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<DIV class=""><A
href="http://sda2rc.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-david-why.html">Why David,
Why?</A></DIV></H2>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.5em">via <A class=f
href="http://sda2rc.blogspot.com/">Seventh-day Adventist to Roman Catholic</A>
by Hugo on 4/11/08</DIV><BR style="DISPLAY: none">Never in recent memory has an
Adventist converted to Catholicism, with a profile high enough to attract
wide-reaching attention within the Adventist community. Within days, Adventist
Today (a leading progressive Adventist publication) <A
href="http://www.atoday.com/content/adventist-news-roundup-6">ran the story</A>
of David Pendleton's embrace of Catholic faith on its front page, without
comment. Probable thousands were exposed to a thoughtful and sympathetic article
tracing Pendleton's journey. I was surprised to see a local Adventist church
website <A href="http://www.orangenjsda.org/">link to the AToday article</A> as
a "Feature," also without comment. Other Adventist blogs have picked up the
story as well.<BR><BR>This level of exposure for Adventist converts to
Catholicism is unheard of, and entirely welcome. Hopefully, it attract more
curiosity to the faith, and plant seeds in the hearts of many Adventists. It may
also attract attention to fledgling communities of former Adventists, now
Catholics, such as this one.<BR><BR>I have been most interested in the reaction
of individual Adventists to this news, most of it flowing from online forums,
such as <A
href="http://clubadventist.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/165038/Adventist_pastor_converts_to_C#Post165038">Club
Adventist</A> and <A
href="http://www.blacksda.com/forums/index.php?s=ae348794694d13f0eeca9057b38d1197&showtopic=21679&st=0&p=242951&#entry242951">BlackSDA</A>.
No doubt, I have heard the full spectrum of reactions, having converted quite
publicly while attending Southern Adventist University. With a smirk, I present
excerpts of my favorites, in caricatured categories for the sake of humor. I
learned, the stress of conversion is successfully combated with a bucket of
laughs. :-)<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">1. David Is Rejecting Truth; Could Be
Insane.</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<BR><BR>An SDA
minister worshiping Mary, and all the Catholic saints whom he knows are all
dead? Repudiating the Sabbath for a bogus day? WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Embracing
eternal torment & limbo?<BR>WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<BR><BR>I am
dumbfounded!!!!!!!!!!!"</BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">2. The
Devil Made Him Do It.</SPAN><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BR>"Don't be fooled, the devil is behind all of these high
profile conversions to Roman Catholicism. Why in God's name would Jesus
inspire a person to join up with the Antichrist and
Babylon?"</BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">3. David was Never
Truly Adventist.</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"Could it be that somewhere along the way, David Pendleton
either never understood the Bible or he lost his faith in it as God's word
and put more faith in the publications of the Catholic Church? One has to
ask how he could become a Catholic unless he first disbelieved the Bible as
the standard of faith and doctrine and had serious doubts about Ellen White
as God's prophet. He certainly did not believe in the Third Angels Messages
or that the identity of the first beast in Rev. 13 is the papal
system.<BR><BR>Of course David Pendleton is not the first SDA member or SDA
pastor to convert to Roman Catholicism, and I have no doubt that we will see
many in the near future do the same."</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>(I hope so.
+)<BR><BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">4. David Just Doesn't Love
Jesus.</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"Oh no. I don't believe those who love Jesus will NT leave the
SDA church."<BR><BR>"I would add that it's also apparent that he did not
LOVE the truth. He may have seen it but he did not fully grasp it and love
it so that it became a part of his life."</BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">5. All the
Cool Kids Are Doin' It</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>". . .Since he lives and works in Hawaii, is that his "change"
is mostly culturally motivated. He may be only going through the motions of
Catholic worship, without consciously realizing what he's saying or doing.
It may just be more comfortable to do what everybody around him is doing --
to "go with the flow" in order to "fit in."<BR><BR>I can't believe he really
fully grasps the dogma of the Catholic church.<BR><BR>But maybe I'm just
dreaming...."</BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">6. We Failed
David, for Not Making Him Take More College Credits.</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"Just because someone has grown up in an Adventist home and
studied to be a minister does not mean that they really understand
Adventism. Some of our colleges have a strong Biblical studies program, but
the current trend is to focus on the job of pastoring a church. The M.Div.
degree requires only 3 Bible classes (at least one from each testament) and
a couple of spoon fed theology classes. . . .<BR><BR>So for our brother,
let's not be too upset that he may be rejecting truth. He could have very
well have not seen the truth to reject it."</BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">7. We Failed David, for Awarding Him College
Credits.</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"I don't know if anyone read the recent letter to the editor of
Adventist Review that David wrote, it dealt with the issue of church
tradition and its role in the determination of biblical doctrines, namely,
the nature of Christ. My feeling is that the root problem is that
professional, highly educated multi-generational SDAs do not generally
possess the strength of character to withstand the influences that they
confronted with in the secular world because they have had to many
advantages that propelled to the "top" too fast, thereby, bypassing the long
"trial by fire" of being an obscure humble missionary like a Colporteur for
a few decades, before being exalted to a high position. In a nutshell, Moses
spent 40 years as a sheep herder before being called to leadership. I fault
our SDA higher educational system for this problem."<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">8. We Failed Him for Being too
Anti-Catholic.</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"While we have some very just criticisms and concerns about the
Papacy, we tend to go to the extreme of making the Catholics the boogy
man."</BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">9. We Failed David for Not Being Anti-Catholic
Enough</SPAN><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">"Now, individual SDA
members may not agree, but check out the basic beliefs on Catholic
doctrines...not the 28... Catholics are in the 'wrong' church no matter how
devout. It is the counterfeit of Christianity...It is Satan's answer to the
'truth' and the antithesis of 'Sabbath-keeping' therefore greatly involved
in marking the beast. Bible rearrangers, commandment breakers... but of
course, not on an individual basis (this is always reiterated during the
sessions). No? Am I alone in having heard this? One of the reasons there are
independent SDA churches, says one of their members, is that the SDA church
does not preach against the Catholic church as it should...a loud
cry!"<BR><BR></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">"What a lot of SDAs
don't realize is that once we throw over certain fundamental teachings of
the church, there is no real reason not to become
Catholic."</SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><BR>10.
As Long As He Keeps Going Forwards... After Going Backwards...</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"I'd be hesitent about dismissing him as a brother in Christ. We
have yet to see how he responds to the trends in Catholicism to back peddle
from Vatican 2. We can pray that he (and other Catholics) will not only be
faithful to Vatican 2, but grow beyond Vatican 2, and pray that he does not
regress from Vatican 2 as the Vatican trys [sic] to back
peddle."<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><BR>11. Ellen White
is a Pope Anyways. . . Might As Well</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"Truth be told, a whole lot of Adventists are already set up for
this kind of conversion; all that stands in the way is getting them past the
traditional SDA stance on catholicism and getting them to trade their dead
pope for one that is living."<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">12. It Can't Be Doctrine. [Honestly, Does He Just
Not Notice He Prays the Rosary Now?]</SPAN><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BR>"David Pendleton was also the former Religious Liberty
Director, Communications Director and Pastor in the Hawaii Conference of
SDA, who turned in his ministerial license recently to join the Roman
Catholic Church. He is also a current law employment judge and former city
councilman.<BR><BR>I knew him to be a solid SDA pastor when I served as
Pastor in Hawaii from 2003-2007. I don't think he had doctrinal issues but
rather relational. Some people leave the SDA church not because of doctrine
but because of treatment. Not that I condone David Pendleton's actions but I
have known him to very concerned about issues of justice and fairness within
the church. He wrote the cover story the Liberty Magazine article that
featured Martin Luther King Jr. on the cover about a year or two
ago.<BR><BR>Don't be two quick to cast judgement on this case. There is a
background that precipitated the actions."<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">12. Ok, I Give Up... You Tell
Me</SPAN><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"1. How convinced was he that SDAism was the church for
him?<BR>2. Did being in politcs have a negative affect on his spiritual
life?<BR>3. Does he really believe the Catholic doctrines or is just looking
for people to fill in the text...love one another?<BR>4. Is there really a
personality type that does not carry on to the next generation? Second/third
generation SDAs not REALLY SDAs?"</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>One Poster was unto something though:<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Why is it, when we see something like this, that the *person* is
immediately assumed to be at
fault/wrong/misled/deluded/unspiritual/unrighteous/etc?<BR><BR>Ockham's razor
suggests something more credible... that the church's flaws caught up to her
where this believer is concerned... but wait... if we have "the truth" is the
church allowed to have flaws?</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BODY></HTML>