Washington Post Obit | Kenneth Wood
25 June 2008
Washington Post Obit | Kenneth Wood
Today's Washington Post prints an obit on Adventist editor, Kenneth H. Wood.
Kenneth H. Wood, 90, an influential former editor of Adventist Review, a national publication of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and a longtime elder of the church, died May 25 of congestive heart failure at a ManorCare nursing facility in Potomac. He lived in Silver Spring.
Mr. Wood was an Adventist pastor for several years but spent most of his career in administrative and editorial positions within the church, which has its world headquarters in Silver Spring.
For the past 28 years, he had been chairman of the board of the Ellen G. White Estate, a church archive that oversees the publications and spiritual legacy of a co-founder of the church. White wrote hundreds of devotional books and other publications that have had a formative effect on the development of the Adventist faith. Mr. Wood edited and updated many of those writings.
His greatest influence on the day-to-day activities of his 15 million-member church, however, came during his 16 years as editor of Adventist Review, a weekly journal that reflects and sometimes confronts the church's official views. Mr. Wood was the magazine's top editor from 1966 to 1982.
The Review has long been a "parallel source of influence" in the church, said its editor, Bill Knott. In the late 1960s, Mr. Wood navigated the publication through shifting cultural currents and raised issues of civil rights and equality that occasionally challenged the church's conservative hierarchy.
"I looked on the church paper as a voice to influence the church rather than just a mouthpiece reflecting what was happening in it," Mr. Wood said in an interview in Adventist Review in January. "It needs to be a trumpet giving a good sound and having a powerful influence."
Mr. Wood was known as a graceful writer and sensitive editor whose skill with words helped shape the thinking of generations of Seventh-day Adventists. In 1975, he wrote an editorial endorsing gender-inclusive language in church publications, and two years later, he hired the first female assistant editor of the Review. He was credited with helping open the ranks of church leadership to women, African Americans and other historically excluded minorities.
"His legacy was one of courage and of clarity as a writer," Knott said. "In many ways, I see Kenneth Wood in keeping with the early editors of the 1840s and 1850s. The magazine was founded by ardent abolitionists, and Wood brought back that courage. It has served us very well."
When doctrinal disputes erupted in the evangelical church, which holds worship services on Saturday, Mr. Wood saw himself as "a defender of the faith." He cleared articles with church leaders discussing church policy and doctrine.
"I tried to call the church to account where I felt it had strayed," he said in January, "but I am very much against anybody who tears it down."
Mr. Wood was born Nov. 5, 1917, in Shanghai, where his parents were missionaries. He lived in China until he was 15 and graduated in 1938 from Pacific Union College, an Adventist school in Angwin, Calif.
He and his new bride then spent four years leading tent revival meetings in California's San Joaquin Valley. After studying at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, then in Takoma Park, Mr. Wood served as a church pastor in Charleston, W.Va., and Cleveland.
In 1947, he became a church administrator in New Jersey before coming to Takoma Park as regional director of Sabbath school and lay activities in 1951.
Mr. Wood developed an early interest in publishing and edited campus publications in college. He joined the staff of Adventist Review in 1955 and, in the late 1950s, received a master's degree in Greek and systematic theology from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.
He wrote several books of essays on religious thought and, with his wife, wrote a biography of F.D. Nichol, his predecessor as editor of Adventist Review.
He traveled throughout the world and credited his long life to the abstemious health and dietary regimens of his Adventist faith.
"I'm a vegetarian," he said in the January interview. "I live a very disciplined life when it comes to rest and eating a balanced diet."
His wife of 69 years, Miriam Wood, died March 16.
Survivors include two daughters, Janet Stoehr of Silver Spring and Carole Xander of Gainesville, Fla.; a sisters; seven grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.
Confronts official views? It's not that I don't believe it, but I trying to think of an example. Anyone?
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Elder Wood
was a gentle man with a sharp pen. The best one can say about Ken is Miriam. She was the Dear Abby of Adventism. She held the middle ground with good faith and a gentle humor that balanced Ken's critical mass. Tom
"I looked on the church paper as a voice to influence the church rather than just a mouthpiece reflecting what was happening in it," Mr. Wood said in an interview in Adventist Review in January. "It needs to be a trumpet giving a good sound and having a powerful influence."
Wow! It's hard to believe Elder Wood was talking about the same magazine that I've encountered today. If any publication reflects the currents within mainstream Adventism, and is more of a mouthpiece for the "official line" than the Review, I don't know what it is.
"In the late 1960s, Mr. Wood navigated the publication through shifting cultural currents and raised issues of civil rights and equality that occasionally challenged the church's conservative hierarchy."
This, along with his personal vision of the Review, sounds more like the present role of Spectrum and AT.
Thanks...
frank
Everything should be in context.
Ken Wood was a breath of fresh air compared to F. D. Nichols, and Newfeld et al. The current editorial staff is still trying to find its voice. of course, they have Jan Paulsen rather than Arthur White, Robert Piersen, and Neal Wilson to whom to report. What a blessing to thinkers and writers.
If Barnhouse/Martin/Brinsmead/Ford were a threat--consider the post-modern generation of questioners. No history, no format, no vision, just in your face! At least the "beat generation" had a reason--we'll do in the mud what our parents are doing in the Holiday Inn.
Yes there will be a final generation and it will be much like Noah's generation. Tom
Tom,
If thinkers and writers were to approach Jan Paulsen with the same type of issues as the "Glacier View generation" was dealing with, what do you honestly think would happen? Not that this would even happen today, it seems that other issues have become more pressing to our thought leaders.
Thanks...
Frank
Frank
I think Glacier View is the third rail. That is why the wide range of peripheral issues being raised today. Nobody wants to be 'waterboarded" again.
The blessed few are the ones who dusted off their shoes and went on their way--into established churches.
The tactic today is to pick a far out issue and ride it into the sunset wearing a "White" hat. Be a maverick but branded.
Be sure and quote someone who no body has read or understands
then leave your reader to ponder where you stand on the issue. It will get you tenure everytime--even a few publications. Of course, if questioned: quote Selected Messages, or an obscure Review Article by E.G.W. either before or after 1888. Never under any circumstance refer to the Bible Conference of 1919 it still rates at least 220 volts with enough amps to kill a career. Tom
Thanks, Tom!
You just answered my question concerning just how blessed our thinkers and writers are today under Jan Paulsen as opposed to yesteryear.
Frank
The Review is still an antidote for hypotension.
Frank
I want to add to my earlier comments. The issue is over the proprietary claim that Seventh-day Adventists make over 3 or 4 Scriptures. Dan. 8: 14; Rev. 14: 6-12; Rev. 19: 10; and to some extent Heb. 9: 11-15.
One does not have to be a Biblical scholar to demonstrate that these claims are without merit. One merely has to avail themselves of three or four good translations to find the "spin" that Seventh-day Adventists put on these texts are
contrived or at the least misunderstood by some very disappointed souls in the aftermath of Oct. 22, 1844.
Dan 8:14 was fully explored At Glacier View. Rev. 19:10 is no affirmation of Ellen G. White as God's prophet for the last days. Heb. 9: 11-15 is not a description of what Jesus did on Oct. 22, 1844--see Phil 2: 5-8. Rev. 14: The Three Angels message certainly predates 1844--If the primary message is the Everlasting Gospel, and the Final message is the fall of Babylon. Satan was vanquished at the Cross. He offered "his" kingdom to Jesus during the three temptations. Jesus rejected the offer and "won" the Kingdom when he cried out "It is Finished" Read Ps. 24 to rejoice in the crowning.
These are the "hot spots" that must be avoided or spun.
The Sabbath question is a derivative of the Most Holy Place
scenario.
So scholars have to look high and low in order to "find" a topic that will not impinge on any of the above. Now they have ventured int universalism to be "fresh" yet so far out of the pale as to be no threat to the 28 fundamental beliefs or the power structure of the Church, which is held by administrators not scholars--scholars blinked at Glacier View and lost what little influence they had. They tried to recapture that little power with Consultation I and II to no avail, Now they are marginalized as much as social scientists. (Unless of course they are scripted) Tom
At Glacier View the administrators retained the subjective justification the SDA Church had held, and rejected the light of the 1970s Awakening which was justification IN Christ and not IN man. As Adventists were denying truth, Pentecostalism burst its banks and overflowed into Catholic and mainline Protestant Churches, growing over time into the great Charismatic mega churches of today while true believers have wandered in the wilderness for almost 40 years . This false revival, false latter rain , is the fire coming down from heaven IN THE SIGHT OF MEN . THIS TRAGIC RESULTS CONFIRMS THE TRUTH OF THE 1970S.
Sin began when Lucifer who was beautiful - God made him that way - became focused on his beauty - God`s work in his person- rather then on God who did the work. The focus of most of Christianity today is on man and his experience .
Our religion began 4,000 years ago when God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees which was in Old Babylonia. Abraham was called out of Babylon . In the Ancient tongue Babylon means GATE OF GOD. In the Bible it means confusion because of the tower of Babel where the language was confused. But it was the people who were confused, believing that they could get to heaven by building this tower.BABYLON IS A CONFUSED WAY TO HEAVEN .
Our religion ends by God calling His people out of Babylon/confusion, Revelation 18:1-4 .
Christ must be lifted up in all His glory causing every knee to bow and every tongue to confess, ending 6,000 years of sin . Our focus must be on Him and His righteousness .
Best, Jack D. Walker
Thanks Jack
I am sure you are well acquainted with Edward Heppenstall's book "The Man Who Is God" A ringing paragraph out of the Preface reads: " The sufficiency of Christ as Lord and Savior is tied to His purpose and work for sinful man alienated from God. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the hinge on which man's history turns, and on which his destiny depends." This book is now out of print, yet the book "Why Jesus Waits" remains a living testimony to your commentary.
As you must recall, Heppenstall was answered with a scathing rebuke: "In Sorrow, and Not in Anger".
Christian Charity was at a very low ebb in those days. Now we have a return to "My Way or the Highway" editorial slant from
significant writers and editors in Adventism.
Both Dispensationalists and Adventism speak with glee of their views of final vindication of "some" men not God.
That mind set infects many otherwise seemingly rational leaders.
What ever happened to: "My Hope is Built On Nothing Less, than Jesus Blood and Righteousness"; Or "Nothing in my Hand I Bring, Only to the Cross I cling"? Tom
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