Delegates at the General Conference reject an effort to increase the number of women in the clergy.
So for some reason this is really bothering me today. I learned this weekend that the church denomination of my undergrad, Walla Walla, was voting this week on whether to allow some parts of the church to ordain women. They are also supposed to vote, or already have, on amendments to church doctrine clarifying thatĀ āmarriageā is between one man and one woman, and that the 7 day creation story is certainly literal, no other interpretations are acceptable.Ā
I havenāt been part of the adventist circle for a while, I finally came to terms with being chronically agnostic my senior year of college and have been so much happier, not forcing myself to believe in something that didnāt feel real. I doĀ still have close connections with lots of people in the church though; lots of college friends or families of friends are adventist, and many of my hometown hermiston friends are as well.Ā While it didnāt work for me, I have still always liked seventh-day adventism as a concept in a lot of ways. For one adventists believe that when the world ends and Christ returns, anyone who isnāt safe for heaven will either die on earth or just remain in their graves if they were already dead. Basically, they donāt believe that there is a literal hell where people burn forever. You might not get into paradise, but you at least can just not exist at all. This is instead of being mutilated for ALL OF ETERNITY by... I guess Satan who torments everyone in hell while god listens to singing in heaven? I like that adventist look at the same story as all the other christians and are like, "you know, there really isnāt enough clear evidence in the bible to burden people with this idea of eternal punishment. Letās not make that hell idea a fundamental part of our religion.ā It seems like a more humane interpretation of the gospel story, and I like that.Ā
I also like that adventists have this big focus on health through diet and activity. They believe you should really take a day off once a week (the sabbath), and recommended sabbath activities are things like hiking or bike riding or doing anything outdoors. Lots of adventists are skiers or climbers. Adventists are super hippie about food too - they avoid eating meat, and think you should focus on eating fruits and vegetables instead of processed foods. And they arenāt just like reading out of the bible to come up with this stuff, they have bonafide medical schools, two giant hospital systems, a groundbreaking prostate cancer research center, I mean this denomination has contributed a lot to society in terms of health. I worked for them as an auditor so I saw how much they write off annually for charity care. Theyāve also provided abortions throughout their system, which to me shows their respect for peoplesā rights to make their own decisions about themselves and their bodies.Ā But today, the general conference voted that adventist women cannot be ordained as ministers. They spent an entire day debating, with literally thousands of people gathered, and hundreds of (mostly male) delegates giving their opinions in 3 minute increments, all about whether God wants them to let a few women be ordained ministers. I mean face it church, is ANYONE busting down your doors to become minsters? I would think you would take what you could get. But no, now the adventist church is going to emphasize, for the first time, that men and women, boys and girls, are in their view created unequal. Itās not even like there is an option to wait and see what God says on like a case by case basis -- I mean, what do they use to decide whether or not to ordain men? It canāt be totally indiscriminate, Iām sure you canāt become an ordained minister in the adventist church if youāre openly cheating on your spouse or a known criminal or something, so there must be some kind of review and approval. BUT NOT FOR WOMEN. Itās just a known fact, I guess, God just doesnāt callĀ women to be ordained. And to me, thatās not a part of religion I can respect. If you use cryptic religious text to defend your sexist views of women, then your religion isnāt contributing to society. Because unlike diet and exercise and rest, society has already grasped the value of women. Women are learning and doing in every area of society, more and more, overcoming obstacles, stepping across the lines that have slowly been fading over the past 100 years. But the adventists have taken a chisel, and redrawn the gender line. No women will cross.Ā
So even though Iām not even adventist in the first place, Iām really hurting today. Iāve spent so much time in and around this institution, and in many ways Iāve benefited from it. Before today the worst experience Iād had was the college administration being pissy about our student government opening a coffee shop. But that was just a nuisance, now I feel like the church is standing morally opposed to me. I feel like the conference today said āf*** you ladies, f*** you gays, and f*** you science! God doesnāt have a place for any of you, and even though you wonāt rot in hell, (because hell really isnāt biblical), you certainly canāt be a part of this club we have going on here on earth.ā I guess thatās what really bothers me, itās the exclusion. It used to be likeĀ āyeah- weāre better than you, we donāt eat animals, we exercise, we keep the sabbath, we do mission and charity health care...ā And my first response is like oh yeah, religion, whatever, but if you stop and think about it, if a religion tells people to do those things, you canāt really argue... you canāt say āthatās a shit religionā when the core values are like, pretty damn reasonable. But now itās like the church is focusing on how it is different from everyone in the world rather than what it has in common, and itās using things like sexism and ignorance to distinguish itself. And I feel ashamed to have ever been associated.Ā I guess I wrote an article about the article Iām posting. Better go to sleep.Ā