By María José Morán
The image is still vivid in my head. It was a Saturday night, and my family had just finished a short worship service to close the Sabbath. I cannot remember what kind of argument my parents and I had had over how difficult it was for me to find modest clothes that fulfilled every single requirement my parents had.
My name is María José, and I was born in the beautiful country of Honduras, which might explain why my parents were so strict. I have lived all over Central America due to my dad’s job in the Adventist Church and have gotten to live a variety of experiences because of it. These experiences have ultimately contributed to who I am today– a journalism student in search of her purpose in the world and in the church.
Despite all my bizarre experiences in the church, my love for God and the Seventh-day Adventist Church is stronger than ever. This love leads me to explore “unresolved” issues in my mind. Who has God called me to be? What is my role within the church? How do my talents and beliefs fit in the church? Do they fit in at all?
Well, in order for me to fit in the church as a young lady, my parents emphasized the concept of modesty a lot. So one night, with the intent of making a statement, my parents asked me to kneel, so they could point out the length of the skirt I was wearing and emphasize whether it met the requirements or not. Something about that moment stuck with me forever. Did Jesus really care that much about the length of my skirts? Or the length of my sleeves? If he didn’t care, why did my parents care? I felt like I loved Jesus, but did he love me less because my skirt did not reach below my knee?
Years of this back-and-forth debate over modesty constantly reminded me of all the things I disagreed with my parents about. Were we convicted of different things? Did older people understand more things than younger people? Was I missing an important part of Biblical theology?
Over a decade later, my parents and I still disagree on the nitty-gritty of many things. From topics such as modesty, worship, and even homosexuality and the LGBTQ+ community, we still cannot see eye-to-eye on many Adventist “details.” However, I am now an adult, and my relationship with the Lord has only strengthened with the passing of the years.
It is true that God convicts everyone of different things, and we all have personal beliefs and practices because of it. But, if my parents have been the ones who raised me, and they passed down their beliefs to me, why then do I have viewpoints that strongly contradict theirs?
After years of pondering over our differences, I have reached a simple yet complicated conclusion. Our core beliefs are the same, but our beliefs on some doctrines are different. This has led me to believe that because we are the same in so many ways, our differences boil down to generational differences.
These generational differences are what I am determined to research. How come we all serve and love the same God, yet disagree in the ‘nitty gritty’ of things?