For the sake of accuracy, I was not asked to remove the word "Adventist" from my blog--probably because it wasn't in the title. I was, however, asked to remove the church logo from a post that was critical of changes to the logo's presentation. In the comments on that post, Jared Wright said he had been hassled over his "the Adventists" MySpace page, and Stan Jensen of unOfficial Worldwide Adventist Forum told some other interesting stories.

But back to the topic, I appreciate your concern and have myself been looking in vain for some clarification regarding Nkunda's relation to my church. Thank you for raising this issue.

David Hamstra
apokalupto

How do you spell H Y P O C R I S Y ?

The special ownership claimed for "Adventist" should not be copyrighted, as "Adventist" is already in the name of several other churches, and its meaning is too generic to copyright, or so it would seem.

I don't thnik we know enough to make a judgment. It could be that making a public statment would place practicing Seventh-day Adventists in Nkunda's region in real danger.

However, the history of the Church is that it is might slow
and less than forthright on some sensitive issues and mighty quick to act on others.

Right now the Church is more turtle like. Tom

My Dear Alexander Capenter, We all have the luxury of comenting on this matters in the comfort of our homes in the west or in some other peaceful parts of the world. Nkunda Happens to be a Tutsi living in a region that is surrounded by the genocidal forces of the FDLR, this said forces are responsible for the genocide in rwanda where they killed one million tutsi in three months, a rate faster than the Nazis. You are right, Nkunda is a pastor. That being the case i dont think any human being (pastor included) can seat idly by and watch his people get slaughtered.
As a pastor you tend to your flock but you have to protect them from the wolves and indeed Nkunda is fighting off the wolves of the Congo.
In conclusion, being an adventist pastor doesn't render him a spectator in the slaughter of the tutsi people.

If this man were a Catholic or a Catholic priest how would many Adventists portray him and the Church? Don't Adventists often criticize the Catholic Church for past actions of Catholics in just such situations? When confronted with this situation Adventists seem rather reluctant to use the same standard they use for Catholics.

From ANN

The Adventist Church's statement also addressed media reports claiming that Laurent Nkunda, leader of the National Council for the Defense of the People, is affiliated with the church. Although at times the Tutsi general has chosen to attend an Adventist church, he is neither an Adventist pastor nor an active church member. "His conduct and reported involvement in the conflict do not represent Adventist values and lifestyle," the statement said.

--

Reading between the lines, it would appear Nkunda is a member, but has had minimal involvement with the church since baptism. My guess is they were hoping to get his membership dropped before releasing this statement. It must be exciting times at the church where his membership is held.

Also, it's nice to know he's fibbing about the pastor bit.

David Hamstra
apokalupto

Yep, the Church has just put out a statement today.

Official press release from the World Headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church®.

Silver Spring, Maryland, United States - Silver Spring, Maryland, United States - The Seventh-day Adventist Church expresses its grave concern about the ongoing violence in North-Eastern Congo, which continues to bring loss of life, misery and suffering to innocent men, women and children. The church is concerned about the well-being of its members and the operation of the church’s organizations in the region, and is equally concerned about the worsening humanitarian
situation in Congo and elsewhere in the region. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people live in fear, and are displaced and homeless.

Seventh-day Adventists join the calls on all those engaged in the conflict in Congo to cease military activities and resort to peaceful methods of resolving any issues that might be causing the hostilities. Dialogue and negotiations are preferable to violence and the cry for war.

The church also urges the international community to intensify efforts to end the crisis. Christian, moral and ethical principles of human rights and good faith negotiations that are fair to all concerned prompts this appeal.

Apart from its commitment to participate in humanitarian response, the church also calls upon all those who are touched by the war situation in Congo to respond sympathetically to
alleviate suffering and misery in the region.

Some media reports have claimed General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the National Council for the Defense of the People is affiliated with the church. He never served as a Seventh-
day Adventist pastor. While at times he has chosen to attend the church, he is not regarded as an active church member. His conduct and reported involvement in the conflict does not
represent Adventist values and lifestyle.

I'd like to thank Ray Dabrowski, International Director of the Communication Department of the General Conference for sending this over for the Spectrum readers. He writes: ". . .the situation in the region makes it extremely difficult and dangerous to verify many of the facts. Reporting on and repeating statements on such a grave situation as the war in Congo requires sensitivity and discretion.

I hope the Spectrum readers will be interested in seeing that the church is not...silent."

In a phone call, Elder Dabrowski stated that this press release will also be sent to the major news wire services.

I'm sorry, but my dear Michael, you're wrong about Gen. Nkunda being a "pastor." He has no credentials and if you watched the documentary, what he seems to do hardly follows Christ's example not to mention the message of Matthew 5.

Second, are you really suggesting that a Christian pastor should use violence in the face of not just the ethnic violence you note, but also, if you watched the documentary, intense grabbing for mineral resources?

I just don't see any evidence that Christ, our model Shepherd, personally did or advocated "fighting off the wolves" by displacing 250,000 people, killing hundreds, raping women, and using ethnicity as a justification. My dear Michael, what sort of Biblical hermeneutic are you using to justify your ethic?

Thanks for the update.

Just thinking out loud:

Let's say that although Nkunda is not a pastor, but that his situation is as Micheal describes it; his people are being unjustly slaughtered and he does not want to passively sit around and watch it happen.

What would be the active Christian thing to do, if it not to fight back?

I'm reminded of another activist, often lauded in Christian circles--Dietrich Bonhoeffer. During WWII, he was originally a pacificst, but changed his stance and got arrested for attempting to assassinate Hitler. This, some would argue, was the appropriate "Christian" thing to do, as Hilter and his atrocities were so clearly evil.

(We sell Bonhoeffer books and documentaries at the ABC!)

What would be the difference between Nkunda and Bonhoeffer? The number of people they are targeting?

I appreciate the press release from the G.C. Thank you Alex for pushing this.

Thanks you Alex for the up-date. One thing we should remember is that tribalism is not dead even within the SDA church.
A couple of threads on this site should settle that issue once and for all. Tom

In the midst of the hypotheticals here, if anyone wants to watch the Blood Coltan (2008) documentary about what is actually fueling part of this conflict, and to get a deeper picture of Gen. Nkunda beyond this false fight back meme, here's the fifty minute film we posted on Nov. 11.

Was the Rwandan genocide justified because the ringleaders also claimed it to be a defensive act? The Hutus don't actually represent a treat. It's just a pretense. Of course, the National Socialist Party also claimed to merely be saving a group.

I think that Zane raises an interesting question, but the facts on the ground in Congo make it hard to me to see Nkunda as even a hypothetical equal to Bonhoeffer. (Perhaps a more evidence-rich similarly-aimed hypothetical might include comparing the effectiveness and moral motivation of the USA vs. Bonhoeffer in getting rid of Hitler?)

As the news reports and the IRC, the ICC, Human Rights Watch and the documentary show, there's more to this than Michael's meme of Nkunda as reluctant defender. Displacing 250,000 people, not to mention the roundly condemned Nkunda-driven violence and death seems to hurt more people (yes) as well as help fewer than Boenhoeffer's plan. As several news items note, he has moved beyond the pretense of ethnic protection and sees a chance to take over the entire country of Congo.

http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/11/10/tutsi_leader_congolese_rebel...

TIME writes:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1855309,00.html?xid=feed-c...

War, famine and disease have killed more than 5 million Congolese citizens in the past decade and it's hard not to lay a good part of the blame at the feet of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
...
Aid agencies and other critics call Nkunda a power-obsessed warlord whose troops have raped and terrorized civilians in a quest to control a part of Congo with rich farmland and valuable mineral deposits. Nkunda, of course, sees things differently. He professes to be a protector and liberator of ethnic Tutsis like himself, still hunted by Rwandan Hutus who crossed the border into Congo after the genocide of the mid-1990s.

In 2003, the Congolese government sketched out an agreement where rebels and militias would join together in a national army. Nkunda was eventually offered the post of general, but instead defected; he has been fighting for the disarmament of Rwandan Hutus in eastern Congo ever since. Despite the 2006 election of a democratic government — not to mention the presence of 18,000 United Nations peacekeepers — efforts to achieve peace have been stymied, in part, because of Nkunda's resistance. His rebel group recently took over a national park that's a sanctuary for endangered gorillas, forcing park rangers to flee. Human Rights Watch has pleaded with the Congolese government to capture Nkunda and prosecute him for war crimes.

The BBC writes:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3786883.stm

He said he was protecting Congolese Tutsis, known as the Banyamulenge, from "genocide" - an emotive word following the slaughter by Hutu extremists of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda 10 years earlier.

Independent investigations confirmed that there had been some attacks on Banyamulenge in Bukavu, but not to the extent the general claimed.

Most local people believed it was all a pretext - his real objective was not the protection of the Banyamulenge - it was power.

Thanks for the clarification/information, Alex.

Bad analogy, on my part, with the Nkunda/Bonhoeffer analogy, and an apt illustration of how almost anything can be justified in the name of the greater good.

"And just so that we're clear on the message about us that the world is getting these days, here today's Asia Times echoing the same story:

Nkunda himself is a former Congolese Army officer, teacher and Seventh Day Adventist pastor. But killing seems to be what he is best at."

I believe that the world press has a better handle on it than this site does.

Notice the words "Former" and the 3 types of "former" after it. "Congolese Army officer, teacher and Seventh Day Adventist pastor."

Ony here does it seem there is confucion about his state as a former Adventist.

That is not to say there is no confusion to be found anywhere. That is to say that what is presented as evidence of confusion here is not good evidence to support that conclusion.

Dear Alexander Capenter, I totally understand where you are coming from; it's hard trying to make sence of all the atrocities committed in the Kivu region and further try to ascertain the guilty in the matter.
I'm currentely working out of Goma with an NGO but my first posting was in the Ituri region. Needless to say i've seen enough atrocities and further treated the victims in my capacity as a medical personell.
In the last 12yrs the Kivu area has Morphed into a baberic zone and this changes were brought upon mostly by the FDLR forces with their modus operadi(rape).
Nkunda has cleared the FDLR off the areas he controls and trust me, rape cases have decreased drastically compared to the areas the government controls.
The FDLR have been a reson d'etre for Nkunda and the government of Joseph Kabila knows that but instead of getting rid of the FDLR, Kabila has joined them in fighting Nkunda.
When the government fought Nkunda in Masisi, i was personally searched at a road block manned by both the FDLR and government solders. This unholly collusion has been to the detriment of the Congolese army as they get painted by the same genocidal brush of the FDLR.
I watched the coltan documetary and i can't help it but concur that multinationals are taking advantage of this war on both sides; the Chinese on Kabila's side and the west on Nkunda's side.
By the way, i'm not letting Nkunda off the hook on his part in this war but from my experience the FDLR,Mai Mai and the government forces are more baberic in the regards to atrocities committed.

Thank you, Michael S, for your on-the-ground assessment of the situation. I've been thinking along similar lines and have shared my concern in an earlier thread devoted to this.

First, I believe that Gen Nkunda's self identification both as a Seventh-day Adventist and a Pentecostal Christian should be taken seriously. It's fairly common for many Africans, those I've met, to hold dual denominational allegiance - akin to dual citizenships. Incidentally, the DRC population is composed of 50% Catholic, 20% Protestant Christians, and 10% Kimbanguist (indigenous Christian).

Second, because this thread and the previous one have focused more on the general's denominational affiliation and the need for church officials to dissociate our stand from the rebellion, we seem to have failed to note the alleged covert involvement of the U.S. government. The same source Alex cited alleges that the conflict between Tutsi and Hutu was, from start,

‘an undeclared war between France and America. By supporting the build up of Ugandan and Rwandan forces and by directly intervening in the Congolese civil war, Washington also bears a direct responsibility for the ethnic massacres committed in the Eastern Congo including several hundred thousand people who died in refugee camps... The civil war in Rwanda and the ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives.’

Continuing,

"If France was the covert target of US ‘surrogate warfare’ in 1994, today it is clearly China, which is the real threat to US control of Central Africa’s vast mineral riches."

- China and the Congo Wars: AFRICOM. America's New Military Command by F. William Engdahl
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11173

This is turning into an interesting thread.

Michael S. I really appreciate your perspective here, it reminds me that worse doesn't make bad better on either side. It does seem that Nkunda is getting a lot of attention in the media. It makes me wonder, why?

Zane, the larger question you raise about justifiable violence remains unanswered and that's to our moral peril. One vs. many - is that an ethic?

Joselito, I think that you're spot on with the syncretism analysis.

www.drainmag.com/index_nov.htm (Great issue of Drain on the subject in art.)

I've heard several Africa and religion researchers talk about religious syncretism, including in the Adventist context. This includes joining multiple denominations, attending church on Saturdays and Sundays. All those baptism numbers we hear from evangelists who fly in and out - they are not mutually exclusive. It's not as zero sum in "Other" places.

Here's a post from some evangelical folks that helpfully lists some examples of what they call a "problem":

* There was 'Chrislam' in Nigeria - an attempt to marry Christianity and Islam.

* There was Bishop Milingo in Zambia who had to be recalled to the Vatican when his healing ministry overstepped the mark by the use of 'animistic ritual and paraphernalia. '

* There was Kimbangu in central Africa who founded the largest independent denomination in Africa - 5 Million in 1984. One researcher found that Kimbangu's name replaces that of the Holy spirit in many Kimbanguists hymns.

* There is what I call 'double think.' This is the tendency by African Christians to hold two or more contradictory world views without any major torment of the soul. This paradigm for instance, allows many African Christians to refuse to countenance voting for someone from a different ethnic group while at the same time espousing the Christian virtue of the equality of all people. A similar dynamic is at play I believe, when Christians are accused of participating in ethnic cleansing if not abetting it.

http://www.philipproject.org.uk/about-the-project/the-vision

From what I understand, our 28th belief was adopted in part to deal with similar "spiritual realities" as mention in bullet number two above. And number four seems to get at some of the on-the-ground realities that Michael S. raises.

But should think of this as a "problem with a solution?"

Perhaps, we need to think about the ways that Christians in all cultures and times - especially the first century AD, as well as through Catholic and Protestant missionary activity and in each of our own contexts - mix and match beliefs and practices.

Adventism itself is highly syncretistic particularly within Protestantism, with the early Adventists combining beliefs and practices from a lot of different churches, health movements, and education philosophies. This continues today.

One man's syncretism is another women's purifying teleologically driven remnant is another person's (intra?) ecumenism.

Would the Shouting Adventists might understand what Gen. Nkunda means? And how might that inform our discussion of ethnic violence?

Alex,

I wasn't thinking of religious syncretism in connection with Nkunda's dual denominational allegiance, regarding his claim of being both a Seventh-day Adventist and a Pentecostal Christian. Nevertheless, what we label as syncretism, others describe as contextualization, accommodation, incarnation, inculturation, indigenization or folk Christianity (Africanization). It happened in first century Christianity, among Gentile converts.

- Reference & Research Book News, Feb, 2008
Christian remnant--African folk church; Seventh-Day Adventism in Tanzania, 1903-1980.
Hoschele, Stefan.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QLQ/is_2008_Feb/ai_n24355122?tag...

With regards to Nkunda's appropriation of religious symbols, I believe he's following in the footsteps of Kwame Nkrumah's earlier counterhegemonic struggle in the Gold Coast (Ghana).

- "I am a non-denominational Christian and a Marxist socialist:" a Gramscian analysis of the Convention People's Party and Kwame Nkrumah's use of religion
Sociology of Religion, Winter, 2003 by Rupe Simms

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_/ai_112357733?tag=artBody...

Having read the comments made here appotioning some form of blame or defense for the SDA Church, I am amazed at the lack of the forgetfullness os some of us. As SDAs why should we even defend a person that murders whether in name of The Lord or not? Our home is not here! When the Lord was being hussled to be tried, those who felt it neccessary to use the sword were rebuked and silenced. Now as SDAs we must pray for the souls of both sides to see sense in settling the matter in a manner that Christ would have wanted,"put off your sword". SDAs would not kill to make a statement. The day they shall do so, it would be unChristlike and they will be judged accordingly not by us but by the Lord on His day. Being in South Africa, one has learnt to accept the teachings of Christ as the only foundation of all righteousness. We are better of as SDAs to focus on saving souls than silencing souls by death. I judge no one. Sikelela

Thank you, Sikelela!

Won't it be nice for the likes of Samuel Kooranteng-Pipim and Kwabena Donkor (of BRI), who are both Ghanaian Adventists, as well as African church officials and laypeople to join this conversation and enlighten us all?

"Before we blow millions of dollars sending out "Cosmic Conflict" and "Revelation Offers Hope" mailers during this coming year of Evangelism, we might take advantage of this inexpensive opportunity to clarify our ethics and pastoral image."

This is a good point. Here, in the news, is a free and easy chance to get the SDA name out and improve its image. Why not at least enter into the public discussion about Nkunda's faith? Why let media who don't know the SDA Church (and probably don't care much, either) tell the story?

Don't Adventists try to distance themselves from the violence at Waco? While the situation is more remote from US Adventists today, it still is something we can easily say, as the GC press release does, that rape and murder do not represent Adventist values.

The helpful next stage of the conversation would be not only to clarify Nkunda's relationship to the SDA Church (less strong than is reported) but also the relationship of Congolese and Rwandans on all sides of the conflict to their churches. No doubt there are SDA churchgoers among the FDLR as well as the CNDP. The GC press release is a good step in this direction, toward addressing the violence as despicably un-Christian (regardless of justifications), the conflict as complex, and the role of the Church as one of seeking a new Way through troubles besides taking up arms.

Wow! What an interesting and appropriate thread, cutting to key issues of our time!

We must protect the name Seventh-day Adventists. Anybody involved in creating mayhem and torture should be clearly and forthrightly repudiated by the the Seventh-day Adventist movement. Our work is as healers and peacemakers to help make God's graciousness character known.

What could Seventh-day Adventists do to moderate and mediate peace in Africa with other disciples of Love, Justice, and Healing

This should be a central objective of our movement in the Name of God.

We need to make common cause with humanitarians and peace makers. Men like Nkunda and his enemies need to be clearly demarcated from the Advent movement, but urged to become involved in peace and reconciliation---and, as appropriat--brought before courts of justice.

Such moves need to be supported by the Seventh-day Adventist Church along with other faith communities.

I thought the official statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was excellent, but in this age of the "flat earth", the church must not dilly dally, but act swiftly and surely to take a careful, ethical position.

Jim

I hope and I pray we would go beyond making public pronouncements, satisfied with distancing our denomination from Nkunda, who claims to be one of our own. The general must have other Adventist Christians under his command. How about offering humanitarian aid and protection to his people and those he may not consider his own, especially Hutu women, children and the elderly?

The Huns sacked Rome because they were hungry. They came down from the North seeking protection from other pillaging Northern tribes. The Romans promised protection, land, and food; if the young men would join the Roman legions. Which they did. The Romans withheld the land and the food. The young men having learned warfare turned on the Romans and defeated them with their own weapons and tactics.

The best way to prevent and curb insurrection is to feed, heal, house, and protect the vulnerable. Furthermore, it should not be a requirement of who gets the credit. Humanitarianism is not a creed, it is a given of the entire Christian community.

I have had to watch native children die, because the U.S. Army demanded its medical personnel be available for Uniformed Troops only. Probably a necessity in the time of war. But what we are witnessing across the third world is
genocide.

To deny the label of a warrior chief as SDA is not enough.
To deny protect and humanitiarian relief is to be no different that the warlord.

We, a decade or so ago, went into the horn of Africa, big time, and now we have pirates big time. Problem solving is not always just a desk job or a tour of duty.

We are seeing the whirlwinds of benign neglect of Colonialism and of head counting evangelism with little or no compassion for the people at the bottom of the societal ladder.

It used to be "Rice Christians" now it is just dunked natives with hollow bellies.

We unload a plane of food and let the warlords take it as bounty and we go home pleased with ourselves.

Yes when the roll is called up yonder, we will be cited as much of the problem as some blood thirsty mad man.

Just one story. We accepted a native of South East Asia into the LLU Dental School. The object was for him to return to "help" his people. He graduated and opened his office on
Rodeo Dr.

A classmate went back to South East Asia and treated the Diplomatic Corp. Dental treatment in the villages remains: If it hurts, Put a stout stick on it and hit the other end of the stick with a rock! The crown breaks off and allows the pus to drain out--the pain is relieved--soon the "patient" has a mouth full of roots draining pus. " We've come a long way baby!" Tom

I thought the article cited by --Joselito Coo -

I am a non-denominational Christian and a Marxist socialist:" a Gramscian analysis of the Convention People's Party and Kwame Nkrumah's use of religion

Was very insightful - underlining the fact that issues are so much more complex than most people are willing to acknowledge. I wish the church would begin a study as to the messages being spoken from the various SDA churches in Rwanda during the years leading up to the Rwandan Genocide - from the pulpit - minutes - articles - memo's - letters - interview individuals - to try and understand how God's message of love and care for each other may have been misunderstood - misused - so as not to repeat the mistake in the future - and to go back and correct the message that was given in the past to create new understanding. Help the leaders realize how they may have been a party to what took place. Then take this new knowledge and try and tell this story to other countries who may fall into the same trap if they are not made aware of what is taking place.
Ellen

Dear Ellen Brodersen, what can i say; you are bang on!. You hit the nail on the head. The churgh is busy trying to disassociate with General Nkunda when the root of the problem commenced in Rwanda in 1994 where the church was used to disseminate a message of hate and where some of it's leaders were and are still implicated in the genocide.
If you want to cleanse the church, please start where it really went wrong; THE 1994 GENOCIDE IN RWANDA.

Ellen and Michael

You are obviously corrent on the immediate antecedents.

However, The Seventh-day Adventist Church didn't invent the genre. It goes back at least to the Puritans, Cottom Mather, and to the Spanish in South America.

The mind-set, your either with us or your damnned--is not unknown even on this Web-site.

Even Jesus is known to have wept and for good reasons.

The ones who should know and understand the most, are the first at the ramparts of hate, genocide, and plunder. Tom