THE BROKEN BLUEPRINT

PART FOUR

HOW OUR SCHOOLS ARE DESTROYING OUR CHURCH

(1935 - ONWARD)

PART FOUR

HOW OUR SCHOOLS ARE DESTROYING OUR CHURCH

(1935 - ONWARD)

The decisions made from 1910 onward to obtain approval by the world for Loma Linda, cast a long shadow. Each year that shadow deepens. Ask the young people in our colleges what they are being taught, whether there are any standards, what they are doing in their off-hours, and what recreational events and Saturday night amusements the school provides for them. You will be surprised at what you learn.

By 1940, all our colleges in the United States had received partial or full accreditation. This meant that they were required to submit to requirements of worldly agencies.

By the 1950s, most of the teachers in our colleges, with the exception of many of our Bible teachers, had Ph.Ds. By the early 1960s, most of our Bible teachers had them also.

THE MOLDING INFLUENCE OF A DOCTORAL PROGRAM

Those not familiar with the system do not realize that obtaining a Ph.D. involves an intense and lengthy effort by the university to mold the mind of the student. Their studied objective is to grant doctoral degrees to students who are a credit to the university, graduates who believe what it believes and will teach what it teaches.

In a baccalaureate or masters program, the emphasis is on learning what is taught you and learning it well. A quantity of objectionable and even atheistic information may be included; but you are required to learn it, whether or not you fully believe it. However, the environment has an effect on your thinking, and you are likely to graduate with a worldly, doubting mind-set.

In contrast, as a candidate in a doctoral program, you work very closely with a single professor. It is part of his job to make sure your views have been molded into something of which he can fully approve. You have many private conferences with that professor. During these meetings, he delves into your thinking and you open your thoughts to him. If your views do not satisfactorily conform to his, you will not receive your doctorate. Throughout the doctoral program, you are well-aware of this fact.

Whatever the field may be, if you have a skeptical attitude you are more likely to receive his approval.

In a secular university, it is expected that you will believe wholeheartedly in evolution, and you will not believe that a lot of things in the Bible actually happened.

If it is a Protestant or Catholic school, you should believe that our world was formed from a gas cloud billions of years ago, which came from a still earlier Big Bang 15 or 20 billion years ago which God arranged. You are on dangerous ground if you really believe that the Bible is inspired, that sins need be put away, or that Christ can help us do it.

Thus you can see that, although it is problematic enough to hire men and women who have received bachelors and masters degrees from outside colleges and universities, it is even worse to hire doctoral graduates.

OUR BIBLE TEACHERS SINCE THE 1960s

If they do not hire enough Ph.D.s., our colleges and universities will have their accreditation placed on probation and then canceled. This fact makes it difficult for the administrationor the churchto refuse the request of the faculty to teach this or that course, with whatever slant they care to give to it.

By the late 1950s, many of our college Bible teachers had Ph.D.s. By the mid- 1960s, all of those in the U.S. had them. Science teachers bring in evolutionary sentiments. English teachers introduce worldly literature. But Bible teachers with Ph.D.s bring in non-Adventist theological concepts.

It is the Bible teachers who are in charge of teaching religion to the students. Those students later become the future workers, pastors, administrators of the church, and its businessmen and professionals.

When our youth study religion for several years under men with doctoral degrees, their minds in turn become molded. They must please the teacher, if they are to get good grades. If the young man is a theology student, great pressure is placed on him to conform.

In his earlier years he may have found Christ, dedicated his life, believed the Bible, and loved the Spirit of Prophecy. But four years at college frequently changes him. To make matters worse, in 1960, the General Conference ruled that all theology students had to take advanced studies at Andrews University. But that extra year or two under doctoral professors only intensified the changeover in their thinking.

Apparently, our leaders forgot to read the minutes of the 1935 Autumn Council. Indeed, by 1960, they appear to have forgotten the whole story of our educational crisis over accreditation and degrees in the 1920s and 1930s.

A friend of ours decided to attend Southern Missionary College in the late 1980s. The first day of class, very boldly, the Bible teacher looked around the class and said, Theres no one here who believes there is a literal sanctuary building in heaven, is there? He then stared around the room. That test question was the first sentence out of his mouth. Everyone was dead quiet. They knew they better be. Satisfied, he started his instruction. Recognizing what was ahead, our friend withdrew from the school a few weeks later.

On a visit to Andrews University in 1981, the present writer spoke with a graduate student who wanted to obtain its highest degree in religion. But he said that he had already been privately told by a faculty member that, unless he accepted the new theology, he would not be graduated. So after obtaining his masters, he left.

While there, the present writer learned that there were only two professors in the Seminary, another in the undergraduate Department of Religion, and the fourth in administration, who adhered to the Spirit of Prophecy and our historic beliefs. (Since then, two have died, one is very elderly and retired, and the undergraduate teacher is no longer there.) Yet our Seminary at Andrews is the funnel through which every North American theology student, and many of those from overseas, must pass before becoming an ordained minister.

How did our schools become so stacked with liberals?

When one of our colleges or universities decides to hire a new teacher, the professors in that field are generally consulted. It is thought best to keep them happy, for the worst thing that can happen to an accredited school is for its Ph.D.s to quit. (It is well-known that when our religion Ph.D.swhich the school frequently paid to get their doctoratesquit, they generally are hired rather quickly by Protestant universities.)

During interviews of prospective staff members, enough is learned that the religion faculty encourages administration to hire the more liberal ones. Eventually, the department is filled with worldly-minded teachers.

Over a period of time, the professors who exhibit executive ability are moved to higher positions. Such men become the academic deans and presidents of our schools. Thus the school administration is eventually captured by the liberals.

Because of the trend, since 1980, for Review editors and the General Conference Education Department secretary to have a doctorate, liberals eventually move into those positions as well.

ENTER DESMOND FORD

About 1959, Raymond Cottrell, an associate editor at the Review, asked F.D. Nichol for permission to ask Adventist Bible teachers several questions about key prophecies in the book of Daniel. Tallying up the replies, he found that many of our Bible teachers were uncertain whether our historic beliefs were true. They had been taught something different at the universities they attended for their doctorates.

With the permission of Elder Figuhr, the Daniel Committee began meeting in 1960, in order to standardize the thinking of our Bible teachers. But, by 1965, it ended amid an air of futility. The liberals had clashed continually with the conservatives over such fundamental matters as whether Daniel was talking about the papacy or Antiochus Epiphanes IV, a minor Syrian king who lived before the time of Christ.

Already, far too many of our college Bible teachers no longer believed such fundamental historic teachings as the 1260- and 2300-year prophecies, the Sanctuary in heaven, Christs ministry within it, the investigative judgment, or even the inspiration of the Spirit of Prophecy.

All through the 1960s, the situation in our colleges and universities gradually became worse as more men and women with doctorates, fresh from molding by the universities, were hired. Yet none could be fired over their beliefs, lest the accreditation agencies cause trouble. Academic freedom was the watchword.

By the mid-1960s, Desmond Ford had completed doctoral training under F.F. Bruce, at the University of Manchester in England. Bruce was a dynamic member of the Plymouth Brethren Church and implanted distinctly non-Adventist beliefs in the mind of Ford. Similar things happened to other Adventist Bible teachers elsewhere.

Australia was a microcosm of what would eventually occur in America, Europe, and elsewhere. For at least fifteen years, Ford, head of the Bible Department at Avondale, trained every future pastor in the Australasian (now South Pacific) Division. That provided him with enough time in which to transform the ministers and most of the administrators in that part of the world field! (Avondale supplies pastors and missionaries to Australia; New Zealand; the South Pacific Islands; and much of Africa, south-of-the-Sahara.)

Multiply that by what many other Bible teachers with Ph.D.s were doing elsewhere! In just 20 years, liberal Bible teachers can change an entire generation of ministers in the field! Within four years a minister can change a local congregation and eliminate those who protest.

By the late 1970s, the situation had become very serious when, on October 27, 1979, Desmond Ford gave a Sabbath afternoon lecture at Pacific Union College, in which he vigorously attacked several of our historic beliefs. (For a detailed reply to that lecture, see the present authors study, How Firm Our Foundation, Part 1-8, now in our 320-page New Theology Tractbook, 8 x 11, $24 + $3.00.)

The situation appeared ominous, for there were indications that other Bible teachers shared his views. In order to smooth over the situation, Bible teachers at Andrews wrote our present 27 Fundamental Beliefs which, amid decided protests, were approved at the 1980 General Conference Session in Dallas. They were carefully worded to provide a lot of leeway in which liberals could safely carry on their work. The July 1980 Glacier View Conference was held shortly afterward to discuss Fords beliefs.

Ford told the startled General Conference president, Neal C. Wilson, that he could live with this new, revised 27-point Statement of Beliefs. This was because the wording had been changed enough that it provided room for both liberals and conservatives.

A telling indication of the strength of the new theology occurred rather quickly. Ford was fired on Friday at the close of Glacier View; the next afternoon (a Sabbath), nearly every faculty member of Pacific Union College paid to send a western union telegram to Wilson demanding that he rehire Ford.

The following week, a large number of faculty members of Andrews University, including nearly every Bible teacher, sent a signed petition to Wilson to rehire Ford. Yet it was those Bible teachers at Andrews who wrote our 1980 Doctrinal Beliefs revision!

About six months later, President Wilson wrote an open letter to an inquiring pastor, which was quietly circulated among our ministers nationwide. In it, Wilson said he understood the concerns of the young pastor who said he doubted our historic beliefs and was inquiring as to whether he should resign. In reply, Wilson told him he should remain in the ministry and just not discuss his doubts openly.

But, of course, such tolerance was destined to only spread the doubts and disaffection more rapidly among our local congregations.

The new theology is nothing more than a variety of modern Protestant, Catholic, and agnostic errors, which our Bible teachers were taught in outside universities and are now teaching in our schools.

ACCREDITATION AGENCIES TO THE RESCUE

In unity there is strength. Our Ph.D.s were continually gaining strength, and they knew it. They did not fear reprisals; for they knew the worldly accreditation agencies were on their side.

It is a policy of the accreditation agency to step in when a danger looms that church leaders may fire a teacher for holding unothodox views.

As soon as trouble is on the horizon, word is sent to the accreditation agency. It will then send a team to the school to look it over and threaten removal of accreditation if anything happens to any of the teachers. Our schools are forbidden to use religious beliefs as a reason for firing a Ph.D.

This means that the only way a teacher can be ousted is to pay him a large severance package, generally a full years salary.

The case of two eastern college teachers provides an example: One who was handsomely paid to leave immediately became pastor of a Sundaykeeping church.

In the case of the other, as is frequently done, the college had earlier paid $60,000 to send him through for his doctorate. But when they tried to oust him, he protested so vigorously, that they gave up and moved him to the German Language Department. He is still there today. Yet that man had earlier told one student (who taped it) that he did not even believe in the Bible!

When an attempt was made by the laity of the church in 1981- 1982 to clean out the new theology problem at Pacific Union College, an inspection team from the accreditation agency suddenly arrived on campus. It met with teachers and administrators and then announced that, if the faculty were threatened for their beliefs, the accrediting association might have to take action. (For much more on this, see the PUC Papers WM53-60.) Continual six-month delays on the part of the college board eventually stifled the protests.

Another example occurred in the last decade of the twentieth century, when the godly president of the North Pacific Union tried to clean up Walla Walla College and its rock concerts, faculty-student homosexual club, aberrant theology teachers, and atheist student articles in the campus newspaper,

Threats from the accrediting association stopped the reformation fast, and the apostasy at Walla Walla continues unabated. (If this seems unbelievable, read Life at Walla Walla CollegePart 1-4 [WM676-679] and eight other four-page tracts we published documenting the crisisall of which are now in our book, Crisis at Walla Walla, 8 x 11, 60 pp., $6.00 + $3.00).

Astoundingly, instead of fighting the accreditation agencies, our leaders gave our liberal Bible teachers even more protection from firing. In order to avoid problems with the agencies, which so obviously held the reins of control over our colleges and universities, the 1985 Annual Council approved an action which gave all our college and university Bible teachers academic freedom. This meant that they could not be fired for what they believed! (See the present authors study, Theological Freedom [WM110].)

This may seem incredible, yet it illustrates how important accreditation has become in our church. We are bound to ithand and foot,  and mind.

All through the 1980s the situation continually worsened. Not only were erroneous teachings taught on our campuses, but they soon started appearing in books published by the Review and Pacific Press, and in church papers. The teachers and the students they taught began writing.

These erroneous concepts included:

Original sin: the concept that we were born in sin and cannot stop doing it in this life. It will never be possible for you, in this world, to live a good, clean, obedient life.

The atonement was finished at the cross, so your sins were forgiven and you were saved before you were born, conditional on your verbal acceptance.

Salvation by profession alone. Behavioral changes are not necessary. Obedience to the law of God is legalism.

Christ had the immaculate nature of Adam before his fall. Therefore, Jesus was not our example; for, while in this world, it was not possible for Him to sin.

Creation occurred in the long-distant past, not about 6,000 years ago. There was death and suffering throughout those long ages. The first chapters of Genesis are parabolic and not literal.

We would not have this new theology problem permeating our churches today, if we had never accredited our colleges and sent our young people to outside schools for advanced degrees.

In 1980, the present author received a phone call from a church member in the Northwest. When the believer protested to his pastor about what he was teaching in the pulpit, the pastor became angry and defiantly told him, We are not in the majority now, but eventually we will be. We are going to win! Every year our colleges are turning out more ministers. The day is coming when we will be in the majorityand then we will get rid of you!

And so it has proven true. Tragically, many of our people have left the denomination or been pushed out.

The only way we can solve the problem is to return to first principlesto the blueprint God gave us through the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.

The only way we can eradicate the evil is take the ax to the root of the tree, not to its branches.

IMPACT OF LIBERALISM ON OUR STUDENTS

Adventist college students are also hurt by this deluge of liberalism that they are thrust into. Even though they may come from very conservative homes, our youth become bewildered when they encounter this modernist skepticism in our college classrooms and the permissiveness granted them in their extra-curricular activities.

Intra- and interco llegiate sports are encouraged, theatrical love stories are staged, condoms are handed out, and no type of sexual activity or perversion is condemned.

Item: For nearly a de cade, La Sierra has had its students spend Sabbath afternoon mowing yards, cleaning trash, and painting houses as a community service. They brag about it in the Pacific Union Recorder. (The students do their homework on Sundays.)

Item: On February 2, 1990, Lawrence Geraty, president of Atlantic Union College, sent a memo to the faculty and staff announcing the appointment of Dr. Frank R. Mazzaglia, an Italian Roman Catholic, as financial consultant to the college.

Item: On Sunday, March 18, 1990, part of the faculty and students of Southern College performed a real witchcraft opera. It was open to the public, and widely advertised over the radio to the entire Chattanooga area. The witches stirred their pot, cast in herbs, and pronounced spells, alternately to capture or kill people. The lead characters were the sorceress and her fellow witches, called wayward sisters.

At the end of the opera, Dido cries out and falls down dead. Cupids gather to her fallen form. The witches have triumphed, their curse has finally slain the one whom they hate (Witches Den Opera at Southern College of SDA [WM275]).

Item: Atlantic Union College sent students to Wooster, for personal introduction into patterns of active homosexuals. The purpose was to help them become better counselors.

Item: A 1980s issue of the PUC newspaper (Campus Chronicle) reported that all our North American colleges and universities have pool tables and TVs.

In reaction to this encouragement to worldliness, many of the students turn to liquor, promiscuous sex, dancing, or homosexuality. Here, in brief, are a few news clips. Please know that many, many pages could be filled with them, but the following examples should suffice:

A 1989 study at Walla Walla College found that 66 percent of its students used intoxicating beverages, but, according to Winton Beaven, the average in our schools is not far below that.

Between 40 and 45 percent of male students at Adventist colleges in North America drink beer, wine or spirits, declared Winton Beaven, assistant to the president of Kettering College of Medical Arts, at the first board meeting of the newly formed Institute of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency at Andrews University. For female students, my estimate is 20 to 25 percent, he said.

Beaven said that after spending much time and talking with many students, he had received adequate basis for the assertion. Beaven shared with the board members the experiences of some of the alcohol dependent Adventist youth he had encountered.Adventist Review, September 17, 1984, p. 20.

Walla Walla College protects students: Student services at Walla Walla College do more than treat the com mon cold. In addition to treating flu, eye, ear and sinus problems, they treat sexually transmitted diseases. Records are completely confidential.

Jeanne Voriers, office manager, says, We want the students to know that they can come here with any sensitive problem. Student services provides condoms to sexually active students . . They also have morning after treatment, in episodes of unprotected sexual intercourse, and referrals for pregnancy detection.Statement by Health Services Department, Walla Walla College.

We dont keep track of who comes to our dances, but Id say about half of them are from WWC [Walla Walla College], says Keith Gallow, a student senator from WWCC [Western Washington Community College]. Theyre certainly welcome here. They spice up the dance quite a bit.

Although dancing isnt generally accepted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, students, administrators and deans estimate that 150-300 WWC students dance regularly. Some believe up to 75 percent of WWC students have danced at one point . .

According to Bigger, dancing is . . by nature, hazardous. Most dancing covers up the real needs of an individual and treats the symptom, not the problem, he says. It encourages unhealthy solutions.

Boyatt points out that historically dancing has been associated with substance abuse, sexual familiarity and most things that promotes less than Christian standards . . However policing students activities [requiring them not to dance] is unrealistic and unhealthy. We prefer to be here to counsel and explain, says Boyatt.Dancing Comes Out of the Dark, The [Walla Walla College] Collegian, May 2, 1985, p. 8.

A SINGLE ISSUE OF A COLLEGE NEWSPAPER

Here are a few samples from just one issue of one of our college student newspapers.

First, there is page one:

A recent study of alcohol and drug use here on campus, Collins [Vice President for Student Affairs] said, showed that 83 percent of PUC students are not regular alcohol users. Fully 62 percent of the students surveyed had never used alcohol, according to the survey. How many faculty members can say that? Collins asked, jokingly.Pacific Union College Campus Chronicle, Thursday, February 29, 1996, p. 2.

In a panel discussion which followed Collins talk, faculty members offered alternate perspectives. Trivett said he was not interested in the jewelry issue . . His concerns about student life dealt with basic integrity and responsibilitynot issues like worldly music.Ibid.

Farther down the article, students were quoted as saying that many students lied, and said they did not drink, so as not to get in trouble (ibid.).

On page 3, the students are told of a poster competition they can enter and win prize money:

Napas Jarvis Conservatory has announced a poster art competition with its spring and summer music and dance activities . . The Zarzuela festival will feature performances of two popular Spanish operas, La Gran Via and La Dolorosa. The Baroque Festival will feature delightful classic French ballet creations. As these events lend themselves well to visual expressions, the Jarvis Conservatory is having a Poster Art Competition to memorialize the two operas and the ballet . .Ibid., p. 3.

Elsewhere on the page, we are told that, as do most of our colleges, PUC has exercise rooms with large television sets and pool tables for the students.

The recreation and fitness room is currently open from 6 to 12 p.m. and is equipped with a 35 television set, exercise equipment, a weight training machine, table tennis and pool tables. Although definite dates are not known, more exercise and entertainment equipment will be arriving as funds are available.Ibid.

We now turn to page 4. Pacific Union College, among several other of our colleges, teaches theatrical production, to prepare students for later careers in stage, screen, and television. The following paragraph mentions three very worldly plays. Fiddler on the Roof is the story of a drunken man; the others are not much better.

PUC senior Melissa Dulcich leads an experienced cast as Jo, in the unforgettable story of the March sisters. Dulcich is active in DAS [PUCs Dramatic Arts Society], having performed in three of the societys previous plays. She also played the part of Liesl in PUCs 1995 production of The Sound of Music and is currently involved in the musical Fiddler on the Roof to be presented at the college in April. Pla ying the part of Laurie is Thor Aagaard, who has been involved in four DAS plays, including Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew. Ibid., p. 4.

An active movement is on foot in our colleges and universities to incite rebellion in the students against the General Conference Session refusal to ordain women ministers. On March 7, one of the women, illegally ordained to the ministry at La Sierra, spoke to the student body. The article portrayed her as a great hero.

Halcyon Westphal Wilson, a fourth generation SDA minister, will speak for chapel on March 7. Her topic is How my recent ordination has impacted my ministry. This chapel service is sponsored by the Faculty Womens Forum in celebration of Womens History Month in March.Ibid.

Page 5 is a picture page of the latest PUC competitive sports events. Page 9 has an article on black-white relations, plus a humorous article about the oddities of ministers. Here are excerpts from an article on p. 10. See if you can figure it out:

Why does the perfume of our youth smell like a $2.99 Brut soap on the rope? Here we stand united as one piece of smelly future nostalgia . . Black Holes. An X generation subgroup best known for the possession of almost entirely black wardrobes. Some of us want to blend in like a smooth cup of sumatra [coffee], others like it black . .

QFM: Quelle fashion mistake. It was really QFM, Oh man, painter pants? Thats 1979 beyond belief. Then there are those Silver Belled, cockled Shelled girls who walk around on campus looking like a walking piece of dinner wear, a piece of tinfoil over a Sabbath lunch casserole or a space bimbo extra on Star Trek. The X Generation . . Now that we are on the hill [Howell Mountain, the location of PUC] and free [from parents and adult supervision] . . the spirit of rebellion has clothed people in the very dresses Jezebel was wearing before she was told to take off her red nail polish and [be] thrown to the dogs . .Ibid., p. 10.

The top article on page 11 notes that Dr. Martin Marty, a very outspoken, liberal theologian at the University of Chicago, would be at the College Bookstore on February 29, to autograph copies of his book, which the students are encouraged to purchase. He was senior editor of Christian Century at the time, probably the most liberal Christian magazine in America.

Below that is This Week: Calendar of Events. It tells of several ev ents which the students are encouraged to attend. These worldly events are held on campus and even at a San Francisco downtown theater. Can you believe that the students are encouraged by the faculty to drive down to San Francisco by themselves and see and experience what takes place in one of the wickedest cities in America?

Andrew Lloyd Webbers Music of the Night, March 13-April 7, Golden Gate Theater, 1 Taylor at Golden Gate and Market Streets, San Francisco. Featuring highlights from the musicals The Phantom of the Night, Miss Saigon, Sunset Blvd., Requiem, Cats, etc.

SA [PUC Student Association] presents Cafe 96. It will feature Janis Loves Jazz with sax player and recording artist Wes Burden, and the The Poh-etry Corner with area poets. Saturday, March 2, 8 p.m. in Andre [womens] Recreation Room. Admission is free.

CABL Stress Relief/comedy Show. Wednesday, February 28, 8 p.m. CABL will sponsor this show in Paulin [music] Hall. Admission is free.

Ray Boltz presents Concert of a Lifetime. Sunday, March 3, 7 p.m. Buy tickets now for concert which will be held [on campus] in Pacific Auditorium [the immense gymnasium, where graduations are held].Ibid., p. 11.

Page 12 has an ad about ecology and the importance of protecting the earth, etc. The faculty is more concerned about protecting the environment than protecting the students.

Page 13 is all about intercollegiate sports competition. Upon arriving at our schools, the students are enticed to go wild in their adoration of this. We can understand why the other Christian colleges participate in them, for they do not have our light. But we know better. The PUC teams travel up and down the coast, playing other colleges.

If you come across anyone from the Pioneer womens or mens basketball team, give them a pat on the back, a handshake, or any other form of congratulations. The women placed first in the California Coastal Conference Tournament this past weekend in Southern California; the men came in second.

The Lady Pioneers defeated Pacific Christian College in the semi-finals . . They played Simpson College for the championship and PUC was again victorious  . . The Pioneer men played against La Sierra University during the semi-finals . . Pacific Christian College and PUC were matched up for the finals.Ibid., p. 13.

Page 14 has an advertisement for a non-Adventist book on how to get scholarships to universities.

Page 16 has a funny quiz.

Ready to send your children to PUC? They will really be educated there. The author has spoken with many parents who learned, too late, that they should not have sent their children to our academies, colleges, and universities.

Anything worldly is generally acceptable at todays Adventist colleges. The administration needs tuition money, and will tolerateor encouragealmost anything to keep the students happy. This one issue of a single college newspaper, which you have just reviewed, makes it clear that the administration is doing all they can to steepen the slippery slope to perdition.

CATHOLIC PRIEST GIVES WEEK OF PRAYER

The above quotations were take from the PUC Campus Chronicle, for Thursday, February 29, 1996. Only four months earlier, the school administration provided the students with a spiritual preparation for the school yearwhich helped provoke the students to libertinism.

The fall Week of Spiritual Emphasis began on October 11, 1995, and was conducted by Brennan Manning, a devout Roman Catholic, former priest, and teacher in the graduate school at Catholic University.

Although historic Adventists had never heard of him, our liberals were different; for they regularly read Protestant, Catholic, and secular literature. Manning is a well-known writer who, although he speaks reverently of the Virgin, the crucifix, the rosary, and the pope, is strongly opposed to any form of obedience to Gods laws and standards. 

Manning began his first talk with these words, In the words of Francis of Assisi, as he spoke to Brother Dominic on the road to Umbria, Hi. All the students laughed, and he spent a week telling funny stories, showing how Catholics are good people, and declaring that it is worthless to try to obey any standards of conduct (The Catholic Gospel at Pacific Union CollegePart 1-2 [WM661-662].)

Frequently, Manning spoke of his many years as a Catholic, and always favorably. His other primary message, the one he kept pounding into the students, was that God does all the sacrificing, and He only wants love from usand He definitely does not want our obedience. In disobedience, we belong to the faith community, a code phrase for Catholics and Adventists together.

Christianity does not make people with better morals, but new creatures who are professional lovers . . When you accept Christ tonight [you do so] in the fellowship of the faith community.

God accepts you just nowas you arewith your beer drinking, your self-hatred . . The biggest error is: if I change and do better, God will love me.

One day at Notre Dame [while studying there], I decided to be so good, I would make Francis of Assisi look like a piker . . But this striving for perfection is a terrible mistake . . [I found that in spite of] sloppy eating, uncouth manners, God loved me as I was, not because of what I did. If Jesus was here right now, would He say Repent! No! He would say, I love you and have forgiven all your sins.

Not one word about repentance, obeying God, living a clean life, or putting away sins.

A local resident sent the present writer a complete set of Mannings sermon tapes for that week. As a rhetorical device, Manning would suddenly shift from very soft speaking to strong shouting. Here is one of his screaming comments:

Even if you go to church every week, never count another sin, and read your Bible every daywhen they bury you, you will look like a shriveled-up old fig. Why? Because your Christianity was a moral code, a moral ethic, a set of rules and obligations, but it was never a love affair.

I believe with utter conviction that on the great judgment day, Jesus is only going to ask you one question, and only one question: Did you believe that I loved you?

The God of so many Christians I meet is a God too small. Instead, He [the true God] is a God who loves us as we are.

Manning told of a direct revelation he received from Christ to become a monk. It was the winter of 1968 in the high Spanish desert. He then related delightful stories of how wonderful it is to be a hermit living in a cave. Once again, Christ appeared to him.

Once a week, a man came up on a burro and dropped off a bundle of food, drinking water, and kerosene for a lamp.

Manning needed the kerosene, because, as a hermit monk, he must pray every hour of the day and night, bowing before a statue and adoring it as he fingered his rosary. (He was very willing to be obedient to the idol and the glass beads, but not to God.)

In the cave there was a stone altar and behind and above it was a crucifix. On the left, was a bare stone slab as a bed, and a few potato sacks as a mattress. There was stoneware to cook with, and the kerosene lamp.

On the night of December 13, 1968, I was praying in the middle of the night when Jesus Christ appeared to me. He said, For love of you, I left My Father, and came to you. Those words are still burning in my life.

Such words were impressive enough to convince many students that Manning was correct when he kept telling them it was all right to sin. Manning had much more to say. You can probably purchase the cassettes from PUC (unless they have mysteriously lost them). Here are excerpts from his final Friday night presentation:

The central theme of the Bible is that Gods love can be relied on, no matter what we do.

And then, shouting:

[Christ says] You are going to be My disciples, not because you are chaste, celibate, honest, sober, not because you are church-going, Bible-toting, or song-singing. You are only My disciples because you have a deep respect for one another. The only thing that matters is a faith that addresses itself in love.

Love people a lot was all that God wanted of them. All the students need do is love a lot.

How does a faith address itself in love?

Down in New Orleans [where Manning now lives], in my church, John has died and he was a good Catholic. Why was he a good Catholic? not because he never swore, said a dirty joke, and never missed mass on Sunday.

You wont be known [in heaven] because youre a card-carrying member of a local church.

Lets do away with all other criteria, and remember only this: a revolution in love.

Christianity is not about worship or morality; its about love. Do you really believe that God loves you, unconditionally, just as you are? Do you really believe that Jesus loves you beyond infidelity, unworthiness, and sin?

Manning used strange phrases to intensify his startling message. They helped capture the attention. Later in the sermon, he shouted with joy:

Happily, your life and mine looks beyond Calvary to the resurrection. In the words of St. Augustine, We are Easter men and Easter women, and Allelujah is our song; we are Easter men and Easter women, and Allelujah is our song!

The Easter Christians know that, through baptism, they have been caught up in the triumph of Jesus over death, and they have received the seed of eternal lifeand one day that seed is going to burst into glory!

Like [Earnest] Hemmingways hero in Death in the Afternoon, theyEaster men and Easter womengo forth to meet death courageously, because death is no longer a fearful thing.

We are members of the redeemed community. Isnt that good news? Yes, we have been redeemed, and we are Easter men and Easter women, and Allelujah is our song!

Let us pray.

And then, spoken slowly as if to drive it into the memory of each bowed head, he says:

Let us awaken each morning to be an Easter man and an Easter woman, with Allelujah as our song.

It is intriguing how shallow are the messages of worldlings. After special music, accompanied by a guitar, about already being saved, Manning spoke his final strange words of the week and sat down:

Those who prayed that I would come here; it shows a deep love for Adventism.

I like the words of Damon Runyon: Boy, oh boy, I look forward to drinking the cup of new wine in the tavern at the end of the road. For an alcoholic, thats heaven!

HOW TO ENJOY ALL THE SEX YOU WANT

Postscript: On October 11 to 13, 1995, Manning taught the students that sin matters not, only tolerance and love. Keep sinning and love people a lot is what he told them. So they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Three weeks after Manning left, the administration of the college found it necessary to bring in an AIDS expert to give the students additional instruction. Apparently, their theological freedom was causing health problems.

On a Sabbath evening (Friday night, November 3, 1995) in the main sanctuary of the Pacific Union College Church, the students were told to masterbate and use condoms in order to avoid AIDS.

The other nights of the week may be reserved for study, dating, television, and pool tables. But Friday night is for sermons by former Catholic priests or instruction in how to practice safe sex. (The students were told in advance that the program that night was Sabbath Vespers.)

Nancy Hokobo, a non-Adventist living in Napa Valley at the foot of Howell Mountain where PUC is located, directed the evening program.

You never get AIDS when you masterbate, she said. Is this what the theology of freedom to sin as long as we loveleads to?

Hardly anything was said about abstinence. The main emphasis of that Sabbath evening was protected sex. She introduced Greg Smith, a homosexual who, for the past five years has had AIDS, and Tom Merzon who is his care-giver. They told the students how they have happily lived together 13 years, and spoke at length of their deepest affection for one other. The key point was that they managed to live together without Tom getting AIDS. How wonderful! What encouragement to the young students to emulate their example.

Nancy, a very young lady, said it is important to protect yourself so you can live life and have sexwithout contracting AIDS. A lot more was said. (Avoiding Aids at Pacific Union College [WM662].

SEX ALL OVER THE CAMPUS

It is now seven years since the young lady told the students how to have safe sex on campus. They are still doing it, according to a January 17, 2002, PUC Campus Chronicle article published only a few months ago. When, by their lives and by their instruction, instructors teach students that it is all right to break the law of Godand there are no penalties for disobedienceconditions such as these will always exist. Our colleges and universities have become places which your sons and daughters should not attend.

Two PUC students were admitted in stable, but woozy, condition to Health services after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning early Tuesday morning. The couple, residents of Grainger [mens] and McReynolds [womens] halls, respectively, spent the night parked in the McReynolds lot and was found by a fellow student on her way to class the next morning . . What she saw was two groggy students, lethargically embraced in the back seat . .

This is simply the latest of an ongoing series of problems related to male-female amatory entanglements. The issue first arose in late 1998 when an unfortunate week-long entrapment caused the Music Department to disallow unauthorized student access to practice rooms.

The potentially disastrous effects of this decision were reduced by the English Departments installation of several couches in Stauffer Hall, though the administration soon ruled against hide-a-beds. Despite this deficit, Stauffer Hall is still one of the most popular late-night hangouts on campus . .

Most of the administrative staff views community [getting together] as an important part of The PUC Experience, and do not want to discourage students from getting involved with their peers. We want everything we do here at PUC to be gentle, using encouragement rather than enforcement. We are trying our very best to run our programs without teeth, an administrator tried to explain.

I think we need to investigate the social issue more thoroughly, stated a PUC financial administrator. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on SA [student association] activities, when one of the biggest determinants of [ways to increase] enrollment may be something as cheap as visitation rights [letting them get together].

Im going back to Walla Walla next quarter, one recent transfer student stated. Theyre really cool up there; they even have dance parties! Its no wonder WWC has the reputation of the place to go if you want to get married. They really try to help you out.

Walla Walla College reportedly combines the Theology and Nursing majors retreats into one fun-filled weekend, wh ere most of the years pairing off takes place . .

My boyfriend used to live in Nichol, so it was a whole lot easier to spend time with each other, one girl reports. Now that hes in Grainger we can only be together in my car.

The fleet of steamed-up cars parked along the airport frontage road [on the outskirts of the college] every weekend attests to this dearth in privacy, as do reports of frequent car camp-outs in campus parking lots . .

At press time, PUC officials had stated no concrete plan of action to deter students public display of excessive physical affection . .

Whatever PUCs final policy entails, Health Services has released a campus-wide memo outlining its plans for a February 13 Health Fair. The goal of this fair is to teach PUC students practical preventative measures against leg and neck cramps and other common ailments, as well as to provide much-needed information about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.PUC Campus Chronicle, January 17, 2002, p. 2.

The above article, although full of ironic witticisms, is discussing an extremely serious subject, one which can affect people for the rest of their lives.

Whatever the appearance may be, every life centered in self is squandered. Whoever attempts to live apart from God is wasting his substance. He is squandering the precious years, squandering the powers of mind and heart and soul, and working to make himself bankrupt for eternity. The man who separates from God that he may serve himself, is the slave of mammon. The mind that God created for the companionship of angels has become degraded to the service of that which is earthly and bestial. This is the end to which self-serving tends.Christs Object Lessons, pp. 200-201.

It is obvious that school officials know exactly what is taking place, but they are careful to look the other way. Nightly room checks in every dormitory could easily solve the problem, and do it fast. But the situation is not considered serious. It keeps student enrollment up; and, if pregnancies occur, Health Services can quietly explain where the girl can get an abortion. They publicly state that they will provide confidential help.

Does Martin Luthers dictum apply to our schools today? He wrote thus of the universities: I am much afraid that the universities will prove to be the great gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, and engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt. Great Controversy, 140-141.