Inland Empire Adventism and It’s LGBT+ Members
-A Discussion
Each presentation below is linked to their respective video on VIMEO. Click on the title and you will required to enter a password, which is “BookReviews”
January 15: John R. Jones: Examining the Biblical Texts about Homosexuality – Towards the Unity of the Body of Christ
January 22: Kerby Oberg: Biologic/Genetic Basis of Reproductive Development.
January 29: Paul Mallery: The Psychology of LGBT+ Identity, and the Relation Between Religiosity and Heterosexism. Class Readings
February 5: Adventist LGBT+ Members' Stories. Moderator Jim Walters will visit with our special guests Elizabeth Rodgers and her partner Marianne, and gender-transitioning Esther Loewen, longtime pastor from Walla Walla and Redlands. Reading Assignment: Part 1 of the book Christianity and Homosexuality, Some Adventist Perspectives - the stories.
February 12: Regarding LGBT+ Members, Where Does Adventism Go From Here? Pastoral and institutional perspectives. Panel members include pastors Chris Oberg and Miguel Mendez, as well as LLU CEO Richard Hart. Reading Assignment: Click Here
Click here for detailed descriptions, class readings and recommended supplemental readings
A Loma Linda University Church Taskforce on the LGBTQ Adventist, October 2024
()Note: The LLUC Sabbath Seminars voted in August 2024 to assign a representative or representatives to regularly attend the church board meeting. On October 2, 2024 Jim Walters and Bill Shull attended the board meeting. Bill Shull took detailed notes of the meeting and has written the following report. The opinions are his.)
Pastor Randy Roberts reported to the church board that a taskforce was working on an assignment to consider the question: How Do We Love Our LGBTQ Adventist?
The taskforce was working from resource/book lists on “both sides of the question.” Pastor Randy introduced the primary book on the “con” side of the question, and encouraged participants to work through the lengthy and sometimes difficult read.
Carl Trueman, “The Rise and Triumph of the Self”. (A condensed form of the book was also recommended, “Strange New World,” for those not willing to tackle the larger tome)
The primary book on the “Pro” side of the issue was introduced by School of Religion Dean Leo Ranzolin, at Pastor Randy’s request:
Richard and Christopher Hays, “The Widening of God’s Mercy”
A Discussion of each book:
Carl Trueman is professor of Biblical and Religious Studies and Graduate Programs at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He obtained a Masters degree in the classics from Cambridge University, and a doctorate in church history from the University of Aberdeen.. He is a pastor and member of the Orthodox Presbyterian church, which is among the most conservative Protestant denominations, with a strong emphasis on literalist biblical interpretations and verbal inspiration teaching.
In “The Rise and Triumph of the Self” Trueman surveys the history of culture and human personality into the 19th and 20th century in a long and detailed narrative which assesses important figures like Freud as negative influences on modern ideas about the self. 4/5ths of the book is to set up his position regarding gender identity. He decries the “slide” toward the acceptance of the gay and lesbian person into the church community, but considers the fatal blow to be the transgender person, because the T in the LGBTQ is the cause of the demise of the self in the modern age. According to Trueman, Christianity cannot suffer the moral degradation that results from the confusion of identity created by the gender dysphoria of transgenderism.
While Trueman is a qualified church historian, his qualifications come up short when it comes to expertise on human personality and psychology. The author’s specialties in church and cultural histories don’t have the same gravitas once the discussion turns to the subject of modern human personality. Furthermore, conservative, neo-Calvinist Protestantism brings with it an intransigent social ethic, an inclination to understand traditional social ethic and practice as God’s will. It is the slowest to accept social change compared to its Christian peers. An example of this is in the widespread acceptance of male dominance in family systems, or what is sometimes euphemistically called “complementarianism.” While Adventism struggles with what it calls “male headship theology,” here at the University Church this view has been generally rejected.
Specifically, Trueman’s Orthodox Presbyterian Church also supports male headship theology: “The teaching of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 has not been abandoned. For example, because we are a biblical church, we hold to male headship in the home and the church.” Question & Answer: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (opc.org)
And Trueman rejects the facts: That sexuality is related to the reality of gender identity, and whether he likes it or not, gender identity is inseparable from self identity. Trueman pretends that something can be done about this, that while it is a great mistake that church and society have already abdicated to the acceptance of the gay and lesbian gender identity, the great tragedy will come from the existential threat of transgenderism.. While we all agree that the complications of transgender identity are not always easily resolved in society, the solution is NOT to pretend it is not real, or that the person is somehow “untrue,” or a threat to church and society. These prejudices are far too much like the religion-driven prejudices against Black people in the Jim Crow era, which turned back the initial progress of Reconstruction as the church conflated social ethic with racism and supported a century of structural human suffering. Furthermore, they remind one of the fear of the witches in Salem, where the churchman defined the person’s identity as morally unacceptable, and imposed horrible penalties. (This might seem a reach, but the official position of the Seventh-day Adventist Church against the legitimacy of the LGBTQ+ person is used to support the extreme homophobia carried out in parts of the world - Africa, Russia, the Middle East - which penalize by deprivation of civil liberties, even, in the case of the imposition of capital punishment, of life itself. Prominent Adventist leaders are on record as supporting these extreme human rights abuses. As a leading Adventist congregation, it is our duty to get this right not just for ourselves - our first duty - but for our world community.)
It is easy to see the connection of Trueman’s position to headship theology, and the similar misuse of biblical material in both, which for Trueman is presuppositional. It is the use of biblical material that often trips us up. This is a focus of the other book the taskforce is reading.
Finally, Trueman’s insistence that gender shouldn’t be considered in identity contradicts his own privileging of the differences between male and female roles, with the woman subservient to the man as explained in his church’s “complemantarian” theology.
Richard Hays is George Washington Ivey Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. he is an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church, and generally considered one of the leading conservative New Testament scholars. For example, he is known for his opposition to the scholarship of the “Jesus Seminar” and the modern Historical Jesus movement.(1) In “Moral Vision of the New Testament,” published some 30 years ago, he held that gay and lesbian people should remain celibate, but should be welcomed into the Christian community. However, he and his son Christopher Hays, a New Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, have just written a book, “The Widening of God’s Mercy,” "a fresh, deeply biblical account of God’s expanding grace and mercy, tracing how the Bible’s narrative points to the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in Christian communities," without the requirement of celibacy. (2) The Hays team no longer considers that the Bible should be used to oppose the acceptance of the practicing LGBTQ person into the communion of Christian fellowship. See Karen Keen’s review here. where Keen points out not only that the Hays retain their “canonical” conservative approach to Scripture, but she discusses the personal risk that Chris Hays has taken at the anti-LGBTQ+ Fuller Seminary.
It is significant that the primary book chosen for the “pro” side of this discussion comes from the more conservative wing of biblical scholarship. Proponents of “canonical theology” tack tightly towards a biblical authority model: According to :Adventist theologian John Peckam, canonical theology “views the biblical canon as the uniquely authoritative, sufficient source of theological doctrine, adopts the biblical canon as the rule of faith, and denies the positing of any normative extracanonical interpretive authority.” (3)
The Hays join an increasing number of evangelical scholars and leaders; the most prominent today include Nazarene scholar Thomas Oord and Baptist ethicist/theologian David Gushee. But they also reflect the long-held view of certain Adventist scholars, most importantly the long-time New Testament Studies professor in the School of Religion, Ivan Blazen.
Sabbath Seminars, for many years, included among its attendees and presenters the respected Adventist New Testament scholar Ivan Blazen, who passed away not too long ago. 40 years ago Blazen’s essay on this subject was widely circulated, and more recently he wrote an exhaustive essay,
“Biblical Texts and Homosexual Practices” (4)
This 2012 piece declared that the Bible cannot be used to condemn the LGBTQ+ person; there is no passage, including the familiar ones, that can legitimately be used to exclude them from full acceptance into the Christian community. Blazen was influential both at Andrews University and Loma Linda University.
It is our hope that the Taskforce members will avail themselves of the excellent series of presentations and resources linked to this page. Sabbath Seminars’ study includes many of the experts and authorities who provided the basis for decisions by Loma Linda University and the La Sierra University Church to be open and affirming.(5) The Vision statement of Sabbath Seminars includes a commitment to an open and affirming position towards LGBTQ persons by Sabbath Seminars.
Unlike Trueman or the Hays, the LLUC Sabbath Seminars believes we have a duty to apply what is learned from experience, tradition, and reason, as well as Scripture. . (The Protestant maxim “sola scriptura” was not meant to be exclusive, but to push back against the extremely authoritarian Roman church of the time; there were other “sola’s” as well, most importantly, “sola gratia)”(6) This approach, which comes out of the Wesleyan tradition as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” derives from the 16th century views of RIchard Hooker, the greatest influence on Anglican Church polity and practice, and his “three-legged stool.” We have embraced this approach in our Sabbath Seminars mission statement.
Finally, may we examine ourselves for whether we confuse our sense of righteousness with our sense of revulsion. The “yuck factor” should not be the basis for how we love one another. This, I believe, is also the problem with Trueman. Our racial and gender prejudices run deep in our own emotional structure and in our shared group values, and the most difficult challenge is to recognize that the “yuck factor” is the most difficult to change, but is what deeply drives our resistance to accepting the LGBGTQ+ person.
More discussion will be provided soon which will include links to critical reviews.
2 yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300273427/the-widening-of-gods-mercy/
3 John Peckham, Canonical Theology, p. 73 See also Alicia Johnston, former pastor, also example of one who holds to a conservative Adventist theology while believing that the gospel calls for the embrace of people of all sexual orientations. The Bible and LGBTQ+ Adventists
4 Spectrum Magazine, Summer 2012 issue, Volume 40, Issue 3, Summer 2012.
5 “Open and affirming” is a phrase first used by the United Churches of Christ to describe their policy of acceptance towards those of the LGBTQ+ community.
6 Sola Gratia, Sola Fidei, Sola Scriptura are three of the Five Solas that summarize the core beliefs of the Protestant Reformers. They mean that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, based on the Scripture alone The other two solas are Solus Christus (Christ alone) and Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone) (Wikipedia, sola gratia, sola fidei, sola scriptura)
Additional resources:
Reindeer Bruinsma, “Basic Alphabet Theology”
Sabbath Seminars
Room 3208
Centennial Complex of Loma Linda University Sabbath Morning 10:30-12:30