Adventist Voices by Spectrum: The Journal of the Adventist Forum

Professor Emeritus of Biology at Andrews University, James L. Hayward, Ph.D, talks about his early life that mixed Sam Campbell, Ellen White, and tensions around creationism and science. In part one of our discussion of his book, Dinosaurs, Volcanoes, and Holy Writ: A Boy-Turned Scientist Journeys from Fundamentalism to Faith, we explore the personal and professional tensions that developed as he pursued his academic interests in biology while maintaining a connection to his faith tradition.

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I talk with bioethicist Mark Carr about the social responsibility of vaccines, his spiritual connection to Alaska, and what it’s like working for a Catholic healthcare system as an Adventist.

Mark earned his PhD in Religious Ethics at the University of Virginia where studied ethics in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Philosophy, and Healthcare. His dissertation was on temperance and how it helps us manage our emotions when making difficult moral decisions. At Loma Linda University he gained the rank of Professor with tenure and directed the Masters Degree program in biomedical ethics as well as the Center for Christian Bioethics. In 2016 he returned to his native Alaska as the Regional Director of Ethics for Providence Health, a Catholic healthcare corporation. In his work for Providence he is responsible for clinical ethics for six hospitals where he focuses on ethics education, policy, and patient care consults.

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This week I talk again with legendary Adventist editor, pastor, college administrator, author, and longtime Spectrum leader Charles Scriven. We explore the final essay from his series “Time to Start Over” on hermeneutics and community. In addition, we weave in conversations about his time as president of Kettering College and his longtime leadership of the Adventist Forum and Spectrum. He shares his vision for koinonia,  a Christocentric interpretive framework, and why fundamentalism corrupts Christianity.

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From Silver Spring, Bonnie Dwyer, editor of Spectrum, and I recap the four days of Annual Council 2021, the General Conf. executive committee meetings.

We discuss various reports, the introduction of #Teds10 “theological issues facing the church,” and how we spent our Sabbath away from the GC and why it matters.

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In preparation for next week’s Annual Council meetings which set up major Adventist church actions, Bonnie Dwyer, Spectrum’s editor, and I discuss the agenda.

We note questions of power and compliance as well as some pending items about board make-up and proscribed duties in overseeing higher educational institutions and Union Missions.

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I interview Stephen Chbosky, director of the movie version of Dear Evan Hansen about his motivations for turning the successful Broadway hit into a musical film. He famously wrote the best-selling coming-of-age novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999). We also discuss the fraught relationship between adolescence and faith and what we both love about the musical genre.

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I talk with Sduduzo Blose about his graduate work at the University of Kwazulu-Natal on the book of Romans, colonialism in Africa, and institutional power in Adventism.

We also discuss how opposing racism and sexism in Adventism informed his theological interests as well as how he connects his love for road cycling and ministry.

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This week I talk again with legendary Adventist editor, pastor, college administrator, author, and longtime Spectrum board chair Charles Scriven. We explore two more essays from his series “Time to Start Over” on “Reconceiving the Sabbath” and how our beliefs should lift us up. In addition, we weave in conversations about time in the Washington, D.C., area as senior pastor of the Sligo Church and as president of then Columbia Union College. He shares what he loved about being a pastor and his role in a major church/state legal battle and the ordination of three women.

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I interview Jon-Philippe Ruhumuliza about his social media-based “Radical Adventist Project.” We discuss his education in Berrien Springs, Mich., his later punk rock days, and his recent graduate work in New Testament studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.

We talk about his practice of meditation and breath work, and his critical engagement of Paul through his research involving GIS mapping and social theory.

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I interview Tom Stone about his new book, In the Shadow of the Pyramids: A Reflective Commentary on the Narrative of Deuteronomy, published by Westbow Press, a subsidiary of Thomas Nelson. Tom earned a BA in Theology from Newbold College and a PGCE in Religious Education from the University of Oxford. He is an ordained elder at the Newbold Church.

We discuss how Tom, a young religious education teacher, decided to pursue this writing project, how this grew out of his own devotional practice, why he argues that Deuteronomy is a story of liberation with themes of social justice, and how God wants us to change our society so that we prioritize the marginalized and oppressed.

In the Shadow of the Pyramids on Westbow Press - Amazon

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