Even Ted Cruz came out and condemned what’s happening in Uganda. And the GC falls behind an unprincipled politician such as him??? The so called Christian leadership of the Adventist world church should resign now. It’s downright disgusting.
Frank
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The international news this evening featured clips of Recep Erdogan’s acceptance speech after being re-elected for a third term as President of Turkey. He snidely said, We will never allow LGBTQI people in our party, and chided the opposition party for accepting them. And then there is the Ugandan thing, with Adventist leaders playing along. And we see Republican dominated states in the US passing laws to impinge on the LGBTQI communities. The GC appears tone deaf regarding the people with whom they appear to be aligning. Appearances matter.
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It was nice to see Senator Ted Cruz immediately condemn the Uganda anti-LGBTQ bill that was signed into law today. Early last year his oldest daughter came out as bisexual and last December was rushed to the hospital for treatment of self-inflicted stab wounds. Sometimes personal family circumstances can have a jolting effect on one’s sensibilities.
The new law is a tremendous victory for American right-wing evangelicals, who have poured millions of dollars into Africa in support of the enactment of hate laws against LGBTQ persons.
After the Rwanda Genocide, the GC demanded that all church administrators who were involved (and there were many) be replaced. And they were. But the GC in those days was highly respected. In contrast, the GC today is the weakest it has ever been in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This is Ted Wilson’s principal legacy. Rebuilding the authority and credibility of the GC after he is gone will be a difficult task.
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Rebuild authority? Why?
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The GC has no authority, and never should have. The authority rests with the members. Unfortunately all too many are willing to pass it on…
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Boy!!! What an eyeopener this is. When Ted Cruz is acting in a more moral fashion than Ted Wilson, you know you sitting in the wrong pew.
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I doubt that it was a coincidences that Dick Chaney’s daughter and Ted Cruz’s daughter are members of the LGBTQ community. God may be trying to tell us something. Anyone of us could have been born into this community. So…how would we want to be treated?
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I’d also ask “How?!?!”
It’s just my “two cents” but it seems lthe current approach is destined to marginalize SDA-ism even further, rather than them making the sect seem more approachable and enlightened.
But again, if TW is Hades-bent on shaking loose the EGW riff-raff, then all I can say is “Go with throttle up!”
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No, I am comparing Jesus’ silence on a lot of crimes committed by the Government of His day, with the silence of the GC. It is not a matter of the crime but the silence.
Well, we have no idea if Jesus was silent on such matters. We only have what the authors of the New Testament decided to write, and none of them ever met Jesus or heard a thing he said.
And Jesus did comment on taxation in that he stated that people should pay their taxes.
I don’t think we can know if he made a value judgement on whether or not the taxes were fair.
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I thought that John and Matthew were apostles of Jesus. So we are arguing from silence which is never a strong position.
At the same time the GC is also silent about the anti-LGBTQ laws in Saudi Arabia as well I am not sure why “they” are picking on Uganda.
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All four of the Gospels were anonymously written. The traditional names attached to them were assigned by the early church, but no one knows who actually wrote them.
If you’re interest in this sort of thing, there’s plenty of good biblical scholarship out there with good information. There’s Matt Baker, who runs the Useful Charts you tube channel is a biblical scholar that has a good series that sums it up rather well in just 2 1/2 short hours:
This interview featuring Bart Ehrman is right to the point regarding the Gospels:
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I don’t know that I have THE answer, but Uganda is where it is today because of our Christian missionaries who went there and planted the anti-gay seeds. We have the same “flavor” of God and our Adventist leader sits on the council that created the law.
The laws in Saudi Arabia are horrible for LGBTQIA+ individuals, but it isn’t seen as a Christian nation. We don’t have a ton of (or any) Adventist churches there that I’m aware of.
Both countries have horrbile human rights laws, or the lack thereof. But the situation is totally different at this point.
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It’s also not clear when they were written although it is well established that Paul’s letters-or at least the ones he actually wrote himself-almost certainly came first as he died before the destruction of Jerusalem and the four gospels were probably written after the The First Jewish-Roman War.
In other words, the NT is arranged backwards chronologically which might not seem to be a big deal, but it is entirely possible that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by unknown writers to defend Christianity as defined by Paul who never actually met his “Christ” in the flesh, this as opposed to whatever theology Jesus may have espoused.
It’s also possible that the gospels were sanitized, to some extent, in order to mollify the sensibilities of the ascendant Roman citizenry and to downplay any potentially seditious activities or incendiary verbiage Jesus may have used in trying to establish a reimagined earthly theocracy.
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This article could been titled “Jesus declines to comment on the unfair taxation of the Jewish people by the Roman Government”.
I’m looking for a clear and appropriate statement from the NAD. They can lead the way when other leaders refuse to lead. Time for voices to ne heard.
Leaders lead. They do not follow, there not pushed. What we have at the GC (for a number of years) is a failure of leadership.
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Well to me the comaprison Jesus = GC in this matter does not fit ! Jesus only could have given advice to his apostles - and Ted Wilsons father in the same position like his son compared himself with the Pope - - and Floyd Poenitz points to the responsibility of Christian - also SDA ? - missionaries having induced the antixxx attitude in African countries and states - -
Robert, not pushing. Just stating that the North American Division leaders can take the lead here as they have many times before on other issues. The NAD can again show the way by example.
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What evidence makes you think the taxation was unfair?