there VICTIMS in the Seventh day Adventist World Church?
Second, Third Class Women. [THERE ARE NO FIRST CLASS WOMEN!!!]
GLTI persons.
OTHER un-named here?
How about the 16 to 40 year olds who are Leaving Church?
Edit to JAMES –
There are quite a few Men Preachers who have been so boring and inept that I could barely sit through it. They surely had a Calling they missed to another profession.
what a powerful, timely article, virtually on the eve of monday’s fall council’s announcement…i have always believed that martin luther king, so aptly named, was used by god to usher in the civil rights era which our church, sadly, had no capacity to initiate - what a relief to see that no adventists were among the eight alabama pastors calling for “unity” in 1963…i think this article makes clear that calls for unity from our GC are a sedative euphemism as long as injustice against women in our church is systemic…perhaps unity shouldn’t be seen as our goal, but the natural end result when justice has done its work…
i really wonder how history will judge us and the positions we took, heading into san antonio and its after-math…perhaps the same yardstick that shows the wrongness of the calls for unity by the eight alabama pastors in 1963 while racism festered will be used to show the wrongness of calls for unity in our church while discrimination against women festers…
The attempt to equate the demand for WO, with the struggle for equality by Blacks in the US, is to trivialize true civil rights, and is an insult to Blacks everywhere.
In some ways, as I see it, the foundation of women’s ordination should NOT be equal rights, even though in a constitutional society that would be very appropriate. Inside the body of Christ, the community of faith, the foundation is best described as the “leading of the Spirit.” When Jesus warned that we cannot put new wine into old wineskins without bursting the old, he was describing a situation like the one we now face. In my view, the “old wineskins” are tradition, church policy processes by majority vote alone, and the misogyny that infects so many. More than one woman has told me that she cannot “stand” a woman preaching in the pulpit. So what? The Holy Spirit speaks to so many men and women as “demanding” what she cannot “stand.”
The Holy Spirit’s call to women (listen to them those of you who oppose) is the “new wine” and it requires new wineskins, which current leadership seems unable or unwilling to devise. Sad, sad, sad.