My brother emailed me a video the other day of Ben Carson speaking on evolution at the Seventh Day Adventist General Conference in 2012. My brother commented that "he made some good points." I don't know much about Ben Carson, I did watch the movie about him called, Gifted Hands. He's an impressive doctor, and his personal story is inspiring. I was surprised to learn he belonged to the SDA church. Very surprised!
I had never given the SDA church a second thought until two years ago. I was at a dinner party and sat next to a lady who, as I learned through our conversation, happened to be SDA. She was a lovely lady and easy to talk to, so I asked her questions about her church. She told me of Ellen White, the prophet who helped found the church. Ellen was among the Millerites who expected Christ to return October 22, 1844. This event became known as the Great Disappointment. Many of these believers (Adventists, they were also called) were taunted for this failed prediction. In the aftermath of the nonevent, many Adventist's joined with the Shakers, some went back to their prior denominations, but Ellen White fell in with a small minority who claimed that something had happened on that day, but it had been misinterpreted. Ellen went on to have visions and eventually founded the SDA church, becoming one of the country's most prolific female writers.
Wow, I had never heard any of that before. This same dinner companion told me about a Bible study group that they held once a week, and that I should come to a function at her church that weekend. I kindly told her I would check my schedule and see if I was available. My husband was out of town, and I do like to go to different churches, he doesn't, so I thought I might possibly go just to be friendly. So here's the interesting part...when I got home that night and was laying in bed, I thought, oh, I should google the SDA church and learn more about it. Up comes all these "anti-SDA" websites, I know from my own experience that these are not really anti, they are just people who belonged to this church who have seen through the false prophecies etc. As I began to read I thought to myself, I wouldn't touch this church with a 10 ft. pole! That's when I realized what's happening to the LDS church. Someone meets a member, or a missionary and they go home and google Mormon church and they begin to read people's exit stories and all the many historical problems, truth claims, etc., and they think to themselves, I'm not touching that with a 10 ft. pole. Literally, I'm not going there, end of story, close the door. I had to experience this looking at the SDA church to realize what is happening to the Mormon church. Of course the corporate church knows that, and that's why Mormon ads are first on all the webpages, which they pay dearly for with your tithing dollars.
So here's the thing...I think I understand why people wouldn't vote for Romney because he was Mormon. I kind of feel the same way about Ben Carson because he's SDA. That may be wrong to think like that, it probably is, but that was my knee jerk reaction when I learned that he is SDA.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy name is John Draper. You don't know me from Adam. What led me to you is I'm a first-time novelist who is furiously marketing his first book, A Danger to God Himself. As such, I'm continually scouring the internet looking for blogs who might be willing to review my book.
My book is about a Mormon missionary who goes insane on his mission. I'd like to send you a free copy, paperback or Kindle.
Let me tell you the story behind my story:
Writing this novel cost me my religion. I’m not bitter or anything. Actually, it was liberating.
I started the book eight years ago as an Evangelical who wanted to skewer Mormonism. The book took me eight years to write. I probably read 25 books on Mormonism (and read everything on Mormonthink at least twice) and 25 books on schizophrenia. What’s more, I started attending a local ward undercover.
Long story short, I saw that devout Latter-day Saints had the same religion I had, really. Basically, we both loved God and Christ and we wanted to serve God and live more like Christ. I had to admit, the only difference between us was the words we used to describe our experience.
Further, I came to realize that the only reason I believed what I believed was that someone had told me to believe it.
I was just like so many Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals—if not all.
Bottom line, I became an agnostic.
The novel is narrated in the first person by Kenny, the missionary companion who watches his companion, Jared, succumb to schizophrenia. At first, Kenny and others assume that the voices Jared is hearing and the visions he’s seeing are from Heavenly Father.
But as Jared gets sicker and sicker, Kenny has to rethink his whole view of God and how God does or doesn’t interact with the world. Kenny’s journey became my journey: theist to, at best, deist.
So . . . I’d like to send you a free copy of my novel. I’m hoping you’ll write a book review—good, bad, or indifferent. Or maybe you’d like to interview me. Or maybe I could do a guest post.
If nothing else, you get a free book out of this.
Obviously, I want to sell more books, but I really think this book would be of interest to your subscribers. I think they will be able to see themselves in Kenny.
I know the book's not for everyone. My mother, for example, loved it but complained it contained too much vulgarity. I'm not sure how much vulgarity is too much, but the book does contain 91 F Bombs. (I counted.)
Let me know if you would like to talk more.
Thanks for your time
-john
Hoju1959@gmail.com
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy name is John Draper. You don't know me from Adam. What led me to you is I'm a first-time novelist who is furiously marketing his first book, A Danger to God Himself. As such, I'm continually scouring the internet looking for blogs who might be willing to review my book.
My book is about a Mormon missionary who goes insane on his mission. I'd like to send you a free copy, paperback or Kindle.
Let me tell you the story behind my story:
Writing this novel cost me my religion. I’m not bitter or anything. Actually, it was liberating.
I started the book eight years ago as an Evangelical who wanted to skewer Mormonism. The book took me eight years to write. I probably read 25 books on Mormonism (and read everything on Mormonthink at least twice) and 25 books on schizophrenia. What’s more, I started attending a local ward undercover.
Long story short, I saw that devout Latter-day Saints had the same religion I had, really. Basically, we both loved God and Christ and we wanted to serve God and live more like Christ. I had to admit, the only difference between us was the words we used to describe our experience.
Further, I came to realize that the only reason I believed what I believed was that someone had told me to believe it.
I was just like so many Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals—if not all.
Bottom line, I became an agnostic.
The novel is narrated in the first person by Kenny, the missionary companion who watches his companion, Jared, succumb to schizophrenia. At first, Kenny and others assume that the voices Jared is hearing and the visions he’s seeing are from Heavenly Father.
But as Jared gets sicker and sicker, Kenny has to rethink his whole view of God and how God does or doesn’t interact with the world. Kenny’s journey became my journey: theist to, at best, deist.
So . . . I’d like to send you a free copy of my novel. I’m hoping you’ll write a book review—good, bad, or indifferent. Or maybe you’d like to interview me. Or maybe I could do a guest post.
If nothing else, you get a free book out of this.
Obviously, I want to sell more books, but I really think this book would be of interest to your subscribers. I think they will be able to see themselves in Kenny.
I know the book's not for everyone. My mother, for example, loved it but complained it contained too much vulgarity. I'm not sure how much vulgarity is too much, but the book does contain 91 F Bombs. (I counted.)
Let me know if you would like to talk more.
Thanks for your time
-john
Hoju1959@gmail.com
I wouldn't vote for Ben Carson even if he were still in the race. I used to believe that if a person were smart enough to be a neurosurgeon, he would probably be smart enough to run the country as well. After almost two years of medical school, I've seen just enough marginally functioning doctors to have realized that intelligence can be highly compartmentalized and that a person may have mastered subject matter in a specific domain yet be grossly lacking in knowledge in other areas.
ReplyDeleteThe SDA Church is one of the few fundie-type churches to have their own medical school. (Also noteworthy in that regard is Oral Roberts University School of Medicine -- not affiliated so much with a specific denomination, but rather, with the fundamental or charismatic movement.) The Roman Catholic Church universities also have several medical schools, but other than their firm [and somewhat backward] stance against abortion and birth control, they're almost mainstream by comparison. Catholic medicals schools are, by and large, fairly secular.
We see many SDA medical doctors in the U.S. because of Loma Linda University, though I don't know if Carson went there. For the most part, there aren't tons of evangelical or fundamental non-SDA Christians holding medical doctorates in the U.S. Obviously there are some, but the vast majority of doctors, if they practice religion at all, are certainly not fundamental or evangelical Christians other that the Seventh-Day Adventist contingent.
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church practices beliefs that, in my view, seem quite strange. To me at least, it seems almost as if something about that particular church lends itself to its adherents as individuals having equally strange beliefs in other aspects of their lives. It's almost as though if a person is willing to swallow that nonsense that Ellen white came up with, he or she will believe a lot of nonsense in other aspects of their lives as well. I find Mormons to be much the same way. I would probably find JWs to be odd in that regard as well, but I haven't gotten to know nearly as many of them as I've known Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists. My father grew up Mormon, so I've known many Mormons in and out of the family, and he is a doctor, so I grew up knowing many of his colleagues, some of whom were SDA. Not many JWs are medical doctors, though.
Yeah, intelligence really doesn't have anything to do with beliefs. Most Mormon's are well educated, intelligent people. It has to do with what you have been taught and how you reject anything that doesn't go along with what you believe, and this certainly isn't limited to Mormonism, or religion. Group thinking exists in politics, religion, corporations, small organizations, the military, etc. If your in the "mindset, that way of thinking" you just become blind and the group think makes so much sense, even though anyone on the outside can see so plainly that your thinking is off. My guess is that most people get into something like this in their life, maybe not as all consuming as Mormonism. And probably the only ones who can see things more clearly, are those who come our of something like this. If anyone is in a group, that thinks they have exclusive truth, are saved, is better than or more patriotic than other people, thinks other just don't have a clue, or thinks others have been duped by Satan, etc., these people are most likely in some kind of group think organization and are incapable of thinking another away until they break free. That where I would place Ben Carson. Great guy, but completely taken in by a cult basically.
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