Guilt!
I suppose that is what I dislike most about the paradigm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
That incessant undercurrent of implied guilt.
No matter what. No matter what it is. No matter from whence it cometh or for whence-ever it goeth, there is that constant, pervasive, cancerous, destructive oppression of constant guilt.
It is relentless. To be alive is to be sequestered in guilt.
And the Promulgator in Chief of this crippling, insidious toxin is none other than the esteemed Ellen Gould Harmon White herself.
Take Samson.
Yeah! That illustrious exemplar of blood-feuding leadership so common in the early Deuteronomistic History preserved for us in the Hebrew Bible as the book of Judges.
In her first book of the "Conflict of the Ages" series, the book known as "Patriarchs and Prophets," EGW devotes chapter 54 to "Samson."
In a strictly canonical way, she picks up the story of the promised child Samson and transfers the obligations of the nazirite vow to which he will be subscribed, onto every father, mother and child since.
"The child will be affected for good or for evil by the habits of the mother. She must herself be controlled by principle and must practice temperance and self-denial, if she would seek the welfare of her child. Unwise advisers will urge upon the mother the necessity of gratifying every wish and impulse, but such teaching is false and mischievous. The mother is by the command of God Himself placed under the most solemn obligation to exercise self-control." PP page 561.
O.K. The purists will say that she was referring only to the mother of Samson. The rest of us have no reason to get all fired up with angst.
But in the continuation of her expository renditon, she introduces the plural, "fathers" and "mothers," as in transferring this obligation to all of humankind. So just how many "fathers" and "mothers" did the singular Samson have?
"And fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility. Both parents transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites, to their children. As the result of parental intemperance children often lack physical strength and mental and moral power. Liquor drinkers and tobacco users may, and do, transmit their insatiable craving, their inflamed blood and irritable nerves, to their children. The licentious often bequeath their unholy desires, and even loathsome diseases, as a legacy to their offspring. And as the children have less power to resist temptation than had the parents, the tendency is for each generation to fall lower and lower. To a great degree parents are responsible not only for the violent passions and perverted appetites of their children but for the infirmities of the thousands born deaf, blind, diseased, or idiotic."
I don't recall off hand the time frame in which she penned these words, late 1890's, perhaps early 1900's. Perhaps even a few years earlier. And granted, the sciences of genetics, epidemiology, biochemistry, endocrinology, molecular biology and everything else involved with the biology of reproduction was still a little "primitive" in her day, when compared to present day knowledge. To say nothing of the advances in the sociology and psychology of pre-peri- and post natal care and subsequent child development understanding.
And yes, by in large, her advice is generally appropriate . . . in its concept.
But she doesn't let up.
"And it was not enough that the promised child should receive a good legacy from the parents. This must be followed by careful training and the formation of right habits. God directed that the future judge and deliverer of Israel should be trained to strict temperance from infancy. he was to be Nazarite from his birth, thus being placed under a perpetual prohibition against the use of wine or strong drink. The lessons of temperance, self denial, and self-control are to be taught to children even from babyhood."
"The angel's prohibition included 'every unclean thing.' The distinction between articles of food as clean and unclean was not a merely ceremonial and arbitrary regulation, but was based upon sanitary principles. To the observance of this distinction may be traced, in a great degree, the marvelous vitality which for thousands of years has distinguished the Jewish people. The principles of temperance must be carried further than the mere use of spirituous liquors. The use of stimulating and indigestible food is often equally injurious to health, and in many cases sows the seeds of drunkenness. True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful and to use judiciously that which is healthful. There are few who realize as they should how much their habits of diet have to do with the health, their character, the usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. The appetite should ever be in subjection to the moral and intellectual powers. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body."
My unauthorized King James translation of her message is to "start livin' to beat hell."
And just like Samson, even with all of his clean-dietetic and abstinence-only implementations, turned out to be a disaster of a divinely-ordained savior, so too have I in my wretched-infused life.
Like the repetitive mantra of Judges: apostasy, hardship, cry out to the Lord for help, rest, then apostasy and do it all over again . . . I experience the inevitable of that experience. Failure. Guilt. The oaths of "I will never eat that again," or "do that again," or "I will do that every day for the rest of my life," or whatever vain useless destined-for-failure-promise I make to myself and to the world. Then the fleeting period of compliance, i.e. the "rest," as it is described in Judges.
Then.
Inevitable failure. Guilt. Conversion and evangelism. The "rest."
And the inevitable "Oh why the hell!?"
And the inevitable failure. Guilt. Conversion and evangelism. The "rest."
And thank you, Madam Ellen Gould Harmon White, for your gift of prophecy was the continual infusion of guilt into that cycle that describes the very definition of being human.
And yeah! I do try to live to beat hell!
The Refectory Manager
That incessant undercurrent of implied guilt.
No matter what. No matter what it is. No matter from whence it cometh or for whence-ever it goeth, there is that constant, pervasive, cancerous, destructive oppression of constant guilt.
It is relentless. To be alive is to be sequestered in guilt.
And the Promulgator in Chief of this crippling, insidious toxin is none other than the esteemed Ellen Gould Harmon White herself.
Take Samson.
Yeah! That illustrious exemplar of blood-feuding leadership so common in the early Deuteronomistic History preserved for us in the Hebrew Bible as the book of Judges.
In her first book of the "Conflict of the Ages" series, the book known as "Patriarchs and Prophets," EGW devotes chapter 54 to "Samson."
In a strictly canonical way, she picks up the story of the promised child Samson and transfers the obligations of the nazirite vow to which he will be subscribed, onto every father, mother and child since.
"The child will be affected for good or for evil by the habits of the mother. She must herself be controlled by principle and must practice temperance and self-denial, if she would seek the welfare of her child. Unwise advisers will urge upon the mother the necessity of gratifying every wish and impulse, but such teaching is false and mischievous. The mother is by the command of God Himself placed under the most solemn obligation to exercise self-control." PP page 561.
O.K. The purists will say that she was referring only to the mother of Samson. The rest of us have no reason to get all fired up with angst.
But in the continuation of her expository renditon, she introduces the plural, "fathers" and "mothers," as in transferring this obligation to all of humankind. So just how many "fathers" and "mothers" did the singular Samson have?
"And fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility. Both parents transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites, to their children. As the result of parental intemperance children often lack physical strength and mental and moral power. Liquor drinkers and tobacco users may, and do, transmit their insatiable craving, their inflamed blood and irritable nerves, to their children. The licentious often bequeath their unholy desires, and even loathsome diseases, as a legacy to their offspring. And as the children have less power to resist temptation than had the parents, the tendency is for each generation to fall lower and lower. To a great degree parents are responsible not only for the violent passions and perverted appetites of their children but for the infirmities of the thousands born deaf, blind, diseased, or idiotic."
I don't recall off hand the time frame in which she penned these words, late 1890's, perhaps early 1900's. Perhaps even a few years earlier. And granted, the sciences of genetics, epidemiology, biochemistry, endocrinology, molecular biology and everything else involved with the biology of reproduction was still a little "primitive" in her day, when compared to present day knowledge. To say nothing of the advances in the sociology and psychology of pre-peri- and post natal care and subsequent child development understanding.
And yes, by in large, her advice is generally appropriate . . . in its concept.
But she doesn't let up.
"And it was not enough that the promised child should receive a good legacy from the parents. This must be followed by careful training and the formation of right habits. God directed that the future judge and deliverer of Israel should be trained to strict temperance from infancy. he was to be Nazarite from his birth, thus being placed under a perpetual prohibition against the use of wine or strong drink. The lessons of temperance, self denial, and self-control are to be taught to children even from babyhood."
"The angel's prohibition included 'every unclean thing.' The distinction between articles of food as clean and unclean was not a merely ceremonial and arbitrary regulation, but was based upon sanitary principles. To the observance of this distinction may be traced, in a great degree, the marvelous vitality which for thousands of years has distinguished the Jewish people. The principles of temperance must be carried further than the mere use of spirituous liquors. The use of stimulating and indigestible food is often equally injurious to health, and in many cases sows the seeds of drunkenness. True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful and to use judiciously that which is healthful. There are few who realize as they should how much their habits of diet have to do with the health, their character, the usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. The appetite should ever be in subjection to the moral and intellectual powers. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body."
My unauthorized King James translation of her message is to "start livin' to beat hell."
And just like Samson, even with all of his clean-dietetic and abstinence-only implementations, turned out to be a disaster of a divinely-ordained savior, so too have I in my wretched-infused life.
Like the repetitive mantra of Judges: apostasy, hardship, cry out to the Lord for help, rest, then apostasy and do it all over again . . . I experience the inevitable of that experience. Failure. Guilt. The oaths of "I will never eat that again," or "do that again," or "I will do that every day for the rest of my life," or whatever vain useless destined-for-failure-promise I make to myself and to the world. Then the fleeting period of compliance, i.e. the "rest," as it is described in Judges.
Then.
Inevitable failure. Guilt. Conversion and evangelism. The "rest."
And the inevitable "Oh why the hell!?"
And the inevitable failure. Guilt. Conversion and evangelism. The "rest."
And thank you, Madam Ellen Gould Harmon White, for your gift of prophecy was the continual infusion of guilt into that cycle that describes the very definition of being human.
And yeah! I do try to live to beat hell!
The Refectory Manager
posted by The Refectory Manager | 6:20 PM
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