Scott Ritsema has isolated Ron Kelly’s thoughts, in a recent sermon, about the Conrad Vine controversy. Highlights:
Our leaders deserve honor (1 Tim. 5:17-18), which is not a blank slate endorsement of everything they do.
The GC should not have removed Conrad Vine’s status as an ex officio (as president of Adventist Frontier Missions) delegate to the 2022 General Conference Session (which they did).
It isn’t helpful to call for anyone’s resignation (which Elder Vine did)
Jonathan Zirkle’s motion should have been given a full discussion at the session; the Church Manual minutia (much of which normalized female elders) was not urgent and could have been put off to 2025.
It is not helpful to speak of para-church organizations and the potential re-allocation of the tithe (which Elder Vine did, and that is what everyone is in a tizzy over).
Those who saw problems with the October, 2021 “re-affirmation statement”, including “Dr. Lela Lewis and the Liberty and Health Alliance” should have been given a fuller hearing.
No one should refer to the SDA Church organization as “papal.”
“No one is going to drive a wedge between me and Jim Micheff or me and Conrad Vine.”
It is not helpful that the GC religious liberty department (Diop) is now claiming that the GC never promoted the vaccine. It did.