Progressive Adventism has a long-standing habit of using propaganda in an attempt to get their way on significant church decisions.
For instance, in 1995 the Review Magazine announced that the church designated 1995 as “Year of the Adventist Woman.” In an attempt to soften the world church towards women’s ordination, The Review Magazine was laden with pro-WO articles throughout the first half of that year (1995). It was so blatant that a pro-WO pastor told me “This is pure propaganda.” He was correct.
In 2015, many of our University and Hospital churches had sermons on women of the Bible in order to push the extra-biblical narrative that women should be ordained to the pastoral ministry. One of those churches was Loma Linda on February 7, 2015. Another one was the PUC College Church on May 9, 2015.
The Sermon
On 5-9-2015, Julie Lee spoke at the PUC College Church. The Pastor (Mark Witas) asked her to preach about Mary of Magdala, during PUC’s month-long series on women in the Bible prior to GC Session 2015.
Starts at 1:03:20. She reads about Mary anointing the feet of Jesus.
She says that she happened to listen to Jesuit priest, Father James Martin (an author) on the radio that week. He explained how to do Ignatian contemplation. She decided to try it. According to this Jesuit author, it involves praying your imagination into a scene of Scripture. Doing so can cause a different aspect of the story to be revealed to you. She decided to give it a try on the Mary Magdalene story. She got up early one morning and prayed and read John 11 and imagined herself in this scene. She sums it up by saying “This is what I saw. When I opened my eyes from that contemplation, I realized—I saw Mary.”
1:10:48 (in the above video)— “Some people say that Mary is shy and quiet. She sat at Jesus’ feet and was contemplative. She is that person who isn’t afraid to try new things. Mary is that one who when everybody is sitting down in worship, she stands and holds her hands up to the sky because she is so lost in the praise of worship. Mary teaches us what it means to love.”
1:12 — Tells the story of Mary washing Jesus’ feet at the feast. Mary had to be vulnerable to receive forgiveness. Encountering the risen Lord at the tomb, she became an Apostle to the Apostles. Calling Mary an apostle to the apostles is the result of imposing a feminist bias on Scripture. This is common among pro WO individuals who seek to create a feminist narrative, where none exists.
“So what does vulnerability mean for us as a Church? As a congregation do you feel that we’ve allowed ourselves to be vulnerable at times? Do we allow for feelings and emotional exposure? In our faith and spiritual journey do we embrace uncertainty and give ourselves permission to exist in a space of mystery with no certain answers? Uncertainty and mystery are recurring buzzwords in integral spirituality.
“Or have we as the Church numbed vulnerability? The other thing that we do is we make everything uncertain, certain. Religion has gone from a belief in faith and mystery to certainty. I’m right you’re wrong. There’s no discourse anymore.
I used to work at PUC in public relations for 7-years. Among some of the things that I learned, was how badly Adventists want to be right all the time. We need to listen to each other with compassion. Trying to understand somebody with a different opinion would mean that we have to be vulnerable, right?”
She then quotes from Pema Chödrön.
“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded, It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well, can we be presented with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity”
Pema Chodron is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, acharya and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chögyam Trungpa was a Buddhist meditation master. Notice how effortlessly progressive Adventism quotes individuals like this, blending their words with a Bible story.
Julie Lee continues:
“Somewhere we are taught to tame our emotions, to tame the Bible. And when it comes to our faith journey, we should strip ourselves of all vulnerability. Don’t ever be afraid, Jesus is with you. Don’t ever be sad. Have faith in God. Don’t ever be weak. The Lord is our strength. All of those things true, but sometimes the message is be PERFECT. And I’m not.
So here’s me. Sometimes I doubt whether or not I still wanna be Adventist. Sometimes I love being Adventist. I love bacon—there I said it. I watch an embarrassing amount of TV—I am determined to finish the Family Tie series. I watch it so much that my youngest son knows the theme song.
Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation and creativity and change. Vulnerability ignites discussion. Think of our church community— those courageous people who dared to speak up first.
The first interracial couple.
The first female pastor!
The first openly gay church member.
The first failing marriage.
The first alcoholic.”
“Jesus appeared to Mary first, and not only that he gave her the responsibility to tell the others the good news of His resurrection. He chose her to be the apostle to the Apostles, and why not. Who better to share the miraculous news of the resurrection than Mary? Mary, whose tattered past could allow her to have compassion for those who needed to hear the gospel most. Had another disciple been given the task, they might have walked out, announced it and maybe sent out a press release. But Mary is God’s chosen apostle to the Apostles.“
Summary
Coupling our imagination to the Bible through meditation—as taught by a Jesuit priest— teaches us to be vulnerable and emotive.
Celebrating sin (homosexuality, divorce, and alcoholism) is courageous.
Ordaining women is so desirable, that reinterpreting Bible stories to make a woman an apostle to the Apostles is justified.
If Jesus had showed himself to a disciple (a man), they might have messed up the story (never mind that the New Testament Bible was written by these faithful men, and the glorious gospel of salvation was effectively shared by them throughout the Apostolic era).
Quoting Buddhists and Tibetan meditation masters is a viable source of truth to share with 800 college students.
We can expect to see more of this in 2019 and 2020.
****
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).