爱豆传媒

I have been surrounded by Adventism my entire life. 

My parents are both Seventh-day Adventists, I go to a Seventh-day church, I have attended Seventh-day Adventist educational institutions from K-12, and I currently go to a Seventh-day Adventist university. I was an Adventurer, a Pathfinder, and I own several copies of both “The Great Controversy” and “Steps to Christ” by Ellen White. From birth, I have been consistently surrounded by those who believe the same thing as I do, while my country of origin encourages the diversity of people and beliefs. I am intimately familiar with the beliefs and doctrines of this religion and some of the struggles that come with being Adventist, so when I say that I do not think it is particularly hard being a Seventh-day Adventist, I say it from a point of privilege. 

I think that because of my privileged upbringing, I do not understand what it means to struggle with my beliefs in a persecutory sense. I was raised on stories where the individual in question went to great lengths to persevere in their faith and share their beliefs with others, something that I have never had to experience. I do, however, understand what it means to struggle with them in a more intrapersonal way.

Because I grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist church, I am all too aware of what appears to be the many implicit “rules and regulations” of the church. From a young age, I realized this implicit list of “rules” was extensive, including: piercings or tattoos are not allowed, clothing cannot be too tight, nail polish must be clear, dancing is not allowed, secular music should be avoided, caffeine of any sort is not to be consumed, no swimming on Sabbath and so on and so forth. 

I vaguely understood that there was a religious basis to these rules, but as I aged, it seemed that the rules were all that mattered. I would be driving back home from church, and my mom would comment, “Did you see what X was wearing? Did you see that Y’s daughter got her ears pierced?”, reinforcing the budding idea of Adventist legalism in my mind. I would even catch myself scanning a room of people to see who appeared to be the most “Adventist.” I have wrestled with this, finding that it is important for a religion to have guidelines that set them apart, but realizing that these guidelines can quickly turn into unspoken rules that are used as a checklist in order to gauge someone's apparent “godliness.” 

One day, a friend asked if I wanted to sit down and have a chat. We discussed what we believed and why we believed it. Throughout our conversation, my friend, a former Seventh-day Adventist, would voice overgeneralizations about Adventism: “SDAs are a cult” or “The Adventist church is solely legalistic in practice,” and I considered each one at face value, struggling with the idea that the overgeneralizations could be both true and false. I felt wildly uncomfortable after our conversation, and in the moments after those feelings subsided, I realized that the only reason I was uncomfortable was because I did not fully understand what I believed. I was and have been complicit in a religion that has meaning to my parents, to my friends, but not to me. And because I have not entirely come to understand my personal beliefs and worldview, as soon as the worldview that I have adopted through osmosis (Seventh-day Adventism through my environment) is tested, I struggle with either staying firm in my beliefs or agreeing with ideas that may appeal to my consciencemore.

I believe that I have come to a conclusion for both my religious dilemma and the question of what it means to be Adventist in this century: it is that of intentionality. When one speaks of being intentional, they are making a and conscious decision. I have not been intentional in believing in Adventism, and I think a lot of people can relate to this sentiment. 

Many, including myself, have come through the Seventh-day Adventist pipeline–from birth to adulthood–not really recognizing what the religion means for them, passively coasting through life with the vague moral compass of Adventism backing them. People who have come from places of such privilege that the chance to appreciate, cherish, and come to know Adventism on their own has come and gone with the many years they have spent growing up in this environment. This is all we’ve ever known, and so the thought of digging deeper has almost never crossed our minds. Passivity is the enemy of progress, and the longer one chooses to stay in what they know without truly claiming it for themselves, the more susceptible they are to intrapersonal struggles relating to religion. 

I believe deeply that intentionality is an important part of life, and to truly realize what it means to be Adventist, I think deciding to actively explore oneself in the religion is the first step toward that realization. Whether intentionality looks like a Bible study group, joining a praise team, or community volunteer service, choosing to explore what Adventism might or might not mean for you is what I feel is to have true intentionality.