In a world of inequity and injustice, the Christian church exists to promulgate a message of equality and freedom—the gospel. Early Adventists, the founders of our movement, understood this message to be good news. The same Jesus who came 2,000 years ago is coming again. And for people looking to live in the earth made new, it behooves every Adventist to live a little more like heaven here on earth. In other words, those Adventists most serious about Christ’s return will work to uphold the principles of the kingdom in the here and now.
This hasn’t always been easy. The earliest Adventist pioneers were activists who fought for temperance, education, prison reform—and notably, opposed slavery. Millerite preachers, such as Joseph Bates, were considered dangerous because slave owners feared their message of freedom would inspire enslaved people to seek liberation. Once, when Bates preached on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, local slaveholders were so enraged they threatened to drag him out of town on a wooden rail—a brutal form of public humiliation common in that era. Bates, unfazed, quipped that if they intended to carry him that way, they should at least provide a saddle. Yet, Bates recorded how this sublime message of freedom resonated with eager listeners who stood in the back of the room and outside. Later, in 1850, under the Fugitive Slave Law that compelled people to return escaped slaves, Ellen White urged Adventists that it was better to obey the law of God above the laws of the land. While she avoided the propensity to be political, she was an activist fighting for biblical principles of what she believed to be true and right.
Our pioneers weren’t perfect. Along the journey through our Adventist past, our church became far more influenced by larger cultural forces and ideas. After Ellen White died in 1915, Adventism pivotally shifted, partly due to its dalliance with Fundamentalism—a movement that militantly sought to defend the Christian faith. While some of their aspirations were noble and good, they also came with some theological baggage. It included a penchant toward biblical inerrancy and a view of divine inspiration that conflicted with Adventist understanding of revelation and inspiration, particularly regarding Ellen White’s authority and how to interpret her writings.
Many Fundamentalists also adhered to more rigid gender norms and racial attitudes that excluded women and segregated Black and White. An Adventist movement that began as socially progressive eventually mirrored the culture around it. By the early 20th century, even the cafeteria at church headquarters in Takoma Park, Maryland, was segregated. Few questioned it because that was simply the way things were.
That changed on September 22, 1943, when Lucy Byard, a longtime Adventist member from New York City suffering from terminal liver cancer, was denied admission to Washington Adventist Sanitarium because of her race. The staff suggested that she go to the Freedman’s Hospital instead. She tragically died soon after. Amplified by others who echoed the cry, her story exposed a glaring contradiction between what the Adventist pioneers defended and their belief about Creation and being made in the image of God. The outrage led to action. General Conference leaders proposed Regional Conferences, organized between 1944 and 1947, including the Northeastern Regional Conference, founded in New York City on October 3, 1944. Decades later, according to Ryan Burge, Ph.D., of Washington University, Blacks comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population but 29 percent of U.S. Adventist membership.[1] Regional Conferences have been extremely effective in evangelism and leadership development throughout the 20th century.
But where does this leave us for today and into the future? I don’t believe that history is progressive—that things always improve. Our understanding of end-time events suggests that things will get worse before they get better. As we eagerly wait for Christ’s soon return, it is more imperative than ever that we create safe spaces for those on society’s margins—whether due to class, socioeconomic status, politics, or something else. The story of regional conferences in the Adventist church should remind us to look for ways to improve, work a little bit harder, listen with deeper empathy, and look beyond the quick impressions of social media to recognize the complexity and challenges of our world.
Regional conferences are needed now more than ever—not only because their origin story is so compelling, but also because they remind us that we must build relationships beyond racial, economic, and socioeconomic barriers as a church. This is the essence of the gospel—unshackling people from the bonds of sin and death and introducing them to a better life.
If I have one dream—which would be my dream for all of Adventism—it’s that we ask God to open our eyes to see beyond those familiar to us, to leave our comfort zones, and ask God to help us seek out those who are suffering. Whatever the racial background (and this is constantly in flux as culture and politics change)—whether post-9/11 discrimination of people of Middle Eastern descent, or more recently, the deportation and disappearance of alleged illegal immigrants—we must recognize that injustice still exists in the world. It isn’t to deny that real challenges exist, including immigration reform. Still, God’s people have always been admonished to look out for and advocate on behalf of those caught in society’s crosshairs. Our faith must inform our politics, not the other way around. Whatever our ethnicity or background, we are all one in Christ. Until the great and glorious day when Jesus returns, we must keep advocating for a little bit more of heaven here on earth. After all, the greatest evidence of the gospel, according to Ellen White, is “a loving and lovable Christian.”[2]
_____________________________
Michael W. Campbell, Ph.D., is director of the North American Division department of Archives, Statistics, and Research.
[1]Ryan Burge, Cooperative Election Study, 2020-2024, accessible from: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_0Tk4JcllAdS7MIMJBcWxgdvRFEZ6DKnbkvitA9SxDc/mobilepresent?pli=1&slide=id.g3770c75e26a_0_6
[2]Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, 470.
