This letter was sent to us this morning. It is apparently written by a Professor of medicine at Loma Linda University, along with his wife. It is well written.
Open Letter to Elder Jim Micheff and Michigan Conference Officials
Dear Elder Micheff and Michigan Conference Leaders: We are members of the Loma Linda University Church, and my husband, Keith, is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Loma Linda University. He is also a former Vice-President of the American Federation for Medical Research.
With all due respect, we are deeply concerned about the Michigan Conference’s move to ban (i.e., censor) Dr. Conrad Vine from speaking in your churches. We are both lifelong, tithe-paying members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and consider ourselves on the more conservative end.
We were shocked at the official actions of the General Conference during COVID, and Keith, who is both a Clinical Rheumatologist-Immunologist and a research scientist, realized there was much amiss in the “expert” scientific community regarding the vaccines and lockdowns. Once we realized that, we were further shocked at the (largely successful) efforts to silence dissenting voices of equally credentialed physicians and scientists, even within our own denomination.
Dr. Conrad Vine stood out in our church as an almost singular voice opposing these lockdowns, especially of churches, and of the heavy-handed government vaccine mandates. We can’t tell you what comfort and encouragement it provided us that at least one individual in our church had the courage to speak out against this and to take the General Conference to task for its support of this near-incomprehensible loss of liberty. And then, as now, to call it to public accountability.
Dr. Vine is not dividing the church. In case most administrators haven’t noticed, the church was already dividing and has been for some time. He has merely lanced a very large boil. As all good doctors know, boils cannot heal until they are lanced. But, to mix metaphors, talk about shooting the messenger!
Incidentally, we have not heard Dr. Vine say to “divert” tithe away from the Church. And he is not saying to do anything differently regarding one’s tithe or attendance at this time. He has merely provided one possible pathway for the future that doesn’t turn its back on the church but registers its strong dissent and the need to stand true and faithful in the face of intolerable error or apostasy, if and when that should occur (arguably again).
For you to now cancel Dr. Vine strikes many of us as collusion with the forces in this society that aim to abolish our religious and free-speech liberties and allow only voices that concur with the “anointed.” It seems beyond ironic that this is taking place within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has traditionally been most concerned with liberty, and with religious liberty in particular.
A further irony is that the Religious Liberty Weekend at the Village Church was, to our understanding, organized by Dr. Vine, whom you then proceeded to silence! It’s almost more than these two devout Seventh-day Adventists can bear.
We simply cannot understand the lack of humility and reflection that seems apparent here in the actions and statements of your Conference. Beyond appearing to address a straw man, such a precipitous move against an individual who is, by all evidence, a profoundly Christian and deeply committed Seventh-day Adventist servant of God, appears to us to violate the simplest precepts of Christian charity, if not also of wise leadership.
We are praying you will reconsider this move. Thanks for listening.
Together in His Service,
Keith & Janine Colburn
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