By Shawn Brace –There are a lot of people who have questioned a Christian’s ability to align with the Black Lives Matter movement because of the organization’s other values and agenda that seem to collide with the Christian worldview.
Leaving aside the question of whether one implicitly pledges allegiance to the organization itself when they affirm that “black lives matter,” and even granting the premise that the Black Lives Matter organization promotes some very troubling values, I think the history of Seventh-day Adventism can help inform the question of whether Christians in general – and Adventists in particular – can pursue a common cause with other organizations, even if there is not total agreement about values.
Back in the late 1800s, one of Ellen White’s greatest burdens was the cause of prohibition. She wrote about it frequently, promoted activism within the public arena around it, and encouraged Adventists to lend their voice to the cause.
In 1874, an organization developed called the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), whose main agenda was to rid the world of alcohol consumption. Within short order, the WCTU became the largest women’s organization in the world.
This caught the attention of Ellen White and she fully affirmed and endorsed the WCTU’s activism. She even invited representatives from the WCTU to speak at Adventist camp meetings, and accepted invitations to speak at WCTU events whenever she was invited. She was a huge advocate of partnership with the WCTU, encouraging Adventist women to join.
Within a few years, however, things got a little complicated. What started out as a singular focus from the WCTU – to promote the prohibition of alcohol – became a larger agenda. They started advocating eugenics and women’s suffrage, both of which Ellen White was against. But most poignantly and seriously, they started pushing for Sunday laws – which had always been the most troubling pursuit to the Adventist mind.
And what was Ellen White’s response to all this? She continued to partner with and encourage membership in the WCTU, realizing that one could pursue a common cause with other organizations, despite having sharp disagreements with them – including perhaps the most serious political concern to the Adventist mind – that of Sunday legislation.
So Ellen White joined with the WCTU to promote prohibition, even as she vehemently opposed them in their calls for Sunday laws. And thus, in 1908, she could write stuff like, “The Women’s Christian Temperance Union is an organization with whose efforts for the spread of temperance principles we can heartily unite. The light has been given me that we are not to stand aloof from them. . . . We are to unite with them in laboring for temperance reforms” (Review and Herald, June 18, 1908).
In addition to pursuing a common cause, Ellen White had a missional motive in mind as well. She realized that by drawing close to those in the WCTU, Adventists could incarnate “present truth” to them and draw them into the three angels’ messages. Thus, when A.T. Jones wrote a scathing editorial in 1900, criticizing the WCTU for its promotion of Sunday legislation, Ellen White wrote to him, saying, “My attention has been called to your articles in our papers in reference to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. In the work of temperance all church members are supposed to stand upon the platform of union. . . . You are building up barricades that should not be made to appear. . . It was the Lord’s design that work should be done for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, that those who are seeking the light might be gathered out from those who are so bitterly opposed to the message God is giving to the world. . . . The ideas expressed in your articles savor so strongly of antagonism that you will do harm, more harm than you can possibly conceive” (1MR 123).
Not surprisingly, this missional posture bore fruit as women who encountered Adventists through the WCTU did join Adventism, having been persuaded by their heart for societal change and their present truth message.
In short, Adventists have historically united with other organizations for a common political and social cause, even while not agreeing with every stance – some of which are deeply troubling and fundamentally at odds with our most treasured beliefs – that the other organization promotes. It is, in fact, possible to walk and chew gum at the same time – just as it is possible to unite with others with whom we have significant agreements, and work against other values they have.
This also, significantly, has missional implications. We can sit on the side-lines and not jump into the fray, clinging to a faith that we’re too afraid to get contaminated. Or even worse, we can openly – like A.T. Jones – criticize various movements in the world, picking apart every little belief that doesn’t align with ours, thus turning many honest-hearted and selfless people away, doing “more harm than you can possibly conceive,” as Ellen White said. Unfortunately, this is, it seems to me, what many of us would have done with the Good Samaritan.
Or, grounded in the gospel, we can choose another path: we can get into the trenches and pursue God’s heart of justice and love, joining forces with others who have a heart for racial justice, and thus demonstrate to a world craving justice and love that “present truth” actually works and makes a tangible difference in the present world.
— Shawn Brace is a Seventh-day Adventist pastor and writes from Bangor, Maine; photo supplied
**Published courtesy of NAD Ministerial Newsletter https://www.nadministerial.com/stories/adventism-the-black-lives-matter
