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Anne C's avatar

Thanks for your openness about this, and acknowledgement of the inherent bias those of us raised in the SDA church may have. With that said, I do agree with your overall point. Zealots/extremists of ANY persuasion scare the hell out of me, and more so when they do what they do in the name of God (What higher calling, or "justification", could they have for what they do?). It seems obvious to me that any system that uses fear, coercion, exclusion, or bullying, is not of God, but sadly people are blinded by their fears, pain, and experiences in this world. A conclusion I came to, in my lifetime exposure to SDA's, is that when the last day finally comes, I would rather be judged to have erred on the side of "leniency", than to have actively used the aforementioned tools provided by Satan to harm others and coerce them into maintaining our "values", or "being saved", while actually misrepresenting God and his character.

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James Stanford's avatar

I read an interesting book a few years ago called "1919. The Untold story of Adventism's struggle with fundamentalism", by Michael W. Campbell. Very interesting read in light of your comment about an increase in Adventists promoting religious right / fundamentalist ideas.

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