The Adventist Christmas and New Year conundrum

If there is one (of many) thing[s] that irks me about the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church today is the inconsistency of its theology. On one hand, they hand out religious liberty tracks that paint Roman Catholicism as the whore of Babylon that has lead the world away from true worship. Then in December, the church begins to observe two of Rome's holy or special days: Christmas and New Year. And in North America, the idolatry is heightened when the SDA church decorates it halls and interior with 3-dimensional representations of angels and other creatures or objects of heaven or earth (including the snowman image/sculpture) (Jeremiah 10:3-9). Further, the Christmas tree is decked with these objects and jewels. Then the church calls on the writings of Adventist pope, Ellen G. White, to justify these practices (The Adventist Home Chapter 77, p. 477-483). This is done, despite Pope White not stating that she got a direct revelation from God that Christmas and New Years must be observed.

While I have no problem with my brethren, the Roman Catholics observing these days, and even my fellow Sunday Protestants doing the same, it strikes me that for Adventists, the practices are oddly inconsistent with their theology and teachings, especially their narrow interpretation of their mission of the three angels message in Revelations 14:6-9. From what they taught me, if Rome's worship involves changing God's calendar and deciding when to observe what, then if you are calling people to the true worship, why not point them back to God's original calendar that he first gave to his people the Jews. If you point fingers on Rome, then why do you do some of what they do, but not everything? If you go part way with Rome, why not all the way?

In the Bible, God only has one new year, the Passover (the 14th of Nissan) (Exodus 12:2). However, today Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah as a second "new year", especially when it announces a year of jubilee (Gordon, 2014). However, scholars dispute this second "new year" (Gordon, 2014; Rood, 2004), with Rood (2004) indicating that the real Biblical new year is the month of Aviv or Passover.

As for Christmas, if the Adventist church developed in protest against Roman Christianity, why has it not opted to adopt the Eastern Christianity's Christmas date in January?

Nonetheless, I want to wish a Merry Christmas to all you who celebrate it without theological inconsistency! Whether on December 25th or in January.


References:

Gordon, N. (2014, Sep. 26). Nehemia's wall: Uncovering ancient Hebrew sources of faith. [Blog post] Retrieved from
http://www.nehemiaswall.com/yom-teruah-day-shouting-became-rosh-hashanah

Rood, M. (2004). The Pagan-Christian connection exposed: A Rood awakening. Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos

White, E. G. (2001). Christmas. The Adventist home: Counsels to Seventh-day Adventist families as set forth in the writings of Ellen G. White. Maryland: Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate.

A call for a Post-Protestant and Post-Evangelical Christian community

Before making my point, let me begin with the dream I had on Wednesday, November 12, 2014.

The dream

1. A PhD colleague and I were in what appeared to be St. Catherine, Jamaica (one of my home parishes), driving to Western Jamaica.
2. It was late evening, and we encountered traffic.  My friend decided to pull over into a church yard, to wait for the traffic diminish.
3. We happened to pull over into a Baptist church yard (could have been any church denomination however) and it was having a late evening service.
4. I pointed out to my colleague that this church was the denomination of my wife as a child, though not in this parish (she's from Western Jamaica).
5. I suggested that we could go inside and sit and take in some of the service.
6. So we went inside and sat in the pews at the back.
7. The people were in worship with a lead singer and a live band leading them in song.
8. After listening to the praise song for a few minutes, my colleague got up, and to my surprise (and everybody else to that matter), grabbed the cordless microphone from the female lead singer and said "Thank you, sister". (My colleague was not a Christian based on my knowledge).
9. He then brought and handed the microphone to me.
10. So I began to speak "Bless the Lord..."
11. Before I could finish my sentence, the lead, grabbed the microphone back and said "you have no right to speak!"
12. My colleague departed and I followed him.
13. For the rest of our journey in the car, I embarrassingly sought to explain to him the actions of the lead and about how different denominations regulate who can speak during worship services. 

End of dream.

I will not render an analysis of the dream, but on the other hand, I find it useful to  make a point. The point that I think it can make is that we need a new Christian community and way of being to meet the needs of a new generation of skeptics and Bible doubters.

The Christianity that I was raised in has served its time. While Christianity rightly assumes that God exists and that the Bible is his revelation to humanity, the way that we go about our worship services and our mission needs to be more oriented around the teaching aspect of the great commission, and less around music and songs. Our church experience can not just be oriented around sermonizing and acknowledging God through music and liturgical ceremony. The needs of my generation no longer fit with the model in which we conduct our services or ministry. No longer are people certain that God exists and that God is good. Further, they are not so sure about the Bible.

My generation wants a community that provides answers and respond to concerns that they have about the goodness of God and the difficult passages in the Bible. My generation wants to believe in a benevolent God and want to believe in the Bible, but there is no guide or shepherd to help them process doubts and questions. Our church services do not help. Structuring it around music and praise do not meet the needs of this new generation, who need teaching and a forum for questions and answers. We need more church services structured around teaching with live Q & A.


This model is not alien to Christianity. Jesus, our chief example, did "sermons" where unbelievers could ask questions and where he gave candid answers, questions or parables in response. The church in Acts, also provide evidence that the apostles spent more time teaching and expounding upon Scriptures and the life events of Jesus than in any scripted music, song and liturgical ceremony. The early dynamic community of Christians had lots of teaching and doctrine, and seemingly had less good singing and music.

Further, if we are going to speak to each other in song, as Apostle Paul admonishes us, shouldn't we sing songs that speak to the needs and themes that we have to deal with today? The hymns of yesteryear cannot be sufficient. And contemporary songs must address the skepticism and the spirit of the age.

This is why I argue that the Billy Graham generation is over. "Crusade" style worship and evangelism will not win the souls of my generation. Today we need new anointed teachers and singers that do things differently. Teachers and singers that shake up our deeply held traditions and formats for Christian service or ministry. Teachers and singers that will centre our services, ministry and worship around Bible reading, teaching and questioning. To centre our worship around discussing the Bible and God's goodness in a world where many have questions and doubt.

What do Video Games & Religion have in common?

Video games and religion? What do they have in common? The answer may be more similar than you think.

A child of the early 80's, I practically grew up with the personal computer around me. My dad was a programmer (part-time) but then launched into his own full-time computing business at the time. At that time, my only interest in the computer was to play video games or have it interact with me by responding to my input (if you remember command line prompting). However, I was also raised in a Judeo-Christian faith based on Herbert Amstrong's interpretations of the holy scriptures, which gave me a unique experience of Christianity that actually drew heavily on Jewish festivals and celebrations. Yet, in my past life, I never made the connection between the similarities between religion and video games until now.

My modern day journey into understanding video games came when I began my thesis looking at the idea of how folklore could inform the design of information retrieval systems. This initial topic of exploration led me to reading the book by Miller (2008) on digital storytelling. It was in Miller (2008) that I first learned that role playing video games can actually be traced back early interactive storytelling practices of religion including the participatory dramas of ancient pagan religions, where masks and costumes were used for role play to represent spirits or gods similar to how modern day avatars are applied as the embodiment or incarnation of entities from another world who are not actually present. Miller also mentions modern rituals such as the Jewish holiday of Passover and Halloween, noting similarities between people assuming roles not performed in real life and transitioning into worlds different from their own reality.

So getting back to the question, what do video games and religion have in common? Three main things:

1. Role-play
2. Symbols, icons and avatars
3. enactment and re-enactment 

So taking Miller's argument, religion with its rituals and ceremonies is the first precursor to modern video games. In essence, religion can be considered a video game played or enacted outside of the computer.

Let us take the faith(s) that I am most familiar with and intimate of: Judeo and Roman Christianity. There are countless icons, symbols and avatars in my religion. In essence these religious icons, symbols and avatars are real objects used to represent an idea or a reality, or to tell a narrative or story. Examples are:

fish - to remind us about our purpose and mission - to evangelize [or proselytise] and bring in people to God

cross/crucifix - to represent the rising Saviour, the idea of resurrection

bread  - for Christianity it is a symbol of fellowship

wine - symbol of joy (for the Jews) and symbol of blood (for Christians)

lighted candlestick - symbol of inspiration

matzah/matzo - bread of affliction (symbol of the body of Christ for Christians)

Role-playing games are not much different from religion as the same elements are very much present, namely:

• a narrative world or space - with rules, restrictions and limitations
• a central narrative underlying the game and its rituals
• symbols, icons and avatars 
• role-play and enactment

Current we are in the period [that is if you are reading this blog in March/April] of two festivals where both Christians and Jews will be involved in role-playing. Most Western Christian traditions will role-play the Lord's supper (and other events), and enact through symbols Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. My Jewish friends on the other hand, will enact historical Passover night in Egypt.

As to the narrative world or space, both Christianity and Judaism today construct elaborate spaces designed to facilitate their telling of Biblical and communal narratives. Both construct spaces and ascribe rules and restrictions and limitations to what can be done within the space and who gets to play what role within specific spaces. 

For example, while it is deemed unacceptable to snack "in  church" either during the ceremony or even after, it is perfectly acceptable to "snack" of the communion bread and grape juice during the narrative event enacting Communion.

Finally, both video games and religions have communities formed around their narratives and rituals.The conclusion, perhaps video games and religion are more similar than we think. Just a thought.


References:

Miller, C. H. (2008). Digital storytelling: A creator's guide to interactive entertainment (2nd ed.). Amsterdam; Boston: Focal Press/Elsevier.