Maurice Valentine, a general vice president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, died around 9:00 a.m. this morning after suffering a heart attack at his home. He was 63.
Always a tragedy when someone dies “young”, never being able to enjoy their latter years, or growing old together.
There are two things that trouble me in this article -
Shouldn’t that be Christ as the word of God?
Since when do pastors “work their way up” through church heirarchy?
This is a tragedy - another bright light extinguished, coming on the heels of the loss of Daniel Honore in January. We need so many more like Pastor Valentine (fitting name!!) and Pastor Honore (also fitting) who are kind, loving, impeccably honest and passionate for Jesus.
The best example known to me of Dr Valentine’s high moral character was his attitude toward women in ministry. As recounted here, it is the most perfectly expressed I can remember seeing, so I repeat:
"In 2019, he reaffirmed women in ministry during a meeting of the Lake Union Executive Committee, imploring his colleagues to “give them respect” for feeling called to pastoral ministry. “They shouldn’t be hurt for what they feel in their hearts,” Valentine said, according to a report from the Lake Union Herald. “We should never browbeat anyone. It’s un-Christlike. Each of us, as leaders, we should go out and articulate that we treat everyone as we want to be treated.”
Let’s all keep this cardinal principle always in mind: use the golden rule for EVERYTHING, including and especially for controversial “morality” conflicts like LGBTQ and “uppity” women. Don’t kill anyone’s love of God with artificial, unBiblical arguments wrested from scripture. That’s what they did with slavery, suspending God’s towering golden rule in favor of other lesser injunctions found here and there in scripture. It is a travesty in the name of Jesus, who so deliberately and decisively included all the “morality” outcasts in His movement.
May the memory of Dr Valentine live long in Adventist Christianity.
Sorry, you seem to be nit picking in a nice commemoration of this blessed young preacher.
Sounds like the man was a good man! I’m sure he was a person anyone would like to know. God bless his famiy with the peace of heaven.
My comments are not my reflection of the man. I don’t know him. My comments are about the way we write about his life. Serving the church in high office is just that, service, not some thing to be worked at like a promotion.
The way we talk (write) is the way we view things. Clarity of thought, of words will define the way people view you or the things you talk/write about.
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