Seventh Day Adventism

Blasphemy of a Different Kind

Things have gone from bad to weird at La Sierra University.

The university, which is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has been dealing in recent months with a controversy over the teaching of evolution that has its Adventist benefactors threatening to withdraw its religious accreditation — and the $4 million per annum that comes with it. Now the university faces a scandal in which a trustee, a vice president, a dean, and an adjunct professor were asked to resign over a recording made, purportedly by accident, of the four men talking informally about the church and university leadership.

The president of La Sierra’s board of trustees on Friday asked for the resignations of Jeff Kaatz, the vice president for university advancement; Jim Beach, the dean of arts and sciences; Lenny Darnell, a trustee; and Gary Bradley, an adjunct professor of biology, according to a campuswide note from the administration.

In recent years, La Sierra has been at the center of an imbroglio over the teaching of human origins that was sparked when a website published e-mails between a biology student and Bradley, the adjunct caught up in the current debacle.

Bradley had rejected a student paper for failing to demonstrate an adequate understanding of mainstream evolutionary theory before advocating for a creationist alternative. That led to an investigation by the board into the biology curriculum. In April, the Seventh-day Adventist Church North American Division voted to extend La Sierra’s religious accreditation by a single year and advised the university to rededicate itself to Adventist principles. (One of the church's "fundamental beliefs" is that God created all human things in six days, as described in the Bible.)

In a note to the campus on Monday, the university’s public relations office said that “these resignations have no connection to the biology controversy.” But according to an account published Tuesday in Spectrum , an Adventist publication, the recording that prompted the resignations was made following a meeting between the Adventist accreditors and the La Sierra faculty.

Darnell, the La Sierra trustee, was present at the meeting and decided to record the proceedings using an application on his smartphone.

UNHCR | Refworld | Ghana: 1. Deleted. 2. Please comment on the ...

Ghana: 1. Deleted. 2. Please comment on the availability of state protection in Bawku in relation to tribal violence between the Mamprusis and Kusasis. Please also comment on the availability of state protection in other parts of Ghana in relation to such violence, such as in Accra, Kumasi or other major cities 3. Please comment on the availability of internal relocation to escape the violence between Mamprusis and Kusasis. To what extent does the risk of violence extend to other parts of the country, especially Accra, Kumasi or other major cities? 4. Please comment on the risk of harm in Ghana due to being Christian (including Seventh Day Adventists or Pentecostals). Please also comment on the above issues of state protection and internal relocation in the context of harm arising from being Christian. Australia: Refugee Review Tribunal, Ghana: 1. Deleted. 2. Please comment on the availability of state protection in Bawku in relation to tribal violence between the Mamprusis and Kusasis. Please also comment on the availability of state protection in other parts of Ghana in relation to such violence, such as in Accra, Kumasi or other major cities 3. Please comment on the availability of internal relocation to escape the violence between Mamprusis and Kusasis. To what extent does the risk of violence extend to other parts of the country, especially Accra, Kumasi or other major cities? 4. Please comment on the risk of harm in Ghana due to being Christian (including Seventh Day Adventists or Pentecostals). Please also comment on the above issues of state protection and internal relocation in the context of harm arising from being Christian. , 16 June 2011, GHA37370, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4df9df032.

Exposing Seventh-Day Adventism

Seventh-day Adventists and the civil rights movement

Seventh-Day Adventism

Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual.

Seventh Day Adventism, the result of a predicament