Adventism in the 1960s & 1970s

[Gregory Matthews]

Gilbert Valentine, writing in the article "Coping (Or Not) in the June issue of Pacific Union Recorder, has addressed fundamental issues which we faced in the 1960 and 1970s. This article should be of interest to any student of SDA history and life.  The article may be viewed at: 

https://issuu.com/pacificunionrecorder/docs/0622recorder/s/15918746

This article is a brief excerpt from Valentines' book:  Ostriches and Canaries: Coping With Change In Adventism 1966 -1 979., Which was published by the Pacific Union Conference, Oak & Acorn.  It is available from Amazon, along with a brief reiew by Willim G. Johnsson, former editor of Adventist Review.  See:

https://www.amazon.com/Ostriches-Canaries-Coping-Adventism-1966-1979/dp/B09SNSNQW1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=AFWKX6U2X2C0&keywords=Ostriches+%26+Canaries&qid=1655834757&sprefix=ostriches+%26+canaries%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-1

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

“In this new work Gilbert Valentine turns his spotlight on the Pierson presidency of the Adventist church. The years 1966-1978 were tumultuous in American society and also for the church, as ingrained fundamentalism faced the progressive ideas that came with the recently established universities in Loma Linda and Berrien Springs. Pierson could only react to the changes all around by attempting to return to a comfortable past. Suspicion and witch hunts became the order of the day; many of Adventism’s finest minds were purged. It was not the church’s finest hour. I highly recommend this book: in important respects the struggles of the Pierson years are still with us.”
William G. Johnsson, Editor, Adventist Review (1982-2006)

 

[Kevin H]

Excellent article!!! Just ordered the book. 

Robert Person begat Neal Wilson, although Neal Wilson was grudgingly more willing to suffer under the variations within Adventism. Neal Wilson begat Ted Wilson who wanted to be more like Uncle Robert. 

Now, some versions of progressive Adventism was a mish-mash of evidence and trying to fit the evidence into the ideas of fundamentalism; especially the two extremes of the militant fundamentalists, such as we find in the so-called "Historic Adventists" and the other extreme of wanting to show that we are typical evangelicals and that light to God's church ended with the reformation (this is still a version  of Fundamentalism). Between these two views there has been much growth in Biblical studies, and understanding the message of Mrs. White, which are given in methods that these two views feel very uncomfortable in using, and which Elder Person and our current Elder Wilson are trying to stomp out. 

[Kevin H]

Book came today, been looking through different parts and it appears to be fantastic!!! One thing that surprised me was that it only had one reference to Lynn H. Wood and only referenced that when he was president of Southern, his Religion department was so conservative that people he invited to join the department were afraid to accept his invitation. Lynn Wood played a big role in progressive Adventism. He had a different view of hell fire than the traditional shortened version of the Catholic/Baptist hell. He was Paul Heubeck's and Felix Lorenz's major professor at the seminary. He gave a week of prayer at PUC when Jack Provonsha and Graham Maxwell were students. While Provonsha and Maxwell of course knew each other, they were not really close friends while in college. Yet, both of them stated that Wood's week of prayer was the most amazing week of prayer that they ever attended. They were also surprised that he treated all the students and listened to their as collages and not that he was the teacher and they merely learning. While I don't know about Elder Person personally, I know that some of those who he hired to "fix" the church described their goal as to destroy Lynn Wood's influence in the church.

After PUC Provonsha and Maxwell went their separate ways. Independent of each other they came to similar understandings of hell fire, and later learned that it was similar to Lynn Wood's views on hell. Neither remember Wood presenting his understanding of hell during that week of prayer, but were open to the idea that they may not have noticed it. Thus I expected to see more information on Lynn Wood in the book, especially in a larger context than the fact that his theology/religion department was so conservative that professors he invited to join the team were too afraid to join. Finding only this reference to Lynn Wood is comparable to if you were to read a book on magic and magicians and the only reference to Harry Houdini is that he once played the wild-man from Borneo in a circus.  

Also, I was surprised that there was nothing about the AUC theology/religion department in the 1970s and early 1980s. 

Except for these two points, I am in awe of this book.