Recent reports of a pro-LGBTQ protest on one of our North American Adventist university campuses raise a cluster of troubling questions, which go far beyond the opinions of those involved in the protest and those—on this particular campus and elsewhere—who sympathize therewith.
According to the online reports, the protest was sparked by—among other things—the censoring of a senior recognition video which featured a student displaying a gay pride flag, and a candidate’s forced withdrawal from the race for student body president when it was learned that he was in a same-sex relationship.
I confess to having a special fondness for student activists, even when I differ with them. I was educated in Seventh-day Adventist schools from the elementary to the graduate level, and on every campus where I studied I was privileged, in one capacity or another, to serve as a student leader. On two of those campuses it was my honor to serve as president of the student body. When I meet, interact with, or read of those who volunteer to shoulder such burdens, my heart goes out to them.
Students with the courage to challenge or shape the prevailing order have brought positive change to America and the world, even to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In the modern history of the United States they set their country on a path to racial justice, brought an end to an unpopular war, and forced a President not to seek re-election. U.S. presidential historian Theodore White wrote, speaking of the role of students in the 1968 presidential campaign:
With their young bodies, limitless energies and mature drives, student activists lead the kind of raw manpower which in other generations of history caused great and hostile nations to tremble [1 ].
From my own youth I have always resented the assumption of certain ones that students on any campus are there simply to get an education, and that beyond the acquiring of good grades, the quest for promising career prospects, and the search for a life partner, the affairs of the school are none of their business. Such thinking presupposes a dangerously narrow view of what constitutes education. Mark Twain, infidel though he was, offered the young a priceless jewel of wisdom when he advised, “Don’t let your schooling get in the way of your education” [2]. My own experience as a student body president instilled lessons which I found most instructive when I later became a pastor.
My readers can thus understand the mixed emotions with which I read of Adventist university students caring enough about an issue to raise their voices in public, even if the position they take is one at odds with Scripture and the teachings of the church. What follows are a number of issues which I believe should provoke serious reflection on the part of church leaders and members in the wake of the recent protest.
Provocative Issues
1. How representative was the protest in question? According to the online reports, as many as 100 students on this particular campus took part in this demonstration. It has also been claimed that many others, on campus and elsewhere, have indicated their support for the protest. One online report indicates that the enrollment on this campus approximates 1,400. One is led to wonder how many of these students agree with the protesters’ opinions. If the protest had garnered somewhere in the neighborhood of several hundred students, rather than simply 100, the perception of major discontent on campus relative to the administration’s actions would be much more credible.
Have any surveys of the student body been conducted as to where they stand on these issues? Regardless of the issue, public protests have a tendency to amplify the voices of the disenchanted. Many who support the status quo in a given situation tend to keep their opinions to themselves. It would help to have more concrete data available as to where the students stand on the LGBTQ issue and its disposition within the church.
2. Authority is never enough. This is especially true with the young. Merely telling them what the rules are and the fact that they’re being enforced, tends to provoke more rebellion than reflection. Interactive discussions—with those in authority, with fellow students, and with other interested parties—are imperative in situations like these. People need to understand the Biblical foundation for the church’s stance on any contested issue. Institutional leaders need to be willing to make themselves vulnerable to the queries and challenges that open conversation invariably produces.
3. The purpose and faithfulness of our educational centers needs to be carefully, even painfully assessed. It’s easy for many church members to wonder how a student involved in a same-gender sexual relationship is allowed to even enroll at a Seventh-day Adventist school, let alone aspire to be a campus leader. But if students aren’t instructed early on as to the confessional nature of Seventh-day Adventist education, if the spiritual worldview received during their formative years has been one of perpetual question marks over the inspired writings, doctrinal indifference, moral vacillation, unqualified acceptance within the fellowship of faith, and a salvation that affirms God’s forgiveness for sin but leaves the Christian effectively helpless against its recurrence, they can hardly be blamed for protesting rules forbidding practices whose wrongness and spiritual significance they have never been led to understand on the basis of God’s Word.
People fear and resent what they don’t understand. And Seventh-day Adventism cannot be understood or appreciated unless it is embraced in its totality. Partial Adventism, like partial Christianity in the broadest sense, produces not just hypocrisy but confusion and resentment. When a campus fosters a spiritual climate in which church standards are regularly disdained, marginalized, even ridiculed by persons presumed to be “experts,” the occasional and inconsistent enforcement of standards (especially unpopular ones) is bound to damage the credibility of both the institution and the church as a whole.
When our schools fail to rigorously uphold the written counsel of God as the measure by which the world and its culture, customs, and demands are measured, the theological and moral mission of the church will inevitably be lost. Church leaders and those chosen to govern and guide our institutions must exert multiplied efforts, painful though they will surely be, to make clear that hastening our Lord’s advent, not the acquisition of material wealth and cashing in on the elusive “good life,” is the overriding goal of a Seventh-day Adventist education.
Conclusion
What really needs to happen in our mainline schools is an influx of godly young people, who above all else revere the God of Scripture, the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy, and the theological agenda of classic Seventh-day Adventism. With the rise of the GYC movement over two decades ago, the presence of such young people in the denomination has become increasingly notable. Such need to be willing to make whatever sacrifices, financial and otherwise, that attendance at our mainstream academies, colleges, and universities will necessitate. When they enroll, they need to mingle widely with their fellow students, giving a winsome witness in class and among their peers for our distinctive faith and lifestyle—and then, when ready, step forward to lead the campus.
I have seen it happen, but not nearly enough.
Some years ago, on another mainline Adventist university campus in the North American Division, I saw another act of protest carried out. The student senate on this particular campus voted to petition the university administration, not to discard or lower Bible and Spirit of Prophecy standards relative to dress and jewelry, but to enforce them. Not long thereafter, on the same campus, a visiting speaker gave a testimony at Friday night vespers complete with dramatized demonic voices and below-standard music. According to more than one testimony that was shared with me, nearly three-fourths of the student body—and on this campus, attendance at Friday night vespers is required—stood up and walked out in protest.
One day, I firmly believe, true revival and reformation will come to many of our mainline campuses at all levels, and such demonstrations as the above will be seen more and more. Like the American Civil Rights movement, which began with a humble but courageous woman refusing to sit in the back of a bus, such efforts often begin with a small gesture. Godly young men and women can make it happen, “through the grace of God and their own diligent effort” [3].
REFERENCES
1. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President—1968 (New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1969), p. 79.
3. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 425.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan