Spectrum Interviews

A Short History of a Spectrum Editor

Alita Byrd — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:30:05 -0700

I interviewed Roy Branson for the Association of Adventist Forums' printed Annual Report, handed out at last weekend's Forum Conference in Orlando, Florida. But the Annual Report did not have enough space to capture all of Roy Branson's thoughts on the history of Spectrum, so the complete interview is published here.

For those who heard Roy talk on Sabbath about his experience as part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Selma march, or have heard other pieces of Roy's colorful history over the years, you'll know that this extended interview is still only a tiny snapshot of a small piece of his very broad life.

Question: What prodded you to start Spectrum magazine in 1969 and how did you feel when the first issue rolled off the press?

Answer: In 1959, my last year at Atlantic Union College, I wrote a paper in Advanced Composition class that proposed the creation of a journal – that proposal became Spectrum 10 years later.

The key points for creating Spectrum were:

A. Adventist academics and professionals were spending more time talking to fellow specialists in their respective disciplines than to other Adventist academics and professionals within Adventism. Greater conversation among Adventists trained in different disciplines seemed useful for the Adventist community, not only to create greater interdisciplinary respect and fellowship, but also to learn from one another.

B. A community benefits from members expressing diverse viewpoints that can be criticized and/or applauded by other members. Over time greater, longer-lasting unity emerges from getting differences into the open where they can be adopted or opposed than if they are bottled up, away from informed scrutiny.

C. For more than 200 years of representative democracy, a free press had proven to be essential for a healthy community to simultaneously encourage new ideas and quickly respond to them. In its earliest days Adventism's founders produced just such a press, full of vigorous debates over fundamental topics, but after Ellen White's death, Adventist publications quickly became promulgators of orthodoxy. It seemed long overdue for the church to benefit from a free press.

D. The immediate occasion for working to implement the idea was the fact that 1) the church was going to replace its long-standing magazine, The Youth's Instructor, and it seemed a propitious time to suggest the church encourage a publication edited by young adults themselves; and 2) there were literally hundreds of articulate Adventist academics from whom the church as a whole was hearing little.

As for how I felt when the first issue appeared, (edited by Molleurus Couperus, the chair of the dermatology department at Loma Linda University and Spectrum's first editor,) I was very proud of its dignified, artistic appearance that paralleled the "look" of "little magazines," publishing scholarship, thoughtful informal essays, poetry, and art. It conveyed seriousness and quality.

Over the years the sheer physicality of producing a small paperback book (roughly the size of each issue of Spectrum) was exciting. Each issue of Spectrum demonstrated that a group of people had worked together to produce something new of significance and relevance to the entire Adventist community.

Question: What was the most controversial thing you ever published during your time as Spectrum editor? Is there anything you regret publishing?

Answer: I confess that I have been unable to think of an article that I wish I hadn't approved for publication. Of course, that is different from insisting that all the articles were equally important.

While the editor always took full responsibility for what appeared in the journal, many people were consulted before a potentially controversial article was printed. For most of my years as editor there was a policy that if the editor thought an article would be controversial, he should formally consult with the Board of Editors. Only once was there a close vote, and I broke the tie by deciding not to publish the article.

I really don't know what the readership considered to be the most controversial article that appeared in Spectrum. I know which were the most controversial issues from the standpoint of General Conference Presidents.

For Neal Wilson, it was an issue of Spectrum informing Adventists of the True and Free Adventists, a group of Adventists not officially recognized by the Soviet Government, alligned with religious and non-religious dissidents going back to the time of Stalin and continuing up to the thaw under Mikhail Gorbachev. Indeed, world-renowned dissidents, such as Sharansky, acknowledged the importance of this group for risking their lives to print the work of dissidents of all persuasions. Spectrum further pointed out that the church refused to identify this group as Seventh-day Adventists.

Neal Wilson's successor was displeased that Spectrum reported the General Conference's own report to the General Conference Committee, informing that most important committee of the General Conference that the recently elected President of the General Conference and the Vice President of the General Conference for North America had agreed, without receiving an authorizing vote from the GC Committee, to receive funds from unidentified Adventists for the purpose, primarily, of purchasing houses in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Question: How did Spectrum evolve during the years you served as editor? Did your thinking change over time? Did your method of putting Spectrum together change?

Answer: Spectrum evolved in two important ways. First, what started out looking and feeling like a scholarly or "little magazine," moved to one that read and felt more like magazines that wanted to be excellent, while reaching out to a somewhat wider audience, such as the Atlantic Monthly and the New Yorker did.

Chuck Scriven, with whom I served for several years as co-editor, had a lot to do with trying to reach a wider audience. That doesn't mean that Spectrum ever ceased being written by Adventist academics; it did try to encourage Adventist writers, not just Adventist academics. Bonnie Dwyer has significantly moved Spectrum further in that direction.

Second, what started as a vehicle for Adventist academics to talk to one another became a journal that published journalistic reports. The reputation of the journal did not rest just on the value of ideas, but the accuracy of facts. That was a carefully considered decision, made with the full knowledge that a major error in reporting (particularly early in the increase of journalistic reports), would be devastating to the credibility of the journal's efforts in general. In fact, what happened was that initially Tom Dybdahl, and then Bonnie Dwyer, who served for years as News Editor, set such high standards for accuracy and fairness that confidence in Spectrum was enhanced by its increased journalistic content.

The journal printed the first report of Annual Council deliberations and debates (not just voted actions) since the earliest days of the Adventist Review (which was full of debates waged on the floor of Annual Councils); Spectrum was looked to for coverage of the Davenport financial debacle; and members sought out Spectrum's accounts of how the General Conference deliberated at Glacier View over the ideas of Desmond Ford. During this time, some regarded Spectrum as the journal of record.

Indeed, in succeeding years, the Adventist Review and Ministry moved toward printing fuller accounts of deliberations of official church committees, not just listing final, voted actions.

Incidentally, from the start of journalistic reports appearing in Spectrum, the journal decided to report on events that the editors felt had lasting, widespread importance for the Adventist community. The journal disappointed many who wished Spectrum would become an ombudsman for individual members who (perhaps rightly) felt that they had been wronged. That might have been a worthy role, but beyond the resources of Spectrum to fulfil as an ongoing mission.

As for whether my own thinking changed over time, I think not in any particular way related to the mission of Spectrum. For example, I have remained completely convinced from the beginning until now that the journal must remain focused on printing pieces by thoughtful Adventists about a dizzyingly diverse range of topics, but pieces written for other Adventists, not other non-SDA experts in their field. That is what their professional journals are for. If Adventists want to speak to the world at large, they should submit their pieces to the best journals to do so. Of course, in the day of the Internet, people can self-publish for everyone to notice. But if Spectrum tries to do everything for Adventists to reach a mass audience about any and all topics, it will end up doing nothing really well.

I did increasingly feel that in its beginning, Spectrum provided a place for highly trained Adventist historians, scientists, and theologians a place to speak more openly about how their disciplines illuminated Adventism. Some of that work was analytical and had the effect of telling the church ways in which it needed to change its thinking. I think that work was and is essential. Perhaps the most dramatic effect was Spectrum's contribution to changing how the church relates to Ellen White.

However, quite early on, I was convinced that it is at least as important – and much more demanding – for Adventist academics and professionals to propose new, creative ways for the church to think and act.

Leadership does not simply "tell the truth"; leadership also shares visions. It is always easier to view the present and the past with alarm than to shape the future with a new song. More important, even, than accurate chroniclers of disasters, are Pied Pipers of the future. Note Lincoln, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, who never stopped with a critique or complaint, however accurate. They all had a dream.

Question: What or who influenced your thinking the most during those years?

Answer: If you are asking about people within Adventism, it always continued to be Adventist teachers, professionals and students – the group Spectrum had originally identified as its primary writers and readers.

If you are asking about intellectual figures outside Adventism, I would say theologians who combined deep and wide scholarship with an ability to capture the imagination, like Samuel Terian and Walter Brueggemman.

Question: How did your relationships with people (writers, professors, pastors, church administrators) and with the Adventist church change over the years?

Answer: My relationship with the church as a whole was shaped more than I realized on a day-to-day basis by my editing Spectrum. Early, and for longer than I thought, people identified Spectrum with critique and complaint – particularly if they had not actually read the journal.

I know that I was not invited to serve in some denominational posts because of editing Spectrum. But gradually, people also noticed that I remained involved with my local, Sligo congregation as a Sabbath School teacher, deacon, and elder.

Also, over the years, people caught on to the fact that Spectrum tried to conduct itself as though it was a leader within the church – in the manner that we hoped church leaders would act. As a result, authors came to be judged by what they said, not where they said it. Spectrum established that media not run by church officials could be responsible, helpful, and – some came to believe – essential. That is, a free press came to be acknowledged as valid, providing editors of official church publications more space to venture into new areas.

The result was that the editor of Spectrum came to be respected, even if sometimes feared, and rarely welcomed to address workers' meetings. Several vice presidents of the General Conference called and talked, off-the-record, more than once about ongoing, personal frustrations. Throughout, college presidents, vice presidents and deans provided crucial support to their faculty who wrote for Spectrum. Faculty included their contributions to Spectrum on their resumes.

Spectrum eventually came to be included in the index to Seventh-day Adventist Periodical literature and other denominational reference tools. My friendships with teachers and students deepened and widened.

In short, I always worked to maintain ties with the institutional church, including leaders of the denomination. Leaders, particularly in an avowedly religious institution, and certainly including Spectrum, cannot be reduced to making up hit or hate lists. People and institutions are blessedly varied and complex. Neal Wilson, the only President of the General Conference to denounce Spectrum publicly to an Annual Council Session, was mentored by my father, and mentored me. He was a warm friend before his statement, and after his statement he asked me to report to denominational committees he chaired. He remains a friend to this day.

Question: What qualities do you feel you brought to Spectrum that helped it to last – unlike most publications?

Answer: Others, I think, would be better placed to answer a rather personal question. I did try to identify a need, thought up a vehicle to respond, and knew enough key people who were active Adventists and effective leaders to be able to enjoy working together in a constructive way.

Then as editor I tried to stay focused on the mission of the journal – broad in many ways, but disciplined in not pursuing tones and tasks that veered away from serving a key part of the church: the academics and professionals who had superb training and an enduring affection for the church. Making Spectrum a place where that group could appear without being cut off provided a persistent discipline and focus. And remaining committed to acting as leaders act when they are nurturing communities and institutions they love and respect provided a discipline that ultimately came to be seen as constructive.

And I never seemed to run out of ideas for articles or clusters – we never sat back and waited for material to be sent, but talked to writers about topics they might address or research. Nothing was more satisfying than seeing potential authors' eyes light up when I asked them to write an essay they had not, until that moment, realized they had been dying to write.

Question: Why did you decide to step down as Spectrum editor in 1998?

Answer: It was not because I was bored. Every day I looked forward to going to the Spectrum office. I loved working with Chip Cassano and all the others who passed through the office. I never stopped thinking that Spectrum was a university without walls.

I guess that I knew others were able and willing to serve as editors – and that they would throw their hearts and souls into it. I had never expected to spend so many years implementing one of my ideas.

But I was presented with another exciting opportunity. The move was good for Spectrum and it was good for me.

The Story Behind the Slogans

Alita Byrd — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:51:56 -0700

After the Spectrum blog featured a new business that crams traditional Adventist culture and stereotypes into clever T-shirt slogans, we thought we'd track down the young Adventist entrepreneurs behind the idea and ask them how their brand-new business got started.

So the three entrepreneurs behind 1844 collaborated on answers to a short series of questions - demonstrating how they work together, even though they all live in different parts of the US. They didn't want to give too many personal details, because they wanted to retain the "mystery" behind 1844.

Question: Where did you get the idea for "1844?" Who is involved in the company?

Answer: It all started with a close friend that told us he was thinking about printing up T-shirts that said "I heart Potluck." We absolutely loved the idea and the brainstorming process exploded from there. Even though this friend didn't actually end up participating with us, the 1844 products that you see today were spawned from that first discussion we had nearly three years ago. The current brain trust behind 1844 is made up of Travis, Jonathan and Danny.

Question: What response have you got to your T-shirts so far? How many have you sold?

Answer: The response so far has been tremendous. It definitely looks like we've hit a nerve.

To be honest, we expected some backlash from some who might not get our style of humor. But all the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. So far to date through the month of September (we began selling on September 5) we have sold about 60 shirts. The number keeps growing each day.

Question: Where do you get the ideas for your T-shirt slogans? How many different ones do you offer so far? Which is the most popular?

Answer: The concepts have literally been hatched by many of us sitting around in a room just thinking about unique lifestyle traits of Adventists and then talking out loud until we find an idea that seems like it will translate to a T-shirt.

Since each of the three founding members have very deep roots in Adventism (as far back as six generations in some cases) it has not really been that hard to come up with material!

So far we offer eight different designs with different color combinations available for several of the design themes.

The two most popular shirts by number of sales is "I heart Haystacks" followed by "1984 Rook Champion."

This was a bit of a surprise to us, as we thought some of the others would be more popular, but we are just thrilled that people are buying any of them at all!

Question: 1844 is a sideline for you. How much time does it take? How do you divide up the responsibilities? Can you give us a basic idea of what you do in your "real" lives?

Answer: Yes, actually all three of us have day jobs.

Right now, 1844 is a side gig for each of us. We expect it to stay that way, despite the growing response we are getting from the Adventist community. We realize this is not going to be our golden ticket to early retirement, so we are trying to just have fun with it rather than attempting to build a small fortune on the backs of our fellow Adventists.

Because much of the operation is outsourced it has not required a tremendous amount of resources other than coming up with the ideas, designing them, and then posting them to our website.

While each of us has given a lot of input into the ideas that are printed, Travis has been the main driver of the design. Being the resident artist among us, he has taken our crazy concepts and put them to paper - or cotton. Since he is a freelance graphic designer, you might understand why this comes naturally for him.

Jonathan has taken on the responsibility of building the website and keeping it updated. He also has been a help in refining our ideas to a more polished level. His background in media production and communications is helpful in our quest to deliver a quality product.

Danny is mostly involved in idea generation, and was responsible for bringing Travis and Jonathan together to make 1844. Since he does not have any other specific duties, he has been assigned the task of responding to the numerous emails that have begun to pour in. Danny works for Florida Hospital in Patient Financial Services.

Question: Are you making any money? How do you advertise?

Answer: Advertise in the Adventist community? Why, all you need to do is to start a rumor...

We're relying solely on gossip, er... word of mouth to help spread the news. Since we seem to have hit a nerve, it's working so far. At last glance, we've had nearly 5,000 visitors to our website from 57 different countries. The majority are in the North American Division.

The organic marketing strategy is starting to pay off, and we have begun to sell some shirts. We hope to turn a small profit at some point, after recouping a minimal amount of expenses.

Question: Spectrum readers were keen to offer you their ideas for slogans when you were featured in the blog. Did you like any of the suggestions? Do you pay a commission?

Answer: Yes, thank you for the ideas! We've received tons of slogans from just about every demographic. Some are great and some. . . well, not so much.

It's important to us that the idea be instantly recognizable, lend itself well to a T-shirt, and that it meets our aim of "embracing the culture."

We have decided to be very careful not to tear down the institution of Adventism, its beliefs or our church leaders.

We are also staying away from doctrine-related messaging since a T-shirt hardly seems like the place to make a deep argument.

As for commissions, we'd definitely love to be able to show our appreciation for any ideas that actually become T-shirts. At this stage in the business, there's not a whole lot of commission to be had. We hope to possibly hold a contest in the coming months that will allow for people to submit their ideas to us. The winner of the contest will get his or her shirt added to the shop and will receive some sort of prize, like a new iPod or something. We will let everyone know more once we have established the ground rules.

Question: Do you print T-shirts on demand (thus reducing costs) or are you printing in bulk (which may be cheaper because of economies of scale)?

Answer: At this point all of our production is done on demand. Once an individual orders a shirt, the order is picked up by our outsourced vendor and it immediately goes into production. Even though this means that we probably make less commission on each shirt, it saves us from having to invest capital into printing up stock and then warehousing and distributing it. To be honest we really like the turnkey approach best, as again, we have things to do in real life!

Question: Have any of you started businesses before? What advice would you have for your entrepreneurs?

Answer: This is Danny's first foray into the entrepreneurial universe.

Travis has been a freelance graphic designer for over a year now. But this is his first experience with something that can be called an actual business.

Jonathan operates a photography business with his wife Julie, called freckled pear studio. He is also involved with a few other web-based projects that he hopes to see launch soon. He can honestly say that he has never had as much fun or gotten such a response as he has with 1844.

As for advice: We'd say to remember that a great idea is a good start, but it's just that – a start. There's so much more work that goes into the entire process of taking an idea and turning into something tangible. It takes perseverance and a lot of sleepless nights.

Question: Anything else?

Answer: For every design that does make it to the shop, there are dozens that don't.

Some of the ideas are either so funny, or so wrong, that we have to laugh. . . and then vow never to speak of it again. For instance, don't expect any "It's William Miller Time" or "WWED" shirts any time soon!

We have just been taking this one day at a time and having fun with it. The fact that it has resonated with the Adventist community has been so enjoyable for us. It has been more fulfilling than any of the sales of shirts.

Of course we thought that we had a come up with a funny idea, but have been refreshingly surprised to find that so many others are appreciating the humor along with us.

We hope to introduce several more shirt designs in January of 2009, so stay tuned.

Visit www.eighteenfortyfour.com to check out the T-shirt designs.

Union College Prepares for Emergencies

Alita Byrd — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:10:01 -0700

Jeff Joiner helped to start Union College's groundbreaking International Rescue and Relief program, teaching students emergency medical care, disaster management and a range of additional skills. He talks to Spectrum about how the program started and where its graduates are heading.

Question: How did the International Rescue and Relief program get started? What inspired it?

Answer: When I first arrived at Union College in the summer of 2001, I had developed the concept for a new major in Disaster Management. It would have been offered out of the Division of Health Sciences with a heavy complement of Business and Behavioral Science courses. This concept did not gain much traction at the time and I concentrated on the Nursing Program instead.

Two years later when Michael Duehrssen, a Union alumnus, approached Malcolm Russell, Union’s vice president for academic administration, with his concept for a new degree I was very interested. I dug out my Disaster Management concept file from 2001 and we incorporated these elements into the program that eventually became Union’s International Rescue and Relief Program.

Officially approved as a Bachelor of Science in international rescue and relief, the program was launched in August 2004 with 32 students declaring IRR as their major. With 77 students now enrolled, the major combines rescue and survival skills, emergency medical care, humanitarian relief, public health, disaster management and multicultural service training.

The program was designed for the adventurous young person who desires to dedicate his or her life to the service of others for Jesus’ sake.

Question: What kind of background do you have that made you want to start such a program?

Answer: I have over 25 years experience in Emergency Nursing. I have worked in small ERs and large trauma centers. I didn’t take my first mission trip until 1997 – an Ultimate Workout (sponsored by Insight magazine & Maranatha Volunteers International) to El Salvador. On this trip I realized that while many health care professionals want to provide assistance on short-term mission trips, most of us don’t have a lot of training or experience in how to carry this out.

I had grown up being active in the Boy Scouts and later in Pathfinders and had spent most of my professional life practicing in rural areas, so I was very comfortable providing care in remote settings.

I made several contacts and began the process of developing a course to familiarize nurses with the skills and knowledge they needed to work in developing countries. I relied heavily on Laura Nyirady’s course that she developed at Southern Adventist University. (Laura is now at Loma Linda University’s School of Nursing.) I have continued to develop and refine the course, which is now offered at Union College as Frontier Nursing.

Since 1997, I have participated in several Ultimate Workout mission trips in Central and South America. I have served as the medical outreach coordinator for the last few years with Steve Case’s ministry Involve Youth (formerly Piece of the Pie) on the Ultimate Workout mission trips.

I serve on the board of directors for the Tasba Raya Adventist Mission (TRAM) in Francia Sirpi, Nicaragua. I have led trips to Nicaragua over spring break for Union College nursing students for the last five years. We work with TRAM to provide village health care to the Miskito Indians of the Tasba Raya region of the northeastern portion of the country.

Question: How many majors does the program have so far? Do non-majors also take some of the classes?

Answer: We began the 2007-2008 school year with over 125 International Rescue and Relief majors. Some of the courses are available to non-IRR majors - the HIV & Emerging Diseases and Disaster Management & Terrorism courses have been taken by non-IRR majors each year.

Question: What kind of training are the students required to undergo? Is it focused in the medical field? Is the training physical as well as academic?

Answer: This program is an emergency medical technician (EMT)-based program that includes certifications in several aspects of rescue skills (high angle or technical rope rescue, swift water & confined space) and survival (wilderness, jungle, ocean & shoreline).

This is the foundation; on this foundation we layer coursework in language, business, small group dynamics, public health, world religions and cultures, crisis management, HIV and emerging diseases, disaster management, global communications, relief infrastructure and more. It has grown to include seven areas of emphasis: project development, human service and counseling, business, communications, global missions, pre-professional, and paramedic.

This is a unique major because it includes many courses that have physical demands that are not seen in most classes. Students are taught to conduct safe technical rope rescues from varying heights, to rescue individuals in multiple settings involving fast-flowing and deep water. These classes place physical demands on students that require they be in good shape.

Question: What kind of experience do the teachers in the program have?

Answer: Michael Duehrssen, the director of the program, graduated from Union College in 1984 with a biology degree and earned a degree in medicine from Loma Linda University in 1989. He has worked extensively in emergency medicine. He was previously a competitive downhill skier.

Associate director Doug Tallman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and an applied theology minor from Southern Adventist University in 1977. He earned a master’s from the same university with an emphasis in teacher outdoor education.
With more than 25 years of experience as an educator, Tallman has worked as a boys’ dean in three Adventist academies and taught Bible classes in five academies.

Tallman has coordinated and traveled with many student groups for short-term mission trips around the world to places such as Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Question: What main career paths do you see for graduates of this program? What major employers will seek out the graduates?

Answer: Career paths are wide open for International Rescue and Relief graduates. About 25% of our students are choosing the pre-professional emphasis that will lead to medical or dental school or Union’s Physician Assistant graduate program. Many are taking the paramedic emphasis – currently we have students who are completing this portion of their education at colleges in Nebraska, Colorado and even Alaska.

Many, if not most, international aid agencies require a graduate degree for international employment; so International Rescue and Relief students who choose to work internationally usually will need to obtain a graduate degree in an applicable field. The IRR program provides an excellent undergraduate foundation and skill set to build a graduate education on.

Domestically, IRR graduates may seek employment in the Emergency Medical Service or Emergency Management industry at the local, state or federal level.

As the Emergency Management field develops, the majority of positions will be in the private sector. Potential employment opportunities are available with the US Forest and US National Park services along with the American Red Cross and FEMA. Graduates may also find employment opportunities with the many outdoor education or outdoor adventure vendors in the US. This major prepares students to enter a vast variety of potential fields – I think we will be amazed to see where their career interests take the students.

See the IRR website for potential employers http://irr.ucollege.edu/data/?page_id=17 for more information.

Question: How closely did you work with ADRA when developing the program?

Answer: Initial contacts were made with ADRA, USAID, FEMA, World Vision, AFM, and AWA. We looked at their employment opportunities and spoke to their human resource professionals. At ADRA, Mike Duehrssen and I met with Derris Krause, Bureau Chief/Human Resources and James Lanning, Director for Acquisitions at the Disaster Preparedness & Response Bureau.

From talking to Mr. Krause we understood that ADRA does not really even advertise for individuals who do not hold a graduate degree; many, if not most, ADRA positions require a doctoral degree for consideration. But with that said, he agreed that the IRR program was an ideal undergraduate foundation for students who wished to seek future positions with ADRA.

All IRR students who state a desire for future employment or service with ADRA, World Vision or any other international aid agency are told up front that they must plan on obtaining a graduate degree upon completion of the IRR program.

We spoke to ADRA division directors from Southeast Asia and Central and South America. They helped us define skills and courses to add to our base foundation. The EMT/rescue skills are seen for what they are – a basic foundation that they all felt was useful at the field level. By no means did this reflect a feeling that these were the only the skill sets that would be useful for a project director.

Our human services & counseling emphasis was developed after direct involvement with the senior leadership at World Vision. This is not a replacement for a graduate degree in counseling, but the solid undergraduate base that would better prepare a counselor/project manager for service in a developing country according to leadership at World Vision. One of our first graduates in IRR/human services and counseling is in fact in a counseling graduate program now.

Question: Union College advertises the International Rescue and Relief program as being the only one of its kind. Why wouldn’t other universities offer such a course?

Answer: One of the key factors that make this program unique is that it is an undergraduate program that is based on an EMT rescuer at its core. It is very hands-on in the first year or so and it builds in complexity and course work throughout the program. Another key difference is that students spend one semester abroad actually studying and providing community/public health and humanitarian aid in a developing country.

Union’s IRR program is the only four year degree in international relief that has been reviewed and listed on FEMA’s Higher Education Project. Union College was only the 11th academic program to have been listed by FEMA in the category of international relief. All of the other programs are major research universities whose programs offer either post-graduate certificates, masters or doctoral degrees in this specialty.

There are many colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate programs in disaster or emergency management, but no other programs have the international experience component.

Question: Your students have worked in Nicaragua and in Venezuela. Can you tell us a little more about those programs?

Answer: IRR students spend the spring semester (January to May) in a developing country. Here they take additional courses in Public Health, Travel & Tropical Medicine, Jungle, Ocean & Shoreline Survival, and Emergency Care. Students work with physicians, nurses, instructors and national healthcare providers to provide health care in various settings to the indigenous people of these regions.

In spring of 2008, Dr. Mike Duehrssen led a group to Honduras. They spent time in the islands and on the mainland working with several different organizations. They worked with a local government to develop a community disaster response plan and also provided training and updates for multiple local EMS agencies. They conducted village health care for hundreds of individuals in different towns and villages.

In the spring of 2007, Dr. Duehrssen led a group to Venezuela with the invitation of the Amerindians (Davis Indians) of the Gran Sabana region. This was the third year that Mike had worked with this group in Venezuela. They worked in cooperation with an Adventist airbase and several villages for their training.

While the Union nursing program has traveled to Nicaragua for several years to provide healthcare to the Miskito Indians of the Tasba Raya region, PA student were included for the first time in 2008. The IRR program is actually looking to include this region in 2009 along with Honduras.

Dr. Duehrssen and I just returned from a trip to Nicaragua to meet with the Ministry of Health officials in Managua and Puerto Cabezas, Adventist Church officials, Tasba Raya Adventist Mission board members, and administrators at COVINIC (the SDA university in Managua), paving the way for the IRR team to spend a portion of spring of 2009 in Nicaragua.

Question: Is the health work you do there connected to Adventist mission programs?

Answer: Yes, it is. In Venezuela we were affiliated with the Adventist aviation program in the Gran Sabana. In Honduras, Dr. Duehrssen partnered with several Adventist ministries – an orphanage, hospital, academy and the Honduran Mission. In Nicaragua, we are meeting this summer with the Tasba Raya Adventist Mission clinic in Francia Sirpi, the Nicaraguan Mission administration and the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) officials in that region to finalize plans for next school year.

Question: How do you find time to direct the Nursing Program and Chair the Division of Health Sciences, as well as work with the International Rescue and Relief program?

Answer: I don’t – which is why we have just hired a new administrative director for the IRR Program. John Thomas from Maxwell Academy will be joining the IRR staff later this summer. John has a rich history in academic administration and international ministry and I look forward to having him join our team.

Question: How do you see international aid work and the philosophy around aid changing?

Answer: I met with an official from USAID toward the end of 2007 in Washington, DC. One of the initiatives that USAID is working on is developing project coordinators to provide community and professional EMS education in Community Emergency Response Training in Central and South America.

There are several NPO and NGO attempting to get these programs off of the ground as we speak. They were very encouraged to see that this project was one we had already lined up to initiate this semester in Honduras. The developing countries of Central and South America (as well as Asia) are quickly developing EMS programs, even in their more rural areas. They are seeking international agencies to assist them in providing the training required for their citizens and EMS professionals.

Unfortunately, very few NPOs or NGOs have any staff with expertise in these areas. This opportunity is expected to grow for quite awhile. Our program has experience in just this type of project and we are continuing to partner with local EMS agencies and municipal governments in developing countries to assist them in formulating or enhancing community response plans and disaster preparation training for their residents.

Question: If the philosophy around aid work is moving more toward empowering governments to help their own people, what place do you see for your students?

Answer: There will always be a need to have professionals available to initially provide the training so that national, indigenous agencies can help their own populations. Somebody has to train the trainers.

Also, as we have recently seen in numerous cases, there will always be a point in which individual nations cannot respond to their own needs fast enough with enough resources. Other nations will have to step up and assist. These are known as catastrophic events – when a nation cannot respond to its own disaster. Someone will have to be ready to go.

Question: In light of the recent exclusion of aid workers in the aftermath of the cyclone in Burma, or Myanmar, what kinds of obstacles are you preparing your students to overcome?

Answer: This is one of the issues covered in some our senior level courses – how do you respond in difficult or impossible situations? How can you as a Christian respond in a non-Christian nation/environment? How can you maintain your personal Christian perspective while working professionally for a non-Christian agency?

There are not a lot of easy answers, just a lot of hard questions. Our program attempts to provide the students with the background and tools to apply critical thinking and innovative solutions to these situations on their own and make the Christ-centered call.

The program’s unofficial mantra is “Improvise, Adapt & Overcome”, while the official motto is “A career of adventure, a lifetime of service”. Union College believes that IRR graduates will be prepared to answer God’s call for professionals to serve mankind in diverse situations throughout the world.

An Adventist College for the 21st Century

Alita Byrd — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:12:09 -0700

Florida Hospital College President David Greenlaw talks to Spectrum about creating a different kind of educational institution and how Adventism can reach outside itself to the broader community.

Question: You are the founder of Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences. Can you describe what inspired you to start the college, and what led up to its opening?

Answer: First, some background might help. Florida Hospital is the largest SDA institution in the world. It has had a constant need for new professionals in nursing and allied health.

In 1989 the hospital president, Tom Werner, was concerned about the shortage. He realized the hospital needed a constant steady stream of new employees, and he wanted individuals from a faith-based educational institution so the healing ministry of Christ would not be lost.

That is the mantra that Florida Hospital constantly works to promote. The hospital believes that people do not just have physical ailments to be treated; the people who come in are the children of God, and the hospital believes it should minister to the whole person.

Question: So how did you get involved?

Answer: I am seminary trained. I taught religion and ministerial education at Solusi College in Zimbabwe, then taught at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts.

Florida Hospital was going through a transition and they asked me to come and develop a more broad-based pastoral care department. I did that for three years.

Then Tom Werner asked me to do early studies on the feasibility of starting a college of health sciences and come back and make a presentation to the hospital board in six months.

I did, and Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences, owned by Florida Hospital, opened in 1992 with 243 students.

Question: What makes Florida Hospital College different than other third-level Adventist institutions?

Answer: Here’s the background on why. My years in Africa helped me to understand that Adventism could reach a much broader community if it reached outside itself.

Adventist grade schools and middle schools in Africa invite communities in. Many of their students are not Adventists. One thing we are seeing today is large growth in Adventism in Africa. This can be directly related back to the fact that many individuals are not strangers to Adventism. Many were educated in Adventist schools.

The idea of developing an exclusively Adventist college did not appeal to me.

I wanted to make sure that the community we developed here reflected the wider community our graduates would work in.

We are more concerned with developing a Christian school run by Adventists than another uniquely Adventist school.

Some of our faculty and staff are not Adventist, but all are committed Christians. In some ways some of them are more committed to our mission than some of those in uniquely Adventist institutions. That’s just the reality.

Our student population also draws from a broad community of Christian people. Our students come from many faiths – we even have some Muslim students.

After all, these students are going to go out in the world and work in a real faith environment. It is important that they learn to work with all kinds of other people, and understand other people’s journeys.

We are a deliberately Christian, faith-based institution. I make no apologies for that.

Our job at the college is to provide the most excellent education in health sciences in nursing that is available to anyone anywhere in the context of Christianity.

Question: Are you succeeding?

Answer: I know we are.

Question: Do you think you sometimes get left out when people think of Adventist colleges? You aren’t usually listed among the Andrews’ and the Southerns.

Answer: I don’t think that’s deliberate.

I belong to the Adventist Association of Colleges and Universities in North America. In fact, I am the treasurer of that organization. I am a colleague with presidents of other Adventist colleges.

Also, ours is a brand new college, compared to others. Sometimes we are left out because people just don’t remember we are here.

But we have 2,300 students. Which other Adventist colleges can say they have that many? Loma Linda, Andrews, and Southern. That’s it.

Question: Is your enrollment growing?

Answer: Yes, every year. We keep adding new programs. Part of our growth is new programs. We just added a new masters degree: a certified nurse anesthetist.

We have 23 spots in the program, and we had 150 applicants to this very specialized course.

Question: What is the ratio of your Adventist staff to non-Adventist staff?

Answer: 60% Adventist, 40% non-Adventist. All those who teach in our pre-professional department are Adventists. In many other programs we cannot find any qualified Adventist professionals to teach.

Question: If you had two equally qualified candidates applying for a teaching position, only one was Adventist, would you hire the Adventist over the non-Adventist?

Answer: Yes, we would hire the Adventist, as long as they were equally qualified.

Question: Does the college focus on religious activities or require any kind of religious curriculum?

Answer: Every student has to take a certain number of hours in religion as part of his or her coursework.

We have three full-time religion teachers.

We are now seeking to measure our learning outcomes, and find out how faith-based education has actually helped us.

Question: Do your religion courses have an Adventist slant?

Answer: Ernie Bursey, who was at Walla Walla College for many years, is the lead religion professor.

Our courses are taught from an Adventist perspective, but the goal is to help people understand the journey with Jesus.

At times we have taught a course in Adventist beliefs. But we are more concerned with ethics and bioethics – those kinds of things.

Question: Does your religion requirement make it hard for you to compete with other health education institutions? Do some potential students decide not to attend Florida Hospital College because they don’t want to take extra religion classes?

Answer: We make it clear that this is who we are from the beginning, and everybody knows coming in that we are a Christian institution. Then I remind them in orientation. If they are not interested, they would not apply here in the first place.

Question: What do you feel is the mission of the college?

Answer: There are 18,000 employees at Florida Hospital, and less than 15% are Adventist. In order to preserve the integrity of why the church would want to have a hospital, because we believe there is something different in the healing ministry of Christ, we need qualified Adventist staff.

We are known as the West Point of Florida Hospital. At this institution we develop the future leadership cadre of the largest Adventist health care system in the world.

Question: Give us some idea of the financial health of the college. Is the financial situation more stable than at many other Adventist higher education institutions?

Answer: We are probably the healthiest of all of them financially.

There are several reasons for this.

As a new institution our infrastructure is not outdated. We built lots of new facilities.

Also, it was deliberate to keep administration at a minimum, and hire faculty to do the job they are supposed to do.

We built the college on a business model, not the faculty senate model. Decisions can be rapid and implemented. That means the institution can save itself from dilemmas.

I am not only the president but the CEO.

There is a dilemma when the president of a college has to get faculty approval to do things. They are academics who are great at what they do, but to make good decisions you have to be responsible for how money is spent.

One suggestion a while back was for AUC to become a feeder school for Andrews. The faculty said no. But sometimes a business decision is better than an emotional decision.

Question: What are the main challenges that Florida Hospital College faces?

Answer: The major challenges are: how we expand and how we control our expansion.

Question: Many others wish those were their challenges!

Answer: We all make our own challenges.

It’s possible to get too big if expansion is not done in a controlled way.

One thing we are working on, for example, is creating more entry level degrees into professions like physical therapy or pharmacy. We are going to see more movement in that direction.

We are also creating programs across the country.

Adventist Health Systems has four hospitals in the Denver area. They have a hard time finding professional employees, so we are going to take our associate degree in nursing to them. Students in Denver will be able to watch real-time streaming lectures from our campus in Orlando. Staff in Denver will manage the clinical experience.

We are negotiating for a similar program in southern California.

We are part of the Adventist Health Systems, and part of our job is to give Adventist Health Systems the employees they are looking for.

In Orlando, we expand based on what Florida Hospital needs. Our new master’s program, for instance, was developed because the hospital said it needed those graduates.

There is a very real vetting process to decide what are essential degrees.

We then partner with the hospital to develop a degree and move it forward.

One result is that every student who graduates has a job. No, they are not obliged to go work for Florida Hospital, but they have a marketable degree that will get them a job.

That’s part of the business model.

Question: You studied theology. Isn’t running an educational institution a very different career path?

Answer: I never intended to be a minister. I wanted to teach – which I did. I understand business. I understand academics too. I am very proud of what we have accomplished here.

Question: Do you still teach any courses?

Answer: I hardly have time to breathe.

Question: Where do you see Adventist third-level education in the future, and how do you see it changing?

Answer: I believe that there is still a tremendous future for Seventh-day Adventist higher education.

But I think there are some things that need to be seriously considered. First, how many schools can we afford to have exclusively for Adventists?

And second, at what point does cost become a factor in whether students will attend or not? It’s not unusual for an Adventist institution to cost a student more than $20,000 a year. How many families can afford $100,000 for education if their sons and daughters are going to become teachers or pastors? The high cost is very difficult for people to deal with.

Students need another choice. This is an essential thing for the church to look at. One of the schools (maybe AUC or CUC) ought to look at the possibility of becoming a junior feeder college, where only general education subjects are taught, and students only pay half the price it costs to go to a place with so many departments and so many different degrees. It would be an Adventist community college. It would give lots of people the chance to get an associate degree, then go on to Andrews or another place.

This is an idea whose time has come. If we don’t do something like this, we’ll lose more and more Adventist students to community college.

The Mormons have had their own community college for years.

Question: What are your plans after you leave Florida Hospital College? Maybe you would like to start an Adventist community college?

Answer: I have no plans to retire for at least the next four years.

I am really proud of what’s happened here.

I can leave the junior college to someone else.

I might do some writing. I would like to write in the area of practical theology.

David Greenlaw is the founding and current President of Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences. Dr. Greenlaw holds baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degrees in divinity. He has been a professor of religion at two colleges. Dr. Greenlaw helped found the American Consortium of Schools of Health Science, and is the current Treasurer of the Adventist Association of Colleges and Universities.

Web Church Proves Popular in Florida and Beyond

Alita Byrd — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:31:00 -0700

Delwin Finch is the Web Church Pastor for the Forest Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church in Apopka, Florida. He talks to Spectrum about church ministry in the 21st century and how he and his team are working to bring the Forest Lake church to a bigger community than ever before.

Question: Your church has been known for using technology in your outreach  efforts. What are some of the things you are doing?

Answer: We currently stream all three of our church services in our main sanctuary every Sabbath live over the Internet. In between services we stream our announcements and then run a video of the Web Church Pastor welcoming those attending online, which plays just before each service begins.

All of our sermons are archived and available for viewing on our website after each Sabbath. We also stream and then archive our church business meetings as well as any funerals and weddings (if requested).

When my father-in-law died last summer, we streamed the funeral service so that people back home in his native Jamaica could attend online. We later had reports from people who said that they dressed up to go to his funeral and then went to someone’s home to watch the service online.

We also film a weekly Sabbath School discussion, called Hope Sabbath School, which airs weekly on the Hope Channel and is then available via our website.

Our young adult service, Deeper, also archives its sermons and has developed a podcast as well. Both the sermons and the podcast are available at deeperfaith.org and also on iTunes.

We recently launched a church photo gallery, which is hosted on Smugmug.com. There are over 1900 pictures already in various galleries showcasing various aspects of Forest Lake Church life and ministries and it is growing weekly. Besides the usual photo sections there is a section of vegan recipes (with pictures of what your dish should look like when you are finished) and a collection of photos of Web Church participants.

Question: What audience are you targeting with your live streaming sermons?

Answer: The original intent for our streaming services was to provide a way for local members who can’t attend church to be able to join us online. So we only had enough bandwidth for around 50 connections. But then we started getting complaints from people who were attempting to connect online and couldn’t and we realized that this was no longer just a “local” webstream audience.

So now our target audience is anyone who wants to attend an Adventist church service from around the world. We don’t just stream the sermon but the entire church service. We have three services and each one is unique in its style, so it isn’t just the same service repeated three times.

Question:   What sort of feedback are you getting on your church website?

Answer: We get our greatest amount of feedback whenever the website goes down!

We get letters all the time from people in various parts of the world and in our own neighborhood thanking us for providing the service via our website. Some people are physically prevented from attending locally while others are in a small town where there is no Adventist congregation or perhaps in a country with very little Adventist or even Christian presence.  

Question: Have you met any resistance from church staff members or congregants?

Answer: We haven’t had any resistance regarding the streaming of our church services. The congregation is very supportive of the fact that we stream our services and the church staff has really embraced the concept and mission.

However, the congregation has been very clear that we not become what they consider a “TV church.”

For us this means keeping our cameras unobtrusive, not “playing” to the cameras from the front or stopping our church service if we have a technical issue with our webstream. If we lost our Internet connection, the church service would continue.  

Question: What kinds of technology are you planning to use in the future – or  do you wish was available to use?

Answer: We have toyed with the idea of having a live chat during a church service for those attending online. We’ve debated whether this would be a help or a distraction.

We are planning to do a lot more with video content and podcasting. Our SmugMug photo gallery allows us to post video clips of up to 2.5 minutes of SD quality video and I have plans to develop a whole series of short video clips highlighting ministries such as Adult Sabbath Schools, and special groups such as our quilting ministry, so people can get a glimpse into what each group and ministry is like.

I would like to expand our current Deeper podcast into other ministry areas and we need to start podcasting our sermons (currently the archives only streams off the website) so that people can subscribe to them via iTunes or other RSS feeds.

I’ve also been setting up websites for various church ministries using blogging software rather than standard website software so that people can have more control over their own web content and of course blog about their area of ministry.

And then of course there is the whole realm of high-definition video content. We currently have one HD video camera that we use in the main sanctuary as part of our webstream, but we would have to upgrade the other three cameras and purchase HD lenses as well. Someday we will do that. In the meantime I will purchase another HD camera for my podcast productions and then drop the quality down to SD for now.

In the very near future we will be converting one room into an audio and video production room so we can get more serious about developing more podcast content.

Question: Has using new media stressed your church budget? How do you pay for it?

Answer: Having new media has certainly stressed our budget but God has always provided a way for us to continue growing and expanding. Just having a full-time Web Church Pastor (I was a volunteer for the first two-and-a-half years) has been a new thing, and in order to hire me the church dipped into some strategic reserves that they had set aside for just such a project. So having me on full-time is another significant commitment that the congregation has made to the web ministry area.

As people have gotten excited about our web ministry they have been contributing specifically to the ministry. We have received several rather sizable gifts that have allowed us to add additional lighting, purchase a fourth camera and so on.

We pay for our bandwidth and web hosting out of our regular church budget and the church has been very intentional about budgeting for media ministries and web ministries, but because this ministry has such a high profile, people are very willing to give to it.

Question: Where have you gotten your ideas for using new technology in your  church? Where have you borrowed from?

Answer: The core elements of the media ministry were already in place when I came on board. The idea of filming and then streaming the worship services was the idea of one church member who had been professionally trained in video production and was a member of the church audio/video team. The audio/video part just grew from there.

I get my ideas for using new technology from the youth and young adults of my church. I also do a lot of reading myself on technology in magazines such as Wired or Collide and online at all the usual technology websites such as Engadget and Gizmodo. I subscribe to several technology podcasts.

Because I am just getting started full time, I really haven’t had much of a chance yet to attend any technology conferences, particularly conferences that focus on using technology in churches. There is one technology conference in the Adventist context that I have attended called the Global internet Evangelism Network (GiEN), which meets alternately in the US and outside the US every year.

The biggest source for ideas is the team of people that I work and worship with from week to week. There are about 50 people on the church AV Team and I am now developing my own Web Ministries Team and between the two groups are a lot of technically-savvy people who are always curious, always looking for something more or something better that we could be doing.
 
Question: What do you think using new media has accomplished so far?

Answer: Using new media has changed the Forest Lake Church from being a witness in the local community into a church that can share its message and resources worldwide. It has caused our congregation to realize that we are a part of something much bigger than just our central Florida region. Because of our web church audience people now realize that they are not just worshipping in isolation, but that other people want to have what they have. And we are just beginning to realize how much more God has in store for us.

Question: What is your background? Did you study IT?

Answer: My background is both as a pastor and an IT person. I have a bachelor’s degree in theology from Walla Walla College and an MDiv from Andrews University. I pastored for 12 years on the West Coast of the US and then changed careers and went into governmental work for a non-profit organization.

From there I went into the IT field. I went back to school and got industry certifications from both Microsoft and Cisco. I’ve worked in both helpdesk and network administration for several companies in Florida.

I’ve had an interest in the intersection between ministry and technology for many years – from the time when 16mm projectors and/or a Dukane were standard issue to the present state-of-the-art equipment.

So when the opportunity arose for me to finally combine the two areas—theology and technology—I knew I was in the right place at the right time.   

Question: What advice do you have for other churches who are thinking of  making greater use of new media?

Answer: This is an excellent time to be getting into the area of new media. So much of the software or development platforms for web development are low- or no-cost. I can make a decent podcast with nothing more than the software that comes on my Macintosh. Web hosting doesn’t have to be expensive. The biggest expenses can be the equipment, but then again, you don’t have to start with all sorts of fancy equipment; instead, start small and work your way up as people start to get excited about it.

People in North America, at least, have come to expect to find out about community resources via the Internet. And it isn’t enough to just have a website; you need to have something of value on that website. I think it helps if you have something of value that keeps people coming back as well. And new media technologies allow you to have more content, both audio and video, without nearly as much expense and/or effort as it might have taken in the past.

However, no matter how much hardware or software you may have, there are two ingredients that I think are crucial to utilizing technology in a church. First, it takes a team to develop it and make it work. One person can’t do it all and if one person is trying to do it all then they will soon be overwhelmed and give up. Besides, it really isn’t about the technology; it’s about building a small group around this goal of communicating via technology.

And second, not every church should be online. Or, to put it another way, you can’t share what you don’t have. If you are planning to stream your worship service, then the worship service needs to be something that someone would want to see. The sermons need to be appealing to a broad cross-section of people. The worship service needs to be planned out and not just a haphazard collection of worship elements. It doesn’t do much good to sink a bunch of money into technology if there isn’t something there to share.

Question: Where do you see the Forest Lake Adventist church in 10 years?

Answer: I hope to see the Forest Lake Church in a new worship center building in ten years. If that is the case then our worship services will look a lot different than they do now. Moving into a new building will allow us to plan for the next generation of technology while leaving some room to expand to the next 40 years of growth.

I have no way of knowing just what or where technology will be taking us in 10 years, but I fully expect the Forest Lake Church to be trying to do more with whatever is available.

Why Churches Should Stay Out of Politics

Alita Byrd — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:35:27 -0700

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is an outspoken advocate of "keeping a distance." He will be the Sabbath keynote speaker at the Adventist Forum Conference September 26 to 28 in Florida.

Spectrum asked Lynn about the meeting of faith and politics and how his beliefs have changed over time.

Question: Why is the separation of church and state important? What is the foundation underlying Americans United for Separation of Church and State?

Answer: I think it's essential to maintain the integrity of both religious organizations and governments. Keeping a distance between the two is key.

True religion does not require the assistance of governments, and generally when governments touch religions they tend to degrade their authenticity. On the other hand, governments are not – or should not be – designed to resolve theological issues. That should be up to churches.

Question: The first amendment to the US Constitution states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Americans United seem more interested in the establishment clause, while churches tend to be more interested in the clause about freedom to worship. Do you think you and the churches are seeing eye to eye when it comes to separation of church and state issues, or are you looking past each other?

Answer: I don't think you can have the free exercise of religion unless you have strict government neutrality on the question. If there is no decent distance between government and religion you will never have the freedom to worship in the way you want. There will always be a fight for government to impose the majority will on others, and governments are good at doing that if you give them the opportunity. The fact that these clauses are intertwined is what leads to real religious freedom.

Question: Churches in America work hard in their communities to help all kinds of people, whether homeless, single mothers, whatever. Do you think this should be the work of churches, or should the government take a more active role in helping the more vulnerable in society?

Answer: In this climate, churches play an enormously important role. But the society I would like to see would include a government more willing to step in and do what is necessary to help those who are without shelter, food, education and healthcare. Governments are set up for a reason: to promote the common good. That includes taking better care of all Americans than we do today.

Question: You are an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. How does your faith personally impact your politics?

Answer: My religious faith leads me into certain assumptions about the way a society ought to act, if it is acting in a just manner. But I never discuss candidates, and never endorse candidates, even in a personal capacity. Our organization does not do that.

We never object to anyone starting his or her own assessment of a candidate with moral values. However, in the US, we have to focus ultimately on the commonly shared values of the Constitution, and not our personal religious values, when making policy decisions in elected office.

You can vote for a person for any reason: what church they go to, even what shoe size they wear. But if that person is elected he or she must use the Constitution, and not personal, criteria to base decisions on.

Question: So how does your faith impact your work?

Answer: My faith helps me to understand both the breadth and the diversity of the American religious experience. And also the depth of feelings people have about their faith – or if they don't have faith, the depth of their opposition to it.

It makes me able to understand that people sincerely believe a vast variety of things about religion and its place – if any – in our culture. I take people's statements of faith seriously and I'm not quick to say: Oh well, he's just saying that for political reasons.

I think both candidates for US president are committed Christians. Of course they have differences of opinion, but we don't need to inquire any deeper into specific beliefs – they have made clear that they are Christians, and that’s it.

Question: Have your politics changed over time? You marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. when you were younger. Certainly he mixed religion and politics?

Answer: Dr. King mixed religion with politics in the broadest sense. He went back to the Constitution for what he wanted for the country. He gave a speech the day before he was assassinated. I can’t quote it verbatim, but he basically said that all he was asking was that America do what she wrote about. He was talking about the Constitution. He called us back to our common roots.

Dr. King’s rhetoric was Christian because he came out of that tradition, but he knew the basis the country was built on was its national documents, not religious ones. He never endorsed a political candidate, because he knew the pulpit was not the appropriate place for that.

And yes, my own politics have changed. I have become more politically progressive than I was, even in the 60s. I believe that we have an even greater responsibility to others than I might have thought 40 years ago.

At my ordination service in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the church I grew up in, I asked for a specific hymn to be sung: “Once to Every Man and Nation.” The song was written on the occasion of the US war with Mexico. The idea is that there is one time and place where we all have to stand up for what we believe.

I have now come to believe that we have an enormous responsibility to make moral judgments constantly – that we always have to be open to new understandings. It’s too easy to think we just have to do it once, then can just breathe a sigh of relief and think: That’s over.

We have to adapt to new evidence, new experience, new understanding of Scripture (for those who are religious), and to demands of reasons and evidence presented to us from the natural order.

Question: You became the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State in 1992. What do you feel are Americans United greatest successes since then?

Answer: Institutionally we've become very well known for our advocacy of real religious freedom: separation of church and state as well as the right of individuals to practice religions that may not seem mainstream to other Americans.

I hope I have elevated the profile of the organization: Americans United employed nine people in 1992, and today we have 42. That includes a very, very aggressive legal staff that begins cases as well as files “friend of the court” briefs in cases filed by others.

Recently we won a major victory over government funding of a prison program in Iowa. The judge found that the state had basically set up an evangelical church in one wing of the prison, and that was not acceptable.

We had another case where a woman who was Wiccan was told she could not have a Wiccan symbol, a pentacle, on her husband's grave after he was killed when his helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan. They had an approved list of 38 symbols, and the pentacle was not on it.

We represented her and other widows from previous wars. We finally had to sue the Veterans Administration, and they had to give in after many months and lots and lots of money. She won the right to have the symbol on the grave. They saw that they have to treat every religion the same, and not have a list of preferred religions.

Her case was particularly important because her husband had died to defend the principles of the Constitution, and then they were denied to him.

We have filed many complaints, and some high-profile successful complaints, against religious organizations who wanted to play politics when it is not their place to endorse or oppose candidates. Churches should stick to moral issues.

Our non-partisan campaign is to tell Democrats and Republicans not to use the church as a vehicle for endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. Not only does it run counter to the tax code, but it is a fundamental intrusion into the role of churches as spiritual places, and not political back rooms.

We get a lot of grief from people on both the right and the left for reporting religious activities that cross the line into partisan politics, but we continue to do it, and we have educated thousands and thousands of churches and led them away from handing out voter guides and other propaganda.

Our critics say we are frightening churches out of being political.

But we are just letting churches know what the law is, and that the law makes sense.

Question: So you are working on prevention – running an information campaign – as much as fighting legal battles?

Answer: We publish Church and State magazine 11 times a year, and we are a prominent voice in this area. I have a daily radio program called Culture Shocks, I do a blog with Jay Sekulow (the legal guy for Pat Robertson’s empire) on beliefnet.com, I do a lot of radio and TV appearances, and hundreds of newspaper interviews every year to get out the message that separation is best for church and for state. It’s a win-win situation.

Question: What are the greatest failures of Americans United since you took the reins?

Answer: Our greatest failure would be a legal case we lost. We, along with many other groups, were challenging the constitutionality of school vouchers to religious schools in Cleveland, Ohio. The case went through the courts up to the Supreme Court, which ruled that under some circumstances vouchers could go to private religious schools.

At the time it was a defeat, but since then no state has been able to implement the new voucher system in a way that complies with the Supreme Court decision. So while we lost on principle, on state grounds the ruling has not been able to be enforced. States have clearer separation rules than on the federal level. Many states - including Florida, California and Massachusetts - say no religious schools can be funded from the state treasury. We utilize those state constitutions to protect rights lost at the federal level.

Question: How has the organization evolved during your tenure?

Answer: We've gotten a great deal more financial support from people who are aware of what we are doing, and want us to do it. The more support we get, the more the awareness grows. Some want to help, and some need help.

We work not only through litigation, but also just through writing letters. We tell people: We think you are doing something wrong. Knock it off, because it’s not right.

We get an astonishing 70% success rate just making people aware.

Lots of people just don't understand that what they are doing is wrong. They are not bad or evil — they just don't get it. So we just remind them of what the law is. They say: Thanks for telling us – we'll stop.

Though I go on cable TV shows and yell at people, I am not antagonistic, and I would rather resolve issues nicely.

People see me on The O’Reilly Factor or CNN, and they think I have no sense of humor. I tell them I am not paid to be charming in shoutfests on television. But that's not how I like to be in my personal life.

Question: How does Americans United fund its legal battles? Where do you get your funding?

Answer: The biggest percentage of our budget comes from independent contributors. Donations range from $10 dollars for a student membership up to six figures given to us to work on preservation of Constitutional ideals. We also get some support from foundations and organizations, but the great bulk comes from individuals who care about our mission and want to support it.

Some churches give us money, sometimes. We have a broad membership. A membership poll about four years ago found about two-thirds of our members identify with a religious group, while a third do not. We have members from every group imaginable: Catholics, Baptists, Adventist, Jews.

We have about 120,000 members, who pay a $25 yearly membership fee, unless they get the reduced student rate. With membership you get a magazine every month. People also use our website, www.au.org.

We have about 70 chapters around US, with lots of activity in places like Florida.

Question: Americans United says: "The single greatest threat to church-state separation in America is the religious right." How would you characterize your relationship with the religious right, and with religious right leaders?

Answer: Our Constitutional view is very different from that of the religious right. They seek a kind of theocracy, or a government run along religious lines, while we believe the Constitution was never meant to promote such things in America.

When it comes to personalities, it is just like anything – you always get along with some people better than others. I had a very frosty relationship with the late Jerry Falwell. We had hundreds of debates, but never felt much of a personal connection. On the other hand I have met James Dobson and Pat Robertson many times and might even share a laugh with them. I have been invited three times to Pat Robertson’s Regent University; I judged a moot court competition there last year.

Of course we do have disagreements. Pat Robertson always says that I said “If a church is on fire, the government should not put it out.” I did not say that.

We know where we stand. I respect the fact that they are in an opposite place, and we don’t have to throw rocks through each other’s windows, but the freedom of the country is at stake, and that’s too important not to criticize their position.

Question: Have American politicians become more or less religious during the history of the United States?

Answer: I think the country, and that would include politicians, has become more religious. Yes, some people immigrated to America because of religious persecution, but a lot of the folks who came to the US originally came for the same reason as those who cross the river from Mexico: they wanted a better life and more opportunities.

I think people today think in a more nuanced way about religion and its role in public life. But politicians have learned it’s good to talk the generic “God talk” whether they understand it or not because people like to hear it. That's unfortunate. You can't listen to a speech in Washington without hearing "God bless America" at the end. Everybody says it, so everyone else thinks they need to say it too. It’s a cheap way to get the message across that “I'm a believer too.” If you walk the walk as a decent person, people notice, and you don't have to repeat your beliefs every time you are asked to say anything.

I find it odd that we've had three forums on faith from presidential candidates so far in this campaign, most recently over the weekend at Saddleback. Meanwhile we have not had one forum on science, not one forum on healthcare issues or medicine, not one devoted just to economics. Presidents don't have a religious function! This is a secular democracy – there is no religious role for presidents. We have other issues to discuss, and we are running out of months to do it.

Question: Do you see a shift in the religious right toward the centre, becoming less extreme, with organizations like Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church and Willow Creek?

Answer: The "religious right" is about 18% of the electorate, and has been since Ronald Reagan. The idea that there is this new huge number of evangelical Christians who didn’t vote for John Kerry or Al Gore, but might vote for Obama doesn’t seem realistic. I see no evidence that this group exists, but the Democratic party is certainly spending a lot of effort to find them.

I have been troubled for a long time about Republicans spending time reaching out to different religious groups, and now the Democrats are doing the same thing. Political parties reaching out to religious groups is a disturbing trend.

Most voters give candidates the benefit of the doubt. If they say “I am religious,” people don't need to know exactly what they believe each verse in Leviticus means. There is no crying need for that level of detail on the part of the people.

But some political parties seem to think we are about to select the country’s next pastor instead of its next president.

Barry Lynn is the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution’s religious liberty provisions since 1947.

In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

Prophetess of Health Reappears

Alita Byrd — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:45:26 -0700

More than 30 years after Ronald L. Numbers, one of the “founding fathers” of the Association of Adventist Forums, published Prophetess of Health, his controversial history on the health message of Ellen G. White, the book is being reprinted.

This new third edition features a new preface and two key documents that shed further light on Ellen White and her work.

Spectrum talks to historian of science Ron Numbers about the fuss kicked up in the Adventist Church and in his family when the book was first published, and how he thinks the new edition will be received.

Question: Why is Prophetess of Health being re-published after 32 years?

Answer: This third edition started out to be a 30th anniversary edition, but the publisher held it up because they are going to publish a new William Miller biography at the same time, and promote the books together.

This time around Prophetess of Health is being published by Eerdmans, which interestingly turned me down in the mid-70s when I was shopping for a publisher.

Now Eerdmans has a series of American religious biographies.

Two new appendices have been added to this edition: the first is transcripts of the trial of Elder Israel Dammon in 1845, and the second is an edited version of the 1919 Bible Conference – the parts that relate to Ellen White’s authority.

But back to your question, let me ask: Have you ever written a book?

You don’t want it to go out of print. Once you invest so much time, you are partial to seeing it circulate.

The book was out of print for several years, and I frequently got requests for it.

Question: How many books have you written altogether? How many copies have they sold?

Answer: Six, but if you include books I have edited, a couple of dozen.

I have no idea how many copies have been sold. My first book (which was published second) was Creation by Natural Law, and about 2,000 copies were sold. The Creationist has sold well, but Random House holds the rights and gets all the reports on numbers.

I think Harper & Row published either 5,000 or 7,500 copies of Prophetess of Health.

Spectrum inherited some of the remaindered copies of that book, to be used for promotional purposes.

Question: What led you to write Prophetess of Health?

Several factors converged about the same time.

I spent my first year out of graduate school teaching at Andrews University and came to know Bill Peterson, Don McAdams, Herold Weiss, and a few others who were interested in this stuff, which piqued my interest. My cousin Roy Branson was also there.

I went out to Loma Linda University after 15 months at Andrews because I was asked to teach at the medical school.

I was asked to design a course for medical students on science, medicine and Western thought from antiquity to the present. The class was two hours long.

These students had just got out of college, and the last thing they wanted was a remedial course on medical history. It was a disaster. Before I had even started on the first day, a student circulated a flyer to the class, petitioning to get rid of such a ridiculous requirement.

I decided if I had to teach there for another year, I at least had to make the subject more interesting. So I thought I would research the importance of the health message for the Adventist church. At first I was just going to prepare four lectures for my course.

But that was the beginning of the book.

Question: There was controversy between yourself and the White Estate about the book. What was the primary conflict?

Answer: The so-called conflict evolved over time. At first there was no problem. The White Estate was as open with me as anybody else – not particularly open, but not hostile either.

But after I had written several chapters, somebody leaked them. The White Estate saw that what I was writing was going to be a contextual study, not an apologetic one, and that scared Arthur White and some others. After that he went out of his way to make sure I didn’t get crucial material.

I was a historian – a young one, but still a historian – convinced that context was absolutely crucial, so I had a predilection to look at contemporary influences, and context, instead of just saying something came straight from God. I didn’t think it was appropriate for a historian to appeal to the supernatural. I didn’t care whether anyone else believed or not, but it was not appropriate for me. I started out with: How much can I explain without invoking God? Of course that got me into trouble in some quarters.

Early on I discovered some books in the Loma Linda library on health reform. Some books from John Harvey Kellogg’s library were kept locked in the librarian’s office and one had to get permission to inspect them.

In one of those books, I saw that Kellogg had made marginal notations in a distinctive – if not unique – handwriting. I couldn’t find anyone to tell me what kind of shorthand he was using, but it had some numbers. After a while (and this is why my Andrews experience was so important) I thought: I bet these pages refer to Ellen White’s writings. After a week or two of research, I found they matched an out-of-print book, I think it was called Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, from 1890. When I located the references, I found that the content of those passages from the (older) book belonging to John Harvey Kellogg and the Ellen White passages were the same.

That is called "double inspiration."

I thought: No one does this just once.

I was friends with Vern Carner in Loma Linda’s School of Religion, and he is the one who talked me into writing a book. I thought the Church wouldn’t publish it, and no one outside the Church would be interested, but Vern said he would “guarantee” to find me a good publisher.

He did.

But he screwed me at the same time, too.

He had made contact with Harpers about a book called The Roots of Adventism - which was my idea.

I suffered bitterly for a few days, but it all turned out okay, because he got the door open for my book on Ellen White.

The Church held up publication of the book for six months, while the White Estate assembled a team of researchers to check everything.

They went to New York to convince Harper & Row not to publish it, but told the editor not to show me any of their criticism, because it would annoy me.

The publisher saw no sense in that, and eventually a compromise was reached where Richard Schwarz of Andrews University and Ron Graybill came to Madison to take me through their line-by-line criticism. They were right, it did make me irritated.

The White Estate had thought they could destroy Harper’s confidence in the manuscript enough so they wouldn’t have to face me again.

As the three of us went through the book manuscript I adopted a rule of thumb: if I could convince one of them that I was correct and the point was valid, I would leave it in, but if both Schwarz and Graybill disagreed with me, I would take it out.

One upsetting thing was that Schwarz had written a response to the manuscript for the White Estate based on an early draft. After we combed through the manuscript, I made a lot of changes that the White Estate was asking for. But when Schwarz reviewed the book for Spectrum, he based his review on the early draft. I got no credit for all the changes I made.

One interesting note: I was in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins when Graybill was studying for his PhD. He used to come up every week and stay with me. He spent the rest of the week working at the White Estate.

When my book came out, the White Estate sent him to campmeetings and college campuses to denounce me.

The most memorable phrase he used about me was: “A wildly irresponsible historian.”

The White Estate’s initial response to my study was a set of looseleaf notebooks, which they then condensed into a printed document and distributed widely, including to Harper’s. The publisher got his copy of this abstract just as he was going to some lecture, where he sat next to the religion editor of Time magazine. Bored with the talk, they started looking at the White Estate’s statement. The upshot was that Time devoted its entire religion section to my book.

So the White Estate’s response really helped. I could not have paid for that kind of publicity.

Question: Your book also caused controversy after it was published. How were you viewed in the Church?

Answer: I was disappointed with the response within the Adventist Church. I was getting pretty positive responses outside.

A reviewer for The Journal of American History called me and asked whether the book had been authorized by the Adventist Church. To non-Adventists the book appeared so benign; they couldn’t see why there would be any hullabaloo over it.

But Adventists by and large ran for cover, including some of my friends, which I wasn’t too happy about.

I lost my job. In the late spring of 1974, the board at Loma Linda voted not to retain me. I was on leave at the time at Johns Hopkins University doing a fellowship in the history of medicine.

On July 4 the chair of the board Neal Wilson – who was also a family friend – called and said: I guess you know you won’t be back.

But eventually a deal was negotiated: if I would write a letter of resignation, I would get a year’s severance pay.

Some poor historian down the road will be confused by this, I think.

For the second (paperback) edition of the book, Jonathan Butler wrote a very thoughtful historiographical introduction about the reaction to the book.

Question: Your family has a long church history – your father was a minister, your uncle was an administrator in the General Conference and your grandfather had been president of the General Conference. How divisive was your book in your family?

Answer: One of my uncles, Roger Wilcox, was asked to head up a General Conference committee to handle me.

I had fairly well-known Adventist relatives on both sides of my family.

Glenn Coon was my uncle on my father’s side. He just assumed that I had paid a publisher in order to get the book published. He offered me $10,000 to co-author his next book, if I would abandon my book. He was weird, but my favorite uncle.

For several years my father would not be seen in public with me. A few people contacted him and asked how he could be a minister in good standing if he couldn’t control own family. He took early retirement – he was thoroughly embarrassed.

My father had been left in a terrible situation when my study came out. He knew that I wouldn’t lie, but he knew what I was saying couldn’t be true. So in traditional Adventist thinking, he believed Satan had somehow got control of my mind. It was not a warm relationship.

And then I remember Spectrum published a cluster of reviews. One was by my friend Fritz Guy, who ventured into psycho-biography, suggesting I had ventured into this as a reaction to the rigid religion of my father. That hurt my father. And it wasn’t true. We disagreed a lot, but we always had totally open communication. My father was getting it from both the conservatives and the liberals.

And my mother about that time was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which of course some of the brethren attributed to the terrible experience of my leaving the church, or not accepting Ellen White. But the silver lining was that the experience of caring for my mother brought the family together – we forgot Ellen White and rallied around Mother.

Then Spectrum saved our relationship when Molleurus Couperus published transcripts of the 1919 Bible Conference that discussed the inspiration of Ellen White.

I had given my father a copy of Prophetess of Health, but I never saw it in the house.

But after the 1919 Bible Conference transcripts came out, I saw my book in the living room the next time I visited my parents’ house.

My father was so disappointed that church leaders had known about the questions surrounding Ellen White in the early 20th century, but had covered them up. It was the lack of courage two generations before that had made our family suffer.

My father passed away in 1983.

Question: Do you ever regret publishing the book?

Answer: No, I have no regrets.

Question: As you are a historian, what else can you tell us about your own history and relationship with the Seventh-day Adventist church?

Answer: I moved to Madison, Wisconsin in the fall of 1974, after losing my job at Loma Linda. My marriage was breaking up.

I thought maybe it would be good to attend the local church. I don’t know how orthodox I was then; I was largely motivated by a quest for historical continuity.

The principal of the junior academy in town had gone to my academy in Tennessee. He asked what I had been doing, and I told him I had been working on a book about Ellen White. He invited me to come and speak at the school. I said: No, I don’t think you would want that. He got scared, and talked to the local conference officials, who contacted the General Conference, which sent Robert Olson out to hold a series of meetings to expose the heresy in their midst.

I decided that if my presence was that disruptive, I wouldn’t have anything more to do with the Church.

Question: So you do not consider yourself an Adventist?

Answer: When Olson was here to hold the meetings, we met in the hallway. He said: Brother Numbers, do you believe that the investigative judgment began on October 22, 1844?

I said something flip like: I don’t know, and I don’t care.

He said: Then you are not really an Adventist.

He said it, so I thought then I may as well not act like one.

I don’t consider myself an Adventist, however I am still a member of the Loma Linda University Adventist church because I promised friends I would not voluntarily step down. They wanted to use me as a test case on failure to believe the spirit of prophecy.

It’s not that I never go into an Adventist church. My nephew is a minister, and I like to hear him speak.

But when I have to identify myself, I identify myself as an agnostic.

Question: What kind of reaction do you expect to get for the new edition of Prophetess of Health?

Answer: I really don’t know. I don’t expect much reaction from Adventists.

But the subject of Ellen White has made its way into American religious history. When the second edition (paperback) of Prophetess of Health came out, some people teaching American religious history used it.

Maybe some Adventist schools will use the book. I am a very bad judge of the current temperature of Adventism. Friends of mine tell me that what I said is now largely passé, but then I pick up some books that suggest nothing has happened historiographically since the 70s. My own feeling is that among Adventist academics the book has had a fair amount of influence, but that influence has not gone very deep, to the people in the pew. Maybe this is my chance to go to campmeetings!

I do expect Eerdmans to promote Prophetess of Health and the William Miller book together, as they are hoping to get a little synergy out of the two biographies. I am just happy to get it in print. Authors like to see their books in print.

Question: How long did it take you to write Prophetess of Health?

Answer: It took 15 months to write the book. Since my second year of teaching at Loma Linda had been reduced to just four lectures, I really had a year to write the book full time. I have never been as consumed as I was writing that book. I will never write another book as exhilarating and life-changing.

Question: You have written extensively on the conflict between religion and science. Do you consider that your primary work? How does Prophetess of Health fit in there?

Answer: A lot of non-Adventists wouldn’t even know that I “dabbled” in religious history.

I went through all the standard histories of religion in America in the period. Ellen White almost never appeared in anything. But after the mid-70s she became known. No one had written a scholarly book on her before my book was published. I had thought it would be hard to get published because there was no interest.

But by the time I was looking for a publisher, the fringes were becoming mainstream. People were interested in Mormons, Shakers and Adventists more than they were interested in Episcopalians and Baptists. So it came along at a good time historiographically. For years Prophetess of Health has been the only non-apologetic place to go for information about Ellen White.

Several acquaintances have talked about writing “the big biography.” Several Adventist historians have threatened or promised to write a biography, but all have fallen by the wayside.

I left so much out – I only focused on her work as health reformer.

Recently I met with several Adventist historians — Julius Nam, Terrie Aamodt, and Gary Land — about collaborating on a biographical project, where we would each focus on a different aspect of White’s career. It wasn’t my idea, but I remain interested in Ellen White.

Question: So what about your other work? How would you characterize yourself and your career?

Answer: I guess I would say I am a fairly decent redneck historian; a country historian from Southern Missionary College.

I am most interested in the history of science, and am currently president of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science.

Right now I am trying to finish an eight-volume Cambridge history of science. I am also writing a history of science in America, which is driving me crazy.

I have an edited book, called Galileo Goes To Jail and Other Myths in Science and Religion, coming out from Harvard University Press next year, which should attract some attention.

Question: This seems to be a good time to be publishing on science and religion. Look at Richard Dawkins.

Answer: I’m a flea compared to Dawkins. He sold something like a million copies before going into paperback?

No historian of Adventism is going to get rich or famous.

Ronald L. Number is a Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin.

Note: To mark the republication of Prophetess of Health, Spectrum also published a classic review of the book from a cluster of reviews originally published in 1977. You can also buy the new edition of Prophetess of Health from Amazon and support Spectrum with your purchase.