Last week, I drove through snow in Southern California to the Tierrasanta Seventh-day Adventist Church. It has been the home of the San Diego Adventist Forum chapter since 1996. I was there to pick up the master recordings of the SDAF meetings, which date back to the late-1970s when it was led by Walt Fahlsing. Jim and Averille Kaatz parented the SDAF for 27 years and turned the forum presentations into an incredibly successful international recording ministry. I randomly pulled out a few of the cassette tapes to read the names of the presenters:
I have a majority of the tapes in my collection. My collection also includes tapes of Richard Nies SS classes. I may not have taken every presenter’s opinion as complete truth, but they gave me hours of intellectual stimulation. It is the same with my collected Spectrums. They are a mixture of thought-provoking facts, fresh ideas and noticeable bias.
I keep hoping for a balanced independent journal and news source that attempts to present all sides (political or theological) in a way that we can say “that’s how they come to their unusual conclusions.” We can go away with our ethics, fairness, and morals intact but with compassionate understanding and that does not judge motives… We might even become more flexible in resolving problems and less extreme. This does not include all or most Spectrum articles, of course. Their narratives of wrong are real, but not all are representative of a most people but deal in stereotypes. I have only cringed at a few. (There are worse ones on the conservative side.)