How Can the 'Remnant' Church
be Pro-choice?
by Nic Samojluk
A few months ago, I received the visit of Dr.Ervin Taylor, the Executive Editor of Adventist Today, a magazine that enjoys a wide readership among Seventh-day Adventists, especially in the United States. He invited me to write an article in defense of my pro-life position on abortion.
Of course, I was more than happy to comply, and said article was included in the January/February issue of said periodical. It also includes a critical response by Dr. James Walters in defense of the SDA official pro-choice position on said highly controversial issue.
My question is: Is it right for Seventh-day Adventists to generously label ourselves as the "Remnant Church" that keeps God's Commandments, one of which forbids murder, and proclaiming the "last message of mercy to a perishing world," while at the same time oficially justifying the practice of abortion?
We are concerned as a church about the deaths of innocent human beings in Iraq and the deaths of American soldiers in said country currently cursed by internal violent strife. We see and lament the indiscriminate shedding of innocent blood in that faraway land, but we are rather oblivious about the daily genocide of the unborn that is taking place in our own land of the free and the brave.
If you share my concerns and have access to the "Adventist Today" magazine, I invite you to read said article. In the event you don't, I suggest you access the copy I posted on my "SDA Forum" website.
Article Title: The Puzzling SDA Apathy Towards the Plight of the Unborn
Internet link: http://sdaforum.com/page90.html
Violence Against Children?
Born or Unborn?
by Nic Samojluk
After reading the "Adventists Call for Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children" story published by the Adventist Review, I could not resist the temptation of writing to the editor of this publication the letter listed below:
"Hi,
I was impressed with your story entitled "Adventists Call for Elimination of Violence Against Women and children," and I wondered: How about including the unborn among the protected group? Isn't it time for the Adventist Church to alter its policy regarding abortion? My doctoral dissertation deals with this subject, and I have a hard time understanding how we managed to make an 180 degree turn on this issue. James White and many other SDA early pioneers did express the strongest condemnation for such a practice, while our church today condones the death of the unborn under diverse circumstances, and some of our hospitals even provide elective-non-therapeutic abortion services."
As I copy this letter to the new SDA Forum website, I realize that I wrote said letter in 2006. Did I ever get a response from the editor of Adventist News? Not a chance! Which proves what I have been saying all along: We adventists have one focal point of view, and it is centered on the sacredness of the Sabbath day of rest. We think that if we could induce the world to worship the Lord on the correct day of the week, we would insure their salvation, regardless of how many innocent unborn children are sacrificed on the altar of convenience while we continue to emphasize the sacredness of the Holy Day of Rest, and ignoring the sacredness of human life.
Aren't we repeating the mistake of the Farisees and Sadducees of Jesus time? They thought that the best way of protecting the sacredness of the Holy Day of Rest was to sacrifice the life of the Author of Life! Jesus warned us that the way we treat the "least of these" would determine our destiny, and I believe that the unborn do qualify to be considered as "the least." Did Jesus ever state that our final destiny will be determined on whether we worship God on the correct day of the week. Now, don't get me wrong! I am not planning to drop the Sabbath from my doctrinal beliefs. I am simply trying to make a valid point. Am I all wet?
*********
To access the Adventist News story, click on the Internet link listed below:
Adventists Call for Elimination of Violence Against Women and children
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1083
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