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.

Challenge to SDAs

I have a challenge for my SDA friends.

What original, primary and official document of the Catholic Church clearly states that it changed the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day Sunday?

I am not looking for a document that years afterward claim that the church did it, but the original document itself.

This document would have to be:

1. An official Catholic Church document signed by the magisterium or pope. (Not by an civic leader or ruler.)

2. It would have to be a very early document put together and signed before Christians began worshipping on Sunday (or else we can't really blame the Catholic Church, can we?)

For well over a decade I have been scanning early church documents in search of this infamous decree of a pope or magisterium and I have yet to find any church father write of it or contemporary writings of anyone refer to it. It seems to be a lost document that no one knows about until many centuries after Christianity began.

Adventist can present quotes from the post-Reformation era that the Catholic Church did change it, but no official church decree or document from the Church when it would have to have been decreed.... in the first couple of centuries. For we know people began going to church on Sunday within the first few days of Christianity.... (Acts 2: 46). When this elusive decree came that Adventists see as confirming the papacy as the antichrist who changed times and laws, I have yet to find... And we have all the records of the Catholic church councils, synods, etc from as early as the first century (the council of Jerusalem in Acts.) Then we have copies of many others in the first few centuries. But no evidence of any that states the church changes the Sabbath to Sunday.....

Rick Santorum's Presidential Campaign, in Memorium

Rick Santorum withdrew from the Republican Presidential Primary this morning. 

A moment of silence, please..... 

I need to grieve yet another little death of my American idealism and optimism. Once again, as a conservative Christian, my hopes for my beloved country are dashed. I know that, somehow with Rick’s step down, millions of more babies will be murdered in their mother’s womb, our social justice system will become more corrupt, our children will be destined to be raised in a culture of immorality and death. I do not see another candidate who shares my passion for reversing the roots of the problem, only candidates who want to bandage a few of the symptoms.

Rick’s withdrawal from the race seems a symbolic marker in the downward spiral of the U.S. from which I cannot see a possible reversal in my lifetime.

... I didn’t even get to cast a vote for him because I live in North Carolina and the republican primary isn’t until May. 

I am furious at Americans, I am heartbroken for America and yet, amidst all the pain.... in the end, I rejoice as a Christian. 

My Fury at Americans 

This is our fault, citizens. We can't blame the demise of our country on the government when most people do not give enough of a damn to become educated and informed and then go out and vote. We are lukewarm, wretched, miserable, poor, naked and blind Laodiceans. We are foolish, slumbering and unfaithful virgins.

We need to awake and realize that we, as conservative Christians are being manipulated as puppets by our system. The progressives (or should I write “the dark forces” with the anti-life, anti-family, anti-Christian agenda) do everything to split the Christian vote by dividing Christian values between the Democrat and Republican platforms--social justice for the poor on the Democrat side, and life/family issues on the Republican side to make sure we are always fighting against each other. Christian unity is the greatest fear of the progressives.

Then big business and their front group--the politicians--patronize and manipulate the voters by throwing in a couple candidates in the primaries that Christians can get behind to give us the the illusion that we have the freedom of choice. Then the progressives massively fund their candidates and so it appears when the conservatives were beaten, it was all fair and square. 

Then the Presidential race is always between two “moderates” who really have the same agenda, yet whose promises are different enough that we are told, as patriots, we must vote for the lesser of the two evils. And both are so entrenched with the progressives that the winners will bow to DC’s powers as soon as the hand comes off the Bible at their inauguration.

It’s all about money, and we are being played like a stupid but sweet-sounding violin by big business. We are lulled to sleep by the dark forces of propaganda. We are dupes, enslaved by a system that promises freedom, but instead gives us entertainment and inspiring songs of patriotism.

What will it take to awaken us and force us to care? If we look back at history, we will ignore plague after plague and we won’t act until the winds of dark forces sweep through our homes and kill our firstborn.

My Heartbreak for America

Unfortunately, as hard as we try, we will never be able to really fix this. Our problem isn’t that our system is being abused and we need to return to more “freedom.” This is the erroneous premise of the Tea Party. We don’t need more freedom, we need more holiness. The problem is sin. And you can never get where you want to go on the wrong road. You must form your conscience, your life, upon a true premise in order to get to the fullness of Truth. America’s foundation is flawed.

We teach that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are God-given rights. 

Wrong. 

The idea of “God-given rights” is an insidious, pride-producing, mind-warping, intoxicant of Satan to raise up an army of anti-Christs.

Those rights are not in the Bible nor found anywhere in Christian historical teachings. Those are the rights of the arrogant gods of the Enlightenment.

God-given rights are a myth. Freedom to do what we want is a myth. Just on its very surface the premise is obviously false. Look at America. It is  a complete illogical premise that we are wise enough to know what will make us happy (which, by the way, even the pagan Aristotle realized that man hasn’t the ability to achieve happiness when pursuing it).

God never gave us rights--ever. Life is not ours, it is His. He is life and at every breath that blessing is a loan that we may do His will, not our own pleasure. 

God did not die that we may have the freedom to sin. He died that we may have the freedom to quit sinning. We only have one true right and that is to pursue holiness and a clean heart. And that means we throw our illusion of rights back into the face of the Devil and fall at the foot of the Cross in submission to Him.

All life is His vineyard and we are merely stewards of that vineyard. Everything is God’s and we have no intrinsic rights to any of it. We are gifted and honored to be guardians, protectors of God’s garden. He entrusts us with the responsibility to cultivate what is His and bear fruit for His glory.

We will only know joy and freedom when we let go of the idea of “rights” and pursue the Kingdom of heaven with all our hearts. 


(Note of clarification: I am speaking of the relationship of rights between man and God. I believe you can make a case for civil religious liberty for humans based upon charity and extending the golden rule, but that is a man to man relationship.)  

Rejoicing as a Christians

In America’s cultural river rapids we Christians are attempting to maneuver through, many of us are horrified to see right ahead a cloud of spray and a deafening roar. We know what that means.... a huge waterfall lay ahead and if we do not all pull together and reverse our course we are going to plunge headfirst to our nation’s death. 

Our family gave sacrificially to Rick Santorum's campaign. We prayed fervently for him and his family. We hoped that his presidency would put pressure on America’s bleeding economy, the government’s financial irresponsibility and unconstrained debt. We saw him as actively fighting our culture of death and corruption.  

Praying and grieving at mass this morning, the Lord gave me reason to rejoice. He has not abandon us. In fact, America’s suicidal launch into wanton depravity is a controlled fall--because God is still in charge and He is still merciful.

Out of love, He is allowing us to see the fruits of our choices. The problem is that we pray for miraculous interference in order that we do not have to experience the consequences of our passivity, our desire for comfort and bounty. In the end, Christianity becomes confused and broken. For true joy and freedom God wants us to be unified by effort and struggle. This cannot happen when we are not allowed to see the fruits of our choices.

Humans must eat the fruits of our choices. We must learn that what we sew we will reap. God is not withdrawing His blessings and mercy to harm us but that we may see sin and its destruction. It is for our eternal education. He is calling us to repent.

What are we supposed to be seeing?

God is showing us that in a global, historical perspective, all human government will fail. Sin has made us unable to successfully rule ourselves and our fellow man. Autonomy fails, anarchy fails, independence fails, self-rule fails--secular governments of dictators, republics, democracies, socialism, communism, oligarchies--all fail. Theocracies and dynasties and monarchies based in wrong gods also fail.  No matter how sincerely and intelligently begun--all eventually enslave.

God is patiently waiting for us to feel the utter failure of our best human effort at government and under our own oppressive strangle, cry “uncle.” Actually, until we cry, "Abba Father, Thy will be done." We are being brought to our knees into our own personal and corporate Gethsemane. 

He knows we need to discover that in the end, we do not wish for self-governance and autonomy. We will cry out for his Iron Rule and His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.