FRAUDULENT CLIP CIRCULATED BY ADVENTISTS!!

(Note: This video is not being circulated by the SDA church, but some members.) 

You won't know it by watching, but this clip is from The Carter Report, a Seventh-day Adventists evangelistic outreach. There is nothing in the video clip that suggests it is a Seventh-day Adventist production. It is made to look as if a real Catholic bishop is standing in front of a secular audience at some type of international or press conference. All of it is fake folks! 

And the Catholic Bishop isn't a bishop at all. He's an actor. 

A few minutes ago I just talked on the phone to the Carter Report and they are claiming that someone cut a clip out of the service and without their permission is circulating it as if it is real. This isn't even a former bishop who converted to Adventism as some are wondering. This is an actor pretending to be a bishop misquoting Catholic sources. 

The Carter Report better be careful or they will end up being charged with fraud. On many levels. First they went to the trouble of purchasing or making bishop's vestments, then even wore the scholarly biretta, nice touch. Then they clip Catholic quotes and distort them repulsively. Catholic scholars have often implored the SDA church to quit falsifying their doctrines and history. Adventists still use these bogus quotes as if they have "exposed" a hidden agenda. 

The quotes are as concocted as the bishop.




This is a SDA evangelist Carter Report television SET! All you see and all you hear is for entertaining and indoctrination purposes. Learn the truth about Catholicism. This is a distortion.

Read the Catechism and specifically read Pope John Paul II's Dies Domini.

(UPDATE: Someone just wrote me and told me that the people who edited this from its original context are an independent group of SDAs. It's source may be 3ABN. We're still looking into it. However, even if John Carter clearly told his audience that it was an actor, and the transcript shows Mr. Carter said nothing, the visual adds authority to the misinformation. 

Interpretation

By putting Cliff back on the Hope Channel the SDA church is showing it isn't wholly anti-intellectual. Cliff Goldstein is helping bring the SDA church into the late 19th century, philosophically anyway. (Sorry, I know that is a back-handed compliment but when you place Adventism within the context of the history of America and fundamentalism, the SDA church isn't as bad as many denominations.) Adventists are about 1811 years a little late on most theology too, but praise the Lord.... baby steps are good.

Even though Cliff doesn't really bring much theology into this episode, this particular one is about interpretation of reality which might quite subtly take us back to the garden of Eden. (My subjective interpretation of where he must be going in part two, maybe?) Here's the link:

Cliff!: HOPE CHANNEL

"Interpretation by its nature is subjective," Mr. Goldstein says. Good. That's a really good start. Then he finishes by asking us if we are wrongly interpreting reality. "Is your view distorted?  Are you getting reality right?"

Humm, that is the crux isn't it? How does one find out if one's interpretation of reality is correct or not? You cannot look within your self or your heart. Reality is something that happens to you, you have no control over it and we tend towards living a reality that doesn't place us in constant stress. It is said that in the midst of huge crisis such as a devastating earthquake or a serious car crash (or 911) people tend to try and force reality to normalize. That is why people who were fleeing the Twin Towers after it was hit got halfway down and went back to their offices because they forgot to turn off their computers or grab their purses.

We cannot trust our own brains in achieving an accurate phenomenology (assuming as Christian we believe there is one). We have only what our senses can tell us and that is only giving us a tiny percentage of what is actually occurring. God has revealed in scripture over and over that His thoughts, His ways are far above ours. He knows the beginning from the end and He tells us not to trust in our own hearts, minds or interpretations of reality.

So, again, if our interpretation is subjective and often wrong, (which we, of course, have no inner red flag to alert us when we have wrongly interpreted reality) we have to go somewhere outside ourselves to reveal to us just exactly what reality is.

That is terrifying for most of us, because we have an independent do-it-ourselves American spirit that preaches to us that we must trust our own personal conscience and senses more than anything. "Man is the measure of all things" and of course I am that man. Our humanistic rationalism demands that we subject all things to ourselves (and in a sense this empiric gospel makes us gods--knowing good from evil and what "is".)

So... thinking Christians are forced into the wholly vulnerable situation of seeking to understand reality from another source. We can all agree that source is God, but how does this ontological quest manifest itself? Through prayer? Through Bible study? Nope. Both of those are hardly less subjective than the five senses. God doesn't abandon us in a vortex of circular argument.

Did God place a who or what on this earth that could accurately describe reality?

I guess we need to first delve into the idea of reality first. Any thoughts?

Sexual Abuse

Most Holy and Merciful God, Abba Father, please give me the grace to write this with love, truth, compassion and with the purpose of honoring You as I wish to honor your dear children.

I knew this post was coming somewhere deep in me. But I dreaded it. Oh God, help me. My conscience will no longer allow me to dismiss this, belittle this problem or leave it for someone else to write.

There is rampant sexual abuse in the Seventh-day Adventist church. If only a small percentage of the cases I personally have been told are true, then this is a problem of such serious and prevailing nature as to demand attention.

For years, these are the things that have gone through my mind:

1. These Adventists and former Adventists are just lying for attention or they are grossly exaggerating the problem. They are bitter against the church and want to hurt the Adventists.

2. There is something mentally wrong with these people--emotional instability.

3. If I say something publicly, it could cause so many people to be badly hurt and some people falsely accused. The last thing I would ever want to put on someone is a false accusation of sexual abuse. People lose children, marriages, careers, are ostracized and live in deep depression after being falsely accused. God in heaven, please, I beg of you pour out your grace of truth on this subject so no innocent person will be ever accused of this.

4. There is no--or little--way to prove any of the cases I have heard. The victims themselves admit that it is a he said/ she said situation. Many were children when it happened and have zero interest in revisiting the memory or the person. So, to write about something you can't prove is something I try very hard to avoid. However, the anecdotes are becoming so numerous as to demand a voice. I am sure I have heard more than a hundred cases, ... I haven't kept count. But a large number....

Once, while still an Adventist, I called a SDA televangelist and expressed my concern about this subject and asked him what we, as a church, can do. He admitted the problem was grave, and yet offered no solution. He left the conversation saying something to the effect that what they need is to focus on forgiveness.

Well, yes.... of course. I agree. Forgiveness is an important step in a victim of sexual abuse. But what about the perpetrator? Should we not expose him or her and put them in jail? I honestly don't think the leadership of the Adventist church have any idea how severe this problem is. I think they imagine it is about an inappropriate touch, or an inappropriate remark. I can tell you, very few stories approach innocuousness. We are talking about systematic incestuous rape, violent rape or sodomy by SDA pastors, principals, teachers, Sabbath school leaders, Pathfinder leaders, etc and SDA fathers and even mothers....

Frequently, these girls have had to go to the emergency room, at times they are taken by the perpetrator or another SDA leader because of physical damage. I have heard numerous stories from girls who were secretly taken to get abortions by SDA Bible teachers, or church leaders to prevent the story from becoming public.

Lest any of you think I am drudging this up to hurt the SDA church as a former, stories began while I was in an SDA boarding academy. Most of these girls did not blame the church itself, but properly blamed the perpetrator and are loyal Adventists today. So this isn't about bitterness or attention for them. Nevertheless, at some point, you have to ask if there isn't an intrinsic problem with the church who considers themselves the sole remnant that covers this up to prevent scandal.

I am aware this happens in other churches--after all, I'm Catholic! The fact that this happens in other churches in no way minimizes the responsibility for Adventists to deal with this most heinous problem among their own children. Learn from the Catholic scandal and root out this problem and deal with it. You can see from the Catholic Church, we survived! It is possible to survive such a terrible blow. (I can't be as optimistic about the victims though.)

Think of the words of Our Lord, Jesus Christ when He said, "In as much as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it to me."

Let us Christians not turn a blind eye to our children. This abuse ruins their lives and often leads to drug addictions and sexual immorality. It can lead to serious mental problems and abuse. Often, victims attempt suicide! Some of these Adventist victims are today in jail, in psychiatric units, on the streets, isolated, alone and internally screaming with pain. Many others are walking in SDA churches as emotional corpses who cannot deal with reality, whose marriages are wrecks and the victim's spouse is taking the hit for the perpetrator's actions.

The multitude of stories I am privately told, if--as I wrote--if even a small percentage are true, it should awaken the greatest horror in Adventists. They should demand a church wide investigation into this and see how extensive and damaging it is. 

My heart continues to break for these women. Please, Christians out there, daily pray for these wounded souls, their families and their perpetrators.

God, have mercy on us all.