Mel Gibson’s latest film, “Hacksaw Ridge,” tells the story of Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist Army medic who was the first noncombatant to receive the Medal of Honor, for actions on Okinawa during World War 2. The story as presented is very familiar to Seventh-day Adventists–how a boy from Lynchburg, Virginia, volunteered for the Army…

I got to see the final cut of “Hacksaw Ridge” last night with a large Adventist crowd. Lots of laughter and cheering and clapping throughout. Lots of Adventist “Easter Eggs” in the movie–subtle references that SDAs will pick up on (like the first time he ties the double bowline, and when he puts it into…

Remember how Trump attacked the pope for his views on immigrants? Republicans have long thought Catholics should only be heard on issues that agree with them: abortion, marriage, school tax subsidies. Republicans like Deal Hudson and Richard John Neuhaus had a record of trying to undermine the bishops on issues like immigration, labor, nuclear weapons,…

Back in the 1890s Ellen White called for Seventh-day Adventists to embrace the public university and see it as a mission field, sending students to it to evangelize through a ministry of presence and positive witness. Today, two-thirds of Adventist college students are at non-Adventist colleges and universities; though campus ministry efforts are growing, Adventist…

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is wondering what to do about women’s ordination. Specifically, the General Conference is trying what to decide to do about those Unions and Conferences which are ordaining women, despite a 2015 decision to not allow a “local option.” The Adventist Church permits women to be ordained as “local elders.”  It grants…