According to generational researcher Chuck Underwood, a generation is determined by shared core values. Different generations may value different things. So when it comes to the Adventist church, do different generations value different aspects of the church? I interviewed nine Adventists across four American generations: Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zers. Interestingly, all nine Adventists shared a common value: relationships and community. Maybe the gap isn’t as wide as we think it is.
The issue of political engagement is a divisive one within the Adventist church. For me, a political science and journalism major, it is deeply intriguing. Since the birth of the denomination in the late 19th century, politics has been a hot-button topic. But why?
Many might point to John 17:15-16 (“in the world, but not of the world”) or Matt. 22:21 (“to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”) as Biblical evidence that religion and politics are and should remain heterogeneous. However, this long-held view has been flipped over in recent years as a growing number of young Adventists are becoming more politically aware. The Millennial generation is one of the most socially and politically active we’ve seen, perhaps because of the unprecedented sociopolitical climate, or simply the rapid spread of information social media has enabled.
When I helped organize a campus-wide voter registration and engagement initiative before the 2020 presidential election, I observed a noticeable interest in civic engagement from students. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would have seen the same thing in 1950 or 1890.
I spoke with Koralys Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican lifelong Adventist who attends Statesville Seventh-day Adventist church. This is the same church I attend at home and the one I referenced in my introductory blog post. I asked her about race in the church, with a special look at how they’re doing today. I’ve researched the past, but now it’s time to get some perspective on the present. She had some powerful things to say. Check it out down below:
The Adventist church struggles with race, which is no different today than at its inception in the mid 1800s. I suppose that’s no different than any church or any institution that exists today, especially in America. It should be noted that the Adventist church is the most diverse Christian denomination in the world. Unfortunately, that does not elevate the denomination above the racial struggles we see today.
“I believe that gays can go to heaven.” A very bold statement I made to my parents that inevitably started a discussion.
I have never been the kind to hide my opinions. I have also never been the kind to sit on my hands when I feel strongly about something. My beliefs are important to me.
I knew this statement would start a discussion with my parents in which we would be able to exchange viewpoints. This was definitely the case.
By the end of the conversation, we were able to reach some middle ground: Homosexuals can go to heaven if they are not engaging in a sexual lifestyle. The reason we came to this conclusion was based on some very brief research that we did on what the Bible had to say about this topic.
I was actually surprised by how easy it was for me and my parents to agree on this topic. This is not to say that my parents or I look down on this topic or people dealing with this issue. Simply, I thought that our different perspectives based on the different times that we grew up in would be stronger and harder for each other to understand.
I guess this really short discussion with my parents taught me two main things that are valuable to me today. One, it is important and almost crucial for families to have real conversations about difficult topics such as sexuality and the LGBTQ community. Whatever reaction or opinion you think they might have, might be proven wrong.
The second thing that I learned is that generations are not necessarily as different as we think in every issue. Sure, there are some significant viewpoint differences that are worth noting, however, not everything needs to be or is an argument. Maybe if we spent some more time looking for common ground and exploring our similarities it would be easier to progress on different issues.
Modesty continues to be a controversial topic. While, sure, it is not the most trivial of issues, it is one several people have mixed opinions about. Modesty controversies, however, have been present for a long time, at least within the Adventist Church.
If we go back to the 1800’s and analyze some of Ellen G. White’s writings, we see a strict and strong emphasis on modesty. More specifically, women’s modesty. Several of her writings, in fact, reflect that. In some cases, the examples mentioned are a response to church members’ letters, and some are just her interpretation of modesty according to the Bible.
As presented on the timeline, there are some very specific “requirements” such as the statement that anything above the knee is deemed too short, and the ideal length is around eight or ten inches above the floor.
Ellen White also presents strong resistance about what was commonly known as the “American Costume.” According to the Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection at the University of Missouri, the American Costume is part of the dress reform, which started in 1824. This movement was intended to empower women, to a certain extent, through their clothing. This is when a lot of clothing layers were removed for women’s comfort. As a consequence, women started to wear short dresses that eventually became widely accepted to what we know today.
In her writings, and throughout the years, Ellen G. White expresses her opposition to the shortened length of the skirt. On several occasions, such as in Testimonies for the CHurch in 1868, Ellen G. White emphasized the importance for the Adventist Church and for the Seventh-day Adventist woman to stand out from secular practices.
In some of her later writings, however, Ellen G. White expressed that no “sisters” were convicted of the Seventh-day Adventist dress reform. An example is shown in 1885 in Manuscript Releases vol. 5 she expresses that although this is not the tradition, it would “have proved a blessing.”
The interesting fact about this timeline is the mindset change seen throughout Ellen G. White’s writings. Although the writings are not necessarily drastic in nature, it reflects the eventual acceptance of a certain kind of dress. These writings have impacted the way in which we currently address the issue of modesty.
There has been a debate about the relationship between Christianity and society throughout most of civilization. It has been carried out publicly as well as privately in our own minds: A quarrel between the church’s responsibility for social order and the desire to cut off Christ’s followers from social issues.
As human beings, we are a complex species. We are defined by different cultures, backgrounds, beliefs and feelings and can’t escape our environment.
The inevitable confrontation that we have with the social issues that envelop our surroundings on a day-to-day basis influences our behaviors, compelling us to believe we must act, take a stance or pick a side.
According to Elder Allan Machado, director of the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and a professor of research at Andrews University, we end up complicating things with modern and post-modern thought by looking at the world and Christianity through our own lenses, relying on our points of views and not those of unity in Christ through love.
“We allow social issues to influence us and not a Christ-centered attitude to influence us about surrounding social issues,” Machado said.
The impact such differences have on the generational divide is much deeper than we think. They develop and divide the Gospel into erroneous theologies that we end up practicing — be it on the pulpit with our testimonies and/or our lifestyles. How can we reconcile our surroundings with an identity in Christ? How do we interpret—with a Christ-centered vision— contemporary movements such as: Liberation Theology to advocate for the weak; Feminist Theology in favor of gender equality; Black Theology and its quest for racial injustice; Ecological Theology in the fight against global warming and the Social-American Gospel defined as the American dream?
According to Carmella Monk Crawford, editor of Message magazine and the podcast What’s the Message, as Christians we should be very involved in social issues. She believes in mobilizing to show people that we can work together and are willing to come alongside the community.
“I believe every time something happens a minister should say that from the pulpit, (such as): ‘We paused to think of the people who were gunned down so mercilessly and so senselessly this year, or this week, or yesterday,’” she said. “I think that it should be part of the conversation on a regular basis.”
Some Christian perspectives place hope in another world and appear to deprive Christians of the opportunity to take an interest in the relentless struggle with social issues around them, while society urges them to pursue human achievement. These contradictions raise the question: How much should the church get involved in social issues?
H. Richard Niebuhr in his book, Christ and Culture, writes, “Christ did not undertake to reform the religious and national culture, eliminating what was archaic in ceremonial and civil law. He might’ve been a boon to his society; but, instead of reforming culture, He ignored it. … Jesus ignored everything concerned with material civilization. In this sense, He does not belong to civilization.”
I am a firm believer that, before diving into any topic, context is always key. That’s why I think it’s vitally important to understand the background of the SDA faith with regards to politics before unpacking current generational trends.
For centuries, religion and politics have had a complex and intriguing relationship. Although Seventh-day Adventism is a relatively new denomination in the grand scheme of things, it is certainly no exception to this rule. From its founding years in the mid-19th century, official SDA church stances on sociopolitical issues offer a lens into the church’s relatability with the non-SDA world — and many times, an indication of where it’s headed. After the Great Disappointment, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was officially founded in 1863. Among the most prominent leaders of the SDA faith was Ellen G. White. Her writings are heavily focused on issues of social injustice, activism and care for human life. White pioneered social activism in the SDA Church from 1863 onwards, but the rest of the church’s history isn’t as clear-cut.
The women’s rights movement was backed by several Adventist leaders. Further, certain General Conference leaders have spoken out on various hot button issues. Some of the moments that stand out are the church’s adoption of a non-combatency stance during the second world war, the church’s view on voting, and Adventists’ involvement in the Civil Rights Movement (and, more recently, with the more recent social justice protests). An overview of some of the significant moments and statements coming out of the Seventh-day Adventist Church help to better understand current generational trends.
Before embarking on this project, I knew exactly who I needed to speak to. I sat down with my roommate, Richard Thomas, and discussed the role of politics and civic engagement in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Richard is a senior social work major who is passionate about community development and engagement. He also grew up in a conservative Adventist household, which has caused him to reflect a great deal on the issue of politics in the church, often a taboo one.
What is striking about Richard’s experiences is the relatability they seem to have with Gen Z and Millennial Adventists in general. According to Richard, the apparent discrepancy between younger and older Adventists when it comes to politics extends beyond his own family — it was something observable in the church and in the wider SDA community.
In order to better understand his perspective and to examine the nature of this divide, I sat down with Richard and asked him to share his point of view on how Adventists should approach politics, why various generations’ approaches to politics often seem different, and what we can do to bridge that generational gap.
As I look back in retrospect, one of the happiest days of my childhood—despite the fact that it might seem difficult to believe—was the day I was baptized for the first time. I was baptized with a group of friends. We had been the best of friends for a long time. We were all about 11-years-old at the time and had attended the same church. I haven’t heard from them in over 25 years, apart from occasional messages from mutual friends about their separation from the church, which I was also until three years ago.
I have never been able to find out the reasons why they deviated. With peace of mind and sobriety, I can now attribute my separation from church to my arrival in the United States at the age of 14 and the strong cultural shock that came with it. As I reminisce about my friends and our active involvement with the church as children and early teens, and how now almost all of them have left the church, prompted me to consider and research what the statistics are for the decrease in membership among the Hispanic community.
A study commissioned by the Seventh-day Adventist North American Division Office of Education showed a decrease in the Hispanic population from 2008 to 2018. The research was presented by Monte Sahlin, director of the Center for Creative Ministry, to an Interactive Journalism class at Southern Adventist University in 2019, and later reported on a blog by Southern student Estefania Sanchez-Mayorquin.
Sahlin attributes the 2018 decline to the political environment in the U.S.
“I believe the reason why is that we had great difficulty getting input from immigrants that year,” he said. “And, if you think about the political environment in the United States then, you can understand why lots of Adventists who are immigrants did not want to answer any survey about information about themselves and their families, even though it’s anonymous.”
Sahlin believes that there has been at least a small drop in the number of ethnic minorities.
“It probably is true that there has been a slight decrease in ethnic minority Adventists,” Sahlin said. “One study that I did in the interim period with one local conference, they discovered a significant number of immigrants who, during the recession, actually went back to Latin American countries that they had come from because the economy that they had come from was better there than their circumstances in the United States.”
In another presentation, this time to my Interactive Journalism class on Feb. 17, 2021, Sahlin presented other reasons for the drop in percentage among those who identify more with younger generations.
“Other reasons are not understanding why it is necessary for religion to have structure and procedures, a feeling particularly in the teenage years,” Sahlin said. “They feel that the church is unfriendly to people with different attitudes, different opinions. That you have to fit into a fairly narrowed pattern or you are not welcome.”
After his presentation, I had the opportunity to ask questions and gather additional information that would assist my study. Here are a couple of the questions I asked and the answers that were given.
Q: Are there any reasons why young adults are abandoning the church?
A: In addition to the decline of Hispanics in the SDA Church is the abandonment of the church by young adults. This is attributed to the negative experience with institutions and organizations. This situation is a worldwide issue; organized religion has been abandoned by young adults not just in the U.S, but in Canada, Europe, and Latin America as well. In the United States, some patterns have to do with life experience. They graduate and move to another city, marriage, family, a lot of movement. One other thing that Millennial generation young adults do not understand about the Adventist bureaucracy is this business of transferring membership.
Q: Are there any other reasons to report, perhaps on older generations abandoning the church?
A: Some of the decline also has to do with life transition. We know that in the Gen-Xers group, people dropping out of church has a lot to do with divorce. Almost every case when that happens at least one quits attending church, if not both.”
So, there you have it: Is the decrease among Hispanics in the Adventist church an abandonment of faith? Or, is this a reflection of a lack of accountability, which perhaps influences the statics?
Citation: Sanchez-Mayorquin, Estefania, “Adventist researcher reports drop in black, Hispanic church numbers. He blames national immigration debate.” (2019). Blog. 12.
Lisa Bilbrey Hyder is the president of the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Chattanooga. She grew up as a Baptist and was baptized in the Adventist church about 10 years ago. Her roles as a wife, mother and president of the LWV of Chattanooga give her a unique perspective on women’s roles in marriage within the Adventist church and in society.
Hyder observed that Adventist marriages, in general, tend to more closely follow traditional gender roles compared to marriages outside of the Adventist church. However, she also noted that more couples today are moving toward equal-partnership in Adventist marriages and generally in the United States.
To hear the full interview with Hyder, click the link below.
