Adventist Voices by Spectrum: The Journal of the Adventist Forum

I talk with Agnes and Carine, two media-savvy Brazilians who served a missionaries in Bangladesh and now spend time learning and traveling in America. We discuss how they met, the role of Pathfinders in Brazilian Adventism and the ways that globalization is changing the meaning of community. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Don Casebolt talks about his "highly revisionist" new book, Child of the Apocalypse (2021), on Ellen White's formative years. Based on his extensive research into contemporaneous accounts and her own statements about her inner life, Casebolt paints a portrait of a teen girl spiritually vulnerable, captured by the certitude of William Miller, and forming her identity in a community looking for ecst...

I talk with Ramona Hyman, co-editor of the new book, African American Seventh-day Adventist Healers in a Multicultural Nation (Pacific Press, 2021). A writer, speaker and professor at Oakwood University, Dr. Hyman is a graduate of Temple University (BA), Andrews University (MA), and earned her PhD from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To kick off the new year I talk with Alex Aamodt, editor of the Spectrum website, about the top Adventist news stories and essays of 2021. We also discuss how he became a journalist and what makes for a good Spectrum article submission. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I talk with English writer and director Garth Jennings about his new family-friendly film Sing 2 currently in theaters. The films stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Pharrell Williams, and Bono among many others. We discuss creativity, music and nostalgia, spirituality and the importance of myth-making in our lives. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I talk music and the Advent season with Adriana Perera, Director of Worship and the Musical Arts at Loma Linda University Church. We discuss what makes Christmas music meaningful and Adriana shares her passion for diversity and inclusion. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jason Hines, PhD, asst. professor at AdventHealth University, talks about the recent pause of vaccine mandates by some healthcare institutions, including AdventHealth. We also discuss the Supreme Court, religious liberty, and the Christian concept of sacrifice. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week I interview Phanuel Hamsini, Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Malawi. We discuss how he became an Adventist, his vibrant local Adventist congregation, and why he reads Spectrum even though he sometimes doesn’t agree with the viewpoints. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fresh from attending the Adventist Society for Religious Studies annual meetings in San Antonio, Texas, Bonnie Dwyer and I discuss the major ideas that emerged around this year’s focus on ecology. We talk animal rights, pandemics and apocalypse, and the ways that artificial intelligence and social media algorithms conflict with human spirituality. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

In this cursory conversation about the Biblical Research Institute’s recent publication of Biblical Hermeneutics: An Adventist Approach, I talk with Jon-Philippe Ruhumuliza, a graduate of Andrews University and Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Ruhumuliza, who recently completed his MA in New Testament, wrote his thesis on Paul and Maps: Exegeting Acts 13-14 through the Lens of Lived...

Put a log on the fire and sip a hot beverage as you listen to prolific writer Trudy Morgan-Cole discuss her novels about characters from the Bible and her more recent works of historical fiction set in Newfoundland, Canada. This week Spectrum Interviews Editor Alita Byrd joins me in conversation with Trudy Morgan-Cole as we explore the writing life, how Adventist stories change, and Morgan-Cole’s...

Professor Emeritus of Biology at Andrews University, James L. Hayward, Ph. D, talks about his early life that mixed Sam Campbell, Ellen White, and tensions around creationism and science. In part one of our discussion of his book, Dinosaurs, Volcanoes, and Holy Writ: A Boy-Turned Scientist Journeys from Fundamentalism to Faith, we explore the personal and professional tensions that developed as he...

I talk with bioethicist Mark Carr about the social responsibility of vaccines, his spiritual connection to Alaska, and what it’s like working for a Catholic healthcare system as an Adventist. Mark earned his PhD in Religious Ethics at the University of Virginia where studied ethics in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Philosophy, and Healthcare. His dissertation was on temperance and how it helps us m...

This week I talk again with legendary Adventist editor, pastor, college administrator, author, and longtime Spectrum leader Charles Scriven. We explore the final essay from his series “Time to Start Over” on hermeneutics and community. In addition, we weave in conversations about his time as president of Kettering College and his longtime leadership of the Adventist Forum and Spectrum. He shares h...

From Silver Spring, Bonnie Dwyer, editor of Spectrum, and I recap the four days of Annual Council 2021, the General Conf. executive committee meetings. We discuss various reports, the introduction of #Teds10 “theological issues facing the church,” and how we spent our Sabbath away from the GC and why it matters. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In preparation for next week’s Annual Council meetings which set up major Adventist church actions, Bonnie Dwyer, Spectrum’s editor, and I discuss the agenda. We note questions of power and compliance as well as some pending items about board make-up and proscribed duties in overseeing higher educational institutions and Union Missions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I interview Stephen Chbosky, director of the movie version of Dear Evan Hansen about his motivations for turning the successful Broadway hit into a musical film. He famously wrote the best-selling coming-of-age novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999). We also discuss the fraught relationship between adolescence and faith and what we both love about the musical genre. See omnystudio.com/liste...

I talk with Sduduzo Blose about his graduate work at the University of Kwazulu-Natal on the book of Romans, colonialism in Africa, and institutional power in Adventism. We also discuss how opposing racism and sexism in Adventism informed his theological interests as well as how he connects his love for road cycling and ministry. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week I talk again with legendary Adventist editor, pastor, college administrator, author, and longtime Spectrum board chair Charles Scriven. We explore two more essays from his series “Time to Start Over” on “Reconceiving the Sabbath” and how our beliefs should lift us up. In addition, we weave in conversations about time in the Washington, D.C., area as senior pastor of the Sligo Church and...

I interview Jon-Philippe Ruhumuliza about his social media-based “Radical Adventist Project.” We discuss his education in Berrien Springs, Mich., his later punk rock days, and his recent graduate work in New Testament studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. We talk about his practice of meditation and breath work, and his critical engagement of Paul through his research involving...

I interview Tom Stone about his new book, In the Shadow of the Pyramids: A Reflective Commentary on the Narrative of Deuteronomy, published by Westbow Press, a subsidiary of Thomas Nelson. Tom earned a BA in Theology from Newbold College and a PGCE in Religious Education from the University of Oxford. He is an ordained elder at the Newbold Church. We discuss how Tom, a young religious education te...

I speak with the legendary historian of Adventism, Jonathan Butler, PhD, about his rediscovery of an 1988 article by Malcolm Bull analyzing Ellen White’s first vision. Titled “Eschatology and Manners in Seventh-day Adventism” and first published in Archives de sciences socials des religions, Butler discusses the ideas provokes and the joy he discovered as he read it for the first time. The full ar...

I speak with two young Adventist intellectuals in Brazil who publish an online magazine (Zelota) with investigative journalism and detail-rich op-eds calling out the authoritarian leadership in the South American Division. Sharing their deep Adventist roots, André Kanasiro and Elias Batista, Jr., also discuss concerns for their generation of questioning Adventists, and why they work so hard for th...

In this first of several Legend of Adventism conversations, I talk with Charles Scriven, PhD, about his biography while we also discuss his recent Spectrum series “Time to Start Over.” We start this multi-part series exploring some teachers from Walla Walla and Andrews who influenced him theologically and grammatically. In addition, Chuck references Bonhoeffer’s journey while expanding on what he...

I interview Edson Oda, the Japanese-Brazilian writer and director of the profound film, Nine Days. The story centers on a man, played by Winston Duke (Black Panther), who interviews and judges five souls to see who will be granted embodied life on earth. A fun conversationalist, Oda talks about his Catholic upbringing and how artists use spiritual metaphors to create meaning for humans. We also di...