MV Spring 2020 Page 2

By Mark B. Johnson

I have often been asked why it is that Adventist health- care, which had such a wonderful blueprint for health so early in our history, and was originally so universally admired, has never quite been able to regain our past reputation or obtain the credit we so richly deserve for our unique and inspired views on health reform.

This article provides some thoughts on that question and how Adventist healthcare might fit our blueprint today.

You’re not going to like what I have to say.

The assumptions behind the question are inaccurate— our work in healthcare has never been as exceptional or as innovative as many Adventists believe and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was a quack.

Please, hear me out.

It can be argued that Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, under the initial guidance of Ellen G. White, was the founding medical authority for the ministry of healing in the Adventist church. Taking over the struggling Western Health Reform Institute in 1876, he almost single-handedly turned it into the most renowned health facility of his time. I’m sure you’ve heard how his Battle Creek Sanitarium attracted many rich and famous luminaries.

What you may not have heard is that most of these celebrities also spent time at the Bernarr Macfadden Sanitorium in Battle Creek, at the Jackson Sanitorium in Dansville, New York, and at many other health spas around the world. In the late 1800s, that’s what rich people did. They spa-hopped.

America in the late 1800s was saturated with ideas on health and fitness. It was a time of great enthusiasm for better living but with very little science on which to base sound recommendations. There were myriad “health faddists” from whom one could obtain “inspirational” guidance, and innumerable quacks, promoting and profiting from “unsubstantiated methods that lacked scientifically plausible rationales for their therapies.”

Orthodox medicine was using “heroic” measures that had no scientific basis and was dispensing useless and dangerous medications, often with high concentrations of alcohol, opium, cocaine and other noxious substances. This made the “natural” philosophies much more appealing. Most Americans felt that nature was the best physician, and the prevalent populist philosophy taught that everyone had the God-given right to care for themselves and their families. It is still a popular feeling today.

Many “medical schools” at that time required no prior education and their courses often lasted only 16 to 20 weeks. Most “medical students” were apprenticed to an established doctor and set out on their own when he (doctors were usually male) thought they were ready. There were no accredit- ing bodies and many states had no medical licensing requirements.

The confused condition of medical education and the haphazard practices of medicine in the United States were so substandard that in 1910, under the aegis of the Carnegie Foundation, Abraham Flexner did an investigation of the 155 medical schools then in operation in America and Canada. He recommended that 124 of them be closed. He also advocated for educational reforms and endorsed state licensure for the practice of medicine.

Ellen G. White and John Harvey Kellogg lived through this time of upheaval in American medical education. Kellogg obtained his training both at Dr. Russell Trall’s Hygieo-Therapeutic College, which specialized in hydrotherapy, and at New York University’s Bellevue Hospital, which practiced more orthodox medicine.

He then became a celebrity, known for his writings on health reform, his food creations and exercise equipment inventions and his status as a surgeon. Many questions have been raised, however, regarding his peculiar views on sex, pantheism, hydrotherapy, the application of electricity and his prodigious use of enemas. He was seen as one of the greatest physicians of his time, but today you will find him referenced almost exclusively in books and articles on quackery.

The practices at both the Western Health Reform Institute and the Battle Creek Sanitarium stemmed, in large part, from two visions Ellen G. White had on health reform which focused on natural cures and lifestyle choices. This has been called our healthcare blueprint: the use of water, air, light, heat, food, rest, exercise and light labor; trust in God; abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and stimulants; and the correct use of the will. These natural remedies are currently reflected in the Weimar Institute’s NEWSTART program (Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Temperance, Air, Rest and Trust), and in AdventHealth’s CREATION Health curriculum (Choice, Rest, Environment, Activity, Trust in God, Interpersonal relationships, Outlook and Nutrition).

These remedies have the advantage of being natural. They use modalities that are free to all. Their judicious use has quantifiable health benefits. None of them requires the use of expensive drugs or technical equipment. You do not need a license to prescribe or practice them. They do not require certification. Anyone can use them. Anyone can train others in their use. Anyone can claim to be an authority in their use.

But none of these natural remedies is unique to Adventist health reform and we were not the first to advocate for the use of any of them.

So, is there anything special about Adventist healthcare?

I believe there is, and I believe it forms a crucial element in the beliefs of a church that claims to have a special interest in end time events.

Ellen G. White and John Harvey Kellogg had a stormy struggle over what course healthcare should take in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Ellen White won the initial skirmishes, but the war is far from over. The fight, as I see it, is still being fought along two main battle lines: the role of science in healthcare and healing as an integral part of the Gospel.

Almost all the health reformers of the 1800s eventually went down the path of Vitalism, the belief that there is a mystical, invisible, unmeasurable energy source which is the basis of all life and causes disease when it is out of balance.

In the New Consciousness and in much of holistic health, (this energy) appears under a variety of aliases, such as universal life energy, vital forces, Ch’i, bioplasma, para-electricity, and animal magnetism. We are told that . . . this energy pervades everything in the universe, unites each individual to the cosmos, and is the doorway to untapped human potential. It is at the root of all healing, all psychic abilities, all so-called miraculous occurrences. It is what religions have called God. It is the crucial link between science and religion, and it is awaiting our command.1

Kellogg was on a similar mystical trajectory when Ellen White and the Adventist leadership blocked him. Ellen White, almost uniquely among early health reformers, came to support evidence-based science working together with religion. She feared mystical fanaticism.

There is constant danger of allowing something to come into our midst that we may regard as the workings of the Holy Spirit, but that in reality is the fruit of a spirit of fanaticism. . . . I am afraid of anything that would have a tendency to turn the mind away from the solid evidences of the truth as revealed in God’s Word. I am afraid of it: I am afraid of it. We must bring our minds within the bounds of reason, lest the enemy so come in as to set everything in a disorderly way. (2 Selected Messages, p. 43)

She also warned that in the last days satanic forces would both cause and cure diseases and that there would be many “spurious works of healing,” claiming to be divine. I fear that many Adventists are not prepared to evaluate such supernatural manifestations of healing, but we have been clearly forewarned that they are coming.

I believe our church also continues to struggle along the other battle line over which Ellen White and Kellogg engaged. Kellogg moved more and more to calling health re- form a social good, a way of reaching and helping people in need. He began to avoid talking about the spiritual aspects of health care. Once again, Ellen White directly confronted him. Our medical ministry was not just a social way of look- ing compassionate. Physicians and ministers were to be equal partners in the presentation of the Gospel, and health care was a clear revelation of the Gospel, an allegory that revealed our need for both physical and spiritual healing. I like the way Chuck Sandefur, past-president of the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, described it in a presentation at an Adventist Health System meeting in 2013:

To do health care well and to transform people’s lives is not some sort of marketing ploy for the Gospel; it’s not a (prelude) to the Gospel; it doesn’t lead to the Gospel; it doesn’t help us think about the Gospel; it doesn’t warm people up for the Gospel—it is the Gospel!

We no longer have sanitaria. We now have hospitals. Most of them are very good and are known to be good, but we don’t have anything approaching the reputation of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. I believe this would please Ellen White if she were alive today. Medicine and the care of the sick has changed dramatically since her day. Few people “hospital-hop,” searching for a celebrity physician and a months-long course of diet, exercise, education, and enemas. Our institutions continue to offer well-received educational programs on healthy eating, active living, smoking cessation and other beneficial lifestyle changes, but now with well- documented evidence-based data and no particular concern over who gets the credit.

Our healthcare blueprint should not just be to produce more “blue zones” where old folks live 7 to 10 more years of active life. Our goal should be to help prepare folks to live forever. Our blueprint is not to provide natural “holistic” alternative care but is to provide whole person care for the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the multidimensional unities that God created us to be. Let us give Dr. Kellogg his due recognition for peanut butter, corn flakes, granola, and the mechanical slapping massage device, but let us be thankful that our healthcare ministry has so far withstood the forces that, on the one hand, wish to take us down the path of mystical Vitalism, or, on the other hand, just want us to be seen as good people doing good things for folks who are ill.

–Mark B. Johnson, M.D.,  has directed Jefferson County Public Health for the past 30 years. He has taught a course on the history of medicine and public health at the Colorado School of Public Health for 10 years. Mark is a member of Boulder Adventist Church, and may be contacted at: [email protected]

Reference

1 Paul C. Reisser, M.D., Teri K. Reisser and John Weldon, The Holistic Healers: A Christian Perspective on New-Age Health Care, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983), pp. 33, 34.

by Kaleb Eisele

“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” —Muriel Rukeyser If you’ve been paying attention to the rising trends in youth culture, you’ve likely noticed some patterns in the things they care about. Maybe you’ve seen photos of young people holding protest signs or seen videos of them speak- ing out on subjects like environmentalism, social justice, or income inequality. The inundation of content from the 24- hour news cycle can be overwhelming, but a closer look at the values carried by the youth might give us some clarity as to why these things matter so much to today’s young people. In my work I’ve interviewed over 300 people, with the majority being Seventh-day Adventists under 40 years old. As I’ve spent time with them, I’ve noticed a gospel truth that seems to guide many of the trends we see in their voices— concern for their neighbors. Behind social justice is care for the marginalized neighbor; behind environmentalism is care for both humanity and life beyond us. Now more than ever before, young people are entering the world with access to the stories of suffering from a wide array of people groups. Seeing from this perspective, however, can be difficult unless we take the time to intentionally seek to diversify stories we are exposing ourselves to. Stories can encourage many of the meaningful conversations that we desperately need to be having in our church—conversations on how to relate to each other in the healthiest ways.

Human beings are far more complex than we often give them credit for. When we talk to each other, we learn external facts—what kind of work someone does or what kinds of activities someone enjoys. We rarely even scratch the surface of the deep, personal experiences that other people carry around with them every day. We often don’t take time to understand how the things people have lived through are affecting them.

As a professional storyteller, you would be surprised at how often I get messages like this one: “I’ve known this young man for years and still hadn’t heard all that.” How well do we know each other? How well do we want to?

When you get into a rhythm of interviewing lots of people, you start learning that some questions work better than others. Here’s a question that’s become my absolute favorite over the years, I frame it like this: “What’s one event in your life that changed you?”

I love this question for several reasons. First, it’s perfect for story. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end built into the question itself. What were you like before? What happened? What changed?

I also like this question because, while it asks for something specific–the event that changed the person–it covers a massive amount of territory. It can be positive or negative, it can just as easily lead to a conversion story as to a story of the death of a loved one or a career change.

Understanding each other takes time. It rarely happens naturally. The challenge for each of us if we want to deepen our relationships and grow as a community comes down to intentionality. We actually have to seek out stories. We have to listen without needing to push our own story in that moment. We have to be curious about each other. I think part of the problem is that we haven’t handled this idea of authentic storytelling well. There’s pressure to condense our stories, to not take up too much of another person’s time.

I challenge you to take some time to think about the stories that make up your life. Reflect on all of the countless experiences that have built and formed you. And after that, recognize that the same is true for every person you will ever meet. No person is a single thing. No story is a single story.

It isn’t that our intentions are bad. Deep down, most people I’ve met seem to have a longing for deeper connection to other human beings. I think we just haven’t learned that in order to know each other well, we need to create space for listening. Imagine you’re outside and you’re tired of walking. If there’s no bench near you, do you sit down? Probably not. Most of us will keep on walking until we find something that’s meant for us to sit on. We use the spaces that have been created for us to do things. It’s the same for stories. That’s why long car rides and camping trips and late nights in someone else’s home are the places we end up having deep conversations with each other. It’s why, when I share a deep story about someone on our Facebook page, that person’s friends will often say they’ve never heard it before. Because we haven’t intentionally created the spaces to share our stories.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why am I here?” Maybe you’re one of those existential people that look at life from a bird’s-eye view and ask it. Maybe you’re asking it about the place you live or the place you work. But have you ever asked it about church? Religion? Why are we here? Why all the meetings and institutional structure? If salvation comes from believing in God, why do we need church at all?

I think we need to hear each other. And I don’t mean I think it’s just a good idea, I mean I think it crucial to our wellbeing. I mean that living life together, deepening our connections to each other is a spiritual thing.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

Even Jesus himself modeled this for us with his life. He didn’t just come to earth and head straight to the cross. He spent time building relationships with people. He spent time listening to them and giving them his attention. He spoke to the specifics of their lives. In fact, it was because Jesus spent time with particular people—people his religious leaders told everyone to stay away from—that some people hated Jesus in the first place.

Take a look at Mark 2:15. “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Do you see the pattern here? Each time people said, “Why are you listening to them? They have nothing important to say. Their words are not valuable.” And each time, Jesus intentionally created a new space between himself and other human beings. Even though Jesus was God, over and over he took the time to stop. To ask. To listen. Over and over again he countered the societal system. He went against the will of his society—pushed back against the prejudices of the world around him. He sat with tax collectors and sinners, with Samaritans and women and children; he touched lepers and the demon possessed, and even healed the Roman Centurion’s servant.

I want to suggest that our capacity to love is increased by our capacity to listen. If we only listen to respond, if we don’t actively look for the voices that are being silenced, if we’re so focused on our own lives and day-to-day burdens that we don’t have time for anyone else, I believe we hinder our ability to love like Jesus did.

Stories matter because they shape our reality. And today and every day, I want my reality to include a deeper, more meaningful connection to the people around me. Because the most important things in this life aren’t about money. They aren’t about titles or power or a good job. They’re about relationships. They’re about recreating that spark of hope that Jesus brought to the downtrodden people around him every single day.

–Kaleb Eisele is editor of Humans of Adventism, a twice-weekly online storytelling platform that features true-life experiences of Seventh-day Adventists. Since launching in 2017, Humans of Adventism has released over 250 stories. The platform aims to present the diversity of people and perspectives living under the Seventh-day Adventist denominational umbrella, to spark conversations, help build bridges, and to tear down relational walls within the church. Email him at: [email protected]

By Daniel Birai

In his book Who Moved My Pulpit, Thom Rainer shares a story I can identify with. It is about a well-meaning pastor who is eager to reach the community. This pastor, although with years of experience under his belt, makes an unwise decision to switch pulpits without leading the congregation through the change, resulting in drama that halts their progress for two years. As a Christian, a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and as a pastor, the challenges that I see are deeply concerning and are slowing down the spreading the message of Christ’s soon return.

As a Christian, reaching our community in the 21st century is a daunting task. More research is showing that our communities are becoming less and less inclined to be involved in organized religion, with the percentage of individuals who claim to be on religious rising quickly. Leonardo Blair, in an article in The Christian Post (October 13) reported “as younger Americans shift away from organized religion, the studies also suggest that Christians are declining not just in a share of the US adult population, but also in absolute numbers.”

As a pastor, the challenges of leading a congregation can be overwhelming. As the religious landscape changes, it requires leaders to change with it. I can recall growing up and attending Sabbath activities all day. These days, some churches are happy to be done church before noon and spend the rest of the day at home or among friends. This isn’t wrong, per se. It’s just different. From my perspective as a worker in the church, this statistic is felt on the front lines each day. Speaking at the 2019 Annual Council of the General Conference, David Trim, director of Office of Adventist Archives, Statistics, and Research (ASTR), shared some data based on the research done by his office. Trim said that worldwide, the number of Adventist pastors has increased 85 percent in the past 30 years but the number of administrators has increased 300 percent. Meanwhile, the number of yearly accessions (people who become members of the Adventist Church) seems to be plateauing at around 1.4 million a year.

“If the increase of member accessions would keep up with the increase in administrators, we wouldn’t have a problem,” Trim said. It is a question, Trim advised, that every region should do very well to reflect on and discuss. “Examining the balance between administrators and pastoral/evangelistic workers might help us to see greater growth in the number of accessions,” he said.

Another hat I wear is the pastor of a phenomenal private Christian school. We serve children from preschool to 8th grade. We provide excellent Christ-centered education. As I have the privilege to sit on the Rocky Mountain Executive Committee, I am proud that our conference is committed to Christian education.

However, recent trends in our country are showing that more and more schools, from grade schools to academies and universities, are struggling to keep their doors open. We simply aren’t reaching enough students to make the finances work. The same could be said for our publishing presses and Adventist Book Centers, as evidenced by the church’s local Adventist Book Center in Denver closing down at the end of 2019. As faithful as our team has been, these realities are here, and they need to be addressed.

The challenges we face are immense. Thankfully, we serve a God who is leading and guiding. The “impossible” is what He specializes in. That means that we ought not be discouraged in the face of these challenges.

That being said, we need to rethink methods of how to serve and reach our community. And with rethinking comes the necessity of change. And that is where, as humans, we tend to struggle. In my experience, churches traditionally change slowly, if at all.

Thom Rainer writes about five groups of people that make change difficult and sometimes impossible, unless God moves on their hearts, or simply moves them all together. Deniers refuse to admit that there are any problems. They might discredit research, refute statistics, and flat out refuse to acknowledge the previous stated issues exist. The Entitled view their financial offerings as dues to get perks and privileges. They figure as long as they are giving certain amounts of money, things need to go their way. The Blamers point to other people/reasons why problems occur. The Critics, like the Blamers, point to others, but additionally drain church leaders with their criticism. They are quick to come up to leaders and tell them “people are saying that. . .” There may or may not be “people” saying these things. The Confused are often well meaning members that give highest priority to things that are not highest priorities. They may bewail a change in the order of service or gripe about the lack of a certain “ministry” running or not running, focusing on how things “used to be”.

Rainer proposes an eight-step solution. I want to highlight three of these steps. The first step is to stop and pray. I have struggled over the course of serving in ministry to have consistent corporate prayer with the churches I have served. They all believe in prayer, and are all committed to praying, but struggle to carve out time consistently to pray together. I believe as long as we neglect to make prayer, especially corporate prayer a priority, we will continue to struggle.

Secondly, he shares, confront and communicate a sense of urgency. We have to be willing to admit that the way things have always worked isn’t going to work anymore. We have to admit that we either need to adapt, or our schools and churches will die.

Thirdly, we must move from an inward focus to an outward focus. I am disturbed at the amount of time and energy we are spending on us. Whether its school, church, members, etc., at the end of the day, the question remains: if our churches and schools were to close today, would anyone notice?

We serve a God who is able to do anything. However, I don’t believe that His kingdom will move forward as long as we are stuck on our own methods, preferences, and comfort. We all, starting with myself, need to take a long, hard look at what we face, spend time corporately in prayer, and start being honest about what needs to change. We will make mistakes, we will fail in some areas, but ultimately, as long as we move forward, with our eyes on Jesus, He will give us the victory, for the work is His work. He guarantees its success.

–Daniel Birai is lead pastor in Fort Collins. Email him at: [email protected]

By Michelle Morrison

“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them’” (Matthew 13:13-15 NKJV).

I didn’t even hear! We, none of us, heard.

At our church, we have a monthly social of sorts, nothing hard or elaborate. We don’t even call it a catchy name. The church secretary picks a restaurant somewhere relatively close, the date is set as the last Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m., and whoever wants to go, goes. A reservation is made for 20, just in case, and whoever shows, shows. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Created for social connection, it’s worked! There are the regulars, the core. Then the curious, the intermittent, the one-timers. Any and all are welcome.

Last night, someone had neglected to call in the final count and the whole front of the restaurant, elevated and semi-private, was reserved for us. Only seven of us came—core, for sure, but only seven. And here’s the rub: Fairly early, before the last couple came, the attentive waitress revealed that she had seen the group reservation and specifically scheduled herself to work that evening, asking to wait on us. That was surprising information, and we were apologetic that we hadn’t called our final count in. We were so few.

Near the end of the meal, as we were finishing up the last of our entrees, we started to interact and talk with her as she had been expressing how grateful she was for such a kind group of people to serve. I asked her why she would want to work for a large group, so much so that she chose to work that night and because of our group. She then replied, “Until recently I was working two jobs, this one they schedule a day at a time so it’s easy to pick up shifts, and the other was a bank job. I’ve worked here ten years, and there three and a half, and I was fired recently at the bank. . .” Then she shared how this past Thanksgiving, her husband had gotten off his work shift at 3:00 a.m. and got hit by a bus, hurt seriously, and was now in physical therapy, still recovering.

We all murmured our empathy, somewhat surprised again for her transparent sharing, when she added that she was glad for the work, and then spoke curiously that the restaurant was almost empty at only 7:00 p.m., she only had us and the other waitress only had one other table.

And we missed it. I missed it! I didn’t hear! Really hear!

I don’t know if you’ve heard of the “One Word” spiritual movement—I’d noticed it in my own life years before, how the Holy Spirit will impress a particular word on your mind, usually near the beginning of a New Year, that focuses your attention. The word usually points to an area of growth He wants to do in and for you. For more than one year my “word” was vision, given to me months before I actually struggled with my actual vision, requiring eventually five surgeries, four of the five emergent. While the word grew to mean more than actual vision, this year, before Christmas, I lost almost all my hearing in one ear, with other accompanying symptoms that kept me down for over a month, straddling the New Year. Somewhere in all that, I noticed the word “hear” was popping up in my times with Jesus. “Hear, O Israel—the Lord is One God!” (Deut. 6:4). The seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 and each of their warnings all end with, “He who has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!” (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken to a wise man . . .” (Matt. 7:24). It was everywhere!

My kids would notice too, and send me verses or tell me stories, or about sermons, and then absently “aha!” that it had “hearing” as the point. I started paying attention. Okay, Lord? What do you want me to hear? Know? Learn? And yeah, I’d really like to get my real hearing back too, if You would!

Previous to my illness, I’d been listening to the sermons of a couple of guys my son recommended during my long commute. For over six months, I’d been filling my mind with the gospel, preached in a way I’d not heard before. The beauty of Jesus, His love for me and how to live it out, had me listening almost every day, wanting this message to be mine. I wanted it to flow out of me as it so obviously did them through the stories they told, many with strangers, chance encounters, random people as they would live their lives – stories of lives changed, prayers prayed, bodies healed. They “looked” for opportunities, saw them, acted on them, and shared how much Jesus loved them and how Jesus showed up. Over and over the Holy Spirit led them, and He got the credit. This Holy Spirit, promised and given by Jesus, would help us see with new eyes, hear with His ears. The desire grew within me to really see, and really hear.

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” Jesus spoke these words, referencing Isaiah 6:9-10.

The restaurant was nearly empty. We were in a semi- private room, only us seven, a church group of similar believers of a Truth we have. A waitress who had shared her pain, her need.

We missed it.

I missed it!

I didn’t realize it was a Jesus-story like those I’d listened to for six months. I responded like any person of the world, as if I had nothing to offer but sympathy. I was deaf! I was blind! I heard nothing. No prompt. No thought to offer to even pray for her situation, let alone share Jesus with her!

But as I write this, the promise is there—spoken by Jesus himself: “lest you should see with your eyes and hear with your ears, and understand with your heart and turn, so that I can heal you.”

Lord, forgive me. Thank you for the grace of your healing love! For opening my eyes, my ears, my heart. Give me another chance—with healed eyes and ears and heart wide open.

Give me another chance. Thank you for the healing power of your love that can reach through my deafness,
my blindness, my hard heart, and do the miracle of spiritual sight restored, spiritual deafness healed, and a hard heart replaced with a new fleshy heart, soft and pulsating with love for You.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit—give me another chance to love and give You to those in need! I want to hear!

–Michelle Morrison is a member of Brighton Seventh-day Adventist Church and is married to its pastor, Wayne. Email her at: [email protected].

By Carol Bolden

During our travels across America over the past six months, we’ve observed the tremendous diversity our country displays. With time in our pockets, able to travel back roads instead of highways, we’ve seen a decidedly beautiful country of buffalo herds, sunflower fields, meandering rivers, wild horses, flaming sunsets, wide-open spaces, majestic peaks, lush trees, sparkling lakes, breathtaking views, bald eagles, charming islands, and snow-capped peaks, testifying to its abundant beauty.

Observations about the state of our environment, though not scientifically based, do prove factual after a little research. In spite of its beauty, there are signs of an environment negatively impacted by man, its seldom-faithful guardian. While state and national parks appear well-cared-for, they face complex issues not easily remedied.

What we’ve noticed: Bugs and birds are diminishing at a tremendous rate. The bugs we remember as children that caked our windshields during travel, are scant today. So are birds. Karin Brullllard tells us in her September 2019 Washington Post article that North America has lost three billion birds in 53 years, representing hundreds of species. Birds, a well-monitored species, are like the canaries in coal mines— harbingers of danger. Today, they warn of a wider environ- mental dis-ease. Other creatures are thought to be fading, are more challenging to count.

Douglas Main tells us in his February 2019 National Geo- graphic article that insect populations really are plummeting. A new study suggests that 40 percent of insect species are in decline, among them Monarch butterflies that winter in the Chincua Mountains in Mexico, who have declined because of land-use changes, and bees who are facing collapse from a variety of causes.

Having spent several years as an amateur beekeeper, I’ve suffered the loss of entire colonies due to mites, pesticides, and/or inexperience. My loss was minuscule compared to what’s happening in the wider environment. Around 2007, beekeepers in the United States raised the alarm that thousands of their hives were mysteriously empty of bees. This new phenomenon, colony collapse disorder, led to a global concern. The U.S. alone lost more than 28 percent of colonies during the 2015-16 winter, a loss which has not abated.

Fruits and vegetables, important components of our diet, depend on bee pollination for reproduction. At least 30 per- cent of the world’s crops and 90 percent of all plants require cross-pollination to spread and thrive according to one gar- den magazine. Follow this train of thought to its end and you can see the precarious place our world is in.

Pesticides are being used indiscriminately, negatively affecting human, vegetable, and animal health. In several populated areas, we’ve seen pesticides used to keep weeds at bay. Most recently, we’ve witnessed the spraying of pesticides in flower beds and gravel areas near where we’re parked in Benson, Arizona. The pesticide used is most likely Round-up, one currently under fire for its cancer-causing ingredients.

“Excessive use of pesticides may lead to the destruction of biodiversity. Many birds, aquatic organisms and animals are under the threat of harmful pesticides for their survival. Pesticides are a concern for sustainability of environment and global stability,” say Mahmood, etc. in Effects of Pesticides on Environment from March 2016.

A 2010 study by S.A. Rogers discovered that pesticides travel up the food chain straight into our national parks. The study he reported found pesticides originating from as far away as Asia in eight Western U.S. national parks including Sequoia, Glacier and Rocky Mountain. As a global community, we have failed our heavenly dictate to care for the earth.

The delicate balance of nature is being challenged out of convenience, ignorance, greed, and neglect. God’s chosen gardeners have been weighed and found wanting. One day, this world will be re-made into its original state. As we wait for that day, let’s go the extra mile to take care of our world by educating ourselves on how we can best care for our state and national parks. For help, go to www.doyourpartparks.org.

–Carol Bolden is traveling through the United States in a motorhome with her husband Thom. Read her blog: https://outlookmag.org/off-to-see-america-traveling-by-motorhome/. She was communication assistant at RMC until her retirement in August 2019. Email her at: [email protected]

By Becky De Oliveira

As a child, I was routinely taught that scientists were most just “guessing” about their theories. “They have to have faith just as much as we do,” teachers and other adults said. These adults made scientific-sounding arguments for a young earth, evolution being the primary scientific theory they were eager to debunk. When my children were in elementary school, they came home telling me they’d been informed that dinosaur bones had been placed in the earth by Satan himself, to trick us and cause us to lose our faith.

“Interesting,” I said. “That certainly is a theory.”

My oldest son has gone on to study environmental earth science at university—basically, geology. This sits uncomfortably with certain Adventist church members who raise their eyebrows and cluck about the “dangers” involved in studying earth science.

What are those dangers?

I suppose the primary danger is that increased knowledge would lead to a corresponding and highly correlated decrease in faith. That is possible. But as many a wise person before me has pointed out, faith that is untested is not faith at all. Faith based on ignorance is what, exactly?

Skepticism toward the scientific community has led to some foolish and destructive behavior by individuals and leaders, in this country and many others. How many out- breaks of measles have resulted from an insistence—against overwhelming consensus to the contrary from the medical community—that the MMR vaccine is responsible for autism? It is interesting that so many people are convinced of the likelihood that doctors, medical researchers, and other experts are conspiring to cause harm to millions of people (for profit perhaps)—but that the sources they trust that call these experts’ claims into question are blameless and trustworthy with no ulterior agendas whatsoever. Why would that be the case?

Sometimes it is easy enough to see why people reject evidence they don’t like. Certain discoveries may “touch on people’s lifestyle or world-views, or impinge on corporate interests” (Lewandowsky & Oberaur, 2016). Other times rejection of science appears to be an identity-based decision, a sort of tribal impulse. Perhaps alignment against a much-hated political party?

One interesting factor with climate change denial is its association with low tolerance for ambiguity (Jessani & Harris, 2018). The science surrounding climate change is complicated and messy and contains a high level of complexity. People with low tolerance for ambiguity like familiar explanations and black-and-white conclusions.

I am reminded of a person who wrote to me about a year ago complaining that I raise unsettling questions in my writing and, at that time, on the podcast I co-hosted. She did not want to think about hard or uncomfortable things. And fair enough. It’s a free world. But it’s also a complicated world and it won’t get any easier from our collective refusal to see problems. If we truly have faith, perhaps it’s time to stop being so afraid of what we may see if we look.

–Becky De Oliveira is a doctoral student in research methods at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and is a member of Boulder Adventist Church. Email her at: [email protected]

References

Jessani, Z., & Harris, P. B. (2018). Personality, politics, and denial: Tolerance of ambiguity, political orientation and disbelief in climate change. Personality and Individual Differences, 131, 121-123.  Lewandowsky, S., & Oberauer, K. (2016). Motivated rejection of science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(4), 217–222.

By Rajmund Dabrowski

Just like the Seneca,
I have lost my place.
And where I’ve been planted now, Soon will be shakin’ . . .
Too soon tomorrow will come. —Brewer and Shipley

Sidewalk encounter

A family of four walked out of a store. It just happened that I caught up with them as they crossed the street toward their parked car. The father tore up a receipt, I assumed, and threw it on the sidewalk. In a split second, I could not help but to approach him and say, “Sir, I think you dropped something.”

His reaction stunned me. He bent over and picked up the smithereens while the family watched. Then smiling, he reacted, saying, “Thank you. Yes, these were mine. I am sorry.”

Even today, I reflect that his reaction was one of many he could have chosen. Our city was saved from the wind carrying the trash in odd directions. The lesson, I conclude, was most useful to his two young kids.

Living in a culture of consumerism and junk, many of us have views on why our neighborhoods are littered with trash. We may recall being scolded by parents when throwing an apple core on the ground. To be forgiven once did not mean avoiding being lectured in the future about keeping a clean environment and the consequences of disobedience.

Diploma for recycling

My unforgotten moment of environmental conscience happened in grade school. It all goes back some 60 years to the streets of downtown Warsaw when I visited local editorial and printing establishments to solicit donations of print paper to be thrown away. Today, a reminder hangs on the wall—a diploma signed by a principal and a PTA president. It states that I am commended for “very good results in collecting paper recyclables for the school year 1960-1961.” Nostalgia is taking me to the day when in front of the entire school I was singled out for such an accolade. It feels good, though.

Clearing the ruins

The second reminder of my personal environmental activism is a high school experience a few years later when our class of 35 participated in a “civic duty” day challenging us to clean the rubble of a ruined Krasinski Square in Warsaw, a reminder of WWII. I recall getting involved once a month and picking up bricks and loading barrels with dirt. Walking by the square several years later, I was proud to have had a little part in making the city beautiful again.

Caring for Mother Earth

Today, it’s not so much clearing the ruins of a post-war destroyed city. It’s about halting global warming, battling for clean air and unpolluted water. It’s about protecting the forests, wetlands, or a disappearing rare animal species. It’s also about saying no to unquenched exploitation of earth’s resources, unbridled over-consumption and production of waste. It’s about being inspired by a teenager, Greta Thun- berg, or a stalwart protector of animals, Jane Goodall, or vice president Al Gore. Their messages are as challenging as the call of scores of environmental scientists, going through our daily activities to protect the clean and tidy surroundings, caring for God’s planet, our Mother Earth.

Beautiful temples

Never to be forgotten was a conversation with Caridad del Rosario Diego Bello, director of Havana’s Office of Religious Affairs, during a trip to Cuba with the Maranatha Volunteers International team. She remarked that when you see a beautiful, freshly-painted building in one of our towns, it is a Seventh-day Adventist temple.

It should make us proud to see our churches well looked after, no matter whether you see them in Africa, Asia or America. And hopefully it should make us cringe to see the unkempt lawns and peeling paint of a church sign, or plastic bags blown against a church wall.

Seventh-day Adventists are not called to passively wait till the end of the world. Along with scores of our fellow humans, we can conclude that it is man who is destroying the world by his irresponsibility toward the earth and its inhabitants. Yet, we recognize that the end will come about by the direct intervention of a supernatural force. We are reminded, again and again: “The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroy- ing the destroyers of the earth” (Revelation 11:18, ESV).

God created beautiful people for a beautiful earth. When God created, He liked what He saw. He “placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.” So, what are we admonished to do today?

–Rajmund Dabrowski is RMC communication director and editor of Mountain Views. Email him at: [email protected].

By Eric Nelson

At creation, God placed Adam and Eve in a perfect environment, the Garden of Eden. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15). God created the ideal setting full of wonders to experience and by which to be inspired. The lush garden setting must have been an amazing and gratifying experience. On every hand were reminders of their Creator God and His character. He made all this for them to enjoy and to provide them with inspiration.

Adam and Eve must have felt awe and amazement, wonder and appreciation for this incredible environment that God created just for their pleasure and enjoyment.

We, as Adventist Christians, of all people, should be able to resonate with Adam and Eve since we live here in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. People come from all over the world to see this area, to enjoy our mountains and incredible scenery. They come to camp, hike, climb, jeep, or to simply drive through the scenic byways and wonder at the beauty. Many visit to enjoy our national parks and wildlife. There’s something special here that beckons us to enjoy this rich experience, where we have the privilege to live and work. We are so very blessed to live here amid the vistas that can draw us even closer to God through the reminders of His creation in the beauty He has placed at our doorstep. We can join David in rejoicing, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). Or we can reflect with great understanding on his words in Psalm 121:1-2: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” How can we not get up in the morning and view the beauty we live in without being drawn closer to God?

I believe God placed within each of us a hunger for the enjoyment of His second book, nature. There is something healing and restoring about it. Little wonder that there is such an attraction to nature ingrained in our souls. We are nourished and calmed as we experience the natural world around us. Ellen White wrote, “‘God is love’ is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green— all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy” (Steps to Christ, p. 10).

Into this description of the beauty of our surroundings, let me introduce a disturbing reality. What is your reaction when you see someone tossing trash out of their car window? Or what impression do you have when you hike to a unique and special location and see that overlook littered with water bottles, cans, and trash? The words of Revelation 11:18 come to mind: “The time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.” Of course, we are to care and look after the wonderful gift that God has given us in creating this world. We ought to be disturbed to see this precious possession abused and mistreated.

We must care and tend this resource and be disturbed when this wonderful creation is trashed and destroyed. But there is a trap that I sometimes find myself slipping into, and to which, perhaps, you are also susceptible. At times I am so busy and focused on work, thoughts, activities, drivers, hurrying to do something, that I don’t even see the beautiful foothills, snow caped peaks or the wonders of God’s creation around me. To ignore this incredible gift is to ignore nature’s way of reminding us of the Creator Himself. Let us not become so busy or allow our senses to become so dulled that we cannot appreciate and see God’s witness to us through His creation.

It is important for us to be blessed and impressed by God through nature. Today, take time to look for His signature and message to you from His incredible gift.

–Eric Nelson is RMC VP for administration. Email him at: [email protected]