My denomination gets it so right sometimes and then
sometimes gets it so wrong.
Before we debated the ordination of women or were
troubled by people using the term “spiritual formation,” we wrestled with harder
issues. One of those was how a
Seventh-day Adventist should relate to military service.
Our earliest position was voiced by one of our
denominational founders, James White. He
wrote, “The fourth precept of that law says ‘Remember the Sabbath to keep it
holy’; the sixth says ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ But in the case of drafting, the
government assumes the responsibility of the violation of the law of God, and
it would be madness to resist. He who would resist until, in the
administration of military law, he was shot down, goes too far, we think, in taking the responsibility
of suicide.” (Review and Herald, August 2, 1862, vol. 20, page 84).
Our church leadership was advising those drafted
to not worry about what might be required on Sabbath or even taking another
person’s life. No worry because the guilt of this “law breaking” would not fall
to the soldier, but to the state.
In 1864 some Adventist leaders appealed
successfully to the governor of Michigan and received recognition as being
conscientiously opposed to bearing arms.
Decades later in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive
order allowing for religious conscientious objectors to serve in the US
Military.
I grew up idolizing heroes like medic Desmond Doss
who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his part in saving over 70 lives
while under enemy fire in 1945. I remember admiring the bravery of soldiers who
faced severe hardship because they refused certain assignments on Sabbath.
In 1954, our official denominational position was
noncombatant, and that is how were registered with the United States
Government. When the war in Vietnam came along, a number of young Seventh-day
Adventists who had been drafted wished to opt out. They were not conscientious objectors, but
instead identified themselves as pacifists who wished to have nothing to do
with any war. Unfortunately, they could not be recognized by the government as
pacifist because, as Seventh-day
Adventists, they were part of a denomination which was officially registered as
noncombatant. In 1969, the wording of
our official position was voted in Annual Council to be, “the church advocates
noncombatancy, but allows members to elect to be pacifists as well.”
Then in 1972, the Annual Council did something
amazing. They decided the question was a personal matter of conscience for each
member and that the church would support members regardless of the type of
service their individual consciences allowed.
So today, even with a volunteer army, we “allow” and “support” the noncombatant,
the pacifist, and the full combatant!
Why? Because our denomination believes the choice is a matter of
individual conscience!
It is terribly interesting that these three very
divergent positions can be held by members who are all equally considered to be
members in good and regular standing.
Unfortunately, denominational leadership has a much less accepting
stance for those who might wish to “redirect” their tithe, ordain women, or not
follow denominational dietary directives.
Do you catch the irony? On an issue as huge as war, resistance,
pacifism, and combatant service, the denomination has the foresight and wisdom
to recognize and affirm the value of the individual member’s conscience (and
these are matters spoken to directly in the Decalogue). However, that trusted
individual conscience somehow becomes less trustworthy on those non-life-and-death
issues. In ecclesiological organizational matters, it seems only the “official”
word can be a safe guide!
I applaud the courage of Local Conference and
Union and Division leadership who determined that to continue the blatant
discrimination mandated by the organization would be a violation of their conscious.
In order for them to be “as true to duty as the needle is to the pole,” it
became essential to take the necessary action to ordain women as a matter of
standing for truth and against injustice and discrimination.
Our unity as Christians and our unity as
Seventh-day Adventists are found in exactly the same place—Jesus Christ. In Jesus we are one, with no division. We may
divide over politics, economics, theological interpretations, and whose soccer
team is best, but we are still able to share in complete and total unity that
there is no other source for anyone’s salvation than Jesus.
So I say, have different opinions. Allow, if not
encourage, appropriate and different applications of policy and practice that
matches various cultures, while continuing to share our unity in Christ.
Some of you
would be fine carrying and using an AK47 in battle. Some of you would never even consider such,
but you would have no problem patching up the gunner so he or she might resume
their killing. And some of you can’t believe that any war is just, and you
choose to be a pacifist. And regardless
of where you fall in just those three categories, if you are a Seventh-day
Adventist, your church has determined it is your choice and our unity isn’t in
a shared position, our unity is in Jesus our Savior.
Let’s be patient with one another, forgiving, long
suffering. My denomination gets it so
right sometimes and then sometimes gets it so wrong, and still our unity is in
Jesus our Savior.
Andy McDonald
