Table Of ContentMILLENNIAL DREAMS AND MORAL DILEMMAS
Seventh-day Adventism and contemporary ethics
Courtesy of the Ellen G. White Estate
MILLENNIAL DREAMS AND
MORAL DILEMMAS
Seventh-day Adventism and
contemporary ethics
MICHAEL PEARSON
Principal Lecturer in
Christian Philosophy and Ethics,
Newbold College
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© Cambridge University Press 1990
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First published 1990
This digitally printed version 2008
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Pearson, Michael, 1947—
Millennial dreams and moral dilemmas: Seventh-Day Adventist
responses to some contemporary ethical issues / Michael Pearson.
p. cm.
Bibliography.
ISBN 0 521 36509 0
1. Christian ethics. 2. Social ethics. 3. Seventh-Day
Adventists - Doctrines. 4. Adventists - Doctrines. I. Title.
BJ1251.P38 1989
241'.046732-dc20 89-9772 CIP
ISBN 978-0-521-36509-3 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-09148-0 paperback
For Helen
sine qua non
Contents
Acknowledgements page ix
I INTRODUCTION
1 Confrontation with the issues 3
II MAJOR INFLUENCES IN ADVENTIST MORAL THOUGHT
2 Advent and remnant: two major doctrinal influences 17
3 Keeping the family together: stable homes and a
united church 32
4 A cultural legacy: Victorian and American 43
III ISSUES OF HUMAN SEXUALITY
5 Marital relations among Adventists: the pursuit of purity 55
6 Adventists and intimacy: the celebration of sex 72
7 Adventists and abortion: early hostility 92
8 Abortion: tensions in the institutionalized church 106
9 Early adventist women: in the shadow of the prophetess 134
10 Adventist women in the modern church: the pain of
liberation 152
11 Divorce in Adventism: a perennial problem 182
12 Divorcing and enforcing: problems with principles and
procedures 197
13 Homosexuality: the sin unnamed among Adventists 229
14 Homosexuality in Adventism: sin, disease or
preference? 235
IV POSTSCRIPT
15 Adventism in transition 275
Notes 279
Select bibliography 311
Acknowledgements
It is as important to express one's gratitude to those who have helped
to bring a book like this to its final form as it is impossible to discern
the extent of one's indebtedness to others. The book is based on the
foundation of an education made possible by my mother, Jessie, and
my late father, Sidney. Without their constant encouragement and
willingness to forgo those things which would have made life a little
easier for themselves, I would never have pursued my academic
interests. This is the kind of debt one can acknowledge but never
repay; one can only try to do the same for one's own children. And
yet I am in debt to my children too. Emma and Martin have played
no small part in this work. They have done much to try to keep me
human and in touch with the realities of life when I might easily have
retreated into an academic ivory tower. More than that, they have
borne with a father who was sometimes distracted, tired and irritable,
with remarkable cheerfulness and understanding. I owe them a great
deal though they may not yet understand precisely why. I should also
like to thank my parents-in-law, Rhona and Victor Cooper, for their
constant encouragement and valuable insights into the nature of
Seventh-day Adventism.
I owe much to the Board of Governors of Newbold College and to
its administrators for generously granting me the opportunity to com-
plete this research. The staff of the College library were enormously
co-operative in making their resources available to me, and I am also
extremely grateful to the staff both of the Ellen G. White - SDA
Research Centre at Newbold College and of the Ellen G. White Estate
in Washington, DC, for allowing me free access to the manuscripts and
correspondence. My colleagues at the College consistently encouraged
me with the thought that I was doing something which was worth-
while. If my work has some practical value for the Seventh-day
IX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Adventist church then that will in some measure repay the debt I owe
to Newbold College.
A special vote of thanks must go to Harry Leonard of Newbold
College and Dennis Porter of the Bodleian Library in Oxford for
reading the manuscript in various forms and for making invaluable
suggestions as to how to improve it. I owe a great deal to Bryan Wilson
of All Souls College, Oxford, who supervised the present work in its
original form as a D.Phil, thesis. His clear understanding of the
religious impulse at work in people, and his constant availability for
consultation were invaluable. In his use of the English language he
set the highest of examples. His graciousness was oil on the wheels
of the research process.
A number of people at various stages have helped me to prepare
the manuscript. Particular thanks are due to Jonquil Hole, Alethea
Mustard, Helen Savage and Margit Fuhrmann for their expert and
willing help. More than that, I should like to thank them for their
patience and amazing cheerfulness. I should also like to thank Ulrike
Hellen, Alex Wright and Mary Baf foni of Cambridge University Press
for their invaluable assistance in the final preparation of the copy.
Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank my wife, Helen.
She acted as a sounding board for new ideas. She gave comfort in
times of discouragement. She kept our home on an even keel when
I was distracted by the job in hand. She showed me new ways of
looking at the world. But more than all that, she has helped me to
be - I can think of no better way to describe her role in helping me
to become capable of completing such an undertaking. Without her
the book simply would not have been written, and I want to express
my deep gratitude by dedicating it to her.
My indebtedness is great, the et alii includes many more people.
Ultimately, of course, the judgements contained herein are my own.
I trust that they will benefit the church about which they are written.
Description:Technological developments on many fronts have created in our society some extremely difficult moral predicaments. Previous generations have not had to face the dilemmas posed by, for example, the availability of safe abortions, sperm banks and prostoglandins. They have not had to come to terms with
