Adventist Voices by Spectrum: The Journal of the Adventist Forum

I interviewed Alan Reinach, Esq, president of the Church State Council, the education, advocacy, and legal services ministry of the Pacific Union. He is representing his client, Jeffery Lemasters Tahir, who until recently worked security at Disneyland. They talk about the Sabbath observance issues involved in the case and why the Adventist Church takes an interfaith legal and mission approach to r...

During his first week leading La Sierra University, Christon Arthur, PhD, shared his vision for the progressive Adventist culture of the campus, his Caribbean and Catholic upbringing, and his core values of equity and duty.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For a German perspective on Adventism, I talk with Stefan Höschele, Professor for Systematic Theology and Adventist Studies at Friedensau Adventist University. We discuss his new publication, “Interchurch Relations in Seventh-day Adventist History: A Study in Ecumenics.“ Given his background in education in Malawi and Tanzania, we discuss how Africa has shaped his appreciation for Adventism. We al...

In this conversation, Ben Archer, an Adjunct Research Fellow at Avondale University, shares about his recently published research on faith engagement in schools. In utilizing a scoping review methodology, Archer presents empirical literature related to faith formation activities with children. Activities covered included prayer, worship, chapel, evangelization, retreats and bible studies. His find...

The president of Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International talks about what pride means to him. We discuss how it’s different from the biblical vice of ego and about how some Christians don’t understand what conversion means in terms of sexuality, orientation, and spiritual maturity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An interview with Marianne Thieme, Dutch political leader, convert to Adventism, and environmental activist. With others, she founded the Party for the Animals in 2009 and was its chairwoman from 2002 to 2010. An attorney who has studied at the Sorbonne and recently at Newbold College, she won election every two years allowing her to serve in the House of Representatives from 2006 until she resign...

Filmmaker Kyle Portbury talks about his film, The Hopeful, which tells the early Adventist story for any audience. The film premiered on 900 cinema screens across North America. In this second part of our conversation, Kyle shares his creative vision and discusses why storytelling matters. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Filmmaker Kyle Portbury talks about his film, The Hopeful, which tells the early Adventist story for any audience. The film premieres on 900 cinema screens across North America on April 17 and 18. Kyle shares how the film came to be and some details about the aestheic and narrative choices he made. The Hopeful is the true story of a community whose lives were transformed as they learn what it mean...

On March 27, 2024, “Testament: Story of Moses” premiered on Netflix. Spectrum correspondent Kevin McCarty interviews series producer Kelly McPherson about the docudrama approach. By using a docudrama (documentary and drama) approach, the viewer is led through the Exodus account in a vivid fashion, while also receiving wisdoms and insights from passionate scholars, theologians, and historians. Thes...

Historian and retired university president Eric Anderson discusses next steps after the Ellen White working conference last fall at Pacific Union College. He discusses the meanings behind the joint statement and makes an argument that appreciating her writing as devotional offers Adventists a way forward. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the third in a three-part series on Sex, Love, and Purity Culture. This episode focuses on next steps in growth and development past Purity Culture. Sofia, Ari, and Kendra are joined by Ezrica Bennett, who graduated with a BS in Biology from Oakwood University. She recently received a Princeton University grant for her ministry work with young adults at Loma Linda University Church. See om...

This is the second in a three-part series on Sex, Love, and Purity Culture. This episode focuses on the creation of purity culture as well as the history and political ideology behind it. Sofia, Ari, and Melodie are joined by Christina Cannon, who studied at Wycliffe Hall/ University of Oxford and graduated in 2023 in the Scholars Program at Southern Adventist University with a BA in History. See...

This begins a three-episode conversation about the history, theology, and personal impact of purity culture. Although rooted in socioreligious mores that pre-date the term, purity culture emerged in the 1990s as an evangelical Christian cultural movement. It continues to influence Seventh-day Adventist understandings of dating and marriage, sexual expression and gender identity as well as female m...

Seventh-day Adventist judge Daniel Nsereko has lived a remarkable life: from humble beginnings in a small rural village in Uganda, to the highest levels of international law in The Hague where he served as a judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC). In this interview he shares his educational and professional journey as well as the moment his ethical consciousness was awakened. See omnystud...

Pastor Claval Hunter leads the Berean Transformation Center, a Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Bend, Indiana. He shares how engaging his community on social and political issues transformed his congregation and added missional energy and baptisms. Born in the Bahamas, Pastor Hunter served as the Director of Urban Ministries for the Lake Region Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He is curr...

I interview Hanz Gutierrez about his retracted theological teaching endorsement by the General Conference’s International Board of Ministerial and Theological Education. Gutierrez is a longtime Spectrum columnist and chair of the Systematic Theology Department at the Italian Adventist Theological Faculty of Villa Aurora. He recently wrote about the lack of communication and process in this surpris...

In the gritty neighbourhoods of Sydney, Australia, Nimrod faced the stark challenges of racial discrimination. Battling racial profiling and mistreatment by white law enforcement, his refuge came when he was invited to his white girlfriend's church. It was within this community that Nimrod discovered God hadn't abandoned him; instead, the church embraced him completely. Fuelled by these transforma...

Elizabth Pule started her career journey aimed at becoming a lawyer, when an unexpected mission call changed her mind. With support from the Ontario Conference she attended Andrews University to then return to her home church as a pastor. Having had various opportunities as a chaplain, and ministry director, Elizabeth now pastors at the College Heights Church located on the Burman University campu...

The Iron Claw (2023) director and writer Sean Durkin talks with Alexander Carpenter about the meaning in his film. In theaters now, the saga of the Von Erich professional wrestling family stars Zac Efron as he seeks to break the tragic curse of his name. The film includes a heaven-like scene of fraternal reunion, and Durkin discusses the mythological references as well as why he thinks wrestling h...

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Alex now serves as Sligo Church’’s senior pastor. He came to understand God from among diversities of cultures around him while seeing church as a community of God in location. In his academic work and leadership role, Alex seeks to celebrate his past and honour his mother as sources of identity.  “Part of being human gives us the complexity to say maybe religi...

Growing up in Kenya, Jeanne was confused by God’s calling into pastoral ministry, as she never knew women could be any kind of church leader. With time spent in the USA during her university years, Jeanne came to see the unique ways God equips people for the work He has planned. Returning to Kenya with her Ph. D in urban planning and development, yet choosing instead to be known as pastor Jeanne....

Growing up in Washington State, Anthony saw two very different cultural sides to Adventism. With a move to Seattle so his father could pastor a mainly black church, Anthony realized how much of his image of church was based off of “white suburbia.” This awakening forced him to search out his own blackness and what it might mean to be Caribbean. “I think this is a borderline universal fear, it’s th...

Dr. Courtney Ray started her academic career with a double major in theology and psychology, becoming an ordained minister of the Adventist church. She now works as a neuropsychologist with her private clinic in the Eastern United States, along with leadership roles within her local church and the Society for Black Neuropsychology.  “I think that you honestly have to disconnect yourself from logic...

Greg Hoenes is a career pastor with more than 25 years of ministry experience in the Central and Southern California Conferences. He became the West Region Director of the Southern California Conference in 2015, where he still serves. Since 2013, Greg has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Studies at La Sierra University. He earned a PhD in Practical Theology at Claremont School of Th...

I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom TV shows featuring Stan Brock. In this Adventist Voices conversation I talk with Paul Michael Angell, the director of Medicine Man, a new documentary on Brock’s adventurous life and later altruistic work leading Remote Area Medica providing free medical care for underserved communities. I also interviewed the RAM CEO Jeffery Eastman about the incre...