This is my reaction to my first assigned reading for the class "Scripture" (HONS 214H) at Andrews University.

"All human communities live out of some story that provides a context for understanding the meaning of history and gives shape and direction to their lives."

[The following is a transcription of the handwritten journal entry I spent the latter portion of my afternoon writing:]

I have another strand of thought regarding this "Ven diagram of experience" idea [from earlier today in my journal]. Connect it with me, if you will, with the idea of a "liberal education."

This past week, I had the privilege to speak at SDA Kinship’s Kampmeeting in Reston, Virginia. My message was titled, “Building Blocks of Community: Forgiveness” and touched on my personal experience with community and forgiveness as a homosexual male within the Adventist Church.

Over the Meadow of Life hath the sun awaken
greeting the morrow’s grand splendor.
Around the earth Thy wondrous creation captivateth.

My heart yearns to know this Creator of majesty.
For Thou art the Ruler of the universe without Whom all things cease.
Flowers bloom to praise Thy glory and birds sing of Thy enduring love.

Israel sought to surrender to Thy will,
through bondage and enslavement
and into the Wilderness of Despair.

Like sheep gone astray along the Meadow of Life.
Like Israel of yore, we are bound to our own ways, O Lord.

The fourth commandment of God’s unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste of our eternal future in God’s kingdom.

Doctrine of the Sabbath, Fundamental Beliefs

The Bible is the word of God. In it we discover the answers to all the “big” questions of life: who we are; where we come from; why we’re so messed up; who God is; what He’s done for us; what happens after death; etc. Yet instead of giving us the this revelation through one prophet such as Buddha, Mohammad, or Joseph Smith, God chose to use approximately forty different writers, each with their unique perspectives, temperaments, culture, experiences, education, and writing style to give us the revelation of our true history and His divine will.

To describe the experience in a word would best be articulated by “anticipation.” That is precisely what earlier religious settlers to the New World were experiencing with every crashing sound of the Atlantic against the hull of their ship and their dreams—dreams that were embodied in a hope to live their lives and practice their religion as they pleased. As their ships progressed further out to sea and land became a distant memory, they had only the warmth of their dreams to brave the cold of fear all around them.

Before I begin on this erratic and perhaps erroneous venture, I feel it necessary to explain a bit of background, firstly, by apologizing to the illustrious Jonathan Pichot. The poor man has been trying to pry this article from me since its original publication in the Pacific Union College Campus Chronicle in the fall of 2007. But I would not, could not, give it to him, for reasons which I will make clear below.

In the meantime, here, in its original, unedited form, is an article published in the 2nd issue of the Campus Chronicle’s 84th volume.

This afternoon I received an article from the Center For Inquiry ("CFI"), a secular humanist organization who's mailing list I somehow ended up on last year, that discussed a case of alleged anti-religious discrimination at Suffolk County Community College (New York) that the American Center for Law and Justic ("ACLJ") is involved in.

I remember when I was a teenager going through my fathers closet and all of a sudden I saw it, a striped navy blue and green neck tie. This tie which had been out of style for 25 years was all of a sudden back in style. Suddenly my Dad's closet became a treasure chest of wardrobe additions that I quickly began sporting to school. Suddenly everything that was old and boring was new and trendy.