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(N). Zechariah 9:16 And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.

Thank you for your post Bonnie: I am talking about ONE aspect of conservativism. Seventh-day Adventism has been a tapestry. We tend to be conservative in that we are Biblical Maximalists and believe in a God who is active in human history. We have room for debate on specifics. I'm sad that I never did a paper on these, but back when I was at Andrews going through the White Estate Vault, I'd frequently come across correspondence between Mrs. White and/or Willie to people who's beliefs were not extreme enough for church discipline. However, the Whites were not comfortable with what they were teaching, and felt that they were using massive Ellen White quotes to try to force their views on to the rest of the church. I'd come across flyers by these people's followers that would come down hard on Mrs. White among others. Since I was looking for information on other topics, and thinking that these ideas had become old and out of touch and that the real issue that was worrisome was Ford and Rea. However, in the years following, and starting to grow in recent years, I've been finding the views of those people that the White's were not comfortable with, is being pushed on to the rest of the church. They have been using a fair amount of righteousness by fear in trying to force the church to join their flavor of Adventism. Our church formed an outstanding theological seminary, and our professors created a fantastic Bible commentary, including a Bible dictionary that was lauded by non=Adventist scholars. Then we elected some leaders who were baffled that wasted our time and money to form a theological seminary and to make Bible Commentaries. They believed that all ministers needed to do was to take a quick course in how to give Bible Studies and Evangelistic sermons, and if we wanted to look deeper into what the Bible means to simply read Ellen White and see her as the final word on the topic. That our job was to give as many Bible Studies and Evangelistic sermons to pick up as many members as we can. While this movement is not as extreme as those who like to follow the ideas of those who's correspondence with the Whites that I found (and they have frequently attacked this group). Some of the leaders from this group would say that to finish the word and to do our job is to give the Bible Studies and Evangelistic meetings to convert as many as we can to Seventh-day Adventism, and to avoid anything that they considered "Liberal" including other members of this movement; much less the SDABC and our colleges and seminary, and have been pushing for our schools and seminary to join this view. Now, the predecessors of what developed into these two views were very upset with the 1919 Bible Conference, and those who ended up forming the above two threads of Adventism took over the 1922 General Conference where they demoted or fired those who they were upset about (with the exception of voting in Elder Spicer who they saw as too liberal, but he thought that they were harmless and not bother them pushing their views.) The 1920s had witch hunts to get rid of our teacher and pastors who they considered to be "Liberal" However, even after this witch hunt and pushing their views on to the church; our pastors and teachers kept studying the Bible and Mrs. White and began to develop ideas that had be cleared out of the church during the witch hunts leading up to and following the 1922 General Conference, and as I mentioned above grew into what became our Theological Seminary etc., that were strongly attacked in the 1960s and which grew into some of the approaches to Bible Study that was being formed over about 30 years and started to be more grounded in a few of our schools in the 1990s; and even more encouraged and pushed by Elder Wilson's (the current one, not his dad who was seen as too liberal) in his presidency. Now both of these views have things that they offer to both Adventism in general and to the world in general. But too many in both of these threads want to push their version of Adventism as the ONLY true Adventism, and to limit Adventism to their version. I thought I said this already, but incase I didn't, they look for converts from the most conservative Christian churches. I have a case of books I got free for paying just the postage from 3ABN that I pass out. In general I like the book; however, the second paragraph of the book makes a comment that would appeal to conservative Baptist Republicans, and repel others where they can read that paragraph and think "This is just more of the propaganda of the religious right and [modern, not traditional] Republicans. and not read any further. I try to see if who I give it to would read beyond that second paragraph. I wish that 3ABN left out that second paragraph and gave EVERYONE the chance to read the rest of the book, and as they learn this information, maybe someday in the future they will have to face and make a decision about the issues in the second paragraph, but give them the chance to learn what they can about Christ and the Bible before putting them to the test. When I leave the book in places such as laundry mats etc. I pray that they would mostly go into the hands of those who won't throw it away and close their minds at the second paragraph. I don't know how much God would teach them about, and how much God would just let them move on in heaven in bliss, but how many stars this second paragraph has put into what if the Devil was to give a crown of stars to those we encourage to not look into life saving truth. Within Adventism there is a still conservative, but yet moderate that can appeal to the secular mind of the Europeans that few, if any other, denomination has. But we have Adventist leaders who want to stamp this out of the church. (and we have gone cycles of having it pushed out, but as the Bible and Mrs. White continues to be studied beyond the favorite quotes of these two groups to push their views on to others, this more moderate group keeps popping up like weeds because this wider view is within our DNA.) I love the tapestry of Seventh-day Adventism. I am fully committed to our landmarks/pillars. I am in harmony with the 28 Fundamentals. While I can live with most of the things one the Adventist Theology Society have on the form to sign, there are a couple of points, and a couple more that I could accept except where their interpretation of those words I can not sign. Now, you did mention the issue of abortion. and I like how you wisely said that you would not simply vote for a politician who wished to make abortion illegal. There are topics such as abortion where, as I understand it, should be fought on the grass roots, individual level. Where is is your job and my job to reach out to them to encourage them to not have an abortion, to offer them other choices and to support them. However, it's the government's job to minimize the harm to those who either we cannot reach, or who do not accept our options. There are too many who are expecting the government to do OUR job, while we sit on our posterior. Paul predicts that a sign of the last days is that people will have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. We have too many who instead of trusting in the power of love, kindness and the Holy Spirit to help people choose against an abortion. They are instead looking to the power of the state to force people to either comply or to increase the risk of death and injury. There are also other topics where it if fine for the church to make one stand as to who can become members, or how to perform their outreach, but it is not the job of government to force the church's views on to the country as a whole. There are some Bible text that a superficial reading of the Bible appears to say something, but when looking closer at the context does not support the tradition. Today this is the crisis. We have politicians who are basically on strike with pay demanding their religious views be pushed on to the whole country. and over the past couple of decades there have been a growth of people on the liberal and conservative side who have basically been on strike unless they get their religious or their secular views pushed on to the rest of us. We need politicians who are willing to talk to each other and work together for a compromise that helps most of the country. I'd like to see the votes for Judges in congress to rather than getting the votes from the party in the majority, I'd love to see that both parties need to have a majority of their members vote for the judge, and thus both parties need to choose someone who they may not be completely happy with but who is acceptable by both parties. I fear that our political "parties" are turning into labor unions who take their pay as they go on strike demanding their ideas be places on the country, and that other voices be stiffed. I am equally bothered by comments from some of our Republican representatives, and Ron Reagan's ad for "freedom from religion." . As I understand the Acts 19 Paul, Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson/James Madison, and Mrs. White is that we should have an open marketplace of religion. We share what we find useful to us, and allow people to listen to us and learn the different options and to choose what makes sense to them. The principle is liberty of conscience. This is the foundation of the American Revolution, and Seventh-day Adventism comes from a next generation that started applying the views of Williams, Jefferson/Madison as deepened by the age of Jackson, applying their principles on to other aspects of life than just politics, including religion. (Seventh-day Adventism would look a lot different were it not for Williams, Jefferson/Madison and Jackson.) But today's generation is trying to either force the ideas of the French Revolution on to the United States, or to force the catholic (yes, small "c") Europe, that we fought to separate from, and we are forgetting something called the American Revolution. Daniel 11 and Revelation 12 and 13 picture Satan as pushing us into two different groups, represented by the king of the south and the dragon, and the king of the north and the beast. From Jerusalem, if you head north the road eventually turns east and goes to Babylon. If you head south, it turns west to Egypt. Now both the government of Babylon and Egypt picture themselves as using force to control the chaos monster. However, the chaos monster has been symbolized as a 7 headed dragon, a picture based on the Nile river with the Nile delta. Thus the king of the south is the chaos from liberalism, and the king of the north (and even the pharaoh) are church and state controlling the beast. I am noticing that many who see the danger of the dragon and king of the south, end up running to the beast, king of the north for safety and protection. The tapestry of Adventism is also unraveling into mostly two sides. Then there is going to be a great test where the false prophet which turns from being Christlike, to speaking like a dragon (liberalism) but then pushing the mark of the beast (catholic Europe). While I am not too focused on the various "slippery slope" arguments, I do find a dangerous slippery slope within Adventism. We know about the role of the church in catholic Europe, especially in the Roman Catholic church. We know that within the Christian world that Sabbath and Sunday will bring the test. But the fact that Sabbath and Sunday will bring the test to the Christian world, indicates that there may be other issues bringing the test to other cultures. The issue is liberty of conscience. But we have an auto correct on the nerve cells between our eyes and the brain and between our ears and the brain. When ever we read or hear where Mrs. White writes on the deeper issue of liberty of conscience, our auto correct automatically changes to "Sunday law, and Sunday law only" by the time her words transfer from our eyes or ears to the brain. And we see "Vatican and the Papacy, and the Vatican and the Papacy only" as the power. When ever we find liberty of conscience attacked, we are becoming quite passive unless it comes specifically from the Pope and Vatican. Our passiveness, and uniting with attacks on liberty of conscience issues that appeal to us, and it is not coming purely from the Vatican, and funneled through Sunday laws, we embrace the beast. And this is preparing us to give up our principles when the crisis comes and Satan has the two extremes join together.

Thanks for your input. These rules, I was told, was standard Adventist protocol, even though not in the manual. I relocated to and have been in this conference for over 20 years and the response to this question has been the same each time I have asked. Churches here are few and far between. And at different times, I have attended 3 of the churches regularly. Closest church to me is 43 miles, I attended that one for two years. 2nd closest is 78 miles, I went to that church for three years. The farthest one was over 100 miles where I remained for two years before the gas prices got to me. All have the same policy as I stated in my original post. None are in the same district.